You find him coiling himfelf in the fcaly circles of his cautious perjury, making anticipated battle against any one who fhould appear against him but you fee him fink before the proof....... ................... "He affumes the character of a King's officer, to rob the King's people of their money; and afterwards, when their property fails him, he feeks to rob them of their lives!...... "This cannibal informer-this dæmon, O'Brien greedy after human gore, has fifteen other victims in referve, if, from your verdict, he receives the unhappy man at the bar! fifteen more of your fellow-citizens are to be tried on his evidence! Be you, then, their faviours!let your verdict fnatch them from his ravening maw, and interpofe between your felves and endless remorse !" MEMOIRS OF During his attendance on the inns of court in London, he had opportunities of comparing the ftate of the English nation with that of his own; of perceiving all the advantages of a national, and the degradation of a colonial government; and there imbibed that principle, which governed him through the remainder of his life, and to which his life was at length a facrifice. from the temple, he wrote his first In the year 1790, on his return Irish Whig, where he thus declared pamphlet, under the fignature of An his principles "I am no occasional whig-I am no constitutional tory; I am addicted to no party, but the party of the nation." Northern Whig Club, and read with This work was re-published by the great avidity: and the writer was called upon to avow himself-which he did, and became a member of that body. He was complimented also by the whigs of Dublin. They propofed THEOBALD WOLFE TONE. putting him in Parliament, and Mr. George Ponfonby employed him profeffionally on his election and peti tion. In the fame year, he wrote, "An Enquiry, how far Ireland is bound to support England in the approaching war;" wherein he openly broached his favourite queftion of feparation; and, in 1791, the " Argument on Behalf of the Catholics," a work of extraordinary merit. It is remarkable, that at that time he was fcarcely acquainted with any one Catholic-fo great was the feparation which barbarous inftitutions had created between men of the fame nation, formed by nature to befriend and love each other. The Catholics, ftruck with admiration at this noble and difinterested effort of a ftranger, repaid him by the best compliment in their power to bestow s beftow: he was invited to become fecretary to their committee, with a falary of two hundred pounds, which he accepted. He was entrusted to draw up their petition; a mark of liberal distinc. tion, and honourable to the Catholic body, as there were not wanting amongst themfelves men of tranfcen dent talents; and he accompanied their delegates when they prefented it to the King. The Catholic Convention voted him their thanks-a gold medal, and fifteen hundred pounds. Being fo honourably identified with the great body of his countrymen, his next efforts were directed to the bringing about a union between the Catholics and Diffenters of the North. -In this he was feconded by the enlightened of both parties, and fuck ceeded to the extent of his wifhes, The favourite project of the Dif. fenters was parliamentary reformthat of the Catholics, naturally, their own emancipation. He rallied them both upon the wicked abfurdity of their paft diffentions; upon the hap py profpects of future union: fhewing that the restoration of the Catho lics to the elective franchise was the belt fecurity for parliamentary reform and how infignificant all reform must be, which excluded four-fifths of a nation ! In 1795, he again accompanied the Delegates with their petition on the fubject of the recal of Lord Fitz william; and, when he refigned his office of fecretary, to retire to America, the fociety voted him their thanks, with a further compliment of .three hundred pounds, for fervices which, they faid, "no confideration could over-rate, nor no remuneration over-pay." The remainder of his political life cannot be better understood, than by reading his fpeech to the court mar, tial, met to pafs judgment on his life, [This interesting document shall ap pear in our next.] At the time he withdrew from Ireland, I was bus little concerned in politics; but admired him for the brilliancy and great variety of his converfation, the gay and focial caft of his difpofition. f loved him more,' becaufe I thought him an honest man; and, although it has been his fate to fuffer as a traitor, I have not changed my mind; and, after the hideous treafons we have juft paffed in review [referring to the memoirs of his own life), it is grateful to find one treason at laft founded upon principles of Chriftian charity, philofophy, and reafon. TONE was the POUNDER of that Union amongst "Irishmen of every religious persuasion," first adopted in Belfaft, and afterwards throughout the kingdom; and in oppofition to which, the governing faction fet up the principles of a plundering mob, called, for more diftinction, "Orangecalled, Peep-of-day-Boys" fince Men;" and railed to fuch a pre-eminence, that they now govern the councils in England, and the confcititle of "No Popery." But when, ence of the King, by the file and upon the altar of Union and reconcithe most virtuous Frishmen of "all liation, were off red up the lives of religious persuasions," and that altar was cemented by their co-mingled blood,there was a trophy erected to the memory of TONE, more du rable than brafs or marble, and which neither terror, corruption, nor time itfelf, can shake. "So true it is," adds Mr. Sampfoe," that no religious party was excluded from this Union, that of twenty victims who were fecluded in the dungeons of Fort St. George, four only were Catholics; to le was this rebellion a war of Popery." BRITISH BRITISH GENEROSITY TO THE intimacy with General Blake; and, to the credit of our unfortunate and vilified country, he is an IRISHMAN, LADY OF GENERAL BLAKE, A COUNTRYMAN OF BLAKE's a Mr. This amiable but unfortunate young Lady and her two children, fepa rated from her gallant but mifled companion by various circumftances incidental to an unequal conteft, had fome time fince taken refuge in a British fhip, by which he was con veyed to what he confidered, and what we every day hear declared to be," the bofpitable shores of Eng land"affured, from the high and benevolent chara&er which Britons attribute to themselves, that ile, and her children and domeftics, would have a fecure retreat, and ample means, until he should be restored to the protection of her husband. Any perfon, not properly verfed in the real character of the "Nation of Shopkeepers," would have entertained the fame generous fentiments with the unfortunate female ftranger. From the intrepid and heroic character every day conferred upon General Blake in the New papers, at English eating focieties, in Parliament, and by the Court even ourselves could not conceive any thing fo bafe, amongst the most barbarous nations, as that fuch profeffions fhould be the hollow language of pompofity, deceit, cruelty and avarice. Mrs. Blake, however, after many applications to Minifters, to power, and to private individuals who profeffed great friendship for the General, was fuffered to linger in an obfcure lodging in London, living on the produce of what clothes aud ornaments The bad baftily faved, on her pricipitate retreat from Spain. This fmall refource had nearly been exhausted, when her mifery became known to a gentleman who had the honour of an brother to Mr Randal M'Donnel of M'Donnel, an eminent merchant, this city. To this Irishman does Mrs Blake owe ber preservation from the horrors of a workbouse! and that at the very moment in which her hufband was in the and cajoled into a defolating and def pay of Britain, perate fyftem of warfare by the onprincipled and infidious adulation of her agents!!!" told, that "every nation feduced by The world has frequently been the gold and promifes of England has been ruined." We are forry if the affertion be correct; but certain it is, that this ruin has extended to individuals, who have committed theurfelves perfonally by an impolitic alli ance the proud, magnanimous, but deluded Blake, for inftance, who is involved in this baleful calamity. If General Blake furvives fuch accumulated misfortunes as now mult embitter his exiftence, ftill his family and pofterity have other horrors for their inheritance :-Future Anniverfaries, and drunken Loyalty, may immolate a Blake upon the altar of Fanaticifm; and other Ponfonbys will not difcover any malignity or atrocity in the facrifice, but defignate it as merely one of the peccadillos of conflitutional zeal !!! fubmitting a few obfervations, for the instruction of those who may be weak enough to adopt fuch an unfounded affertion as a fentiment, and luddle it into the catalogue of their imitative acquirements, We afk, What old fore have we ever ripped up? Or, What old fore have the malignant enemies of Irish tranquillity ever allowed to be healed? Is the murder of the Rev. Mr. Duane, of Mountrath, about a year ago, by a body of Orange-men, an old fore? Or, if it is fuch, has it been bandaged and healed by any in. quiry into the affair, to bring the perpetrators to juftice? Is 'the murder of the O'Neill's, in Tyrone, when Mr. Ponfonby was Lord Chancellor, an old fore? Or did that illustrious patriot, and his agent, Serjeant Moore, evince any evident difpofition to heal it, by pu pihing the murderers?" Is the infufting infeription over the gates of Bandon an old fore? And, if one, has it been removed or erafed, to conciliate the unfortunate men at whom it is levelled?............... Is the anniverfary wickedness of the Bandon men ripping of old fores, or inflicting new ones? op Is the language of our ancient preffors, adopted by their legislating fucceffors, which fays that our religious opinions are a bar to equal rights, not an old fore? And is not Mr. Grattan, rather than the Irish Magazine, a ripper of old sores? Are the infults offered to the un armed Limerick Militia, who volun teered to fight diftant battles, when paffing through Omagh, so old a fore that it should not be touched by fo rude an instrument as the Irish Magazine? Or, çan our infidious adverfaries fay, that the Orange cowards who fell in that conflict were not Jawfully chaftifed for reviving old fores? Laft Sunday, at ten o'clock, Mrą G, the lame ———————, called his creditors, and laid his affairs be fore them. He offered to pay them as much in the pound as his effects would divide: his affets confifted of a fpavined charger, which he took from a dairy-man in the year 1798 his crutch; a fwearing tool, called the Holy Evangelifts, of which one of the covers was kissed away; and fome torturing apparatus. ble and affidavit-man, who has an His chief creditors are: his confta. account against him, unfettled, for cat-o'-nine-tail man has never receiv one true oath, and 918 perjuries; his and he alfo charges the infolvent with ed one penny of his great contract having received the money from T J. Fitzg and blind S-1 for five boxes of patent riding-houfe taws! His pitch-cap man would not fign for him; and his picket and gallows maker, Mr. ➡ the carpenter, and ferjeant of the legion of honour, vulgarly called the Bloodhounds, was going to beat him. We understand Lord Wellington intends to bring in a bill of indemni ty for Mr. G's debts, in which, we are affured, lame D's are to be included. THOUGHTS ON VETOISM. At a time when liberality darts its mild and benignant rays over every other nation of Chriftendom, Eng Jand alone, through a blind and narrow policy, feems determined to refift its divine and wholefome influ ence. It appears as if the destiny of Catholic Ireland was irrevocably fixed. When racks, gibbets, exiles; and imprisonments had failed to subvert that divine religion, which our ancestors were so tenaciously fond of maintaining, a new plan is invented by the demon of infidelity, which if conceded, would in every probability produce thofe fatal effects which the fharpelt perfecutions that human ingenuity could invent were not able to accomplish for the space of 00 years: After the depofing power, that gigantic objection to Catholic eman cipation, was lulled to reft; after the doctrine of tranfubftantiation had ceafed to become the fubject of polis tical difcuffion in a British Houfe of Parliament; after all apprehenfions of our infecurity had vanished, and in fine, after having given the most unequivocal proofs of the loyalty of our principles and conduct; we are now called on to make a facrifice of the last undestroyed monument of our faith, and ancient national grandeur; to inveft the King with a right of nominating our Bishops, and thereby, under the pompous appellative of the Royal Veto," undermine the very fabric of Irifh Catholicity. " Let us fuppofe for a moment that this hated meafure, this effectual negative," fo fruitful in evils, fo re. pugnant to Irish Catholics, was conceded, what would be the confequence? The Catholic Church ever required three neceffary qualifications in the perfon nominated to the epif. copal dignity, namely, an exemplary A piety, extenfive learning, and an inviolable attachment to religion. diocefe becomes vacant, and a fuccef for appointed; one whofe literary ta lents were employed in the defence of the Church, thereby becoming her diftinguished champion; who dragged herefy and error into open day, and ftripped them of their hypocritical mafks; one, who never fhrunk from his duty, but regardlefs of power and influence, deliv.red inviolable that facred depofit committed to his care Dear as he is to his flock, and however their anxiety to have him to fill the vacant fee, his appointment muft be laid before the King, or in other words, before Mr. Perceval, Doctor Duigenan, or Lord Redefdale; and, perhaps, before its voyage to London, fhould be out-voiced by Mr. Giffard! Tell me then, according to the nature of the human mind, will thefe gentlemen, thefe fworn and acknowledged enemies of the Catholic religion, confirm the nomination alluded to? although the candidate, be fully poffeffed of the neceffary requifites ta render him a fhining ornantent to the prelacy. Far, very far from it-his appointment would be rejected, and fo would every facred character poffeffed of the fame qualifications. The diocefe then remains, and will remain, without its chief paftor, until one, immoral, ignorant, and temporizing, be found, whole extreme libe rality and complaifance would even lead him to fubfcribe to the fpiritual fupremacy of the King, if fo required. However painful the confeffion, Priefts of this defcription may be found! they have been found, altho, thank Heaven, they were but few, confidering the cruel policy of the times in which they lived; men who openly abjured that divine faith they had previouy fworn to maintain, not indeed for a bishopric, but for the mighty confideration of 40%, a year!! The |