depositions they had given. The applications were, in this manner, almost entirely defeated; or, if they succeeded, the proceedings were studiously protracted by every legal artifice; even the verdicts of juries, summoned by sheriffs, and influenced by magistrates, themselves labouring under heavy suspicions, were sometimes interposed between the prosecutors and justice. Effectual relief was thus indeed, for the most part, withheld from the oppressed; but they learned to look upon the United Irishmen as their only friends, to confide in the sincerity of those protestants who had joined in the union, and no longer to look, with hope or affection, towards the existing law or its remedies. These objects were likewise accomplishing, at the same time, by other means. The steps that were taken against the defenders in Leinster and Connaught, and the house-rackings in the county of Armagh, had forced many wretches to abandon their homes, and seek for shelter where they might be unknown and unsuspected. Some of these unhappy fugitives were invited to Belfast, from whence they were received by the Presbyterian families in the counties of Down and Antrim; they were secured from danger, provided with employment, treated with affectionate hospitality, and the hereditary prejudices they had imbibed against northerns and dissenters, were lost in the overflowings of their gratitude. To their friends, whom necessity had not compelled to flight, they communicated the intelligence of their safety and happiness; thus spreading the fame of United Irish sincerity and attachment to remote districts, where the system was then unknown. But the most important accession of strength gained by that body, at this period, arose from their successful interference with the defenders, particularly in the counties of Down and Antrim. From the first formation of the union, its most active members members were extremely anxious to learn the views and inten tions of the defenders. The latter, it was manifest, wished a redress of many of those grievances, against which the efforts of the former were also directed; but their wishes were not sufficiently seconded by intelligence, nor did their institution appear calcu lated for co-operation on an extensive scale: it seemed almost exclusively catholic, and as far as could be ascertained, was not sufficiently representative. Besides, as most counties had something peculiar to themselves, either in their test, their formalities, or their signs, a defender in one county was not, therefore, one in another; and the association or rather mass of associa tions, wanted an uniformity of views and actions. As it owed its origin to religious animosities, and was almost entirely com. posed of illiterate persons, there was reason to apprehend, it might still be vitiated by bigotry and ignorance, and that instead of reserving its physical force for one object and one effort, it might waste itself, as was actually the case in Connaght, in par tial and ill directed insurrections against local grievances. The united system, on the other hand, by pursuing only one thing, “an equal, full and adequate representation of the people," secur ed an uniformity of views, and by fixing attention on the state of the representation, as the fruitful parent of every other evil, it suggested, wherever it gained admission, a remedy for the oppressions by which the inhabitants were most afflicted. Proceeding as it did, on the principle of abolishing all political distinctions on account of religion, and of establishing a brotherhood of affection among Irishmen of every religious persuasion, it struck at the root of bigotry, received the support, and secured the co-operation of every sect, that was not rendered hostile by an immediate interest in the abuses it proposed to remedy. Organized as it was under a series of committees which were connected together to the highest rank, it was capable of the most perfect co-operation, and had in itself, all the advantages of of a provisional representative government, to which it was habituating its members, before they could be called upon to establish a national constitution, This immense superiority of advantages in favour of the uni ted system, which clearly proved that it was the result of settled design and reflection, while the other seemed to derive its birth from accident and ignorance, was pointed out to the defenders in the counties where the union was most prevalent. There was no repugnancy in the tests of the two bodies, and many catholics had, from the commencement, belonged to both, They persuaded other defenders to follow their example. Protestant United Irishmen too, resolved to break the exclusively catholic appearance of defenderism; there being nothing in the test or regulations to prevent them, they were sworn into that body, and carried along with them their information, tolerance and republicanism. They pointed out to their new associates, all that has been already stated in the comparison between the two systems; and set before them, that the something which the defenders vaguely conceived, ought to be done for Ireland, was, by separating it from England, to establish its real as well as nominal independence; and they urged the necessity of combining into one body, all who were actuated with the same views. At last their exertions were favoured with entire success. The defenders, by specific votes in their own societies, agreed to be sworn United Irishmen, and incorporated in large bodies into the union. Thus did they in those counties, merge into the broadest and best concerted institution, which from henceforth, spread through their catholic districts with surprising rapidity; the inhabitants having abandoned whatever were the peculiarities of their own association. The northern United Irishmen likewise pursued their scheme still further. The executions in Meath, Kildare, and latterly in the s 2 the capital itself, shewed to them that defenderism had reached so far, and was likely to extend through all the catholic parts of the kingdom. Weldon, Hart, Kennedy, and others, were found guilty in Dublin, in the latter end of 1795, of high treason, as being defenders, and met their fate with that enthusiasm and fortitude, which political as well as religious sufferers have, in almost all ages, exhibited. The evidence on those trials shewed that the views of the catholics of that rank of life, in and near the metropolis, though they had never yet heard of the united system, were perfectly conformable to those of the northern republicans. This coincidence determined the latter to open a communication which should pave the way for the extension of their own organization. They accordingly dispatched persons up to Dublin, who found means to explain themselves with some of the principal defenders of the counties of Meath, Dublin and elsewhere. This caused deputies from them to be sent to Belfast, to examine if the views of the north corresponded with theirs, and how far its sincerity might be relied on. These men on their arrival there, were soon convinced that the northerns were more enlightened, and as ardent as themselves, and that their sincerity was too often proved and two explicitly manifested to be doubted. On their return home, they communicated a detail of the views of the union, and laid the foundation for the adoption of that system by the catholics who deputed them. The impression which was made by all those measures on the defenders, gave the United Irishmen a ready access to the militia regiments, as they arrived in the north. These were mostly composed of catholics, having come from the other provinces; in many instances they were already defenders, that association having spread into the counties where they were raised. The progressive steps were now made easy: the catholic soldier had no reluctance to become a defender; the defender was quickly induced to follow the example of those where he was quartered, and |