pation of the Irish Catholics. It required more than, Machiavelian sagacity to fathom the abyss of Mr. Pitt's deceit. He seldom proposed or carried a measure upon the real ground, or in the genuine views, from which the design had originated in his own ambitious mind. No intimacy, social or official, ever extracted from him the depth of his speculations. Although no man possessed, in so high a degree, as Mr. Pitt, the oratorical powers of blinding his followers to his own weakeness and the

mentioned Irish statute, of the 33d year of his present Majesty, whenever the same, shall be lawfully tendered to any such sea or land officer, seaman or soldier, professing the Roman Catholic religion, shall be, and is and are hereby declared to be as free to serve his Majesty in any situation or employment by sea or on land, as if he or they had heretofore conformed to such tests and requisitions of the several acts, hereby either wholly or in part repealed. Provided always, and be it further enacted, by the authority aforesaid, that no sea or land officer, seaman or soldier, professing the Roman Catholic religion, and having taken and subscribed both or either of the said declarations and oaths of allegiance and abjuration, appointed to be taken by the said British acts of the 31st year of his present Majesty, or the Irish act of the 33d year of his present Majesty, respectively as aforesaid, shall not henceforth, in any situation or place or upon any exigency pretext or motive whatsoever be compelled or compellable to attend the divine service as by law established, any thing in the regulations for the navy, the articles of war, any British or Irish statute, or any law custom or usage, naval, military, civil or ecclesiastical of the united kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, to the contrary thereof in any manner notwithstanding.

1803.

1803. strength of his enemy, yet Mr. Foster said truly of him, (in the gust of his ephemeral patriotism before the Union) that he scarcely condescended to disguise his tyrannical ascendancy under the forms of debate.

END OF THE FIRST VOL.

APPENDIX.

MR. ARTHUR'S CASE.

Francis Arthur was a merchant of eminence in the City of Limerick, possessed of considerable estates in land and houses built by himself, daily improving his native city and adding to its embelishments. His commercial concerns employed a considerable capital, and required extensive credit in the adjoining Counties of Limerick, Clare, Tipperary and Kerry, by which he was making a rapid augmentation to his fortune. His character and conduct had procured him a high degree of estimation among his neighbours. He was ever distinguished by his attachment to the constitution. In the year 1796, when the French forces were in the Shannon, he displayed the utmost activity in the service of Government, and among other exertions, raised, under the direction of General Smyth, then commanding in Limerick, a corps of yeomen artillery, of which the General obtained for him the command, with the rank of captain. This corps was trained by him with great assiduity, and at a considerable expense, till the 15th of May, 1798, when it was disbanded. There were nevertheless points in Mr. Arthurs character, which rendered' him an object of jealousy, or of something stronger to some persons of authority in that district. He had been active in promoting that address of th Roman Catholics

to the Crown, which induced his Majesty to recommend their case with such gracious efficacy to the Parliament, which granted important relief to that body. He had also the hardiness to decline entering into a conspiracy, as it appeared to him, for reducing his native city, (Limerick) to the condition of a dependant borough. The ill will excited by this opposition of sentiment to the views of men in power, and their retainers had probably been long acquiring

virulence during the irksome silence, which Mr. Arthur's private life and public behaviour imposed on his enemies, till the opportunity occured of covering their animosity under the epidemic fury of the times.

On Thursday, 24th May, 1798, a gentlemau observed in Mr. Arthur's presence, how happy it was, that the spirit of dissaffection, which had shown itself in other parts of the kingdom, had not been discoverable in any instance in that neighbourhood. Lieutenant Colonel Cockell Assistant Adjutant General of the District, immediately answered, "that is not the case, for on tuesday next some persons will "be taken up, that will astonish the public." Vague surmises of plots and conspiracies were so continually insinuated at that unhappy period, as to have lost the power of exciting the curiosity of any body, and as Lieutenant Colonel Cockell did not seem to allude to any individual, for whom Mr. Arthur could feel interested, it did not occur to him to ask any question on the subject. On Saturday the 26 of May, Captain Lidwell, who was superintending the flogging of a criminal at the market-house of Limerick, turned to the people, that was collected to see the punishment and proclaimed a reward from one hundred to two hundred guineas for any person, who could inform against any member of the late Artillery corps. He then desired a Mr. John Connell to search for arms, adding, some of that corps have advised the Inhabitants to secret them. So direct an implication of the Artillery corps must have expounded Lieutenant Colonel Cockell's meaning, and have operated as a decisive hint for Mr. Arthur to flee the country, had he been conscious of any guilt. As it was, he deemed it a shallow artifice, practiced with a hope of inducing him to quit the town, to avoid the disgrace of being arrested, when his retreat would have been called an attempt to abscond, and would have furnished a pretence for the plunder of his property. Of course he treated it with slight, having little conception, that his life would have been thereby brought into jeopardy. On the next day, Sunday, the 27th of May, Major General Sir James Duff marched out of Limerick, and Major General Edward Morrison remained in the command.

On Tuesday, the 29th of May, whilst Mr. Arthur was sitting with his family, Mr. George Smith, the Recorder of Limerick, came into the house and desired to speak

with Mr. Arthur in another room.

On their withdrawing together, the Recorder told Mr. Arthur, that he arrested him by order of Major General Morrison

*

Mr. Smith did not produce any warrant, nor does it appear that Major General Morrison could be authorized to give any such order, martial law not having at that time been proclaimed, no information having been laid and no examination taken. The Recorder demanded Mr. Arthur's keys; they were delivered: he then called Mrs. Arthur into the room. and compelled her also to deliver up her keys; after which he directed her to quit the house, saying it would be immediately filled with soldiers. At this she earnestly remonstrated, but in vain, and was obliged to retire with her children to the house of her father. Mr. Smith then sent for M Francis Lloyd, one of the Sheriffs of Limerick, into whose custody he delivered Mr. Arthur without having produced any warrant of commitment; but in a short time Brevet Lieutenant Colonel Garden, of the 54th Regiment, accompanied by other officers, came with a guard, and told Mr. Arthur he was his prisoner by order of Major General Morrison; thus changing the committment into a military imprisonment, each of them, it is conceived, equally illegal. Soon after, Major General Morrison himself arrived, when Mr. Arthur apprized him, that there were in the house, one thousand guineas in specie besides much paper, and other valuables, for which he, Major General Morrison, must be responsible. On this intimation the General permitted, that Mrs. Arthur should return to the house, on the express condition however, that the seals, which he then put on the counting house and private drawers (of which the General at the same time kept the keys) should not be removed. The House, Cellars, &c. then underwent the minutest search, and the very vault, where the fuel was kept, was emptied on the suggestion of Mr. Sheriff Lloyd. No discovery having been made, the keys of Mr. Arthur's Ware-house, with

* If the coincidence of the date of this arrest, with the declaration made by Lieutenant Colonel Cockell be not supposed to have been accidental, it must appear mysterious, that the determination should have been made so long before, without having been acted upon : and it may occur, that a plan for getting rid of an obnoxious man could bear to be suspended, and postponed to other conveniences, whilst the repression of a treasonable correspondence would have required instant exertion,

Vol. I.