No. IV.-PAGE 48.

The following document will shew the nature of those peepof-day, Orange, or No-popery-men, who at present govern the king's conscience, and consequently his councils throughout the empire. The encouragement of them, and their acts of ruthless persecution, were among the principal means which the ministers boast of having used, to bring about REBELLION, and through rebellion,

UNION.

ARMAGH, December 28, 1795. At a numerous meeting of the magistrates of the county of Armagh, convened this day, at the special instance of Lord Viscount GOSFORD, Governor.

His Lordship having taken the chair; opened the business of the meeting, by the following Address:

GENTLEMEN;

HAVING requested your attendance here this day, it becomes my duty to state the grounds upon which I : thought it advisable to propose this meeting, and at the same time to submit to your consideration, a plan which occurs to me as most likely to check the enormities that have already brought disgrace upon this country, and may soon reduce it into deep distress.

It is no secret, that a persecution, accompanied with all the circumstances of ferocious cruelty, which have in all ages distinguished that dreadful calamity, is now raging in this country. Neither age nor sex, nor even acknowledged innocence, as to any guilt in the last disturbances, is sufficient to excite mercy, much less to afford protection.

The only crime which the wretched objects of this ruthless persecution are charged with, is a crime indeed of easy proof; it is simply a profession of the Roman Catholic Faith, or an intimate connexion with a person professing that faith. A lawless banditti have constituted judges of this new species of delinquency, and the sentence they have pronounced is equally concise and terrible; it is nothing less than a confiscation of all property, and immediate banishment.

It would be extremely painful and surely unnecessary, to detail the horrors that attend the execution of so wide and tremendous a proscription, a proscription that certainly exceeds in the comparative number of those it consigns to ruin and misery, every example that ancient or modern history can supply. For where have we heard, or in what story of human cruelties have we read, of more than half the inhabitants of a populous county, deprived at one blow of the means as well as the fruits of their industry, and driven in the midst of an inclement season, to seek a shelter for themselves and their helpless families, where chance may guide them?

This is no exaggerated picture of the horrid scenes now acting in this county. Yet surely it is sufficient to awaken sentiments of indignation and compassion in the coldest bosom. These horrors, I say, are now acting, and acting with impunity. The spirit of partial justice (without which law is nothing better than an instrument of tyranny) has for a time disappeared in this county; and the supineness of the magistracy of Armagh, has become a common topic of conversation in every corner of the kingdom.

It is said in reply: The Roman Catholics are danger

ous; they may be so; they may be dangerous from their numbers, and still more dangerous from the unbounded views they have been encouraged to entertain. But I will venture to assert, without fear of contradiction, that upon those very grounds, these terrible proceedings are not more contrary to humanity than they are to sound policy.

It is to be lamented, that no civil magistrate happened to be present with the military detachment on the night of the 21st inst. but I trust the suddenness of the occasion, the unexpected and instantaneous aggression on the part of the delinquents, will be universally admitted as a full vindication of the conduct of the officer and the party under his command.

Gentlemen, I have the honor to hold a situation in this county, which calls upon me to deliver my sentiments, and I do so without fear and without disguise.

I am as true a Protestant as any gentleman in this room or in this kingdom. I inherit a property which my family derived under a Protestant title, and with the blessing of God, I will maintain that title to the utmost of my power. I will never consent to make a sacrifice of Protestant ascendency to Catholic claims, with whatever menaces they may be urged, or however speciously or insidiously supported.

Conscious of my sincerity in this public declaration, which I do not make unadvisedly, but as the result of mature deliberation, I defy the paltry insinuations that malice or party spirit may suggest.

I know my own heart, and I should despise myself if under any intimidation I should close my eyes against such scenes as present themselves on every side, or shut my ears against the complaints of a persecuted people.

I should be guilty of an unpardonable injustice to the feelings of gentlemen here present, were I to say more on this subject. I have now acquitted myself to my conscience and my country, and take the liberty of proposing the following resolutions:

1st. That it appears to this meeting, that the county of Armagh is, at this moment, in a state of uncommon disorder. That the Roman Catholic inhabitants are grievously oppressed by lawless persons unknown, who attack and plunder their houses by night, and threaten them with instant destruction, unless they immediately abandon their lands and habitations.

2d. That a committee of magistrates be appointed, to sit on Thursdays and Saturdays, in the chapter-room, in the town of Armagh, to receive information respecting all persons of whatever description, who disturb the peace of this county.

sd. That the instructions of the whole body of the magistracy to their committee shall be, to use every legal means within their power to stop the progress of the persecution now carrying on by an ungovernable mob against the Roman Catholic inhabitants of this county.

4th. That said committee or any three of them, bè empowered to expend any sum or sums of money for infor mation or secret service, out of the fund subscribed by the gentlemen of this county.

5th. That a meeting of the whole body of the magistracy be held every second Monday, at the house of Mr. Charles M'Reynolds; in the town of Armagh, to hear the reports of the committee and to give such further instructions as the exigency of the times may require.

6th. That offenders of every description, in the present

disturbances, shall be prosecuted out of the fund subscribed by the gentlemen of this county, and to carry this reso, lution into effect; be it also resolved, that Mr. Arthur Irwin be appointed law-agent to the magistrates.

The above resolutions having been read, were unanimously agreed to, and the committee nominated.

Lord Gosford having left the chair, and the right honorable sir Capel Molyneux requested to take it,

Resolved, That the unanimous thanks of this meeting be presented to Lord Viscount Gosford, for his proper conduct in convening the magistrates of the county, and his impartiality in the chair.