A

BONE TO GNAW, &c,

· Part. II.

OBSERVATIONS

ON A PATRIOTIC PAMPHLET, ENTITLED,

"PROCEEDINGS OF THE UNITED IRISHMEN."

"Hell hears their pray'r! all is not loft: "Behold a chofen BAND, a HOST,

"Stand forth the champions of the glorious caufe! "The jails are opening! hark! the iron doors! "Chains clank! the brazen throat of tumult roars ; "And, lo, the deftin'd victims of the laws! "Difgorg'd they pour in dark'ning tribes along, "And mingle with our DEMOCRATIC THRONG!"

PETER PINDAR.

I HAVE already observed, that this patriotic

pamphlet is a multifarious bundle, collected "from the newfpapers;" after which the reader will not expect me to enter into an examination of every part of it. A few curfory

See A KICK FOR A BITE.

obfervations will be fufficient to point out the degree of compaffion that the United Irishmen merit from the people of the United States, as well as the thanks that the editor is entitled to for his difinterefted endeavours in "the "caufe of civil and religious liberty."

The hiftory of the United Irishmen will not detain us long. Soon after the ever-to-be-regretted epoch, when God in his wrath, fuffered the tinkers, butchers, harlequins, quacks, cut-throats, and other modern philofophers, to ufurp the government of France, their brethren in Ireland, tempted by the fuccessful example, began with wonderful industry, to prepare for taking the government of that country into their hands. With this laudable end in view, they formed what they called their fociety, in the city of Dublin. To fay in what manner they proceeded to bufinefs would be fuperfluous, fince we know they were democrats. Their meetings, as among us, produced refolves in abundance, and good fortune feemed for a time, to fmile upon them. The prefs was fuffocated with their addreffes and letters of fraternity, which were fwallowed by the mob, for whom they were intended, with an appetite which generally characterizes that clafs of citizens. But, all of a fudden, when they were in the height of their work, mangling the carcafe of the government, the ma

giftracy foufed down upon them, like an eagle among a flock of carion crows. Here was fine helter fkelter; fining, imprisoning, whipping and emigrating; fome ran this way, others that; fome came to America to brew whiskey, fome went to France to gather laurels, while others, of a more philofophical turn, fet off to Botany Bay to cull fimples.

Amidst all this buftle, it is very natural to fuppofe there was little time to think about fecuring the archives of the fociety, and it is to be feared, they would have been irrecoverably loft, if they had not already paffed into the newspapers. To record, however, in a newspaper, is like writing in fand; the citizen editor, of the Pamphlet before us, has, therefore, extracted the proceedings of the United Irishmen from fo perishable a register, and moulded them up into a volume, which may very well take the name of the fans culotte manual, for I am much mistaken if it will ever be used any where but in the temple of Cloacina.

However, the confervation of these ineftimable archives does not feem to be the only motive that led to their publication. It is diffi cult for people to wean themfelves from the cuf toms of their own country; accordingly, it would seem, that the citizen editor has, on the prefent occafion, been actuated by his pre

dilection of an Irish custom, full as much as by his zeal for the cause of civil and religious "liberty," or his attachment to the fociety of United Irifhmen.

You must know reader, that, in good old Ireland, when a person of some distinction is to ride in ftate to his long home, the afflicted relations, not content with deploring the lofs themselves (or having already exhaufted their ftock of lamentation), do generally employ a number of auxiliary females, of approved organs, to affift them in the difcharge of this laft duty to the deceased. The bufinefs of these matrons is, to line the road through which the corps is to pafs, and to rend the welkin with that kind of warbling, which in their tongue is called the Pillalloo, and in ours, the Irish Howl, Now, ridiculous as this weeping by proxy may feem, we fee that even philofophers have recourfe to it, or fomething very like it, in defperate emergencies; for I am very much deceived if it be not in imitation of this custom that the Proceedings of the United Irishmen have made their appearance among us. The wifkeyboys and their partizans, the democrats, made their laft dying fpeech and confeffion foon after the meeting of Congrefs, fince when they have been turned off, without benefit of clergy, and citizen Stephens has been fo obliging as to make his united Irishmen blubber out their pillalleo.

So much for the motives that led the difinterested editor to publish this work; we will now take a look at the work itself, beginning with the title.

If the title page to this pillalloo be not a bad one, it is not, in my opinion, fo good a one as night have been chofen for it: Newgate CALLENDER, or fomething in that way, would have been much better fuited to the contents: however, the harp with which it is decorated, expreffes to those who underftand heraldry, fo nearly the fame thing, that all the other hieroglyphicks are entirely ufelefs. But, as if the editor were afraid that the harp was infufficient to indicate to us the blunderbufs materials of which the volume is compofed, he has placed by the fide of it a liberty pale, refembling, exactly, thofe made ufe of by the democratic fons of Wifkey. Nor muft the motto of the harp be forgotten: "It "is new ftrung and fhall be heard." It is impoffible to read this gafconading motto, without calling to mind the ftory of O'Rourke, who, boafting that he had called king William a damned teef, for ftealing the crown from his father in law, and being asked how it happened that the king did not chaftife him for his impudence, answered: By Jafus, man, and he must have had a long arm, for the fea was "betwixt us."

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