volence, that it will be as extensive as the circumstances of the times, and the general welfare of the empire, shall, in their consideration, render prudent and expedient. Resolved, That firmly attached to our most gracious sovereign and the constitution of the kingdom, and anxiously desirous to promote tranquillity and subjection to the laws, we will studiously avoid all measures which can, either directly or indirectly, tend to disturb or impede the same, and will rely on the wisdom and benevolence of the legislature, as the source from which we desire to obtain a further relaxation of the above-mentioned laws. W. Netterville, Cruiserathco, Meath Fingal John Thomas Troy, D. D. R. Hon. John Preston, Gormans- Sir Pat. Bellew, Bart. Bar- Sir T. Esmond, Bart. co. Wex- Edward Bellew, Barmeath, co. Hugh O'Reily, Ballinlough, co. Malachy Donnellan, Ballydon- Mathew Donnellan, Ballydon- Rob. French, Rahisane, co. Dom. W. O'Reily, Kildangan M. Burke, Spring Garden, co. Tho. Burke, Marble Hill, co. Major Anselm Nugent, co. Tho. Daly, Cloonaha, co. Gal way Peter Daly, Cloonaha, aforesaid way Joseph Blake, Ardfry, co. Gal- Francis Goold, city of Cork way William Bellew, Barmeath, co. Louth J. Dease, Turberstown, co. Oliv. Count D'Alton, co. J. White, Loughbrickland, co. R. Strange, Spencer Hill, co. Christ. Fitzsimmons, co. Wicklow Harvey Hay, Ballintrul, co. James Farrill, of the city of Walter Blakeney, co. Carlow John Hussey, Rakenny, co. E. Hearne, Hearnsbrook, co. Galway George Butler, of Ballyragget Dan. Cronin, of Rathmore, co. Kerry Gregory Byrne, of the city of Dublin S. Roche John, of the city of Limerick P. Roche John, of the city of Limerick G. Ryan, of Inch, co. Tipperary John O'Brien, of the city of Limerick Jam. O'Brien, of the city of Limerick S. Roche, jun. of the city of Limerick Thomas Roche, of the city of Limerick J. Bagot, of Castle Bagot, co. John Roche, of the city of Jam. Nugent, of Ballinacor, co. Westmeath D. T. O'Brien, of the city of J. Comerford, of the city of Rich. Dease, Clougill, co. John Dease, of the city of Henry Farrell, of the city of Dublin John Harford, of the city of Dublin Thomas Magan, of the city of Dublin T. Bourke, of Mecleck, co. Galway James Taylor, co. Meath Lewis Ward, Liscub, co. Gal way John Nugent, Kilcomb, West meath Ant. Brown, Kilcongan, O. Brown, Kilcongan, Westmeath Nicholas Brown, Parcelstown, Meath To which his excellency was pleased to give the following answer: "I receive with great satisfaction this declaration of your loy"alty to the king, and attachment to the constitution; I will not "fail to make a faithful representation thereof to his majesty." No. LXXXVII. DECLARATION OF THE SOCIETY OF THE UNITED IRISHMEN. PAGE 3. Friday, 30th December, 1791. Society of UNITED IRISHMEN of Dublin. The honourable SIMON BUTLER in the chair. Resolved unanimously, that the following circular letter, reported by our committee of correspondence, be adopted and printed. THIS letter is addressed to you from the corresponding committee of the society of United Irishmen in Dublin. We annex the declaration of political principles, which we have subscribed, and the test which we have taken, as a social and sacred compact to bind us more closely together. The object of this institution is to make an united society of the Irish nation; to make all Irishmen citizens; all citizens Irishmen: nothing appearing to us more natural at all times, and at this crisis of Europe more reasonable, than that those who have common interest, and common enemies, who suffer common wrongs, and lay claim to common rights, should know each other, and should act together. In our opinion, ignorance has been the demon of discord, which has so long deprived Irishmen, not only of the blessings of well-regulated government, but even the common benefits of civil society. Peace in this island has hitherto been a peace on the principles and with the consequences of civil war. For a century past there has indeed been tranquillity, but to most of our dear countrymen it has been the tranquillity of a dungeon; and if the land has lately prospered, it has been owing to the goodness of Providence, and the strong efforts of human nature resisting and overcoming the malignant influence of a miserable administration. To resist this influence, which rules by discord and embroils by system, it is vain to act as individuals or as parties; it becomes necessary by an union of minds, and a knowledge of each other, to will and act as a nation. To know each other is to know ourselves; the weakness of one, and the strength of many. Union therefore is power; it is wisdom; it must prove liberty. Our design therefore in forming this society, is to give an example, which, when well followed, must collect the public will, and concentrate the public power into one solid mass, the effect of which, once put in motion, must be rapid, momentous, and consequential. In thus associating, we have thought little about our ancestors, much of our posterity. Are we for ever to walk like beasts of prey, over fields which these ancestors stained with blood? In looking back, we see nothing on the one part but savage force succeeded by savage policy; on the other, an unfortunate nation, "scattered and peeled, meted out and trodden down!" We see a mutual intolerance, and a common carnage of the first moral emotions of the heart, which lead us to esteem and place confidence in our fellow-creatures. We see this, and are silent; but we gladly look forward to brighter prospects, to a people united in the fellowship of freedom, to a parliament the express image of the people, to a prosperity established on civil and political liberty, to a peace, not the gloomy and precarious stillness of men brooding over their wrongs, but that stable tranquillity which rests on the right of human nature, and leans on the arms by which these rights are to be maintained. Our principal rule of conduct has been to attend to those things in which we agree, to exclude from our thoughts those in which we differ. We agree in knowing what are our rights, and in daring to assert them. If the rights of men be duties to God, we are in this respect of one religion. Our creed of civil faith is the same; we agree in thinking, that there is not an individual among our millions, whose happiness can be established on any foundation so rational and so solid, as on the happiness of the whole community. We agree therefore in the necessity of giving political value and station to the great majority of the people; and we think, that whosoever desires an amended constitution, without including the great body of the people, must on his own principles be convicted of political persecutions, and political monopoly. If the present electors be themselves a morbid part of our constitution, where are we to recur for redress but to the whole community? "A more unjust and absurd constitution cannot be de"vised than that which condemns the natives of a country to "perpetual servitude, under the arbitrary dominion of strangers "and slaves." We agree in thinking, that the first and most indispensable condition of the laws of a free state, is the assent of those whose obedience they require, and for whose benefit only they are designed. Without, therefore, an impartial and adequate representation of the community, we agree in declaring, we can have no constitution, no country, no Ireland. Without this, our late revolution we declare to be fallacious and ideal; a thing much talked of, but neither felt nor seen. The act of Irish sovereignty has been merely tossed out of the English houses into the cabinet of the ministers; and nothing remains to the people, who of right are every thing, but a servile majesty and a ragged independence. We call most earnestly on every great and good man, who at the late era spoke or acted for his country, to consider less of what was done than of what there remains to do. We call upon their senatorial wisdom to consider the monstrous and immeasurable distance which separates in this island the ranks of social life, makes labour ineffectual, taxation unproductive, and divides the nation into petty despotism and public misery. We call upon their tutelar genius to remember, that government is instituted to remedy, not to render more grievous, the natural inequality of mankind, and that unless the rights of the whole community be asserted, anarchy (we cannot call it government) must continue to prevail, when the strong tyrannize, the rich oppress, and the mass are brayed in a mortar. We call upon them, therefore, to build their arguments and their actions on the broad platform of general good. Let not the rights of nature be enjoyed merely by connivance, and the rights of conscience merely by toleration. If you raise up a prone people, let it not be merely to their knees: let the nation stand. Then will it cast away the bad habit of servitude, which has brought with it indolence, ignorance, an extinction of our faculties, an abandonment of our very nature. Then will every right obtained, every franchise exercised, prove a seed of sobriety, industry, and regard to character, and the manners of the people will be formed on the model of their free constitution. This rapid exposition of our principles, our object, and our rule of conduct, must naturally suggest the wish of multiplying similar societies, and the propriety of addressing such a desire to you. Is it necessary for us to request, that you will hold out your hand, and open your heart to your countryman, townsman, neighbour? Can you form a hope for political redemption, and by political penalties, or civil excommunications, withhold the rights of nature from your brother? We beseech you rally all the friends of liberty within your circle round this society as a centre. Draw together your best and bravest thoughts, your best and bravest men. You will experience, as we have done, that those points of union will quickly attract numbers, while the assemblage of such societies, acting in concert, moving as one body, with one impulse, and one direction, will, in no long time, become not parts of the nation, but the nation itself; speaking with its voice, expressing its will, resistless in its power. We again entreat you to look around for men fit to form those stable supports, on which Ireland may rest the lever of liberty. If there be but ten, take those ten. If there be but two, take |