of the clergyman of the established church for his dues, and of the catholic priest for thofe contributions which form his fubfiftence. A religious fect, fupported by contribution, commonly depends for its funds upon the more opulent or middle claffes of the community; but the Romish religion in Ireland ftill retains this feature of an eftablifhment, to have a kind of regular demand upon the poor, the indigent and induftrious.

The infurgents in Ireland, under the names of White Boys, Oak Boys and other barbarous appellations, have at different times pointed their irregular efforts at different objects. It has fometimes been the tithe of the church, and fometimes the rent of the proprietor, that they have regarded as the fource of their poverty and their diftrefs. The firft of thefe was the fingle object of which they complained in the infurrection, whofe caufes we are cndeavouring to trace, and whofe events we are about to relate. Though the clergyman, fo far from receiving more than he is entitled to by law, almost always receives a twentieth or a fortieth part under the denomination of a tenth, yet his claim, being more variable and fluctuating than that of the landlord, oftener affumes the appearance of intolerable calamity. In addition to this circumftance, by a kind of abfurdity that has feldom had an example, the meadow lands of Ireland are totally exempt from tithe, while the operation of this. impoft feems directed to the difcouragement of agriculture. The grazier is rich, the hufbandman is poor; the grazier is the proteftant, the ufbandman is the catholic. Thus almoft the only man, who contributes to the fupport of the ecclefiaftical eftablishment, is the

man, who does not, even in appearance, derive any benefit from it. The clergyman, a man liberal in his education and urbane in his manners, might be expected to treat the diftreffes of the peafantry with mildnefs and forbearance; but unfortunately the clergyman like the proprietor, and for ftill stronger reafons, fince his claim is more liable to be contested, employs a middle man, a proctor, or tithe farmer, to enforce his demands. The proctor, far from being moved by the inability of the cultivator, treads upon the heels of providence, and facrifices what the judgments of heaven may have left imperfect, to the brutality of his temper, or the infatiablenefs of his avarice,

It is for the reader to confider, whether or not the caufes we have enumerated be fufficient to account for the diforders that followed. Many of thofe perfons, who have lived nearest to the feat of the infurrection, actuated by infidious and finifter confiderations, or prompted merely by curiosity and an affumption of fuperior penetration, or latly, furnifhed with facts which were most likely to be within their reach, have been difpoted to trace the fource of these violences to a romoter cause. Certain writers on the part of the establishment have reprefented the whole, as a deep and dangerous combination for the over, throw of the established church, and the erection of popery upon its ruins. In the mean time this idea does not feem to be favoured by the nature of the incidents, which we fhall have to relate. Others, and thefe have been ftill more numerous, have maintained that the peasants left to themselves would have remained quiet and supine; and that the landlords, urged by their envy to their more profpe

rous

rous neighbours, prompted them to thefe unjustifiable exertions, in order that by the abolition of tithes they might add that amount to their rents, which was at prefent paid under this form to the church. Particular facts have been cited in proof of this affe tion; and to thefe have been added the general obfervation, that the infurgents did not aim to render potatocs tithe free, but from the beginning infifted on annihilating the tithe of hay. This hypothefis has been rendered fill more definite by the statement of Dr. James Butler, titular archbishop of Cafhel, in a publication upon this fubject. He observes that the intereft of the earl of Shannon, which had ufually been predominant in the county of Cork, and which had always been efpoufed by the clergy of the established church, was defeated there at the laft general election. And he afferts, that the fuccessful party were inftigated by refentment and oppofition, to excite the difcontents, and point the direction of a numerous body of men against those who had become obnoxious to them.

The fymptoms of discontent first broke out in the county of Cork, and in the diocese of the bishopric of Cloyne towards the end of the month of September 1785. To this diocefe they were for fome time wholly confined; and they did not make any confiderable figure, or draw a very particular attention till the months of January and February in the following year. By degrees they fpread from the diocefe of Clyne to the diocefe of Cork, and the county of Kerry; and in the lapfe of a few weeks they embraced the whole province of Munfler, the counties of Clare in the province of Connaught, and of Kilkenny in the province of Leinster,

and made occafionally excurfions beyond the e limits. A perfon very early diftinguifhed himself among them, and was regarded as the hero of this band of conquerors, whose real or affumed appellation was that of captain Right; and from him they foon became known by the denomination of Right Boys. They were faid to affemble generally on Tuesday and Friday nights, by the figual of a horn, founded on one of the adjacent hills, and feldom to mufter fewer than eighty men. Arms they obtained by violence from fuch of the inhabitants as poffeffed them, and they proceeded on their exeurfions with the affiftance of the neighbouring horfes, which the owners were afraid to place out of their reach.

It is difficult to compofe a narrative of violences, that were carried on upon no plan, and that were fo numerous, that even the daily prints grew tired of the labour of recording them. The perfons concerned in them appeared in no regular bodies, affembled only by night, and were difperfed and vanished by the break of day. Without carrying on a more regular war, they conceived the plan of fuperfeding the rigour of law, and they were generally fuccefsful. When any of their fellows were feized by the vigilance of magiftracy, they maintained them in prifon, exerted themfelves indefatigably for their rescue, and, if they did not fucceed in this, intimidated every one from appearing as a witnefs against them. Even when conviction had taken place, and fentence had been pronounced, the chance for impunity was not yet over, and in one inftance the high fheriff of a county, unable to find any perfon to perform the office, is faid to have been obliged to exe

cute the fentence of whipping upon a convict with his own hands.

Amidst the innumerable affaults and barbarities that were committed, it will be neceffary to select fome, in order to convey a general idea of their nature, their fyftem and their objects. In the mean time a collection has been already made by perfons particularly interested in the event of the commotions; and perhaps we cannot do better than to tranfcribe what they have written upon the subject. We fhall thus probably obtain the additional advantage, of efcaping thofe impolitions which are inevitably practifed in the daily prints, and of rela ing only fuch facts as are certain and well authenticated. Meanwhile as we find them unaccompanied with dates and other fuch circumftantial matters, we cannot pledge ourselves for their chronological accuracy. The following are fome of the infances cited, of perfonal attacks upon clergymen, by doctor Richard Woodward, lord bishop of Cloyne.

"One, a dignitary in my cathedral, was forced to come out of his house at midnight, by a band of one hundred and fifty ruthans, to fwear that he would give up his legal right; a gun being pointed clofe to his head while the oath was tendered, and a horfe produced with a faddle full of fpikes, on which he was to be mount d if he refused to fwear. A fecond was menace with dr adful imprecations, that he fhould meet with a most horrible eception, if he di' not obey their laws nor punétually, though he by a public notice had declared his fubmiffion. A third, that he fhould be treated inhumanly and bar alon fly A tourth, that his ears fould be cropped, nd his tongue cut out of his mouth. A

fifth they informed, that they had prepared a pitched fhirt for him, in which they would fet him on fire. A fixth had his houfe in the town of Mallow broken open at midnight, and his bedchamber entered by a number of armed men, who forced him to give up his horfes for their use. A seventh had five of his hor'es cropped, from fpite that his houfe was fecure. And an eighth had his houfe furrounded in the dead of night by an hundred men for feal hours, who endeavoured to force his gates, the terror of which nearly occafioned the death of his daughter, who, as the affailants who were his near neighbours must have known, was brought to bed the night before. On the whole all the clergy in the extenfive county of Cork," of which only the bishop profeffes to speak, "whofe places of refidence were in the country were under continual alarm, and obliged to arm themselves in the best manner they could. Had they not given way to the violence of the infurgents, they would as it appears, have been perfonally ill teated; perhaps buried in those graves which, in many places were dug profeffedly for their reception."

To fuggeft more ftrongly the idea of combination and fyftem, the bifhop goes on to ftate that "a form of fummons to the clergyman, penned with legal accuracy, was printed at Cork, at the expence of a gentleman of rank and fortune, and many thousand copies of it circulated with diligence, through the adjacent counties of Limeric, Kerry and Tipperary They took arms out of the hands of proteftants and le ied money for the exprefs pur, ofe of purchafing ammunition. They impofed oaths on

the

Macmahon, titular biflop of Killaloe, was violently interrupted, when preaching in the chapel of Caffleconnel, because he condemned the irregularities of thefe infatuated difturbers. A proteftant church has, indeed, been nailed up; and fifty chapels have been nailed up and blockaded. The chapel of Cloghroe, in the diocefe of Cloyne, the chapel of Boerlane in the diocefe of Cafhel, the chapel of Donohil in

the fame district, the chapels of Carrickeene and Monochone in the diocefe of Offory, have been nailed up, and their priests treated with the utmost indignity. And if this work were intended to excite pity, it could be fpun to a folio by the mere recital of thofe outrages, which, have been fo anxioufly described, as confined to the perfons of proteftant clergy and to the proteitant churches."

NONTEMPORARY with the difpute of the Schelde, which fo greatly engroffed the attention of Europe, were the internal mifunderstandings and diffentions of the Dutch republic. These had first difplayed themselves in their external fymptoms in the year 1780. The ground-work had probably been laid much earlier than this. If we examine the hiftory of the United Provinces for the two laft centuries, we fhall find two parties continually ftruggling for the fuperiority with a degree of eagernefs and perfeverance that has feldom been exceeded. The first of thefe has been the party of the houfe of Orange. The fituation of the ftate, which demanded an able commander to lead them to arms against the Spanish fovereign, had first raised this houfe to dilinction; the gratitude and affection of the common people had long been one of its most confiderable fupports; and lafly, it had for a bulwark of its authority the favour and attach ment of the order of nobles, fcatter

ed through the United Provinces, and who have always been found more willing to depend upon the kindness of one man, than to court the frugal honours of an oligarchy, or the uncertain favours of a democracy. The second party has been that of the ftates, and of the fenates or town councils, who, in oppofition to the nobles, might perhaps be more properly denominated an oligarchy, than, as they have been ufually ftyled, an ariftocracy. Thefe affemblies, if taken in a comprehenfive view, appear to be in their own nature a felf elec tive body, or a body exercifing the privilege of filling up their own vacancies. This privilege has indeed been encroached upon by the party of the ftadtholder, in their hour of fuccefs; but the encroachment has always been regarded by their opponents as unconflitutional.

During the greater part of their history the office of a fladtholder, has formed a branch of their go. vernment. In that period however. when they were as a nation most profperous