To  control  the  excesses  of  repression  and  restore
military  discipline,  the  gallant  Abercrombie  was  put
in  command;  but  he  lost  his  self-control,  reviled
the  troops  in  an  imprudent  manifesto,  broke  with
the  government,  and  left  matters  worse  than  they
had  been  before.
In  Ulster,  fraternities  of  strong  Protestants,  which
had  existed  informally  since  1689,  were  now  formally
organized  as  Orange  Lodges.  They  embodied  an
intensely  sectarian  feeling  and  committed  their
share  of  outrages,  but  they  lent  the  government
powerful  aid.
Conspicuous  among  the  ruthless  agents  of  repres-
sion was  the  head  of  the  Beresfords,  whose  riding-
house  at  Dublin  was  a  daily  scene  of  torture.
Conspicuous  also  was  Judkin  Fitzgerald,  the  field
of  whose  operations  was  Tipperary.  Fitzgerald's
apologists  plead  that  his  policy  was  successful.  It
might  be  so,  but  the  cause  of  public  order  does  not
gain  in  the  end  by  outraging  that  law  of  natural
justice  on  respect  for  which  public  order  must  ul-
timately depend.  Fitzgerald,  savagely  flogging  a
man  on  whom  he  had  found  a  note  in  the  French
language,  which  not  knowing  French  himself  he


144     IRISH   HISTORY   AND  THE   IRISH   QUESTION

could  not  read,  was  presently  assured  by  one  who
could  read  the  note  that  it  was  perfectly  harmless.
He  nevertheless  continued  the  torture  of  the  lash
till  the  victim  nearly  expired.  Such  a  case  seems
to  defy  apology.  Fitzgerald,  however,  was  not
only  protected  from  question  by  an  Act  of  Indem-
nity, but  rewarded  with  a  title.  On  both  sides  all
hearts  were  fired  with  the  satanic  madness  of  civil
war.
