of obtaining moderate reform were at an end; and that confequently, the guilt of all which had enfued, belonged wholly to those who by obftinately rejecting their reasonable demands, had driven them to defpair-" It was" fays Mr. T. A. Emmet, "after they had despaired of obtaining a Reform in Parliament by peace"able means, that they fought to ef"fect a revolution by fubverting the mo

66

narchy, feparating this country from "Great Britain, and erecting fuch a Go"vernment as might be chosen by the People."

It

To evince the utter. unfoundedness of this and every fimilar affertion, is one chief object of the prefent republication. contains a series of observations on the spirit and temper of the United Irishmen in their earliest period, written by a country gentleman, who drew his conclufions from no other fource than their own avowed de

clarations, and who took up

his pen folely in

obedience

obedience to the dictates of his reafon and diftant period,

his confcience. At no very

he had himself been a fincere and zealous advocate for a limited Parliamentary reform; but having always had a just abhorrence of the principles and views of the United Irishmen, and being foon convinced of what one of their own oracles afterward acknowledged, that any degree of popular reform, would infallibly lead to every other degree of reform; i. e. to complete democracy, he felt it his duty to abandon a purfuit which appeared to him as dangerous as it was vifionary, and to become to the utmost of his power an unqualified fupporter of the existing constitution,

Under this impreffion he naturally wished to be the inftrument of producing in others the fame conviction of the mischievous defigns of the United Irishmen which he had himself always felt, but now more strongly than ever. They had already diffeminated through the country fucceffive manifeftoes,

which

which he conceived, it was only neceffary to confider with attention, in order to collect from them the most decifive proofs of the boldest revolutionary purpofes. A temporary intercourfe with the Convention-politicians of 1792 and 1793 perhaps gave him fome advantage in understanding the vocabulary of Irish Jacobinism, and enabled him more readily to trace a fyftematic connexion between thofe feemingly detached bursts of treason with which the writings of the United Irishmen abounded, but which, from being generally mingled with a mass of loose declamatory matter, might frequently efcape the observation of a common reader. To bring those early symptoms of a treafonable defign into the full light of day, was accordingly his object in most of the following Effays,

It will be observed from the dates of thefe publications, that the far greater part of them appeared before the actual treason of

the

the United Irishmen had been substantiated by the Reports of the Secret Committees in Spring 1797, and of course while no proof of their real defigns could be adduced except what might be derived from their own avowed declarations. The reader will, notwithstanding, judge whether there is not in fome of the following pages a tolerably juft developement of the treafonable principles which were afterwards brought to light; and in fome degree, an anticipation of those revolutionary expedients which have fince been carried into practice. But the Author is far from laying claim, on this account, to any uncommon forefight or any extraordinary fagacity. He faw no more than what any intelligent perfon was competent to have seen, had he given the fame attention to the subject, and indeed no more than what numberlefs perfons did actually fee, though they did not all, like him, communicate their obfervations to the public.

The

The Author therefore ventures to hope that fuch a republication will not be entirely fruitless. If any well difpofed perfon can ftill entertain a doubt with respect to the original principles of the United Irishmen, he will here find not only the conclufions formed by an unprejudiced observer respecting that affociation, in its earliest stages, but also the reasonings which led to thofe conclufions, and the grounds on which they rested. And the Author trufts, it will be feen, that the inferences were not rafh, that the reafonings were not fophiftical, and that the warmth which fometimes fhews itself, and which increased as the fubject became more practical, was not the rancour of party fpirit, but the zeal of well-founded reprobation, of anxious indignant humanity.

While those who have but lately opened their eyes to the real views of those execrable difturbers of the community,

may