ESSAY XVIII.

THE SAME SUBJECT CONCLUDED.

«Towards the preservation of your Government it is requifite not only that you fteadily discountenance irregular oppofitions to its acknowledged authority, but also that you refift, with care, the spirit of innovation upon its principles, however fpecious the pretext: One method of affault may be, to effect in the form of the conftitution alterations which will impair the energy of the system, and thus to undermine what cannot be directly overthrown. In all the changes to which you are invited, remember that facility in changes, upon the credit of mere hypothefis and opinion, exposes to perpetual change, from the endless variety of hypothesis and opinion; and remember, efpecially, that, for the efficient management of your common interefts, a Government of as much vigour as is confiftent with the perfect fecurity of liberty is indifpenfible.",

WASHINGTON's Farewell Addrefs.

JUNE 6, 1797.

IN the two laft papers I have laid before my

readers the statement given by the founders of the Society of United Irishmen of their intentions and views; it only remains to fhew that, when their Society was actually formed, no variation took place in their principles, nor any abatement in the violence of their purpose.

It is eafy to prove this by the fame inconteftible evidence of their own declarations.

One

of

of their earliest publi cations, after they had announced themselves as the Society of United Irifhmen, was a Circular Letter addreffed to two fimilar Societies in the town of Belfaft, and figned by the well-known Tandy as their Secretary. In this (wherein it is impoffible not to perceive the most striking marks of that fame pen which has already been alluded to) the whole spirit of their firft Addrefs is condensed into two or three emphatic fentences: "The "object of this inftitution," say they, "is to "make a UNITED SOCIETY of the IRISH NAંદ્ર "TION to make ALL Irishmen Citizens-ALL "Citizens Irifbmen. It becomes neceffary, by a "union of minds and a knowledge of each other, "to wILL and ACT as a Nation. To know "each other is to know ourselves, the weakness of

one, the ftrength of MANY. Union, therefore, "is POWER, it is wisdom, it must be liberty. "Our defign, therefore, in forming this Society, "is to give an example which, when well followed, muft cOLLECT the PUBLIC WILL and

CONCENTRATE the PUBLIC FORCE—the ef"fect of which must be RAPID, MOMENTOUS " and CONSEQUENTIAL."

Can any thing under Heaven be more aftonihing than that, after thefe expreffions being

in circulation from the month of January, 1792, there fhould at this day be any neceffity for ufing arguments to prove the original Treafon of the United Irishmen? There is not an idea here, nor a fingle word, which is not pregnant with revolutionary horrors. What is that UNION of minds, that knowledge of each other, in order to WILLING and ACTING as a Nation? Can they mean any thing but DARK CONSPIRACY, fo extended through the populace; fo fecretly, and yet fo powerfully, linked and jointed, as that, at length, the whole mass of the lower classes may be both ready and ABLE to rife as ONE MAN? Is not this the literal purport of that example which they defign to give?. "When well followed," they tell us," it will collect the PUBLIC WILL, "and concentrate the PUBLIC FORCE." That is, it will infpire the ignorant, inflammable multitude with fuch a frantic rage for Democracy, that they will be ready to perpetrate whatever shall be propofed to them, and, by that means, fecure to their Leaders a fort of ro

LITICAL OMNIPOTENCE.

They add that the effect of this must be RAPID, MOMENTOUS, and CONSEQUENTIAL; evidently implying, that if it were to be otherwife it would not answer their purpose. Might they not just as well have faid, that it would be fan

guinary, remorfelefs, and incalculably deftruc tive? Did they not know that in fuch a cafe the latter epithets would be ftrictly explanatory of the former, and that when once their plan fhould commence there would be no fecurity against any mifery which cruelty could inflict, or weakness fuffer? Yes, they knew it well, as well from the dictates of common fenfe as from the experience of every age and nation. And yet, with all this in their view, with havock, affaffination, maffacre, every horror at which nature fhudders, every demon which hell fends forth to defolate life and harrow up the foul, ftanding right before them in their path, only waiting the moment of "manifeftation," to rufh upon their deftined prey, thefe men went on deliberately with their defign, have purfued it without remiffion for nearly fix years, and are at this day more defperately bent upon it than ever, though France itself, after the fulleft trial of its effects, has already, folemnly and in the hearing of all Europe, renounced it, as the deadliest curfe that could befal a country.

And yet thefe are the men who have been cheared and toafted by the Whig Club in England, and pitied and patronized by the Whig Club in Ireland! These are they who have been reprefented by the great Oppofition Orator in

the

the British Parliament as looking for nothing but the full enjoyment of the British Conftitution, and as ready to return to tranquillity, if this reafonable boon were but granted; and thefe are they for whom the Paragon of Irish eloquence has offered up his fervent prayers to Heaven, that the fame Providence which conducted another perfecuted tribe through the wilderness may lead these victims of oppreffion also through the horrors with which they are furrounded!

3

Are we to fuppofe that these good-natured politicians were caught, in the fimplicity of their hearts, by that verbal bait of Reform with which the United Irifhmen have covered their barbed hook of revolutionary Democracy? Did they really not know that their Reform was itfelf but Democracy under another name? That its effential features were univerfal Suffrage, annual Elections, and every Man to be capable of being elected? And were they not well aware that fuch a mob-elected and mob-dependent House of Commons, as this plan would create, would itfelf be the moft infallible engine that wicked policy could devife, for beating down the two other branches of the legiflature? Were they ignorant of these felf-evident facts, or did they wilfully facrifice both their confcience and the