accordingly, dogged the gallant, and when he found him fairly within the forbidden precincts, attacked him vigorously, and in the rencontre, wounded him in two places. This, for the time, put an end to the foreigner's intrufive vifits, and he afterwards betook himfelf to a scheme against the virtue of a gipfey girl, who was fuppofed to have a private key to the ftrong box of a nabob. After this tranfaction, Mr. Britton received the greatest credit for his fpirit, and Ierne for her virtue. Mr. Britton was lavifh in his eulogies upon her propriety, thanked her publicly, and declared to all his neighbours that he was indebted to her good fenfe and decorum for the prefervation of his honor. It was gonerally fufpected that fuch an event would only have proved a renewal of that attachment which conftituted the happiness of his life; but how hard is it to predict conclufions which depend upon the uncertainty or caprice of human paffions? Mr. Britton, with all the means of comfort and refpectability in his power, fuffered himself to be interrupted in his happy career by one of thofe fits of wayward and whimsical humour which, we have already hinted, conftituted a fingular exception to the general value of his character. The truth is, he was what the world fometimes calls fplenetic, fometimes an humourist, fometimes an oddity, and furely,upon this occafion, he became poffeffed by one of the most fanciful and unaccountable extravaganciest hat ever made free with the human intellect. It was a freak fo unprecedented, fo unwarranted, fo independent of all motive and temptation, that mere folly is infufficient to folve the difficulties which refult from the confideration of it. Mr. Britton took it into his head to obtain a divorce a vinculo matrimonii from the amiable partner of his bed, and abfolutely determined to carry this project into execution. The fact is, that the libertine example of the Frenchman had excited the emulation, while it pro*voked the refentment of Mr. Briton, and fo ftrange are the anomalies of the human heart, that he could not refift the commiflion of the very crime which he had fo recently punished in another. It did not appear the refult of fatiety, or that he was tired of the lady, for he expreffed his refolution to continue to live with her upon their old free terms, with this difference only, that under the new arrangement her property was to be at his fole difpofal, and the future connection, though voluniary upon his part, was to be compulfory on hers. Mr. Britton had naturally a good heart, and therefore, this infatuated and profligate defign muft not be imputed to his mere uninfluenced fuggeftion. He had a favorite fervant, called William, a threwd man who had gradually wormed himself into the honeft gentleman'sconfidence, to which he had first introduced himself by offering an ingenious plan for repairing the old family manfion, which, however, was never afterwards accomplished. He had, afterwards involved his master deeply in debt, and from thefe caufes, had acquired a confiderable afcendancy both over the mind of Mr. Britton, and of George, the steward. This fellow had obferved that lerne, ever

fince her marriage, had required more attention than formerly, and an old grudge he owed her for having had an opinion of her own when Mr. Britton was fick, and George out of order, concurred with an indolent defire to have only the management of a batchelor's house, and determined him to degrade and infult our heroine upon the firft opportunity. This opportunity was furnished to his malignant mind by the adventure with the French gallant, and he loft no time to avail himself of it. Shortly after that adventure, Ierne had become, in confequence of her agitation, fubject to nervous paroxifms, and occafional convulfions, and thefe melancholy fymptoms which fhould only have excited the fympathy and commiferation of her hufhand, were employed by this artful Iago to excite his fufpicions, and alarm his jealoufy. It was not eafy to find a pretence; and indeed fo much was the public fhocked by the bufinefs, that it was not easy to find a lawyer to justify the proceeding. However, Mr. Britton was an opulent and powerful man, and an advocate was not wanting. As the fuit was not to be in a court where the common law is recognized, he retained an eminent foreign professor of the Cannon law. This learned gentleman, whofe name was Doctor Coquin, made very light of the unpopularity of his client's cafe, and immediately (tho' it was a fummary caufe) exhibited a voluminous libel. This was confidered one of the moft extraordinary pleadings that ever encumbered the files of a court of juftice. It alledged various unjust charges against Ierne, and indeed was not over-fparing of the character of Mr. Britton. It feemed to have no object but the fuccefs of the fuit, per fas atque nefas, for it abounded in contradictions and falfehoods. It laboured to establish the most fantaftical pofitions upon the most unfupported inventions, and in order, if poffible, to prevent lerne from wishing to conteft it, ftrenuously endeavoured to exafperate and inflame the quarrel' between the parties, and to reprefent the connection of man and wife in which they stood to each other, as a relation of natural antipathy and variance. It did not forbear to ridicule the fanctity of their Union, and the facred denunciation of those whom God hath joined let no man put afunder-and openly and impudently argued, to the fcandal of all morals, that concubinage was a more natural, and therefore, a more decent connection than matrimony. It afferted, with unprecedented effrontery, that the French gentleman whom Mr. Britton had lately wounded, was a man of tafte and high authority, and that he, upon all occafions, preferred fornication to edwlock. That while Mrs. Britton was a feme covert, fhe could not raife money on her eftate to pay Mr. Britton's debts without the confent of the trustees in her fettlement. That befides, it was a matter of ceconomy, for that the establishment of a kept miftrefs was much lefs cxpenfive than that of a wife. That ladies of eafy virtue had a more unretrained commerce with the world; but that, at all events, it was impoffible to pronounce against the bene fits of the change before it shouldbe tried; and that all prc.

PRICE 2D.

TO THE

ELECTORS OF ULSTER.

Light forrows fpeak-great grief is dumb."

No. XI.

pears from your conduct. When your caufes of complaint were trifling, you rent the air with y your cries. Now that you are about to be facrificed on the altar of British aggrandizement, a fingle murmur does not efcape your lips. The magnitude of the attempt deprives you of motion-the fwelling of your heart chokes your utterance, and you ftare in filent astonishment at the hand which is raised against your life. To what elfe am I to impute it, that when the existence of Ireland is at stake the voice of the North has not yet been heard? When a conftitution was to be carried by the fword, you flood proudly forward in the foremost ranks when abufes had crept into that conftitution, you were ready to fired your best blood for their reform-yet now that your parliament is about to be extinguished, and the right of legiflating for Ireland is; like its crown, to be infeparably annexed to the crown of Great Britain-now that that conftitution which you earned in the field, is about to be filched from you in the cabinet, and the very name of Ireland to be blotted out from the catalogue of nations-you ftand, the mute, and as if indifferent fpectators, of the fcene. But perhaps you are ignorant of the nature of the act which your filence is about to fanction. Perhaps you imagine that the furrender you are called upon to make, is temporary, and that you may again refume your rights at pleafure-Let me undeceive you. The decree which is to establish the political ideofy of Irishmen, and to vest for ever in the crown, the difpofal of their perfons and property, is ir revocable. Convinced then, of the great awfulness of the occafion, how fhall I imprefs that conviction on your minds? In what words fhall I addrefs you, by what ties fhall I conjure you to fpare to your afflicted country, the miferies of internal war? And you, who fo lately in the cause of reform, thought "no risk too great, no facrifice too much," how shall I rekindle in your breafts that flame, which feems to have confumed itself by its own heat? Is then that conftitution, which you fo eminently contributed to gain, no longer dear to you? Has liberty loft all its charms, or is the exiftence of your country become an object of indifference? Were your efforts in the caufe of reform, the laft convulfive throes of an expiring patriotifm? Or is it exceffive fenfibility, which I mistake for apathy? Is it, that, enthusiaste

ment. Public virtue grows fpontaneoufly out of private independenee. vate independenee. Even now, whilst I write, the fecret operations of nature, are filently working that reformation, which the impatient hand of art, in vain endeavours to precipitate.

But let us for a while ftifle every honeft feeling," and confider the question of an UNION, as difpaffionately as an Irishman can let us compare your prefent political condition, with what it will be when the intended revolution shall have been effected:-You have now a native parliament fitting in your country—possessing the power, when it has the will, to promote the welfare, or protect the liberties, of Ireland. A parliament, whofe conduct you can witness, whofe motions you can watch, whofe determinations in great national questions, you have ever controlled, whofe interests are the interests of Ireland ;-You will then have no parliament-the few individuals whom the minifter of England will cull out to qualify with the title of your reprefentatives, will not have the power, if they have the will, to protect your terefts; the affembly which you will have invested with the abfolute right to difpofe of your property and your perfons, will fit in a foreign country, its conduct you cannot witnefs, its motions you cannot watch, its determinations you cannot controul, its interefts will not be the interefts of Ireland-its members will not be Irishmen. In the British Houfe of Commons, which will then confift of 656 members, ninety-eight are to fit under the name of the reprefentatives of Ireland ;— fhould each of thofe ninety-eight, poffefs all the public and private virtues of a Charlemont, or the commercial knowledge, and fteady patriotifm of a Fofter, it would not avail; in all questions where the interests of England and Ireland fhould clafh, there would be a clear majority of 460, against your country. What then must be the cafe, when the whole corrupt influence of Great Britain and Ireland, is concentrated almoft in a point, and brought to bear upon 98 individuals, divested of national partiality, regardless of national fame, not condemned to witnefs the melancholy effects of their prostitution, or to meet the reproachful eye of their indignant conftituents? Such an arrangement is grofsly mi called, when it is denominated" an Union." It is not the whole Irish parliament, joined to the whole British par-

Irament, poffeffing each a negative voice where the interefts of its peculiar country are concerned, and uniting their common wifdom for the common benefit. It is not a delegation, from the existing parliament of Ireland meeting a proportionable delegation from the parliament of Great Britain, invefted with equal powers, on the confines of the two kingdoms, to concert measures for their mutual fafety, and mutual advantage. No. It is a felection by the minifler of England of a few individuals from the Irish parliament, (which is thenceforth to cease to exift) to be melted down into the entire mafs of the British legislature. Should ninety-eight natives of Ireland happen to fit for English boroughs in the British Houfe of Commons, what would you think of the Irishman who should, on that account propose the total abolilition of the legiflature of Ireland? Yet believe me, your condition would then be infinitely preferable, enjoying, as you would, the British conftitution in its purity, to what it will be, if, by an Union, you put one-fixth of the reprefentation of Great Britain and Ireland at once into the hands of a minifter already too powerful. But you are told tranquillity will be reflored, all parties fatisfied, property fecured, and the connection between the two kingdoms cemented by fuch an arrangement. Will univerfal difcontent produce univerfal tranquillity? Will it fatisfy the Catholic to be fhut out for ever from that which has fo long been the object of his most earneft wishes? Will the total extinction of parliament, and the transfer of its legislative authority to the crown, content the moderate reformift? Or will the establishment of abfolute monarchy reconcile the zealous republican? Will property be fecured by an univerfal defire for a change, or the connection between the two kingdoms cemented by alienating the affections of one of them? These are queftions to which I require no anfwer. Commercial advantages are next held out to you. On this fubje&t I ought to fpeak with diffidence, confcious that I am addrefling men, whofe extenfive and varied commerce, and whofe refidence in a manufacturing country, muft neceffarily render them the best poffible judges of the commercial interefts of Ireland-but there are fome facts which I know, and there are fome truths which are self-evident. I know that tricks have been practised to impofe on the ignorant, to deceive the credulous, and to allure the felfish; and that thefe, in fome places, have had their effe&t-but I apprehend not that effect from them with you. When you are told of commercial advantages, you will naturally afk "from whom are we to derive them?" And when you are anfwered," from Britain"-that Britain, which is to lofe precifely as you gain, and which now tries every paltry artifice to lure you into a connection by which fhe is to be fo much injured. When you are informed, that it is Britain that fo anxioufly preffes you to accept this extenfion of trade, this amelioration of conftitution:-Britain, from whofe dead grafp you were forced to wreft whatever you have gained of commerce, or of conftitution. When you are told, that it is the

British merchant who calls upon you, in all the overflowing of his generous heart, to fhare in his profits; are you not, my friends, led to fufpe& the nature of the gift, from the known difpofition of the giver?-But what are the commercial advantages which are to be the price of your independence? The ports of the two countries are to be laid open:-Thofe of England are already fo to our provifions, to our linens, and to colonial produce going from this country;-With what can we fupply the English that we do not already? On the other hand, except our linen, our other manufactures exift but under protecting duties, and must perish as foon as those are taken off. Large capital, long credit, plenty of money, and the confequent lownefs of intereft, fuperior industry, and fuperior skill, give the English a decided and uniform advantage :-Add to this, the influence of another caufe, which, though occafional in its immediate operation, is lafting and fatal in its remote effects. In the English market, there happen frequent gluts;-when thefe take place, which is always when credit is loweft, manufactured goods will be poured into Ireland, and as it will be an object to the English manufacturer, to get his money on any terms, they will be fold at an undervalue, to the lafting ruin of the Irish manufacturer. Nor will your linen trade escape unhurt;-that linen trade, for the fecurity of which you gave up the woollen, but which the Union still purports to fecure, and for which you are still called upon to make further facrifices. You all know that the poor linen weaver can fearce fubfift on his prefent wages.The immediate confequence of the Union, as (befides the acquifition of inordinate power) it is the cause of it, will be an enormous encrease of taxes The neceffaries of life muft rife in price prodigioufly. The wages of the weaver must rife with them-or he must starvemany, no doubt, will do fo. The linen merchant cannot lay the additional price on his invoice-the trade will not bear it his profits must be reduced-and this reduction must encrease every year with the encrease of taxes, which is the caufe of it:This will operate doubly against him; for in proportion as from the encreased price of every thing, his expences encreafe, in the fame proportion muft the profits of his trade be diminished. To the importing merchant I need fay little :-It will naturally occur to him that his trade muft fuffer in proportion as manufactures fail, and confumption decreafes. His cotton wool, his Barilla, and all the other articles. which an induftrious and thriving country requires, must then lie locked up in his ftores. Add to all this, the continued drain of money out of the country, by abfentees, at prefent admitted to exceed a MILLION, annually! but which muft then infinitely encreafe. Figure to yourfelves, then, my friends, the appearance of this country-figure to yourfelves a miferable and neglected peafantry! knowing nothing of their landlord, but by his exactions! and tracing his periodical progrefs, like that of the hurricane, only by the defolation he carries in his train!-Figure to yourselves, fields uncultivated,

villages deferted, your streets fwarming with half-famished wretches, imploring a miferable fubfiftence from the charity of that country, which their industry might have contributed to enrich, and their ingenuity to adorn!→ figure to yourselves these things, my friends, and you will have a faint idea of the confequences of an Union -confequences of which the citizens of Dublin have already expreffed their unanimous and unequivocal sentiments. The eyes of Ireland are fixed upon the NORTH! May its ancient fpirit re-animate its breast! May its deliberations be tempered with the fame wifdom, and its conduct fuftained by the fame firmness! May the voice which fpoke at Dungannon again be heard! And may Ireland once more hail, as the Saviours of their Country, the Men of Ulfter! Dublin, 15th Jan. 1799.

H. J.

JOE MILLER, many a time and oft,

At thy delightful Tales I've laugh'd :
But fearch the volume through and through,
My fav'rite's this :-(page forty two.)

A fhip, with goods of every fort
Was bound to a far diftant port:
The failors were about a score,
The paffengers as many more.
With weather fine, and fav'ring breeze,
They now had travers'd half the feas;
When fudden clouds obfcure the skies,
And angry winds begin to rife:
Th'experienced feamen well aware,
To meet th'approaching ftorm prepare:
The paffengers the deck forfake,
And to their berths themselves betake.
The tempeft roars, the lightnings flash,
The whelming waves the veffel lafh;
A leak is fprung-the feamen ftrain,
But on them faft the waters gain.-
All hands aloft!-the captain cries;
All to the pumpor never rife!
Peace cried the paffengers no more,
But tofs your weighty cargo o'er ;
Out with your lumber to the deep,
Lighten her load, and fave your ship.→
To help your av'rice, no one ftirs,
For we are only paffengers.
They did not fir:-Another guft
Into their finking hammocks burst :
The fhip in thousand splinters broke.
They loft their lives-but had their joke.

HOR.

Thefe must both encrease in an astonishing degree, and the only change in other refpects relative to them, which an Union can make is, that instead of their being arranged as they are at prefent, the whole of them will then be fixed in that part of Ireland now called Great Britain. This will be an advantage of the laft importance to us, because it will fave us a world of trouble and labour.

IN MORALITY, &C.

Vice, luxury, and profanenefs, being the natural growth of populous cities and great towns, this pious measure will neceffarily wholly banish thefe from our land, as its obvious confequence must be utterly to demolish thefe, their lurking places, and happily deftroy every thing like a city or large town in the kingdom.

IN EXPENCES, &c.

We hall have in future no encrease in our pension lift, from that pleasant circumstance that alone can infure it not being able to pay any; and who knows but we may even be altogether relieved from it as it now ftands, for if it fhould happen, (as it is highly probable) that our 100 or 98 members fhould fome day or another chance to get the whole 558 English ones abfent from the Houfe of Commons, it would be hard to say what they would not do. There are reasonable hopes to be entertained that we may obtain other great and exclufive advantages, from the likelihood that fuch a lucky event will frequently occur.

Every man in this kingdom who fhall then be poffeffed of a guinea, (and I darefay there may be many fuch) will have his faid property wonderfully encreafed, because the worth of every thing of that kind, being made up, (among other confiderations,) in a compound ratio of the fcarcity and ufe of fuch thing, all coin here muft then neceffarily be doubled, (nay, probably improved in a much greater proportion) in its value, from what it is at prefent.

N. B. Trade and manufactures, and many other fooleries of the fort, have a direct contrary tendency on this point.

Thefe for the prefent.

As I intend from time to time to flate to you many other incftimable advantages, which must be attendant