as may allay the apprehensions and extinguish the discontents unhappily prevalent in this country." This motion was introduced after an affecting speech of uncommon energy, but it was negatived without further investigation-a circumstance that furnishes strong ground for the opinion of many intelligent men, that the door was shut, at that time, against all inquiry, for purposes not then known, or even imagined. by the public; but which, however, were foretold, as if from a spirit of inspiration, even in the minutest circumstances, by those elevated geniuses whose comprehensive views in regard to the concerns of their country were unlimited. The great measure was still in reserve, and not to be brought forward until the country should be completely paralyzed. This unhappy crisis, it is thought, was long in agitation and deeply premeditated. I crave the reader's permission, while I endeavor to sketch a brief outline of the manner in which it is supposed to have been finally effected.

During the American war, at one time, nearly all the troops on the Irish establishment were drawn off to support that unfortunate contest. The combined fleets of France and Spain were riding triumphant in the Channel, and our shores were every moment threatened with a formidable invasion. In this perilous situation Ireland was advised by the British ministry to defend herself as well as she could, as she was now left no other resource. The latent spirit of the nation was roused at the approach of danger. Upwards of one hundred thousand heroes instantly appeared, self-clothed, self-armed, perfectly equipped and appointed, ready to oppose with dauntless cour age the menacing foe that would rashly venture to insult our coast. These were the ever memorable and ever glorious volunteers of Ireland. Our ene Orangemen

mies were all at once completely scared, they shrunk into their ports; and our shores, then too commanding for an attempt to land, were left unmolested. Our people were united in harmonious resolution; every breast glowed with patriotic ardor, and the salvation of Ireland, otherwise left to inevitable destruction, was the consequence. The hour of security and social intercourse produced reflection. The saviours of their country quickly discovered that they existed in a state of thraldom to the British parliament. They demanded a redress of grievances; it could not be refused; and the national legislature was consequently declared independent. This great event took place in 1782, and a rapid increase of national prosperity succeeded; our commerce, being less shackled, became more extensive, and the capital of the island improved in splendor and magnificence. But it was with the utmost reluctance, and under circumstances of imperious necessity, that these concessions seemed to be made by the British cabinet, while the most malignant envy rankled in the bosoms of the enemies of Ireland. But there was no alternative. A diffusion of liberal sentiment and a unity of interests had combined men of all ranks and persuasions in the common cause. The unhallowed monster of religious bigotry could no longer be introduced to foment prejudice and sow baleful division; all was concord and unanimity. But the object of creating disunion and annulling the benefits obtained was never lost sight of; and the happy state of Ireland continued uninterrupted only until the dissolution of the volunteer associations, (and this was contrived as speedily as possible,) and till other schemes were put in practice to dissipate the union of sentiment which so happily prevailed. Much time was not lost, therefore, to put every en

gine at work for this detested purpose. In 1786, a set of commercial regulations, denominated propositions, was drawn up in the Irish House of Commons, and transmitted for the consideration of the British parliament. From thence they were returned so altered, that the Irish minister of the day found it expedient not to press them forward. It was asserted that the propositions so garbled, went the full length of annihilating by implication the independence so lately acquired; and this proceeding excited no small degree of irritation. The same year, among other means of disturbing the harmony of the people, the Right Rev. Doctor Woodward, late Bishop of Cloyne, taking advantage of some disturbances, excited by the exactions of tithe farmers in Munster, fulminated a pamphlet pronouncing the church and state in danger. The trump of discord thus deliberately blown, was resounded by an intemperate writer, under the assumed name of "Theophilus." This scurrilous publication (at first acknowledged, but afterwards denied by its reputed author) was always with good reason attributed to a civilian engaged in the service of the established church, and now at

and

the head of its judicial concerns. This author's publication is notorious for virulent abuse, for gross foul invectives against Catholics in public-though he had a Catholic of the gentler sex the wedded partner of his existence, and though in private life endeavoring to maintain habits of intimacy with many of the Catholic clergy. But what reliance is to be placed on the declamations of a man whose practice is so contrary to his professions? But he may well play the ambidexter, when his pleadings have heaped on him a multiplicity of profitable situations, (which he does not admit to be places or employments,) and in his convivial moments he is foully belied if he

does not mightily enjoy the joke. These, and suchlike productions, dictated by the spirit of discord, were refuted by several able pens of the day, but particularly convicted by the irresistible force of the benevolent O'Leary's dignified ridicule. This divine, professing the true spirit of the Gospel, excited by the purest motives of patriotism and Christian charity, steps forward, and by his exhortations and example, contributed more effectually to quiet the minds of the people and appease the tempest, by bringing them back to a sense of their religion, and, without the loss of a life, effected more than a host prompted by prejudiced coercion, or a formidable army. The happy effects of the exertions of this extraordinary man, whose talents were so eminently useful at this critical period, attracted the notice of majesty, and with becoming gratitude, unsolicited on his part, received a small annuity as a token of royal favor; his talents were considered too conspicuous to lie dormant, and very advantageous offers were made to him to write for a periodical publication that militated against his principles; he had no other property, yet he rejects it with scorn, although he was certain thereby to incur the displeasure of the ruling powers in Ireland, that would do all in their power to injure him, which he preferred to the prostitution of his heavenly talents, and he retires from his native country and repairs to England, where the enviable blessings of the constitution are experienced infinitely more than in Ireland. Yet all these exertions did not allay the public ferment, and the hateful and melancholy effects of religious dissension were but too general; and hence may be deduced the most lamentable misfortunes to Ireland-the revival of religious enmity.

No means were omitted thenceforward by the

principal actors on the occasion, of cherishing the animosities thus excited; confident that this procedure alone would best bear them to their end. This may be fairly concluded from what dropped in the debate on the famous propositions. A leading person, then high in confidence and official situation, and who, before the final object was attained, arrived at the chief judicial capacity of the land, pronounced in the moment of exasperated disappointment, that "the Irish were a besotted people, easily roused, and easily appeased;" and, in terms unfit for decency to utter, he is said to have threatened to tame their refractory spirits. In truth, he then delivered the sentiments of his party, as well as his own determination, to which he strictly adhered ever after. This man of narrow politics omitted no occasion of accomplishing the humiliation of his native country. Opposing, with licentious petulance, all rational schemes of reform; reprobating with plebeian ribaldry the justice of Catholic claims; and provoking public anger by insulting public feeling, he saw with gloomy satisfaction, before his premature dissolution, his ruthless system carried into woful effect. The trampled populace were goaded to resistance; their smothered resentments burst into a flame that was not very easily extinguished; the nation was distracted; and the long premeditated measure of incorporating union succeeded, after a spirited but ineffectual resistance; and thus ended the political drama of Ireland. But to return.

Sir Ralph Abercromby, after the publication of his general orders, and the knowledge he had acquired in his general view of the country, endeavored in vain to impress the minds of those in power with his own well-founded opinion, that coercive measures, in the extent determined on, were by no means ne