Page:Letters, speeches and tracts on Irish affairs.djvu/452

 any persons were found in arms against the king, whether in a field of potatoes, or of flax, or of turnips, they ought to he attacked by a military power, and brought to condign punishment by course of law. If the county in which the rebellion was raised was not in a temper fit for the execution of justice, a law ought to be made, such as was made with regard to Scotland, in the suppression of the Rebellion of '45, to try the delinquents. There would be no difficulty in convicting men who were found "flagranto delicte." But I hear nothing of all this. No law, no trial, no punishment commensurate to rebellion, nor of a known proportion to any lesser delinquency, nor any discrimination of the more or the less guilty. Shall you and I find fault with the proceedings of France, and be totally indifferent to the proceedings of Directories at home? You and I hate Jacobinism as we hate the gates of hell. Why? Because it is a system of oppression. What can make us in love with oppression because the syllables "Jacobin" are not put before the "ism" when the very same things. are done under the "ism" preceded by any other name in the Directory of Ireland?

I have told you, at a great length for a letter,—very shortly for the subject and for my feelings on it,—my sentiments of the scene in which you have been called to act. On being consulted, you advised the sufferers to quiet and submission; and, giving Government full credit for an attention to its duties, you held out, as an inducement to that submission, some sort of hope of