terrified the Catholics more, by how much more mildly they had lately been executed. A private occurrence in the next year gave rise to much public menace, and some additional severity in executing the laws. A young lady of the name of Toole, who was strongly importuned by her friends to conform to the established religion, had taken refuge in the house of a Mr. Saul, a merchant in Dublin, in order to get rid of their importunities. The affair was taken up with a high hand; Mr. Saul was prosecuted; and he was publicly assured from the bench, that the laws did not presume a Papist to exist in the kingdom, nor could they breathe without the connivance of government. The publication of Dr. Curry's Historical Memoirs of the Irish rebellion of 1641† though anonymously, in the year 1759, still further awakened the attention of all, and the rigour of many towards the Catholics. So little at that time was the public accustomed to publications favourable to the Catholics, that the book created a considerable ferment in the nation, and gave great offence to most of the Protestants: it appeared at first to counteract its own object by irritating rather than reconciling the minds of

men.

On the 29th day of October, 1759, the Duke of Bedford delivered a message to the parliament to the following effect:.... That by a letter from Mr. Secretary Pitt, written by his majesty's express command, it appeared that France, far from resigning her plan of invasion, on account of the disaster that befel her Toulon squadron, was more and more confirmed in her purpose, and even instigated by despair itself to attempt at all hazards the only resource she seemed to have left for thwarting, by a diversion at home, the measures of England abroad, in prosecuting a war, which hitherto opened in all parts of the world so unfavourable a prospect to the views of French ambition: that in case the body of French troops, amounting to eighteen thousand men, under the command of the Duke d'Aiguillon, assembled at Vannes, where also a sufficient number of trans

* Mr. Saul's letter to Mr. O'Connor upon this subject, dated November the 15th, 1759, gives an interesting account of this transaction, and of its consequences to Mr. Saul, whom it drove out of the kingdom His family has been ever since settled in France. Vide Appendix, No. LXIII. The original is in Mr. O'Connor's collection.

†The Memoirs were published with the utmost secrecy and caution. The motives and reasons for their publication will best appear from the correspondence between Dr. Curry and Mr. O'Connor upon the subject, in the Appendix, No. LXIV. The original letters being in the before mentioned collection. Although these memoirs were no more than a mere compilation of original and authentic documents, all from Protestant authors, yet the compiler of them, when he came to be known, was exposed to a torrent of the most virulent abuse and invective. The probability or even certainty that truth will be ill received, is no just excuse for suppressing it; especially when its publication becomes an act of justice to an individual and much more so to a nation.

ports was prepared, should be able to elude the British squadron, Ireland would in all probability be one of their chief objects; his grace thought it therefore incumbent upon him, in a matter of such high importance to the welfare of that kingdom, to communicate this intelligence to the Irish parliament. He told them his majesty would make no doubt but that the zeal of his faithful Protestant subjects in that kingdom had been already sufficiently quickened by the repeated accounts of the enemies dangerous designs, and actual preparations made, at a vast expence, in order to invade the several parts of the British dominions. He gave them to understand he had received his sovereign's commands to use his utmost endeavours to animate and excite his loyal people of Ireland to exert their well known zeal and spirit in support of his majesty's government, and in defence of all that was dear to them, by timely preparation to resist and frustrate any attempts of the enemy to disturb the quiet and shake the security of that kingdom. He, therefore, in the strongest manner recommended it to them to manifest, upon this occasion, that zeal for the present happy establishment, and that affection for his majesty's person and government, by which the parliament of that kingdom had been so often distinguished. Immediately after this message was communicated, the House of Commons unanimously resolved to present an address to the lord lieutenant; thanking his grace for the care and concern he had shewn for the safety of Ireland, in having imparted intelligence of so great importance; desiring him to make use of such means, as should appear to him the most effectual for the security and defence of that kingdom; and assuring him, that the house would make good whatever expence should be necessarily incurred for that purpose. That however they might despise the attempt, yet should they not omit to pursue the most speedy and effectual means to frustrate and defeat it and to convince the world, that his majesty's faithful people of Ireland were subjects not unworthy of their glorious monarch. This intimation, and the steps that were taken in consequence of it for the defence of Ireland, produced such apprehensions and distractions among the people of that kingdom, as had nearly proved fatal to the public credit. In the first transports of popular fear, there was such an extraordinary run upon the banks of Dublin, that several considerable bankers were obliged to stop payment; and the circulation was in danger of being suddenly stagnated, when the lord lieutenant, the members of both houses of parliament, the lord mayor, aldermen, merchants, and principal traders of Dublin engaged in an association to support public credit, by taking the notes of bankers in payment; a resolution which effectually answered the purpose intended.

Amongst other delusive motives, which at this time actuated the unwise councils of Versailles, in hazarding this rash invasion of Ireland, were the false hopes holden out to them by some of the expatriated Irish in the service of France, that an invading army would have been immediately joined by the physical force of the country. That the bulk of the nation was discontented with the government, sore at being excluded from their native rights of citizens, and eager for an opportunity of retaliating upon their oppressors nearly two centuries of persecution and slavery for the sake of their religion. The conduct of the Catholics on this, as on every former occasion of alarm or danger to the establishment, was that of the most exemplary firmness to principle and duty. On the earliest alarm of the intended invasion of Conflans, Mr. O'Connor and Dr. Curry called a meeting of the Catholic committee for the purpose of making a tender of their allegiance in times of danger, as well as in times of peace. Mr. O'Connor drew up the form of an address, which was unanimously approved of. It was dated 1st of December, 1759; and on the ensuing day at a meeting of the most respectable merchants in Dublin it was signed by about 300 persons. Mr. Anthony M'Dermott and Mr. John Crump presented it to Mr. John Ponsonby, the speaker of the House of Commons, to be presented by him to the lord lieutenant. Mr. Ponsonby received it without making any observation; no direct answer was given from the castle; some days elapsed in awful and mysterious, silence: without any public notice taken of it, it was laid on the table of the House of Commons for the inspection of the members. On the 10th of December his grace gave a most gracious answer to the address, which appeared in the Dublin Gazette on the 15th of December, 1759.* The speaker sent for Mr. Anthony M'Dermott and Mr. Crump, and from the chair ordered the former to read the address to the house. Mr. M'Dermott, after having read the address, thanked the speaker as delegate from the Catholics of Dublin for his condescension. The speaker replied, that he counted it a favour done him to be put in the way serving so respectable a body, as that of the gentlemen, who had signed that loyal address. The gracious acceptance of this address was the first re-admission of the Catholic body over the threshold of the constitutional freedom of their country.f

of

The address, and the Duke of Bedford's answer are to be seen in the Appendix, No. LXV.

†To the unwearied zeal and perseverance, to the temperate and manly exertions of these respectable gentlemen of the first Catholic committee, does the Irish nation owe peculiar gratitude, for having been the immediate instruments of opening the door to all the relief their long and sorely suffering countrymen have since received from the benign sympathy of our present most gracious sovereign. Notwithstanding this first successful effort of the VOL. II.

H

Immediately upon the welcome tidings being circulated of the gracious acceptance of this address, the Roman Catholics merchants' address, it is to be remarked, that a most determined, and not altogether temperate dissension of the Catholic body had unfortunately taken place, upon the propriety of addressing the lord lieutenant. The clergy, nobility, and landed interest were anti-addressers; their fears or hopes, or dependencies upon the castle convinced them, that as Catholics were not subjects in the eye of the law, they had no right to address that an address therefore would be deemed presumptuous: and that the only plan for them to pursue, was to express their obedience by letter, and not by address. Fortunately for Ireland, this pusillanimous and weak delicacy of the anti-addressers was overruled by the opposite party, who were guided by the sound sense and manly policy of Mr. O'Connor, and Dr. Curry: the latter of whom in a letter to the former of the 29th of December, 1759, informs him, that a great man was heard to say at the castle:" By G...., I find that I was mistaken in thinking "that Papists were led by the nose by their clergy. I have been assured, that "the Dublin address was drawn up and signed against their advice and com"mand." This early triumph of the commercial interest over that of the clergy and landed property, was a happy omen to the Catholics at large.... Reason connected Mr. O'Connor and Dr. Curry, both men of ancient family and landed estates, with the former; and reason shews, that the intermediate concerns of the merchant and tradesman between the highest and the lowest ranks of society amalgamates them more completely with the mass of the community, and fits them better both in theory and practice for judging of their rights, advantages, and happiness, than those who are exalted by rank or station above the great mass of the people, are removed from immediate intercourse with them, and consequently must be presumed ignorant of their wants. It must also in historical candour be allowed, that there exists to this hour more distance between the rich and the poor in Ireland, than in any part of the British empire: it partly proceeds from a national intemperate lust of power, partly from the vicious system of mesne tenantry, which destroys all privity between the owner and occupier of the soil, and partly as Lord Taaffe complained in his Observations on the Affairs of Ireland in 1767 (p. 13), from the expulsion of that useful body of people, called Yeomanry in England, denominated Sculoags, in Ireland; who were communities of industrious housekeepers who in his own time herded together in large villages, cultivated the lands every where, and lived comfortably, till some rich grazier negociating privately with a sum of ready money took the lands over their heads. "The Sculoag race (continues that nobleman), that great nursery of labourers "and manufacturers, has been broke and dispersed, in every quarter, and we "have nothing in lieu, but the most miserable wretches on earth, the cotta"gers; naked slaves, who labour without any nourishing food, and live while "they can without houses or covering, under the lash of merciless and relent"less task masters." It must be further allowed, without derogating from the innate reverence, which the Irish have ever shewn to the ministers of their religion, that in the pursuit and defence of civil rights, the clergy, from their habit of life and dependencies upon the great, are of all men the least likely to be prudent, firm, and vigorous.

If the portrait which Mr. Arthur Young has given of the Irish landlord amidst his tenants bears any resemblance to the original, we shall find in it a host of reasons for disqualifying the nobility and gentry from judging and acting as fairly for the multitude, as the commercial interest. The landlord of an Irish estate inhabited by Roman Catholics, is a sort of despot, who yields obedience in whatever concerns the poor to no law but that of his will. To discover what the liberty of a people is, we must live among them, and not look for it in the statutes of the realm. The language of written law may be that of liberty, but the situation of the poor may speak no language but that of slavery. There is too much of this contradiction in Ireland. A long series of oppression, aided by many very ill-judged laws, have brought landlords

poured in addresses to the castle, from every quarter of the kingdom, expressive of the most loyal, zealous, and active ardour in defence of their king and country.

It is impossible for the historian always to fathom the secret motives and views of the measures which it is his duty to retail. It appears however not improbable, that one motive at least for shewing this new indulgent disposition to the Catholics was to reconcile that body to the then crudely digested plan of an Union. But the country was not then ripe for such a measure. It was the interest of too many persons in power then to oppose it, and they artfully predisposed the mob against it, without appearing to take an active part in opposing the measure, which they then effectually strangled in embryo.... They also took advantage of those qualities of the Duke of Bedford, which tended to estrange from him the personal affections of the Irish nation, namely his pride, coldness and œconomy.* .* The outrages of this mob were attempted by some

into a habit of exerting a very lofty superiority, and their vassals into that of an almost unlimited submission: speaking a language that is despised, professing a religion that is abhorred, and being disarmed, the poor find themselves in many cases slaves even in the bosom of written liberty. Landlords, that have resided much abroad are usually humane in their ideas; but the habit of tyranny naturally contracts the mind, so that even in this polished age there are instances of a severe carriage towards the poor, which is quite unknown in England. Nay, I have heard anecdotes of the lives of people being made free with, without any apprehension of the justice of a jury. But let it not be imagined that is common: formerly it happened every day; but law gains ground.. The execution of the law lies very much in the hands of justices of the peace, many of whom are drawn from the most illiberal class in the kingdom. If a poor man lodges a complaint against a gentleman, or any animal that chuses to call itself a gentleman, and the justice issues out a summons for his appearance, it is a fixed affront, and he will infallibly be called out. Where manners are in conspiracy against law, to whom are the oppressed people to have recourse? They know their situation too well to think of it: they can have no defence but by means of protection from one gentleman against another, who probably protects his vassal, as he would the sheep he intends to eat.

The colours of this picture are not charged. To assert that all these cases are common would be an exaggeration; but to say that an unfeeling landlord will do all this with impunity, is to keep strictly to truth; and what is liberty but a farce and jest, if its blessings are received as the favour of kindness and humanity, instead of being the inheritance of RIGHT. Young's Tour, Dublin edit. vol. ii. p. 40 and 41.

* 4 Smol. p. 469. Although no traces of disaffection to his majesty's family appeared on this trying occasion, it must nevertheless be acknowledged, that a spirit of dissatisfaction broke out with extraordinary violence among the populace of Dublin. The present lord lieutenant was not remarkably popular in his administration. He had bestowed one place of considerable importance upon a gentleman, whose person was obnoxious to many people in that kingdom, and perhaps failed in that affability and condescension which a free and ferocious nation expects to find in the character of him to whose rule they are subjected. Whether the offence taken at his deportment had created enemies to his person, or the nation in general began to entertain doubts and jealousies of the government's designs, certain it is, great pains were