This is a matter which should be maturely confidered by the Imperial cabinet. The Irish foldiers, out of Ireland, and removed from the influence of their priests, make the beft foldiers in the univerfe. Such of the popish militia as were of four or five years ftanding, by conftantly moving from one place to another, forgot the impreffions made on them by their refpective parish priests, and became loyal; but the yeomen, who were stationary, betrayed fhocking inftances of perfidy. Every person who reflects that the British constitution, as it now ftands, emanated from and is founded in the eftablished religion, must be seriously alarmed at the fupine neglect of government for its advancement, particularly in Ireland, the growth of infidelity amongst its members occafoned by the want of proper attention to their early education, the great encouragement given to popery, and the monstrous encrease of fectarism in every part of the empire. Three proteftant churches in the city of Dublin have been in such a ruinous condition for fome years past, that divine fervice has not been celebrated in them; in confequence of which, it is faid, that many of the lower clafs of proteftants refident in the parishes belonging to them have gone to mafs. The parish church of St. Nicholas without has been in ruins above twenty years, St. Michael's nineteen, and that of St. Andrew's, which was the chapel of the Loufe of commons, and is in one of the most populous parifhes in Dublin, has not had divine fervice in it these eight years. The proteftant minifters would have ftarved in the years 1797, 1798, and 1799, from the fubtraction of their dues, partly by ruffian force, and partly by fraud and the arts of chicanery, but that doctor Duigenan brought in a bill to enable them to recover them in a fummary manner. Thinly fcattered over the country, they have to combat the fanaticifm of numerous hofts of papifts, the oppofition of fectarists; and at the fame time they have to deplore the lukewarmness and alienation of their own flock, and particularly the nobility and gentry, who frequently con nive The good fenfe and the fpirited conduct of this gentleman, on all occa fions, in defending the conftitution in church and fate, deserve the warmek gratitude of every loyal fubject. nive at, or fecretly encourage the farmers and peasants to plunder them, till their turbulence and difregard of all legal restraint, alarms them for the fafety of their perfons and property; which to my certain knowledge has often occurred in different parts of Ireland. Their zealous endeavours to maintain and fupport the eftablished government in all emergencies have been very confpicuous; and particularly during the late disastrous feafon of infurrection and rebellion; yet how very badly they have been requited will appear in the acts and votes of the Irish parliament from the year 1735 to 1800, refpecting the tithe of agiftment. Through the defalcation of the dues of the parochia! elergy of Ireland, by a gradual and fyftematick courfe of encroachment, on the part of the laity, from the time of the Reformation, until the present day, 2436 parishes, formerly with cure of fouls, employing about 3000 clergy, are now dwindled to 1120 benefices, and 1001 churches; employing about 1300 clergy of all defcriptions, rectors, vicars, and curates. How enviably different is the state of the church of England! There, within the fame period, the number of parishes has rifen from 3,181 to 10,567; containing at prefer 11,755 churches, employing about 18,000 clergy of all defcriptions. Thus have the clergy of Ireland been reduced confiderably more than one-half, from the inadequacy of their provifion, which at the prefent day is estimated at not more than 195,000l. a year, or less than a twenty-fifth part of the computed rental of Ireland, five millions fterling per annum; whereas in England, the officiating clergy have been augmented nearly four-fold, and the revenues of the church, according to the most accurate cftimates, encreafed from 43,5371. to 1,313,000l. affording a taxable income of 1,125,oool. or about a fixteenth part of the computed rental of England, twenty millions per an num. The whole provision for the minifters of the kirk of Scotland, in the year 1755, was about 68,cool. per annum, which being divided between 944 minifters, afforded to each on an average 721. per annum, a pittance too small to uphold the refpectability of the Scottish church. In England the average income of parish priefts is about 1411. each per annum; in Ireland the average is about 150l. per annum but to make Ireland a proteftant country, the number number of her established clergy ought to be trebled; an event not to be looked for in the prefent age, and under the late interdict. The provifion of the Scottish clergy is fo fmall, that the perfons who, for their rank in life, their learning, and their probity, fhould fill the priestly office, are now betaking themselves to fecular and more lucrative employments; and it is to be feared, that their places will be fupplied by an inferior clafs of perfons, who are unworthy of the paftoral charge. This would be very much to be lamented, as in no country in Europe the beneficient effects of religion are fo frongly experienced as in Scotland, in producing a purity of morals among the mafs of the people, which is to be imputed to the piety of the clergy, and their unremitted attention to their flocks. No. XXIV. A juftification of having published this work, so soon after the late rebellion. AS the Jacobins of England and Ireland have cenfured the Author of this Work, for having publifhed it fo foon after the late rebellion, under a pretence that it would revive thofe feuds and animofities from which it originated, I have written the following defence of myfelf for having done fo. That venerable biographer Plutarch, in his life of Pericles obferves, "That it is difficult to attain truth in history, fince, if the writers live any length of time after the events which they relate, they can be but imperfectly informed of them, and if they defcribe the perfons and tranfactions of their own times, they are tempted by envy and hatred, or intereft and friendship, to disguise or pervert the truth." Confcious that I have not been biaffed by any fuch finifter motives, and defirous of establishing the authenticity of the occurrences which I have related, I refolved to publifh a narration of them, while the eye-witneffes of them were till living. Hiftory, which is a mirror of past times, is the best guide to the ftatefman; and Livy, in his preface tells us, that he wrote his, that the republick might learn leffons of wifdom and prudence from it, by avoiding fuch measures as had proved fatal, and by embracing fuch as had been found falary for its intereft. It is much to be lamented that Ireland has been difgraced, and that her improvement in morals and induftry has been retarded, for near three centuries, by civil diffenfions; and as they have arifen from the fame caufe, and have been uniformly directed to one end, a feparation from England, we may fairly conclude, that the predifpofing causes to them must be inveterate, and that the feeds of combustion must be deeply and extenfively laid. As Ireland is completely annexed to the empire by the union, it is to be hoped that the Imperial government will apply more effectual remedies than have been hitherto adopted, to remove the causes of her rebellions, her crimes and difgraces; but it would be as imprudent to undertake that tafk, without having a perfect knowledge of them, as for a phyfician to adminifter medicine to a patient, without having inveftigated the fymptoms and diagnofticks of his difeafe. It is a pofitive fact, that the mass of the people of Eng-.. land are as ignorant of the real ftate of Ireland, and of the caufes of her difturbances and infurrections, as they are of the most remote regions in the torrid and frigid. zones; and it is no lefs Engular than true, that many of the English nobility and gentry, in their fpeeches on the union, which have been publifhed, difplayed a radical ignorance of it. As it was to be fuppofed that the Imperial parliament would pafs fome new laws, and that government would adopt fome new measures for the internal regulation of Ireland, I confidered it as an important, nay as a facred duty, to lay before them the real state of Ireland, in a hiftorical deduction of the most important tranfactions which have occurred in it for fome years, paft, with fome preliminary obfervations on the ftate of it, from the arrival of the English till the breaking-out of the rebellion in 1798. I fhall now endeavour to point out the principal caufes of the ignorance and mifconception of the people of England of the true and actual state of Ireland. An angry oppofition in the parliaments of both kingdoms. has conftantly imputed the disturbances to a wrong fource, falfely afcribing them to the tyranny and cruelty of government, and not to the rebellious machinations and feditious conduct of traitors; and afferting, that if conciliation, inftead of coercion and punishment, had been adopted towards the latter, it would have produced loyalty in them, and restored tranquillity in the kingdom.. To To fuch conduct, by inciting the difaffected to violate the law, by attempting to varnish over their crimes, and by calumniating and disparaging the executive government, the late rebellion is to be in fome measure imputed.. Members of the Irish parliament have made a constant practice of giving a gross misrepresentation of the towns or counties which they represented to the viceroys of Ireland, for the purpose of pleafing and flattering them; but principally for electioneering purpofes, as it tended to ingratiate them with their conftituents, by concealing their traitorous machinations; and from the fpeeches recently made by fome Irish members in the Imperial parliament, I have not a doubt but that the fame infidious and adulatory conduct will be pursued. In confequence of this, fome of the viceroys of Ireland, by lending too ready an ear to artful and defigning men, and by being deaf to the affertions of men dignified by wisdom and virtue, have unfortunately continued in a ftate of ignorance as to its real and actual state, and have misrepresented it in England. Why the viceroys have been too credulous to fuch men is eafily accounted for: They confider that the fuppofed profperity and peacefulness of Ireland, fo fubject to be convulfed by treafon and fedition, will be imputed to their wisdom and good fense; and that it will ingratiate them with their fovereign, and exalt them in the eyes of the people of England. This practice took place fo much in the 16th and 17th centuries, that the ableft writers of thofe periods have complained, that the viceroys materially retarded the improvement of Ireland, by mifreprefenting its real state, and by adopting paltry and temporary expedients, infead of radical and efficient remedies, to eradicate the barbarifm, and the inveterate proneness of her inhabitants to treafon and infurrection; and by this they have concealed with afhes the embers of rebellion, which have been conftantly liable to be blown into a blaze by the breath of accident: V. Et incedis per ignes The conduct of the English cabinet towards Ireland, for fome years paft, evinces, in fome degree, what I have advan ced |