were not a fit subject for intrusion on the royal ear. No inquiry was instituted into the state of Ireland, for the system of her government would not bear inquiry. Her growing strength and importance had become a subject of jealousy and alarm. Her population, within the short pe riod of forty years, had doubled its numbers; education kept pace with this alarming increase; the union of her inhabitants gave strength to her physical force, and her local situation had attracted the attention of foreign powers. Her dismemberment was, therefore, determined on. Ill-fated country! torrents of blood must flowthe bravest of your sons must perish, to deck the funeral pile of national independence.

An executive in conjunction with some of the most malignant spirits of the day, whose desperate fortunes courted desperate enterprises, was an engine not unfitted for the work destined to deprive Ireland of her rank as a nation, and extinguish her last hope of independence. The leader of that faction, who had long rioted on the spoils of his country, bartered domestic peace for national dissension, smiled at the torture which his sanguinary hand had inflicted, and like a second Nero, exulted in the flame which menaced his country with ruin;—this monster, whose mental delight was the misery of

man, and the harmony of whose soul was the shriek of despair, impatient of the delay of actual hostilities, unblushingly betrayed in the Irish senate the predetermined resolution of enforcing insurrection, and regretted the cautious councils that for a moment opposed any obstacle to the decision of the sword.

It was vain now for any man to affect feelings of loyalty or attachment to a government which had declared war against humanity and the rights of the people. Of what material must that man have been composed, who could witness his property consumed, his home in the possession of a licentious soldiery, his wife or daughter a prey to their brutal outrage, and not arm himself with treble vengeance against the infernal despoiler? Death in any shape was preferable to the horrors he encountered, and he gloried in resistance, though he lived but an hour to revenge his wrongs. It was this which led him to outstep the original compact of the Union, and direct his views to ulterior objects and bolder designs.

That the united system was originally confined to the two points of emancipation and reform, is evident from the characters of many who early embraced it. Had it been otherwise, it is not rational to suppose that it would have

numbered in its ranks so many wealthy landed proprietors, so much mercantile property, and even the fundholder himself. These men had no revolutionary principles, nor would they have risked their fortunes on the uncertain issue of a revolutionary contest. Whatever might have been the more extended views of individuals, the great body had originally formed no design beyond these two specific points. It was only when all hopes of constitutional redress had failed, when life and property were denied the protection of the law, that resistance became a duty and allegiance was withdrawn. Would to God that the healing hand of conciliation had been extended and the fatal spark extinguished, ere the flame had burst forth.

But government had attained the object desired. Ireland was goaded to resistance, and security was sought for in the tented field.

CHAPTER XII.

Lord Edward Fitzgerald.

THE rank, the talent, the virtues, and disinterested patriotism of Lord Edward Fitzgerald distinguished him, in the estimation of his countrymen, as a man every way qualified for the most important trust and the boldest undertakings. Young, ardent, and enterprising; enthusiastic in his love of liberty; of devoted attachment to his country, and possessing the most unbounded confidence of his countrymen in return; reared in the school of arms, and distinguished for military science, he possessed all the qualities to constitute a great and popular leader, and seemed destined by nature for the bold and daring enterprise to which an abhorrence of oppression, and the most lively sense of justice irresistibly impelled him. Sacrificing in this pursuit all the prospects to which rank, fortune, and an illustrious line of ancestry opened the way, he sought only in the ranks of his country that dis

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tinction which his talents and virtues could not fail to obtain.

Though no chief had actually been appointed to the supreme command in Leinster, the eyes of all were naturally directed to Lord Edward Fitzgerald. The officers who composed his staff, as well as those who had been selected to command in the respective counties, were men distinguished either by military talent or local influence. Few however of the former now remained in Ireland. It was difficult to elude the vigilance of the government, and the period of resistance having been from time to time postponed, the officers of foreign states had returned to their respective services, to which the busy scenes of warfare throughout Europe had recalled them. Those who had offered their services in the hour of Ireland's distress, were, from these circumstances (some alas! but for a short period) precluded any share in her disastrous fortunes, but Ireland can never forget their generous sympathy in her cause; -the gallant hon. Plunkett, that intrepid soldier of fortune, whose fame will be recorded while Buda or the Danube are remembered; the brave and devoted Bellew, who would exchange the laurels of foreign conquest to encounter peril and privation in the land of his birth; the most