r the discontents of the
people, and to repress those violent and illegal consequences of it, had
not only proved ineffectual, but had aggravated, to a most alarming
height, the mischiefs which they were sottishly expected to remedy. In
almost every part of the country the most extreme disorder prevailed. It
was not now a Volunteer Convention, consisting of men of known loyalty
and great stake in the country, meeting to petition for reform--it was
not now a Catholic Convention sitting in Dublin, pursuing open and
constitutional measures to obtain elective franchise, or a full
admission to the privileges of the constitution--it was not, I say,
such bodies as these that administration had to cope with. They had put
down those. Other more numerous and more dangerous difficulties were now
to be encountered. The populace of the country was now organized, and an
_imperium in imperio_ formed, which, from its privacy and the numbers of
which it consisted, was truly alarming. The professed objects of this
society, the most singular which perhaps had ever been formed in any
country, still continued what they originally were--Reform and
Emancipation. But papers were found which were supposed to prove, that
their designs were more dangerous and more extensive; and a letter from
a Mr. Tone, which clearly expressed a treasonable opinion respecting a
separation of the two countries was taken as full evidence that this was
the sentiment of the society at large, consisting, as was believed, of
not less than 600,000 men. Whatever might be _their_ real designs, it
was certain, that the conduct of the Orange-men of Armagh had been
successfully imitated by the peasantry in many parts of Ireland. The
plunder of arms was carried on systematically; the quantity taken was
known to be considerable; and in the proclaimed districts several
magistrates who had been active in transporting suspected persons, &c.
&c. had been assassinated.

In this critical moment, the best and wisest men in Ireland, gentlemen
possessed of the most extensive property in the country, and at the same
time of character above the slightest imputation of disaffection or
loyalty, urged on administration the necessity of changing that system
which had been found to produce such horrible effects. They urged, that
the great body of the nation was loyal--that even of the United Irishmen
the greater part wished only for the admission of the Catholics and
reform--and that to conc