Birth at Dublin - Death of my father - Family of my parents - Second marriage of my mother - Early fondness for reading - Literature of my childhood - Lack of regular education - Reading in bed a dangerous practice - Incident at school - My stepfather and uncle Ambrose Binns - Dangerous amusement - My grandmother - Robbery by ruffians - Political excitement in Dublin - Project of the French government to invade Ireland - Incidents of the time - Reminiscences of Walter Blake Kirwan and of the Rev. John Summerfield; Disposition of the personal property and real estate belonging to my father - My brother and myself travel to Holyhead - Gratuities to servants - We arrive in London; incidents - London Corresponding Society - Trials of Hardy, Tooke, and Thelwall - State of party feeling in 1794 - Sketch of Hardy and Tooke - Character of the London police - Personal incidents - Richard Brothers - Visit to him - Sketch of Joanna Southcote - Meetings of the London Corresponding Society - Effects of the Freneh Revolution on the public mind - Riot in London; Declaration of War against France by Great Britain, not favored by William Pitt - Obstinacy of George the Third - Correspondence of the King with Charles James Fox relative to the American War - Condemnation of Kyd Wake - Scene at Covent Garden Theatre - Laws