It was juft-and immediately a principle of adhefion took place for the firft time, among the inhabitants of Ireland. All religious perfuafions found in a political union their common duty and their common falvation. In this SOCIETY and its affiliated focieties, the Catholic and the Prefbyterian are at this inftant hold ing out their hands and opening their hearts to each other, agreeing in principles, concurring in practice. We unite for immediate, ample, and fubflantial justice to the Catholics, and when that is attained, a combined exertion for a reform in Parliament is the condition of our compact, and the feal of our communion.

British fupremacy takes alarm. The haughty monopolifts of national power and common right, who crouch abroad, to domineer at home, now look with more furprife and lefs contempt on this "befotted" people. A new artifice is adopted, and that reftlefs domination which, at firft, ruled as open war, by the length of the fword; then, as covert corruption, by the ftrength of the poifon; now affumes the ftyle and title of Proteftant Afcendancy: calls down the name of religion from heaven to fow difcord on earth; to rule by anarchy; to keep up diftruft and antipathy among parties, among perfuafions, among families, nay to make the paffions of the individuals truggle, like Cain and Abel, in the very home of the heart, and to convert every little paltry neceffity that accident, indolence, or extravagance bring upon a man, into a pandar for the purchafe of his honefty and the murder of his repu

tation.

We will not be the dupes of fuch

of ftrengthening political perfecution and ftate inquifition, by a fresh infufion of religious fanaticifm--but we will unite and we will be Free. UNIVERSAL EMANCIPATION WITH REPRESENTATIVE LEGISLATURE is the polar principle which guides our Society and fhall guide it through all the tumult of factions and fluctuations of parties. It is not upon a coalition of oppofition with miniftry that we depend, but upon a coalition of Irithmen with Irifhmen, and in that coalition alone we find an object worthy of reform, and at the fame time the ftrength and finew both to attain and fecure it. It is not upon external circumftances, upon the pledge of man or minifter, we depend, but upon the internal energy of the Irish Nation. We will not buy or borrow liberty from America or from France, but manufacture it ourfelves, and work it up with those materials which the hearts of Irishmen furnifh them with at home. We do not worship the British, far lefs the Irish Conftitution, as fent down from heaven, but we confider it as human workmanfhip, which man has made and man can mend. An unalterable Conftitution, whatever be its nature, muft be defpotifm. It is not the Conftitution but the People which ought to be inviolable, and it is time to recognize and renovate the rights of the English, the Scotch, and the Irish Nations,-Rights which can neither be bought nor fold, granted by charter, or foreftalled by monopoly, but which nature dictates as the birth-right of all, and which it is the business of a conftitution to define, to enforce, and to eftablish. If Government has a fincere regard for the fafety of the Conftitution, let them coincide with the people in the speedy reform of its abuses, and not by an obftinate adherence to them, drive that people into Republicanifm.

We have told you what our fituation was, what it is, what it ought to be: our end, a National Legiflature; our means, an Union of the whole People, Let this union extend throughout the Empire. Let all unite for all, or each much fuffer for all. In each country let the people affemble in peaceful and conftitutional

cuaately the temper and inclination of the other; for when the focial bond is Atrengthened by unanimity, all attempts to fever it will be vifionary and fruitlefs.

Account of the River Shannon in Ireland. In a letter to the Editor.

SIR,

PERH

ERHAPS there is not a River in the dominions of Great Britain that has fo little ftruck, in this Age of Knowledge and Enquiry, the attention of the Traveller, the Antiquary, and the Philofopher, as this noble River has done; and no River deferves it more than the Shannon, which takes its courfe from a fmall mountain in the northern parts of the county of Leitrim, in the province of Connaught, and after the run of many miles diffufes into a large Lake, that affumes the name of Lough Allen, about thirty miles in circumference, and encompaffed with high mountains, which enliven and beautify the fcenery of the Lake, in whofe vicinity, and in whofe mountains are found iron ore and coal equal to thofe imported from Cumberland to Dublin, and with industry might be converted into a profitable branch of commerce. From this romantic Lake the Shannon iffues with pride, and in full ftream; and after the progrefs of many miles expands again her full and gentle current, and forms Lough Eik, a beautiful Lake of confiderable length, but not very broad. Pafling from Lough Efk to fome confiderable length, this River again plays her vagaries by forming herself into another beautiful Lake below the town of Lanefborough, over which is a bridge that divides Leinfter from Connaught, This Lake is called Lough Ree, twenty miles long, and about fifteen broad; a Lake moft beautifully diverfified with many iflands, fome inhabited, and all ftocked with cattle; feveral adorned with the ruins of religious houfes, among which are the the ruins of two Abbies, which, with the improvements on the fkirts of this Lake, make the fcene appear beautiful and grand. It expands it-lf to Athlone, a Populous town feated on both fides of the Shannon, garrifoned with foot and

horfe; remarkable for the fiege and defence it made during the conteft be tween William and James for the Imperial Crown of Great Britain:, and was at length reduced by General Ginkle, who was ennobled by the title of the Earl of Athlone. After quitting this town and Lake the Shannon appears again a large and beautiful River, breaking forth on the eyes of the Traveller between the counties of Tipperary and Clare, where it plays its pranks for the laft time, forming the delightful Lake which takes the name of Lough Derg, eighteen miles long and five broad. Leaving this Lake, and thofe other beautiful Lakes which I have mentioned, a fo many pledges of her love and affec tion to the many counties which the paffed through and beautified with her geathe ftream, the again rolls with a full and fwelled ftream for many miles, and t length imbofoms herself into the arms of the wide and expanded Western Ocean, about fixty miles below the city of Limerick. Once more difplaying her beauty, many Iflands are to be feen richly beautified by Nature, one of which, the island of Innifcatery, contains eleven churches, founded by Saint Sherman, before the arrival of Saint Patrick in Munfter; and a round tower, one hundred and twenty feet in height, graces the fcene of this ancient groupe of religious houses.

And here permit me, not having blind prejudice for my guide. to take this fair and noble River in a political point of view, the largest in Ireland, and, all other circumftances duly confidered, the fineft in the British dominions of Europe; not fo much on account of running upwards of two hundred miles from North to Weft, almost dividing and washing with her gentle ftream one half of the kingdom. but also of her infular fituation and great depth in moit places, and the gentleness of her current, through which the might, by national enterprize, he made ferviceable to commerce and navigation, and the improvement of agriculture; arms which raife a people from a flate of ftupefaction and indolence to affluence and induftry. This peculiar prerogative of the River Shannon, running from North

to Weft, almoft contrary to the course of all other Rivers, makes her of the greateft confequence to the people of Ireland. By this the feparates the province of Connaught from thofe of Leinfter and Munfter, thereby dividing the moft fertile part of the kingdom into what lies on the Eaft and the Weft of that River, watering in her paffage the valuable, though the unimproved, county of Leitrim, the plentiful and fertile county of Rofcommon, and the fruitful county of Galway, in Connaught; the fall but fair county of Longford, King's County, and the fertile county of Weftmeath, in Leinfter; the populous county of Tipperary, the fpacious and delightful county of Limerick, the rough but pleafant county of Kerry, and the beautiful county of Clare, in Munfter. The Shannon not only vifits and wafhes with her gentle current thefe ten counties, fituated on her banks, but the likewife invites ten more to partake of her bounty, by numerous Lakes and Rivers, which lie fcattered on the bofom of thefe counties connected with those on her banks.-Among many Market Towns of leffer note on the banks of this delightful River, are the following remarkable ones: The towns of Leitrim, Carrick, James Town, Lanefborough, Athlone, Banagher, and Birr; cities of Killaloe, Clonfert, and Limerick, which now begins to improve and flourish in arts and manufactures, by the munificence and under the patronage of Lord Perry, who dignifies the Nobleman by introducing manufactures, and promoting industry and civilization among people, who only want the patronage and the example of fuch a Nobleman to be followed by the reft of the Gentry of Ireland, to make them a rich and flourishing people. The natives want not genius, but to be unfhackled and led into the way of induftry, and they will furely follow it. Their idleness arifes not from native indolence, but want of encouragement to give it a proper force.-From the city of Limerick the Shannon is navigable to the Sca, upwards of fixty miles, for veffels of the largeft burthens. In her whole courfe from this city fhe fpreads like a fea, affording to the contemplative mind fcenes entirely new, and fuch as, impreffed on the native mind of

an Irishman, would make him prefer the advantage arifing from the fituation and courfe of the Shannon to the acquifition of conquered provinces. Of what I have feen and obferved of the River Shannon, and the new fources of wealth which are likely by her means to be opened to the internal parts of the country, by new communications already made, and thofe now making, with the fpirit of improvement going forward in Ireland, we may fairly promife, without divination or the fpirit of prophecy, that in time Ireland must be rich and wealthy. If our modern Reformers would turn their eyes to their country, firft reform the manners and customs of the people, by enuring them to induftry, difpelling blind prejudice and bigotry from their minds; thefe only, and the abolition of the little narrow fyftem of policy that at prefent governs that country to her utter ruin, would make her great and flourishing; the true mode of Government conducing more to the wealth of a nation than all the fyftematic plans of modern Reformers, and the innovations of politicians,

I cannot clofe this fetch of the Shannon without faying fomething of Connaught, a province naturally connected with this River, and very little known to Travellers. It is, notwithstanding the poverty of the inhabitants, a fertile country; though not abounding in grain, it is yet a fruitful province; and, if properly cultivated and improved, might produce all the neceffaries of 'ife, being capable, from the richness of its foil, of the higheft cultivation under proper management.-From what I have feen of the ruins of old caftles and remains of religious houfes fcattered all over this part of the kingdom, I conclude, in a more remote period Connaught exhibited a more refpectable figure than it does now. There are not many towns of note in the province, and thofe that claim the attention of the Traveller feem not in the moft flourishing condition. We do not here meet with well-enclofed fields planted and cultivated, nor yet with farm-houfes neatly built, and inhabited by an induftrious yeomanry; no, the weary Traveller fees nothing but a dreary wafte, a country like an inter-common, covered with fheep and black cattle; here

and