indeed disarm them; rescue them from the degraded servitude in which
they are held by a handful of their own countrymen, and you will add
four millions of brave and affectionate men to your strength.
Nightly visits, Protestant inspectors, licenses to possess a pistol,
or a knife and fork, the odious vigour of the EVANGELICAL Perceval--
acts of Parliament, drawn up by some English attorney, to save you
from the hatred of four millions of people--the guarding yourselves
from universal disaffection by a police; a confidence in the little
cunning of Bow Street, when you might rest your security upon the
eternal basis of the best feelings: this is the meanness and
madness to which nations are reduced when they lose sight of the
first elements of justice, without which a country can be no more
secure than it can be healthy without air. I sicken at such policy
and such men. The fact is, the Ministers know nothing about the
present state of Ireland; Mr. Perceval sees a few clergymen, Lord
Castlereagh a few general officers, who take care, of course, to
report what is pleasant rather than what is true. As for the joyous
and lepid consul, he jokes upon neutral flags and frauds, jokes upon
Irish rebels, jokes upon northern and western and southern foes, and
gives himself no trouble upon any subject; nor is the mediocrity of
the idolatrous deputy of the slightest use. Dissolved in grins, he
reads no memorials upon the state of Ireland, listens to no reports,
asks no questions, and is the


"BOURN from whom no traveller returns."


The danger of an immediate insurrection is now, I BELIEVE, blown
over. You have so strong an army in Ireland, and the Irish are