asylum to those, who, on account of their principal share in these criminal transactions, have become fugitives or outlaws from the British dominions.

In stating the grounds of this opinion, although your Committee will have much and important new matter to lay before the House; yet they will also be obliged to recall to the recollection of the House, many particulars which have already been brought under the consideration of parliament, but on which new lights have been thrown by the events which have since occurred, and by the subsequent intelligence which has been received. The information which has been produced to your Committee, on the whole of this subject, has been most ample and extensive. The indispensable necessity of secrecy, with respect to the sources of many parts of that intelligence, must be felt by the House, as resulting from considerations of good faith as well as public safety. They are convinced, that the early and uniform defeat of all at tempts to disturb the public tranquillity of this kingdom, is, in a very great degree, to be ascribed to the meritorious and laudable dili gence of the persons filling those departments of his majesty's government to which this duty has peculiarly belonged. They appear, during a long period of time, to have obtained early and accurate information of the chief designs and measures of the conspirators; and the striking manner in which the most important particulars of the secret intelligence thus procured, have, in a great variety of instances, been completely confirmed by events now notorious to the world, and by the confession of parties concerned, entitles, in the opinion of your Committee, the whole of the information derived from the same sources, to the fullest credit.

Sect. 1.-View of the Nature and System of the Society of United Irishmen, as fully established in Ireland.

Your Committee are induced, in the first instance, to state the nature, extent, and influence, of the Society of United Irishmen; because this society has proved the most powerful engine, in the hands of conspirators, against the government of their country, which has ever yet been devised; and because its proceedings place, in the clearest view, the real object of all societies of this description, either in Ireland or Great Britain; the peculiar means by which they aet; and the extreme danger which such societies must produce, whenever they are fully established. It is this which has given exertion, consistency, solidity, and force, to the Irish rebellion; which has enabled the conspirators to form themselves, under the eye and in defiance of government, into one body, compacted by one bond of union, under an oath of fidelity and secrecy; engaging themselves, in the first instance, to misprision of treason,

and, successively, to the perpetration of the most atrocious crimes. This society, thus united and combined, extended itself, by its subdivisions, through every part of the kings dom; and was enabled to involve, in one general confederacy, a very numerous description of individuals of almost every class, connected with each other by a pledge of secrecy, by consciousness of guilt, and by the sense of personal danger, either from the violated laws of their country, or from the resentment and power of their associates. These bonds of union were strengthened by the use of secret signs, frequently changed, and applied to different ranks in the conspiracy; for the purpose of preventing discovery.

The system thus established, gradually acquired the means of disturbing the tranquillity of the country in all its parts; of impeding the execution of justice, by forcible resistance to the authority of the laws; by the protection of accused persons; by the rescue of prisoners; the seizure of arms; and, at length, by the assassination of informers, of witnesses, of magistrates, and of jurymen; till, by the general terror which was diffused, the loyal inhabitants in different counties were successively driven into the towns, or compelled wholly to quit the kingdom. At the head of this extensive conspiracy was placed a committee, terming itself An Executive Directory,' extending its influence and power over the disaffected, through every part of the kingdom, by Provincial and Baronial committees;' through whom, and by the mission of itinerant delegates over the country, a universal correspondence was established, between this Executive Directory and all the subordinate powers and members of this system. An intercourse was maintained, in the name of the whole, with individuals and societies in this country, as well as with the governments of his majesty's enemies; and the conspirators were thus enabled to conceal, or display, their numbers at will; and, consequently, to magnify their power, or to hide their weakness; to circulate, with rapidity and effect, the most atrocious calumnies against his majesty's person and government, and against all descriptions and bodies of men, whom they thought it their interest to vilify; to raise contributions, extorted frequently even from those who had not become members of their union; to procure, disperse, and conceal arms, ammunition, and artillery; to collect military information; and, finally, to raise an army, formed of all those among them capable of bearing arms, and placed under the command of officers, in military divisions, corresponding with those established for the general purposes of the conspiracy.

It is material to state, in detail, the forma tion of the different branches of this system, in order to compare it with the institutions of a similar nature, which have been since formed in Great Britain, and which will be

hereafter mentioned. Each of the inferior societies consisted, according to their original institution, of thirty-six members; which nuinber was afterwards reduced to twelve. These twelve chose a secretary and treasurer; and the secretaries of five of these societies formed what was called A Lower Baronial Committee;' which had the immediate direction and superintendance of those five societies. From each Lower Baronial Committee, thus constituted, one member was delegated to an Upper Baronial Committee;' which in like manner, assumed and exercised the superintendance and direction of the Lower Baronial Committees in the respective counties. The next superior committees were in populous towns, distinguished by the name of District Committees,' and in counties, by the name of 'County Committees ;' and were composed of members delegated by the Upper Baronial Committees, each Upper Baronial Committee delegating one of its members to the District or County Committee; and the District or County Committees had the superintendance and direction of the Upper Baronial Committees. Having thus organized' (as it is termed) the several counties and populous towns, a committee, called A Subordinate Directory,' was erected in each of the four provinces of Ulster, Leinster, Munster, and Connaught, composed of two members or three, according to the extent and population of the districts which they represented; who were delegated to a Provincial Committee, which held the immediate direction and superintendance of the several County and District Committees in each of the four provinces; and a General Executive Directory,' composed of five persons, was elected by the Provincial Directories; but the election of this Directory was so managed, that none but the secretaries of the Provincial Directories knew on whom the election fell. It was made by ballot, but not reported to the electors; the appointment was notified only to those on whom the election devolved; and the Executive Directory, thus composed, assumed and exercised the supreme and uncontrolled command of the whole body of the union, which, by these secret modes of election, was kept utterly ignorant who were the persons to whom this implicit obedience was paid. Sect. 2.-Institution of United Irishmen in 1791; and rise of different Societies in Great Britain.

For the purpose of obtaining a comprehensive view of the attempts which have been repeatedly made, in the course of the last eight years, for establishing a similar system in this country, and of the means by which they have been hitherto defeated, as well as in order to enable the House to judge fully of the perseverance with which the system is pur

Report of Secret Committee of House of Lords of Ireland, August 17, 1798,

sued, and of the nature and tendency of the measures which are carrying on at the present moment, your Committee deem it necessary before they advert to more recent transactions, to go back to that period, when societies of this tendency first appeared in both kingdoms, and to trace as shortly as they can, their progress and intercourse to the present time.

The society of United Irishmen, was established in the year 1791; and other societies in Great Britain, particularly the Constitutional society (which had long existed, but about this time assumed a new character) the Corresponding society (which was instituted in the spring of 1792) and the societies of persons in Scotland terming themselves The Friends of the People,' (which originated at nearly the same period) appear to have adopted, in their fullest extent, all the extravagant and violent principles of the French revolution. The events which followed, in the course of that year and the year 1792, encouraged among the leading members of these societies, and other persons of similar princi. ples, a sanguine hope of introducing, into both countries (under pretence of the reform of abuses) what they termed, a new order of things,' founded on the principles of that revolution. The degree of bigotry and enthusiasm with which they attached themselves to these principles, was manifested, as well by the speeches and writings of the members of the societies, as by the zeal with which they laboured to propagate, among the lower classes of the community, a spirit of hatred and contempt for the existing laws and government of the country.

It can hardly be necessary to recall to the recollection of the House, the industry with which they endeavoured to disseminate these sentiments by the circulation of their own proceedings and resolutions; uniformly directed to vilify the forms and principles of the British constitution; to represent the people of this country as groaning under intolerable oppression; to eradicate all religious principle; and to recommend a recurrence to expeperiments of desperate innovation similar to those which were at that time adopted in France. For the same purpose, the works of Paine, and other seditious and impious publications, were distributed, throughout almost every part of the kingdom, with an activity and profusion beyond all former example.

So confident were the societies of the efficacy of these measures, that they appear almost universally to have looked forward from the beginning, to the entire overthrow of every existing establishment in these kingdoms, and to the creation of some democra tical form of government; either by uniting the whole of the British empire into one republic, or by dividing it into two or more republics. The conspirators in Ireland, unquestionably, always meditated the complete separation of that country from Great Britain: all, however, considered themselves as en

gaged in one common cause, as far as related to the destruction of the existing constitution; all looked to the success of the disaffected in each country as forwarding their common views; and each was ready, to support the other in any resistance to the lawful government; a frequent intercourse among them was therefore considered as important to their ends; and they all invited, or expected, the countenance and aid of France.

The attempts made in the beginning of this conspiracy, to disguise the real objects under false pretences, which ought at no time to have imposed even on superficial observers, have long since been abandoned. Subsequent transactions have not merely shown the extremes to which the nature and principles of these societies naturally led, but have completely unveiled the original and settled designs of the persons chiefly concerned in them. Your Committee beg leave, in this place, to refer the House to his Majesty's proclamation of the year 1792, and the several addresses of both Houses of Parliament thereupon; to the reports of the Committees of Parliament in this kingdom and in Ireland; and to the different trials for treason and sedition in both kingdoms. And they are confident, that an attentive examination of those documents can leave no doubt in the opinion of the House (even on the circumstances known at that early period) respecting the real nature and extent of the original conspiracy.

Sect. 3.-First open Attempt in Scotland.

The groundwork having been thus laid in each kingdom, the first public attempt, which was openly directed to the object of overthrowing the government, and effecting a revolution, was made in Scotland; under circumstances, which even then evidently marked the connexion between the disaffected throughout his Majesty's dominions An assembly, styling itself, " A General Convention of Delegates from the Societies of the Friends of the People throughout Scotland," met at Edinburgh on the 11th of December 1792. Thomas Muir, a leading member of this assembly, endeavoured to prevail upon its members, at one of their meetings, to receive, and answer, a paper, intituled, "An Address from the Society of United Irishmen in Dublin to the Delegates for promoting a Reform in Scotland;" dated the 23d of November

* Proclamation and Addresses, 1792; Lords' Report, 1794; Commons' Report, May, 1794 ditto, ditto, June, 1794; Irish Lords Report, 1798; Commons ditto, 1798. Trial of Muir, Skirving, Margarot, Gerald, Palmer, and others, for sedition in Scotland in 1793 and 1794; of Watt and Downie for treason in Scotland in 1794; of Hardy and others for treason in 1794; of Redhead al. Yorke for sedition in 1795; of Stone for treason in 1796.

1792; and set forth in the Appendix (No. 1), in which the united Irish address the Scotch delegates, in what they term "the spirit of civic union, in the fellowship of a just and common cause;" and rejoiced, "that the Scotch did not consider themselves as merged and melted down into another country:" but that in the great national question to which the address alluded, "they were still Scotland." They added, "that the cause of the United Irish, was also the cause of the Scotch delegates;" that " universal emancipation, with representative legislature, was the polar principle which guided the society of United Irishmen;" that their end was "a national legislature, their means, a union of the whole people." And they recommended assembling the people in each country in, what they term, 66 peaceable and constitutional convention;" the object of which they attempted to disguise by the pretence of reform and petition to parliament. Several members of the Scotch Convention appear to have been alarmed at the language of this address, and notwithstanding the efforts of Muir, no answer was sent; and the meeting adjourned to April 1793. The conduct of Muir, in this assembly, formed part of the charge of sedition, upon which he was afterwards tried and found guilty. His zeal, however, recommended him to the conspirators in Ireland; and on the 11th of January 1793, he became a member of the Society of United Irishmen of Dublin. He was absent in France at the time of the second meeting of the Scotch Convention, which assembled in April 1793, and again adjourned itself to the 29th of October following; when it met a third time at Edinburgh, after the trial of Muir, who was convicted and sentenced for transportation in August 1793. It is well known, that he afterwards escaped from the place of his transportation, and has recently resided in France, pursuing a conduct marked by the most inveterate hostility to his country.

*This meeting of the Scotch Convention in October 1793, appears to have been held in concert with several societies in England, and particularly the Constitutional Society and the London Corresponding Society, already mentioned. Ihese societies afterwards sent delegates to the Scotch Convention; the terms of whose instructions demonstrate the dangerous views of those who sent them.

Hamilton Rowan, a member of the Society of United Irishmen of Dublin (now a fugitive from Ireland, and attainted of high treason), and the hon. Simon Butler (likewise a member of the Society of United Irishmen) attended this meeting; and Hamilton Rowan had previously been solicited, by letter from Scotland, on the subject of sending delegates from Ireland to the Convention. It does not appear, however, that these persons bore the

* Report of the Secret Committee of House of Commons, June 1794,

ceeding from town to town, and from village to village, endeavouring to inculcate into the minds of those with whom they conversed, the necessity of such a measure, as that which they had in contemplation, for the reform of the abuses of the government, and the redress of the grievances of the people; and describing, in language varied according to the passions or prejudices of different classes whom they addressed, the nature and extent of the different political purposes, which might be effected by a convention, once assembled. The dispersion of Paine's works, and other works of a similar tendency, was at the same time continued with increased industry; and, the societies flattered themselves that they had, by these means, really made a progress towards preparing a large portion of the na tion to favour their project.

virtue." In January following, at the eve of the murder of the French king, and of the commencement of hostilities against this country, Barrere, Roland, and St. André, active members of the French Convention, had been elected honorary members of the Constitutional Society: and two speeches made by Barrere and St. André, delivered for the express purpose of accelerating the condemnation and execution of the king, asserting the doctrines of the sovereignty of the people, and deducing, as its consequence, the unlimited rights of a National Convention, and the personal responsibility of the monarch, were entered on the books of the Constitutional Society; and the resolution for this purpose was published in the newspapers. Actuated by these principles, the English societies persevered in their design; and notwithstanding the dispersion of the meeting at Edinburgh, which had assumed the appellation of "The British Convention," proceeded on a plan, which they had long had in contemplation, for assembling, in England, a similar but more extensive meeting, under the appellation of " A Convention of the People." At a general meeting of the Corresponding Society, held at the Globe tavern, on the 20th January 1794, a resolution and address to the people of England were agreed to, and ordered to be published; expressly directed to the object of assembling a general convention of the people. At another general meeting of the same society, held at Chalk Farm, on the 14th of April 1794, among a variety of inflammatory resolutions, they declared, that the whole proceedings of the late British convention at Edinburgh, claimed their approbation and applause. They, at the same time, returned thanks to Archibald Hamilton Rowan, prisoner in Newgate, in the city of Dublin (who had in March 1794, been chosen an honorary member of the Constitutional Society), as well as to the Society of United Irishmen in Dublin, whom they exhorted to persevere in their exertions to obtain justice for the people of Ireland. The language held on different occasions evidently showed their intention of endeavouring to establish, by force, the authority of such a convention. They exhorted each other "To prepare courageously for the struggle which they meditated;" and openly avowed that they meant to obtain the redress, which they professed to seek, not from parliament, not from the executive government, but from themselves, and from their own strength and valour; from their own laws, and not from the laws of those whom they termed their plunderers, enemies and oppressors." For the purpose of assembling such a convention, and of preparing the people at large to look to its proceedings with respect, and to adopt and countenance the doctrine and practices which it might recommend, itinerant members of the societies above-mentioned, dispersed themselves throughout different parts of the country, pro

The zeal, indeed, of many of the country societies appears to have outrun the instructions of the agents, and to have carried them into discussions, beyond those limits which the persons who planned and instigated the measure, thought it prudent in the first instance to prescribe. The agents were instructed to confine the views of the several societies to whom they were deputed, and to point the wishes of individuals purely to the attainment of universal suffrage, from which, once established, it was represented that all the reforms which could be desired would naturally flow; and it appears to have been the design of those who directed the business, to prevent the premature discussion of any of those points, which they represented as subordinate, untiĺ after the convention should have been assembled, and this primary object of universal suffrage obtained. No caution or prohibition, however, could prevent many of the country societies from showing how confidently they anticipated, as the result to which the deliberations of that convention must necessarily lead, the abolition of monarchy, of aristocracy, and of other establishments, which they deemed equally oppressive; and the substitution of a representative government, founded on the new doctrine of the rights of man; and uniting, in one body, all the legislative and executive powers of the state.

This intended convention was prevented from assembling by the arrest of the secretaries, and of several members of the two societies, called, The London Corresponding Society,' and The Constitutional Society.' The secretaries and leading members of the societies at Sheffield and Norwich (which, together with several other subordinate societies in different parts of the kingdom, were in constant correspondence with them) were also taken into custody. The attention of parliament was, at this period, directed to these proceedings; and in consequence of the evidence then laid before a secret committee of this House, the power of detaining suspected persons was intrusted to his majesty.

The subsequent proceedings are sufficiently