City of London! We do not blame such persons for collecting a sum of money to give to the soldiers and sailors; because, we believe, that the intention of many of the original subscribers was good; but, we can never allow that the nobility, gentry, and clergy of the whole kingdom ought to be abused, unless they join in this subscription; unless they give their money, merely because a club of stock-holders choose to call upon them for it.--And, then, as to the distribution of the money thus collected. We have already expressed our disapprobation of rewarding military men, still in service, from any other source than that of the government; and, we leave the Public to judge how dangerous must be the effects of leading soldiers and sailors to look up to a committee at Lloyd's. This committee would, if the fund had increased according to the wishes of some weak persons, have become, in the eyes of the common soldier and sailor, another government, and a government too of a nature much more amiable than that which they are bound to serve. Where, we should be glad to know, did this committee acquire the knowledge necessary to distinguish military merit amongst the mass of the army and navy? And when, and by what sort of inquiry and communication, are they to discover who are, and who are not, proper objects of pecuniary reward? And what colonel is there who will not object to their interference in the concerns of his regiment, and who will not absolutely prohibit the distribution of money amongst his men? And what can be more whimsical and absurd than to see the brigade of guards subscribing to a fund, which is to be distributed amongst soldiers, by stock dealers? If money be raised, for this purpose, by voluntary subscription, it should be given to the government, and left entirely to its disposal: applied in any other way, a subscription must be injurious to the service, and, of course, to the country.---The bounty of the subscribers is, we are first told, to be extended to "" EVERY DEFENDER OF HIS COUNTRY;" and then it is said, that it is to reach EVERY LOYAL SUFFERER THROUGHOUT ALL PARTS OF THE UNITED KINGDOM." It was said that it was to be confined to the wives and children of soldiers and sailors; and Mr. Sheridan proposed to make it operative immediately, by laying part of it out in cloathing for those volunteers, who were willing to put on a soldier's coat in order to avoid a soldier's du y. The final object of the fund has changed its description day after day, and the publication of SIR FRANCIS BARING his rendered it, if possible, more indefinite than ever. But, whatever may become of the money at last, for the benefit of whomsoever it may ultimately be employed, we know, that, hitherto, it has been employed solely for the benefit of the stock-holders themselves; for, according to the statement of SIR FRANCIS BARING, the committee have, with the sum already collected, purchased £100,000 of three per cent. consols, and £100,000 of three per cent reduced, the effect of which purchase must have been to raise, in some degree, or, at least, to support the funds, and thereby to enhance, or, preserve, the value of the property of SIR FRANCIS BARING and his Co.! So that, if, whether by good words or bad words, whether by invitations from Lloyd's or lampoons in the news-papers, the nobility and gentry could have been induced to mortgage their estates, and the clergy to pawn their livings, in order to swell the subscription at Lloyd's, the gamblers in the Alley would have turned their own subscriptions to excellent account. We, for our parts, have nothing to do with the subscription; but those persons who have, we beg leave to ask, why the money is not preserv ed in cash? Why it is laid out in stock, when, perhaps, stock may have greatly fallen in value, before the money is wanted? The fund is, in our opinion, intended much more for the support of the stocks and for the benefit of the stock-holders, than for the relief or reward of either soldiers or sailors; and, it now appears very evident to us, the first day's subscriptions can be regarded in no other light than the guineas, which Hudibras found on the table of his lawyer: nest-eggs to make clients lay.- -And this, this is the fund, the patriotic fund, for not more largely contributing to which, the nobility, gentry, and clergy, are to be censured and abused! Nor do the pretensions of the committee at Lloyd's end here: they extend to cities, towns, and parishes; and SIR FRANCIS BARING seems to take it very ill, that Cambridge, Birming ham, and Poole, have formed subscriptions of their own for the relief and reward of persons belonging to their several precincts. No: SIR FRANCIS does not understand this: he wishes all the money to come to London : all to pull together in one place, and that place the Stock Exchange: and, in the height of his resentment, he declares, that those who are natives of places where local or partial funds are raised must not look to the Fund at Lloyd's. Thus every part of the country is to be stripped of every penny it can spare, in order to bring power and profit to the stock-dealers in London. The nobility, the gentry, the clergy, the county corps received, there was an opportunity "of judging of the manner in which they "would be brought into action. The com"panies would be collected into regiments, "and the regiments formed into brigades. "He did not think they would be good for traders, the corporate bodies even, all, all are to resign their money and their influence into the hands of the committee at Lloyd's! -But, after all, it is a fact, which we defy the revilers of the nobility, gentry, and clergy to disprove, that they have, to this very fund, already subscribed more liberally than the nation at large, whether we cal culate by numbers of persons, or by amount of sums subscribed, whether the proportion be founded upon the population, or upon the riches of the country-We conclude with recommending to all those, who have money to spare, to dispose of it in the way which is most likely at once to serve the state, and to preserve their own influence; and by no means, to suffer it to be drawn from them by wheedling advertisements, or bullying paragraphs, ་ แ any thing in that way; neither did he "think, that any judicious officer would "accept of them. It was not true, that "numbers always made strength, neither "could that other comfortable saying, that "if they did no good they could do no "harm, be applied in this instance.-They "would incumber the movements, obstruct "the roads, and consume the provisions; "and, which should also be a main consi"deration, they would be a great depository "of panic, if, as was not unlikely, they 66 once caught it. Under all these disad"vantages, any skilful and judicious officer, "instead of accepting their services, would "rather say, place them at a distance. "Such an officer would consider them. VOLUNTEER CORPS.-Before we proceed to the remarks, which we have to offer upon this important subject, we think it right to notice a paragraph, which appeared in the Morning-Post of Tuesday last. The occasion was, the parading of the Volunteers of St. James's parish, on the preceding day. After some compliments, which no one can be inclined to grudge the corps, the Editor proceeds thus: " yet these are the rabble," as Mr. Windham stiled them," whom every "real General would order out of his way! "The rubbish which would only serve to "block up the road! The repository of panic, calculated only to infuse dismay through the army they were permitted to "join! The frippery incumbrance upon "real strength, which a wise commander "would at once throw off, as a boxer strips himself of his useless garments, when he prepares for the conflict. All these insulting sarcasms, though well answered by Mr. Sheridan at the time, we trust "will never be forgotten by the volunteer " corps ; that is, by three-fourths of the people of England. MR. SHERIDAN was present among the crowd; but being distinguished by some officers of the corps, he was invited, with the most flattering attention, into the kept ground.”— This paragraph, which, according to the principles and practice of Mr. Sheridan, it would be, by no means unfair to impute to Mr. Sheridan himself, will, when compared with the report of Mr. Windham's words, as published by this very Morning-Post, give the Public a tolerable correct notion of the candour and veracity of the eulogists of volunteer corps: He," (Mr. Windham), " " 66 as a wrestler would heavy garments, "and say, let me have clear ground, "free from any incumbrance.” *—Now, is there any thing here about "rabble and rubbish," and are these terms applied to "three-fourths of the people of England?” Is there any thing here said against the persons, who became volunteers? Is not the disapprobation of the Right Honourable Speaker confined to the nature of the corps? And is there any gentleman, who will envy Mr. Sheridan that "flattering attention, “with which, in return for his vote of thanks, he was invited into the kept ground?" Is there an honourable man in the kingdom, who will not exclaim: much good may it do him! While, however, we leave Mr. Sheridan to the enjoyment of his unenvied honours, we cannot forbear to repeat our uneasiness, our serious apprehensions, at the state of uncertainty, in which the volunteer corps are placed. Our readers will recollect, that we earnestly besought the government to explain to these corps the precise conditions, on which they were to serve. For want of this explanation, the utmost anxiety is beginning to prevail. We read in the newspapers, that, at Hampstead, a malicious report having been circulated, stating that the Volunteers were, in case of need, to join the regular army, the Attorney General and Mr. Plomer assem bled them, and proved to them that the report was false as well as malicious. If this be not a mis-statement on the part of the "condemned the principle of having re- public prints, the Attorney-general is cer course to volunteer corps, instead of call-tainly called upon to give an explanation of แ แ "ing forth volunteer service in other modes. "From the sort of training which these Morning Post, 11th August, 1853. his opinion; for, if the volunteer corps are not, in case of invasion, for instance, to join the regular army, what use will they be of, and how miserably is our correspon dent, in page 301, deceived in his calcula tion As to the number of volunteers, it is, indeed, beyond credibility; and, for the sake of the vote of thanks, we are only sorry, that they did not enroll themselves before a law was passed for compelling them to be volunteers, or to run the risk of being soldiers. Of the inconvenience and the enormous expen e of these corps, we shall, hereafter, have occasion to speak at present we must content ourselves with again beseeching the ministers to give a full explanation as to the conditions of service; for, if this system is to be persevered in, such explanation is absolutely necessary to prevent imminent danger to the existence of the state. There are none of the volunteers, who expect to march from their parish or district. None of them have any idea of being, in any case, made liable to martial law. None of them think that they are, in any case, bound to remain in their corps. Either, therefore, they are grossly deceived, or, in their present capacity, they are totally useless; whereas, if a judicious selection of the same persons had been made, and if they had been drilled under proper regulations, even those regulations that were made by the law, they would have been to their country a rock of defence. And, let it not be imagined, that, if these corps should be found inefti ient, the breaking of them up will send numbers of prepared young men into the army. No man, that has once belonged to a deliberative regiment, can ever become fit for a soldier. Volunteer corps, instead of being prepara tory schools to the army, are seminaries of indiscipline, having in their nature just enough of the military to give a professional turn to the insubordination of common lite. Observe, too, the injury which a communication with these corps is likely to produce in the army. Volunteer corps are every where: the regular regiments cannot stir from place to place without passing through crowds of men dressed in a military habit yet unsubjected to military duty or law; and, though the British army is exemplary for its discipline, no one will say, that there is nothing to be apprehended from this constant exposure to contamination. MR. DUMOURIER. -What we said respecting this gentleman, in our last, was said under an impression, that, without baving been pardoned by his Sovereign, he had been sent for to this country, with an intention of consulting him as to the means and mode of defending it. We now hear, that he has been pardoned; and, though he is not a man that we should have sought after, we can have no objection to his en deavouring to repair the mischief, which he assisted to do.- -We perceive great rage to prevailing against him in the bosoms of most of the London news-writers: they hate him for returning to his duty and allegiance; for, though the dread of Cayenne urges them to oppose Buonaparté, the poison of republicanism still rankles at the bottom of their hearts IRELAND. At the head of the next shert, our readers will find a letter addressed to Mr. Wickham, which we request them to read with attention. It contains an accurate account of all the circumstances conrected with the rebellion, which lately broke out in Dublin, and exhibits irrefragable proofs, that the Irish administration, though duly apprized of the danger, had neglected all those precautions, which the nature of that danger called upon them to take. To the numerous and interesting facts related in this letter, we will add one of a most decisive nature On the 23d of July, the very day on which the Lord Chief Justice was murdered, a general order was issued for ten men, from each company of every regular regiment, in Ireland, to be allowed to go ten miles from their quarters, in order to assist in getting in the harvest. -This is proof incontrovertible, that the country was, as far as its rulers were concerned, in a state of total neglect and abandonment. Suppose, that, during the furlough of these ton men cf each company, a general rising had taken place: the absent men would, we will venture to s y, have amounted to one-fourth of the whole number of men on the duty list; and, thus would one-fourth part of the effective force been, as to every imme diate purpose, completely disbanded. Besides, can any one imagine, that the soldiers thus scattered about the country, would not have been murdered by the rebels? Most assuredly they would, unless they had been disposed to join in the rebellion. Taking into view, then, the facts stated by our correspondent; knowing, as we now do, that the government had timely warning of the danger, what are we to think of the issuing of an order, such as that of which we have here spoken? Eitata in the preceding Sheet.-Motto, l. 7, for herd r. hand; p. 233, 1. 49, for declared r. declined ; p. 2431 2 TO THE RIGHT HON. WILLIAM WICKHAM, &c &c. &c. Dublin, August 6th, 1803. SIR,--After an absence of six months, at no ordinary period, permit an inhabitant of this highly favoured land to congratulate you on your happy arrival amongst us. You are not now to learn that nearly a fortnight has elapsed since the dismal tragedy of the murder of the Chief Justice of Ireland was acted in the public streets of this metropolis. Your friends may, therefore, naturally indulge a hope, that your personal safety canno. now be much endangered. Anxiously occupied, as you have been so long, at your post in London, in pacific exertions for the safety and prosperity of this country, it is much to be lamented, that the turbulent French and their busy partizans, should have broken in on your tranquil labours. It will not, however, be deemed any extraordinary strain of flattery, to declare, that if safety and prosperity could have been insured, (as they ought in reason to have been) by the kindest official attentions to the Irish gentlemen delegated by this country to the Parliament of the Empire; no minister, since the days of Walpole, would have had a prouder claim to parliamentary gratitude. It has been noticed with universal complacency, here, that those gentlemen. made suitable returns to your unwearied ministerial attentions, by loudly and confidently proclaiming, as in truth they were in duty bound to do, their certain local knowledge of the halcyon days of peace and tranquillity, which gladdened the smiling face of the Arcadian Paradise: and the happiest impressions of satisfaction and security were necessarily made on the minds of our British fellow subjects. Even the Baotian class of British subjects, whom after so long an absence, you have at length graciously condescended to cheer by your saving presence, are bound to admit, that his Majesty's principal Secretary of State for Ireland, was adequately employed during the whole of this highly critical period. They cannot forget, that he procured a law to be passed, in the face of clamour and disappointed ambition, for putting our safety beyond all dangers, by re-embodying the Irish Militia. We all know that this constitutional force has been already tried in the arduous confict brought on by domestic treason and foreign invasion; and we all looked for similar exertions of gallantry and loyalty on a future trial. The men and officers are the same, the enemy is the same; the spirit of the times is the same: then, how can the event be reasonably questioned? The most timid and querulous loyalist must, therefore, be fully satisfied, that the Irish minister, highly renowned for the wisdom, if not the success of his political labours, was most gravely and usefully occupied during his lamented, but necessary and indispensable absence. The most sceptical politician must allow, that the bold, investigating, active chief minister of Ireland, was well warranted, for the attainment of objects so important, to delegate for a time the little domestic concerns of a province to an able coadjutor, who, though sinking under the weight of rejec tion by a profession, though Irish, not undiscerning, nevertheless, manifested the possession of talents and address, to advance himself from this abject state of humiliation, to the high and arduous situation of second Secretary of State for Ireland. This wise, vigilant, and sagacious statesman, by the meekness with which he has borne his honours, in this unexpected state of sudden and rapid elevation, has made a lasting impression on all ranks of his Majesty's Irish subjects, who were so fortunate as to be admitted to his official presence. But, such is the modesty of Mr. Marsden, that, I apprehend, he has studiously concealed, even from you, Sir, the necessary effects of the wise and energetic system of government, which was steadily pursued during your absence. From what appears to have been said in Parliament by his Majesty's ministers in opposition to the statement of Mr. Windham, it appears, that they were then altogether ignorant of the state of this country. Allow me, therefore, to trouble you, amidst the tranquil leisure which you must now enjoy, with a plain unvarnished statement of the events which took place here during Mr. Marsden's domestic administration. During a period of eight months, comprehending the entire time of your absence in the metropolis of Ireland, under the eye of government, in the hearing of the resident Irish minister, a conspiracy has been formed and matured, for surprising the Castle and City of Dublin, exciting a general insurrection, and committing an universal massacre, without distinction, of age or sex, of all the loyal inhabitants of Ireland. Whilst you, Sir, and your Irish friends, are, for the best purposes, confidently proclaiming in Parliament, to our British fellow subjects, the lasting tranquillity, and peaceful security of this happy people. In the view of Mr. Marsden, arms, ammunition, military uniforms, accoutrements, camp equipage, hand granades, chevaux de frize, and scaling ladders have been abundantly Supplement to No. 8.-Price 10d. Se provided, and carefully stored in different magazines in the metropolis, for an army of fifty thousand men, without the smallest interruption, let, or molestation from the rulers whom you left behind you. During the same period, similar preparations were made in many different parts of the country without the slightest notice or alarm. veral emissaries from France, composed of notorious inveterate Irish rebels, wisely spared and released from prison on the happy conclusion of the Treaty of Amiens, during this period resorted to this metropolis, and visited many different parts of the country without question or danger. They were employed for several months in various parts, but chiefly in the north, and in this city and its vicinage, in organizing, encou raging, and preparing the disaffected of all ranks and descriptions. They quietly and securely completed their preparations, prepared and printed their manifestoes and proclamations, employing a printing press within an hundred yards of the Castle, regularly and methodically Large parties of veteran rebels from various parts, particularly from the counties of Dublin, Kildare, Wicklow, and Wexford, (the last distinguished as the Marsello's of Ireland), were ordered to repair to the city, which they were to enter, in small divisions, and without arms, in order to avoid suspicion. On the night of the 23d of May, about nine o'clock, the bloody miscreants, so assembled, were regularly armed from their different magazines in the metropolis. The party, who first received their arms, and who were directed to wait for the assistance of their confederates, who were assembling and arming rapidly, impatient of inaction, prematurely commenced the horrible work of carnage and destruction. The unfortunate Lord Kilwarden, accidentally passing through the streets on his return from his country house, is at this critical moment stopped, together with his nephew, a clergyman, dragged from the arms of his daughter, and murdered in a manner too savage for description. Colonel Brown repairing to his regiment on hearing a disturbance in the streets, is first prevailed on to deliver up his sword on a promise of safety, and immediately afterwards is murdered by the treacherous and inhuman villains. Cornet Cole, about the same time, accidentally thrown in their way, on refusing to join them, is instantly pierced with pikes. Several soldiers, passing through the streets, are surprised and murdered. Miss Wolfe, flying from the murderers of her father, brings to the Castle guard the first intelligence of these bloody outrages, which were committed without their knowledge, in the adjacent streets. On the same night a skirmish, under the auspices of Mr. Russel, formerly an officer in the 36th regiment, one of the French emissaries, ushered in by an elaborate proclamation, was attempted in Belfast, but was effectually prevented and suppressed by the vigilance and energy of the military and yeomanry. Different movements were, at the same time, made in other parts; numerous bodies rose in arms in the counties of Dublin and Kildare, different houses were robbed of arms, and the mailcoach passing through Maynooth, was fired upon by a party of rebels near the Roman Catholic College. But as the attack on the Castle and City, had, through the interposition of Providence, been frustrated, the capture of which, was waited for in the country as a signal, the rebels in the morning of the 24th, rapidly dispersed without attemp ing further outrages. --Such has been the conduct and fortune of the rebels; allow me now, without disguise, to inform you what the conduct of the domestic Irish government has been on this critical and momentous occasion. Do not start with surprise and horror, when I tell you, that authentic, satisfac ory, and particular information was given to Mr. Marsden, by different persons of character and respectability in sufficient time to take the most effectual precautions for the general safety, Aylmer, from the county of Kildare, a gentleman of rank and fortune, Mr. Going, a barrister, Mr. Claske, an eminent manulacturer, in the morning of the 23d of July, absolutely forced their way into the awful presence of Mr. Marsden, and fully informed him of the insurrection which was to commence the following night. Shudder not with horror, when I tell you, that this information was received by Mr. Marsden with the most supercilious contempt. and the persons of these gentlemen insulted by the most contumelious arrogance. Mr. Finlay gave similar information to Mr. Marsden, and was received and treated in the same manner. The fate of Mr. Clarke is singular, and deserves to be particularly mentioned. Sinking under terror and confusion from the treatment of Mr. Marsden, he returned to his house at Palmerston, where he found a considerable number of the tradesmen, employed by him, actually prepared to march out to join the rebels. He expostulated with them in vain, they treated his advice and remonstrance with contempt and derision. He immediately returned to the Castle, and communicated to Mr. Marsden Mr. |