it at the moral certainty of being murdered. The same fate hung over
every magistrate who sent a hougher to gaol, every witness who gave
evidence against him, every juryman who convicted him. In Limerick one
man ventured on his own part and on that of eight others to prosecute
an offender who had destroyed their property. All nine were murdered
in one night. It was not safe to travel along the high road within
six miles of Dublin. The militia had, from their misbehaviour in
the field, and their extreme licentiousness, fallen into universal
contempt and abhorrence; officers of English regiments declared that
it would be impossible to maintain discipline amongst their troops
if they remained in such a country. It was discovered that the rebels
were forming another Directory, and, still expecting aid from France,
planning a fresh outbreak. Religious animosities were more violent
than ever. Government was becoming impossible; for the Roman Catholic
population, now thoroughly disaffected, would not continue to submit
to the rule of the Protestant oligarchy; but the only way to put an
end to it would be by another rebellion which if successful would
(as the Roman Catholic bishops and educated laymen fully realized)
probably result in the establishment of a Jacobin republic;
clear-headed men of all parties were beginning to think that there was
but one solution of the problem; and that was--the Union.




CHAPTER IX.

THE UNION.