"were not the defamers of themfelves, who "look abroad, and when a foreign Potentate hath established his power on the calamities. "of their country, applaud the event, and tell "us we should take every means to perpetuate "that power. "Hear me, over-ruling Heaven, (he goes on,) "and let not thefe, their defires, be ratified "above. Infuse a better spirit into these men; infpire even their minds with purer fenti"ments, this is my firft prayer. Or, if their "natures are not to be reformed, pursue them " even to deftruction. But to us difplay your goodness, in a speedy deliverance from im"pending evils, and in all the bleffings of pro"tection and tranquillity.*" *Demofthenes on the Crown-concluding words of the Oration, ESSAY REMARKS ON THE FIRST PRINTED PROPOSAL FOR THE IRISH UNION. How now, ye fecret, black, and midnight fiends, A DEED WITHOUT A NAME! May 28th, 1797. AFTER the statements contained in the late Reports of the Committees of both Houses of Parliament, it may, at firft view, appear unneceffary to call the attention of the public to any new remarks on the treason of the United Irishmen. There is, however, one point upon which it may not be impoffible to throw fome additional light; I mean the precife intention with which that Society was originally formed. On this head, the letter of Theobald Wolfe Tone, inferted in the Report of the Committee of the Commons, affords the moft ftriking, and, to minds not warped by prejudice, the most *The Reports here alluded to were those made in the last Seffion of the late Parliament. conclufive evidence. But there is another important document which does not appear to have come before the Committee, and which is, if poffible, ftill more demonftrative of the primary defign of the IRISH UNION. To Tone's letter it might, perhaps, be objected, that being not intended for publication, but merely to be communicated to a few confidential friends, it fhews the fentiments of a private perfon, rather than evinces the principles upon which the fociety of United Irishmen was actually founded. But the paper to which I refer comes forward under different circumftances. It is not the mere correfpondence of an individual with a junto of his political intimates; it is a moft elaborate memoir, compofed with every aid of fancy, and every artifice of language, for the exprefs purpose of circulation. It is, in a word, a complete, well-digefted statement of the principles and views of the intended inftitution; drawn up not only for the information of those who were already friendly to fuch a defign, but in fuch a manner as infallibly to recommend it to all the perturbed and profligate fpirits in the community. The date of this memoir* feems to be nearly *This paper has been inferted in the Appendix of the late Report of the Commons, of which it forms the third number. the the fame with that of Tone's letter. It appeared in Dublin in the month of June, 1791, was closely printed on a quarto fheet, (of which it occupied nearly three pages and an half,) and was handed about in the form of a circular letter, with indefatigable affiduity. Its peculiar ftyle, marked throughout with that turbulent and gloomy rhetoric which had distinguished the well-known Helot's Letters, made it fcarcely poffible to doubt, that the fame hand which had formerly been bufied in ftimulating the Ulfter Volunteers, was now employed to diffuse, through the kingdom at large, a better concocted and far more deadly poifon. I cannot help requesting my readers to give clofe attention to the quotations which I shall make from this extraordinary compofition. They will be found to illuftrate the primary idea and fpirit of the Irish Union with a clearness, of which all expreffions but thofe of the memoir itfelf would fall infinitely fhort; and I hesitate not to add that they will enable every man of common understanding to determine at once, whether the firft defign of the inftitution was limited to a temperate reform of abuses, or whether, on the contrary, it did not imply as defperate a fyftem of Revolutionary Treafon as ever was fuggested by profligate ingenuity. It begins thus: "It is propofed, that, at this juncture, a fociety fhould be inftituted, hav ing much of the fecrecy, and fomewhat of the "ceremonial, attached to Freemasonry; with fo "much fecrecy, as may communicate curiofity, "uncertainty, and expectation, to the minds of furrounding men; with fo much impressive and affecting ceremony, in all its internal œconomy, as, without impeding real business, may ftrike "the foul, through the fenfes, and, addreffing "the whole man, may animate his philosophy by the energy of his paffions. 66 66 Secrecy is expedient and necessary: it will "make the band of union more cobefive, and "the fpirit of that union more ardent and more "condenfed. It will invelope this denfe flame "with a cloud of GLOOMY AMBIGUITY, that "will both facilitate its own agency, and, at the "fame time, confound and terrify its enemies by "their ignorance of the defign, the extent, the "direction, and the confequences: it will throw a "veil over thofe individuals whose professional 66 prudence might make them wish to lie con"cealed until a manifeftation of themselves be"come abfolutely necessary.*" Now *The refemblance between this plan for the Irish Union, and Weishaupt's project of the German Union, is so close as almost |