least, had no object in view but the diffusion of a more liberal and extensive system of civil liberty.

In consequence of the petition from the Romanists, his ma jesty, in seventeen hundred and ninety-three, was pleased to recommend to parliament to take their situation into consideration; and, in compliance with this injunction, the whole of the restrictive laws were repealed, except those by which they were excluded from sitting in parliament, and from holding about thirty great offices of state, which are immediately concerned in the confidential department of the executive government. This apparent lenity of the administration, however, was merely a continuation of that detestable system of policy, with regard to the affairs of Ireland, which first began to exert itself in the reign of Elizabeth, to foment the internal disunion of the Irish; that so they might be kept in a state of greater weakness, and thus their dependancy on England be more secure. But an effectual bar to the meeting of conventions, or other assemblies, was enacted by a bill styled the "convention "bill," proposed by the Lord chancellor, Fitzgibbon, earl of Clare, professing to "prevent the election or other appoint"ment of conventions, or unlawful assemblies, under pretence " of preparing or presenting public petitions, or other addresses, "to his majesty or the parliament." A national assembly, intended to have been convened in the month of September, was thus prevented from meeting; the proceedings of which, at that time, might have been attended with the most formidable consequences.

Had the protestant conductors of the Society of United Irishmen, towards the close of the year seventeen hundred and ninety-two, succeeded in their attempt to overawe the government by their intended ostentatious display of strength at the appointed general muster of the national guards, which appeared to be the object they had then most immediately in view, and thence to proceed by slow and cautious, but bolder and bolder measures to effect a revolution, the principles of the Romanists, who were also members of that association, would have had opportunity to put in execution their own scheme whatever it might be. Be that as it may, the lower class of Romanists appear evidently to have aimed at nothing less than the

exclusive establishment of their own system of religious worship. Enraptured by the hopes of so desirable a change, they could not conceal their sentiments. An alarming ferment rapidly prevailed. Songs, scurrilously abusive of the protestant religion, were publicly sung in the streets, and by tiplers in public houses. In seventeen hundred and ninety-three, a considerable body of insurgents, with a design to liberate some prisoners confined in the goal of Wexford, assembled and tumultuously attacked that town. Though they were in number about two thousand, and though they were opposed by the fire of about only thirty-five soldiers, yet, so little had they been used to meet an armed enemy, so grossly deficient were they in military skill, that they were repulsed with considerable slaugh

In this futile attempt major Vallotton, a brave and worthy soldier, was slain on the part of the king's troops. Several other trifling insurrections, particularly about the collieries in the counties of Kilkenny and Wexford, were suppressed with

ease.

Many of the heads of the Romanists are said to have regretted the loss of this opportunity of striking home by a general insurrection, when government was not prepared for the blow. In the year seventeen hundred and ninety-five, however, an ample field was opened to their hopes of success. By order of their permanent committee, petitions, on a model by them prescribed, were addressed by the whole body to parliament, demanding the complete emancipation of the catholics. Earl Fitzwilliam, the lord lieutenant, an associate of Edmund Burke, was a bitter enemy to the French republicans; and though the Romanists of Ireland chiefly depended on them for assistance in a revolution for the establishment of their church; yet by a strange infatuation (unless we suppose he himself to have been tinctured with papacy) was he strenuously attached to the latter. Before, however, he could gratify their wishes, he was superseded by the earl of Camden as lord lieutenant. The discontents were consequently rapidly augmented; many seditious speeches and resolutions, by authority of the committee, were published; the Ramanists were invited to assemble at a chapel in Dublin, and disturbances every where increased.

Such was the disappointment of the Romanists, and such the implacable resentment with which the lower classes among them were inspired against their protestant fellow-subjects, and the government by which they conceived themselves so grievously oppressed, that they proceeded immediately to plunge into the greatest excesses. The destructive rage of a party calling themselves defenders, in particular, manifested itself by the desolation of many parts of the kingdom, especially in the counties of Dublin, Meath, Westmeath, Kildare, King's and Queen's Counties, Louth, Armagh, Monaghan, Cavan, Derry, Donegal, Roscommon, Letrim, Longford, Sligo, and part of that of Down. The houses of protestants were plundered for the purpose of procuring arms, often burned; and not unfrequently such of their inmates as made any resistance were slain. Such of their aggrieved countrymen as dared to prosecute, or to assist the civil magistracy in the execution of the laws, were barbarously massacred. The cattle were most imprudently and inhumanly houghed or destroyed, and letters, threatning these and other most direful effects of their resentment, were wrote to compel persons to comply with their requisitions. The peaceable inhabitants were compelled to abandon their houses, in many of the disturbed districts, and to fly, in all the wildness, trembling, and agony, of affright and consternation, to their respective county towns, or to the metropolis for refuge.

On the arrival of lord Camden as governor [April, 1795.] he was immediately waited on by the officers of state, and by many of the nobility and gentry. But on the return of the lord chancellor, his carriage was tumultuously attacked by the mob. The machine was nearly battered to pieces by repeated vollies of stones, and it was with the utmost difficulty his lordship escaped, after receiving a severe contusion on the forehead. After assaulting the primate in the same outrageous manner, the same party proceeded with alacrity to the house of Mr. John Claudius Beresford, nephew to the marquis of Waterford, which they vigorously attacked. One of them, however, being killed by a shot, the remainder fled with precipitation.

During this universal agitation, the United Irishmen were assiduously employed in bringing over to their views persons of activity and literary talents throughout the kingdom; in dis

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seminating the popular work of Thomas Payne intitled The Rights of Man, and other similar publications, and even began to assume without disguise, a decided revolutionary character. The declaration presented to each member for signature on his being admitted into this society was " I **** in the presence "of God, do pledge myself to my country, that I will use all "my abilities and influence in the attainment of an impartial "and adequate representation of the Irish nation in parliament;

and, as a means of absolute and immediate necessity in the "establishment of this chief good of Ireland, I will endeavour "as much as lies in my ability to forward a brotherhood of "affection, an identity of interests, a communion of rights, and "a union of power, among Irishmen of all religious persuasions, "without which every reform of parliament must be partial not "national; inadequate to the wants, delusive to the wishes, "and insufficient for the freedom and happiness of this country." In the new test, or oath of admission, which they now adopted, however, their ultimate intentions were more openly avowed. "In the awful presence of Almighty God, I **** do volunta"rily declare that I will persevere in endeavouring to form a "brotherhood of affection among Irishmen of every religious "persuasion; and I will also persevere in my endeavours to "obtain an equal, full, and adequate representation" (the mention of a parliament is here carefully omitted) " of all the people "of Ireland. I do further declare that neither hopes, fears, "rewards, or punishments, shall ever induce me directly or "indirectly, to inform on or give evidence against any member (6 or members of this or similar societies; for any act or expres"sion of theirs done or made collectively or individually, in or "out of this society, in pursuance of the spirit of this obligation." In their original declaration are the following words: "In the present great æra of reform, when unjust governments are falling in every quarter of Europe; when religious persecution "is compelled to abjure her tyranny over conscience; when the "rights of men are ascertained in theory, and that theory sub

stanciated by practice; when antiquity can no longer defend "absurd and oppressive forms against the common sense and "common interests of mankind; when all government is acknowledged to originate from the people, and to be so far

"only obligatory, as it protects their rights and promotes their "welfare, we think it our duty as Irishmen to come forward "and state what we feel to be our heavy grievance, and what "we know to be its effectual remedy.

"We have no national government. We are ruled by English"men and the servants of Englishmen, whose object is the "interest of another country; whose instrument is corruption; "whose strength is the weakness of Ireland; and these men "have the whole of the power and patronage of the country, as "means to seduce and subdue the honesty and the spirit of her "representatives in the legislature. Such an extrinsic power, "acting with uniform force in a direction too frequently opposite "to the true line of our obvious interests, can be resisted with "effect solely by unanimity, decision, and spirit in the people; qualities which may be exerted most legally, constitutionally, "and efficaciously, by that great measure essential to the prosperity and freedom of Ireland-an equal representation of all "the people in parliament."

The following extract of a letter, addressed by Theobald Wolfe Tone, a lawyer of uncommon talents and energy, and one of the original framers of the institution, to his associates in Belfast, will evidently show, that the reform here professed was merely an ostensible object; held out for the purpose of uniting those who aimed only at a partial reform, with those who had in view a complete revolution :-" The foregoing contain my true " and sincere opinion of the state of this country, so far as in the "present juncture it may be adviseable to publish it. They certain"ly fall short of the truth; but truth itself must sometimes conde"scend to temporise. My unalterable opinion is, that the bane "of Irish prosperity is in the influence of England: I believe that "influence will never be extended while the connection between "the two countries continues; nevertheless, as I know that "opinion is for the present too hardy, though a very little time ་ may establish it universally, I have not made it a part of the "resolutions. I have only proposed to set up a reform of

parliament, as a barrier against that mischief, which every "honest man that will open his eyes must see in every instance "overbears the interest of Ireland. I have not said one word that looks like a wish for separation; though I give it to you