VIII. Partial rising in Ulster Change of temper in the Presbyterians Letter from Camden to the Duke of Portland THE ENGLISH IN IRELAND IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. BOOK VIII. CHAPTER I. THE UNITED IRISHMEN. SECTION I. THE Dungannon Volunteers had asserted that freedom was the indefeasible birthright of man, and they defined freedom to consist in the consent of the governed to the laws which they were required to obey. They might as well have said that their consent was required to the law which would break their necks if they fell over a precipice. The conditions under which human society will cohere harmoniously are inherent in the nature of things; and human laws are wise or unwise, just or unjust, so far as they are formed on accurate discernment of the purpose of the Maker of the world. To live well is the most difficult of arts. The rules to which individuals must conform, if the State is to prosper, can CHAP. I. |