on what may be going on in parliament. In receiving good offices from all, distinguish between sound Hibernicism and that windy patriotism, which is now puffing and blowing in the race of popularity. Trust as little to your friends as te your enemies in a matter where you can act only by yourselves. The will of the nation must be declared before any reform ought to take place.

It is not therefore any class however numerous, any society however respectable, any subaltern assembly that have either right or competency to express that authoritative will. Nothing less than the people can speak for the people. This competeney resides not in a few freeholders shivering in the corner of a County hall, but only in the whole community represented in each county, (as at present in Antrim,) by parochial delegation, and then from each county by baronial delegation, to provincial conventions, the union of which must form the awful will of the people of Ireland. Let us therefore conclude, by conjuring the county meetings now assembling to follow the example of Ulster, and by appointing delegates to a convention of their respective provinces, to unite their scattered and insulated wills into one momentous mass, which may have authority sufficient to make a declaration of rights in behalf of the nation. Then will the Sovereign graciously interpose on the petition of all the people; the reality as well as form of good Government will be established; the justice of the constitution vindicated; and when all this complicated system of national servitude and personal oppression, of perverted principle, and base practice, shall be done away, men shall exceedingly wonder how a nation that boasted of a free constitution, and the benignity of its laws, could have suffered itself to be" loaded so long with a burthen so grievous and insupportable.

T

We have often addressed you in your cause; suffer us for 151 once to address you in our own. Two of the officers of out to Society have been thrown into a common prison, for the dis rula charge of their duty :-a procedure so extraordinary, demands that we should lay before you the whole of that conductees which has brought upon the Society so strong an exertion of power.

The Society of United Irishmen was formed in November 1791. Their principles, their motives, and their objects, were. : set forth in their declaration and their test. At that period the spirit of this nation was at the lowest ebb; the great religious: sects were disunited, the Protestants were disheartened and sunk by the memorable defeat of their convention in 1788; the Catholics, without allies or supporters, accustomed to look to administration alone for relief, dared scarcely aspire to hope for the lowest degree of emancipation, and even that hope was repelled with contumely and disdain;-administration was omnipotent, opposition was feeble, and the people were no thing.

J.

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Such was the situation of Ireland, when in Belfast and in Dublin two societies were formed, for the purpose of effectu...... ating an union of the religious sects, and a parliamentary : → reform. From the instant of their formation a new era com menced; the public has been rouzed from their stupor, the ancient energy of the land is again called forth, and the people as i seem determined, in the spirit of 82, to demand and to obtain za their long-lost rights. ༄༔་2, nen

The first measure of the United Irishmen was, a declaration in favor of a full and complete emancipation of the Catho-lics. What was the consequence? The moment that great

and oppressed body saw itself supported by a single ally, they spurned the vile subjection in which they had been so long held, and with the heavy yoke of the penal laws yet hanging on their necks, they summoned their representatives from the four provinces of the kingdom, and with the determined voice of millions, they called upon their sovereign for a total aboli tion of that abominable and bloody code, a code, the extent and severity of which was first made known by a report set forth by this society, and compiled by the knowledge and industry of that man, who is now the victim of his disinter eşted patriotism, and who in publishing to the world the abominations of intolerance, bigotry, and persecution, has committed a sin against corruption which can never be for. given

If the knowledge of that penal code has been useful, if the complete union of the religious sects has been beneficial, if the emancipation of Catholics be good for Ireland, then may this Society claim some merit, and some support, from their countrymen.

In 1791, there was not a body of men. in Ireland that ventured to speak, or scarce to think, of reform. The utmost length, that patriots of that day went, was to attack a few of the out-works of corruption-the Societies of United Irishmen stormed her in the citadel. They did not fritter down the public spirit, or distract the public attention, by a variety of petty measures; they were not afraid to clip the wings of peculation too close, or to cut up the trade of parliament by the roots: they demanded a parliamentary reform; and what has been the consequence? The cry has been re-echoed from county to county, and from province to province, till every honest man in the nation has become ardent in the pursuit; and even the tardy and lingering justice of parliament has been forced into a recognition of the principle. If then reform be good for Ireland, this Society, which first renewed

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the pursuit of that great object, may claim some merit, and some support from their countrymen. hisi q

At the opening of this session every man thought that the unanimous wish of the nation on the two great questions must be gratified: that the Catholics must be completely emanci pated, and a radical reform in parliamen effectuated ; but this delusion was soon removed. It was suddenly discovered, that it was necessary to have a strong government in Ireland war was declared against France, ruinous to the rising pros perity of this country; 20,000 regular troops, and 16,000 militia, were voted, and the famous Gun-powder Bill passed, by the unanimous consent of all parties in parliament; the Society of United Irishmen, a vigilant centinel for the public good, warned their countrymen of the danger impending over their liberty and their commerce; they knew in doing so they were exposing themselves to the fury of government, but they disregarded their own private safety when the good of their country was at stake. They could not hope to stop these meaBures, for they had no power, but what they could they did, they lodged their solemn protest against them, before the great tribunal of the nation.

In the progress of the present session, it was thought necessary by the House of Lords to establish a secret.com. mittee, to investigate the cause of the disturbances now exist, ing in a few counties in this kingdom, Thé examination of several individuals having transpired, the Society of United Irishmen felt it their duty to step forward again, and to give such information to their countrymen as might be necessary for their guidance. They stated a few plain principles, which they did then and do now conceive to be sound constitutional law. But now the measure of their offences was fully and the heavy hand of power so long with-held, was to fall with treble weight upon their heads, Their chairman, the Hon. Simon

Butler, and their secretary, Mr. Oliver Bond, were summoned

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before the House of Lords; they were called upon to avow or disavow the publication; they avowed it at once with the spirit and magnanimity of men who deserved to be free; for this they have been sentenced, with a severity unexampled in the parliamentary annals of this country, to be imprisoned in Newgate for six months, and to pay a fine of £500 each, and to remain bin prison until the said fines be paid. By this sen tence, two gentlemen, one of noble birth, of great talents, and élevated situation in an honorable profession; the other, merchant of the fairest character, the highest respectability; and in great and extensive business, are torn away from their families and connections, carried through the streets with a military guard, and plunged like felons into the common gaol, where they are at this instant confined among the vilest malefactors, the dross and refuse of the earth, and this sentence was pronounced by a body, who are at once judges and parties, who measure the offence, proportion the punishment, and from whose sentence there lies no appeal !

We do not mention here criminal prosecutions instituted against several of our members in the courts of law for publishing and distributing our address to the Volunteers of Ireland; respect for the existing laws of our country, imposes upon us a silence which no provocation shall induce us to break, we know when juries intervene, that justice will be done.

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Such is the history of the Society, and such are the enor mities which have drawn upon them the persecution under which they now labor. Their prime offence is their devoted attachment to reform; an attachment, which in the eyes of a bad administration includes all political sin; their next of fence, is an ardent wish for a complete and total, not a partial and illusory, emancipation of the Catholics. Their next of fence is having published a strong censure on the impending ruinous war, on the militia and gun-powder acts ; and finally,