leagues left the Irish
House to its inhumanity and its fate.

In the autumn of this year, 1797, Mr. Orr, of Antrim, was tried and
executed, on a charge of administering the oath of the United Irishmen
to a soldier. This gentleman was a person of high character and
respectability. He solemnly protested his innocence; the soldier, stung
with remorse, swore before a magistrate that the testimony he gave at
the trial was false. Petitions were at once sent in, praying for the
release of the prisoner, but in vain; he was executed on the 14th of
October, though no one doubted his innocence; and "Orr's fate" became a
watchword of and an incitement to rebellion. Several of the jury made a
solemn oath after the trial that, when locked up for the night to
"consider" their verdict, they were supplied abundantly with
intoxicating drinks, and informed one and all, that, if they did not
give the required verdict of guilty, they should themselves be
prosecuted as United Irishmen. Mr. Orr was offered his life and liberty
again and again if he would admit his guilt; his wife and four young
children added their tears and entreaties to the persuasions of his
friends; but he preferred truth and honour to life and freedom. His end
was worthy of his resolution. On the scaffold he turned to his faithful
attendant, and asked him to remove his watch, as he should need it no
more. Mr. Orr was a sincere Protestant; his servant was a Catholic. His
last words are happily still on record. He showed the world how a
Protestant patriot could die; and that the more sincere and deep his
piety, the less likely he would be to indulge in fanatical hatred of
those who differed from him. "You, my friend," he said to his weeping
and devoted servant--"you, my friend, and I must now part. Our stations
here on earth have been a little different, and our mode of worshipping
the Almighty Being that we both adore. Before His presence we shall
stand equal. Farewell! Remember Orr!"[576]

Alas! there was more to remember than the fate of this noble victim to
legal injustice. I have before alluded to that strange phenomenon of
human nature, by which men, who, at least, appear to be educated and
refined, can, under certain circumstances, become bloodthirsty and
cruel. The demon enters into the man, and make him tenfold more
demoniacal than himself. But fearful as the deeds of officers and men
have been in India, where the unhappy natives were shattered to atoms
from the