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The growth and progress of defenderism, particularly in the county of Meath, afforded fuel to the enemies of the Catholic body, which they studied to implicate in the crimes of those ferocious miscreants. Painful industry was employed to work up the imaginations of the inhabitants into the expectation of a general massacre of all the Protestants throughout that county. No arts were left untried to criminate the Catholic body: every exceptionable word or action of an individual, however contemptible, was charged on the entire body: and the object was now, not so much to suppress the Defenders, as to fasten their enormities on the Catholic body.

This state of affairs was most favourable to the cause of the Defenders. They committed depredations without control; and assembling in large bodies by night to learn the use of arms, they went through military evolutions under their captains, the most infamous individuals of the community; generally the proscribed objects of civil or martial law. Their necessities multiplied, under the specious name of Defenders, they indulged in all sorts of crimes. They talked of liberty and equality. They threatened to cut off heads, to burn and to destroy wherever enmity appeared, or opposition was made to them. The evil gained strength and vigour with the season, and raged for six or eight months without control: unprejudiced men could not suppress their astonishment, that these enormities happened under the

"the common blessings of the constitution as established in king, lords, and commons, under a separate legislature and a common king.

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"Resolved, That the general committee of the Catholics never exercised "the right of legation in any one instance, nor any other right but in absolute "subordination to the laws of their country, nor can we understand how these "proceedings and pursuits can be accounted criminal, unless it is proved that "the British constitution, the sole object of those pursuits, is a code of ini"quity and vice, which ought to be rejected with detestation, and not contend"ed for at the hazard of every thing dear to man.

"Resolved, That we are unalterably attached to the peace, happiness, union, “ and liberty of Ireland, and therefore from our hearts abhor and reprobate "any disturbances, which may endanger the possession of those invaluable "objects, and that we recommend most seriously and earnestly to our Catho"lic brethren to join and co-operate in every loyal and constitutional measure "to suppress them, be their authors who they may.

"Resolved, That we highly approve of the conduct of our late committee, "who have proved us not unworthy of freedom, by evincing our loyalty to our "king, our gratitude to the legislature and our friends, and our unceasing de"sire to fulfil his majesty's gracious wish to unite all classes and descriptions "of the people, in support of our most excellent constitution.

"Resolved, That the silly assertion which has been publicly made, that the "Catholics of the county of Wexford were induced to join the committee by "the promise of ten pounds a year, freehold, to the lower classes, is equally "devoid of probability and truth, and deserves nothing but our contempt. "Resolved, That these resolutions be published, and that our chairman do "transmit a copy to each of the gentlemen who were delegated to the late general committee,"

very eyes of some right honourable gentlemen of great weight and influence, and no exertions made to protect the peaceful subject, or to punish the lawless plunderer. Subsequent events have strengthened the suspicion, that some of those gentlemen wished to see things arrive at a degree of maturity in order to serve a most base purpose.

The disturbances had now risen to such a height in certain parts of the county, that society could no longer exist in such a state. A meeting was holden in Navan for the purpose of repressing them, and a secret committee was formed. Subscriptions were entered into; and rewards offered for discovering and prosecuting to conviction the disturbers of the public peace. Through these means this most nefarious gang of villains was broken; many of them, and chiefly their ringleaders, were taken and lodged in gaol, and the rest fled the country. Of those taken, some turned approvers; the reverend Mr. Butler made so judicious an use of their and other informations, that peace and security were rapidly returning to the distracted inhabitants. This amiable gentleman was a magistrate, though not a native of the country; he was chaplain to the bishop of Meath, and a member of the secret committee; he was a man of a good and well cultivated understanding; benevolent and charitable; firm and undaunted in his pursuits; and his great efforts to restore the peace of the country, were most successful and most generally applauded, because they were well directed. His activity had effectually checked the spirit of defenderism in its progress westward: it scarcely appeared on the western side of the Boyne and Blackwater. This check had been' most opportunely given; for now other disturbances arose in the neighbourhood of Athboy, which, if strengthened by the association of Defenders, would in all probability have been more permanent, more extensive, and more destructive.

The injudicious and corrupt modes of carrying the militia act into execution, and the strange misconceptions entertained of it by the common people, gave rise to these disturbances. They had conceived, that they were to be duped as the Green Boys (or Green Linnets as they were called) in the American war by false promises; and they were confirmed in their false opinion by some Protestant gentlemen, who assured them, that notwithstanding the professions of government, they were all to be sent to Botany Bay; and that they might thank their priests for it, who, in procuring their signatures to the declaration signed Edward Byrne, had absolutely disposed of them to government. To render the militia act more palatable, several insurance offices were opened, in which, extravagant sums were exacted from all, as well from those who did not come under the act, as from those who did.

The ignorance of the country people afforded a full scope for imposition From those causes the common people in the neighbourhood of Athboy rose in tumult. For several days they overran the country to the number of several hundreds; they robbed all the gentlemen and peaceable inhabitants of their arms; swore them not to be inimical to their interest, and set all the forges to work in the fabrication of warlike weapons: but during all this time they disclaimed the very name of Defenders. For several days, the magistrates and other leading men of the country were perfectly inactive, one only excepted, who was not seconded: and on the rioters hearing that this gentleman had sent for a military force, they assembled to the number of about a thousand men, in the town of Athboy; forced many innocent and peaceable inhabitants into their ranks, and appointed a general. This ruffian billeting his men through the town for breakfast, and promising them better fare in the evening, soon marshalled them in military array. Feeling themselves in force, they talked of attacking property and of dividing the spoils of the country; and they awaited with impatience the approach of the military, whom they had already vanquished in their wild imaginations. The military had been summoned from Kells, Navan, and Trim. A company of foot from Kells, with the magistrate already mentioned at their head, arrived long before the rest; and without waiting to be reinforced, instantly marched up to the mob, and very impru dently closed with them, so that they were soon surrounded. Four or five of the mob, and two of the military fell on the occasion. This engagement might be called a drawn battle; the military and the mob retreated at the same time, and the mob as eagerly dispersed, as they had assembled in the morning; so that the cavalry, who arrived afterward, could only pick up some stragglers, whom they lodged in the county gaol. These wretches were condemned at the ensuing assizes to be confined for three years, and to be whipped; which latter part of their sentence was executed with exemplary severity. This popular phrenzy was consumed by its sudden violence: all symptoms of tumult or disorder instantly subsided, and no part of the kingdom has been more peaceable ever since, than the neighbourhood of Athboy. The reverend Mr. Butler still continued his exertions with unabating vigour. Not content with having effectually checked the progress of the Defenders; he advanced upon them into those parts, in which their chief strength lay. He seized upon several persons, against whom he had information in the baronies of Slane and Morgallion; and now the expiring cause of Defenders was to be closed by a desperate act. Mr. Butler, it is said, was often threatened by the unprincipled miscreants, to whom he was so obnoxious, sometimes by anonymous letters, and at other times

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by verbal messages. He despised those threats so far, as to go alone by night: he was way-laid on the 25th of October, 1793; and about eight o'clock in the evening, within some perches of the back gate of Ardbraccan, the seat of the bishop of Meath, he was shot through the body from behind a hedge.

The indignation raised by this atrocious act soon roused a divided and inactive people. A meeting was called in Navan, to which the first men of rank, of fortune, and of consequence in the county repaired. Amongst them were the earl of Bective, the right honourable Burton Conyngham, the speaker of the House of Commons, and doctor Maxwell, bishop of Meath, his brother in law. Subscriptions were entered into to a very large amount; and a very considerable reward was offered for the conviction of the infamous wretches concerned in the murder of Mr. Butler and in order to suppress or to prevent in future such disorders, as had, for some time past disturbed the country, that part of the act which passed the session before in favour of Roman Catholics, pointing out the conditions under which Papists might possess, or carry arms, was recited; and a reward of four guineas was offered to the informer of every gun found in the possession of any Papist not so qualified. As this measure was seemingly sanctioned by law, it met with no opposition at the first meeting, even from the Roman Catho ics who were present: but it was soon found to increase rather than check the evil: the measure was eminently calculated to promote the interest of Defenders, robbers, and thieves, to whom honest men became an immediate and certain prey from the moment they were disarmed. At the second meeting the earl of Bective proposed an alteration of this measure, but was violently opposed by Mr. Foster the speaker: he insisted upon the strict execution of the law, and denounced vengeance against every magistrate that should be found slack in his duty. pursuance of this injunctions the military for some weeks were nightly called out, and headed by a constable, (not always sober) paid domiciliary visits to the decent farmers in the neighbourhood after midnight, summoned them to deliver up their arms, and put their families in extreme terror. The outrageous attacks of the Defenders were scarcely more formidable. system was at last found too violent to be continued.

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Mr. Foster openly professed himself at all times an enemy to all Catholic indulgence, and was prominently active in his zeal against them. The earl of Bective's natural mildness prevented him from opposing the new-born influence in the county of Meath, which Mr. Foster assumed on this, for the first occasion, from the overflowing of his zeal against Popery. One of the members of the sub-committee was a Catholic, and this right

honourable gentleman undertook to new model it by excluding from it every member that was not a magistrate. After these exertions at Navan, he went to Ardbraccan, and thence returned to Navan, of which he seemed to take a survey. Strange rumours were immediately circulated, that the dark business of defenderism was traced to its source, and that the discovery would astonish the nation. On the next public market day, Mr. John Fay, a most respectable and amiable character of that town, was arrested in the open street: bail was refused, and he was ignominiously hurried under a military escort to the county gaol. He was charged with having conspired against the life of Mr. Butler. The town of Navan was chiefly inhabited by Catholics, and had lately been most grossly traduced; it had been termed a sink of iniquity, and the judges in their way from Trim to the county of Louth had been warned, as they tendered their personal safety, not to pass through the town of Navan. The imprisonment of Mr. Fay gave rise to serious apprehensions on one part of a general proscription of the Catholics, and on the other to the belief of a Popish conspiracy to massacre all the Protestants. Thus were the feelings of the whole district made the sport of the wicked, who were attempting to play the basest game under these fictitious plots.

There evidently was a deep plot laid by persons of political influence in the country to criminate Mr. Fay, and several other respectable persons of his persuasion as aiders and abettors of treason, murder, and every outrage that can disturb society and dissolve civil government: the immediate object of which was to stigmatize the body of Roman Catholics. But justice providentially prevailed, and opened to view the base machinations and perjuries of the wretched informer Lynch, and other miscreants, raked out of the neighbouring gaols, who had been hired and suborned to swear away the lives of innocent and meritorious men.* The

• A subsequent discovery providentially confirmed the innocence of Mr. Fay, Mr. Gibney, Mr. Byrne, and other respectable gentlemen, the intended victims of a most bigotted and malevolent junto. On the 9th of August, 1794, at - Trim, the execution of Thomas Shieran, who at the last assizes was convicted of a robbery in that neighbourhood, was attended by some of the most respectable magistrates and gentlemen in the vicinity. The culprit a few moments before his being launched into eternity, declared with all the contrite solemnity becoming a dying penitent, that he and three men of the name of Lawless, all of whom lived contiguous to the bishop of Meath's demesne, had concerted and conspired the death of Mr. Butler; that they lay in wait for him some nights previous to the fatal one; that one of the Lawlesses was the person who fired the shot which killed Mr. B. and that no other person whatever was concerned in the plot. On a former day he voluntarily came forward, and made this discovery to one of the bishop of Meath's servants; after which he and the Lawlesses were lodged in the same prison, where it is feared an intercourse with some dark villain occasioned his afterwards denying his first attestation, and accusing men innocent of the fact; this of course invalidated his evidence against the Lawlesses, who were enlarged.

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