since that time by the English Cabinet. The absolute domi nion and uncontrolled disposal of its interests had been transferred from a foreign Legislature to the Executive; and its own Parliament had become more than ever estranged from all participation in its sentiments, and all regard for its concerns. The excitement of the French revolution, and perhaps of its emissaries, conspired, with those permanent and concurring causes of dissatisfaction, to give an alarming aspect to the general discontents.

The adherents of the Administration, and their opponents, were agreed upon the fact of the universal discontent, and upon the dangers that it threatened; but they differed widely upon the measures that should be adopted for the restoration of repose.

The first were determined to use coercion. They seemed to think that popular excesses are almost solely the people's own creation-that they are naturally prone to disaffection-that complaints of grievances are resorted to as a mere pretext to gratify this propensity; and, consequently, that a provident Government should vigorously resist every movement of discontent, as the fearful tokens of projected revolution. In conformity with these opinions, it appeared to them that Terror alone could tranquillize Ireland; and, therefore, that every method of impressing upon the public mind the power of the State, no matter how unpopular their nature, or how adverse to the established securities of the subject, should be adopted and applauded as measures of salutary restraint.

'The truth and expediency of these doctrines were as firmly denied by others, who maintained that conciliation alone could appease the popular ferment. No well governed people will desire to exchange real and present blessings for the danger and uncertainty of remote and fantastic speculations: and if ever they are found to com mit their lives and fortunes to such desperate experiments, it is the most conclusive evidence that they are badly governed, and that their sufferings have impelled them" to rise up in vengeance, to rend their chains upon the heads of their oppressors. - Let Ireland be saved from the possibility of such a crisis. The majority of its people are in a state of odious exclusion, visiting them in its daily consequences with endless insults and privations, which, being minute and individual, are only the more intolerable. Would it not be wise, then, to listen to their claim of equal privileges, which, if granted, would give you the strongest security for their loyalty? There are other grievances-the notorious corruption of the Legislature-the enormity of the pension list-and many more ;-of these the nation complains, and seems determined to be heard. The people seem inclined to turbulence; but treat it as a disease, rather than avenge it as a crime. Between a State and its subjects there should be no silly punctilio; their errors can never justify yours: you may coerce -you may pass intemperate laws, and erect unheard of tribunals, to

punish what you should have averted-you may go on to decimate, but you will never tranquillize.' I. pp. 300-305.

In this crisis, Mr C. made the first of those great professional speeches on which his fame has since mainly rested, in defence of Mr Hamilton Rowan, accused of publishing a seditious address to the revolted Irishmen. This speech, which we are rather inclined to think the best that he ever delivered, was received with the most rapturous applause; but the Jury found the defendant guilty-and he was sentenced to fine and imprisonment. The following particulars are too honourable to Mr C. to be suppressed.

6

It should be mentioned here, that from the year 1789, frequent attempts were made by the adherents of the administration to detach Mr Curran from the party, which he had formally joined, at that period. Every motive of personal ambition was held out to allure him, and all the influence of private solicitations exerted, but in vain. About this time, when the general panic was daily thinning the ranks of the opposition, his most intimate and attached friend, the late Lord Kilwarden (then the Attorney General) frequently urged him to separate himself from a hopeless cause, and to accept the rewards and honours that were so open to him. Upon one occasion, when Mr Curran was confined by illness to his bed, that gentleman visited him, and renewing the subject, with tears in his eyes implored him to consult his interest and his safety. "I tell you (said he) that you have attached yourself to a desperate faction, that will abandon you at last with whom you have nothing to expect but danger and disappointment. With us, how different would be your condition!-I ask for no painful stipulations on your part, only say that you would accept of office-my situation will probably soon be vacant for you, and after that, the road would be clear before you. This proof of private affection caused Mr Curran to weep, but he was unshaken. He replied, “that he knew, better than his friend could do, the men with whom he was associated; that they were not a desperate faction; that their cause was that of Ireland; and that, even though it should eventually be branded with the indelible stigma of failure, he should never regret that it was with such men, and such a cause, that he had linked his final destinies." I. 319-321.

The next trial was that of the Rev. W. Jackson, for high treason; who, being convicted, swallowed poison when brought up for judgment, and fell down and died in the face of the court, before sentence could be pronounced! Though convicted on the testimony of one witness, there seems to have been little doubt of his guilt; and yet the author before us has recorded a trait of his conduct which seems worthy of innocence. While in prison, before his trial, he was frequently indulged with the visits of his friends.

. A short time before his trial, one of these remained with him to a very late hour of the night. When he was about to depart, Mr Jackson accompanied him as far as the place where the gaoler usually waited upon such occasions, until all his prisoner's visitors should have retired. They found the gaoler in a profound sleep, and the keys of the prison lying beside him. "Poor fellow!" said Mr Jackson, taking up the keys, "let us not disturb him; I have already been too troublesome to him in this way. He accordingly proceeded with his friend to the outer door of the prison, which he opened. Here the facility of escaping naturally struck him, he became deeply agitated; but after a moment's pause, "I could do it," said he, "but what would be the consequences to you, and to the poor fellow within, who has been so kind to me? No! let me rather meet my fate." He said no more; but, locking the prison door again, returned to his apartment.' I. pp. 324, 325. Note.

This case, however, is chiefly remarkable for having settled the point, that in Ireland a man may be convicted of treason on the testimony of a single witness. When the English statutes, requiring two, were adopted in that country, those declaratory clauses were omitted; and the question came therefore to be, whether, on the old common law, two witnesses had not always been necessary for such a conviction. Lord Coke had given a clear opinion in the affirmative; but Foster and Hawkins thought differently. There had been no trial for treason in Ireland for upwards of a century; and the point had never before occurred. It was determined, as we have already stated, in conformity with the more recent authorities; though nothing can be more revolting than such an anomaly in the constitutional law of two united kingdoms-and nothing more disgusting than the scenes to which this decision speedily gave rise in the least fortunate of the two. The principle, it is manifest, cannot possibly be right in both and the English prisoner must either have too many privileges, or the Irish too few. Nor is it possible to listen to the suggestion, that, from the state of society in Ireland, it was necessary to give the Crown this additional security:-For the same disordered or depraved state of morality which renders treason probable, is still more likely to produce false accusations; and whoever will read the State Trials, either in England or Ireland, will find that Treason and Perjury have always been contemporary crimes, and that the dangers of the crown and of the subject have uniformly been reciprocal. But if the question were doubtful upon theory, the subsequent experience of Ireland, we think, must have settled it with all candid minds. In six trials which unhappily took place in three years after that of Jackson, the fate of the prisoners depended on the credibility of a single witness;—and, as was in

:

deed to have been expected, and will always be the case, under such a rule of law, these witnesses were all of them men of blighted reputation. It was not merely that they had been accomplices in the crimes which they came to denounce; and that, finding the speculation dangerous and unprofitable, they endeavoured to retrieve their credit and circumstances, by setting up as "loyal apostates. Deeper far was, if not their legal offence, their moral depravity. Dreadful were the confessions of guilt, of dishonour, and irreligion, extorted from these wretches. If their direct examination produced a list of the prisoners' crimes, as regularly did their cross-examination elicit a darker catalogue of their own. In the progress of their career from participation to discovery, all the tender charities of life were abused-every sacred tie rent asunder. The agent, by the semblance of fidelity, extracted the secret of his client and bis friend, and betrayed him! The spy resorted to the habitation of his victim, and, while sharing his hospitality, and fondling his children, was meditating his ruin. Here was to be seen the wild atheist, who had gloried in his incredulity, enjoying a lucid interval of faith, to stamp a legal value on his oath-there the dishonest dealer, the acknowledged perjurer, the future murderer.' L. pp. 339–341.

Five of the unhappy victims, in the cases we have alluded to, perished by this polluted testimony. In the case of Finney in 1798, the infamy of the only witness-on whose accusation fifteen other persons were at that moment in prison-was made so apparent to the Jury, that, even in the agitation of that distracted time, they were compelled to reject it, and acquitted the prisoner. The witness, a short time after, was arraigned and convicted of murder, and suffered accordingly.

In 1797, Mr Curran and his friends made a last appeal to Parliament in behalf of a more conciliatory system of proceeding. The reports of Parliamentary Committees had by this time ascertained the existence, not only of general discontent, but of formidable associations, (rendered secret by the restrictions on meeting and publishing that had been recently enacted), who professed a desire for Reform and Catholic Emancipation, but were supposed to contemplate a radical revolution in the government. The ministers contended, that in these circumstances the only way to preserve the peace of the country, was to show no toleration to the disaffected or any of their pretexts, but to proceed against them with the utmost promptitude and severity;and that to listen to their pretended petitions for reform or emancipation, would only be to show their own fear and weakness, and to encourage their adversaries to still more unreasonable demands. Mr C., on the other hand, argued, as we have done so often-If reform be only a pretence, and separation be the real objects of the leaders of the conspiracy, confound the leaders by

destroying the pretext, and take the followers to yourselves. You say they are 100,000;-I firmly believe they are three times the number, so much the better for you. If these seducers can attach so many followers to rebellion, by the hope of reform through blood, how much more readily will you engage them, not by the promise, but the possession, and without blood! Reform (he continued) is a necessary change of mildness for coercion : the latter has been tried, and what is its success? The Convention bill was passed to punish the meetings at Dungannon and those of the Catholics: but did that act, or those which followed, put down those meetings? the contrary was the fact; it most foolishly concealed them. When popular discontents are abroad, a wise government should put them into an hive of glass;-you hid them. The association at first was small-the earth seemed to drink it as a rivulet ;-but it only disappeared for a season;-a thousand streams, through the secret windings of the earth, found their way to one source, and swelled its waters; until, at last, too mighty to be contained, it burst out a great river.'

Mr Grattan followed on the same side, in a speech remarkable for the pathos and prophetic eloquence with which it was delivered; and, having thus offered their final counsels for peace and conciliation, they withdrew from an assembly, on which it was plain that their reasonings could make no impression, and which was not fated to a much longer endurance.

Their predictions were but too fatally accomplished. The system of angry defiance, jealousy, and intimidation, was acted upon with increased vigour; and the consequence was, that in 1798, the country broke out into open rebellion, and, after a tremendous and sanguinary struggle, in which seventy thousand unfortunate men are calculated to have perished on the field, on the scaffold, or by torture, the country was left exhausted but not tranquillized-filled, not with penitence, but with rancour and deep-seated hostility-and in such a condition of wretchedness and disaffection, as, in spite of that dreadful lesson and bloody experiment, to have risen repeatedly in similar acts of insurrection-to have been ever since a great theatre of outrage and disorder, and in such a state as to render life and property continually insecure, and to require the perpetual coercion of a great regular army to withhold it from open rebellion, or to carry into effect the ordinary sentences of the law. This is the lesson to the Government: and one more impressive,, we think, can scarcely be imagined. There is another also, and not less momentous, for the people-and that is as to the utter hopelessness of any thing being effected by the physical force of a multitude, even when provided with arms, against an organized government and a disciplined army. The Irish insurgents were 500,000 strong, almost all armed, and the great