CHAPTER XVII.

Local state of Ulster-Early organization-Subsequent cause of supineness-Yeomanry corps.

ULSTER, though first in organization, and mature in all her arrangements, had as yet made no movement for the field. The fire of the south was wanting, to animate the colder regions of the north; but the spark, though latent, was was not extinct.

Ulster had long been regarded by the Irish government with a jealous eye-her moral situation gave a political ascendancy to her decisions, which were usually stamped with a freedom and boldness becoming the importance of her station and the lettered mind of her independent and wealthy population. To Ulster the other provinces looked with respect; she was the centre of that union which she had so strenuously recommended; and as the early advocate of freedom, and the school of political science, her movements were regarded with more than ordinary concern. But her apparent supineness in the general cause had damped

the enthusiasm of those who wished to model their line of action by the parent stock.

The most forward in promoting the union in Ulster had been the first to arrest the attention of an active administration; and the leaders, who from the attachment or confidence of the people were designated by the name, were generally removed from the scene where that attachment or confidence could be most efficiently employed. Many were at this moment inhaling the noxious damps of the dungeon, or crowded in the tender's pestilential hold. Some had found shelter from persecution in foreign ranks; whilst others, "who wanted nerve for the fight," became recreant to the cause, and changed the standard of union for the ensign of power.

The organization of the union in Ulster had been pursued with a minuteness and technicality of system, in which the other provinces were somewhat deficient: but that very system proved more injurious to her views; while the want of organization favoured the promptness of action which distinguished the counties less familiar with its forms. Confidence in her strength had lulled Ulster into security; and that security was followed by supineness, which wasted by degrees her energy and fire.

Men are the children of habit in every country and in every clime; but our inclinations are favourable to indulgence and ease; and though the mind, when roused by particular excitement, considers no enterprise too daring, it becomes languid from inaction, and sinks back imperceptibly to its original inertness. It was even so in Ulster. The aggressions which had first stimulated to resistance became every day more familiar; and the feelings, if not more callous, certainly not more acute. The very confidence which Ulster felt in her powers of resistance, taught her to bear those aggressions with firmness; and she waited the combination of events to give a simultaneous movement to the whole population. But while she looked for this excitement in the minds of others, she lost the energies of her own-and with an immense organized force, superior in a military point of view to all the other provinces combined, her efforts were the least efficient, and her arms the most promptly suppressed.

Ulster, properly speaking, might have been designated a military province, the intrenched camp of the Irish volunteers. The immense number of these corps, scattered in every direction over the face of the country, had roused a martial spirit, and familiarised the inhabitants

to the use of arms; but this popular force had been suppressed, and government was now actively engaged in forming new levies.

The proud remembrance of the volunteer army of Ulster, associated with the glorious era of 1782, served to render the new corps of yeomanry, who had assumed the name of volunteers, more unpopular in Ulster than in any other quarter of Ireland. "Who", said a political writer of that day, "would attempt to compare the old volunteers with the present yeomen!!! The paltry services of the old corps were remunerated by disgrace, after fourteen years' experience; the present glorious band have not been quite three months in existence, and our virtuous government have expend. ed five hundred thousand pounds of Irish gold upon them!!!"

In this province, particularly, the yeomanry corps were in a great measure composed of men distinguished by violent party feeling. The more liberal minded stood aloof, and a line of separation was formed between those new levies and the people, which caused a rancorous feeling in the breast of the one, and strengthened the aversion and hostility of the other. The greatest possible exertions were used to induce men to enter into these corps; the favour and

protection of government on one hand, their displeasure and resentment on the other ; every local influence was resorted to; the magisterial despot, the influential landlord, and the minister of religion were enlisted partisans in the cause. I by no means presume to arraign the motives which induced many worthy members of society to enter this association. Political as well as religious feelings should be respected; it is tyranny to condemn when conscience is the guide. But while I am disposed to concede the due share of merit to those who, in supporting the Camden administration, conceived they supported the prerogative of the crown, I feel no disposition to rank in the same class the man who boasted a loyalty which he never felt, and feigned an attachment to measures which his soul condemned.

When we consider the population of Ulster, the diversity of sects, the influence of party feeling, and the powerful exertions to revive a spirit of bigotry in its inhabitants, it is a subject of reflection that the yeomanry corps were not more numerous; and it is a fact notorious, that these corps increased in proportion to the disappointed hopes or the personal fears of the men who had most strenuously opposed their formation. The yeomanry ranks afforded a shelter