the battle of Antrim, and who perished a few weeks subsequently, in the bloom of his manhood, on the scaffold in Belfast.  Henry Joy M’Cracken was one of the first members of the Society of United Irishmen, and he was one of the best.  He was arrested, owing to private information received by the government, on the 10th of October, 1796—­three weeks after Russell, his friend and confidant, was flung into prison—­and lodged in Newgate Jail, where he remained until the 8th of September in the following year.  He was then liberated on bail, and immediately, on regaining his liberty, returned to Belfast, still bent on accomplishing at all hazards the liberation of his country.  Previous to the outbreak in May, ’98, he had frequent interviews with the patriot leaders in Dublin, and M’Cracken was appointed to the command of the insurgent forces in Antrim.  Filled with impatience and patriotic ardour, he heard of the stirring events that followed the arrest of Lord Edward Fitzgerald; he concentrated all his energies in preparing the Northern patriots for action, but circumstances delayed the outbreak in that quarter, and it was not until the 6th of June, 1798, that M’Cracken had perfected his arrangements for taking the field, and issued the following brief proclamation, “dated the first year of liberty, 6th June, 1798,” addressed to the Army of Ulster:—­

“To-morrow we march on Antrim.  Drive the garrison of Randalstown before you, and hasten to form a junction with your Commander-in-Chief.”

Twenty-one thousand insurgents were to have rallied at the call of M’Cracken, out not more than seven thousand responded to the summons.  Even this number, however, would have been sufficient to strike a successful blow, which would have filled the hearts of the gallant Wexford men, then in arms, with exultation, and effected incalculable results on the fate of Ireland, had not the curse of the Irish cause, treachery and betrayal, again come to the aid of its enemies.  Hardly had the plans for the attack on Antrim been perfected, when the secrets of the conspirators were revealed to General Nugent, who commanded the British troops in the North, and the defeat of the insurgents was thus secured.  M’Cracken’s forces marched to the attack on Antrim with great regularity, chorusing the “Marseillaise Hymn” as they charged through the town.  Their success at first seemed complete, but the English general, acting on the information which had treacherously been supplied him, had taken effective means to disconcert and defeat them.  Suddenly, and as it seemed, in the flush of victory, the insurgents found themselves exposed to a galling fire from a force posted at either end of the town; a gallant resistance was offered, but it was vain.  The insurgents fled from the fatal spot, leaving 500 of their dead and dying behind them, and at nightfall Henry Joy M’Cracken found himself a fugitive and a ruined man.  For some weeks he managed to baffle the bloodhounds on his