I SHALL now endeavour to give the reader an idea of the organization of their clubs, which, to impofe on the people, were faid to be formed merely for civil purpofes; and the better to induce the populace to enter into them, it was falfely and wickedly fuggefted, that it would produce an abolition of tythes, and an equal diftribution of property. The inferior focieties at their firft inftitution confifted of thirty-fix members; they were afterwards, however, reduced to twelve. Whenever they exceeded that number, the excefs was difmiffed, with orders to make profelytes for the foundation of a new fociety. The twelve chofe a fecretary and treafurer; and the fecretaries of five focieties formed what was called a lower baronial committee, which had the immediate direction and fuperintendance of the five focieties, who thus contributed to its inftitution.

From each lower baronial committee thus conflituted, one member was delegated to an upper baronial committee, which in like manner affumed and exerciied the fuperintendance and direction of all the lower baronial committees in the feveral counties. The next fuperior committees were, in populous towns, diftinguifhed by the name of diftrict committees, and in counties by the name of county committees, and were compofed of members delegated by the upper baronials. Each upper baronial committee delegated one of its members to the diftrict, or county committee, and thefe diftrict or county committees had the fuperintendance and direction of all the upper baronials, who contributed to their inftitution.

Having thus organized the feveral counties and populous towns, a fubordinate directory was erected in each of the four provinces, compofed of two or three members, according to the extent and population of the diftricts which they reprefented, who were delegated to a provincial committee, which had the immediate direction and fuperintendance of the feveral county and diftrict committees in each of the four provinces; and a general executive directlory, compofed of five perfons, was elefted

by the provincial directories; but the election was fo managed, that none but the fecretaries of the provincial knew on whom the electlion fell. It was made by ballot, but not reported to the electors, the appointment being notified only to thofe on whom the election devolved; and the executive directory, thus compofed, affumed and exercifed the fupreme and uncontroled command of the whole body of the union.

The manner of communicating the orders iffued by the executive directory was peculiarly calculated to baffle detection. One member alone of the executive communicated with the fecretary of each provincial committee or directory; the order was tranfmitted by him to the fecretary of each county or diftrict committee in his province; the fecretaries of the county and diftrict committees communicated with the upper baronials in each county; they communicated with the fecretaries of the lower baronial committees, who gave the order to the fecretaries of each fubordinate committee, by whom it was given to the feveral inferior members of the union.

In the month of March, 1794, many perfons were convicted at Dundalk of appearing in arms in the night as defenders, and of adminiftering unlawful oaths; thirteen of them were capitally convicted.

In the month of May, 1794, the defenders were guilty of infurrections and outrages, little fhort of open rebellion in the counties of Meath and Cavan. At Kilnaleek in the latter, and in the neighbouring* country, they were three days under arms. They laid wafte a large tract of the bifhop of Meath’s eftate, having plundered and burned the houfes of many of his proteftant tenants.

The royal Dublin militia, affifted by a number of prefbyterians, purfued them to Ballynaugh, which town they took poffeffion of, and fired on the king’s troops from the windows. At laft the militia were obliged to burn the town to diflodge them.

About the fame time, at Drumfna in the county of Leitrim, nine police men fled into a houfe from a mob of infurgents, who fet fire to the houfe, and murdered all the police men as they endeavoured to efcape from the flames.

In the province of Connaught, particularly in the county of Rofcommon, the defenders were terrifick in the years 1794 and 1795. The mafs of the people were furnifhed with pikes, and the houfes of proteftants were confliantly plundered of arms. At laft, many of the nobility and

gentry affembled at Rofcommon in the month of Auguft, and refolved to lower rents, and to raife the wages of labourers, in hopes of allaying the dreadful fpirit of outrage which actuated the people.

They adjourned their meeting for a week; but they foon difcovered the folly of compromifing with a mob in a ftate of infurrection, little fhort of open rebellion.

When they were approaching the town, on the day to which they adjourned, they faw numbers of people armed with pikes in all the adjacent fields, who purfued fome of their philanthropick benefaftors fo clofely, that they narrowly efcaped into Rofcommon.

While they were fitting in the town-hall, afhamed of their folly and pufillanimity, Mr. Mills of Fairymount, about fix miles off, arrived with an account that a numerous body of pikemen had fet fire to his houfe, after having plundered it.

The reverend Mr. Carey, a magiftrate, having gone there with a party of dragoons, and found the houfe in flames, attacked a large body of the infurgents, who were armed with pikes, and killed about thirty of them.

In the year 1794, many houfes were plundered of arms in the counties of Meath and Weftmeath.

At the fpring affizes for the county of Sligo, much difturbed by the defenders, many of them were convicted of robbing houfes of arms, and adminiftering unlawful oaths.

Early in the year 1795, one Cunny, a fchoolmafter, was detected near Letterkenny, in the county of Donegal, in the act of adminiftering the defenders oath. He acknowledged his crime, and convicted fome of his accomplices. The purport of the oath was, to emancipate the Roman catholicks; to affift the French, and to extirpate the proteftants; and it inculcated fobriety, fecrefy, and obedience to their committees in all things. It contained an oath of allegiance to the king, as long as he lives. Some fuch mental refervation appeared in all oaths adminiftered by the defenders; which was conftrued thus (by Weldon, a defender, executed in the year 1796,) to fuch perfons as he fwore: “If the king’s head were olf to-morrow, there would be an end of your oath.” This mental refervation was couched in the following words in the oaths adminiftered in other places: “As long as I live fubjeft to the fame government;” which appeared in the oath found upon Sharky, at Drumbanagher,

in the county of Armagh, in the year 1789; but they meant to get rid of their oath by renouncing and overturning the government, which appeared afterwards to have been the object of all the defenders.

At the foot of the oath found upon Cunny, there was a tree of liberty, and a crofs marked thus, R.+C. meaning Roman catholick.
Defenderifm was introduced into the county of Donegal from Connaught, by Leitrim and Rofcommon; and the doftrines of the united Irifhmen from Belfaft, in the year 1796, by men who appeared in the guife of pedlars.*

In 1795 the defenders became more furious and formidable than ever, in many parts of the kingdom, which arofe from the following caufe:

Lord Fitzwilliam, appointed to fucceed lord Weftmorland in the government of Ireland, landed at Dublin on the fourth day of January.

Some time before his arrival, the leading Romanifts having received affurances that the whole of the popery laws would be repealed during his adminiftration, the fub-committee prepared a petition to parliament, praying that a law might pafs for that purpofe; and they recommended to perfons of their perfuafion, in all counties, towns and boroughs, to prepare fimilar petitions. Their orders were obeyed, and the petitions were prefented to parliament on its meeting.

It was univerfally faid and believed, that Mr. Grattan, who came to Dublin fometime before earl Fitzwilliam left London, gave undoubted affurances to the leading Romanifts there, that they were to be gratified in their wifhes in the fullest manner.

It was faid in the Northern Star, on the eighth of September, 1794, that there was good authority for faying, that lord Fitzwilliam was to be viceroy; and that the firft meafure of his adminiftration was to be the emancipation of the Roman catholicks.

On Monday the fecond of February, the petition of the town of Belfaft, (the mafs of whofe inhabitants are prefbyterians,) in favour of catholick emancipation, was prefented to the houfe of commons by the members of the county of Antrim. About

* This ftrongly marked the difcriminating features of the confpiracy. Belfaft was the centre of motion in the north, and its inhabitants, who were moftly prefbyterians, meditated the eftablifhment of a republick as their main object, and confidered affaffination merely as the means of promoting it; but the mafs of the confpirators in Munfter, Leinfter, and Connaught, being papifts, aimed at the extirpation of proteftants in the firft inftance, and as their primary object, of which the reader will be convinced in the fequel.

About the fame time, there appeared in the Northern Star fome inflammatory addreffes to the volunteers, invoking them to refume their arms and fave their country.

On the twelfth of February, 1795, Mr. Grattan moved for leave to bring in a bill for further relief of the Roman catholicks.

Lord Fitzwilliam was recalled fuddenly from the government of Ireland, and returned to England on the twenty-fifth of March.

The reafons affigned for it were, that his lordfhip exceeded the powers granted to him by the adminiftration of England, in attempting to repeal the whole of the popery laws, and to remove moft of the old officers of the crown, who had ferved his majefty the greater part of their lives with the utmoft fidelity; and this by the advice of his excellency’s cabinet minifters in Ireland, of whom Mr. Grattan was the chief.
It is not to be doubted, but that the Romanifts were buoyed up with the hope of being admitted to equal privileges with the proteftants, though the Englifh cabinet never empowered lord Fitzwilliam to make them fuch conceffions; but on the contrary, defired him to prevent the catholick claims from being difcufled. Lord Grenville and Mr. Pitt publickly defied his lordfhip to prove that he had received fuch powers.

On the fecond of March, 1795, a debate took place on the recal of lord Fitzwilliam, in the courfe of which Sir Laurence Parfons faid, that, if the Roman catholicks were difappointed in the expectations with which they had been filled, every gentleman in Ireland would be under the neceffity of keeping five or fix dragoons in his houfe for his protection; and it turned out afterwards that he fpoke prophetick truth.

It was univerfally believed, and the contrary has never been proved, that Mr. Grattan was the perfon who filled the Roman catholicks with thefe falfe hopes, with a view of acquiring popularity, or from fome other fecret motive.

It was generally thought that he reafoned thus: If the Roman catholicks of Ireland, the majority of its inhabitants, who have been ready on all occafions to join any foreign foe againft the intereft of the proteftant empire of Great Britain, fhall come forward in a body, and afk for an equal participation of civil liberty and political power with the proteftants, in a ftyle of fturdy and menacing folicitation, at a time that both Great Britain and Ireland are threatened by a barbarous enemy, the Englifh ministry

muft grant, from intimidation, what their policy and prudence might withhold.

At the fame time Mr. Grattan, and the partifans of the Romanifts, affured earl Fitzwilliam, that a feparation of Ireland from England would moft certainly take place, fhould they be disappointed in their expectations; and the very difturbed ftate of the kingdom, agitated at that time by the defenders and the united Irifhmen, gave fome credit to their afFertions.

His excellency, relying on their veracity and integrity, perfifted in promoting the wifhes of the Romanifts, I believe, from the beft motives, and was therefore recalled.

From the refpectability and amiablenefs of his character, no perfon could doubt of the reftitude of his intentions, or that he had any other object at heart than the intereft of the empire; but it is believed that his lordfhip was unacquainted with the real ftate of the kingdom.

Notwithftanding the recal of earl Fitzwilliam, Mr. Grattan prefented, on the twenty-fourth of April, a bill for further relief of the Roman catholicks, which contained a total repeal of the popery laws. It was read a fecond time, debated, and rejected the fourth of May; the numbers having been 155 to 84.

It muft be univerfally allowed, that Mr. Grattan was very imprudent in bringing this meafure forward, becaufe he could not entertain the moft diftant hope of its fuccefs; and he muft have known that the difcuflion of it would excite much difcontent among the mafs of the Romanifts, who had manifefted a ftrong fpirit of difaffection during the three preceding years.

The Roman catholicks of Dublin voted an addrefs of thanks to Mr. Grattan for his exertions in their favour; and his anfwer to them was very intemperate and inflammatory.*

The difappointment of the Romanifts was fuch, as to fill them with the moft implacable hatred againft the government and their proteftant fellow-fubjects, which manifefted itfelf in various ways, but particularly in the deftructive rage of the defenders, who defolated many parts of the kingdom; and particularly the counties of Dublin, Meath, Weftmeath,

*See Mr. Grattan’s addrefs, Appendix, No. X. X.

Kildare, King’s and Queen’s-county, Louth, Armagh, Monaghan, Cavan, Derry, Donegal, Rofcommon, Leitrim, Longford, Sligo, and part of the county of Down.

They plundered proteftant houfes of arms, often burned them, and killed fuch of their inmates as made any refiftance: They houghed their cattle, wrote threatening letters to compel perfons to comply with their unreafonable requifitions; and frequently maffacred thofe who dared to profecute them, or to affift the civil magiftrate in enforcing the execution of the laws. The loyal fubjects deferted their houfes in the difturbed countries, and fled to their refpective county towns, or to the metropolis for protection.

Lord Camden, who fucceeded lord Weftmorland as viceroy of Ireland, landed in Dublin on the fecond of April, 1795; a nobleman univerfally revered there, for his good fenfe and firmnefs, the mildnefs of his difpofition, and the amiablenefs of his manners.

The chief officers of ftate, and many of the nobility and gentry repaired to the caftle, to pay their refpects to his excellency. The lord chancellor at his return was attacked by a gang of affaffins, who, by repeated vollies of ftones, broke the pannels of his coach, gave his lordfhip a fevere contufion in the forehead, and would have murdered him, but that the fkill of his coachman, and the agility of his horfes, enabled him to efcape.

The primate was alfo attacked at his return from the caftle, but received no other injury than that his coach was in fome degree damaged.

The fame party repaired immediately to the houfe of Mr. John Claudius Beresford, nephew of the marquis of Waterford, and affaulted it with many fliowers of ftones; but one of them having been killed by a fhot from it, the remainder fled.

It was afterwards proved, that this mob was entirely conipofed of defenders, who had been felected by their leaders, to raife an infurrcction; and lord Clare and Mr. Beresford’s family were particaLirly the object of their vengeance; becaufe they had given the moft decided oppofition to Catholick emancipation, and reform of parliament^ the two engines by which the difaffected hoped to fubvert the conftitution.

The Romanifts in Dublin were fo much incenfed at lord Fitzwilliam’s recal, that a combination was formed in Francis-ftreet chapel, that no papifts fhould hold any dealings or any friendly intercourfe with proteftants; and their example was followed in all the other chapels.

There was to have been a charity fermon in James’s-ftreet chapel, but it was fuddenly put off, for the purpofe of entering into this combination; by which many of the poorer clafs of proteftants in Thomas, Francis, and James’s-ftreets, principally inhabited by papifts, were ruined.

An eminent flour factor allured me, that all the popifh bakers, who had dealt with him, fuddenly left him; and that to make up for the lofs which he fuftained by it, he was under a necellity of giving credit to perfons whofe folvency was doubtful. Papifts alfo withdrew their cuftom from proteftant bakers.

Should the proteftants purfue the fame vindictive and uncharitable fyftem, the Roman catholicks would be by far the greateft fufferers; as the former poffefs at leaft nineteen parts out of twenty of the property of the kingdom.

The mafs of the popifh rabble were univerfally infected with defenderifm in the metropolis and its environs, in which outrages were perpetrated every night, and committees were frequently detected and feized with their papers, in the act of forming treafonable plots. The police com.miffioners were in poffeffion of a mufter-roll of 4,000 perfons affociated in thefe clubs; but the popifh multitude in the metropolis were at this time enrolled in them.

The united Irifhmen and defenders were then very active, and in many inftances fuccefsful in feducing the military from their allegiance, and in attaching them to their caufe. They occafioned a mutiny in the 104th and 111th regiments quartered in Dublin, and endeavoured to procure their co-operation and affiftance in an infurrection and maffacre, which they meditated on the twenty-fourth of Auguft, 1795. Many of the foldiers deferted from their regiments to join the rebels; and on that day a mob of traitors, who met the caftle guard on Effexbridge, were fo confident of being joined by them, that one of their leaders attempted to wrench the colours from the officer who bore them, as a fignal for a general infurrection; and another of them mounted on the bridge, and began to exhort the populace to rife, in an inflammatory

harangue; but he was foon filenced by a dragoon, who drew his fword, and gave him a defperate wound.

Another dragoon, who was fent with intelligence of this event to the lord lieutenant, who refided in the park, was feized by the rebels, cruelly beaten, and narrowly efcaped affaffination.

It was very fortunate that the intemperate zeal of the rebels got the better of their prudence; for, if they had poftponed the execution of their plot till night, it is very proTaable that the city would have been in flames; but the arrival of a large body of troops from Lehaunftown camp completely put an end to the hopes of the difaffected. The joy of the ill-difpofed to government, and to the conftitution, on the arrival of the earl Fitzwilliam, could be equalled by nothing but the rage and difcontent which they difplayed at his departure; for they were led to hope, that the meafures of his adminiftration would have enabled them to fucceed in their grand object of forming a republick.

A general mourning was obferved at Belfaft the twenty-fifth of March, the day of his departure; and the congregations of two meeting houfes there refolved not to addrefs lord Camden.

Some of the diffenting congregations in Dublin, following their example, refolved, on the fixth of April, that it is the unanimous opinion of the underfigned, that this congregation fhould not, as a religious fociety, wait on any lord lieutenant, on his arrival in this kingdom, with a congratulatory addrefs.”

On the twenty-fifth of March, 1795, the following paragraph appeared in the Northern Star, printed at Belfaft: “It cannot but be matter of proud exultation to the focieties of united Irifhmen, that the whole people of Ireland, with exceptions fcarcely worth mentioning, are now of thofe very opinions which they broached three years ago, and which were then confidered by the wife, the conftitutional, the moderate and the cautious, as fymptoms not only of madnefs, but even of wickednefs in the extreme j” fo convinced were the republicans of Belfaft, that the departure of lord Fitzwilliam had poifoned the minds of the people, and had infected them with the contagious doctrines of the united Irifhmen.

The Romifh committee in Dublin, difappointed and incenfed at the lecal of lord Fitzwilliam, fent three delegates to St. James’s, John Keogh,

Edward Byrne, and Mr. Huffey, commonly called baron Huffey, with a petition, which they prefented to his Majefty at the levee, praying that his excellency might continue in the government of Ireland; but they received no other anfwer, than that the fecretary of ftate informed them, that the lord lieutenant of Ireland had received orders to communicate to them his Majefty’s wifhes on the fubjeft of their application.

On the ninth of April, a meeting of the Roman catholick gentlemen and tradefmen of Dublin was convened by publick notice at Francisftreet chapel, to receive the report of their delegates, who had prefented their petition at St. James’s.

Mr. John Keogh, ftated, “that the only anfwer they could get from, the duke of Portland was, that his Majefty had communicated his wifhes on this head to the lord Heutenant of Ireland.”

He faid “he was not forry however that the effort had been made, though defeated; for it pointed out one fact at leaft, in which the feelings of every Irifhman were interefted, and by which the Irifh legiftature would be roufed to a fenfe of its own dignity. It shewed, that the internal regulations of Ireland, to which alone an Irifh parliament was competent, were to be previoufly adjufted by a Britifh cabinet.* The prefent, he hoped, was the laft time the catholicks would affemble in a diftinct body, their caufe being no longer a diftind caufe, but adopted by their proteftant brethren.” †

He ftated, “that revolutions had taken place in America, in France, Brabant, Holland, and Poland, which arofe from the apprehenfions of the people, and which roufed them to refiftance: That in endeavouring to fubdue America, England had incurred a debt of one hundred miU lions, which she muft bear till the day of judgment, if her government lafts fo long.” In fhort, he gave a broad hint, what was to be apprehended from the difcontent of his brethren in Ireland.

In the courfe of the debate, the orators feverely denounced the meafure of an union with England, which they abufed as vicious, venal, ambitious, and bankrupt.

* This doftrine, which was univerfnlly entertained by the difaffected, led to a feparalion, and evinced the riecefiity of an union.
† This was by no means true; for the proteftants of the church of Ireland, with a very few exception were averfe to conceding their claims; and the corporation of Dublin petitioned the throne againft them.

They anxioufly endeavoured to imprefs the proteftants in the country parts of Ireland with a belief, that thofe of Dublin earneftly defired to promote the wifhes of the Romanills; which was by no means the cafe, as they frequently gave unequivocal proofs of the contrary in the years 1792 and 1795.

I fhall give the reader a concife account of the trial of James Weldon, a trooper, who was tried for high treafon in Dublin, on the twenty-fifth day of December, 1795; as it will give him a perfect idea of the malignant defigns of the mifcreants, called defenders, who were very numerous at that time in the metropolis.

Two men of the names of Kennedy and Brady having prevailed on one Lawler, a carver and gilder, to become a defender, conducted him to the lodgings of Weldon, near the barrack of Dublin, where he was quartered, and where he was fworn a member of that order.

At different meetings afterwards, it was faid, that there would be a rifing, to carry into effect the purpofes of the defenders; and at one held in Plunket-ftreet, where eighteen or nineteen perfons were affembled, a propofition was made for buying gunpowder and arms, for the purpofe of feizing. the caftle of Dublin; and it was alfo propofed to feduce the army.

They knew each other by certain figns, which Weldon communicated to Lawler, and the pafs-word was Eliphifimatis, which has been varioufly explained.

Weldon adminiftered the following oath to Lawler: “I William Lawler, of my good will and confent, do fwear to be true to his majefty king George the third.” This paragraph, which is not only unexceptionable but laudable, ferved as a lure to inveigle fuch perfons as were loyal, and to varnifh over the fubfequent part of it, which is treafonable. The next paragraph is: “I will be true while under the fame government” Obliquely importing, that they would be faithful no longer than during the exiftence of the government, which they meant to fubvert. “I fwear to be true, aiding and abetting, to every true brother;” which was a name for a defender known among themfelves. “And in every form and article, from the firft foundation in 1790, and every amendment hitherto; and I will be obedient to my committees, fuperior commanders, and officers, in all lawful proceedings.”  This meant their own

bye-laws. It then imports, “that he will not quarrel with a brother, but live friendly and lovingly with him.”

In a fubfequent converfation, Weldon obferved on the firft paragraph of the oath, “That if the king’s head were off to-morrow morning, wc fnould be no longer under his government.”*

Hart, one of the confpirators, told a young man, whom he introduced to Weldon to be fworn, that the objecl was to get arms, and to affift the French when they fhould come.

Lawler faid he paffed for a Roman catholick among the defenders, becaufe Brady defired him to do fo; and Hart declared he would not fit with Dry and Coffey, two defenders, becaufe they were proteftants.

At laft, Hart having informed Lawler, who was a proteftant, that all perfons of that religion were to be maffacred, he, on the twenty-third of Auguft, difclofed the whole of the plot to Mr. Gowen of Grafton-ftreet, who employed him.

The fubftance of what he related to Mr. Cowen, was this: That Hart informed him on Sunday the twenty-third of Auguft, that there was to have been a general infurrection, and a maffacre of all the proteftants, on Saturday the twenty-fecond; but it was pofliponed till the harveft was over, left a famine might enfue, fhould it take place before. Mr. Cowen took him to Mr. Hamilton, the lord lieutenant’s fecretary; and while they were at the caftle, the mutiny, which I already defcribed, occurred on Effex-bridge. Another meeting took place next day, when Lawler informed them, that there was to be a numerous affembly of the defenders at the Coombe, in the Liberty, on that night; that they were to furprife the Coombe guard; to take their cloaths and their arms; to repair to the caftle, where, having the guife of foldiers, they would be admitted; and then to diftribute among their friends all the arms in the arfenal. As the two regiments in garrifon at this time were difaffected, it is probable that they would not have been oppofed. Mr. Hamilton fent for alderman James, and defired him to repair to the Coombe with a body of cavalry, which he accordingly did, attended by Mr. Cowen and Lawler; and they found there a mob of three or four thoufand ruffians, who gave them

* This appeared in the oath found upon Sharky in 1789.
†Trial of Weldon, taken by counfellor Ridgeway, and publifhed by alderman Exfhaw.

three cheers on their arrival, but hiffed them at their departure. Lawler, “who mixed with his brother defenders, recommended to alderman James not to fuffer a fhot to be fired, becaufe, fhould a conflict enfue, it was to be feared that the Coombe guard would join them; however, on being threatened by alderman James to be fired on, they difperfed. Lawler fwore, on the trial of Brady, Kennedy, and Hart, that, at a meeting of the defenders held at Stoneybatter, they fpoke of attacking the chancellor in the courfe of the winter, as he returned from the houfe of lords, and of hanging him on a tree in Stephen’s-green.

Every collateral circumftance in this bufinefs corroborated the teftimony of Lawler. He fwore, that Weldon always carried the oath in his fob; and when he was arrefted it was found there. The fame thing occurred on the apprehenfion of Kennedy.

Weldon, on whom the defenders oath was found when arrefted, was convicled of high treafon, and hanged on the fecond of March, 1796. Previous to his execution, he confeffed to one of his officers, that Hanlon (a noted defender) told him, there was to be a general infurrection; that none but defenders would be fafe, and that they were all Roman catholicks.

It is very remarkable, that the defenders oath, adminiftered in the moft remote counties from the capital, was much of the fame tenor with that which Weldon exhibited to Lawler; and that it contained the condition, “as long as I live under the fame government,” or, “as long as the king lives.”

It appeared on the trials of Brady, Kennedy and Hart, for the fame crime, on the twenty-fecond of February, 1796, that one Burke, who had been expelled from the univerfity for having endeavoured to propagate treafon and atheifm among the ftudents, informed Lawler, that the plan was this: That he w as to find ten feied men, each of whom was to procure ten more; that each of them was to find five, and that they, united, would be fufficient to take the caftle.

One hundred of them were to get fcarlet uniforms, to make the people believe that the foldiers had joined them.

Lawler made up his number in a fortnight. They met in a room in High-ftreet, and were called the philanthropick fociety. Le Blanc, a

Frenchman, who fled, was a member, and was moftly either chairman, or committee-man.

I give the reader a concife account of the trial of fome affaffins, who confpired to murder one Hanlon, a gunner in the artillery, as it will unquestionably evince the fanguinary and treafonable defigns of the defenders.

Thomas Smith, a gunner in that corps, and a proteftant of the eftablifhed church, was fworn a defender in January, 1795, in the houfe of James Doyle, on George’s-quay, and in the prefence of faid Doyle and Andrew Glennan, who were commanders of the regiment of defenders to which they belonged. It was then propofed to him, to form an intimacy with Hanlon, to conduct him to Doyle’s houfe, with a promife of entertaining him there, that they might murder him, and throw his body into the river Liffey, as he was returning to his quarters at Chapelizod.Next morning Smith related the whole of what paffed at Doyle’s to Lane the ferjeant-major, and faid he would pretend to fecond their defigns.

The next meeting was at the houfe of one Carmichael, in Thomas-ftreet, on the twenty-fourth of January, 1795, when the affaffination was planned in the prefence of him, Glennan, and three men of the names of Kinfhela, Sleaven, and Shanaghan.

The reafon for wifhing to affaffinate Hanlon was, that he, on behalf of the crown, was to profecute fome defenders who were then confined in the gaol of Naas.

Smith communicated every thing that paffed to his ferjeant-major and to Hanlon, who agreed to accompany him to Carmichael’s houfe, on being affured that fome magiftrates and conflables would be ready near at hand, and would arreft the affaffins; and accordingly aldermen Alexander and Tweedy, and fome peace-officers did attend, and arretted the affaffins, in number thirteen, who were afterwards convicted and punifhed.

In the courfe of the trial it appeared, that Smith, foon after he became a defender, difcovered, that all the order of defenders had the moft inveterate hatred and fanguinary defigns againft proteftants of every defcription; in confequence of which he, from motives of felf-prefervation, concealed his bible and prayer-book, and denied that he was of that religion; and at laft, he and his wife agreed that he had better go into the artillery, for the fake of protection, and that he might have an opportunity

of exercifing his devotion. He therefore enlifted in that corps on the fifteenth of April, 1795.

In a converfation with a body of defenders, at the houfe of one Connor in Dublin, they faid, “That they daily expected a rebellion, and a maffacre; that no proteftant was to be left alive; that the oath was to ferve France and Ireland, and under James Cole, Sir Edward Bellew, Napper Tandy, and Hamilton Rowan; that they were to have no king; to recover their eftates; fweep clean the proteftants; to leave none alive; and to kill the lord lieutenant.”

In the month of April, 1795, they entered into a refolution to fhoot the lord lieutenant as he paffed through the park; to feize the magazine there; and to kill all the nobility in Dublin.*

I give the reader in Appendix, No. IX. a lift of fome of the outrages committed in the year 1795.

In confequence of the dreadful outrages committed by the defenders in fome northern counties, which I have already defcribed, the earl of Carhampton, by order of government, vifited thofe of Weftmeath, Leitrim, Longford, Rofcommon, Mayo and Sligo, in order to reftore focial order in them; as thofe mifcreants had completely impeded the execution of the laws, by a fyftem of terror, and had exercifed defpotick fway in them.

In moft places his lordfhip found that a leader of banditti, under the feigned name of captain Stout, had intimidated the people of the neighbourhood fo much, that fuch perfons as had fuftained any injury were afraid to profecute, and the magiftrates were deterred from enforcing juftice.*

Some informers had been murdered, and others, fearing the fame fate, forfeited their recognifances fooner than give evidence againft them. One faid, that Larry, a farmer in his neighbourhood, another, that Thady would have his houfe burned, and himfelf murdered; for they had the hardened audacity to avow themfelves in fome places, where they had completely filenced the voice of juftice.

A party of this banditti, in the county of Rofcommon, after having plundered the houfe of a widow of various articles, and of her rent,

* Trial reported by counfellor Ridgeway in 1796.

which fhe had ready to pay her landlord, fet fire to it, and threw her into the flames; in which fhe would have perifhed, but that her fon, touched by filial piety, refcued her, and fought for her life at the rifque of his own.

They were prevailed on to profecute; but at the affizes they were fo infulted and threatened, that, from motives of fear, they prevaricated in their evidence, and pretended not to know the prifoners, though they were their neighbours.

They were therefore indidted for perjury, and caft for tranfportation but in confideration of the age and infirmity of the woman, her fentence was mitigated at the inftance of lord Carhampton.

A farmer near Caftlereagh, in the county of Rofcommon, being alarmed at a report which prevailed, that he entertained hoftile defigns againft captain Stout, and had fpoken difrefpectfully of him, repaired to a magiftrate, fwore an affidavit that he never had, and never would, malign, injure, or profecute captain Stout; and pofted it up in the moft publick part of the town; and he alfo afked pardon of captain Stout, if he had ever uttered any expreffions tending to difparage him. Lord Carhampton found this affidavit pofted up in the town of Caftlereagh.

A refpectable proteftant clergyman of the county of Rofcommon informed me, that a body of pikemen rufhed into his houfe in the night, and offisred to fwear him to be loyal; and on affiiring them that he would be loyal to the king, they afked him. What king? and on his faying king George, they cried out, No, no, a Roman king, meaning a popifh fovereign; and they added, that they muft have a king of their own.

An active and intelligent magiftrate in the county of Sligo, who had the courage to do his duty in defiance of the menaces of thefe mifcreants,. informed me, that the prieft of his parifh advifed him not to perfevere in his exertions, but to remain a paffive fpedlator of thefe outrages, for that otherwife he would be murdered. He alfo difcovered, that the priefts, at their refpective chapels, collected money on Sundays and holidays, for the purpofe, as they faid, of defraying the expence of obtaining a right to fit in parliament for perfons of their order; but he afterwards difcovered that it was to purchafe arms and ammunition.

A gentleman in the county of Rofcommon informed me, that the defenders ufed frequently to fend anonymous letters to perfons, threatening

them with deftruction, unlefs they permitted them to cut trees and poles in their plantations, for the purpole of making pikes.
In the year 1795, fo many proteftant families fled to the town of Rofcommon for protection, that they could fcarce get accommodation there.

This year, the fum applied for to the grand jury by different perfons who fuffered in the county of Meath, from the enormities committed by the defenders, fuch as houghing cattle, and plundering and burning of houfes, amounted to £1,700.

Lord Carhampton, finding that the laws were filent and inoperative in the counties which he vifited, and that they did not afford protedlion to the loyal and peaceable subjectls, who in moft places were obliged to fly from their habitations, refolved to reftore them to their ufual energy, by the following falutary fyftem of feverity;

In each county he affembled the moft refpectable gentlemen and landholders in it, and having, in concert with them, examined the charges againft the leaders of this banditti, who were in prifon, but defied juftice, he, with the concurrence of thefe gentlemen, fent the moft nefarious of them on board a tender, ftationed at Sligo, to ferve in his majefty’s navy.

By this bold meafure, founded in obvious principles of political neceffity, he completely reftored peace in the difturbed counties.

The loyal inhabitants, and the grand juries in them, thanked lord Carhampton for his wife and falutary exertions; but the difaffected in every part of the kingdom, exafperated that he had checked the progrefs of their revolutionary fchemes, raifed a great clamour in confequence of it; and as they meditated many profecutions and civil actions againft him, a law was paffed in the month of February, 1796, to indemnify fuch perfons as had exceeded the limits of the law in reftoring peace and good order; which, as a matter of courfe, was violently oppofed by the minority in the houfe of commons.

On the twenty-fifth of June, 1795, the reverend Mr. Birch, a prefbyterian minifter, preached a fermon to a numerous body of diffenters at Saintfield, in which he recommended the uniting perfons of every religious perfuafion in one family, or brotherhood, in the bonds of philanthropy. He denominated kings butchers and fcourges of the human race, who revel on the fpoils of thoufands, whom they have made fatherless,

widows, and orphans, until the judgment of the Almighty fhall come down on thofe minifters, and caufe them who ufe the fword to perifh by the fword.

In the month of January, 1795, fome foldiers of the Wexford regiment were poifoned at Cavan, while on guard at the gaol.

The defenders became fo furious in the metropolis, and its environs, in the fpring and fummer of 1795, committing robbery and affaffination, that the inhabitants of Charlemont-ftreet, Charlemont-place and Charlemont-row, Cullen’swood and Cullen’s-wood avenue, Mount-pleafant, Ranelagh, and Dunnville, combined for their mutual defence. The inhabitants of Baldoyle, and the adjacent country, followed their example.

A numerous affociation was alfo entered into in the difstrict of the metropolis, on the eighth of October, for mutual defence, and the fuppreffion and punifhment of thofe mifcreants; and it was figned by the lord mayor, many of the nobility and gentry, and a great number of refspectable citizens.

As the earl of Carhampton was ever diftinguifhed for his zeal and fpirit in enforcing the execution of the laws, about three hundred loyal fubjects, many of them gentlemen of landed property, affembled at his feat at Luttrel’s-town, entered into refolutions, and fubfcribed a fum of money for the purpofe of defending the lives and properties of all loyal fubjects againft thefe defperate bands of ruffians. After repeated meetings their numbers encreafed very much. They declared their wishes that perfons of every religious perfuafion fhould enrol themfelves in the fociety; but no Roman catholick but one ever offered himfelf a candidate; and though he was ftrongly fufpected of difaffection, they admitted him by ballot. This man was afterwards known to be very much difaffected, and it was believed that he joined the affociation for finifter purpofes.

As a college was erefted at Maynooth, In the county of Kildare, for the education of Romifh priefts in the year 1795, and, as it was amply endowed by government, I fhall make a few obfervations on it. In the year 1794, and in the adminiftration of lord Weftmorland, doctor Troy made a reprefentation to government, that, in confequence of the difturbances in France, four hundred Irifh ftudents, who were candidates for the priefthood, had been deprived of the means of education; and that there

would be a difficulty of obtaining priefts to perform the neceffary duties of religion, without the eftablifhment of a feminary.

Mr. Burke, whofe intemperate zeal for the advancement of popery I before mentioned, ufed his utmoft exertions for the accomplifhment of that object, and when lord Fitzwilliam was coming to Ireland, he recommended to his lordfhip the reverend doctor Huffey, an Irifh prieft, who had been bred at Seville in Spain, as a perfon well qualified to fuperintend that inftitution.

After the departure of earl Fitzwilliam, and during the adminiftration of lord Camden in the year 1795* this inftitution was eftablifhed by an act of parliament, by which certain truftees were empowered to receive donations for eftablifhing and endowing an academy for the education of perfons profeffing the Roman catholick religion, and to acquire lands free from forfeiture by mortmain. Little fhort of £40,000 was granted for its eftablifhment at firft and in every fubfequent feffion, a regular charge of £8,000 has been made to parliament for its annual fupport; but it is worthy of obfervation, that no donation has been made to it by the Roman catholick body, or by any individual of that order, except by lord Dunboyne, who died in the year 1800, and left an eftate of £1,000 a year toward the endowment of that college; and yet the Roman catholicks raifed immenfe fums of money in the years 1794 and 1795, for purpofes not the moft friendly to that proteftant ftate, which laid the foundation of, and richly endowed their femJnary.

Lord Dunboyne had been popifh bifhop of Cork, and on getting the title and an eftate, he became a convert to the eftablifhed church; and with fingular diilimulation he gave the ftrongeft indications of sincere converfion for fome years; but in his laft moments he relapfed into popery; and, in confideration of having obtained abfolution for the great crime of being a heretick, he left an eftate worth £1,000 or £1,200 a year, to promote the inftitution before mentioned. A ftriking proof of the ftrong and indelible impreffion which the popifh fuperftition makes on the human mind, where it has been early imbued with it!

Two hundred ftudents were to be maintained and educated in this college. Sixteen or feventeen were expelled on account of being concerned in the rebellion: Some of them were flain in fighting againft the king’s irooips, and others fled to efcape the punifhment which their guilt merited.

I have been affured that between thirty and forty of them fought againft the king’s army.

It was obfervable that father Huffey frequently attended the camp at Lehaunftown, in the fummer of 1795, faying mafs and preaching to the foldiers; though there were many popifh priefts in its vicinity, who ufed to officiate to them. This bufy interference of father Huffey among the foldiers, and fome artful conduct which he difplayed there, gave a very ferious alarm to fome of the Irifh nobility and gentry who commanded regiments, or were field officers there.

Though a confpiracy for fubverting the conftitution had exifted fo early as the year 1792, the oppofition in parliament, and all the difaffected perfons in the kingdom, raifed a great outcry againft lord Camden, by falfely afferting, that the outrages and infurrections, fo difgraceful to the kingdom, were occafioned by the rigorous and fevere meafures adopted by his excellency; yet every wife and good man condemned him for not having acted with more vigour and energy; but from the benevolence of his heart, and the mildnefs of his difpofition, he was averfe to feverity, and hoped to gain the affections of the people by conciliation.*

The attorney general introduced a bill into the houfe of commons in January, 1796, which paffed into a law in March following; to its falutary coercion, we may juftly impute the falvation of the kingdom.

It enacts, that the information of any profecutors on behalf of the crown who may be affaffinated, fhall be admitted as evidence againft delinquents; any perfon having arms is required by it to regifter them, his name, and place of abode.

A magiftrate may fearch for arms the houfe of any perfon who fhall not do fo.

If a magiftrate, or peace officer, be murdered while on duty, or in confequence of his exertions to ferve the publick, the grand jury may levy a fum of money on the county for his reprefentative.

If any county, or any part thereof, be difturbed, the magiftrates may notify it to the privy council, who are thereupon required to proclaim the difturbed part On which the magiftrates are required to hold petty

* Robbery and affaffination became fo frequent and univerfal from the year 1795 to the explofion of the rebellion, that it would exceed the compafs of my defign to enumerate the many inftances of them which occurred.

feffions as often as neceffary, but never at a longer interval than fourteen days; and to punifh offenders in a fummary way.

All perfons are required to keep within their houfes between fun-fet and fun-rife; and are liable to be tranfported if found out of their houfes in the night.

In fuch parts of Ireland, as this falutary law was enforced, it completely put an end to the nocturnal ravages of the united traitors.

Every perfon, acquainted with the ferocious and fanguinary difpofition of the lower clafs of people in Ireland, will agree with me, that this wife law fhould never be repealed. It is inoperative, and cannot be enforced, till the emergency of the times calls for it; and of this the magiftrates of the county, and the privy council, are proper judges.

The removal of the Irifh parliament to England, in confequence of the union, makes it peculiarly neceffary, that this law fhould remain unrepealed; for, from the fpirit of infurgency and rapacity of the common people in Ireland, an entire province may be defolated, before proper laws could be enacted in the imperial parliament to check it.

The events which occurred in the late rebellion, demonftrate the truth of what I affert; for though martial law was proclaimed, and there was an army of one hundred thoufand men, including the yeomanry, in the kingdom, the principal part of the province of Leinfter was defolated by the deftructive fpirit of fanaticifm in the fpace of a week; and the county of Wexford continued in the poffeffion of the popifh multitude, headed by their lay and facerdotal leaders, for the fpace of three weeks; in which they deftroyed almoft every monument of human art and induftry, and maffacred fuch of its loyal and moft ufeful inhabitants as could not make their efcape. Thofe abftract principles of criminal law which have been laid down and generally affented to by the ableft writers upon this subject, are by no means applicable to Ireland.

The feverity of the penal code fhould depend on the compound ratio of the facility with which the laws may be infringed, the temptation to violate them, the degree of moral reftraint impofed by religion on the paffions of the multitude, and the poffibility of eluding the execution of the laws.

The common Irifh are doftrinally taught that they are bound by their religion to refift the laws and ordinances of a proteftant ftate;

and that an oath of allegiance is null and void; for which reafon they uniformly oppofe the adminiftration of juftice. A monfter, ftained with the blood of his father, muft be led to the gallows by a military guard; but in England, the mafs of the people unite in enforcing the execution of the laws, becaufe they know that the prefervation of their lives and property depend on it.

The late rebellion, as well as all the former ones evince, that the lower clafs of the Irifh do not confider it a crime to injure the perfon or property of a proteftant fellow fubject.

The judicious and humane marquis of Beccaria, in his ingenious effay on crimes and punifhments, obferves, “that the eloquence of the paffions is greatly affifted by the ignorance and uncertainty of punifhments.” This obfervation applies ftrongly to Ireland, where the feeble and imperfect execution of the laws, arifing from the following caufes, never fails to infpire the multitude with the hopes of impunity: The miftaken lenity of government,* often occafioned by the indecent and improper interference of individuals in favour of delinquents; the difregard of the common people to oaths;† and the certainty of enjoying eternal happinefs hereafter, through the intervention of their priefts. The following circumftances which have often occurred in the province of Munfter, will convince the reader of the truth of what I affert upon this fubject

A few days before the affizes, a profecutor for murder or robbery has faid to a magiftrate, “Sir, I am unable to defray the expence of my journey to the affizes town, and of remaining there till I am difcharged; and in going thither I am afraid of being murdered by the relations of the delinquent.” But fuppofe thefe difficulties furmounted: he is infulted and threatened with certain death at the affizes, if he profecutes; and, as the laft refource, they contrive to inveigle him into a dram fhop, and intoxicate him. To my certain knowledge, burglars and felons have been frequently acquitted in confequence of the ebriety of a witnefs. In moft cafes the culprit has an attorney, and a bar of lawyers employed for him; but there is no fund appropriated, and no perfon to appear, fcr the profecution. The

* This remark cannot allude to any period fince the breaking out of the rebellions; becaufe extermination muft have taken place, if lenity had not been very generally extended.
† In all the combinations of the white boys, right boys, and defenders, they have fpurned at an oath of allegiance; but confidered their oath of confederacy as binding.

The marquis of Beccaria ends his book thus: “I conclude with this reflection, that the feverity of punifhments ought to be in proportion to the ftate of the nation. Among a people hardly yet emerged from barbarity, they fhould be more fevere, as ftrong impreffions are required.” However, the certain and prompt operation of mild laws will anfwer better to preferve focial order, than the feeble and uncertain execution of fevere ones.

The following rule of preventive juftice, formerly prefcribed by our ftatute law, was founded in great wifdom: That if the property of a proteftant be injured in the night, the amount of the damage which he fuftained fhould be levied on the popifh inhabitants of the parifh, the barony, or the county.

I am convinced that the reader, on taking a retrofpect of the former rebellions in Ireland, and after perufing thefe pages, will agree with me, that the revival of this law is abfolutely neceffary to maintain the proteftant religion and eftablifhment in it; and unlefs they are encouraged and preferved better than they have been for fome years paft, fhe muft in procefs of time be feparated from England. I am warranted in this affertion by the opinion of fome of the wifeft men in Ireland.

Nothing can more ftrongly prove the barbarous ftate of the Irifh, than that forcible entry and detainer of lands and houfes have been conftantly practifed in Ireland, contrary to the folemn adjudication of the law, pronounced by the fuperior courts, and directed to the fheriff, who has been frequently oppofed and repulfed.

Leaders of banditti, refembling the condottieri in Italy, in the middle ages, and noted for their prowefs in refifting the laws of the land, were frequently kept in pay by perfons who wifhed to do fo.

The earl of Clare ftruck at the root of this mifchief, by a very wife law,* paffed in the year 1787; and yet it has been frequently practifed since that period.

* Mentioned in page 45.

Constant communication with the American ftates, whofe fyftem of civil polity they very much admired, and the fuccefs of the firft Dungannon meeting in the year 1782, taught the prefbyterians of the North, already difpofed to republicanifm, that an affembly of delegates from the volunteers, an armed body who overawed the exifting government, might at any time dictate to parliament; and this infpired them with an extraordinary degree of boldnefs, which produced the celebration of the anniverfary of the French revolution, the retreat of the duke of Brunfwick, and the fecond meeting at Dungannon in the year 1792.

Some loyal and moderate men, having feen many inflances of large bodies of men, felf-affociated for political purpofes, meet, debate, and difband, without any bad confequence, were induced to approve and join with them; and afterwards they were lukewarm in oppofing them, even when they were rather turbulent and alarming.

The jealoufy of the linen drapers, who made immenfe fortunes, towards the nobility and gentry, feifed of old hereditary eftates, on account of their fuperior weight and refpectability: The fmall divifion of farms in the North, where the bufinefs of farmer and manufacturer being united, makes the collection of tithes more vexatious and grievous than in the South, where they are diftind, and the farms are extenfive:

The virulence of oppofition, in vilifying and degrading adminiftration, and in afferting that the legiftative power was more corrupt than the executive, made the people believe, that a reform of parliament was neceffary, and gave the republicans a fpecious pretext for adopting it, as an engine to overturn the conftitution; and the filly timidity of the members of adminiftration, in complimenting their accufers, gave an incredible

weight to their affertions in the publick mind.* Religious prejudices were afleep in the North, except in the county of Armagh; and the fpark of fanaticifm which exifted there was foon blown into a flame by the Catholick committee, that intriguing body, which fat long brooding in grim repofe, and unnoticed in Dublin; but came forward when the French revolution took place, and endeavoured to avail itfelf of the fhock and fermentation of opinion, which, that event produced, to advance the intereft of its own order.

Some linen-drapers, from motives of envy which I have already ftated, encouraged their workmen in imbibing the new revolutionary doctrines; ftill others, though loyal, were obliged, from the nature of their bufinefs, through motives of fear, to take the united oath; becaufe their rebellious bleachers might eafily, andfecretly, have ruined them.

As the fuccefs of the great linen merchants in fome meafure depended on the fkill of their bleachers, they were often obliged to conform to their wifhes and prejudices; to retain them in their fervice; and there was fuch an emulation between them, that they often ufed finifter artifices to decoy each others workmen, which rendered the mafters fubfervient to them.

Many gentlemen of large property in the North, who courted the popular intereft, were, by electioneering prejudices, and the fervile obeifance which they paid to the people, prevented from trying to check the growth of treafon and fedition.

This was very confpicuous in the electlon for the county of Antrim in the year 1792, when the fuccefsful efforts of the people, affembled in almoft every parifh, in dilating to the candidates, and their fubferviency and willingnefs to take tefts, infpired the populace with a pastion for political power.

The workmen in fome bleaching-greens joined in fubfcribing for the Northern Star; in others, their mafters, who were difloyal, treated them with it; and in fome inftances, the employers, though well affected, were impelled by fear to give it to them gratis.

* In this I muft except lord Caftlereagh, whofe bold and manly eloquence, tempered with urbanity and good breeding, never failed to overturn the arguments of his adverfaries, and to stake their fcurrilous and envenomed attacks-recoil on themfelves.

The propagandifts of the revolutionary doctrines in the North often began by corrupting the loweft fervants, both male and female; and, creeping up through all the gradations of a family, the mafter found himfelf fuddenly infulated, and was obliged, through terror, to fraternize, and take the united Irifhman’s oath.

The difaffected were fo much enraged at earl Fitzwilliam’s removal, that war and force were decided on: Songs, and various pubHcations of an inflammatory tendency, were circulated: In fome inftances, jurors and witneffes were bribed, in others intimidated, from doing their duty: Committees of affaffination were formed:* Civil magiftrates, conftables, and others were intimidated from executing the law, and in fhort, no perfon was permitted to remain neuter.

In the years 1794 and 1795, immenfe fums of money were levied on the Roman catholicks in every part of the kingdom.

The conductors in Dublin and Belfaft endeavoured to infufe into the people an opinion, that the revolution would be incomplete, and would be fucceeded by ruinous contefts and ftruggles, unlefs all the loyalifts were extirpated; and that they could expect certain and perpetuated tranquillity from nothing but a general maffacre of them, and a confifcation of their property.

It appears by the report of the fecret committee of the houfe of lords in 1797, that it was decided by the confpirators, “That all perfons who, from their principles or fituation, may be deemed inimical to the confpiracy, fhould be maffacred; and the firft profcribed lift “was calculated by one of their leaders at thirty thoufand perfons.”

Some leading members of the union, both in the North and the South, have affured me, that nothing tended fo much to gain credit for their caufe, and to promote the rapid diffemination of their doctrines, as the following paragraph in Mr. Erfkine’s plaufibkj but delufive pamphlet, which they procured to be printed and circulated univerfally: “That the fpirit of reform is at prefent high in Ireland. The recent zeal of that brave and virtuous people has completely detected the falfe and pernicious calumnies

* In a county committee at Belfaft, it is laid down, “that if there is any united Irifhmen on the jury that will convict any of the prifoners that are confined for being united Irifhmen, they ought to lofe their exiftence.” Report of the fecret committee, Appendix, No. II. p.17.
† See Appendix, No. III. p.49.

on both countries. It has demonftrated, that a defire to reform abufes in government, is not at all connected with difloyalty to its eftablifhment; and that the reftoration of a free conftitution, by the wifdom and fpirit of a nation, has no alliance with, but on the contrary is abhorrent to, a fubmilfion to foreign force.” This’ extravagant encomium on the rebels, by varnifhing over the enormity of their crimes, and by giving a colour of moral and political reftitude to their caufe, encreafed the number of their fectaries in a very extraordinary degree.

That very wife law, the convention bill, having prevented the clubs from afiembling publickly, the leaders of the. confpiracy had recourfe ta another, and fall as effectual, a mode of diffeminating their doctrines of liberty and equality, by inftituting reading focieties, which the lower claffes of the people attended after the labour of their daily occupations was over. This inftitution was almoft exclufively confined ta the counties of Down and Antrim, where the mafs of the people are prefbyterians, can read and write, and are fond of fpeculating on religion and politicks.

Thefe meetings, formed after the model of the jacobin clubs in France, were ufually held in barns and fchoolhoufes, and were liberally furnifhed, with inflammatory publications, compofed by the literati of the united Irifhmen, or extraded from larger treatifes of a fimilar tendency in both kingdoms, and publifhed in the form of pamphlets for more general circulation.

The pretext of reading for mutual information and improvement was confidered as a plaufible motive for the lower clafs of people to affemble. Subjects of a delicate nature and dangerous tendency were frequently difcuffed in them, fuch as, “Under what circumftances are the people juftifiable in refifting and uniting againft the exifting government? From what fource is all juft government derived, and what is its proper object? Is the majefty of the king, or the people, moft to be refpected?” On thefe, and fimilar topicks, the ruftick orators declaimed, with much vociferation and zeal, to the great edification of admiring audiences. The moft fluent fpeakers went ufually from one fociety to another, to difplay their talents, and make profelytes to the new philofophy. Every opportunity was embraced to reprefent the chriftian religion as a fyftem of fuperftition, calculated to enflave mankind, and obstruct the progrefs and improvement of reafon. The doctrines of a future ftate, of rewards and punifhments,

were openly ridiculed and difcredited; and publick worfhip defpifed and difcouraged, which materially promoted the defigns of the confpirators, by extinguifhing all moral principle.

Labourers, tradefmen, and even ragged apprentice boys, enlightened by attending the reading focieties, were taught to decide dogmatically, concerning the fundamental principles of government and religion; to deteft the fuppofed corruptions of the one, and the prieftcraft of the other; to think themfelves amply qualified to dethrone kings, and regulate ftates and empires.

Belfaft was the centre of motion to the whole Northern union; Dublin to the middle and Southern; orders, directions and publications iffued from the former with great regularity; and returns were made, at ftated periods, to proper perfons appointed there to receive them, of the ftate, progrefs, and difpofitions of the feveral fubordinate focieties throughout the country.

A large impreffion of Paine’s age of reafon was ftruck off in Belfaft, and diftributed gratis among the united focieties. Bundles of them were thrown into meetinghoufe yards on Sundays, before the congregations affembled; and fmall parcels were left on the fides of publick roads, to contaminate the minds of thofe who found them.

The leaders of the union at Belfaft fucceeded fo well in removing the obftacles which religion and confcience prefented to their defigns, that many affaffinations were committed in that town, and its vicinity, in the year 1796, which eftablifhed fuch a complete fyftem of terror, that jurors were afraid to convid delinquents, though their guilt was fubftantiated by the moft unequivocal evidence.

A friar, of the name of Philips, went from Dublin to Belfaft, and was introduced to the difaffected focieties there. Soon after, having fallen under a fufpicion of being an informer, he was configned to the committee of aftaffination, who drowned him near the paper-mill; and to give a colour of fuicide to that atrocious deed, they put a clock weight in his pocket.

It is worthy of notice, that one of the committee, concerned in the murder, was impanelled on the inqueft jury which fat on the body when

* The popifh priefts carefully guarded their flocks from the contagion of them, for reafons which I have given in page 107.

difcovered, and the verdict was, of courfe, fuicide. A foldier from Blaris camp was likewife drowned in a river near Holywood, by the fame committee; and a man was fhot in Peter’s-hill, Belfaft, at the early hour of feven o’clock in the evening. Many other perfons were murdered in the fame manner, on a bare fufpicion of being informers.

It feems to have been a maxim with the united confpirators of Down and Antrim, adopted from the illuminati of Germany, and the philofophifts of France, that the end juftified the means; and that no motives, human or divine, fhould check them in the accomplifhment of their main defign. Hence the moft unblufhing calumnies were propagated againft thofe who oppofed them; and committees of affaffination were conftantly fitting to condemn fuch perfons as were fufpected of doing fo, or of giving information againft them.

Nothing forwarded the progrefs of the union fo much as that vehicle of fedition, immorality and irreligion, the Northern Star, eftablifhed by Robert Simms, the fecretary of the firft fociety of united Irifhmen, which fat at Belfaft in 1791. He was a wealthy merchant of that town, and has been tranfported to Fort George in Scotland, with a number of his confederates.

The conductors of that infamous print, which goaded the people to madnefs, had the flagitioufnefs and audacity to recommend in it, in the year 1794, the perufal of Paine’s age of reafon.

It is worthy of obfervation, that Simms, in the name of his fociety, wrote letters in the years 1792 and 1793, to fome of the moft confiderable members of the Roman catholick committee and Roman catholick fociety in Dublin, inviting them to be enrolled in his corps; and they, proud of the honour, embraced it with alacrity; and fome of them publifhed the letters of invitation, and their anfwers.

Some of the infidel leaders of the North were fo fuccefsful in roufing the people to a ftate of frenzy, by copious infufions of their intoxicating doctrines, that partial infurrections, earlier than they wifhed or expected, were on the point of baffling their defigns, and involving them in ruin; like a chymift, whofe experiment is defeated, and whofe perfon runs a rifk of being injured by a premature and unexpected explofion of his retort, in confequence of having furcharged it with gas. On fome occafions,

the conductors were under a neceffity of endeavouring to check the intemperate ardour of their adherents.

An attempt was made near Rathfriland in September, 1796, to begin hoftilities, but it was overruled. About a thoufand united Irifhmen affembled in that retired and mountainous part of the county of Down, to difcufs the expediency of a general rifing; and the question was agitated a confiderable time. At length it was propofed to decide it by votes, and a divifion took place, when upwards of three hundred declared themfelves averfe to open hoftility at that time. Though the majority were for it, the fchifm was fo confiderable, that it was thought prudent to poftpone it to a more favourable opportunity.

A Mr. John Magennis, who had married a fifter of the famous Bartholomew Teeling, took the principal lead in urging an immediate refiftance. The decifion of that important question was haftened by an account, that a party of the antient Britons were approaching to difperfe the affembly; and they actually purfued Magennis ten miles, but were not fortunate enough to apprehend him.

It may be proper to obferve, that the majority, on that occafion, confifted chiefly of Roman catholicks; and the minority of prefbyterians, and a few proteftants of the eftablifhed church, who were not then fufficiently enlightened to countenance a general maffacre.

I think it right to obferve, that the exertions of the united Irifhmen, and Catholick committee of Dublin, to encourage union and fraternity among the prefbyterians and papifts of the North, were confined to thofe parts of Down and Antrim, where the former shewed a decided hoftility againft the defenders, which was done merely to lull them into a ftate of indolent and fatal fecurity; as they knew that their fpirit, their knowledge of the ufe of arms, and their antipathy to the papifts, would form a material obftacle to the progrefs of the union; but the determination which the Roman catholicks shewed, on the explofion of the rebellion, to extirpate proteftants of every denomination, proved that they were not sincere in their invitations to the prefbyterians to fraternize with them.

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In the autumn of the year 1796, government having propofed to all loyal fubjects to embody themfelves as yeomen corps, fimilar to thofe in England, and subject to the control of government, the propofal was embraced with alacrity in many parts of the kingdom.

On the feventh of October, the lord mayor, the fheriffs, and the churchwardens of the different parifhes in Dublin, affembled at the manfion houfe, and refolved that a regiment of infantry, and a troop of horfe, fhould be raifed in each of the four wards of the city.

This wife and falutary meafure, which proved the falvation of the kingdom, was oppofed by all the leading Romanifts of Dublin, and by all the active members of the Catholick committee; for when the churchwardens and magiftrates attended at the different veftry rooms, for the purpofe of carrying this excellent fyftem into execution, one or other of thefe leaders, attended by a mob of the popifh rabble, attempted to overpower them by vociferation and numbers.

When their malignant efforts to prevent this falutary inftitution failed, they waited on Mr, Pelham, the lord lieutenant’s fecretary, and afked leave to raife a corps of their own fect exclufively; but received for anfwer, that they might join their proteftant fellow fubjects, if they wifhed to ferve their king and country.

They then entered into refolutions againft it, and publifhed them in the jacobin prints, which teemed with inveftives againft government for having inftituted it.*

On the fourteenth of October, the corporation of Dublin, duly affembled, entered into ftrong refolutions, and expreffed their abhorrence of the vile calumnies, and refolutions, publifhed by certain pretended parifh meetings againft the yeomen corps, and againft government, and the feditious means ufed to prevent the loyal fubjects from forming themfelves into fuch.

* For the fame reafon the orange, clubs were maligned and calumniated.

Notwithftanding the decided oppofition which the Romanifts gave to this very excellent inftitution, which faved the kingdom from impending deftruction, the firft eftimate laid before parliament for twenty thoufand men was filled up immediately. In the courfe of fix months it rofe to thirty-feven thoufand; and, during the rebellion, the yeomanry force exceeded fifty thoufand, and they were all to be depended on;* for as very great difaffection appeared among the popifh yeomen, the different corps were quickly purged of fuch of them as were known to be difloyal.

In order to encourage the difaffected to perfift in their treafonable practices, it was boafted at this time, in the Northern Star, that the populace, in and about Belfaft, had faved the harveft of all fuch perfons as had been committed to the gaols of Dublin or Carrickfergus, on charges of high treafon; and that feven thoufand perfons often affembled for that purpofe.

In the month of October, the reverend Philip Johnfon was fired at and wounded, in the night, at Lifburn.

November the firft, a party of traitors broke open the king’s ftores at Belfaft, and ftole thereout a large quantity of gunpowder.

The rebellious inhabitants of Belfaft, who were prefbyterians, oppofed the eftablifhment of the yeomanry, with as much vehemence as the Romanifts in Dublin, and a few gentlemen in that town, who had courage to enter into it, were reviled and hiffed, as they paffed through the ftreets.

On the twenty-ninth of October, a ruffian fired a piftol in the town of Newtownards at the reverend Mr. Cleland.

About this time, the Hazard floop of war took, and fearched, a veffel off the harbour of Belfaft, and. found in her a large quantity of arms and ammunition.

On the fixth of November a proclamation iffued, ftating, that, on the firft, a number of armed men tumultuoufly entered Stewartftown, in the county of Tyrone, and cut and maimed feveral perfons who had refufed to join in their treafonable affociations, and had enrolled themfelves in the yeomanry. The fyftem of terror became fo great, and fo general at this time, in the North; that numbers of loyal perfons fulbmitted to be fworn, and affumed at leaft the femblance of being fincerely attached to the

* Report of the fecret committee of 1798, page 5.

the union, to fave their lives and properties from the vengeance of the rebels; and outrages became fo frequent in the county of Down, that fome diftricts in it were proclaimed on the fourteenth of November, 1796, the firft time that the infurrection law was put in execution.

The leaders of the confpiracy, having completed their revolutionary fyftem in the province of Ulfter fo early as the tenth of May, 1795, and having made a confiderable progrefs in introducing it into the province of Leinfter in the autumn and winter of 1796, proceeded at that period to convert it into a military fhape and form, for the undifguifed project of rebellion, which was diftinctly and unequivocally acknowledged by Arthur O’Connor, William James McNevin, Thomas Addis Emmett, and Oliver Bond, leading and active members of the confpiracy, in their evidence upon oath before the fecret committee of the houfe of lords in the year 1798.