The long-suppressed rebellion broke out in May, 1798, and Ireland became the scene of conflagration, rapine, and bloodshed, the conduct of the insurgents being of the most cruel and inhuman character. The SIXTH, and light battalion attached to them, commanded by Lieut.-Colonel Colin Campbell, were employed in suppressing this unnatural warfare. Scarcely was this accomplished, when the French directory endeavoured to revive the contest by sending General Humbert with about a thousand men to Ireland; and Major Macbean, with eighty men of the SIXTH (who were not attached to the light battalion) formed part of the force sent against the French. In the action at _Castlebar_, on the 27th of August, the eighty men of the SIXTH were the last that quitted their ground; their commanding officer, Major Macbean, was taken prisoner by the French and very cruelly treated; but he escaped a few days afterwards and joined the regiment at Tuam. The French having been surrounded and made prisoners, the rebellion was finally suppressed, and the regiment passed the winter at Moate and Athlone, under the command of Lieut.-Colonel Bowes. [Sidenote: 1799] Tranquillity having been restored in Ireland, the regiment embarked at Cork in June, 1799, for Canada, and landed on the 14th of October at Quebec, where its ranks were completed by a draft from the third battalion of the sixtieth regiment. [Sidenote: 1803] The SIXTH remained at Quebec until 1803, when they proceeded, under the command of Lieut.-Colonel Bowes, up the country to Montreal, Kingston, and St. John's. [Sidenote: 1804] [Sidenote: 1806] In 1804 a second battalion was added to the regiment, and was embodied at Liverpool, under the superintendence of the colonel, His Royal Highness the Duke of Gloucester. It was formed of men raised in the county of Lancaster for limited service, under the additional force act, passed on the 29th of June, 1804; and was placed on the establishment of the army from the 25th of December, 1804. In the same year the first battalion returned to Quebec, from whence it embarked, in 1806, for England: it landed at Portsmouth on the 7th of September, and marched to Deal barracks, where it was joined by the second battalion. His Royal Highness the Duke of Gloucester was removed in May, 1806, to the third foot-guards; and the colonelcy of the Sixth was conferred on Major-General Sir GEORGE NUGENT, Baronet, from the sixty-second regiment. [Sidenote: 1807] The first battalion having been completed to the war-establishment by drafts from the second, marched, in October, to Dover Castle; and in January, 1807, returned to Deal. In April following it embarked for Gibraltar, where it arrived on the 2nd of June, in a very complete and efficient state, and it passed the succeeding twelve months at that important fortress. [Sidenote: 1808]