The Enquirer

VIEWS OF IRISH AFFAIRS.

[In the following Extract from the Rev. James Gordon's "History of the Civil War in Ireland," the reader will have a view of the Society of the United Irishmen, of some of the instruments which they employed, and the arguments which they so forcibly addressed to the feelings of the people. We may throw into a small compass the rise and objects of this memorable body, as they have been sketched out by the reverend author.]

At the close of the American war, the combined fleets of France and Spain were riding triumphant in the Irish Channel, and the shores of Ireland, then destitute of any military force for defence, were every moment threatened with a formidable invasion. In this perilous situation, the British ministry advised her inhabitants to take up arms and defend themselves to the utmost of their power. The spirit of the people eagerly accepted of the invitation; and one hundred thousand volunteers instantly appeared, self-clothed & self-accoutred. After having awed their external enemies into inactivity, they began to turn their eyes towards the oppressions of their internal policy. With arms in their hands, they demanded a redress of their grievances; and in the year 1782, the national legislature was declared independent of Great Britain. What was granted, not from humanity or justice but from fear, was soon rescinded or diluted by the policy of the British ministry. They contrived to bring about as soon as possible, the dissolution of these voluntary associations; they attempted to break down the union of national sentiment by every art of cajoling or corruption, and in 1784, the British parliament went the full length of annihilating the independence so lately extorted, and imposed new restrictions on their trade & manufactures. The indignation of the Irish at this treacherous proceeding, at length suggested to some more daring minds the necessity of embracing a wider sphere of political freedom.

A provincial assembly was instantly convened at Dungannon, consisting of the representatives of 143 volunteer corps, who designed among other objects to plan and petition for a more equal representation of the commons in parliament. This meeting at length swelled in 1783 into a national assembly composed of delegates from the several counties, and held in Dublin under the name of the "grand convention." The project however failed, owing as it is said to the antipathies of the three religious sects; the protestants, protestant dissenters and Roman Catholics. It would be useless to pursue these plans through all their combinations. It is sufficient to say, that they were all finally merged in the more general and deeply planned association of the United Irishmen which rose first in Belfast, and was instituted in Dublin in the month of November 1791. Of this celebrated society it was the earliest wish to combine into one political phalanx as many as possible of their countrymen, without any distinction of sect, and to attach to them the persecuted Catholics, who were supposed to constitute a majority of the nation. The organization of the Society of United Irishmen, which for some time was quite of a civil nature, is represented as having commenced in the Spring of 1792, and as having been completed in Ulster on the tenth of May, 1795. In the Autumn of the following year, when a reform of parliament, the ostensible wish of all, and with some the real object, was regarded as not otherwise attainable than by force, the association began to assume a military form; and in April, 1797, the number of men in Ulster alone, enrolled for insurrection, was, beside others doubtless ready to assist them, stated at nearly a hundred thousand, provided, some with fire-arms, others with pikes, a store of ammunition, and some cannon. The organization was reformed in August the same year; but to specify the several changes, appears unnecessary, and to give briefly the general outline of the system, sufficient.

The Association consisted of a multitude of Societies, linked closely together, and ascending in gradation, like the component parts of a pyramid or cone, to a common apex or point of union. The lowest or simple societies consisted each originally of thirty-six, afterwards at most of only twelve men, as nearly as possible of the same neighbourhood, that they might be mutually under the inspection one of another. An assembly of five Secretaries, severally elected by five simple societies, formed a lower baronial committee, which had the immediate superintendence and management of these five societies. Ten delegates, elected one from each of ten lower baronials, composed an upper baronial committee, which in like manner directed the business of these ten lower committees. With the same superintendence over their constituent assemblies, delegates from the upper baronials, one deputed from each, formed in the counties, county committees, and in populous towns, district committees : also the provincial committees, one for each of the four provinces, were composed of delegates from the district and county committees, two from each. For the votes three, when the extent and population of the district seemed to require a more numerous representation. The supreme and uncontrolled command of the whole Association was committed to a general Executive Directory, composed of five persons, known to all excepting the four secretaries of the lower committee; for they were elected by ballot in these committees, the secretaries of which alone examined the ballots and notified the election to none except the persons themselves on whom it fell. The orders of this hidden directing power were conveyed through the whole organized body by not easily discoverable chains of communication. By one member only of the Directory were carried the mandates to one member of each provincial committee, by the latter severally to the secretaries of the district and county committees in the province, by these secretaries to those of the upper baronials, and thus down through the lower baronial to the simple societies.

The military organization was grafted on the civil of this artfully framed union. The secretary of each of the simple societies was its non-commissioned officer, serjeant, or corporal : the delegate of five simple societies to a lower baronial committee, was commonly captain over these five, that is, of a company of sixty men : and the delegate of ten lower baronials to an upper or district committee, was generally colonel, or commander of a battalion of six hundred men, composed of the fifty simple societies; under the superintendence of this upper committee. The Colonels of battalions in each county, sent in the names of three persons, to the Executive Directory of the union, one of whom was appointed by them Adjutant-General of the county, whose duty it was to receive and communicate military orders from the executive to the Colonels of battalions, and in general to act as officer of the revolutionary staff. They were required to inform themselves of, and report the state of the united regiments within their respective districts, of the number of mills, the roads, rivers, bridges, and fords, the military positions, the capacity of the towns and villages to receive troops, to communicate to the executive every movement of the enemy (meaning the king's troops) to announce the first appearance of their allies, (meaning the French,) and immediately to collect their force.

To complete the scheme of warlike preparation, a military committee, instituted in the beginning of the year 1798, and appointed by the Directory, had its task assigned to contrive plans for the direction of the national force, either for the purposes of unaided rebellion, or co-operation with an invading French army, as occasion should require. Orders were issued that the members of the union should furnish themselves, where their circumstances allowed it, with fire-arms, where not, with pikes. To form a pecuniary fund for the various expenses of this great revolutionary machine, monthly subscriptions, according to the zeal and ability of the subscribers, were collected in the several societies, and treasurers appointed by suffrage for their collection and disbursement. From this fund were supplied the demands of the emissaries commissioned to extend the union. Of these, considerable numbers were dispatched into the southern and western counties, in the beginning and course of 1797, where, though many had been sworn into the union, little progress for the effectual promotion of the system had been made before the Autumn of 1796; and so little was made for some time after, that in May, 1797, at the eve of an intended insurrection, the strength of the association lay, exclusive of Ulster, chiefly in the metropolis and the neighbouring counties of Dublin, Kildare, Meath, Westmeath, and King's county. This body of political missionaries, received instructions to work on the passions, the prejudices, and feelings of those to whom they should address themselves.

The lower classes were informed, that, by a revolution, which, in the establishment of a republican system of government, would give universal suffrage and equal rights, their condition would be exalted and rendered far more comfortable; that their industry was now too fatally checked by discontents, and stifled by a load of oppressions; that all improvements were thwarted by the covetousness of landlords, and the exactions of the clergy : and that their present government, did not sufficiently counteract these checks but were satisfied with sacrificing the good of the nation to their own private interests. Such certainly is the deplorable condition in which Ireland stands with respect to agriculture. The first means by which every civilized nation exerts the industry of its inhabitants, and provides for their wants, is thus neglected. That duty of providing food and clothing, with the other ordinary conveniences of life, which is known that every government owes to its subjects, is left undischarged. Instead of fulfilling the higher duties of advancing the nation to a state of true felicity, by education, virtue, and real piety, it stops short in the very threshold, by leaving them unprovided with the necessaries of life.

As from the exorbitant rents at which the lands of Ireland are in general set, on account of the great monopolies of land, entails, settlements, and bad customs, the payment of tithes, which are so unfortunately modified as to rest their weight almost exclusively on tillage, appears to the cottager, (exhausted by the demands of their landlord, and the services and douceurs exacted by his landlord's agent,) an almost intolerable grievance ; the agitators of revolution spoke most forcibly to the feelings of the peasantry on that subject, particularly in the counties of the South, where the discontent, on this account, is greatest, representing the establishment of a commonwealth to include, by necessary consequence, the total abolition of this hated species of rent. A rent, exacted to support accustomed luxury in the richer country, by wresting to the last farthing, from the hard labour of a wretched and dependent tenantry, whose calamitous appearance, (enough to send horror to the soul of humanity,) is unnoticed in the general view of misery and distress which Ireland exhibits as a singular and melancholy spectacle to the world. Such are the men who detest the simple kind that cultivates their lands, and who calumniate to other countries, the subdued and crawling peasant of their own, whose ears are to be gratified, whose hearts are cheerfully delighted, by a defamatory, rancorous and indiscriminate reviling of their countrymen; calumnies, that if directed against their fellow-natives, would excite horror and indignation in the breasts of the gentry of any other country in Europe or perhaps on the globe.

It has been too common a foible with some of this class of gentry to aim at equal splendour and expense with their superiors in fortune. Such men, before being aware of their situation, have incautiously expended largely above their incomes. A system of such careless dissipation, and extravagant squandering, must destroy the most ample resources; and men, long in the habit of indulging those propensities, and finding their means abridged, and themselves deeply involved, have still an aching reluctance to give up any share of their ideal consequence. Instead therefore of resorting to any rational plan of economy, they endeavour to get within the circle of some lord or great man, supposed to be possessed of extensive patronage. They court his smiles, and if their efforts are crowned with any degree of success, they instantly conclude, that all their misapplied expenditure must be amply reimbursed by this very often empty speculation. They count upon places and employments, of great emolument, for themselves and their children; and thus they abandon all idea of the certain pursuits of industry, trade and honourable profession : they launch into the lottery of patronage, and yield up their spirit of independence, and all their actions, (out of the circle of their families) to the utter control and directing will of their adopted patron. It is presumed, that any person acquainted with the state of Ireland, must perceive that this system has unfortunately been but too largely pursued, and too much acted upon ; and it is also pretty notorious, that the country has been, for some time past, what is not unaptly termed Lord-ridden. Slaves to their superiors, but tyrants to their inferiors ; these needy adventurers become the tools of prevailing power. Justices of the peace are selected from this class, and these, by thus degree of elevation, (certainly to them the station is an exalted one) think themselves raised to a level of equality with the most respectable gentlemen in the country. But their ignorance is so preposterous, and their behaviour, so alarming, that men of education, talents and fortune, are induced to withhold themselves from a station they would otherwise grace as it might oblige them to confer with wretches with whom they would not by any means hold communion or keep company. Thus are the very men who ought to be in the magistracy of the county, and who would cheerfully accept the office, were there to associate with proper companions in duty, deterred from holding commissions of the peace; while the justice, and peace of the community, is let to ignorant, presuming and intemperate upstarts, devoid of all qualification and employment, except that alone, if it may be termed such, of unconditional submission and obedience to the controlling nod of their boasted patrons. If they faithfully adhere to this, they may go all lengths in violence and outrage to raise their consequence, and enhance their estimation in striking terror into the multitude. These creatures have therefore the effrontery to push themselves forward on every occasion : and, after a series of habitual acts of turpitude, whenever an opportunity offers itself, they become the scourges and fire-brands of the country. It is much to be lamented, that there are but too many examples of this melancholy truth, and that, in too many instances, these wretches have been set out to commit flagrant acts of outrage, to answer the political purposes of their patrons, who shrink from appearing personally concerned in these deeds of shame. On such occasions, from behind the curtain, the hireling crew are sent out to riot on the public stage, and dreadful are the consequences that follow ; while the vile understrappers are utterly ignorant of the cause, and never question the motive of their subordination.

As the emissaries of the Union interested the feelings of the peasantry with respect to rents and tithes so also they endeavoured to prejudice the opinions of the laity in general, against the hierarchy, and other parts of the ecclesiastical establishment. They represented, that, while the revenues of the Irish prelates amounted collectively to above eighty thousand pounds a year, besides immense sums levied as fines on the leases of their lands ; and while the revenues of chapters, and parochial clergy, amounted to near a million of pounds annually, the vast expenses of this establishment were useless for the purposes of religion, or the encouragement or support of literature ; since preferments were given solely from temporal or political motives, without regard to moral character or literary merit; and since the religious offices of the church were performed for about sixty thousand pounds a year, by a number of curates, who labour in penury and consequent contempt, for salaries, which, compared to the revenues of the prelates, demonstrated a scandalous inequality, inversely proportionate to the utility of their employments.

Though the liberty of the press had been circumscribed much by the precautions of the legislature, means were found still to employ this engine to the augmentation of the popular discontent and disposition to subvert the established government. Two papers, called the Northern Star and the Press, were printed in succession for that purpose, and industriously circulated. The former, instituted at Belfast, in the summer of 1797, was not suppressed otherwise than simply by an act of military execution; a party of soldiers taking possession of the printing-office and destroying the types: the latter, established in Dublin toward the close of the same year, and afterwards, (in consequence of a new law,) published under the guidance of Mr. O'Connor, as the person responsible for its contents, who is now known to have been then a member of the Irish directory, was interdicted by another act of parliament, which has confined the liberty of printing and publishing within very narrow limits.

Another paper, the Union Star, appeared at regular periods, and was printed on one side of the paper to fit it for being pasted on walls, and frequently second editions were published of the same numbers. It chiefly consisted of names, and abusive characters, of persons supposed to have been informers against United Irishmen, or active opposers of their designs; and to such lists were generally added the most furious exhortations to the populace to rise and take vengeance on their oppressors. To shew the spirit of this paper, privately printed, and industriously circulated, the following extract may be sufficient : "Let the indignation of man be raised against the impious wretch who profanely assumes the title of reigning by the grace of God, and impudently tells the world he can do no wrong!--Irishmen! Is granting a patent, and offering premiums to murderers, to depopulate your country, and take away your properties, no wrong? Is the foreign despot incapable of wrong, who sharpens the sword that deprives you of life, and exposes your children to poverty and all its consequent calamities? Oh, man: or rather less, O king: will the smothered groans of my countrymen who in thy name fill the innumerable dungeons you have made, for asserting their just rights, be considered no wrong? Will enlightened Irishmen believe you incapable of wrong, who offer up the most amiable of mankind daily on the scaffold, or the gibbet, to thy insatiable ambition? Is burning the villages of what you call your people, and shooting the trembling sufferers, no wrong? Are the continual wars you engender and provoke to destroy mankind, no wrong? Go, in pious blasphemer, and your hypocritical sorcerers, to the fate, justice, and liberty consign thee. Ere the grave embosoms thee, make one atonement for the vices of thy predecessors; resist not the claims of a people reduced to every misery; in thy name give back the properties that thy nation wrested from a suffering people; and let the descendants of those English intruders, restore to Irishmen their country, and to their country liberty: 'tis rather late to trifle; one fortunate breeze may do it; and then, woe to him who was a tyrant, or who is unjust!"

Such were the addresses and declarations, with which this paper was daily teeming. It particularly poured forth the distresses of the Catholic body, and taught them to be more discontented with the existing government of the country. But this lesson had been long fully learnt : or no Roman province, no colony in the East or West, no dependency of ancient Lacedaemon or Athens, no ally of modern France, were ever so keenly and systematically fleeced and pillaged than these unhappy people. Every thing was made a pretext for plunder. They struggled for liberty under Charles I. and were plundered. They struggled for royalty against the rebellion, and were plundered. They fought for James II. and were plundered. The robberies of the rebellion were legalized at the restoration. The robberies of the revolution were secured by a long and grievous train of pains, penalties, and disabilities, too weighty for any people to stir under. English adventurers, Scotch adventurers, Dutch adventurers, were let loose to fatten at their expense, and their fairest possessions were torn from the owners to enrich pimps, parasites, minions, generals, state-creditors and land-surveyors. The framers of the union, therefore, studied how to rouse them to a resistance of the humiliated and degraded condition to which they were reduced.

The catholics were soon roused; for the poorest of them are neither so ignorant, as not to know that the punishments of their ancestors are entailed on their posterity, or so unfeeling as not to smart under a sense of such injustice. They have in every contest, both foreign and domestic, proved themselves a brave and warlike people. They may be slaughtered or dispersed in the field of battle, but their spirit can never be tamed. Their minds are capable of being wound up to the highest pitch of fortitude ; and their bodies, are hardy, robust, and equal to the greatest fatigue. For this reason, the Irish have always succeeded to admiration in every country where military boldness has been looked for. They are gifted with that surprising character, which disregards all obstacles, or only considers them as so many incentives to exertion.