the effect of the armed associations of yeomanry, established in October 1796, directions were issued by the leaders to the societies, to form themselves into military bodies, and to be provided with arms and ammunition.

These directions were speedily obeyed, the societies assumed a military form, and it appears by the original papers seized at Belfast in the month of April, 1797, that their numbers at that period, in the province of Ulster alone, were stated to amount to nearly one hundred thousand men. That they were very largely supplied with fire-arms and pikes, that they had some cannon and ammunition, and were diligently employed in the study of mili tary tactics; in short, that nothing was neglected by the party which could enable them to take the field on the arrival of the enemy,* or whenever they might receive orders to that effect from their superior officers, whom they were bounden by oath to obey.

heard it said, that treasurers were appointed for raising money to purchase "arms, but no such appointment was ever made, at least by the executive. "Perhaps some private societies might have adopted such a measure.

"In many instances the lower orders went about to private houses to search "for arms; this the executive constantly endeavoured to prevent, because "they were unwilling to raise alarm in their adversaries, or let the members "of their body acquire habits of plunder, and be confounded with robbers. "They endeavoured to dissuade them from these acts, by representing to the "people, that the arms would always be kept in better condition by the gen"tlemen than by them, and could be easily seized whenever necessary. In "other respects our stores were in the arsenal, in the castle, and the military "depots throughout the country; our supplies were in the treasury.

• Memoir IX. "In the autumn of 1796, it must be confessed, the reasons "already alleged, and the initiations of the preceding summer in the North, "had disposed us to a separation and republic, principally because we were "hopeless, that a reform would ever be yielded to any peaceable exertion of "the people. We cannot be accurate as to the progress either of the numbers "or organization of the United Irishmen; it having been an invariable rule, to * burn all the returns or other papers, after they ceased to be useful; we have "no documents wherewith to refresh our memories, but we apprehend the "report of the secret committee to be, in that case, sufficiently accurate, "except that the numbers were always much greater than appeared by those "reports; the documents on which they rely, only noticed those who went "regularly into societies; but great numbers, perhaps at a rough guess, half "as many were sworn to the test, who were prevented by private motives and "local circumstances, from committing themselves in that way; we are, how"ever, convinced, that the numbers of the whole body could not latterly be less "than 500,000.

"The returns from the different societies, and committees upwards, specified "among other things, arms and ammunition; they were not originally included "in them, nor were they introduced until after the passing the insurrection and "indemnity acts, when the people began to be more than ever carried towards "resistance, and were extremely irritated by the indemnified violations of law "in the North. The returns also stated, sums of money having been collected; "those sums were always very small, and applied towards the support of per** sons imprisoned on charges connected with the Union, and in condueting of ** their defences, any other expenses were defrayed by occasional private sub**scriptions."

The report of the secret committee of the commons, continues to inform us, that in the summer of 1796, the outrages committed by a banditti, calling themselves Defenders, in the counties of Roscommon, Leitrim, Longford, Meath, Westmeath and Kildare, together with a religious feud prevailing in the county of Armagh, induced the legislature to pass a temporary act of par liament, generally called the Insurrection Act, by which the lord lieutenant and council were enabled, upon the requisition of seven magistrates of any county, assembled at a sessions of the peace, to proclaim the whole or any part thereof, to be in a state of disturbance; within which limits this law, giving increased power to the magistracy, was to have operation.

Many districts in Ulster, in which outrages prevailed, occasioned by the active and persecuting spirit of the United Irishmen, were in the course of the winter of 1796, and spring of 1797, put under the provision of the act above mentioned; and the committee observed, that although where the law was put in force with activity by the magistrates, very beneficial consequences were found to result from it, yet the treason was then too deeply rooted to yield to that remedy.

Although it be true, as the committee has reported, that in the latter end of 1796, and the beginning of 1797, the loyal inhabitants of Ulster suffered most severely from the United Irishmen ; that throughout the province, they were stripped of their arms: that the most horrid murders were perpetrated by large bodies of men in open day, and that it became nearly impossible to bring

The purport of this part of the report appears historically incorrect: inasmuch at least as it appears and intends to identify the cause of the Union and the Defenders in the year 1796. The Memoir gives this candid and apparently true account of the only connexion, which at that time existed between them. "Defenderism has been supposed to be the origin of the modern societies of "United Irishmen: this is undoubtedly either a mistake or a misrepresentation; "we solemnly declare, that there was no connexion between them and the "United Irish, as far as we know, except what follows:

"After the Defenders had spread into different counties, they manifested "a rooted but unenlightened aversion, among other things, to the same griev"ances, that were complained of by the Union. They were composed almost "entirely of Catholics, and those of the lowest order, who, through a false con"fidence, were risking themselves, and the attainment of redress by premature "and unsystematic insurrection. In the north they were also engaged in an "acrimonious and bloody struggle with an opposite faction, called Peep of "Day Boys. The advantage of reconciling these two misguided parties, of "joining them in the Union, and so turning them from any views they might "have exclusively religious, and of restraining them from employing a mutual "destructive exertion of force, most powerfully struck the minds of several "United Irishmen. For that purpose, many of them in the northern counties "went among both, but particularly the Defenders, joined with them, shewed "them the superiority of the union system, and gradually, while government "was endeavouring to quell them by force, melted them down into the United "Irish body. This rendered their conduct infinitely more orderly, and less "suspicious to government."

the offenders to justice, from the inevitable destruction that awaited the witnesses or jurors who dared to perform their duty: yet was it also true, that this species of barbarous outrage did not exist in the county of Armagh, and a part of Louth, but that another species of outrage from the Orangemen did there exist, of which the report is wholly silent. Historical justice requires us also to notice a most material fact asserted in the report of the lords, which does not appear to be founded in the same species of evidence, either by confession or voucher, upon which most of the facts contained in the report of the commons had been supported. The lords fully confirmed the report of the commons, and having received and investigated such further evidence as they thought in prudence they were called upon to examine, had come to an unanimous resolution, immediately to report that they were fully satisfied and convinced, from the evidence laid before them, that a traitorous and alarming conspiracy has been formed, and that sundry acts had been done in pursuance thereof by certain affiliated societies and persons in different parts of the kingdom, calling themselves United Irishmen, for the subversion of the established laws and constitution, and the introduction of a system of anarchy, plunder and confusion, similar to that which had fatally prevailed in France. That they thought it necessary further to report, that it appeared distinctly to them that such a system was the first and fundamental object of these societies, at their original institution in the summer of the year 1791, and that the attainment of what were called parliamentary reform and Catholic emancipation were and continued to be holden out by them merely as a pretence for their associations, and with a view to seduce persons, who were not apprized of their traitorous designs, to unite with them. This was a clear avowal, that all the members of the union were not at that time apprized of the traitorous designs of some of their leaders. For it is unquestionable, that numerous individuals were engaged as members of the union, who had no treason in their minds or hearts. The term affiliated societies was too extensive to be applied to those who were guilty at that time of treason. And therefore, the committee a little after applied, as the truth was, the guilt of uniting with the Defenders to the leaders and directors of their societies. For it had further appeared to them, that the leaders and directors of these associations then were and had been for some time past anxiously engaged in uniting with them a class of men, who had formerly disturbed the peace of this country by acts of outrage, robbery and murder, under the appellation of Defenders, and they had reason to apprehend, that in a certain degree they had succeeded. In addition to the facts contained in the report of the commons, they found it necessary to state, that it had appeared distinctly and

unequivocally to them, that a traitorous correspondence and communication had been carried on between the leaders and directors of the societies of the United Irishmen and the executive directory of the French Republic; the period at which that correspondence was proved to have taken place, had appeared to have been betweeen the month of June, 1795, and the month of January, 1796, and the means by which it was carried on in that instant, had been fully proved; and it had also appeared to their committee, that in the event of success on the part of those conspirators, it had been decided, that all persons who from their principles or situation might be deemed inimical to the conspiracy, should be massacred; the first proscribed list, it had appeared to their committee, had been calculated by one of their leaders at thirty thousand persons.

It cannot elude the observation of every candid man, who considers the nature and progress of that horrible rebellion, which afterwards broke out openly in the year 1798, that the greater part of the individuals were unfortunately involved in it, by im perceptible gradation, by deception, art, malice, menace, or intimidation of the leaders and directors. The committee of the lords charged the affiliated societies of United Irishmen generally with the treason, and they attempted only to prove it against their leaders and directors in the particular instances of uniting with the Defenders and French Republicans. Too much guilt alas attached upon a numerous part of that nation, to excite a wish in the most savage breast to aggravate the criminality or extend the treason. Some individuals, who can only measure their own loyalty by the acrimony with which they calumniate their country, have upon the strength of this report, specifically charged the United Irishmen with holding regular committees of assassination. But no evidence whatever is offered by the lords even to support their loose inuendo or charge of systematic assassination. The private murders, though numerous and bloody, rather rebut than substantiate the charge of any organised system of that atrocious nature.*

Mem. p. 7." It has been alleged against the United Irishmen, that they established a system of assassination. Nothing has ever been imputed to them, that we feel more pleasure in being able to disavow. In such immense numbers as were to be found in that body, although uniformity of system may have given a wonderful uniformity of action, yet it is unfair and unjust to charge the whole body with the vices of a few of its members: individual grievances produced individual resentments, and the meeting of many sufferers in the same way frequently caused them to concur in the same resolutions. It appears, indeed, by some trials, that a baronial once took that subject into consideration; but it was manifest, that it was taken up by them as individuals, whose principles, as it afterwards appeared, were not repugnant to the act. A committee of assassination has been much talked of: we have heard persons mentioned as members of it, whom we know, from the most private and confi

As the summer advanced, the public fever was quickened. Many outrages of the Defenders were punished in a most unwarrantable manner upon innocent untried persons by the military: upon mere suspicion or absence of a landlord, they burnt houses, they often maimed, and in some instances murdered the natives, who unfortunately inhabited the districts, into which they were sent. Nothing so strongly tends to irritate the popular mind, as the commission of crimes under the colour of authority. In one instance a certain colonel was at the assizes of Armagh tried and found guilty of murdering a Mr. Lucas; upon his receiving sentence, he produced his majesty's pardon, and was instantly liberated. This circumstance greatly irritated the people. The many barbarities committed by the Orangemen in Armagh and Down, if not with connivance, at least with

dential observations, to be utterly abhorrent from that crime. We solemnly declare, we believe that such a committee never existed. We most solemnly aver, it never was with the cognizance of a part of the union. We also declare that in no communication from those, who were placed at the head of the United Irishmen, to the rest of that body, and in no official paper was assassination ever inculcated, but frequently and fervently reprobated. It was considered by them with horror, on account of its criminality, and with personal dread, because it would render ferocious the minds of men, in whose hands their lives were placed, most particularly placed; inasmuch as between them and the rest of that body were they out of the protection of the law. In proof of this assertion, we would beg leave to refer to a sketch of a publication, which we believe was seized among the papers of one of us, at the time of his arrest, and which it was intended should appear, if the paper to which it alluded had not been discontinued. One other consideration, which we intreat may not offend, will, we hope be decisive. If such committee had existed, and if the men at the head of the United Irishmen had thought assassination a justifiable mode of attaining their ends, and had been capable of encouraging such atrocity, possessed as they were of wide-spread means of acting, and powerful control over men, who, it is now manifest, held the loss of life in utter contempt, the poignard would have been directed, not against such petty objects as an obnoxious county magistrate, or an informer."

Three Orangemen voluntarily made oath before a magistrate of the county of Down and Armagh, that they met in committees; amongst whom were some members of parliament, who gave these people money, and promisea they should not suffer for any act they might commit; and pledged themselves that they should hereafter be provided for under the auspices of government. The magistrate wrote to the secretary of state, enquiring of him how he should act in these critical times; that hitherto he had preserved peace on his large estate, but wished to know how he should act in future; that if it were necessary for the preservation of the present system for him to connive at or encourage the Orangemen in their depredations, he said, as a man he knew his duty; if it were not necessary, he hoped the magistrates of the county at large would be made responsible, and be compelled to act against these depredators. That letter was written in consequence of a large meeting of Orangemen intended to be convened in about ten days after. About the same time a number of delegates from the Orangemen met in the town of Armagh, and entered into resolutions, which they published; in these resolutions they recommended to the gentlemen of fortune to open a subscription, declaring,

That the two guineas per man allowed them by government was not suffi"cient to purchase cloaths and accoutrements."