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ples on which they are to judge of my political conduct. Let me request that their judgment may be guided by it, and it alone.

Soon after my final return from college, I was prevailed upon, by the flattering, solicitations of my early and venerated friend Mr. White, to become a candidate for the office of a preacher of the gospel, much sooner than I intended, or ought, to have done; and, after passing through the usual trials, was licensed in March 1767.

During the four succeeding years, the frequent excursions which I was obliged to make to vacant congregations, some of which were many miles distant, not only extended my connexions, but gave me access to many families of rank and respectability, in the counties of Down and Antrim, of whose kind attentions I shall ever cherish a pleasing and grateful remembrance.

Among these I have the honor of mentioning that of the late Alexander Stewart Esq., father to the present earl of Londonderry, and grandfather to lord viscount Castlereagh, Him I mention particularly, not only in acknowledg ment of many favors, which I owed to his kind attentions, but in expression of my sincere and unabated respect for his memory, as a man of polite and pleasing manners, a clear

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and comprehensive understanding, and principles truly liberal, both in politics and religion. It is true, he had no small share of ambition ; but it was an ambition to raise his family to honor and Influence, in his country, for his country's good. Would to God, such ambition had continued to glow in the breast of his family, and that it glowed there still!

In the year 1771, I was ordained to the charge of the congregation of Ballyhalbert, in the barony of Ardes, and county of Down; and became an husband and a farmer.

Thus become stationary, I devoted myself, almost entirely, to my parochial and domestic duties, or the studies connected with them, till the commencement of the unnatural, impolitic, and unprincipled, war with America. Having paid considerable attention to jurisprudence, in the course of my studies, and read Locke, Montesquieu, Puffendorf, &c. &c. my mind instantly revolted against the mad crusade; and, while I regretted its folly, I execrated its wickedness. Feeling as I did, and detesting the meanness, as much as the immorality, of dissimulation, I never concealed either my ideas, or sentiments, on the subject. Hence, my expressions gave great offence to all the dependants of government. The friends of the then secretary for the Northern department, who constituted a great portion of the landed inte

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rest of the county, were equally provoked to anger; and their anger was, afterwards, kindled into rage, by my preaching on the principles, object, tendency, and probable consequences, of the war, on two days, appointed as fasts, during the contest A general outcry was raised against me, in which those, who never heard me preach, were very loud; and those, who had never seen me, were louder still. "Traitor," 66 Trumpeter of sedition," were levelled at my name, wherever a few of the "lives and fortune" men of the day got warm around their bottle; and all agreed that " I ought to be dd, as hanging was too good for me." In fact, if God, in his justice and mercy, had not been as deaf to their impecations against me, as he was to their prayers for success in the war, I might have been dd to all eternity. However, I had my revenge in full. I published the two sermons, as they were preached, without the retraction, alteration, or addition, of a single word. They were read with avidity, found less pestilential than they had been represented, and, finally, justified, even in their conjectural parts, by events and the issue of the struggle.

About this time (1778) a new object presented itself, which strengthened my conviction of the impolicy of the war, aggravated my feelings, and roused the feeble energies of my

mind, in common with those of the great mass of my countrymen. The French espoused the cause of America; their fleets were riding triumphant in our seas, and insulting our coasts; our country was considered, by all, as in imminent danger; and government had declared its total inability to defend it. In this awful emergency, the desire of self-preservation gave birth to the general idea, and general resolution, of arming for self-defence. The city of Cork and town of Belfast took the lead in the execution. Other places soon followed their example. And, in a few weeks, a generous patriotic ardor, as if excited by a spark from Heaven, pervaded, animated, and actuated, the great body of the Irish people. Every city, town and village, swarmed with volunteers. In the country, the plough, the loom, and every other implement of useful arts, lent their youth, strength, and vigor, to the standard of the nation. Industry forewent a portion of its usual rest; whilst idleness betook itself to labor, and profligacy became sober; that they might be enabled, by their earnings, or their savings, to appear in arms, and in uniform, among their brethren, the idea of profession seemed to be obliterated. Physician, surgeon, and apothecary; lawyer and attorney-all were soldiers. Even the Presbyterian ministers were so fully inspired with the patriotism of the day, that, in several places, the rusty black was exchanged

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exchanged for the glowing scarlet, and the title of "Reverend" for that of " Captain."

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a word, such was the prevailing spirit, that, in a short time, a self-created, self-arrayed, and self-supported, army presented itself, which strangers contemplated with wonder, enemies with fear, and Friends with pride, exultation, and confidence.

Amidst the pleasing circumstances, which surrounded this institution, one, equally shameful and impolitic, occurred. The Catholics, in great numbers, and with great zeal offered themselves as volunteers, in common with their Protestant and Presbyterian countrymen. Through the greater part of Ulster, if not the whole, their offers were rejected, and, in some places, not without insult. In my own neighbourhood, this was universally the case. Hence, jealousy and distrust became prevalent, and, in some instances, excited alarm. Impressed with a sense of the impolicy and danger of such conduct, and equally so with its injustice, I not only argued against and reprobated it, in conversation, but, in a sermon, preached before the Echlin Ville volunteers, March 1789, expressed my opinions, on the subject, so clearly, as to offend all the Protestant and Presbyterian bigots in the country. This, once more, raised the cry of rebellion against me; and some were so liberal as to pronounce me

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