a faction rifes up, whofe only object is te turn out from their places one fet of men, and to bring in another, then are they fure to be baffled in the defign, and their wretched inftruments, the people, are deferted, the dupes of their folly and the victims of their crimes. Apply thefe obfervations to France and Ireland, and you must perceive their truth. In the one the people were enflaved and oppreffed; the best part of the community efpoufed their caufe, and they were fuccessful in the deftruction of a tyrannical Government*. In the other, the * The writer cannot be fuppofed by this to justify the progress of the French Revolution. It has been marked by fuch horrid violations of every thing, we hold facred and valuable in life, that no one can look back on it, without fhuddering at the review-It affords a most important lesson to the people of all countries to be cautious, how they engage in political contefts. At this moment there is less real liberty in France, than in any country of Europe. The peafantry of that ill-fated land may fay with a figh "Better to bear the ills we have, than fly to others, that we know aot of" people people were free and happy; they enjoyed every political bleffing, which it is practicable to poffefs in civilized fociety, and yet they wantonly made war upon their Government. With the exception of a very few, the honest and the honorable fupported the Government; and the people met with that punishment their ingratitude and obstinacy deferved. Experience is a better guide than hiftory; it teaches more directly and more cafily. The proof of what I faid above is at your doors. The example is living before your eyes, is, as it were, fpeaking to you every hour, cautioning you against the artifices of an angry and unforgiving faction; and yet it is rumoured, that many expect and more intend to roufe you into tumult once again, upon the queftion of the Union. After all which has already taken place, I can hardly think it poffible.-But it is more eafy to prevent than to cure a diforder; and to deprive you of every pretext for infurrec tion, which ignorance or mifconception might fupply, I recommend to your perufal the fentiments of one, who, from his -heart, is anxious for your profperity and -peace. Amongst the various pamphlets and fpeeches, which have been published on the occafion, few are adapted to your capacities, few have a tendency 'to make you wifer, better or happier fubjects. Without diftracting you by arguments or calculations, which you could not comprehend, I take it upon me to affert and prove, that an Union with Great Britain will not only be highly conducive to your interefts, but is indifpenfably neceffary to your welfare. And for these fimple reafons; that it will be an eternal and effectual bar against rebellion; that it will fave you from the feductions of foreign incendiaries and domestic traitors, who have for centuries been thwarting your profperity, profperity, and that it will enable you to cultivate and improve the natural advantages, with which Providence has bleffed you in fo eminent and bountiful a degree. It is a fact which cannot be contradicted, that within the laft twenty years, the comforts of the lower claffes had rapidly increafed. Notwithstanding, the ever reftlefs faction I alluded to, indifferent about the confequences to you, and only thinking upon their own projects of ambition, determined to convert you from a happy and contented peafantry, into diffatisfied and unfortunate politicians, Profiting by the French revolution, which had excited fuch a ferment in the public mind, you were addreffed as Catholics, and called upon to emancipate. A fine word has often been found useful to impofe upon the ignorant: and foolish. With no other purpose was this lofty term introduced, and unluckily for you, it anfwered but too well the expec C 2 tations tations of its parent. The meaning of emaneipate, is to give liberty to flaves. It were an infult on your common fenfe to undertake to prove, that the Roman Catholics of Ireland are not flaves, and nothing but a bad heart and a perverted understanding could have infinuated fo notorious an untruth. The only foundation for it is, that they are excluded from Parliament and moft of the great offices of flate, circumstances which inflict no mighty hardship upon you. But ftill, fo long as this pretended grievance fhall continue, the factious and the turbulent will employ it to detach you from your peaceful occupations, and by fine words and inflammatory speeches, involve you in the dangers and diftreffes you fo lately were engaged in, and yet feel the fmart of. Accept then the offered Union with Great Britain, and the flimfy pretence vanishes for ever. If your conduct fhall juftify the measure and circumstances fhall render it expedient, you |