148 State of Ireland: [Auo. 



delinquents ; \vhile Constitutionalists are almost hunted out of society, 

 and declared unworthy of protection, if they dare to cast a retrospective 

 glance towards the scenes which history records for their instruction. 

 They cannot forget the manner in which they have been despised, con- 

 spired against, scoffed at, and calumniated. They cannot avoid contrast- 

 ing the treatment which they have for some years past received, with 

 the manner in w r hich the Ro*man Catholic insurgent has often been patro- 

 nised, his misdeeds screened from inquiry, or else very mildly dealt with, 

 and frequently attempted to be explained away, if not justified, at the 

 expense of every principle of morality and civilization. They point to 

 the " Black Bridge of Chlonoe," and to the hill of Macken, and 

 inquire " Have the characters of even-handed justice been written here ? 

 Have our murdered brethren been avenged as the law demanded ? Is 

 the example that has been made of their unprovoked assassins such as 

 society had a right to expect, or such as will deter similar aggressions in 

 future ?" They point to their Protestant brethren in different parts of the 

 country of Cavan, who, it is alleged, are compelled to go armed to their 

 agricultural labours, and whose lives have been placed in the utmost 

 peril, nay, sometimes sacrificed, on their attending fairs or markets. 



With such feelings in their bosoms, multitudes of the most peaceable, 

 best conducted, and most industrious of Ireland's inhabitants are bid- 

 ding adieu to the land of their nativity. The emigrants to America this 

 year from Ireland, it is thought, will exceed FORTY THOUSAND ; and 

 every subsequent year it may be expected to increase, unless some mar- 

 vellous alteration take place in the prospects and sentiments of the 

 Protestants of that unfortunate country. Those of their brethren who 

 for the present remain behind, partly from a difficulty in arranging their 

 affairs, or from having too great a stake in the country as yet to be wil- 

 ling to abandon it, will neither fight for the Duke of Devonshire's tithes, 

 nor for Lord Lansdowne's estates. They will merely endeavour to 

 take care of themselves, and to keep aloof, as much as possible, from the 

 strong holds of Popery. 



As a specimen of the political temper of the times, at a respectable 

 parochial meeting in the city of Dublin, held on the 28th of May last, 

 with the Protestant churchwardens presiding, for the purpose of peti- 

 tioning against the new system of taxation, we extract the following 

 resolutions, which were unanimously adopted : " Resolved That in 

 these monstrous and incompatible assimilations we are made to taste 

 the bitter fruits of the union, exhibiting our country bewailing the disas- 

 trous connexion, and struggling with the odious embrace that would con- 

 sign her to hopeless prostration under the weight of new and intolerable 

 taxes. That the vagrancy of the absentee nobility and gentry, and the 

 substitution of their agents in this country, have generated an assimi- 

 lation of distress and poverty in this city, which we respectfully render 

 to the Chancellor of the Exchequer for assimilation with the opulence, 

 splendour, and commercial magnificence of London. That a statesman, 

 who takes no lesson from past events, and is not instructed by the obsti- 

 nate follies of his predecessors, is a blind guide, and unsafe to follow. 

 That the fatal results of the Stamp Act in America, by which that country 

 was lost, should inform our rulers that it is not always safe to calculate 

 too confidently on the patient endurance of a people," &c. &c. 



To find a series of such resolutions adopted, without a dissentient voice, 

 by a respectable and numerous meeting, composed of various creeds and 



