The Irish Rebellion [May 1834]

The Union Star was the paper which the United Irishmen published upon this plan; previous papers, on the ordinary plan, the Northern Star, and the Press, having been violently put down by the government. It was evident to all eyes, that in Ireland there were two Governments counteracting each other at every step; and that the one which more generally had the upper hand in the struggle was the secret Society of United Irishmen; whose members and headquarters were alike protected from the attacks of its rival, the State-Government at the Castle, by a cloud of impenetrable darkness. The Government itself had made it perilous to profess humanity; and every man henceforward gloried publicly in his callousness and insensibility, as the best safeguard to himself in a path so closely beset with rocks.