No. CII.

DOCTOR FRANCIS MOYLAN, TO HIS BELOVED FLOCK, THE ROMAN CATHOLICS OF THE DIOCESE OF CORK....PAGE 249.

AT a moment of such general alarm and consternation, it is a duty I owe to you, my beloved flock, to recall to your minds the sacred principles of loyalty, allegiance and good order, that must direct your conduct on such an awful occasion. Charged as I am, by that blessed Saviour, whose birth with grateful hearts, we on this day solemnize, with the care of your souls, interested beyond expression in your temporal and eternal welfare, it is incumbent on me to exhort you to that peaceable demeanor, which must ever mark his true and faithful disciples.

Loyalty to the sovereign, and respect for the constituted authorities, have been always the prominent features in the christian character, and by patriotism and obedience to the established form of government, have our ancestors been distinguished at times, and under circumstances very different from these in which we have the happiness to live. For, blessed be God, we are no longer strangers in our native land, no longer excluded from the benefits of the happy constitution under which we live, no longer separated by odious distinctions from our fellow-subjects. To our gracious sovereign we are bound by the concurring principles of gratitude and duty, and to all our fellow-citizens by mutual interest and christian charity.

Under these circumstances, it is obvious what line of conduct you are to adopt, if the invaders, who are said to be on our coasts, should make good their landing, and attempt to penetrate into our country. To allure you to a co-operation with their views, they will not fail to make specious professions, that their only object is to emancipate you from the pretended tyranny under which you groan; and to restore you those rights, of which they will say you are deprived.

You, my good people, whom I particularly address, who are strangers to passing occurrences, had you known in what manner they fulfilled similar promises in the unfortunate countries into which, on the faith of them, they gained admittance, you would learn caution from their credulity, and distrust men who have trampled on all laws, human and divine; Germany, Flanders, Italy, Holland, to say nothing of their own, once the happiest,

now the most miserable, country in the world, can attest the irreparable ruin, desolation and destruction, occasioned by the French fraternity.

Be not deceived by the lure of equalizing property, which they will hold out to you, as they did to the above-mentioned people; for the poor, instead of getting any part of the spoil of the rich, were robbed of their own little pittance.

Be not then imposed on by their professions; they come only to rob, plunder and destroy. Listen not to their agitating abettors in this country, who endeavour, by every means, to corrupt your principles, but join heart and hand with all the virtuous and honest members of the community, who are come forward with distinguished patriotism, as well to resist the invading foe, as to counteract the insidious machinations of the domestic enemies and unnatural children, who are seeking to bring on their native country the ruin and untold evils that flow from anarchy and confusion. Obey the laws that protect you in your persons and properties: reverence the magistrate entrusted with their execution, and display your readiness to give him every assistance in your power.

Act thus, my beloved brethren, from a principle of conscience, and you will thereby ensure the favour of your God, and the approbation of all good men; whereas a contrary conduct will draw down inevitable ruin on you here, and eternal misery hereafter.

I shall conclude with this simple reflection, if the sway of our impious invaders were here established, you would not, my beloved people enjoy the comfort of celebrating this auspicious day with gladness and thanksgiving, nor of uniting with all christians on earth, and with the celestial spirits in heaven, in singing, Glory to God on high, and on earth peace to men and good will! 25th December, 1796..

Doctor Caulfield, having attentively perused and considered the foregoing seasonable address of the worthy Roman Catholic Bishop of Cork to his flock, last Christmas day, on the truly alarming report of an hostile invasion of this country by the French, and observing that the safety, the interest and duty of the people are so strongly and pathetically pressed and inculcated in it, most gladly adopts the same, and most zealously recommends the important subject, the pious spirit and loyal orthodox doctrine of it, to the serious consideration and practical notice of the Roman Catholics of the diocese of Ferns; with great confidence in their principles as christians and subjects, that nothing shall ever warp or make them deviate from the indispensable line of conduct pointed out therein.

Wexford, Jan. 7, 1797.

JAMES CAULFIELD.

No. CIII.

THE APPEAL OF THE PEOPLE OF ULSTER TO THEIR COUNTRYMEN, AND TO THE EMPIRE AT LARGE....PAGE 261.

IRISHMEN!

OUR best citizens are entombed in Bastiles or hurried on board tenders; our wives and our children are become the daily victims of an uncontroled and licentious foreign soldiery!

Irishmen! Ulster, one of your fairest provinces, containing one-third of the population of the land. Ulster, hitherto the pride and strength of Ireland, is proclaimed, and put under the ban of martial law! The executive government of the country has sentenced us to military execution, without trial, and the legislature of the country has sanctioned this illegal act without inquiry! The constituted authorities of the land, (without condescending to examine into the existence of our grievances, the truth of the outrages alleged against us, or the nature of the circumstances that may have provoked them,) have stigmatized us as objects of terror to the rest of Ireland, and of horror to the rest of Europe!

What, you will naturally ask, are your crimes? Hear them: Our enemies say, that under the appellation of United Irishmen, and by means of illegal oaths, we have established and organized a horrid system of murder, that we are the avowed enemies of all order and good government, and finally, that our ultimate object is pillage, massacre, and plunder! Countrymen! these charges are false! they are malevolent! for the only proof which our accusers have pretended to adduce in their support is, that in one whole province, where the servants of government have, for the last four years, by a system of premeditated persecution, endeavoured to drive the people into insurrection, a few individuals, who had rendered themselves notorious by their vindictive pursuit of this system, have, during the last six months, lost their lives. We do not defend these outrages; they give us more real grief than they do to our enemies.

But, how has it happened that the same horror was not expressed by the same persons, when a civil war was for two years carrying on in the county of Armagh, against the Catholics, supported by magisterial exertions, and as it was said, by ministerial connivance? Do you not know, countrymen, that these cruel persecutions were carried on by men, not only enjoying

impunity, but boasting that they were acting under the authority of government. Do you not know that the same system of ty

ranny

and terror has been enforced with various success in almost every part of the north? that Belfast has been dragooned? that our most virtuous inhabitants have been nearly decimated? that magistrates have frequently issued forth, by day and by night, at the head of parties of the army, to scour the country, to burn the houses, and imprison the persons of those who are suspected to love liberty? Can you then wonder, if men, who have made themselves peculiarly obnoxious by their cruelties should sometimes fall victims to individual vengeance? However, you may lament in common with us, can you be surprised if the son, whose father has been torn from his family and illegally imprisoned, or carried on board the fleet; if the husband, whose wife has been dragged from her lying-in-bed, at the hour of midnight, and thrown into the street to see her house burned before her eyes; if the father, whose property has been destroyed, and his children cast out into want and misery; can you be surprised even if men, who are daily witnesses to such transactions, without redress and without the shadow of legal authority, and who are themselves suffering under a grinding persecution, the acts of which cannot be easily particularized, but which, by its unceasing operation, crushes and destroys; can you be surprised, if men thus situated, determined not to be forced into insurrection, should seek to assuage their revenge, and vainly hope to stop the current of general calamity by the assassination of the most atrocious of their persecutors? Do not, we beseech you, falsely impute their acts to the moral depravity of any body of men: No; if the hands of the inhabitants of the North were not restrained by the strongest ties of duty and religion, the highest heads and most overbearing spirits of our oppressors would have long since expiated their tyranny.

We have told you, countrymen, the charges exhibited against us, hear now the facts, and for the truth of them we solemnly appeal to the searcher of hearts. We are under an obligation (and we glory in it) to promote a brotherhood of affection among Irishmen of every religious persuasion. We are united in an organised system, not to promote murder, but to promote peace; not to destroy persons and property, but to save both from destruction. Lastly, beloved countrymen! we are most solemnly pledged, (a pledge we will never forfeit) to co-operate with you in every temperate and rational measure for obtaining the free'dom of our country, by a full and adequate representation of all the people of Ireland, without regard to religious distinctions.

These are the crimes of Ulster. They are the common crimes of Ireland. How should it be otherwise, when they arise

from the duty we owe to our country and to our God? Yes, Irishmen! the sacred flame has become general! That which originated in Antrim, has been reverberated from Cork, and all the intermediate space from Wicklow to Mayo glows with the same enthusiasm. It has been our glory to raise the abutments, to you belongs the still more glorious task of crowning the arch. Our intentions have been, and still are to obtain the great objects of our pursuit, through the means of calm discussion, and their own unquestionable justice. The common enemy knows, that these are the most powerful and irresistible weapons. It is, therefore, that they have practised upon us a system of reiterated aggression, unparalleled in the history of civilized nations, for the purpose of goading us into insurrection, or driving us into despair. They have hitherto failed, and they will still fail, thanks to that bountiful Being who has endued us with patience as well as courage,

We can even yet endure for our country's sake. But, countrymen! is there not a point, beyond which forbearance becomes a crime, and human nature is incapable of enduring? Shall we be forced beyond that point? If we should, our poor and feeble oppressors would find, that United Ireland could, in an instant, trample them to dust.

To our national armed force, whether militia or yeomanry, we peculiarly appeal. Soldiers! when you took up arms to defend your country, did you intend to turn them against your countrymen? Was it to raise the Catholic against the Protes tant, and the Protestant against the Catholic that you arrayed? Was it to support an administration which has brought your country to the verge of destruction, by a wicked war against liberty abroad, and a still more wicked war against liberty at home, that you swore allegiance? If you should ever, with parricidal hearts, turn your arms against your fellow-citizens, whose only crime is their patriotism, would you not feel that you were guilty of treason, rebellion and perjury against your king, your country, and your God? Think then in time, remember you are Irishmen! Remember that you must shortly answer for every act of murder, or even pillage that you might be induced, by unjust orders, to commit, before that Being who is the avenger of the oppressed.

To the British nation we also appeal! Is it criminal, Britons! to follow the example of your renowned ancestors? If you feel the defects in your representation, and if you are sensible that you as well as we, have been precipitated into the most wicked and destructive wars, in consequence of these defects, can you possibly blame us whose representation is infinitely more inadequate, for our peaceable exertions to remedy those defects?