343 I R E L 
thority for allaying the alarming difcontents then fubfift- 
Ing in Ireland,” drew a horrible pifture of the ftate of 
that kingdom. “ Before God and my country,” faid this 
nobleman, “ I fpeak of what I myfelf have feen. I have 
feen in Ireland the raoft abfurd, as well as the moft dif- 
guftitig, tyranny that any nation ever groaned under. I 
nave feen troops fent full of this prejudice, that every in¬ 
habitant of that kingdom is a rebel to the Britilh govern¬ 
ment ; the moft wanton infults, the moft grievous oppref- 
fion, praftifed upon men of all ranks and conditions, in a 
part of the country as free from difturbance as the city of 
London. Thirty houfes are fometijnes burned in a fingle 
night; but, from prudential motives, I wifti to draw a veil 
over more aggravated facts, which I am willing to attelt 
before the privy council, or at your lordlhips’ bar.” 
Afts of barbarous violence performed on the fide of loy¬ 
alty were not generally known beyond the diftrift in which 
they were committed. The conductors of eftablifhed 
newfpapers durft not publilh them; and newly-inftituted 
prints, in which this caution was not obferved, were foon 
luppreffed. Thefe prints, indeed, were licentious, and cal¬ 
culated to irritate the public mind againft the govern¬ 
ment, or at leaft againft the adminiftration. The proprie¬ 
tors of the Northern Star, printed at Belfaft, were, in con- 
lequencc of the fufpenfion of the habeas-corpus aft, im- 
prifoned in Newgate; but, as the publication was never- 
thelefs continued, a detachment of foldiers was fent to 
deftroy the printing-office and all its contents. The Prefs, 
commenced in Dublin in the latter part of 1797, was fo 
intemperate, that its publiffier was confined, and the pa¬ 
per foon afterwards fuppreffed by virtue of a law, which 
authorifed grand juries to prefent newfpapers containing 
feditious matter as nuifances, and magiftrates to deftroy 
the printing materials after fuch prefentation. Deprived 
of this mode of communication, the agents of the Irilh 
union privately circulated hand-bills for the purpofe of 
conveying inftruttions on various fubjefts from the direc¬ 
tory. To diminilh the public revenue, and thus embar- 
rafs the government, abftinence from fpirituous liquors 
was recommended to the members of the affociation ; the 
people were cautioned againft purchafing quit-rents of the 
crown, as fuch bargains would not be valid under a new 
fyftem, and alfo againft accepting bank-notes; and emif- 
faries,employed to corrupt the army,diftributed bills calcu¬ 
lated to excite compaffion for the fufferings of the people, 
and hatred of their rulers. 
While thefe meafures for organizing domeftic oppofi- 
tion were actively purfued, the Iriffi direftory kept up an 
Sntercouvfe with the French government, and demanded 
the aid of a force of not lefs than five or more than ten 
thoul'and men. Preparations were made at Breft, and at 
the Texel in Holland, for the tranfportation of a much 
more numerous army. At the latter port 15,000 men 
were embarked; but, from fear of the Britilh navy, again 
put on-ffiore; and the fleet, under admiral de Winter, 
being obliged to fail, at the inftance of the French go¬ 
vernment, was met, and totally defeated, in October 1797, 
by lord vifcount Duncan. See the article England, 
vol. vi. p. 788. 
Notwithftanding the difappointment of foreign affift- 
ance, the direftors of the confpiracy, Arthur O’Connor, 
a fuppoled lineal defcendant of Roderic, the laft Irilh mo¬ 
narch, lord Edward Fitzgerald, brother to the duke of 
jLeinfter, Oliver Bond, a refpeftable merchant. Dr. Mac 
Nevin, a catholic, and Thomas Addis Emmett, a lawyer, 
refolved on a defperate effort at infurreftion; and, in Fe¬ 
bruary 1798, appointed a military committee, fent inftruc- 
tions to the adjutant-generals, and prepared a preffing 
difpatch to the French government. To give the greater 
•weight to the latter, O’Connor himfelf attempted to pafs 
through England to France, but was apprehended on fuf- 
picion at Margate, with Quigley, an Irilh prieft, and Binns, 
a member of the London Correfponding Society. Being 
brought to trial at Maidftone, Quigley was condemned 
and executed; the other two were acquitted, but detained 
on another charge of treafon. 
AND. 
At this junftnve, when the number of men fworn into 
this confpiracy amounted to at leaft 500,000, the treachery 
of an individual accomplilhed more in behalf of govern¬ 
ment than all the vigilance of their agents could have ef¬ 
fected. Thomas Reynolds, a catholic tradefman of Dub¬ 
lin, poffeffing an eftate in the county of Kildare, had ac¬ 
cepted the appointments of colonel, treafurer, and re,pre- 
fentative for that county, in the united fyftem, and of a 
provincial delegate for Leinfter. By this man the pro¬ 
ceedings and intentions of the confpirators were difclofed 
to government, by whom he was rewarded with a fum of 
5000I. and a yearly penlion of 1560k and has fince been 
placed at the head of the poft-office. In confequence of 
liis information, the thirteen members compofing "Phe pro¬ 
vincial committee of Leinfter were apprehended on the 
12th of March, in Dublin, at the houfe of Oliver Bond, 
who was alfo arrefted, with Emmett and Mac Nevin, two 
other members of the directory. The vacancies thus made 
were indeed foon filled by eleftion ; but the feizure of 
papers had expofed the plans of the confpirators, and the 
new members were far inferior in talents to their prede- 
ceffors. To prevent defpondency, they induftrioufly cir¬ 
culated a hand-bill, announcing the fafety of the perfons 
who had been apprehended, a tenfold aftivity in the lead¬ 
ers, and a perfect organization of the capital, adding a cau¬ 
tion againft precipitate meafures. The former members 
of the direftory had alfo exerted themfelves to reftrain 
their adherents from infurreftion, and even from afts of 
local violence calculated to alarm the government, till they 
ftiould perceive a ftrong probability of fuccefs. Their ef¬ 
forts for the political union of fefts had been attended 
with confiderable effeft in the north ; but in the fouth 
and weft, the members of the lower clafs could never be 
fo reftrained as to aft with uniformity on fuch a plan. 
Religious jealoufies were revived with augmented force 
by falfe reports refpefting Orange affociations ; houfes 
were burned, and murders committed ; and not only at 
night, but even in the day-time alfo, bodies of men tra¬ 
veled the country, compelling the inhabitants to deliver 
fuch arms as they happened to pofi’efs. 
Determined to fupprefs thefe diforders, government at 
length had recourfe to the proclaiming of military law on 
the 30th of March, 1798. The afts of violence perpetrated 
in purfuance of this meafure by a brutal and licentious 
foldiery, and by the inferior agents of the government, 
either from affefted zeal or private malignity; the out¬ 
rages committed on the perfons and property of the fuf- 
pefted ; the tortures inflifted on fome, and the infults 
offered to others; formed a mafs of fuch aggravated dif- 
trefs, that no exhortations could prevail on the lower 
claffes to bear their evils with patience till an opportu¬ 
nity for fuccefsful infurreclion ftiould arrive. Meanwhile, 
as the time fixed for this event approached, and of which 
government had received full information, it became an 
objeft of confiderable importance to apprehend lord Ed¬ 
ward Fitzgerald, who had franted the plan of attack, and 
who, from his military ikill, his talents and couiage, was 
a formidable enemy. He had contrived to efcape from 
Bond’s, but was feized on the 19th of May, in Dublin, 
when he made fuch a defperate refiftance with a dagger, 
that he was mot fecured till he had wounded two of his 
affailants, one of them mortally; and himfelf died a fort¬ 
night afterwards in the caftle of Dublin, of a piftol-ffiot 
which he had received in the Ihoulder. On the 19th and 20th 
of the fame month, others of the confpirators were arreft¬ 
ed, particularly the brothers Henry and John Sheares, men 
of great abilities in the profeffion of the law, and who had 
lately been raifed to the fatal eminence of direftors. In 
the houfe of Henry, in Baggot-ftreet, was found the rough 
draught of an unfinilhed proclamation, intended to be 
publiffied after the capital ftiould have been in the poffef- 
fion of the infurgents. Nothing can afford a more de¬ 
cided proof of the fanguinary fentiments of the confpira¬ 
tors than this manifefto, in the hand-writing of John 
Sheares; of which curious document the following is an 
accurate copy and fac-fimile; 
Iri/hmen — 
