Crew, most of whom had inlisted on the capture of Admiral LUCAS, in Saldanha Bay.-They behaved during the Action remarkably well. Two thirds of the loss sus

tained by the Monarch took

place on the wheel of the

rudder being shot away, which made the ship unmanageable, and exposed her to the additional fire of the ship a-head of the Dutch Admiral for about a quarter of an hour, till the wheel was replaced.

The Powerful, Capt. DRURY, was the ship that seconded Admiral ONSLOW, and engaged the Dutch ship immediately astern of Admiral REYNTJES, which struck to bim in less than half an hour. He then inquired where the Venerable was; and just discovering her flag through the smoke, and surrounded by Enemies, he instantly ordered his Pilot to carry him down to the Admiral's assistance, though the distance was near three miles, and he belonged to another Division. His arrival was very critical, the Venerable at that time having received near fifty shot between wind and water.-Admiral de WINTER declares, that the broadside of the Powerful was the most tremendous that he received.-Such gallantry deserves to be for ever recorded.

N°

N° IV. MONDAY, DECEMBER 4, 1797.

--

• facite ut vestra auctoritas

Mea auctoritati fautrix adjutrixque sit.

TO THE EARL OF MOIRA.

LETTER II.

I

MY LORD,

HAVE said, and I think established in my former

Letter, that many parts of Ireland were in a state of the greatest disorder, and a strong spirit of discontent reigning among the People, before the present System was resorted to, a few months since, of employing the Military to protect the Laws.

It may therefore be asked-What then occasioned that spirit among the People in 1796, independently of those religious animosities in particular parts, which are not chargeable to the Administration of the Country? Did it arise from any act, on the part of Government, tending to provoke them? Or, was it the consequence of any attempt to mislead them by incendiary publications; or to stimulate them to Rebellion by secret Conspiracies against the State;-It could not be the consequence of oppression on the part of the Government, because the conduct of Government, for a series of years, has been marked by a laudable endeavour, in various ways, to me

liorate

liorate the condition of the People.-What are the proofs ? They are these:-The People of Ireland desired to have the duration of their Parliament limited-It was done. A Cry was raised for the repeal of POYNING's Law and the Independency of their Legislature - The Law was abrogated, and their Imperial Sovereignty recognized ! They called for a restriction of the Pension-List-It was granted. They claimed a Free Trade Bill-it was passed. They defired a Responsibility-Bill it was admitted. They wished for the Independence of their Judges -It followed. The Roman Catholics prayed for a restoration of their Elective Franchise-Their prayer was heard. What then do these desperate Societies now claim? What but the subversion of that Constitution from whence so many blessings have been entailed upon themselves? Yes, my Lord, under the flimsy veil of a Reform in Parliament (an abstract question, little suited to the times, or to the understanding of the lower orders of Society), they are endeavouring to pull down the fabric of their government, for the purpose of substituting in its stead that hideous System of Anarchy and Plunder, which, in desolating France, has annihilated the Trade, the Industry and the Morals of her Inhabitants. This is the proved and acknowledged object of these Incendiaries. It cannot have escaped your Lordship's notice, that for some years past they have been actively employed in the pursuit of this wicked scheme. Is it not notorious that they have leagued to deliver the Kingdom to a FOREIGN INVADER? Can this be to Reform the Parliament ? They have formed themselves into regular Battalions, nominated their Officers, supplied themselves with Arms, provided Gunpowder and Artillery, manufactured Pikes, sworn each other to secresy, in defiance of the Law,

2

ORGA

ORGANIZED their Convention on the French model, collected money, and maintained a traitorous intercourse with the Enemy. Can all this have only in view to Reform the Parliament? Common sense rejects the supposition; and was not this traitorous plan conceived before any part of the Country was proclaimed to be in a state of disturbance?

This then, has been the state of Ireland for some years back. What was the language of Mr. ToONE, the Parent Founder of these Societies? Does he not, in his Letter contained in the Report of the Secret Committee of the Irish House of Lords, unmask the object of their views at once, by roundly stating, that it is impossible to suppose the Parliament of Ireland can ever be brought to regenerate itself that such a Reform as they might concede, would little answer public expectation-that both Parties in Parliament are playing their own game, and the Opposition too much connected with the Aristocracy, to be really the Friends of the People? And he farther proceeds to say, that to Reform Parliament by such means is, as if

a plaster were to be applied to the finger for a mortifi“cation in the bowels." Here then is the language of this High Priest of Sedition; and such are the tenets his Followers have adopted.

In this growing and dangerous Conspiracy against the State, the Legislature had recourse to such restrictive Laws as went in their principle to grapple with the mischief, and in their operation to protect the real Liberties of the People. For this purpose, the Laws known by the name of the Convention, Gunpowder, and Insurrection Bills, were passed, all fettering, in some degree, the views of these Revolutionary Bodies, but leaving the

honest

honest Citizen no reasonable ground to imagine that any infringement was intended on his Rights.

I am well aware that it is to these Laws that many ascribe a portion of the discontents which prevail in Ireland. The government has been charged with a design, in these, of infringing upon the Liberties of the Subject, and the spirit of Party has not been wanting to give them this construction. But, is it hard that individuals should be restricted from conspiring to overthrow their Country? Is it hard that they should be restrained from administering Oaths of Secresy to each other for political purposes which avoid the light? Such is the object of these Laws, which have only been enacted to save the Kingdom from the miseries of Anarchy. In such a state of things, when a Mine was preparing to destroy the Laws, the Liberties, and the Religion of the People-when the Press, co-operating with the views of Traitors, was teeming with the most daring and inflammatory Libels against the Laws, the Justice, and Authority of the State-when even the mild spirit of our Constitution was converted into a weapon against itself, from the privilege it imparts to licentiousness, and the impunity which it too often insures to guilt was it not a time for the Constitutional Guardians of Irish Liberty to save the Constitution from the destruction with which it was threatened, by fortifying it with new securities against the unexampled dangers which assailed it? To say that these Laws are repugnant to the nature of our Constitution, is only to misunderstand its genuine spirit. The principle of the Constitution is to communicate, and ensure, to every man, as great a proportion of Civil Liberty as is compatible with the nature of his condition, and to bind him, in return, to a due submission to its authority. It necessarily follows, where measures

are