is fair and likely to facilitate the course of justice, without violently infringing, as all the other resolutions seem to do, the liberty of the subject."

Lord Edward was not at this time, nor for a long time after, a United Irishman, much less had he thought of any alliance with France.

MOLL DOYLE.

THE notices of the government-men, in the counties of Wexford and Wicklow, in the years 1798, 1799 and 1800, ran thus: A-B-. We give you notice in five days to quit; or if you don't, by God, we will visit your house with fire, and yourself with lead. Moll Doyle's true grandsons.

We are the Grinders,

MOLL DOYLE AGAIN.

On the estate of Mr. Swiny, called Court, when the leases of the tenants, who were Catholics, expired, the same KING'S CONSCIENCE-MEN posted the following Proclamations:

LET no Papist presume to take lands; and even if a son of MOLL DOYLE should offer more than half a guinea an acre (worth fifty shillings) he shall forfeit all privileges of the fraternity, and undergo the same punishment for his transgressions, as if he was a Papist. The landṣ, in consequence, remained waste for nearly two years.

MOLL DOYLE, the adopted grandmother of these ruffians, was nothing more than a metaphor, meaning the KING'S CONSCIENCE. This threat of lowering the rents, first alarmed the guilty landlords, and made them feel the danger of extermination.

"It may not be amiss to contrast with this gross barbarity the proclamation of a REBEL GENERAL, and the Dying declaration of a REBEL.

TO THE PEOPLE OF IRELAND.

Countrymen and Fellow-Soldiers!

YOUR patriotic exertions in the cause of your country, have hitherto exceeded your most sanguine expectations, and in a short time must ultimately be crowned with success. Liberty has raised her drooping head, thousands daily flock to her standards, the voice of her children every where prevails. Let us then, in the moment of triumph, return thanks to the Almighty Ruler of the Universe, that a total stop has been put to those sanguinary measures, which of late were but too often resorted to by the creatures of government, to keep the people in slavery.

Nothing now, my countrymen, appears necessary to secure the conquests you have already won, but an implicit obedience to the commands of your chiefs; for through a want of proper subordination and discipline, all may be changed.

At this eventful period all Europe must admire, and posterity will read with astonishment, the heroic acts achieved by people, strangers to military tactics, and having few

professional commanders; but what power can resist men fighting for liberty?

In the moment of triumph, my countrymen, let not your victories be tarnished with any wanton act of cruelty; many of those unfortunate men now in prison were not your enemies from principle; most of them, compelled by necessity, were obliged to oppose you; neither let a difference in religious sentiments cause a difference among the people. Recur to the debates in the Irish house of lords on the 19th of February last; you will there see a patriotic and enlightened Protestant bishop (Down) and many of the lay lords, with manly eloquence, pleading for Catholic emancipation and parliamentary reform, in opposition to the haughty arguments of the lord chancellor, and the powerful opposition of his fellow-courtiers.

To promote a union of brotherhood and affection among our countrymen of all religious persuasions, has been our principal object; we have sworn in the most solemn manner, have associated from this laudable purpose, and no power on earth shall shake our resolution.

To my Protestant fellow-soldiers I feel much indebted for their gallant behaviour in the field, where they exhibited signal proofs of bravery in the cause.

Wexford, June 7, 1798.

EDWARD ROCHE.

DYING DECLARATION OF WILLIAM ORR.

My Friends and Countrymen,

IN the thirty-first year of my life, I have been sentenced to die upon the gallows, and this sentence has been in pur

suance of a verdict of twelve men, who should have been indifferently and impartially chosen; how far they have been so, I leave to that country from which they have been chosen, to determine; and how far they have discharged their duty, I leave to their God and to themselves. They have, in pronouncing their verdict, thought proper to recommend me as an object of human mercy; in return, I pray to God, if they have erred, to have mercy upon them. The judge, who condemned me, humanely shed tears in uttering my sentence; but whether he did wisely, in so highly commending the wretched informer who swore away my life, I leave to his own cool reflection, solemnly assuring him and all the world, with my dying breath, that the informer was forsworn. The law under which I

may the makers and

suffer, is surely a severe one; promoters of it, be justified in the integrity of their motives and the purity of their own lives. By that law, I am stamped a felon, but my heart disdains the imputation. My comfortable lot and industrious course of life, best refute the charge of being an adventurerer for plunder; but if to have loved my country, to have known its wrongs, to have felt the injuries of the persecuted Catholics, and to have united with them and all other religious persuasions, in the most orderly and least sanguinary means of procuring redress; if those be felonies, I am a felon, but not otherwise. Had my counsel,* for whose honorable exertions I

*The indictment was under the insurrection act for administering the obligation to religious union. The informer in his zeal, added some conversation about joining the French. Upon which Mr. Curran and I, who were his counsel, moved that he should be discharged of that indictment, as the offence, if the witness was at all credible, would be treason under the Stat. Ed. III. Our motives were these, that under this in

am indebted, prevailed in their motion to have me tried for high treason, rather than under the insurrection law, I should have been entitled to a full defence, and my actions and intentions have been better vindicated; but that was refused, and I must now submit to what has passed.

To the generous protection of my country, I leave a beloved wife, who has been constant and true to me, and whose grief for my fate has already nearly occasioned her death. I leave five living children, who have been my delight; may they love their country as I have done, and die for it if needful.

Lastly, a false and ungenerous publication having appeared in a newspaper, stating certain alleged confessions of guilt on my part, and thus striking at my reputation, which is dearer to me than life, I take this solemn method of contradicting that calumny. I was applied to by the high sheriff, and the Rev. William Bristow, sovereign of Belfast, to make a confession of guilt, who used entreaties to that effect; this I peremptorily refused; did I think myself guilty, I should be free to confess it, but on the contrary, I glory in my innocence.

I trust that all my virtuous countrymen will bear me in their kind remembrance, and continue true and faithful to each other, as I have been to all of them. With this last

dictment the witness had only to swear a predetermined oath 10 the administering of a printed test, put into his hand merely to be sworn to, and his counsel could not be heard to the facts. Under the law of treason, he would have had a full defence upon the law and the fact, and have been undoubtedly acquitted; although even then, he would have had but half the priv ilege of an Englishman, as in treason two witnesses are required to take away the life of an Englishman; one is heid enough to swear away that of an Irishman. For the further history of this case see Curran's speech for Peter Finerty.