ligion, and to their king, what have you to dread from their proceedings, when not only the judges are equitable and humane, but alfo a great part of thefe impolitick religious penalties are removed, and the rest of them in such a ftate of progrefs to be totally removed? That however a JUNTO, for their own interefted, or other finifter views, may raise mobs to try to throw obftacles against the total repeal of them, yet all their efforts must be ufelefs-the vaft rock is already detached, from the mountain's brow, and whoever oppofes its defcent and removal must be crushed by his own rafh endeavours.* The popery laws are upon the eve of being extinguished for ever; and may no wicked hand ever again attempt to divide this land, by making religious diftinctions a malk, to divide-to disturb to opprefs it. +

Make your flock fenfible to the honour of being accounted a meniber of the Catholick communion-that they are not members of a fmall fect, limited to that country where the fect itself was formed. They are members of a great church, which has lafted more than 1700 years — which flourished in every part of the habitable world.In omnem terram exivit fenus earum, & in fines orbis terra verba eorum-and that Chrift has promifed that it will flourish until time shall be no more. Ufque ad confummationem fæculi-porta inferi non prevalebunt adverfus eam. That confequently, they fhould not be afhamed to belong to a religion, which fo many kings and princes-fo many of the most polished and learned nations of the world, glory in profeffing.

Remind them, that two centuries of perfecution have tried, in vain, to pervert them: That the annals of the church-the hiftory of mankind, does not afford another example like theirs of perfeverance in their religious principles. That we find in the hiftory of every other nation, or people, that a much fhorter time was fufficient, by penal reftrictions of religion, to gain over the people to the religion of the ftatc; but that two centuries of perfecuting

laws

According to this prediction, if the king, or any member of the lords or commons, or even the whole of them, fhould oppofe the repeal of the few reftrictive laws which remained, they would be murdered by the banditti, who were at that time committing robbery and affaffination.

Here he pretends to inculcate chriflian charity and liberality, though the whole of his letter breathes a fanatical spirit of intolerance.

laws-immenfe fums of money given by parliament to gain over profelytes, and levied upon those very people, whofe creeds they thereby endeavoured to purchafe, left ftill the great body of the nation faithful to that fpark which St. Patrick lighted at the great altar of the Catholick church, and fpread over this ifland; and that nine-tenths of the nation at large, and ninety-nine hundredths of this diocefs, are ftill faithful and fteady catholicks, notwithstanding what they and their ancestors fuffered for their fidelity ; and for which they are as unrivalled in the hiftory of the church--as infulated an exception to the prevaricating verfatility of man, as the geographical fituation of the island itself is to the reft of the world.

That portion of the catholicks of Ireland, which God has committed to my fpiritual care, I cali upon you, very reverend and dearly-beloved brethren, as my coadjutors and affiftants, to aid me, by word, and by example, to in struct, and to feed, with the word of jalvation, and with the bread of angels. It is a laborious, but it is alfo a meritorious, and an honourable employment. It forms the ftrongest bulwark to the ftate, by being the best fupplement to the laws; which, without murals, are vain. A faithful discharge of thefe duties will form our crown, and our glory, when, at the laft day, the fupreme paftor will come to judge us, and to judge the world.†

12.

Copy of a paper found in the writing-box: of lord Edward Fitzgerald, on the 12th of March, by the officer who went that day to arrest him under a charge of treafon.

IF ever any unfortunate caufe fhould put our city, with the other parts of the country, into the poffeffion of a cruel and tyrannical enemy, whofe government, by repeated oppreflions, might drive us into the last stage of defperate refiftance, our conduct then fhould be regulated in a manner beft calculated for obtaining victory.

The

This is notoriously falfe, as the Roman catholicks to the proteftants are not three to one. In the town of Clonmiell alone in that diocels there are above two thousand protestants.

During the aflizes, the doctor preached two fermons in Waterford of a most inflammatory tendency; and fome time before, he faid, in a fermon preached in a chapel in Dublin, You may talk of liberality as much as you will; but you may be sure of this, that no perfon can be faved out of your church."

The following thoughts are humbly offered for the infpection of every real Irishman :

It is fuppofed that the enemy have a well-appointed and difciplined ftanding army.—

In fuch a cafe, every man ought to confider how that army could be attacked or repelled, and what advantage their difcipline and numbers might give them in a populous city, acting in concert with the adjoining counties.

It is well known that an officer of any skill in his profeffion, would be very cautious of bringing the best-difciplined troops into a large city in a ftate of infurrection, for the following reafons :

His troops, by the breadth of the streets, are obliged to have a very narrow front; and however numerous, only three men deep can be brought into action, which, in the wideft of our streets, cannot be more than fixty men, as a fpace must be left on each fide or flank for the men who discharge to retreat to the rear, that their places may be occupied by the next in fucceffion, who are loaded; so, though there are a thousand men in a street, not more than fixty can act at one tine; and fhould they be attacked by an irregular body armed with pikes, or fuch bold weapons, if the fixty men in front were defeated, the whole body, however numerous, are unable to affift, and immediately become a fmall mob in uniform, from the inferiority of number in comparison to the people, and easily dispo

fed of.

Another inconvenience might deftroy the order of this army. Perhaps at the fame moment, they may be dreadfully galled from the houfe tops, by fhowers of bricks, coping-stones, &c. which may be at hand, without imitating the women of Paris, who carried the ftones of the unpaved ftreets to the windows and tops of the houfes in their aprons.

Another difadvantage on the part of the foldiers would he, as they are regulated by the word of command, or ftroke of the drum, they must be left to their individual difcretion, as fuch communications must be drowned in the noife and clamour of a popular tumult.

In the next place, that part of the populace, who could not get into the engagement, would be employed in unpaving the streets, fo as to impede the movements of horse or

artillery;

artillery; and in the avenues where the army were likely to pafs, numbers would be engaged in forming barriers of hogfheads, carts, cars, counters, doors, &c. the forcing of which barriers by the army would be difputed, while like ones were forming at every twenty or thirty yards, or any convenient diftances fituation might require: Should fuch precautions be well obferved, the progrefs of an army through one street, or over one bridge, would be very tedious, and attended with great lofs, if it would not be destroyed; at the fame time the neighbouring counties might rife in a mass, and difpofe of the troops fcattered in their vicinity, and prevent a junction or a paffage of any army intended for the city; they would tear up the roads and barricade every convenient distance with trees, timber, implements of husbandry, &c.; at the fame time lining the hedges, walls, ditches and houfes, with men armed with muskets, who would keep up a well-directed fire.

However well exercifed ftanding armies are fuppofed to be, by frequent reviews, and fham battles, they are never prepared for broken roads, or enclosed fields, in a country like ours, covered with innumerable and continued interfections of ditches and hedges, every one of which are an advantage to an irregular body, and may with advantage be difputed against an army, as fo many fortifications and

entrenchments

The people in the city would have an advantage, by being armed with pikes or fuch weapons; the first attack, if poffible, thould be made by men whofe pikes were nine or ten feet long, by that means they could act in ranks deeper than the foldiery, whofe arms are much fhqrter; then the deep files of the pikemen, by being weightier, must easily break the thin order of the army.

The charge of the pikemen fhould be made in a smart trot, on the flank or extremity of every rank; there should • be intrepid men placed to keep the fronts even, that at clofing every point fhould tell together; they fhould have at the fame time, two or three like bodies at convenient distances in the rear, who would be brought up, if wanting, to support the front, which would give confidence to their brothers in action, as it would tend to difcourage the enemy; at the fame time, there fhould be in the rear of each divifion fome men of fpirit, to keep the ranks as clofe as pof

fible.

The

The apparent ftrength of the army fhould not intimidate, as clofing on it makes its powder and ball useless; all its fuperiority is in fighting at a distance; all its fkill ceases, and all its action must be fufpended, when it once is within reach of the pike.

The reafon of writing and printing this is, to remind the people of difcuffing military fubjects.

No. XXII.

Obfervations on whipping and free-quarter.

MANY fevere animadverfions have been made on a practice which took place in Ireland, a short time previous to, and during the rebellion, of whipping perfons notorioufly difaffected, for the purpofe of extorting evidence from them. Whoever confiders it abftractedly muft of courfe condemn it, as obviously repugnant to the letter of the law, the benign principles of our conftitution, and thofe of juftice and humanity; but I am convinced, that fuch perfons as difpaffionately confider the exifting circumftances, and the preffure of the occafion under which it was adopted, will readily admit them to be, if not an excuse, at leaft an ample extenuation of that practice.

In many cafes it happened, that the popish inhabitants of a barony, or a parish, befought the magiftrates to adminifter oaths of allegiance to them, for no other purpose but to varnish over their treafonable defigns; and having complied, these traitors fwore at the fame time, that they were totally ignorant of any treasonable confpiracy, or of any concealed arms; though, horrid to relate! the magistrates were poffeffed of the fullest information, that they were fupplied with arms, had formed treafonable combinations cemented by oaths, and were foon to rife in the night, to maffacre all the loyal fubjects, and to plunder their proper ty; and in fhort, that fuch scenes of defolation, as happened on the breaking-out of the rebellion, were to take place. The loyal fubjects were exhaufted by watching, and petrified with horror, expecting every night to be murdered in their beds; and forty-nine out of fifty-eight of the popish servants were deeply concerned in the confpiracy, and were fworn to murder their proteftant mafters. Such was the woeful state of many parts of Ireland in the months of April and May, 1798!

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