really and in truth change my conviction on the subjectý :endeavor, as much as lies in my ability, to forward progressive

ly, a brotherhood of affection, an identity of interest, a communion of rights, and a joint exertion among Irishmen of all religious persuasions; without which, any reform in parlia ment must be partial; and nothing herein contained being to the contrary, I pledge myself in the same presence, that it is my opinion, that no partial reform can be national, but must be inadequate to the wants, delusive to the wishes, and insufficient for the freedom and happiness of this country." The term immediate' is plainly applied to that necessity which is certainly absolute and urgent, though the brotherhood of affection can not be immediately accomplished, but only progressively forwarded.

This continuation seems written to pay a compliment, and to fix an imputation, "Commendatio ex injuria." To that imputation of inconsistency, it seems only necessary to reply--

1. The circumstances of the times, as well as persons, have changed, in the very manner wished for, and the mind must change along with them. To commercial interest, a middle and mediating rank has rapidly grown up in the Catholic community, and produced that enlargement of mind, that energy of character, and that self-dependence which men acquire whose interests do not hang at the mercy of this or that individual, but on general consumption. Will any person assert that such men are not as well qualified to exercise civil franchise as the most of our 40s. Protestant freeholders, whose corruption is in reality occasioned by the unjust partition of political power, and who are tempted to convert their monopoly into money, because its partial distribution has given it an artificial value much beyond what nature and reason allow it. The unjust detention of liberty from others, operates as a curse and a blast upon those who have hoarded the common good. It rots in their possession. It corrupts when not par

taken; and he who has more than his exact share of freedom," becomes in one situation of life a tyrant, and in another, degenerates and putrifies into a slave. It is the judgment of Gǝd on all nations and all men who presume to appropriate his gifts, and to make of right a privilege or a prerogative. The Catholic mind has cast off its feudality, and that person would in truth be inconsistent who kept prejudice as it were at nurse, when by nearer approach and closer acquaintance, he finds in that body a-nationality of sentiment, and a fidelity in engagement, demanding respect and admiration; while he knows it to be his general duty as it is his dear delight, to foster the spirit of freedom wherever it may be found, especially in the breasts of his countrymen.

2. It is in reality the civil incapacity which has made and must continue the moral incapacity. It is the will to be free, which makes the capability; and the first sigh that the heart sends forth for liberty is a sufficient indication of potency to enjoy it. To affect a wish for their ability to possess freedom, while you continue the penal code which makes them incapa ble, is cruel mockery. A capacity for freedom is as natural to man as a capacity to eat or to drink; it is an instinct of nature, not a consequence of education. Man is often indeed the creature of habit, and he may learn to be a slave, as he may learn to drink alcohol, and to eat asa-foetida, but you will never break him of these bad customs by degrees; it is only by giving a complete wrench of the mind to an opposite direction. The doctrine of natural rights is plain, simple, commonsensical; and the practical enjoyment of them requires no tuition, nor any course of adoption. Rights most unjustly have been converted into favors derived from the gratuitous lenity of government, and are now to be purchased as a licence; when it was solely for their plenary enjoyment that men entered into civil society.--Magna Charta need not be taught like the. principia of Newton, and the rights of personal security,

**

pro

personal freedom, private property, the right of defend-
ing, them, and of electing a trustee to watch over and
tect them from undefined privilege or unlimited prerogative,
require neither literature to feel their value, nor any reach of
mind to exercise them with judgment and prudence. In
a state of nature we should know them well, and Government
has too often been only a means and an art to render and
keep us ignorant of fundamental rights and of our primary
duties.

What has Isadas done? He has confounded the test with the institution. He has damped as far as in him lay, the first happy effort to make an union of heads and hearts in this distracted country. He has held out the town of Belfast as a spot of schism and discord!, when in reality, there is an evident correspondence of opinion, and he has conclu led with an empty wish and an helpless exclamation.

J

Is Belfast in a state of civil discord? Does every man earry a torch and a mask? Or is it only such papers as these which kindle disunion, and have created that division which they did not find? Does neighbour visit neighbour as usual, or do they toss about at random injurious epithets; and has the union of parties in every other place been, there, converted into a brand of contention? I feel for the honor of a town which always steps forward from the ranks of their countrymen, in the ardor of a good cause and in the courageous spirit of freedom.*... I feel for the social character of a place which

If the people of Belfast are to be denominated Boeotians, I should resemble them to the sacred battalion of that people, which al ways led the way in the battles of Greece, a band of friends insepa rably united, and pledged to each other.-Philip destroyed this cohort; and seeing them stretched on the field of battle, covered with homorable wounds, and lying side by side on the ground where they kad been stationed, he wept, and the tears of the tyrant bore a testi. mory to their virtue and their valer.

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102

has hitherto been like a large family, never known to let rea
-ong bus VO
ligious or political differences excise personal pique or private
animosity. I vindicate its unanimity on the Catholic ques
tion; and I maintain, that had not the town gone as far as it
did, there would not have been merely comparative difference,
but positive disunion; not the difference between thus far and
still farther; but the opposition between advancing et alf, and
standing still. There are now but shades of distinction, and
all hasten to the same goal with different degrees of celerity;
but there might have been a division of the town into three

.

not two nominal parties, and one of these parties actively inimical to the very cause which is now made a common one : Belfast is therefore as united as ever, and were any ingenious gentleman to say the contrary, and to add, that it is losing its importance in the province by asserting the cause of the nation, or that its care for the happiness of Ireland will hazard its influence at a county election, no inhabitant of Belfast should on this account lose his temper, but should only bow, and say, Sir, you are a stranger.

2

The United Societies are a discovery in national policy, most auspicious to radical reform, and the horror with which administration views them, is the best proof of their value to Ireland. What the Catholics have obtained from the English Minister, has, I assert, been owing to their formation; and what the Catholics have to obtain, will be accelerated by their continuance. To reject and condemn the whole on account of the restrictions which some of them have adopted, is to reason illogically; and to throw cold water upon this pure and patriotic flame, will only serve, I trust, to make it burn more strongly and mare clearly. Men will not hang loosely on society, but unite together; and what is now merely a num ber, will become a nation.

2

I have done with this altercation. Plus animi est inferenti *3* periculum quam propulsanti. I shall only repeat, that accord

ing to the doctrine of Isadas, none could take a test, none could make an oath, but that being who swears by himself and whose counsel is immutable. With respect to inconsistency in the pamphleteer of 1784, the irregularity of motion is apparent, rather than real. It is not in the body moved, but in the eye that perceives it. To a person placed in the frigid and unsocial Saturn, the planets appear now stationary, now progressive, and now retrograde. Yet the motion of the most insignificant among them is simple, regular, uniform, progressive. He sails calm and serene through the pacific ocean of ether, and keeps close to the sun of truth, from which he derives his light and which guides his rotation.

A BEOTIAN.

March 20, 1792.

NO. III.

CONCLUSION OF THE

STRICTURES ON THE TEST OF THE UNITED IRISHMEN.

THE original meaning of the test has been abandoned; and its new sense is not worth an attack or a defence. In the course of repeated distillations its spirit has evaporated. It was at first poisonous-tis now vapid. This portentous meteor has proved to be nothing more than a Will-with-a-wisp, an innocent display of electrical light; following and alarmning those who fly; shrinking from him that would grasp it; and answering no other purpose than to lead men into the mire. The test, then, I leave to its fate; and let the Irish Bards,. on their expected meeting at Belfast, sing its requiem,

Sic o sic positum

et magna supremum voce ciere,

æterna pace quiescat.

With regard to the concluding paragraphs of the paper signed a Boeotian, let two or three observations suffice,

Previous to 1778, some progress had been made in reliey