more; not fo much with a view to strengthen the evidence of a Revolutionary purpose, for that I take to be impoffible, as to give an additional inftance of the deep infidiousness, with which those men provided for the diffemination of their principles amongst the unthinking multitude. "The first bufinefs of the Brotherhood" fay they "will be, to form a tranfcript or digeft of "the doctrine which they mean to fubfcribe, to uphold, to propagate, and reduce to practice. "It is time for Ireland to look her fortune in the face; not with turbulent oftentation, but with fixed refolution to live and die Freemen. Let "then those questions be agitated (and answered fully and fairly) which have been wilfully con"cealed from us by interested perfons and par"ties, and which appear terrible, only by being kept in the dark. "What are the means of procuring fuch a Re"form in the Conftitution as may secure to the people their rights most effectually and most Speedily? "What is the plan of reform most suited to "this country? "Can the renovation in the Conftitution, "which we all deem neceffary, be accomplished " by the ways of the Conftitution? The evil, fays Junius, lies too deep to be cured by any « remedy X 2 " remedy lefs than fome great convulfion, which "may bring back the Conftitution to its original principles, or utterly deftroy it. Is this opi"nion ftill truer with refpect to this country ? " or is it falfe? "Who are the People? "Can the right of CHANGING the CONSTI<c TUTION reft any where but in the original conftitutive power, the PEOPLE. " Can the WILL of the PEOPLE be known, but "by full and fair convention, to be constituted on the plan which shall come recommended on "the most POPULAR AUTHORITY? "Is there any middle ftate between the ex"tremes of Union with Britain and TOTAL SE"PARATION, in which the Rights of the People "can be fully established and reft in fecurity? "What is the form of Government that will "fecure to us our rights with the least expence "and the greatest benefit?" By the BROTHERHOOD, are these questions "and fuch as thefe to be determined; on this de"termination are they to form the chart of their "conftitution, which with honour and good faith "they they are to fubfcribe, and which is to regulate "their course." It will be feen at once that almost every one of these pretended queries is fo put, as to instruct the political catechumen in the anfwer he is to return; that each fubfequent question proceeds upon the supposition that the foregoing one has been answered agreeably to the wish of the propofer; and that of course, though questions in appearance, they are in reality Propofitions, only couched in a more infinuating form. In the first two questions the word Reform is introduced; in the next it is Renovation, CONVULSION, DESTRUCTION. Then comes the right of the multitude to change the Conftitution by means of a Convention formed on the basis of mere population. Next follows Separation from Great Britain as effential to the full establishment of the National Rights; and laft of all, the formation of fuch a Government as these fecret, felf-elected Representatives of the People shall be pleased to appoint. For let it be observed that after having afferted that the Will of the People can only be known by full and fair Convention, they tell us plainly, (as they had in effect told us before,) that they mean to take the leading functions of Legislation in the first inftance upon themselves; that it is by them all the great questions are to be decided; and that confequently even a Con vention vention is to be nothing but an apparatus for giving a popular colouring to their defpotic determinations. The reader is now in poffeffion of what may be fairly confidered as the United Irishmen's own development of their original defign. And let it be observed, that it is a development made, not in the ferment of irritated zeal, but at the moment when it might be supposed their paffions would be calmeft and their reason least mifled. Other fimilar designs have at first been but rudely conceived, and have owed their after-maturity to experience, and not feldom to accident; but this Minerva of the United Irishmen seems to have come forth at once from the head that gendered it, complete in every limb and lineament. The melancholy events which have taken place of late, imply no advance in the Theory; they are no more than that theory reduced in a very trifling degree to practice. By comparing both, every man may judge for himfelf whether all the enormities which we lament, and all that we can dread, were not as much contained in the first idea of this affociation, as a brood of living vipers, that now hiss and fting, were once contained in the bowels of the reptile which produced them. ESSAY ESSAY XVIII. THE SAME SUBJECT CONCLUDED. "Towards the preservation of your Government, it is requifite not only that you steadily discountenance irregular oppositions to its acknowledged authority, but also that you resist with care the fpirit of innovation upon its principles, however specious the pretexts: One method of affault may be, to effect in the form of the constitution 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 hypothesis 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 interests, a Government of as much vigour as is consistent with the perfect security of liberty, is indispensable.” 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 easy to prove this by the fame incontestable evidence of their own declarations. One of their |