Extract of a letter found upon Oliver Bond, figned H. W. (Hugh Wilfon) and dated, Cork 6th, 1798. I have been fo cooped up fince I came here, that, had I known the fituation of the place, my mind fhould never have been fo abominably clofeted, for any emolument that I may derive before a change of the prefent government takes place. You can but faintly imagine how things are going on here; give the people but a little time, and reft aflured the progrefs fcience is making will aftonifh the world. The enemies of the human race are much alarmed, and the revolt of the Dublin county militia has increased their fears. Mr. Finlay fays, they are all affaffins, and he is almost afraid to trust himself with them. I hear they are to be difperfed among the Highlanders through the country. Numbers of preachers of the true gospel are better than few, and those difperfed grains may not fall on rocky ground. When the news came this morning of the Spanish fleet being out, the aristocrats feemed happy, saying, their doom was at hand, Jervis being after them. With best regards to Mrs. Bond, and all friends, I am fincerely yours, II. W, No. X. Mr. Grattan's answer to the Roman catholicks. GENTLEMEN, IN fupporting you, I fupport the proteftant; we have but one intereft and one honour; and whoever gives privileges to you, gives vigour to all. The proteftant already begins to perceive it; a late attack has rallied the fcattered fpirits of the country, from the folly of religious fchifin to the recollection of national honour, and a nation's feuds are loft loft in a nation's refentment. YOUR EMANCIPATION WILL PASS, rely on it, YOUR EMANCIPATION MUST PASS; it may be death to one viceroy, it will be the peace-offering of another; and the laurel may be torn from the dead brow of one governor, to be craftily converted into the olive of his fucceffor. Let me advise you by no means to poftpone the confi deration of your fortunes till after the war; rather let Britain receive the benefit of your zeal during the exigency which demands it, and you yourfelves, while you are fighting to preferve the bling of a conflitution, have really and bona fide thofe bleffings. My wifh is that you fhould be free Now, there is no other policy which is not low and little; let us at once inftantly embrace, and greatly emancipate. On this principle I mean to introduce your bill, with your permiffion, immediately after the recefs. You are pleafed to fpeak of the confidence and power with which for a moment I was fuppofed to have been poffeffed. When his majefty's minifters were pleafed to refort to our fupport, they took us with the incumbrance of our reputation, and with all our debts and mortgages which we owed to our country. To have accepted a fhare of confidence and council without a view to private advantage, will not meet, I hope, with the difapprobation of my country; but to have accepted that share without any view to publick advantage, would have been refinement on the folly of ambition. Measures, therefore, publick measures and arrangements, and that which is now difputed, were ftipulated by us, were promifed in one quarter; and with affurances, they were not refifted in another. In the fervice of government, under his excellency's administration, we directed our attention to two great objects, the Kingdom and the Empire. We obtained certain beneficial laws, the discovery and reformation of certain abuses, and were in progrefs to reform more; we obtained a great force, and a great fupply with the confent and confidence of the people; thefe were not the measures of courtiers, they were the meafures of minifters. His excellency lord Fitzwilliam may boaft that he offered to the empire the affections of millions; a better aid to the war war than his enemies can furnish, who have forfeited thofe affections, and put themfelves in their place. So decidedly have the measures of Ireland ferved the empire, that thofe who were concerned in them might appeal from the cabals of the British cabinet, to the fenfe of the British nation. I know of no caufe afforded for the displeasure of the English cabinet; but if fervices done to Ireland are crimes which cannot be atoned for by exertions for the empire, I must lament the gloomy prospect of both kingdoms, and receive a discharge from the fervice of government, as the only honour an English minifter can confer on an Irish fubject. I conceive the continuance of lord Fitzwilliam as neceffary for the profperity of this kingdom: his firm integrity is formed to correct, his mild manners to reconcile, and his private example to discountenance a progrefs of vulgar and rapid pollution: if he is to retire, I condole with my country for myself, the pangs on that occafion I should feel on rendering up my fmall portion of minifterial breath would be little, were it not for the gloomy profpects afforded by thofe dreadful guardians which are likely to fucceed. I tremble at the return to power of your old taskmafters; that combination which galled the country with its tyranny, infulted her by its manners, exhaufted her by its rapacity, and flandered her by its malice: fhould fuch a combination, (at once inflamed as it must be now by the favour of the British court, and by the reprobation of the Irish people), return to power, I have no hesitation to say, that THEY WILL EXTINGUISH IRELAND, OR IRELAND MUST REMOVE THEM. It is not your cafe only, but that of the nation. I find the country already committed in the ftruggle. I beg to be committed along with her, and to abide the iffues of her fortunes. I fhould have expected that there had been a wifdom and faith in fome quarter of another country, that would have prevented fuch a catastrophe; but I know it is no proof of that wisdom, to take the taxes, continue the abufes, damp the zeal, and dafh away the affection of fo important a member of the empire as the people of Ireland; and when this country came forward, cordial and confident with the offering of her treasure and blood, and refolute to stand or fall with the British nation; it is, I fay, no proof of wif dom dom nor generofity, to select that moment to plant a dagger in her heart. But whatsoever fhall be the event, I will adhere to her interefts to the laft moment of my life. No. XI. HENRY GRATTAN. The confpiracy in the county of Carlow. NOT only in Carlow, but in most of the counties of Ireland, the priests in the years 1791 and 1792 began to take an accurate account of their fectaries in every family within their refpective parishes, which was fuppofed to be done with a view of afcertaining their relative ftrength by their numbers, when compared with the members of the eftablished church. About the fame time maps, pointing out the property of the old popish poffeffors, were printed and published. The great zeal with which the priests began about that time to establish religious fraternities among the populace, of which the fcapular was the most prominent, gave an additional proof that a confpiracy was in contemplation. This inftitution introduced amongst them an extraordinary fanctity and aufterity of manners, and afforded a trial of their filence, which was fo effential to promote fuch a measure. The infolence of the lower clafs of the people was ob viously encreased about the year 1793, by the following incidents: The priests were enabled to build ftately chapels by the fubfcriptions not only of their own flock, but of proteftants; which formed a ftriking contraft to, and reflected on, the ruined edifices where proteftants, lefs enthusiastick, worshipped their God. At a time that a proteftant clergyman in that county could not obtain a fum of money to build a church for three hundred protestants, whom he had attended for twelve years in a footy cabin, the priest of Carlow built a college and chapel, which muft have coft from 3000l. to 4000l. In the beginning of the year 1797, the infolent looks and haughty demeanour of the peafants, who would not formerly approach a gentleman but with the greatest humility, challenged his attention with a broad ftare, often followed by a fardonic grin. Such |