1

implacable resolve of that ambitious Statesman, ever since her rejection of his commercial propositions

in the public character allotted to the individual. The personal merits of Lord Hardwicke stand eminently conspicuous. But when he accepted of the Vice-royalty of Ireland, under the Administration of Mr. Addington, he stood before the public enveloped, not only with the mantle of royal authofity, but of personal responsibility for his proper management of the executive powers of government in Ireland. The patronage of the Crown of Ireland flowed immediately from him, as representing the person and executing the supreme will of the Sovereign. What confidence then could the Irish people repose in that Governor, who in the very outset of his Administration thought fit to bestow the valuable appointment of collectorship of the City of Dublin Excise upon Sir Richard Musgrave the notorious traducer of his country, falsifier of her history, and disturber of her peace. One of the last acts of Lord Cornwallis, was to apprize that Baronet, through Sir E. B. Littlehales, on the 24th March, 1801, "that had his Excellency been apprized of the contents and nature of the work, he would never have lent the sanction of his name " tó a book, which tends so strongly to revive the dreadful "animosities, which have so long distracted, this country, and "which it is the duty of every good subject to endeavour to "composé." One of the first acts of Lord Hardwicke's Government, was to reward this reviver of animosity by the appointment to a most valuable situation in the collection of the revenue. What are the obvious reflections upon this transaction? That the Baronet did the work of his task-masters; and though one of them squeamishly disclaimed his order, yet another in support of the system paid the wages of his contract, and permitted him to enlarge and extend by two editions that very work, which had been so formally de

nounced

He re

sitions in 1785. With this view he debauched Ireland, under the Duke of Rutland. established her dependance upon the British Minister through the Marquis of Buckingham.* He weakened her under the Earl of Westmoreland. He tantalized and taunted her by the transit of Earl Fitzwilliam. He exasperated her under the Earl of Camden. He debased her under Marquis Cornwallis. And by continuing the Earl of Hardwicke in his Government, he insidiously rivetted by pretending to lighten her fetters. To each governor he allotted his part. Lords Westmoreland and Camden he handed over without reserve or controul to his Irish managers those very men, whom he permitted on certain conditions to monopolize for a time the whole power of the State, under the insidious

pretext

nounced as tending to revive the dreadful animosities of the country, which it was the duty of every good subject to compose. To the public virtues of which of the three actors in this transaction does Ireland owe the most gratitude? The sincerity of the Marquis, the delicacy and justice of the Earl, or the patriotism of the Baronet ?

On the Gala given in Dublin upon the King's recovery, after that nobleman had regained his majority in parliament against the patriotic supporters of the Prince of Wales's right to an unfettered regency, he proposed, after the health of their Majesties had been drunk, not merely in priority to, but in exclusion to the Prince of Wales, the health of Mr. Pitt, the friend of Ireland !!!

Conduct

of the

the rebel

pretext of supporting Protestant ascendancy For this he allowed them to wear the vizor: he well knew the baseness of their servitude, and the mischief of their deeds. Lords Cornwallis and Hardwicke played Mr. Pitt's game as faithfully by curbing and chastening the pruriency and ferocity of the Orangeman, as Lord Camden had by permitting his managers to stimulate him to outrage.

The nature of this disquisition requires a faithOrange- ful outline, at least, of the more prominent feats men after of Orangemen, and of the understanding, which lion. subsisted between them and the Government during the interval between the close of the rebellion, and the birth of its forced and unnatural issue the Union. Veneris monumenta nefanda. When Mr. Pitt came to look closely down the precipice, to the verge of which he had forced this valuable portion of his Majesty's inheritance, he recoiled with horror at his own temerity, and insidiously enlarged the powers of the chief governor to any extent, which in his discretion he might find necessary to impress the

people

When Dr. M'Nevin was under examination of the Secret Committee, he answered a question put to him by Sir John Parnell, thus. "People agree, that if the insurrection of a "few counties in Leinster, unskilfully as it was directed, was "so near overthrowing the Government, a general rising "would have freed Ireland." (p. 77.)

people with a conviction, that a permanent inversion of the system was sincerely meant. Little anxious was he for the consequences of future disappointment and indignation of the people, provided the temporary deception answered his purpose of ensnaring them into the Union. Caution and tenderness were in the mean time strongly recommended not to drive the ascendancy party into revolt, but occasionally to bestow honors and rewards on some of their more violent leaders, should it be found necessary to keep them steady in their ranks, and above all to prevent desertion and disunion amongst the sub alterns sworn into their service by the oath of secrecy. To the effects of these instructions are to be ascribed the knighthood and pension conferred on Sir Thomas Judkin Fitzgerald, the Sheriff of Tipperary, against whom a jury had found £500 damages, for having flogged nearly to death a respectable gentleman, Mr. Wright,' merely for having in his pocket a note of excuse, written in the French language. Parliament, on the virtuous opposition of Mr. Yelverton, rejected his petition to be indemnified in that instance, but instantly passed an act to indemnify all Magistrates and officers prospectively, who should exceed the law in like cases. He was honoured and rewarded, as stated.

The

+ N. B. He is second cousin to Mr. Shaw, the member for

Dublin.

Orangism after the

was put down.

The keeping certain corps of Orange Yeorebellion manry on permanent duty for insufficient or worse reasons must be laid to the like account. Certain commanders of these corps, in the county of Tipperary fabricated, secreted, and discovered pikes in parts of the country, which were perfectly tranquil, in order that they might be in the receipt of their men's pay, who were all their tenants, and which they withheld for rent. Those same gentlemen were also in the uncontrouled habit of holding mock sessions over their bottle, after dinner, under the insurrection act, and sentencing without trial to transportation any of their neighbours they found troublesome or disagreeable, that were brought before them.* The patricide alone would suppress the crying enormity of orders systematically given to the different corps of yeomanry, into which, says

their advocate and encomiast, Sir Richard Musgrave," the loyal Orangemen were instantly "admitted, and of which they formed by far "the most considerable part." The feelings and. judgment of the reader are most specially summoned to be alive to every circumstance attending the deliberate and inhuman murder of Thomas Dogherty by Hugh Wollaghan..

Thomas

Rex v. White & Goring. B. R. Mich. 1800. Where these and many more outrageous doings of those Magistrates are proved by numerous affidavits filed in the cause.