BOOK even in that country of which they constituted XXI. the majority, when it was founded upon, and 1795. rendered conformable to, the principles of justice and equity. Considering the hazards and dan gers XXI. commonwealth--that let no man in this world BOOK expect: but where complaints are freely heard, deeply considered, and speedily reformed, then 1795. is the utmost bound of civil liberty attained that wise men look for*." Most unfortunately for the interests of the British empire, its affairs had now been for ten years in the hands of a minister of great eloquence, art, and address indeed, but who was destitute alike of that enlarged comprehension of mind, and of those generous feelings of the heart, which form, when combined, that noblest of human characters---the genuine patriot states man. The voice of Mr. Pitt, when aspiring to political pre-eminence, had been beyond all others loud in the clamor of reform; and, when he had attained to power, his hand was found beyond all others heavy in the oppression and persecution of those who had listened to his doctrines and had acted upon his principles. The session of parliament in Ireland ended June the 5th, 1795. The lord-lieutenant, in his speech, touched lightly upon the distracted state of the country, consequent upon the rejection of the late bill of emancipation; contenting himself with an earnest recommendation to the members of both houses to make those exertions *Milton's Areopagitica. XXI. 1795. state of Ireland. BOOK which the times demanded, and enforcing the necessity of an exact submission to the laws→→→ an exhortation, alas! in the present temper, or rather distemper, of the times, altogether unavailing and useless. From this period the famous political association styled the Society of United Irishmen rapidly extended itself over the whole country, including all the Catholics, and a large proportion of the Protestants, of the Distracted kingdom; and from this period also the leaders of this association began, as was too truly predicted, to entertain very dangerous views, and to form illegal and treasonable connections and correspondences with the government of France. A spirit of universal disaffection prevailed. Secret oaths of adherence to the association were administered. Agents were sent to negotiate with the Convention. Acts of sedition, rapine, and murder, were perpetrated by the most desperate of the lawless and licentious populace against the bigoted and violent supporters of government, who, on the other hand, confederated together for the purposes of security and revenge, under the name of Orangemen, in societies styled Orange-Lodges. Mutual injuries soon generated a most inveterate and mutual hatred between these two descriptions of citi zens, one of which was beyond comparison superior in numbers, the other in property, in ₹ legal authority, in military force. XXI. These dis- BOOK sensions gradually increased, till the whole land exhibited a scene of consternation, blood, and 1795. horror. It has even been positively asserted that entire districts of Catholics were mercilessly proscribed by the human fiends styling themselves Orangemen, and compelled to remove with their families and effects beyond the Shannon, under the penalty of having their habitations burned, their property destroyed, and their persons endangered. To CONNAUGHT or to HELL!' was the infernal mandate of these villains. Hope fled the country-men acted under the instigation of revenge, and took counsel of despair. The dreadful effects of the weak and wicked system of misgovernment, recommended and acted upon by the enemies of Catholic liberty, and indeed of all liberty, were fully apparent. By the operation of this system Ireland was lashed into madness, and driven to follies and to crimes from which her sober reason would have shrunk with detestation. transactions. From this view of civil transactions it is now Military necessary to transfer our attention to military concerns, which can scarcely exhibit a picture more bloody or disastrous. It has been already mentioned that the British army, after the abandonment of Nimeguen, took the route of Arnheim and Deventer, under the command of ge XXI. 1795. After BOOK neral sir Ralph Abercrombie. They reached the last of these places at the end of January 1795, closely pursued by a far superior force. In their precipitate retreat---or, to speak plainly, their unintermitted flight-through the country, they continued to suffer incredible hardshipsthe partial thaws which took place obliging the soldiers to wade through torrents of mud and water. Although they every-where endeavoured to destroy the magazines in their line of march, vast quantities of artillery, ammunition, and stores, fell into the hands of the French. a very short halt at Deventer the army moved again toward the German frontier; and on the 12th of February they crossed the Ems at Rheine, being much harassed by the advanced parties of the enemy, At Groningen the division commanded by lord Cathcart was refused admittance; but after a long series of dismal disasters, of which the detail may well be spared, the shattered remains of this fine body of troops, supposed, at their departure from England, to amount to 35,000 men, now reduced to about a fifth part of that number, reached the city of Bremen on the 27th and 28th of March; and the duke of soon afterwards they embarked on board the York's army em. transports lying ready to receive them in the England. Elbe, for their native country. Shattered remains of bark for In consequence of and encouraged by the |