was all but hoifted, and every countenance was overshadowed with the gloom of our fituation. Every thing was at ftake, it was no time for flattering a great man, and the voice of property, of loyalty, and of Lord Camden, were all united in fupplication to our fovereign, for a commander in chief. He accordingly fent ús an officer, who had, upon the Continent, raised to a very high degree the military character of Britain, both with our enemies, and our allies.-He fent us Sir Ralph Abercrombie, and so far we were fatis fied. Sir Ralph however, had paffed too much time in the military school, to hold even a military fituation in this country. Had

part of his education been acquired at a dancing school, he might have learned to cringe to a faction, and then perhaps, a forry band of ragamuffins, with a few pikes in their hands, would not in an open country for upwards. of two months have baffled our troops, and our commanders; neither need we have been beholden for our final deliverance to the guards and militia of Great Britain. Upon Sir Ralph's arrival, he found that the military difcipline had been relaxed, by the absence of

officers

officers from their regiments, and the military character degraded by a system of quartering the troops, by dozens in holes and corners through the country, perverting them into conftables, or whip-beggars or any thing but foldiers. And of this fyftem he ventured to disapprove in general orders to the army. Scarce were his orders iffued, when the faction affembled to cenfure the commander of the army, for daring to govern the army upon any terms but theirs. Lord Camden's pet, called a meeting of his own tribe, to turn out of the country the only officer, upon whom Lord Camden had any reliance. I think upon this fact, I may reft my cafe, and call to my fovereign for the deftruction of a fyftem that gave power, or energy, to a faction capable of fuch felfifh and abominable iniquity. Every thing dear to man, was at stake,-every thing dear to man, depended then, as much upon the experience and talents of the commander, as upon the loyalty or bravery of the troops, and because that commander, in addreffing his army, difapproved of the means by which their difcipline had been relaxed, he must be turned out of the country. He faid that

the

the fyftem had made them, " formidable to "every one but the enemy,"-alas! it was

too true. At Caftlebar, they ran away from the enemy, and ran over their friends, fo that if ever an affertion was verified, it was the affertion for which the faction turned Sir Ralph Abercrombie, out of the country. If the officers who attended Lord Camden's pet, upon that cabal, instead of being there, had been with their regiments, at once acquiring and inculcating difcipline, there would have been for the hiftorian of the times, a different detail of that campaign. The gallant Lord Roden, was not at the cabal,-no, he was then living with his regiment, as a friend and a brother soldier, inspiring them with a love of that well earned fame, that has fince immortalized him, and his regiment. The gallant Colonel Vereker, was not at the cabal,-no, he was then at quarters, ftudying the temper, the disposition, and the spirit of his troops, and acquiring in them that well grounded confidence, which refcued the national character, at Colloony. And here let me obferve, that parliamentary influence in the appointment of our field officers, is along with every thing else, a ftrong objection to the system,

fyflem, a man's having a borough is a good reafon (as things go) why he may fit in parliament; but no reafon at all why he should be a Colonel, a man may fit in parliament, and do

very well for himself and his family there, without having a precife idea of the geometrical relation that a fquare bears to a circle, but without that it ftrikes one he cannot have a diftinct perception of the evolutions of a regiment, more particularly if he was touching upon his fifty fecond year, when firft he compreffed the unaccommodating projection of his belly, within the unrelenting circle of a fwordbelt.

Lord Camden now feeing that if Sir Ralph Abercrombie was turned out of the country, his own fituation behind would be rather uncomfortable, condefcended to remonftrate with his pet, as to the violence of the meafure, and the dangers with which it may be attended, observing, that if things were not preffed any further, he would try and reconcile the matter to Sir Ralph Abercrombie. But that if it was made the fubject of parliamentary refolution, there would be no alternative; to which the

great

great man replied, (drawing himself up fo erect, that a plummet dropped in a right line from his pole, would exactly touch the extremity of his heel) "all the men of property of "the country, (meaning thereby the facti"on) are of opinion that his general orders

were a cenfure upon them, and therefore "the matter must be followed up"-fo it was -and Sir Ralph was turned out of the country upon the eve of the rebellion.

The manner in which the country was organized for the rebellion, fufficiently appears in the Reports of the Committees; all that I mean to say upon the subject is, that nobody believes that it was a Catholick war.-The Orange Men don't believe it. So far as the rebellion extended, a number of the peafantry were involved, and the peasantry were Catholicks; but why were not the Catholicks of Cork, Waterford, Limerick, Clare, and Galway engaged? Or any of the Catholicks of the kingdom except those of a few counties in which the rebellion broke out? Because it was no Catholick war, and because the Orange Lodges were more general, and their power, as a body, more formidable, in or near the rebellious counties. In particular instances