discovered from inquiries, that, so far from its uniting and consolidating the affections of the Irish with those of the British, a general discontent and disgust at the measure seemed to pervade all ranks of people throughout that country. He was assured by an Irish member of the Imperial Parliament, that although he had ever execrated the measure, he had voted for it uniformly from its proposal to its accomplishment; and that it was, he believed, cordially detested by ninetynine out of one hundred of his countrymen. It was impossible not to see, that the consequences of the rebellion of 1798 had left an impression of vindictive soreness in the breasts of numerous individuals and it was evident, that the union had not hitherto counteracted those effects. The efforts of some anti-unionists to discredit the measure, and render it unpopular, were increasing, not abating. To the disaffected, the union offered a plausible ground for indulging an acrimonious disgust at Government. Many of the venal fupporters of that measure, having either gotten all they expected, or less than they thought themselves entitled to, were wickedly mischievous in endeavouring to bring it into contempt and hatred. Two powerful arguments were employed in traducing it in the eyes of the Catholics. To the supporters of the measure (they were far the majority),

majority), that they were swindled into that sup port by false promises and delusive expectations. never intended to be realized. To the few who opposed it, it was argued (by the conduct of Government since the Union, the argument now affects the whole body), that their claims and interests will for ever be, as they hitherto have been, neglected, despised, or rejected by the Imperial Parliament. Such reasoning falling in with the seductive artifices of the restless, discontented, vindictive, and desperate (such there are in Ireland to this moment), tended in different ways to estrange the public mind from that affectionate confidence in Government, which is the natural supporter of duty and loyalty. Observation convinced the author, that the bulk of the Orangemen were from principle, disposition, and interest, determined anti-unionists; that with this body of men it had been long a practice to measure and appraise their own loyalty by traducing such of their fellow-subjects as they excluded from their societies (the exclusion of the Catholics extended to a population of nearly four millions), bolding out their Catholic countrymen as rebels and traitors from disposition, principle, and religion; that the quintescence of Orangism was necessarily productive of disunion and enmity between the members of the Orange clubs, and those who

could

could not be admitted into them. The prevailing belief that their Viceroy, when Colonel of the Cambridge

* Since the publication of the first edition of the Postliminious Preface, the author has been favoured with a document, which strongly repels the report of his Excellency's ever having been sworn into an Orange lodge. It was probably set afloat by the orangemen themselves, with a view to give respectability to their declining credit on one hand, and to follow up their innate spirit of disunion, by rivetting a diffidence between the mass of the people and the chief governor, on the other. During the time that the Cambridgeshire militia remained in Ireland, the chief, if not the only public lodges or societies then subsisting, were those of Orange-men; and they were then seen in the true light by this nobleman. He could not but be sensible of the artful. practices of many members of these lodges and societies to exacerbate the spirit of the newly arrived troops beyond the generous and manly bravery of the British soldier. His Lordship accordingly issued the following salutary order, which has been sent to the author from a gentleman of respectability, as extracted from the Cambridgeshire regimental order book:

"REGIMENTAL ORDERS,

"Dublin, April 17th, 1799.

"The Earl of Hardwicke having been informed that several "Lodges and Societies exist in this town and other parts of "Ireland, formed for party and other mischievous purposes, "under various denominations, makes it his particular request "to all the officers not to suffer themselves to become members of "any of them; and all the non-commissioned officers, and soldiers, "are strictly forbidden to be members of any such lodges or "societies, or to frequent them under any pretence.

Any man discovered to have transgressed this order, must expect the consequence of such disobedience."

It is to be lamented, that when this noble Colonel became the Chief Governor of Ireland, some act of state was not

passed

Cambridgeshire militia, had been sworn into an Orange lodge (the author has not attempted to verify the fact), tended to weaken the personal confidence of those, who considered all Orangemen indiscriminately bounden by ties and engagements adverse to the Catholic interests, and who experimentally remarked the exclusive preference and predilection of the members of that society in the dispensation of grace and favour from the Castle.

Under these impressions the author solicited, and was quickly honoured with an appointment to wait on Mr. Addington; when he submitted to him, that the calumny, traduction, and misrepresentation, under which the bulk of the Irish laboured, was a national grievance; that nothing could tend more powerfully to excite and promote rebellion, than to hold out, consider, and deal with them as with incorrigible rebels by disposition, principle, and religion: that the evil was increased by the countenance and forced circulation given to Sir R. Musgrave's Memoirs of the Irish Rebellions; a work so false, inflammatory, and malignant, that Lord Cornwallis had been forced

passed for checking or breaking up all these lodges and societies, formed for party and other mischievous purposes, the evil tendency of which his Lordship once clearly saw and so prudently guarded his regiment against.

forced publicly to disclaim the dedication of it; that the Irish nation was pre-eminently fond of historical justice, and felt more sensibly than any other people the deprivation of it: that it therefore had become an object of national importance, that a fair, impartial, and authentic history of that country should be written, to counteract the effects of Sir R. Musgraves's, and such other Orange publications, in order to reconcile the public mind in Ireland to the measure of union. That the Premier might be put into the full possession of the author's sentiments upon the state of Ireland, he delivered to him a copy of the beforementioned letter and paper, written twelve years before, and took the liberty of desiring that they might be kept by him as a test of his sentiments, and a pledge of his fidelity in executing the commission, which he then received, of writing an impartial and authentic history of Ireland, to shew the utility, and reconcile the Irish mind to the prospective advantages of the union. When on this occasion the author's proposal was acceded to by the Minister, a gracious remark accompanied that accession, that he was happy in employing the author's talents in an undertaking of so much utility to the public; and when reference was made to the observations of the Member of Parliament before noticed, upon the

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