jects. Those wretched creatures were deluded to act, not from any poliucal stimulus-for abstract polities could never have been made a motive of action with their class, by the most refined intrigue. The artifice used to set them in motion, was more familiar to their business and bosoms, inore adapted to their powers of comprehension--they were invited to "ix a rate for potatoes, the almost universal food of the multitude in those parts; and to join in a system of pposition to the introduction of strangers (by whom were meant, persons of any other vicinity) from becoming the tenants of farms, and to compel the land proprietors in their counties to treat with, exclusively, the ancient occupiers-causes which constituted popular pretexts and clamours of long standing in Ireland. It also appeared that a forward lead in these matters was taken, by men of the disbanded regiments of militia, who had, during the calamitous period of the troubles of their country, been indulged in so much licentiousness; and so much of party, more than of military disci r pline, had been instilled into thei superiors, that it is not to be won deied at that they were, on their return to their counties, utterly unfitted for the purposes and habits of sober life. Upon this head we must ever refer to the just and animated censure of the illustrious Abercromby. The sacrifices which were made to public justice on the above occasion, restored at least the appearance of tranquillity. The people were awed to submission-that they were reclaimed, we have every reason to doubt. There have since manifested themselves repeated indications of an angry unappeased spirit, and of unsubdued rancour; but since the period to which we have alluded, no overt act of considerable extent or moment has oc curred in those counties. The magistrates of Tipperary and Limerick upon this occasion, earnestly petitioned to be indulged with the power of inflicting discretionary punishment, and transportation, under what is called in Ireland * the insurrection act," to which his majesty's government in Ireland refused It is perhaps necessary here to apprize the English reader, that the Irish parliament, in the last year of its existence, enacted a law, by which the lord lieutenant and council were authorized, on the representation of a certain number of its magistrates, to declare a county in a state of insurrection; after this declaration had been legally notified, the magistrates were empowered to take up any person, and bring him before a petty session convened at any time or place, by two or three justices of the peace, who could in a summary manner, and without the intervention of a jury, determine whether the party accused had contravened the injunction to keep within his dwelling after nine o'clock at night; or had in any manner acted in furtherance of disturbance; if satisfied, they might adjudge the offender, at their discretion, to transportation, as a disorderly person! There certainly was a right of appeal to the more general ses sions, but when the ignorance and poverty of the lower classes of the natives of Ireland be considered, it will appear nearly nugatory: the culprit could scarcely understand the transaction; could seldom command the means by which alone advice could be procured; and as but a very few days were allowed wherem to lodge the appeal, the right had generally lapsed, before the unfortunate individual was aware of that Bode of redress. to concede, and chose the milder and more authorized mode of regular legal proceeding. It is more than probable, that under the circumstances of local irritation, and inconsiderate intemperance every where abounding, that had the prayer of the magistrates been acceded to, the flames of rebellion would have been rekindled throughout the entire of that fine country, the south of Ireland-the course wisely adopted, met with complete success, and tranquillity was restored. Some time before his majesty's message to parliament had announced the probability of a rupture with France, it became obvious to the wary observer, that there existed a considerable degree of feverish agitation among those who had favoured the late conspiracy, and an alarming resort to Ireland of persons notoriously in the interests of the French government. Undoubtedly the great majority of the people who had been deceived and led away by the intrigues and artifices of the jacobins; those especially who had any property to lose, or stake in the country, had seen through, and heartily repented their delusion: But there were still to be found some pardoned delinquents, who had yet to learn prudence from their escape of punishment, and whose wickedness had not been put to flight by the glaring conviction of its folly. This intractable and restless description of people, hailed with transport the opportunity of recommencing their machinations, and while some spread themselves over the country in every direction, others fixed themselves in the metropolis-an active correspondence was set on foot with France-and the organization of a new conspiracy was commenced and prosecuted with unceasing diligence. Nor was Bonaparte inattentive or remiss to forward by every means in his power, his darling project of revolution, The chiefs of the last Irish rebellion were summoned to Paris, from the insignificance and contempt in which, since the peace of Amiens, they had lived in different states of the continent; consultations were held with them; their hopes and passions stimulated by promises and flattery; and they were directed to communicate similar impulses to their agents and adherents in their native country. The person who took upon him. self (or to whom that task was delegated by his confederates) the office of director and principal mover of this new plot upon the British dominion in Ireland, was Mr.Robert Emmett, a young man of specious and promising talents. He was the younger brother of that Emmett who had previously to the rebellion of 1798, abandoned a respectable situation at the Irish bar, in order to project and carry into execution the wild schemes of that day-an Irish republic, and seperation from Great Britain. His father had filled during a considerable period the situation of state physician in Dublin. This young man had been sufficiently unguarded in his conduct while the late disturbances existed, to become an object of the vigilance of government, and had found it prudent to reside abroad so long as the habeas corpus act was suspended; but had returned to Ireland on the removal of that obstacle. His mind was ardent, his imagination brilliant, and he possessed a flow of elo cution, hopes, and encouraging his designs, at the same time that they revelled in the waste of this little patrimony, nourished his chimerical projects until they had involved him in irretrievable ruin. In this opinion we are countenanced by the characters and description of those persons with whom, as proved in the sequel, he seems to have communicated most confidentially. His principal associates were Dowdall, who had formerly filled a very inferior office under the Irish house of commons; Redmond, a man of narrow means, who affected to be engaged in some low species of commerce; and Allen, a broken woollen manufacturer. cytion, often rising to the fire, always consistent with the correctness, of legitimate oratory. With those endowments, which well directed must have led to fame and wealth and honours, he does not seem to have been gifted with one grain of judgment, or else his slender stock was swallowed up in the revolutionary vortex. His conversation and deportment at all times manifested the high degree of phrenzy to which his heated and distempered spirit, naturally too prone to such impressions, had been wrought up, by the political enthusiasm in which he had been early formed; by the revolutionary objects which had been in such rapid succession presented to his mind; and by the society of fanciful projectors, to which from inclination and habit, he had confined himself both at home and on the continent. When his life was forfeited to the justice of an outraged but commiserating country, he had not attained to his twenty fourth year; consequently as he had participated in the former conspiracy, he must have been, so early as his sixteenth, initiated in the baleful mysteries of treason and conspiracy! The death of Dr. Emmett had placed a sum of two thousandingly liberal. He perambulated pounds in ready money within his reach, and with this fund he proposed to himself the subversion of an old and well established government! It is not however improbable that this sum, miserable as it was when compared with his objects, might have tempted the cupidity of a few parasitical adventurers, (to whose wants it might for a season administer) to beset and attach themselves to him; who by the acts of adulation, by flattering his A conspirator of a different stamp, and of a much higher rate of abilities, than those last mentioned, was Quigley a mechanic, but of considerable address, who having been cutlawed in 1798, had since that period resided in France; and who upon the recommencement of hostilities, had returned thence, under circumstances which clearly indicated his agency to the enemy. He seemed well furnished with money, which he certainly could not have derived from his own resources, and of which he was unspar with unceasing activity Kildare, his native county, tampering with the people of the lower classes; exhorting them to throw off the slavery imposed upon them by the present form of government; reviving and recalling to their minds, every cause of dissatisfaction and coraplaiat; and by freely distributing strong liquors in many places, and occasionally money, attached the multitude through the medium of its prevailing propensities, and cor rupted rupted and deluded vast numbers to hold themselves in readiness for that attempt, which although completely impracticable, destitute of the slightest probability of success, and tending only to the inevitable destruction of those miserable instruments, yet answered to a certain degree the purpose of their unprincipled employer, as it distracted and threw some odium on the existing government, and revived distrusts and jealousies among the people. In another part of the country, a second enthusiast presented himself, as a chieftian, and who seemed so confident in the merits of the mighty boon he had to offer as the meed of prosperous rebellion; that he does not seem to have once suspected, that it would not be accepted and grasped at with as much avidity, at least as it was tendered. Mr. Russel was the son of an officer of reputation in his majesty's service, and who having retired, enjoyed an honorable retreat in the situation of master of the royal hospital for veterans at Kilmainham near Dublin. He was placed early in the army, and had served at Bunker's Hill and the subsequent campaigns in north America. After the peace he either retired on half pay, or his corps was reduced so far his situation was suited to the mediocrity of his talents. He then fixed himself, in consequence of accidental connection, in a town of considerable trade in the north of Ireland; but which was not less remarkable for its encouragement of speculative theology, metaphysical enquiry, and the extent and diversity of opinions both in matters of church and state: Mr. Russel, eager and ardent, at first acting under military impressions, Im was remarkable for his zealous attachment to his Sovereign, and had thus even rendered himself obnoxious in a disaffected town, by a constant display of the most fervent loyalty. In this state of scclusion he addicted himself to the cultivation of literature, and hazarded some pieces of criticism which afford no proofs of superior attainment: he likewise engaged eagerly in those religious investigations which occupy the leisure or fill the minds of the more rigid dissenters. mersed in pursuits of such a nature, with a scanty income, and a mind at once gloomy and sanguine, it may well be supposed, that at the period when the modern doctrines of political reform were breached, they found in this unfortunate man an apt and enthusiastic proselyte. In justice however to the memory of this unhappy person, it must be observed, that he was affectionate and tender hearted, and possessed more of the feeling and sentiment of a gentleman, than are usually found in the confirmed democrat. Such were the conditions and characters of the principal leaders of the conspiracy which having been conducted in security and darkness, broke out into insurrection on the 23d of the July of the present year. It has been said, and with great appearance of probability, that as early as the April preceding, an assemblage of persons from various districts of the kingdom, deliberated in Dublin, on measures hostile to the existing government. There are in Ireland, as we have already observed in our preceding volume, a number of persons above labour, and below affluence, whose habits are dissipated and adventurous, and who might truly the rebellion of 1798, obstinately rejecting repeatedly proffered mercy; and who dexterously eluding all pursuit, had sustained himself under the protection of the almost inaccessible fastnesses of the Wicklow mountains. His party did not ostensibly exceed twenty, but he was supposed to possess unbounded influence over the peasants of that district; so that a large body, on any notable undertaking, was within his means of command. truly boast the power of raising in a country abounding in such inflammable materials, the flame of rebellion. Called together by such persons as we have described, that a mock convention might have sat in the metropolis, and cherished the incipient projects of Emmett, is sufficiently likely; as well from the ease and security with which it might be held, as from his subsequent boast of his being assured of having 19 counties pledged to his support. With the greater certainty of war it might be supposed that the Irish government would multiply their measures of strength and defence; it therefore became the object of the conspirators to accelerate their enterprize. Accordingly the persons we have named commenced their operations with activity, and distributed themselves throughout the country agreeably to their several destinations. Emmett and Dowdall were stationed in Dublin; Quigley in the county of Kildare, and (indeed without the slightest gleam of probable success to cheer him on his mission) Russel in the populous districts of the north, Down and Antrim: others of less note were subdivided throughout various parts of the country, with authority from their leaders to forward the design by every means in their pow To the overtures made to him on the part of Emmett it does not appear that he assented with cordiality: on the contrary it is reported, that this ruffian (who if he was not gifted with the accomplishments of some of the leaders we have described; seems to have been furnished with a much larger share of good sense) is said to have replied, “that he would not commit his brave men upon the faith or good conduct of the rabble of Dublin; if however the latter could achieve any point of moment, or that he should behold from his elevated position, the greet: flag flown above the king's on the tower of the castle, that he would be at hand to cover or second the enterprize. What is most observable of these transactions, is the impenetrable secrecy with which they were conducted. Undoubtedly many surmises, obscure reports, and mysterious observations connected with them, were afloat in Dublin, and strong symptoms of clandestine meetings and novel conferences were noticed in the more distant counties; yet the parties to the main design, continued with inviolable fidelity The colour of the rebels. rue |