❝nevolence to warm and invigorate; with the same ray to gild"the palace and illuminate the cottage. The eternal prin "Sooner or later the measure must come. ciple of justice will be repeated in louder and louder tones, "until at length it must be heard and observed. Why not now? "Why leave behind a source of new reforms, perhaps, of "convulsions? "Contemplating this grateful prospect, we smile with much "internal satisfaction, on hearing those intemperate and abusive "expressions, which the members of opposition make use of "against this society. We smile at their inability to conceal the "vexation and disappointment they have felt on finding them"selves forsaken by the people (that people whose majesty they "insult, but whose forbearance they at some times solicit); on finding themselves falling, like the ostentatious balloon, from "that height, to which they had arisen by a sort of inflammable levity, and there sustained by the breath of popular favour. "We smile at the curious coalition of political parties against 66 our society; to see them all club their wisdom and their wit to manifest to the whole country, that we are really formidable; "but we are rather inclined to pity that forced fraternity, that monstrous conjunction, which, in spite of the horror of in"stinct, and the antipathy of nature, can join in one common "effort the highest genius with the lowest ribaldry; how great must be the panic that can unite such extremes! We can bear, "as we have borne, the common-place invective against this society; but we feel some indignation, when they, who should "look on themselves as the purchased property of the people; "to whose fortune, every man, even the 'beggar on the bridge,' has "contributed; whom the 'shouts of the mob' have raised to the height of their fame; when such men inveigh against armed beggary and shabby sedition; we cannot but remember a time, "when the usual adjunct to their own names was, shabby and "seditious incendiaries.' It is not manly, it is not decorous to "deal out this contumelious language against the great mass of "mankind. The use of contemptuous terms disposes to con"temptuous treatment, and those whom we vilify as mob, we "soon learn to slight as men. It is the unequal partition of “rights; and what results from this? The arrogance of power, "and the abasement of poverty, which make mob, instigate to "tumult, and goad to insurrection. 66 66 66 "If the people were respected, they would reverence the con"stituted authorities; but to gain this respect, they must pos"sess those rights, which are the prerogative of their nature, "and the worth of manhood." Whatever were the various and immediate causes of the growth and extension of that turbulent and seditious spirit which agitated the kingdom during the year 1794, certain it is, that defenderism spread rapidly, the Right Boys gained confidence, and became systematic in their outrages, and the United Irishmen assumed a tone of political language, that shocked the steady supporters of constitutional freedom, and gave but too plausible a handle to their enemies to fasten upon them intentions and views, which at that time the society actually had not, whatever may have been the ultimate suppressed designs of some few of their body. It would be unjust to stain the conduct of thousands in their efforts to attain a lawful end with the guilt of some few, who afterwards ran into excesses, the tendency to which they either totally suppressed from others, or were at the time insensible of themselves. Yet hitherto, the Defenders, the Right Boys, and United Irishmen were in principle and conduct essentially different from each other. As early as the month of February 1794, a numerous body of the Right Boys assembled near Bandon in the county of Cork, and swore several persons not to pay tithes, taxes, or hearth-money. They went so far as to threaten to attack the town of Bandon: and in the next month they dispersed a body of police men assembled by a magistrate: at another time they attacked a party of the Carlow militia, and wounded a magistrate whilst he was reading the riot act. The Defenders became daily more numerous, and extended their depredations into the counties of Dublin, Kildare, Westmeath, Longford, Cavan, Leitrim, and a part of Down. They had now laid aside their original principle of defence, and had become outrageous aggressors; still under the pretence of searching for arms in self defence. Their nocturnal visits were terrific: they not only plundered houses of their arms, but took whatever money and portable effects of value, they could find; and not unfrequently committed severe outrages upon the inhabitants. No one of any property, consequence, or character, was ever found to belong to, or to be connected with these lawless banditti : they were still of the lowest and most desperate orders of society; enemies of course to all that possessed property, character, and an interest in the preservation of the community. In the county of Longford, and elsewhere, the nobility, clergy, and freeholders united, resolved to levy money by subscription for raising and maintaining a body of horse for their defence, and obtained permission from the viceroy so to do. Meetings and resolutions of a similar tendency became frequent, and were attended with happy effects. It was observable, that the society of United Irishmen of Dublin became more daring after the confinement of Mr. H. Rowan. They had great confidence in him, and he commanded very ex tensive influence upon them. From that time they rose in their tone and sentiments upon all political subjects. His escape out of prison on the 1st of May, 1794, made a very deep, though very opposite impression upon different parts of the nation. 1000l. reward was offered for apprehending him ;* for after his committal to Newgate for the seditious libel in Hilary term, he had been charged with high treason. About the same time,, viz. on the 28th of April, 1794, the reverend Mr. Jackson, a Protestant clergyman, was committed to Newgate on a charge of high treason. Popular discontent increased through the nation. from a variety of causes. Notwithstanding government had in the session of 1793, passed several good and popular acts, they had thereby acquired but a small, if any, increase of popularity. Their rejection of the question of reform had produced nothing but displeasure out of doors: at that time the people at large were all for reform: some for universal suffrage, most for a qualified and temperate improvement of the representation of the people in parliament. Upon the whole, two great objects of political attainment now occupied the public mind; parliamentary reform and Catholic emancipation. Most persons out of parliament were common advocates for both objects, each tending to "By the Lord Lieutenant and Council of Ireland......A Proclamation. "WESTMORELAND. "Whereas Archibald Hamilton Rowan, late of Rathcoffey, "in the county of Kildare, Esq. was, in the last Hilary term, committed to "the gaol of Newgate, in the city of Dublin, under a sentence of the court " of King's Bench, of imprisonment for two years, for publishing a seditious "libel. "And whereas the said Archibald Hamilton Rowan has lately been charged "with high treason; and whereas we have received information on oath, that "the said Archibald Hamilton Rowan did, on the night of Thursday, the 1st "day of May, make his escape from said gaol. "Now we, the lord lieutenant and council being determined to bring the " ́said Archibald Hamilton Rowan to condign punishment, do hereby offer a "reward of one thousand pounds to any person or persons who shall discover " and apprehend the said A. H. Rowan, wherever he may be found, or so "discover the said A. H. Rowan, that he may be apprehended and commit"ted to prison. "And we do hereby strictly charge and command all justices of the peace, “mayors, sheriffs, bailiffs, constables, and all other his majesty's loving subjects, to use their utmost diligence in apprehending the said Archibald Ham"ilton Rowan. "Given at the council chamber in Dublin, the 2d of May, 1794. promote and improve the other. Such for several years had been the rage for politics in Ireland, that it was rare to find an individual in the nation, who had not ranged himself on one side or the other of the contesting parties. The government party in parliament of course drew to it all persons throughout the kingdom, who in any manner received favours from them. But in as much as that interest was generally considered an English interest, it met with few independent Irishmen, who did not systematically oppose it. Of the real sense of the people upon these two important objects there could at that time be no question of doubt. Above three out of four millions essentially were for Catholic emancipation; as so many individuals would be thereby emancipated: out of the remaining million above 500,000 were Dissenters, and the great bulk of that body avowedly were for the measure of the remainder of the population who were Protestants of the established church, the great landed interests of the country in parliament with their proportionate number of Protestant friends and dependants were also warm advocates for the measure of Catholic emancipation. As for parliamentary reform, the actual number of its advocates was certainly smaller, than for the other measure: but they were more vehement in their efforts, and less circumspect in the means of attaining their object. The accomplishment of it threatened the more sure and immediate overthrow of that system of government patronage, by which the opposers of both measures were knit together in a common cause of resistance. Some of the Catholics were as warm in the cause of reform, as their Protestant brethren, and they openly avowed their sentiments: many of them conceiving that government was against that measure, and fatally knowing the weight of government in determining their own question, either harboured opposite or disguised, or suppressed their real opinions upon that subject. Nothing leads more directly to misrepresentation, than the confusion of times with the actions of particular persons: crimes have their dates: and though the progress to consummation be gradual and sometimes imperceptible, yet the criminal volition is generally to be traced to its source. The retention of the term or title of United Irishmen has been productive of much misconception and much misrepresentation concerning the principles and conduct of the individuals known at different periods under that common denomination.* An author, whose study seems to have been that of criminating his countrymen, speaking of this society on the 23d of May, 1794, when they were dispersed by the sheriffs from their meeting in Back lane, said, (Mem. p. 127.) "They continued afterwards to sit, and to carry on their nefarious machinations with secrecy, but with equal effect. It appeared afterwards, that ma The term Irish Union has been more maliciously, than artfully used to asperse the characters of the first United Irishmen of Dublin, with the guilt of the latter rebellious members of the Irish Union. They were separate and distinct societies: their principles, objects, and engagements were different. The one was extinct, before the other existed. The leading traits of the latter were separation from Great Britain, and republicanism. It now appears unquestionable, that whilst that first society existed, neither of those objects ever became a subject of discussion, debate, or even conversation amongst them. Their views and actions were simply commensurate with their test; and it is not unreasonably apprehended, that those very terms of their union rendered them so peculiarly obnoxious to the friends of Protestant ascendancy and unequal representation. The difficulty of attaining any species of parliamentary reform strengthened their conviction of the necessity of the measure, and brought them gradually to those violent expressions, and that extraordinary proposal of endeavouring at some future, though undetermined time, to procure the meeting of a convention at Athlone, which should take into consideration the best mode of effecting a reform in parliament. They conceived, that such a meeting, backed, as they presumed it would be by Catholic and Protestant, could not fail of success. Hitherto they went no farther, than parliamentary reform, though upon the broadest basis of universal suffrage and annual parliaments. To this they were driven by the increasing spirit of liberty, encouraged by the successful progress "ny of the leaders of the Catholic Committee were members of the society "of United Irishmen, though they artfully concealed themselves while that "body openly avowed its existence, and published its proceedings; having " left the obnoxious and dangerous part of the Protestants, who, though few "in number, served as scape-goats to draw on them the vengeance of the law, and the detestation of all good men and loyal subjects. "I give the reader the names of some of the Protestant leaders, with the "fate which befel them. |