great at length, that they forsook their houses in the night, and slept (if under such circumstances they could sleep) in the ditches. These facts were notorious at the time, and had the magistrates and gentlemen of the country been actuated by the feelings that humanity naturally excites on such occasions, they might, with very little trouble, have convinced the deluded populace of the fallacy of such reports, and they should have promised them public protection. In general, however, the fact was otherwise. The melancholy situation of the people was regarded with the utmost indifference; few individuals felt any concern or gave themselves any trouble about what they thought; and no effort whatever was made to allay their apprehensions, or at all to undeceive them. Their minds were left to the operation of their fears, to dissipate which if any pains had been taken, it is certain that these horrid conceptions entertained of Orangemen could never have taken such strong hold of their scared imaginations, and that violence would have been repressed in its origin. I had the good fortune to succeed so far, in my own neighborhood, as to induce the people to remain in their houses at night; and the trouble it gave me to effect so much cannot be conceived without actual experience. I was much amazed to find that this notion was so firmly entertained by some people of respectability, that I believe myself to have been the only person that slept in a house wherein I was on a visit. The fears of the family had been so great, that they had formed a plan of escape, in case of any attempt by the Orangemen to murder them in the night, and with this plan I was made acquainted the next morning. I endeavored to inculcate my own fixed opinion of the impossi

bility of a Christian harboring the thought of putting to death an unoffending fellow-creature. The disposition is too shocking for any Christian to cherish against another; but more especially so for a Christian boasting that of all persuasions his own disposes most to liberality. I rejected the odious, infernal thought with abhorrence, and railed at the weakness that would give it a moment's reception in the mind; and I succeeded in dispelling the fears of some of my friends.

The minds of the people being thus greatly irritated, (particularly by the impunity of the acts of outrage already related,) and their alarms having made them abandon their houses at night, they collected in great numbers in their lurking-places. Measures of self-defence were naturally suggested in consequence of their apprehensions, and they were readily led to adopt the means that were deemed best calculated to ensure security. The United Irishmen eagerly advanced the arguments most likely to induce the body of the people to embrace their system, and they met with powerful support and cooperation from those of the opposite faction; whose violent conduct and zealous persecutions proved more efficacious in urging on the people, than any allurements whatsoever. Men thus desperately circumstanced uphold and stimulate each other's confidence, and all consideration of the weakness of individual exertion is removed by a reliance on collective force. In this state man is no longer connected in the way of civil society, but finds himself surrounded by one convulsed and half dissolved, and a fever of the mind ensues that banishes all idea of calm circumspection. A soul thus impressed cannot abide in solitude, and is therefore led by ir

resistible impulse to adopt any plausible project that holds out additional means of preservation, protection, or defence.

On the 25th day of April, 1798, an assembly of twenty-seven magistrates was held at Gorey, where it was resolved, that the whole county of Wexford should be forthwith proclaimed; and this accordingly took place on the 27th. From this period forward, many magistrates of the county made themselves conspicuous in practising the summary mode of quieting the country, by the infliction of all kinds of torture. They seem, indeed, to have emulated, or rather rivalled, the conduct of the magistrates of other counties, who had made trial of the salutary effects of persecution somewhat sooner. In the several neighborhoods of Ross, Enniscorthy, and Gorey, the people suffered most, as in each of these towns a magistrate started up, eager for the glorious distinction of outstripping all others, each by his own superior deeds of death, deflagration, and torture! But it is to be observed, that none of these men had ever before possessed either talents or respectability sufficient to entitle him to take a leading part; yet, if burning houses, whipping and half-hanging numbers, hanging some all out, and shooting others, with attendant atrocities, constitute the characteristic of loyal and good magistrates, they must be allowed strong claims to eminence. In the mean time it must be observed, also, that such proceedings, however sanctioned, are contrary to the spirit of the constitution, a principal part of the excellence of which is the exclusion of all torture. In all the riots and disturbances that took place in England, does it appear, in any one instance, that an infliction of torture was ever attempted? Yet have we heard of associations there,

as alarming in their tendency as any that can be imputed to United Irishmen, although no one has been found possessed of sufficient hardihood there to try this desperate experiment. Would the most powerful, the richest, or the most violent man in England be hazardous enough to treat the meanest subject with the barbarous severity practised, in numberless instances, on respectable as well as humble individuals in Ireland? The attempt would be too dangerous. I apprehend the result would prove, that the people would rise in a mass in resistance to such oppressive treatment; and it is submitted to the determination of the candid and impartial, if the feelings of the people of England would not yield to such tyranny without meeting it with the most violent opposition, whether it be not natural to suppose, that it must have roused the resentments of the people of Ireland? I am firmly persuaded, that the conduct of the magistrates before alluded to, (and of some others not entitled to quite such renown in this cause,) supported by the yeomen under their control, together with the co-operation of the military, occasioned, or rather forced, the rising of the people in the county of Wexford. While I endeavor to establish the truth of this assertion, I beg the reader's attention to the particular dates of the several outrages, and of the respective periods at which different parts of the county joined the insurgents, as it will be necessary to take them in regular order, to form an adequate and impartial opinion. The proclamation of the county of Wexford having given greater scope to the ingenuity of magistrates to devise means of quelling all symptoms of rebellion, as well as of using every exertion to procure discoveries, they soon fell to burning of houses wherein pikes or other offensive weapons were dis

covered, no matter how brought there. But they did not stop here, for the dwellings of suspected persons, and those from which any of the inhabitants were found to be absent at night, were also consumed. This circumstance of absence from the houses very generally prevailed through the country, although there were the strictest orders forbidding it. This was occasioned at first, as was before observed, from apprehension of the Orangemen, but afterwards proceeded from the actual experience of torture, by the people, from the yeomen and magistrates. Some, too, abandoned their homes for fear of being whipped, if, on being apprehended, confessions satisfactory to the magistrates could either be given or extorted; and this infliction many person's seemed to fear more than death itself. Many unfortunate men, who were taken in their own houses, were strung up, as it were to be hanged, but were let down now and then to try if strangulation would oblige them to become informers. After these and the like experiments, several persons languished for some time, and at length perished in consequence of them. Smiths and carpenters, whose assistance was considered indispensable in the fabrication of pikes, were pointed out, on evidence of their trades, as the first and fittest objects of torture. But the sagacity of some magistrates became at length so acute, from habit and exercise, that they discerned a United Irishman, even at the first glance! And their zeal never suffered any person whom they deigned to honor with such distinction, to pass off without convincing proof of their attention. The two following_instances are selected from "An Account of the Late Rebellion," by Mr. Alexander, a Protestant inhabitant of Ross, who keeps an academy in that town