and for our said lord the king gives the court here to understand and be informed, that Archibald Hamilton Rowan, of the city of Dublin, Esq. being a person of a wicked and turbulent disposition, and maliciously designing and intending to excite and diffuse among the subjects of this realm of Ireland, discontents, jealousies, and suspicions of our said lord the king, and his government, and disaffection and disloyalty to the person and government of our said lord the king, and to raise very dangerous seditions and tumults within this kingdom of Ireland; and to draw the government of this kingdom into great scandal, infamy and disgrace; and to incite the subjects of our said lord the king to attempt, by force and violence, and with arms, to make alterations in the government, state, and constitution of this kingdom, and to incite his majesty's said subjects to tumult and anarchy, and to intimidate and overturn the legislature of this kingdom, by an armed force, on the 16th day of December, in the 33d year of our said present sovereign lord George the third by the grace of God of Great Britain, France, and Ireland, king, defender of the faith, and so forth, with force and arms, at Dublin aforesaid, to wit, in the parish and ward of St. Michael the Archangel, and in the county of the said city, wickedly, maliciously, and seditiously, did publish, and cause and procure to be published, a certain false, wicked, malicious, scandalous, and seditious libel, of and concerning the government, state, and constitution of this kingdom, according to the tenor and effect following, that is to say: THE SOCIETY OF UNITED IRISHMEN, DUBLIN, TO THE Wm. Drennan, Chairman.—ARCH. H. ROWAN, 'Secretary. "Citizen Soldiers! "YOU first took up arms to protect your country from foreign enemies, and from domestic disturbance; for the same purposes it now becomes necessary that you should re sume them. A proclamation has been issued in England for embodying the militia; and a proclamation has been issued by the lord lieutenant in Ireland [meaning a proclamation which issued under the great seal of the kingdom of Ireland the 8th day of December, 1792] for repressing all seditious associations. In consequence of both these proclamations, it is reasonable to apprehend danger from abroad, and danger at home; for whence but from apprehended danger are these menacing preparations for war drawn through the streets of this capital, [meaning the city of Dublin,] or whence, if not to create that internal commotion which was not found, to shake that credit which was not affected, to blast that volunteer honour which was hitherto inviolate, are those terrible suggestions, and rumours, and whispers, that meet us at every corner, and agitate at least our old men, our women and children! Whatever be the motive, or from whatever quarter it arises, alarm has arisen; and you, volunteers of Ireland, are therefore summoned to arms at the instance of government, as well as by the responsibility attached to your character, and the permanent obligations of your institution. We will not at this day condescend to quote authorities for the right of having and of using arms, but we will cry aloud even amid the storm raised by the witchcraft of a proclamation, that to your formation was owing the peace and protection of this island, to your relaxation has been owing its relapse into impotence and insignificance, to your renovation must be owing its future freedom and its present tranquillity; you are therefore summoned to arms, in order to preserve your country in that guarded quiet which may secure it from external hostility, and to maintain that internal regimen throughout the land, which, superseding a notorious police, or a sus pected militia, may preserve the blessings of peace by a vigilant preparation for war. Citizen soldiers, to arms, take up the shield of Freedom and the pledges of peace-peace, the motive and end of your virtuous institution. War, an occasional duty, ought never to be made an occupation. Every man should become a soldier in defence of his rights; no man ought to continue a soldier for offending the rights of others. The sacrifice of life in the service of our country is a duty much too honourable to be intrusted to mercenaries; and at this time, when your country has, by public authority, been declared in danger, we conjure you by your interest, your duty, and your glory, to stand to your arms, and in spite of a police, in spite of a fencible militia, in virtue of two proclamations, to maintain good order in your vicinage, and tranquillity in Ireland. It is only by the military array of men in whom they confide, whom they have been accustomed to revere as the guardians of domestic peace, the protectors of their liberties and lives, that the present agitation of the people can be stilled, that tumult and licentiousness can be repressed, obedience secured to existing law, and a calm confidence diffused through the public mind in the speedy resurrection of a free constitution, [meaning that the people of Ireland had not at the time of the publishing aforesaid, a free constitution,] of liberty and equality, words which we use for an opportunity of repelling calumny, saying, that by liberty we never understood unlimited freedom, nor by equality the levelling of property, or the destruction of subordination: this is a calumny invented by that faction, or that gang, which misrepresents the king to the people, and the people to the king, traduces one half of the nation to cajole the other, and, by keeping up distrust and division, wishes to continue the proud arbitrators of the fortune and fate of Ireland. Liberty is the exercise of all our rights, natural and political, secured to us and our posterity by a real representation of the people; and equality is the extension of the constituent to the fullest dimensions of the constitution, of the elective franchise to the whole body of the people, to the end that government, which is collective power, may be guided by collective will, and that legislation may originate from public reason to keep pace with public improvement, and terminate in public happiness. If our constitution be imper fect, nothing but a reform in the representation will rectify its abuses; if it be perfect, nothing but the same reform can perpetuate its blessings. We now address you as citizens, for to be citizens you became soldiers; nor can we help wishing, that all soldiers, partaking the passions and interests of the people, would remember that they were once citizens, that seduction made them soldiers, but nature made them men. We address you without any authority, save that of reason; and if we obtain the coincidence of public opinion, it is neither by force nor stratagem, for we have no power to terrify, no artifice to cajole, no fund to seduce. Here we sit without mace or beadle, neither a mystery, nor a craft, nor a corporation. In four words lies all our power: UNIVERSAL EMANCIPATION and REPRESENTATIVE LEGISLATION. Yet we are confident, that on the pivot of this principle, a convention, still less, a society, and still less, a man, will be able first to move and then to raise the world. We therefore wish for catholic emancipation without any modification; but still we consider this enfranchisement as merely the portal to the temple of freedom; wide as this entrance is, wide enough to admit 3,000,000 of people, it is narrow when compared to the capacity and comprehension of our beloved principle, which takes in every individual of the Irish nation, casts an equal eye over the whole island, embraces all that think, and feels for all that suffer. The catholic cause is subordinate to our cause, and included in it; for as united Irishmen we adhere to no sect, but to society-to no cause but christianity—to no party but the whole people. In the sincerity of our souls do we desire catholic emancipation: but, were it obtained to-morrow, to-morrow would we go on as we do to-day, in the pursuit of that reform which would soon be wanting to ratify their liberties as well as our own. For both these purposes it appears necessary, that provincial conventions should assemble preparatory to the convention of the protestant people; the delegates of the catholic body are not justified in communicating with individuals, or even bodies of an inferior authority, and therefore an assembly of a similar nature and organization is necessary to establish an intercourse of sentiments, a uniformity of conduct, a united cause, and a united nation; if a convention on the one part does not soon follow, and is not soon connected with that on the other, the common cause will split into partial interests,, the people will relapse into inattention and inertness, the union of affection and exertion will dissolve, and too probably some local insurrections, instigated by the malignity of our common enemy, may commit the character and risk the tranquillity of the island, which can be obviated only by an assembly arising from, assimilated with, the people, and whose spirit may be, as it were, knit with the soul of the nation; unless the sense of the protestant people be on their part as fairly collected and as judiciously directed, unless individual exertion consolidates into collective strength, unless the particles unite into one mass, we may perhaps serve some person or some party for a little, but the public not at all. The nation is neither insolent, nor rebellious, nor seditious; while it knows its rights, it is unwilling to manifest its powers; it would rather supplicate administration to anticipate revolution, by well-timed reform, and to save their country in mercy to themselves. The 15th of February approaches, a day ever memorable in the annals of this country as the birthday of new Ireland ;* let parochial meetings be held as soon as possible, let each parish return delegates, let the sense of Ulster be again declared from Dungannon on a day auspicious to union, peace and freedom, and the spirit of the north will again become the spirit of the nation. The civil assembly ought to claim the attendance of the military associations, and we have addressed you, citizen soldiers, on the subject, from the belief that your body, uniting conviction with zeal, and zeal with activity, may have much influence over your countrymen, your relations, and friends. We offer only a general outline to the public, and meaning to address Ireland, presume not, at present, to fill up the plan, or preoccupy the mode of its * For an account of the first Dungannon meeting, see Historical. Sketch |