denied with indignation that they ever in any | Irish Rebellion. The plan was not his, for case encouraged assassination. They argue he did not join the confederacy till 1796,† this anxiously, as answering some evidence to when it had existed in full operation for at least the contrary. It was considered by them a year. It was not Tone's, for Tone, who may with horror on account of its criminality, and be called the founder of the society of 1791, did with personal dread, because it would render not join that of 1795 till on the eve of his deferocious the minds of men in whose hands parture for America, when he found it in full their lives were placed. Their numbers were operation. Describing the organization, Emnot less than five hundred thousand. The met says:authors of the Memoir had not been members of the earlier Association. The Society, at the time they became connected with it, was conducted on principles of the strictest secrecy. The organization of the system was admirably adapted for its purposes. No treachery could endanger the safety of many persons-no espionage could detect the entire or even large part of what was doing; and those in the actual direction of affairs were concealed from the knowledge of all but a very few. As we understand the constitution of the Association of 1795, it was this:-A Society is formed in some one district by ballot, a single black bean excluding. When any such Society amounts to thirty-six members, it splits into two; so that eighteen is the number constituting each integral. Each integral was represented by two of its members and its secretary in a baronial committee.* These representatives were chosen by ballot every three months. No new integral could act till regularly constituted, and the secretary of an integral already constituted was the proper person to apply for, and the nearest baronial committee to give authority to form a new Society, to consist of not more than thirtyfive members. When the number of societies in a barony amounted to eight, a second baronial committee was formed; county committees were formed by each baronial committee sending two delegates. Provincial committees were formed by delegates from baronials sending three delegates each, and in all cases the choice was by ballot, and the appointment was but for three months. National committees were also contemplated in this extensive arrangement, and were to be formed by each provincial committee sending five delegates. The names of the committee men, in every case, were known only to those who elected them. "Whoever reflects on this constitution for a moment, will perceive that it was prepared with tending representative system, founded on universal most important views. It formed a gradually exsuffrage and frequent elections. It was fitted to a barony, county, or province, while the organization was confined within these limits. But if the whole nation adopted the system, it furnished a national Government." Nothing can be conceived more simplenothing more perfect than such an arrangement. Examine it, and the constitutions of the most carefully devised systems of society seem beside it clumsy, inartificial contrivances-while this, the work of a few humble men, brooding over their real or imagined of † Emmett dates his admission into the society in 1796. Memoir and Examination before secret committee. A strange scene occurring before 1795, might lead us to give it an earlier date. DefendWe have done what we can to render intel- ing a prisoner charged with administering the United Irishman's oath, then a capital offence, he read ligible the system of organization which united aloud the oath from his brief with great solemnity, vast bodies of the Irish, of every rank but the and then addressed the court in the following terms: highest, together. Our authority is that of Ad-"My Lords, here in the presence of this crowded dis Emmet, writing in America long after the auditory-in the presence of the being that sees, and witnesses, and directs this judicial tribunal, here my Lords, I, myself, in the presence of God, declare I take the oath."-Madden's United Irishmen, second series, vol. ii p. 22. the substitutes for the existing order of things. No mistake can be greater than that a few restless spirits, that a few men finding no sufficient employment in the ordinary occupations of professional life, were the creators of the fervid and pervading passions that at that period inflamed and frenzied the whole island. The passions were those of the people themselves; they did not require the fannings of idle rhetoric to force them into a blaze. It was not in the spirit of hopelessness and despair that these humble men acted; it was in the spirit of impatient and eager hope. It was not as in our day a miserable parody, in which vain men simulated feelings, and like the bulls in Borrowdale, were driven mad by the echo of their own bellowings. The Emmets and Sheereses found the system formed. They were admitted into it doubtfully and late. The system began with the lower classes. "As the united Irish system ascended into the upper ranks, it engulfed into it numbers who afterwards appeared as leaders."* engrafted on the original constitution of the Society, each of the ordinary members knew little more than the names of the persons who composed his own integral, a number seldom more than eighteen, never more than thirty-five. We are weary of the miserable narrative of revolts, which, at whatever period you examine the history of Ireland, it presents. The Irish oligarchy, ruling in the name of England, sustained by England on the supposition of their being the sole security for the connection between the two countries, while their whole effort was to prevent any large measure of policy which must have the effect of taking the country out of their hands, had rendered the name of England odious. The United Irishmen, with all their machinery, could have little chance of doing more than upsetting a constitution. The evils under which the country was undeniably suffering, were many of them of a kind which any rational combination of their strength with that of either of the great While the organization consisted but of in- parties in the Legislature, might have vastly dividual societies, interconnected as we have alleviated. To take Ireland out of the hands described, and while there was no master of the borough proprietors was the one thing spirit "to wield that fierce democracy," they most to be desired-most to be struggled for. were yet bold enough to send a person to This was to be best and most effectually France to ascertain the possibility of obtain- done by the union with England. But the ing aid from the giant republic. This led to persons whose names were most prominent an important addition to their original consti- among the United Irishmen, were persons tution. A provincial committee for Ulster had who seem to have had no fixed plans whatbeen organized, and some inconvenience was ever for the future; and from their sheer felt from the arrangement, that the provincal inability to suggest, or to execute any plan committees were by the constitution of the of government, their country must, in the Society to meet but once a month. This led very moment of their success, have fallen to the formation of a body not originally into the hands of France, to be, no doubt, contemplated-THE EXECUTIVE. The Execu- rendered to England on any cessation of hostive in the intervals between the sittings of tilities between those nations. Thus an utter the Provincial Committee were to execute anarchy must have been its fate. The vision what had been ordered-to report its own of a bloodless revolution which was before the proceedings-it was to be a watch on the minds of some of the best of those enthusiasts, Government, and to call extra meetings of was also before the minds of the Dantons the Provincial Committee when necessary. and Robespierres. Tone expresses some such Its connection was but with the committee feeling in his journals; yet though he was that appointed it, and its members were the cleverest and the best of them, it is plain wholly unknown to the general body of the that he was, from the first, dazzled with the Society. Of the Executive it was the habit military dress, and was-in his heart of never to have more than one of them to do busi-hearts-a military coxcomb, returning in the ness with any one-and if possible their transactions were with but one person. While the secrecy that was observed by so many persons under such strong temptations to betray their associates is certainly a wonderful thing, yet in point of fact, the system was so skilfully contrived that till a military organization was * Emmet. character and garb of a French general to effect a bloodless revolution! Grattan's account of Addis Emmet is no doubt a picture of the individual; but the individual was the type of a number, whose name is Legion:— "He set up his own crude notions as settled rules; and his plan was founded, not on practice, but on his own imagination. It was full of wildness. There were to be three hundred elections every year, all going on at the same time; and every man was to possess a right to vote. The whole country was thus to be placed in a state of tumult and agitation-all in conflagration-like three hundred windmills in motion all at once. This, too, in a country, one-third of whose population were so destitute that they were exempted from paying hearth-money tax in consequence of their poverty. Emmet forgot that elections and representatives are a work of art-he considered them as one of the operations of nature. "When he went to America he thought his political life at an end; but it was only just beginning. Had Government intended to have rendered him harmless they should have kept him at home, where he would have staid, a tarnished lawyer, with little business; but sent to America, he found means to annoy England, and do there what he never could have done in his own country." The documents in Lord Londonderry's book prove, what however was known before, that the English Government were, from the first, acquainted with all the negotiations of the rebels for aid from France. When M'Nevin was examined before the secret committees of the Lords and Commons, he found that they were not only in possession of all that he could communicate, but that a copy of his very memoir, which he had laid before the French Government as to the state of Ireland, was in the hands of the committee. Tone mentions, that when Hoche's expedition was leaving Brest, a proclamation was printed, to be distributed in Ireland on their landing. A large sum of money was offered to the printer for a copy. He communicated with Tone, who had copies printed with Portugal instead of Ireland, and the English were thus deceived. A more singular circumstance is, that the French having sent over a messenger to announce their coming, a second message, which was believed to be authentic, arrived, saying that the intent of invasion was deferred to the following spring. The second message so entirely deceived the rebel leaders, that when the French came, no preparations were made for them. No explanation of the second message is suggested. In the Life of Curran by his son, we are told that the French Directory, when Tone was urging the invasion of Ireland, were greatly influenced to adopt the measure, by being told that twothirds of the sailors in the British service were Irish. He adds an anecdote which is strikingly well told : "Soon after the question of an expedition to * Grattan's Life, vol. iv. p. 360. Ireland had been left to the decision of Carnot, Clarke, and Hoche, they named an evening to meet Tone at the palace of the Luxembourg. Tone arrived at the appointed hour, eight o'clock. He was ushered into a splendid apartment. Shortly after, the Director and the generals made their appearance. They bowed coldly, but civilly, to Tone, and almost immediately retired without apology or explanation through a door opposite to that by which they had entered. Tone was a good deal struck by so unexpected a reception; but his surprise increased when ten o'clock arrived without the appearance of a message of any kind from those on whom all his hopes seemed to depend. The clock struck eleven, twelve, one-all was still in the palace; the steps of the sentinels, on their posts without, alone interrupted the dead silence that prevailed within. Tone paced the room in considerable anxiety; not even a servant had entered of whom to inquire his way out, or if the Director and the generals had retired. About two o'clock, the folding-doors were suddenly thrown open; Carnot, Clarke, and Hoche entered; and reserve, so observable at eight o'clock, had their countenances brightened; and the coldness vanished. Clarke advanced quickly to Tone, and taking him cordially by the hand, said: Citizen! I congratulate you; we go to Ireland.' The others did the same; and having fixed the time to meet again, the persons engaged in this remarkable transaction separated. 6 At some future time we hope to give some account of the circumstances of Irish society which led to the Rebellion of 1798. Its causes were, we think, more deeply seated than was felt by any of the prominent actors in the scene. At the moment there are difficulties in treating this subject, which will in all probability have passed away before we next have the opportunity of addressing the public. The solution which has been so often repeated that it has become almost an article of faith with some--that the Government fomented the rebellion to facilitate their carrying the Legislative Union, is a supposition too insulting to our common nature to be for a moment thought of, and the whole evidence of facts utterly and entirely disproves it. Lord Londonderry ought to have accompanied some of the documents which he publishes with fuller explanations than we find. Several refer to inclosed papers, which are not printed-are not probably in his possession, but the want of which leaves what he prints of about as much value as the envel ope of a lost letter. Is it worth while to state, that while looking through some of the publications connected with the subject of Ireland during * Curran's Life of Curran, vol. ii. p. 20. Lord Castlereagh's administration, we find writers of high reputation, in their anxiety to make out that kind of inconsistency which is most damaging to the reputation of a public man, between his professions at one period and his acts at another, confuse him with his father? Dr. Madden, and the author of the History of the Civil Wars in Ireland, published in Constable's Miscellany-an excellent summary of the Irish annals of some seven hundred years— have fallen into this mistake, and represent him as moving resolutions in conventions of Irish volunteers when he was but twelve or thirteen years of age. He is, we think, most unjustly accused of having violated faith with the state prisoners of 1798, by their detention in prison for some years after the rebellion was suppressed. They were in prison at the time of the treaty; and by express conditions with them the time of their removal was to be at the discretion of Government. That, surely, to all ordinary understanding, implies the right of continuing their imprisonment till such time as with safety to the state they could be discharged. The American representative had expressed anxiety that they should not be sent there, and there must have been, in a time of war, extreme difficulty as to their proper disposal. There were those in Ireland at the time who would have made short work of the matter, and disposed of the prisoners on the principle acted on in the town of Tunis, in Africa the torrid, and recorded in the Anti-Jacobin Lyrics : "No story half so shocking, As that which befell "Poor John was a gallant captain, On the first of June, “To Paris then returning, "He went to teach at Tunis, Where as consul he was settled, Among other things, That the people are kings, There was more than one occasion, in which men ordinarily in their sober senses thought to have acted on this precedent. In the Pieces of Irish History, published in America by Emmet, it is said that when they published a denial of the truth of some extracts from the report of the secret committee, a distinguished member of the Irish House of Commons proposed that the agreement with them should be regarded as at an end, and that they should be then tried, and if found guilty, as they necessarily must, be executed. Another had before this suggested, but this was, we believe, before the negotiations between them and Government, that military executions should have a retrospective operation, and that the state prisoners should be summarily disposed of. "Lord Castlereagh, with becoming dignity and humanity, vehemently discountenanced so shocking a proposal.' We cannot award any very high praise to the work as far as it has gone, and we trust that the future volumes may be more carefully put together. The book is not without a certain kind of value, and if it be not quite as much in the hands of students of history as a letter of Mr. Alison's predicts, it yet ought to have a place--a high place—in the public libraries. * Life of Curran, vol. ii. p. 44. 1 From Bentley's Miscellany. CHARLES THE FIFTH, EMPEROR OF GERMANY. HIS VISITS TO ENGLAND,-HIS RETREAT TO A MONASTERY,—AND DEATH. BY CHIRURGUS. "Or ever the silver cord be loosed, or the golden bowl be broken, or the pitcher be broken at the fountain, or the wheel broken at the cistern." “Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was, and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it." "Vanity of vanities, saith the preacher, all is vanity." THERE is perhaps no period within histori- | cal record more interesting than the first half of the sixteenth century: whether we regard the events that occurred or the characters which performed their parts in them, there is ample food afforded for reflection. It was then that the voice of Luther rang like a trumpet-blast throughout Europe, breaking up the fountains of the political and religious deeps, and summoning to his standard the advocates for reformation in the Catholic | Church. The learned Erasmus and profound Melancthon flourished in Germany. Francis I., of magnificent memory, reigned in France. In England Henry VIII., Cardinal Wolsey, Sir Thomas More, and a host of other interesting historical characters then lived; our Elizabeth was in the bloom of her youth, and the bard of Avon about that time first drew breath. But there was another star in the bright constellation then shining, who was conspicuous above all others for the grandeur of his position, the magnitude of his enterprises, the talent with which they were conducted, and the success by which, for a long series of years, they were attended. The name of the Emperor Charles V. has, moreover, been handed down in the annals of the Protestant faith as one of the most formidable, as well as unflinching opponents with whom that faith had at its dawn to contend. The close of the career of that prince was not less remarkable than the most brilliant occurrences of his life; and it is our intention to devote this paper to a consideration of the concluding events, prefacing them by some curious par ticulars of two visits paid by him to this country. The death of the Emperor Maximilian having left the imperial throne of Germany vacant, two candidates presented themselves for the honor of filling it. Of these, one was Francis I. King of France, who had already gained reputation for valor and chivalric bearing in the battle-field, since so celebrated for another desperate fight,-the field of Marengo. The other candidate was Charles V. King of Spain. A significant incident had already proved this prince to be of no ordinary mould. At a grand tournament held at Valladolid, Charles entered the lists, though barely in his eighteenth year, and broke three lances against his master of the horse. This feat was loudly applauded; but the youthful knight, whilst he gracefully made his acknowledgments, pointed significantly to the motto " Nondum," (not yet,) on his shield ; indicating that he aspired to higher and nobler deeds. By a majority of the Germanic States, Charles was chosen Emperor to the great chagrin of Francis, who from that hour regarded his rival with feelings of bitter enmity. The coronation of Charles was celebrated with great pomp at Aix-la-Chapelle,on the 22d of October, 1520. Francis and Charles, whilst they entertained feelings of hostility against each other, were very desirous of courting the friendship and support of Henry VIII., the youthful King of England. Francis spared neither flattery, presents, nor promises to secure the good offices of Wolsey, then in the height of |