Notwithstanding the rigour and severity of the measures adopted by government to put down or correct the turbulency and discontent of the nation, and to prevent it from rising into open rebellion: the discoveries which led to the developement and disappointment of the traitorous designs of the conspirators, were rather fortuitous and unexpected, than the result of any preventative measures on the part of government. They appear to have arisen from pecuniary motives in one Thomas Reynolds, a silk mercer of Dublin, who had purchased an estate in the county of Kildare, called Kilkea Castle, and from the fortune he had acquired, commanded considerable influènce with his Catholic brethren. Lord Edward Fitzgerald and Oliver Bond, two leaders in the conspiracy, having, for these reasons, considered him a proper person to assist in forwarding their treasonable designs, easily attached him to their cause; and having succeeded, he was soon after sworn an United Irishman, at the house of Oliver

Committee. If you did not organize for the purpose of effecting a revolution, what other object had you in view?

O'Connor. We saw with sorrow the cruelties practised by the Irish government had raised a dreadful spirit of revenge in the hearts of the people; we saw with horror that to answer their immediate views, the Irish government had renewed the old religious feuds; we were most anxious to have such authorities as the organization ready constituted to prevent the dreadful transports of popular fury. We hoped that by having committees, by holding out the benefits of the revolution to those who supported it, and by withholding its benefits from those who should disgrace it by popular excesses, we should have been able to restrain the people. But those who had monopolized the whole political power of the constitution, finding, that they stood in need of some of the population, and that from their monopoly so directly opposite to the interest of all classes of the Irish nation, they could not hope for the support of any (be their religion what it may) on the score of politics, except those in the pay of government. Finding how necessary it was to have some part of the population on their side, they had recourse to the old religious feuds, and set an organization of Protestants, whose fanaticism would not permit them to see they were enlisted under the banners of religion, to fight for political usurpation they abhorred. No doubt, by these means you have gained a temporary aid, but by destroying the organization of the union, and exasperating the great body of the people, you will one day pay dearly for the aid you have derived from this temporary shift.

Committee. Government had nothing to do with the Orange system, nor their extermination.

O'Connor. You, my lord (Castlereagh) from the station you fill, must be sensible that the executive of any country has it in its power to collect a vast mass of information, and you must know from the secret nature, and the zeal of the union, that its executive must have the most minute information of every act of the Irish government. As one of the executive, it came to my know. ledge, that considerable sums of money were expended throughout the nation, in endeavouring to extend the Orange system, and that the oath of extermination was administered; when these facts are coupled, not only with general impunity, which has been uniformly extended towards the acts of this infernal association, but the marked encouragement its members have received from government, I find it impossible to exculpate the government from being the parent and protector of these sworn extirpators.

Bond, in Dublin; in the year 1797, he accepted the commission of colonel, the offices of treasurer and representative of the county of Kildare, and at last that of delegate for the province of Leinster. He had money dealings about a mortgage of some lands at Castle Jordon with a Mr. Cope, a Dublin merchant, who having lamented to him, in the course of conversation, the crimes and atrocities which were constantly committed, and which were undoubted symptoms of an approaching rebellion, Mr. Reynolds said, that he knew a person connected with the United Irishmen, who he believed, would defeat their nefarious projects, by communicating them to government, in order to make an atonement for the crime he had committed in joining them. Mr. Cope assured him, that such a person would obtain the highest honours and pecuniary rewards that administration could confer. But Mr. Reynolds said, nothing could tempt him to come forward and avow himself. However, after the most earnest and pressing solicitations repeatedly made on the part of Mr. Cope, he said, that his friend would appear in person, and disclose the particulars of the plot, on the following conditions: That he should not prosecute any United Irishman; that the channel through which the information came should be kept a secret, at least for a time; that as his life would be in danger upon its being known, and he must leave the country and go to England till matters were settled, which would derange his affairs, and put him to considerable expense, he expected to receive some compensation. Mr. Cope then told him, that he might draw on him for any sum not exceeding five hundred guineas. On that, he told Mr. Cope, that the Leinster delegates were to meet at Oliver Bond's on the 12th of March, to concert measures for an insurrection, which was shortly to take place, but did not at that time acknowledge that the information came directly from him, but insinuated it was imparted by a third per

son.

In consequence of this, justice Swan, attended by twelve serjeants in coloured clothes, arrested the Leinster delegates, thirteen in number, while sitting in council in the house of Oliver Bond, in Bridge-street, on the 12th of March, 1798; and seized several of their papers, which led to the discovery of the plot, and the intended insurrection; and on the same day Messrs. Emmett, M'Nevin, Bond, Sweetman, Henry Jackson, and Hugh Jackson were arrested, taken into custody, and warrants were granted against lord Edward Fitzgerald and Messrs. M'Cormick and Sampson, who having notice thereof made their escape. The leaders of the conspiracy did not intend to bring forward an insurrection till the French came to their assistance, and they meant in the mean time to continue to increase their numbers,

and to add to their stock of arms; but in the spring of 1798, the loyalty of the people was so strongly marked, that the chief conspirators began to perceive that their cause was losing ground, and that they had no alternative but to hazard a general rising, or to relinquish their hopes.

To prevent a despondency amongst the members of the union on the occasion of this discovery and seizure, a hand bill was circulated with industry, and had the effect of keeping up their spirits in a great degree.*

The seizure of the delegates was a death blow to the schemes of the United Irishmen. A new directory was chosen, but they soon experienced the fate of the former; and, indeed, the rashness of their own conduct, in all probability, hastened the catastrophe. Their proceedings were developed and disclosed by another informer; this was a captain Armstrong, of the king's county militia, who had pretended to enter into the conspiracy with the intention of discovering their schemes, and betraying them to the government. It appears, that a part of their plan was to gain over as many of his majesty's troops as possible to their side, and particularly of the militia regiments, previous to their making a general attack upon the royal camp of Loughlinstown. For this purpose captain Armstrong appeared a fit instruHe had been in the habits of frequenting the shop of a bookseller, of the name of Byrne, in Grafton-street, Dublin, who was generally regarded as one of the literary agents of the rebel faction. Among the leading members of the United Irish.

As an instance of the feelings of the rebels at this period the form of this hand bill is given. "For us the keen but momentary anxiety, occasioned by "the situation of our invaluable friends, subsided, on learning all the circum "stances of the case, into a calm tranquillity, a consoling conviction of mind, "that they are as safe as innocence can make them now; and to these senti"ments were quickly added a redoubled energy, a ten fold activity, of exer "tion, which has already produced the happiest effects. The organization of "the capital is perfect. No vacancies existing, arrangements have been made, " and are still making, to secure for our oppressed brethren, whose trials ap"proach, the benefit of legal defence, and the centinels whom you have ap "pointed to watch over your interests, stand firm at their posts, vigilant of " events, and prompt to give you notice and advice, which, on every occasion "at all requiring it rely on receiving. This recital, Irishmen, is meant to guard those of you who are remote from the scene of the late events, against "the consequences of misrepresentation and mistake. The most unfounded rumours have been set afloat, fabricated for the double purpose of delusion "and intimidation. Your enemies talk of treachery, in the vain and fallacious hope of creating it; but you, who scorn equally to be their dupes or "their slaves, will meet their forgeries with dignified contempt, incapable of "being either goaded into untimely violence, or sunk into pusillanimous de spondency. Be firm, Irishmen, but be cool and cautious; be patient yet a while: trust to no unauthorized communication; and above all, we warn you-again and again we warn you-against doing the work of your tyrants, by premature, by partial, or divided exertion. If Ireland shall be forced to throw away the scabbard, let it be at her own time, not theirs."

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men were two young barristers, of the name of Sheares, both men of excellent talents, and of unsullied reputation, who had, both of them been elected members of the Irish executive after the arrest of the old members on the 12th of March. To the acquaintance of these gentlemen Byrne proposed to introduce captain Armstrong, whom he had from various conversations, been led to consider as a convert to their cause, and Armstrong had soon the address to insinuate himself completely into their confidence. * Recourse was soon after had to a general proclamation and military execution.† The proclamation, which was published on the 30th of March declared, that a traitorous conspiracy, existing within the kingdom for the destruction of the established government, had been considerably extended, and had manifested itself in acts of open violence and rebellion; and that in consequence thereof the most direct and positive orders had been issued to the officers commanding his majesty's forces to employ them with the utmost vigour and decision for the immediate suppression of that conspiracy, and for the disarming of the rebels and all disaffected persons, by the most summary and effectual measures. To sir Ralph Abercrombie, then chief commander of the forces, orders were issued from the lord lieutenant to proceed with his army into the disturbed countries, vested with full powers to act according to his discretion for the attainment of the proposed object. A manifesto, dated from his head quarters at Kildare, the 3d of April, was addressed to the inhabitants of the county by the general, requiring them to surren der their arms in the space of ten days from the date of the noce, threatening, in case of non compliance, to distribute large bodies of troops among them to live at free quarters-promising rewards to such as would give information of concealed arms or ammunition—and denouncing his resolution of recurring to other severities if the county should still continue in a disturbed state.

On the advance of the military into each county, the same notice was given to its inhabitants, and at the expiration of the term prescribed, the troops were quartered on the houses of the disaffected or suspected, in numbers proportioned to the supposed guilt and ability of the owners, whose pecuniary circumstances were often deeply injured by the maintenance of the soldiery, and the waste which was otherwise made of their effects. Numbers of houses, with their furniture, were burned, in which concealed arms had been found, in which meetings of the union had been holden, or whose occupants had been guilty of the fabrication of pikes, or had been suspected of other practices for the

promotion of the conspiracy. Numbers were daily scourged, picqueted, or otherwise put to pain to force confessions of concealed arms or plots. Outrageous acts of severity were often committed by persons not in the regular troops, some from an unfeigned, and others from an affected zeal for the service of the crown. These various vexations amounted on the whole to such a mass of disquietude and distress, that the exhortations of the chiefs to bear their evils with steady patience, until an opportunity of successful insurrection should occur, proved vain with the lower classes.

To authorize the burning of houses and furniture, the wisdom of administration may have seen as good reason as for other acts of severity, though to many that reason was not clear. These burnings, doubtless, caused no small terror and consternation to the disaffected, but they caused also a loss to the community at large, rendered many quite desperate who were deprived of their all, augmented the violence of hatred in those among whom these houseless people took refuge. Men imprisoned on suspicion, or private information, were sometimes half-hanged, or strangled almost to death, before their guilt or innocence could be ascertained by trial. Reflecting loyalists were much concerned at the permission or impunity of such acts, which tended strongly to confirm the prejudices already so laboriously excited by the emissaries of treason.

Among the causes, which in the troubled interval of time previous to the grand insurrection, contributed to the general uneasiness, were the insults practised by pretended zealots, to the annoyance of the truest loyalists as well as malcontents, on persons who wore their hair short, or happened to have any part of their apparel of a green colour, both of which were considered as emblems of republican or of a revolutionary spirit. The term croppy was adopted to signify a revolutionist, or an enemy to the established government. Persons of malevolent minds took advantage of these circumstances to indulge their general malignity or private malice, when they could with impunity. On the heads of many who were selected as objects of outrage, were fixed by these pretended loyalists caps of coarse linen or strong brown paper, smeared with pitch on the inside, which in some instances adhered so firmly as not to be disengaged without a laceration of the hair and even skin. On the other side, several of the united party made it a practice to seize violently such as they thought proper, or were able, and cropt or cut their hair short, which rendered them liable to the outrage of the pitched cap of those pretended strenuous partizans of the constitution. Handkerchiefs, ribbons, even a sprig of myrtle and other parts of dress marked with the obnoxious colour, were torn or cut away from females unconsci