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strangers. Such have been the beneficial results of that wise and necessary measure.

On the whole, therefore, it must appear, that antecedently to the County of Down, and other parts, being put out of the King's Peace, and consequently prior to the adoption of those coercive measures which your Lordship so warmly arraigns as the cause of the present disorders, many parts of the Country were in a state utterly lawless; and that a system of terror, founded in blood and massacre, had suspended the operation of the Civil Power, and spread general apprehension every where.-Hence it became necessary to counteract one system of terror against the Laws, by meeting it with another in their support; and the military strength of Ireland was in consequence increased, to protect it from the two-fold danger of Foreign Invasion, and Internal Treason. But the difference between the two systems is this-that the one had for its object to subvert the Government, and the other to protect both the Laws and the People.

This, my Lord, is the general state of the question between the Government of Ireland and the disaffected part of the People, corrupted by French principles. But I would farther ask your Lordship, whether, in your own immediate neighbourhood, the most criminal excesses were not committed, before it was put into a state of Proclamation, both at Sainfield, BALLYNAHINCH, and Killeleagh? Was not the Tree of Liberty actually planted in the latter Town, so early as in the Autumn of 1796? Was not the Castle at Hillsborough broke open, and all the arms carried off? And has not your Lordship heard, since you were last in Ireland, that a Meeting of Delegates from the different Societies of United Irishmen was held near your Lordship's Estate in the North, about

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the middle of June last, for the express purpose of considering whether they should then rise, or defer their plan to a future period? Was it not proposed at that Meeting to cut off the Troops in detail; and to commence the Insurrection with massacre? Is not this known to General LAKE? and was not the question carried by a trifling majority, for remaining quiet? What are the presumptive proofs of this? The flight of some of the Conspirators, and the apprehending of others. Did not eight of them make their escape from the Port of Bangor, upon finding the plot discovered? And were there not several of their intended Officers in confinement in the Artillery Barracks in Belfast, in August last? When, in addition to those facts, we advert to the Trial of JACKSON, and to the conviction of others, proved to be in league against the Constitution, as well as to the mass of information contained in the Report of the Secret Committee of the last Session, it must irrefragably appear, that his Majesty's Ministers in Ireland would have abandoned their duty, and betrayed the dearest interests of the State, if they had tamely suffered a system of disaffection gradually to extend itself over the Country, until ripe for action, in preference to crushing the evil in its infancy, by measures of energy suited to the magnitude of the occasion.

Having now, my Lord, endeavoured to vindicate the conduct of the Government of Ireland, by shewing that the state of the Country in 1796, was such, from the conduct of a great body of individuals, as to induce the necessity for those measures of precaution which have ecently been adopted in the present year; in my next I shall endeavour to rescue the Character of Government and the Soldiery from the unmerited imputations which

have been cast upon both, by shewing not only in this instance, that the charge is either groundless or greatly exaggerated; but by establishing, still farther, that the present discontents in Ireland are not occasioned by any oppression on the part of his Majesty's Ministers; but have principally their origin in the factious views of some individuals, and the traitorous designs of others.

I have the honour to be, my Lord, &c. &c.

CIVIS.

FINANCE.

WE observe that it has been given out in Orders amongst the Editors of the Jacobin Prints, to commence a violent attack on the French System under ROBESPIERRE; and their language is faithfully copied by Persons of the same sentiments in other places.

The Writers and Orators, who, in each stage of the Revolution, while each lasted, were employed only in palliating its Crimes, or in praising it at the expence of their own Country, are now indulging themselves in invectives against its former Tyranny and Extortion. They can now ring the changes on Assignats and Mandats, on Forced Loans and Requisitions-they can now expose a System which substitutes an unlimited and unfounded issue of Paper for Money-and, for Taxation, Universal Plunder, enforced by Violence and Terror: yet in all this, at the time that it existed, they only discovered the new and unparalleled Resources of regenerated France; or, if there were instances of Fraud, Cruelty, and Oppression, which they could not disguise, they faintly lamented the partial Ex

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cesses which must occasionally attend the enthusiastic efforts of Republican Virtue struggling in the Cause of Liberty.

This Change of language, at first view, seemed extraordinary; but it is easily accounted for on nearer observation, and on considering the manner in which it is applied with respect both to France and to this Country.

With respect to France, it is remarkable, that in venting all their rage against the reign of ROBESPIERRE, they lose nothing of their respect for his faithful Disciples and Imitators, the present Directory of France. The same topics and phrases are still reserved to do honour to the Festival of the 4th of September, which were before employed to celebrate the other Red-Letter-Days in the Revolutionary Calendar. The design, as applied to this Country, however preposterous and incredible it might at first be thought, is too openly acted upon to be mistaken. The past horrors of the Revolution are now recalled only for the purpose of obstructing, if possible, our efforts in resisting the dangers with which the effects. of that Revolution sill threaten us. With this view they have conceived the curious project of endeavouring to persuade us that every measure now proposed for combating the ambition of the Enemy, is borrowed from the Revolution. Those who have for years been preaching its Principles and commending its Practice, now gravely express their apprehensions," that in every thing we are destined to be the imitators of the French."

Is it proposed that the Bank should make any advance for the Public Service, however secured, or however limited in amount or in time?-They immediately sound the alarm They see at once in this measure, an adoption of the whole system of French Assignats. It is in vain

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to state, that the Bank are desired to furnish only Three Millions for a limited time, and on unquestionable security -that their advances to Government, including this sum, will be far less than the amount at which they have generally stood for a long series of years, both in War and Peace that the sufficiency of their Funds is unquestionable that they can spare the money without inconvenience, and employ it thus with advantage to themselvesthat their Notes are every where received at par-that the issue will not increase their paper beyond what the circulation of the Country naturally calls for-and that it will, as far as it goes, supply Government with money at a cheaper rate of interest, and with less difficulty, than the same sum could otherwise be procured. All this may be true. It is true too, that the issue of Assignats in France had no limit in the amount, and rested on no solid Security-it actually was carried to the amount of above Three Hundred Millions-it was issued at a discount that reduced it successively to a half, a fourth, a tenth, a hundredth of its nominal value, and increased in the same proportion the Public Expence.-Their circulation, while they had any, was maintained only by Force, and led to nothing but national bankruptcy and individual ruin.-All this the Jacobin Writers and Orators know as well as we do; but, for all this, they will not abandon their fimile. By repeating the assertion often enough, they expect at last, though they cannot talk themselves into believing it, to talk the world (as they have done in many other instances) into admitting it.

The same sort of battery has been opened against other parts of the Plan of Finance now under consideration; and we may expect a brisker fire, in proportion as they see the extent to which the Plan is likely to contribute to

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