murderers in the country. To all others the argument was inapplicable; but with these it was infallible. Circulated as it was through every haunt of vice, the ruffian, of whatever defcription, would, at once, on the reading or the hearing of it, ftart up a politician. The midnight vagabonds who had affociated to pursue some contraband traffic, or perpetrate fome private revenge, would inftantly fee their horizon enlarged, be attracted by a new object, and begin to glow with enthusiastic ardour to demolish the Conftitution. Here villains, of every defcription, from the callous highwayman to the trembling pickpocket, would find a combining principle, a common rallying point; and would feel as forcibly as any of their brethren, whether in Belfast or Dublin, that "with a Parliament thus reform"ed, EVERY THING WOULD BE EASY, without it "NOTHING COULD BE DONE." Thus enlightened, they would naturally look up to their friends and patrons who had fo kindly fympathized with their grievances, and were ready to lead them on to liberty and happiness; and, in thus looking, they would find every principle they had learned illuftrated by example. Those who were already in combination would fee a body like themselves, bound together by an ambiguous oath, and shrouded in a veil of darkness, through which none but approved and attefted brethren were permitted

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permitted to penetrate. And those who had not yet affociated could hardly fail to comply with the earnest exhortation already fent abroad by the parent Society, entreating their countrymen to follow their example, and form fimilar Sociciéties in every quarter of the kingdom."

I now call upon every man of common sense and common humanity to declare whether an addrefs of this kind, fo directly applied to the worft paffions of the worst men, was not, in every point of view, as cruel, as villainous, as infernal a contrivance, as ever was suggested by political depravity; whether this, alone, does not exhibit the true and real fource of that fpirit of difaffection and confpiracy by which the country has been convulfed ;-and whether on the whole, it is not felf-evident that the Society of United Irishmen has been the parent tree of Sedition and Treason, and that all the various combinations which have fhewn themselves in different parts of the community are but mere fuckers from its roots.

ESSAY

ESSAY XI.

July 12, 1796.

My readers may perhaps be surprized at my

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ftating fo many particulars about a Society which no longer appears amongst us. It is true, that Society is to appearance diffolved; and they who compofed it no longer dare to fend forth their manifeftoes openly and avowedly through the country. But it may juftly be feared that the difpofition and views of individuals continue the very fame as before, that the venom inftilled into the popular mind still operates, and that, of course, there is as great ne ceffity for providing antidotes against this lurking poifon at this day, as there was while the Society was in acknowledged existence.

It is for this reafon that I proceed to confider more particularly a part of their conduct which I conceive to be even more villainous than the attempts to feduce the foldiery, or to attach the ruffians of the community to their intereft. I mean their endeavours to perfuade all the diftreffed poor throughout the kingdom that their poverty and wretchedness have arifen folely from the prefent Government and Conftitution, and

that by overthrowing these they would obtain infallible relief from all their grievances at once,

"Do you," fay they to the lower claffes, "find yourselves funk in poverty and wretchedness? Are you overloaded with burdens which 66 you find yourselves little able to bear? Do you feel many grievances which it would be ❝ tedious, and, perhaps, unfafe to mention? Be

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liève us THEY CAN ALL BE REDRESSED by "fuch a Reform as will give you your just proportion of influence in the Legislature, and B "SUCH A MEASURE ONLY."

I have already had occafion to dwell fo much upon the obvious views of these men, that I am abfolutely fick of the fubject. I fhall, therefore, leave the reader to form his own conclufions, from the ftyle and manner of this addrefs refpecting the motives of thofe from whom it proceeded, and shall confine myself to the following plain queftion. Is there any truth in the affertion that the poverty and wretchedness which are to be found in this country arise from the faults of the present Conftitution; or might it be expected that if thefe gentlemen had gained their point, they would have been able to make good their engagements?

I have already obferved, that when it was peculiarly incumbent on them to be explicit with refpect to grievances, they mentioned nothing more than the Game Laws, the Stamp Act, and the Criminal Code. When they named thefe only, was it for the reason given above, because "it "would have been tedious and perhaps unsafe to "be more particular?" The tediousness might have been avoided by mentioning only those that were moft intolerable. And, as to danger, it is inconceivable that they should deem it hazardous to ftate particular grievances, when, at the fame moment, they were urging the overthrow of the whole Conftitution. The only danger they could apprehend was that of attempting to adduce what could not be fubftantiated. in fact, what law could they poffibly have brought forward, the repeal of which would enable the cottager, at a twelvemonth's end, to purchase a new coat, or an additional blanket for his bed?

And,

If the prefent Conftitution were the cause of national unhappiness, that unhappiness would neceffarily extend, more or lefs, over the whole kingdom; because the whole nation being fubject to the influence of the Conftitution, the effects arifing from that influence must be as extenfive as the caufe. But will even the effrontery of faction affert, that mifery appears gene

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