contempt of danger and the most enthusiastic feelings which love of liberty and of country could inspire. No wonder, then, that the system of union became formidable, and that public sympathy for those who suffered in the cause was general and sincere; while the man, who with firmness encountered the privations of a prison, was regarded as a martyr to truth and the liberties of his country. Of this number, young and enthusiastic, it was my fortune to be one. Educated in the province of Ulster, I imbibed early sentiments of independence, which, though they have marred my best prospects in life, and entailed misfortunes incalculable on my family, I trust I shall never abandon. Fox, Grattan, Curran, and the illustrious patriots of their day, have lived in vain, if the present generation of Irishmen should blush to avow the sentiments which they maintained. Had my mind been ambitious, few of my contemporaries had fairer prospects of advancement; but I preferred Ireland, in her poverty and distress, to the splendour which is wrung from her miseries and misfortunes; and whether in the dungeon or on the mountain's heath, I never envied the feelings of the man who owed his fortune or his safety to the abandonment of her cause.

CHAPTER II.

Arrests in Ulster-Lord Castlereagh.

Ir was in the autumn of the year 1796 that government commenced active operations against the United Irish Societies, by the arrest of those men who were either considered the decided partisans of the cause, or suspected of being favourable to the system of union. The principal performer in this scene was, of all men, the last who could have been supposed ambitious of exhibiting in such a character. A man whose influence and example had so powerful an effect in rallying the youth of his native province, that all seemed proud to emulate the virtues which had elevated him to a distinguished situation, through the confidence and partiality of his countrymen. Strange indeed that Lord Castlereagh should have been the selected tool of the Camden administration, to drag the companions of his youth, and the early associates of his political fame, from the peaceful

bosom of their families to the horrors of an Irish Bastile. Ireland witnessed his delinquency with sorrow, but she had not anticipated the extent of the evils which awaited her, in the dismemberment of her power, and the extinction of her independence by a legislative union with Britain.

I was myself the first victim to the political delinquency of Lord Castlereagh. On the 16th of September, 1796, while yet in my eighteenth year, I was arrested by him on a charge of high treason. The manner of my arrest was as novel as mysterious, and the hand which executed it the last from which I could have suspected an act of unkindness. Lord Castlereagh was the personal friend of my father, who admired him as the early advocate of civil and religious liberty. He was a member of the illustrious band of Irish volunteers; and his name to this hour stands recorded amongst the most conspicuous characters who formed the first great political association in Ulster, for that redress of grievances which the united exertions of the people only could obtain *.

When in the year 1790, the representation for Down was contested, and the independence

*See Appendix, No. II.

of that great and populous county threatened, through the powerful influence of the Downshire family and a combination of local interests hostile to the rights of the people, Lord Castlereagh, then the Honourable Robert Stewart, was selected by his countrymen for his talents and his patriotism; and after the most obstinate political contest ever witnessed in Ireland, he was triumphantly returned to parliament, supported not only by the suffrages, but by the pecuniary contributions of the friends of civil and religious liberty. On this memorable occasion Lord Castlereagh publicly subscribed to a test, which, in expressing the sense of his constituents, marked out the line of his parliamentary duty, pledging himself, in language the most unequivocal, to the unceasing pursuit of parliamentary reform. The penal laws at this period operated against my father's personal exercise of the elective franchise, but neither his fortune nor his best exertions were unemployed in the service of his friend. What then must have been my astonishment when I found myself a prisoner in the hands of the man whom I had been early taught to regard as a model of patriotism!

The evening preceding my arrest had been passed in one of those gay and cheerful assem

blies for which at that period the north of Ireland was distinguished, and in which Lord Castlereagh and other members of his family not unfrequently mingled. The recollection of those early scenes is still fresh in my remembrance, and the delightful entertainment they afforded, was a true criterion of the polished manners and the social feeling of the inhabitants of my native town*. Accompanying my father on the following morning on a short excursion on horseback, we were met by Lord Castlereagh, who accosted us with his usual courtesy and politeness. We had proceeded up the street together, when having reached the house of his noble relative, the Marquess of Hertford, we were about to take leave of his lordship—"I regret ", said he, addressing my father, "that "that your son cannot accompany you"; conducting me at the same moment through the outer gate, which to my inexpressible astonishment was instantly closed, and I found myself surrounded by a military guard. I expostulated, and in no very measured language, against what I considered a foul and treacherous proceeding, and with warmth I demanded that the gate should be reopened, and my father admitted.

* Lisburn.