ESSAYS ON THE 3 POLITICAL CIRCUMSTANCES OF IRELAN D, WRITTEN DURING THE ADMINISTRATION OF EARL CAMDEN; WITH AN APPENDIX, CONTAINING THOUGHTS ON THE WILL OF THE PEOPLE. AND A POSTSCRIPT, NOW FIRST PUBLISHED. BY A GENTLEMAN OF THE NORTH OF IRELAND. Dublin: PRINTED BY GRAISBERRY & CAMPBELL, BACK-LANE, AND 1799. 1 PREFACE. THE following Effays are republished, because they relate to fubjects, on which it is of importance to throw every poffible degree of light, both in order to the present restoration of tranquillity, and for the purpose of future information and inftruction. Had the commotions in this country been merely of a local nature, it might appear impertinent to call the attention even of the other parts of the British Empire to a republication of tracts, whofe object was, almost wholly, to trace thofe commotions to their fource. But when the plots and confpiracies by which Ireland has been af flicted are so evidently the result of a kind of epidemic Mania, when the fame pestilential principle has operated, and still more or less continues to operate in every quarter of Europe and North America, and when Great Britain herself, the happiest of Nations, is not exempt from the contagion, then circumstances in themselves local, may become of infinite confequence, both as ferving to illuftrate the nature of the difcafe, and as pointing to the most effectual methods of counteraction and cure. Perhaps fuch a Republication as the prefent, may appear fuperfluous after fo full a developement of the principles and tendencies of the IRISH UNION, as has been given in the late Reports of the Secret Committees. But it is to be obferved that the direct proofs of a treasonable purpose adduced in those important and interesting collections, fcarcely go farther back than the year 1795, although the Society of |