The conclusion of this session was rendered remarkable, by something like impotency or unwillingness in the house of com mons, to defend its own dignity. A Mr. Ottiwell, a subordinate clerk in the revenue, had proposed to the commissioners of wide streets in Dublin, for a large quantity of ground, near Carlisle-bridge: his proposal was accepted, and in consequence of the bargain, the public lost sixty thousand pounds. Some circumstances having raised a suspicion, that it was the result of fraud and collusion, accomplished through the influence of Mr. Beresford, who was generally believed to be a partner in the profits, a committee to enquire into the transaction was appointed in the reforming administration of Lord Fitzwilliam. When that nobleman was displaced, however, the Beresford interest having been restored, Mr. Ottiwell took courage, and refused to answer to the committee, certain questions not tending to criminate him. self. The contempt was reported to the house, and he was summoned to the bar. Having refused there likewise to answer, it was moved to take him into custody. This motion being reristed, the speaker rose, and desired, that as the house was thin, gentlemen should not go away-instantly, above a dozen members withdrew, as if they had conceived the caution to be a hint; on a division, the total numbers not amounting to forty, the house was of course adjourned, and Mr. Ottiwell returned home unmolested. In two days after, the motion was renewed and carried; but Mr. Ottiwell staid within doors, and his servants refused to let the serjeant at arms see him. Thus did this man who appeared to be concealing, by contumacy, an alledged fraud upon the public to the amount of sixty thousand pounds, continue to the very end of the session, to insult the dignity of that house, and to defy those privileges which had so often stricken terror into the editors of newspapers and others accused of abusing the liberty of the press.

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The labours of parliament were interrupted by prorogation on the 5th of June; but the business of the United Irishmen had

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been carried on, and still proceeded without interruption. It has been more than once stated, that they were anxious to procure the co-operation of France; and the circumstances about to be detailed, will shew that they never lost sight of that cardi nal object. Very early in 1795, while their organization extended no further than individual societies, communicating by delegates, they ventured to appoint a person to go to that country for the express purpose of soliciting an invasion: his depar ture, however, was postponed by various circumstances; and the trial of Mr. Jackson took place. The facts that were disclosed on that occasion, and the payment of the vote of fifteen hundred pounds by the catholics, which was not made till after the recall of Lord Fitzwilliam, determined Mr. Tone to go to America. His talents and inclinations were indisputable; it was, therefore, conceived that his emigration might be rendered subservient to the views of the United Irishmen, without the intervention of any other agent. At this time their system had reached no higher than a committee for the county of Antrim. Certain members of that committee, having then cast their eyes upon Tone, consulted with confidential friends, not actually in the organization, but with whom he had been in habits of unreserved communication. The result was, that after his arrival at Belfast, on his way to America, perfectly ignorant of the business and of the new system, to which he did not belong, he was empowered by those persons, some of whom held the highest situations at that time in the system, to set forth to the French government, through its agent in America, the state of Ireland and its dispositions. For that purpose, they were completely developed to him; the rising strength of the organization was pointed out; and also the great probability of getting into it all the defenders, the ground of which was, even then, actually laid.

Mr. Tone left Ireland on the 16th of June. When he arrived off the coast of America, he was near having all his prospects,

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personal and political, blasted, by an outrage which British ships of war were in the habit of committing, with impunity, against the American flag. The vessel in which he took his passage, (the Cincinnatus of Wilmington) was stopped and boarded by three English frigates, (the Thetis, the Hussar, and the Esperance) for the express purpose of pressing into the British service, such sailors and passengers as might be thought fit. The party entrusted with the execution of this duty, after treating the officers and crew of the American ship with characteristic rudeness, pressed all the hands but one, and above fifty of the passengers, who were obviously not sea-faring men, and were sailing under the protection of a neutral flag. Mr. Tone, on one occasion, attempted to interfere in favour of the father of a family whose wife and children were on board; but the only consequence of his interference was, that he himself was dragged into the boat, to be made a common sailor in the British navy.

This would probably have been his fate, but that the heart of the commanding officer was accessible to the distraction and despair of a sister, a wife and children. He was so far effected by the screams of Mrs. Tone, by the agonies of a beautiful and interesting female, and by the tears and cries of her children, that he released his victim.

Soon after Tone's landing in America, having waited on Citizen Adet, the French minister, he communicated to him the information and commission with which he was charged, but had the mortification to be very coldly received.

Those, however, who deputed him, had every reason to be convinced that their conduct met the wishes of the United Irishmen. Not long after Tone had left Ireland, a provincial committee for Ulster was organized, in consequence of the committees for the counties of Down and Antrim having been constituted

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tuted. As this provincial was to meet only once a month, and and its members to come from different and distant parts of the country, it determined, about the end of August, to form a body, not specified in the constitution, which was called the executive, because its duty was entirely confined within the limits denoted by that term, it having no originating power, and being totally subservient to the provincial. During the intervals of that committee's meetings, the executive was to execute what had been ordered, and afterwards to report its own proceedings at the next opportunity. It was to be a watch upon the government, and to call extra meetings of the provincial, if As its connection was only with that committee, its members were unknown to any but those who appointed them.

necessary.

While this organization was advancing, the wish of the people for French alliance developed itself more and more, in each successive stage. At a county committee held in Antrim, during that summer, a member from an obscure district, proposed that it should be recommended to the provincial, to open a communication with France. This was unanimously agreed to, and the recommendation transmitted to the provincial, by whom it was unanimously adopted: it was then given in charge to be carried into effect by the executive; which, thereupon, was informed of every thing that had been done respecting Tone. It therefore did not think fit to take any new step, further than causing fresh advices to be dispatched to him, setting forth the state of Ireland at the time of writing; the risings, prosecutions and convictions at the assizes in Leinster and Connaught; the transportations without trial in the latter province during that summer, and the growing discontents that were becoming more apparent and formidable. He was therefore urged to press, both on the score of French and Irish interests, for an invasion. In consequence of this communication, he again waited on Citizen Adet, whose manner of reception was now entirely changed.

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That minister had in the interval written home for instructions, and the answer of the directory had arrived, ordering him to press Tone to repair to France without delay. This was accordingly urged in the strongest manner, and Tone sailed from America on the 25th of December. After a very quick passage, he was received by the government in the most confidential and respectful manner. In some time, and on a more intimate knowledge of him, he was placed in the army, and promoted to the rank of chef de brigade, and adjutant-general.

The statement which had been transmitted to him, amply justified his impressing on the directory the magnitude and universality of popular discontent in Ireland; for after he had left that country, insurrection and open disturbances began to show themselves in many places, but particularly in the provinces of Leinster, Connaught and Ulster. The defenders in the two former were active in encreasing their numbers, and seemed, at length, to imagine themselves equal to some great exertion; they assembled very frequently in the counties near Dublin, especially Meath, and stripped many houses of arms. They appeared in still greater strength in the counties of Leinster, Roscommon and Longford, where at first there seemed no force equal to resist them. These proceedings made the summer assizes of that year remarkable for the number of convictions and capital executions. Of these, the trial and conviction at Naas, in the county of Kildare, of Lawrence O'Connor, a Schoolmaster, and the most respectable person, in point of rank, that had been yet discovered in the defender system, was made particularly conspicuous by his firmness and devoted attachment to his principles. When sentence was going to be passed upon him, he boldly defended the institution, on the ground of the oppressed state of the poor; and when the judge who was performing that awful office, struck with his appearance and conduct, asked him, had he any wife or children, "my Lord," he replied, "God will take

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