pliance, renewed and increased their clamour. They were firmly answered. A war of words ensued; they branding the legislature as corrupt and odious:-the legislature, in return, attributing to them disloyal principles, and classing them with the French anarchists, whose first sanguinary acts then began, unluckily for the cause of legitimate freedom, to disgust the world.

Omitting the details of this struggle of the two parties, it will be convenient for our purpose to pass from 1784 to 1792, and examine the position and state of the Volunteers at the latter-mentioned period. And, at a glance, we find them, from many causes, decreased in numbers, influence, and importance.

In the first petition for an independent Parliament and a free trade, every Volunteer, from the landed proprietor to the mechanic, had felt a common interest. In that for Parliamentary reform, many aristocratic members of the national army, who held seats in the Lower House, did not conceive that their interests were regarded. In consequence, they ceased to be Volunteers. Other moderate men, fearful of being classed by Government amongst those whom it denounced as enemies, seceded, with a prudent foresight, to save themselves from future results. Some of these latter rallied, heart and hand round King and Constitution; some formed themselves into an aristocratic body, called the Whig Club, which, as it too professed reforming views, though of a limited kind, could not have failed to divide their own ranks against the Volunteers. But the chief cause for the breaking up of the old Volunteer spirit remains to be noticed.

Although Roman Catholics had generally been admitted into the national band, a very considerable portion of their fellow-soldiers,almost all, in fact, professing the established religion,―never contemplated making them the better for any political advantages which they were to assist in attaining. They might aid, for instance, in securing an independent Parliament, but should not be permitted to vote at the election of its members :-much less to aspire to the honour of being members of it themselves. In 1792, the Presbyterian portion of the diminished body of Volunteers, (diminished by causes glanced at above,)-were willing, perhaps out of policy, to recruit their ranks, as well as from higher motives, to join to their demand for Parliamentary reform a prayer for Catholic relief. The defection instantly followed of all who regarded such a measure with inherited prejudice; who conscientiously deemed its success incompatible with the existence of Church and State; or who merely felt it opposed to their individual interests. Joining

together, they formed a body, styled "Protestant Ascendancy," of which the principles, put forward in the shape of a manifesto, by the consistent corporate monopolists of the capital, breathed against Roman Catholics utter exclusion from civil and political privileges.

Government did not fail to take advantage of their disunion more effectually to suppress the Volunteers. A force, called Fencibles, was raised expressly for the purpose of overawing them; and this manifest wish to get rid of the Volunteers, deprived them of the last peaceable adherents who considered implicit obedience as a duty. Through many parts of the South of Ireland, too, corps threw up their arms in disgust. The legislature had called them "the saviours of their country;" it now called them incendiaries. Personal, if not national pride, could not brook the change of opinion. And from these different causes we behold, in 1792, but a skeleton of the national body which, with spirit to wield its strength, and with mind to direct that spirit, had, a few years before, been so imposing. We behold, in fact, a people whom union had made formidable to others, and of service to their country, grown, by disunion, contemptible to the world, and party with party, as they stand, a curse to their country. Forsaking their national standard, we see them once more ranged, in almost rabble groups, under the old tattered banners which, during her miserable contentions of six hundred years, had fluttered, like scarecrows, over Ireland, to put to flight all national peace, all collective, and much of individual importance, and to "fright the isle from her prosperity."

But, generally speaking, the corps of the Ulster Presbyterians, together with some corps in Dublin, retained their muskets and fieldpieces, and attended to military exercise at the same time that they formed themselves into new combinations.

Belfast, the capital of the Protestant North, first gave birth to political clubs, which, in imitation of similar ones in France and England, sought, by means of correspondence, publication, and otherwise, to disseminate beyond their own circle, opinions upon the Government under which they lived. One of similar character followed in Dublin; and, long after the year 1792, to Dublin, and to Belfast such associations were almost exclusively limited.

Their members, in both places, may emphatically be termed the last of the Volunteers. The declared objects of all were, a full Reform in Parliament, and a full emancipation of Roman Catholics. And the title adopted by them, in 1792, and now first fixed, was that of UNITED IRISHMEN.

It can scarce be doubted that their leaders contemplated, even in

the outset, a separation from England. Many of them were republicans in principle. Late treatises serve to show that their alleged objects were advanced but as a false flag, under which to marshal the timid or wavering of their own sect, and, if possible, the neutral Catholics, who even then formed three-fourths of the population of Ireland. Until events, contrived or expected, might gradually adapt all to views of a more extended nature.

These expected events rapidly occurred. Republican France triumphed over the combined armies of Europe. Her success served at once to indicate, and to propose to others for adoption, the principle for which she fought and conquered. Along with conviction, it inspired boldness. Hence, no doubt, the United Irish Clubs imbibed their confirmed hostility to English dominion in Ireland, as well as the audacious tone of denunciation and defiance which breathed through their published sentiments, whether put forth in the shape of resolutions or pamphlets, both eloquently penned, against the existing order of things.

At length matters came for the present to a crisis. Under the very eye of "the Castle," appeared in Dublin an armed band, styling themselves, in almost avowedly republican phrase, Irish National Guards. They wore green uniform, the national colour. Their standard was a harp, without a crown. Upon a particular day they were to muster, as if to show their strength. The Lord Lieutenant issued his proclamation against such a meeting. The garrison of Dublin prepared to support his manifesto; and the National Guards had no review-day.

A previous identity between this band and the United Irish Clubs is not proved; but such identification seems to have soon taken place. Against the Lord Lieutenant's proclamation, the Dublin Club issued a counter proclamation, approving and encou raging the National Guards. The secretary, who signed the paper, was convicted of sedition. After the publication of another philippic against Government, a meeting of the United Irish of Dublin was dismissed by the sheriff, as persons holding seditious and republican views. * Thus, in 1794, terminated the legal existence of the last of the Volunteers of 1782; convened, under their new name, two years and a half previously.

*Nor was the charge made on light grounds. A Protestant clergyman. the Rev. Wm. Jackson, had, through the treacherous agency of a London attorney, Cockaigne, (a good name for a London attorney,) been detected, in Dublin, in the character of a French emissary to the discontented Irish.

But though the Republican Clubs were thus legally suppressed, their spirit was not wholly extinguished. In Dublin, indeed, no trace of them existed. But in Belfast, to which we must still refer for a persevering adherence to the cause, one club of United Irish, which, from its insignificance, had not attracted notice, continued clandestinely to meet. By it, consisting exclusively of persons below the middle ranks of life, was first organized, and brought to a pitch of subtile perfection that able and instructed men, its subsequent adherents, could not improve, the more regular conspiracy against English connexion, which, in the year 1798, partially broke forth in different districts of Ireland.

Not till two years after their new constitution were the meinbers of this confederacy joined in Dublin by the influential persons who had composed the former and more open Clubs :-not till the close of 1797 did the conspiracy make any considerable progress in the South of Ireland. In other words, the Roman Catholic force of the country did not become United Irishmen, before that period.

But many of their superiors, of the same religious persuasion, had, some time previously, joined, from various causes, the councils of the Protestant Revolutionists.

Before the upraising of the national voice, by the old Volunteers in 1782, the Catholics had considered themselves, as on all hands they were considered, an unimportant portion, though by far the greater portion, of the Irish people. A century of degradation, under the overwhelming pressure of the penal code, naturally imparted to them this instinct of insignificance. Shackles sink the slave in his own estimation, as well as in that of his master. Even for their rights, they had not dared to speak out, as a body. Any murmur that escaped them was but the unheard whisper of a fear. But inspired, doubtless, by the manful appeals of their Protestant fellow-countrymen, they began, after the year 1792, more boldly to approach the legislature. A petition for relief appeared from their body, which now became Lewly and formidably organized. Although it was indignantly rejected, still, nearly at the same time, Government introduced a bill repealing some of the most odious of the penal statutes. Their junction with the Reformers was apprehended; and, while nothing would be granted to their presumptuous request, something was voluntarily vouchsafed to keep them quiet.

The daring of the Catholics, and most of all its partial success, after centuries of terrified inaction and passive slavery, caused a great ferment among the "Protestant Ascendancy :" and never, perhaps, even in Ireland, did ferment more vigorously manifest

itself. At city and county meetings convened by sheriffs, at grand jury sittings, and corporation meetings and guilds, not only were manifestoes against Catholic freedom agreed to, but vituperation of Catholic tenets was indulged in. All that could offend and goad, as well as all that could defeat, marked the clamour of the interested monopolists. The Catholics, to the increased astonishment of their hitherto colonial masters, retorted in publications which paid abuse with abuse, and absolutely attacked, in turn, the theology of their political anathematists. "Ascendancy" rejoinders followed, in which some individuals connected with Government took a part. The Catholics saw, that from the dominant party of the land, they had no chance of favour.

Still, however, they remained unconnected, as a body, with the other party; and, in 1793, made a grand effort to rise beyond the clamour and intrigues of their domestic enemies, by carrying their petitions to the very foot of the throne. Their success, considering it as a first attempt in diplomacy, was surprising. At first refused the ear even of the secretary, in London, they ultimately wrought their way, by perseverance and cleverness, to the presence of the Sovereign himself; were most graciously received; obtained the royal promise that their prayer should be recommended. And, at the close of the year, additional concessions-much short of their hopes, however—were granted to them.

Louder than ever arose the angry voice of the Ascendancy men. All means of defeat were set to work; and the exclusionists at last seemed to triumph. The determination to limit relief to the concessions already made, was authoritatively promulgated. All future hope thus shut out, under the existing order of things, the Catho lics began to turn their eyes towards the friends who, though also differing from them in creed, promised, under a proposed change, to grant them full and equal privileges.

Whilst, with a few exceptions, Catholics of intellect and consideration still, however, held back, a well-known event precipitated them into a junction with the United Irish. In 1795, Earl Fitzwilliam became chief governor of Ireland, upon the understanding that, while going certain lengths to satisfy the Protestant Reformers, he was to grant complete relief to Catholics. The Irish people were allowed to believe that the day of grace was now indeed at hand. But, so soon as the war supplies had been voted, Lord Fitzwilliam received a summons to return to England. The promises he had been allowed to hold out were broken; the vivid hopes of the Catholic leaders changed into blank despair. And