i. ,. / L ' _/__ . rO I v \ fr> ■ y 4 WK '. A ' . ifci '!.■■■ I' //TO '.■-'•; 4 ' •« , J- w ' 'I'll E v i ' HISTORY OF IRELAND, ,, fc^ a® ;V FROM THE TREATY OF LIMERICK TO THE PRESENT TIME : A CONTINUATION OP TUB HISTORY OF THE ABBE MACGEOGIIEGAN OOUPILKD BY JOHN M I T C II E L. NEW Y R K : D. & J. SADLIER & CO., 31 BARCLAY STREET. MONTREAL i CORNER NOTRE-DAME AND BT. FRANCIS XAVIER STREETS. UUS. IIUKICY, 10 111(111 8TUEKT, BOSTON. \> J*. V^/ S 5 -V h hV ^'/sk. M' Entered a< rdtng t" Act of Congress, In tin' year 1Srts, t i>\ i>. & .1. Bapi.tbh & »'". in the Clerk's Office of ii... Dlstrlol Court of ill" United States Bar the Southern Wstrlot ..I New \ork. M\ »tal**tyftd t» VIWOKN r MLL, ■it \ :i \.» OlutmbMt 81, K V ■'<'■ 3 'WW fa ,<: In preparing a Continuation of the valuable History of Ireland l>y the Abbe Macflooghegan, the coinpilur has aimed only to reduce and condense into a co- in rent narrative the materials which exist in abundance in a great number of publications of every date within the period included in the Continuation. That period of a century and a half embraces a scries of deeply interesting events in the annuls of our country — the deliberate Breach of the Treaty of Limerick— the long series of Penal Laws — the exile of the Irish soldiery to France — their achievements in the French and other services — the career of Dean Swift — the origin of a Colonial Nationality among the English of Ireland— the Agitations of Lucas — the Volunteering — the Declaration of Independence — the history of the Independent Irish Parliament — the Plot to bring about the Union — the United Irishmen — the Negotiations with France — the Insurrection of 1798 — the French Expeditions to Ireland — the "Union" (so called) — the decay of Trade — the fraudu- lent Imposition of Debt upon Ireland — the Orangemen — the beginning of O'Con- nell's power — the Veto Agitation — the Catholic Association — Clare Election — Emancipation — the series of Famines — the Repeal Agitation — the Monster Meet- ings — the State Trials — the Great Famine — the Death of O'Connell — the Irish Con- federation — the fate of Smith O'Brien and his comrades — the Legislation of the United Parliament for Ireland — Poor-Laws — National Education — the Tenant- Right Agitation — the present condition of the country, etc. The mere enumeration of these principal heads of the narrative will show how very wide a field has had to be traversed in this Continuation ; and what a huge number of works — Memoirs, Correspondence — Parliamentary Debates — Speeches and local histories must have been collated, in order to produce a continuous story. There exist, indeed, some safe and useful guides, in the works of writers who have treated special parts or limited periods of the general History ; and the compiler has had no scruple in making very large use of the collections t ' -..t '/ s V ( % ..r>:u.-'..d. J8) ~a ~S2 ■\ : ,V W Jv INTRODUCTION 1 . of certain diligent writers who may be said to have almost exhausted their re- spective parts of the subject. Ii may aid the reader who desires to make a more minute examination of any part of the History, if we here set down the titles of the principal works which have been nsed in preparing the present: Doctor John (lurry's "Historical Review of the Civil Wars,'' and "State of the Irish Catholics" — Mr. Francis Plowden's elaborate and conscientious " Historical Review of tlic State of Ireland," before the Union : -the same author's " History of Ireland" from the Union till 1810— die Letters and Pamphlets of Dean Swift -Harris's "Life of William the Third"— Arthur Young's "Tour in Ireland"— the Irish " Parliamentary Debates"— Mr. Scul- ly's excellent "Slate of the Penal Laws" Thomas MacNevin's " History of the Volunteers," in the - Library of Ireland"— Hardy's "Life of Lord Charlemont"— the Pour Series of Dr. Madden's collections on the "Lives and Times of (he United Irishmen" — Hay's " History of the Rebellion in Wexford"— the Rev. Mr. Cordon's " History of the Irish Rebellion" [the work of Sir Richard Musgrave, as being wholly untrustworthy, is purposely excluded] — The "Papers ami Corre- 1 1 dence" of Lord Cornwallis— and of Lord Oastlereagh ; — the " Memoirs of Miles Byrne, an Irish Exile in France," and a French officer of rank, lately deceased— ihe Lives and Speeches of Grattan and Ciirran — Sir Jonah Harrington's "l.'i a and Fall of the Irish Nation" -Memoirs and .Journals of Theobald Wolfe Tone — Richard Lalor Shiel's " Sketches of the Irish Bar"— Wyse's " History of the Catho- lic Association" — O'Oonnell's Speeches and Debates in the United Parliament. These are the chief authorities for all the time previous to the Catholic Relief _\,t As to the sketch which follows, of transactions still later, it would he obviously impossible to enumerate Ihe multifarious authorities : hut the speeches of O'Oonnell ami of William Smith O'Brien are still, for the Irish history of their own time, wdiat the orations of Grattan were for his ; and what tin' vivid writings Of Swifl were for the earlier part of the eighteenth century. The newspapers and Parliamentary Blue Boohs also come in, as essential materials (though sometimes questionable) for this later period : and for the Repeal Agitation, the State Trials, the terrible scenes of the Famine, ami the consequent extirpation of millions of tho Irish people, we have, without scruple, made use (along with other materials) of the facts contained in "The Last Conquest of Ireland (perhaps) 1 '— excluding gen- erally the inferences and opinions of the writer, and his estimate of his contempo- raries. Indeed, the reader will find in the present work very few Opinions or theories put forward at all ; the genuine object of the writer being simply to I • a fv,< 14 fCt. .... . . I , £*"^PT INTRO IH"CTI ON, N ; j itfj present a clour narrative of the eventa as they evolved themselves one out of the others. Neither does this History need comment; and indignant declamation would but weaken the effect of the dreadful facts we shall have to tell. If the writer has succeeded — as he has earnestly desired to do — in arranging those facts in good order, and exhibiting the naked truth concerning English domination since the Treaty of Limerick, as our fathers saw it, and felt it ; — if he has been enabled to picture, in some degree like life, the long agony of the Penal Days, when the pride of the ancient Irish race was stung by daily, hourly humiliations, and their passions goaded lo madness by brutal oppression ;— and further to picture the still more destructive devastations perpetrated upon our country in this enlightened nine- teenth century; then it is hoped that every reader will draw for himself such general conclusions as the facts will warrant, without any declamatory appeals to X, /^/k.f ,> patriotic resentment, or promptings to patriotic aspiration : — the conclusion, in short, that, while England lives and flourishes, Ireland must die a daily death, and suffer an endless martyrdom ; and that if Irishmen are ever to enjoy the rights of human beings, the British Empire must first perish. As the learned Abbo MacGeoghegan was for many years a chaplain to the Irish Brigade in France, and dedicated his work to that renowned corps of exiles, whose dearest wish and prayer was always to encounter and overthrow the British power upon any field, it is presumed that the venerable author would wish his work to be continued in the same thoroughly Irish spirit which actuated his noble warrior- congregation ; — and he would desire the dark record of English atrocity in Ire- land, which h<; left unfinished, to be duly brought down through all its subse- quent scenes of horror and slaughter, which have been still more terrible after his day than they were before. And this is what the present Continuation professes to do. ■::-'.- \a A' BP^ CONTENTS. \ W\ W \<* CHAPTER I. FROM THE TREATY OF LIMERICK TO THE END OF 1691. rxau Treaty of Limerick — Violated or not? — Arguments of Macaulaj — Doctor Dopping, Bitihop of Meath — No faith to be kept with Papists— First act in violation of the treaty — Situation of ihe Catholics — Charge agaiust Surslield 1 CHAPTER II. 1692—1693. William III. not bigoted— Practical toleration for four years— First Parliament in this reign- Catholics excluded by a resolution — Extinction of civil existence for Catholics — Irish Protes- tant Nationality — Massacre of Glencoe — Battle of Steinkirk — Court of St. Germaius — " Dec- laration " — Battle of Landen, and death of Sarsfleld 7 CHAPTER III. 1693—1698. Capel Lord-Lientenant — War in the Netherlands— Capture of Namur— Grievances of the Protes- tant Colonis*" — Act for disarming Papists — Laws against education — Against priests — Against intermarrying with Papists — Act to " confirm " Articles of Limerick — Irish on the Continent 13 CHATTER IV. 1G98— 1702. Predominance of the English Parliament — Molyneux — Decisive action of the English Parliament — Court and country parties — Suppression of woolen manufacture — Commission of confiscated estates — Its revelations — Vexation of King William — Peace of Kyswick — Act for establish- ing the Protestant succession — Death of William 17 CHAPTER V. 1702—1704. Queen Anne— Rochester Lord-Lieutenant— Ormond Lord-Lieutenant— War on the Continent- Successes under Marlborough -Second formal breach of the Treaty of Limerick — Bill to prevent the further growth of Popery — Clause against the Dissenters— Catholic lawyers heard against the bill — Pleading of Sir Toby Butler — Bill passed — Object of the Penal laws — To get hold of the property of Catholics — Recall of the Edict of Nantes — Irish on the Continent — Cremona 22 CHAPTER VI. 1704—1714. Enforcement of the Penal Laws — Alaking informers honorable — Pembroke Lord-Lieutenant — Union of England and Scotland — Means by which it was carried — Irish House of Lords in favor of an Union — Laws against meeting at Holy Wells — Catholics excluded from Juries — Wharton Lord-Lieutenant — Second act to prevent growth of Popery — Rewards for "discov- erers "— Jonathan Swift — Nature of his Irish Patriotism — Papists the •■ common enemy" — The Dissenters— Colony of the Palatines — Disasters of the French, and Peace of Utrecht — The ■• Pretender " 34 CHAPTER VII. 171 1— 1723. George I. — James in. — Perils of Dean Swift — Tories dismissed — Ormond, Oxford, and Boling- broke impeached — Insurrection In Scotland — Calm in Ireland — Arrests — Irish Parliament — "Loyally " of the Catholics — '• No Catholics exist in Ireland " — Priest catchers — Bolton Lord- Lieutenant— Cause of Sherlock and Annesley— Conflict of jurisdiction — Declaratory act establishing dependence of the Irish Parliament -Swift's pamphlet — State of l GraftOD Lord-Lieutenant — Courage of the priests — Atrocious Bill If f. -) WVU& .£> r £N8 .~..i.uS\d\Ji.i/, CONTENTS. CHAPTER VIII. 1723—1727. Swift and Wood's Copper — Drapier's Letters — Claim of Independence — Primate Boulter — Swift popular with the Catholics — His feeling towards Catholics — Desolation of the Country — Rack-rents — Absenteeism — Great Distress — Swift's modest proposal — Death of George I 4U ;/1?" : P V CHAPTER 1727—1741. IX Lord Carteret Lord-Lieutenant,— Primate Boulter ruler of Ireland— His policy— Catholic Address — Not noticed — Papists deprived of elective franchise — Insolence of the "Ascendancy" — Famine— Emigration— Dorset Lord-Lieutenant— Agitation of Dissenters— Sacramental Test —Swift's virulence against the Dissenters— Boulter's policy to extirpate Papists— Rage against the Catholics— Debates on money bills — " Patriot Party" — Duke of Devonshire Lord-Lieutenant— Corruption— Another famine — Berkeley — English commercial policy in Ireland 54 CHAPTER X . 1741—1745. War on the Continent— Doctor Lucas— Primate Stone — Battle of Dettingen— Lally— Fontenoy — The Irish Brigade 61 CHAPTER XI. 1745—1753. Alarm in England — Expedition of Prince Charles Edward — "A Message of Peace to Ireland "— Viceroyalty of Chesterfield — Temporary toleration of the Catholics — Berkeley — The Scottish Insurrection — Culloden — " Loyalty of the Irish— Lucas and the Patriots — Debates on the Supplies — Boyle and Malone — Population of Ireland * . . . . 68 X I I CHAPTER 1753— 17G0. Unpopularity of the Duke of Dorset — Earl of Kildare — nis address — Patriots in power — Pen- sion List — Duke of Bedford Lord-Lieutenant — Case of Saul — Catholic meeting in Dublin — Commencement of Catholic agitation — Address of the Catholics received — First recognition of the Catholics as subjects — Lucasian mobs — Project of Union — Thurot's expedition — Death of George II. — Population — Distress of the country — Operation of the Penal Laws — The Geoghehans — Catholic Petition — Berkeley's '• Querist " 75 CHAPTER XIII. 1700— 17G2. George III. — Speech from the Throne — "Toleration" — France and England in India — Lally's campaign there — State of Ireland — The Revenue — Distress of Trade — Distress in the Coun- try — Oppression of the Farmers — White-Boys — Riots — "A Popish Conspiracy" — Steel-Boys and Oak-Boys — Emigration from Ulster — Halifax. Viceroy — Flood and the Patriots— Extra- vagance and Corruption — Agitation for Septennial Parliaments 85 CHAPTER XIV. 1762— 17CS. Tory Ministry — Failures of the Patriots — Northumberland. Viceroy — Mr. Fitzgerald's speech on Pension List — Mr. Perry's address on same subject — Effort for mitigation of the Penal Laws — Mr. Mason's argument for allowing Papists to take mortgages — Rejected — Death of Stone and Karl of Shannon — Lord Hartford, Viceroy — Lucas and the Patriots— Their continued failures — Increase of National Debt — Townshend. Viceroy — New system — The "Under- takers" — Septennial bill changed into Octennial — And passed — Joy of the people— Conse- quences of this measure' — Ireland still "standing on her smaller end " — Newspapers of Dub- lin— Grattan 1)2 CHAPTER XV. 1762—1767. Reign of Terror in Munster— Murder of Father Sheehy— " Toleration." under the House of nan- over— Precarious condition of Catholic clergy— Primates in hiding— Working of the Penal Laws — Testimony of Arthur Young ctn ^ :x S (fi »9 ) «>^ M -'V fp "I ! \t /> f mi . - 4 »« \ vV ^^ 2e « ^ CHAPTER XVI. 1767-1773. paok Townshend. Viceroy— Augmentation of the army — Embezzlement— Parliament prorogued — Again prorogued — Towpsbend buys li is majority — Triumph of the "English Interest" — New attempt to bribe the Priests— Townshend's •' Golden Drops'' — Bill to allow Papists to re- claim bogs — Tnwnshend recalled— Harcourt, Viceroy — Proposal to tax absentees — Defeated ■ — Degraded condition of the Irish Parliament — American revolution, and new era 107 CHAPTER XVII. 1774—1777. American affairs — Comparison between Ireland and the Colonies — Contagion of American opin- ions in Ireland — Paltry measure of relief to Catholics— Congress at Philadelphia — Address of Congress to Ireland — Encouragement to Fisheries — Four thousand " armed negotiators" — Financial distress— First Octennial Parliament dissolved— Grattan — Lord Buckingham, Viceroy — Successes of the Americans 114 CHAPTER XVIII. 1777—1779. Buckingham, Viceroy— Misery, and Decline of Trade— Discipline of Government Supporters- Lord North's first measure in favor of Catholics — Passed in England — Opposed in Ireland — What it amounted to— Militia bill— The Volunteers— Defenceless state of the country — Loyalty of the Volunteers— Their uniforms— Volunteers Protestant at first— Catholics de- Birous to join— Volunteers get the Militia arms— Their aims— Military system — Numbers in 1780 120 CHAPTER XIX. 1779—1780. Free Trade and Free Parliament— Meaning of "Free Trade"— Non-importation agreements- Rage of the English— Grattan 's motion for free trade — Hussey Burgh— Thanks to the Vol- unteers—Parade iu Dublin— Lord North yields— Free Trade act— Next step— Mutiny bill — The 19th of April— Declaration of Right— Defeated in Parliament, but successful in the country— General determination— Organizing — Arming— Reviews — Charlemont— Briberies of Buckingham — Carlisle, Viceroy 128 CHAPTER XX. 1781—1782. Parliament — Thanks to the Volunteers— Habeas Corpus— Trade with Portugal — Grattan's finan- cial expose— Gardiner's measure for Catholic relief— Dnngannon— The 15th of February, 1782— Debates on Gardiner's bill— Grattan's speech— Details of this measure— Burke's opin- ion of it— Address to the King asserting Irish independence — England yields at once— Act repealing the 6th George I.— Repeal of Poyuings' law — Irish independence 139 CHAPTER XXI. 1783—1784. Effects of independence— Settlement not final— English plots for the Union— Corruption of Irish Parliament— Enmity of Flood and Grattan— Question between them— Renunciation act- Second Dnngannon Convention — Convention of delegates in Dublin— Catholics excluded from all civil rights— Lord Kcnmare— Lord Kenmare disavowed— Lord Temple— Knights of St. Patrick— Portland, Viceroy— Judicature bill— Hapeas Corpus— Bank of Ireland— Repeal of Test act— Proceedings of Convention— Flood's Reform bill— Rejected— Convention dis- solved— End of the Volunteers— Militia 152 CHAPTER XXII. 1784—1786. Improvement of the country— Political position anomalous— Rutland, Viceroy — Petitions for Parliamentary reform— Flood's motion— Rejected— Grattan's bill to regulate the revenue — Protective duties demanded — National Congress — Dissensions as to rights of Catholics — Charlemont's intolerance— Orde's commercial propositions — New propositions of Mr. Pitt — liurke and Sheridan— Commercial propositions defeated - Mr. Conolly— The national debt — General corruption — Court majorities — Patriots defeated — Ireland after five years "independence 1G8 fo IV '<& -ip tNi, .con,nuus*Q. 8 Jvtl '*?, i't','1 tf? * Hi CONTENTS. CHAPTER XXIII. 1787—1789. paob Alarms and rumors of disturbances— Got up by Government — Act against illegal combinations — Mr. Grattan on tithes — Failure of his efforts — Death of Duke of Rutland— Marquis of Buckingham, Viceroy— Independence of Mr. Curran — Mr. Forbes and the Pension list — Fail- ure of his motion — Triumph of corruption— Troubles in Armagh County — '-Peep of Day lioya "— " Defenders "—Insanity of the King— The Regency 177 CHAPTER XXIV. 1789. Unpopularity of Buckingham— Formation of an Irish character— Efforts of Patriots in Parlia- ment— All in vain — Purchasing votes — Corruption — Whig Club — Lord Clare on Whig Club — Buckingham leaves Ireland— Pension list — Peep of Day Boys and Defenders — Westmore- land, Viceroy— Unavailing efforts against corruption — .Material prosperity — King William's birthday — French revolution 188 CHAPTER XXV. 1790—1791. New election — New peers — Sale of peerages — Motion against Police bill— Continual defeats of patriots — Insolence of the Castle — Progress of French revolution — Horror of French prin- ciples — Burke — Divisions amongst Irish Catholics — Wolfe Tone — General Committee of Catholics — Tone goes to Belfast — Establishes first United Irish Club — Parliamentary patriots avoid them- Progress of Catholic Committee — Project of a Convention — Troubles in County Armagh 199 CHAPTER XXVI. 1791-1792. Principles of United Irish Society — Test — Addresses — Meeting of Parliament — Catholic relief — Trilling measure of that kind— Petition of the Catholics — Rejected — Steady majority of two thirds for the Castle — Placeholding members — Violent agitation upon the Catholic claims . — Questions put to Catholics Universities of the Continent — Their answers — Opposition to project of Convention — Catholic question in the Whig Club—Catholic Convention in Dublin National Guard 211 CHAPTER XXVII. 1792—1793. The Catholic Convention — Reconciliation of differences amongst the Catholics — Their deputa- tion to the King — Successes of the French fortunate for the Catholics — Dumouriez and Je- mappes— Gracious reception of the Catholic deputation — Belfast mob draw the carriage of Catholic delegates— Secret Committee of the Lords — Report on Defenders and United Irish- men — Attempt of committee to connect the two — Lord Clare creates ••alarm among the bet- ter classes" — Proclamation against unlawful assemblies — Lord Edward Fitzgerald — French republic declares war against England — Large measure of Catholic relief immediately pro- posed — Moved by Secretary Hobart — Act carried — Its provisions — What it yields, and what it withholds — Arms and Gunpowder act— Act against conventions — Lord Clare the real author of British policy in Ireland as now established Effect and intention of the "Conven- tion act" — No such law in England— Militia bill — Catholic Committee — No reform — Close of session 220 CHAPTER XXVIII. 1793—1795. Small results of Catholic Relief bill— Distinctions still kept up- lics — Trials of Defenders — Packing Juries — Progress of 1 Catholic Bishops — Arrests nt Bund and Butler — I'roseculic effort for Parliamentary reform— Defeated -United Irish me police — Rev. William Jackson and Wolfe Toue — Rowan -Excitement against the Catho- Uniled Irishism — Opposed by u of A. Hamilton Rowan— Last ■ting in Dublin dispersed by the charged with treason — Rowan fc isi yJw. escapes — Tone allowed to cpnt the country— Vow ol the Cave Hill - Fitzwilliam's adminis- tration— Fitzwilliam deceived by Pitt — Dismissal of Mr. liereslord — Plan of Mr. Pitt — Insur- rection first — " Union " afterwards— Fitzwilliam recalled — Great despondency — " The " Orangemen " — Beginning of coercion and anarchy 231 />£>€>. ).j '<& LNG .CW.UWHI/S.CL CHAPTER XXIX. 1793-1797. Hell or Connaught" — " Vigor boyond the Law " — Lord Carhampton's Vigor — Insurrection Act — Indemnity Act — The latter an invitation to Magistrates to break the law — Mr. Grattan on the Orangemen — Ilis resolution — The Acts Passed — Opposed by Grattan. Parsons, and Lord Edward Fitzgerald— Insurrection Act destroys Liberty of tbo Press— Suspension of Habeas Corpus— U. I. Society— New Members — Lord E. Fitzgerald — MaoNeven — Emmet — Wolfe Tone at Paris — His Journal — Clarke — Carnot — Hoche — Bantry Bay Expedition — Account of, in Tone's Journal — Fleet Anchors in Bantry Bay — Account of the affair by Secret Committee of the Lords — Government fully Informed of all the Projects rV ," : ''.'; H3* CONTENTS. 210 CHAPTER 1797. XXX. Reign of Terror in Armagh County — No Orangemen ever Punished—" Defenders" called Ban- ditti — •• Faulkner's Journal." Organ of the Castle — Cheers on the Orangemen — Mr. Curran's ■Statement of the Havoc in Armagh — Increased Rancor against Catholics and U. I. after the Bantry Hay Affair — Efforts of Patriots to Establish Permanent Armed Force — Opposed by Government — And Why — Proclamation of Counties — Bank Ordered to Suspend Specie Pay- ments—Alarm — Dr. Duig O Project of Union — Bar Meeting — Speech from the Throne— Union Proposed- the Lords — Iu the Commons— Ponsonby — Fitzgerald— Sir Jonah Barrington- Reception in Castlereagh's of Plunket— First Division on the Union— Majority of One— Mr. Trench and Mr. Fox— Methods of Conversion to Unionism— First Contest a drawn Battle- Excitement in Dublin 1>$ 9, , r\ \ ■ CONTENTS CHAPTER XXXIX. 17110. Second Debate on Union — Sir Lawrence Parsons — Air. Smith— ronsonby and Plnnket — Division — Majority Against Government — Ponsonby's Resolution Tor Perpetual Independence — De- fection of Eortescue and Others— Resolution Lost — "Possible Circumstances" — Tumult — Danger of Lord Clare — Second Debate in the Lords— Lord Clare Triumphant — "Loyalists' Claim-Bill" — '• Rebels Disqualification Bill " — "Flogging Fitzgerald" — Asks Indemnity — Regency Act — Opposed by Castlereagh 374 CHAPTER XL. 1709. Union Proposed in British Parliament — Opposed by Sheridan— Supported by Canning— Great Speech of Mr. Pitt— Ireland to be Assured of English Protection— Of English Capital — Promises to the Catholics— Mr. Pitt's Resolutions for Union — Sheridan — Dundas — Resolu- tions Passed — In the House of Lords — Labors of Comwallis and Castlereagh — Corruption — Intimidation — Onslaught of Troops in Dublin — Lord Cornwallis makes a Tour — Lord Down- Bhire Disgraced — Handoock of Athlone— His Song and Palinode— Opposition Inorganic — The Orangemen — The Catholics— Arts to Delude Them— Dublin Catholics against Union— O'Connell— System of Terror — County Meeting Dispersed by Troops— Castlereagh's An- nouncement of •• Compensation " 881 r*?^ i? \M CHAPTER XLI. 1799—1800. Progress of Union Conspiracy — Grand Scale of Bribery — Castlereagh Organizes " Fighting Men " — Dinner at his House — Last Session of the Irish Parliament — Warm Debate the First Day — Daly Attacks Bushe and Plunket — Reappearance of Grattan — His Speech — Corry Attacks \ Him— Division— Majority for Government— Castlereagh Proposes "Articles" of Union — His Speech — Promises Great Gain to Ireland from Union— Ireland to " Save a Million a Year" — Proposed Constitution of United Parliament- Irish Peerage -Ponsonby — Grattan — Again a Majority for the Castle — Lord (.'hire's Famous Speech Hurl of Grattan and Corry — Torpor and Gloom in Dublin — The Catholics — "Articles " finally Adopted — By Commons —By Lords 391 CHAPTER 1800 XLII. The Union in English Parliament— Opposed by Lord Holland— Mr. Grey— Sheridan— Irish Act for Electors — Distribution of Seats— Castlereagh brings in bill for the Union — Warm Debates — Union Denounced by Plnnket, Bushe, Saurin, Grattan— Their Earnest Language— Last Days of the Parliament — Last Scene — l'asses the Lords— The Protesting Peers— The Com- pensation Act — The King Congratulates the British Parliament— Lord Cornwallis — The Irish —Union to date from January 1, 1801 — Irish Debt— History of it 401 CHATTER X L 1 1 1 . 1800—1803. The Catholics Duped— Resignation of Pitt— Mystery of this Resignation— First Measure of Unit- ed Parliament— Suspension of Habeas Corvus — Report of Secret Committee— Fate of Lord Clare — Lord Hardwicke. Viceroy — Peace of Amiens — Treaty Violated by England— Malta — War again Declared by England— Mr. Pitt Resumes Office— Coalition against France 410 CHAPTER XLIV. 1802—1803. First Year of the Union— Distress in Ireland — Riot in Dublin— Irish Exiles in France — Renewed Hopes of French Aid — The two Emmets, MacNcven, and O'Connor in France — Apprehen- sions of Invasion in England — Robert Emmet comes from Fiat to Ireland His Associates — His Plans — Miles Byrne — Despard's Conspiracy in England -Emmet's Preparations— Ex- plosion in Patrick Street — The 23d of July Failure— Bloody Riol Murder of Lord Kil- warden— Emmet sends Miles Byrne to France— Retires to Wicklow- Returns to Dublin- Arrested — Tried— Convicted- -Hanged— Fate of Russell 417 ® -vs. j.,.,. tr§r-?z Jyt =r- ■-— -ifrft a:^ -•-MX . // ,..rLhJ^rf',^gy. J ;U''. i || ^;^<-' i siv tfc CONTENTS. CHAPTER XLV. 1803—1804. Reason to believe that Government was all the time aware of the Conspiracy — " Striking Terror " — Martial Law — Catholic Address— Arrests — Informers — Vigorous Measures — In Cork — In Belfast — Hundreds of Men Imprisoned without Charge— Brutal Treatment of Prisoners — Special Commission — Eighteen Persons Hung — Debate in Parliament— Irish Exiles in France — First Consul Plane a New Expedition to Ireland— Formation of the "Irish Legion" — Irish Legion in Bretagne— Official Reply of the First Consul to T. A. Emmet — Designs of the French Government — Buonaparte's .Mistake— French Fleet again Ordered Elsewhere — The Legion goes to the Rhine, and to Walcheren— End of the AddingtOD Ministry — Mr. Pitt Returns to Office — Condition of Ireland — Decay of Dublin — Decline ot Trade — Increase of Debt — Ruinous Effects of the Uuiou — Presbyterian Clergy Pensioned, and tho Reason 427 CHATTER X L V I . 1804— 1805. Mr. Pitt in Office — Royal Speech — No Mention of Ireland — Alarm about Invasion — Martello Towers — Reliance of the Irish Catholics on Mr. Pitt — Treatment of the Prisoners — Mr. James Tandy — Mr. Pitt Raises a Storm against the Catholics — Catholic Meeting in Dublin— Habeas Cbrpus Act again Suspended- Ireland "Loyal"— Duplicity of Lord Bardwioke — ■ Catholic Deputies go to Mr. Pitt — A "Sincere Friend "---Mr. Pitt Refuses to I 'resent Catholic Petition — Declares he will Resist Emancipation— Lord Grenville and Mr. Fox Present it — Debate in the Louis in the Commons- Speeches of Fox, Doctor Dnigenan, Grattan — Per- ceval, Pitt, Sir John Newport— Emancipation Refused, both by Lords and Commons — Great Majorities .' 434 CIAPTEB X L V 1 1 . 1804-180G. Prosecution of Judge Fox — His Offence, Enforcing Law on Orangemen — Prosecution of Judge Johnson — His Offence, Censuring the Irish Government — Decline of Pitt's Power — Castle- reagh Defeated in Down County Successes of Buonaparte— Cry for Peace — Death of Mr. Pitt — Whig Ministry — Mr. Fox— His Opinion of the Union — First WhiBper of ■• Repeal"" — Release ol Stale Prisoners — Dismissal of Lord Kedesdale as Chancellor — Duke of Bedford, Viceroy -The Catholics ('healed Again — Equivocation of the Viceroy — l'onsonby — Curran's Promotion — The Armagh Orangemen — Mr. Wilson the Magistrate 442 CHAPTER XLV1II. 180G— 1807. Revenue and Debt of Ireland — Rapid Increase of Debt — Drain of Wealth from Ireland— Charac- ter of the Imports and Exports Rackrents, Tithes, Ac. — Distress of the People — The " Threshers "—Threshers Hung— Catholic Meetings-Increase of Maynooth Grant— From Apprehension of the Irish College in France Catholic Officers' Bill — To Promote Depopu- lation — Bill Abandoned— Change of Ministry— The King Demands a No-1'opery Pledge— DuUe of Cumberland— Perceval Administration— Camden and Castlereagh in Office — No- Popery — Recruiting in Ireland— John Keogh on Catholic Officers' Bill -O'Connell — Too- Easy Gratitude of the Irish towards Whigs — Populace Draw the Duke of Bedford's Coach. CHAPTER XL1X. 1807—1808. Duke of Richmond, Viceroy — Sir A. Wellesley, Secretary— Their System— Depression of Catho- lics—Insolence of Orangemen — Government Interference in Flections — Ireland (Jets a New Insurrection Act — And an Anus Act —Grattan Advocates Coercion Acts— Sheridan Opposes Them — Acts Passed — The Bishop ot Quimper -Means Used io Create Exasperation against Catholics — "Shanavests" and "Caravats" — ••('lunch in Danger "—Catholic Petition — In fluence of O'Connell — Lord F'ingal— Growing Liberality amongst Protestants — Maynooth Grant Curtailed — Doctor Dnigenan Privy-Councillor — Catholic Petition Presented — The •■ Vita" Offered— Mr. Ponsonby and Mr. Grattan They Urge the Pirfo as a Security— Peti- tion Rejected — Controversies on the Vdo — Bishops' Resolutions — No Catholics in Bank of Ireland— Dublin Police 457 CHAPTER L . 1808—1809. The Duke of Richmond's Anti-Catholic Policy — The Orangemen Flourish — Their Outrages and Murders- Castlereagh and Perceval Charged with Selling Seats — Corruption— Sir Arthur Wellesley — Tithes— Catholic Committee Reorganized — lohn Keogh on Petitioning Parlia- ment— O'Connell and the Convention Act — Orange n also Reorganized — Orange Conven- tion — More Murders by Orangemen — Crooked Policy of the Castle Defection of the Bandou Orangemen — Success of the Castle Policy iu Preventing Union with Irishmen 467 I . "£M .U'U'NB.l.i), . i p— , lS^—::-"-^ -■•'■•\,' l .l.._^ I CONTENTS. r* r; ) : «$ CHAPTER LI. 1810—1812. Duke of Richmond's "Conciliation" — Orange Oppression — Treatment of Catholic Soldiers — The Veto again— Debate on Veto in Parliament — Catholic Petition Presented by Grattan — Bejecteil O'Connell's Leadership — New Organization of Catholics— Repeal of the Union First Agitated — Insanity of the King — Treachery of the Regent — Prosecution of the Catho- lic Committee — Convention Act -Suppression of the Committee — New Weasurea of O' Council — Mr. Curran at Newry Election — Effects of the Union 47S CHAPTER L I I . 1813—1821. Grattan 's Emancipation Hill— More Peto— Quarantotti— Unanimity in Ireland against Veto — Mr. Peel and his New Police — Stipendiary Magistrates— Close of the War — Restoration of the Bourbons — Waterloo Evil Effects on Ireland— The Irish Legion in France — Its Fate — Miles Byrne and his Friends— Effects of the Peace in impoverishing the Irish — Cheap Eject- ment Eaw Passed — Beginning of Extermination — "Surplus Population" — Catholic Claims Ruined by the Peace— O'Connell and Catholic Board — Board Suppressed — O'Connell in Court His Audacity — His Scorn of the Dublin Corporation — Duel with D'Esterre — Distress in Ireland -Famine of 1817 — Coercion in Ireland — "Six Acts" in England — Mr. Plunket'g Emancipation Bill— Peel and the Duke of York — Royal Visit to Ireland— Catholics Cheated Again 481 CHAPTER LI II. 1822—1825. Famine of 1822 — Its Causes — Financial Frauds upon Ireland — Horrors of the Famine— Extermi- nation — Suspension of Habeas Corpus Act — Castlereagh Cuts his Throat — Marquis Wellesley, Viceroy — Sir Harcourt Lees — The Bottle Riot — Catholic Association Formed — Dr. Doyle ; "J. K. L." — Progress of Catholic Association — "Catholic Rent" — Maynooth Professors " Loyal" — Rage of the Orangemen — "O'Connell, the Pope, and the Devil" — Passiveness of the Dissenters — O'Connell's Appeals to Them — Intellectual and Literary Power of the Movement — Act to Suppress " Unlawful Associations''— First Attempt to Cheat the Catho- lics — A Relief Bill, with "Wings" — Defeated — Catholic Deputation in Loudon — O'Connell aud the Whigs — Strong Feeling in Ireland against " Wings " 490 CHAPTER LIV. 1825—1829. Action of the Catholic Association — Waterford Election — Louth Election — Change of Ministry — Canning, Premier — Lord Anglesea, Viceroy — The "New Reformation " — Pope and Maguire — Death of Canning— Goderich Cabinet — Catholic Petition for Repeal of Test and Corpora- tion Acts — Acts Repealed — Clare Election — O'Connell Returned — Its Results— Suppression of Catholic Association— Peel and Wellington Prepare Catholic Relief Bill — Rage of the Bigots — Reluctance of the King — O'Connell at the Bar of the House— Passage of the Eman- cipation Act — Disfranchisement of the Forty-Shilling Freeholders — Abstract of the Relief Act — The New Oath— Meaning aud Spirit of the Relief Act 499 CHAPTER L V. 1829—1840. Results of the Relief Act — O'Connell Reelected for Clare— Drain of Agricultural Froduce— Educated Class of Catholics Bought— The Tithe War — Lord Anglesea, Viceroy — O'Connell's Associations — Anglesea's Proclamations — Prosecution of O'Connell — National Education — Tithe-Tragedies — Newtownbarry — Carrickshock — Change of Dynasty in France — Reform Agitation in England — What Reform Meant In Ireland — Cholera — Resistance to Tithe — Lord Grey's Coercion Act — Abolition of Negro Slavery — Church Temporalities Act — Repeal De- bate—Surplus Population — Surplus Produce — Tithe-Carnage at Kathconnack — Queen Vic- toria's Accession — Three Measures Against Ireland — Poor Law — Tithe Law — Municipal Reform— Castle-Sherifl's 610 CHAPTER LVI. 1840-1843. Spirit of Legislation for Ireland — More Spying in the Post Office' — Savings Banks— " Precursor Society " — Support to the Whigs — Whigs Go Out — Peel Comes In— Repeal Association — Ex- port of Food — Extermination — The Repeal Year — Corporation Debate — The Younger Nationalists— New "Arms Bill " — O'Brien Moves for Inquiry — Preparation's for Coercion- All England against Repeal— Monster Meetings — Mallow — Tara— Mullaghuiasl — Clontarf — Proclamation 522 VC\ .-ft V A-l W> >& CHAPTER LVII. 1843—1844. Why England could not Yield — Cost to her of Repeal— Intention of Government at Clontarf— The " Projected Massacre " — Meeting Prevented — State Prosecution — O'Brien Declares for Re- peal—Packing of the Jury — Verdict of Guilty — Debate in Parliament— Russell and Macaulay on Packing of Juries — O'Connell in Parliament — Speculation of the Whigs — Sentence and Imprisonment of " Conspirators " — Effects on Repeal Association — Appeal to the House of Lords — Whig Law Lords — Reversal of the Sentence — Enthusiasm of the People — Their Pa- tience and Self-Deuial — Decline of the Association 635 CHAPTER LVIII. 1844. Decadence of Repeal Association — Land Tenure Commission — Necessity of exterminating " Sur- plus Population" — Report of the •'Landlord and Tenant Commission" — Tenant Right to be Disallowed — Farms to be Consolidated — People to be Extirpated — Methods of the Minis- ter to Divide Repealers — Grant to Maynooth — Queen's Colleges — Secret Agents at Rome — American Slavery— Distraction in Repeal Ranks — Bill for "Compensation to Tenants" — Defeated — Death of Thomas Davis — The Famine — Commission of Chemists to Gain Time — Demands of Ireland — Of the Corporations — Of O'Connell and O'Brien — Repudiation of Alms ■ — Coercion Bill — Repeal of Corn Laws — Irish Harvests go to England — " Relief Measures "— Delays — Fraud — Havoc of the People — Peel's System of Famine-Slaughter Fully Established — Peel Resigns Office 543 CHAPTER LIX. 1846—1847. Progress of the Famine Carnage — Pretended Relief Measures — Imprisonment of O'Brien— Dis- sensions in Repeal Association — Break up of that. Body — Ravages of Famine — "Labor-Rate Act" — Useless Public Works— Extermination — Famine of 1847 — How they lived in Kng- land — Advances from the Treasury — Attempts of Foreign Countries to relieve the Famine — Defeated by British Government — Vagrancy Act — Parish Coffins— Constant Repudiation of Alms — An Englishman's Petition for Alms to Ireland— •• Ingratitude" of the Irish — Death of O'Connell — Preparations to Insure the Next Year's Famine — Emigration — British Famine Policy — New Coercion Act called for— Famine in Ireland 660 '~M& CHAPTER LX. 1847—1848. Lord Clarendon Viceroy — His means of Insuring the Shipment to England of the Usual Tribute — Bribes the Baser Sort of Editors — Patronage for Catholic Lawyers — Another Coercion Act — Projects for Stopping Exports of Grain — Arming — Alarm of Government — Whigs active in Coercion — French Revolution of February — Confederate Clubs — Deputation from Dublin to Paris — O'Brien's Last Appearance in Parliament — Trials of O'Brien and Meagher — Trial of Mitchel — Packing of the Jury — Reign of Terror in Dublin 574 CHAPTER LXI. 1848—1849. Reconstitution of the Irish Confederation — New National Journals Established — The Tribune — The Felon — New Suspension of Habeas Corpus — Numerous Arrests — O'Brien attempts Insur- rection — Ballingarry — Arrest and Trial of O'Brien and Others — Conquest of the Island — ■ Destruction of the People — Incumbered Estates Act — Its Effects — No Tenant-Right — " Rate- in-Aid" — Queen's Visit to Ireland — Places given to Catholics — Catholic Judges— Their Office and Duty — Ireland " Prosperous " — Statistics of the Famine Slaughter — Destruction of Three Millions of Souls — Flying from " Prosperity " 585 CHAPTER LXII. 1850—1851. Depopulation — Emigration — "Plea for the Celtic Race" — Decay of the Irish Electoral Body — Act to Amend Representation — «• Papal Aggression " — Rage in England — Ecclesiastical Titles Bill — Never Enforced — And Why — Orange Outrage in Down County — " Dolly's Brae" — Style of Orange Processions — Condition of the Country — Further Emigration — Still more Extermination — Crime and Outrage — Plenty and Prosperity in England — Conclusion 697 At .-ENDIX 611 I> dki 627 '' \?a /J m fcA*G .Co./.MW-i.s, HISTORY OF IRELAND. CIIAPTER I. FROM THE TREATY OF LIMERICK TO THE END OF 1691. Treat; of Limerick.— Violated or not ?— Arguments of Macaulay.— Dr. Dopping, Bishop of Meath. — No faith to be kept with Papists.— First act in violation of the treaty. — Situation of the Catholics. — Charge against Sarsfiold. The Articles of Limerick were signed on the 3d October, 1691, and the city was Bur- rendered to the army of King William, who was then, for the first time, recognized by the body of the Irish nation as King of Ire- land : and when the Irish forces, wdio had •Id Limerick and Galway so gallantly, were shipped off to France, pursuant to the capitulation, there was not left in all Ire- ind (4ie slightest semblance of any power capable of resisting or troubling the new settlement of the kingdom. The timely surrender had also enabled William to bring to a close this most troublesome and costly war, at a moment when it was urgently needful for him to concentrate all his force against the great power of France. It is therefore evident, aud has always been admitted, that in return for the en- gagements of the treaty purporting to pro- tect Catholic rights, the king and the English colonists received most valuable consideration. " In Ireland there was peace : the domination of the colonists was absolute." These are the words of Lord Macaulay, who, of all modern historians, has uniformly exhibited the most inveterate malignity against the Irish nation. Before proceeding to narrate in detail the manner in which the articles were ob- terved on the part of the king and the doniinuut colony of English, it will bo well to exhibit some other facts proving what a very valuable consideration the Catholics gave for the poor guaranty they thought they were receiving on their side. At the beginning of October the winter was closely approaching, and the army of Ginkell was almost certain to be forced to raise the siege on that account alone. The same Macaulay, in his estimate of the chances of Ginkell's success, thus sums them up — "Yet it was possible that an attempt to storm the city might fail, as a similar at- tempt had failed twelve months before. If the siege should be. turned into a blockade, it was probable that the pestilence which had been fatal to the army of Schomberg, which had compelled William to retreat, aud which had all but prevailed even against the genius and energy of Marl- borough, might soon avenge the carnage of Aghrim. The rains had lately been heavy. The whole plain might shortly be an im- mense pool of stagnant water. It might be necessary to move the troops to a healthier situation than the banks of the Shannon, and to provide for them a warmer shelter than that of tents. The enemy would be safe till the spring. In the spring a French army might land in Ireland — the natives might again rise in arms from Donegal to Kerry — aud the war, which was now all but extinguished, might blaze forth fiercer than ever." This historian, whose work enjoys much more popularity than credit, does not men- tion a circumstance which made it, in fact, certain that the war would soon have blazed forth fiercer than ever, beyond all doubt. It is that, before the signing ot those articles, assurances had been sent from France to the defenders of Limerick that a considerable expedition was then on its way h m '*«»t!»7 v -0«„ . .i.jissa.s.u.. R< ! WWd I9H3 FROM TtIK TTIEATY OF LIMERICK TO THE END OF 1691. M ■>3 •X x i. was not approved by all the divines of liis party, for on the next Sun. lay, in tbe same church, Doctor Moreton, bishop of Kildare, demonstrated the obligation of keeping pub- lic faith. It seems that this important ques- tion greatly occupied men's minds at that time ; for it was judged necessary to settle and qujet public opinion ; and to this end, on the third Sunday, in the same church, Dean Synge preached a conciliatory sort of discourse, neither absolutely insisting on ob- serving the treaty, nor distinctly advising that it should be broken. His text was, "Keep peace with all men, if it be possible.'' After this we hear no more of any discussions of the grand controversy in the pulpit ; but in Parliament and in Council the difference subsisted, until the English Act of Resump- tion of Estates quieted the disputants, who then saw tbcv lost nothing bv tbe articles, as the Catholics gained nothing. While these debates were proceeding in Dublin, tbe Protestant magistrates and sher- iffs had no doubt upon the point, whether faith was to be kept with Catholics or not ; they universally decided in the negative; and in less than two months after the capit- ulation was confirmed by the king, as we learn on the authority of William's own par- tial biographer, Harris, " the justices of peace, sheriffs, and other magistrates, presuming on their power in the country, did, in an illegal manner, dispossess several of their majesties' subjects, not only of their goods and chattels, but of their lands and tenements, to the great disturbance of the peace of the king- dom, subversion of the law, and reproach of their majesties' government." It is a much heavier reproach to their majesties' govern- ment that no pel son appears to have been prosecuted) nor in any way brought to jus- tice for these outrageous oppressions. It ap- pears by a letter of the lords-justices of the 19th November, 1691 (six weeks after the surrender of Limerick), "that their lordships had received complaints from all parts of Ireland of the ill-treatment of the Irish who had submitted, had their majesties' protec- tion, or were included in articles; and that they were so extremely terrified with appre- hensions of the continuance of that usage, that some thousands of them who had quit- ted the Irish army, and bad gone home witl a resolution not to go for France, were then come back again [come back, it is presumed, to Cork, Limerick, and othei seaports], and pressed earnestly to go thither rather than stay in Ireland, where, contrary t«> the public faith (add these justices), as Welf AS law and justice, they were robbed of their pubstanee and abuse, 1 in their persons." But, still no effectual means were used by tbe govern- ment for repressing such wrong ; so thU we may well adopt the language of Dr. Curry, that these representations made by the lords- justices were only a "pretence." Indeed, Harris affirms, and every statement of thf* nature made by Harris is an unwilling ad mission, that Capel, one of these very lords justices, did, shortly after, proceed as far as it was in his power, to infringe the Articles of Limerick. The prospect which now opened before the Catholics of Ireland was gloomy indeed Already they were made to feel in a thou- sand forms all the bitterness of subjugation, and to perceive that in this reign of King William, so vaunted for its liberality, the blessings and liberties of the British Consti- tution, if any such there were, existed not for them ; that they had no security for even such remnants of property as had been left them, no redress by the laws of the land, and no refuge from their enemies even in the pledged faith of a solemn treaty. Yet we haveonlv arrived at the beginning of the system ot grinding oppression which was soon to be put in operation against them. This prelim- inary chapter is devoted to an account of the immediate breaches of the Articles of Lim- erick which were perpetrated within the three months after their signature. We tire next to trace the development of that great. code of Penal Laws, which Dr. Samuel Johnson described as more grievous than all the Ten Pagan persecutions of the Christians. Before finishing this chapter, it is proper to allude to one other instance of the deter- mined mendacity of Baron Macaulay. Re- specting the embarkation of Sarsfield and the Irish troops from Cork, that historian compiles from several sources the following narrative : "Sarsfield perceived that one chief cause 01 the desertion which was thinning his army was the natural unwillingness of the men tr ■ HISTORY OF TUicr.A xn. ;V leave their families in a state of destitution. Coik and i;s neighborhood were filled with the kindred of those who were going abroad. Greal numbers of women, many of them lead- ing, carrying, suckling their infants, cover- ed all the roads which led to the place of em- barkation. The Irish general, apprehensive of the effect which the entreaties and lamen- tations of these poor creatures could not fail to produce, put forth a proclamation, in which he assured his soldiers that they should be permitted to carry their wives and families to France. It would be injurious to the mem- ory of so brave and loyal a gentleman to sup- pose that when lie made this promise he meant, to break it. It, is much more probable that he had formed an erroneous estimate of the number of those who would demand a pas- sage, and that he found himself, when it was too late to alier his arrangements, unable to keep his word. After the soldiers had cm- barked, room was found for the families of many. But still there remained on the wa- ter-side a greal multitude, clamoring piteously to be taken on board. As the last boats put oil' there w:is a rush into the surf. Some wo- men caught hold of the ropes, were dragged out of their depth, clung till their fingers were cut through, and perished in the waves. The ships began to move. A wild and terrible wail rose from the shore, and excited un- wonted compassion in hearts steeled by ha- tred of the Irish race and of the Romish faith. Even the stern Cromwellian, now at length, alter a desperate struggle of three years, left the undisputed lord of the blood-stained and devastated island, could not hear unmoved that bitter cry, in which was poured forth all the rage and all the sorrow of a conquered na- tion." The sad scene hero related did really talie place; and in after-times, when those Irish soldiers were in the armies of France, and saw before them the red ranks of King Wil- liam's soldiery, that long, terrible shriek rung in their ears, and made their hearts like tire and their nerves like steel. We know that when their officers sought to rouse, their ardor for a charge, no recital of the wrongs their country had endured could kindle so fierce a flame of vengeful passion as the mention of " the women's parting cry." But the dishonesty of Lord Mnc- aulay's account is in ascribing that cruel parting to the noble Sarsfield, and in dis- tinctly charging him with breaking his word to the soldiers, though he did not mean to break it, when he gave it. Now, by referring back to the "Military Articles" of the Treaty, we see that it was not Sarsfield, but General Ginkell, on the part of King William, who was to furnish shipping for the emigrants ami their funii- lies — " all other persons belonging to them ;" — that it was not Sarsfield, but Ginkell, who was to "form an estimate" of the amount of shipping required; and that it was not Sarsfield, therefore, but Ginkell, who could "alter the arrangements'' at the last mo- ment. As to General Sarsfield's proclama- tion to the men, "that they should be per- mitted to cany their wives and families to France," he made that statement on the faith of the Fust and several succeeding articles of the treaty, not being vet awjfce of any design to violate it. But this is not all: the historian who could not let the hero go into his sorrowful exile without seeking to plunge tlii- venomous sting into his reputa- tion, had before him the Lite of King Wil- liam, by Harris, and also Curry's Historical Review of the Civil Wars, wherein he must have seen thai the lord— justices and General Ginkell are (dunged with endeavoring to defeat the execution of that, First Article. For, s.ivs Harris, "as great numbers of the officers and soldiers had resolved to enter into the service of France, ami to carry their families with them, Ginkell would not suffer their wives and children to be shipped oil' with the men; not doubling that by de- taining the former he would have prevented many of the latter from going into that ser- vice. This, 1 say, was confessedly an in- fringement of the Articles." To this we may add, that no Irish officer or soldier in France afterwards attributed the cruel parting at Cork to any fault of Sarsfield, but always and only to a breach of the Treaty of Limerick. And if he had deluded them in the manner represented by the English historian, they would not have followed him so enthusiastically on the fields of Steinkirk and Landen. V\ T C . ; W/ • a.;. VS\ •£[4^ WW* (f r^ 1G92-1C93. CHAPTER II. 1688—1698. William tlit- Third not bigoted. — Practical toleration for four yean*. — First Parliament in this reign.— Catholics excluded by « resolution.— Extinction of civil existence for Catholics. — Irish Protestant Nationality. — Massacre ot' Glencoe. — Kuttle of Bteinkirk.— Court of St. Qermoins. — "Declara- tion.".— Battle of Luu Jen, and death of Sarsfleld. Kino William THE TmiiD was not per- sonally fanatical or illiberal ; and never de- sired to punish or mulct Ins subjects, whether in Ireland, in England, or in Holland, for mere differences of religion, about which this king eared little or nothing. But he was king by the support of the Protestant party ; was the recognized head of that party in Europe; was obliged to sustain that party, and avenge it upon its enemies, or it would soon have deserted his interests and his cause. For the first four years of his reign in Ireland, we have even the too favorable testimony of some Irish writers to the leniency and beneficence of his admin- istration, which the reader will find hard to conciliate n itfa the actual facts. Mr. Matthew O'Conor, a worthy member of the " Catholic Board," gives this very remarkable testi- nrcmy : " In matters of religion, King William was liberal, enlightened, and philosophic. Equal- ly a friend to religious as to civil liberty, he granted toleration to dissenters of all de- scriptions, regardless of their speculative opinions. In the early part of his reign, the Irish Catholics enjoyed the full and free exercise of their religion. They were pro- tected in their persons and properties; their industry was encouraged ; and under his mild and fostering administration, the deso- lation of the late war began to disappear, and prosperity, peace, and confidence to smile once mote on the country." To those who are disposed to be thankful for very small favors, the beginning of Wil- liam's reign in Ireland was certainly accept- able. There was a practical toleration of Catholic worship, though it \v:is against the law ; priests were not hunted, though by law they were felons; and for a short while it seemed as if "the Ascendency" would content itself with the forfeitures of rich estates, and the exclusion of Catholic gentle- men from Parliament, from the Ear, ami the practice of medicine, and Catholic traders fi'om the guilds of their trade, and from the corporate bodies of the towns they dwelt in. This was actually the amount of the toleration granted to the Irish Catholic na- tion during those early years of this reign. In 1692, the Lord Lieutenant, Lord Syd- ney, convened the first Irish Parliament of William's reign. It was the first Parliament in Ireland (except that convened by James) for twenty-six years. As there was then no Irish Act disqualifying Catholics from sitting in Parliament, certain peers and a few com- moners of that faith attended, and took their seats; but the English Parliament of the year before having provided against this, they were at once met by the oath of su- premacy, declaring the king of England head of the Church, and affirming the sacri- fice of the Mass to be damnable. The oath was put to each member of both houses, and the few Catholics present at once re- tired, so that the Parliament, when it pro- ceeded to business, was purely Protestant. Here then ended the last vestige of consti- tutional right for the Catholics: from this date, and for generations to come, they could no longer consider themselves a part of the existing body politic of their native land ; and the division into two nations became definite. There was the dominant nation, consisting of the British colony; and the subject nation, consisting of five sixths of the population, who had thereafter no more in- fluence upon public affairs than have the red Indians in the United States. Before quitting the subject of this total abolition of civil existence for the Catholics, we may anticipate a little to observe that, by another act of the Irish Parliament, in 1G97,* it was enacted, that "a Protestant marrying a Catholic was disabled from sit- ting or voting in either house of Parliament." But as Catholics could still vote at elections (though they could now vote for none but mortal enemies), even this poor privilege was taken away from them a few years later. In 1727, it was enacted that " no Catholio shall be entitled or admitted to vote at the hw *. vpw*/?^ '3w^ r -.:>^fjm iUwA I" )r- j)Vv -- - --:^/ . . .-■ ;■, - \ AdJJ -'-!>- &1 i , HI U IIISTOIIY OF IIJELAND. election of any member to serve in Parlia- ment as a knight, citizen, or burgess; or at the election of any magistrate for any city. or other town corporate ; any law, statute, or usage to tin' contrary notwithstanding."'' By the operation of these statutes alone, without taking account for the present of the more directly penal code, the great mass of the population of this country was de- based to a point which it now requires an effort fully to comprehend. No man had to court their votes, nor consult their inter- est or their feelings. They had no longer any one to stand up for them in the halls of legislation, to oppose new oppressions (and the oppressions were always new and heavier from day to day), nor to expose and refute calumnies, and these were in plenty. They were not only shut out from the great coun- cils of the nation, but every one of them, in every town and parish in Ireland, felt him- self the inferior and vassal of his Protestant neighbors, and the victim of a minute, spite- ful, and contemptuous tyranny, at the hands of those who were often morally and phys- ically far his inferiors. Of the exclusion from Parliament, the able author of the Statement of I he Penal Laws has truly ob- served : "The advantages flowing from a seat in the Legislature, it is well known, are not con- fined to the individual representative. They extend to all his family, friends, and con- nections; or, in other words, to every Prot- estant in Ireland. Within his reach are all the honors, offices, emoluments: every sort of gratification to avarice or vanity : the means of spreading a great personal inter- est by innumerable petty services to indi- viduals, lie can do an infinite number of acts of kindness and generosity, and even of public spirit. He can procure advantages in trade, indemnity from public burdens, preferences in local competitions, pardons for offences. He can obtain a thousand fa- vors, and avert a thousand evils. He may, whilst he betrays every valuable public in- terest, be, at the same time, a benefactor, a patron, a father, a guardian angel to his political adherents. On the other hand, bow stands the Catholic gentleman or tra- * 1 Geo. II., chap. 9. der? For his own person, no office, no power, no emolument ; for his children, brothers, kindred, or friends, no promotion, ecclesiastical or civil, military or naval. Ex- cept from his private fortune, he has no means of advancing a child, of making a single friend, or of showing any one good quality. He has nothing to offer but harsh refusal, pitiful, excuse, or despondent repre- sentation." And the effect of the exclusion from cor- porations was a thousand times more galling still ; because that disability presses upon in- dividuals everywhere, in their own homes, and in every daily action of their lives. The same accurate author, writing more than a century after King William's death, thus de- scribes the condition of Catholic tradesmen and artificers throughout the towns of Ire- land : — it will show how thoroughly these penal laws did their work for generations : "They are debased by the galling ascen- dency of privileged neighbors. They are de- pressed by partial imposts; by limine pref- erences and accommodation bestowed upon their competitors; by a local inquisition ; by an uncertain and unequal measure of justice , by fraud and favoritism daily and openly practised to their prejudice. The Catholic gentleman, whose misfortune it may be to reside in or near to any of these cities or towus in Ireland, is hourly exposed to all the slights and annoyances, that a petty secta- rian oligarchy may think proper to inflict. The professional man risks continual inflic- tions of personal humiliation. The farmer brings the produce of his lands to market under heavier tolls. Every species of Cath- olic industry and mechanical skill is checked, taxed, and rendered precarious. " On the other hand, every species of 1 'rot- estant indolence is cherished and maintained ; every claim is allowed ; every want supplied ; every extortion sanctioned : nay, the very name of ' Protestant' secures a competence, and commands patrician pre-eminence in Ireland." Hut though the inhabitants of Ireland were now, counting fiom the year 1692, definitive- ly divided into two castes, there arose imme- diately, strange, to say, a strong sentiment of Irish nationality; not, indeed, amongst the depressed Catholics — they were done with « tA'6 8 ;/'Uijviy- Am .'V •"' = J national sentiment ami aspiration foi' a time; but the Protestants of Ireland had lately grown numerous, wealthy, and strong. Their numbers tiad been largely increased, partly by English settlers coming to enjoy the plun- der of the forfeited estates, ami very much by conversions, it pretended conversions of Catholics who had recanted their faith to 6avc their property or their position in so- ciety, and who generally altered or disguised their family names when these had too Celtic n sound. The Irish Protestants also prided themselves on having saved the kingdom for William and "the Ascendency;" and hav- ing now totally put down the ancient nation under their feet, they aspired to take its place, to rise from a colony to a nation, and to assert the dignity of an independent king- dom. Ev.n in this Parliament of 1692 the spirit of independence ventured to show itself. Two money-bills, which had not originated in Ireland, were sent over from England to be passed, or rather to be accepted and regis- tered. One of these bills was for raising additional duty on beer, ale, and other li- quors ; and this they passed, to an amount not exceeding £70,000; but grounding their action upon the alleged urgency of the case, nnd'clcclaring that it should not be drawn into a precedent. This was on the 21st of October, 1692. Much constitutional discus- sion took place upon this occasion ; and hon- orable members stimulated one another's patriotism by recalling the rights and pre- rogatives of the ancient kingdom of Ireland. So, a few days after, on the 28th of October, the House of Commons rejected altogether the second English bill ; which was to giant to their majesties the produce of certain du- ties for one year. On the 3d of November Sydney prorogued Parliament with a very angry speech ; and at the same time required the clerk to enter his formal protest, against the dangerous doctrine asserted in the Com- mons' resolutions, and haughtily affirming the right and power of the English Parlia- ment to bind Ireland by acts passed in Lon- don. After two prorogations, this Parliament was dissolved on the oth of September, 1793. Not only did King William give his royal assent to the laws of exclusion made by this Parliament, but he did not make any propo- K M.JJ, sal or any eflbit to gain lor the Irish Ciiho- lics those "further securities" its engaged by the Treaty of Limerick, which were to pro- tect them from "all disturbance" in the ex- ercise of their religion. Yet this was but a ' c"? trifling matter compared with what the same king did in the course of the next following Parliament, that convened in 1695. It is often alleged, on his behalf, that he was provoked and distressed by the furious big- otry and violence of his Irish Protestant sub- jects ; and that he even endeavored to mod- erate them by the influence of Sydney, his lord-lieutenant ; in short, that he was so wholly dependent on his Parliaments, both of England and of Ireland, that he could not venture to thwart their one great policy, purpose, and passion — to crush Papists ; and that such opposition on his part would have cost him his crown. That was unfor- tunate for him ; inasmuch as the actual con- duct which these headstrong supporters of his obliged him to adopt, has cost him more ijtiff' than a crown, his reputation for good faith. It was in February of this year, 1692, that the massacre of Glencoe befel in a remote valley of the highlands of Scotland. King William, we are assured, did not wish to per- petrate this iniquity, any more than to break the Treaty of Limerick; but certain wicked advisers in Scotland forced him to do the one deed, just as his furious Protestants of Ireland obliged him to commit the other. In Scotland it was the wicked Master of Stair, together with the vindictive Marquis of Breadalbane, who planned the slaughter; and Stair, the Secretary for Scotland, pre- sented to the king, in his closet, and then and there induced his majesty to sign a paper in these words : "As for Maclan of Glencoe, and that tribe, if they can be well distin- guished from the other Highlanders, it will be proper, for the vindication of public jus- tice, to extirpate that set of thieves." And this order was directed to the Commander of the Forces in Scotland. What was intended, therefore, was military execution, without judge or jury, to be inflicted upon unarmed and unsuspecting country-people, with their wives and children. The crime, or alleged crime, was having been late in coming in and giving their submissiou. The king did not read the order above cited says Arch- m ' «*«££. yr'c.Hb .CW4N8.S.J, " ,,n w /- v 2 ft liisli(i|> Burnet, but he signed it; and says liis eloquent eulogist, Maeaulay, "Whoever lias seen any thing of public business knows that princes and ministers daily sign, and in- deed must sign documents which tliey have not read ; and of all documents, a document relating to a small tribe of mountaineers, liv- ing in a wilderness, not set down in any map, was least likely to interest a sovereign whose mind was full of schemes on which the fate of Europe might depend." Yet the order was not a long one ; about three seconds, if his majesty could have spared so long a time from meditating on the fate of Europe, would have shown him what fate he was decreeing to the MaeDonalds of Glencoe. It seems lie could not give so much of his leisure, so the order was sent ; and accordingly, the king's troops, having first quartered them- selves amongst the simple people, in the guise of friends, and partaken of their moun- tain hospitality; and having taken the pre- caution, as they believed, to guard all the outlets of the valley, arose before dawn one winter's morning, and butchered every Mac- Donald, man, woman, and child, whom they could find. A few details of this performance may be interesting; they are given by Lord Maeaulay, an author who was certainly not disposed to exaggerate their atrocity : " Hut the orders which Glenlyon had re- ceived were precise, and he began to exe- cute them at the little village where he was himself quartered. His host, Inverriggon, and nine other Macdonalds, were dragged out of their beds, bound hand and foot, and mur- dered. A boy twelve years old clung round the captain's legs, and begged hard for life. He would do any thing: he would go any- where : he would follow Glenlyon round the world. Even Gleulyon, it is said, showed signs of relenting : but a ruffian named Drummond shot the child dead. "At Auchnaion the tacksman Auchintriater was up early that moruing, and was sitting with eight of his family round the fire, when a volley of musketry laid him and seven of his companions dead or dying on the floor. His brother, who alone had escaped unhurt, called to Sergeant Harbour, who commanded the slayers, and asked as a favor to be al- lowed to die in the open air. ' Well,' said the sergeant, 'I will do you that favor for the sake of your meat which I have oat it i ne luountaineer, bold, athletic, and favored by the darkness, came forth, rushed on the sol- diers who were about to level their pieces at him, flung his plaid over their laces, and was gone in a moment. "Meanwhile Lindsay had knocked at the door of the old chief, and had asked for ad- mission in friendly language. The door was opened. Maclan, while putting on his clothes and calling to his servants to bring some refreshments for his visitors, was shot through the head. Two of his attendants were slain with him. His wife was already up and dressed in such finery as the prin- cesses of the rude Highland glens were ac- customed to wear. The assassins pulled oh* her clothes and trinkets. The rings were not easily taken from her fingers ; but a sol- dier tore them away with his teeth. She died on the following day." Over thirty persons were killed there that morning, but owing to the " blunder," as Maeaulay calls it, of commencing^he massa- cre with a volley of musketry, instead of giv- ing them the cold steel, three-fourths of the MaeDonalds of Glencoe escaped the slaugh- ter, but only to perish in the snowy moun- tains for want of food and shelter. Such, and so sad may be the effects of evil counsels upon the minds of benevolent monarchs, who are too deeply occupied in revolving projects on which the fate of Europe might depend. Another event befell in the summer of this year, 1692, which deserves record. On a July moruing, about the time when the Prot- estant Parliament in Dublin was devising cunning oaths against Transubstantiation and Invocation of Saints, to drive out its few Catholic members, Patrick Sarsfield, and some of his comrades, just fresh from Lim- erick, had the deep gratification to meet King William on the glorious field of Steinkirk. Satsfield and Berwick were then officers high in command under Marshal Luxem- bourg, when King William, at the head of a great allied force, attacked the French en- campment. The attacking force was under the banners of England; of the United Prov- inces, of Spain and of the Empire ; and it had all the advantage of effecting a surprise. The battle was long and bloody, and was fin- ished by a splendid charge of French cavalry, 5 (<$ 2 uijW^.u. /, is €S M KING JAMES'S DECLARATION OF 1093. 11 Among the foremost of whose leaders was the same glorious Sarsfield, wliose sword bad once before driven back fcbe same Wil- liam from before the walls of Limerick. The English and their allies were entirely defeat- ed in thai battle, with a loss of about ten thousand men. Once more, and before very long, Sarsfield and King William were des- tined to meet again. King James was at this time residing at the palace of St. Germain-en-laye, near Paris, upon a pension allowed him by Louis XIV., :in. I waiting on the' result of the war between Fiance and the Allies. As William had now become very unpopular in England, it was believed by the advisers of the exiled mon- arch that a suitable "Declaration" issued from St. Germains, and promising, as the Stuarts were always ready to promise, such reforms and improvements in administration as should conciliate public opinion in Eng- land, might once more turn the minds of his British subjects towards their legitimate dy- nasty, and open a way for his return to his throne. His great counsellor on this occa- sion was Charles, Earl of Middleton, a Scotch- man. On the 17th of April, 1693, this fa- mous Declaration was signed and published. It promised, on the part of James, a free pardon to all his subjects who should not op- pose him after his landing; that as soon as he was restored he would call a parliament ; that he would confirm all such laws passed during the usurpation as the Houses should present to him for confirmation ; that he would protect and defend the Established Church in all her possessions and privileges ; that he would not again violate the Test Act ; that he would leave it to the Legisla- ture to define the extent of his dispensing power ; and that he would maintain the Act of Settlement in Ireland. This Declaration, then, was an appeal to his English subjects exclusively ; and to propitiate them, he prom- ised to leave the Irish people wholly at their mercy — to undo all the measures in favor of religious liberty and common justice which had been enacted by his Irish Parliament of 1G89, and to leave the holders of the confis- cated estates, his own deadly enemies in Ire- land, in undisturbed possession of all their spoils. It is asserted, indeed, in the Life of King James, that he struggled against com- mitting himself to Btluh unqualified support of the Protestant interest, but he was finally induced to sign the document as it stood. It was sent to England, printed, and published, but produced no effect whatever of the kind intended. It, did produce, however, a great and just indignation among the Irish sol- diers and gentlemen who had lost all their possessions, and encountered so many perils to vindicate the right of this cowardly and faithless king. Serious discontent was man- ifested among the Irish regiments then serving in the Netherlands and on the fron- tiers of Germany and Italy ; and we find that the treacherous Middleton, his Scottish and Protestant adviser, who had led the king in- to this act of ingratitude, as useless as it was base, made great efforts to soothe the feelings of these fine troops. A letter is extant from Lord Middleton to Justin MacCarthy, then on active service in Germany, endeavoring to explain away the obnoxious points of the Declaration, and soliciting MacCarthy's in- fluence to pacify other officers. In this let- ter Secretary Middleton has the assurance to say, "The king promises in the foresaid Dec- laration to restore the Settlement, but at the same time declares that he will recompense all those who may suffer by it, in giving them equivalents."* There was no such promise in the Declaration, and his correspondent must have known it; but, in truth, the Irish troops in the army of King Louis, the fierce exiles of Limerick, were at that time too busy in the camp and the field, and too keen- ly desirous to meet the English in battle, to pay much attention to any thing coming from King James. They had had enough of Riffh Seamus at the Boyne Water. A portion of them soon had their wish ; for neither Luxembourg nor King William allowed the grass to grow under their horses' hoofs. On the 19th of July, in this year, 1693, they were in presence again on the bank of the little river Landen, and close by the village of Neerwinden. The Eng- lish call that memorable battle by the first name, and the French by the second. It was near Liege in the Netherlands, that famous battle-ground which had seen, and was again to see, so many bloody days. * The letter i» in Macphereau'n Collection. M y ■ O, k.\t W % ^ ~tj tSii .CUt.Mt)t.S,i>. HISTORY OP IRELAND. \m n ,&ft> ($, m 1 1 Tliis time it was the French who attacked the Allies in an intrenched position. After heavy artillery firing for some time, the French made a desperate attack on the vil- lage of Neerwinden ; and the Duke of Ber- wick, at the head of some Irish troops, led the onset, supported and followed by the left wing of the French army, commanded by Montchevreuil. The slaughter in the village was tremendous, andhere Berwick was taken prisoner. This first attack failed, and alter a furious struggle the French and Irish were forced back. A fresh division, under the Duke de Bourbou, renewed the attack, and was again repulsed ; but as this was the important point, Luxembourg resolved to make a final struggle for it, and the chosen forces of King Louis, led on by his re- nowned household troops, were launched in a resistless mass against the village. A third time it was entered, and a third time there was a scene of fearful carnage in its streets. Among the French officers in this final struggle was Patrick Sarsfield.* King William fought his army to the last; but Neerwinden being gone, the key of the position was lost, and at length the whole English and allied army gave way all along the line. The pursuit was furious and san- guinary, as the Allies kept tolerable order, and fought every step of the way. In the army of William was the Duke of Ormond, and in the wild confusion he was unhorsed ; but the French soldier who brought him down espied on his finger a precious diamond, and saved his life as being certainly a pris- oner of rank. He was soon after exchanged for Berwick. At length the flying army of William arrived at the little river Gette ; and here the retreat was in danger of be- coming a total rout. Arms and standards were flung away, and multitudes of fugitives were choking up the fords and bridges of the river, or perishing in its waters, so fierce- ly did the victors press upon their rear. It ■was here that Patrick Sarsfield, Earl of Lu- * It does not seem certain tbat Berwick and Sars- field had any Irish regiments under their command at Landen. O'Connor (Military Memoir) says that Sarsfield tell in leading a charge of French troops. can, who had that day, as well as at Stein- kirk, earned the admiration of the whole French army, received his death-shot at the head of his men. It was in a happy mo- ment. Before he fell, he could see the standards of England swept along by the tide of headlong flight, or trailing in the muddy waters of the Gette — he could see the sear- let ranks that he had once hurled back from the ramparts of Limerick, now rent and riven, fast falling in their wild flight, while there was sent pealing after them the venge- ful shout, "Remember Limerick /" The victory of the French was complete ; and after two such defeats, so closely follow- ing each other, the affairs of King William went badly for a time. There was, there- fore, a certain mildness and mercy observ- able in the administration of Ireland towards the Catholics; for as Lawless has justly ob- served, "The rights of Irishmen and the prosperity of England cannot exist together — a melancholy truth which the events ol the present day only contribute to confirm, and which is still left to the enlightened English Government of future days to re- fute. The lights of history cannot be ex- tinguished, nor her powerful voice silenced. The conclusions we have drawn are irresist- ible, and the idle violence which attempts to punish their publication only impresses tlmse truths more deeply on the mind. The glo- ries of William and of Anne — the victories of Marlborough, and the uuiversal conquests of Chatham, have been the most, disastrous epochs of Ireland. Never was the heart of our country so low as when England was the envy and the terror of her enemies. The sounds of English triumphs were to her the sounds of sorrow — the little tyrants who ruled her were inflamed with courage, and urged on with increased rancor — the unhappy Cath- olics of Ireland, who always constituted the nation, were doomed to be again insulted and tortured with impunity." Accordingly, it will soon be seen that the apparent gentleness used at this time towards the ancient Irish nation, was destined to be of short continuance. j |% U y r >-•■ tflfej \ Capel lord-lientcnnnt.— War in the Netherlands. — Capture of Nauuir. — Grievances of the Protestant colonists. — Act l'or disarming Papists. — Laws against education. — Against priests. — Against in- termarryiug with Papists. — Act to "confirm" Articles of Limerick. — Irish on the continent. Svdxev, the lord-lieutenant, became ex- ceedingly unpopular with the people of the English colony in Ireland, in consequence of his continued assertion of the supreme powers of the British Parliament, and his opposition to the assertion of this new Anglo- Irish nationality. But his unpopularity was still greater on account of his known repug- nance to still further and more searching pe- nal laws against the Catholics. He was soon, therefore, recalled, and the island was ruled for a lime by three lords-justices, Lord Capel, Sir Cyril Wyche, and Mr. Duncombe. Between these three, serious differences of policy soon manifested themselves: the two latter being in favor of a continuance of the toleration, and of showing some slight regard to the rights of the Catholic people under the Treaty of Limerick ; while Capel, as Harris confesses, was desirous of doing all in his power to infringe that treaty. The intrigues of the intolerant party finally prevailed so far as lo procure the appointment of Capel as lord-lieutenant; and in 1C95, he sum- moned a parliament, the second of this reign. In the mean time, King William and his allies had been prosecuting the war against France with varying success, but on the whole, the advantage had rested with the French, at least, in the campaigns by land. In 1G95, however, the tide began to turn in the Netherlands; anil on the 26th of Au- gust, in that year, the town and fortress of Namur, or. j of the strongest places in Europe, defended by Marshal Boufflers, was surren- dered to the allies after an arduous siege. For the first time, since first there were raar- balfi of France, a French marshal delivered up a fortress to a victorious enemy. There was high rejoicing in England over this great event; it was, therefore, an event of evil omen for Ireland. Duiing the three years preceding the meeting of this parliament, then? had been continual complaints made by the Protestant "Ascendencv," of the favors shown to " Pa- pists," and the consequent discouragement and depression of the Protestant interest. The great theme of discussion in Ireland at that day was whether, and how far, the Ar- ticles of Limerick ought to be considered binding; and the parliament, in 1692, had addressed the king, complaining of the res- toration of certain confiscated estates to Catholics in the five counties specified in the articles ; which restoration was expressly stipulated for in the treaty ;* and fur- ther requesting his majesty "to have the ar- ticles of the Treaty of Limerick laid before us [the parliament], in order that we may learu by what means, and tinder what pre- text they have been granted," etc. Consid- erably over a million of acres had been ad- judged confiscated in consequence of the last "rebellion," and of this land, about one quarter had been restored to its right owners in pursuance of the treaty. In short, the " Irish nation," as the handful of colonists called themselves, was suffering under griev- ons distress and oppression ; and a Mr. Stone, member of the Irish House of Com- mons, being examined at the bar of the Eng- lish House, gave in his evidence so sad an account of the sufferings of the Protestants, as produced a serious effect upon public opinion in England. " There never was," he declared, "a Hotse of Commons of that kingdom of greater property or better prin- ciples than those which met under Lord Sydney's administration." He boasted of their loyalty and zeal for his majesty's ser- vice, and alleged that their opposition to the money bills had been occasioned by Lord Sydney's arrogance in insisting upon the supreme sovereignly of the English crown and Parliament; and last, and worst of all, he complained "that the Papists were in actual possession of that liberty which, if ex- tended to Protestants, would have prevented the necessity of rendering the Irish Com- mons obnoxious by the rejection of so many bills." In short, the pathetic narration of these pretended grievances and oppressions * Sec the Address in full, Sadlier's Edition. in MaeGeoghotran: J~L I :\| 5 % m MS .COU/NBIIS.t, ;», Mi) had brought about, first, the recall of Lord Sydney, ;int entered an English port, and been unloaded there. The object of these laws, of course, was to secure to English merchants and shipowners a monopoly of all such trade, aud they had the desired effect, so that a few years afterwards, the Dean of St. Patrick's could truly write : " The conveniency of ports and harbors, which nature had bestowed so liberally upon this kingdom, is of no more use to us than a beautiful prospect to a man shut up in a dungeon." It is noticeable that these navigation acts were not new ; they had existed before the last Revolution, and had been repealed by the excellent parliament of 1689, under King James, consisting indifferently of Catholics and Protestants, and really representing an Irish nation — that same parliament which had also enacted perfect liberty fur all re- ligions, and had swept away a most foul mass of penal laws from the statute-book ; but on the failure of the cause of the Stuarts, all the enactments of that parliament were ig nored, and the penal laws and restrictions on trade reappeared in full force. With such a deliberate system in full operation, not ouly to put down the political ^3 CtJ> • ' . . £?£*i_«rffi^ in ! pretensions, but to destroy the trade of Ire- land, and all enforced directly by English statutes, it will bo seen that the country party, which so proudly claimed national in- dependence, had but very slender chances at that time. Another event still further illus- trated this fact. The English Parliament, which was continually importuned by the king for grants of money to carry on his darling war against Louis XIV., found that the immense amount of confiscated lands, forfeited by the "rebellion" (as the national war was called), had been squandered upon King William's favorites, or leased at insuf- ficient rents, also a small portion of it re- stored to its owners who had satisfied the government that they were innocent. That parliament therefore resolved, before making any more grants of money, to inquire how the forfeitures had been made available for the public service. A commission was ap- pointed by a vote of parliament for this pur- pose, and at the same time to provide for a grant of a million and a half sterling, for military and naval expenses. The form of this commission was itself an intimation that nothing less was contemplated than resump- tion of all the lands granted by special favor of the king. This was very hard upon his majesty, aud he regarded the proceeding with sour and silent displeasure; for, iu fact, he had granted out of these forfeitures im- mense estates to William Bentinck, whom he created Lord Woodstock, to Giukell, Lord Athlone, and others of his Dutch friends ; — especially, he had bestowed over 95,000 acres on Mrs. Elizabeth Villiers, Countess of Orkney, a lady, who in the words of Lord Macaulay, " had inspired William with a pas- sion which had caused much scandal aud unhappiness in the little court of the Hague" — where, in fact, his lawful wife resided. If the consideration of the grant was of the kind here intimated, it must be allowed that William paid the lady royally, out of others' estates. The commissioners further report gieat corruption and bribery in the matter of procuring pardons, and astonishing waste and destruction, especially of tlie fine woods, which had covered wide regions of the island. The drift of their report is, that the whole of the dealings with those confiscated lands were one foul and monstrous job. HISTORY OF IRELAND Here, it is to be remarked that this in- quiry and report were by no means in the interest of the plundered Catholics, the right owners of all those estates; on the contrary, one of the points dwelt on most bitterly by the commissioners was the resin. ration of a small portion of them to Catho- lic proprietors, under what the commission- ers considered delusive pretences; and the resumption which they contemplated was to have the effect of again taking away those wrecks and remnants of the property of Catholics which had been redeemed cmt of the general ruin. The English House ot Commons, in a violent ferment, immediat lv resolved "that a bill be brought in to apply all the forfeited estates and interests in Ire- land, and all grants thereof, and of the rents and revenues belonging to the crown within that kingdom, since the 13th February, 1689, to the use of the public." Then a "Court of Delegates" was appointed to de- termine claims ; and it was resolved by the House "that they would not receive any petitions whatever against the provisions of this bill." The report of the commission had been signed only by four commissioners out of seven, namely, by Annesley, Trench- ard, Hamilton and Langford, the other three having dissented. The House, therefore, came to the resolution, " that Francis An- nesley, John Trenchard, James Hamilton, and Henry Langford, Esqs., had acquitted themselves with understanding, courage, and integrity; which was an implied cen- sure on the Earl of Droghcda, Sir Francis Brewster, and Sir Richard Levinge, the three dissentient commissioners; and the Bouse went so far as to vote Sir Richard Levincre to be the author of certain , ■Ji'J.X ■^•'■t... t^ws&m &M i ft w , ; ^> \\ : V f<$ Ilouse resolved, in reply, " lliat whoever ad- vised his majesty's answer to the Address of the Ilouse has used his utmost endeavor lo create a misunderstanding and jealousy between the king and his people." The "Bill of Resumption" of the forfeited estates finally passed, after vehement opposition, and re- ceived the reluctant royal assent, on the 11th of April, 1100, on which day his majesly prorogued the houses, without any speech, thinking there was no room for the usual expressions of satisfaction and gratitude ; and not choosing to give any public proof of discontent or resentment. In all these par- liamentary disputes, there was not the least question of the rights or claims of any Irish Catholic ; nor does it appear that there would have been the slightest opposition to any scheme which concerned merely the resumption of lands restored to them. The biographer of William remarks, " that no transaction during the reign of this mon- arch so pressed upon his spirits, or so hum- bled his pride, as the resumption of the grants of the forfeited estates in Ireland by the English Parliament." This may be easily believed; but it is to be remarked, that we find no such opinion from King William's enthusiastic biographer when he was called on to set his seal to the legislative violations of the Treaty of Limerick. He could ill bear to deprive his Dutch courtiers of their Irish estates ; but it was of small moment to him to beggar and oppress millions of Irish- men in violation of his own plighted faith. In his private despatches to Lord Galway, shortly after the rising of parliament, the king says: "You may judge what vexation all their extraordinary proceedings gave me; and I assure you, your being deprived of what I gave you with so much pleasure is not the least of my griefs. I never had more occasion than at present for persons of your capacity and fidelity. I hope I shall rind opportunities to give you marks of my esteem and friendship." The short remainder of William's reign was occupied chiefly with negotiations on the continent; and with oscillations of his policy between the Whig and Tory parties; according to the use which lie thought be could make of those parties respectively in promoting his views against France — the only use which he could ever see in English parties, to say nothing of Irish ones. The peace of Ryswick was signed in 1G97; but in 1 701, King James died at St. Germains; and his son (afterwards called the Pretender) was recognized as King James III. of Eng- land by the king and court of France, who paid their visits of condolence and congratu- lation at the Court of St. Germains. King William immediately recalled his ambas- sador from Paris ; and again there was the evident and imminent necessity of a new war with France; which was all that King William lived for. He was not, however, to live much longer. The death of the young Duke of Glou- cester, son of the Princess Anne, about the same time with that of King James II., gave occasion to the Act of Parliament — ■ the last act of this reign — by which the crown of England was settled on the House of Hanover, after the demise of Anne. This act was repeated, as it were, mechanically, by the servile parliament of the Irish colony. Cut though a highly important settlement of the sovereign authority, it does not seem to have aroused the smallest interest in the mass of the Irish people. It seemed now to be their opinion, and indeed the opinion was just, that it mattered nothing to them for the future whether Stuarts or Hano- verians should rule in England. They had had bitter experience of the one dynasty ; and did not know that they were yet to have a more terrible experience of the other. King William had fallen into very bad health ; but still occupied himself in vast projects concerning his great concern, " the destinies of Europe." His speech, on the assembling of his last parliament, the last day of the vcar 1701, will show how his active mind was occupied to the last. " I persuade myself," said the king, " that you are met together, full of that just sense of the com- mon danger of Europe, and that resent- ment of the late proceedings of the French kins;, which has been so fully and univer- sally expressed in the loyal and seasonable addresses of my people. The eyes of all Europe are upon this parliament; all mat- ters are rit a stand till your resolutions are known. Let me conjure you to disappoint ft ''&**] Wi &\ f\ f JM.tU-$,^ wm \ A ■m S\ I JV^' r-9 to prevent the further growth of Popery, then before the House, into a law, without infring- ing those articles, and a manifest breach of the public faith ; of which he hoped that House would be no less regardful and ten- der than their predecessors who made the act for confirming those articles had been. "That if he proved that the passing that act was such a manifest breach of those ar- ticles, and consequently of the public faith, he hoped that honorable House would be very tender how they passed the said bill before them into a law ; to the apparent pre- judice of the petitioners, and the hazard of bringing upon themselves and posterity such evils, reproach, and infamy as the doing the like had brought upon other nations and people. " Now, that the passing such a bill as that then before the House to prevent the further growth of Popery will be a breach of those articles, and consequently of the public faith, I prove (said he) by the following argument : "The argument theu is (said he) whatever shall be enacted to the prejudice or destroy- ing of any obligation, covenant, or contract, in the most solemn manner, and for the most valuable consideration entered into, is a *nanifest violation and destruction of every such obligation, covenant, and contract : but the passing that bill into a law will evidently and absolutely destroy the Articles of Lim- erick and Gal way, to all intents and pur- poses, and therefore the passing that bill into a law will be such a breach of those articles, and consequently of the public faith, plighted for performing those articles; which re- mained to be proved. "The major is proved (said he), for that whatever destroys or violates any contract, or obligation, upon the most valuable con- siderations, most solemuly made and entered into, destroys and violates the end of every such contract or obligation : but the end and design of those articles was, that all those therein comprised, and every of their heirs, should hold, possess, and enjoy all and every of their estates of freehold and inheritance, and all the rights, titles, and interests, privi- leges, and immunities, which they and every of them held, enjoyed, or were rightfully in- tituled to, in the reign of Kiug Charles the Second ; or at any time mucc, by the laws and statutes that were in force in the said reign in this realm : but that the design of this bill was to take away every such right, title, interest, <&c, from every father being a Papist, and to make the Popish father, who, by the articles and laws aforesaid, had an undoubted right either to sell or otherwise at pleasure to dispos6 of his estate, at any time of his life, as he thought fit, only ten- ant for life: and consequently disabled from selling, or otherwise disposing thereof, after his son or other heir should become Protes- tant, though otherwise never so disobedient, profligate, or extravagant : ergo, this act tends to the destroying the end for which those articles were made, and consequently the breaking of the public faith, plighted for their performance. "The minor is proved by the 3d, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th, loth, 16th, and 17th clauses of the, said bill, all which (said he) I shall consider and speak to, in the order as they are placed in the bill. "By the first of these clauses (which is the third of the bill), I that am the Popish father, without committing any crime against the state, or the laws of the land (by which only I ought to be governed), or any other fault ; but merely for being of the religion of my forefathers, and that which, till of late years, was the ancient religion of these kingdoms, contrary to the express words of the second Article of Limerick, and the public faith, plighted as aforesaid for their performance, am deprived of my inheritance, freehold, &c, and of all other advantages which by those articles and the laws of the land I am entitled to enjoy, equally with every other of my fellow-subjects, whether Protestant or Popish. And though such my estate be even the purchase of my own hard labor and industry, yet I shall not (though my occasions be never so pressing) have liberty (after my eldest son or other heir becomes a Protestant) to sell, mortgage, or otherwise dispose of, or charge it for pay- ment of my debts, or have leave out of my own estate to order portions for my other children ; or leave a legacy, though never so small, to my poor father or mother, or other poor relations; but during my own life my estate shall be given to my son or other heir being a Protestant, though uevt h '5? »f«Ct.^-"£*n cni,«Ul;S.H, ~*=^— • ihM \i undutiful, proHigatc, extravagant, or other- wise undeserving ; and I that am the pur- c.hasing father, shall become tenant for life only to my own purchase, inheritance and freehold, which I purchased with my own money ; and such my son or other heir, by this act, shall be at liberty to sell or other- wise at pleasure to dispose of my estate, the sweat of my brows, before my face; and I that am the purchaser, shall not have liberty to raise one farthing upon the estate of my own purchase, either to pay my debts, or portion my daughters (if any I have), or make provisions for my other male children, though uever so deserving and dutiful : but my estate, and the issues and profits of it, shall, before my face, be at the disposal of another, who cannot possibly know how to distinguish between the dutiful and undutiful, deserving and undeserving. Is not this, gentlemen (said he), a hard case ? I beseech you, gentlemen, to consider, whether you would not think it so, if the scale was changed, and the case your own, as it is like to be ours, if this bill pass into a law. " It is natural for the father to love the child ; but we all know (says he) that children are but too apt and subject, with- out any such liberty as that bill gives, to slight and neglect their duty to their parents; and surely such an act as this will not be an instrument of restraint, but rather encourage them more to it. " It is but too common with the son who has a prospect of an estate, when once he arrives at the age of one-and-tweirty, to think the old father too long in the way between him and it; and how much more will he be subject to it, when by this act he shall have liberty, before he comes to that age, to compel and force my estate from me, without asking my leave, or being liable l" account with me for it, or out of his share thereof, to a moiety of the debts, portions, or other incumbrances, with which the estate might have been charged, before the passing this act. '■ Is not this against the laws of God and man ; against the rules of reason and justice, by which all men ought to be governed ? Is not this the only way in the world to make children become undutiful, and to bring the gray head of the parent to the grave with grief and tears? " It would be hard from any mau ; but from a son, a child, the fruit of my body. IV SJ[ r whom I have nursed in my bosom and | <$ tendered more dearly than my own life, to become my plunderer, to rob me of my estate, to cut my throat, and to take away my bread, is much more grievous than from any other ; and enough to make the most flinty of hearts to bleed to think on't. And yet this will be the case if this bill pass into a law ; which I hope this honorable assembly will not think of when they shall more seriously consider, and have weighed these matters. "For God's sake, gentlemen, will you consider whether this is according to the golden rule, to do as you would be done unto? And if not, surely you will not, nay you cannot, without being liable to be charged with the most manifest injustice imaginable, take from us our birthrights, and invest them in others before our faces. " By the 4th clause of the bill, the popish father is under the penalty of 500/. debarred from being guardian to, or having the tuition or custody of his own child or children : but if the child pretends to be a Protestant, though never so young or incapable of judging of the principles of religion, it shall be taken from its own father, and put into the hands or care of a Protestant relation, if any there be qualified as this act directs, for tuition, though never so great an enemy to the popish parent; and for want of relations so qualified, into the hands and tuition of such Protestant stranger as the couit of chancery shall think fit to appoint; who perhaps may likewise be my enemy, and out of prejudice to me who am the popish fathel, shall infuse into my child not only such ' . .^ principles of religion as are wholly incon- sistent with my liking, but also against the dutv which, by the laws of God and nature, is due from eveiy child to its parents: and it shall not be in my power to remedy, or question him for it; and yet I shall be obliged to pay for such education, how perni- cious soever. .Nnv, if a legacy or estate fad to any of my children, being minors, I that am the popish father shall not have the liberty to take care of it, but it shall be put into the hands X ^ X m *$?& '■?\J8 ,.>- rS^N ACT TO rREVENT THE GROWTH OF TOPERY Rce it confounded before my face, it shall not be in my power to help it. Is not this a hard case, gentlemen? I am sure you cannot but allow it to be a very hard case. " The 5th clause provides that no Protes- tant or Protestants, having any estate, real or personal, within this kingdom, shall at any time after the 24th of March, 1703, intermarry with any Papist, either in or out of this kingdom, under the penalties in an act made in the 9th of King William, inti- tuled, An Act to prevent Protestants inter- marrying with rapists; which penalties, see in the 5th clause of the act itself. •'Surely, gentlemen, this is such a law as was never heard of before, and against the law of right and the law of nations ; and therefore a law which is not in the power of mankind to make without breaking through the laws which our wise ancestors prudently provided for the security of posterity, and which you cannot infringe without hazard- ing the undermining the whole legislature, and encroaching upon the privileges of your neighboring nations, which it is not reason- able to believe they will allow. "It has indeed been known, that there hath been laws made in England that have l^ecn binding in Ireland : but surely it never was kuown that any law made in Ireland could affect England or any other country. But by this act, a person committing matri- mony (an ordinance of the Almighty) in England or any other part beyond the seas (where it is lawful both by the laws of God and man so to do), if ever they come to live in Ireland, and have an inheritance or title to any interest to the value of 500/., they shall be punished for a fact consonant with the laws of the land where it was com- mitted. But, gentlemen, by your favor, this is what, with submission, is not in your power to do : for no law that either now is, or that hereafter shall be in force in this kingdom, shall be able to take cognizance of any fact committed in another nation; nor can anyone nation make laws for any other nation, but what is subordinate to it, as Ireland is to England ; but no other nation is subordinate to Ireland; and therefore any laws made in Ireland, cannot, punish me for ,uiv fact committed in any other nation, but more especially England, to whom Irelain is subordinate: and the reason is, every free nation, such as all our neighboring nations are, by the great law of nature, and th ■ universal privileges of all nations, have a't undoubted right to make, and be ruled and governed by the laws of their own making : for that to submit to any other, would be to give away their own birthright and native freedom, and become subordinate to their neighbors, as we of this kingdom, since the making of Poyning's Act, have been and are to England. A right which England would never so much as endure to hear of, much less submit to. "We see how careful our forefathers have been to provide that no man should be pun- ished in one country (even of the same nation) for crimes committed in another country; and surely it would be highly unreasonable, and contrary to the laws of all nations in the whole world, to punish me in this kingdom for a fact committed in England, or any other nation, which was not against, but consistent with the laws of the nation where it was committed. I am sure there is not any law in any other na- tion of the world that would do it. •' The 6th clause of this bill is likewise a manifest breach of the second of Limerick Articles, for by that article all persons com- prised under those articles, were to enjov and have the full benefit of all the rights, titles, privileges, and immunities whatsoever, which they enjoyed, or by the laws of the land then in force, were entitled to enjoy, in the reign of King Charles II. And by the laws then in force, all the Papists of Ireland had the same liberty that any of their fellow-subjects had to purchase any manors, lands, tenements, hereditaments, leases of lives, or for years, rents, or any other thing of profit whatsoever : but by this clause of this bill, every Papist or person pro- fessing the popish religion, after the 24th of March, 1703, is made incapable of purchasing any manors, lands, tenements, hereditaments, or any rents, or profits out of the same ; or holding any lease of lives, or any other lease whatsoever, for any term exceeding thirty- one years; wherein a rent, not less than two-thirds of the improved yearly value, shall be reserved, and made payable, during the whole term : and therefore this clause ol ^ . -^ ii HISTORY OF IRELAND. d' ;.<■•> w this bill, if made into a law, \vi it'est breach of those articles. " The 7th clause is yet of much more general consequence, and not only a like breach of those articles, but also a manifest robbing of all the Roman Catholics of the kingdom of their birthright : for by those articles all those therein comprised were (said he) pardoned all misdemeanors what- soever, of which they had in any manner of way been guilty ; and restored to all the rights, liberties, privileges, and immunities whatever, which, by the laws of the land, and customs, constitutions and native birth- right, they, any, and every of them, were, equally with every other of their fellow- subjeets intituled unto. And by the laws of nature and nations, as well as by the laws of the land, every native of any country has an undoubted right and just title to all the privileges and advantages which such their native country affords : and surely no man but will allow, that by such a native right every one born in any country hath an undoubted right to the inheritance of his father, or any other to whom he or they may be heir at law ; but if this bill pass into a law, every native of this kingdom that is and shall remain a Papist is, ipso facto, dur- ing life, or his or their continuing a Papist, deprived of such inheritance, devise, gift, remainder, or trust of any lands, teuements, or hereditaments, of which any Protestant now is, or hereafter shall be seized in fee- simple-absolute, or fee-tail, which by the death of such Protestant, or his wife, ought to descend immediately to his son or sons, or other issue in tail, being such Papists, and eighteen years of age ; or, if under that age, within six months after coming to that age, shall not conform to the Church of Ireland, as by law established ; and every such de- vise, gift, remainder, or trust which, accord- ing to the laws of the land, and such native right, ought to descend to such Papist, shall, during the life of such Papist (unless he for- sake his religion), descend to the nearest l elation that is a Protestant, and his heirs being and continuing Protestants, as though the said popish heir and all other popisl relations were dead ; without being aeeount- able for the same : w bicb is nothing less than robbing such popish heif of such his birth- ight ; for no other reason, but his being and continuing of that religion, which by the first of Limerick Articles, the Roman Catholics of this kingdom were to enjoy, as they did in the reign of King Charles II., and then there was no law in force that deprived any Roman Catholic of this kingdom of any such their native birthright, or any other thing which, by the laws of the land then in force, any other fellow-subjects were intituled unto. "The 8th clause of this bill is to erect in this kingdom a law of ffav, l-kind, a law in itself so monstrous and strange, that I dare say this is the first time it was ever heard of in the world ; a law so pernicious and destructive to the well-being of families and societies, that in an ago or two there will hardly be any remembrance of any of the ancient Roman Catholic families known in the kingdom ; a law which, therefore, I may again venture to say, was never before known or heard of in the universe. "There is, indeed, in Kent, * custom call- ed the custom of gavel-kind ; but I never heard of any law for it till now ; and Unit custom is far different from what by this bill is intended to be made a law ; for there, and by that custom, the father or other per- son, dying possessed of any estate of his own acquisition, or not entailed (let him be of what persuasion he will), may by will be- queath it at pleasure : or if he dies without will, the estate shall not be divided, if there be any male heir to inherit it ; but for want of male heir, then it shall descend in gavel- kind among the daughters and not otherwise. But by this act, for want of a Protestant heir, enrolled as such within three months after the death of such l'apist, to be divided, share and share alike, among all his sons; for want of sons, among his daughters ; for want of such, among the collateral kindred of his father ; and for want of such, among those of his mother ; and this is to take place of any grant, settlement, itc, other than sale, for valuable consideration of money, really, bona fide, paid. And shall I not call this a strange law* Surely it is a strange law, which, contrary to the laws of all nations, thus confounds all settlements, how ancient soever, or otherwise warrantable by all the laws heretofore in force in this or any other kingdom. I v w Ml '& I *Q> ACT TO PREVENT THE GROWTH OF POPERY. " The 9th clause of this act is another manifest breach of the Articles of Limerick ; for by the 9th of those articles, no oath is to be administered to, nor imposed upon such Roman Catholics as should submit to the Government, but the oath of allegiance appointed by an act of parliament made in England in the first year of the reign of their late majesties King William and Queen Mary (which is the same with the first of those appoiuted by the 10th clause of this act) : but by this clause, none shall have the benefit of this act, that shall not con- form to the Church of Ireland, subscribe the declaration, and take and subscribe the oath of abjuration, appointed by the 9th clause of this act ; and therefore this act is a manifest breach of those articles, p to the career of the Irish army at Enniskillen and Londonderry, the settle- ment of [he Government, both in England and Sen! land, might not have proved so easy as it thereby did ; for if that army had got to Scotland (as there was nothing at th ii time to have hindered them, but the brave i y of those people, who were mostly Dissenters, and chargeable with no other crimes since; unless their close adhering to, and early appearing for the then Government, and the many faithful services they did their country, were crimes), I say (said he) if they had got to Scotland, when they had boats, barks, and all things else ready for their transportation, aud a great many friends there in arms wait- ing only their coming to join them, it is easy to think what the consequence would have been to both these kingdoms : and these Dissenters then were thought fit for com- mand, both civil and military, and were no less instrumental in contributing to the re- ducing the kingdom than any other Protes- tants : and to pass a bill now to deprive them of their birthrights (for those their good services), would surely be a most un- kind return,' and the worst reward ever granted to a people so deserving. What- ever the Papists may be supposed to have deserved, the Dissenters certainly stand as clean in the face of the present Government as any other people whatsoever : and if this is all the return they are like to get, it will be but a slender encouragement, if ever oc- casion should require, for others to pursue their example. "By the 15th, 16th, and 17th clauses ot this bill, all Papists, after the 24th of March, 1703, are prohibited from purchasing any houses or tenements, or coming to dwell in Limerick or Gahvay, or the suburbs of either, and even such as were under the articles, and by virtue thereof have ever since lived there, from staying there; without giving such security as neither those articles, nor any law heretofore in force, do require; ex- cept seamen, fishermen, and day-laborers, who pay not above forty shillings a year rent; and from voting for the election of members of Parliament, unless they take the oath of abjuration ; which, to oblige them to, is contrary to the 9th of Limerick Arti- cles ; which, as aforesaid, says the oath of allegiance, and no other, shall be imposed upon them ; and, unless they abjure their religion, takes away their advowsons and right of presentation, cortrary to the privi- ege of right, the laws of nations, and the K Rj -&$>] " % great charter of Magna Charta which pro- vides that no 111:111 shall In' disseized of his birthright, without committing some crime against the known laws of the land in which lie is born or inhabits. And if there was no law in force, in the reign of King Charles the Second, against these things (as there certainly was not), and if the Roman Cath olicsof this kingdom have not since forfeited their right to the laws that then were in force (as for certain they have not) ; then with humble aubmiBsion, all the aforesaid clauses and matters contained in this bill, intituled, An Art to prevent the further growth of Popery, are directly against the plain words and true intent and meaning of the said articles, and a violation of the public faith and the laws made for their perform- ance ; and what I therefore hope (said he) this honorable house will consider accord- ingly." It is but just to mention the arguments by which this earnest reasoning was met. in the Irish Souse of Commons. It was objected, then, that the counsel for the Catholics had not demonstrated bow and when (since the making of the Articles of Limerick) the Pa- pists of Ireland had addressed the queen or Government, when all other subjects wen- so doing; or had otherwise declared their fidelity and obedience to the queen. Fur- ther it was urged, by way of reply, "That. any right which the l'apists pretended to be taken from them by the bill was in their own power to remedy, by conforming, as in pru- dence they ought to do; mid that they ought not to blame any but themselves." It was still further argued that the passing of this bill would not be a breach of the Treaty of Limerick, because the persons therein comprised were only to be put into the same state they were in the reign of Charles the Second; and because in that reign there was no law in force which hin- dered the passing of any other law thought needful for the future safely of the Govern- ment : lastly, that the House was of opinion that the passing of this bill was needful at present for the security of the kingdom; and that there was not. anv thing in the Ar tides of Limerick to prohibit them from so doing. It is not needful to comment on the excessive insolence of the subterfuge. The same counsel were heard before the Lords: and here it was admitted, on the part of the petitioners, that the legislative power cannot be Confined from altering and making such laws as shall be thought ne- cessary, for securing the quiet and safety of the ( io\ eminent ; that in time of war or dan- ger, or when there shall bo just reason to sus- pect anv ill designs to disturb thepublic peace, no articles or previous obligations shall tie up the hands of the legislators from provid- ing for its safety, or bind the Government from disarming and securing any who may be reasonably suspected of favoring or cor- respondiiig with its enemies, or to be other- wise guilty of ill practices: "Or indeed to enact, any other law," said Sir Stephen Rice, " thai may be absolutely needful for the safety and advantage of the public; such a law cannot be a breach cither of these, or any other like articles. But then such laws ought to be in general, and should not single out, or affect, any one particular partjsr party of the people, who gave no provocation to anv such law, and whose conduct stood hitherto unimpeached, ever since the ratification of the aforesaid Articles of Limerick. To make any law that, shall single any particu- lar pari 1 f the people out from the rest, and lake from them wdiat by right of birth, and all the preceding laws of the land, had been con- firmed to and entailed upon them, will be tin apparent violation of the original institution of all light, and an ill precedent to any that hereafter might dislike either the present or anv othi-r settlement, which should be in their power to alter ; the. consequence of which is hard to imagine." The Lord Chancellor having then sum- med up all that was offered at the bar, the House of Lords proceeded to pass the bill without delay. And it is really remarka- ble that in neither House did one single peer or commoner offer a word of remonstrance against ils passage, A few days after, on the tth "i March, it. received the royal assent. The penal Code mighl now be considered tolerably complete; and the nine-tenths of the population of Ireland was thus effectually brought down under the feet of the othet one tenth; so absolutely subjugated, indeed, t they coul. 1 not possibly be depressed m % A (6"\ 'I been actually bought and sold as slaves. Forbidden, to teach or IaM: to be taught, whether at homo or abroad, deprived of necessary anus for self-defence, \i 1 ^- or even for the chase; disabled from being Yy \ so much as game-keepers, lest any of them should learn the use of firearms; and pro- vision being mad.' for gradually impoverish- ing the Catholic families who still owned any thing, and preventing the industrious from making themselves independent by their labor — it would be hard to point out anv people of ancient or modern times \\h<> groaned under a more ingenious, torturing, and humiliating oppression. Yet one pecu- liarity is to be remarked in the administration of these laws : — they were so applied, for gen- erations, as to allow a bare toleration to Cath- olic worship, provided that worship were prac- tised in mean and obscure places, provided there were no clergy in the kingdom but simple secular priests ; who were also com- pelled to register their names ami the parishes " of which they pretended to be popish priests" — the penalty for saying mass out of those registered parishes being transportation, ami in case of return, death. On these terms, then, it was practically permitted to Catholics to attend at the service of their religion, al- though this was contrary to an express law, namely, to the " Act of Uniformity," which required all persons not having lawful excuse to attend on the services of the Established Church. But throughout all this reign of Anne, and the two succeeding reigns, there was no such relaxation as this allowed in any matter relating to property, privilege, or trade : in all these matters the code was exe- cuted with the most rigorous severity. So that it is plain the object of tin' Ascen- '£ ' dency was nut so mil. h to convert Catholics to Protestantism, as to convert the goods of Catholics to Protestant use. This is the ■nain difference between the Catholic pei e ;utions on the continent at that period and the Protestant persecutions in Ireland : anil it fully justifies the reflection of a late writer — "It maybe a circumstance in favor of lie- Protestant code (or it may not), that whereas Catholics have really persecuted for religion, ■enlightened' I'rotestaiits only made a pretext of religion ; taking no thought, what became of Catholic souls, it' only thev could get pos- session of Catholic lands and goods. Also we may remark, that Catholic governments in their persecutions always really desired the conversion of misbelievers (albeit their methods were rough); but. in Ireland, if the people had universally turned Catholic, it would have defeated the whole scheme." The recall of the Edict of Nantes, which ediet had secured toleration for Protestant- ism in Frame, is bitterly dwelt, upon by English writers as the heaviest reproach which weighs on the memory of Kiug Louis the Fourteenth. The recall of the edict had taken place in 1085, only a few years before the: passage of this Irish " Act to prevent the further growth of Popery." The differences between the two transactions are mainly these two : first, that the French Protestants had not been guaranteed their civil and religious rights by any treaty, as the Irish Catholics, thoughtthcyheld theirs by the Treaty of Lim- erick ; second, that the penalties denounced against French Protestants by the recalling edict bore entirely upon their religious service itself, and were truly intended to induce and force the Iluguenots to become Catholics ; there being no confiscations except in cases of relapse, and in eases of quitting the king- dom ; but there was nothing of all the com- plicated machinery above described, for beg- garing one portion of the population, and giv- ing it^ spoils to the other part. We may add, that the penalties and disabilities in France lasted a miieh shorter time than in Ireland ; and that French Protestants were restored to perfect civil and religious equality with their countrymen in every respect forty years before the "Catholic Relief Act" pur- ported to emancipate the Irish Catholics, who are not, indeed, emancipated yet. Mr.Burke, in his excellent tract on the penal laws, com- paring the recall of the Nantes Edict with our Irish system, says with great force — ''This act of injustice, which let loose on that monarch such a torrent of invective and reproach, and which threw so dark a cloud over all the splendor of a most illustrious reign, falls far short of the case in Ire! an The privileges which the Protestants of that kingdom enjoyed antecedent to this revoca- tion, were far greater than tin- Roman Catho- ics of Ireland ever aspired to under a con- trary establishment. The number of their ufferers, if considered absolutely, is not the VO M, m* r :ja w ?m ''%< hall' of ours ; if considered relatively to the body of each community, it is not perhaps a tweutieth part ; aud then the penalties and incapacities which grew from that rev- ocation are not so grievous in their nature, uor so certain in their execution, nor so ruin- ous by a great deal to the civil prosperity of the state, as those which were established for a perpetual law in our unhappy country." Readers will turn with pleasure from the gloomy and painful scene presented by Ire- land in that dismal time, to the other half of Ireland, the choicest of the whole nation ; which was to be found in all the camps and fields of Europe, wherever gallant feats of arms were to be done. The gallaut Justin MacCarihy, Lord Mountcashel, had long been dead, haviug falleu on the field of Staffardo under Marshal Catinat, in 1790; where a brigade of Irish troops had been serving in the French army before the surrender of Limerick. The arrival of Sarsfield, with so many distinguished officers and veteran troops, gave occasion to the formation of the, " New Irish Brigade ;" and we have seeu with how much distinction that corps had fought against England on so many fields of the Netherlands. In the new war which followed the accession of Queen Anne, bodies of the Irish forces served in each of the great French armies. There were four regi- ments of cavalry, Galway's, Kilraallock's, Sheldon's, and Clare's — the last commanded by O'Brien, Lord Clare, constantly employed in these wars — and at least seven regiments of infantry. All these corps were kept more than full by new arrivals of exiles and emi- grants. It will afford a relief from the irksome tale of oppression at home, to tell how some of these exiles acquitted themselves when they had the good luck to meet on some foreign field either Englishmen or the allies of England. About the time when the law- yers of the " Ascendeucy" were elaborating in Dublin their bill for the plunder of Catho- lic widows and orphans, it happened that there were two regiments, Dillon's (one of Mountcashel's old brigade) and Burke's, called the Athlone regiment, which formed part of the garrison of Cremona on the bank of the l'o. The Freuoh commander was the whole army into Cremona, after an unsuc- cessful affair with Prince Eugene at Chiari. Cremona was then, as it is now, a very strong fortified town ; and the duke intended to rest his forces there for a time, as it was the depth of winter. The enterprising Prince Eugene planned a surprise : he had procured for himself some traitorous intelligence in the town, and some of his grenadiers had already been introduced by a clever strata- gem. Large bodies of troops had approached close to the town by various routes ; aud all was ready for the grand operation on the night of the 2d of February, 1702. Villeroy and his subordinates were of course much to blame for having suffered all the prepara- tions for so grand a military operation to be brought to perfection up to the very moment of execution. The marshal was peacefully sleeping : he was awaked by volleys of musketry. lie dressed and mounted in great haste; and the first thing he met in the streets was a squadron of kriperial cav- alry, who made him prisoner, his captor being an Austrian officer named MacDonnell. Prince Eugene, with Count Stahremberg, Commerci, and seven thousand men, were already in the heart of the town, and occu- pying the great square. It was four o'clock on a February morning, when all this had been accomplished ; and Prince Eugene thought the place already won, when the French troops only began to turn out of their beds, and dress. Alarm was soon given. The regiment des Vaisseaux and the two Irish regiments are the only corps mentioned by M. de Voltaire as having distinguished themselves in turning the fortune of that terrible morning ; and as Voltaire is not usually favorable, nor even just to the Irish, it is well to transcribe first his narrative of the affair. "The Chevalier d'Entragues was to hold a review that day in the town of the regimeut des Vaisseaux, of which he was colonel ; and already the soldiers were assembling at four o'clock at one extremity of the town just as Prince Eugene was en- tering by the other. D'Entragues begins to run through the streets with the soldiers; resists such Germans as he encounters, and gives time to the rest of the garrison to ' urry up. Officers and soldiers, pell-mell, is m Wi Duke de Villeroy, who had just brought his I some half-armed, others almost naked, witl /J l\ M »WJ -' ^"tfrG .^.'ymigis,^ r :. m out direction, without order, fill the streets and public places. They fight in confusion, intrench themselves from street to street, from place to place. Two Irish regiments, who made part of the garrison, arrest the advance of the Imperialists. Never town wassurprised with more skill, nor defended with so much valor. The- garrison consisted of about five thousand men : Prince Eugene had not yet brought in more than four thousand. A large detachment of his army was to arrive by the Po bridge : the measures were well taken ; but another chance deranged all. This bridge over thel'o, insufficiently guarded by about a hundred French soldiers, was to have been seized by a body of German cui- rassiers, who, at the moment Prince Eugene was entering the town, were commanded to go and take possession of it. For this pur- pose it was necessary that having first en- tered by the southern gate, they should in- Btantly go outside of the city in a northern direction by the Po gate, and then hasten to the bridge. But in going thither the guide who I'd them was killed by a musket-ball fired from a window. The cuirassiers take one street for another. In this short inter- val, the Irish spring forward to the gate of the Po : they fight and repulse the cuirassiers. The Marquis de Praslin profits by the mo- ment to cut down the bridge. The succor which the enemy counted on did not arrive, and the town was saved."* But the fighting was by no means over with the repulse of Count Merci's reinforcements : a furious com- bat raged all the morning in the streets ; and Mahony and Burke had still much to do. At last the whole Imperialist force was finally repulsed ; and the soldiers then got time to put on their jackets. Colonel Burke lost of his regiment seven officers and fortv-two soldiers killed, and nine offi- cers and fifty soldiers wounded. Dillon's regiment, commanded that day by Major Mahony, lost one officer and forty-nine soldiers killed, and twelve officers and sev- enty-nine soldiers wounded. * Some of the Irish accounts of this achievement arc too plowing, perhaps, ns is natural. Even ac- cording t<> Voltaire's narration, the Irish soldiers really did every thing which he says was done at all; beat ppinoe Eugene's troops in the city itself, and saved tin; 1'" Gate from the other detuoument under the Count Meroi. King Louis sent formal thanks to the two Irish regimeuts, and raised their pay from that day. In the campaigns of 1703 the Irish had at least their full share of employment and of honor. Under Vendome, they made their mark in Italy, on the fields of Vittoria, Luz- zara, Cassano, and Calcinato. On the Rhine, they were still more distinguished ; especially at Freidlingen and Spires, in which latter battle a splendid charge of Nugent's horse saved the fortune of the day. After this year the military fortune of France declined ; . but, whether in victory or defeat, the Brigade was still fighting by their side ; nor is there any record of an Irish regiment having be- haved badly on any field. At the battle of Hochstct or Blenheim, in 1704, Marshal Tallard was defeated and taken prisoner by Marlborough and Eugene. The French and Bavarians lost 10,000 killed, 13,000 prisoners, and 90 pieces of cannon. Yet amid this mon- strous disaster, Clare's dragoons were vie-, torious over a portion of Eugene's famous cavalry, and took two standards. And in the battle of Ramillies, in 1706, where Villeroy was utterly routed, Clare's dra- goons attempted to cover the wreck of the retreating French, broke through an Eng- lish regiment, and followed them into the thronsrins van of the Allies. Mr. Fonnan states that they were generously assisted out of this predicament by an Italian regi- ment, and succeeded in carrying off the English colors they had taken. At the sad days of Oudenarde and M.d- plaquet, some of them were also present ; but to the victories which brightened this lime, so dark to France, the Brigade contributed materially. At the battle of Almanza (13th March, 1707,) several Irish regimeuts served under Berwick. In the early part of the day the Portuguese and Spanish auxiliaries of England were broken, but the English and Dutch fought successfully for a long time; nor was it till repeatedly charged by the elite of Berwick's army, including the Irish, that they were forced to retreat. 3,000 killed, 10,000 prison- ers, and 120 standards, attested the mag- nitude of the victory. It put King Philip on the throne of Spain. In the siege '3^ •»/ k& ■,'"■■■. m 'fri'l of Barcelona, Dillon's regiment fought with great effect. In their ranks was a boy of twelve years old ; he was the sou of a Galway gentle- man, Mr. Lally orO'Lally.of Tulloch na Daly, and his uncle had sat in James's Parliament of 1689. This boy, so early trained, was after- wards the famous Count Lally de Tollendal, whose services in every part of the globe make his execution a stain upon thehonoras well as upon the justice of Louis XVI. When Villars swept off the whole of Albe- marle's battalions at Denain, in 1712, the Irish were iu his van. The treaty of Utrecht and the dismissal of Marlborough put an end to the war in Flanders, but still many of the Irish contin- ued to serve in Italy and Germany, and thus fought at Parma, Guastalla, and Philipsburg. It was not alone in the French service that our military exiles won renown. TheO'Don- nells, O'Neills, and O'Reillys, with the relics of their Ulster clans, preferred to fight under tin' Spanish flag : and in the war of the "Spanish Succession," Spain had five Irish regiments in her army ; whose commanders were O'Reillys, O'Gai as, Lacys, Wogans, and Lawlesses. For several generations a suc- cession of Irish soldiers of rank and distinc- tion were always to be found under the Spanish standard; and in that kingdom those who had been chiefs in their own land were always recognized as "gran- dees," the equals of the proudest nobles of Castile. Hence the many noble families of Irish race and name still to be found in Spain at this day. The Peninsular War, in the beginning of the present century, found a Blake genei alissimo of the Spanish armies ; while an O'Neill commanded the troops of Aragon ; and O'Donnells and O'Reillvs held high grades as general officers. All these true Irishmen were lost to their own coun- try, and were forced to shed their blood for the stranger, while their kindred at home so much needed their counsels and their swords : but it was the settled policy of England, and the English colony, now and for long after, to make it impossible for men of spirit and ambilion to live in Ireland, so that the re- maining masses of abject people might be the more helpless iu the hands of their enemies. But it is lime to turn away from those stirring scenes of glory on the continent, at least for the present, and look back upon ihe sombre picture presented by one unvarying record of misery aud oppression at home. CHAPTER VI. 1704— 1714. Enforcement of tlie Penal Lnws— Making informer* honorable — Pembroke lord-lieutenant — Union of England ami Scotland— Menus l>y which it was carried — Irish House of Lords in favor of an Union — Laws against meeting at Holy Wells — Catholics excluded from Juries— Wharton lord- lieutenant — Second Act to prevent growth of Popery — Rewurds for " discoverers'' — Jonathan Swift — Nature of his Irish Patriotism — Papists the " common enemy." The Dissenters — Colony of the Palatines — Disasters of the French, and Peace of Utrecht — The " Pretender." During all the rest of the reign of Anne, the law for preventing the growth of Popery was as rigorously executed aH over the island, as it was possible for such laws to be : and there was the keen personal interest of the Protestant inhabitants of every town and district, always excited and kept on the stretch to discover and inform upon such unfortunate Catholics as had contrived to remain in possession of some of those estates, leaseholds, or other interests which were now by law capable of being held by Prot- estants alone. Every Catholic suspected his Protestant neighbor of prying into his affairs and dealings for the purpose of plundering him. Every Protestant suspected his Catho- lic neighbor of concealing some property, or privately receiving the revenue of some trust, and thus keeping him, the Protestant, out of his own. Mutual hatred and distrust kept the two races apart; and there was no social intercourse or good neighborhood between them. Informers of course were busy, and well rewarded ; yet there were many of the Catholic families who cheated their enemies out of their prey, by real or pretended con- versions to the Established Church, or else by secret trusts vested legally in some friendly Protestant ; who ran, however, very heavy risks by this kind proceeding. For on the 17th of March, a few days V r ft£ i j. va\ ,fr v\ 5) rv Cotninons passed unanimously a resolution, "that all magistrates and other persons whatsoever, who neglected or omitted to put it in due execution, were betrayers of the liberties of the kingdom." Again, in June, 1705, they " resolved, that the saying - hearing of Mass, by persons who had not term to describe Catholics, was often urged as an inducement to mitigate the disabilities of Dissenters; and this controversy contin- ued many years. The Established Church party was resolved not to relax any part of their code of exclusion ; and had per- fect confidence that the Dissenters, though taken the oath of abjuration, tended to pressed themselves by one portion of th advance the interest of the Pretend,,-" although it was then very well known that the Irish Catholics were not thinking in the least of the Pretender, or of placing their hopes in a counter-revolution to bring in the Stuarts. This resolution, therefore, was sim- j ply intended to make Papists odious and to stimulate the zeal of informers, against those who said or heard Mass in any Other manner, or under any other condition than those pre- ' scribed for registering " the pretended IN. pish priests." But as it was still difficult to in- duce men to discover and inform upon un- offending neighbors, and as in fact the trade of informer was held infamous by all fair- minded men, the Commons took care also to resolve unanimously, " that the prosecu- ting and informing against Papists was an honorable service to the Government." The informers being now, therefore, honorable by law, and taken under the special favor .■of the Government, gave such new and ex- tensive development to their peculiar in- dustry as made it for long after the most profitable branch of business in this impover- ished country, and afforded some compensa- tion for the ruin of the woollen manufacture and other honest trades. The Earl of Pembroke, lord-lieutenant in the year 170G, made a speech to the Parlia- ment, in which he endeavored to soothe the feelings of the Dissenters disabled by the Sacramental Test, and to combine all Prot- estants in a cordial union against the hated Papists. He recommended them to provide for the security of the realm against their foreign and domestic enemies — by which latter phrase he meant Catholics — and added "that he was commanded by her majesty to inform them that her majesty, consider- ing (he number of Papists in Ireland, would be glad of an expedient for the strengthen- ing the interest of her Protestant subjects in that kingdom." For of the "common c pe- nal code, would never, under any provocation, make common cause with Catholics. And this confidence was well-founded. The Dis- senters preferred to endure exclusion by the Test, rather than weaken in any way the great Protestant interest ; and the few rep- resentatives whom the Ulster Presbyterians had in the Commons never, in a single in- stance, gave a voice against any new rigor or penalty imposed upon the " common enemy." It was in the year 1707 that the English Government at length accomplished its long desired project of an Union between Eng- land and Scotland. There was much indig- nant resistance against the measure by patriotic Scotsmen ; and it needed much intrigue and no little bribery, judiciously distributed (as in Ireland ninety-three years later), to overcome the opposition. An Eng- lish historian * gives this simple account of the matter : "Exclusive of the methods used to allay the popular resentment and the sacrifices made to national prejudice, other means were adopted to facilitate the final passing of the Act of Union. By the re- port of the Commissioners of Public Ac- counts, delivered in some years after this time, it appears that the sum of twenty thousand pounds, and upivards, was remitted at the present juncture to Scotland, which was distributed so judiciously that the raga of opposition suddenly subsided ; and the treaty, as originally framed, received, with- out any material alteration, the solemn sanction of the Scottish Parliament — the general question being carried by a majority of 110 votes." In vain the patriots foiifht against the influence of the Court. In vain did Fletcher of Saltoun earnestly declare in lis place in Parliament, " that the country was betrayed by the Commissioners. In K fe I X j5^N fm '-CO. 4k * Belt-lmm. History of Great Britnio from tht Involution. Book V. J] t y/ft •'•>, jS^Sl .*s £n^— --^ niSTORY OF IRELAND. P ISJ vain did Lord Bell)aven, in a speech yet famous in Scotland, pathetically describe Caledonia as sitting in the midst of the Senate, looking indignantly around and covering herself with her royal robe, attend- ing the fatal blow, breathing out with pas- sionate emotion Et tu quoque, mi fill! The measure was carried, and Scotland became a province. How similar all this to the scenes enacted in our own country, almost a century later ! But for the name of Lord Somers, the great engineer of the Scottish Union, we must substitute Castlereagh, make the bribery larger, and the intrigues darker. It is worth noting that the Irish House of Lords, when the Union with Scotland was in agitatiou four years before, in 1703, addressed the queen in favor of a similar measure for Ireland. They now, in 1 7oV, did so again, beseeching her majesty to ex- tend the benefits of her royal protection equally over all her kingdoms. The House of Commons did not favor this proceeding ; nor was it at that time regarded with com- placency in England. Nothing further, therefore, was done upon the suggestion made by their lordships, who had probably got scent of bribery going on in Scotland, and naturally* bethought them that they had a country to sell as well as other people. They were disappointed for that time; but many of their great-grandsons in 1800 derived benefit by the delay in concluding that transaction, and received a price for their services, twenty times more princely than what could have been commanded in the time of Lord Somers. The agitation in Scotland arising from the Act of Union, although entirely con- fined to the Presbyterian people of that kingdom, furnished a new excuse for out- rage upon Irish Catholics. There was in truth a plot, extending through the south- west of Scotland, for raising an army, in- viting the " Pretender" (Anne's brother), and so getting rid of the Union by establishing again the dynasty of their ancient kings. On the first discovery of this project in 1S08, forty-one Catholic gentlemen were at once arrested and imprisoned in Dublin Castle, without any charge against them whatso- ever, but, as it appeared, only to provoke and humble them. It is indeed wonderful to read of the ingenious malignity with which occasions were sought out to torment harm- less country people by interdicting their innocent recreations and simple, obscure devotions. In the County Meatb, as in many other places in Ireland, is a holy well, named the " Well of St. John." Fiom time immemorial, multitudes of infirm peo- ple, men, women, and children, had frequent- ed this well, to perform penances and to pray for relief from their maladies. Those invalids who had been relieved of their in- firmities at these holy wells, either by faith or by the use of cold water, frequently re- sorted, in the summer-time, to the same spot, with their friends and relations ; so that there was sometimes a considerable concourse of people on the annual festival of the Patron Saint to whom the wells were dedicated. Such had been the origin of " Patrons" in Ireland. On these occasions the young and the old met together. A little fair was sometimes held, of toys or other articles of small value, jrmd the day was passed by some in religious exercises, by others in harmless society and amuse- ment. But amusement, or recreation, pro- tection of saints, or benefit of prayers, was not presumed to exist for Catholics; and these innocent; meetings were naturally as- sumed to have some connection with " bring- ing in the Pretender," and overthrowing the glorious Constitution in Chinch and State. They were, therefore, stiietlv forbid- den by a statute of this reign,* which im- posed a fine of ten shillings (and in default of payment, whipping) upon every person "who shall attend or be present at any pilgrimage, or meeting held at any holy well, or imputed holy well." The same act inflicts a fine of £20 (and imprisonment until payment) upon every person who shall build a booth, or sell ale, victuals, or other commodities at such pilgrimages or meet- ings. It further "requires all magistrates to demolish all crosses, pictures, and inscrip- tions that are anywhere publicly set up, and are the occasions of Popish superstitions"— that is, objects of reverence and respect to the Catholics. Thus, in Ireland, were mada penal and suppressed those Patron fairs, * 2d Anne, o. 6. ££ V-*^i>«». 'A ' ^ which indeed have been the origin of tlie most ancient and celebrated fairs of Europe, .■is those of Lyons, Frankfort, Leipzig, and many others. One other enactment of 1708 will show wh.it kind of chance Catholics had in courts of justice ; and will bring us down to the period of the second Act " to prevent the further growth of ropery." This law en- acted, ''That from the first of Michaelmas Term, 1708, no Papist shall serve, or be returned to serve, on any grand-jury in the Queen'e. Bench, or before Justices of Assize, oyer and terminer, or gaol-delivery or Quarter Sessions, unless it appear to the court that a sufficient number of Protestants cannot then be had for the service: and in all trials of issues [that is, by petty juries] on any presentment, indictment, or information, or action on any statute, for any offence com- mitted by Papists, in breach of such laws, the plaintiff or prosecutor niav challenge any Papist returned as juror, and assign as a cause that he is a Papist, which clial- lenr/e shall be allowed." The spirit of this enactment, and the practice it introduced, have continued till the present moment ; and at this very time, on trials for political of- fences, Catholics who have been summoned arc usually challenged and set aSide. In May, 1709, Thomas Earl of Wharton being then lord-lieutenant, with Addison, of the Spectator, as secretary, there was intro- duced into the House of Commons a "Bill to explain and amend an Act intituled an Act to prevent the further growth of Po- pery." It was introduced by Mr. Sergeant Caulfield ; was duly transmitted to England by Wharton, was approved at once, and on its return was passed, of course. Its intention was chieflv to close up any loophole of es- cape from the penalties of former statutes, and guard every possible access by which " Papists" might still attain to independence or a quiet life. Some, for example, had se- cretly purchased annuities — by this statute, therefore, a Papist is declared incapable of holding or enjoying an annuity for life. It had been found, also, that paternal authority or filial affection had prevented from its full operation that former act of 1704 which au- thorized a child, on conforming, to reduce his father to a tenant for life. Further en- SECONI) ACT TO PREVENT THE GROWTH OP POPERY. couragement to children seemed desirable : therefore by this new law, upon the conver- sion of the child of any Catholic, the chan- cellor was to compel the father to discover upon oath the full value of his estate, real and personal ; and thereupon make an order for the independent support of such conform- ing child, and for securing to him, after bis father's death, such share of the property as to the court should seem fit : — also to secure jointures to popish wives who should desert their husbands' faith. Thus distrust and discoid and heartburning in every family were well provided for. One clause of the Act prohibits a Papist from teaching, as tutor or usher, even as assistant to a Protestant schoolmaster; and another offers a salary of £30 to such popish priests as should con- form. But one thing was still wanting : it was known that, notwithstanding the pre- vious banishment of Catholic archbishops, bishops, m a/Cn£s7^"cAs .ccuwsts.i DEAN SWIFT : NATURE OF HIS IRISH PATRIOTISM. £Y /A fll -=^ as.* i'V you are grieved to find you make do distinc- tion between the English gentry of this king- dom and the savage old Iiish (who are only the vulgar, and sonic gentlemen who live in the Irish parts of the kingdom), but the Eng- lish colonies, who are three parts in four, are much more civilized than many counties in England," 4 si i $ ^ sp '.» THE "PRETENDER" PERILS OP DEAN SWIFT. pelted to depart from that kingdom; t lie ' union of the two monarchies of Fiance and Spain was provided against, though a French Bourbon remained on the throne of Spain ; and to the great loss and humiliation of France, it was agreed that the harbor of Dunkirk should be demolished. This treaty gave repose for a time to the Irish soldiers abroad. The last year of Anne, therefore, was a year of peace abroad, but of violent partv strife and political conspiracy at home. All the world expected a struggle for the suc- cession at the moment of the queen's death ; and King James the Third, called in England "Pretender," was known to have a large partv both in that country and in Scotland, ready to assert his hereditary right. The agilation extended to Ireland ; but did not reach the Catholic population, which was quite indifferent to Stuart or Hanoverian. The queen died on the 1st of August, 1814, the last of the house of Stuart recognized as sovereign of England, and leaving behind her, as to her Irish administration, so black a record that it would have been strange in- deed if the Irish nation had ever desired to see the face of a Stuart again. Yet it is probable that she was secretly a Catholic, like all her family : and it is certain that she was bitterly displeased at the "Protestant succession," now secured by law to the House of Hanover. It is needless here to enter into the controversy as to whether she was alto- gether a stranger to the plots for setting aside that succession, and bringing in her Catholic brother. She was known to be deeply grieved and provoked by the zeal of politicians, both in England and Ireland, who, desirous of gaining favor with the coming dynasty, endeavored to get an act of attainder passed against "the Pretender;" and a bill for that purpose in Ireland, which also offered a largo reward for his apprehen- sion, was only defeated by a hasty proroga- tion. Yet "the queen hated and despised the Pretender, to mv knowledge," is the as- sertion of Swift in his " Remarks on Burnet's History." Perhaps she did: most sovereigns hate their heirs-apparent, even when these are their own sons; but there is abundant evidence that, she hated the Elector of Han- over and his mother very much worse. CHAPTER VII. 17H— 1723. George I. — JainesIII. — Perils of Dean Swift — Tories dismissed — Ormoud, Oxford, and Bolingbroke im- peached — Insurrection in Scotland — Calm in Ireland — Arrests — Irish Parliament — "Loyalty" of the Catholics — "No Catholics exist in Ireland" — Priest -catchers — Bolton lord -lie men ant — Cause of Sherlock and Annesley — Conflict of jurisdic- tion — Declaratory Act establishing dependence of the Irish Parliament — Swift's pamphlet — State of the country — Grafton lord-lieutenant — Courage of the priests — Atrocious Bill. The succession of the Elector of Hanover had been in no real danger, notwithstanding the plotting of a few Jacobites in England ; although the Whig partv anxiously en- deavored to represent the Tories as desirous of "bringing in the Pretender." The dis- tinction, however, between Tories and Jacob- ites is important to be borne in mind ; and a well-known letter of Dean Swift, who, be- ing a Tory, had been accused of Jacohitism, is conclusive upon this point. In fact, a though the English people and the English colony of Ireland were at that time nearly equally divided into Whigs and Tories, there were but few Jacobites save in Scotland and the northern counties of England. Accord- ingly, on the death of Anne, the Elector of Hanover was duly proclaimed in both islands by the title of King George the First. In Ireland, the proclamation was made by torch- light, and at midnight; and great efforts were made to produce the impression that there was imminent danger of a Jacobite in- surrection "to bring in the Pretender." This affectation of alarm seems to have been intended to bring odium, not so much on the Catholics, as on the Tories : some arrests were made, and it was alleged that on one of the parties arrested letters were found written by Dr. Swift. The populace of Dublin must at that period have been vio- lently Hanoverian ; for Lord Orrery tells us that on the dean's return to Ireland after the proclamation of the new king, he dared hardly venture forth, and was pelted by mobs when he made his appearance. The bitterness and fury of party spirit at that day is curiously illustrated by the story of the outrages and insults which the dean had to encounter, even at the hands of persons Va ^ \fm x< \&t:'il '«* W "\ \< of rank and tide. Lord Blancy attempted to drive over him on the public road ; and Swift petitioned the legislature for protection to his life. He was advised by his physi- ~y\ cian, he said, to go often on horseback, on account of his health ; "and there being no J place in winter so convenient for riding as the strand towards Howth, your petitioner takes all opportunities that his business or the weather will permit, to take that road." Here be details the scene of Lord Blancy 's attempting to overturn him and his horse, attlie same time threatening his life with a loaded pistol, and prays protection accord- ingly. There is no doubt, however (without questioning the sincerity of the dean's zeal for the House of Hanover), that several of his most intimate friends, especially Lord Bolingbroke and Bishop Atterbury, were en- gaged in the plot, along with the Pake of Ormond, to prevent the succession of King ( leorge ; and that the suspicions as to Swift's Jaeobitism were at least plausible. Swift was excessively mortified, or rather irritated, by the popular manifestations against him, lie was very covetous of influence and popu- larity, and his high, fierce spirit could ill brook the least demonstration of public re- proach. He denounced the people of Dublin as a vile, abandoned race ; but we hear no more of his Jaeobitism, and not much of his Toryism, except that to the last hour of his life he hated and lampooned 1 lisselitei s. Immediately after the accession of George I., all Tories were instantly dismissed from office, and the Government placed entirely in the hands of Whigs; which had been the very object of denouncing Tories as Jacobites. When the English Parliament met, articles of impeachment were quickly found against the Duke of Ormond, and the Lords Oxford and Bolingbroke, for high trea- son, in having contributed to bring about the Peace of Utrecht by traitorous means, and with a view of changing the Protestant succession. Bolingbroke and Ormond avoided the trial ou the impeachment by going to the continent, where they both offered their services to King James HI. (or the Pre- tender), then holding a kind of court in Lorrain, having been exiled from France at the peace. The party which adhered to the exiled prince was iu fact making urgent preparations for a rising botb in Scotland and in England ; and on the 15th of September, 1715, the Earl of Mar set up the standard of insurrection, proclaimed King James the Third at Castletown in Scotland, and quickly Collected an army of ten thousand men. These forces were gathered fiom both High- lands and Lowlands, and consisted both of Catholics and Protestants. The Duke of Argyle, with his powerful clan of Campbells, was zealous for King George, and with other Highland tribes and some regular troops met the Earl of Mar at Sheriffmnir, where a bloody but indecisive battle took place. A portion of the Jacobite force, marched south- ward into England, were encountered at Preston, in Lancashire, by the King's troops, and, after a short light, obliged to surrender at discretion. Mar still kept his banner dis- played, until King James the Third in per- son landed at Peterhead, on the east coast of Scotland, in December; but very soon afterwards, on the approach of^Argvle with a superior force, the enterprise was aban- doned. The Prince and the Earl of Mar escaped by sea; the other leaders of the in- surrection, both in England and in Scotland, were arrested, tried, and some of them ex- ecuted. The rebellion was at an end, and' from that day the exiled Prince may truly be termed, not James the Third, but the " Pretender." This Scottish insurrection is of small mo- ment to Irish history, save in so far as it furnished a pretext for fresh atrocities upon the unresisting people. There was no in- surrection or disturbance whatever during all these events. We do not even hear of any Irish officer of distinction who came from the continent to join the Pretender's cause in Scotland; and the Earl of Mir, who afterwards published a narration in Paris, affirms that the Duke of Berwick, who was vcrv popular with the Irish troops in France, had been ursjed to take the chief command of the movement, probably in order to draw some Irish regiments into it, but that "the Duke of Berwick positively refused to repair to Scotland," though he was half-brother to the Pretender. The in- surrection of 1715 was therefore exclusively a Scottish and English affair. Some writers on this period of Irish history, who ate en- w$ WW I. ri VI titled to respect,* have given tiie Irish Catho- lics the very doubtful praise of loyalty, for their extreme quietness ami passiveness at this time. It is Hue that they cared not for the Smart family ; yet, considering the ex- cessive end abject oppression under which they were then groaning, and the slender prospect they had of any mitigation of it, we may assume that any revolution which would overturn the actual order of things, and give them a chance of redeeming their nationality, would have been desirable. But they were disarmed, impoverished, and dis- couraged; could not own a musket, nor a sabre, uor a horse over rive guineas' value; had no leaders at home, nor any possibility of organizing a combined move nt ; so closely were they watched, and held down with so iron a hand. If they look no part. therefore, in the insurrections of 1815 and ol 1845, it may he said (in their favor, not to their dishonor) that it was on account of ex- halation and impotence, not on account of loyalty. It' they had been capable, at that time, of attachment to the Protestant suc- cession, and of '• loyalty" to the House of Hanover, they would have been even more degraded than they actually were. However, as the Pretender was a Catholic, and as the Irish Government knew that the oppressed Catholics of that country, if not always ready for insurrection, ought to have been so, numerous arrests were mad- daring the Scottish insurrection. There were still some forlorn Catholic peers dwelling in their dismal country-seats, debarred from attend- ing Parliament, endeavoring to attract no re- mark, and too happy if they could secretly keep in their stables a few horses for hunt- ing. There were also still some landed gentlemen, though sadly stripped of their possessions, who tried to keep one another in countenance, and drank in private the health of King Louis, and the mole whose mole-hill killed William of Orange. It was desirable for the Government to take pre- cautions against these sad relics of the once proud nation. Accordingly, the Earls of * Mr. Plowden, and Doctor Curry. Thoy botli WJVte :il :, inutftl lnt<:r period ; and both with a viflW or pointing out the tolly of the PenaJ Code, m Irish Catholics llad always, they said, been '• loyal" to the House of Hanover. Antrim and Westmeath, Lords Netterville, Cahir, and Dillon, with a great number of untitled gentlemen, were suddenly seized upon and shut up in Dublin Castle, "on suspicion." They were released when the insurrection was over. In the mean time (he Irish Parliament met, and was opened by lords-justices. The Houses, Especially the Commons, were filled with the most fiery zeal for the Protestant succession, and most desirous of ingratiating themselves with the new dynasty. They passed acts for recognizing the king's title for the security of his person and govern- ment—for attainting the Pretender, and offering a reward of £50,000 for his appre- hension. The Commons also. presented an address to the new king, entreating his maj- esty, for the security of the Government and for the Protestant interest, to remove the Earl of Anglesea from all offices of honor and trust. Lord Anglesea was a member of the Council, and one of the vice-treasurers of the kingdom : he was a Tory, was sus- pected of being a Jacobite ; and the reasons assigned in the address for removing him were, that he had caused or procured the disbanding of great part of the army in Ireland ; and that he had connived at the enrolment of Irish Catholics for foreign ser- vice. "They had information," they said, "that many Irish Papists had been, and' continued to be, shipped off from Dublin and other ports for the service of the Pre- tender." As usual, the main business of the Parliament was taking further precau- tions against the "common enemy," for which the Pretender's insurrection in Scot- land served as a false pretence. The lords- justices, in their speech to this Parliament, bear complacent testimony to the calmness and tranquillity in which Ireland had re- mained during the troubles, which Mr. Plowden, with great simplicity, takes as a compliment to the " loyalty" of the Catholics — instead of being (what it was) a congrat- ulation upon the Catholics being so effect- ually crushed and trodden down that ihey could not rise. This amiable writer cannot conceal his surprise at what he terms " the inconsistency of rendering solemn homage to the exemplary loyalty of the Irish nation in the most perilous crisis, and puuishii :i3 0A w| i \J\ v&\ Ilk ~Jlp^ ^ ^ C . :V ! 44 TIISTOIIY OF IRELAND. them, at the same time, for a disposition to treftchery, turbulence, and treason." Nay, he is still more astonished at finding that "this very speech, which bore Buch honor- able testimony to the tried loyalty of the Irish Catholics, bespoke the disgraceful polioy of keeping and treating them, not- withstanding, as a separate people — ' We must recommend to you,' said the lords-jus- tices, 'in the present conjuncture, such unanimity in your resolutions as may once nunc put an end to all other distinctions in Ireland than that of Protestant and Papist.'" It, may hero bo observed, once for all, to put an end to this delusion ahout Catholic loyalty in Ireland, that the Catholics would not have been permitted to be loyal, even it' they had been base enough to desire it — that some abject attempts by some of them to testify their loyalty were repulsed, as will he hereafter seen — that when a viceroy or lord- justice speaks of "the nation," at the period in question, he means the Protestant nation exclusively— nay, that the law was, that no Catholics existed in Ireland at all. It was long a favorite fiction of Irish law,* "that all the effeotive inhabitants of Ireland are to be presumed to be Protestants — and that, therefore, the Catholics, their clergy, worship, Ac, are ii"t to be supposed t,. exist, save for reprehension and punishment." Indeed, in the tunc' of George 11., Lord-Chancellor I'm. w.s declared from the bench, "that the law does not suppose any such person to ex- ist as an Irish Roman Catholic;" and Chief- Justice Robinson made ,-i similar declara- tion.! ll appears plain, then, tint, the '■ lov- alty" of the Catholics towards the House of Hanover, if indeed there has ever been auy such loyalty, could not have sprung up in their hearts in the reign of George I., or of George II. N" new enactments were made in this session of Parliament in aggravation of the Penal Code; hut a resolution was passed recommending to magistrates the indispen- sable duty to put the existing laws into im- mediate and rigorous execution, and de- nouncing those who neglected to do so as "enemies of the Constitution ;" no slight nor harmless imputation at that period, nor one which any magistrate would willingly incur. In fact, the penal laws against Catholics were put in force at this time, and during all the remainder of the reigu of George I., with even more than the customary ferocity, as a design to bring in the Pretender was supposed to lurk in every Mass. In many places chapels were shut up, priests were dragged from their hiding-places, sometimes from the very altars, in the midst, of divine service, hurried into the most loathsome dungeons, and from thence banished forever from their native country,* To till' ei edit of those times," however, observes Brcnan, the ecclesiastical historian, "it must he re- marked, that, the description of miscreants usually termed priest-catchers wen' generally Jews who pretended to he converts to the Christian religion, and some of them as- sumed even the character of the priesthood, for the purpose of insinuating themselves more readily into the conlideiico of the clergy. The most notorious among them was a Portuguese Jew, named Gorzia (or Garcia). By means of this wretch seven priests had been apprehended in Dublin, and banished the kingdom. < If this number, two were Jesuits, one was a Dominican, one a Franciscan, and three were secular priests." Tlese last, were probably "unregistered" priests; or else had not taken the abjuration oath, which was then legally obligatory upon them all, under cruel penalties, hi- ded, by means of the various statutes made against them, it may be affirmed generally that every priest in Ireland, whether regular or secular, was now liable to transportation and to death; because out of one thousand and eighty " registered" priests, only thirty- three ever took the oath of abjuration. The remainder stood firm, and set at d. fiance the tenors which surrounded them.f Although the rebellion of the Presbyte- rians in Scotland was the sole pretence for this severity, and the very same law which hanishes popish priests prohibits also 1 >is- scnlers to accept of or act hv a commission in the militia or array, yet so partial were the resolutions of that parliament, that, at the same tune that they ordered the former • i'imtv's Ki'vicw. Bronnu's Eccl. Hist, of IrolunJ. t Iliburuiu Uouiiiiiciuia. IKS §n '. • (f?, 98? O'Jt to lie rigorously prosecuted, they resolved, unanimously, "that any person who should commence a prosecution against any of tbe latter who had accepted, or should accept of a commission in the array or militia, was an enemy to King George and the Protes- tant interest" Tims of the only two main objects of tli" same law, its execntion as to one of tin-in was judged highly meritorious, and it was deemed equally culpable even to attempt it. against the other ; though the law itself makes no difference between them. Such was the justice and consistency of our legislators of that period. In the year 17 19, the Duko of Bolton being lord-lieutenant, occurred the famous case of Sherlock against Annesley, which provoked the [rish House of Lords into a faint and impotent assertion of their priv- ileges, opened up onee more the whole question between English dominion and Irish, national pretensions, and ended in settling that question in favor of England; setting it, in fact, definitively at rest until the year 1782. That cause was tried in the Irish Court of Exchequer, between Esther 8herloek and Maurice Annesley, in which the latter obtain- ed a decree, which on an appeal to the Irish House of Lords was reversed. From this sentence Annesley appealed to the English Bouse of Lords, w ho confirmed the judgmeut ol the [rish Exchequer, and issued process to put him into possession of the litigated prop- erty. Esther Sherlock petitioned the Irish Lords against the usurped authority of Eng- land, and they, having taken the opinion of the judges, resolved that they would Bupport their honor, jurisdiction, and privileges, by giving effectual relief to the petitioner. Sherlock was put into possession hy the Sheriff of Kildare; an injunction issued from the Court of Exchequer in Ireland, pur- suant to the decree of the English Lords, directing him to restore Annesley; the sheriff (let his name be honored !), Alexan- der liuiTowcs, refused obedience. He was protected in a contumacy which so nobly contrasts the wonted servility of the judges, by the Irish Lords, who addressed a power- ful Slat-- paper to the thr , recapitulating the rights of Ireland, her independent CAUSE OP SHERLOCK AND AN.VESLEY. DECLARATORY ACT. went further, for they sent the Irish barons to jail; hut the king having the address of the Irish Lords laid before the English House, the latter reaffirmed their proceedings, and supplicated the throne to confer some maik of special favor on tbe servile judges, who, in relinquishing their jurisdiction, had be- trayed the liberties of their country. An Act was at once passed in the English Par- liament, enacting and declaring that the king, with the advice of the Lords and Commons of England, "hath had of right, and ought to have, full power and authority to make laws and statutes of sufficient force and validity to bind the people and the kingdom of Ireland. " And be it further enacted and declared, by the authority aforesaid, that the House of Lords of Ireland have not, nor of right ought to have, any jurisdiction to judge, affirm, or reverse any judgment, sentence, or decree, given or made in any court within the same kingdom ; and that all proceedings before the said House of Lords, upon any such judgment, sentence, or decree, are, and are hereby declared to be, utterly null- and void, to all intents and purposes whatever." This Declaratory Act is the last of the statutes claiming such a jurisdiction. The Irish Parliament had to submit for the time; but the principles of Molyneux, soon after enforced with far greater power by Swift, worked in men's minds, and at last brought forth Flood and Grattan, and caused the army of the Volunteers to spring outof the earth. Once more, however, it should be borne in mind that this constitutional ques- i tion was a question between Protestant England and her Protestant colony alone ; and that the Catholic Irish nation had at that time no more favor or indulgence to hope for at the hands of a parliament in Dublin than of a parliament in London. The Declaratory Act did not pass the English Parliament without opposition, es- pecially in the Commons, where Mr. Pitt made himself conspicuous by his argument against it. It was finally carried l>y 140 rotes against 88. The Duke of Leeds, in the Lords, made a powerful protest against the bill, but in vain. In the same year, 1 7 1 9, an act was passed c m ,& parliament, aud peculiar jurisdiction. They , in the Irish Parliament " for granting soiuo w~m ws 4G niSTORT OF IRELAND. case and indulgence to the Protestant Dis- sentcrsin the exercise of their religion." The Duke of Polton, in his speech, was pleased to commend this act most warmly, as a step towards consolidating the Protestant interest against the common enemy. The duke earnestly pleads fur the necessity of union : "in the words," he says, " of one of those excellent hills passed this day — I mean an union in interest, and affection amongst all his majestv's suhjects." The viceroy did not even feel it necessary to say " all his maj- esty's Protestant suhjects,'' knowing that this would he understood ; so firmly established was the State maxim, that the law knows not of the existence of an Irish Catholic, The year 18-20 is memorable for the publication of Dean Swift's first pamphlet on Irish affairs — his " "Proposal for the Use of Irish Manufacture." He had now been for seven years Dean of St. Patrick's : he had witnessed the enactment of many a penal law against Catholics: within hearing of his own deanery-house the Protestant mob, led on by priest-catchers, had dragged clergymen in their vestments out of obscure chapels amidst the lamentations of their helpless Hocks, but he had never, in any of his numerous writings, uttered a syllable of remonstrance against this tyranny. It might be supposed that in this first of his Tracts relating to an Irish subject, and a subject, too, in which people of all religions were deeply interested, he might delicately convex- some hint that neither the manufac- turing nor any other material interest of a Country could be promoted or developed while the great mass of its people were held in degrading slavery, disquieted in their property, and outraged in their persons by the extraordinary laws which he saw in operation around him. But not one word of all this does ho write. lie was well enough aware, however, of the growing misery and destitution of the country people; and says in this tract, "Whoever travels this country, ami observes the face of nature, or the faces, and habits, and dwellings of the natives, will hardly think himself in a land where either law, religion, or common humanity is professed." Again : ''I would now expostulate a little with our country landlords, who, by im- measurable screwing and racking their ten- nants all over the kingdom, have already reduced the miserable people to a worse condition than the peasants in France, or the vassals in Germany and Poland; so that the whole species of what we call substantial fanners will, in a very few years, be utterly at an end." It is very singular, also, that although he justly attributes the decay of manufactures to the greedy commercial policy of England in suppressing the woollen trade and other branches of industry — and although, at the moment he wrote, all the island was ringing with the Sherlock-and-Annesley case and the Declaratory Act, this future author of the Drapier's Letters never thinks of suggesting thai laws for governing Ireland should be made in Ireland, in order that the English monopolists might no longer have the power of ruining our country by their own laws. It seems the time was not vet ripe for such a pretension, on the part of Irish patriots ; though, that the dean very well knew the nature of the grievances he complains of, is evident from his savage sar- casm about the fate of Arachne. Ireland was becoming covered with herds of sheep, to produce wool for the English market,' while English laws prevented its manufac- ture at home. " The fable, in Ovid, of Arachnc and Pallas, is to this put pose : The goddess had heard of one Antenna, a young virgin, very famous for spinning and weaving : they both met upon a trial of skill ; and Pallas finding herself almost equalled in her own art, stung with rage and envy, knocked her rival down, turned her into a spider, enjoin- ing her to spin and weave forever, out of her own bowels, and in a very narrow compass. I confess that, from a boy, I always pitied poor Arachne, and could never heartily love the goddess, on account of so cruel and unjust a sentence ; which, however, is fully executed upon us by England, with further additions of rigor and severity, for the greatest part of our bowels and vitals is extracted without allowing us the liberty of spinning and weaving them." Swift had not yet ventured to take the leading part which he soon after bore in Irish politics ; nor did ho ever take any r. rBISH CATHOLICS " STERNLY LOYAL." y/\ .y i . I'" 1 '" 'hem with a broadly national aim. "" l' v ed at that tima very much with |,is friends Sheridan and Doctor Delaoy ; and his frienda, as well as himself, wished to be considered Englishmen.* 'Hi'' Catholic people remained all these years perfectly qnietand subdued. In them, all national aspiration seemed dead; so that tin' numerous enterprises projected all over Europe in favor of the Pretender, never counted upon them. One of these enter- prises was undertaken by the Spaniards,! '""I"'- the auspices of Cardinal Alberoni ;' and the Duke of Orraond wag placed in' c " ; "" 1 <>( a Spanish squadron, to effect a landing somewhere in the British Mauds. 'I lie Irish Catholics remained quite unmoved : '•'ey were, in the words of Mr. Plowden, "sternly loyal." It would he more accurate t<> say they were utterly prostrate, hopeless, an. I indifferent; and if they had been other- wise, the name of tin. Duke of Orinoml W01l| d Inn.' I n enough to repel them from any cause in which he was to he a leader. The Duke of Grafton, as lord-lieutenant, prorogued the session of Parliament, and m hi, speech was pleased particularly to ■' 'end to tin-in io keep a watchful eye upon the Papists; "since I have reasoa to believe," says he," that the number of popish priests is daily increasing in this kingdom, an. I already far exceeds what by the indul- gence of the law is allowed." The members "i Parliament, in times of recess, ami when they were at their country-seats, must have followed the viceroy's exhortation, ami kept a watchful eye upon the Papists; for the horror and alarm of the Protestant interest became more violent than ever before; ami when Parliament assembled, in ] T *_r : J , it was in an excellent frame of mind to do battle with the common en, .my. The Duke of Grafton, on meeting Parliament, recom- mended several new laws — "particularly for * In remonstrating with Mr. iv,p on "having made i... d'nttluotioo in bis letter* between the Eng h-li gentry of this kingdom and the sava^o old i li," Swift ml.li, " Dr. Delany oame to visit Die '■ " ' 'go on pur] to complain of those pas- sages of your letters." Delany was the son ofa i- vert; ami tliongh of pun: Irish breed, at once t..uk rank, in bia own opinion, a* an Englishman. There have always been many Englishmen of this Bpocics iu Ireland. preventing mo,,, effectually the eluding of those m being against popish priests," and the members had generally brought to town shocking tales illustrating the audacity of those outlawed ecclesiastics, in celebrating their worship, sometimes even in the open day. It was full time, they said, to take decisive measures. And in truth the ardent zeal and con- stancy, utterly unknown to fear, of the Irish Catholic priests during that whole century, are as admirable in the eyes of all just and' impartial men as they wen- abominable and monstrous in the eyes of the Protestant in- terest They often had Io traverse the sea between Ireland and France, in fishing smacks, and disguised as fishermen, carrying communications to or from Rome, required by the laws of their church, though they knew that on their return, if discovered, the penalty was the penalty of high treason, that is death. When in Ireland, they had often to lurk in caves, and make fatiguing journeys, never sure that the priesl hunters were not on their trail; yet all this they braved with a courage which, in any oiler cause, would have been reckless desperation. The English colonists could not comprehend Such chivalrous devotion at. all; and could devise no oilier theory to account for it than that these priests must he continually plot- ting with foreign Catholics to overthrow iho Protestant interesl and plunder thrm of their newly-gotten .stales. This was the secret terror that always urged them upon flesh atrocities. Accordingly, a series of resolutions was agreed upon and reported by the Commons; that Popery had increased, partly owing to the many shifts and devices the priests had for evading the laws, partly owing to the neglect of magistrates in not searching them out and punishing them— that "it is highly prejudicial to the 1'rotestant interest That any person married lo a popish wife should bear any office or employment under his majesty." This measure was thought need- ful, inasmuch as some magistrates, having married Cat holies, were ohs.-rved to be re- miss in taking informations against th -ir wives' confessors, knowing that they would have no peace in their houses afterwards. I he resolutions further recommended, that I' \ } y& \Q I1IST0HY OF IRELAND. no convert (to the Established Church) should be capable of any office, nor practise as a solicitor or attorney for seven years after liis conversion, nor " unless he brings a certifi- cate of having received the sacrament thrice in every year during the said term ;" fur- ther, that all converts should duly enroll their certificates of conversion in the proper office. On the basis of these resolutions a bill was prepared ; and the language and behavior of Parliament on this occasion seems to have been even more vindictive and atrocious than had ever liceii witnessed before, even in an Irish legislature. One of the most zealous promoters of tliis bill, in a labored speech, informed the House, that of all countries wherein the reformed religion prevailed, Sweden was observed to be most free from those irreconcilable enemies to all Prot- estant governments, the Catholic priests; and that this happy exemption, so needful to the Protestant interest, was obtained by a wholesome practice which prevailed in that fortunate land, namely, the practice of castrating all popish priests who were found there. A clause to this effect was intro- duced into the new hill.* It passed both Houses, and was presented on the 15th of November to the Duke of Grafton, with an earnest request that his Grace "would recom- mend the same in the most effectual manner to his majesty." His Grace was pleased to return this answer : " I have so much at heart a matter which I recommended to the consideration of Parliament, at the beginning of this session, that the House of Commons may depend upon a due regard, on my part, to what is desired." With the Duke's rec- ommendation the bill was, as usual, for- warded to England. No objection to it had occurred either to his Grace, or to any peer or commoner in Ireland ; but an Irish agent in France presented a memorial on the subject to the Duke of Orleans, then regent. The two nations were at peace, and Cardinal Fleiiry, French prime minister, bad consid- erable influence with Mr. Walpole, A strong representation was made by order of Fleury Curry's Kcviow. l'lowden. against the new bill.* As it has never suited British policy that its measures in Ireland should become the subject of discussion and notoriety amongst the civilized nations of the continent (where English reputation for liberality has to be maintained) ; the Coun- cil disapproved the bill ; and this was the first occasion on which any penal law against Catholics met with such an obstacle in Eng- land. Some writers on Irish history have been inclined to carry this failure of sc atrocious a bill to the credit of human na- ture; and Mr. Plowden, after narrating the French interposition, says, with his usual amiable credulity, " but surely it needed no < rallic interference," *% y SWIFT AND WOOD'S COPPER. CHAPTER VIII. 1723-1727. Bwift and Wood's Copper — Drapicr's Letters — Claim of Independence — Primate Boulter — Bwift popular with the Catholics— His feeling to- wards Catholics — Desolation of the Country — K irk -mils — Absenteeism — Great Distress — Swift's modest Proposal — Death of George I. While the Irish Parliament was so earn- estly engaged in their measures against popish priests, Dean Swift, who had lived in gnat quiet for three or four years, writing Gulliver's Travels in the country, suddenly plnnged impetuously into the tumult of Irish polities. His indignation was inflamed to the highest pilch — not by the ferocity of the legislature against Catholics, but by Wood's copper halfpence. The country, he thought, was on the verge of ruin, not by reason of the tempest of intolerance, rapacity, fraud, and cruelty, which raged over it on every side, but by reason of a certain copper coin- age to the amount of £108,000, for which oue William Wood had taken the contract and received the' patent. Here was the cry- ing grievance of Ireland. It is necessary that the history of this transaction should be taken out of the do- main of rhetoric, and established upon a basis of fact. A great scarcity and need of copper money was felt in Ireland ; and this is not denied by the dean. William Wood, whom Swift always calls " hardwareman and bankrupt," but who was, in fact, a large pro- prietor, and owner or renter of several ex- tensive iron works in England,* proposed to contract for the supply needed, and his pro- posal was accepted. The national, or rather colonial, jealousy was at once inflamed ; and already, long be-fore Dean Swift's first letter on the subject, the two Houses had voted addresses to the crown, accusing the patentee of fraud, affirming that the terms of the patent had been infringed as to the quality of the coin, and that its circulation would be highly prejudicial to the revenue and commerce of the country. The Commons, with great exaggeration, declared that even had the terms of the patent been complied with, the nation would have suffered a loss ' Coxe. Memoirs of Sir Eobcrt Walpole. 7 of at least 150 per cent.; and indeed the whole clamor rested on partial or ignorant misrepresentation. Wood's coin was as good as any other copper coinage of that day ; and the assertion of its opponents (re- peated by Swift), that the intrinsic was no more than one-eighth of the nominal value of the metal, must be taken with great cau- tion. If this assertion had even been true, the matter would have been of little conse- quence, because when coinage descends be- low gold and silver, it comes to be only a kind of counters for the convenience of ex- change, deriving its value from the sanction of the government which issues it ; and being receivable in payment of taxes, it has for all its purposes the whole value which it denotes on its face.* From the specimens, however, of Wood's halfpence preserved in the British Museum, and facsimiles of which are given in some editions of Swift's works, it is clear that the coins were of a goodly size, and with a fair impression ; and by an assay made at the mint, under Sir Isaac Newton and his two associates, it was proved that in weight anil in fineness these coins rather exceeded than fell short of the con- ditions of the patent.f However, the clamor was so violent, that "the collectors of the king's customs very honestly refused to take them, and so did almost everybody ebe," says Swift in his first letter of '"M. B. Dra- pier." So that the crusade against Wood and his halfpence was already in full prog- ress before the dean wrote a word ou the subject. It is observable further, that this matter concerning Wood and his coinage did not really touch the great question of Irish na- tional independence, or the insolent claim of the English Parliament lo make laws for Ireland ; because thematter of coining money belongs to the royal prerogative ; and not one man of the English colony in Ireland, not Swift himself, pretended to question the * The present base coinnge of cent and three-cent pieces in the United States is an example of this. It is intrinsically of no value at all, being composed of the vilest of metal ; yet it answers all the pur- poses of small change, without injury to anyhodj . + Report of the Committee of the Privy CoQQcil. Swift replied that Wood must have furnished the committee with coins specially made lor examina- tion; which is quite possible. g& w mmmm miWJB^^ \ « fiO HISTOKY OF IUKI.AND. autkoi ity of the King of England. In short, no re trifling occasion ever produced bo brilliant and memorable a result. It Beemed to be but an oocnsion, no matter how silly, ili.it. Bwift wanted. Any peg would do to hang Ins essays upon ; ami he used the affair of Wood, as llabelais bad used the legend of Gargantua Bnd Pantagruel, to introduce under cover of much senseless ribaldry, the graves! opinions on politics und government. Early in 17-1 appeared the first letter, writ- ten in the character of a Dublin shopkeeper. li was soon followed by six others, besides letters to William Wood himself, "Observa- tions on (he Reporl of the Lords of the Council," "Letter to the whole People of Ireland," and many ballads and songs which were calculated for the Dublin ballad-sing- era. These productions were remarkable nol only for their fierce sarcasm and denun- ciation directed against Wood himself, but for the constantly insinuated, and sometimes plainly expressed, assertion of the national right of Ireland (namely, of tin' English colony in Ireland) to manage her own affaire. This, Iii fact, »as always in hi> mind. "For m\ own part," observes M. 1>. Drapior, "who am but one man, of obscure origin, 1 do solemnly declare in the presence of Al- mighty (bid, that 1 will Buffer the most igno- minious and torturing death rather than Bubinil to receive this aci nrsed coin, or any other thai is liable to the same objections, until they shall be forced upon me by a hur of mi/ own country; and if that shall even happen, I will transport myself into sunn,' foreign land, and cat the bread of poverty among a free people." ludeed, while he uema to be directing all the torrent of his indignation against the unlucky hardware- man, he very plainly personifies in him the relentless domination of England, and really lab.ns to e\e;ie, nol persoual wrath against Wood, but patriotic resentment against the British Government. A very admirable ex- ample, both of Ins M\ le of denunciation, and of his exquisite art in insinuating his lead- ing idea amidst a perfect deluge of wittj ribaldry, is seen in tins excellent passage: "1 am wt* sensible," says the worth] Dra pier, "ibat Mieh a woik as 1 have under- taken might have worthily employed a much bettor pen ; bm when a hon.se i.s attempted to be robbed, it often happens that the weak- est in the family runs first to stop the door. All my assistance was some informations from an eminent person, whereof I ain afraid 1 have spoiled a tew by endeavoring to make them of a piece with my own pro- ductions, and the rest, 1 was not able to manage. 1 was in the case of David, who could not move in the armor of Saul ; and therefore chose to attack this nneireiinieiscd Philistine (Wood I mean) with a sling and a stone. And I may say, for Wood's honor, as well as my own, that he resembles ( io- liah in many circumstances very applicable to the present purpose. For Goliah bad a helmet of brass on his bead, and he was armed with a coal of mail, and the weight of the coal was oOOO shekels of brass; ami he had gt caves of biass upon his legs, and a target of brass between his shoulders. In short, he was like Mr. Wood, all over brass, and he defied the armies of the living Godi Goliah's conditions of combatvwere likewise the same with those of Mr. Wood: il he prevail against us, Men ihall we he Ins sen noils ; but if il happens that 1 prevail over him, 1 renounce the other part o( the con- dition. He shall never be a servant of mine, for 1 do not think him lit to be trusted in any honest man's shop." But in the fourth letter of "M, B. Dra- pier,'' Dean Swift disclosed and developed without reserve his real sentiments, which, he savs, " have often swelled in my breast,'' on the absolute right o( the Irish nation filial is, of the English colony there) to gov- ern itself independently of the English Par- liament. ( 'u this point he thoroughly adopts and maintains the whole doctrine Of Mr. Molvneux ("an English gentleman bom lieu'"), and denounces the usurpation of the London Parliament in assuming to bind Ire- land by their laws. The proof that Swift) iii affirming the rights <■( the Irish nation, meant only the English colony, is seen clearly enough in a passage of this Veiy letter, '•(»ne great merit I am sure we have which those of English birth can have no pretence to — that our ancestors reduced this kingdom to the obedience of England, for which we have heen rewarded Willi a worse climate — the privilege of being governed by eil'l ft m (^ I ^—v 9 \ ■ 1 i r&, -aiaa^S'. laws i" which we 'I" nol consent— a ruined trade a hou e ol | a without jurisdiction —almost an incapacity for ail employments, and the dread of W I's halfpence." Ri ins nml warming as lie proceed , he al length fiiirly declares, "In this point we have nothing to do with English ministers, and I should I"' soi ry i" leave it in their pow< r to redress this grievanc to i nforce it, for the report of the committee has givei a sur- feit, The remedy is wholly in your own hands; and therefore 1 hare digressed a 1 i l — lie in ordci to refresh and tinue that spir- it w seasonnbly raised among vou, and to let \oi i see thai by the laws of < lod, of nature, of nations, and of youi unl ry, you are and ought to l«' a^ free a people as your broth- ■ < ii in England." Foi printing this letter, Harding, the printer, was prosecuted; but when the in- dictment against him was sent up to the Dublin grand-jury, every man of them had in hi* hand a copy of another letter, entitled " Seasonable Adt ice to the < Irand-Jury," &e., which ii seems thoj took to heart, for they threw out tin' bill. A proclamation was then issued t'loin i li<- Castle offering are ward for discovery of the author, and signi 'I by Lord < larteret, then \ iceroy, Everj body knew the author; but public spirit, in Dub- lin was then so high and inflamed that the government could nol venture to arresl the I ii in. « in the vei j day the proclamation was issued, he publicly taunted Carteret at i letie with tlms persecuting a pom-, hon- est tradesman, a^ be called "the Drnpier;" adding,"] suppose your lordship expects a ue in copper for tliis service yon have done to Wood." In short, the cause of I lie halfpence was utterly lost: uobody would take them or touch them ; the Englii Ii gov- ernment had to withdraw tin! patent; Wil- liam Wood turned lii^ old copper to some other nse in the hardware line ; but received from the English Government a compen n lion in the shape of a pern ion of three thou- sand pounds for eight years.* From this time the Dean was the most popular man in Ireland ; I"' became the idol ot the shopki • pcrs and tradespeople. The Drapier was a ign ovet hundreds of shop ; * Coxu, Lite of Wuljiole. / i PROSECUTION OK HAEDISrO, TIIIC the Drapier was an honored toast at all mer- ry-makings; and precisely as he grew in popularity in Ireland, he became a more in- tolerable thorn in the side of the king's ser- vants in tli.ii country, and especially ol Primate Boulter. Boulter was appointed Primate in this very year, .-mil one of the earliest letters published in his elaborate cor- respondence shows the extreme uneasiness with which that devoted Bervanl of the Eng- lish interest and door of "the king's busi- ness" regarded the spirit aroused by the common resent nt of all the people of nil religions Bnd races against Iho copper of Wood. He says in tins letter : " 1 Hud by my own and others' inquiries that the peo- ple of every religion, country, and party here, are alike set against Wood's halfpence, and that their agreement in this has bad h very unhappy influence on the state ol this na- tion, by bringing on intimacies between Pa- pists ami Jacobites and the Whigs, who be- i had no correspondence with them: so that 'tis questionable whether, if there were occasion, justices of the peace could be found who would l>e strict in disarming Papists." For the next eighteen years this Primate Boulter was the real governor of Ireland. Thirteen times in that period he was one ot the lords justices, and as he bad the full con- fidence of Walpolc, and was fully imbued with that minister's well-known principle (the principle, namely, that all could be done by intrigue and corruption), we find him really dictating to s essive viceroys of Ire- land, and also warning the English Govern- ment from time to time who were the per- iii in I re l.i in I that deserved encouragement and employment as the "king's servants," and who they wen- thai merited n probation as the " king's enemies," who obstruct 'I him in doing the king's busiuess. It is needless to observe that he became instantly a bitter enemy to Dean Swift, and more than :o cautioned the ministry ugainst whatever representations might come from that qum> lcr.« Win ther KwilY so intended or not, he be- came, in fact, highly popular with the Cath- olics of the kingdom. Not that be ever spoke nl' t hem without disdain ami aver ion. * Letter rtnlod loth leb., 17J.J, fruin Uic I'riinuU 1.; J) ill. i; .,1 .\u'.\ ..i.ilie. & "^ a Cp -L? KS^b W€%i y s skL=i HISTORY OF IRELAND. " The Popish priests," says he, " are all reg- istered, and without permission (which I hope will not be granted) they can have uo successors." (Letter concerning Sacramental Test.) In short, whenever he does allude to them at all, it is always with a view of inti- mating that he has no appeal to make to them, not regarding them as a part of the nation. In the famous prosecuted letter it- self — although it is addressed " To the Whole People of Ireland" — he takes occasion thus lo repel one of the assertions of Wood : " That the I'upisls have entered into an as- sociation against his coin, although it be no- toriously known that the;/ never once offered to stir in the matter." In his address, then, to the "Whole People," he speaks of the Papists as" they." But notwithstanding this, Catholic farmers had wool and grain to sell ; they also had their daily traffic, and if the in- troduction of that perilous copper was to be so fatal to the Protestants, it could not be good for them. Moreover, the bold assertion of Ireland's right to independence pleased them well. They knew, it is true, that they were not for the present considered as active citizens; yet being five to one,* they also felt that if the heavy pressure of British domination wire once taken off, they or their children could not fail to assert tor them- selves a recognized place in a new Irish na- tion, lip to the present date, the Irish Catholic freeholders voted at elections to Par- liament (though their suffrage was cramped by oaths, and they could oidy vote for a Protestant candidate), and they could still make their weight felt in the scale either of Whig or Tory, either in favor of the king's servants er the king's enemies, as Dr. Boul- ter called them respectively. No wonder, therefore, that the primate began to view with great alarm a community of feeling arising between the Catholics and either of the Protestant parties, and he soon cast about for a remedy, and found one. Dean Swift was never openly attacked by the primate, but he had been for some, years subjected to the spy-system, which is always so essential an arm of English government in Ireland, and had found it necessary to use great precautions in securing his manuscripts, as well as his ordinary letters, from the vigi- lant espionage of the government.* When Wood's patent was withdrawn, and all ap- prehensions were over concerning the. half- pennies, he was desirous to withdraw for a while from the capital and from the neigh- borhood of Dr. Boulter's detectives, and went to the quiet retreat of Qnilea, in the County Cavan, where his friend Dr. Sheri- dan had a house. Here he finished "Gul- liver," which had been suspended for a while, and prepared it for the press; enjoying, by the shore of Lough Ramor, the conversation of Stella, and the " blessings of a country life," which he describes to be " Far from our debtors, No Dublin letters, Nut .seen by your betters." The next year Swift went to England, but before he went Primate Boulter wrote to Sir Robert Walpole a letter whifh well illus- trates the vigilance of that prelate in the king's service, and also the estimation in which he held Dr. Swift. He says, "The general report is that Dean Swift designs for England in a little time, and we do not ques-. lion his endeavors to misrepresent his maj- esty's friends here wherever he finds an op- portunity. But he is so well known, as well as the disturbances he has been the foment- er of in this kingdom, that we are under no fear of his being able to disserve any of his majesty's faithful servants by any thing that is known to come from him ; but we could wish some eye were had to what shall be attempted on your side the water." No further political event of much conse- quence occurred in Ireland during the short remainder of the reign of George I. All ac- counts of that period represent the country as sinking lower in misery and distress. Su ill's graphic tracts and letters give a pain- fully vivid picture of the desolation of the rural districts, lie laments often the wanton and utter destruction of timber, wlkiuh had left bare .and hungry-looking great regions that had but lately waved wit li ancient woods. New proprietors, under the various Koscoo's Life of Swift; Sir Walter Scott's Life. £=4. M ,t ^ CM§ ~ t js J^P- fcfc. fl f to .** ; . riAS >Ct!i*.Na»S,il l ' ' ■ \ ; THE COUNTRY REDUCED TO TOTAL DESOLATION. confiscations, had always felt, in those times of revolutions, that their possessions were held by ft precarious tenure; there might at any moment be a new confiscation, or a new resumption; therefore, as the woods would bring in their value at once they were felled remorselessly, and often sold at a mere trifle for the sake of getting ready money. It has 1 n itlready seen that "the commissioners (.!' confiscated estates" in King William's time* speak of this destruction of the forests as a grievous loss to the nation. They esti- mate that mi one estate in Kerry trees to the value of £20,000 had been cut down or de- stroyed ; "ii another estate £27,000 worth ;" and in some cases they say, " Those on whom the confiscated estates have been bestowed, or their agents, have been so greedy to seize upon the most trifling profits that large trees have been cut down and sold for sixpence each." The consequence of all this wanton waste was soon lamentably observable in the nakedness of this once well-wooded island, where in Dean Swift's time it would have been impossible, as he tells us, to find timber either for ship-building or for the houses of the people. The condition of the farmers and laboring people was extremely haul in the latter years of this reign. As Catholics were subjected to severe restrictions if they lived in trading and manufacturing towns, their only resource was to become tenants for short terms, or at will, to an alien and hostile race of landlords, and this at most oppressive rents. "Another gr.at calamity," says Swift.f "is the exorbi- tant raising of the rent of lauds. Upon the determination of all leases made before the year 1 690, a gentleman thinks he has but in- differently improved his estate if he has only doubled his rent-roll. Farms are screwed up to a rack-rent; leases granted but for a small term of years; tenants tied down to baid conditions, ami discouiaged from culti- vating the lands they occupy to the best ad- vantage, by the certainty they have of the rent lieing raised on the expiration of their lease proportionally to the improvements they shall make. Thus it is that honest in- * See their report nt the end of MncGeoghegan'a Hietory. f'Tlie present miserable state of Ireland. " dustry is restrained ; the farmer is a slave to his landlord ; and it is well if he can cover his family with a coarse homespun frieze." Another of the evils complained of by the Dean is the prevalence of absenteeism, which carried over to England, according to his es- timate, half a million sterling of Irish money per annum, with no return. Another still was the propensity of proprietors to turn great tracts of land into sheep pastures, which, of course, drove away tenants, in- creased the wretched competition for farms, and still more increased rents. It was this which made Swift exclaim, with bis bitter humor, ' Ajax was mad when he mistook a flock of sheep for his enemies ; but we shall never be sober till we are of the same way of thinking." To all these miseries must be added the decay of trade and commerce, caused directly by the jealous and greedy commercial policy of England; and this grievance pressed quite as heavily upon the Protestant as on the Catholic. So uniform has been the system of English rule in Ireland, that the description of it given a century and a half ago fits with great accuracy and with even heavier ag- gravations at this day. The absentee rents are now ten times as great in amount as they were then; ami although the prohibition against exporting woollen cloth is now no longer in force, yet its effect has been per- petuated so thoroughly that the Irish do m t now, as they did then, even manufacture woollen cloth fur home consumption. In the year 1723 a petition was presented to Par- liament from the woollen drapers, clothiers and weavers of Dublin, setting forth the de- cay and almost destruction of their industry, the sore distiess and privations of thousands of families that had once lived comfortably by prosecuting these trades, and asking for inquiry and relief. But an Irish Parliament, absolutely controlled by an English Pi ivy- Council, was quite incapable of applying any remedy"; so the affaiis of trade had I'nlUn from bad to worse, until at the close of this reign there was imminent danger of a de- structive famine, that scourge which foreign domination has made so familiar to Ireland. [l was in 1729 that Swift wrote and pub- lished his "Modest Proposal" for relieving the miseries of the people &i & /A I- ¥ '*•> m eating the children of the poor — a piece of the fiercest sarcasm, steeped in all the con- centrated bitterness of his soul ; which, how- ever — so grave is the irony — has been some- times taken by foreign writers as a serious project of relief. King George died on the 11th of June, 1727, just after settling the preliminaries of a peace with the Emperor anil Spain, which was shortly afterwards signed at Seville (but to the exclusion of the Emperor) by the ministers of France, England and Spain. Thus our exiles on the continent were de- prived for a time of the pleasure of meeting their hereditary enemies on the field. But further opportunities were happily to arise for them. CHAPTER IX. 1727-1741. Lord Carteret lord-lieutenant— Primate rtoulte- ruler of Ireland— His policy— Catholic Address— Not noticed — Papists deprived of elective franchise — Insolence of t lie " Ascendency"'— Famiiu — Emi- gration — Dorset lord-lientenant — Agitation of Dissenters — Sacramental Test— Swift's virulence against the Dissenters — Boulter's policy to extir- pate Papists— Kage against the Catholics — Debates on money bills — "Patriot Party" — DuUc of Devonshire lord-licutcnanl — Corruption — An- other famine — Berkeley — English commercial poli- cy in Ireland. The accession of George II. occasioned no great excitement iu Ireland. Lord Carteret was continued as lord-lieutenant, but the corrupt and domineering churchman, Pri- mate Boulter, fl fit instrument of the odious minister, Sir Robert Walpole, still directed the course of government, and always to the same end — the depression and discourage- ment of the Patriot party, as the assertors of Irish legislative independence began to be termed, the complete establishment of English sovereignty, and the eternal division of Irish and English, of Catholic and Prot- estant. The new king had acquired a reputation for a certain degree of liberality and toler- ance, as indeed the first George also had be- fore becoming king of England ; because, in the electoral dominions in Germany, the Catholic religion was freely tolerated, and not subjected to the savage penalties and humiliating oaths which made that worship almost impossible in Ireland. The Irish Catholics, therefore, when the young king mounted the throne, conceived certain de- lusive hopes of a relaxation in the Penal Code. They were still smarting tinder the la-h of the Popery laws, which had never vet been so cruelly laid on as during the reign of George the First ; but as they re- membered that the two last and severest of these laws were said to have been enacted as a punishment for their neglect in not having addressed Queen Anne on her coming to the throne, they were now induced to think they should avoid giving the like of- fence on the present auspicious occasion. An humble congratulatory address was there fore prepared, testifying unalterable loyalty and attachment to the king and to his royal house ; and it met with the kind of reception which might have been expected. It was presented with all due respectjw the lords justices at the Castle of Dublin, by Lord Delvin and other persons of the first quality among them ; but so little notice was then taken either of their address or themselves, that it is not yet known whether it was ever transmitted to be laid before his majesty, as it was humbly desired it should be; or whether even an answer was returned by their excellencies that it should be so trans- mitted. Iu other words, they and their abject "loyalty" were wholly ignored; and they received one additional lesson, if they still needed it, that they were to consider them- selves not his majesty's subjects, but the " common enemy." They were soon to have still another les- son. Primate Boulter, having observed vt ith apprehension that the '' Patriot" party was popular with the Catholics, and afraid of the results of this influence upon the next elec- tions, took care to have a bill prepared, which was hurried through Parliament, for the en- tire disfranchisement of "Papists.' 1 Plow- den and other writers affirm that the dis- franchising clause was introduced into the bill by a kind of surprise or deception ; but, however that may be, it passed both Houses and received the royal assent, enacting that "Ko Papist shall be entitled or admitted to mm. V..»ni| / ..'...3.., HI vote iit the election of any member to serve in Parliament as a knight, citizen or burgess; or at the election of any magistrate for any city or other town corporate, any law, statute or usage to the contrary notwithstanding."* The Catholics were by this law deprived of tin- very last vestige of civil right, and of the only poor means they possessed of mak- ing a friend or influencing any public meas- ure. They remained utterly disfranchised for sixty-six years ; and during all that period were as completely helpless as the beasts of the field. Another transaction of this year may be considered as a lesson not only to the Catho- lics, but to the new king, supposing that they should dream of receiving some indulgence, or thai be should imagine his German lib- erality would do for Ireland. In the year lT.'V application had been made by certain Catholics to the late king for the reversal of some outlawries incurred by several "rebel- lion-," and which had been most iniquitous- ly obtained, and had actually reduced some of the most ancient, noble, and opulent Roman Catholic families of the kingdom, with their numerous descendants, to absolute beggary. The Commons then silting, and justly apprehending from his majesty's sup- posed equity and commiseration, that such application might meet with some success, resolved upon a petition, wherein, among other things, they tell his majesty plainly, and even with a kind of menace, "that nothing could enable t/< most indefatigable, the most effi- cient, the most offensive and disdainful enemy they had, was the Dean of St. Pat- rick's. For once the primate and the dean were on the same side. It does not appear, indeed, that there was the least chance at that time of breaking down in favor of Dissent- ers the strong barriers that fenced round the interest of the Established Church on every side; but there was much discussion by po- litical pamphlets, and for two years Swift poured forth in very powerful papers his horror of Puritans and scorn of Scotchmen. The most remarkable of these productions is that entitled "Reasons; humbly offered to the Parliament of Ireland, for repealing the Sacramental Test in favor of the Catho- lic." This, like his "Modest Proposal," is a master-piece of cold and biting irony; in- tendi 'It" show that the I >issentefs could not nrge a single plea in favor of their own emancipation which the very Papists could not bring forward with Still greater force. The writer seems throughout to plead the cause of the Catholics, "called by their ill- willers Papists," with so much earnestness, thai very intelligent Catholic writers, as Plowden, Lawless, Curry, and others, have quoted it as a serious argument on their be- half. Indeed, it is nol « lerl'ul if straight- forward, unsophisticated minds that under- stand no joking on SO crave a subject, have been sometimes mystified by passages like this : " Ai -1 whi reas another author among onr brethren, the I 'issentcre, has very justly com- plained that by this persecuting Test Act great onmbere i ftrue Protestants have I n forced to leave the kingdom and fly to the plantations, rather than stay here branded with an incapacity for civil and military employment; we do affirm that the Catho lies can bring many more instances of th same kind ; some thousands of their religion have been forced by the Sacramental Tc-t to retire into other countries rather than live here under the incapacity of wearing swords, sitting in Parliament, and getting that share of power and profit which belongs to them as fellow-Christians, whereof they are de- prived merely upon account of conscience, which would not allow them to take the sacrament after the manner prescribed in the liturgy. Hence it clearly follows, in the words of the same author, 'That if we [Caih- olics] are incapable of employment, we are punished for our dissent, that is, tor our con- science,' " &c. It gives us a singular idea of the narrow- ness of this "Irish patriot's" idea of patriot- ism, that he could conceive no more effect- ual way of casting odium and ridicule on the pretensions of Dissenters, than by show- ing that even the Papists themselves might plausibly urge similar pretensions; and al- though he was aware of the effect of these penal laws in driving both Catholics and Dis- senters away from their native land, to cany their energy, their industry, and their resent- ments into foreign countries, he was yet earnestly in favor of retaining the whole sys- tem of penal laws unbroken against them both. The controversy soon died out, and was only occasionally and faintly renewed during the remainder of the century ; but it is impossible to refrain from the expression of a regret that the sovereign genius of Swift could not raise him up to a loftier and more generous idea of patriotism for the country of his adoption — or, as he always called it, of his exile — than this narrow and intolerant exclusiveness, which would drive from their native land both Catholics and Protestants wdio could not take the sacrament as he ad- ministered it. lie opposed English domina- tion over Ireland, yet equally opposed the union of Irishmen to resist it. Therefore the verdict of history must forever be, that he was neither an English patriot, nor an Irish one. As was said long afterwards of O'Connell, "he was a bad subject and a worse rebel." Yet the toue of indepeudeut Rfif ^ m mi M i'^^Xlr i«» IP 68 niSTORY OF IRELAND. thought which rings through his inimitable essays, and the high anil manly spirit with which lie showed Irishmen how to confront unjust power, did not pass away ; they pen- etrated the character of the whole English colony, and bore fruit long after that unquiet and haughty heart lay at rest in the aisle of St. Patrick's. Ubi sceua indignatio ulterius cor lacerate nequit. The disfranchised Catholics being now de- prived of their last and only means of gain- ing the favor and indulgence of their neigh- boring magistrates, by promising to vote for their party (all parlies being alike to the Catholics); were made to feel the full atrocity of the penal laws. It seems really to have been the design of Primate Boulter to wear down that population by ill-usage, to force them to fly the country, to get rid of them somehow altogether, so that the islaud might lie open to be wholly peopled by English Protestants. Boulter was by no means the inventor of this policy; neither was he the last who acted upon it; but none ever pursued it with more diabolical malignity. If any clergyman desired to win the primate's favor, he forthwith preached furious and foaming sermons against the execrated Papists. If any pamphleteer desired to make himself conspicuous as a "king's ser- vant," and so gain a profitable place, he set to work to prove that all Catholics are by nature and necessity murderers, perjurers, and adulterers. The resolutions passed so frequently in both Houses of Parliament, ex- horting magistrates to be active in enforcing the laws against the common enemy, had sometimes been only partially effective, be- cause the Catholics had away of influencing country gentlemen to a certain extent. But now, under the primate's auspices, it was not intended that such resolutions should be a dead letter. On the Oth of March, 1731, it was "Re- solved unanimously that it is the indispens- able duty of all magistrates and officers to put the laws made to prevent the further growth of Popery in Ireland in due execu- tion.'' It was also at the same time resolved, vein, con. (being the end of the session), ''thai ihe men, hers of that house, in their respective couuties and stations, would use their utmost endeavors to put the sev- eral laws against Popery in due execu- tion." These frequent resolutions of the Com- mons, aided by inflammatory anniversary sermons and equally inflammatory pam- phlets, occasionally preached and published, diffused such a spirit of rancor and ani- mosity against Catholics, among their Prot- estant neighbors, as made the generality of them believe that the words Popery, rebel- lion, and massacre really signified the same thing, and thereby excited such real terrors in these latter as often brought the liberties and sometimes the lives of the former into imminent danger. The most shocking fables that had been invented concerning the Irish insurrection in 1041, and of the English gun- powder treason in 1G05, were studiously re- vived ami aggravated in these sermons and pamphlets, with a degree of virulence and exaggeration which surpassed the most ex- travagant fictions of romance gr poetry, and posses-ed their uninformed, though often well-meaning, hearers and readers with last- ing and general abhorrence of these people. The crimes, real or supposed, of Catholics, dead more than a century before, were im- puted, intentionally, to all those who sur- vived them, however innocent, of the same religious persuasion. Doctor Curry affirms that by all these means the popular passion was so fiercely in- censed against Papists as to suggest to some Protestants the project of destroying them by massacre at once; and that "an ancient nobleman and privy councillor," whom the author, however, does not name, " in the \ car 1/43, on the threatened invasion of England by the French, under the command of Marshal Saxe, openly declared in council 'that as the Papists had begun the massacre on them, about a hundred years before, so he thought it both reasonable and lawful, on their parts, to prevent them, at that dangerous juncture, by first falling upon them.'" The same respectable author, who was a contemporary of the events he relates, states that "so entirely were some of the lower northern Dissenters possessed and influenced by this prevailing prepossession and rancor against Catholics, that in the same year, and '^3 />£>!/, ^ ^^tf ••_jr tAi .Ciu.NSW.I, — r (©»/' k- .^ ■ imnnini.E scheme yon the massacre oy catholics. for the saint- declared purpose of prevention, a conspiracy was actually formed by some of the inhabitants of Lurgan to rise in the night time and destroy all their neighbors of thai denomination in their beds. But tins inhuman purpose was also frustrated l>y an information of t i i *- honest Protestant publi- can in whose house the conspirators had met to settle the execution of their scheme, swore before the Rev. Mr. Ford, a justice of the peace in that district, who received it with horror, and with difficulty put a stop to the intended massacre."* The Irish House of Commons, during Lord Dorset's administration, was chiefly oc- cupied by debates on money and finances. The latter years of Carteret's terra had been much disquieted on account of an attempt, made by the king's servants, to get a vote of £■274,000 to the crown. The country party resisted vigorously; and then began a series of acrimonious debates on monetary affairs, which "the Patriots" treated with a view to assert, as often and as strongly as possible, the right of the Irish Legislature to control at least the matter of Irish finances. In this first session, held in the Dnke of Dor- set's government, the question came up again under another form on the vote for the supplies. The national debt, on Lady Day, 1733, was £371,312 13s. 2d.,f and for the payment of the ptincipal and interest the supplies were voted from session to session. A ".':<>ss attempt was now made to grant the supplies, set aside to pay the debt and the interest, to the king and his successors ("fever. This proposition was violently resisted by the Patriots, who asserted that it was uncon- stitutional to vote the sum for a longer period than from session to session. The Govern- ment, defeated in tins attempt, sought to gran) it for twenty-one years, and a warm debate ensued. Just as the division was ab rot taking place, the Ministerialists and Patriots being neatly equal, Colonel Totten- ham, an Oppositionist, entered. Lie was .i ised in boots, contrary to the etiquette of the House, which prescribed full dress. His vote gave the majority to the Patriots, and the Government was defeated by Tottenham Curr^'a Historical Review. t Plow. lea. in his boots. This became one of the toasts of patriotism, and was given in all the social meetings. But such triumphs of the country party' were rare, and their effects were precarious. Every sueh event as this, however, stimu- lated and kept alive the aspiration after inde- pendent nationality; and the same Duke of Dorset, when he was in Ireland as viceroy for the second time, had an opportunity to verify and measure the progress of that na- tional spirit. In 1 7:3 7 Dorset was recalled, and was suc- ceeded by the Duke of Devonshire, a noble- man of great wealth, who kept a splendid court in Dublin, and by the expenditures thereby occasioned made himself extremely popular amongst the tradesmen of that city.* In fact, the English Government and its crafty chief, Sir Robert Walpole, saw the necessity of counteracting the perilous doctrines of the "Patriots," b'y all the arts of seduction, by the charm of personal popularity, and especially by corruption — an art which, un- der Sir Robert Walpole, reached, both in England and in Ireland, a degree of high development, «hieh it had never before at- tained in any country. As it was that min- ister's avowed maxim that "every man has his price," he saw no reason to except Irish patriots from that general law; and Primate Boulter was precisely the man to test its accuracy in practice. All the influence of the Government was now needed to over- come the rev,, lute bearing of the Opposition upon the grand subject of "supplies." The Patriots were determined, if the Irish Par- liament was to be politically subordinate to that of England, that they would at least endeavoT to maintain its privilege of voting its own money. It is in these debates we first find amongst the Patriot party the names of Sir Edward O'Brien, of Clare, and his son, Sir Lucius O'Brien, an illustrious name then, both at home and abroad, des- tined to be more illustrious still before the close of that century, and to shine with a vet purer fame in the present age. Henry Bovle, Speaker of the House of Commons, and afterwards Earl of Shannon, and Antony Malone, son of that Malone who had pleaded * Ilo also built Devonshire Quay, at his own es- pouse, and presented it to the city. ,D, ^M I J : HISTORY OF IRELAND along with Sir Toby Butler against the penal laws of Queen Anne's time, were also leading members of the Opposition. In 1741 there was another dreadful famine. It is irksome to record, or to read the de- tails of this chronic miser}' ; but in the His- tory of Ireland the gaunt spectre of Famine must be a prominent figure of the picture, while English connection continues. The learned and amiable Dr. George Berkeley was then Bishop of Cloyne. A season of starvation first, and then, in due rotation, a season of pestilence, thinned the people miserably ; and the good bishop's sympathies were strongly moved. In a letter to Mi'. Thomas Prior, of Dublin, he writes thus, under date the 19th May, 1741:— '"The distresses of the sick and poor are endless. The havoc of mankind in the counties of Cork, Limerick, and some adjacent places, hath been incredible. The nation, probably, will not recover this loss in a century. The other day I heard one from the county of Limerick say that whole villages were en- tirely dispeopled. About two months since I heard Sir Richard Cox say that five hun- dred were dead in the parish, though in a county, I believe, not very populous. It were to be wished people of condition were at their seats in the country during these calamitous times, which might provide relief and employment for the poor. Certainly, if these perish, the rich must be sufferers in the end." It was wdiile under the impression of these terrible scenes of suffering that Berkeley wrote his celebrated pamphlet, entitled "The Querist," which sets forth, under the form of questions, without answers, the bishop's views of the evils and requirements of his country ; for Berkeley, unlike Swift, called himself an Irishman. Two or three of his queries will show the drift of the work. "Whether a great quantity of sheepwalk be not ruinous to a country, rendering it waste and thinly inhabited';" "Whether it be a crime to inquire how far we may do without foreign trade, and what would fol- low on such a supposition?" "Whether, if there were a wall of brass a thousand cubits high round this kingdom, our natives might not, nevertheless, live cleanly and comfort- ably, till the land, and reap the fruits of it V Such queries as these, though very cautiously expressed, showed plainly enough that the excellent bishop attributed all the evils of Ireland to the greedy commercial policy of England; .and accordingly this pamphlet was quite enough to stop his promo; ion. The next year there was a vacancy for the primacy; and as Berkeley was the most learned and famous man in the Irish Church (Swift being then in his sad dotage), the friends of the Bishop of Cloyne naturally thought him entitled to the place, especially since Sir Robert Walpole owed him some compensation for having broken faith with him in the matter of his Bermuda mission- ary college. But Berkeley himself expected no such favors. He writes to Mr. Prior with a touching simplicity : "For myself, though bis excellency the lord-lieutenant might have a better opinion of me than I tie- served, yet it was not likely that Jie would make an Irishman primate." And assuredly, Berkeley was not the kind of man needed to "do the king's business" in Ireland. Dr. Hoadley was the person appointed, and was soon succeeded by the notorious George Stone. It would require a large volume to detail the numberless and minutely elaborated measures by which the English Government has at all times contrived to regulate the trade and industry of Ireland in all their parts with a view to her own profit;, a s\s- tem whereby periodical famines are insured in an island endowed by nature with such boundless capacity for wealth. We hive seen that both Swift and Berkeley attacked the extensive " sheepwalks." In those years, corn was brought from England to Ireland because it suited the interest of England then to discourage agriculture here, and to encourage sheep-farms, ail her efforts being directed to secure the woollen trade to her- self. Accordingly it was forbidden the Irish to export black cattle to England, and, therefore, sheep became the more profitable stock ; but as the Irish could make nothing of the wool, they had to send it in the fleece, and thus Yorkshire was supplied with the raw material of its staple manufacture. But afterwards, when England had full pos- session of the woollen manufacture, and that of Ireland was u'terly destroyed, it bjcame apparent to the English, that the best use fa [Up. (>4 Sl *%' X ■ &m ^ c - they could make of Ireland would be to Inrn it into a general store farm for agricul- tural produce of all kinds. Anderson {His- tory of Commerce) explains the matter thus : "Concerning these laws, many think them hurtful, and that it would be wiser to suffer the [rish to be employed in breeding and fattening their black cattle for us, than to turn their lands into sheepwallcs as at pies- cut; in consequence of which, in spite of all the laws, they supply foreign nations with their wool." It is observable that this English writer, when he says many think the laws regulat- ing Irish commerce "hurtful," means hurt- ful to the English. Therefore, the system was afterwards so far changed, that England was willing to take any kind of agricultural produce from us, and to give us, in return, manufactured articles made either of our own or of foreign materials. So it has happened that Irishmen have been per- mitted ever since to sow, to reap, and to feed cattle for them, as Anderson recom- mended. But which of the systems bred more Irish famines we shall have other and too many opportunities of inquiring. CHAPTER X. 1741—1745. War nn the Continent — Dr. Luons — Primate Stone — Biitile of DettingeD — Lally— Fontenoy — Tne Insli Brigade. King George II., like his predecessor, felt much more personal interest in German politics and the "balance of power" on the Continent, than in any domestic affairs of the English nation. He had adhered to the " Pragmatic sanction," that favorite measure of the Austrian Emperor Charles Yl., for se- curing the succession of the possessions of the House of Austria to the Archduchess Maria Theresa, queen of Hungary. On the 20th of October, 1740, the Emperor Charles i. I, and all Europe was almost immediately plunged into general war. King Frederick, Btvled the Great, was then king of Prussia; and as the Austrian army and finances were then in great disorder, and he could expect no veiy serious opposition, be suddenly set up his claim to the Austrian duchy of Si- sia, and marched an army into it, in pur- suance of that usual policy of Prussia, which borately prepares and carefully conceals plans of aggression until the moment of putting them in execution, and then makes the stealthy spring of a tiger. France em- braced the cause of the Elector of Bavaria and candidate for the imperial throne; sent an army into Germany under Marshal Brog- lie, and after some successes over the Ans- trians, caused the elector to be proclaimed emperor at Prague. In April, 1741, King I feorge II. delivered a speech to both Houses of his Parliament, informing them that the Queen of Hungary had made a requisition for the aid of England in asserting her title to the throne, pursuant to the Pragmatic sanction ;, and thereupon he demanded war supplies. Some honest and uncorrnpted. members of Parliament protested against this new Continental war; but Sir Robert Wal- pole still ruled the country with almost ab- solute sway ; and to hold his place he sup- ported the policy of the king. So began that long and bloody war: a war in which Ireland had no concern, save in so far as it was an occasion for larger exactions from the Irish Parliament; and also gave to her exiled sous some further opportunities of meeting their enemies in battle. It was in 1741 that the famous Dr. Lucas first appeared in the political arena. He was a man of great energy and honesty ; fully imbued with the opinions of Swift on the rights and wrongs of his country, that is of the English colony. He was even more offensively intolerant than Swift to- wards the Catholics ; but within the sacred limits of the "Protestant interest" he sup- ported the principles of freedom ; and if he fell very far short of his great model ill genius, lie perhaps equalled him in courage. Charles Lucas was born in 1713, and his family was of the farming class in Clare county. He established himself as an apothe- cary in Dublin, where he was elected a mem- ber of the Common Council. He tin re found abuses to correct. The appointment of aldermen had been a privilege Usurped by the board of aldermen, while the right appertained to the whole corporate body. K R? Cv % . •^hUnL S r*— •"£/.<; .UuMtJgS.v, grew holder wish his increasing popularity, mid published some political tracts mi the sovereign right of 1 1i«- Irish Parliament. This attracted attention arid excited alarm ; for, "to make any man popular in Ireland," as the primate bitterly remarks, "it is only necessary to set up the Irish against the English interest." Henceforward Dr. Lucas pursued, in his own way, an active career of patriotism, as he understood patriotism; and the reader will hear of him again. Iii 1742 the primacy of the Irish Church being vacant, by the death of Dr. Boulter, lloadlev was first, appointed to the See of Armagh, but was soon after succeeded by that extraordinary prelate, George Stone, bishop of Deny. It had long been Sir Robert Walpole's policy to govern Ireland mainly through the chief of the Irish Es- tablished Church, and Stone was a man al- together after his own heart. He was English by birth, and the son of a keeper of a jail; was never remarkable for learning, and his character was the worst possible; hut he had qualities which, in the minister's judg- ment, peculiarly titled him to hold thai wealthy and powerful see — that is to say, he would scruple at no corruption, would re- volt at no infamy, to gain adherents "for the court against the nation ;'' and would make it the single aim of his lite to main- tain the English interest in Ireland; and this not only by careful distribution of the immense patronage of Government, but by still baser arts of seduction. Memoirs and satires of that time have made but too no- torious the mysteries of his house near Dub- lin, where wine in profusion and bevies of beautiful harlots baited the trap to catch the light youth of the metropolis. Primate Stone was a very handsome man, of very dignified presence and demeanor; and with such a man for lord-justice and privy coun- cillor, the Duke of Dorset was able to pre- vent any dangerous assertion of indepen- dence during his viceroyalty. There were, however, continual debates over the ques- tion of supplies, the rapidly increased ex- penses of the public establishments, and the notorious corruption practised by Govern- ment. So long as the common interest of the Protestants was kept secure against the mass of the people, all was well ; but during the Devonshire administration alarm was taken about that vital point, on account of a bill to reverse tin attainder which Lord Clancarty had succeeded in having presented to the Irish Parliament during the preceding vice- royalty, and which there seemed to be some danger might be passed. The Clancarty estate, which would have been restored by this attainder, was valued at £60,000 per iii)i,iun ; and it was then in the hinds of many new proprietors who hail purchased under the confiscation titles, and who now, of course, besieged and threatened Parlia- ment with their claims and outcries. It was also found that other persons, w hose lauds bad been confiscated (unjustly as they said they were ready to prove), had instituted proceedings for the recovery of certain pieces of land or bouses. In short, there were eighty-seven suits commenced ; ami the House felt that it was time to set at least that affair at rest. If Papists were to be allowed to disquiet Protestant possessors by alleging injustice and illegality in the pro- ceedings by which they had been despoiled, it was clearly perceived that there would be an end of the Protestant interest, which, in fact, reposed upon injustice and illegality from the beginning. Therefore, a series of very violent resolutions was passed by the i 'ominous, denouncing all these proceedings as ti disturbance of the public weal, and de- claring till those who instituted any such suits, or acted in them as lawyer or attorney, to he public enemies. It may be remem- bered that not only were Catholic barristers debarred from practice, but, by a late act, Catholic solicitors too ; so that after these resolutions there could not be much chance of success in any lawsuit for a Catholic. Thus the Protestant interest was quieted for that time. Meanwhile, war was racing over the Con- tinent, and King George II., with his son, the Duke of Cumberland, bad gone over to take command of the British and Hanoverian troops, operating on the French frontier, while Central Germany was fiercely debated between the Empress Queen, allied with England, and Frederick of Prussia, allied with France. The first considerable battle aftef the king took command was at Detlingen * rt rrb mm®. ,-' A D£% rJ-\_c: ras fc ^< w W ^ \i £ Jk f* BATTLE OF BETTIXGEX COUNT DE LALLY. 63 the 27th of June, 1743. This place is on the Mein or Miiyn river, and very near the city ot' Frankfort. Tin; French were com- manded by the Marichal de Noailks; the allies by King George osiensil.lv, bul really by the Earl of Stair. The day went against the French, and ended in almost a rc Lacy), who then commanded the Russian army against the Turks. Cardinal Fletiry induced him to lay aside every other design and to go t" Rus- sia, not in a military but in a civil capacity; in short, as a diplomatist with special mis- sion. As this mission was to endeavor to detach Russia from English alliance, and so Weaken England in the war, he gladly ac- cepted, for the great object of Lally's life, to the very last, was to strike a mortal blow at England in any part of the earth or sea. He * Letter of Mareoba] de Noailles, quoted in Bk>g. Univ., art, Lilly. did not succeed in Ids Russian embassy, and left St. Petersburg in a fit of impatience, for which the cardinal rebuked him ; then served under Noailles in the Netherlands, who par- ticularly requested him to act as the chief of his staff. It is thus we find him at the disas- trous battle of Dettingen; but for the re- pulse that day both Lally and the French were soon to have a choice revenge. After the battle, a regiment of Irish infantry was created for him, and attached to the Irish brigade. The brigade consisted now of seven regiments, and it saw much service that year and the next under the Count de Saxe, who took the various towns of Menin, Ypres, and Fumes, in the Netherlands, all which the Duke of Cumberland endeavored to prevent without avail, and without com- ing to a battle. In this year, 1714, however, great prep- aration was made on both sides for a de- cisive campaign. The 'French army was increased in the Netherlands, and on the other side the English court had at length prevailed on the States-General of Holland to join the alliance against France. In Sep- tember of that year, the allies, then in camp at Spire, were reinforced by 20,000 Dutch, who were time enough, unluckily for them, to take a share in the great and crowning battle of Fontenoy. It might be supposed that the incidents of this famous battle have been sufficiently discussed and described to make them gen- erally known ; but, in fact, the plain truth of that affair (especially as it affects the Irish engaged) is very difficult to ascertain with precision, and for the very reason that there are so many accounts of it handed down to us by French, Irish, and English authorities, all with different national prejudices and predilections. Reading the usual English accounts of the battle, one is surprised to find in general no mention of Irishmen hav ing been at Fontenoy at all ; the English naturally dislike to acknowledge that they owed that mortal disaster in great part to the Irish exiles whom the faithlessness and oppression of their own Government had driven from their homes and filled with the most intcn-e passion ot' vengeance: tin) French, witli a sentiment of national pride equally natural, wish to appropriate tu \> K % M ...-!«.»,,, WF~?WT HISTORY OF IRELAND. D7$ French soldiers, as far as possible, the honor of one of ilieir proudest victories; but it' we read certain enthusiastic Irisli narratives of Fontenoy, we might be led to suppose that it was the I r i ~- 1 1 brigade alone which saved the French army and ruined the redoubt- able column of English and Hanoverians. It is well, then, to endeavor to establish the simple laets hv reference to such authorities as are beyond suspicion. In the ond of April, 1745, the Marechal de Saxe, now famous for liis successful sieges in the Netherlands, opened trenches before Tournay, on the Scheldt river, winch, in this place, runs nearly from south to north. King Louis, with the young dauphin, " m t to speak of mistresses, play-actors, and cookery- apparatus (in wagons innumerable) hastens to be there," says Carlyle.* Tournay was ver) strongly fortified, and defended by a Dutch garrison of nine thousand men, and Saxe appeared before il with an army of about seventy thousand men. The allies de- termined at all hazards to raise the siege, and King George's son, the Duke of Cum- berland, hastened over from England to take command of the allied forces — English, Dutch, Hanoverian, and Austrian — destined for that service. Count Konigseck com- manded the Austrian quota, and t lie Prince of Waldeok the Hutch. The army was mustered near Brussels on the 4th of May, and thence set forth, sixty thousand strong, for Tournay, passing near the field of Siein- Icirk — a name remembered in the English army. On Sunday, the Dlh of May (new style), the duke reached the village of Vazon, six or seven miles from Tournay, in a low, undulating country, with some wood and a few streams and peaceable villages. The ground which was to be the field of battle lies all between the Brussels road and the river Scheldt. Tournay lay to the north-west, closeh beleaguered by the French, and the Marechal de Saxe, .aware of the approach of the allies, had thrown up some works, to bar their line of advance, with strong bat- teries in the villages of Antotne and Fon- * Life of Frederick. Mr. Carlyle, who devotes ninny pages to a minute account of tbo buttle of Fonteui y, d ea not seem to have been made aware, in the course of lis reading, of the presence of any Irisli troops :il all oil that field. tenoy, and on the edge of a small wood, called Bois de Barri, which spreads out to- wards the east, but narrows nearly to a point in the direction of Tournay. In these works connected by redans and abatis, and mount- ed with probably a hundred guns, the Mare- chal took his position with fifty-five thou- sand men, leaving part of his force around Tournay and in neighboring garrisons. Near the point of the wood is a redoubt Called "redoubt of Eu," so called from the title of the Norman regiment which occupied it that day. < Mi a hill a little farther within the French lines the king and the dauphin took their post. And now Saxe only feared that the allies might not venture to assail him in so strong a place; and the old Austrian, Kbnig-cck, was strongly of opinion that the attempt ought not to be made; but the Duke of ("umbel Ian. 1 and Waldeck, the DutcU com- mander, were of a different opinion, and, in short, it was determined to go in. Early in the morning of the 11th the dispositions were made. The Dutch and Austrians were on the enemy's left, opposite the French right, and destined to carry St. Antoine and its works; the English and Hanoverians in the centre, with their infantry in front and cavalry in the rear, close by the wood of Barri. The map contained in the " Memoirs of Marechal Saxe" gives the disposition of the various corps on the French side ; and we there find the place of the Irish brigade marked on the left of the French line, but not the extreme left, and nearly opposite the salient point of the wood of Barri. The brigade was not at its full strength ; and we know not on what authority Mr. Davis* states that all the seven regiments were on the ground. There were probably four regi- ments : certainly three — Clare's, Dillon's, and Lally's — Lord t Jlare being in chief command. Neither Clare, nor Dillon, nor Dally was Irish by birth, but all were sons of Limerick exiles. Of their troops ranked that day under the green flag, probably not one had fought at Limerick titty-four years before. They were either the sons of the original '• Wild-geese," or Irishmen who had migra- ted since, to flv from the degradation of the Kote to his splendid ballad of " Fonteuoy." 'tAS .ciutta,^ j) .SiJ«s_ iuat laws, and seek revenge ii]«'n tbeir country's eneuiii s. Judging from the space which tli" brigade is made I seupy on the map, ii appears likely that its effective force a' Fontenoy did not exceed five thousand men, c* the tenth part of the Fi.-n< li army. I lie various attacks ordered by tin- Duke of Cumberland on the several parts of the French line were made in due form, after boom pi'eliminary cannonading. None of them succeeded. The Dutch and Anstrians were to have stormed St. Antoine, their right wing at the same time joining hands with the English and Hanoverians opposite Fontenoy. But they found the fire from Antoine too heavy, and, besides, a battery they were not aware of opened upon them from the opposite bank of the Scheldt, and sage in that place."* In fact, no general ought to have done so. However, a C r lyle describes this advance, '-His Royal High ness blazes into resplendent Plalt-Deutscl rage, what we may call spiritual whiti heat, a man sans pew at any rate, and pretty much sans avis — decides that he must and will be through those lines, if it please God; that he will not be repulsed at his part of the attack— not he, for one; but will plunge through by what gap there is (nine hundred yards Voltaire measures it), between Fontenoy and that redoubt, with its laggard Ingoldsby, and see what the French interior is like."f In fact, he did come through the lines, and saw the interior. lie retired for a space, rearranged his English and Hanoverians in three thin col- t them up so effectually that after two umns, which, in the advance, under heavy a i int. assaults they were fain to retire to then- original position. Of course the Eng- lish have complained ever since that it was the Dutch and Austrians who lost them Fontenoy. In the mean time the English and Hanoverians were furiously attacking the village of Fontenoy itself, but had no I tl r success. Before the attack a certain Brigadier-General [ngoldsby had been de- tached with a Highland regiment, "Semple's Highlanders," and some other force, to si- lence the redoubt of Eu, on the edge of the wood, which seriously incommoded the Eng- lish liirlit. [ngoldsby tried, but could not doit (on which account he underwent a court martial in England afterwards). So the duke had to make his attack on Fon- tenoy with the gnus of that redoubt ham- mering his ri^ht tlank. The attack was made, however, and made with gallantry and persistency, three times, but completely repulsed each time with considerable loss. No hing but repulse everywhere — right, left and (cntre: hut now the Duke of Cumber- land perceived that between Fontenoy and the wood of Barri, with its redoubt of Eu, there wa- a passage practicable, though with .; peril and loss from the cro-s-fire. "Sire," said Saxe to the king on the even- ing of that triumphant day, "I have one fault to reproach myself with — I ought to have put one more redoubt between the wood and Fontenoy; hut I thought there was no general bold enough to hazard a pas- fire from both sides, were gradually crowded into one column of great depth, full sixteeu thousand strong.J They had with them twelve field-pieces — six in front and six in the middle of their lines. § The column had to pass through a kind of hollow, where they were somewhat sheltered from the fire on each flank, dragging their cannon by hand, and then mounted a rising g ound, and found themselves nearly out of direct range from the guns both of Fontenoy and the redoubt of Eu — fairly in sight of the French position. In front of them, as it chanced, were four battalions of the Gardes Franpaises, with two battalions of Swiss guards on their left, and two other French regiments on their light. The French offi- cers seem to have been greatly surprised when tiny saw the English batteiy of can- non taking position on the summit of the rising ground. " English cannon !" they cried; "let us go and take them." They mounted the hill with their grenadiers, but were astonished to find an army in their front A heavy discharge, both of artillery ♦Voltaire. Louis XV. His account of the battle it in general very clear and precise; but Voltaire, both in tiiis work ami in his ).oem of Fontenoy, though lie cannot altogether avoid all mentian of the Irish troops, takes care to say as little about them as Mile. t Life of Frederick. {Davis, both in liis ballad and his note on this battle, by some uuaccountable oversight, stater- it at tdx thousand. § Voltaire. w t, % 'Ss ft ft. 9 y - '" - t!.' w 't*l .CGUKUbi.lt, m 'f-\-- " \ h> .p ma musketry, made them quickly recoi with huavy loss. The English column con- tinued to advance Bteadily, and the French guards, with the regiment of Courten, sup- ported by otlicr troops, having re-formed, came up to meet them. It is at this point that the ceremonious salutes are said to have passed between Lord Charles Bay, whocora- inandcd tin- advance of tin- Knglish, and the Comte d'Auteroche, an officer of the French grenadiers — the former taking off his hat and politely requesting Messieurs of the French Guards to fire — the latter, also, with hat off, replying, "After you, Messieurs." D'Espagnac and Voltaire both record tins piece of stage - courtesy. Hut Carlyle, though he says it is a pity, disturbs the course of history by means of "a small ir- refragable document « hich lias come to him," namely, an original letter from Lord Hay to his brother, of which tins is an excerpt : " It was our regiment that attacked the French Guards; and when we came within twenty or thirty paces of them, I advance.) before our regiment, drank to them (to the French), and told them that we were the English Guards, and hoped they would stand till we came quite up to them, and not swim the Scheldt, as they did the Mayn at Dettingen ; npi n which 1 immediately turned about to our own regiment, speeched them, and made them huzzith. An officer (d'Auteroche) came out of the lank-', and tried to make his men huzzah. However, there were not above three or tour in their brigade that did," &C. In fact, it appars that the French, who, ac- cording to that chivalrous legend, " never tired first," did fire first on ilns occasion ; but both < iiii des Frmif wises and Swiss (I tiards were driven off the field with considerable slaughter. And still the English column ad- vanced, with a terrible steadiness, pouring forth a tremendous fire of musketry and ar- tillery, suffering grievously by repeated at- tai k's, both in Mont and flank, but still closing up iis gapped ranks, and showing i resolute face on both sides. There was some con- fusion in the French army, owing to the surprise at this most audacious advance, and the resistance at first was unconcerted and de-ultory. Regiment after regiment, both foot and horse, was hurled against the re- doubtable column, but all were repulsed by an admirably sustained fire, w hich the French called feu d'eiifer. Voltaire states that among the forces which made these ineffec- tual attacks were certain Irish battalions, and that it was in this charge that the Colo- nel Count Dillon was killed. And still the, formidable column steadily and slowly ad- vanced, calmly loading and firing, " as if on parade," says Voltaire, and were now full three hundred paces beyond the line of fire from Fontenoy and the redoubt of the wood, resolutely marching on towards the French headquarters. By this time Count Saxe found that his batteries at Fontenoy had used all their balls and were only answering the guns of the enemy with discharges of powder, lie believed the battle to be lost, and sent two several times to entreat the king to cross the Scheldt, and get out of danger, which the king, however, steadily refused tO do. « Military critics have said that at this crisis of the battle, if the English had been sup p irted by cavalry, and due force of artillery, to complete the disorder of the French — or, if the Dutch, under Waldeck, had at that moment resolutely repeated their assault upon St. Antoine, the victory was to the Duke of Cumberland, and the whole French army must have been fiung into the Scheldt nver. fount Saxe was now in mortal anxi- ety, and thought the battle really lost, when the Duke de Richelieu rode up at full gallop and suggested a plan, which was happily adopted. It was the thought of that same Colonel Count de I. ally, who has been heard of before at Dettingen.* In fact, this fa- mous plan does not appear to have required any peculiar strategic genius to conceive, for it was neither more nor less than to open with a battery of cannon right in front of the advancing column, and then attack it simultaneously with all the reserves, includ- ing the king's household cavalry, and the Irish brigade, which stiil stood motionless near the western point of the wood of Barri, and now abreast n\ the English column on * '■ Tt is said tlic Jacobite Irishman, Count Lnlly, of the- Irish brigade, was prune author of this ii"- tion." — Carlyle. Frederick. This is the only indi- cation it] all Citrlyle's labored account of the battle that lie woe' aware even of the presence of one Irishman. < M m m " THE IRISH BRIGADE AT FONTENOT. 07 A ' ''$0 its right flank. Tliere was also in the sa quarter the French regiment of Norman. lie, and several other corps which had already been repulsed and broken in several inef- fectual assaults on the impregnable column.* A French authority f informs us that "this last decisive charge was determined upon, in the very crisis of the day, in a conversation rapid and sharp as lightning between Riche- lieu, galloping from rank to rank, and Lally, who was out of patience at the thought that the devoted ardor of the Irish brigade was not to be made use of." lie had his wish, and at the moment when the battery opened on the front of the column, the brigade had orders to assail its right flank and to go in with the baronet. The English mass was now stationary, but still unshaken, and never doubling to finish the business, but looking wistfully back for the cavalry, and longing for the Dutch. Suddenly four guns opened at short range straight into the head of their column ; and at the same moment the Irish regiments plunged into their right flank with bayonets levelled and a hoarse roar that rose above all the din of battle. The words were in an unknown tongue; but if the English had understood it, they would have known that it meant "Remember Limerick!'' That fierce eharge broke the steady ranks, and made the vast column waver and reel. It was s,.c ( ,nded by the regiment of Normandie with equal gallantry, while on the other flank the cavalry burst in impetuously, and the four guns in front were ploughing long lanes through the dense ranks. It was too much. The English resisted for a little with stub- born bravery, but at length tumbled into utter confusion and tied from the field, leav- ing it covered thickly with their own dead and their enemies'. They were not pursued far, for, once outside of the lines, their cav- * The Marquis d'Argenson, minister of Foreign Atfer-, uii- present in the battle, and immediately aftei wrote a narrative of it. which lie addressed to M. de Vo i listorio i ipher t" tie- King." It ays: " \ false corps de rtservs was then brought u|>; ii consisted of the same cavalry which had at tir-t cliurged ineffectually, the household troops of the king, the carbineers of the French guards, who oen engaged, and a bo |\ of Iri h troops, vi ere excel lout, e peeially w ben opposed to the Knglisli ond Hanoverians." g. Univ. Lully. airy was enabled to cover their retreat. The allies lost nine thousand men, including two thousand prisoners, and the French live thousand. So the battle of Fotitenoy was fought and won.* It cost the Irish brigade dear. The gal- lant Dillon was killed, with one-fourth of the oflicers and one third of the rank and file ; but the immediate consequences to France were immense — Tournay at once surrendered; Ghent, Oudenarde, Bruges, Dendermonde, Ostend, were taken in quick succession; and the English and their allies driven back behind the swamps and canals of Holland. None of all the French victories in that, age caused in Paris such a tumult of joy and exultation. In England there were lamentation, and wrath, and courts-martial ; but not against the Duke of Cumberland, for the king's son could do no wrong. In Ireland, as the news came in, first, of the British defeat, and, then, gradually, of the *M. de Voltaire, though he gives :i long account of tins battle, and cannot avoid naming at least Hie Irish brigade, has not one word of praise for it. This is tho more notable, as ho had D'Argensonfs Memoir before him, who speaks of them as pro' themselves excellent troops, especially against the English. But Voltaire always grudges any credit to the Irish troops, and never speaks of them at all in his histories when he can possibly avoid it. D'Ar- genson himself was well known to be no friend of theirs, and would not have praised them on this oc- casion it their bravery had not attracted the notice of all. Indeed, in the same letter to Voltaire this courtier says very emphatically — " The truth, the positive fact, without flattery, is this — the king gained tht battU himself" The services of the brigade, however, on that great day, were too notorious in the French army to he altogether concealed. The Memoir cited before from the Biographic UnivtrstUt Bays : ''It is noto- rious how much the Irish brigade contributed to the victory by bursting at the point of the bayonet into the think of the terrible English column, while Richelieu cannonaded it in front." Euglish historians scarce mention the brigade at this occasion ; but Lord Mahon is a creditable exception. He says Count Save "drew toe, tier the household troops, the whole reserve, and every ether man that could he mustered; but foremost of all "ere the gallant exiles of the Iri--h brigade." Voltaire, however, speaking of the troops who charged on the riLdil Hank, takes care to say ••/.<< Irlandais Us seamdent." But, perhaps, the best at- testation to the services of the brigade was the im- precation on t lie 1'ennl Code wrung from King i leorge when he was told of the events of that da} , " Cursed be the laws which deprive me of such sub- 4b sj "LHi.CIH & glorious achievements of the brigade and the honors paid to Irish soldiers, a sudden Lul silenl flush of triumph and of hope broke upon the oppressed race ; and many a gloomy countenance brightened with a gleam of s em joy, in the thought that the long- mourned " Wild geese" would one day re turn, with freedom and vengeance in the flash of the bayonets of Fontenoy. CHAFFER XI. 1743- 1768. Alarm in England Expedition of Prince Charles Edward— " A Message of Peace to Ireland"— Vice- royalty of Chosterfii Id Tern o irj I o ration of ,1:',. Catholics Berkelej The Scottish Insurrea tion Cullodon— " Loyalty" of the Irish - Lucas and the Patriots Debates on the Supplies B j li and Malone— Population of Ireland. Thb battle of Fontenoy was an event in the history of Ireland — not only by the reflected glory of Irish heroism, but because disaster to England was followed, as usual, by a re- laxation of the atrocities inflicted upon Irish Catholics, under the Penal * lode. England, r deed, was in profound alarm, and not with- out cause, for, not only had the campaign in the Netherlands gone so decidedly againsl her, l>ut almost immediately after it became known that preparations were on fool in France for a new invasion ou behalf of Charles Edward, the "Young Pretender." The prince was now twenty-five years of He had been wasting away his youth at Rome, where his father, James 111., then res ded. In 174. he was recalled to France, and some hopes were held out of giving him an armed force of French, Scotch, and Irish, to assert his father's rights to the crow n of England. For three years he had waited impatiently for his opportunity ; but the times were then so busy that nobody thought of him. It was the Cardinal de Tencin who one day advised him to wail no longer, but go with a few friends to some point in the north of Scotland. "Your presence i " said the cardinal, "will create for you a party and an army; then France must tend \ ou succor." In short, the prince co suited witli a few of his friends, chiefly Irish officers; an armed vessel of eighteen guns was placed a: his disposal by an Irish mer- chant of Nantes, named Walsh ; a French ship-ot' war was ordered to escort him; and on the 12th of June, just one month after Fontenoy, he set sail with only seven at- tendants upon his adventurous errand. The seven who accompanied him were the Mar- quis of Tullibardine, brother to the Duke of Athol, Sir Thomas Sheridan, Colonel O'Sul- livau (" who was appointed," says Voltaire, •• Marichal des Logis of the army not yet in being"), a Scotch officer named MaeDon- ald, an Irish officer named Kelly, and an English one named Strickland. They land- ed on the bare shore of Moidart, in the highlands, where the prince was quickly joined by some of the Jacobite elans, the MacDonald, Lochiel, Cameron, and Fra- ser. The Duk s of Argyle and Queens- berry, however, who controlled other pow- erful elans, kept aloof and prepared to take the pari of the reigning king. Kine««George was at this moment in Hanover; but the lords of his council of regency made tin best arrangements possible for resistance in a country so nearly stripped of all its regu- lar troops, and set a price upon the prince's head. In this emergency it was necessary to think of Ireland, as it. was considered cer- tain that the prince mtl-t have had agents in that country to stir up its ancient Jacobite spirit; besides, it was known that the prin- cipal chiefs of the enterprise were officers of the Irish brigade, coming flushed from Fon- lenoy; and ihe Government thought it was not in the nature of things that there could be tranquillity in Ireland. There must sure- \ be an arrangement either for stirring an insurrection in the island itself or for send- ing fighting men to Scotland. I'll the whole, it was judged needful, in this danger- ous crisis of British affairs, to show some in- dulgence to the Irish, and, accordingly, in the mouth of September, just as Prince Charles Edward was leading his moun- taineers iulo Ediuburgb, an amiable vicer y was sent to Dublin, bearing what might be ca hd a " message of p< ace to Itvbm ." I'hs was the Earl of Chesterfield, who had a reputation for gallantry, accomplishments, and an easy disposition. What Foul Ches- terfield's secret instructions were, we lain I* >< E^^PSS^ iftn '-i.i. p 1 _r * i mi in mi ar A MESSAGE OF PEACE TO IRELAND. 00 i'V only jndgc by tin- course of his administra- tion. II ■ at once put a stop to the business of priest-hunting, ami allowed the Catholic chapels in Dublin and elsewhere t<> be opened for service. On the England, and did not care \'o\- Ireland at all. Tlio reasons why he disliked the Irish were, first, 'hat they were ?ood Catholics* and, next, that the Irish in France were not very modest in asserting their pretensions and demanding recog- nition of their services. It was Voltaire's corre- spondent, D'Argenson, when minister, that said once to Xing Louis, "Those Irish troops «ive more trouble than all the rest of your majesty's army." " My enemies say so," answered the king. 3? rOi iMSZh &,/S3r l \ 4k *7 il ... m W^^'Wl #®>r ft a iuckkeley — the Scottish insurrection army of the Prince had already retired from the centre of England ; it had been diminished and weakened by various causes, the principal of which were jealousies of highland chiefs against one another, and of lowland lairds against them all, together with a general lack of discipline, and ere long a lack of provisions also. The Jacobite force made the best of its way back to Scot- land, and soon after (January 28, 1746), ut- terly defeated an English force at Falkirk. This was the last of its successes. The Duke of Cumberland was now marching into Scotland with a considerable army, and arrived in Edinburgh on the 10th of Febru- ary. Prince Charles Edward was obliged to raise the siege of Stirling Castle. The win- ter was severe, and subsistence was scarce. His last resource was now iu the northern highlands, where there was still a force on foot, watching the seaports to receive the supplies which might still be sent from France ; but most of the vessels destined to that service were captured by English cruisers. Three companies of the Irish regiment of Fitzjames arrived safely, and were received by the highbinders with ac- clamations of joy — the women running down to meet them and leading the officers' horses by the bridles. Still the prince was now hard pressed by the English ; he retired to Inverness, which he made his headquarters ; and on the 23d of April he learned that the duke, steadily advancing through the moun- tains, had crossed the river Spay, and felt that a decisive battle was now imminent. On the 27th the two armies were in presence at Culloden — the prince with five thousand men or less, the duke with ten thousand, well supplied with both cavalry and artillery. The English were by this time accustomed to the highland manner of fighting, which had so intimidated them at first, and with such superiority of numbers and equip- ments the event could scarcely be doubtful. The prince's small army was totally defeated, with a loss of nine hundred killed and three hundred and twenty prisoners. The prince himself made his way into the mountains, ■ in] aided by his faithful friends, Sheri- dan and O'Sullivan; and his adventures, concealments, and ultimate escape are suffi- struggle of the Stuarts, and their cause was now lost utterly and forever. There were still, from time to time, plots, and even at- tempts by the Scottish Jacobites to make at least some commencement of a new insur- rection, but all in vain. Ever after Jacohitism existed only in songs and toasts, sung and pledged in private society; and many a house in Edinburgh and glen in the high- lands is yet made to ring with those plaintive or warlike lvrics. So long as the prince lived, the health of Prince Charlie was often drunk, or, "The King over the Water ;" but he died in Florence in 1788, without legiti- mate posterity, and the cause of the ancient family sank definitively into the domain of sentimental associations and romantic sou- venirs. Almost at the very moment of the battle of Culloden the conciliatory Earl of Ches- terfield was recalled from Ireland. His work was done, and done well. " England," says Plowden, with more than his usual point and force, " England was out of danger, and Ireland could securely be put again un- der its former regime." After a short in- terregnum, under three lords-justices, the Earl of Harrington was appointed lord-lieu- tenant on the 13th of September. There was certainly no excuse for bring- ing the Irish back under the unmitigated terrors of the penal laws, on account of any manifestation of turbulence, or of a design " to bring in the Pretender" during the last insurrection. On this point the most hostile authorities agree, and, although -we do not take credit for the fact as a proof of " loyalty" to the House of Hanover, the fact itself is indisputable. One remarkable witness is worth hearing on this question. In the year 1762, upon a debate in the House of Lords about the expediency of raising five reo-iments of these Catholics, for the service of the King of Portugal, Doctor Stone (then primate), in answer to some commonplace objections against the good faith and loyalty of these people, which were revived with virulence on that occasion, declared publicly, in the House of Lords, that "in the year 1747, after that rebellion was entirely sup- pressed, happening to be in England, he had an opportunity of perusing all the papers ot bels and their corresponde % ,« e v J"L W& ;JiO ,vj ,*b i'Q ' • • & ici— L \h i ' "*— ^- .*•!■■■ — ~ ~~' ~ - "M. "" '"* ' ■■■--■■ - * -O-hrr' . 72 IIISToKY OF IKKLAN'D. t\ \\ \\ were seized in tlie custody of Murray, the Pretender's secretary ; and that, after having spent much li .-mil taken great pains in examining them (not without some share o1 the then common suspicion, that there might be some private understanding and inter- course between them and the I ii>li Catho- lics), lie coul'l nol discover the least trace, hint, or intimation of such intercourse or correspondence in them; or of any of the latter's favoring, abetting, or having been bo much us made acquainted with the designs or proceedings of these rebels. And what," he said, ''lie wondered at most of :ill was, that in all his researches, he had not met with any passage in any of these pa from which he could infer that either their Holy Father the Pope, or any of his cardi- nals, bishops, or other dignitaries of that church, or any of the Irish clergy, had, either, directly or indirectly, encouraged, aided, or approved of, the commencing or cairying on of that rebellion." Another, and still more singular attesta- tion to the same fact is in Thief Justice Marlay's address to t lie Dublin Grand-Jury, after the suppression of the Scottish insur- rei "When posterity read. . . that Ireland, where much the greatest part of the inhabit ints profess a religion which some- times lias authorized, or at least justified re- bellion, not mil) preserved peace at borne, but contributed to restore it amongst bis subjects of Great Britain, will they not be- lieve that the people o( Ireland wen 1 actu- ated by something more than their duty and allegiance .' Will they not be convinced that they were animated hv a generous sense of gratitude and zeal for their great bene- factor, and fully sensible of the happiness of being blessed by living under the protection of a monarch, who, like the glorious King William," &c. Thus, if Irish ("a: holies of the present day are willing to plume them- selves, as some Catholic writers have done, upon the unshaken loyalty of their ancestors in 1740, there is no doubt that they are fully entitled to all the credit which can come to diem from that circumstance. Under Lord Harrington's administration the debates on money bills formed the chief subject of public interest, and the only Held on which Irish "patriotism" and the cham- pions of English domination tried their strength. It was also becoming a matter more and more important to the English Government, because, notwithstanding the discouragements of trade and the distresses iA' the country people, Ireland had now a surplus revenue to dispose of, and the Pa- triots naturally supposed this to be fairly ap- plicable to public works within the island. Primate Stone, however, who was now in possession of all the influence of Rotllter, and imbued with the same thoroughly British principles, contended that all the surplus revenue of Ireland, as a dependent, kingdom, belonged of right to the Crown. The Pa- triot party were led chiefly by two men- Henry Boyle, the Speaker of the House, and the Prime Sergeant Antony Malone — the former an ambitious and intriguing politi- cian, the latter an eloquent debater and most aide constitutional lawyer. Outside of the House the patriotic spirit of the people, — that is, the Protestant people — was inflamed by the writings of Dr. Charles Lucas, who had now, from petty corporation politics, risen to the height of the gTeat argument of na tional independence. But it soon appealed that the Irish House of Commons was not yet prepared for the reception of such bold doctrines. Lucas and his writings were made the subject of a resolution in the House of Commons; he was bill faintly de- fended by his own partisans, and the resolu- tion passed, declaring him as "an enemy to his country," even for asserting the rightful independence of thai very Parliament which proscribed him. This event befell in 1"4!>; a reward was offered for the apprehension of Lucas, and he fled from the kingdom. As usual in such eases, the persecution directed against him attracted more attention to his writings and bred more sympathy with his principles; so that when he returned a few years after, he became for a time the most popular man in the kingdom. To interna- tional questions thus narrowed down to the mere right of voting or withholding money, it was impossible to give any high constitutional interest, and, in fact, during this administra- tion not a single step in ad\ auee was gained by the " Patriot" party. The struggle for power and influence between Primate Stone and Speaker Boyle '' was no more," says Mac 6 •efc Q & y tfr« .i,... LUCAS AND THE PATRIOTS — DEBATES ON THE STJPPI.n». 13 p"n v \&\ N. \ in, •' and powi i fu than tin' struggle of two ambitious in mi for their own ends. In 1751 Lord Harrington was recalled. The Duke of Dorset, for the Becond time, came to Ireland as lord-lieutenant, and the question of Irish parliamentary control over the revenues of the country came at last to a cti.-is, and received a solution very little to the comfort of the Patriots. In the last session under Harrington's viceroyalty, as there was a considerable surplus in the Irish Exchequer, the House of Commons deter- mined to apply it towards the discharge of the national debt. A bill bad been accord- ingly prepared and transmitted to England with this view, to which was affixed the pre- amble: "Whereas, on the 25th of March last a considerable balance remained in the hands of the vice-treasurers or receivers- gi n. ral of the kingdom, or their deputy or di puties, unapplied ; and it will be for your majesty's service, and for the ease of your faithful subjects in this kingdom, that so much thereof as can be conveniently spared Bhould be paid, agreeably to your majesty's most gracious intention, in discharge of part of ili" national debt," &c. On the trans- mission of this bill to London (Mr. Pelham being then prime minister), it was urged by the warm partisans of prerogative in the council that the Commons of Ireland had no right to apply any part of the unappro- priated revenue, nor even to take into con- sideration the propriety of such appropria- i i . without the previous consent of the noun formally declared. When the Duke I 'oiset came over, and opened the —ion of 1751, he informed the two Houses that he was manded by the king to acquaint them that his majesty, ever thoughtful of the welfare and happiness of bis subjects, would graciously consent -md recommend it to them that such part of the money then remaining in In- treasury, as should be thought con- Bistent with the public service, be applied towards the further reduction of the na- tional debt. " Consent" involved a principle, and the Commons took fire at the word. They famed the bill, appropriating £120,000 for the purpose already stated, and omitted i„ , | e all mention of the consent. Bui ministers returned it with an alt. 'ration in the preamble signifying the consent and 10 containing the indispensable word. And ilu- House, unwilling to drive the matter to extremities, passed the bill without further notice. Thus was established a preceden for the King of England consenting to the Irish Parliament voting their own money. So far had the differences proceeded, when Mr. Pelham died, and the Duke of New- castle, who succeeded him as prime minister, zealous to uphold the prerogative, to improve upon the precedent, and to repeat thelesson just given to the aspiring colonists of Ireland, sent positive directions to Dorset, in open- ing the session of 1753, to repeat the ex- pression of his majesty's gracious consent in mentioning the application of surplus reve- nue. The House, in their Address, not only again omitted all reference to that gracious consent, hut even the former expressions of grateful acknowledgment; and tin- hill of supplies was actually transmitted to England without the usual complimentary preamble. The ministers of the crown in England, in their great wisdom, thought fit to supply it thus: "And your majesty, ever attentive to the ease and happiness of your faithful subjects, has been graciously pleased to sig- nify that you would cdnsent," and so forth. When the hill came over thus amended there was much excitement both in Parlia- ment ami in society. Malone was learned and convincing. Boyle, by bis extensive influence and connections in Parliament, powerfully seconded, or rather led, the opposi- tion. And, notwithstanding the utmost ex- ertions of the king's servants to do the king's business, the spirit of independence was sufficiently roused to cause the entire defeat of the amended bill, though only by a ma- jority of five votes. The Commons wished to appropriate the money — the king con- sented, and insisted upon consenting; and then the Commons would not appropriate it at all, because the king consented. The de- feat of the hill was considered as a victory of Patriotism, and was celebrated with universal rejoicings — even the Catholics joiningin the general joy, for they felt instinctively that it w the weight of English predominance which kept them in their degraded position, and necessarily sympathized with every struggle against that. Yet, after all, this spirited conduct of the Commons was but w [yA ^ m ft ; „£T« '& an impotent protest; for the public ser- vice was now left wholly unprovided for, the circulation of money almost ceased, trade and business suffered, and a clamor soon arose, not more against the Government than against the Patriots. Thus the Court party had its revenge. The lord-lieutenant took the whole surplus revenue out of the treas- urv by virtue of a "royal letter"; so the kino-, after all, not only consented to the act, but did the act wholly himself; and Speaker Boyle was removed from his seat at the Privy Council, aud Malone's patent of precedence as prime sergeant was annulled. The viee- ioy and the primate took care to put some mark of royal displeasure upon every one who had voted down the Supply Bill ; and it may be doubted whether the English in- terest did not gain a more decisive victory by thus trampling with impunity upon all constitutional forms, than if the Irish Parlia- ment had quietly submitted to the servile form prescribed to it. There was no visible remedy ; the mob of Dublin might hoot the viceroy when his coach appeared in the streets; they could threaten and mob the primate or Hutchinson, or others who were conspicuous in asserting the obnoxious royal prerogative; yet they had no alternative bul to submit. In the discussion of this question we might repeat the words of Swift when speaking of the case of Molyneux : ''The love aud torrent of power prevailed. Indeed, the arguments on both sides were in- vincible. For, in reason, all government without the consent of the governed is the v. -rv definition of slavery; but, in fact, eleven men well armed will certainly subdue one single man in his shirt."' Up to this period we have invariably found the struggles of the colony to take rank as a nation — of its Parliament to as- set t its independence — successfully resisted and triumphantly crushed down. The as- sertion of the jurisdiction of the Irish lords in the case of " Sherlock and Annesley" was instantly followed by the Declaratory Act, which enacted that the Irish lords had no jurisdiction at all. The more anxiously our Irish Parliament affirmed its sovereign right, the more systematically were acts passed by the English Parliament to bind Ireland. And now the attempted vindication by the Irish Legislature of its right to vote, or not vote, its own money, was only the occasion of a high-handed royal outrage, trampling upon every pretence of constitutional law ; and Irish " Patriots," if unanswerable in their arguments, were impotent to make them good in fact; for " the arguments on both sides were invincible." It is, in truth, impossible to avoid assent to the conclusions of Lord Clare (not O'Brien, King James's Lord Clare, but Fitzgibbon, King George's Lord Clare), in his often-quoted speech fifty years later, in so far as he demonstrated the anomalous and untenable relation between the two Parliaments of England and of Ire- land. This English Protestant colony in Ireland, which aspired to be a nation, amounted to something under half a million of souls in 1754.* It was out of tfie cpies- tion that it should be united on a footing of equality with its potent mother country, by "the golden link of the crown," because the wearer of that crown was sure to be guided in his policy by English ministers, in accordance with English interests ; and as the army was the king's army, he could al- ways enforce that policy. The fatal weak- ness of the colony was, that it would not amalgamate with the mass of the Irish people, so as to form a true nation, but set up the vain pretension to hold down a whole disfranchised people with one hand, and defy all England with the other. Still the colonists were multiplying am growing rich ; and happily for them, Eng- land was ou the eve of disaster and humilia- tion ; and a quarter of a century later a gracious opportunity was to arise which gave them real independence for at least a few years. * W'c take ttie estimate of the entire population for that year from the tables in Thorn's official Al- manac and Directory. For li'.i4 it is estimated at 2,872,684 men, women, and children. At the rale of live Catholics to one Protestant (whioh is Dr. Boultcr'a estimate), the active part of the population was under halt' a million. Tho rest was assumed by law not to exist iu the world. R? ,y? lj\u .'.iL^MBUS.u, "*?' f^MPlWl • \&\ ^ > i%k ft i ; ;<# HART, of kildare: his address. 75 CIIArTER XII. 1753—1760. Unpopularity of the Duko of Dorset — Earl of Kil- dare — His Address — Patriots it) power — Pension List— Duke of Bedford lord-lieutenant — Case of Saul— Catholic meeting in Dublin — Commence- ment of Catholic agitation — Address of the Catho- lics received — First recognition of tlio Catholics as subjects — Lucasian molts — Project of Union — Thurot's expedition — Death of George II. — Popu- lation — Distress of the country — Operation of the Penal Daws — The Geosrhcjruns — Catholic Petition — Berkeley's " Querist." After these high-handed measures of the English ministry, of which Dorset was hut the instrument, lie became intolerable to the people of Dublin, as well as his son, Lord tj» George Saokville, the primate, am] every one professing " to do the king's business in Ireland." The duke, even before being re- called, found it necessary to go over to England, partly to avoid the odium of the Irish, but chiefly lo lake care of his interests and those of his family at the court. The colonial patriotism ran high ; the mob of Dublin became " Lucasian." Tlie primate durst not appear on the streets ; and the maimer was then first introduced of express- ing, by toasts, at private supper parties, some stirring patriotic sentiment, or keen in- vective against the administration, in terse language, which would pass from mouth to mouth, and thence get into the newspapers. One of these toasts was, "May all Secretary- Bashaws and lordly high-priests be kept to their tackle, the sword and the Bible." An- other was, " May tlie importation of Gany- mede* into Ireland be discontinued," which was an allusion to unnamable vices attrib- uted to Primate Stone. However, the chief interest of the struggle bel ween court and country was now, for the moment, transferred to the cabinets and antechambers of ministers at London. The Earl of Kildare, afterwards Duke of Lein- ster, a bigh-spirited nobleman, as became bis Geraldine blood, was moved with indigna- tion at the late proceedings in his country; hr the Geraldines had always considered themselves Irish, and long before these Cromwellian and Williamite colonists had appeared iu the island his ancestors were not only Irish and chiefs of Clan-Geralt, but were even reproached as being actually more Irish than the Irish. Of course, the family had long ago " conformed," like most of the O'Briens and De Burghos, and many other ancient tribes of French and Irish stock; otherwise the earl could not have sat in Parliament, nor taken the bold step which so much astonished British courtiers at this period. De went over to London, had an audience of the king, and presented him with his own hand an address of remon- strance from himself against the whole course of the Irish Government under Lord Dorset. This document spoke very plainly to the king; told him ''his loyal kingdom of Ire- land wore a face of discontent ;" that this discontent proceeded not from faction, but from the malfeasance of ministers ; it com- plained of the odious duumvirate of the primate and the viceroy; compared the lat- ter with Strafford, the former with Laud and Wolsey, and especially exposed the insolent behavior of Dorset's son, Lord George Sack- ville, in mischievously meddling with all the public affairs of the kingdom. Ministers were surprised at what they considered the boldness of this proceeding. The Earl of Holderness writes to the Irish Chancellor Jocelyn, " My good lord chan- cellor — I am not. a little concerned that the noble Earl of Kildare should take so bold a step as he may repent hereafter, * * He was but ill received, and very coolly dis- missed, as, indeed, the presumption well merited; for why should his majesty re- ceive any remonstrances concerning his kingdom or government, but from the proper ministers, or through the usual channels, namely, both Houses of Parliament? I de- siic my compliments may attend his grace, my lord primate, and wish him success in all laudable endeavors for poor Ireland." Hut, in fact, although the earl's address was spoken of generally as an act of temeri- ty ''which nothing but the extreme mild- ness of government could allow to remain unpunished," yet it appears he felt extreme- ly easy about these hints of danger to him- self. If it be true that he was " coolly dis- missed" from the royal audience, yet the government of Ireland was very quickly modelled upon his views, or almost placed ■ J M ~e ' ■- P^^P kj r I d HISTORY OF IRELAND, substantially in his hands; Dorset was soon recalled, and was succeeded by the Lop Harrington, a personal ami political ally of Kildare. Mr. Plowden alleges, and the re- suit seems to confirm it, that this viceroy came over to Ireland leagued by a secret treaty with the Patriot party, through the intermediation of Lord Kildare, and in es- pecial had a clear understanding with Boyle and Malone. Stone was removed from the privy council ; Boyle was made Earl of Shan- non, and entered the Upper House, accept- ing at the same time a pension of £'2,000 for thirty-one years. Ponsonb} was elected Speaker in Ins place. The system of the English Court was now to buy up the Pa- triots with place and patronage. Even Malone was promised the succession to Boyle as Chancellor of the Exchequer; but the public, and his own respectable family, raised such an outcry against this that he was ashamed to accept it, and declined. Boyle continued nominal chancellor, and Malone condescended to receive the profits of the place. We hear but little more of any trouble given to English rule by this band of liisii Patriots, and the bitter reflection of Thomas MacNevin upon the whole transac- tion seems well justified. " Despotism, with- out corruption, was not considered as a fit exemplar of government, and the matter for the present terminated by a title and a pen- sion conferred on the greatest Patriot ol the day. Henry Boyle bore about the blushing honors of his public virtue, emblazoned on the coronet of the Earl of Shannon. The pinnate did not fare so well; he was re- moved from the privy council. The rest of the Patriots found comfortable retreats in various lucrative offices, and the most sub- stantial compliments were paid to those who were noisiest in their patriotism and fiercest iu their opposition." Iu 1756 the lord-lieutenant, now- Duke of Devonshire, after having thus gratified the "Patriots," returned to England in delicate health — leaving as lords-justices, Jocelyn, 1 >rd chancellor, and the Earls of Kildare and Bessborough. It is painful to be obliged to admit that the transferrence of the power and patronage of the Irish Government into the hands of the Patriots was not productive of any whole- some effect whatsoever — neither in favor of the Catholic masses (for the Patriots were their mortal enemies), nor in favor of pub- ic virtue and morality, for nobody demands to be bought at so high a price as a patriot. Accordingly, we soon find the whole atten- tion of Parliament and of the country ab- sorbed by inquiries into the enormously in- creased pension list upon the Irish Estab- lishment. In March, 1756, some member (unpensioned) of the Commons, introduced a bill to vacate the seats of such members of the House of Commons as should accept any pension or civil office of profit from the Crown. It was voted down by a vote of eighty-five to fifty-nine — a fatal and ominous warning to the nation. On the day when that measure was debated, a return of pen- sions was brought in and read. Many of the first names in Ireland appear upon the shameful list; many foreigners or English- men; few or no meritorious servants of the sta'e. The Countess of Yai mouth stood upon that return for £4,000; Mr. Belling- ham Boyle, a near relative of the illustrious "Patriot," for £800 "during pleasure" (that is, so long as he should make himself gener- ally useful), and the Patriot himself, now Earl of Shannon, closed up the list with his pension of £2,000 a year. Although the bill to vacate the seats of pensioners was lost, the revelations of pre- vailing corruption were so gross that certain other members of Parliament, not yet pen- sioned, again returned to the charge upon this popular grievance. A series of resolu- tions was, in fact, reported by the committee on public accounts, not, indeed, making per- s 'ii. il and ungracious reference lo.the private concerns of members of Parliament, but stating in general terms that the pension list had become altogether too enormous ; that it had been increased since the 23d of March, 1755 — that is, within one year — by no less than £28,103 /hr annum; that these pensions were lavished upon foreigners, and upon people not resident in Ireland ; and that all this was a loss and injury to the nation and to his majesty's service. Upon these resolutions, which did not touch too closely the Patriots' own private arrange- ments, there was a patriotic struggle, anc even a patriotic triumph. The resolutions IJ tui «? i & W J V* /<>v j 3sP .', jjn v W) •A v>t fir W . fV & CASK OF SAUL — CATHOLIC MEETING IN DUBLIN. w re passed, and were presented bj Speaker I', nsonb) to the vici roy, with the usual re- quest thai thej should he transmitted to the king. Be onlj replied that the matter was of too high a nature for him to promise at once thai he would forward such resolutions. Thereupon the Speaker returned to the Bouse and reported his reception. It was determined to make a stand, and next day a motion was made that all orders not yet pro- ceeded on should be adjourned, the House not havjng yet received any answer from the lord-lieuteuanl as to the transmission of their i' "Unions. This, of course, meant that they would vote no supplies until they should be satisfied on that point. The motion to adjourn every thing was carried, by a strict party vote — those in favor of the resolu- tions voting for the adjournment, and those opposed to them voting against it. The lord-lieutenant immediately sent a message that he would transmit the resolutions with- out delay. Thus a small patriotic victory was gained without any one being injured, for nothing whatsoever came of these reso- 1 itions. In September, 1757, the Duke of Bed- ford came over as lord-lieutenant — specially instructed by Mr. Pitt to go upon the con- ciliatory policy. He was to employ all soft- ening and healing arts of government. In fact, it is to the Duke of Bedford's adminis- tration we are to go back for the commence- ment of that well-known Whig policy, of making use of the Patriotic Irish party,and even of the Catholics themselves, in support of the Whig party in England. There had bei n lately a considi ruble aggravation of the sufferings of the Catholics under the penal laws; lie gentleness and forbearance exer- cised towards them during Chesterfield's viceroyalty had no longer a sufficient reason and motive; the halcyon days of connivance and extra-legal toleration were over, and the Catholics were once more under the full pressure of the laws "for preventing the glow th of Popery." A remarkable example of this low condi- tion of the Catholics occurred the year fol- lowing. A young Catholic girl named O'Toole was importuned by some of her fi i.-ti oi in to ihe Established < 'linn h ; to avoid this persecution, she took refuge in the house of another friend and relative, a Catholic merchant in Dublin, named Saul. Legal proceedings were at once taken against Mr. Saul, in the name of a Protestant con- nection of the young lady. Of course, the trial went against Saul ; and on this occasion he was assured from the bench that Papists had no rights, inasmuch as "the law did not presume a Papist to exist in the kingdom ; nor could they so much as breathe there with- out the connivance of Government" And the court was right, for such was actually the " Law," or what passed for law in Ireland at that time. On the arrival of the Duke of Bedford there bad even been prepared, by some mem- bers of Parliament, the '-heads of a bill" for a new and more stringent penal law regula- ting the registration of priests, and intended to put an effectual end, by dreadful penalties, to the regular course of hierarchical church government, which had, up to that time, been carried on regularly, though clandes- tinely and against the law. The menace of this new law and the late proceedings re- specting Mr. Saul, caused a good deal of agi- tation and excitement among the Catholics, and the leading people of that religion in Dublin even ventured to hold small meetings in an obscure manner, to consult on the best way of meeting the fresh atrocities which w.rc now threatened. In these preliminary meetings two factions at once developed themselves; the long period of ui, acquaint- ance with all political and civil life had ren- dered the Catholic people almost incapable of efficient organization and co-operation ; and so they divided forthwith into two par- ties — the one led by Lord Trimbleston, the other by L>r. Fitzsimon. At length certain of the more rational and moderate leaders of the Cathi lies, Charles O'Conor, of Bel- anagar; Dr. Curry, author of the Historical Review of the Civil Wars; Mr. Wyse, a Waterford merchant, together with Lords Fingal, Taaffe, and Delviu, originated a new movement by a meeting in Dublin, which established the first ''Catholic Committee," and commenced that career of lf agitation" which has since been earned lo such great lengths. The first performances of this Catholic Committee have been, and will al- ways be, very variously appreciated by Irish- W#, ^ vn ^ $ r<>, *f!r ,^ men, in accordance with their different ideas .-.s to the policy and dnty of a nation held in so degrading a bondage. It became known, during the administration of Lord Bedford, that tin- Jacobites in France were prepariug auother expedition for a desoent somewhere on the British coast, or Ireland; and on the 29th of October, 1750, the lord- lieutenant delivered a message to Parlia- ment, in which he stated thai he had re- ceived a letter from Mr. Secretary Pitt, written by the king's express command, in- forming him that France was preparing a new invasion, and desiring him to exhort the Irish people to show on this occasion their tried loyalty and attachment to the House of Hanover. Immediately an ad- dress, testifying the most devoted "loyalty," was prepared by tic Catholic Committee. It was written by Charles O'Conor, and signed by three hundred vi' the most respect- able Catholic inhabitants of Dublin. But here a difficulty arose ; Catholics were not citizens, nor subjects; they were not sup- posed to exist at all; other attempts they had made to testify their "loyalty" had been repulsed with the most insolent disdain ; and they knew well they were exposing themselves to another humiliation of the same kind on the present occasion. How- ever, two bold Papists undertook to present the address to Ponsonby, Speaker of the House of Commons. These were Antony McDermott and John Crump. They wait- ed "ii the Speaker and read him the loyal manifesto. Mr. Ponsonby, a Whig and a " Patriot," took the document, laid it on the table, said not one word, and bowed the delegates out. There were a few days of agitated suspense; and then, on the 10th of December, the lord-lieutenant sent a gra- cious answer, lie did more ; he caused his answer to be printed in the Dublin Gazette, thereby officially recognizing the existence (though humble) of persons call- ing themselves Catholics in Ireland. The Speaker then sent for the two gentlemen who had presented the address, and ordered Mr. McDermott to read it to the House. Mr. McDermott read it, and then thanked the Speaker, in the name of the Irish Catho- lics, for his condescension. Mr. Ponsonby most graciously replied " that he counted it a favor to be put in the way of serving so respectable a body as the gentlemen who had signed that address." The Catholics, then, tor the first time since the Treaty of Limerick, were publicly and officially ad- mitted to be in a species of existence. Here was a triumph ! In fact, this recognition of Irish Catholics as a part, of the King of England's subjects was a kind of admission of that body ovc< the threshold of the temple of civil and constitutional freedom. We may feel in- dignant, at the extreme humility of the pro- ceedings of the committee, and lament, that the low condition of our countrymen at that time left lb. 'in no alternative but that ot professing a hypocritical "loyalty" to their oppressors; for the only other alternative was secrel organization to prepare an insur- rection for the total extirpation of the Eng- lish colony in Ireland, and, carefully disarmed as the Catholics were, tiny doubtross felt this to be an impossible project. Yet, for the honor of human nature, it is necessary to state the tact that this profession of h>\al- u to a king of England was in reality in- sincere. Hypocrisy, in such a case, is less disgraceful than would have been a genuine canine attachment to the hand that smote and 10 the foot that kicked. The real object of the conciliatory policy which the 1 Hike of Bedford was instructed te) pursue towards the Catholics was not only to give additional strength to the Whig pain" in England, but also to prepare the way for a legislative union between the two countries ; in other words, a complete ab- sorption and extinguishment of the shadowy nationality of Ireland in the more real and p.t, nt nationality of her "sister country," and even so earl} as the time of Bedford's admin- istration the English ministry had begun to count upon the Catholics as an anti-Irish element which might be used to crush the rising aspirations of colonial nationality. Rumors began to be current in Dublin that a project was on foot to destroy the Irish Parliament and effect a union with Great Britain, similar lo that which had been made with Scotland ; and the people of the metropolis I ame violently excited. On the 3d of December, in this year (1750), the mob rose and surrounded the Houses of \W '.i\ J ,...,iV;o ■ J^ LCCASIAN MOBS — PUOJECT OF UNION. 79 parliament with loud outcries. When any member was seen arriving they stopped him, and obliged him to swear that lie would <>)>- I' «e a union. The lord chancellor ami some of the bishops were hustled and mal- ii ated, and one member of the privy coun- cil w.-is flung into the Liffey. The tumult became so dangerous that at length Mr. Speaker Ponsonby, and Mr. Rigby, the sec- retary, were obliged to make their appear- ance in the portico of the House, and sol- emnly assure the people that no union was in contemplation, and that, if such a meas- ure were proposed, they would resist it to the last extremity. The riot, however, was not suppressed without military aid, and, for the first time, zealous patriotic Protestants of the English colony were ridden down by the king's troops. The anti-union demon- stration was essentially and exclusively Prot- estant, and the Catholics of Dublin made haste to clear themselves of all complicity in it. An inquiry was instituted in Parliament to ascertain who were the authors and pro- moters of the disturbance; and on that oc- casion, as some of the very persons guiltv in that respect did, by their interest in both Houses, endeavor to fix the odium of it. on the obnoxious Papists (to which conscious untruth and calumny the war then carrying on against France gave some kind of color), the Catholics thought it high time publicly to vindicate their characters from that and every other vile suspicion of disloyalty, by an address to his grace the lord-lieutenant, testifj ing their wannest gratitude for the enity they experienced under his majesty's Government, and their readiness to concur with the faithfulest and most zealous of his majesty's other subjects, in opposing, bv every means io their power, all, both foreign and domestic, enemies.* On the same occasion Prime Sergeant S'.annard, of the "Patriot'' party, a gentle- man of high honor ami probity, in his speech in the House of Commons, contrast- ing the riotous conduct of the Lueasians (as iliey were then called after their chief), with the quiet and dutiful behavior of the Roman Catholics, in that and other dangerous con- junctures, gave the following testimony in * Curry's Review. favor of these latter: "We have lived amicably and in harmony among ourselves, and without any material party distinctions, for several years past, till within these few months; and during the late wicked rebellion in Scotland, we had the comfort and satisfac- tion to see that all was quiet here. And to the honor of the Roman Catholics lie it re- membered, that not a man of them moved tongue, pen, or sword, upon the then or the present occasion ; and I am glad to find that they have a grateful and proper sense of the mildness and moderation of our Gov- ernment. For my part, while they behave with duty and allegiance to the present es- tablishmont, I shall hold them as men in equal esteem with others in every point, but one ; and while their private opinion inter- feres not with public tranquillity, I think their industry and allegiance ought to be en- couraged." It deserves remark, then, that on this first occasion when a project of legislative union was really entertained by an English min- istry, the " Patriot" patty, which opposed it, was wholly and exclusively of the Protest- ant colony, and that the Catholics of Ireland were totally indifferent; and, indeed, they could not rationally be otherwise, as it was quite impossible for them to feel an attach- ment to a national legislature in which they were not represented, and for wbose mem- bers they could not even cast a vote. The French naval expedition was in prep- aration at the ports of Brest and Dunkirk, and the enthusiastic Franco-Irish officers did not doubt that if it could once land in Ireland, and obtain a first success, the whole Catholic nation would rise to support it. The anticipation would have been realized, if the two squadrons could have united, and then entered a southern or western port. But now, as in other instances, the fortune of war and weather on the sea befriended England. The Brest squadron was a pow- erful one, and was placed under command of Admiral Conflans; that titled out at Dun- kirk was intrusted to Thurot, who had gained distinction as commander of a pri- vateer, sweeping l lie Channel and German Ocean of British commerce. In the year 1750, our excellent ami conscientious his- Plowdeu, was a boy, and in coup V m va\ ff£' , ; panv «i;ii some otner Catholic boys, was on board a \ essel bound for France, to obt tin the education which was by law debarred tin in at home. Their ship was chased, boarded and captured, between Ostend and Dunkirk, by a French vessel of war, which turned oul to be no other than Thurot's ship, i1h' Belle Isle, commanded by that re- doubtable sea-rover. The boys, along with the rest of the crew, were can ied as prisoners to Flushing, where they remained some week-, guarded on board the Belle Isle while she was undergoing repairs. Plowden de- scribes here a desperate mutiny of the wild crew of the Belle Isle, which, however, was fiercely suppressed by the officers — Thurot himself killing two of the. ringleaders and cutting off the cheek of another. The young prisoners were shortly after exchanged. This rude but gallant seaman was placed in command of the squadron of five ships then being fitted out at Dunkirk, to co- operate with Conflans. In the autumn of 1759 they both sailed ; their rcudezv ous n as to be in the [rish Sea. Conflans was en- countered by the English Bawke and en- tirely defeated, while Thurot, after long cruising around the island-, and winteringin Norway, al last, in February, L 760, entered Lough Foyle with only three of his five Our had been lest, and one had been sent hack to France. lie did not think fit to come up to Derry, which he probably imagined to be a stronger place than it really was, but coasted round the sho i - of Antrim, and suddenly appeared be- fore Carrickfergus (.'astir, on Belfast Lough, iipuii the 'J 1st of February, lie summoned the castle to surrender; it was defended by a small garrison, commanded by a Colonel Jennings ; and on Jennings' refusal to capitu- late, the cannonade began. The pe of B could now, from their own streets, see the flash and hear the roar of the guns. They did nol y< t know the force of the invading squadron, and for a time believed that here were al a>t the Freni ' ging iu the Pn tender," overthrowing the " Ascendency," and taking hack the forfeited estates. Alter a gallant resistance, the castle and town ol Carrick wi re taken, but with the considerable number of French soldiers, and t Hobei i, the bi igadier-general of their force, was wounded. The French kept ]i«s. session of the town and castle for five days and levied some contributions in Carrick fergus of such things as they needed after their longcruise. The town of Belfast con- tained at that time le-s than nine thousand inhabitants, hut it was a prosperous trading place, ami entirely Protestant. Alarm was instantly sent out through the counties of Down, Antrim, and Armagh, the most popu- lous Protestant districts of the island, ami within this interval of five days two thou- sand two hundred and twenty volunteers were thronging towards Belfast, U/idly armed, indeed, and not disciplined at all, hut zealous for the " Ascendency " and the House ol Hanover. Thurot had little more than five hundred soldiers left, besides his sailors ; he knew also that English men-of-war would mtv soon appear at the mouth of Belfast I. ough ; therefore he did not venture upon Belfast, especially as there was no sign of a Catholic rising anywhere to support him. lie re-embarked on the 26th, and was en countered in the Irish Sea by three Englisl ships of superior force. He gave ha tie. and fought with the utmost desperation ; hut at last his three vessels were captured, after Thurot himself was killed, with three hun- dred v( his men. J lis shattered ships were towed into a port of the Isle of Man. Tes- timonies to the humanity and gallantry or this brave oilier are freel] accorded by his enemies. King George tin' Second died this year, after a huig and eventful reign. His per- sonal character and dispositions were wholly immaterial to the course ^( events in this kingdom. Although his English subjects disl ked him as a German, to Ireland he was a thorough Englishman — bound by his policy, as well as compelled by his advisers, to maintain the " English Interest,'' in op- position to that of Ireland. Anil this point w is successfully and triumphantly carried, at every period of his reign, sometimes by strengthening the Court party, sometimes by buying up the "Patriots." There had been (over and above the usual suffering from poverty) two famines; also a consid- erable • an 1 .;-: ition of Presbyterians from tin: northern counties, to escape from the pay- .T/ l-is- WffiivW^) THE GEOGHEGANS rcW incut of tithes and from the disabilities created b\ tlie Tesl Art. The population of the island remained nearly stationary during the whole reign. In 1726 it was 2,309,106, and in L 75 4 it was 2,372,634— an increase of little more than sixty thou- sand in twenty eight years.* The manufac- ture of woollen cloth had almost disappeared, bul in the eastern p irt of Ulstei the linen trade had taken a considerable extension. It is impossible i" exaggerate, and hard to conceive in all its horror, the misery and degradation of the Catholic people, through- out this whole period, although active per- secution ceased duringthe year of the battle of Fontenoy and the Scottish insurrection. On the whole, this was the era of priest- hunting, of "discovet ies," and of an universal plunder of such property .-is remained in the hands of Catholics. In this pitiful struggle the wild humor of the race would sometimes break out; and often desperate deeds were done by beggared men. The story of two of tin- Geoghegans, of Meath, is so character- istic of the time as to deserve a place here. It is related by the author of "The Irish Abroad and at Home;" a very desultory and chaotic, but generally both authentic and entertaining, work. " Seventy or eighty years ago, there re- sided in Soho Square, London, an Irish Ro- man Catholic gentleman, known among his friends as 'Geoghegan, of London.' I'., tending to be, or being really, alarmed, lest a relative ( Mr. Geoghegan, of Jamestown ) si Id conform to the Protestant religion, and possess himself of a considerable prop ei ty, situate in Westmeath, he resolved upon a proceeding to which the reader will attach any epithet it may seem to warrant. " He repaired to Dublin, reported himself to the necessary authorities, and professed in all its required legal forms, the Protestant religion on a Sunday, sold his estates on Monday, and relapsed into Popery on Tues- ,i ty. "lb- did not effect, thesn changes unosten- tatiously; for ' He saw no reason for mau- vaite konte,' as he called it. lie expressed # There m no cnwi- taken in e'thcr of those 'I'm- eKtinontee of t he population given in Thom'a Direi Dry are (bunded upon each returns, (■arocliiul registers, and tlie like, ust were uccessible. 11 admiration of the same principle of t-.onve- uieitt apostasy, which governed Henri IV. "s acceptance of the French crown. 'Paris vaut bien lllir messe,' said that gay, chival- rous, bul somewhat unscrupulous monarch. Thus, when asked the motive of his abjura- tion of Catholicism, Geoghegan replied : ' I would rather trust my sou] to God for a day, tha y property to the fiend forever.' "This somewhat impious speech was in keeping with his conduct at Christ-Church when he made his religious profession : the sacramental wine being presented to him, he drank off" the entire contents of the cup. The officiating clergyman rebuked his inde- corum. 'You need not grudge it me,' said the neophyte: 'it's the dearest glass of wine I ever drank.' "In i lie afternoon of the same day he entered the Globe Coffee Room, Essex Street, then frequented by the most respectable of the citizens of Dublin. The room was crowded. Putting his hand to his sword, and throwing a glance of defiance around, Geoghegan said. '•'I have read my recantation to-day, and any man win) says I did right is a rased.' "A Protestant with whom he was eon- versing the moment before lie left home to read his recantation, said to him : ' For ail your assumed Protestantism, Geoffheffan. _\ou will die a Papist.' '" Fi done, moii ami !' replied lie. ' That is the last thing of which 1 am capable.' " One more specimen of the operation of the penal laws may be given. "Mr. Geoghegan had a relative, Mr. Ke- dagh Geoghegan, ofDonower, in the county of Westmeath, who, though remaining faith- ful to the creed of Ids forefathers, enjoyed the esteem and respect of tint Protestant resident gentry of his county. Notwith- standing that his profession of the Roman Catholic religion precluded his performing the functions of a grand juror, he attended the assizes at, Mullingar regularly, in com- mon with other gentlemen of Westmeath, and dined with the grand jurors. "On one of those occasions, a Mi. Stepney, a man of considerable fortune in the county, approached him and remarked : 'Gi ogbegan, that is a capital team to your carriage. 1 have rarely seen four finer horses — nor be' ft %i S3 >& Xn , 2^s **.*<■ .ltl*Hu.i.i, -r , , Vv- g>W*4V,i(e. •'' ^ B 4fi m ter matched. Here, Geoghegan, are twenty pounds,' tendering him u sum of money ic gold. ' You understand me. They are mine' And he moved towards the door, apparently with the intention of taking pos- session of his purchase. The horses, not yet detached from Mr. Geoghegan's carriage, were still in the yard of the inn close by. •■ ' Hold, Stepney !' said Geoghegan. ' Wait one moment, I shall not be absent more than that time.' He then quitted tlie room abruptly, and was seen running in great haste towards the inn at which lie always put up. There was something in the scene which had just occurred which shocked the feel- ings of the witnesses of it, and something in the manner of Geoghegan, that produced among them a dead silence and a conviction that it was not to end there. Not a word was yet spoken, when the reports of four pistol shots struck their cars, and in a few .sen, n, Is afterwards Geoghegan was perceiv- ed coming from the direction of the inn, laden with lire-aims. lie mounted to the room in which the party were assembled, holding by their barrels a b;aee of pistols in each hand. Walking directly up to Step- ney, he said : ' Stepney, von cannot have the horses for which you bid just now.' '•'1 can, and will have them.' " ' You can't. 1 have shot them ; and Stepney, unless yon be as great a coward as you are a scoundrel. I will do my best to shoot you. Here, choose your weapon, and take your ground. Gentlemen, open if you please and see fair play.' "He then advanced upon Stepney, offering him the choice of either pair of pistols. Stepney, however, declined the combat and quitted the room, leaving Geoghegan the object of the unanimous condolements of the rest of the party, and overwhelmed with their expressions of sympathy and of regret for the perversion of the law of which Mr. Stepney had just sought to render him the object. •'In tendering twenty pounds for horses that ware worth twenty limes that sum, Stepney was only availing himself of one ol the enactments of the Penal Code, which forbade a Papist the possession of a horse of greater value than live pounds. "Notwithstanding this incident, old Ke- dagh Geoghegan continued to visit Mullingar during: the assizes for many years afterwards ; but to avoid a similar outrage, and to keep in recollection the cruel nature of the Po- pery laws, his cattle thenceforward consisted of tour oxen." Another and a graver illustration of the general condition of the Catholics is the "Petition and Remonstrance" addressed to King George II. by some members of that body. It is found at length in Dr. Curry's excellent collection, and although it presents no new facts in addition to those alreai mentioned in the narration, it is interesting as an example of the tone and altitude which Catholic* then thought it, necessary to assume in addressing their master. TO THE KING'S MOST EXCELLENT MAJESTY, The humble Petition and Remonstrance of the Roman Catholic* of Inland* Most Gracious Sovereign : — We your majesty's dutiful and faithful subjects, the Roman Catholics of the kingdom of Ireland, beg leave to lay at your majesty's feel this humble remonstrance of some of those grievances and restraints under which we have long labored without murmuring or complaint; and we presume to make this submissive application, from a sense of your Majesty's great and universal clemency, of your gracious and merciful regard to tender consciences, and from a consciousness of our own loyalty, affection, and gratitude to your majesty's person and government, as duties incumbent upon us, which it is our unalter- able resolution to pay in all events during the remainder of our lives. And we are the more emboldened to pie- sent this our humble remonstrance, because it appeareth unto us, that the laws by which such giievanees are occasioned, and such penalties inflicted upon us, have taken lise rather from private views of expe liency and sell- ntcre-t, or fioir. mistaken jealousies and mistrusts, than from any truly public-spirited motives; inasmuch as they seemed to have infringed certain privileges, rights, and im- munities, which had been freelv and Sol- emnly granted, together with a promise of further favor and indulgence to the Roman Catholics of Ireland, upon the most valuable w> ( m ft ( =*<5^ ?. Ik ; W«E*. ^"~iA6 .UTLNtilrt,^ * IMl&y '■:■■'•. ;■■;■■. ■ . Xlf^ 5 "Sp ^ CATHOLIC TETITIOV. Considerations. For »c most humbly offer to your majesty's just and generous consid- eration, that (Mi the 3d day of October, 1691, the Roman Catholic nobility and gentry of this kingdom, under the late King James, int. Ted into articles of capitulation at Lim- erick, whereby, among other things, it was stipulated and agreed, that ''the Roman Catholics of Ireland should enjoy such priv- ilege in the exercise of their religion as they did enjoy ill the reign of King Charles II. and that their majesties as soon as their af- fairs would permit them, would summon a parliament in Ireland, and endeavor to pro- cure the said Roman Catholics such further security in that particular, as might preserve them from any disturbance on account of their said religion." Whereupon these noblemen and gentlemen laid down their arms, and immediately submitted to their majesties' government; at the same time that they had offers of powerful assistance from Fiance, which might, if accepted, have greatly obstructed the success of their maj- esties' arms in the war thcu carrying on abroad against that kingdom. And although these articles were duly ratified and confirmed, first by the com- mander-in-chief of their majesties' forces in Ireland in conjunction with the then lords justices thereof, and afterwards by an act of the Irish parliament, in the ninth year of his majesty King William's reign, by which thev became the public faith of the nation, plighted and engaged to these people in as full, firm, and solemn manner, as ever pub- lic faith was plighted to any people ; yet so far were the Roman Catholics of Ireland from receiving the just benefit thereof; so far from seeing any steps taken, or means used in the Irish parliament, to procure them such promised security, as might preserve them from any disturbance on account of their religion, that, on the contrary, several laws have been since enacted in that parlia- ment, by winch the exercise of their religion is made penal, and themselves and their heirs forever have f rfeited those rights, im- munities, and titles to their estates and prop- erties, w uioh in the reign of King Charles II, they were by law entitled to, and enjoyed in common with the rest of their fellow-sub- And such is the evil tendency of these I iws to create jealousy and disgust between parents and their children, and especially to stifle in the breasts of the latter those pious sentiments of filial duty and obedience which reason dictates, good policy requires, and which the Almighty so strictly enjoins, that in virtue of them, a son, however un- dutiful or profligate in other respects, shall merely by the merit of conforming to the established religion, not only deprive the Roman Catholic father of that five and full possession of his estate, that power to- mort- gage or otherwise dispose of it, as the exi- gencies of his affairs may requite, but also shall himself have full liberty to mortgage, sell, or otherwise alienate that estate from his family forever; a liberty most gracious sovereign, the frequent use of which has en- tailed poverty and despair on some of the most ancient and opulent families in this kingdom, and brought many a parent's gray hairs with sorrow to the grave. And although very few estates at present remain in the hands of the Roman Catholics of Ireland, and therefore little or no matter appears to be left for these laws to operate upon, nevertheless, we are so far from being secure in the possession of personal property, so far from being preserved from any dis- turbance on account of our religion, even in that respect, that new and forced construc- tions have been of late years put upon these laws (for we cannot think that such con- structions were ever originally intended), bv which, on the sole account of our reli- gion, we are in many cases, stripped of that personal property by discoverers and inform- ers; a set of men, most gracious sovereign, once generally ami justly despised amongst us, but of late grown into some repute, by the increase of their numbers, and by the frequency, encouragement, and success of their practices. These and many other cruel restrictions (such as no Christian people under heaven lUt ourselves are made liable to) are and have long been greatly detrimental, not only to us in particular, but also to the commerce, culture, and every other improvement of this kingdom in general; and what is sure- ly a melancholy consideration, are chiefly beneficial to the discoverers aiu: iufotmera « , j so k ,r*7 ruA r ' 8i = I h '<& 8sM y> HISTOBT. OF 1 1: 1 1 AM'. . '■-" lBBE**s before mentioned ; who uuder color of these laws, plunder indiscriminately, parents, brethren, kinsmen, and friends, in despite of all the ties of bl I, of affection aud confi- dence, in breach of the divine laws, of all former human laws, enacted in this or per- haps in any other kingdom, for the security of property, since the creation of the world. The necessity of continuing laws in their full force for so great a number of years, which are attended with Buch shameful and pernicious consequences, ought, we humbly conceive, to be extremely manifest, pressing, and permanent; but so far is this from being the case with respect to these disqualifying laws, that even the pretended grounds for those jealousies and mistrusts, which are said to have given birth to them, have long since disappeared; it being a well-known and undeniable truth, that your majesty's distressed, but faithful subjects, the Roman i ' . holies ol Ireland, have neither the inclina- tion nor the power to disturb your majesty's government; nor can (we humbly presume) that only pretext now left for continuing them in force, viz. their tendency to make proselytes to the established religion, in any degree justify the manifold severities and injuries occasioned by them. I'm-, alas! mo-: gracious sovereign, there is hut too much reason to believe, that proselytes so made are, tor the most part, such in appear- ance only in order to become in reality, what all sincere Christians condemn and detest, uu- dutiful ehil Iren, unnatural brethren, or per- - fr ends ; and we submit it to your maj- esty's great wisdom and goodness, whether motives so repugnant to the public interest, and to all social, moral, and - duties, are fit to be confided in or longer encour- Aud because we are sensible, most gra- cious s ivere gn, that our professions of lov- alty have been often cruelly misrepresi nted, even by those who were thoroughly ac- quainted with the candor and uprightness of our dealings in all other respects, we must humbly offer it to your princely and generous consideration, that we res: not the of our sini ei ity in such professions or words, but vn things known and attested by ail the wo; 1,1, on our dutiful, peaceable, and submissive behavior uuder such pressures, for more than half a century; a conduct, may it please your majesty, that clearly evinces the reality of that religious principle, which withholds us from sacrificing con- science or honor to any worldly interest whatever; since rather than violate either by hypocritical professions, we have all our lives, patiently suffered so many restrictions and losses in our temporal concerns; and we most submissive!} beseech your majesty to look down on such trials of our integrity, not only as a proof of our sincerity in this declaration, but also as an earnest and surety of our future good behavior; and to give US leave to indulge the pleasing hope, that the continuance of that behavior, enforced by our religious principles, and of your majes- ty's great and inherent goodness towards us, which it will be the business of our lives to endeavor to merit, may at length be the happy means of our deliverance from some part of that burden, which We hav« SO long and so patiently endured. That this act of truly royal commiseration, beneficence and justice, may be added to your majesty's many other heroic virtues, and that such our deliverance may be one of those distinguished blessings of your reign, which shall transmit its memory to the hue, gratitude, and veneration of our latest posterity, is the humble prayer of, Ac. This very humble petition was never pre- sented to the king. It was communicated, says Dr. Curry, " to the Right Reverend Dr. Stone, aud was approved of by his lira,', and by as mauv of his discerning and con- fidential friends as he thought proper to show it to, as he himself assured Lord Taaffe." But in this case also, the Catholics them- selves did not agree as to tin' proper steps to be taken; and the death of the Primate, shortly after, seems to have put an end to all proceedings upon it. This odious l'i i- mate,.iu the last years of his life, became quite friendly to the Catholics. The "Eng- lish interests" in Ireland needi d s >me sup- port against the "Patriots," who set up the rous pretension to vindicate the na- tional independence of the colony ; and the Government alreadj began to rely upon the Catholics as a means and agent of perpet- uating Lritish domination. m V ■ * Q> , Kg-Rfo &M* Z5Sw* BERKELEY'S "QUERIST — GEOBGE III. *»er" As for the :or\ a pleasing cir- cumstance which I look upon as one of the most auspicious omens of my reign — that happy extinction of divisions, ami that union and good harmony which continue to pre- vail amongst my subjects afford me the most agreeable prospect," His Majesty also was pleased to say "that he would maintain the toleration inviolable.'' The '-toleration" here spoken of, in so far as it included Irish Papists, meant simple connivance at Catholic worship, so long as that was practised very quietly, in obscure places. It did not mean exemption or re- lief from any one of the disabilities or pen- alties which had abolished the civil exist- ence of Catholics; it did not mean (hat they could l>e e lucated, either at home or abroad ; nor thai they could possess arms, or horses, or farms on a longer lease than thirty-one years; nor that they could sit in Parlia- ment, or municipal councils, or parish ves- tries, or in any way participate in the voting away ot' their own money. It did not mean that their clergy could receive orders in Ire- laud, or go abroad to receive them without incurring the penally of transportation, and, if they returned, death : — uor that Catho- lics could pra< tise law or medicine, or sit on juries, or be guardians to their own chil- dren, or hud money on mortgage (if they earned any money), of go to a foreign coun- try, or have any of the lights of human beings in their own. By the connivance ot the government, they were permitted to breathe, and to go to mass, and to do almost nothing else, except live by their labor and pay laxes and penal tines. Such is the pre- cise limitation of that '■toleration," which King George said would be inviolably main- tained : and it. was inviolably maintained during the first thirty-three years of this reign with certain trilling alleviations which are to be mentioned in their proper place. The accession of King George III. took place at an auspicious and prosperous time, for England, though not for Ireland. The war was proceeding favorably to Great .Brit- ain in all parts of the earth and sea; and it was in this year 1700 and the following year that the great Struggle between France and England for the colonial empire of India came to a crisis and was decided against Fiance, and therefore disastrously for Ireland. The war ill India would not here much con- cern us but for it> connection with the sad fate of Count Lally. He was now a lieuten- ant-general in the French armies, ami M. de Voltaire informs us that it was his well- known hatred of the English which caused him to be selected for the honor of com- manding the force which was to encounter them on the coast of Coromandel. His re- giment, that had fought at Fontenoy, was with him; and one of the officers who held high command under him was the Chevalier Geoglicgan.'* He, found every thing in dis- array at Pondicherry, the capital of the French possessions; very insufficient forces, but little provisions, and no money at all. Voltaire says : "Notwithstanding the gloomy views he took of every thing, he had at first, some happy success. He took from the English the fort St. David, some leagues from Pondicherry and razed its walls in April, 1758." The same year he besieged Madras, took the "black town," but failed before the fortress. Uis own correspondence, which is in part given to us by Voltaire, attributes SrVl V,V I. «\? ; v<5r r?m ,n " ?'f'jj0^W^\ IAII.Vs CAMPAIGN IN INDIA. 87 of the latter country always expected too much ; and while they looked upon the great prosperity and wealth "t' their own country, had not sufficient consideration for the pov- erty of Ireland. Two or three sentences taken from this book (tin-- Commercial Restrictions) give a clear idea of ilie financial condition of the island. "The revenue had decreased in 1 75 5. fell lo« er in 1750, and still low or in t 75 7. In the last year the vaunted prosperity of Ire- land was changed into misery and distress, the lower classes of ilie people wanted food." Again— " The public expenses were greatly increased; the pensions on the civil-list, at Lady-day, 1759, amounted to £55,497; there was at the same time a great augmen- tation of military expense. Six new regi- ments and a troop were raised in a verj short space of time.'' From all these causes the author states that the payment out of the treasury in little more than one year was £708,957. "The effects," hu continues, "of these exactions were immediately and severely felt by the kingdom. These loans could not be supplied by a poor countn without draining the bankers of their cash ; three of the principal houses (Clements, Dawsons, and Mitchell) among them, stop- ped payment; the three remaining banks in Dublin discounted no paper, and in fact did no business. Public and private credit that had been drooping miuv the year 175 1, hail now fallen prostrate. At a general meeting of the merchants of Dublin in April, 1760, with several members of the House of Com- mons, the inability of the former to carry on business was universally acknowledged," &c. The scarcity of money now employed in trade or improvements, together with the laws which made it impossible for Catholics to exercise any lucrative industry in corpo- rate towns, caused more and more of the people to he dependent upon agi iculture and sheep-farming alone. Hut. the lot of these po.r agriculturists was hard, for the landed proprietors under whom they had to live, were an alien and hostile race, having no sympathy with the humble people around them. This lamentable circumstance k ir to Ireland. Neither in England nor in Scotland was the case of the peas- antry ever rendered bitterer than poveitj makes it at any rate, by differences of race and of religion. In Ireland they found themselves face to face, not two classes, but two nations ; of which theone had substantial- ly the power of lite and death over the oilier. \\ In ii we add to this that one of these two nations had despoiled the other of those very lands which tin' plundered race were now glad to cultivate as rackrented tenants; and also that the dominant nation fell bound to hate the oilier, both as "rebels" who nee, led only the opportunity to ri*e and cut heir masters' throats, and as Papists who clung' to the "damnable idolatry" of the mass, we can easily understand the diffi- culty of the "landlord and tenant question " in Ireland. We have now, in fact, arrived at the era ot the " Whileboy" organization, which was itself the legitimate offspring of the Rapparees, and which in its turn has given birth to "Uibbonism," to tie- "Terry Alts," and finally to the "Fenians." The principle and meaning of all these Various forms of secret [risb organization lies been the same at all times, namely, the instinct of resistance to legal oppression by illegal com- binations among the oppressed. And this has been inevitable, and far from blaniable, under the circumstances of the country. All the laws were made not for, but against the great mass of the people; the courts of justice were entirely in the possession of the oppressors; the proscribed race saw ouly mortal enemies on the bench, enemies in the jury-box, enemies everywhere all around, and were continually made to fee! that law and justice were not for them. This of course, in times of distress threw them back upon the only resource of desperate men, conspiracy, intimidation, and vengeance. We have seen by the statements of Mr. J. Holy Hutchinson, that in the last year of King George 11. " the lower classes of the people wanted food." The financial distress soon made matters still woise, and almost immediately after the accession of the new king, the whole island begau to be startle. t by formidable rumors of disturbances and tumults in the south. The immediate cause of the first breaking out of these disorders was that many landlords in Minister began to inclose commons, on which their rack- rented tenants had, up to that lime, enjoyed the right of commonage as some compensa- h & &j v % y\ ; burden and making their hard I ■ ] \ j...i t.il .]»•. In Waterford, in Cork, \ V '■ »f I perary, angry crowds assembled, \\ i.M'J ''"' ''••"I 1 --uri-s, and s itiraes ma k\|ji * v workmen employed in putting '/''"**-■$•■ J m tion for ili'' extreme sevdrity of the terms on which they held theirfarms. The inclosure these commons took away from them the only means they had of lightening their burden and making their hard tenure Bnp- 1 ii Waterford, in Cork, and in Tip- tore down di rented the them up. The aggrieved peasantry soon combined their operations, associated together by secret oaths, and these confederates began to be known as Whiteboys. A Becond cause for the discontents, which soon swelled the society of Whiteboys, was the cruel exac- tions of the tithe proctors — persons who farmed the tithes of a. parish rector, and thru screwed ihe utmost farthing out of the parishioners, often selling out their crops. their stocks, even their beds, to make up the subsidy for clergymen whose ministra- tions they never attended. Resistance, there- fore, to tithes, and the occasional amputa- tion of a tithe proctor's ems, formed a large part of the proceedings of the White- boys The riots of these few forlorn men, were Boon construed into a general Popish con- spiracy against the Government; because, indeed, the greatest part of them were Pa- pists, at least in name; although it was well known that several Protestant gentlemen * See Dr. Curry's Review. He was a contempo- rary. See also Arthur young's " Tour in Ireland." Young whs one of the most observant of travellers, and bus examined this whole subject in a very fair He thus speaks of the state of the pi under their laudlorda : — " The execution of the law .cry much in the hands of justices of the peace, many of whom are drawn from the most illiberal olass in the kingdom. If a poor man lodges a com- plaint against a gentleman, or any animal that chooses to cail it li u gentleman, and the justice issues out a summons for his appearance, it is n. fixed affront, and he will infallibly be calltd out. Where manners urc in conspiracy against law y to whom are the op- pres ed people to have recourse ? They know their situation too well to think of it ; they can have no defi'i aeana of protection from one gentle- man against another, who probably protects his vassal as he would the sheep he intends to eat. "The colors of this picture aro not charged. To rt that all these oases are common, would he an geration ; bat to say that an unfeeling landlord Vi .11 do all this with impunit) . is to keep strii truth ; and what is liberty but a farce and a jest, if Its blessings are recoil i I humanity, ii , Dab. 1-Mt.,\u\. ii., pp. 4u, 41. 12 and magistrates of considerable influence in that provi , did all along, for their own private ends, connive at if not foment ihes& .';' <-, : HISTOItY ov n;ici.A\r>. conspiracies speedily disappeared, W hite- loyisin remained, and under one form or ttnolher must remain till English domination in Ireland shall bo abolished. The bonesl English tourist, Mr. Young, makes some reflections on these societies which show a nmsi remarkable spirit of fairness, for an Englishman writing about Ireland : — " Consequenoes have flowed from these oppressions which ought long ago to have put a slop to them, tn England we have heard much of Whiteboys, Steel-Boys, Oak- Boys, Peep-of-Day-Boys, etc. Bui these various insurgents are not to be oonfounded, for they are very different. The proper dis- tinction in the discontents of the people is into Protestant and Catholic All hut the Whiteboys are among the manufacturing Protestauts in the north : the Whiteboys, ( !atholic laborers in the south. From the b> b1 intelligence I could gain, the riots of the manufacturers had no other foundation, but su.-li variations in the manufacture as all fabrics experience, and which they hail themselves known and submitted to before. The case, however, was different with the Whiteboys, who being laboring Catholics met with all those oppressions 1 have de- scribed, aud would probably have continued in full submission had not verj severe treat- ment in respect of tithes, uuited with a great speculative rise of rents about the same time, blown up the flame of resistance; the atrocious acts they were guilty of made them the object of general in. lie-nation; acts were passed for their punishment, which seemed calculated for the meridian of Bar- bary; this arose to such a height, that by one thej were to be hanged under circum- stances without the common formalities of a trial, which though repealed by the follow- ing session marks the spirit of punishment; while Others remain yet the law of the land, that would, if executed, tend more to raise than quell an insurrection. From all which it is manifest that the gentlemen of Ireland never thought of a radical cure, from Overlooking the red cause of disease, which in fact lav in themselves, and not in the wretch es they doomed to the gallows. Let them change their own conduct entirely, and the poor will not long riot. Treat them ike men who ought to bo as free as your- selves : put an end to that system of religious persecution which for seventy years has di- vided tin' kingdom against itself ; in these two circumstances lies the cure of insurrec- tion, perform them completely, and you will have an affectionate pool', instead of oppress- ed and discontented vassals." It will be .soon in the Sequel how little chance these indignant and well-meant re- monstrances had of meeting with attention. The troubles in [Jlster, tl gh they were quite unconnected with Whiteboyism — and though a Catholic would no nunc have been admitted into a Eeart-of-Steel lodge than into a. vestry meeting — were yet produced by hardship and oppression. The Presbyte- rians of the north were now, as well as the Catholics, sufferiug not only by tin' Test Act and the tithes, but also by the difficulty of earning an honest livelihood, owing to the scarcity of money and tin' heavy taxa- tion to meet tin' demands of Govewjment, Emigration to America, therefore, continued from the northern seaports; and many ac- tive and energetic families were every season Beekiug a new home beyond the Atlantic. It was now that the fathers of Andrew Jackson, of John ('. Calhoun, of James Buchanan, and other eminent American statesmen, established themselves in various parts of the colonies. These exiles were the men who formed the •• Pennsylvania Line" in tin' revolutionary war, ami had the satisfaction of contributing powerfully to destroy in America that relentless Brit ish domination which had made their 1 1 ir-.li homes untenable. While the exiled I'alho hes on the European continent were eager to encounter the English poweruponanj Geld, those other Protestant exiles in America were ardently engaged in the task of up- rooting it in that hemisphere. Vet it is a strange and sad reflection, that although their cause and their grievances, while at home, where very similar, if not identical, they never could bring themselves to com- bine together there against their common enemy and oppressor. It must be stated, however, without hesitation, that ibis was exclusively the fault of the Protestant I>s- senters. Hiey bated Popery and Papists even more intensely than di.l the English colonists <'( the Anglican church : they had 3? £2 55S , . 'i',' ?*3! tst ") Trf smm zc ^ <^t 5 a AGITATION FOR SEPTENNIAL PARLIAMENTS. 91 submitted, .ilim>>t gladly, to disabilities themselves, because they Knew that tbe Catholics were subjected to still worse, and they were unwilling, by a too factious re- sistance "ii their own part, to embarrass a system of policy which they were assured was needful to the great cause of Protestant, as- cendency. They might suffer themselves, but they could not make common cause with the common enemy. For this mean compliance and perverse bigotry they had their reward : they were now flying in crowds from a fair and fertile land which they might have held and enjoyed forever, if they had united their cause with those who were enduring the same oppressions from tbe same tyrants. This may be taken as completing tbe ffifa picture of the social and industrial condi- tion of Ireland in the first year of the reign of George III. It is time to return to the political struggle of the English colony. The Duke of Bedford, who bad been on the whole nearly as popular a viceroy as Lord Chesterfield, was recalled in 1761, and succeeded by Lord Halifax. A new Par- liament was summoned, as usual for the new reign, and on this occasion Dr. Lucas, who had returned from his exile, was returned as one of the members for Dublin city. Sev- eral other new members of great promise with "patriotic" aspirations, also came to this Parliament ; amongst whom appeared, for the first time in public life, the celebrated Henry Flood, as member for Kilkenny. This eminent man took rank very soon as an Irish patriot, but at first his patriotism was strictly colonial, that is to say, all his care was for the English Protestant inhabi- tants of the island. And when the growing power and rising spirit of the colonists soon after aspired to and achieved a national in- dependence, the nationality be asserted was still strictly and exclusively Protestant. Flood was the son of a former chief justice, and all bis relatives and connections were of the highest Protestant ascendency. Yet, according to his own narrow ideas, it cau- ! not be denied that Flood was a patriot: that is to say, a determined assertor of tbe sovereign right of the Irish Parliamei t against the domination of Great Britain Two other members of the Patriot party ap- peared in that Parliament, Mr. Denis Daly and Mr. Hussey Burgh. In January, 1762, Mr. Hamilton, secretary to Lord Halifax, communicated to the Com- mons the rupture with Spain. It is not es- sential to the history of Ireland to follow the course of English diplomatic and mili- tary proceedings on the Continent. All those transactions were decided on and prosecu- ted without the slightest reference to the interest either of the Irish nation or of the British colony ; Ireland's only concern with England's wars being in the contin- ual demands for money and men. Accord- ingly an immediate augmentation of five battalions was now required by Government, together with a vote of credit for raising atiother half-million sterling. An address was also presented by the Commons to the lord-lieutenant, to be by him transmitted to the crown, praying to have the salary of that official raised to £16,000 a year. Pri- mate Stone was still influential in the Irish government, as well as the former " Patriot," but now pensioner and placeman, Boyle, earl of Shannon. The extravagance of Government in every department, the reck- lessness with which the people were loaded with taxation, and the immense system of bribery resorted to by the administration in order to break down opposition and purchase assured majorities in Parliament, convinced Lucas and his friends that there could be no beginning of redress or remedy for these evils until the Parliament should be made more immediately responsible to the people. In England "Septennial Parlia- ments" had beeu the law and the practice for some time, but in Ireland each Parlia- ment was still elected for the life of the king. The agitation for this measure of septennial elections occupied the Patriotic party for several years. \U>\ rv tfl ^^ '<& ^SfSo Y y ^ ~-\ /* I CHAPTER XIV. 1762—1768. Tory Ministry— Failures of the Patriots— Northum- berland, \ ioeroj -Mr. Fitzgerald's Rpeech on pen- sion-list Mr. Perry's address on same subject- Effort for mitigation of the Penal Laws— Mr. Mason's argument tor allowing Papists to take , 'tgnges— Eejeoted — Death of Stone and Earl of Shannon— Lord Hartford, Vioeroj -Lucas and i\»- Patriots— Their continued failures— Inorease of National Debt— Townshend, Viceroy— New system — The " Undertakers " -Septennial Bill ohanged int.. Octennial — And passe. 1 -Joy of the People — Consequences of this measure — Ireland still "standing en her smaller end"— Newspapers of i >ublin - Grnttan. 'I'm: government of Lord Halifax ended with the session of 1762. This year is eon- si. lered an eventful one in British annals. Mr. Pitt, and afterwards the Duke of New- castle, retired from the administration, which came entirely into the hands of Lord Bute, a tow, as high ami violent a-- it was possible to l>e, without absolute Jacobitism; whose administration showed that the thorough- going doctrines of prerogative were quite as congenial to the House of Hanover as ever they had been to the House of Stuart. On the retirement of Mr. Pitt, the merchants, traders, and citizens of Dublin, who had now become not only an opulent and influential body, hut, thoroughly imbued with the political theories of Lucas, their representa- tive (who had lately returned from his exile and been returned for the cit) >. presented a most grateful address to Mr. Pitt, expressive of their admiration of his principles, and sincere regret fchiit the country was deprived of his services. The immediate effect of the change of administration upon the conduct of Parliament, demonstrates, however, the extent and depth of the corruption which had there penetrated so deep into the whole body politic of the English colony in Ire- land. < »n the very first day of the last ses- sion (22d October, lTtil) the Commons had ordered "that leave be given to briny; in the heads of a bill to limit the duration of Par- liaments" (the Septennial Bill), in imitation of the Septennial law of England. Dr. Lucas, Mr. Perry, and Mr. George Lowther, were ordered to report and brine' up the bill. It was received, lead, committed ; amendments were proposed and accepted ; in the course of December' in that year, the heads of the bill beino; reported from the committee of the whole House, were finally agreed to. But before any further step was taken, Lord Bute and his tory ministry came in, and when a motion was made that the Speaker should attend the lord-lieutenant to give him the bill for transmission to London, in the usual form, the motion was lost by j» vote of 108 against forty-three. This ma- jority of sixty-five upon a question so reason- able, so necessary, and so constitutional, shows the rapid decline of the Patriotic in- terest in Ireland after the late changes; the reduction of wd licit was very artfully effected by the two first of the lords justices. Pri- mate Stone, the Earl of Shannon, and Mr. John Ponsonby, the Speaker. Thus was Mr. Lucas's first Patriotic bill lost, to the no small disappointment and mortification of the peo- ple out of doors. It ishighly materia] to'ob- serve, that in proportion as Patriots fell off in Parliament, they sprang up out of it. This ministerial triumph was followed by no pop- ular disturbance, but by deep and general disappointment. A meeting of the citizens of Dublin e'ave expression, calmly and tem- perately, to the feelings of the people, in a scries of resolutions, one of which is worth transcribing, as illustrating the strictly Protestant character of all this patriotism. " Resolved, That the clandestine aits which arc usually practised (and have been some- times detected) in obstructing of bills tend- ing to promote the Protestant interest, eught to make Protestants the more active in sup- porting the Septennial Bill; the rather, as no doubt can remain, that a septennial lim- itation of Parliaments, would render the eeuerality of landlords assiduous in procur- ing Protestant tenants, and that the visible advantage accruing, would induce others to conform." Eis failure did not daunt the in- defatigable Dr. Lucas. lie presented the leads of bills for securing the freedom of Parliament, by ascertaining the qualifica- tions of knights, citizens, and burgesses, and for vacating the seats of members, who would accept any lucrative office oremploy- ment from the crown, and of persons upon the establishment of Great Britain and Ire- and. All these measures failed ; the Court ; , i w\ f. Ml IS i a &&&*'*, -^4't?^ w^m? w *• part; under Lord Bute was now supreme. But tliis Court party bad adopted adifferenl language. It was no longer called the Eng- lish interest, for Primate Stone was too good a politician to keep up that offensive term, after he had so successfully I nought over some of tli" leading Patriots to his side, who in sup- porting .'II the measures of the British cab- inet, affected to do it, still as Irish Patriots. Among these Irish Patriots who had thus prudently sold themselves, and were zealous to give good value for their purchase-money, was Boyle, earl of Shannon. The Earl of Halifax had been recalled, and was succeeded as lord-lieutenant by the Earl of Northumberland. The new viceroy opened a session of Parliament, in October, 17G3, in a speech wherein he ex- pressed, in the king's name, his majesty's just and gracious regard for a dutiful and loyal people, and congratulated them on the birth of a Prinee of Wales. They would much rather have had their Septennial Bill. The next efforts of the Patriots were di- 'rected against the pension list, which had grown to hi! an enormous evil and oppres- sion ; but the first motion for an address to the king on this subject, was negatived, on a division of 112 against seventy three. So weak was now the Patriotic cause in the Commons. Pensions continued to be lav- ished with unchecked profusion. The de- bate, however, on this motion was warm and spirited. Mr. J. Fitzgerald took the lead on the Patriot side. He stated (and was not contradicted) that the pensions then charged upon the civil establishment of the kingdom amounted to no less than £72,000 per annum, besides the French and military pensions, and besides the sums paid for old and now unnecessary employments, and those paid iii unnecessary additions to the salaries of others: that the pensions, there- fore, exceeded the civil list above £42,000: thai not only since the House in 17o7 had voted the increase of pensions alarming, had the} been yearlj increased; but that in the lime of a most expensive war, and when the country had willingly and cheerfully in- cn iscdaveiy considerable national debt; and when the additional influence of the crown from the lev) ing of new regiments might well have prevented the necessity of new pen- sionary gratifications. Ho then drew a pit- eous portrait of the country ; not one-third peopled; two-thirds of the people unem- ployed, consequently indolent, wretched, and discontented; neither foreign trade, nor home consumption sufficient to distribute the conveniences of, life among them with reasonable equality, or to pay any tax pro- portionable to their number. What new mode of taxation could be devised? Would they tax leather where no shoes were worn, or tallow where no candles were burned? They could not tax the roots of the earth and the water on which the wretched peas- antry existed; they could tax no commodity that would not defeat itself, by working a prohibition. He then entered into the legal and constitutional rights of the crown over the public revenue, and strongly resisted the assumed right of charging the public revenue with private pensions. The crown, he con- tended, had a public and private revenue : the public it received as a trustee for the public; the private it received in its own right ; the former arose out of temporary duties, and was appropriated by Parliament to specific public purposes, and was not left to the discretionary disposal of the crown. The latter did not in Ireland exceed JL 7,000 per annum, and the pensions amounting to £72,000 exceeded the fund, which could alone be charged with them by £65,000 per annum. The Court party strenuously resisted these arguments, as an unconstitutional and inde- cent attack upon the prerogative; insisting that the regal dignity should be supported by a power to reward as well as to punish ; that the king was not to hold a sword in one hand and a barren sceptre in the other; that the two great springs of all actions were hope and fear; and where fear only operated, love could have no place; with many other slavish phrases usual in such a case. In this war against the pension list the most active member of the C mons was Mr. Perry, member for Limerick. He soon returned to the charge, and moved an ad- dress to the king — but with his usual want of success— reuioii ttating against the waste- ful extravagance of the Government. The addre-s wa8 not adopted, but a few sentences of it contain facts worth recording. R? ^1 9>J I ft fc-"v- I^'i^l '$. fW "That the expense of tlie present military establishment amounts in two years to the sum of £980,955 19*. The civil establish- ment to £242,950 10*. 9V the Irish of every description. The majority which had been so dearly bought in the Commons, by those who had heretofore had the management of the English interest, was now found not altogether so tractable as it had beretofore been. There were three or four grandees wdio had such an influence in the House of Commons, that their coalition would, at any time, give them a clear ma- jority upon any question. To gain theso had been the chief anxiety of former gov- ernors : they were sure to bring over a pro- portionate number of dependants, and it had been the unguarded maxim to permit sub- ordinate graces and favors to flow from or through the bands of these leaders.* For- merly these principals used to stipulate with each new lord-lieutenant, whose office was biennial and residence but for six months, upon what terms they would carry the king's business through the House : gs that they might not improperly be called under- takers. They provided, that the disposal of all Court favors, whether places, pensions or preferments, should pass through then hands, in order to keep their suite in an absolute state of dependence upon them- selves. All applications were made by tbe leader, who claimed as a right the privilege of gratifying his friends in proportion to their numbers. Whenever such demands were not complied with, then were the measures of Government sine to be crossed anil obstructed; and the session of Parlia- ment became a constant struggle for power between the heads of parties, who used to force themselves into the office of lord justice according to the prevalence of their interest. This evil had been seen and la- mented by Lord Chesterfield, and his reso- lution and preparatory steps for undermin- ing it probably contributed not a little to his immediate recall, upon the cessation of the danger, which his wisdom was thought. alone compi teat to avert. This was the system which Lord Claro said, '■ Til" (iovenimeiil of England at leiie'tll opened their eyes to the defects ami dangers of : they shook the power of the aristo? racy, but were unable to break it down." •Phil. Surv., p. 57. m h . .•'- ■ f S*+-M &V M &. 3 ■9 ->. ^ 1? SEPTENNIAL BILL CUANGED INTO AN OCTENNIAL. m The primary object of Loci] Townshend's administration was to break up the monop- olizing system of this oligarchy. 1 1 < ■; in part succeeded, but by means rninous to ihe country. The subalterns were not to be de- tached from their chiefs, but by similar though more powerful means than those by which they had enlisted under their ban ners. The streams of favor became not only multiplied, but enlarged. Every in- dividual now looked up directly to the fountain head, and claimed and received more copious draughts. Thus, under color of destroying an overgrown aristocratic power, all parliamentary independence was completely destroyed by Government. The innovation naturally provoked the deserted few to resentment. They took refuge un- der the shelter of patriotism, and I hey in- veighed with less effect against the venality of the system, merely because it had taken a new direction, and was somewhat en- larged. The bulk of the nation, and some, though very kw of their representatives in Parliament, were earnest, firm, and impla- cable against it.. The arduous task which Lord Townshend had assumed was not to be effected by a coup de main : forces so engaged, so mar- shalled, and so commanding rather than commanded, as he found the Irish Parlia- ment, were not to be dislodged by a sudden charge: regular, gradual, and cautious ap- proaches were to be made : it was requisite that the chief governor should first be popu- lar, and then powerful, before he could be efficient and successful. His lordship, there- fore, to those convivial fascinations, to which Irish society was so sensible, superadded as many personal favors, as the fiscal stores could even promise to answer, which in a people of ipiiek and warm sensibility creates a something very like momentary gratitude ; and in order the more completely to scat himself in that effective power, which was requisite for his purpose, he judiciously fixed upon a favorite object of the wishes and attempts of the Patriots to sanction with his countenance and support. This was the long-wished-for Septennial Bill. Dr. Lucas had several times failed in his endeavors to procure a bill for limiting the 13 duration of Parliament. Now, however, a Septennial Bill was transmitted, and was re- turned with an alteration in point of time, having been changed into an Octennial one. There appears to have been some unfair manoeuvring in the British cabinet, in order by a side, wind to deprive the Irish of that, which they dared not openly refuse them. At the same time a transmission was made of another popular bill for the independence of the judges, in which they had also inserted some alteration. It was expected that the violent tenaciousness of the Irish Commons for the privilege of not having their heads of bills altered by the English ministers, would have induced them to reject any bill, into which such an alteration had been in- troduced. In this the English cabinet was deceived : the Irish Commons waived the objection as. to the limitation bill, in order to make sure at last of what they had so long tried in vain to procure, but objected on this very account to the judges' bill, which was transmitted at the same time with al- terations: for although this latter bill had been particularly recommended in the speech of the lord-lieutenant, it was, on account of an alteration inserted in it in England, unan- imously rejected. No sooner was the Octennial Bill return- ed, than the Commons voted a respectful and grateful address to the throne, beseeching his majesty to accept their unfeigned and grateful acknowledgments for the conde- scension, so signally manifested to his sub- jects of that kingdom, in returning the bill for limiting the duration of Parliaments which they considered not only as a gracious mark of paternal benevolence, but as a wise result of royal deliberation. And when the royal assent had been given, the action was so grateful to the people, that they took the horses from the viceroy's coach, and drew him from the parliament house with the most enthusiastic raptures of applause and exultation. But bis lordship's popularity did not last long. By diverting the channel of favor, or rather by dividing it into a mul- titude of little streams, the gentlemen of the House of Commons were taught to look up to him, not oidy as the source, but as the dispenser of every gratification. Not even a commission in the revenue, worth above sy H ,r IP ;- £40 a year, could be disposed of, without his approbation. Thus were the old under- takers given to understand, that there was another way of doing business than through them. It was not, however, without much violence ou both sides, that lie at length ef- fected his purpose. The immediate suffer- ers did not fail to call this alteration in the system of governing, an innovation, which they artfully taught the people to resent as a national grievance. It will be seen that although the Patriots had now gained their famous measure, not indeed as a Septennial, but at least as an Octennial Bill, which was to have been a panacea for all the evils of the State ; its effects were far from answering their ex- pectations. Extravagance and corruption still grew and spread under Lord Towns- hend's administration. Proprietors of bor- oughs found their property much enhanced in value, because there was a market for it every eight years. The reflections of Thomas McNevin on this subject are very just: — " Some doubts arose as to the beu- etits produced by this bill iu the way de- signed by its framers ; but no one doubted that the spirit discovered by the Patriot party in the House produced effects at the tune and somewhat later, which cannot be overstated or overvalued. It may, indeed, be doubted whether any measure, however beneficial in itself, could in those days of venality and oppression, with a constitution so full of blemishes, and a spirit of intoler- ance influencing the best and ablest men of the day, such as Lucas for example, cotdd be productive of any striking or permanent advantage. We must not be astonished then that the Octennial Bill was found in- commensurate with the expectations of the Patriots, who might have looked for the reasons of this and similar disappointments in their own venality, intolerance, fickleness, and shortcomings, if they had choseu to re- flect on themselves and their motives. The real advantages are to be found in the prin- ciples propounded and the spirit displayed iu the debates.* Iu short, no mere reforms in parliamentary elections or procedure could avail to create * MoNevin's History of the Volunteers. in this English colony, either a national spirit or national proportions, or to stay the corruption and venality so carefully organ- ized by English governors for the express purpose of keeping it down, so long as the colony did not associate with itself the mul- titudinous masses of the Catholic people — ■ so long as half a million had to hold down and coerce over two millions of dis- armed and disfranchised people, and at the same time to contend with the insolence and rapacity of Great Britain. Nationality in Ireland was necessarily fated to be delu- sive and evanescent. 11 So long as Ireland" did pretend, Like silgur-loflf turned upside down, To stand upon its smaller end."* In the year 176*7, the whole population of the island was estimated, or iu part calcula- ted, at 2,544,276, aud of these less than half a million were Protestants of the two sects. It must, however, be acknowledged that in this oppressive minority there began to be developed a very strong political vitality, chiefly owing to the strong personal interest which every one had in public affairs, and to the spread of political information, through newspapers and pamphlets, and the very able speeches which now began to give the Irish Parliament a just celebrity. Dr. Lucas conducted the Freeman^s Journal, which was established very soon after the accession of George III. This journal was soon followed by another called the Hibernian Journal, Flood, Hussey, Burgh, Yelverton, and above all, Grattan, contributed to these papers. In the administration of Lord Townsheiid ap- peared the Dublin Mercury, a' satirical sheet avowedly patronized by Government. It was intended to turn Patriots and Patriotism into ridicule : but the Government had not all the laughers on its side. A witty warfare was carried on against Lord Townshend in a collection of letters on the affairs and history of Barataria, by which was inteuded Ireland. The letters of Pos- thtimus aud Pericles, and the dedication, were written by Henry Grattan, at the timo of the publication a very young man. The principal papers, and all the history of Ba- rataria, the latter being an account of Lord * Moore. Memoir of Captain Book. rv-i ®n /■' <& &\ A ;« Townshend's administration, his protest, and Lis prorogation, were the composition of Sir Hercules Langrishe. Two of his wit- ticisms are still remembered, as being, in fact, short essays on the politics of Ireland. Riiling in the park with the lord-lieutenant, li is excellency complained of his predeces- sors having left it so damp and marshy ; Sir Hercules observed, " they were too much engaged in draining the rest of the king- dom." Being asked where was the best ami truest history of Ireland to be found ? lie answered : " In the continuation of Raping CHAPTER XV. 1762—1767. Reign of Terror in Minister — Murder of Father Sheeny— " Toleration," under the House of Han- over — Precarious condition of Catholic Clergy — Primates in biding — Working of the Penal Laws — Testimony of Arthur Young. Contempouaneouslv with the parliament- ary struggles for the Octennial Act, and for arresting, if possible, the public extravagance and corruption, there was goiug on in an ob- scure parish of Tipperary, one of those dark transactions which were so common in Ire- laud during all this century as to excite no attention, and leave scarcely a record — the judicial murder of Father Nicholas Sheehy. His story is a true and striking epitome of the history of the Catholic nation in those days, and the notoriety of the facts at the time, and the character of the principal vic- tim, have caused the full details to be handed down to us, minutely and with the clearest evidence. The bitter distresses of the people of Minister, occasioned by rack rents, by the merciless exactions of the established clergy and their tithe-proctors, and by the inclosure of commons, had gone on increasing and glowing more intense from the year 1760, until despair and misery drove the people into secret associations, and in 1702, as we have seen, the Whiteboys had in some places broken out into unconnected riots to pull down the fences that inclosed their com- mons, or to resist the collection of church- rates, These disturbances were greatly ex- aggerated in the reports made to Government by the neighboring Protestant proprietors, squires of the Cromwellian brood, who rep- resented that wretched Jacquerie as noth- ing less than a Popish rebellion, instigated by Fiance, supported by French money, and designed to bring in the Pretender. The village of Clogheen lies in the valley between the Galtees and the range of Knockmaoldown, in Tipperary, near the borders of Waterford aud of Cork counties. Its parish priest was the Reverend Nicholas Sheehy : he was of a good Irish family, and well educated, having, as usual at that pe- riod, gone to France — contrary to " law " — for the instruction denied him at home. On the Continent he had probably mingled much with the high-spirited Irish exiles, who made the name of Ireland famous in all the courts and camps of Europe, and on his perilous return (for that too was against the law), to engage in the labors of his still more perilous mission, his soul was stirred within him at the sight of the degradation and abject wretchedness of the once proud clans of the south. With a noble impru- dence, which the moderate Dr. Curry terms "a quixotic cast of mind towards relieving all those within his district whom he fan- cied to be injured or oppressed ;" he spoke out against some of the enormities which he daily witnessed. In the neighboring parish of Newcastle, where there were no Protest- ant parishioners, he had ventured to say that there should be no church-rates, and the people had refused to pay them. About the same time, the tithes of two Protestant clergymen in the vicinity of Ballyporeen, Messrs Foulkes and Sutton, were farmed to a tithe-proctor of the name of Dobbyn. This proctor forthwith instituted a new claim upon the Catholic people of his district, of five shillings for every marriage celebrated by a priest.* This new impost was resisted by the people, and as it fell heavily on the parishioners of Mr. Sheehy, he denounced it publicly; in fact he did not even conceal that ho questioned altogether the divine right of a clergy to the tenth part of the * These details and a great muss of others hearing on the case of Mr. Sheehy, are given by Dr. Mad- den in his First Series (United Irishmen). Ho has carefully sifted the whole of the proceedings, and thrown much light upon thcui. Ife Wi >o, *>->o ■ WcT*"^ ifeg c ' " :i ' -S^^ ^KliJv^^l 100 niSTOKY OF IRELAND. <.U;'I fcXN '*V produce of a half-starved people, of whose souls they had no cure. How these doctrines were relished by the Cromwcllian inagis- tiates and Anglican rectors in his neighbor- hood, may well be conceived. It was not to be tolerated that the Catholic people should begin to suppose that they had any rights. The legislation of the Ascendency had strictly provided that there should be no Catholic lawyers ; it had also carefully pro- hibited education; nothing had been omitted to stifle within the hearts of the peasantry every sentiment of human dignity, and when they found that here was a man amongst the peasantry who could both read and write, and who could tell them how human beings lived in other lands, and what freedom and W~°£*r?Jr right were, it is not to be wondered at that his powerful neighbors resolved they would have his blood. When in 170'2, the troubles in the south were first supposed to call for military co- ercion, it was precisely in this village of Clogheen that the Marquis of Drogheda, commanding a considerable military force, fixed his headquarters. On that same night an assemblage of Whiteboys took place in the neighborhood, with the intention as was believed, of attacking the town, bat a clergy- man named Doyle, parish priest of Ardfinnan, on learning of their intention (as one of the informers states in his depositions), went amongst them and succeeded in preventing any offensive movement. His purpose, how- ever, in so doing was as usual represented to be insidious. From this time the Earl of Drogheda made several incursions into the adjacent country, "and great numbers of the insurgents," as we are informed by Sir Richard Musgrave, " were killed by his lordship's regiment, and French money was found iu the pockets of some of them." We are not informed what the " insurgents " were doing when they were killed, nor in what this insurrection consisted, but we may here present the judgment of Edmund Burke upon those transactions: — '• I was three times in Ireland, from the year 1760 to the year 1767, where I had suffi- cient means of information concerning the inhuman proceedings (among which were many cruel murders, besides an infinity of outrages aud oppressions unknown before in a civilized age) which prevailed during that period, in consequence of a pretended con- spiracy among Roman Catholics against the king's government." In short, there was no such conspiracy, and if the statement of Sir Richard Musgrave be true, which is highly improbable, that any coins of French money were found in the pockets of the slain, " that may be accounted for," says Mr. Matthew O'Connor, "as the natural result of a smuggling intercourse with France, and in particular of the clandestine export of wool to that country."* While the troops were established at Clogheen they were constantly employed in this well-known method of pacifying the country, aud they were seconded with san- guinary zeal by several neighboring gentle- men, especially Sir Thomas Maude, William Bagnell, and John Bagnell, Esquires; many arrests were made as well as murders com- mitted, and active preparation was made for what in Ireland is called " trial " of those of- fenders — that is indictment before juries of their mortal enemies. Diligent in the ar- rangement of the panels for these trials, we find Daniel Toler, high sheriff of the county, who was either father or uncle of that other Toler, the bloody judge, afterwards known under the execrated title of Norbury. Amidst all this we are not to suppose that Father Sheehy was forgotten. In the course of the disturbances he was several times ar- rested, indicted, and even tried as a "Popish priest," not being duly registered, or not having taken the abjuration oath : but so privately did the priests celebrate mass in those days that it was found impossible to procure any evidence against him. We find also that he was indicted at Clonmel assizes, in 1763, as having been present at a White- boy assemblage, and as having forced one Ross to swear that he never would testily against Whiteboys. At this same assizes, a true bill was found against Michael Quiulan, a Popish priest, for having at Aughnacarly and other places, exercised the office and functions of a Popish priest, against the peace of our lord the king and the statute, &c. To make conviction doubly sure, as in Sheehy's case, a second information was sent * M. O'Connor, 'History of tho Irish Catholica." li ! ' f*?^v i 1 :!-" '« A^iVf^p MURDKR OP FATHER SIIEEIIT. up on tilt; same occasion, charging Father Quinlau with ;i riotous assemblage at Augh- nacarty, so that if it was not a riot it was a mass, and if it was not a mass it was a riot — criminal in either case. It is needless to Btate the details of all these multifarious Legal proceedings extend- ing through several years. To pursue the story of Father Slieehy : ho was acquitted on the charge of being a Popish priest, " to his own great misfortune," says poor Dr. Curry, "for had he been convicted, his pun- ishment, which would bo only transporta- tion, might have prevented his ignominious death, which soon after followed." Can there be conceived a more touching illustra- tion of the ahject situation of the Catholics, than that such should be the reflection which suggested itself on such an occasion to the worthy Dr. Curry. It also deserves to be noted in passing, that no public man in Ireland was more ferocious in denouncing the unhappy Whiteboys and calling for their blood, than the celebrated Patriot, lien ry Flood. On the 13th of October, 1703, in moving for au instruction to the committee to inquire into the causes of the "insurrections" (which he would have to be a Popish rebel- lion and nothing less), he expressed his amazement that the indictments in the south were only laid for a riot and breach of the peace, and animadverted severely on the le- iH. -lit conduct of the judges. The solicitor- general had actually to modify the wrath of the bloodthirsty Patriot, and to assure him '•that whenever lenity had been shown, it was only h here reason and humanity required it,"* which wc may be very sure was true. Hut whosoever might be allowed to es- eape, that lot was not reserved for Father Sheehy.f For two whole years, while the gibbets were groaning and the jails bursting with his poor parishioners, he was enable to bailie all pioserulion; sometimes escaping out of the very toils of the attorney-general by default of evidence, sometimes concealing himself in the glens of the mountains, until in the \ ear 1 V 1 1 5 the Government was pre- vailed upon by his powerful enemies to issue a proclamation against mm, as a person guilty of high treason, offering a reward of three hundred pounds for taking him, which Sheehy in his retreat, happening to hear of, immediately wrote up to Secretary Waite, " that as he was not conscious of any such crime, as he was charged with in the procla- mation, he was ready to save to the Gov- ernment the money offered for taking him, by surrendering himself out of hand, to be tried for that or any other crime he might be accused of; not at Clonine], where he feared that the power and malice of his enemies were too prevalent for justice (as they soon after indeed proved to be), but at the court of King's Bench in Dublin." His proposal having been accepted, he was ac- cordingly brought up to Dublin and tried there for rebellion, of which, however, after a severe scrutiny of fourteen hours, he was again acquitted ; no evidence having ap- peared against him but a blackguard boy,' a common prostitute, and an impeached thief, all brought out of Cloumel jail, and bribed for the purpose of witnessing against him. But his inveterate enemies, who, like so many blood-hounds, had pursued him to Dublin, finding themselves disappointed there, resolved npon his destruction at all events. One Bridge, an infamous informer against some of those who had been executed for these riots, was said to have been murdered by their associates, in revenge (although his body could never be found),* and a con- siderable reward was offered for discovering and convicting the murderer. Sheehy, im- mediately after his acquittal in Dublin for rebellion, was indicted by his pursuers for this murder, and notwithstanding the pro- mise given him by those in ofiice on sur- rendering himself, he was transmitted to Clonmel, to be tried there for this now crime, and, upon the sole evidence of the same infamous witnesses, whose testimony had been so justly reprobated in Dublin, was there condemned to be hanged and quartered for the murder of a man who was never murdered at all. * It whs positively sworn, by two unexceptionable witnesses, that lie privately left the kingdom somo slmrt time before lie whs suid to have been mnr- dered. See notes of the trial taken by one of the jury, iu u Kxshaw's Magazine " for June, 17G0. Oi ^ TS&fs HISTORY OF IRELAND AVli.it barefaced injustice and inhumanity wore shown to lliis nnfortunate man on that occasion,* is known and testified by many thousands of credible persons, who were present and eye-witnesses on the day of his trial. A party of horse surrounded the OOUrt, admitting and excluding whomsoever they thought proper, while others of them, with Sir Thomas Mamie at their head, scampered the streets in a formidable man- ner, breaking into inns and private lodgings in the town, challenging and questioning all new-comers, menacing the prisoner's friends, and encouraging his enemies : even after sentence of death was pronounced against him (which one would think might have satisfied the malice of his enemies), his attorney found it neces- sary for his safety, to steal out of the town by night, and with all possible speed make his escape to Dublin. The bead of the brave murdered priest was spiked over the gates of Olonmel jail, and there remained twenty years. At last his sister was allowed to bury it where his body lies, in the old churchyard of Shandraghan. The night before his execution, which was but the second after bis sentence, he * To mention only ono instance out of ninny. During liis trial, Mr. Keating, a person of known property and credit in that country, having given tin- dearest and fullest evidence, that, during the whole night of the supposed murder of Bridge, the prisoner, Nicholas Sheehy, had lain in his house, that ho could not have left it in tlio night-time without his knowledge, and consequently that he cuuld not have been even present at the murder; the Reverend Mr. rlewetson, an active manager in these trials, stood up, ami after looking on a paper that he bold in his hand, informed the court that ho had Mr. Kcatiug's name on his list as one of those that were concerned in the killing of a corporal and sergeant, in a former rescue of some of these lovel- l. is. t'pun which he was immediately hurried away to Kilkenny jail, where lie lay lor some time, loaded with irons, in a dark and loathsome dungeon : by tins proceeding, not only his evidence was rendered useless to Sheehy, hut also that of many others was prevented, who came on purpose to teetify tho same thing, hut instantly withdrew themselves, for fear of meeting with the Bame treatment. Mr. Keating was afterwards tried for this pretended murder at the assizes of Kilkenny, tint was honorably acquit- ted ; too late, however, to be of any service to poor Sheehy, who was hanged and quartered some time before Mr. Keating's acquittal. The very samo evi- dence which was looked upon al Clonmel as good ami sulticient to condemn Mi. Sheehy, having been afterwards rejected at Kilkenny, as prevaricating und contradictory with respect to Mr. Keating. wrote a letter to Major Sirr, wherein he de- clared his innocence of the crime for which ho was next day to sudor death ; and on the morning of that day, just before ho was brought forth to execution, he, in the pres- ence of the sub-sheriff and a clergyman who attended him, again declared bis innocence of the murder; solemnly protesting at tho same time, as he was a dying man, just going to appear before tho most awful of tribunals, that he never had engaged any of the rioters in the service of the French king, by tendering them oaths, or other- wise ; that he never had distributed money among them on that account, nor had ever received money from France, or auy other foreign court, either directly or indirectly, for any such purpose; that he never knew of any French or other foreign officers being among these rioters; or of any Roman Cath- olics of property or note, being concerned with them. At the place of cxecutioTi he solemnly averred the same things, adding, "that he never heard an oath of allegiance to any foreign prince proposed or admin- istered in his lifetime; nor ever knew any thing of tho murder of Bridge, until he heard it publicly talked of; nor did he know that there ever was any such design on foot." Everybody knew, that this clergyman might, if he pleased, have easily made his escape to France, when he first heard of the proclamation for apprehending him ; and as he was all along accused of having been agent for the French king, in raising and fomenting theso tumults, he could not doubt of finding a safe retreat, and suitable recompense for such services, in any part of that kingdom. It seems, therefore, absurd in the highest degree, to imagine that he, or any man, being at the same time conscious of the com- plicated guilt of rebellion and murder, would have wilfully neglected the double oppor- tunity of escaping punishment and of living at his ease and safety in another kingdom; or that any person, so criminally circum- stanced as he was thought to be, would have at all surrendered himself to a public trial, without friends, money, or family connec- tions ; and, above all, without that conscious- ness of bis innocence, on which, ami tho protection of the Almighty, he might pos- sibly have relied for his deliverance. -ft sen -7tll.-«fs7>f£Mj .UiiNBts.u w CI SUBORNATION OP WITNESSES AND APPROVERS. 103 \ PI 8&& Emboldened by this success, Sir Thomas Maude published so advertisement, some- what in the nature of a manifesto, wherein, after having presumed to censure the admin- istration for not punishing, with greater and unjustifiable Beverity, these wretched rioters, In- named a certain day, on which the fol- lowing persons of credit and substance in that country, viz. : Edmund Sheehy, Janus Buxton, James Farrel, and others, were to lie tried by commission at Clonmel, as prin- cipals or accomplices in the aforesaid mur- der of Bridge. And, as if he meant by dint of numbers, to intimidate even the judges into lawless rigor and severity, he sent forth a sort of authoritative summons "to every gentleman in the county to attend that commission." His summons was punctually obeyed by his numerous and powerful ad- herents; and these men, innocent (as will appear hereafter), were sentenced to be hanged and quartered by that commission. It will naturally be asked, upon what new evidence* this sentence was passed, as it * James rrendcrgast, Esq., a witness for Mr. Edmund SheQhy, perfectly unexceptionable in point of Fortune, character, and religion, which ra that of the established church, deposed, that on the day and hour on which the murder of Bridge was sworn to have been committed, viz. : about or between the I rs often and eleven o'clock, on the night of the 28th of October, 1764, Edmund Sheehy, the prison- er, was witli him and others, in a distant part of tho country; that they and their wives had, on the ■foresaid 28th of October, dined at the bouse of Mr. Tcnison, near Ardtinan, in tho county of Tipperary, where they continued until after supper ; that it was about eleven o'clock when he and the prisoner left the bouse of Mr. Tenison, and rode a considerable way together "ii their return to their respective homes ; thai the prisoner bad his wife behind him ; that when he (Mr. I'rcndcrgast.; got home, he looki .1 at the clock, ami found it was the hour of twelve exactly." This testimony was confirmed by several corroborating circumstances, sworn to by two other witnesses, against whom no exception appears to have been taken. And yet, because Mr. Tcnison, although he confessed in his deposition, that tho prisoner had dined with him in October, 1761, and does not expressly deny that it was on the 28th of that mouth ; but says, conjecturally, that he was inclinul to think that it was earlier than the 28th, the prisoner was brought in guilty. Thus positive ami particular proof, produced by Mr. Prendergast, with the circumstances of the day and the hour, at- tested upon oath by two other witnesses, whoso veracity seems not to have been questioned, was overruled and set aside by the vague and indeter- minate surmise if Mr. Tcnison. Sec " Bxshuw's Gentleman's and London Magazine," for April, and June, 1766." may well be supposed, that no use was made of the former reprobated witnesses on this occasion. But use was made of them, and a principal use too, in the trial and con- viction of these devoted men. The managers, however, for the crown, as they impudently called themselves, being afraid, or ashamed, to trust the success of their sanguinary pur- poses to the now enfeebled, because gener- ally exploded, testimony of these miscreants, looked out for certain props, under the name of approvers, to strengthen and support their tottering evidence. These they soon found in the persons of Herbert and Bier, two prisoners, accused, like the rest, of the mur- der of Bridge; and who, though absolutely strangers to it (as they themselves had often sworn in the jail), were nevertheless in equal danger of being hanged for it, if they did not purchase their pardon by becoming approvers of the former false witnesses. Herbert was so conscious of his innocence in respect to Bridge's murder, that he had come to the assizes of Clonmel, in order to give evidence in favor of the priest Sheehy ; but his arrival and business being soon made known, effectual measures were taken to prevent his giving such evidence. Accord- ingly bills of high treason were found against him, upon the information of one of these reprobate witnesses, and a party of light horse sent to take him prisoner. Bier, upon his removal afterwards to Newgate, in Dublin, declared, in a dangerous fit of sick- ness, to the ordinary of that prison, with evident marks of sincere repentance, " that for any thing he knew to the contrary, the before-mentioned Edmund Sheehv, James Buxton, and James Farrel, were entirely in- nocent of the fact for which they had suf- fered death; and that nothing in this world, but the preservation of bis own life, which he saw was in the most imminent danger, should have tempted him to be guilty of the complicated crimes of perjury and mur- der, as he then confessed he was, when he swore away the lives of those innocent men." On Saturday morning, May 3d, 1706, the convicts were hanged and quartered at Clogheen. Their behavior at the place of execution was cheerful, but devout; not content to forgive, they prayed for aud 1^ i^ g^^g r-k w* Sp f M .-<■■ 104 HISTORY OF IRELAND. blessed their prosecutors, judges, and juries. After they were tied up, each of them, in his turn, read a paper aloud, without tremor, hesitation, or olher visible eiuotion, wherein they solemnly protested, as dying Christians, who were quickly to appear before the judgment-seat of God, "that they had no share either by act, counsel, or knowledge in the murder of Bridge ; that they never heard an oath of allegiance to any foreign prince proposed or administered amongst them ; that tbey never heard that any scheme of rebellion, high treason, or a mas- sacre, was intended, ottered, or even thought of, by any of them ; that they never knew of any commissions, or French or Spanish officers being sent, or of any money being paid to these rioters. After this, they sev- erally declared, in the same solemn manner, that certain gentlemen, whose names they then mentioned, had tampered with them at different times, pressing them to make, what they called useful discoveries,- by giving in examinations against numbers of Roman Catholics of fortune in that province (some of whom they particularly named) as actual- ly concerned in a conspiracy, and intended massacre, which were never ouce thought of. But above all, that they urged them to swear, that the priest, Nicholas Sheehy, died with a lie in his mouth ; without doing which, they said, no other discovery would avail them. Upon these conditions, they promised, and undertook to procure their pardons, ac- quainting them at the same time, that they should certainly be hanged, if they did not comply with them." All that has since come to light with re- gard to these black transactions — the testi- mony of Burke (already cited) that there was ii" conspiracy for insurrection at all — the failure to produce the body of Bridge, though it was carefully searched for in the field where a witness swore it had beeu buried — the hatred notoriously cherished against Father Sheehy and all his friends, on account of his bold conduct in standing up lor his poor parishioners — and we must add the whole course of Irish "justice" from that day to this — all compel us to credit the dying declaration of these men, who were also of unblemished character; and force us to the conclusion that the whole of these military executions and judicial trials in Minister, extending over four years, were themselves the result of a most foul conspi- racy on the part of the Ascendency faction, with its government, its judges, its magis- trates and its juries — based upon carefully organized perjury and carried through by brute force, to "strike terror'' in Tipperary (a measure often found needful since), to destroy all the leading Catholics of that troublesome neighborhood ; and above and before all things, to hang and quarter the body, and to spike the head, of the generous and kindly priest who told his people that they were human beings aud had rights and wrongs. Dr. Curry wiuds up his account of the transaction with these reflections : — " Such, during the space of three or four years, was the fearful aud pitiable state of the Roman Catholics of Minister, and so general did the panic at length become, so many of the lower sort were already hanged, in jail, or on the informers' lists, that the greatest part of the rest fled through fear ; so that the land lay unfilled, for want ot hands to cultivate it, and a famine was with reason apprehended. As for the better sort, who had something to lose (and who, for that reason, were the persons chiefly aimed at by the managers of the prosecution), they were at the utmost loss how to dispose of themselves. If they left the country, their absence was construed into a proof of their guilt: if they remained in it, they were in im- minent danger of having their lives sworn away by informers and approvers ; for the suborning and corrupting of witnesses on that occasion, was frequent and barefaced, to a degree almost beyond belief. The very stews were raked, and the jails rummaged in search of evidence ; and the most noto- riously profligate in both were selected and tampered with, to give information of the private transactions and designs of reputable men, with whom they never had any deal- ing, intercourse, or acquaintance; nay, to whose very persons they were often found to be strangers, when confronted at their trial. " In short, so exactly did these prose- cutions, in Ireland resemble, in every partic- ular, those which were formerly set on foot IKS m iW vm* uro >UMtt)lfi,£ SI II '^. y & ** 'A ^MM o TOLERATION UNDER THE HOUSE OF HANOVER in England, for tliat villanoua fiction of Oates's plot, that the former seem to have been planned and carried on entirely on the model of the latter; and tlio same just ob- servation that hath been made on the Eng- lish sanguinary proceedings, is perfectly ap- plicable to those which I have now, in part, related, viz.: 'that for the credit of the nation, ii were indeed better to bury them in eter- nal oblivion, but that it is necessary to per- petuate the remembrance of them, as well to maintain the truth of history, as to warn, if possible, our posetrity, and all mankind, never again to fall into so shameful and so barbarous a delusion.'" All now seemed quiet in Munster : but it was the quietude of despair and exhaustion. The \\ hiteboy spirit was not reallv sup- pressed, because the oppressions which had occasioned it were not relaxed, but rather aggravated. Many hearths were now cold that had been the centre of a humble family circle four years before; and the sur- viving parishioners of Clogheen, when they saw the blackening skull of their revered priest upon its spike withering away in the wind, could read the fate that, on the first murmur of revolt, was in store for them- selves or any who should take their part. The next year (1767), some further arrests were made, and the Ascendency partv tried hard to get up an alarm about another " Popish rebellion." No executions followed on this occasion, as several benevolent per- sons contributed money to procure ihe pris- oners the benefit of the best legal defence. It is with pleasure one reads among the names of the friends of an oppressed race who contributed to this fund, the name of Edmund Burke. One of the persons ar- rested on this last occasion, but afterwards discharged without trial, was l>r. McKenna, Catholic bishop of Cloyne. lie, as well as all oilier ecclesiastics of his order, was, of course, at all times subject to the penalties of law, to transportation under the acts "for preventing the growth of Popery" in Queen Anne's time ; and also to the penalty of premupire under earlier laws: yet these bishops continued to exercise their office, to confirm and confer orders under a species of connivance, which passed for toleration. But their situation, as well as that of all their clergy, in these first years of King George III. was still as precarious and ano- malous as it had been during all the reign of George II. Sometimes they were toler ated, sometimes persecuted. It depended upon the administration which happened to be in power; upon the temporary alarms to which the " Ascendency " was always sub- ject; and upon the disposition of local pro- prietors and magistrates, who were occasion- ally men of liberal education, and relished the society of the neighboring priests who had graduated at Lisbon, or Salamanca, or Lou- vain, and who were then frequently far superior in cultivation and social refinement to the Protestant rectors, of whom I )ean Swift sometimes betrays his low estimate. Even the regular clergy, although the rage and suspicion of the Ascendency were yet more bitter against them than the secular priests, were always to be found in Ireland. ■ They ran more cruel risks, however, than the parish priest. If any blind or self-in- [ terested bigot desired to show his zeal in ' trampling on the right of conscience, or to raise the ferocious old cry of " No Popery !" the regular clergy formed an inexhaustible subject for his vociferations : if the legis- lature of the day wished to indulge the popular frenzy by the exhibition of new-fash- ioned enactments, or of a new series of tra- gedies — monks, Jesuits, and friars were sure to pay the cost of the entertainment. It has often been affirmed, even by the timid Catholic writers of the last century, that the accession of the House of Hanover inau- gurated an era of more liberal toleration. It is to be feared that this kind of admission on their part was but a courtly device to ! conciliate, if not to flatter, that odious House and its partisans; for the priest-hunters 1 were never more active than in the reign of George I., when Garcia brought in his batches of captured clergymen, and received a good price out of the treasury upon each head of game. In the whole reign Oi George II., until the administration of Ches- terfield, Catholic worship had to be cele. brated with the utmost caution and secrecy. In this reign, Bernard MacMahon, Catholic Primate, " resided in a retired place named Ballymascanlon in the County of Louth; his habitation was little superior to r | w w/i ^S^ 100 HISTORT OF IRELAND. >>. '«JV • .:-| & © ( l2j \v house, and for many years lie was known through the country by the name of Mr. Ennis. In this disguise, which personal safety so Btrongly prompted, lie was accus- tomed to travel over his diocese, make his visitations, exhort his people, and administer the saerainents."* In the same way, Mi- chael O'Reilly, another primate, "lived in a humble dwelling at Turfegih, near Drogheda, and died here about the year l768,"f just two years before the. accession of George III. In the reign of George III. himself, We have seen Fathers Sheehy and Quinlan regularly indicted at assizes, for thai they had, at such times and places, not having the fear of (rod before their eyes, hut moved and seduced by the instigation of the devil, said mass and did other functions of a Popish priest, against the peace of our lord the king, and contrary to the statutes in that ease made and provided. We must, there- fore, take these grateful acknowledgments of the liberal dispositions of the House of Hanover, with considerable qualification, remembering that the writers in question were laboring in the cause of Catholic Emancipation, under that royal House, and felt obliged to pay it some compliments upon its noble generosity. As for the Catholic laity, their disabilities continued all this time in full force, and while a contemptuous connivance was shown to their religious worship, good care was taken to debar them from nil profitable occu- pation, and to seize the poor remnants of their property. Indeed, the toleration of their worship was for the better securing of these latter objects; it was known that men who went, regularly to mass would never take an oath that, the King of England is head of the church, or that the mass is a damnable idolatry ; and these oaths-formed the very barrier which fenced in all the rich and fat things of the land for the Protest- ants, and shut, the Papists out. That observ- ant and honest English traveller, Arthur Young, was so powei fully struck with this true character of the Penal Laws, that in his account of his tour he more than once * Brcnnan's Eool. Hist., p. 573, dwells upon it with righteous indignation. He says : — " But it seems to be the meaning, wish, and intent of the discovery laws, that none of them (the Irish Catholics) should ever be rich. It is the principle of that svstcm, that wealthy subjects would be nui- sances ; and therefore every means is taken to reduce, and keep them to a state of pov- erty. If this is not the intention of these laws, they are the most abominable heap of self-contradictions that ever were issued in the world. They are framed in such a manner that no Catholic shall have the in- ducement to become rich. . . .Take the laws and their execution into one view, and this state of the case is so true, that they actual- ly do not seem to be so much levelled at the religion, as at the property that is found in it. . . .The domineering aristocracy of five hundred thousand Protestants, feel the sweets of having two millions of slaves; they have not the least objection to the tenets wof that religion which keeps them by the law of the land in subjection; but property and slavery are too incompatible to live together : hence the special care taken that no such thing should arise among them." — Youmjs Tour in Irel^ vol. ii., p. 48. In another place Mr. Young repeats: — "I have conversed on the subject with some of the most distinguished characters in the kingdom, ami I cannot after all but. declare that the scope, purport, and aim of the laws of discovery, as executed, are not against the Catholic, religion, which increases under them, but against the industry and property of whoever professes that religion. In vain has it. been said, that consequence and pow- er follow property, and that the attack is made in order to wound the doctrine through its property. If such was the in- tention, I reply, that seventy years' experi- ence prove the folly anil futility of it. Those laws have crushed all the industry, and wrested most of the property from the Cath- olics; but the, religion triumphs; it is thought to increase." Headers may now understand the nature and extent of that vaunted "toleration," and the true intent and purpose of it, such as it was — namely, plunder. (' Wr/ K- A' w NJ ^ 2? ■Mil CIIArTElt XVL 1707 — 1773. Fownahend, Viceroy— Augmentation of the army — Embezzlement — Parliament prorogued — Again prorogued Townahend bnya hi.-* majority — Tri- ampli of the "Engliah Interest " — New attempt to l>ribo the Priests — Townahend a "Golden Drops" -Bill to allow Papists to reclaim boga — Tow nahend recalled — Harootirt, Viceroy — Pro- posal i" tux absentees — Defeated — Degraded oon- dlti >f the Irisli Parliament — American Revolu- tion, iiinl new era. The history of Lord Townsliend's admin- istration, and of the two which followed, is unhappily little more than a history of the most shameless corruption and servility on the part of the Irish Parliament, relieved, however, l>y some examples of a rising na- tional spirit in the assertion of constitutional right. Very early in the same session of Parliament, which had finally passed the Oc- tennial Bill, the attention of the House of Commons was especially called to the con- sideration of the army upon the Irish estab- lishment. A message from the lord lieuten- ant was sent to the House by the hands of the Right Hon. Sir George Macartney, in which he informed the Commons "that it is his majesty's judgment, that not less than 12,000 men should be constantly kept in the island for service, and that his majesty finding, that, consistently with the general public service, the number before mentioned cannot always be continued in Ireland, iinl.-s-, his army upon the Irish establishment be augmented to 15,235 men in the whole, commissioned and non-commissioned officers included, his majesty is of opinion, that such augmentation should be immediately mid.-, and earnestly recommends it to his faithful Commons to concur in providing for a mea- sure which his majesty has extremely at heart, as necessary not only for the honor of his crown, but for the peace and security of bis kingdom." The message was ordered to 1"' entered on the journals, and at the same time a committee was appointed to inquire into the state of the military estab- lishment, and also into the application of the ncy granted for its support from the 25th March, 1751. The result of this inqui- ry showed manifest misconduct, as appears from the report at large, and the returns thereunto annexed: part of the report is to the following elfect: "Your committee beg leave to take notice that the entire reduction of the army, afiei the conclusion of the peace, did not take place till the latter end of the year 1 70 J ; and that it appears from the return of the quarter-master-general, that there were great deficiencies in the several regiments then upon the establishment, at the several quar- terly musters comprised in the said paper, which precede the month of January, I 705; the full pay of such vacancies must amount to a very large sum, and ought, as your committee apprehends, to have been return- ed as a saving to the public, especially as it appeared to yonr committee, that orders were issued by government, not to recruit the regiments intended to be reduced." Upon the whole, it was resolved that an ad- dress should be presented to his majesty, to lay before him the report of the said com- mittee, to acknowledge his constant atten- tion to the welfare of the people, to express the utmost confidence in his majesty's wis- dom, that if upon such representation any reformation in the said establishment should appear necessary to bis majesty, such altera tion would be made therein as would better provide for the security of the kingdom, and at the same time reduce the expense of the establishment, in such a manner as might be more suitable to the circumstances of the nation. The Government, however, was able to secure a majority for their mea- sure. As Mr. Plowden expresses it, " Vainly did the efforts of patriotism encounter the exertions of the new system to keep individ- uals steady to their post on the Treasury bench. The Parliament was now dissolved; and the first Octennial Parliament W'as to be elected. There was an unusually long in- terval of sixteen months from the dissolu- tion of the old to the meeting of this taw Parliament. This interval was used by the Court in establishing the "new system;" which system was neither more nor less than buying the people's representatives in detail, by direct negotiation with individu- als, instead of contracting for them by wholesale with the four or five noble "Un- dertakers," who owned many boroughs, and Ifc -O/ $ '<3 !»■ '.J;" (I 5, '■■ ;i,-, i S£s /5 influenced the owners of many others. Lord Townshend hoped to render the confession of the Octennial Act worse than nugatory, and to create a new junta in support of the English interest, independent of their former leaders. But he had not yet so manned his plan as to have insured the whole game. He had not altered the nature, but only raised the price, of accommodation; and, lavish as the Irish have generally been of their voices in Parliament to the highest bidder, there ever appear to have been some cases reserved out of the bargaiu. Such had been the reservation of right to vote for limited Parliaments, in some of the most obsequious devotees to the measures of the Castle; and such now was a similar excep- tion in some of these pensioned supporters to resist the right of the English Council to make money bills originate with them, and not with the Commons of Ireland. On this point the British Cabinet and the Irish House of Commons came fairly to issue. The former determined to test the question in the most direct way, by the origination of a money bill in the Privy Council; and the latter resolved fairly to meet the issue. Accordingly, it was moved in the House of Commons, that a bill, entitled "An Act for granting to His Majesty the several Duties, Kates, Impositions, and Taxes, therein par- ticularly expressed, to be applied to the Payment of the Interest of the Sums there- in provided for and towards the Discharge of the said principal Sums," should be read a second time on the day following. This motion was negatived; and it was resolved that such bill was rejected, because it did not take its rise in that House. The lord-lieutenant, though he thought proper to allow the Irish Parliament to giant their own money in their own way, protested against the right claimed by the House of Commons, and endeavored, but in vain, to enter his protest upon their jour- nals. The House would not submit to this encroachment upon their privileges: the Lords were less inflexible, and after much opposiliou and debate, his excellency's pro- test was solemnly recorded on the jour- nals of the House of Peers. But before that was done, it having been generally sus- pected that such was his intention, the foll- owing motion was made in the House of Peers: "That the Speaker of this House be desired that no protest of any person whom- soever, who is not a lord of Parliament, and a member of this House, and which doth not respect a matter which had been previously in question before this House, and wherein the lord protesting had taken part with the minority, either in person or by proxy, be entered on the Journals of the House." After a warm debate upon this motion, the question was negatived upon a division of 30 against 5. The 21st of November, 1709, was a day fixed for the trial of strength upon the English Privy Council's money bill. The motion being made that this bill be read a first time, it was carried in the affirmative; and the bill being accordingly read, a mo- tion was made, and the question put, that the bill be read a second time to-morrow morning: the House divided: ayes^ sixty- eight; noes, eighty-seven. Then the motion, that the bill be rejected, was put and car- ried by ninety-four against seventy-one; and it was resolved that the said bill was rejected, because it did not take its rise in that House. The lord-lieutenant took this defeat in the Commons so much to heart, that he re- solved to bring no more Government ques- tions before them during that session : or until he could, as the Castle phrase then was, make more sure of the king's busi- ness. The representations which were made of this transaction in England soon found their way into the newspapers, and the light in which Mr. Woodfall placed the majority of the Irish House of Commons on that important division in the Public Ad- vertiser, fully proved the general sentiment entertained at the time in England upon the whole system of the Irish Government.* On the 18th day of December, 1769, a motion was made and carried, without op- position, that a paper entitled the Public Advertiser, by II. S. Woodfall, Loudon, December the 9th, 1709, might be read. It contained the following words: "Hiber- nian patriotism is a transcript of that filthy idol worshipped at the London Tavern; in- solence, assumed from an opinion of itnpu- * Journ. Com., vol. 8, p. 844. W** .'.U.V'- 1 *'. ./"ill, !, -vV^a/ ."Hi ! v.' ■■•Iffixl PARLIAMENT PROROGUED. 109 as? i ll nitv, usurps the place which boldness against real injuries oaght to hold. The refusal of the hue bill, I ause it was not brought in contrary to the practice of ages, in violation of the constitution, and to the certain ruin of the dependence of Ireland upon Great Britain, is a behavior more suiting an army of Whiteboys than the grave representa- tives of a nation. This is the most daring insult that has been nit", red to Government. It must be counteracted with firmness, or else the state is ruined. Let the refractory House be dissolved; should the next copy their example, let it also be dissolved ; and if the same spirit of seditious obstinacy should continue, I know no remedy but one, and it is extremely obvious. The Parlia- ment of Great Britain is supreme over its conquests, as well as colonies, and the ser- vice of the nation must not bo left undone, on account of the factious obstinacy of a provincial assembly. Let our legislature, for they have an undoubted right, vote the Irish supplies; and so save a nation, that 'their own obstinate representatives endeavor to ruin." The perfect identity in tone and temper of this article with those of the Times at the present day (when any mani- festation of spirit in Ireland irritates the British public) makes it well worth pre- serving, to show how very little the English feeling towards Ireland has varied or changed in a hundred years. These para- graphs having been read, it was resolved, that they were a false and infamous libel upon the proceedings of that House, a dar- ing invasion of the Parliament, and calcu- lated to create groundless jealousies be- tween His Majesty's faithful subjects of Great Britain and Ireland : it was therefore ordered, that the said paper should be burnt by the bauds of the common hangman. And on the Wednesday following, viz., the 20th of December, the said paper was burn- ed before the gate of the House of Com- mons by the hands of the common hang- man, in the presence of the sheriffs of Dublin, amidst the indignant shouts of an immense crowd of spectators, who loudly, though without outrage, resented the insult offered to their representatives. It was evident that Lord Townshend's new system of government had not yet been sufficiently perfected. There was a new assault in preparation during the month o December in this year, 1709, against the enormous pension-list, and although he knew he could command a majority upon that (ninety-eight being against the agita- tion of the pension-list at that time, and eighty-nine for it), still the majority was too trilling to trust to, and a victory on such terms would have been a moral defeat. lie determined to prorogue the House. This became known to the Commons and the country, and the House, in an address, re- quested that his excellency would inform the House whether he had any instructions or had any intention to prorogue the Par- liament sooner than usual. Here again the lord-lieutenant found his deficiency in doing the king's business : for upon a division on the main question the minister was left once more in a greater minority than ever, there being 10G or his excellency's making the declaration, and seventy-three only against it. On the very next day, however, Sir George Macartney, the secretary, reported to the House, that his excellency had returned the following answer : " Gentlemen — I shall always be desir- ous of complying with your request when I can do it with propriety. I do not think myself authorized to disclose his majesty's instructions to me upon any subject, without having received his majesty's commands for so doing. With regard to my intentions, they will be regulated by his majesty's in- structions and future events." In fact, on the day after Christmas, Lord Townshend prorogued the Parliament, at first only till the 20th of March following. The lord-lieu- tenant having experienced so much inflexi- bility and difficulty in the management of the Commons in the first session, fully resolved to meet them no more in Parliament, till they were properly marshalled, and thor- oughly broken in to every manoeuvre of the new tactics. His excellency accordingly by proclamation on the 12th of March, 1770, prorogued them to Tuesday, the 1st of May following; on the 20th of April, 1770, ho further prorogued them to the 28th of Au- gust, and by three other successive proclama- tions he further prorogued them to different •2/ ,Al, $ ?r&\ f»r e £3^ X Tfl '© 1771, then to sit for dispatch of business. In the mean time affairs were falling into some confusion; several temporary acts which required renewal had expired ; the contest in Ireland excited the sympathies of the whig party in England, and in May, 1 770, the Hon, Boyle Walsingham brought up in Parliament at Westminster the whole sub- ject of the late extraordinary prorogations in Dublin, and moved for papers connected therewith. Lord North, the minister, of course defended the prorogations, which he said he had himself advised; and declared the con- duct of the Irish Parliament to be contrary to Poynings' Law, " the grand bond of the dependence of Ireland upon England." The House divided upon the motion for papers, when GO voted for it, but 178 voted against all inquiry. Lord Townshend and his creatures were not idle during the long Parliamentary in- ttrregnum. It is painful to be obliged to record that his system of personal individ- ual corruption made good progress. "Pa- triots" were won over to the administration, among whom appeared conspicuously, Mr Saxton Perry, member for Limerick, who first received the support of the Govern ment in being elected as Speaker of the House, with a promise of a peerage. Many others had been secured, some with money, some with honors, and in February, 1771, his excellency faced the Parliament with full confidence, which it soon appeared was not misplaced. The first division was on an address of the Commons to his majesty in answer to the lord-lieutenant's speech ; in this address they returned their most humble thanks to his majesty, for graciously contin- uing his excellency, Lord Townshend, in the government of the kingdom. The sla- vish address was opposed, but was carried by 132 against 107. Lord Townshend never had any further trouble in managing Parlia- ment and doing the king's business. Mr. Ponsonby, the Speaker of the House, how- ever, refused to be the official medium of presenting the servile address; he resigned at once, requesting the House " to elect an- other Speaker who may not think such con- duct inconsistent with his honor." Mr. Perry was thereupon elected. "And the conduct and speech of Mr. Perry on this occasion bespoke the forward zeal of a new proselyte."* Having now secured his majority in Par- liament, the grand policy of Lord Towns- hend was to do away with the effects of the Patriotic votes in the last session, and justify his own conduct in the prorogations. lie was to make this Irish Parliament stultify itself and eat its own words, and in all this he was eminently successful. Nothing was permitted to pass without a division, so as to parade continually before the eyes of the people of Ireland, and of his employ- ers in England the thorough training in which the viceroy had his Parliament at last. The Commons, however— that is the remaining Patriots in the House — made one last effort, by moving an address to the king, containing some pitiful remonstrances: — as that "his faithful Commons did confidently hope that a law for securing the indepen- dence of the judges of this kingdom Voidd have passed; such a law having been rec- ommended and promised by his excellency the lord-lieutenant, in a speech from the throne in the first session of his excellency's government," and several other remonstran- ces of alike kind. The address was ordered to be opposed, and it was lost by a vote of 123 against 08. Yet once more the viceroy's well-drilled ranks were to be paraded. In the address of the Commons to the lord-lieutenant, which was moved for and carried on the 10th of Ma}', two days only before the pro- rogation, the Patriots objected to the thanks contained in it for his excellency's just Parliament, on the 26th *•( February, 1771, that with very strict economy, the duties granted last ses- sion would be sufficient to answer the cx- peie-es v( his majesty's government; and therefore be would a^k no further supply. The confidence with which Lord Towns- hend met the Parliament in October, 1771, was strongly displayed in his speech. " My experience," said his excellency, " of your attachment to his majesty's person, and of your zeal for the public service, affords mo the best-grounded hopes, that nothing will be wanting on your part to co-operate with his majesty's gracious intentions to promote the welfare and happiness of this kingdom, and when to this consideration I add my remembrance of your kind regard for the ease and honor of my administration, I feel the most sensible pleasure in the present opportunity, which his majesty has given me, of meeting you a fourth time in Parlia- ment." Notwithstanding his boasted econ- omy, which prevented his application to the Commons for any further supply last session, be now told them " that it was with concern that he must ask a sum of money to dis- charge the arrears already incurred on his majesty's establishments, but that they would find they had been unavoidable; for that the strictest economy had been used." etc. Another part of the lord-lieutenant's speech on the opening of this Parliament, referred to the illegal associations and out- rages of the " Hearts of Steel " in the north of Ireland. The violence of these people had greatly increased and extended to other countries than those in which the society had first appeared. They exacted oaths by force, maltreated obnoxious individuals, and destroyed houses. Some of them were taken and tried at Carrickfergus ; but wheth- er from want of evidence, from fear of in- curring the resentment of the populace, or from partiality in the witnesses and the jury, they were acquitted. On this account the legislature passed an act, by which all per- sons indicted of such offences were ordered to be tried in counties different from those in which the excesses were committed. In consequence, several of the Steel Boys against whom examinations had been taken, were carried to Dublin and put upon their trial. l!ut so strong was the prejudice con- ceived against this new law, that no jury there would find any of them guilty. It will be remembered that these rioters were all Protestants, as were also all the jurors who tried them. If they had been Catho- lics, there would have been no difficulty in f* (B*V^^ f5Z« / fo, m. vindicating the law. The obnoxious act, however, was repealed, ami after that many convictions and executions took place. The effects, not of the riots, but of the oppres- sions which produced them, were for a long time prejudicial to the country, and the emigration to America was renewed to a greater extent than ever before. The session passed in an unbroken series of servile divisions in favor of every thing the Castle wished ; against every thing the Castle disliked. In the address to the king occurred these words, " We are fully persua- ded that the support of your majesty's gov- ernment is the great and firm basis of the freedom and happiness of this country." A Patriot ventured on an amendment, that before the word support, the word constitu- tional should be inserted ; it was negatived by a vote of eighty-eight against thirty-six. During this administration we find by the journals mentioning the tellers upon the different divisions, that three of the most forward and couslant supporters of every government question were Mr. Monk Mason, Mr. Foster, and Mr. Fitzgibbon ; and the truth or falsity of the propositions little availed, provided it were made a Govern- ment question. Thus besides the instances already adduced, we find upon the journals (8 vol. iii.) the following resolution nega- tived on the 8th of March, 17CG : "That it be resolved, that the office of a commissioner of his majesty's revenue would be better executed by a person resident in this king- dom, than by an absentee." During this session of 1771, died Dr. Lucas, whom, from h:s first entrance into political life, no prom- ises or offers could seduce from untainted patriotism. The citizens of Dublin erected his statue in the exchange. The remainder of Lord Towushend's administration passed over without any notable incident. No legislative measure was adopted either for or against the Catholics, but his lordship could not retire from a situation which he had held in Ireland for five years without giving some proof of his attachment to the Protestant religion. A provision had been made by the 8th of Anne, that every Popish priest, who should become Protestant, and be approved of as a convert, should have £30 yearly for his maintenance, until provided for l>y some ecclesiastical preferment beyond that amount. But by an act of this session it wa* recited, that it had been found by experience, that the former act had not answered the purposes intended, especially as the provi- sion made as aforesaid for such Popish priestt is in no respect a sufficient encouragement for Popish priests to become converts ; it was therefore enacted, that .£40 should in future be allowed annually, in lieu of £30 to every Popish priest converted. The multiplica- tion of these allowances up to the height of the most proselytizing zeal could not inter- fere with the civil list of pensioners, as these spiritual douceurs were to be levied on the inhabitants of the district, wherein the convert last resided. These additional pit- tances of £10 were called by the Irish, Townshcnd's golden drops. They were not found more efficacious than the former pre- scription. This act for the encouragement of converts to the Protestant religion was also in some measure deemed necessary to counterbalance the effects of another act made in the same session, supposed to be very favorable to the Catholics, and which in times of less liberal- ity had been repeatedly thrown out of Par- liament, as tending to encourage Popery to the detriment and prejudice of the Protest- ant religion. This was An Act to encourage the reclaiming of unprofitable Bogs, and re- cites that there were large tracts of deep bogs in several counties of the kingdom, which in their then state were not only un- profitable, but by their damps rendered the air unwholesome; and it had been found by experience, that such bogs were capable of improvement, and of being converted into arable or pasture land, if encourage- ment were given to the lower class of peo- ple to apply their industry to the reclaiming of them. It therefore enacted, that not- withstanding the laws then in force, any Catholic might be at liberty to take a lease of fifty plantation acres of such bog, and one half an acre of arable land adjoining thereto, as a site for a house, or for the pur- pose of delving for gravel or limestone, for manure, at such rent as should be agreed upon between him and the owner of the soil, as also from ecclesiastical or bodies cor- ^ %\ (J 1 -' -^''U.ftttt'.sd!, rp — "v^vv BILL TO ALLOW PAPISTS TO RECLAIM BOGS. 113 porate; and for further encouragement, the tenant was to be free fur the first seven years from all tithes and cesses; but it was provided, that if half of the bog demised were not reclaimed at the end of twenty- one years, the lease should be void ; and no bog was to be considered unprofitable, unless the deptli of it from the surface, when re- claimed, were four feet at least ; and no person was to be entitled to the benefit of the act, unless he reclaimed ten plantation acres; and the act was not to extend to any bog within one mile of a city or market town. The provisions of this act give us a clear- er idea than any labored disquisition could do, of the depressed condition of the Cath- olics of that day, and of the manner in which they were regarded by the colonists — " Pa- triots" and all. Lord Townshend's administration was drawing to a close; and he had done his British errand well. No viceroy had yet succeeded in establishing in Ireland such profound demoralization and debasement. The baneful example of the chief gover- nor's marshalling the ranks of Parliament encouraged the already too deeply rooted principle of despotism throughout the nation. Not only the great lords and real owners of land exercised in general a most ferocious rule over their inferiors ; but that obnoxious race of self-created gentlemen, whose conse- quence and virtue consisted in not being Papists, and whose loyalty was mere lust for persecuting and oppressing them, were uncontrollable in their petty tyranny. Even the lord-lieutenant was so sensible of it, that being resolved to pardon a Catholic gentle- man unjustly found guilty, he withdrew the hand of merry, with this reflection : " I see them resolved upon his blood, so he may as well go now." In his farewell speech to Parliament, this able British agent sarcastically complimented the miserable crew, over whom he had so often shaken his whip — "I have upon every occasion endeavored, to the utmost of my power, to promote the public service, and I feel the most perfect satisfaction in now re- pealing to you my acknowledgments for the verv honorable manner in which (after a residence of near five years amongst you) 1ft you have declared your entire approbation of my conduct. Be assured that I shall always entertain the most ardent wishes for your welfare, and shall make a faithful rep resentation to his majesty of your loyalty and attachment to his royal person and gov- ernment." On the whole, we cannot but acquiesce in the cruel judgment passed upon the Irish Parliament by the worthy Dr. Campbell,* at the moment when Lord Townshend re- tired, and gave place to his successor, Lord Harcourt — "Lord Harcourt then found the Parliament of Ireland as obsequious as that of Great Britain." It would be impossible to use a stronger expression. When Lord Harcourt assumed the gov- ernment, in October, 1772, he had little to do but to continue the system which his predecessor had with so much perseverance, difficulty, and charge to the finance, regu- - larly established, according to his instruc- tions from the British cabinet. In order, therefore, to give continuance and stability to the new English interest, which had been raised upon the partial destruction of the Irish oligarchy, as Lord Clare observed, a man was chosen of amiable character, easy dis- position, and of no other ambition than to move by the direction, and thus acquire the approbation of his immediate employers. With the active labor of office, he considered that he also threw the burden of responsi- bility upon his secretary. He had been nearly twelve months in the government of Ireland before he met the Parliament, on the 12th of October, 1773. The first stand made by the Patriots was upon an alarm at the intention of Govern- ment, in layiug the public accounts before the House, to hold back some of the docu- ments which would too palpably bring to light the means used by the last viceroy for insuring a majority to do the king's business. After the House had ordered the different accounts and estimates to be laid before it, an amendment was proposed to add these words: "As far as there are materials for that purpose." A division took place, and * " Philosophical Survey of the South of Ireland.'" This is the work of an honest and liberal man, though not so valuable as the Tour of Young. ^3 MK x ESN tlie duty on tea, in the year 177U. The question between tlie mother-country and the colonies being thus reduced to a matter of threepence per pound on tea, the colo- nists being once aroused, having laid down the principle, " No taxation without repre- sentation," would not pay that threepence. A year after Lord Hareourt came to Ire- land as viceroy, the people of Boston emptied a cargo of taxed tea into the harbor of that port; and in the course of the following year, 1774, Edmund Burke made one of his first celebrated speeches, in favor of a repeal of the tea duty, in the British Parliament. The motion had been made by Mr. Fuller, member for Rye, but failed, though it was supported by the eloquence of Burke ; and the House, we are told, was very much amused and delighted by the ingenious declamation of that extraordinary orator, while he eulogized his friend, Lord Rock- ingham and his government, and ridiculed in his peculiar style the present cabinet — ■ "An administration so checkered and speck- led, a piece of joinery so crossly indented and whimsically dovetailed ; a cabinet so variously itdaid, such a piece of diversified mosaic, such a tessellated pavement without cement, here a bit of black stone, there a bit of white," etc. But though there was much laughter and cheering, the motion to repeal the tea duty was lost ou a division of 184 against 51. If it be any comfort to us, the fact is certain, that the British Parlia- ment of that day was fully as servile as the Irish, and very much more stupid. It was evident that the last resort of war hail nearly arrived ; and the very strong analogies which existed between the Ameri- can colonies and the Irish colony were quite sufficient to occasion in the latter country not only an intense interest, but a deep sympathy also in the American struggle. The situation of the two countries was not indeed precisely alike. The North Ameri- can colonies had never pretended to be a kingdom, as the English colony in Ireland did. Ireland was not taxed absolutely without representation, although the de- pendent position of her Parliament, under Povnings' Law, made her representation quite Americans had caused the British ministry illusory for any efficient security. The to relinquish these port duties also, except j American colonists were then about three amendment was carried by 88 against ins it was left in the discretion of clerks, or rather of the Government, to bring forward or hold back what materials they chose. Lord Harcourt's administration is remark- for the first proposal to impose an absentee-tax on non-resident Irish landlords. This proposal came from the crown ; and it was to the effect that a tax of two shillings in the pound should b'e laid on the net rental of landed property in Ireland, to be paid by all persons who should not reside in that kingdom for six months in each year, from Christmas, 1773, to Christmas, 1775. The proposal, being against the interest of Eng- land, was evidently not sincere on the part pf Government : all officials were left at per- fect liberty to support it or not : the interest of the gtvat landlords was against it; and the only wonder was that it was defeated by so small a majority, 122 against 102. But we have now arrived at an epoch in tlw> history of the world, from which many things in modern history take their departure. It has been thought needful to go into some detail to show the miserable and abject con- dition of Ireland at this precise period, in order to make more apparent the wonderful change soon produced by the reflection and reverberation of the great American revolu- tion. CHAPTER XVII. 1774—1777. American affairs — 'Comparison between Ireland nnd the Colonies — Contagion of American opinions in Ireland — Paltry measure of relief to Catholics — Congress at Philadelphia — Address of Congress to Ireland — Encouragement to Fisheries — 4,n00 "armed negotiators " — Financial distress — First Octennial Parliament dissolved — Oral tan — Lord Buckingham, Viceroy — Successes of the Ameri- cans. The American "Stamp Act" had been passed in 1765. just while the Irish Parlia- ment was in the midst of its struggle for limited Parliaments and against the pension list. The next year the Stamp Act had been repealed, but had been soon followed by the attempt to impose "port duties." The steady organized resistance of the K Rj ''M "._-^r"£flS.CM.UMBUS,! - — -— v / ' --■- .ei r v - '- — {*?<.-. ® ,n CONTAOION OF AMERICAN OPINIONS IN IRELAND. 115 m\ ■& millions in number; the Irish, only bait" Wfl ss ifrr^i kingdom to an equality with the establish- ment." They saii.1 that econoiiiv was prom- ised; that there had been no economy, but a continual increase in the expenses. They added, that could they neglect the most es- sential interests of themselves, their constit- uents, and their posterity, still their duty to his majesty would prevent them from suf- fering the resources of his majesty's power and dignity to dwindle and decay; and that they were the more necessitated to make that earnest application, because the evils they Buffered were not temporary or occa- sional; because they could not attribute them to any physical evil, or proud national exertion, but to a silent, wasting, and invisi- ble cause, which had injured the people, without adding strength to the crown. That they therefore performed that indispensable duty of laying their distresses at the foot of the throne, that history might not report them a nation which in the midst of peace, and under a gracious king, equally ready to warn and relieve, proceeded deliberately to their own ruin, without one appeal to the wisdom which would have redressed them. And so they appealed from the tempo- rary expedients of his majesty's ministers, to his own wisdom and virtues, and to that permanent interest which his majesty had, and ever would have, in the welfare of his people. This address was extremely respectful, even to servility. Hut though it did not mention the exorbitant pension-list, nor the universal corruption and bribery which then were carried on by means of the public money; it told too much truth, and was too Undeniable to be endured. Therefore the Government made a point of defeating it, and succeeded. An address was carried in its place, thanking the lord-lieutenant '"for his prudent, just, and wise administration." Tiie 6rs( Octennial Parliament had scarce- ly lived lour years, when the British cabinet found it expedient that it should lie dissolved. Tins Parliament had, during the last session, in two instances opposed their mandates, and when summoned 10 attend the House of Peel's, the Commons, through their Speaker, made a just but ungracious and in- effectual representation of the state of that nation- These symptoms of independence ' alarmed the Government, and created a diffidence in the steadiness of those who had enlisted under their banners. They looked to more steady submission in a future Par- liament, and dissolved the present. Mr. ' &? Perry was re-clocted Speaker by a majority of 141 to DS. The lord-lieutenant did not meet the new Parliament, which was con- vened in June, 1776, pro forma, and by several prorogations went over to the 14th of October, 1777. This Parliament now dissolved is memorable forever in the his- tory of Ireland, for the first appearance of one of the greatest patriots who ever arose for the salvation of any people, and the word patriot is not here used in its merely colonial sense. This was Henry Grattan. He was the descendant of a powerful and influential family, of whom Dean Swift had said, "the Grattans can raise ten thousand men." nis father was recorder of Dublin. Henry Grattan entered Parliament as mem- ber for Lord Charlemont's borough of Char- lemont, on the borders of Armagh and Ty- rone; he was then under thirty years of age, and in his first Parliament bad been modest and retiring, acquainting himself with the details of public business, and with the forms of the House. It was not until the meeting of the new Parliament, under the adminis- tration of Lord Buckinghamshire, that Grattan's lofty character and splendid genius became known to his countrymen and to the world. The British cabinet was little satisfied with the administration of Lord Harcourt ; the easy and delicate turn of bis mind ill qualified him to support, much less to im- prove upon the system of his predecessor, but by which alone, to the infamy and mis fortune of Ireland, the legislators of that kingdom were to be kept steady in their ranks under command of the Castle. Although Government upon the whole still retained a considerable majority, yet several of their adherents had occasionally, during the last session, proved recreant from their instruc- tions ; some had deserted their ranks, many amongst them wavered, menaced, and com- plained of the terms of their engagements. It was therefore resolved to invigorate tho new system by the election of a new Parlia- ment. For this purpose an unusual, and till n vj n -.rriAw.Mu/Kim.j, that time unprecedented, number of promo- tions in the peerage took place in one day. It far exceeded the famous promotion of twelve in the days of Queen Anne. Five viscounts were advanced to earldoms, seven barons to be viscounts, and eighteen new barons were created in the same day. The usual terms of such modern peerages are well understood to be an engagement to sup- port the cause of their promoters by their individual votes in the House of Peers, and by those of their substitutes in the House of Commons, whose seats are usually settled and arranged before they vacate them upon their promotions. In short every possible precaution was adopted to secure a subser- vient Irish Parliament in the crisis which had been created by the American war. But in the very month of October, in which the new viceroy, Lord Buckinghamshire, met the new Parliament, General Burgoyne was surrendering his army of 7,000 men to the Americans at Saratoga. The next year France declared for America. The admin- istration, therefore, of this new lord-lieuten- ant dates a new era in the history of Ireland and of the earth. The English colony in Ireland suddenly, and for a short time, takes the proportions of a nation. CHAPTER XVIII. 1777—1779. Buckingham, Viceroy — Misery, and Decline of Trade —Discipline of Government Supporters — Lord North's first Measure in favor of Catholics — Pass- ed in England— Opposed in Ireland— What it amounted to— Militia Bill — The Volunteers— De- fencelesa State of the Country— Loyalty of the Volunteers— Their Uniforms— Volunteers l'rotest- ant at. first — Cotholios desirous to join — Volunteers get the Militia Arms — Their Aims— Military Sys- tem — Numbers in 17S0. The earlier years of Lord Buckingham's vieeroyaltv were not marked by any very striking events, much different from the routine of parliamentary business during the preceding administrations. When this nobleman assumed the reins of government the country was still suffering the most poignant distress; while the national debt and all public charges were accumulating. Petitions now poured into both Houses, representing the sad facts with regard to declining trade. As these petitions cer- tainly stated the truth, they are really valu- able historical documents, illustrative of the period. Thus, a petition was presented to the House of Commons, from the merchants and traders of Cork, setting forth that about the month of November, 1770, an embargo was laid on all ships laden with provisions, and bound from Ireland to for- eign countries, which was still continued by Government, and had been very strictly enforced: that in consequence of that long embargo, an extensive beneficial trade, car- rid 1 on for several years by that kingdom to Fiance, Spain, Portugal, and Holland, for the supply of provisions, had been not only interrupted, but was in danger of being entirely lost ; the petitioners being in- formed that the merchants of these coun- tries were respectively stocked and provided from Russia, Sweden, Denmark, and Ham- burg, whereby the usual returns to that kingdom were discontinued, new enemies to our commerce were raised, and our com- modities rendered useless and unprofitable. That great quantities of salt beef, not fit for the use of Government or the sugar colo- nies, being made up in that city, and also great quantities of beef and butter being an- nually brought to that market, these com- modities of a perishable nature were there decaying for want of a free export, to the great injury of the proprietors in particular, and of the kingdom in general. That in support of these assertions, there then re- mained on hand, since the preceding year, a very considerable quantity of provisions, the property of several merchants in that city, not wanted by Government, and there- fore without opportunity of sale; and al- though a considerable part of the season in which those articles were made up and ex- ported had already elapsed, no demand whatsoever then existed for them, except for such quantities as were required by Govern- ment alone. That his majesty's revenue, which before had received large and con- stant supplies from the customs of the city of Cork, had decreased in proportion to the decay of their trade. That the embargo, therefore, at that time not being warranted c/*G.CI/LiJMtiL,i.£ ;S\ bv any great, substMtili.il necessity, but, on the contrary, restraining and preventing the diffusion of trade, was pregnant with the most ruinous consequences, not only to the Commercial, but also to the landed interests of the nation; and therefore the petitioners ]>i.i\ ed redress. The Dublin manufacturers, in their peti- tion, had a still sadder narrative to give. For example, they declared that there were at that moment no fewer than twenty thou- sand persons in that one city, artisans, out of work, together with their families, whom they, the petitioners, were supporting for charity by means of a relief association es- tablished among themselves; nor was Gov- ernment able to make grants, either to pro- mote industry or to relieve the national ca- lamities. Every branch of the revenue failed, and such was the poverty of the na- tion, that the militia law could not be car- ried into effect. Ireland could not pay her forces abroad, and was obliged to borrow money from England to pay those at home. The Parliament was necessitated to raise money at an exorbitant interest; the ex- penses iu 1777 having amounted to above £80,000 more than the revenue: £166,000 were therefore borrowed, and attempted to be raised iu the old manner upon deben- tures at £4 per cent. So truly desperate was the financial state of Ireland, that, like desponding bankrupts, the Commons undertook to grant what they knew they had not the means of pay- ing. Even the ministerial party coidd not be blind to their situation. They would not, however, permit any question to be brought forward upon the state of the coun- try in the Commons, lest too strong resolu- tions upon it should be carried, or their opposition to them should appear even too rank for their own system. They accord- ingly had again recourse to the half-measure of conveying their imperfect sense of the distressful state of the country through their Speaker, who, in presenting the first four money bills passed in that session, ad- dressed himself to the lord-lieutenant in very general terms, expressing the unbound- ed confidence of the House in his majesty's wisdom, justice, and paternal care, and rely- ing on the viceroy's "candor and humanity 16 to make a faithful representation to his majesty of their unshaken loyalty, duty, and affection." Thus the pitiful and hopeless contest went on, upon these questions of the money bills, the pension list, and general extravagance of Government. The Patriots saw well that they could not now hope to carry any really important measure, resolution, or address, that should be distasteful to the Castle. Yet they resolved to put on record, at least once in each session, their own theory of the evils of the country. Therefore, after the speech of the lord-lieutenant, a motion was made for a humble address to ,his majesty, setting forth that the civil list had doubled in twenty years ; that one great cause was " the rapid and astonishing growth of the pension list;" that ministers had repeatedly promised retrenchment, but had, on the contrary, continually iucreased their demands, and other the like topics. This address was negatived by a majority of 77 — so well drilled were the ministerial members. The alarming news of the French alliance with the Americans was communicated to Parliament by the lord-lieutenant, in a special message ; and this was instantly followed by a demand of a new loan of £30,000, at six per cent. A few days after, came a new message, to apprise them that the loan (which they had at once voted to raise) could not be effected at six per cent., and to demand further action upon their part. Thus, as the American war was drawing to a close, Ireland had neither money nor credit — was absolutely ruled by placeholders and pensioners, and was made to contribute her last shilling and contract further debt, to defeat and ruin a cause which nine-tenths of her people felt to be Ireland's own cause as well as America's. Lord North, who was not wanting in sagacity, understood the state of Irish affairs very well : he saw the rising impatience of the Patriot party in the colony, and knew that the contagion of American ideas was fast growing and spreading. It was at this time, therefore, that the British Ministry resolved to take a more important step towards conciliation of the Catholics than had yet been ventured upon, with the hope of actually making the Catholic people a K X niSTOUY OP IRELAND. . j-.,f fcC? ^ kind of English interest, against the Protest- ant Patriots. It was not, indeed, contein- [ilated to repeal the whole Penal Code — very tar from this — hut to admit certain slight relaxations only in certain parts of that elaborate system. In the English Parlia- ment, first, with the full consent of the min- ister, a motion was made for leave to bring in a " Bill for repeal of certain of the penal- ties and disabilities provided in an Act of William the Third," etc On this English debate, it. seemed that the Parliament was tolerably unanimous iu approbation of a very modest, and limited measure in this direc- tion ; but it must he remembered that the Catholics in England were but one in ten of the population ; ami there could not be the slightest danger, either to the settlement of property or to what Englishmen call the freedom of the country, in relieving them from at least a few of the most dreadful penalties to which they were every 'day exposed. Indeed in England there had been long a practical toleration of Catholic worship ; yet, as Lord Ashburton observed, on seconding the motion of Sir George Sav- ile, "the mildness of Government had hith- erto softened the rigor of the law in the practice, but it was to be considered that the Roman Catholic priests were still left at the mercy of the lowest and basest of mankind ; for on the complaint of any informing con- stable, the magisterial and judicial powers were bound to enforce all the shameful pen- alties of the act." In fact, some time before this period the penal laws had been enforced against two priests, a Mr. Malony and Mr. Talbot, the brother of the Earl of Shrews- bury. These proceedings had been resorted to by a solitary individual, one Pain, a car- penter, who having two daughters, little business, much bigotry, and more covetous- ness, had formed the singular speculation of acquiring £20,000 apiece for his daugh- ters' fortunes by informations under the penal statutes against the Catholics. The English bill passed without opposi- tion;* but when the new policy of minis- ters came to be applied to Ireland, it was a * A circumstance which excited the enlightened Protestants of London to luake their famous No Popery Riot, break jails and burn houses, under the Miutly Lord George Gordon. different matter. In this island the propri- etors of confiscated estates did not yet feel quite secure. They had always been accus- tomed to believe that the "Protestant Inter- est" — that is, their own exclusive possession of all the lands and of all the profitable pro- fessions and trades — depended upon keeping the Catholics completely under foot. There was now, indeed, no apprehension of "bring- ing in the Pretender;" for the Pretender was dead, and had left no heir of the Stu- arts: but the settlement of property, the exclusive access to the professions, these were the truly momentous and sacred inter- ests of Protestantism. In Ireland, there- fore, though the measure came recommend- ed by the example of England, and the ex- press wishes of the administration, it was warmly contested at every point. On the eleventh day after the universal assent to Sir George Savile's motion in favor of the Roman Catholics of England, Mr. Gardiner, on the 25th of May, 1778, made a motion iu the Irish House of Commons, that leave be given to bring in heads of a bill for the relief of his majesty's Roman Catholic sub- jects of Ireland, and that Mr. Gardiner, the lion. Barry Barry, and Mr. Yelverton, do prepare and bring in the same; and it was carried in the affirmative. At the same time the Presbyterians of Ireland, bearing in mind that the sacramental test bad been imposed upon their auccstors by their lying by, when new severities were imposed upon their lloman Catholic brethren, came forward on this occasion to avail themselves of the first symptoms of tolerauce in an Irish Par- liament. Sir Edward Newnham on the same day moved that leave might be given to bring in heads of a bill for the relief of his majesty's subjects the Protestant Dissenters of that kingdom : and Sir Edward Newn- ham and Sir Boyle Roche were ordered to prepare and bring in the same. But wheth- er from a conviction that the relief to the Dissenters was not of equal urgency with that proposed to be granted to the Roman Catholics, or that the British Cabinet had . ... I hitherto expressed no opiuion or inclination in their favor, the measure was remitted to! another session. The Catholic Bill did not propose to let the Catholics have arms, horses, educa- % MSI • STztliS .CM.UMBI.'S.g, &\ 3 m FAVOR OF CATHOLICS. tion, a seat in Parliament, a vote at elec- tions, a light to sit upon juries, or entrance into municipal corporations; but, slender as was the concession, it was bitterly opposed, and that even by "Patriots," who had no wider idea of Patriotism than the measure of the Protestant interest. On the 5th June, 1778, five divisions were had upon the bill in the Irish House: each was carried in the affirmative, by a small majority ; and on the ISth of the same month there were three divisions. The Protestants throughout the kingdom were taking the alarm, and peti- tions were pouring in from the corporations. On this 15th of June, for example, a petition from the mayor, sheriffs, common council, freemen, freeholders, and other Protestant inhabitants of the city of Cork, was presented against the bi On the 16th, on motion to resolve into committee of the whole to take the heads of the bill into further consideration, the House divided, and the motion was defeated. On the 18th, the House sat in committee over these heads of a bill till three o'clock in the morning, and on the 19th till four o'clock. At last, on the 20th, Mr. Gardiner was ordered to attend his excellency the lord- lieutenant with the said heads of a bill, and desire the same might be transmitted into Great Britain in due form. Thus, after the severest contest, with the full and unequivo- cal approbation of Government, the general support of the Patriots, and the unanimous accord of the British legislature in a similar indulgence to the Roman Catholics of Eng- land, were these heads of a bill carried through the Irish House of Commons by tii.' small majority of nine. Upon the third ''•"ling of this bill in the House of Lords, tli.' contents with their proxies were 3G, and the not contents were 12. On the 14th of August the lord-lieutenant put an end to the session. The British ministry soon saw cause to extend their policy of conciliation, and to assent to some very trilling relaxations of Hi.' restrictions upon Irish trade and com- merce. Some intelligent and patriotic Eng- lishmen, Lord Ncwhaven and the Marquts "I' Rockingham amongst the number, pressed on the Parliament of England the propriety of grautiiig to the Irish nation the libertj of exporting their produce, with the extra- ordinary exemption of their woollens, which tf formed a principal ingredient. Lord Wey- h JKa\| mouth, however, resisted so dangerous a M S r /^ concession to the claims of Ireland ; and the I <& f M only compromise which was effected was an Export Pill, with the special exception ot woollens and cottons. The Bristol mer- chants, who appear through the whole his- tory of English avarice and tyranny to have been influenced by a policy pre-eminently mean, selfish, and grasping— the genuine spirit of paltry trade— went so far as to heap insults on their representative, Edmund Burke, for supporting the measure. In the mean time the Irish Parliament, in its session of 1788, had passed a "militia bill," to authorize the formation of volunteer forces for defence of the country. French and American privateers were sweeping the seas and the British channel : the wide ex- tent of the Irish coast was left exposed with- out defence, and there began to be very general alarm in the seaport towns. Mr. Flood had formerly proposed a national militia, but the idea was not then favored by the Government, and it failed. The militia bill of this year was not opposed by the administration; probably they liitle thought to what proportions the" militia would develop itself, and how tar it would extend its aims ; but it immediately occurred to the Patriots, that while the English Par- liament was peddling and higgling over the miserable and grudging relaxations of Ire- land's commercial restraints, here was a gracious opportunity presenting itself for exercising such a resistless pressure upon ^ § fO^ England, in her hour of difficulty and danger I '«5§V] (England's difficulty being then, as always, Ireland's opportunity), as would compel her to yield, not only a free-trade, but a free Par- liament: and the former, they knew, would never be fully assured without the latter. \\M It was now that public spirit in Ireland, instead of colonial, began to be truly national, and this chiefly by the strong impulse and inspiration of Henry Grattan, who saw, in the extension of the volunteering spirit, a means of combining the two discordant ele- ments of the Irish people into one nation, and elevating the Catholics to the rank of citizens, not by the insidious " boons " of ■''- ■is^^rM.\uL\i\.$.i*. & ':■'- HISTORY OF IRELAND. jt i the English, but through the cordial com- bination and amalgamation of the Irish for their common defence. It was for some months anxiously con- sidered and debated at the Castle whether the forces which were to ba raised, under the new law, were to be a true militia, and therefore subject to martial law, or to be composed of independent volunteer com- panies, choosing their own officers. But this question was soon settled by the people themselves, who were rapidly forming them- selves into the latter kind of organization, and who evidently felt that they were arm- ing, not so much against the foreign enemy as against the British Government. The volunteering began at Belfast. In August, 1778, the people of that town were alarmed by stories of privateers hovering near: they remembered their imminent peril at the time of Thurot's expedition, and at once began to organize and arm volunteer companies, as they had done before on that memorable occasion. At the same time the "sovereign" of the town, Mr. Stewart Burke, wrote to the Irish Secretary, urging that some troops should be sent down, lie received this answer — " Dublin Castle, August \ilh, 1778. "Sir: — My Lord-Lieutenant having re- ceived information that there is reason to apprehend that three or four privateers in company may in a few days make attempts on the northern coasts of this kingdom; by his excellency's command, I give you the earliest account thereof, in order that there may be a careful watch, and immediate in- telligence given to the inhabitants of Bel- fast, in case any party from such ships should attempt to land. "The greatest part of the troops being encamped near Clonmel and Kinsale, his ex- cellency can at present send no further mili- tary aid to Belfast than a troop or two of horse, or part of a company of invalids ; and his excellency desires you will acquaint me by express whether a troop or two of horse can be properly accommodated iu Belfast, so long as it may be proper to continue them in that town, iu addition to the two troops now there. I have, etc., "Richard Heron." This is but one of many communications which passed at the time between the Gov- ernment and the authorities of Belfast. In most of them, the former express their sat- isfaction at the spirit of the volunteer com- panies then formed or about to be formed ; with no sincerity, as we shall see pres- ently. It was evident, then, that the Govern- ment was in no condition to defend Ireland, if Ireland had really been menaced with in- vasion; and therefore quite as little in a condition to resist a great national military organization, no matter what form that might assume. Iu fact, after the example of Belfast, the whole country now rushed to arms. It was a scene of wild and noble excitement. Crowds thronged the public places of resort, anxious and resolved : iu every assembly of the people the topic was "defence of the country;" and ^ if there were many who from the first felt that the country had but one enemy in the world from whom it needed defence (that is, Eng- land), the reflection only heightened their zeal in promoting the national armament. On the 1st December, 1778, the people of Armagh entered into voluntary armed asso- ciations, and offered the command to Lord Charlemont. lie at first refused; because, as lord-lieutenant of the county, he might at any time be called on to command the militia: but his lordship soon saw that vol- unteering was the irresistible order of the day; and that not to be a Volunteer would soon amount to beiug nobody at all in Ire- land. Probably, also, he was influenced by the more powerful will and deeper sagacity of his friend Grattan ; and in January, 1779, he assumed command of the Armagh Volun- teers.* The Government of the day soon saw itself powerless to resist this potent move- ment. It, however, concealed its apprehen- sions for the present, under the mask of gratitude for the loyal zeal of the people. Loyal as undoubtedly the institution was — loyal even to the prejudices which Goveru- * Stuart's History of Armagh. MacNevin's Vol- unteers. Plovden. Hardy's Oharlemont. Sir Jo- nah Barrington, Rise and Fall, etc. The authorities for the history of the Volunteers are innumerable, and will ouly bo cited for some special fact. A 9ft W'fii 1 IrV rfe^? mcnt must have wished to foster, for one of their earliest celebrations was the Battle of the Bbyne* — the English interest trembled at what to their appalled imagination seemed to be the infancy of revolution. Thus, whilst the wretched Government, unable to discharge its functions, and resigning the defence of the country to the virtue and valor of her children, looked on in angry amazement at the daily increasing numbers of the Volunteers, their training into dis- cipline, their martial array and military cel- ebrations, the great officers of the execu- tive were planning how best they might stifle in its birth the warlike spirit of the people. In May, 1779, we find a letter of Lord Buckinghamshire to Lord Weymouth, which clearly proves the fears and hypocrisy of Government, and the alarming progress of the armament: "Upon receiving official intimation that the enemy meditated an attack upon the northern parts of Ireland, the inhabitants of Belfast and Carrickfergus, as Government could not immediately afford a greater force for their protection than about sixty troopers, armed themselves, and by degrees formed themselves into two or three companies; the spirit diffused itself into different parts of the kingdom, and the numbers became considerable, but in no degree to the amount represented. Discouragement has, however, been given on my part, as far as might be without offence, at a crisis when the arm and good-will of every individual might have been wanting for the defence of the state." Lord Buckinghamshire, in another part of the same letter, attributes the rapid in- crease in the. ranks of the Volunteers to an idea that was entertained amongst the peo- ple that their numbers would conduce to the attainment of political advantages for their country. All motives conduced to the same end, and that end — the armed organization of Ireland — was rapidly approaching. The * July 1, 1779. — "Our three volunteer companies Mini ted m their uniform with orao<;o cockaJes, and fire.l three volleys with iheir usual Bteadiueas and regularity, in cotftmemoration of the Battle of the Boytle." — Hist. Collections relative to the Town of Belfast, fire of the people and their anxiety to enter the ranks of the national army may be judged from the fact, that in September, 1779, the return of the Volunteers in the counties of Antrim and Down, and iu and near Coleraine, amounted to: Total in the county of Down 2,241 Total in the county of Antrim 1,474 In and near Coleraine 210 3,925 Of these, the great majority were fully equipped and armed — and glittered in the gay uniform of the Volunteers. Some few companies were, however, unarmed even up to a later period, until the pressure on Gov- ernment compelled them to distribute the arms intended for the militia to worthier hands. The uniforms of the Volunteers were very various, and of all the colors of the rain- bow. The uniform of the Lawyers' corps was scarlet and blue, their motto, "Pro aris et focis ;" the Attorneys' regiment of Volunteers was scarlet and Pomoua green; a corps called the Irish Brigade, and com- posed principally of Catholics (after the in- creasing liberality of the day had permitted them to become Volunteers), wore scarlet and wdiite; other regiments of Irish brigades wore scarlet faced with green, and their motto was " Vox populi suprema lex est;" the Goldsmiths' corps, commanded by the Duke of Leinster, wore blue, faced with scarlet and a professional profusion of gold lace. The " Irish Volunteers" were at first a Protestant organization exclusively. It was only by degrees and with extreme jealousy that its ranks were afterwards opened to those of the proscribed race. It might seem, indeed, that the Catholics would have been justified in taking no interest in the movement, and that they had little to hope from any change. They were not yet citizens, and if permitted to breathe in Ire- land, it was by couuivauce, and against the law. Even the most zealous of the new Volunteers, who were now springing to arms for defence of Ireland, were, with some illustrious exceptions, their most determined and resolute foes. But, plunged in poverty and ignorance as they were, despoiled of - . .- Z^£^ *? ik, and arms, and votes, they yet seem to ve felt instinctively that a movement for >h independence, it' successful, must end in :ir emancipation. They had grown nurne- and many of them rich, in the midst of persecution ; and, notwithstanding the penal ngainsl education, many of the Catholics in truth the best-educated and accom- plished persons in the island. These instructed and thoughtful Catholics could see very well — whatGrattan also saw, but what mostCrom- wellian squires and Williamite peers could not see — that if Ireland should still pretend " to stand upon her smaller end," she would not long stand against England. Then they were naturally a warlike race ; and, it must be added to their credit, that the late small and peddling relaxations in the Penal Code, urged on by the British minister in order to conciliate them to the English interest, had signally failed. The English interest, as they felt, was the great and necessary enemy of all Ireland, and of every one of its inhabitants, and so it was very soon apparent that the armed Protestant Volun- teers would have at their back the two millions of Catholic Irish. There is in the dark records of the de- pravity of the Government of that day a singular document, which, while it attests the patriotism and zeal of the Catholics, illustrates the base and vile spirit which repelled their loyalty and refused their aid. The Earl of Tyrone wrote to one of the Beresfords, a member of that grasping pa- trician family, which had long ruled the country,* that the Catholics in their zeal were forming themselves into independent companies, and had actually begun their organization ; but that, seeing the variety of consequences which would attend such an event, he had found it his duty to stop their movement ! Miserable government — unable to discharge its first duty of defence, and trembling to depute them to the noble and forgiving spirit of a gallant people! The Catholics of Limerick, forbidden the use of arms, subscribed and made a present of £800 to the treasury of the Volunteers. Durincr all this time "the Castle" looked * May 28, 1779. Grattau's Life: olted by Mac- Kevin. on in silent alarm. Even so late as May, 1779, when the Volunteer companies num- bered probably tweuty thousand men, the lord-lieutenant gravely considered whether it were still possible to disperse and disarm them-by force. In one of his letters to Lord Weymouth* he says — "The seizing of their arms would have been a violent expedient, and the preventing them from assembling without a military force impracticable; for when the civil magistrate will rarely attempt to seize an offender suspected of the most enormous crimes, and wheu convicted, con- vey him to the place of execution without soldiers; nay, when in many instances per- sons cannot be put into possession of their property, nor being possessed, maintain it without such assistance, there is little pre- sumption in asserting, that, unless bodies of troops had been universally dispersed, noth- ing could have been done to effect this. My accounts state the number of corps as not exceediug eight thousand men, some without arms, and in the whole, very few who are liable to a suspicion of disaffection." But in the next month, the same viceroy communicates to the same minister, that, bv advice of the Privy Council of Ireland, he had supplied the Volunteers with part of the arms intended for the militia. This was really giving up the island into the hands of the Volunteers. The leaders of that force at once felt that they might do what they would with Ireland — for a time. After the delivery of the arms, the numbers of Volun- teers rapidly and greatly increased. f But a spirit of great moderation reigned over the councils of this armed nation. It was, in the hands of those leaders, any thing rather than a republican, or agrarian, or revolutionary movement. Thus they adopt- ed a system of officering their army which gave a pledge that no anarchical idea had place in their thoughts. The soldiers elected their own commanders; and whom, says MacNevin, whom did they choose ? " Whom did this democratic army select to rule their councils and direct their power? Not the low ambitious — not the village vulgar braw- ler — but the men who, by large possessions, * May 24,. 1779. t 16,000 stand of arms were delivered to the Volunteer:) at this time. ,s* v // ! ' ' .: V. £p r^t NUMBERS AND AIMS OF THE VOLUNTEERS lofty character, and better still, by virtue and by genius, had given to their names a larger patent than nobility. Flood and Grattan, Charlemont and Leinster — the cho- sen men in all the liberal professions — the orators who led tbe Patriot party in the Commons — the good, the high, the noble; these were the officers who held unpurchased honors in the Volunteers. We may well look back, with mournful pride, through the honid chaos where rebellion and national ruin rule the murky night, to this one hour of glory — of power uncorrupted, and oppor- tunities unabuscd." It is difficult to arrive at any accurate statement of the numbers of the Volunteers within the first year of their organization. There have been both exaggerative and de- preciative estimates. We have seen that the lord-lieutenant, in June, 1779, had sup- posed their force to be only 8,000; yet in the very next month had yielded to them a demand which it would have been vitally important to the Government to refuse them. And as will be always the case, where the money of Government can com- mand the venal crew of writers, the most elaborate falsehood and the most insulting ridicule were poured upon the heads of those by whose exertions the national cause was so nobly maintained. In Lloyd's Evening Post, an article appeared on the 7th of July, stating that the numbers of the Volunteers had been monstrously exag- gerated; that no call could bring into the field twenty thousand men ; that persons of all ages were enrolled aud put on paper ; that every gentleman belonged to two, aud most of them to five or six different corps, aud that by this ubiquity and divisibility of person, the muster-rolls of the companies were swelled. Doubtlessly there was some exaggeration in the representation of the numbers occasionally made; but a compe- tent authority, commenting on this ar- ticle, states, that at this time there were 95,000. In the ranks of the Volunteers there were, in point of fact, very many Catholics, from a very early period of the movement ; but they were there by connivance, as they were everywhere else. But in the next year, after meetings of Volunteers had passed resolutions in favor of Catholic rights, the young men of that religion began to swell the numbers of many corps. Some corps were composed altogether of Catho- lics: and when the Dungannon Convention came, the Volunteer army was at least 75,000 strong. During the summer of 1779 au eveut occurred, which immensely stimulated the volunteering spirit: — the combined fleets of France and Spain entered the Channel in overwhelming force, which the British could not venture to encounter : the vessels pass- ing between England and Ireland were placed under the protection of convoys ; Paul Jones, with his little squadron, fought and captured, within sight of the English - coast, the Serapis man-of-war and Scarbor- ough frigate, with many vessels under their convoy : in short, there was another alarm of invasion both in England and in Ireland. MacNeviu, in his History of the Volunteers, says with a cool naivete which is charming, that this " was fortunate for the reputation of the Volunteers, for the purpose of establishing their fidelity to the original principle of their body"— -which principle was defence of the country against a foreign enemy. Most of the Volunteers knew well that their only foreign enemy was England, and that Fiance, Spain, and America would have been most happy to deliver them from that enemy. They knew, also, that the onlv use of the Volunteer force, in practice, was likely to be the wresting of their national independence from England. However, the new alarm aided, and seemed to justify, the volunteering. Therefore, the delegates of 125 corps of Volunteers, all of them men of rank and character, waited on the lord- lieutenant with offers of service "in such manner as shall be thought necessary for the safety and protection of the kingdom." The oft'er was accepted, but very coldly, and without naming "Volunteers." - 5!X\ m CHAPTER XIX. 1779—1780. Free Trade and Free Parliament — Meaning of "Free Trade" — Non-importation agreements — Rage of the English — Grattan'a motion for free trade — Hnssey Burgli — Thanks to the Volunteers — Parade in Dublin— Lord North yields — Free Trade Act— Next step— Mutiny Bill— The 19th of April — Declaration of Bight — Defeated in Parlia- ment, but successful in the country — General de- termination, — Organizing — Arming — Reviews — Oharlemont — Briberies of Buckingham — Carlisle, Viceroy. To force from reluctant England a Free Trade, and the repeal, or rather declaratory nullification, of Poynings' Law, which re- quired the Irish Parliament to submit the heads of their bills to the English Privy Council before they could presume to pass them — these were, in few words, the two great objects which the leaders of the Vol- unteers kept now steadily before them. It must be here observed that the idea and the term "free trade," as then understood in Ireland, did not represent what the political economists now call free trade. What was sought was a release from those restrictions on Irish trade imposed by an English Par- liament, and for the profit of the English people. This did not mean that imports and exports should be free of all duty to the state, but only that the fact of import or export itself should not be restrained by foreign laws, and that the duties to be de- rived from it should be imposed by Ireland's own Parliament, and in the sole interest of Ireland herself. This distinction is the more important to be observed, because modern "free traders" in Ireland and in England have sometimes appealed to the authority of t lie enlightened men who then governed the Volunteer movement as an authority in favor of abolishing import and export duties. The citation is by no means applicable. The first measure to convince England that Ireland was entitled to an unrestricted trade, was the " non-importation agreement," which many of the Voluuteer corps, as well as town corporations, solemnly adopted by resolutions, during the year 1779. Although there were frequent debates in the British Parliament this year on the subject of modi- lying the laws prohibiting the tons, woollens, and provisions, from Ireland, yet it was but too plain that the rapacious spirit of British commerce, aud the mena- cing, almost frantic, opposition given to all consideration of such measure, by petitions, which sounded more like threats, coming from the great centres of trade in England, Manchester, Glasgow, Liverpool, and Bristol, would render all redress hopeless from that quarter. The non-importation agreements became popular, and the people of many towns and counties were steadily refusing to wear or use in their houses any kind of wares coming from England. The town of Galway had the honor of leading the way in this movement: the example was im- mediately followed by corps of Volunteers in many counties ; and as the Volunteers were already the fashion, women sustained their patriotic resolution, and ladies of wealth began to clothe themselves exclusively in Irish fabrics. The resolutions are n«t uni- form in their tenor. At a general meeting of the Freemen and Freeholders of the city of Dublin, convened by public notice, these resolutions were passed : " Resolved, That the unjust, illiberal, and impolitic opposition given by many self- interested people of Great Britain to the proposed encouragement of the trade and commerce of this kingdom, originated iu avarice and ingratitude. " Resolved, That we will not, directly or indirectly, import or use any goods or wares, tli'' produce or manufactures of Great Britain, which can be produced or manufactured in this kingdom, till an enlightened policy, founded on principles of justice, shall appear to actuate the inhabitants of certain manu- facturing towns of Great Britain, who have taken so active a part in opposing the regu- lations proposed in favor of the trade of Ireland ; and till they appear to entertain seutiments of respect and affection for their fellow-subjects of this kingdom." Shortly after the assizes at Watcrford, the high sheriff", grand jury, and a number of the most respectable inhabitants, assembled for the purpose of taking into consideration the ruinous state of the trade and manufac- tures, and the alarming decline in the value of the staple commodities of the kingdom ; '% m $T, /^iiVIBuS^, \w \ ' tli.it they owed their couutry and them- selves, to restrain, by every means in tlieir power, these g owing evils, they passed and signed the following resolutions: " Res >lved, Thai we, our families, and all whom \v.' can influence, shall, from this day, wear and make use of the manufactures of t country, and this country only, until such tune as all partial restrictions on our trade, imposed by the illiberal and contract- ed policy "f our sister kingdom, be removed ; but if, in consequence ot' this our resolu- tion, the manufacturers (whose interest we have more immediately under consideration) should act fraudulently, or combine to im- pose upon the public, we shall hold our- selves no longer bound to countenance and support them. " Resolved, That we will not deal with any merchant or shopkeeper who shall, at any time hereafter, be detected in imposing any foreign manufacture as the manufacture of this country." Resolutions of this kind became general, in consequence of which efforts the manu- factures of Ireland began to revive, and the demand for British goods in a great measure decreased, a circumstance which tended to I luce a disposition in Great Britain to attend to the complaints of that country, different indeed bum that which Ireland bad hitherto experienced. ie feeling of Government on the subject of non-iinportalion was one of great irrita- tion, and their partisans in Parliament did not hesitate to give bitter utterance to their hatred of the Volunteers and of the com- meruial movement. Lord Shelburne, in May, 1779, called the Irish army an "enraged nob;" but the phrase was infelicitous, and told only half the truth. They were euraged, but they were not a mob. They had no i ne quality of a mob. They had discipline, arm-, and a military system. Their ranks were tided with gentlemen, and officered by nobles. But such expressions as Lord Shel- burne's were of great advantage. They kept clearly, in bold relict* the ancient aud irre- movable feeling of Englishmen, and the con- temptuous falsehood of their estimate of tin- Irish people. In the same spirit, the organ of Government wrote to the central autho- rity iu England on tic- subject <>t the non- importation agreement: — "Fur some days past, the names of the traders who appea by the printed returns of the custom-hous to have imported any English goods, hav been printed iu the Dublin newspaper. This is probably calculated for the abominable purpose of drawing the indignation of the mob upon individuals, and is supposed to be the act of the meanest of the faction.''* When the lorddieutenant penned this para- graph, he did not, assuredly, remember the meanness of the manufacturers and traders of his own country, or the measures adopted by the English Parliament, at their dicta- tion, to crush the trade and paralyze the industry of this country. The retaliation was just, and no means that could have been adopted could equal the atrocity of the con- duct of the English towns to the productive industry of Ireland. Englishmen had a Par- liament obedient to the dictates of the en- croaching spirit of English trade — the Irish people had not as yet established their free- dom, nor armed themselves with the resist- less weapon office institutions. They were obliged to legislate for themselves, and were justified by the exigency in adopting any means to enforce the national will. It seems strange that it should be necessary to defend the measure of holding up to scorn the traitors who could expose in their shops articles of foreign consumption, every article of which was a representative of their coun- try's impoverishment' and decay. Cut, the English press denounced it as the policy of savages, and pointed out the Irish people to the contumely of Europe. At the same time, the English manufacturers, ever careless of present sacrifices to secure permanent ad- vantages, flooded the country towns with the accumulated products of the woollen manufacture, which, owing to the war and other causes, had remained on their hands. They offered these goods to the small shop- keepers at the lowest possible prices, and desired them to name their own time for pavinent; and they partially succeeded iu inducing many of the low and embarrassed servitors of trade, through their necessities, and by the seductive promise of long credit, to * Letter of the lord lieutenant to Lord Wey- mouth, May, 177U. ...KH.1.H a<£>- IW^Vv '^> mjdiim HISTORY OF IRELAND. >¥ )1 become traitors to the cause of Irish indus- try. The Volunteers and the leaders of the movement were equally active on their side. The press, the pulpit, and the ball-room wire enlisted iu the cause of native indus- try. The scientific institutions circulated, gratuitously, tracts on the improvement of manufacture — on the modes adopted in the continental manufacturing districts, and on the economy of production. Trade revived; the manufacturers who had thronged the city of Dublin, the ghastly apparitions of decayed industry, found employment pro- vided for them by the patriotism and spirit of the country ; the proscribed goods of England remained unsold, or only sold under false colors, by knavish and profligate retail- ers; the country enjoyed some of the fruits of freedom before she obtained freedom itself. The session of the Irish Parliament of 1779-80 had been looked forward to with profound interest; and it opened with stormy omens. The speech from the lord- lieutenant contained more than the usual quantity of inexplicit falsehood and diplo- matic subterfuge. The address iu reply was its echo, or would have been, but that Henry Grattan, he who was above all others, the man of his day, moved his celebrated amendment. The speech of the viceroy had alluded with skilful obscurity to cer- tain liberal intentions of the king on the subject of trade : but there was no promise for hope to rest upon : it was vague, and without meaning. This was not what the spirit of the hour or the genius of the men would endure. They felt the time had come to strike with mortal blow the whole system of English tyranny, and to give free- dom and security to the trade and industry of Ireland. When the speech was read in the Com- mons, the English interest anxiously scanned the opposition benches. They saw that something would be done embarrassing to their system and to them; but they could lot anticipate the blow that was ready for I.'teir heads, or that their fiercest I'oe would 1..- a placeman in their rank*. An address was proposed by Sir Robert Deane, a drudge of Government, re-echoing, in Ber- ulity, the vague generalities of the speech. Grattan then rose to propose his amend- ment : — " That we beseech his majesty to believe that it is with the utmost reluctance we pre- sume to approach his royal person with even the smallest appearance of dissatisfac- tion ; but that the distress of this kingdom is such as renders it an indispensable duty in us to lay the melancholy state of it be- fore his majesty, and to point out wdiat we apprehend to be the only effectual means of relief; that the constant drain of its cash to supply absentees, and the fetters on its commerce, have always been sufficient to prevent this country from becoming opu- lent in its circumstances, but that those branches of trade which have hitherto ena- bled it to struggle with the difficulties it labors under, have now almost totally failed ; that its commercial credit is sunk, all its resources are decaying rapidlv, and num- bers of its most industrious inhabitants in danger of perishing for want ; that as long as they were able to flatter themselves that the progress of those evils might be stopped by their own efforts, they were unwilling to trouble his majesty upon the subject of their distress; but, finding that they increase upon them, notwithstanding all their endea- vors, they are at last obliged to have re- course to his majesty's benignity and justice, and most humbly to acquaint him that, in their opinion, the only effectual remedy that. can be applied to the sufferings of this king- dom, that, can either invigorate its credit or support its people, is to open its ports for the exportation of all its manufactures; that it is evident to every unprejudiced mind that. Great Britain would derive as much hen. lit from this measure as Ireland itself, hut that Ireland cannot subsist without it; and that ii is with tin- utmost grief they find them- selves under the necessity of again acquaint- ing his majesty that, unless some happy change in the state of it* affairs takes place without delay, it must inevitably be reduced to remain a burden upon England, instead of increasing its resources, or affording it the assistance which its natural ti flection for that country, and the intimate connection be weep their interest-, have always inclined it to offer." Grattau's speech iu support of the amend- r . ^&6P'*3dt* jaBLi w ,.a ,-, ,*#" 52^_ _i6£ * THANES TO THE VOUNIi i RS. tnenl must have been badly preserved, for wliwt remains bears no proportion to the magnitude of the interests, or the absorbing nature of the subject. To the rage and dismay of Government — passions of which unequivocal demonstra- tions were given on the ministerial bunches — Hussey Burgh, the prime sergeant, one of the most eloquent and fascinating men of the day, an official of Government, a Btanch supporter, one to whom, from the spirit of his office, patriotism should have been im- possible, moved that "we beg to represenl to his majesty that it is not by temporary expedients, hut by a free trade alone, that this nation is now to be saved from impend- ing ruin." This resolution was carried unani- mously ; the supporters of Government saw thai it was useless to oppose the spirit of the Bouse; the nation was standing petitioner at their bar for the privileges of nature, production and consumption; the Volun- teers were drawn up through the streets of Dublin, with an intelligible alternative hung round the necks of their cannon, " Free Trade or ;" and the amendment of Henry Grattan, with the improvements of Burgh, received on the part of the Patriots an exulting support, and on the part of the ministers a fearful and angry assent. The il iy after this distinguished success, the addresses of the Lords and Commons were brought up to the Castle ; the streets, from the House to the se.it of government, were lined with the corps of the Dublin Volun- teers, under arm-, who paid military honors to the favorite leaders; the city was in a tumuli of joy and triumph, contrasting not unfavorably with the gloom and irritation of the Castle. And that no doubt might be entertained of the authors of this important movement —that the merit of success should be laid at the tight door, thanks to the Vol unteers were moved and carried in the Lords and Cot lis. The motion in the House of Commons was made by Mr. Conolly, the head of the Country gentlemen. The Duke of I. ei i^ter carried the motion through the Lords, with only one dissentient voice, I d-Chancellor Lifford, on • of those Eng- lish lawyers who ,-ire sent over to Ireland, from time to time, t,, occupy the highest scats of justice and enjoy the largest emolu- ments in th,. country. The lord-lieutenant, in writing to Lord Weymouth, complains bitterly of these votes; unanimous expres- sions as they were of the feelings of classes in the state, they appeared in a most reprehensible light to the viceroy, who petn- lantly wrote home bis complaint that the proceeding was occasioned wholly by the Duke of Leinster. The Government, quite alive to the faet that the present posture of affairs resulted from the power and determination of the Volunteers, set on one of its habitual agents to assail them. This was Scott, the attorney-general, who afterwards, as Lord Clonmel, was, with a few monstrous excep- tions, the most inhuman judge that ever presided in the shambles of Irish justice. lie attacked the Volunteers with an habitual vulgar fury— described them by every name which the quick invention of a ferocious mind could devise; and he was supported in his philippic by Sir Henry Cavendish, who reminded the. House that the Indepen- dents of the past century commenced by seeming moderation, but ended by cutting off the head of the king : men might creep into the Volunteers, who might urge them to similar dangerous courses. But Grattan repelled the charges against the armv in which he was a distinguished soldier — and told the legislature that the great, objects which they sought could not be obtained by the skill, the prudence, or the dexterity of 300 men, without the spirit mid cooperation of 3,000,000. The military associations, he said, "caused a fortunate change in the sentiments of this House: they inspired us to ask directly tor the greatest object that ever was set within the view of Ireland — a free trade." The spirit in the country well replied to the spirit within the walls of the House. The Volunteers instructed the rep- resentatives lo vote the supplies for no longer than six months. They now amounted to nearly 50,000 men. Possessed of every wonted military attribute, disciplined, and well armed, they had other qualities that are too often absent, in military organization. They were the army of the people; their commission included only tie- duties of free- born men to fight for liberty and to defend a country. Most of their officers were the highest blood of an ancient and aristocratic I treat our applications for free trade with country — men not alone ennobled by long contempt. When the interests of the Gov- V de cent, but by the high qualities of genius, wisdom, and integrity. The soldiers were the yeomen of the land, having as definite au interest, in ber prosperity as the highest peer in the service. And all were bound together by tin- deepest attachment to the liberties of Ireland. They had seen what they were able to effect; and as concession after concession was wrung from power, the bold and sagacious of them determined not to rest from their efforts until a free and reformed Parliament sat within the walls of the Senate Bouse, the permanent security and guarantee of freedom. Tiicr question of the supplies came before the lb.use on the 25th November, 1779. The Patriots had determined to withhold the grant, or to limit the duration of the money bill, until free trade was yielded by England. But Scott, the attorney-general, endeavored to prove that supplies to pay the interest of the national debt, the tontine, and the loans, were not supplies to the crown, but for the discharge of national responsi- bilities. "How tender," said Grattan, " the administration is regarding the moneyed in- terests of individuals; how little they care to risk the ruin of the nation!" The attorney- general moved that the supplies should be granted for two years; Mr. French moved an amendment that they should be granted for six months A brilliant debate was the consequence; the war of personality, which was always carried on with so much vigor and genius in the House, never raged with fiercer or more splendid power — but the great oration of the day was delivered by Hussey Burgh, lie said : "You have but two nights ago declared against, new taxes by a majority of 123, and have left, the ministers supported only by 47 votes; if you now go back, and accede to the proposed grant for two years, your compliance will add insult to the injuries already done to your ill-fated country; you strike a dagger in your own bosom, and destroy tin- fair prospect of commercial hope, because if the minister can, in the course of two davs, render void the animated spirit and patriotic stability of this House, and procure a majority, the British minister will eminent and the people are contrary, they secretly operate against each other — such a state is hut smothered war. I shall be a fiend alike to the minister and the people, a irding as I find their desires guided by justice ; but at such a crisis as this the 1 pie must be kept in good temper, even to the indulgence of their caprices. "The usurped authority of a foreign Par- liament has kept up the most wicked laws that a zealous, monopolizing, ungrateful spirit could devise, to restrain the bounty of providence and enslave a nation whose in- habitants are recorded to be a brave, loyal, and generous people; by the English code of laws, to answer the most sordid views, they have been treated with a savage cruelty; the words penalty, punishment, and Ireland, are synonymous, they are marked in blood on the margin of their statutes; anoTf»thougli time may have softened the calamities of the nation, the baneful and destructive influ- ence of those laws has borne her down to a state of Egyptian bondage. The English have sowed their laws like serpents' teeth, and they have sprung up m armed men."* The amendment was carried by 1.18 to 100: the triumph of the principles of free trade was insured ; and the minister acknow- ledged the necessity of precipitately retracing his sieps. Who can doubt the vast, influ- ence the Volunteers excited in all these proceedings? On the preceding 4th of November — the anniversary of the birth of William the Third— the Volunteers had taken the opportunity of reading to the minister and the Parliament a lesson of con- stitutional doctrine around the statue of him who was, they conceived, the founder of constitutional liberty. They assembled in College Green — the Dublin Volunteer artil- lery, commanded by James Napper Tandy, with labels bearing the inscription, "Free * HuKSey Burgh lost liis place, but rose in popu- lar estimation. Meetings were held in different parts of the country in present him with oddrosscB el' thanks. The freedom of the Corporation of Carrickfergus, ami other corporate towns, was given to him iii gold boxes. The address from the Car- rickfergus corporation was presented by Barry Yelverton, Recorder of tlie town. — Sec Fit/man's Journal, January -l.tli, 17su. 1**81, **JV , <- -i. . if <#% 1 I Hf 1 "~ PARADE IX DUBLIN Trade or speedy revolution," suspended on tli" necks of their cannon; the Volunteers of Dublin and the vicinity, under the orders of the Duke of Leinster. The sides of the pedestal on which stood the statue of the De iverer, were ornamented with colleetions of most significant political reasoning; anil under the angry eyes of the executive, such teai hings as the following were given at onee to the governors and the governed. On one side of the pillar was inscribed, "Relief to Ireland;" on another, "A short money bill, a free trade, or else ;" on a third, "The Volunteers, quinquuginta millia juneti, parati pro pairid mori;'" and in front of the statue were two cannons bearing an inscrip- tion on each, "Free trade or this." The people were assembled in thousands around the Volunteer troops, and their enthusiasm re-echoed in deafening applause the thunder of the artillery. It was a scene productive of commercial and political freedom : that th" latter was evanescent was not the fault of the institution or lack of spirit; but divi- sions, and doubts, and suspicions, were in- troduced amongst the body by the exertions of England; new ambitions filled the minds of some; the force of old ministerial associ- ations pressed upon others; the courtly tendencies and the timid alarms of a few of th.- leading men led them to sacrifice what ih \ had gained, rather than to peril Eng- lish connection by nobly seeking unlimited freedom. But at the period of which we are writing, the Volunteer system was com- pacl and perfect. The wants of Ireland were commercial and political. She had been made a bankrupt by monopoly, and a slave by usurpation. The Volunteers were lo give her prosperity and freedom, by un- restricted trade and legislation. And right well did they set themselves to their ap- po nl d task, with what success appears lr Lord North's free trade bill, and Grat- tan's declaration of right. Ii was appointed for Lord North to undo he work of William the Third, and to take he first step towards restoring the trade to which the Deliverer had given the finishing blow. Lord North had great experience in obstinate oppression, and not less in the n cognition of the liberties he had trampled upon, lb- had braved the genius of Chat- ham in the disastrous campaigns against transatlantic freedom — the world has read with profit the sequel of his history in that great transaction. He had opposed every effort to emancipate the trade of Ii elan t is an agreeable duty for an Irish writer to detail the concessions wrung from him by the arms of the Volunteers, and the elo- quence and genius of those who led them to victory. On the 13th of December. 17*79, he introduced into the English legislature three propositions : to permit, first, the ex- port of glass; second, the export of woollen goods; and third, a free trade with the English settlements in America, the West Indies, and Africa. In connection with these propositions, Foster, the Speaker of the Irish House, and on that occasion the representative of Gov- ernment, On the 20i h of the same month, moved two resolutions in the Irish legis- lature. 1st, That the exportation of the manufactures of this country would tend to relieve her distresses. '2d, That great commercial benefits would flow from the permission to trade with the American, Indian, and African settlements. Proposi- tions of very manifest truth, but tardily acknowledged by the English and Irish Governments, whose recognition is obviouslv attributable to a style of political reasoning which will prove any thing that a nation of men requires to demonstrate. The proposi- tions of Lord North, and the resolutions of Foster, were the basis of the bill which some mull (T^^ mnths later gave a free trade to Ireland ; %&£i^^^ id, for the first time since William the /T^A^vTl bird destroyed the woollen manufacture, MnjC^£> an Th and bis English Parliament laid restrictions on her productive industry, her people were free to use the resources a liberal nature offered them, and which a foreign tyrant, sealed from their anxious hands. The efforts they had made hitherto to free their trade were the efforts of Blaves — petition and re- monstrance ; it was not until they demandei free trade, with the Volunteer alternative, that England struck. The Volunteers and the country had soon a more striking proof of the power which their attitude excited over the obstinate maxims of English policy. Lord North, in February, 1780, iutro- ;«£,'v- ' .& >;;• -*> WSM^^s^m^ m-* ill -» \ ^i. ,+ < rV i 134 HISTORY OF IRELAND. duced his free trade bill in a speech which was the best refutation of his former argu- ments, and the severest condemnation of his former conduct, The intelligence of the concessions made by tliHt bill — liberty to export woollen manu- factures, and to trade with the British col- onies, was received with great joy by the people. But their joy was tempered with a wise care for the future, and the greater the conceded advantages were, the more did they feel themselves pressed by the insecu- rity of possession. The very magnitude of the gift taught them with greater force the true principles of freedom. They reflected that the right which jealous power had respected in its hour of weakness, it. would trample on with recovered strength. What ij security had they that at some future period, when they had possibly established a thriv- ing trade, and expend, d niueh labor and money in creating a prosperous commerce, t'neio might not arise another William, ready to gratify the insoleut avarice of England, by the destruction of their trade and manu- factures? The wisdom of Swift, of Lucas, and of Molyneux, appealed to them in the hour of recovered trade, and pleaded strong- ly for unrecovered liberty. They received a free trade then, not as a gift from bounty, but as a surrendered right from weakened power; and, rejoicing at the extent of the benefit, they were neither fools nor syco- phants; nor did they compromise their duty to their country by a needless excess of gratitude to her frightened oppressor. Thus, in the resolutions which record the people's joy, we may find the strongest expressions of their determination to effect greater things than the emancipation of their trade. Every county in Ireland addressed its representa- tives; every corps of Volunteers addressed its officers; and the spirit of these ett'usions may be judged from one, selected from amongst many, to which the spirit of the day gave birth. The gentlemen of the grand jury and freeholders of the county of Monaghan, addressing their representatives, amongst other things, said : " While we rejoice ill common with the rest of our fellow-subjects at the advantages which Ireland has latterly obtained, and which we are fullv convinced arc attribut- able to the parental attention of his majesty, the virtue of our Parliament, and the spirit of our people; yet, as these advantages ar» confined to commerce, out satisfaction must, be limited, lest our rights and privileges should seem to be lost in the joy which attends a partial restoration of them. We do affirm that no Parliament had, has, or of right Ought to have, any power or authority whatsoever, in this kingdom, except tin- Par- liament of Ireland ; that no statute has the force of law in this kingdom, unless enacted b\ the king with the consent of the Lords and I 'ominous of the land ; on this principle the connection between Great Britain and Ireland is to be founded, and on this princi- ple we trust, not only that it- may be render- ed secure and permanent, but that the two kingdoms may become strongly united and advantageously circumstanced, as to be en- abled to oppose with success the common enemies of the British empire, Wn.it you have clone, we look on as a beginning; and we trust that the termination of the session will he as beneficial to the constitution as the commencement has been to the com- merce of the country." These were the sentiments of manly but conditional loyalty, of generous love of free- dom above even the material benefits of trade, which led to the Revolution of 1782, and whose diversion into other channels after the Volunteers had ceased to exist as a great national army, drove so many great and upright men into conspiracy and revolt. The desire of constitutional liberty having one.' seized upon the people, several means of obtaining that object were adopted. In Parliament, a short mutiny bill became a favorite measure. The evils of a standing army, the dangers to freedom inseparable from the existence within the realm of a large force of armed men, having from its very organization no sympathies with the p.ople, were eloquently dwelt upon by the leading Patriots in the House; magistrates refused to billet soldiers under a mutiny act, to which they objected on two grounds — first, that it was an English act of Parlia- ment, and secondly, that it. was perpetual, and created an armed irresponsible authority within the state. The Irish mutiny act had only extended to six mouths — it had been •7 C.N6 .UUMHi5 w DECLARATION OP RIGHT. 135 il l£, returned from England with ;i change ren- iring it perpetual; thus the legislation in ght well I"' called English, and the princi- ple despotic. The act was resisted, and it would have remained a dead letter, but that the ultimate decision of the matter rested with the judges, and it was not thought advis ble to resorl to their tribunals. But the time had arrived when Henry Grattan commenced, in grave and noble earnest, the quarrel of parliamentary liberty. And never was a man more fitted by nature for a great work than be was. Swift had writ- ten of Iri>h polities with masterly power; Molyneux, with considerable learning; and Lucas, with homely vigor and honest zeal; but in Henry Grattan all the qualities of greatness were combined, lie was a man of a pure spirit and a noble genius. He was an accomplished scholar, and a poet; but his scholarship and his poetry gave way to a grand, peculiar, and electric oratory, unsurpassed, probably unequalled, by the grea est speakers of any age or nation. It was argumentative and logical in the highest iee; but it was also imaginative and picturesque. Its figures were bold and new — its striking peculiarity consisted in the total absence of the usual or the vulgar. In its noble flights, in the utter abandonment of genius, there was a grandeur and elegant proportion, a profound wisdom, and a start- ling vehemence, which contributed to give to tl 'ator all the weight of inspiration. Bui Grattan was not only a consummate orator, be was a patriot in the largest and broadest sens.-, and was the first statesman in Ireland who both aspired to national in- dependence for his country, and perceived the impossibility of maintaining that inde- pendence, even it' established, without associ- ating the mass of proscribe! Catholics in the national aspirations and national triumph. The commercial tyranny of England being now broken down, and the country obvioush i for a further advance, Grattan fixed the 19th of April, 1T80, as the day on which be would ve his celebrated Declaration of Right, which, if adopted, would be a dis- tinct ultimatum to England, and, adopted in the front <>t' the Volunteer array, would be an unmistakable challenge and defiance. The scene presented on that memorable day by Dublin and the Irish Parliament House on College Green is vividly described by MacNevin : " No greater day, none of more glory ever rose upon this country, than that which dawned upon the Senate House of Ireland on the 19th of April, 1780. The dull Chronicles of the time, and the meagre press which then represented popular opinion, are filled with details of the circumstances under which Grattan brought forward his Declara- tion of Right. They were circumstances certainly unequalled in our history of military splendor and moral triumph. The streets around the Attic temple of legislation were thronged with the disciplined numbers of the Volunteers, and the impatient multitude of the people. The uniforms of the Irish army, the gaudy orange, the brilliant scar- let, and the chaster and more national green — turned up with different facings, according to the tastes of the various corps — contrast', I gayly with the dark background of the civil- ian mass that watched with eager eyes the extraordinary scene. Over the heads of the crowd floated the banners of the Volunteers, with the watchwords of freedom and politi- cal regeneration worked in gold or silver on a ground of blue, green, or white. And truly the issue to be tried within the walls of that magnificent building was one great in its effects, and illustrious from the char acter of the contending parties. It was a trial of right between two great nations — but more, it was to be either a precedent of freedom or an argument of usurpation. Much depended on fhe result, not alone as to the present interests, but as to the future destinies of the country; and the great men who were engaged in conducting this con- troversy of liberty were fully alive to the dignity of their parts, and fully competent to the successful discharge of the lofty missiou they had undertaken. "Within the walls of the House of Com- mons, a scone of great interest presented itself to the eye. The galleries were throng- ed with women of the first fashion, beautiful, elegantly dressed, and filled with animated interest in the anticipated triumph of an eloquence to which the place was sacred. Scattered through the House were several officers of the Volunteers, for a considerable * ^ m sa £. / 'l« tOWll,( TT p— «— -■ ■ ,N "-"^N' -. ^:-n ■ I ■■■■■■ ! l _X' ::>vff£ L^— f, H ?^< oV ! mo HISTOBY OF IRELAND. number of the members held commissions in that great body. But the chief attrac- tions of the House were those distinguished men who were upon that clay to make the noblest chapter in the history of Ireland — men celebrated beyond those of almost any age for the possession of the highest of man's qualities — eloquence, wit, statesman- ship, political wisdom, and unbounded know- ledge. There were to be seen and heard there that day the graceful and eloquent Burgh ; the intrepid advocate, the consum- mate orator, the immaculate patriot, John Philpot Curran ; the wise statesman, Flood; and the founder of Irish liberty, who watch- ed it in its cradle, and who followed it to its grave, Grattan. Amongst the spectatois were Lifford, the chancellor, whose voice had negatived every liberty, and denied every concession; Charlemont, the truest of patriots, but the worst of statesmen ; and Frederick, the Karl of Bristol and the Bishop of Derry, whose coronet and mitre could not keep down the ambition of a tribune, nor conceal tin- finest qualities of a demagogue. All eyes were turned to Grattan." " After a speech of consummate power, in which he imparted to the doctrines of freedom a more spiritual cast than they had yet assumed in Ireland, he moved his three resolutions. 1st, That his most excellent majesty, by and with the consent of the Lords and Commons of Ireland, are the only power couipcteut to enact laws to bind Ireland. 2d, That the crown of Ireland is, and ought, to be, inseparably annexed to the crown of Great Britain. 3d, That Great Britain and Ireland are inseparably united under one sovereign, by the common and indissoluble ties of interest, loyalty, and free- dom. Mis resolutions were seconded by Robert Stewart, the lather of the man who, of all others, was most active in destroying the great, fabric of freedom which llenrv Grattan commenced upon that day to rear. He was oppose.! by Foster and Fitzgibbon ; and to show how completely Irish freedom was the child of arms, the latter attacked the Volunteers as a giddy faction, which dealt in violence and clamor, lie felt that Grattan was indeed fortified by the resolu- tions of the armed citizens, and accordingly was liberal of invective against them. Yet Fitzgibbon represented himself as an enemy to the usurpations of England. It was singu- lar that on this occasion Flood was opposed to bringing forward the qttesuou of Irish liberty, lie thought, that the time of Eng- land's distress was an improper one at which to urge the lights of Ireland." The eloquent writer just cited has been Somewhat carried away by his enthusiastic sympathy with the great effort of Grattan and exaggerates its importance. The debate, it is true, was extremely interesting; and if it led to no immediate practical result in the House, it kept the subject alive before the nation, and gave it fresh vitality and power. It seems that scarcely any mem- ber, with perhaps one or two exceptions, ventured to oppose directly the principles of the resolutions. The Castle party, however, defeated them by a motion, that there being an equivalent resolution already ou the jour- nals of the House (alluding to one iiF Straf- ford's time, which was not equivalent), it was useless to pass this. The amendment was carried, and the Declaration of Right was not pressed at that time to a division Plowden thus sums up the result; "After it most interesting debate, that lasted till six o'clock in the morning, in which every man but one acknowledged its truth, either expressly or by not opposing it, Mr. Flood, who well knew that the min- isterial members were committed to negative the motion if it came to a division, recom- mended that no question should be put, and no appearance of the business entered on the journals, to which Mr. Grattan con- sented." Substantially, however, the object of the Declaration was accomplished. If it did not convince the ministerial members, it con- vinced the Volunteers, and made more Vol- unteers. It also convinced the Government of the depth and strength of the new national spirit in Ireland, as we learn from a letter of Lord Buckinghamshire, the clay after, to Lord Hillsborough, lie says: ''It is with the utmost concern I must acquaint your Lordship that, although SO many gentlemen expressed their concern that the subject had been introduced, the Sense of the House against the obligation of am/ statutes of the Parliament of Great Britain, withiu this ,% f W" ^-i: ^ a. *Jt<* A<'4J<'MM.&.% l&\! ^ ^ kingdom, is represented to me lo have been almost unanimous." The people out-of-doors began now to be grievously discontented with their Parlia- ]ii> n;. They were becoming more and mare thoroughly indoctrinated with the generous sentiments ofOrattan, not only through his own speeches and essays, but by means of tin.' brilliant pamphlets of Mr. Pollock, piib- li-.li.',! under the name of Owen Roe O'Neill, who entered very fully into the grievances of ilic country, and went the whole length of tin' claim to legislative independence. Indeed, it became evident that, without legislative independence, no concessions in r ispect of freedom of trade or any thing else could he relied upon as either efficient or permanent. After the fust burst of triumph over the commercial reforms of Lord North, it was found, oti examination and trial, that the law had been so contrived as to render the concessions nearly illusory. Especially iu the matter of the trade in refined sugar, it was seen that the new law, and a treach- erous addition which had been made to it after its passage in the British Parliament, I, ii led to destroy the sugar refineries of Ire- land, then an important branch of industry ; and a petition was preseuted by the town of Ni « rv, not only exposing this contrivance, but also adverting earnestly to what was now boci tie- chief parliamentary topic, the '■mutiny bill.'' In short, the aroused spirit of tlir people demanded that the prin- ciple of English domination in Ireland should be assailed at every point ; and in nothing was that principle so momentous and so menacing as in the practice of governing the standing army of Ireland (12,000 to 15,000 strong) by a perpetual mutiny act passed in England. So char 1, however, was the Parliament with its small and doubt- ful success m the matter of free trade, that it not only liberally granted the supplies for a year and a half longer, but agreed to the English mutiny bill, which was per- il, by a majority of . r )2. In short, it was plain thai this Parliament, so extensive- ly corrupted and so well disciplined by the 1 . tie influence (that is, by the corrupt ex- penditnre of the people's money), could not be relied upon to realize the lofty aspiration of the nation. Absolute national dence was now their fixed purpose. The year L780 was one of incessan organization; reviews look place throughou all Ireland; and a great provincial meeting was appoiuted for the November of that year, previous to which in all parts of the country the Volunteer corps were reviewed by the commanding officers in each district. The Earl of Belvidere reviewed the troops of Westmeath ; the Limerick and Clare Volunteers were reviewed by Lord Kings- borough; the Londonderry by Lord Erne; the Volunteers of the South by Lord Shan- non; those of Wieklow by Lord Kings- borough; and the Volunteers of Dublin county and city, who had formed themselves into associated corps, by Lord Carysfort, Sir Edward Newenham, and other men of rank, patriotism, and fortune. These reviews were attended with every circumstance of brilliancy. There was no absence of the pomp of war. The Volunteers had supplied themselves with artillery, tents, and all the requisites of the field. They bad received many presents of ordnance ; numerous stands of colors had been presented to them, with no absence of ceremony and splendor, by women of the highest station and figure in the country, whose pride it was to attend the reviews iu their handsomest equipages and clothed in their gayest attire. Until the middle of the year 1T80, the Volunteers had acted in independent troops and companies, only linked together by their community of feeling and design: but il was apparent that lor any general movement, for any grand military measure (which every day seemed to render more imminent), they needed a closer organization and a commander-in-chief. Their choice fell upon James Caulfield, earl of Charlemont, the de- scendant of one of the adventurers who had come over in Queen Elizabeth's reign, and had been rewarded for his exertions iu help- ing to crush O'Neill by large grants or confiscated estates. This Earl of Charle- mont was a man of limited capacity, but of much cultivation. He had travelled much, had written Italian sonnets, ami collected busts and intaglios. He had been nine years absent from Ireland, and returned just as the contest between Primate Stone and w I- \. *^S--S KQirc ■ ^^ Henry Boyle was calming dowu into the disgrace of one and the corruption of the other. Lord Charlemont' s first Irish services were neither splendid nor honorable. He was chosen as the negotiator between Boyle and the lord-lieutenant. His duty was to strike a balance between what the. Irish Patriot wanted and the English official would give ; and he was eminently successful in eliciting harmony from the jarrings of sordid ambi- tion and Castle ecouomy. But he soon left the Castle sphere — though well fitted by taste and feeling to be a courtier, it should be with honor — and that was an impossi- ble fact in Ireland. It is said by Hardy, that Lord Charlemont was ignorant of the bargain struck between Boyle and the lord- lieutenant, by which the former got a pension ;* but there was enough of profli- gacy in the concessions made by both parties, even though money had never changed hands between them, to take all glory from the office of negotiator. As commander-in-chief, however, of the Volunteers, he made not only a dignified and ornamental standard-bearer, but a very active military organizer. He was great in reviews; and on the whole did his official duty well ; but he never could expand his mind wide enough to grasp the idea of associating in the new nation the two mil- lions of Catholics. In replying to the address communicating to him his election as commander-in-chief, he states with so much clearness and per- spicuity the position occupied by the Volun- teers, the services they had rendered, and ' the ships in the harbor; and there folio we have stood in the way of a similar attempt in any other cause. I sec with unspeakable pleasure the progress ot your discipline, and the increase ot'yonr associations ; the indefatigable, steady, and extraordinary ex- ertions, to which I have been a witness, afford a sufficient-proof, that, in the formation of an army, public spirit, a shame of being outdone, and the ambition to excel, tcill supply the place of reward and punishment — can levy an urmy, and bring it to perfection. The pleasure 1 feel is increased, when I reflect that your associations are not the fashion of a day, hut the settled purpose and durable principle of the pcopie ; from whence 1 foresee, that the advantages lately acquired will be ascertained and established, and that solid and permanent strength will be added to the empire. I entirely agree in the sentiment yon express with regard to the exclusive authority ot the legislature of this kingdom. 1 agree also in the expediency ot making the assertion ; it is no more than the law will warrant, and the real friends of botli nations subscribe. 1 have the honor to be, Gentlemen, Your most obliged, faithful, and obedient humble serviyjt, July 15, 1780. Charlemont. The provincial reviews which followed the election of Lord Charlemont, were intended to convey significantly to the minister the readiness of an armed nation to second the propositions of their leaders in Parliament. Lord Charlemont visited Belfast to review the Ulster regiments, and was attended by Sir Annesley Stewart and Grattan as his aides. lie was met at Hillsborough by Mr. Dobbs, Mr. Hamilton, and Mr. Stewart, afterwards the Marquis of Londonderry. His arrival at Belfast, on the 1 1 ill of July was announced by a salute of seven guns from the artillery, which was answered by the spirit which animated them, that the reply is here presented in full as a perfect vindication of "that illustrious, adored, and abused body of men." Gentlemen, — You have conferred on mean honor of a very new and distinguished nature, — to be appointed, without any solicitation on my part, the revicwing-geueral of an independent army, raised t>y no other call titan that ttf public virtue : an army which costs nothing to the State, and has produced every thing to the nation, is what no other country 1 .is it in tier power to bestow. Honored by such a delegation 1 obeyed it with cheerfulness. The in- ducement was irresistible; I felt it the duty of every subject to forget impediments which would * Life of Charlemont, vol. i., p. 93. lips a brilliant review of three thousand men. The dispatches of Lord Buckinghamshire to Lord North at this period, are evidences of a system of downright, bribery — for the purpose of retaining and insuring his parlia- mentary majority — so general and so profuse, that nothing could bear comparison with it, but the worse corruption by which the Union was carried. Between September 8th, l'FSO, and November 19th of the same year, the lord-lieutenant forwarded several dispatches to the English minister, in which he recom- mends over one hundred men of rank and j fortune, and some of their wives, to rewards for past services, or to bribes for prospective y f / \ tiT ' . . <\ ! "^v^ nr.innr.ncs of Buckingham. 139 , n- % - ss : A services. Sir Robert Deane, an uniform and laborious drudge, impeded by no conscience anil burdened by no principle, who, as his viceregal eulogist remarks, always with firm friends supported government and never suggested a difficulty, was recommended for a peerage. Several other men with similar Services to parade, with just the same degree of conscience or principle, had their claims for a degraded honor allowed by the lord- lieutenant.* The dispatches of this viceroy in these two months (September ami October, 1780) are extant, and should be rendered familiar reading lo all those who are disposed to trust in the integrity and the promises of English * The sources of patrician honors in Ireland, it is much to he regretted, are very impure and tainted. From tiiis censure must of course he excepted the imcient aristocracy of the land, in whose veins still runs an honorable stream, uncontaminated by the impurity of the Williamite, or Union creation. The successive creations in Cromwell's and William's time, and at the Union, deepen in infamy as they approach our own days. The parties recommended for honors in Lord Buckingham's profligate dis- patches, some of whose names are inserted in this note, have different qualifications ; one is poor, another who is rich lias poor relations ; there is no political profligate, however wealthy or embarrassed, that is not recommended for promotion or pay, in his own person or in that of some convenient relative. Amongst the rest, Lords Mountcashel, Euniskillen, Cariow, and Farnliam, nrc recom- mended for earldoms. In the general recommenda- tions are the names of James Carigue Ponsonby, c'narles Henry COoke, Francis Bernard Beamish, Ponsonby Tottenham, James Somerville, William Caulfield, Thomas Nesbitt, Sir Boyle Roche, Dame Jam- Heron, and other honorable persons. The fol- lowing is curious; it is in a letter to Lord Hills- borough from the lord lieutenant: '■ With respect to the noblemen and gentlemen whose requests hive not succeeded, I must say that no man can see the inconvenience of increasing the number of poors more forcibly than myself, hut the recommendation of many of 'those persons submitted to his majesty for thai honor, arose frost enoagi mi nis TAKEN IT AT THE PREB9 OF THE Mo.MF.vr. To SECURK questions upon whioh TiiF. English Government were very PARTICULARLY anxioi s. My sentiments cannot but be the sam- with respect to the Privy Council and pensions, and I had not contracted any absolute engagements of recommendation either t<> \tion t TILL liiFFicri.Tii is aiiosic which irily occasioned so much ami so forcibly eom- llinilitiated anxiety in his majesty's cabinet, that J must have been culpubie m nkglectino any pussiblk KEANS ol SECURING A MAJORITY IN nil. HOUSE of C'-.mmons. Mr. Townsliend was particularly i in- to me by L"rd Shannon fur a seat in the Privy Council, and 1 have reason to think his lord- ship in extremely anxious for his success.* 1 statesmen.* In the Houses, both of Lords and Commons, his management was too suc- cessful, and the people now looked upon Par- liament as their worst enemy. On the 2d of September, 1780, Lord Buckinghamshire prorogued the servile Parliament with one of those speeches, half cant and half sarcasm, which were then, and are now, the usual kind of viceregal addresses in Ireland. He thanked the House for their "liberal sup- plies" (for which the people cursed them), and added, "your cheerfulness in giving them, and your atteution to the ease of tlic subject in the mode of raising them, must be very acceptable to his majesty; on my pait, I assure you they shall be faithfully applied" To both Houses he said that "the heart of every Irishman must exult at the fair scene of prosperity now opening to his country," congratulated them on ihe commercial relaxations, which he called "the diffusive indulgence of his majesty;" and so took his leave both of that Parliament and of Ireland. Fortunately, the cause of Ireland at that day rested neither upon him nor upon them. He was recalled soon after ; and on the 23d of December, 1780, Lord Carlisle was appointed in his place. CHAPTER XX. 1781— 17S2. Parliament — Thanks to the Volunteers— Habeas Corpus — Trade with Portugal — Grattau's financial expose — Gardiner's measure for Catholic Relief— Dungannon — The loth of February, ITS'2 — De- bates on Gardiner's Bill — -Grattan's Speech — lie- tails of this measure — Burke's opinion of it- Address to the King asserting Irish Independence — England yields at once — Act repealing the 6th George I.— Repeal of Poynings' Law — Irish In- dependence. There is small interest in following the details of parliamentary business during the first rear of Lord Carlisle's viceroyalty ; because it was every day more evident that the power which would decide the destinies of the country lay outside the walls of Par- liament. Indeed, on the discussion of the perpetual Mutiny Bill for Ireland, Grattan had declared that if it passed into law lie would secede, and appeal to the people, a * They are to be found in Grabtan's Life, by his son. \ ol. ii fol m W\ ■*u, . -■ wsM^-)mm^M2^ & w 140 niSTOl'.Y OF [RELA-ND. formidable threat at a moment when the | people were in such a good condition to hear and Jccidc such an appeal. Lord Carlisle was accompanied by Mr. Eden as secretary, a man already known by his unsuccessful diplomacy in America, and known nlso by liis hostility to the pretensions of Ireland, lie had written and published a letter " On tlie. Representations of Ireland respecting a Free Trade," of which Mr. Dobbs, a stanch patriot, thus writes: — "From a letter writ- ten by Mr. Eden, secretary to Lord Carlisle, on the subject of Irish affairs, and which had been answered by Counsellor Richard Sheri- d an, we had no great reason to rejoice at this change."* On the 9th of October, 1781, the Earl of Carlisle met the Parliament. There was the usual common-place speech, recommend- ing the Protestant Charter Schools; the linen trade; assuring Parliament of his majesty's ardent wishes for the happiness, etc., of the Irish people; and even speaking com- placently of the " spirited offers of assistance" which had lately been made to the Govern- ment from every part of the kingdom, which was, though without naming them, a kind of compliment to the Volunteers. Mr. O'Neill moved a servile address in reply. Mr. (iiattan, who had no idea of Buffering any neglect or disrespect to the Volunteers, took notice of the extreme caution with which the address avoided mentioning the word Volunteer, that wbolesomeand salutary appellation which he wished to familiarize to the royal ear; he would not, however, insist on having it inserted, as he had reason to believe the right honorable mover did intend to make a proper mention of those protectors of their country. Mr. O'Neill declared he was not deceivi d in this opinion, that the motion to which he had alluded was intended to thank the Volunteers of Ireland for that glorious spirit, unexampled in all history, with which they had so eagerly pressed forward, when the nation was thought to be in danger. lie then moved that the thanks of the House should be given to all the Volunteers of Ireland, for their exertions and continu- ance, and for their loyal and spirited dec- larations on the late expected invasion. * Dubbt' Hist, of Irish Affairs. Mr. Conolly seconded the motion. After soi reposition from Mr. Fitzgibbon, the thanks of the House were voted unanimously. The very next, day an important bill was moved for. Ireland had never yet enjoyed the protection of a Habeas Corpus act; nor, indeed, lias she ever enjoyed it until this day, because that law has been regu- larlv suspended in Ireland precisely at the times when it was most needed. On the 10th of October, 1781, Mr. Brad- street, the recorder, a very stauch patriot, moved in the House of Commons for leave to bring in the heads of a Habeas Corpus bill, prefacing his motion by observing that the liberty and safety of the subjects of Ireland were insecure until a Habeas Corpus act should take place; that arbitrary power had made great strides and innovations on public liberty, but was effectually restrained by that law which had its full operation in England, but did not exist in Ireland. It was, he said, the opinion of a great and learned judge, that this law was the grand bulwark of the constitution. Leave was granted; and Mr. Yelvertou and the. re- corder were ordered to prepare and bring in the same. Some few other proceedings in this ses- sion deserve to be noticed. Mr. Grattan again endeavored to procure an act for limitation of the Mutiny Act. Sir Lucius O'Brien moved for redress in the matter of Irish trade with Portugal; and the guild of merchants presented a petition stating that the great advantages which the nation had been promised h\ a freedom of trade to all the world weie likely to prove imaginary; as from the state of general war our com- merce was confined to very few nations, and amongst them the kingdom of Portugal, from which the greatest hopes had been com eived, had refused to receive our manu- factures, quantities of which were then lying stopped in the eustoui-hoilse of Lisbon, and praying the House to interfere for redress. The influence of the Court party, which was still paramount on most questions, was sufficient to prevent any effectual action on these subjects. The principal care, indeed, of the new viceroy and his adroit secretary was to prevent or suppress discussion upou any subject which would tend to open up * ^Vc£^ .i^i.i e 3, 1 W » s ' 8j* GRATTAN's FINANCIAL EXPOSITION. Ml f> \ ■ «c ; «$ the greal national question of independence. Mr. Barry Yelverton, ispeating of tins motion on the Portuguese trade, said he "thought there had been sumo design in the S P n i '" lead their imaginations away from this important object; it had, indeed, talked of Protestant charter schools, making of roads, digging of canals, and carrying of corn; and contained half a dozen lines that might be found in every speech for fifty years past; subjects more proper for the in- quiry of a county grand jury, than for the greal inquest of the nation; but not one word of our trade to Portugal; that had been designedly omitted." The same Mr. Yelverton gave notice of a motion to bring in a bill to regulate the transmission of bills to England; in other words, for a repeal of Poynings' Law. Many of the Patriots now saw that the mind and spirit of the nation were firmly bent on one groat purpose; aud accordingly they began to be desirous, each to have his own name well forward as a mover in the good work. But before Yelverton's motion, arrived offi- cial news of that most happy and propitious event— the surrender of Lord Cornwallis and his army to the French and Americans atYorktown. With a polite affectation ol grief, Yelverton abandoned his motion, and moved instead an address to the king ex- pressive of sympathy and unalterable attach- ment, "and to entreat his majesty to be- lieve, that we hold it to be our indispensable duty, as it is our most hearty inclination, cheerfully to support his majesty to the utmost of our abilities, in all such "measures as can tend to defeat the confederacy of bis majesty's enemies, and to restore the bless- ings of a lasting and honorable peace." Several friends of Mr. Yelverton's, con- ceiving that his motion would commit them into an approbation and support of the American war, on that account alone de- clined supporting it: tie- question, however, being put, the motion was carried by a najority of lt)7 against 87. In this Bession, also, Mr. Grattan mad.' an txposi of the financial couditiod of the country. This speech led to no action, bm is worth some attention, because it shows to what a hopeless state of embarrassment, or rather national ruin, Ireland had been re- duced. As usual, Grattan spoke with bold and bitt.-r personal allusion, careless of the fact that perhaps a majority of his auditors were themselves corrupt pensioners on the public treasury. " Your debt," said he, " in- cluding annuities, is £2,667,600; of this debt, in the last fourteen years, you have borrowed above £1,000,000, in the last eight years above £1,500,000, aud in the last two years £910,090. I state not only the fact of your debt, but the progress of your accumulation, to show the rapid mor- tality of your distemper, the accelerated velocity with which you advance to ruin; and if the question stood alone on this ground, it would stand firm; for I must further observe, that if this enormous debt be the debt of the peace establishment, not accumulated by directing the artillery of your arms against a foreign enemy, but by directing the artillery of your " treasury against your constitution, it is a debt of patronage and prostitution." He next went into an account of the revenues and expenditures of the kingdom; showed that the increase of expenses for two years amounted to £550,000, while the in- crease of revenue for the same two years was but £00,000 ; and that this profligate s\ sti m was only continued and aggravated each succeeding year. Then he proceeded— " I have stated your expenses as exceeding your income, £484,000, and as having increased in fourteen years above half a million. As to the application of your money, I am ashamed to state it; let the minister defend it; let him defend the scandal of givin« pen-ions, directly or indirectly, to the first of the nobility, with as little honor to them who receive, as to the king who gives. Let him defend the minute corruption, which in small bribes and annuities, leaves honorable gentlemen poor, while it makes then, de- pendent.'' On the 11th of December, Mr. Flood, who was anxious that he also should be on the record prominently against the obnox ous Poynings' Law, brought forward a motion for the appointment of a committee "to ex- plain the law of Poynings." He made ;l learned and statesmanlike speech, was an- swered by a Court member; and his motion was voted down by 139 against 07. m mm ( 8 JctA '.V'v --^fcN Lie .ccmnius.t. -c m32-. ®m ,-M ^ ¥j •»/^kra V I 142 HISTORY OF IV.EI.AND. Tliis same session an effort was made by Mr. Luke Gardiner (afterwards Lord Mount joy) to procure a measure of relief for the Catholics. This gentleman, like Lord Charlemont, had lately returned from a resi- dence in Europe; and had often lamented since his return that Ireland, he was asliai I to confess, was the most intolerant country, Catholic, or Protestant, in all the world. < »n the 13th of December he gave notice of his intention to bring in the heads of a bill for some mitigation of the penal laws. A few days after, when Mr. Gardiner introduced the subject again, Grattan warmly and eager- ly gave his support in advance to some large arid just measure, including both Catholics and Dissenters, declaring emphat- ically that "it should be the business of Parliament to unite every denomination of Irishmen in brotherly affection and regard to the constitution." Every denomination of Irishmen! Including Catholics! It was new language in that House: it was the first Lime perhaps, since King James's Parlia- ment, that there had been so much as a hint of treating Catholics and Protestants as on an equal footing before the law. No won- der that it disquieted Cromwellian squires. Sir Richard Johnson nervously protested at once "that he would oppose any bill by which Papists were permitted to bear arms?' That Henry Grattan's idea, though not then fully developed, did go the full length of absolute equality, may be inferred from a remarkable passage in the end of his short speech. " It had been well observed by a gentleman of first-rate understanding (a member of the British Parliament), that lie- land could never prosper till its inhabitants were, a people; and though the assertion might seem strange, that three millions of inhabitants in that island should not be called a people, yet the truth was so, and so would continue till the wisdom of Parlia- ment should unite them by all the bonds of social affection. Then, and not till then, the country might hope to prosper." This bill of Mr. Gardiner, which was very cautious and modest, merely relaxing a little further the rigors of the laws which debarred Catholics from having property and from edu- cating their children, was postponed from Week to week, and was still pending when the great event of the century (for Ireland) took place in the parish church of Dungannon, in the county Tyrone. It should be men- tioned that there was great difference of opinion among the Volunteers with respect to any indulgence whatever shown to Papists; and that in particular the Sligo Volunteers, commanded by Mr. Wynne, addressed their colonel, requiring him to use his influence to defeat the measure. The conduct of these Sligo Volunteers is admirably rebuked, and the contrast of their professions and their intolerance delineated with great power and severity in a scries of letters in the Free- man's Journal of the day, beginning with the date of the 19th of January, 1782. But the cause of the country was now re- moved into another and a higher court than that of the corrupt Parliament. All the year 1781 had been a time of active organi- zation for th<' Volunteers: the companies had been formed into regiments, maliv thou- sands of Catholics were now gathered into . the organization ; numerous reviews con- tinued to be held; and it was determined that the regiments should DOW be brigaded. On the 28th of December, 17s I, the officers and delegates of the First Ulster regiment, commanded by Lord Charlemont, met at Armagh, and resolved to hold a Convention of the Ulster delegates at Dungannon. It was the idea of Grattan : he had failed in his endeavor to join issue with England by his Declaration of Right in Parliament, and resolved now to put himself upon the coun- try. Both friends and enemies of the Irish national cause were almost bewildered by the boldness of this conception — "Will no- body stop that madman, Grattan?" cried Edmund Burke. The Castle, on its side, hoped that this armed Convention would put itself in the wrong by some intemperate violence or plain illegality. In fact, the lan- guage of. the resolutions passed at the pre- liminary meeting iii Armagh was startling. '• Resolved, That with the utmost concern, we behold the little attention paid to the constitutional rights of this kingdom, by the majority of those whose duty it is to estab- lish and preserve the same. " Resolved, That to avert the impending danger from the nation, and to restore the constitution to its original purity, the most ft I \R ^^?^fe -.--:,.'•. <*• \a\ I r>. " '"" ' — '■—■ ^!Tj MEETING IX THE CHUKCHI AT DUNGANNOX. 143 vigorous and effective methods, must be pur- Bued,to root out corruption and Court influ- ence from the legislative body. " Resolved, That to open a path towards the attaining of this desirable point, it in ab- solutelj requisite that a n ling be held in tlic must central town of the province of Ulster, which we conceive to be Dungannon, to which said meeting every Volunteer asso- ciation of the sai.] province is raosl earnestly requested to Bend delegates, then and there to deliberate on the present alarming situa- tion of public affairs, and to determine on, and publish to their country, what may be the result of said meeting. '• Resolved, That as many real and lasting advantages may arise to this kingdom, from said intended meeting being held before the present session of Parliament is much far- ther advanced, Friday, the 15th day. of Feb- ruary next, at ten o'clock in the forenoon, is hereby appointed for said meeting, at Dun- gannon as aforesaid." Dungannon was then, and is still, but a small market town of Tyrone County, about s x miles from the shore of Lough Neagh. Two hundred years before, it had been the chief seat and stronghold of Hugh O'Neill, high-chief of Tyr-eoghain, who was the most formidable enemy that English power had ever encountered in Ireland. The little town had no assembly-room capable of ac- commodating the meeting; and it was de- termined to use the parish church for thai purpose. Od the loth of February, From '. county of Ulster, the delegates met. They represented thirty thousand armed men; and felt that they had full power and credentials to deliberate and decide for a great army, not only for the Ulster Volun- teers, but for those of all Ireland. What might they not have done on that day ! England had suffered deep humiliation, and was truly in imminent peril. In America, after the surrender of Cornwallis, she could not strike another blow. She was still at war, both with France and with Spain, In Ireland it would base been im- possible for her to place in the field one half tie- number of the Volunteer army; and even of that half, the Irish regular force would without doubt have fraternized with the Volunteers.— " Had theV chosen that lU'nl' of action," says Thomas McNevin, "which many ainongsl them might have secretly thought the path of wisdom, as the path of honor, the result on the destinies of England would have been perilous indeed. We cannot doubt the issue of a war. A national army, composed of the flower of a bold and valiant people, treading their native and familiar soil, fighting for In ■ and lib- erty, commanded by the most, distinguished men in the country, numerous anil disciplin- ed, and impatient for the field — no mercen- ary soldiers, whose mean incentive was pay and plunder, and rapine, and hereditary ha- tred, could have withstood their glorious on- slaught." But other, and more moderate counsels prevailed; "perhaps wiser," says Mr. McNevin. Of the resolutions prepared for the adop- tion of the. military delegates, the first was written by (■rattan, and the second by Flood. Mr. Dobbs, of Carrickfergus, was just about to start for the Convention, whin Graltan, the unchanging friend of the Cath- olics, thrust into his hand the resolution in their favor, which afterwards passed at Dun- gannon, with Only two dissenting voices of benighted Protestants. On the memorable loth of February, 1782, "the church of Dungannon was full to the door." The representatives of the regiments of Ulster — one hundred and toity three corps — marched to the sacred place of meeting, two and two, dressed in various uniforms and fully armed. Deeply they felt the great responsibilities which had been committed to their prudence and courage ; but they were equal to their task, and had not lightly pledged their faith to a trustful country. The aspect of the church, the temple of religion, in which nevertheless no grander ceremony was ever performed, was imposing, or, it, might be said, sublime. Never, on that hill where ancient piety had fixed its seat, was a nobler offering male to God than this, when two hundred of the elect- ed warriors of a people assembled in his tab- ernacle, to lay the deep foundations of a nation's liberty. Colonel Irwin, a gentleman of rank, a man firm and cautions, of un- doubted coinage but, great prudence, presid- ed as chairman. The following resolutions were then passed : — 1' >■ : ' the extent of our inrin. -nee, prevent t he use of Baid wine, brvc and except the wine at present in this kingdom, until Bueh time as our exports shall be received in the kingdom of Portu- gal, as the manufactures of part of iho Brit- ish empire. " Resolved, with two dissenting voices only to this and the following resolution, That we hold the right of private judgment, in matters of religion, to be equally sacred in others as ourselves* " Resolved, therefore, That as men and as Irishmen, as Christians and as Protestants, we rejoice in the relaxation of the penal laws against our Roman Catholic fellow-sub- jects, and that we conceive the measure to be fraught with the happiest consequences to the Union and prosperity of the inhabit- ant; of Ireland." Si ime formal resolutions followed of thanks to Lord Charlemont, to Colonel Dawson, who had been active in getting up the Con- vention, and Co Colonel Irwin. The meeting terminated by the adoption of an address to the Patriot minorities in the Lords and Com- mons, remarkable for its comprehensive brevity and admirable succinct eloquence: — "My Loisns A\n Gr.Nii.KMEN. — We thank you for your noble aud spirited, though hitherto ineffectual efforts, in defence of the great constitutional and commercial rights of your country. Go on. The almost unanimous voice of the people is with yon; and in a free country the voice of the people must prevail. We know our duty to our Sovereign, and are loyal. We know out- duty to ourselves, and are resolved to be free. We seek for our rights, and no more than our rights; and, in so just a pursuit, we should doubt the being of a Providence if we doubted of success. " Signed by order, "William Ikvine, Chairman." Bach were the proceedings at Dungannon. All Ireland adopted the resolutions; and meetings were held in every county formally to accept the exposition of the public, mind I'J which the Volunteers of Ulster had given. J'he freeholders of each county, and th grand juries adopted the resolutions. The delegates of Connaught met in pursu ance of the requisition of Lord Clanricarde ; the delegates of Munster assembled at Cork under the presidency of Lord Kingsborough, and the delegates of Leinster at Dublin under that of Colonel Henry Flood. It was in vain that the Government re- newed its old cabals, or made overt resist ance to the progress of the Dungannon movement. The example of the North was followed in every quarter. And what is peculiarly worthy of notice in the history of the day is this, that there was no diversity of opinion amongst the armed battalions in the different parts of the country. Such division of opinion, especially on the subject of the Catholics, might naturally have been expected ; but the result was one of great and singular unanimity on the important topics which agitated the public mind. 'J'he Dungannon resolutions constitute the char- ter of Irish freedom, embracing all the points necessary for the perfect independence of the country, legislative freedom, control over the army, religious equality, and free- dom of trade. They are the summary of the political requisitions of the Patriot party in the Parliament for which they had bi en struggling since the days of Molyneux, for which it was vain to struggle until an armed force was ready to take the field in their be- half. And no one can read the history of this great Convention without feeling that it was virtually a declaration of war, with the alternative of full concession of all the points of the charter of liberty. The Dun- gannon delegates were empowered by the nation, speaking through her armed citizens, to make terms or to enforce her rights; a hundred thousand swords were ready to obey their commands. England could not have brought into the field one-half that number; and the rights of Ireland were vir- tually declared on the 15 th of February. It was a marvellous moderation which content- ed it-elf with constitutional liberty in a po- litical connection with England, and subjec- tion to her monarch ; it would not have re- quired another regiment to have struck olF the last link of subjugation and to have es- (P. v x -a r*S-a «*>\ <3 I11ST0UY OP IUKLAXD. Wi at. fv mi ? ta Wished t lie national liberty of Ireland on a wider basis tliau any upon which it ever Mood. In the mean time, and whilst general liber- ty was approaching towards its triumph, tol- eration to the Roman Catholics was making large and important strides. The declara- tion of the Dtingannon delegates, so general and so impressive, being the opinion of the whole armed delegation of Ulster with but two inglorious exceptions, had a very great effect through Ireland. It was unfortunate for the subsequent career of the Volunteers that the principles which their armed repre- sentatives propounded at Dtingannon, were not. adopted by some of their leading minds. The seeds of ruin lay deep in the intolerant exception of the Catholics from the general rule of liberty. It was unwise, it was un- gracious, it was impolitic. Flood and Charlo- moiit would have raised a lofty temple to freedom, but would not permit the great preponderant majority of the nation to en- ter its gates, nay, even 'Mo inscribe their names upon the entablature.'' But, though some, of the distinguished officers of the Vol- unteers would have thus withheld the bless- ings of liberty from their fellow-countrymen, it is to be borne in mind — and principally because much argument has been based upon the concessions granted since ihe Union bv the united legislature to the Catholics — that the principles of enlightened liberality made a wonderfully rapid progress in our native Parliament during the era of its glory. Mr. Gardiner's Catholic Relief bill was in- troduced on the loth of February, the same day on which the Dunganiioii Convention met in the church of Dungannon. Fitzgib- boll, afterwards Lord Clare, endeavored to defeat the measure by suggesting that it repealed the act of settlement, and disturbed Protestant titles. A good deal of alarm was created by his opinion, and time was taken to inquire into its soundness. On examina- tion it was considered bad, and the House went into committee on the bill on the 20th of February, 1782. The measure proposed to concede to the Catholics, 1st, the enjoy- ment of property ; 'idly, the free exeicise of their religion ; 3dly, the lights of educa- tion; -tthlv, of marriage; and Sthly, of car- rying arms. Flood supported the bill, but ungraciously labored to establish a distinc- tion between the rights of properly and the rights of power, lie said, '"Though I would extend toleration to the Roman Catholics, yet I would not wish to make a change in the state, or enfeeble the Government." Mr. Gardiner, replying to the objection, that if this bill should pass, there would no longer be any restraint oil Roman Catholics, said — '• But was it not a restraint upon a man that he could hold no trust nor office in the state? That he could not be a member of Parliament, a justice, or a grand-juror? That he could not serve in the army of his country, have a place in the revenue, be an advocate or attorney, or even become a free- man of the smallest corporation ? If gen- tlemen labored under these incapacities themselves, would they think them no re- straint?" FitZgibboi), who had endeavored to defeat the measure at first, on the ground that it would disturb Protestant liiKs, now supported it, saying that "though it would be improper to allow Papists to become pro- prietors of boroughs, there was no good rea- son why they should not possess estates in counties, nor why Protestant tenants holding under them should uot enjoy a right of vo- ting for members of Parliament.'' There was no question in this bill of allowing them to vote themselves, Still less of allowing them to be members of Parliament. The Attorney- General, Sir Hercules LangrisliC, Sir Henry Cavendish, Mr. Ogle, the Provost, Mr. Walsh, Mr. Daly, Sir Boyle Roche, and Mr, lingual, spoke warmly for the bill. In the course of the several debates upon these measures of Mr. Gardiner, there were many objectors to each clause, and their objections rested on diverse grounds. Mr. Flood's vehement op- position to giving the Catholics any rights which might gradually invest, them with po- litical power was sustained by Mr. Mont- gomery, Mr. Warburton, Mr. Rowley, Mr. John Burke and Mr. St. George. Many members, to their immortal honor, expressed themselves plainly and unreservedly a^ in favor of wiping off the whole Penal Code at once, not only in justice to the Catholics, hut for the benefit of the whole country. Amongst these we find the names of Sir Lucius O'Brien, Mr. Forbes, Mr. Hussey Burgh, Mr. Yelverton, Mr. Dillon, Captain )idf£ .tflU.MUi'i.d. §W&* ^Mf:\ in ' ^^ #5 DEBATES OX GARIUXKIt S BILL. 147 Hall, mul Mr. Mossom. The clause permit- ting Catholics to go abroad for education was Btrenuously resisted lv Fitzgibbon, Ma- son, Bushe, and others. It is needless to say that Mr. Grattan supported all the bills, and all their clauses. Indeed (lie debates are chiefly interesting because they were the occasion of the enunciation by him, for tlie first time, of the grand and generous thought of a true Irish nationality. He said: "I object to any delay which can be given to this clause; we have already considered the subject on a larger scale, and this is but a part of what the clause originally contained. We have before us the example of England, who four years ago granted Catholics a right of talcing land in fee ; the question is mere- ly, whether we shall give this right or not, <3 and if.we give it, whether it shall be accom- panied by all its natural advantages? Three years ago, when this question was debated in this house, there was a majority of three against granting Catholics estates in fee, ami they were only allowed to take leases of 999 years. The argument then used against granting them the fee was, that they might influence elections. It has this day been shown, that they may have as effectual an influence by possessing leases of 999 years, as they can have by possessing the fee; at that time, I do declare I was somewhat pre- judiced against granting Roman Catholics estates in fee, but their conduct since that period has fully convinced me of their true attachment to this country. When this country had resolved no longer to crouch beneath the burden of oppression that England had laid upon her; when she armed in defence of her rights, and a high-spirited people demanded a free trade, did the Roman Catholics desert their countrymen \ No: they were found amongst the foremost. When it was afterwards thought necessary to assert a free constitution, the Roman Catholics displayed their public virtue; they did not endeavor to take advantage of your situation; they did not endeavor to make terms for themselves, but they entered frank- ly and heartily into the cause of the country; judging by their own \ ii tne, that they in ghl depend upon your generosity for their re- ward. But now, after you have obtained a free trade, alter the voice of the nation has asserted her independence, they approach this House as humble suppliants, and beg to be admitted to the common rights cf men. Upon the occasions I have mentioned, I did carefully observe their actions, and did then determine to support their cause whenever it came before this House, and to bear a strong testimony of the constitutional prin- ciples of the Catholic body. Nor should it be mentioned as a reproach to them that they fought under the banner of King James, when we recollect that before they entered the field, they extorted from him a Magna Cliarta, a British constitution. In 1779, when the fleets of Bourbon hoveled on our coasts, and the Irish nation roused herself to arms, did the Roman Catholics stand aloof \ Or did they, as might be ex- pected from their oppressed situation, offer assistance to the enemy ? No : they poured in subscriptions for the service of their coun- try, or they pressed into the ranks of her glorious Volunteers. " It has been shown that this clause grants the Roman Catholics no new power in the state; every argument, therefore, which goes against this clause goes against their having leases for 999 years, every argument v. hich goes against their having leases for 999 years, goes against their having any leases at all; and every argument which goes against their having property, goes against their hav- ing existence iu this land. The question is now, whither we shall grant Roman Catholics a power of enjoying estates, or whether we shall be a Protestant settlement or an Irish nation \ Whether we shall throw open the gates of the temple of liberty to all our countrymen, or whether we shall confine them in bondage by penal laws? So long as the Penal Code remains, we never can be a great nation ; the Penal Code is the shell in which the Protestant power has been hatched, and now it is become a bird, it must burst the shell asunder, or perish in it. I give my consent to the clause in its prin- ciple, extent, and boldness, and give my consent to it as the mo-t likely means of obtaining a victory over the prejudices of Catholics, and over our own. 1 give my consent to it, because I would not keep two millions of my fellow-subjects in a state of slavery ; and because, as the mover of the S3 §® ,0' T/G HISTORY OF IRELAND. ''X'M Declaration of Rights, I should be ashamed of giving freedom to but six hundred thou- sand of my countrymen, when I could ex- tend it to two millions more." The relief measures of Mr. Gardiner were contained in three separate bills, very cau- tiously and moderately prepared, in order to avoid too rude a shock to the Protestant Ascendency. To read these bills with their restrictions and exceptions, gives a vivid idea of what Protestant Ascendency in Ireland then was. The first enables Catholics to take and hold, in the same manner as Prot- estants, any lands and hereditaments except advowsons, manors, and boroughs returning members to Parliament. It removes several penalties from such of the clergy as should have taken the oath and been registered; it confines its operation to the regular clergy then within that kingdom (by which the succession of other regulars from abroad might be prevented), it deprives any clergy- man officiating in a church or chapel with a steeple or bell of the benefit of the act, and repeals several of the most obnoxious parts of the acts of Anne and Geo. I. and Geo. II. The second of the series of measures re- lated to education — "An act to allow per- sons professing the Popish religion to teach school, and for regulating the education of Papists," etc. It repeals certain parts of the acts of William and Anne, which inflicted on any Catholic teaching school, or privately instructing youth in learning, the same pains, penalties, and forfeitures as any Popish regular clergyman was subjected to (trans- portation, and in case of return, death), but excepts, out of its benefits, those who should not have taken the oath of allegiance, who should receive a Protestant scholar, or who should become ushers under Protestant schoolmasters. The act also enables Cath- olics (except ecclesiastics) to be guardians to their own or any other Popish child. These two first bills passed, and became law. The third bill was for permitting inter- marriages between Protestants and Papists: but the liberality of the House had not yet arrived at such a revolutionary point : they felt that they must draw the line some- where; so they threw out this bill by a ma- jority of eight. Yet these wretched and pitiful measures, which by their small relaxations only made more offensively conspicuous the great op- pression of the Penal Code, were regarded in Ireland as a mighty effort of liberalism. Mr. Burke, who had a soul great enough to see the matter in its true light, thus speaks of these bills in his letter to a noble lord : — "To look at the bill, in the abstract, it is neither more nor less than a renewed act of universal, unmitigated, indispensable, excep- tionless disqualification. One would imagine that a bill inflicting such a multitude of in- capacities, had followed on the heels of a conquest made by a very fierce enemy, un- der the impression of recent animosity and resentment. No man, on reading that bill, could imagine that he was reading an act of amnesty and indulgence. This I say on memory. It recites the oath, and that Catholics ought to be considered as good and loyal subjects to his majesty, his crown, and government; then follows a universal exclusion of those good and loyal subjects from every, even the lowest, office of trust and profit, or from any vote at an election; from any privilege in a town corporate; from being even a freeman of such corpora- tions; from serving on grand juries; from a vote at a vestry ; from having a gun in his house, from being a barrister, attorney, soli- citor, or, etc., etc., etc. " This has surely more of the air of a table of proscriptions, than an act of grace. What must we suppose the laws concerning those good subjects to have been, of which this is a relaxation ? When a very great portion of the labor of individuals goes to the state, and is by the state again refunded to individuals through the medium of offices, and in this circuitous progress from the pub- lic to the private fund, indemnifies the fami- lies from whom it is taken, an equitable balance between the Government and the subject is established. Put if a great body of the people who contribute to this state lottery, are excluded from all the prizes, the stopping the circulation with regard to them must be a most cruel hardship, amounting in effect to being double and treble taxed, and will be felt as such to the very quick by all the families high and low, of those hundreds of thousands, who are denied their chance in the returned fruits of ft ,r"7 ==a ^Y^^ BURKES OPINION OF GARDINER S RILLS. 149 their own industry. This is the thing meant by those who look on the public rev- enue only as a spoil ; and will naturally wish to have as few as possible concerned in the division of t lie booty. If a state should be so unhappy as to think it cannot 6iibsist without such a barbarous proscrip- tion, the persons so proscribed ought to be indemnified by the remission of a huge part of their taxes, by an immunity from the offices of public burden, and by an exemp- tion from being pressed into any military or naval service. Why are Catholics excluded from the law ? Do not they expend money hi their suits? Why may not they indem- nify themselves by profiting in the persons of some for the losses incurred by others ? Why may they not have persons of confi- dence, whom they may, if they please, em- ploy in the agency of their affairs? The exclusion from the law, from grand juries, from sheriffships, uuder-sheriffships, as well as from freedom in any corporation, may subject them to dreadful hardships, as it may exclude them wholly from all that is beneficial, and expose them to all that is mischievous in a trial by jury." It has seemed needful to go into details on the provisions of these bills of Mr. Gar- diner, in order to show that at the very mo- ment wlren Ireland was proclaiming her in- dependence, and preparing to fight for it — reiving too upon the aid of the Catholic people— there were few indeed who so much as dreamed of making those Catholics citi- zens or members of civil society. This rad- ical vice is quite enough to account for the short life of Ireland as an independent na- tion. In truth nobody in Europe had any idea of religious equality, none doubted the right of the orthodox to possess themselves of the lauds and goods of the heterodox, until a few years after this period, when France gave the noble example of absolute equality before the law for all religions. In the course of this same eventful Febru- ary, Grattan brought on a new motion for an addre8S to the king, declaring the rights of Ireland. But within that corrupted at- mosphere, upon those bribed benches, was the very worst place for liberty to breathe. The time had not yet arrived, though it was near at hand, for the Irish Parliament to assent to the proposition of its own free- dom. They started hack reluctant from the glowing form of Liberty ; not even with a nation in aims behind them, anil with a man of the inspired eloquence of Grattan amongst their sordid ranks, could their valor and hi* genius triumph over the inveterate corruption and servility of that House. Grattan's motion was lost by a majority of 137 to 68. But the fate of that statesman who had long sat at the fountain head of corruption, and who ministered so liberally to the profligacy of the Irish majority — the worst minister that England ever had, whose obstinate perseverance in principles opposed to the theory of the British constitution, lost to England the noblest member of her great confederation — was at length sealed. He was obliged to relinquish, with disgrace, the post he had held with dishonor. Defeat and disaster followed Lord North into his retirement, He was succeeded by Lord Rockingham and Charles Fox; Lord Car- lisle was recalled, and the Duke of Portland was chosen to administer the complicated affairs of Ireland. Grattan, on the 14th of March, declared that he would bring on the Declaration of Rights, and he moved, and succeeded iu carrying a very unusual sum- mons, that the House be called over on Tuesday, the 16th of April next, and that the Speaker do write circular letters to the mem- bers, ordering them to attend that day, as- they lender the rii/hls of the Irish Parliament. The Duke, of Portland made a triumphant entry into Dublin, and he was welcomed, fur no good reason that the history of the times cau give, with the loudest acclama- tions. His arrival appeared to promise the fulfilment of all the hopes of Ireland, and he received, by anticipation, a gratitude which he never deserved. But his coming had been preceded by some of the habitual pol- icy of his party. Letters of honeyed cour- tesy, as hollow as they were sweet, were dispatched by Fox to "his old and esteemed friend the good Earl of Cbarlemont."* Whig diplomacy and cunning never con- cocted a more singular piece of writing. He alludes with graceful familiarity to the long and pleasing friendship which had ex- * Hurdy's Life of Charlemout, vol. ii., p. i. R? ^ ^? Jib HISTORY OF IRELAND. I1M §§18-' • -,ii*"*- isted between thein, ami after a variety of compliments, begs for a postponement of the House for three weeks, in order that the Dnke of Portland might have an oppor- tunity of inquiring into the Opinions of Lord Chavlcinont, and of gentlemen of the first weight and consequence. But Fox was well aware of their opinions. They were recorded in the votes and speeches of the two Houses, and in the military trans- actions of the Volunteers. No man knew them better tl.au Fox. He had beeu in communication with the leaders of the Pa- triot party, and was well aware of the merits of their claims. And his proposition was a feeble device to try the chapter of ac- cidents. But Charlemont was firm, for Grattan would give "no time." The general of the Volunteers replied in terms of cour- teous dignity, but unwonted determination. He told the wily minister of England that the Declaration of Rights was universally looked up to as an essential and necessary preliminary to any confidence in the new administration. "We ask for our tights — our incontrovertible rights— restore them to u*, and forever unite in the closest and best riv.tcd bonds of affection, the kingdom of Ireland to her beloved, though hitherto un- kind sister." This was the sentimental cant of politics; but the upshot was, that the Declaration of Rights was to be moved on the 16th of April, and it was only left to the genius of intrigue to yield with assumed grace what England dared no longer with- hold. No civil letters to courtly vanity— no philosophic generalities and specious prom- ises could effect any thing with Volunteer artillery. The epistles had all the graces of Horace Walpole, and were abundant in com- pliments; the compliments were returned, but the Declaration was retained. Grattan, if his own wisdom could have allowed it, would not have dared to pause. He stood in the fist rank— a hundred thousand men were behind him in arms — he could not hes- itate. It was his glory, and his wisdom to advance. And he advanced in good earnest, nor staid his foot till it was planted on the ruins of usurpation. On the 9th of April. Fox communicated to the House of Commons in England, the following message from the king : — "Georije It.: His Majesty, being concerned to find that discontent and jealousies are prevailing among his loyal subjects in Ire- land, upon matters of great weight and im- portance, earnestly recommends to this House, to take the same into their most set ions consideration, in order to such a final adjustment as may give mutual satis- faction to both kingdoms. G. R " A similar communication was made to the Irish Parliament by John Hely Hutchin- son, principal secretary of state in Ireland, who, at the same time, stated that he hail uniformly maintained the right of Ireland to independent and exclusive legislation, and declared that he would give his earnest sup- port to any assertion of that right whether by vote of the House, by address, or by en- actment. A scene of still greater excitement and interest occurred on this occasion, th^n that which had so carried away the ci izens of Dublin two years before, when Grattan first introduced the question of Irish lights. The nation had become strong and confident by success — they had achieved free trad — ■ their military organization had attained the greatest perfection of discipline ami skill — their progress was, indeed, triumphant, they had but one short step to take. There was, therefore, great excitement through Ireland as to the issue of Grattan's Declaration of Right, not that they apprehended failure, but that all men felt anxious to see the realiza- tion of their splendid hopes. The streets of Dublin were lined with the Volunteers — the House of Commons was a great centre, round which all the city appeared moving. Inside, rank and fashion and genius were assembled ; outside, arms were glistening and drums sounding. It was the commence- ment of a new government, and the king had sent a message of peace to Ireland. The message was similar to that delivered to the English House, and when it had been read, Mr. George Ponsonbv moved that an addnss should be presented, which might mean anv thing, and meant nothing. It was to tell his majesty that the Hou-e was thank- ful for a sjracious message, and that it would take into its serious consideration the dis- contents and jealousies which had arisen in Ireland, the causes ot which should be in- 1 W 4? - : "v\ ^ ! ,v ^?J (ft IB 1 ■€* '^f'.^y, -J 'C ' ' &i * JM^ '%( S fe •'■■^Bw^ ^rr>n Btt ADDRESS TO Till; KING ASSERTING IRISH INDEPENDENCE. 151 vestigated with all convenient dispatch, and be submitted to the royal justice and wisdom of liis majesty. When this motion, very full of tlic solemn plausibilities of loyalty and the generalities of pretended patriotism, w.-is made, Henry Grattan rose to move his amendment. It was a moment of great interest. The suc- cess of the motion was certain, but all par lies were anxious to learn the extent of the demands which Grattan was about to make. As the k herald and oracle of his armed countrymen" he moved the amendment which contained the rights of Ireland ; and confident of its success, he apostrophized his country as already free, and appealed to the memory of those great men who had first taught the doctrine of liberty which his no- bler genius had realized. He moved : "That a humble address be presented to his majesty, to return his majesty the thanks of this House for his most gracious message to this House, signified by his grace the lord-lieutenant. "To assure his majesty of our unshaken attachment to his majesty's person and government, and of our lively sense of his paternal care in thus taking the lead to ad- minis'er content to his majesty's subjects of Ireland. "That, thus encouraged by his royal in- terposition, we shall be^ leave, with all duty and affection, to lay before his majesty the causes of our discontents and jealousies. To :;sMire his majesty that his subjects of Ireland arc a free people. That the crown of Ireland is an impel ial crown inseparably annexed to the crown of Great Britain, on which connection the interests and happi- ness of both nations essentially depend : but that the kingdom of Ireland is a distinct kingdom, with a Parliament of her own — the sole legislature thereof. That there is no body of men competent to make laws to bind this nation except the King, Lords, and Commons, o£ Ireland ; nor any other Parlia- ment which hath any authority or power of any sort whatsoever in this country save only the Parliament of Ireland. To assure baa majesty, that we humbly conceive that in this right the very essence of our liberties exists; a right which we, on the part of a the people of Ireland, do claim as their birthright, and which we cannot yield but with our lives. "To assure his majesty, that we have seen with concern certain claims advanced by the Parliament of Great Britain, in an act entitled 'An act for the better securing the dependency of Ireland :' an act con- taining matter entirely irreconcilable lo the fundamental rights of this nation. That we conceive this act, and the claims it advances, to be the great and principal cause of the discontents and jealousies in this kingdom. "To assure his majesty, that his majesty's Commons of Ireland do most sincerely wish that all bills which become law in Ire- land should receive the approbation of his majesty under the seal of Great Britain; but that yet we do consider the practice of suppressing our bills in the council of Ire- land, or altering the same anywhere, to be another just cause of disconteut and jeal- ousy. " To assure his majesty, that an act, en- titled 'An act for the better accommodation of his majesty's forces,' being unlimited in duration, and defective in other instances, but passed in that shape from the particular circumstances of the times, is another just cause of discontent and jealousy in this kingdom. "That we have submitted these, the prin- cipal causes of the present discontent and jealousy of Ireland, and remain in humble expectation of redress." The address was carried unanimously in both Houses; and Parliament took a short recess, to allow time for the matter to be dealt with in England. Nobody, either in Ireland or in England, doubted the issue. It w;is quite certain that the declaration of the Irish Parliament was all-sufficient to es- tablish the liberty of the country. One may now be allowed to regret that Lord North's administration was no longer in power. In that case England would have refused concession ; would have attempted to enforce her pretensions in Ireland: war would have been the inevitable result; Ire- land would have necessarily made an alli- ance with France, wh.se great Revolution was now rapidly approaching ; sotheie would iave been happily an end to the British empire. Uufuituuately the statesmen of m ifc --TL MP J w S^ tbat country were as wise as they weie treacherous. On the 17th of May, simulta- neously in the two Houses at Westminster, Lord Shelburue in the Lords and Mr. Fox in the Commons, having read the addresses of the Irish Parliament, moved— "That it was the opinion of that House that the act of the 6th Geo. I., entitled 'An Act for the better securing the dependency of Ireland upon the Crown of Great Britain,' ought to be repealed." On the 27th of May, the Duke of Port- land officially communicated to the Irish Parliament this great and memorable con- cession, which he said came from "the magnanimity of the king and the wisdom of the Parliament;" closing his message with these words: — "On my own part I en- tertain not the least doubt but that the same spirit which urged you to share the freedom of Great Britain will confirm you in your determination to share her fate also, standing or falling with the British nation." This is the kind of cant which has ruined Ireland : yet the plain and eternal truth — that while the British nation stands, Ireland must fall, and vice versa, was even then well understood by Irish patriots, and often avowed by Grattan himself. "Ireland," said lie, " Ireland is in strength; she has acquired that strength by the weakness of Britain, for Ireland was saved when America was lost : when England conquered, Ireland was coerced ; when she was defeated, Ire- land was relieved ; and when Charleston was taken, the mutiny and sugar bills were altered. Have you not all of you, when you heard of a defeat, at the same instant condoled with England, and congratulated Ireland ? " "Poyning's Law" was still on the statute- book ; and the work of enfranchisement was not complete until it was repealed : as it was an Irish statute, it was the Irish Parlia- ment which had to repeal it; and this was immediately done on motion of Mr. Yelver- ton. Grattan introduced a bill "to punish mutiny and desertion," which repealed the perpetual mutiny act and restored to Par- liament a due control over the army ; also another bill to reverse erroneous judgments and decrees, a measure which was supposed at the time to have settled the question of the final judicature of Ireland, and to have taken from the English Lords and King's Bench their usurped appellate jurisdiction. At the same time that the legislature was thus taking securities and guarantees (as it thought) for permanent independence, it was not forgetfnl of the honorable debt due to the ruau who, above all others, had conduced to restore the dignity and inde- pendence of Ireland. Fifty thousand pounds were voted to Henry Grattan, his friends having declined for him the larger tribute of £100,000 as at first proposed, and having also refused an insidious offer of the Phoe- nix Park and Viceregal Lodge, which had been made by Mr. Conolly on the part of the Government. Ir.land was now, at least formally and technically, an independent nation. CHAPTER XXI. 1783—1784. Effects of Independence— Settlement not final — English plots tor the Union — Corruption of lrisl Parliament— Enmity of Flood and Grattan — Ques- tion between them — Renunciation Act— Second Dungannon Convention— Convention of Delegates in Dublin — Catholics excluded from all Civil Rights — Lord Kenmare — Lord Kenmare disavowed — Lord Temple — Knights of St. Patrick— Portland viceroy — Judicatioc Bill — Habeas Corpus— Bank of Ireland— Repeal of Test Act — Proceedings of Convention — Flood's Reform Bill — Rejected — Convention dissolved — End of the Volunteers — Militia. It would be extremely pleasing to have now to record, that this natiou, thus eman- cipated by a generous impulse of patriotism, and launched forth on a higher and wider career of existence, gave a noble example of public virtue, tolerance, purity, and liberal- ity. Such is not the record we are to give. England had not (of course) yielded the in- dependence of her "sister island" in good faith. Finding herself, for the moment, un- able to crush the rising spirit of her Irish colony by force, she feigned to give way for a time, well determined to have her revenge, either by fraud or force, or by any possible combination of those two agencies. From the very moment of the acknowledgment of Ireland's freedom, British ministers began to plot the perpetration of " the Union." ^•^Bnmgy&m v> O^-A ENGLISH TLOTS FOR THE UNION. ■ ^m ). The very nobility of Dature and unsus- picious generosity of the leading Irish pa- triot of the da)", so prompt and eager to gush out in unmerited gratitude, so cordially impatient to put away every shadow of ill- will between the two "sister countries," gave the English administration a great ad- vantage in devising their plans for our utter ruin. " It is difficult," says Mr. MacNevin, " to have much sympathy for the extravagant amount of gratitude awarded to the British Parliament by the leading men of the day in Ireland. They treated the rights of Ire- land as though their establishment was not the work of Irishmen but the free gift of English magnanimity. Aud the address moved by Grattan 'did protest too much.'" Nothing can be imagined more artlessly in- nocent than this address moved by Mr. Grattan in reply to the viceroy's official an- nouncement to Parliament of the repeal of the declaratory act. It assures his majesty '• that no constitutional question between the two countries will any longer exist which can interrupt their harmony, and that Gnat Britain as she has approved our firm- ness so she may rely on our affection." It further assures his majesty "that we learn with singular satisfaction the account of his successes in the East and West Indie*," etc. : — which was doubtlessly extremely polite, but essentially false and foolish, because the mover of the address, and every one who voted for it, knew well that successes of Eng- land anywhere in the world were disasters to Ireland. Lord Clare, who understood the true re- lations between the two countries better than any other Irish statesman, in order to prove that the transactions of 1782, between Great Britain and Ireland were not consid- ered as final, tells us, that on the Cth of June the Duke of Portland thus wrote to Lord Shelburne : " I have the best reason to hope that I shall soon be enabled to transmit to you the sketch or outlines of an act of Parliament to be adopted by the legislatures of the respective kingdoms, by which the superintending power and supre- macy of Great Britain, in all matters of state and general commerce, will be virtually J effectually acknowledged ; that a share 20 of the expense in carrying on a defensive or offensive war, either in support of our own dominions, or those of our allies, shall bi borne by Ireland in proportion to the actua state of her abilities, and that she will adopt every such regulation as may be judged ne- cessary by Great Britain for the better or- dering and securing her trade and commerce with foreign nations, or her own colonies and dependencies, consideration being duly had to the circumstances of Ireland. I am flattered with the most positive assurances from and of their support in carrying such a bill through both Houses of Parliament, and I think it most advisable to bring it to perfection at the present mo- ment." And he happened to know from an official quarter, that the sketch of such an act of Parliament was then drawn. He knew the gentleman who framed it, and he knew from the same quarter, that blank and blank and blank and blank did unequivocal- ly signify their approbation of it. This communication was received with the satis- faction which it demanded by the British cabinet. On the 9th of June Lord Shel- burne wrote to the Duke of Portland in an- swer to his last dispatch: "The contents of your grace's letter of the 6th hist, are too important to hesitate about detaining the messenger, whilst I assure your grace of the satisfaction which I know your letter will give the king. I have lived in the most auxious expectation of some such meas- ure offering itself: nothing prevented my pressing it in this dispatch, except having repeatedly stated the just expectations of this country, I was apprehensive of giving that the air of demand, which would be better left to a voluntary spirit of justice and foresight. No matter who has the merit, let the two kingdoms be one, which can only be bv Ireland now acknowledging the superintending power and supremacy to be where nature has placed it, in precise and unambiguous terms. I am sure I need not inculcate to your grace the importance of words in an act, which must decide on the happiness of ages, particularly in what re- gards contribution and trade, subjects most likely to come into frequent question." It was easy for British statesmen to find iu Ireland the suitable material for their fc £>i ** m ■ & 9 p ; fi &\ m z$% 154 HISTORY OF IRELAND. usual system of corruption ; because the Parliament did not at all represent the na- tion. Not only were four-fifths of the peo- ple expressly excluded, as Catholics, from all share in the representation ; but of the three hundred members of the House of Commons, only seventy-two were really re- turned by the people : 123 sat for " nomi- nation boroughs," and represented only their patrons. Fifty-three peers directly appointed these legislators, and could also insure by their influence the election of about ten others. Fifty commoners also nominated ninety-one members, and controlled the election of four others. With such a con- dition of the popular representation, the British ministry knew that they could soon render it manageable ; and they only waited till their own foreign troubles should be over to re-establish the supremacy "where nature has placed it." The first evil omen for Ireland was the rivalry, or rather downright enmity of Flood and Grattan. The former had resign- ed his place, in order to act freely with the Patriots, and had labored by the side of Grattan in forming and inspiring the Vol- unteer force, and the potent public spirit which at length wrested from England's reluctant hands the formal recognition of Ireland's independence. If he ranks lower than Grattan on the roll of the Patriot party, it is because he remained to the last an enemy of Catholic emancipation, and per- sisted in favoring that vicious and petty pol- icy of confining the nation, with all its powers and rights, to one-fifth part of the inhabitants. In the first essential difference between these two men, Flood was clearly in the right. It was his opinion that a simple re- peal of the declaratory act of George the First by England was not a sufficient securi- ty against the resumption of legislative con- trol. His argument was intelligible enough : The 6th of George the First was only a de- claratory act ; a declaratory act does not make or unmake but only declare the law ; and neither could its repeal make or unmake the l.'.w. The repeal, unless there was an ex- press renunciation of the principle — is only a repeal of the declaration, and not of the legal principle. The principle remained as before, unless it was specially renounced. Many acts had been passed by thy British Parliament binding Ireland, and some of them before the declaratory act of George The act did not legalize these statutes ; it oidy declared that the principle of their en- actment was legal— its repeal does not es- tablish their illegality, but only repeals the declaration. Flood was historically right. In the reign of William and Mary, the Eng- lish Parliament usurped the absolute right of making laws for Ireland, and in 1691 passed an act to make a fundamental altera- tion in the constitution of this country by- excluding Roman Catholics, who were the majority of the nation, from a seat in the Lords and Commons. It was true, he argued, that the Irish had renounced the claim of Englaud, but could such renuncia- tion be equal to a renunciation by England? In any controversy could the assertion of a party in his own favor be equal to the ad- mission of his antagonists Fitzgibbon was of the same opinion as Flood, and both in- sisted ou an express renunciation by Eng- land. Grattan, on the other hand, refused the security of a British statute, and exclaimed that the people had not come to England for a charter but with a charter, and asked her to cancel all declarations in opposition to it. It must be said that Ireland had no charter, ller Declaration of Right was not, a Bill of Rights, and Flood asked for a Bill of Bights. He was not satisfied without an express renunciation. But what guarantee against future usurpation by a future Parlia- ment, was any renunciation, however strong 1 The true security for liberty was the spirit of the people and the arms of the Volun- teers. When that spirit passed away, re- nunciations and statutes were no more than parchment — the faith of England remained the same as ever, unchangeable. Whatever were the merits of the contro- versy, it was pregnant with the worst effects. The Parliament adopted the views of Grat- tan ; the Volunteers sided with Flood. A Bill of Rights, a great international com- pact, a plain specific deed, the statement, of the claims of Ireland and the pledge of the faith of England would have been satisfac- tory, and it must be confessed that men ^ \wM &% mm "£A.o . ...Li.rJdi.-i.^ ;f^.^v^v,i 1 ^..-> a I"' -I ^Eh*****^^ ENMITY OF FLOOD AND GRATTAN. were not far astray in asking for it. But unfortunately, the great minds of the day so far participated in the weaknesses of hu- manity as to yield to small impulses and to plunge into a rivalry fatal to their coun- try, in place of uniting their powers for the completion of a noble and. glorious un- dertaking. It was unfortunate for their glory— it was fatal for liberty.* Flood, though legally right in the argument and wise in his suggestions, may unwittingly have permitted himself to be influenced by a feeling of jealousy. He had seeu the lau- rels he had been so long earning, placed on the brow of a younger and certainly a greater man, and his dissatisfaction was an unfortunate but a natural feeling. On the other hand, Grattan, whose peculiar work was the Declaration of Eights, felt indignant at the imputation cast ou his wisdom, and the impeachment of his policy by the meas- ures which Flood proposed. When Flood was refused leave lo bring in his Bill of Bights ou the 19th of June, Grattan, who had opposed it in one of his finest speeches, moved a resolution, which appears very in- defensible, " that the legislature of Ireland is independent; and that auy person who shall by writing or otherwise, maintain that a right in any other country to make laws for Ireland internally or externally exists or can be revived, is inimical to the peace of both kingdoms." It was a strong measure to denounce as a public enemy the wary statesman who read futurity with more cau- tion than himself. He withdrew his motion and substituted another : " that leave was refused to bring in said heads of a bill, be- cause the sole and exclusive right of legisla- tion, in the Irish Parliament in all cases, * " It wns deeply lamented tlmt at a moment crit- ical and vital to Ireland beyond all former precedent, an Inveterate and almost vnlgaz hostility should liave prevented the co-operation of men, whose counsels and talents would bave secured its inde- pendence. But that jealous lust for undivided honor, the eternal enemy of patriots and liberty, led them away even beyond the ordinary limits of par- liamentary decorum. The old courtiers fanned the Rami — the new ones added fuel to it— and the inde- pendence of Ireland was eventually lust by the dis- tracting result of their animosities, which in a few years was used as an instrument to annihilate that very legislature, the preservation of which had been the theme of their hostilities." — Harrington's lose and fall, chap. xvii. whether internally or externally, hath I n already asserted by Ireland; and fully, finally and irrevocably acknowledged by the Brit- ish Parliament." The opinion of the Lawyers' corps of Vol unteerswas in favor of Flood's interpretation of the constitutional, relations of the two countries. They considered that repealing a declaration was not destroying a principle, aud that a statute renouncing any pre-exist- ing right, was an indispensable guarantee for future security. They appointed a com- mittee to inquire into the question, which reported that it was necessary that an ex- press renunciation should accompany the repeal of the Ctli of George the First. Whereupon the corps of Independent Dub- lin Volunteers, of which Grattan was colo- nel, presented him with an address. They reviewed the whole argument, and ended by requesting their colonel to assist with his hearty concurrence and strenuous support, the opinions propounded by a committee "chosen from the best-informed body in this nation." Such an address, including at one and the same time, an approbation of the course pursued by Flood, and a request to Grattan to support the doctrines he had from the first opposed, was construed by his nice seuse of honor into a dismissal from his command. He did not resign lest his regi- ment might construe a peremptory resigna- tion as an offence. But he told them, that in the succession of officers, thev would have an opportunity "to indulge the rauge of their disposition." lie was, however, re- elected, nor did he lose the command until the October of the next year, when ho voted against retrenchment in the army. The Belfast First Volunteer company also ad- dressed him. Doubts, they said, had arisen whether the repeal of the Oth of George the First was a sufficient renunciation of the power formerly exercised over Ireland , they thought it advisable that a law should be enacted similar to the addresses which had been moved to his majesty, and which embodied the declaration of the Rights of Ireland. Grattan's answer was laconic, but explicit. He said he had given the fullest consideration to their suggestions: he was sorry he differed from them; he conceived their doubts to be ill-fouuded. With great m\ e? Ea^^Mi Mr^wrs^sm _^3=^ niSTORY OF IRELAXD. 'M w <* mm i 'I I respect to their opinions, and unalterable at- tachment to their interest, he adhered to lie latter. They received a different an- wer from Flood, whom they admitted as a member of their corps. Similar circum- stances occurring in different other regi- ments, conduced to foster the evil passions of those two distinguished men, until they br. ike out into a disgraceful and virulent personal dispute. But there were worse consequences attending this unfortunate quarrel. Men whose united talents and zeal would have rendered secure the edifice of their joint labors, and the monument of their glory, were prompted to the adoption of different lines of policv. Grattan refused to advance. Flood was all for progress. Had both united to reform the constitution, and to secure its permanence, that event, which eventually put a period to the existence of the legislature of Ireland, would never have occurred. A decision in the Court of King's Bench of England, by Lord Mans- field, in an Irish case brought there by ap- peal, seemed to affirm the arguments, and to give weight to the objections of Flood. Mr. Towushend, in introducing in the Eng- lish Commons the Renunciation Bill (Jan- uary, 1783), said, that doubts were enter- tained as to the sufficiency of the simple repeal, and hail been increased by a late decision in the Court of King's Bench, which, however, he was informed, the court was bound to give, the case having coine uiiikr its cognizance before any question as to the appellate jurisdiction in Irish matters had been raised. He then moved "that, have be given to bring in a bill for remov- ing and preventing all doubts which have arisen, or may arise, concerning the exclu- sive rights of the Parliament and courts of Ireland, in matters of legislation and judica- ture, and for preventing any writ of error, or appeal from any of his majesty's courts* in Ireland from being received, hoard, or adjusted in any of his majesty's courts in this kingdom; and that Mr. Townshend, General Conway, Mr. Pitt, Mr. William Grenville, and the Attorney and Solicitor General do bring in the bill." The motiou passed without a division, and the Renuncia- tion Bill was the result, This vindicated the correctness of Flood's reasoning — it did not afford any additional security to liberty A solemn international compact, and inter- nal reform of Parliament were still required to render secure and indefeasible the settle- ment of '82. It is a matter of serious and grave regret, that Grattan did not take the same leading part in obtaining parliamentary reform, and relieving the legislature from internal influence, as in emancipating it from foreign control. He would have been a safe counsellor to the Volunteers ; and, had it been found advisable and consistent with the spirit of the constitution to ap- peal to another assembly of armed dele- gates, it would have met under better aus- pices than the Dublin Convention of 1783 — nor would it have terminated so ignomin- iously. But he was influenced by weaker counsels; and, admitting that no evil pas- sion of any kind was busy with him, we are forced to believe that he allowed his manly judgment to be swayed by inferior and timid minds. Reform was plainly necessary to the completion of his own labors. The House of Commons did not represent the people, nor did its construction give any guarantee for the security of popular liber- tics. Such a body might be forced into great and extraordinary virtue, as it was in '82; under such unusual influences, with the Volunteers in arms throughout the whole country, and men like Grattan, Burgh, and Flood amongst them, they were unable to resist the tide that was flowing; but there was no principle of stability in them, they were irresponsible and corrupt. Reform was the obvious corollary of the Declaration of Right. Had the framers of the constitu- tion of '82 united to consolidate and secure their own work, and ceased from the insane contentions by which they disgraced their success; had they given a popular charac- ter to the legislature which they freed from external control, and converted it. into the veritable organ of the national will, by con- ferring extensive franchises on the people, by including the Catholics in their scheme, and putting an end to the system of close boroughs, it would have been impossible for auv English minister, without a war, whose issue would have been doubtful, to destroy the legislative existence of the country by a union. >?;) And this they could have done. The Volunteers were still in force. One hun- dred thousand men were in arms, and had urgently pressed upon their leaders the in- sufficiency of their work: they had de- manded reform in every provincial meeting* — at Belfast, on the 9th of June, 1783, a meeting of delegates from thirty-eight corps of Volunteers assembled after a review, and adopted the following resolution : — " Resolved, unanimously, That at an era so honorable to the spirit, wisdom, and loy- alty of Ireland, a more equal representa- tion of the people in Parliament deserves the deliberate attention of every Irishman ; as that alone which can perpetuate to future ages the inestimable possession of a free constitution. In this sentiment, we are happy to coincide with a late decision of the much-respected Volunteer army of the Province of Minister ; as well as with the opinion of that consummate statesman, the late Earl of Chatham; by whom it was held a favorite measure for checking venalitv, 'promoting public virtue, and restoring the native spirit of the constitution." Similar meetings were had, and similar resolutions adopted in every part of Ireland. If the spirit of the Volunteers had been wisely directed, and their exertions turned into the proper channel, there seems to be no reason to doubt that the constitution and liberties of Ireland would have been firmly secured on a basis that would have with- stood the efforts of England. In the latter country, the question of Reform had met with the sanction of the Duke of Richmond aud Mr. Pitt. Reform associations had been * Towards the end of 1782, the Government set on foot a plan whose design was obvious enough — the embodying of Fenoible regiments. The Volun- teers took fire, and held meetings to oppose it in every quarter. Gahvay took the initiative, and was followed by Dublin and Belfast. The resolutions passed at the Tholsel in Gahvay, on the 1st of Sep- tember, 1782, to the effect that the Volunteers wore most interested in the defence of the country, and moat adequate to the duty — that raising Fencible region n'- without sanction of Parliament, was. un- COtlstituti'-nal, nor justified by ncecs.-iiy, and might be dftngeronj) t" liberty — were adopted at several meetings. The Belfast company met, protested a.' -t ^.e tie. isure, and addressed Flood. The plan was not then curried into execution. It was a manifest attempt to terrify and overawe the Volun- teers. Tiny wire too strong as yet to submit. formed, two of which, the "Yorkshire Asso- ciation," aDd the "London Constitutional Knowledge Society," entered into correspon- dence with the Volunteers, applauded their spirit, and urged upon them the utility of holding a national convention of the dele- gates of the four provinces. It was a suggestion quite consonant to their spirit and to their views, and they lost no time in acting upon it. In the month of July, 1783, delegates from several corps in Ulster summoned a general assembly of delegates from the entire province for the 8th of September. Five hundred represent- atives met in pursuance of this requisition r 1 / at Duno-aut Flood travelled from Dub- lin to attend, but was detained on the road by illness. The Earl of Bristol was present, and took an active part in the proceedings. He was the son of Lord Hervey, and made a considerable figure for a few years in the proceedings of the Volunteers. There is no man of whom more opposite opinions are given. Whilst some represent him as a man of elegant erudition and extensive learning, others paint him as possessing parts more brilliant than solid, as being generous but uncertain ; splendid but fantastic ; an ama- teur without judgment ; and a critic without taste; engaging but licentious in conversa- tion ; polite but violent ; in fact, possessing many of the qualities which the satirist at- tributes to another nobleman of his country, the fickle and profligate Villiers. There could be no greater contrasts in his character than in his conduct and position. He wore an English coronet and an Irish mitre; at some have thought that he was visionary enough to have assumed the port of the trib- une ouly to obtain the power of a sovereign. He was indeed monarchical in his splendor — his retinue exceeded that of the most af- fluent nobleman — his equipages were mag- nificent — he delighted in the acclamations of the populace, aud the military escort which surrounded his carriage.f He was a * Mr. Grattan says this meeting tool; place at a meeting-house of dissenters in Belfast. The state- ment in the text is on the authority of the Historical Collection- relating to Belfast, p. 255, and Belfast Politics, p. 245. See also a pamphlet, History of the Convention, published in 1784. t lie was escorted to the Kotunda Convention by n troop of light dragoons, commanded by his nephew, ^8 w n j g§ ^ y m 1 N 158 niSTOKT OF IREI.ANR. man who possessed princely qualities ; be was costly, luxurious, munificent, and, in the strange antithesis of his position — bishop, earl, demagogue — was formed to attract the nation amongst which he had cast his lot. But his qualities were not dangerous; Gov- ernment was more afraid of him than they needed to be; and he effected little iu the history of his day, more than playing a splendid part in a transitory pageant. The second Dungannon Convention elect- ed for its president Mr. James Stewart, afterwards Marquis of Londonderry. He was the friend of Lord Charlemont. They passed a number of resolutions, but the most important was the following: — "That a committee of five persons be appointed to represent Ulster in a grand national Convention, to be held at noon, in the Royal Exchange of Dublin, on the 10th of November, then ensuing; to which, they hoped that each of the other provinces would send delegates to digest and publish a plan of parliamentary reform, to pursue such measures as may appear most likely to render it effectual ; to adjourn from time to time, and to convene provincial meetings if found necessary." Addresses were issued to the Volunteers of the three provinces, filled with the no- blest sentiments in favor of liberty, and abundant in the impassioned if not inflated eloquence in which the spirit of the day delighted to be clothed. There was, how- ever, an anomaly in their proceedings, and a striking and painful contrast between their abstract theories of liberty and their practi- cal manifestation. A proposition in favor of the Catholics was rejected. Here was a body of men, not endowed with the powers of legislation, but acting as a suggestive as- sembly, dictating to legislation the way in which it should go, and declaring that free- dom should be made more diffusive in its enjoyment ; yet they are found, on grave deliberation, rejecting from their scheme the vast body of the nation, whom they professed to emancipate and raise. The practical ab- surdity was the rock on which they split. And it is said regretfully and without re- Genrtro R. Fitzgerald. — Barringtoii s Hist and Fait oj the irisk Walton, c. 7. proach, that the influence of this intolerant principle upon their counsels is attributal to Lord Charlemont and Henry Flooi These good men were the victims of a nar- row religious antipathy, which prevented either of them from rendering permanent service to the cause of liberty. The interval between the Dungannon meeting and the Dublin Convention was stormy ; yet the first Parliament in the viceroyalty of Lord Northington opened with a vote of thanks to the Volunteers. This vote was the work of Government, It is most probable that it was a deprecatory measure, and intended to guard against any violence iu the Convention. This was the only measure of conciliation during the ses- sion. Sir Edward Newenham introduced the question of retrenchment in the public expenses, principally with reference to re- duction in the army. It was taken up warmly by Sir II. Cavendish ami Henry Flood ; and it certainly did appear as if this enmity to the regular army was a Volunteer sentiment, so strongly did the principal par- liamentary friends of that distinguished body persevere in the pressing upon the legislature the question of retrenchment. Grattau was opposed to any reduction in the regular forces — he said that it was a matter of com- pact that they remain at a certain standard settled in 1782, and he is accordingly found an opponent on all occasions of every pro- position of retrenchment. The question was unfortunate; it led to that degrading personal discussion which displayed the two greatest men in the country in the discredit- able attitude of virulent and vulgar personal animosity. On Sir H. Cavendish's motiou for reduction in the expenses of the kingdom, Flood eagerly and eloquently supported the proposition. But, wandering beyond the necessities of his argument, he indulged in some wanton reflections upon Grattau, and the result was an invective from the latter, so fierce, implacable, and merciless, that it leaves behind it at a great distance the finest specimens of recorded virulence. The es- trangement of these illustrious men was complete. And the triumph of their pas- sions was one, and not a very remote, cause of the downfall of their country. They could no longer unite to serve her; their fr rc t \ J — wi Uzs f va\ 1 & ^&\« * &\> ^a ■ ■ i K§£f ' CONVENTION OF DELEGATES IN DUBLIN. 159 views, which bad differed so widely before, thenceforward became principles of antago- nism, to carry out which was a point of honor and an instinct of anger; and they whose combined wisdom would have ren- dried lilirrh secure, became unwittingly her most destructive enemies. The conservative policy of Grattan, and the progressive prin- ciples of Flood, in the acrimony of contest and the estrangement of parties, gave full opportunity to Government to perfect that scheme which ended in the Union. We have now arrived at what may well be called the last scene of the great political and military drama in which the Volunteers played such a distinguished part. At a time of great and pressing public peril, they sprung to arms and saved their country. Having dispelled the fears of foreign inva- sion and secured the integrity of Ireland, they found within her own system a greater enemy. They found trade restricted and legislation powerless. They emancipated in- dustry and commerce; and they restored a constitution. But with their achievements, their ambition increased, and concluding with reason that a constitution must be a nominal blessing, where the Parliament was not freely chosen by the people,* they re- solved upon employing their powerful or- ganization to procure a reform in Parlia- ment. How far this was consistent with tle-ir original principle — how far they should have left to the Parliament itself the re- modelling of its internal structure, and ap- pealed to its wisdom in their civilian charac- ter, it is difficult to say. They had asserted at Dungannon — and the proposition had re- ceived the sanction of the legislature — that a citizen, by learning the use of arms, did not forfeit the right of discussing political affairs. Yet Grattan, in replying to Lord Clare's speech on the Union, seems to have insisted that armed men might make decla- rations in favor of liberty, but having re- covered it, they should retire to cultivate the •There were three hundred members: sixty- lour were county members, mid about the smut: number might be returned with ^reat exertion by the people in the cities and towns. The remainder were the close borough members, tiie nominees of the aristocracy, and invariably the supporters of Government. blessings of peace.* The Volunteers, how- ever, did not imagine that liberty was se- cured until the Parliament was free. Nor is it easy to understand why, if their decla- rations were of value in 1782 to recover a constitution, they should not be of equal importance in 1783 to reform the legisla- ture. Previous to the first meeting of the Dub liu Convention, provincial assemblies were held in Leinster, Minister, and Connaught. They passed resolutions similar to those adopted at Dungannon — delegates were ap- pointed — and the whole nation was prepared for the great Congress on which the fate of Ireland seemed to depend. At length, amidst the hush of public ex- pectation, the excited hopes of the nation, and the fears of Government, on Monday, the 10th .of November, one hundred and sixty delegates of the Volunteers of Ireland met at the Royal Exchange. They elected Lord Charlemout, chairman, and John Tal- bot Ashenhurst and Captain Dawson, secre- taries, and then adjourned to the Rotunda. Their progress was one of triumph. The city and county Volunteers lined the streets, and received the delegates, who marched two and two through their ranks, with drums beating and colors flying. Thousands of spectators watched with eyes of hopeful ad- miration the slow and solemn march of the armed representatives to their place of as- sembly; and the air was rent with the ac- clamations of the people. Vain noises — hapless enthusiasm-! In a few weeks, the doors that opened to admit the delegates of one hundred thousand men, were closed upon them with inconsiderate haste; and the fate of the constitution they had restored was sealed amidst sullen gloom and angry discontent. But popular enthusiasm was not prophetic, or could only anticipate from a glorious pageantry a great result. The largest room of the Rotunda was ar- ranged for the reception of the delegates. Semicircular seats, in the manner of an am- phitheatre, were ranged around the chair. The appearance of the house was brilliant: the orchestra was filled with ladies; and the excitemeut of the moment was intense and * G rattan's Miscellaneous Woiks, p. 98. R? !SL2g ' rf\ I yt ,*> ':™ie opposition, but the measure was carried, and the bank opened the year l"li. wing. By this act (21 and 22 Geo. III., c. 16), the bank was established by the name of The Gov- ernor and Company of the Bank of Ireland. The subscribers to it were to pay in £600,000, either in Oaah or debentures, at 4 per cent, which were to be taken at par, and considered as money. This sum was to be the capital stock of the bank, and the de- bentures to that amount, when received, were to be cancelled by the vice-treasurers. For these an an- nuity of £24,000 was to bo paid to the company, being equal to the interest payable upon these de- bentures ; the stock was to be redeemable at any tunc, upon twelve months' notice, after the 1st of January, 1794. Ireland obtained likewise an impor- tant acquisition by a bill, (( for better securing the liberty of the subject," otherwise called the }lah,,ix Corpus act, similar to that formerly passed in Eng- lund. The sacramental test, by which the dissenting Protestants were excluded from offices of trust under the crown, was also repealed, and the nation was gratified by the repeal of the perpetual mutiny bill, and by that long-desired act for making the com- mission of the judges of that kingdom, to continue quamdiu st bent ijt&serhit. An act was also passed to render the manner of conforming from tlio Popish tO tile Protestant religion more easy and expeditious. Another for sparing to his majesty, to bo drawn out of this kingdom whenever be should think fit, a force not exceeding 50,000 men. Part of the troops appointed to be kept therein for its defence. 21 amuse the Irish with a bawblc"to draw away the public mind," says Mr. Plowdon "from speculative questions," especially v e form : and accordingly letters patent wet- issued creating the order of "Knights of St. Patrick;" and the new knights were in- stalled with great pomp on the 1 7th of March, the festival of the saint. Lord Tem- ple's government lasted but a few mouths : he was succeeded by Lord Northitigton who dissolved the Parliament ; and a general election had now resulted in the House of Com- mons which was already in session in College Green, when the Convention of Volunteers, after first meeting in the Eoyal Exchange, transferred their meeting to the upper end of Sackville Street. The Convention and the Parliament stood in a very siugular relation : the main object of the one was to reform and to purge the other. Certainly Parlia- ment greatly needed to be reformed an purged ; but when the medicine was offere at the sword's point, by a body clearly extra- legal and unconstitutional, it was not very likely that they would swallow it. The House of Commons was not only thoroughly vicious in its constitution, being composed chiefly of nominees of great proprietors, but also systematically corrupted by bribes, places, and promises ; for it was now more essential to English policy than ever to '•secure a parliamentary majority" upon a questions. Such a Parliament, of which two-thirds were already placemen, pension- ers, or recipients of secret-service money, or else expected soon to be in one of those categories, could not long subsist by the side of a dictatorial Convention of arme men, which really represented the armed force of the nation, and which called upon it to come out from the slough of all that profitable corruption. One or the other, Parliament or Convention, it was plain would have to give way. When the excitement which followed Lord Kenmare's singular disavowal of man- hood had subsided, there was not much further reference to Catholics or their claims; the Convention resolved itself into committees, and appointed sub-committees, to prepare plans of parliamentary reform, for the consideration of the general body. "Then was displayed a singular sceue, and v-'V1 ii " — "* — ■ '■ ' -' -"-"= ; "•- ■ — \ '"'■!' fl 162 HISTOnY OP IRELAND. Vet such a scene as any one, who considered the almost unvarying disposition of an as- sembly of that nature, and the particular object for which it was convened, might justly have expected. From every quarter and from every speculatist, great clerks or no clerks at all, was poured in such a mul- tiplicity of plans of reform, some of them ingenious, some which bespoke an exercised and rational mind, but in general so utterly impracticable, 'so rugged and so wild in their attire, they looked not like the offspring of inhabitants of the earth and yet were on it,' that language would sink in portraying this motley band of incongruous fancies, of misshapen theories, valuable only if ineffi- cient, or execrable if efficacious." * But the plan which after some weeks of discussion was eventually adopted, was the workmanship of the ablest head in the as- sembly. Flood had assumed, because he was able to grasp and resolute to maintain, a predominating superiority over the Con- vention. It was the ascendency of a vigor- ous eloquence, a commanding presence, and a resistless will. With him in all his views, and beyond him in many, was the Bishop of Deny. The plan of reform which these two men approvedf was adopted, aud Flood was selected to introduce a bill founded on its principles and suggestions, into Parlia- ment. They imagined that they could ter- rify the legislature, and they much miscal- culated the power of the Volunteers. That power was already shaken ; they had flung awav the sympathies of the people ; they had by their conduct defined themselves as an armed oligarchy, whose limited notions of freedom extended no farther than their own privileges and claims; they were abhor- red and feared by Government and its par- liamentary retainers ; they were not trusted by the great body of the nation. It was * Hank's Life of Charlcmnnt. Ilardy was one of Lord Cluirlemont's coterie, and looked at men mid things through the medium of Marino. His maiden speech was made in support of Flood's plan of re- forni, brought up from the Convention. It should not lie forgotten that liar ly — though poor, lie was incorruptible — scorned the targe offers which were made to him at the Union. He was a patriot not to bo purchased, when corruption was most munifi- cent. t The bishop would have included the Catholics. under unfortunate auspices like these, in the midst of bitter hostility and more dangerous indifference, that Flood, leaving the Rotun- da, proceeded on the 29th of December to the House of Commons with a bill, every provision of which was aimed at the parlia- mentary existence of two-thirds of the House. He had requested the delegates not to adjourn till its fate was ascertained. Rut fatigue and disappointment rendered compli- ance impossible. Flood's plan embraced many of the prin- ciples which have since become incorporated with the British constitution — the destruc- tion of borough influence, and the creation of a sound county franchise.* There was nothing revolutionary — nothing of that spirit to which modern usages give the name of radical, in its principles and details. It was only defective in its grand omission. The Catholics obtained no boon, and acquired no liberty by its provisions, and to its fate in the legislature they were naturally indifferent. We have objected to Grattan that he did not go on with the popular movement — it may with equal justice be alleged against Lord Charlemont and Flood, that by their reli- gious intolerance they impaired the strength of popular opinion and marred the efficacy of all their previous proceedings. The debate consequent on Flood's motion for leave to bring in his Reform Bill, was bitter and stormy. The whole array of placemen, pensioners, and nominees were iu arms against the bill — they could not dis- * Scheme of Reform. — "That every Protestant freeholder or leaseholder, possessing a freehold or leasehold for a certain term of years of forty-shil- lings value, resident in any city or borough, should be entitled to vote at the election of a member for tin- same. " That decayed boroughs should lie entitled to ro- fcurn representatives by an extension of franchi.se to the neighboring parishes. That suffrages of the electors should be taken by the sheriff or his depu- ties, on the same day, at the respective places of election. That pensioners of the crown receiving then- pensions during pleasure, should be incapaci- tated from silting in Parliament. That every mem- ber of Parliament accepting a pension for life, or any place under the crown, should vacate his seat. That each member should subscribe an oath that he had neither directly nor indirectly given any pecuniary or other consideration with a view of obtaining that suffrage of an election. Finally, that the duration of Parliament should not exceed the ter.tn of three ' ; «'«'■ (i a I ei ' tflfi CW.UMHUS, V A' i '^ • ' -^ - 1^ ; : (life FLOODS REFORM BILL. 1C3 V IE guise their rage and amazement — but vented tlieii' wrath against the Volunteers in furious terms. And Xelverton, who combined an unmeasured regard for self-interest with a cautious and measured love of liberty, anil who had been a Volunteer, denounced the idea of a bill introduced into Parliament at the point of the bayonet. " If this, as it is notorious it does, origin- ates from an armed body of men, I reject it. Shall we sit here to be dictated to at the point of the bayonet? I honor the Volun- teers; they have eminently served their country; but when they turn into a debat- ing society, to reform the Parliament, and regulate the nation ; when, with the rude point of the bayonet, they would probe the wounds of the constitution, that require the most skilful hand and delicate instrument; it reduces the question to this : Is the Con- vention or the Parliament of Ireland to de- liberate on the affairs of the nation ? What have we lately seen ? even during the sit- ting of Parliament, and in the metropolis of the kingdom, armed men lining the streets for armed meu going in fastidious show to that pantheon of divinities, the Rotunda; and there sitting in all the parade, and in the mockery of Parliament! Shall we sub- mit to this ? " I ask every man who regards that free constitution established by the blood of our fathers, is such an infringement upon it to be suffered ? If it is, and one step more is advanced, it will be too late to retreat. If you have slept, it is high time to awake!" This was the logic of an attorney -general, who never deals a harder blow to liberty than when he professes himself her most obedient servant. But this transparent hypocrisy was rudely dealt with by Flood: '• 1 have not introduced the Volunteers, but if they are aspersed, I will defend their character against atl the world. By whom were the commerce and the constitution of this country recovered ? — By the Volunteers! "Why did not the right honorable gen- tlemen make a declaration against them when they lined our streets — when Purliu- mt'id passed through the ranks of those virtuous armed men to demand the rights of an insulted nation ? Are they different men at this day, or is the right honorable gentleman different ? He was then one of their body; he is now their accuser! He, who saw the streets lined — who rejoiced — who partook in their glory, is now their ac- cuser ! Are they less wise, less brave, less ardent in their country's cause, or has their admirable conduct made him their enemy ? May they not say, we have not changed, but you have changed. The right honorable gentleman cannot bear to hear of Volun- teers; but I will ask him, and I will have a STARLING TAUGHT TO HOLLO IN HIS EAR Who gave you the free trade ? who got you the free constitution ? who made you a na- tion ? — The Volun leers ! * " If they were the men you now describe them, why did you accept of their service, why did you not then accuse them ? If they were so dangerous why did you pass through their ranks with your Speaker at your head to demand a constitution — why did you not then fear the ills you now ap- prehend ?" Grattan supported the bill. He said he loved to blend the idea of Parliament and the Volunteers. They had concurred in es tablishing the constitution in the last Parlia- ment; he hoped that they would do it in the present. But altogether it must be said that his support was feeble — it wanted heart, it wauted the fire, the inspiration, the genius which carried the Declaration of Bights with triumph through that ineffably corrupt assembly. And yet reform was the only security for his own work — it would have rendered the constitution immortal, and erected an enduring memorial of his glory. f * Declaration of the Volunteer army of Ulster, "That tlic dignified conduct of the army lately re- stored to the imperial crown of Ireland its original splendor — to nobility, its ancient privileges — and to the nation at large, it ^ inherent rights as a sovereign independent state." Such was the assumed power of the Volunteers, in 1782. The Parliament was considered then almost anti-national. t " It was propo~r.l by Government to meet this question in the most decided manner, and to hnu_' t<> issue the contest between the Government nnd this motley assembly usurping its rights. This idea met with very considerable support. A great hearti- ness showed itself among the principal men of con- B6,quenCQ and fortune, mid a decided spirit of oppo- sition to the unreasonable encroachments appeared with every man attached to the Administration. The idea stated was to oppose the leave to bring in it bill for the reform of Parliament iu the nr.>Lstai.'e "^ ,'M l* s } c* r*. ft 1 /^ 104 HISTORY <>K IRELAND. Bni if G rattan lacked his ancient fire, the opposition whioh was given l>v the vile brood of Paotion was not deficient in spirit ; it wab furious and fierce. The ooarsesl in- vectives and the vnlgarest ribaldry were heaped upon the Volunteers — the question of Parliamentary Reform was lost sight of iu the rancorous malignity of the hour, and the debate became a chaos of vituperation, misrepresentation, and personality. At leugth the question was put, and Flood's motion was lust. The numbers were, for the motion 77, against it 157. After the result had been ascertained, it was thought fit by the attorney-general (Velverton) to move, "That it. lias now become indispensably ne- cessary t<> declare that the Bouse will main- tain its just rights and privileges against all eucroachments whatsoever.'' This was a declaration of war, less against Reform, than against the Volunteers. The gauntlet was thrown down to them — did they dare to take it Up 1 For awhile the Convention awaited a mes- sage from the Commons — but no message of triumph came to crown their hopes. The scene was embarrassing — lassitude had succeeded excitement — silence orept slowly on the noisy anticipations of victory. At last, adjournment was suggested — the dra- matic effect was lost, the dramatic spirit bad passed away. The Convention broke up, to await, without the theatric pomp of full as- sembly, the details of discomfiture, insult, and defeat. on tho gronnd of tlm petition originating in nn as- sembly unconstitutional and illegal, and meant to awe and oontrol the legislature. This bold mode of treating it woe certainly most proper; at the same timo it was aubjeot to the defections ot those, who lnul been instructed on this Idea of reform, and those who were still anxious to retain a small degree of popularity amongst tho Volunteers. To have put it with a resolution would have given us at least fourteen votes. Qrattan, having pledged himBelf to the idea of reform of Parliament, aould not see the distinction betweeu the refusal ot* leave on the ground of its having some from an exceptionable body, ami the absolute denial of receiving any plan of reform, lie voted against us. and spoke ; but hu t. h evidently ehtyoed thathe meant us no harm, mid on the question of the resolution to support Parliament he voted with us. The resolutions are gone to the Lords, who will concur in them, Bxoopt, it ig paid, Lord Mountmorrls, Lord Aid borough, and Lord Chnrlemont." l.eiter of the Lord-Lioutenont to Clmrlea James Pox, Both Nov 178S. The interval was Well used by those wdio secretly trembled at the issue of a direct collision between Government and the Vol- unteers, or who had not the boldness to guide the storm which they had bad the te- merity to raise. Rumors there were of secret conclaves where eowardlv counsels took tho place of manly foresight and sagacious boldness — of discussions with closed doors, where the men who had led the national army in tho whole campaign of freedom, canvassed the propriety of sacrificing to their own fears, that body, whose virtue and renown had conferred on t.heiii a reflected glory;* whilst some writers have represent- ed the adjournment of the Convention, and the extinction of the Volunteers, or as it was called by ('rattan, "their retirement to cultivate the blessings of peace," as the just and natural issue to their useful and brilliant career. f As well might it be said that the Union was the just and natural rcsirtt of the constitution of 1 782. And they who aban- doned the Volunteers, and allowed their or- ganization to crumble and decline, are an- swerable to their country for the conse- quences of that fatal measure of political tergiversation. A large meeting of "par- ticular friends" assembled at Lord Charlo- mont's on the Sunday. J It was unani- mously agreed that the public peace — which did not appear in any particular danger at the time — was the first object to be consid- ered. It is to be regretted that Hardy is not more explicit on the subject of this meeting. It would have been fortunate had he informed us who were the parties con- cerned in this transaction; for it might, have furnished a key to the subsequent con- duct of many men, whose proceedings were considered inexplicable at the time. The result of their deliberations was important. The Volunteers were to receive their rebuff quietly; they were to separate in peace and good will to all men ; meeklv to digest the contumelies of the Government retainers; and following the, advice of some of theii officers, to hang up their arms in the Teni- * Harrington's Rise ami Full of tho Irish Notion, 0. 19, p. ."-77. t (ilattau's Life by Henry (Iraltan, c. 5. 1 llaixlj'u Life of Cliurleinont, vol. ii., p. 109. K In u ml - — — -^3 /jsi; 9tt ■0 ' -> N'J.i.l. 15P2 ftV- jt CONVENTION DlbSOL^ ED. 163 \6\ ^ V >■> r&, SF j>lo of Liberty. The advice was good, if the temple had been built. < fn Monday tlio 1st of December, the Convention met. Captain Moore, one of the delegates, was about to comment on tlie re- ception of their Reform Bill by Parliament, when Lord Charlemont called him t" order. Upon which, in a very dignified way, Henry Flood detailed the insulting reception of their bill by tlie legislature ; and well aware of the temper of some of the most influen- tial men in tlie Convention, lie counselled moderation. But what other policy than submission was on their cards? Tbcv hail put themselves in antagonism to Parliament • — they bad ben treated with contempt and di liance — their plan bad not been even dis- cussed, but contumeliously rejected because it was the suggestion of men with anus in their bands — arms which they dared not use. There were only two courses open — war or submission. They adopted the latter course, not without some rebellious pride, and a flash of tl Id spirit that bad burned so 'brightly at I • ungannon. Looking back over these events, one can- not resist the conclusion that if the Conven- tion bad generously and at once thrown open the door of the Constitution to the Catholics, Lord Charlemont might at this juncture have marched down to that den of corruption in College (been, elcaivd it out, locked the door, and thereafter dictated bis Reform Bill by way of general orders: but Charlemont was not the man to strike such a blow ; and besides, be and the Convention bad alienated, or, at least, left in a state of indifference, the great body of the nation which would else have borne tbem trium- phantly to the goal of perfect and perma- nent freedom. The Convention adjourned, to meet next day. Mr. Flood moved a tame address to the House, declaring that seeking parlia- mentary reform " was not to be imputed to any spirit of innovation in them.'' They adjourned again; but next morning Lord 'barle nt repaired Bomewhal earlier than usual to the Rotunda, with several of bis friends, and, after some formal resolutions, pronounced the Convention dissolved. "From this time," says Dr. Madden, "the power of the Volunteers was broken. I Government resolved to let the institution die a natural death ; at least, to aim no blow at it in public : but when it is known that the Hon. Col. Robert Stewart (father of Lord Castlereagh) was not only a member | c.to- ber, a tew individuals assembled in William Street, to hold the congress. The debate was with closed doors; the Bishop of Deny was not present; Flood attended, and de- tailed his plan of reform, in which the Catholics were not included. The omission gave offence to the Congress, and Flood, in- dignant at the want of support, retired. After three days' sitting, the Congress ad- journed. It vanished as if it were the mel- ancholy ghost of the National Convention. These proceedings were alluded to in the speech which opened the session, Jaimaiy, 1785. They were characterized as "lawless outrages, and unconstitutional proceedings." The address in reply applied the same terms to the transactions in connection with the National Congress ; and this drew from Grattan a memorable speech, and one which with reference to the Volunteers is historic. It marks the transition point when the old Volunteers ceased, and a new body com- posed of a different class of men, ami ruled by politicians with very different views, com- menced a career which terminated only in the establishment of the United Irishmen. Grattan, in the debate on the address, after defending the reform parly and principles generally, from the attacks contained in the viceroy's speech, said,* " I would now wish to draw the atteution of the House to the alarming measure of drilling the lowest classes of the populace, by which a stain had been put on the character of the Volun- teers. The old, the original Volunteers had become respectable, because they represented the property of the nation ; but attempts had been made to arm the poverty of the kingdom. They had originally been the armed properly — were they to become the armed beggary? 1 ' To the Congress — to the parties who had presented petitions for re- 9 LNG .iM.iMdkl.u. V'?> l "MjgW^ K.\D OP TIIK Vol. I VII.KKS. 107 w M yi) form he addressed indignant reproof. They bad, he said, been guilty of the wildest in- discretion; they had gone much too far, and, if they went on, they would overturn the laws of their country. Ii was .-in mi fortunate period for the in- terests of Irish liberty, which Qrattau sc- lected, thus to dissever the ties between the Volunteers and him. They had begun i,, perceive that without the co-operatfori of the Catholics, it would be unreasonable to ex- 1 ' f " obtain a reformed Parliament, inde- pendent of England. The men of the Ulster Plantation were the first to recognize and act upon this obvious truth. They car- ried their toleration so far as to march to the chape], and to attend mass. Had prop- er advantage been taken of these disposi- tions of the people, the result would have been the acquisition of a measure of parlia- mentary reform, which would have insured the stability of the settlement of 1782. I '.hi they were left without guides, when most a ruling mind was required; nor is it surprising that ulterior views began to influ- ence the anient temperament, and to excite the angry passions of a disappointed people. But these considerations belong to the his- tory of a later period, when the Volunteers had merged into that great and wonderful confederacy, which, within a few years, threatened the stability of the English do- minion in Ireland. The regular army had been increased to fifteen thousand men, with the approbation of the most distinguished founders of the constitution of 1782— the next act of hos- tility was one in which Gardiner, who had been an active officer in the Volunteers, took the leading part. On the 14th of February, 1785, he moved that £20,000 be granted to his majesty for the purpose of clothing the militia. This was intended to be a fatal blow. It was aimed by a treach- erous hand. The motion was supported by Langrishe, Denis Daly, Arthur Wolfe, and Grattan. Fitzgibbou assailed the Volun- teers with official bitterness. He reiterated the charges of Grattan, that they had ad- mitted into their ranks a low description of men — their constitution was changed — they bad degenerated into practices mimical to the peace of the country. They were, how- ever, not left undefended. Curran, Hardy, and Newcnham stepped forward to their vin- dication. These men pointed out the bene- fits of the institution— the Volunteers in time of war had protected the country, and preserved internal quiet— no militia was then needed— why was it required in peace! The proposition was a censure on the Volun- teers. Grattan replied :—" the Volunteers had no right whatsoever to be displeased at the establishment of a militia; and if they had expressed displeasure, the dictate of armed men ought to be disregarded by Parliament. "The right honorable member had intro- duced the resolution upon the most consti- tutional ground. To establish a militia— he could not see how that affected the Volun- teers; and it would bo a hard case, indeed, if members of Parliament should be afraid to urge such measures as they deemed prop- ' er, for fear of giving offence to the Volun- teers. The situation of the House would be truly unfortunate if the name of the Volun- teers could intimidate it. I am ready to allow that the great and honorable body of men— the primitive Volunteers, deserved much of their country ; but I am free to say, that they who now assume the name have much degenerated. It is said that they rescued the constitution, that they forced Parliament to assert its rights, and therefore Parliament, should surrender the constitution into their hands. But it is a mistake to say they forced Parliament : they stood at the back of Parliament, and supported its au- thority; and when they thus acted with Parliament, they acted to their own glory; but when they attempted to dictate, they became nothing. When Parliament repelled the mandate of the Convention, they went back, and they acted with propriety; ami it will ever happen so when Parliament has spirit to assert its own authority. "Gentlemen are mistaken if they imagine that the Volunteers arc; the same as they formerly were, when they committed them- selves in support of the stale, and tie- exclu- sive authority of the Parliament of Ireland, at the Dungannon meeting. The resolutions published of late hold forth a very different language. " Gentlemen talk of ingratitude. I can- % -&■■ ^rT I >N ' not Bee how voting :i militia for the defence of the country is ingratitude to the Volun- teers. The House has been very far from ungrateful to them. While they acted iviih Parliament, Parliament thanked and applauded them; hut in attempting to act against Parliament, they list their conse- quence. Ungrateful ! Where is the in- stance! It cannot be meant, that because the House rejected the mandate which vile incendiaries had urged the Convention to issue, because, when such a wound was threatened to the constitution, the House declared that it was necessary to maintain the authority of Parliament, that therefore the House was ungrateful ! " The Volunteers lingered some years after this, 'l'luy held annual reviews — they pass- ed addresses and resolutions — but, hencefor- ward, their proceedings were without effect, The details of their decay do not belong to the history of the Volunteers of 1782. That body practically expired with the Con- vention of Dublin. Their old leaders fell away — the men of wealth abandoned them, and new men — men, not without generous qualities and high ambition, but with peril oils and revolutionary views — succeeded to the control. And when, at length, the Vol- unteers having come into direct collision with the tegular army, and wisely declined the contest, the Government issued its mandate, that every assemblage of the body should be dispersed by force, even the phantom of the army of Ireland had passed away from the scene forever.* CHAPTER XXII. 178-1— 178C. Improvement of tlio oountry — Political position anomalous — Rutland, viceroy — Petitions for Par- liamentary Reform — Fl I's motion — Rejected — Grattan's loll to regulate the revenue— Protective dutiea demanded— Nutional Congress Dissen- sions as to rights of Catholics— Charlemont'a intol- erance Orde's Commercial Propositions— New propositions of Mr. Pitt— Burke and Sheridan- Commercial propositions defeated Mr. Conolly— The national debt General corruption — Court. majorities Patriots defeated— Ireland after five J riu, of independence. 1ki;i.am> was now in many respects an in- dependent nation. Enjoying for the first • A tew country corps had fixed upon holding u review ut Doali, in the county of Antrim. The time in her history an unrestricted trade, a sovereign judiciary, the writ of Habeas Cor- pus, and ;i Parliament acknowledged to he tin 1 sovereign legislature free from the dic- tation of an English privy council, the coun- try did certainly begin almost immediately to make a rapid advance in material prosper- ity. Many absentees returned and spent their incomes at home: the revival of other branches of industry retrieved in some de- gree' the unwholesome competition for farms, which had left the unfortunate and friendless peasantry at the absolute mercy of their landlords. Besides all this, the very proud feeling of national independence seems to have kindled a sort of vital energy through- out the farthest extremities of the land. On the whole, although there was still much distress among the poor, and appeals to Parliament for their relief, there was soon visible a dawn of prosperity in Ireland. Yet the political situation was evidently anomalous and insecure. Ireland had not like England a responsible body of cabinet- ministers accountable to her own 1 'arliament, The lord-lieutenant and Irish secretary ruled as before; and although thev were appointed, it was said, by the King of Ire- land, they really held their offices and re- ceived their instructions from the ministers of England ; .and their whole care was ex- pected to he, and was, in tact, to ti.nintain bv every possible means the paramount as- cendency of that more powerful kingdom. This could only be accomplished by the creation of more and more places, the still greater extension of the pension list, and more direct and shameless bribery. In short we shall soon see that organized cor- ruption developed itself during the era of " independence" with more deadly power than ever before, until it swelled at last to that deluge of corruption, that perfect par- oxysm of plunder, which bore down every- thing before it at the era of the " Union." Lord Not thington, on a change of minis- try in England, resigned his vicerovahv on the 7th of January, L784-; and on the 24th cf February was succeeded by the I 'like of army tnorohed to the spot to disperse them; hut the \ olnnieers. avoided assembling, and thus ^avo up the ghost. — Dr. MaeNitvCi Piicuqf Irish tit*. tory, p. 58. n \ \ m A' $? \ V Kutl mil. Just before this change, tin; rev- enue of Ireland being again, as usual, inad- equate i" tlir expenditure, £300,0(10 was Ordered to be borrowed to meet the dc- ficiency. Ou the 26th of February, Parliament met Mr, Gardiner moved the address to the Duke o£ Rutland; and then there came pouring into the House thirteen petitions for a "Reform in Parliament." It was on this measure the people's minds were now chiefly bent. They were irritated and dis- appointed at the manner in which the House of Commons had flung out the Re- form bill introduced by Mr. Flood in the name of the Volunteer Convention. They Lve'un to perceive that with a Parliament BO constituted Ireland could not really lo Lsid to control her own destinies : and they did not yet sufficiently comprehend that for this precise reason England would always steadily oppose all reform — and would be able to oppose it with success because the very corruption of Parliament which was nn injury and scandal to Ireland was the great arm and agent of British domination here. It was now on the 13th of March, that Mr. Rood made his renewed motion for a parliamentary reform ; not now as a mem- ber of the dictatorial \ olunteer Convention, but as an individual member. A few sen- tences of his speech may be given to show the notoriety of the rotten borough system; and how audaciously it was defended as a righl of property. He admitted, it would be thought by certain gentlemen injurious to their private interest, it' the constitution were restored to its original security; but they must also admit, that it was contrary to every principle of right and justice, that individuals should be permitted to send into thai house, two, four, or six members of Parliament, to make a traffic of venal bor- oughs, BS if they were household utensils. It seemed a point agreed upon in England, that a parliamentary reform was necessary; he should mention, he said, the opinion given by Lord Chatham, upon whose pos- thumous fame the present administration so firmly stood defended by the nation, though thai great and illustrious man had I ii neg- lected for ten years by the public, and so alge a portion of his valuable life was Mil', lend to be lost, to the community. YA h I were his sentiments on that important mu- ter? His words most strongly enforced it necessity; in his answer to the address of the city of London, in which he Baid, that a reform in Parliament was absolutely neces- sary, in onler to infuse fresh vigor into iho Constitution, and that rotten boroughs ought to be stricken off. This measure, opening the franchise to Protestant freeholders, was by several mem- bers opposed as being oppressive to the Catholics. Sir Boyle Roche, the very man who had but lately hurried to the Conven- tion to carry Lord Kenmare's slavish self- denying message, refusing all electoral rights for the Catholics — this Sir Boyle, only anx- ious to defeat the reform by any means, used this argument against it: — Sir Boyle Roche said, the design of the bill was to transfer the franchise of clectidn from the few to the many; or, in other words, to deprive the present possessors of the patronage of boroughs, and give it; to another set of men; while they were en- deavoring to gratify one set of men, they should not act as tyrants to another. This bill would be a prescriptive act against the Roman Catholics, who would be all tuned out of their farms to make room for forty- shilling freeholders. There was an animated debate; but its issue could not be one mo- ment doubtful at the Castle. At four o'clock on Sunday morning (he division took place: ayes, 85 ; noes, 15D. It was clear that the Government had still its steady working majority in that corrupt as- sembly, on all questions which were not left open questions, and that there was no meas- ure so little likely to be left an open question as parliamentary reform. Two other subjects of great national im- portance were brought before Parliament in this session; a bill for regulation of the rev- enue by Mr. Grattan, and a bill to lay pro- tective duties on the importation of manu- factured goods. This latter measure seems to have been greatly needed; and the anx- iety of the public for its success is a still further proof of the real meaning which in the Volunteering times was attached to the cry '-Free trade, or else ," that is to K \ ".'<, •a /A / ■« va\ A V ;V 170 HI8T0RT OF tuixwn a say, freedom for the legislature of Ireland to regulate, protect, tax, admit, or prohibit .'ill branches of lush trade for Ireland's own benefit hi view of ill" continual rejection of all projects of reform, it is no wonder that u'a miiiils turnod away from Parliament ; and thai plana of a revolutionary character began to be agitated. Such was the idea of a National Congress. The sheriffs of Dublin were requested to convene a prepar- atory meeting: they did so, for the 7th of June, 1784: but as this project eventuated in nothing important, we might omit all menti< f it, were it not that the resolu- tions at this meeting, while denouncing the venality of Parliament introduced into their resolutions and their addresses to the king very strong expressions of their desire to emancipate the Catholics. In the resolu- tions we rend: "We call upon you there- fore, and thus conjure you, that in ihis im- portant work \ <>u join with us as fellow-sub- jeuts, countrymen, and friends, as men em- barked in the geueral cause, to remove a general calamity! and for this we propose, thai five persona be elected from each coun- ty, city, an.l great town in this kingdom, to meet in Nationnl Congress at Borne conve- nient place ill this cily, on Monday, the 25th da} of October next, there tO deliberate, digest, and determine on Buch measures, as inav seem to them most conducive to re- establish the constitution on a pure and permanent basis, and secure to the inhabit- ants of this kingdom, peace, liberty, and Bafoty. ■• And while we thus contend, as far as in us lies, for our constitutional rights and privilege. 9 , we reoommend to your consider- ation the state of our Buffering fellow-subjects, tli.' Komaii Catholics of this kingdom, whose emancipation from the restraints, under which they still labor, we consider not only as equitable, but essentially conductive to the general union and prosperity of the kingdom." And in the add less to the king, they s |\ : 'We farther entreat your majesty's permis- sion to eondeinn that remnant of the penal code of laws, which still oppresses our Io- nian Catholic fellow-subjects; laws which loud to prohibit education and liberality, restrain certain privileges, and proscribe in- dustry, love of liberty, and patriotism." The very introduction of these liberal am tolerant ideas into the preliminary proceed- ings frightened off the leading men of the old Volunteers. In an address presented by t ln> Ulstei corps to their general, the Earl of Chnile- inont, after some strong expressions of their detestation of aristocratic tyranny, they hinted at the necessity of calling in the aid of the Catholics, as the most just as well as effectual means of opposing it with .success. In answer to this address, the Earl of I'll n lc mont, lamented that, for the first time, he felt himself obliged to differ from them in sentiment lie was free from every illiberal prejudice against the Catholics, and full of goodwill towards that very respectable body, but be could not refrain from the most ardent entreaties, that they Would de- sist from a pursuit, that would fatally clog and impede the pi osccul ion of their favorite purpose. As this nobleman was highly and de- servedly respected, his opinion was eagerly embraced, both by the timid, whose appre- hensions were alarmed at the hoi, I extent of the project, ami by a great, number whose prejudices against the Catholics appear to have been suspended from convenieucy or fashion though never conquered by princi- ple. In the month of October, the thanks of the corporation of the city of Dublin were voted him for his conduct on that oc- casion. The meeting of a National Congress was a measure of too alarming a nature, not to attract the most serious attention of Gov- ern nt ; and it appears to have been their resolution to take the most, vigorous slops for preventing it if possible. A feu daya previous to that which was fixed for the election of delegates for the ciiy of Dublin, the attorney-general addressed a letter to the sheriffs, expressing his verv great bui prise at having read a summons signed by them call- ing a meeting for the purpose in (pleslion. lie observed, that by this proceeding, they had been gu by of a most outrageous breach of their duty; and that if they proceeded, they would be responsible to the laws of their COintry, and he should hold himself & ?©i u t \ ' Lrw . i.u«NUii.i.' jft. ? ?A NATIONAL CONGRESS. Ill iV: x. bounden to prosecute them in the Courl of King's Bench, for a conduct, Which he con sidered bo highh criminal, thai be could not overlook it. These threats succeeded so far rb to intimidate the sheriffs from attending the meeting in their official capacity ; but the i ting was nevertheless bolden, dele- gates were chosen; and in reference for the Bttorney's letter, several Btrong resolutions were agreed 10, relative t<> the right of as- k<-i 1 1 1 >l i ii lC themselves for the redress of griov- anues. Government having once set their faces against tin; election and assembling of delegates, from denouncing threats, they l>r eded to punishment i, Mr. Riley, high sheriff for tlm county of Dublin, in consequence of his having called i" iiber, and presided at an assembly of freeholders, who met on the 10th of August, 1781, for the purpose of choosing and in- structing their delegates, was the first object of ministerial prosecution. The attorney- general proceeded against him by attach- ment from the Court of King's Bench. The assembly, and the resolutions they came to on that occasion, signed by Mr. Riley, in bis character of sheriff for tbe county, were both declared to be illegal, and Mr. Riley was sentence, 1 by the court to pay a fine of fi\c marks (j£3 6s. 8d.), and to be imprisoned one week. This mode of legal process, except for the purpose of bringing persons before tin- court, to receive tbe sentence of such courl for contempt of, and disobedience to it> oi li is and directions, haa so seldom been n orted to, that even the legality of the process itself, on anj odor ground, had re- mained a matter of general doubt and un- let tainty. In the present case it m<-t with much less opposition than migbt have been expected. Clamors without doors, and debates within, on the subject, there certainly were, but both too feeble and ill-concerted to promise any success. The new division of the Vol onteers into parties, took off tbe general at- ■ n to this attack upon the use of juries, which, in any other moment, would not b it e l» en to tami Ij tolerated. ' M' such import is ir, when overstrong measures are to be attempted, to prepare the public for the reception of them by internal disunion -I alarm. Government did not confine their prosecutions t<> Mr. Riley. Having once adopted a mode of proceeding, which so ef- fectual!) answered the end, for which ihev designed it, informations were moved for, and attachments granted against the different magistrates, who called the meetings, and signed the respective resolutions of the free- holders in the counties of Roscommon and Leitrim, At, the same time, tin- press too Came under tbe lash of tbe attorney general: and the printers and publishers of such newspapers, as had inserted the obnoxious resolutions, suffered with tbe magistrates, who bad signed them. Notwithstanding these violent measures which administration were pursuing, the National Congress met, pursuant to its ap- pointment, on the 25th day of October. lint as it was tar from being complete in point, of number, and several of its most respect- able members chose to absent themselves, they adjourned, after having passed a num- ber of resolutions to the same purport with those that had been agreed to at the pre- vious meeting; and exhorted in the mos earnest manner the communities, which bad not sent representatives : "if they respected their own consistency, if they wished for the success of a parliamentary reform, and as they tendered the perpetual liberty and prosperity of their country, not to let pass that opportunity of effecting tbe grent and necessary confirmation of the constitution." Tbe divisions of the Volunteers were en- couraged b\ Government; and for thai pur- pose discord and turbulence were rather countenanced than checked in mauy coun- ties, particularly upon the delicate and im- portant expedient of admitting the Cat holies to the elective franchise, a question, which it was artfully attempted to connect with tbe now declining cause of parliamentary re- form. Through a long scries of years Gov- ernment bad never wanted force to quell in- ternal commotion-; ami it seemed to be now dreaded lest a union of Irishmen, should extinguish tbe old means of creating dissension. The de-ire of disuniting the Volunteers begat inattention to the griev- ances of the discontented and distressed peasantry of the south : that wretched peo- ple once more assumed the style- of White- ft mm r«\ t\-' n. m i\* ■y^ 1 /loy.s'/ and for some time committed their depredations with impunity, particularly against Kilkenny; until a stop was put to them by the vigorous efforts of the Rev. Dr. Troy, then the Roman Catholic bishop nt' Ossory, and the clergy of his diocese; for which successful exertions be received the most satisfactory acknowledgments from Government. As the unanimity of the Volunteers di- minished, their spirit and exertions abated : s ething, however, was to be attempted before the meeting of the Parliament. On the 2d of January, 1785, the second meet- ing of the delegates was had at Dublin, at which were present the representatives of twenty-seven counties, and of most of the cities and considerable towns of the king- dom, amounting in the whole to more than 200 persons. Their proceedings appear to have been of the same nature as those be- fore adopted, with this only difference, thai in the proposed application to the House of C mons, it was agreed to confine them- Si Ives to the most general terms, and to leave the mode of redress as free and open as possible to the consideration of Parlia- ment. The British Parliament sat to the 25th of August, 178 1, and met again on the 25th of January, 1785 : and from his majesty's speech it appears, that "their first concern was the settlement of all differences with Ireland. Amongst the objects which now require consideration, I must particularly recommend to your earnest attention the adjustments of such points in the commercial intercourse between Great Britaiu and Ire- land as are not yet, finally arranged : the system which will unite both kingdoms the most closely on principles of reciprocal ad- vantage, will, I am persuaded, best insure tie 1 general prosperity of my dominions." The Parliament of Ireland met on the 20th of January, 1785, when the lord- lieutenant, addressed them in a speech recom- mending to their attention the regulation of the trade and commerce between the two islands. This was the prelude to Mr. (tide's famous "Commercial Propositions" tor a treaty of commerce between England and Ireland. This was a favorite measure of Mr. Pitt's, and be had set his heart upon it. The terms of the proposed commercial set' tlemeiit had been previouslv negotiated be- tween Mr. Orde, Secretary for Ireland, and certain Irish commissioners for that purpose: and on the 7th of February Mr. Orde laid the project, before the House of Commons in the form of eleven resolutions. In this original form the Commercial Propositions were not very open to objection : for, although most favorable on the whole to England, they looked fair and just. The only one which sounded alarming was the eleventh and last, which was in these words: "11th. Resolved, That for the better pro- tection of trade, whatever sum the gross hereditary revenue of this kingdom (after deducting all drawbacks, repayments, or bounties, granted in the nature of draw- backs,) shall produce, over and above the sum of £050,000 in each year of peace, wherein the annual revenues shall be equal to the annual expenses, and iuVuh year of war, without regard to such equality, should be appropriated towards the support of the naval force, of the empire, in such manner as the Parliament of this kingdom shall di- rect." This excited some opposition in the House, Mr. Brownlow indignantly exclaim- ing against the idea of their becoming a tributary nation. Mr. Grattan supported the resolutions; and after some debate they were all agreed to by both Houses. On the 22d of the same month the eleven Resolu- tions, as transmitted from Ireland, were read m a Committee of the British House of Commons j and Mr. Pitt spoke most earnest- ly in favor of their passage, and of a defini- tive treaty or law founded upon them. There was some opposition and delay. The commercial public of Engl ind took the alarm : petitions poured in, the first of lliem from Liverpool : Lancashire sent a petition signed by eighty thousand persons: sixty- four petitions in all were presented, all against the measure, which was represented as a concession to Irish commerce, therefore ruinous to England. At length, on the 12th of May, 1785, Mr. Pitt brought forward, in consequence or under pretext of the new light thrown on the subject by the examina- tions, petitions and reports, a new series of resolutions, twenty iu number. The princi- ^: * > & & WAPPEK TANiWo . • LOffllD EIBWAIROJ FOTriEBBAILHTo *M & BURKE AND SHERIDAN. r&\ pal additions to the new scheme were to provide, 1st, That whatever navigation laws the British Parliament should there- after think tit to enact for the preservation of her marine, the same should he passed by the legislature of Ireland, -'illy, Against the importing into Ireland, and from thence iuto Great Britain, of any other West India merchandises than such as were tlie produce of our own colonies; and Sdly, That Ire- land .should debar itself from trading with any of the countries beyond the Cape of Good Ilope to the Straits of Magellan, so long as it should he thought necessary to con- tinue the charter of the English East India Company. In short this new scheme of Mr. Pitt was plainly intended as a mode of repealing and annulling the free trade of the Volunteers. The Volunteers were by this time disunited, disbanded, and disorganized, and the cannon of Napper Tandy had gone back to the foundry. The new series of resolutions gave occasion to eager debates in the British Eouse of Commons. It is with regret that one finds Mr. Burke not only supporting the propositions but supporting them on the ex- press ground that they went to re-establish the supremacy of England over Ireland. Be said : ''To consult the interests of Eng- land ami Ireland, to unite and consolidate them into one, was a task he would under- take, as that by which he could best dis- charge the duties he owed to both. To Ire- Ian. 1, independence of legislature had been given ; she was now a co-oidinate, though less | owerful state ; but pre-eminence and dignity were due to England; it was she alone that must bear the weight and burden of the empire; she alone must pour out the Ocean of wealth necessary for the defence of t : Ireland, and other parts, might empty their little urns to swell the tide : they might wield their little puny tridents ; but the great trident that was to move the world, must he grasped by England alone, and dearly it cost her to hold it. Indepen- dence of legislature had been granted to Ireland; but do other independence could Great Britain give her, without reversing the order and decree of nature: Inland could nol be separated IV Englandj she could not exist without her; she must ever remain under the protection of England, her guardian angel." There was another Irishman in the Eng- lish House of Commons, who did not see the matter altogether in this light. Richard Brinslev Sheridan, speaking of Mr. Orile, the English Secretary for Ireland, with his insidious propositions, said : — "Ireland newly escaped from harsh trammels and severe dis- cipline, was treated like a high-mettled horse, hard to catch ; and the Irish Secretary was sent back to the field to soothe and coax him, with a sieve of provender in the one hand and a bridle in the other." When the propositions, as altered, had passed the Com- mons, and were brought into the House of Lords, it was curious to see the question treated, not as a matter of commerce, but as a project for a future union; which in fact it was. Lord Lansdowne treated " the idea of a union as a thing impracticable. High-minded and jealous as were the people of Ireland, we must first learn whether they will conseut to give up their distinct empire, their Parliament, and all the honors which belong to them." After debate, however, the resolutions passed the Lords by a great majority. Mr. Pitt then brought in a bill, founded upon them, which was carried, and was followed up by an address to his ma- jesty, voted by both Houses of Parliament, wherein they acquainted him with what they had done, and that it remained for the Parliament of Ireland to judge and decide thereupon. On the 12th of August Mr. Secretary Orde moved the House lor leave to bring in a bill, which was a mere tran- script of that moved by the English minis- ter. The debates ou this occasion, and more especially on the side of opposition, were long and animated. After a vehement de- hate, which lasted eighteen hours, the House divided at nine in the morning, upon the motion of Mr. Orde to bring iu the bill. Ayes, 12*7 ; noes, 108. Such a division, upon a preliminary stage, was equivalent to a de- feat ; and on the Monday following (15th of August) Mr. Orde moved the first reading of the bill, anil that it should be printed, declaring at the same time that he did not intend to make any further progress in the business dining the present session. He had completed his duty respecting that measure. ^£283e (if9) WFj r^ ma To ^ £NS .CCUJNBVS.i In short, the bill was adjourned, and finally st. On the same loth of August Mr. Flood moved a resolution: — "Resolved, That we hold ourselves bound not to enter into engagement to give up the sole and ex- clusive right of the Parliament of Ireland, in all cases whatsoever, as well externally as commercially and internally." The bill was withdrawn: Mr. Flood withdrew his motion; and from that hour Mr. Pitt determined to lay his plans for the final extinguishment of Irish nationality and its total absorption into that of Great Britain ; in other words, for hi 111 ~M 1 ^ ue "Union." lAlllfc/ll When the Duke of Rutland again met the Parliament in January, 1785, his speech intimated that there was a strong desire on the p-irt of Government to revive the ques- tion of the Commercial Propositions: but there now began to be a considerable organ- ized opposition to the Castle — an opposition which had afterwards to be "broken down" by the usual and well-understood methods. Mr. Conolly and some other gentlemen of great landed property in the country, who had been much in the habit of supporting Government, now appeared to have taken a decided part in the opposition to the Duke of Rutland's administration. On the same day the Chancellor of the Exchequer (Sir John Parnell) stated that the debt of the nation was £3.044,107; on which Mr. Conolly observed, that the expenses of Gov- ernment every year increased : that the minister came regularly to that Ilonse to complain of the deficiency in the revenue, and demanded a loan, which was granted on his promise of future economy : at last the revenue was raised by new taxes to equal the expense, and still the expense had in- creased ; he (as also Mr. Grattan) insisted upon the necessity of making a stand against the growth of expense, or else their constitution and commerce were at an end. ;;Ci H ' Accordingly, on the 9th of February, Mr. Conolly moved the following resolutions : 1st, That the House did in the last session grant certain new taxes, estimated at £140,- 000 per annum, for the purpose of putting an end to the accumulation of debt. 2d, That should the said taxes be continued it was absolutely necessary that the expenses of the nation should be confined to her an- nual income. After a warm and long de- bate, there appeared upon a division 73 for Mr. Conolly's resolutions, and 14f resuming one by one the liberties yielded for a moment to the demand of the Volunteers was either in ope- ration or in preparation. Under Mr. Pitt's proposed commercial arrangements, Free Trade Would no longer exist. The repeal of the perpetual Mutiny Bill would very sooh matter little, when Government woidd have a stauding army of police to overawe I he " Lucasiaus" and reformers of Dublin; and which was certain to be established also in the provinces. The power of the Parliament was now unlimited as to originating its own laws; but for this very reason it had to be taken possession of in advance by the actual purchase of a commanding majority for the crown ; so that the independent Parliament should still be, as described by Swift, always firm in its vocation, for the Court against the Nation. Indeed the melancholy neces- sity of keeping in pay a majority of Parlia- ment is deduced by Lord Clare from the very fact of that Parliament's political inde- pendence. The Government was now, ho said, at the mercy of that Parliament, and therefore had to propitiate it, or Government could not soon. His argument concludes in favor of a " union" with England, as a cure for all evils. " Such a connection" [as the present], said be, " is formed not for mil tual strength and security, but for mutua. debility. " It is a connection of distinct minds and distinct interests, generating na- tional discontent and jealousy, and perpetu- ating faction and misgovernment in the inferior country. The first obvious disad- vantage to Ireland is, that in every depart- ment of the state, every other consideration must yield to parliamentary power ; let the misconduct of any public officer be what it may, if he is supported by a powerful parlia- mentary interest, he is too strong for the king's representative. A majority of the Parliament of Great Britain will defeat the minister of the day ; but a majority of the Parliament of Ireland against the king's Government, goes directly to separate this kingdom from the British Crown. If it continues, separation or war is the inevitable issue; and therefore it is, that the general executive of the empire, as far as is essential to retain Inland as a member of it, is com- pletely at the mercy of the Irish Parliament ; and it is vain to expect, so long as man con- tinues to be a creature of passion and inter- est, that he will not avail himself of the critical and difficult situation, in which the executive Government of this kiugdom must ft ^3 >ro f w\ -s> vll FIVK YEAKS OF IXDEPEXDKNCE. ■ remain, under iis present constitution, I Conolly made some very severe observations : 1 T% $3 \ m j. I 'to demand the favors of the Crown, not as tlir reward of loyalty and service, but as the stipulated price, to be paid in advance, for the discharge of a public duty. Every un- principled and noisy adventurer, wlio can achieve the ineaus of putting himself f. >r- ward, commences his political career on an avowed speculation of profit and loss : and if he fail to negotiate Ins political job, will en- deavor to extort it by faction and sedition, and with unblushing effrontery to fasten his own corruption on the king's ministers. — English influence is the inexhaustible theme for popular irritation and distrust of every factious and discontented man, who fails in the struggle to make himself the necessary instrument of it. Am I then justified in staling, that our present connection with (treat Britain, is in iis nature formed for mu- tual debility ; that it must continue to gene- rate national discontent and jealousy, and perpetuate faction and misgovern ment in Ireland!"* CHAPTER XXIII. 1787-1789. Alarms and rumors of disturbances — Got up by Government — Act against illegal oomhinations — Mr. Gruttan ou Tithes — Failure of his efforts- Death of Duke of Rutland -Marquis of Bucking- ham, Viceroy — Independence of Mr. Curran— Mr. Forbes nnil the Pension List — Failure of his motion — Triumph of corruption — Troubles in Ar- magh County — " Peep-of-Duy Boya" — " Defend- ers" — Insanity of tho King — The Begency. When Parliament met, according to the last adjournment on the 18th of January 1787, the lord-lieutenant particularly applied to them for their assistance in the effectual vindication of the laws, aud the protection of society. On this part of his address Mr. •This famous speech is only citc.l in this place to show how very coolly a Lord Chancellor of Ireland C) 1 explain and avow the existence, the necessity and the whole mechanism of the corrupt manage- ment of the Irish Parliament. As an argument for u union, his speech may have its value, but it is much better as an argument for total sep- aration. Those who thought, with his Lord- ship thai England must torn* hoio rule over Ireland naturally became unionists : those who thought thai Ireland should rule herself, and that if all her people formed one united nation aho could both govern and protect herself, beoamestill more logical- ly united Irtilimen. 23 distinctly, indeed, charging the Governmen with having invented, or at least grossly ex aggerated, the rumors of disturbances tit th south -'to intimidate the Protestants of that kingdom, and to furnish an immediate pretext for the unconstitutional police-lull :" — and "that the first, thing that, could be called a disturbance induced hiin to think Govern- ment had a hand in it." This involves a charge against the Government so atrocious and revolting — calumniating the forlorn and friendless Catholics of Minister to produce an alarm of threatened insurrection and thus be the more readily armed with a great police force, that it would be difficult to believe it, if we did not know, from subsequent events, that this kind of procedure is familiar to the British Government in Ireland, and forms one of its thief agencies. There were seve- ral statements and counter-statements as to the existence and extent of these alleged riots. Mr. Curran who then, and always, took the part of the oppressed, said : "Is it any wonder, that the wretches whom wo- ful and long experience has taught to doubt, and with justice to doubt, the atten- tion and relief of the legislature, wretches that have the utmost difficulty to keep life and soul together, and who must inevitably perish, if the hand of assistance were not stretched out to them, should appear in tu- mult? No, sir, it is not. Unbound to the sovereign by any proof of his affection, un- bound to Government by any instance of its protection, unbound to the country, or to the soil, by being destitute of any property in it, 'tis no wonder that the peasantry should he ripe for rebellion ar.d revolt: so far from matter of surprise, it must naturally have been expected. "The supineness of the magistrates, and the low state of the commissions of the peace throughout the kingdom, but particularly in the county of Cork, should be rectified. A system of vile jobbing was one of the mis- fortunes of that country : it extended even to commissions of the peace : how else could the report of the four and twenty commis- sions of the peace, sent down to the county of Clare in one post, he accounted for ? Even the appointment of sheriffs was notoriously in the hands of government; and through £5 ,£> change the lite in the grant, and to insert the lives of the young children of Mr. Ashworth in the plaoe of Mr. Robinson ; that this management was now become a frequenl practice; ami that thereby a grant of a pension for life operated as a lease for lives with a covenant of perpetual renewal. lie then moved that the above pension " was an improvident, disposition of the rev- enue." It is almost needless to add that all Mr. Forbes' motions were negatived without a division. Nothing, perhaps, can better illustrate the shameless character of the uni- versal venality than the timid objection made by a ministerial member against the necessity of doubling pensions to members of Parliament. Sir Henry Cavendish, though he declared his unqualified devotion to that administration, vet remarked, that doubling the pensions of members might he avoided, "for," said hi', "suppose it appears that £400 a year are annexed to the name of a member of this House, and that no particular cause could be assigned tor the grant, may it not !»■ conjectured, that it. was made for his service in that House, and if so, an ad- ditional pension is unnecessary, for he that has £400 a year for his vote, will not refuse vot- ing though he were to be refused X Kin a year more."— (Par. Debates, vol. viii.) In truth it would be irksome and unprofitable to record these many unavailing efforts of the patriots to restrain the progress of public corruption, hut that the revelations made on such occa- sions exhibit the whole machinery by which Irish government was carried on, or could have been carried on for a single week: and show that British rule in that country con- sisted simply in making the Irish people pay large salaries to certain men for representing ud betraying them. It is just, however, to the honest Irishmen in that corrupt assembly to signalizo and remember their useless but heroic efforts against the deluge of corruption. The most violent attack upon the minis- ter, during this session of Parliament, was made on the 29th of February, when M Forbes moved his address to the crown, in order, at, least, to leave to posterity, on the face of their journals, the grievances under which the people labored in the year 17SS. lie prefaced his motion by a very interest- ing speech founded on facts, to be collected from the journals of the House, or from au- thentic documents then lying on the table, lb' travelled over much of his former argu- ments against the prodigality of the late administration, which had increased the pension list by £2G,000. lie took that op- portunity of giving notice, that he meant next session to offer a hill to that House for the purpose of creating a responsibility in the ministers of Ireland, for the application of the revenue of that kingdom. The only authority under which the vice treasurer then paid any money, was a king's letter, countersigned by the commissioner of the English treasury. He adverted with marked censure, to the addition of £2000 to the salary of the secretary in the late adminis- tration, ami to the large sums expended in the, purchase and embellishment of his house in the Phoenix Park, and to the present intent of granting a pen- sion of £2000 to that very secretary for lite : which was establishing a most mis- chievous precedent for such grants to every future secretary, lie was sorry to hear the osi.uisil.b- minister avail himself of the same argument winch his predecessors had suc- cessfully used for the last ten years in resist- ing every attack upon the pension list. He then enlarged upon the pernicious conse- quences of placing implicit confidence in the administration ; and supported his thesis by the following historical illustrations. From the year 1 TT3 to 1776,- confidence in the administration of that day had cost this nation £100,000 in new taxes, and £440,000 raised by life annuities. In 1778, confidence in the administration cost £300,- 000 in life annuities; a sum granted for the purpose of defence, and which produced on au alarm of invasion, one troop of horse, and half a company of invalids. In 177.) the then secretary, for the purpose of opposing a measure for relief against the abuses of the pension list, lead in this House an ex Co ^ Ofol ■Jk ?P W ~^y1. U ,(■$ J I ^ ? -■■ Ya-J Ll.sN3»S,4. u\ J \., kg fcJ#jP\ i TROUm.ES IN AEMAGH COUNTY. k&si trad of a letter from the Secretary of State in England, expressive of the determination of the then English ministry, not to increase the pension list; confidence was placed in the administration of the day, and it cost the country £1:5,000 in new pensions, granted by the same secretary. In April, 1782, or. tin' arrival of the principal of the new ad- ministration, confidence, in the first instance, was neither asked nor granted; certain measures were proposed by the Commons and the people, they were granted, and the country was emancipated. In 1785, confi- dence in the administration of that day, cost Ireland £140,000 new taxes to equalize the income and expenditure; but the grant pro- duced £1SO,000 excess of expenses. The same confidence cost £'20,000 per annum for a police establishment, which it had been proved at their bar contributed to the viola- tion, instead of the preservation of the peace of the metropolis. The same confidence, he said, cost this nation last year £100,000, charged for 'buildings and gardens in the Phoenix Park: in fine they might place nearly two-thirds of the national debt to the account of con- tinence in the administration of the day. lie then moved an address to his majesty setting forth the entire abuse of the pen- sion system : that on the 1st of January, 1788, the list of pensions had increased to £90,2S9 per annum, exclusive of military pensu ns, unci charge* under the head of in- cidents on the ciril establishment, ami ad- ditional salaries to sinecure officers — both of which were substantially pensions; and that this made an amount much greater than the pensiou list of England. It was in vain : the bribed majority listened to Mr, Forbes with a complacent smile; and again his mo- tion fell without a division. After another attempt of Mr. Grattan to get a inn. tee on tithes, Parliament was prorogued unexpectedly on the 14th of April, to the surprise ami irritation of the | pie. The natural quickness of their sen- salions was accelerated by disappointment, when ihev found, that all that was done rel- ative to tithes was, to provide lor the clergy what some of them had lost by retention of the tithes in the two preceding years, and to secure to them forever a tithe of hemp of 5s. per acre. The failure in every popular attempt of the Patriots, went but a little way to soothe the ruffled minds of the distressed peasantry in the provinces, or of the middling ami higher orders in the me- tropolis .and larger towns. Notwithstanding the increase of peace officers under the police bill, it was sarcastically observed, that his excellency had the peace and tranquillity of the country deeply tit heart, for that, upon the slightest appearance of interrup- tion, he was sure to call in the aid of the military. The attention of the public began at this moment to be turned away from the futile parliamentary contests to scenes which were taking place in the northern county of Ar- magh. The Catholics, once almost extirpated from that and some neighboring counties, had again increased and multiplied there. This had been caused in a great measure by- the large emigration of Protestants to America, leaving extensive regions nearly dispeopled. Many Catholics with their families, who had been starving on the bare mountains of Connaught and Donegal began to venture back to the pleasant valleys where their fathers had dwelt, and offered to be- come tenants to deserted farms. Landlords accepted these tenants, for want of Protest- ants, and they were followed by others. Protestant farmers were thus exposed to competition, to the manifest injury of the Protestant interest; and much ill-feeling, and some violent collisions had been the consequence. At length, in 1784, the Prot- estants formed themselves in Armagh Coun- ty, into a secret association calling itself Peep-of-Day Boys, in allusion to their cus- tom of repairing at that hour to the houses of the Catholics, dragging them out of bed and otherwise maltreating them. Even the furious Protestant partisan, Sir Richard Musgrave, gives this account of the banditti in question : — "They visited the houses of their antagonists at a very early hour in the morning to search for arms; and it is most certain that in doing so they often committed the most wanton outrages — in- sulting their persons and breaking their fur- niture," etc. Of course human nature could uot endure this treatment, and the Cath- olics of Armagh formed a couuter-associa- u -&' 'i to #\ 0\ 1S2 HISTOTIY OF IRELAND m m \:.K tion, which thev called by a name quite as descriptive as the other, " The Defenders." Many encounters soon took place, and some- times in considerable numbers: but as the Catholics were then greatly a minority of the population of the county, were very poor, and could scarcely procure any arms — which, besides, it was against the law for them to possess — it is not wonderful if the advantage rested generally, though not al- ways, with the Protestant aggressors. Either for the purpose or under the pre- tence of checking the spirit of turbulence and outrage, in the year recourse again was had to the raising of some Volunteer corps, by way of strengthening, as it was said, the arm of the civil magistrate. It was not in the nature of things, that these Volunteer corps, into which they refused to admit any Catholic, should not be more ob- noxious to the Defenders, than to the Peep- of-Dav Boys: for all hough they should not have shown favor or affection to any de- scription of men disturbing the public tran- quillity, yet it was the first part of their duty to disarm the Defenders (being Papists), and in their arms had they for some time found their only safety and defence against their antagonists. Some occasional conflicts happened both between the Defenders and Peep-of-Dav Boys, and between the De- fenders and the Volunteers. As a corps of Volunteers in going to church at Armagh passed by a Catholic chapel, a quarrel arose with some of the congregation, and stones were thrown at the Volunteers. After ser- vice, instead of avoiding the repetition of in- sult by taking another route, the Volun- teers procured arms, returned to the spot, and a conflict ensued, in which they killed some of the Catholic congregation. In consequence of these rencounters, and the Defenders procuring and retaining what fire- arms they could, the Earl of Char lemon t, governor of the county, and the grand jury, published a manifesto against all Papists who should assemble in arms, and also against any person who should attempt to disarm them without legal authority. In addition to these efforts, some of the Peep- of-Day Boys sought also to disarm their an- tagonists by means of the law : they accord- ingly indicted some of the Defenders at the summer assizes of 1788; but Baron Hamil- ton quashed the indictments, and dismissed both parties with an impressive exhortation to live in peace and brotherly love. The Defenders about this time were charged with openly sending challenges both to the Peep-of-Dav Boys and the Volunteers to meet them in the field ; the fact was, that the Defendets certainly did look upon them both as one common enemy combined to defeat and oppress them: whilst, therefore, this open hostility between the two parties subsisted and rankled under the daily fester- ing sore of religious acrimony, the Defend- ers, who knew themselves armed against law, though in self defence against the Peep- of-Day Boys, became the more anxious to bring their antagonists to an open trial of strength, rather than remain victims to the repeated outrages of their domiciliary visits, or other attempts to disarm them. Thus a private squabble between peasants gradually swelled into a village brawl, and ended in the religions war of a whole district. These Protestant Peep-of-Pay Boys were called also "Protestant Boys," and in some districts "Wreckers." The association of these plundering banditti afterwards de- veloped itself into the too-famous organiza- tion of "Orangemen," which in our own day has counted among its accomplices an uncle of Queen Victoria, has made riot< in Canada, and has wrecked Catholic churches and burned convents in the United States. King George the Third, who never had much mind, this year lost the little he had, and was pronounced insane by the court physicians. Then at once arose the question of the regency. The Prince of Wales was then twenty -six years of age ; and was as- sociated politically and socially with Whigs; an association by no means creditable to them. But though not creditable, it might be useful to his friends, if he were now to be recognized regent, with full powers of royalty. On the other band Mr. Pitt and the Tories saw constitutional objections. Mr. Fox opposed the motion of Mr. Pitt for an examination of constitutional precedents, inasmuch as the minister knew there were no precedents applicable to the case; and contended that the heir apparent, being of lull age, could and ought to exercise all tbo % r|X L ^ ^ « * INSANITY OF THE KING THE I:EGEXCT 1S3 3» 8r, functions of royalty by his own inherent right: Mr. Pitt replied that during the sovereign's natural life, the heir apparent was no more entitled to the regency than any other subject in the kingdom; and thai it was'Miitle less than treason " to affirm the contrary. Mr. Burke supported the Whig view of the subject; that is, main- tained the right of the prince to regency with full powers. The administration, how- ever, was quite sure of a majority in both Houses; and this availed more than all the constitutional arguments in the world. The whole question could have but little interest for the Irish nation; because who- ever should be king or regent in England, the course of British government in this country would have continued precisely the same, so far as any real interest of the peo- ple was concerned : but there were un- happily Whigs taod Tories iu Ireland also; and on this occasion, as ever since, the Irish parties attached themselves to their respect- ive party connections in England. It was known also that the powerful interests of the houses of Leiusler, Shannon, and Tyrone, the Fitzgeralds, Boyles, and Beresfords were Whigs; being, not unnaturally, attached to the party which had supported in England the claim of Ireland to legislative indepen- dence. Some statesmen, therefore, very soon saw the probability of a collision be- tween the two Parliaments upon the regen- cy. Indiscreet anticipations of such a dif- ference had already been expressed in de- bate. Lord Loughborough, for example, who took the lead of opposition in the Peers, amongst other arguments in support of the prince's inherent right, strongly urged the incoiiveniency and mischief, which might arise from the contrary doctrine, when it should come to be acted upon by the independent kingdom of Ireland. Was it remembered, said his lordship, that a neighboring kingdom stood connected with us, and acknowledged allegiance to the British crown. If once the rule of regular succession were departed from by the two Houses, bow were they sure, that the neigh- boring kingdom would acknowledge the re- gent, whom the two Houses would take upon themselves to elect. The probability was, that the neighboring kingdom would depart, in consequence of our departure, from the rule of hereditary succession, and choose a regent of their own, which must lead to endless confusion and embarrass- ment. But in answer to this part of Lord Lough- borough's speech, Lord Chancellor Thurlow lamented, that any remarks should have fallen from the noble and learned Lord re- specting Ireland, because he considered them as not unlikely, Spargere voces in. vulyum ambiyuas ! Such vague and loose suggestions could answer no useful purpose, but might produce very mischievous conse- quences, lie declared, that he had every reliance on the known loyalty, good sense, and affection of that country, and felt, no anxiety on the danger of Ireland's acting improperly. In tact, -after long and violent debates in the English Lords and Commons, Mr. Pitt's ' measure of a limited regency was carried in England. The limitations were indeed verv great : as the regent's power was not to ex- tend to " the granting of any office in rever- sion, or to granting for any other term than during his majesty's pleasure, any pension or any office whatever, except such as must by law be granted for life, or dining good be- havior ; nor to the granting of any rank or dignity of the peerage." While the debates in England were pending, peremptory in- structions were received by the viceroy, Lord Buckingham, to procure (with " unlim- ited discretion" as to the means)* from the Irish Parliament a formal recognition, that whomsoever Great Britain should appoint as regent, should, ipso facto, be received in Ireland with all the restrictions and limita- tions imposed upon the regent in Great Britain ; with peremptory orders to convene the Parliament the instant his excellency could answer for a majority for carrying such recognition. Unusual exertions to gain over the members to that point were used by all the means, which the Castle influence, aided at that time by the British treasury, could command. Threats also were circu- lated, and generally credited (not rashly, as * This statement concerning " unlimited discre- tion" is made on Ihe authority of Mr. I*lo\vden, a very careful and conscientious inquirer. Besides, if the fact hud never been affirmed, it would be iu it- self too probable to admit of much doubt. fhVU rf\ ^ J ->■■'■ ' SifPiSl 'r ^^SHJt Ss HISTORY OP IRELAND. '(§V Eg ^ % to experience afterwards proved) that whoever possessing place or pension, should vote against the minister, would forfeit, or be deprived. Yet it. was BOOH apparent that the canvass of the Castle would fail of suc- cess on this important and perilous occasion. The Marquis of Buckingham had grown ex- tremely unpopular amongst the leaders of Irish politics; and it was universally believed that his government was going to be of very short duration. In short it was previously known, that Government would be left in a minority on the question : they therefore deferred the evil day as long as possible, and convened the Parliament only on the 5th of February, after the whole plan had been settled, and submitted to by the prince in England. On an emergency so pressing, the lord-lieutenant, who at no time had been popular, now found himself importuned ami harassed beyond bearing: the death of Sir William Montgomery and Lord Clifden, who held lucrative places under Government, brought upon him a greedy swarm of appli- cants who imposed their extortionate de- mands with an arrogance in proportion to the value now known to be set upon a siugle vote at the Castle, The truth seems to be that this lord-lieutenant, with all his " un- limited discretion" had not places and pen- sions and money sufficient to insure the needful majorities. If the Castle majority deserted the viceroy, then, it was not on account of any fault on Ins part, but rather on account of his one virtue — which they could never forgive — economy of the public money. In a debate which arose in the House, while this regency question was still awaiting decision, and in which the adminis- tration of the Marquis of Buckingham was made the subject of severe comment, Mr. Corry admitted a large increase of salary in his appointment (surveyor of the ordnance), but could at the same time show some savings to tin' public in his department, which would fully justify whatever alteration had been made: the intention of the alteration was to place the management in the hands of men, who might be supposed above the little arts of plunder and peculation, which had before disgraced the department much to the pub- lic loss. He had ever opposed the extension of pensions, aud opposition to that practice was one of the conditions on which he had accepted of office : but he could not see that the Marquis of Buckingham deserved cen sure because a bill to limit pensions had been opposed in his administration, The majority of the House stood pledged to op- pose the bill : but the marquis had not added a pension to the lint. This was not indeed altogether correct; as he had agreed to a pension of £2000 in favor of Mr. Orde, of the "Commercial Propositions." Mr. Grattan, in the same debate, said, "The ex- penses of tin* Marquis of Buckingham were accompanied with the most extraordinary professions of economy, and censures on the conduct of the administration that imme- diately preceded him; he had exclaimed against the pensions of the Duke of Rutland, a man accessible undoubtedly to applications, but the most disinterested man on earth, and one whose noble nature demanded some, but received no indulgence from the rigist prin- ciples or professions of the Marquis of Buck- ingham. He exclaimed against his pensions, and he confirmed them: he resisted motion) made to disallow some of them ; and Ik finally agreed to a pension for Mr. Orde, the secretary of the Duke of Portland's admin- istration, whose extravagance was at once the object of his invective and his bounty : he resisted his pension, if report says true ; and having shown that it was against his con- science, In' submitted. Mr. Orde can never forgive the marquis the charges made against the man he thought proper to re- ward : the public will never forgive the pen- sion given to a man the marquis thought proper to condemn." What was even worse than this, and what the Castle statesmen of that day could still less forgive, it appears, from the same speech of Mr. Grattan, that " while the Marquis of Buckingham was pro- fessing a disinterested regard for the pros- perity of Ireland, he disposed of the best reversion in Ireland to his own family J the only family in the world that could not with decency receive it, as he was the only man in i he world who could not with decency dis- pose of it to them." After this it will not appear wonderful that the high and mighty aristocratic houses of Ireland, with all their train and influence, abandoned the Castle in this important crisia . f '• "^ ^s^sir^? JjSjj $» & s ^L Vt llfelW.;!' ^ *K ,v r amaiyasaiffii^ ISO HISTORY OF IRELAND. tliis question, us he made every question, an occasion lo inculcate the idea of a legisla- tive union, which was even then It is great political ann, and continued to be so until lie attained it. He maintained, that the crown of Ireland and the crown of England were inseparably and indissolubly united ; and that the Irish Parliament was perfectly and totally inde- pendent of the British Parliament. The first position was their security; the second was their freedom ; and when gen- tlemen talked any other language than that, they either tended to the separation of the crowns, or to the subjugation of their Parlia- ment; they invaded either their security or their liberty ; in fact, the only security of their, liberty was their connection with Great Britain, and gentlemen who risked breaking the connection, must make up their minds to a union. God forbid he should ever see that day ; but if ever the day on which a separation should be attempted, should come, he should not hesitate to embrace a union rather than a separation. Under the Duke of Portland's government the grievances of Ireland were stated to be : The alarming usurpation of the British Parliament ; A perpetual mutiny bill ; And the powers assumed by the privy council. These grievances were redressed, and in redressing them they passed a law repealing part of Poynings'. By their new law they enacted, that all bills, which should pass the two Houses in Ireland, should be Certified into England, and returned under the great seal of England, without any addition, dimi- nution, or alteration whatsoever, should pass into law, and no other. By this I hey made the great seal of England essentially and in- dispensably necessary on the passing of laws in Ireland: they could pass no act without first certifying it into England, and having it returned under the great seal in that kingdom, insomuch that were the King of England and Ireland to come in person, and to reside In Ireland, ho could not pass a bill without its being first certified to his regent, in England, who must return it under the seal of that kingdom before bis majestv could eveu in person assent to it. That if the House should by force of an address, upon the instant, and without any commu- nication with England, invest a regent with powers undefined, when the moment of re- flection came, it would startle the boldest adventurers in England; and then he reminded gentlemen of the language lliev held with England in the day they asserted their freedom: "Perpetual connection; com- mon fortune; we will rise or fall with Eng- land; we will share her liberty, and we will share her fate." Did gentlemen recollect the arguments used in England to justify- the fourth proposition of the commercial treaty? Ireland, said they, having a Parliament of her own, may think fit to carry on a com- merce, and regulate her trade by laws differ- ent from, perhaps contradictory to, the laws of Great Britain. How well founded that observation was, they would prove, if they seized the first opportunity that offered of differing from Great Britain on a great im- perial question ; certainly if it be the scheme to differ on all imperial questions, and if that bp abetted by men of great authority, they meant to drive them to a union, and the method they took was certainly more effect- ual to sweep away opposition, than if all the sluices of corruption were opened together and deluged the country's representatives: for it was certain nothing less than tiie idler- native of separation could ever force a union. Suppose the prince did not accept tlw regency in England ; suppose their address should reach him before he was actually invested with royal powers in England, in what situation would you put him 1 They would call on him, in defiance of two acts of Parliament, which made the crowns in- separable, to dethrone the king his father. They would call upon him to do an act now, at which hereafter his nature would revolt. They were false friends of the Prince of Wales, who should advise him to receive an address, that might give him cause to curse the hand which presented it. He knew that liberties indecent in the extreme had been taken with the name of that august personage, lie knew it had been whispered, that every man who should vote against the address, would be considered as voting against him and treating him with disre- spect ; but if any man had had the guilt v. i .WUMillS,^ V* r^: /*. , ^ & ■s I FITZOIIiDON' S SPEECH OX THE REGENCY. 1S7 (Hid folly to poison his mind with such nn insinuation, he trusted to his good sense to distinguish his friends; he would trust to his good sense to determine, whether they were li is friends who wished to guard the imperiti] rights of the British crown, or they who would st:ike them upon the momentary and impellent triumph of an English party. What matter to the prince, whether lie re- ceived royal authority by bill or by address? A\ as there a man who would presume to libel him, and to assert, that the success of that measure would be a triumph to him ? There was a feature in the proceeding whieh, independent of every other objection to it, did in his mind make it highly repre- hensible, and that was, that he considered it as a formal appeal from the Parliament of ■Jiq England to that of Ireland. Respecting the parties who made that appeal he should say nothing : but although there might be much dignity on their part in receiving the appeal, he could not see any strong symptoms of wisdom in it ; because by so doing he should conceive we must inevitably sow the seeds of jealousy and disunion between the Parlia- ments of the two countries; and though he did not by any means desire of the Parlia- ment of that country implicitly to follow the Parliament of England, he should suppose it rather a wise maxim for Ireland always to concur with the Parliament of Great Britain, unless for very strong reasons indeed they were obliged to differ from it. If it were to be a point of Irish dignity to differ with the Parliament of England to show their inde- pendence, he very much feared that sober men in that country, who had estates to lose, would soon become sick of independence. The fact was, that constituted as it was, the Government of that country, never could go on, unless they followed Great Britain im- plicitly in all regulations of imperial policy. The independence of their Parliament was their freedom ; their dependence on the crown of England was their security for that t'r lom ; and gentlemen, who professed themselves, that night, advocates for the in- dependence of the Irish crown, were advo- cates for its separation from England, They should agree with England in three pOilltS: one king, one law, one religion. They should keep these great objects stead- ily in view, and act like wise men: it' they made the Prince of Wales their regent, and granted him the plenitude of power, in God's name let it be done by bill ; otherwise he saw such danger, that he deprecated the measure proposed. He called upon the country gen- tlemen of Ireland ; that that was not a time to think of every twopenny grievance, every paltry disappointment sustained at the- Castle of Dublin ; if any man had been aggrieved by the viceroy, and chose to compose a philippic on the occasion, let him give it on the debate of a turnpike bill, where it would not be so disgraceful to the man who uttered it, and to those who would not listen to him, as it would be on the present occasion. On the 17th the address was agreed upon by both IIouscs. Its principal clause was in these words : — " Wc therefore beg leave humblv to re- quest, that your royal highness will be pleased to take upon you the government of this realm during the continuation of his majesty's present indisposition, and no long- er; and under the style and title of Prince Regent of Ireland, rn the name and on be- half his majesty, to exercise and administer, according to the laws and constitution of this kingdom, all regal powers, jurisdiction, and prerogatives to the crown and govern- ment thereof belonging.'' Ou the 19th boih Houses waited on the lord-lieutenant, requesting him to transmit it to the prince. He refused to do so. On the day following Mr. Grat'an moved in the House "that his excellency the lord-Iienten- aut having thought proper to decline to trans- mit to His Royal Highness George Prince of Wales, the address of both Houses of Parlia- ment, a competent number of members be appointed by this House, to present the said address to his royal highness," This was carried by a large majority; was sent up to the Lords, who concurred, and named the Duke of Leinster and the Earl of Charlemont to accompany the members of the other House who should be appointed to join them in presenting the addtess. Mr. Grattan then moved, "that it be Re- solved, That his excellency the lord-lieuten- ant's answer to both Houses of Parliament, requesting him to transmit their address to His Roval Highness the Priuce of Wales is TO m V r ^■■*$m l (?±&&Js 188 niSTORY OF IRELAND. ' ill advised, contains an unwarrantable and unconstitutional censure on the proceedings of l>oth Houses of Parliament, and attempts to question the undoubted lights and priv- ileges of the Lords spiritual and temporal and Commons of Ireland." On the 25th of February the committee of the two Houses of Parliament, having arrived in London, proceeded to Carlton House and presented the address. They "ere most graciously received : but two clays before, the king had recovered from his malady. It was thus unnecessary for the prince cither to accept or reject the offer made to him by the Irish Parliament. He congratulated them on the happy change in bis majesty's health, and assured them of the "gratitude and affection to the loyal and generous people of Ireland which he felt indelibly imprinted on his heart." This dangerous dispute was thus ended for that time. Its dangers were twofold. First, the prince might have refused the regency with limited powers — in that case the Eng- lish Parliament would certainly have made the queen regent : and the prince might have accepted the Irish regency with un- limited powers: there would then have been two regents, and two separate kingdoms. Secondly, the prince might have accepted the regency precisely on the terms ottered him in each country : he would then have been a regent with limited powers in Eng- land, and with full royal prerogative in Ire- land ; unable to create a peer in England, but with power to swamp the House with new peerages in Ireland; unable to reward his friends with certain grants, pensions, and oiliees in England, but able to quarter them all upon the revenue of Ireland. The peril of such a condition of things was fully ap- preciated both by Mr. Pitt, and by his able coadjutor in Ireland, Mr. Fitzgibbon. They drew from it an argument for the total an- nihilation of Ireland by a legislative union. Others who watched events with equal attention, found in it a still sounder argu- ment for total separation. CHAPTER XXIV. 1780. Unpopularity of Buckingham— Formation of .in Irish character — Efforts of Patriot* in Parliament — All in vain — Purchasing votes — Corruption — Whig Club— Lord Clare on Whig Club — Buckingham haves Ireland — Pension List— Peep-of-Dliy Boys and Defenders — Westmoreland, Viceroy — Unavail- ing efforts against corruption — Material prosperity — King William's Birthday — French Revolution. Ireland may possibly have had worsfa viceroys than the Marquis of Buckingham ; hut scarcely one so intensely unpopular, lie was parsimonious and extravagant — that is, he saved pennies, and squandered thousands of pounds; yet did not squander them on the right persons. He talked economy and practised the most reckless profusion, yet in an underhand, indirect manner which made him no friends and many enemies. In manner he was extremely reserve.^ whelhcr from pride or from a natural coldness of disposition. In short, he was in every way unsuited to the Irish temperament : for there had lately been formed gradually a marked Irish character, even amongst the Protestant colonists before the era of In- dependence, and still more notably since that time. Gentlemen born in this conn- try, and all whose interests and associa- tions were here, no longer called themselves Englishmen born in Ireland, as Swift had done. The same powerful assimilating in- fluence which had formerly made the Nor- man settlers, Gerald ines and I >e Blirghs "more Irish than the Iiish" after two or three generations, had now also acted more or less upon the very Cromwellians and Williamites ; and there was recognizable in the whole character and bearing even of the Protestants a certain dash of that gen- erosity, levity, impetuosity, and recklessness which have marked the Celtic raee since the beginning. They were capable of the most outrageous depravity and of the beh- est honor and rectitude; of the most ins... lent, ostentatious venality and corruption, as well as of the noblest, proudest independ- ence. The formation of this modern com- posite Irish character is of course attribu- table, to the gradual amalgamation of the privileged Protestant colonists with the con- © W> NT 1 SHI r v-' IN ?/ w \ /•\ ;S* i « verted Irish, who had from time to time conformed to the established church, to save their estates, or to possess themselves of the property of Don-conformiug neighbors. This was a large and increasing element in the Protestant colony ever since the time of Elizabeth; and of such families came the Cumins, Dalvs, Dovles, Conollys, as well as the higher names O'Neil, O'Brien, Burke, Roche, Fitzpatrick. The ancestors of these families, in abandoning their Catholic faith, could not let out all their Celtic blood, and that blood permeated the whole mass of the population, ami often broke out and showed its origin, even in men partly of English descent, or at least of English names. Grat- tan, for example, in the character of bis in- tellect and temperament, was as purely Celtic as Curran himself. In truth it had become very difficult to determine the eth- nological distinction between the inhabitants of this island ; and surnames had long ceas- ed to be a safe guide : because ever since the "Statutes of Kilkenny" in the 15th century, thousands of Irish families, espe- cially of those residing near or in the Eng- lish Pale Kad changed their names in obe- dience to those statutes, that they might have the benefit of the English law in their dealings with the people of the Pale. They had assumed surnames, as prescribed by the statute, either from some trade or calling, as Miller, Taylor, Smith, — or from some place, as Trim, Shine, Galway, — or from some color, as Gray, Green, White, Brown. Gradually their original clan-names were lost; and it soon became their interest to keep up no tradition even of their Irish de- scent. Of one of the families in this cate- gory, undoubtedly came Oliver Goldsmith, whose intensely Irish nature is a much surer guide to his origin than the trade-surname of Goldsmith adopted under the statute. It has been said that surnames were no sure guide to origin : but in one direction surnames were, and are, nearly infallible : — a Celtic surname is a sure indication of Celtic blood, because nobody ever had any interest in assuming or retaining such a patronymic, all the interests and temptations being the other way. But an English sur- name is no indication at all of English de- scent, because for several centuries — first under the Statutes of Kilkenny, afterwards under the more grievous pressure of the Penal Code, all possible worldly induce- ments were held out to Irishmen to take English names and forget their own.* From so large a mingling of the Celtic ele- ment even in the exclusive Protestant colony had resulted the very marked Irish charac- ter which was noticed, though not, with complacency, by English writers of that period : — and to this character the cold, dry, and narrow Marquis of Buckingham was altogether abhorrent. During the agitation of the regency question, he had succeeded in creating two new offices of great emolu- ment : one by the separation of the excise and revenue board, which provided a place for a Beresford ; another by appointing an additional commissioner to the Stamp-office. "About this time also," as Mr. Plowden says maliciously, " his excellency found it neces- ■ sary to restore to the officers in barracks their wonted allowance of firing, which in a former fit of subaltern economy he had stopped from them. This pitiful stoppage had been laid on to the great discontent of the army, and being very ungraciously re- moved the alleviation was received without gratitude." Mr. Grattan, in a debate on this administration, says: — '• His great objection to the Marquis of Buckingham, was not merely that he had been a jobber, but a jobber in a mask ! his objection was not merely, that his admin- istration had been expensive, but that his expenses were accompanied with hypocrisy : it was the affectation of economy, attended with a great deal of good, comfortable, sub- stantial jobbing for himself and his friends. That led to another measure of the Marquis of Buckingham, which was the least cere- monious, and the most sordid and scandalous act of self interest, attended with the sac- rifice of all public decorum; he meant the disposal of the reversion of the place of the chief remembrancer to his brother, one of * It would he » curious study to trace the history of Irish family names. For the first three centuries after the Norman invasion under Henry II., the movement was quite in an opposite direction : and Do Burghs became Mm Williams, De Bermingluims .\hie Feoruis, the Fitzurscs, Mao Mnhons; and Nor- man burons became chiefs of chms, forgot both French and English, rode without stirrups, and kept the upper lip unshaven. ESQ, '"f ) the best, if not llie very best office in the kingdom, given in reversion to an absentee, with a great patronage and a compensation annexed. That most sordid and shameless act was committed exactly about the time when the kingdom was charged with greal pensions tor ike bringing home, as it was termed, absentee employments. That bring- ing home absentee employments was a monstrous job ; the kingdom paid the value of the employment, and perhaps more; she paid the value of the tax also. The pension- er so paid was then suffered to sell both to a resident, who was free from the tax : he was then permitted to substitute new and voung lives in the place of his own, and then permitted to make a new account against the country, and to receive a further compensation, which he was suffered in the same manner to dispose of." It was undoubtedly, in part, owing to the excessive unpopularity of this viceroy that the short remainder of his government was so little satisfactory to himself and his em- ployers in London; and that the Patriots were aide to gain some trifling advantages; not indeed to such an extent as to accom- plish a single reform or abate a single abuse, but at least to shake the regular venal par- liamentary majorities and alarm the Govern- ment. As the late gloomy prospect of a change in the Irish administration had driven many gentlemen to the opposition benches, Mr. Grattan was willing to avail himself of the earliest fruits of their con- version ; accordingly, on the third of March, 1789. he offered to the House a resolution which he thought absolutely necessary, from a transaction which had lately taken place. He thought it necessary to call the attention of the House to certain principles, which the gentlemen, witli whom he had generally the honor to coincide, considered as the indispensable condition, without which no government could expect their support, and which tin- present Government had resisted. The first was a reform of the police: at present the institution could only be consid- ered as a scheme of patronage to the Castle, and corruption to the city ; a scheme which had failed to answer the end of preserving public peace, but had fully succeeded in ex- tending; the influence of the Castle. Another principle much desired, was to restrain the abuse of pensions by a bill simi- lar to that of Great Britain. That principle, he said, Lord Buckingham had resisted, and his resistance to it was one great cause of his opposing his Government. To this he would add another principle, the restraining revenue officers from voting at elections : this, he observed, was a principle of the British Parliament, and it was certainly more necessary in Ireland, from what had lately taken place, where, by a certain union of family interests, counties had become bor- oughs, and those boroughs had become private property. But the principle to which he begged to call the immediate attention of the House was, that of preventing the great offices of the state from being given to absentees: that was a principle admitted by all to be founded in national right, purchased by liberal compensation, and every departure from it must be considered as a slight to the nobility ami gentry of Ireland, who certainly were Letter entitled to the places of honor and trust in their own country, than any absentee could possibly be ; but besides the slight shown to the nobility and gentry of Ireland, by bestowing places of honor, of profit, and of trust on absentees, the draft of money from this country, the institution of deputies (a second establishment unne- cessary, were the principal* to reside), the double influence arising from this raised the abuse into an enormous grievance. Mr. Grattan concluded with a motion to con- demn this last practice. A very warm debate ensued, in which Mr. Corry and some other gentlemen ad- mitted the principle of the resolution, al- though they opposed its passing, because it was a censure on the Marquis of Bucking- ham. To get rid of the question, an ad- journment was moved and carried by a ma- jority of llo against 10G. Thus early had the old majority began to fall into their for- mer ranks. Still the superiority of votes bore no proportion to 200 and upwards, of which the former full majorities consisted. Mr. Grattan, accordingly, on the following day (4th of March) moved for leave to bring in a bill for the better securing the freedom of election for members to serve in Pailia- % u \\M 7 |ti "Tnc .c^uA^i.u, ^^ c4? t\, /^te^'Z-x tes rfi ^\ fe PURCHASING VOTES — CORRUPTION. ment, /»// disabling certain officers employed in the collection or management of his ma- jesty's revenue from giving their votes at such election. I!ut none of the measures proposed by Mr. Grattan could be carried in that House. In fact the deserting members of the ma- jority were soon whipped back into their ranks: for on the 14th of March the lord- lieuteuant made a speech to both Houses, officially informing them of the full recovery of the king. It was immediately apparent that Mr. I'itt was again supreme ; and it was even intimated very plainly that the members of either House who had concurred in the address to the prince, or who had voted for a censure on the conduct of the marquis, should be made to repent of their votes. The House having by this time been nearly marshalled into their former ranks, Mr. Grattan thought it useless to divide them on the second reading of the place bill, on the 30th of April ; it was negatived without a division. The only subject par- ticularly interesting to the history of Ireland, which came before. Parliament during the remainder of that session, was the subject of tithes: Mr. Grattan having presented to the House, according to order, a bill to ap- point commissioners for the purpose of in- quiring into the state of tithes in the differ- ent provinces of that kingdom, and to re- port a plan for ascertaining the same: he followed up his motion with a very elaborate, instructive, and eloquent speech upon this important national object. The House ad- journed from the 8;h to the 2.3th of May, .hi which day the lord-lieutenant prorogued the Parliament, and made a speech of a gen- eral nature, without a word of reference to any of the extraordinary circumstances of the M-ssion. The administration, alarmed by the late symptoms of disaffection, and bv the rc- newed combination of the powerful aristo- cratic houses, as exhibited in the proceed- ings on that regeney question, now set itself deliberately to purchase back votes in de- tail, and agaii to check the Irish oligarchi- cal influence. It ha: been already men- ti '1. in tli" account of Lord Townshend's pense to the nation, broke up an aristocracy which before his time had monopolized the whole power of the Commons and regularly bargained for terms with every new represent- ative for managing the House of Commons. Mr. Fitzgibbon (and no man knew better) now admitted, that this manoeuvre cost the nation upwards of half a million : that is, that he had paid or granted so much to purchase that majority in Parliament, by which he governed to the end of his admin- istration. Mr. Grattan, some years afterwards, com- menting on this declaration of Fitzgibbon's and the astonishing scene of corruption which followed it, broke out in this fierce language : — " Half a million, or more, was expended some years ago to break an opposi- tion; the same, or a greater su?n may be ne- cessary noip: so said the principal servant of the crown. The House heard him : I heard him : he said it standing on his leo-s to an astonished and an indignant nation ; and he said it in the most extensive sense of bribery and corruption. The threat was proceeded on ; the peerage was sold ; the caitiffs of corruption were everywhere ; in the lobby, in the street, on the steps, and at the door of every parliamentary leader, whose thresholds were worn by the mem- bers of the then administration, offering titles to some, amnesty to others, and corruption to all." Indeed no bounds were now set, either to the corruption or to the proscription. The Government kept no measures with its enemies, and had nothing to refuse to its friends. Mr. Fitzgibbon, the attorney-gen- eral, and real governor of the country, was a man as audacious, as resolute, and neatly as eloquent as Grattan himself. It is im- possible to deny to the man, on this and on subsequent occasions, a certain tribute of admiration for his potent will and fiery man- hood, and all the credit which may be sup- posed due to a bold, out-spoken, insolent defiance and disdain of every sentiment of public, conscience. Under his advice and superintendence, market-overt was held for votes and influence; prices of boroughs, and of patts of boroughs, of votes, titles, and peerages were brought to a regular tariff. administration, that he, at a very heavy ex- 1 Not a peerage, not an honor, nor a place •«rf«U. ^ixt.ttmiiti.i' W& IIISTOKY OF IRELAND. m v 'M Oc nor pension was disposed of but expressly for engagements of support in Parliament. Ami every little office or emolument that could be resumed by Government was granted upon a new bargain for future ser- vices. But this was not enough : proscrip- tion of enemies was to go band in hand with reward of service. It mattered not, that iu response to the atrocious threat of punishing those who had opposed the Gov- ernment, the famous "Round Robin " was signed by the leading peers and most illus- trious commoners of Irelaud, denouncing this attempt at intimidation and coercion. It was signed by the Duke of Leiuster, the Archbishop of Tuam, and eighteen peers, as well as by Grattan, Conolly, Curran, the 1 'onsonbys, O'Neill, Charles Francis Sheridan, Langrishe, Ogle, Daly, and many others; and declared that any such proscription was an attack on the independence of Parlia- ment, and was in itself sufficient ground for relentless opposition against any govern- ment. The bold attorney -general was not to be intimidated by this — the Duke of Leiuster himself, who held an office of high rank, was forthwith dismissed : Mr. Fitzher- bert, Mr. George Ponsonby, the Earl of Shannon, and a dozen other high officials, who had supported the regeuey of the Prince of Wales were unceremoniously treated in like manner. At the same time the offices were given, or rather sold to others, for past or future service ; anil Fitz- gibbon himself, who had indeed earned, and who was yet to earn, all the favors which the British Government can heap on one 111:111, was made Lord Chancellor. Good working majorities were now secure, and '"the king's business" was to be done in future without fail and with a high hand. It seems very strange now, that Mr. Grat- tan and his friends should not have per- ceived the utter failure and futility of their great and famous achievement of '82 for any practical purpose in checking the deadly domination of England. It is strange that he in particular, who had always avowed himself in favor of full emancipation to the Catholics, did not at last come to the con- clusion that the only hope of the country lay, not in Parliament, but in preparation for armed resistance by a united nation. In short, the wonder is, that it was not Grattan himself who invented the association of United Irishmen. He, with his powerfu political following could have given to tha organization a consistency and a power such as it never possessed, and might have made of Ninety-eight a greater Eighty-two. But in fact he shunned all extra-parliamentary action, and denounced the United Irish to the last. He was so proud of the achieve- ment of Eighty-two that he never could be brought to see its imperfection. Besides, there grows up in members of Parliament, after some years' habit of working in that body, a kind of superstitious reverence for it; an unwillingness to acknowledge any political vitality out-of-doors, and a morbid idea that the eyes of the universe are upon that House, or at least ought to be. Here he stood, after eight years of " indepen- dence," confronting an independent Parlia- ment, of whom one hundred and fou» Were bribed as placemen or pensioners, and about a hundred and twenty more owned by pro- prietors of boroughs, vainly fulminating hi indignant protests against corruption — al his efforts to reform auy abuse whatever, totally defeated — his Volunteers well got rid of, and succeeded by a militia under imme- diate control of the crown, and a police force in the metropolis to make sure that no popular demonstrations should ever again attempt to overawe that "independent Par- liament;" and yet he could not think of ad- mitting the only rational conclusion —that the uuited people should be organized to take the government out of hands so incom- petent or so vile. But although the Patriotic party did not go the length of revolutionary projects, they felt the necessity of combining and organiz- ing their parliamentary forces. The " Round Robin" was the parent of the " Whig Club." The leaders of opposition had found it ad- visable, in order to consolidate their force into a common centre of uniou, to establish a new political society under the denomina- tion of the Whig Club; an institution highly obnoxious to the Castle: they adopted tie same principles, were clad in the same uni- form of blue ami buff, and professedly acted in concert with the Whig Club of England. At the head of this club were the Duke of '■/£s\ y~ 5~N=i & 6 % \ u IP, ■a £A4 .(.mMtHii ffl /'• % *9> Leinst-r, tin- Earl of Charlemont, Mr. Condlly, Mr. Grattan, Mr. Forbes, both the Messieurs Ponsonby, Mr. Curran, and a number of leading members of opposition in both Honses. It was a rendezvous and round of cabinet dinners fur the opposition. Here were planned and arranged all the measures for attack on the ministry. Each member had his measure or his question in turn ; the plans of debate and mancnuvre were preconcerted, and to each was assigned that share in the attack which he was most competent to perform. This club, aided by some popular newspapers, announced its days of dining, proclaimed its sentiments in the shape of resolutions, and enforced them in the press by articles and paragraphs. Some men afterwards well known as United Irishmen, became members of the Whig Club; especially Archibald Hamilton Rowan a gentleman of property in the county of Down, and James Napper Tandy, the Vol- unteer Artillery commander, who was ad- mitted by acclamation. Fitzgibbon (Earl of Clare), in his celebrated speech for the Union — which is the most valuable historic document concerning the events of his day (on the side of plunder, corruption, and Eng- lish domination) — thus, with vindictive sar- casm, speaks of the buff-and-blue club: — "The better to effectuate the great national objects of a limitation of the pensiou list, an exclusion of pensioners from the House of Commons, a restriction of placemen, who should sit there, and a responsibility for the receipt and issue of the public treasury, a Whig Club was announced in a manifesto, signed and countersigned, charging the Brit- ish Government with a deliberate and sys- tematic intention of sapping the liberties and subverting the Parliament of Ireland. All persons of congenial character and sen- timent were invited to range under the Whig banner, for the establishment and protection of the Irish constitution, on the i lei of the Revolution of 1688 ; and under this banner was ranged such a motley col- lection of congenial characters, as never be- fore wen 1 assembled for the reformation of the state. Mr. Napper Tandy was received by acclamation, as a statesman too impor- t-ait and illustrious to be committed to the hazard of a ballot. Mr. Hamilton Rowan 2.5 also repaired to the Whig banner. Unfor- tunately, the political career of these gen tletnen has been arrested ; Mr. Tandy's l> an attainder of felony, and an attainder of treason ; Mr. Hamilton Rowan's by an at- tainder of treason. The Whig secretarv, it" he does not stand in the same predicament, is now a prisoner at the mercy of the crown, on his own admission of his treason ; arid it' I do not mistake, the whole society of Irish Whigs have been admitted, ad eumlem, by their Whig brethren of England. In the fury of political resentment, some noblemen and gentlemen of the first rank in this country stooped to associate with the refuse of the community-, men whose principles they held in abhorrence, and whose manners and deportment must always have excited their disgust." There was public thanksgiving in the churches of Dublin for the king's recovery : and in the Catholic chapel of Francis Street a solemn high mass was performed " with a new grand Te Denm composed on the occa- sion by Giordani. The Catholics were still unrecognized by the law, as citizens or mem- bers of civil society, and existed only ' by connivance ;' but some Catholic writers tell us with complacency, as a happy in- stance of the increasing liberality of the times, that several of the first Protestant nobility and gentry assisted at this mass. Plowden says, ' So illustrious an assemblage had never met in a Catholic place of worship in that kingdom since the Reforma- tion. Besides the principal part of their own nobility and gentry, there were pres- ent on the occasion the Duke of Leinster, the Earls and Countesses of Belvedere, Arran, and Portarlington, Countesses of Car- hampton and Ely, Lords Tyrone, Valentia, and Delvin, Mr. D. La Touche and family, Mr. Grattan, Major Doyle, Mrs. Jeffries, Mrs. Trant, and several other persons of the first distinction.' " In the month of June of this year the Marquis of Buckingham went to Cork, stayed for a day at the villa of Mr. Lee at Black Rock, and from thence quietly em- barked for England. He never returned ; and it was observed by Mr. O'Neill in the House of Commons "that if he had not taken £5> ^ X ^ m S> JSP T* 194 IIISTOHY OF IRELAND. kingdom, lie would have been greeted on his retreat in a very different manner from what he had been on his arrival." Of the course of this bad viceroy's government we find no better summary than that given by Mr. Grattan in a speech delivered while Lord Buckingham still sat in Dublin Castle. "This was the man; you remember his entry into the capital, trampling on the hearse of the Duke of Rutland, and seated in a triumphal car, drawn by public credu- lity ; on one side fallacious hope, and on the other many-mouthed profession : a figure with two faces, one turned to the treasury, and the other presented to the people ; and with a double tongue, speaking contradictory languages. "This minister alights; justice looks up to him with empty hopes, and peculation faints with idle alarms; he finds the city a prey to an unconstitutional police — he con- tinues it; he finds the country overburdened with a shameful pension list — he increases it ; he finds the House of Commons swarm- ing with placemen — he multiplies them; he finds the salary of the secretary increased to prevent a pension — he grants a pension ; he finds the kingdom drained by absentee em- ployments, and by compensations to buy them home — he gives the best reversion in the country to an absentee, his brother; he finds the Government at different times had disgraced itself by creating sinecures to gratify corrupt affection — he makes two commissioners of the rolls, and gives one of them to another brother; he finds the second council to the commissioners put down be- cause useless — he revives it; he finds the boards of accounts and stamps annexed by public compact — he divides them ; he finds tiie boards of customs and excise united by public compact — he divides them; he finds three resolutions, declaring that, seven com- missioners are sufficient — he makes nine ; he finds the country has suffered by some pecu- lations in the ordnance — he increases the salaries of offices, and gives the places to members of Parliament." Before dismissing the Marquis of Bucking- ham and his viceroyaltv, it is right to add that during his government the pension list, already enormous, was increased by new pensions to the amount of X' 13,000 a year.* It was a good argument, morally, for reform, but a still better argument, materially and practically, against reform. Parliamentary patriots might have seen that they were moving in a vicious circle : the more irresistible, logical, and argumenta- tive were their assaults on the citadel of corruption, the more impregnable became that citadel, by means of the very corrup- tion itself: and it must be admitted that although the Marquis of Buckingham ab- sconded, like any defaulting bank officer from Ireland, he left British policy in full, successful, and triumphant operation. On the 30th of June, 1789, Filzgibbon, the new lord chancellor, and Mr. Foster the Speaker of the House, were sworn in lords-justices. The Marquis of Buckingham resigned, and was succeeded by the Earl of Westmoreland. In the last year of the Buckingham ad- « * Tliis being mere matter of account. Bays Mr. Grattan, 1 extract it from the papers laid before Parliament. Appendix to the 13th vol. Jonrn. Com., p. 271. A list of all Pensions placed on the dull Establish- ment during the period of the Marquis of Bucking- ham's Administration, with an account of the total Amount thereof. Fitzherbert Richards, Esq £40n James Caven lish, Esq ISO Harriet Cavendish 150 Lionel, Lord Viscount Strangford. . . . 400 Robert Thornton, Esq Sun Right Honorable Thomas Orde 1700 Duke of Gloucester 4000 Georgiaa, Viscountess Boyne 500 Lady Catherine Marlay . 300 Honorable Rose Browne. .... . 800 Walter Taylor 800 Francis d'lvernois Son David Jebb, Esq 300 Lady Catherine Toole 200 Thomas Coughlan, additional 200 William, Viscount Chetwynd, additional. . 200 Charles, Viscount Rauelagh, and Sarah, Vis- countess Ranelagb, his wife, and sur- vivor 400 Lucia Agar, Viscountess Clifden, and Emily Anne Agar her daughter, and sur- vivor 300 Sir Henry Mannix, Bart 500 Sir Richard Johnstone, Bart., and William Johnstone, Esq., his son, and survivor 800 Sarah llcruon 70 Elizabeth Hernon 70 Henry Loftus, Esq 800 Diana Loftus 300 William Colville, Esq 600 £13,040 «-/. LhQ .cawMBl.S.S rfc, ministration, the violent feuds of the Peep- of-Day-Boya and Defenders had taken al- most tin' proportions of a small civil war. Mni v of the Protestant landlords in Armagh and Tyrone Counties diligently fomented and embittered these disputes, " with the diabolical purpose," says Mr. Plowden, "of breaking up the union of the Protestants and Catholics, which had been effected by serving together as Volunteers, and was one of the effects of that system, which the Government appeared most to dread. Re- p 'its were industriously set afloat, and greedily credited by most Protestants of the county of Armagh, who long had been pre- eminent amongst their brethren for their zealous antipathy to Popery, that if Cath- olics, who had obtained arms, and learned the use of them during the war, were per- mitted to retain them, they would soon be used in erecting Popery on the ruins of the Protestant religion. The Defenders had long and frequently complained, that all that efforts to procure legal redress against the outrages committed upon them by the Peep- of-Day Buys were unavailing : that their oppressors appeared to be rather counte- nanced, than checked by the civil power; and that the necessity of the case had driven them into counter-combinations to defend their lives and properties against these un- controlled marauders. Whilst these petty, but fatal internal hostilities were confined chiefly to the county of Armagh, it appears that the Defenders had generally remained passive according to their first institution and appellation : and that thev only became aggressors, when they afterwards were eom- pelled to emigrate from their country. Their hostility was now at its height; Gov- ernment sent down two troops to quell them, bat above fifty on both sides had been killed in an affray before the horse arrived. Tranquillity lasted whilst the troops remain- ed. But it was impossible that a large assemblage of men, void of education, pru- dence, or control, should long remain together without mischief." The "Defenders," that is the luckless Catholics of those northern counties, strag- gling only to live by their labor; surround- ed by a larger population of insolent and ferocious Protestant farmers, remained al- ways, as their name imports, strictly on the defensive. They never were mad enough to became "aggressors" at all : and Mr. Plow- den, in the passage just cited, falls into the not unusual error of Catholic writers, who are so determined to be impartial that thev lean to the party which they abhor. It is right to understand once for all — and we shall have but too many occasions of illus- trating the fact — that in all the violent and bloody contentions which have taken place between the Catholics and Protestants of Ulster from that day to the present, with- out any exception, the Protestants have been the wanton aggressors. It was with the utmost difficulty that Catholics could procure arms; but they knew that their Protestant neighbors were all armed. They knew also that if there were to be any examina- tion into the facts before justices of the peace, or at the assizes, they were sure to meet a bitter, contemptuous hostility on the bench and in the jury-box; and witnesses ready to swear that a Popish funeral was a military parade, and a faction-fight an in- surrection. Therefore it was not in the nature of things that such an oppressed race should voluntarily seek a collision, or should resort to violence save in the utmost extrem- ity of almost despairing resistance. It is true also, that from the very origin of Peep-of-Day Boys (who afterwards ripen- ed into Orangemen), down to the present moment (1867), many of the greatest pro- prietors in Ulster, peers and commoners, have carefully stimulated the ferocity of the ignorant Protestant yeomanry by their own insolent behavior towards the opp^esse people, ami especially by inculcating and enlarging upon all the dreadful details of that bloody fable, the "Popish Massacre - ' of 1041. Sir John Temple's horrible romance was a fifth gospel to the "Ascendency " of the Noith ; and was often enlarged upon (like the other four) by clergymen in their pulpits, to show that it is the favorite enjoyment of Papists to rip up Protestant women with knives; to murder the mothers and then to put the infants to their de:i mother's breast, and say : "Suck, English bastard/" — to delude men out of houses bv oilers of quarter, and then to cut their throats, and so on. Indeed when the cod- R? JH. vm Ho *■* !* 3 ^sk"" g yzL^— _^>t SP' 190 HISTOKY OF IKEI.AND. 0' i\ !/>> i : '£ ; , ¥ scientiotls Dr. Curry published his examina- tion of the histories of that pretended mas- sacre, his friends feared for his life: it was held proof positive, in his day, of a design to " bring in the Pretender," if one pre- sumed to deny or doubt the terrible drown- ing of Protestants at Portadown bridge — or to question the fact of their ghosts appear- ing in the river at night, breast-high in the water, ami shrieking "Revenge! ReaengeP' From sneh historic literature as this were derived the opinions formed of Catholics by Peep-of-Day Boys, and by their worthy successors the Orangemen. The baleful seeds of hatred and iniquity sown thus in the minds of benighted Protestants, by those who ought to have taught them better, fell in congenial soil, and grew, flourished, and ripened, as we shall soon have to narrate, in a harvest of bloody fruit. The Earl of Westmoreland's administra- tion was precisely like that of his prede- cessors. It was observed in Parliament by several of the opposition members " that it was but a continuance of the former ad- ministration under a less unpopular head." Major Doyle said (10 Pari. Deb., p. 233): "The same measures were continued by the present viceroy, as if some malicious demon had shot into him the spirit of bis depaited predecessor, and that the Castle of Dublin was only the reflected shadows of the Palace of Stowe." It is truly irksome to follow the unavail- ing parliamentary struggles made by a few faithful Irishmen in those days; and the commemoration of them might well be dispensed with but for the pride and pleas- ure which we cannot but feel in the knowl- edge that even in that dark day there were some glorious intellects and noble hearts in Ireland, who, environed around and almost overwhelmed bv the deluge of Bcoundrelism, yet did hold up the standard of rectitude and call upon the demoralized nation to follow that standard. It was the voire of one crying in the wilderness. We tiud in the parliamentary debates, during the session of 1790, the same sort of series of motions for committees, or for resolutions, against corruption, against in- crease of pensions and the like, with which the country was now familiar. It was ~ familiar also with the uniform defeat of all those efforts. Mr. Curraii, for example, moved, "That a humble address should be presented to his majesty, praying that he would order to be laid before that House the particulars of the causes, consideration, and representations, in consequence of which the boards of stamps and accounts had been divided, with an increase of salary to the officers ; also, that he would be graciously pleased to communicate to that House the names of the persons who recommended that measure." In his speech in support of this motion, Curran assailed the purchased majority with some of that biting and devouring sarcasm which the court so much dreaded, and which — had Curran been purchasable — ■ would have insured him the highest pi ice. "He brought forward that motion," he said, "not as a question of finance, not as a question of regulation, but as a penal in- quiry, and the people would now see, whether they were to hope for help within these walls." He rose in an assembly of three hundred persons, one hundred of whom had places or pensions; in an assem- bly, one-third of whom had their cars sealed against the complaints of the people, and their eyes intently turned to their own in- terest; he rose before the whisperers of the treasury, the bargainers and the runners of the Castle : he addressed an audience, before whom was holden forth the doctrine, that the crown ought to use its influence on the members of that House. He rose to try when the sluices of cor- ruption had been let loose upon them, whether there were any means left to stem that torrent. The debate broke out into great intem- perance on both sides : the division upon the motion was 81 iu support, and 141 against it. Mr. Cumin's doubt "whether there was hope for help within those walls," was plainly ripening into a certainty, that there was none. In the same way we find the indefatigable Mr. Forbes again trying his place bill and pension bill. This time he moved for an address to the king, setting forth the shabby details which he had long busied himself in J~L f X j£ A Pi OTt v i M rfssBSs. ;1 v ■**^>^2m*$* UNAVAILING EFFORTS AOAINsT i'nu.,1 PTION I « bringing to light: — how there was an im- mense increase in the pension lis', of pen- \l /* HI i . - 1 : \- op inawK impeachable. I said they h id applied the inonoy for the purpose of purchasing Beats in tlio HousoofC ions for the servants or followers of the Castle, for which offence I said they wore impeachable. I said thev had done this, not in one or two, bul in several instances, for which complication of offences I Raid his majesty's ministers were impeachable, as public malefactors, who had conspired ngainsl iho common weal, the in- dependence of Parliament, and the fund a mental laws of the land ; and I offered, and dared them to put this matter in a course of inquiry, I added, that [considered them us public malefactors, whom we were ready to bring to justice. I ropoat those charges now, and if any thing more Bovoro were on a former occasion expressed, 1 beg to I"' reminded of it, and I will again repeal it, Why do you not expel mo now? Why not Bend me to the bar of the Lords ? Where i» your advisor! Going out of the House 1 shall repent my sentiment's 'hat Ids ma justy's ministers are guilty of impeachable offences; and advancing to the bar of tho llie Lords, 1 shall repeal those sentiments, or it' the Tower is to be my habitation, 1 will there meditate the impeachment >>f these ministers, and return nol to capitulate, but to punish. Sir, 1 think I know myself well '■ gh to say, thai if called forth to suffer in a public cans. 1 , 1 will go further than ni\ prosecutors, both in virtue and in danger." All similar efforts Tailed ill the sum- man in ir; effecting nothing but an occasional opportunity of discharging a torrent of in dignant invective against the solid phalanx of Castle members, equally insensible to in- vective, to saivasin, t,, shain.', and to con- science ; and the Parliament was prorogued on the 5th of April, IT'.'O; the viceroy assuring thorn in his speeoh from the throne that " hf had great pleasure in signifying liia majesty's approbation of the zeal they had shown fir the public interest, and the dispatch with which they had conoluded the national businoss." Three days after the 1' irliament was dissoh ed. But although the Parliament of tho "in- dependent" kingdom of Ireland was in so wofully ooi i upl a condition, ) et we find that in material prosperity the eountrv continued to advance. The population had inoreased very rapidly, and it is estimated, for the year 1788, at 1,040,000, an in, -lease of n million and a half in twenty year-. This is a sure sign of general ease and abundance of the nOCOSSarioS of life. The revenue was also increasing fully in proportion to the in- crease of people; and the Catholics, being now empowered to hold longer lenses, and to take mortgages on money lent, had well improved their limited opportunities, and were 1> ime in all the towns an opulent and influential portion of the people. Yet the Catholics, while personally they were respect- ed, were as a body both oppressed and in- sulted. Of the I'our millions, thev were more than three ; vet. this great mass of people, the original and rightful owners of all the land, were still a proscribed race, still under the lull operation of the most odious of tho penal laws, excluded from I'ii- liamont, from the franohise, from the profes- sions, from the corporations, from theories, from the magistracy, from all civil and military employment. Public ceremonials were calculated and devised with the special design to humiliate them, and remind them of the high national estate from which thev had fallen; and even in those proud day's of the Volunteering, the anniversaries of I heir fatal defeats were regularly celebrated in Dnblin l>v the high officers •■!' state with all possible civic and military pomp. The author of the "Irish Abroad and at Home" tells us, from his own reoolleotions : — " King William's birthday (the 4th of November) was observed with greal eeiemonv. Within my own recolleotion, and even till the period of the Union, on eaeh till of November, the troops composing the garrison of Dublin marched from their respootive barracks to the Royal Exohange, and there turning to the right up to the Castle, and to the I, .ft ( ( > the college, lined the streets, Cork Hill, I lini' Sti.et, and College Green, on eaeh side the w :iv. " At the same time tho lord-lieutenant would be holding a le\ee; a drawing room wound up the observances, at which the nobility, the bishops, the members of the House of Commons (tho Speaker at their head), the judges, the bar, the provost, vice- provost^ "and follows of Trinity College, the loid mayor, aldermen, and other public V' 1 i: I Sill KEVOLUTION. — XEW ELECTION. $* f XVvi? '• .-If ^ - functionaries were present. The levue over, the lord-lieutenant issued in hi~ Btate-carriage .in. I with great pomp from the Caatle, passed down the line of streets, and round the M.iiur of King William, and then returned tn the Castle; followed also in carriages by tin' great officers of state, the bishops, the Houses of Lords and Commons, and those of the gentry who had been present at the levee." Hut as the Catholics advanced in prosper- ity and increased in numbers, this condition of inferiority in their own native land be- came more and more intolerable to them: the complete failure of the constitutional "independence" of '82 was creating amongst the more rational Protestants a desire of uniting themselves with the powerful Cath- olic masses; a "Catholic Committee " had now been for some years in existence, con- nived at bv Cover .-lit, and on the whole there was a considerable ferment in the pub- be mind at the moment when, on the 14th of July, 1780, all Europe rang and shook with the downfall of the J'>astile. Within three weeks nl'ter, on the memorable 4th of August, feudality and privilege were sudden- ly struck down and swept, away: in that most aristocratic of countries all men be- came suddenly equal in one night ; and the great French Revolu ion was in full career. CHAPTER XXV. 1700—1*91. New election— New peers— Sale of peonages — Motion ngain&l Police Bill Continual defeats of Patriots In olonoe of tin- Cootie — Progress of French Revolution — Horror of French principles — Kurke — Divisions amongst Irish Catholics — Wolfe Tone General Committee of Catholics To no goes to Belfast -Establishes first Unite.! Irish Club - Dublin United Irisli Club — Parliamentary Patriots avoid them— Progress of Catholic Committee — Projool of ii Convention— Troubles in County Arm., fh. Notwithstanding iho progress which had 1 ii made by the people ill political knowledge and spirit, stimulated by the mighty events then going forward in France, yet the influence of the Castle prevented any great change in the return of members to the new Parliament. The dissolution the 8th of April, 1700, and | for a vote of credit for £200,000, to be up. 100 the new Parliament was su lotn-d 10 meet at. Dublin on the 20th of May, but before that time, was further prorogued to the 10th of July, when it met for dispatch of business. Such of the constituencies as were really free to electa of course look care to send to Parliament all the most, prominent reform- ers. Craitan, Follies, Cm-ran, Ponsonby, Lord Henry Fitzgerald, occupied their old places on the opposition bench. We find among the new members several note. I names. A certain young Major Wellesley was returned for the borough of Trim, after- wards called to high destinies under the title of Duke of Wellington. Jonah Bar- rington was member forTuam: he bad seen the rise, and was destined to chronicle the Rise and Fall, of the, Irish nation. Arthur O'Connor came as member for Philipstown : his name will appear again in this narrative. Robert Stewart came as one of the members for Down County ; and had an opportunity of studying the modes of buying and selling in that great mart of votes and influences ; opportunities which he improved with the zeal of a clerk in a commercial house learn- ing his business. Wo shall see that he spent the season of his apprenticeship profitably. In the mean time, it is interesting to record that this gentleman sought his election, and was returned, expressly as an avowed re- former and patriot; and that on the hust- ings at Downpatrick be took the following pledge: — "That he would in and out of the House, with all bis ability and influence, promote the success of a bill for amending the representation of the people; a bill for preventing pensioners from sitting in Par- liament, or such placemen as cannot sit, in the British House of Commons ; a bill for limiting the numbers of placemen and pen- sioncrs and the amount of pensions \ f a bill for preventing revenue-officers from voting at elections; a bill for rendering the servants of the crown in Ireland responsible for the expenditure of the public money," etc., — in short, all the measures of reform which were at that time the ostensible objects of the opposition. The purpose of convening the Parliament was to obtain a vote of credit : accordingly the chancellor of the exchequer moved M v-'-s IIISTOIIY 01' IUELAND. y^ plied by the lord-lieutenant towards the expense of Government. On the 24th of the month his majesty's answer to the address of the Commons was communicated to the House, which was strongly expressive of his satisfaction at their determination to support the honor of his crown, and the common interest of the empire, at that important crisis : the Par- liament was then prorogued, and did not meet for the dispatch of business till the 20th of January, 1791. In the autumn, Mr. Secretary Hobart went over to England, as it was generally presumed, to concert the plan of the next parliamentary campaign with the British cabinet. It was also ru- mored, that the Irish government having in the widest plenitude adopted the principles and system of Lord Buckingham's adminis- tration, the right honorable secretary had also much consultation with that nobleman. Lord Westmoreland in the mean time was not inattentive to the means of acquiring popularity, the want of which in his pre- decessor he felt very strongly operating upon his own government. In a country excur- sion for nearly nine months he visited most of the nobility through the kingdom : his excellency and his ladv on all solemn occa- sions appeared clad in Irish manufactures : just as in our own day an ameliorative vice- roy has sometimes condescended to wear a u poplin waistcoat." We are even told that Lord Westmoreland further increased his popularity by giving permission to represent "The Beggar's Opera," which was then a favorite of the Dublin people, but the rep- resentation of which had been prohibited in Lord Buckingham's time. The business of this session differed very little from that of the last before the dissolu- tion. The Patriots appeared rather to have lost, than acquired, strength by the new elec- tion. Their number did not at any time during the course of this session exceed fourscore. But their resolution to press all the questions which they had brought for- ward in the last Parliament, appeared more violently determined than ever; insomuch, that Mr. George Ponsonby in replying to Mr. Cook, assured him, that the hope he had expressed of gentlemen on his side of the Ilouse not bringing forward those meas- ures, which they had done for some ses- sions past, was a lost hope, for that nothing but the hand of death or success should evei induce them to give up their pursuit. Ac cordingly Mr. Ponsonby, on the 3d of February, moved as usual for a select com- mittee to inquire into the pension list. It was got rid of by a motion for adjournment. Then Mr. Grattan, supported by Mr. Curran, renewed the charge upon its practice of selling peerages : it was rejected by 135 against 85. Mr. Curran then moved the following res- olution, in which he was seconded by Mr. Grattan, viz. : "That a committee be ap- pointed, consisting of members of both Houses of Parliament, who do not hold any employment or enjoy any pension under the crown, to inquire in the most solemn manner, whether the late or present ad- ministration have, directly or indirect!)', entered into any corrupt agreement with any person or persons, to recommend such person or persons to his majesty for the purpose of being created peers of this king dom, in consideration of their paving certait sums of money, to be laid out in the pur- chase of seats for members to serve in Par- liament, contrary to the rights of the people, inconsistent with the independence of Par- liament, and in direct violation of the funda- mental laws of the land." The ministerial members on all these oc- casions loudly complained of the reiteration of the old charges even without new argu- ments to support them ; they strongly in- sisted that no particular facts were alleged, much less proved ; and that general fame, surmise, and assertion, were no grounds for parliamentary impeachments, or any other sulemu proceedings iu that Ilouse. Mr. Grattan, before answering the objections advanced against the motion, adverted to the general dull and empty declamation uttered by the advocates of a corrupt gov- ernment against the defenders of an injured people. Four times, had those advocates told them, they had brought this grievance forth, as if grievances were only to be matter of public debate when they were matters of novelty ; or as if grievances were trading questions for a party or a person to press, to sell, and ft f& . If* ■"£«<: cni;iMai'S.n, PROGRESS OF Tlllt FRRXCII REVOLUTION. iNA I/- -fti ?* a to abandon ; or as if they came tliithor to act farces to please the appetite of the pub- lic, ami did not sit there to persevere in the redress of grievances, pledged as they were, and covenanted to the people on these im- portant subjects. Under these continual defeats of every generous effort to abate a single evil or in- justice, it seems to have been some satisfac- tion to the members of the opposition to in- dulge at least in violent philippics. Mr. Grattan, for instance, in making a renewed effort against the unconstitutional police system : — Ministers had, he said, resorted to a place army and a pensioned magistracy: the one was to give boldness to corruption in Parliament, and the other to give the minister's influence patronage in the city. Their means were, this police establishment: the plan they did not entirely frame : they found it. A bill had shown its face in the British House of Commons for a moment, and had been turned out of the doors im- mediately : a scavenger would have found it in the streets of London : the groping hands of the Irish ministry picked it up, and made it the law of the land. The motion against the police was nega- tived by what Mr. Grattan called the dead majority. Next the opposition tried an- other favorite measure — to prevent place- men and pensioners from having seats in Parliament; in other words, that the "dead majority" should be turned out-of-doors and deprived of their daily bread. This meas- ure was supported as usual by Mr. Forbes, and of course by the same arguments: there was nothing new to say : there was the evil visible before them ; or rather the 104 evils, each with its bribe in its pocket, wrung from the earnings of those people whose legislature they poisoned. Uut the Castle members were utterly disgusted with these threadbare topics; they called for something new ; and so Mr. Mason had the cool audacity to say, that having opposed this bill every session for thirty years, he would not weary the House with fresh argu- ments against it: his decided opinion was, that the influence of the crown was barely sufficient to preserve the constitution, and to prevent it from degenerating into the worst of all possible governments, a democracy. Indeed, the terror of this democracv, and the manifest peril to oligarchical government both in England and in Ireland, arisiii:; from the thundering French revolution an I its reverberations through many millions of hearts in the two islands — these were the considerations that rendered the supporters of Government more sternly resolute to maintain every part of their system as it stood. Reformers of any abuse began about this time to be called "Jacobins," and the " Mountain ;" and it was intended for tire most ribald abuse, to charge a person with advocating the Rights of Man. Equally violent and equally unsuccessful were the four remaining attacks made by the gentlemen of the opposition : viz., Mr. Grattan's motion for the encouragement of the reclaiming of barren land ; on the. first reading of the pension bill ; the second reading of the responsibility bill ; and Mr. George Ponsonby's motion respecting fiats for levying unassessed damages upon the parties' affidavits of their own imaginary losses. We must now turn away for a time from these eloquent futilities in Parliament. It is difficult now to analyze the strong politi- cal passion which seized upon all the public, as the mighty drama of French Revolution swept upon its way. The year 1791 stimu- lated that passion to the greatest height. The great theatrical performance of the federation of all mankind in the Champ de Mars, had taken place on the 14th of July of the last year, when the King of France had sworn to maintain the constitution. The church lands had been sold for the use of the public: Mirabeau, the great tribune, was dead, and the last hope of conciliation between the people and the crown, died with him. Then the great coalition of Eu- rope against France was formed ; and the king attempted his flight beyond the Rhine. Every thing betokened both war and invasion coming from abroad, and the approaching triumph at home of the Jacobin Republi- cans, with the usual violence and slaughter which attend such immense changes. It was impossible to look on at these things unmoved. Two fierce parties were at once formed in Ireland, the one Republican, tho other anti-Gallican. PCT X \ g &r« "£/"«.C0U.NiiuS.8, Mri ■ Bj i» a sympathy which Boveral of Hi armed corps and othor public bodios oxull ingly expressed with the asserton of oivil freedom in tbos untries, was obnoxious to Government, nnd il became the system of tin- Castle to affix ■ marked stigma upon every person who countenanced or spoke in favor of any measure that bore the sem blance of reform or revolution, Even the ardor for oommemorating the era of 1688, was attempted to bo damped] ill" word liberty always carried with it suspicion, often reprobation. In proportion to the progress of the Frenoh revolution to those too i, which al In I outraged humanity, wore ■ a efforts in favor of the most don stitutional liberty resisted in Parliament, mm attempts t" introduoe a system of French equality, Suoh whs the general panic, suoli the real or n i umotl oxooral ion of evory thing that had a tondoncy to dot rnoy, thai comparatively few of the higher orders through the kingdi 'olainod, or avowed, those general Whig principles, which two years before thai man wot not doomed loyal, » ho did not profess. Mr, Burke by his book on the Frenoh revolution, pnbl shed in the year t ) BO, had wot kod :i great change in tho public mind, nnd the few in the nppor walk i of life, » ho did not become his proselytes, merely retaining their former principles, were astonished to liihl ill. ir ranks thinned nnd their standard fallen, The Catholios also oould not possibly re- in. mi insensible to the greal events of the time : bill tho offeol prodauod upon them « i- i sti ingely oomplox kind, As g m-iei onsly oppressed raoe they oould not but m mpnthiie « ith the opprei sod peasantry and middle classes of Franoo ns ! lu-\ struck off link after link of the fond il chain : but on the othor hand the Irish Catholics, not like the Frenoh, had remained deoply attachod to their religion, tho only oonsolation they had : and the Frenoh "Civil Constitution" for the olergy, and sale of church lands, were represented to them as anti religious, and dangerous to faith and morals. Pub lie itions were circulated upon the conserv- ative tendenoieaof tho Catholic religion* to * Ono of tho most noted oftliasa piiblloslloua «... out oullad "Ths Cuo Stated," i>i Mr. I'lowUou, render its followers lo\ si, peaceable, nnd duti- ful subjoots. Pastoral instraotions were pub- lished by the Catholio bishops in their re- spective dioceses, in favor of loyal subordina- tion nnd against "Frenoh principles." On the othor hand, tho trading Catholios in th« towns, nnd such of the country population i w sro readers of books, were very generally indoctrinated with sentiments of extreme liberalism, It was not to be expected, they thought, that thty oould be *lcyal " to n Oovernmenl w 1 1 i < ■ 1 1 they knew only by its oppressions nnd its insults : it was not likely that they would be indignant against the Fronoh for abolishing tithn, nor for selling out in small farms the vast domains of the emigrant nobles, On the whole therefore n very large proportion of tho Catholics look- ed to the proceedings of the Fronoh with admiration nnd with hope. As for tho lush Dissenters, who were mucl ire nu runs than the Protestants of the established ohuroh, they were Galilean and republioau to a man. Considering that the only real enemy of Ireland, both then and over since, was the English Government, it was very unfortunate t li.it the divisions amongst the Catholics themselves, nnd the hereditary estrangement and aversion between them and the Presby- terians, made ii next to impossible to create a united lush nation, with one boIo bond, and one single aim, the destruction of Briti h government in this island. This, however, was precisely the greal task undertaken by Theobald Wolfe lone, s young Protestant lawyer of Dublin; of English dosoent by both the lather's side and the mother's, a graduate of Trinity College, and who at tho lime when he lirst. Bung himself into the grand revolutionary scheme <>f associating the Catholios to tho body of the nation, was not personally acquainted with a single in- dividual of that creed, It is nee. Hess to say that Tone had been a democrat from the very oommencemont -that, is IVom the com- mencement of tho Frenoh revolution. In Ins narrative of his own life, Tone has given so clear an aocount of the dissensions which broke up the Catholio Committee, the Cir- cumstances which led to his own alliance with the Catholic body, an.l the first I'ornia- tioi 1 1 : .f ll - ,j , ?3 N. ^o H. ft LI 7 / i m w Wl' ' ES * r--i V - jy CATIIOI I' QBNKR M. i'om Ml II KB, 20.1 i! ni:.y li.-i a I"- pi i e I in bia ow d words, in a slight u abi idged form : — " III. i lonoral ( lommitti f the * 'atholics, w hioh, Miiir the year 1792, ha made a dia- tinguished foature in ibe politics of Ireland, was a bodj composed of their bishops, Lheir country gentlemen, and of a certain number of robanta and traders, .-ill resident in Dublin, bul named by tbe Catholics in the different towns corporate to represont them, Tbe original object of this institution was to obtain tbe ri pi al of a partial and oppressive Lax called quarterage! which was levied on the Catholics only, and tbe Government, which found the < nittee at first a con Miii. ni instrument on some occasions, con- nived at its existence So degraded was the ' 'atholio mind at the poi iod of the formation of their committee, about 1770, and long after, that they were happy to be allowed t<> go up to the Castle with an al inable slavish address to each succes- sive viceroy, of which, moreover, until the accession of the Duke of Portland, in 1782, bo Little notice was taken that bis grace wa tbe first who condescended to give them an answer; and, indeed, for above twenty years, tbe sole business of the General Committee was to prepare and deliver in those records of ili.ii deprosi ion. The effort which an honest indignation had called forth at tbe time of the Volunteer ( lonvention, in 1 788, leei I i" have exhausted their Btrengtb, and they sunk back into their primitive nullity. Under this appearance of apathy, however, a new spbit wus gradually arising in ili.- body, owing, principally, to the exer- i and the example of one man, John lieogb, to whose services his country, and more especially the Catholics, are singularly indebted, [n fact, tbe downfall of feudal i \ ran ii v was acted in little on the theatre of the * leneral ( lommittee. The influouce of their clergy and of thoir barons » i gradually uudormined, and the third 'state, the commercial interest, rising in wealth and power, was preparing, by degrees, to throw "11 the yoke, in the imposing, or, at least, the continuing of which the leaders ol inc body, I mean tbe prelates and aristoc- racy, to lheir disgrace I"- it poken, were ira. iv i.. concur. Already bad those leaders, act inc in obedience to the orders <>r the i Ii ii .-i urn. 'lit which bold i bom in fetl or , suffered one or two signal defeats in the c ittee, owing principally to the talents an.) address of John Keogh ; the partiei began to bo defl I, and a sturdy democracy of new men, with bolder views and stronger talents, soon superseded the timid counsels and slavish measures of the ancient aristoc racy. Every thing seemed tending to h better order of things a ng the Catholics and an occasion soon offered to call the energy of their new leaders into action. "The Dissenters of the North, and more especially of tlic town of Belfast, are from the genius of their religion and from the superior diffusion of political information among them, sincere and enlightened Re- publicans. They bad ever been foremost in the pursuit of parliamentary reform, and I have already ntioned the early wisdom and \ hi r the tow n of Belfast, in pro- posing the emancipation of the ( lal holies so far back an the yoar 1788. "The I latholics, on their part, were rapid- ly advancing in political spirit and informn linn. Every month, every day, as the rev ..Inn. hi in France went prosperously forward, added to their courage and their force, and tin- hour see I .-it. last arrived, when, nftei a dreary opprei ion of about one Ii Ired years, they were once more to appear on tbe political theatre of their country. They saw the brilliant prospect of success which events in France opened to their view, and they de- termined to avail themselves with prompti tude of that opportunity, which never re- turns to those wli nit. it. For tins, the active members of the General Committee resolved I I on foot an immediate appli- cation i" Parliament, praying for n repeal of the penal law i. Tbe first difficulty they had to Minimum, arose in their own bod) ; their peers, their gentry (as they affected to call ili. -in elvei ), and their prelates, eitln i educed or intimidated b) Government, gnvo il,.- measure all posi ible opposition ; and, at length, after a long contest, in which both parties strained every nerve, and produ« d the whole of their strength, the quei was decided on a division in tbe i miiitee, by a majority of at least six I ie, in favor of the iutended application. The triumph f the young democracy was complete ; % , n -MaLs.i*. HISTORY OF IRELAND. el # : m but, though the aristocracy was defeated, it was not yet entirely broken down. By the instigation of Government they had the meanness to secede from the General Committee, to disavow their acts, and even to publish in the papers, that they did not wish to embarrass the Government by ad- vancing their claims of emancipation. It is difficult to conceive such a degree of politi- cal degradation; but what will not the tyranny of an execrable system produce in time? Sixty-eight gentlemen, individually of high spirit, were found, who, publicly, and in a body, deserted their party, and their own just claims, and even sanctioned this pitiful desertion by the authority of their signatures. Such an effect had the operation of the penal laws on the minds of the Catholics of Ireland, as proud a race as any in all Europe! * " The first attempts of the Catholic Com- mittee failed totally ; endeavoring to ac- commodate all parties, they framed a peti- tion so humble that it ventured to ask for nothing, and even this petition they could not find a single member of the legislature to present ; of so little consequence, in the year 1790, was the great mass of the Irish people! Not disheartened, however, by this defeat, they went ou, and in the interval between that and the approaching session, they were preparing measures for a second application. In order to add a greater weight and consequence to their intended petition, they brought over to Ireland Rich- * Mr. Tone's account of the secession of the sixty- eight members from the General Committee is not sufficiently explanatory. Mr. Plowdcn, an excel- lent authority on this point, says that it was caused chiefly by dissatisfaction on account of " public nets of Communication of Protestants in the North with Fiance." hi particular, the people of Belfast had unt an address of warm congratulation to the so- ciety of " Friends of the Constitution " at Bordeaux ; and had received an eloquent reply. Communica- tions of this kind, sa\s Plowden, "gave particular offence to Government, who manifested great jeal- ousy and diffidence towards all persons concerned in them," It was to express their horror of co-operat- ing in any degree with such men and measures, that the men of landed property and the prelates seceded. The seeeders shortly after presented to the Iord-licutonant a petition or address, which went no farther than a general expression of submissivencss and respect to Government, "throwing themselves and their body on their humanity and wisdom." This was called tauntingly tho "Eleemosynary A<1- dr=s B ." aid Burke, only son of the celebrated Ed- mund, and appointed him their agent to conduct their application to Parliament. This young man came over with consider- able advantages, and especially with the eclat of his father's name, who, the Cath- olics concluded, and very reasonably, would, for his sake, if not for theirs, as-ist his son with his advice and directions But their expectations in the event proved abortive. Richard Burke, with a considerable portion of talent from nature, and cultivated, as may be well supposed, with the utmost care by his father, who idolized him, was utterly deficient in judgment, in temper, and especially in the art of managing par- ties. In three or four months' time, during which he remained in Ireland, he contrived to embroil himself, and, in a certain degree, the committee, with all parties in Parlia- ment, the opposition as well as the Govern- ment, and ended his short and Rirbulent career by breaking with the General Com- mittee. That body, however, treated him respectfully to the last, and, on his depar- ture, they sent a deputation to thank him for his exertions, and presented him with the sum of two thousand guineas. "It was pretty much about this time that my connection with the Catholic body com- menced, in the manner which I am about to relate. '•Russell* had, on his arrival to join his regiment at Belfast, found the people so much to his taste, and in return had rendered himself so agreeable to them, that he was speedily admitted into their confidence, and became a member of several of their clubs. This was an unusual circumstance, as Brit- ish officers, it may well be supposed, were no great favorites with the republicans of Belfast. The Catholic question was, at this period, beginning to attract the public no- tice; and the Belfast Volunteers, on some public occasion, I know not precisely what, wished to come forward with a declaration in its favor. For this purpose, Russell, who, by this time, was entirely in their confidence, wrote to me to draw up and transmit to him such a declaration as I thought proper, which I accordingly did. A meeting of the * Thomas Bussell, Tone's most intimate friend and comrade. ^ ^ % TONES 1'AMl'IH.KT ON ISKHAT.K OF THE CATHOLICS. U D •Ml fa <& & c irps was held in consequence, but an oppo- sition unexpectedly arising to that part of the declarations which alluded directly to the Catholic claims, that passage was, for the sake of unanimity, withdrawn for the pr nt, and the declarations then passed unanimously. Russell wrote me an account of all this, ami it immediately set me to thinking more seriously than 1 had yet done upon the state of Ireland. I soon funned my th y, and on that theory I have un- varyingly acted ever since. "To subvert the tyranny of our execrable Government, to break the connection with England, the never-failing source of all out- political evils, and to assert the indepen- dence of my coin, trv — these were mv ob- jects. To unite the whole people of Ireland, to abolish the memory of all past dissensions, and to substitute the common name of Irishman, in place of the denominations of Protestant, Catholic, and Dissenter— these were my means. To effectuate these great objects, I reviewed the three great sects. The Protestants I despaired of from the out- sl, for obvious reasons. Already in posses- sion, by an unjust monopoly, of the whole power and patronage of the country, it was not to be supposed they would ever concur in measures, the certain tendency of which must be to lessen their influence as a party, how much soever the nation might gain. To the Catholics I thought it unnecessary to address mvsclf, because, as no change could make their political situation worse, I reckoned upon their support to a certainty ; besides, they had already begun to manifest a strong sense of their wrongs and oppres- sions: and, finally, I well knew that, how- ever it might be disguised or suppressed, there existed in the breast of every Irish I atholie, an inextirpable abhorrence of the English name and power. There remained only the Dissenters, whom I knew to be patriotic ami enlightened; however, the lee, nt events al I'.elta-t had showed me that ill prejudice was not yet entirely removed from their minds. I sat down accordingly, and wrote a pamphlet, addressed to the Dissenters, and which I entitled " Aii Argu- in nt on behalf of tin- Catholics of In land," the object of which was to convince them that they and the Catholics had lau one S3* common interest, and one common enemv : that the depression and slavery of Ireland was produced and perpetuated by the divi- sions existing between them, and that, con- sequently, to assert the independence of '^J their country, and their own individual liber- ties, it was necessary to forget all former feuds, to consolidate the entire strength of the whole nation, and to form for the future but one people. These principles I sup- ported by the best arguments which sug- gested themselves to me, and particularly by demonstrating that the cause of the fail- ure of all former efforts, and more especially of the Volunteer Convention in 1783, was the unjust neglect of the claims of their Catholic brethren. This pamphlet, which appeared in September, 1791, under the signature of a Northern Whig, had a consid- erable degree of success. The Catholics (with not one of whom I was at the time acquainted) were pleased with the efforts of a volunteer in their cause, and distributed it in all quarters. The people of Belfast, of whom I had spoken with the respect and admiration I sincerely felt for them, and to whom I was also perfectly unknown, printed a very large edition, which they dispersed through the whole North of Ireland, and I have the great satisfaction to believe that many of the Dissenters were converted by my arguments. It is like vanity to speak of my own performances so much ; and the fact is, I believe that I am somewhat vain on that topic; but, as it was the immediate cause of my being made known to the Cath- olic body, I may be, perhaps, excused for dwelling on a circumstance which I must ever look upon, for that reason, as one of the most fortunate of my life. As my pamphlet spread more and more, my acquaintance amongst the Catholics extended accordingly. Mv first friend in the body was John Keogh, and through him I became acquainted with all the leaders, as Richard McCormick, John Sweetman, Edward Byrne, Thomas Braug- hall, in short, the whole sub-committee, and most of the active members of the General Committee. It was a kind of fashion this winter (1 791 ) among the Catholics to give splendid dinners to their political friends, in and out of Parliament, and I was always a m \ JW. fpl €& ■- :> T 206 HISTORY OF IIIEI.AND. dinner, given to Richard Burke, on his leav- ing Dublin, together with William Todd Jciiics, who had distinguished himself l>y a most, excellent pamphlet in favor of the Catholic cans.', as well as to several enter- tainments, given by clubs ami associations. I was invited to spend a few days in Belfast, in order to assist in framing the first club of United Irishmen, and to cultivate a personal acquaintance with those men whom, though I highly esteemed, I knew as yet but by reputation. In consequence, about the be- ginning of October, I went down with my friend Russell, who had, by this time, quit the army, and was in Dublin, on his pri- vate affairs. That journey was by far the most agreeable and interesting one I had ever made: my reception was of the most flattering kind, and 1 found the men of the most distinguished public virtue in the nation, the most estimable in all the domestic relations of life: I had the good fortune to render myself agreeable to them, and a friendship was then formed between us which I think it will not be easy to shake. It is a kind of injustice to name individuals, yet I cannot refuse my- self the pleasure of observing how peculiarly fortunate I esteem myself in having formed connections with Samuel Neilson, Robert Simms, William Siiums, William Sinclair, Thomas McCabe: I may as well stop here; for, in enumerating my most particular friends, I find I am, in fact, making out a list of the men of Belfast most distinguished for their virtue, talent, and patriotism. To proceed. We formed our club, of which I wrote the declaration, and certainly the for- mation of that club commenced a new epoch in the politics of Ireland. At length, after a stay of about three weeks, which I look back upon as perhaps the pleasantest iii inv life, Russell and I returned to Dublin, with instructions to cultivate the leaders in the popular interest, being Protestants, and, if possible, to form, in the capital, a club of United Irishmen. Neither Russell nor my- self was known to one of those leaders ; however, we soon contrived to get acquainted with James Napper Tandy, who was the principal of them, and, through him, with several others, so that, in a little time, we suc- ceeded, and a club was accordingly formed,. if which the Honorable Simon Butler was the first chairman, and Tandy the first secretary The club adopted the declaration of their brethren ..f Belfast, with whom ihev imme- diately opened a correspondence. It is but justice to an honest man who has been per- secuted for his linn adherence to his princi- ples, to observe here, that Tandy, in coming forward on this occasion, well knew that he was putting to the most extreme hazard his popularity among the corporations of the city of Dublin, with whom lie had enjoy the most unbounded influence for near twenty years ; and, in fact, in the event, his popularity was sacrificed. That did not prevent, however, his taking his pari decid- edly: he had the firmness to forego the gratification of his private feelings for the good of his country. The truth is, Tandy was a very sincere Republican, and it did not require much argument to show him the impossibility of attaining a republican any means short of the united powers of the whole people; he therefore renounced the lesser objects for the greater, and gave up the certain influence which he possessed (and bad well earned) in the city, for the contin- gency of that influence which lie might have (and well deserves to have) in the na- tion. For my own part, T think it right to mention, that, at this time, the establishment of a republic was not the immediate object of mv speculations. My object was to secure the independence of my country under any form of government, to which 1 was led by a hatred of England, so deeply rooted in mv nature, that it was rather an inst net than a principle. I left to others, better qualified lor the inquiry, the investigation and merits of the different forms of govern- ment, and I contented myself with laboring on mv own system, which was luckily in petfect coincidence as to its operation will) that of those men who viewed the question on a broader and juster scale than I did at tin' time 1 mention." Wolfe Tone was shortly after, on the recommendation of John Keogh, appointed secretary to the "General Committee" of the Catholics, and lone; labored zealously in their service. But he was not content with mere Catholic agitation. He and his friends continued with unabated zeal in the orgrani- w- (f »fr~ ■ •■■•A it M?\ m PROGRESS OF CATHOLIC COMMITTEE, 207 »; • i mtiojg of the United Irish Society, which lie ped i" Bee Bwallow up all others. f their political sen- timents, and the tesl which they had taken .■is a snri.il ami sacri'd compact to bind them n closely together. They also, in their publications, animadverted severely upon the sixty-four addressers. The general disposi- tion to republicanism which appeared in the publications and whole coin 1 net of these new societies, became daily more and more ob- noxious to Government: they were chiefly composed of Dissenters: yet several leading men amongst them were 1 'rot. stunts of the established church : it was believed and, constantly preached up by the Castle, that this new, violent, and affectionate attach- ment of the Dissenters for their Roman Catholic brethren, proceeded not from any sentiment of liberality or toleration, but purely to engage the co-operation of the great mass of the people the more warmly in forwarding the several popular questions lately brought before Parliament. 'I he truth is that the patrician "Patriots" of Parliament were quite shy of association with the members of the new societies. Some of them were alarmed about French principles of democracy, which could scarcely he expected to be agreeable to a privileged class : others thought that the United Irish- men and the existing Catholic Committee both consisted of low people; and they were possessed by that general aversion fell by members of Parliament against all extra- p irliamentary movements. I'loni that time shyness, jealousy, and (lis trust subsisted between those new societies mi the Whig Glub, though the agents and writers for Government attempted to identify their views, measures, and principles, as ap- pears by the newspapers, and other publica- tions of that day. Tone, on bis side, who had wholly given up Parliament as a thine/ not only useless but noxious to the nation, felt the utmost resentment at the members of the opposition for any longer keeping up and avowed that he respected more the Castle members themselves. '"They want," said he, "at least one vice, hypocrisy." The Catholic General Committee had new life infused into it, through the energy of KeOgb and the labors of Wolfe Tone. "There seems," says Tone in his sanguine way ''from this time out, a special Provi- dence to have watched over the affairs of Ireland, and to have turned to her profit and advantage the deepest laid and most, art- ful schemes of ler enemies. Every measure adopted, and skilfully adopted, to thwart the expectations of the Catholics, and to crush the rising spirit of union between them and the Dissenters, has, without exception, only tended to confirm and fortify both, and the fact I am about to mention, for one, is a striking proof of the truth of this assertion. The principal charge in the general outcry raised in the House of Commons against the General Committee was, ihat they were a self-appointed body, not nominated by the Catholics of the nation, and, consequently, not authorized to speak on their behalf. This argument, which, in fact, was the truth, was triumphantly dwelt upon by the enemies of the Catholics; but, in the end, it would have pei haps been more fortunate for their wishes, if (hey had not laid such a stress upon this circumstance, and drawn the line of separation so strongly between the Gen- cral Committee and the body at large. For the Catholics throughout Ireland, who had hitherto been indolent, spectators of the busi- ness, seeing their brethren of Dublin, and especially the General Committee, insulted and abused for their exertions in pursuit of that liberty which, if attained, must be a common blessing to all, came forward as one man from every quarter of the nation, with addresses and resolutions, adopting the measures of the General Committee as their own, declaring that body the only organ competent to speak for the Catholics of lie- land, and condemning, in terms of the most marked disapprobation and contempt, the conduct of the sixty-eight apostates, who were so triumphantly held up by the hire- lings of Government as the respectable part of the Catholic community. The question was now fairly decided. The aristocracy \^ of parliamentary patriotism, shrunk back in disgrace and obscurity, leav «& Iff ygfi ing the Hold open to the democracy, and that body neither wanted talents nor spirit to profit by the advantages of their present situation. " It is to th" sagacity of Myles Kcon, of Keonbrook, County Leitrim, that his country is indebted for the system on which the (ieneral Committee was to be framed anew, in a manner that should render it impossible to bring il again in doubt whether that body were or not the organ of the Catholic will. His plan was lo associate to the committee, as then constituted, two members from each county and great city, actual residents of the place which they represented, who were, however, only to be summoned upon extra- ordinary occasions, leaving the common rou- tine of business to the original members, who, as I have already related, were all residents of Dublin, The committee, as thus constituted, would consist of half town and half country members; and the elec- tions for the latter he proposed should be held by means of primary and electoral assemblies, held, the first in each parish, the second in each county and great town, lie likewise proposed, that the town members should be held to correspond regularly with their country associates, these with their immediate electors, and these again with the limaiy assemblies. A more simple and, at the sa time, more comprehensive organi- zation could not be devised. By this means the General Committee became the centre of a circle embracing the whole nation, and pushing its rays instantaneously to the re- motest parts of the circumference. The plan was laid, in writing, before the General Committee In Myles Keon, and, after mature discussion, the fust part, relating to the asso- ciation and election of the country members, was adopted with some slight variation ; the latter part, relating to the constant commu- nication with the mass of the people, was thought, under the circumstances, to be too hardy, and was, accordingly, dropped sub .' ' I Ito." This was a project for a regular conven- tion ol delegates, uliich was then a measure perfectly legal, as indeed it still is in Eng- land. <»n the proposal fur this convention there was immediate alarm and almost frantic rage on the part of the Ascendency: for the Catholics were by this time over three mil- lions; and the representatives of such a mass of people, meeting in Dublin, and backed by the active sympathies of the fist-growing United Irish Society, were likely to be peril- ous to the Government at a moment of such high political excitement. Grand juries and town corporations passed violent resolutions against it, and pledged themselves to resist and suppress it. But the committee had taken counsel's opinion, and felt quite secure On the legal ground. Some of the further proceedings may most fitly be given in the words of Wolfe Tone's own narrative, with which we must then part company, not with- out regret: for his "Autobiography" breaks oil' here : — * "This (1792) was a memorable year in Ireland. The publication of the plan for the new organizing of the (ieneral Committee gave an instant alarm to all the supporters of tie British Government, and every effort was made to prevent the election of the country members ; for it was sufficient!) evident that, if the representatives of threi millions of oppressed people were once suf- fice! to meet, it, would not afterwards be safe, or indeed possible, to refuse their just demands. Accordingly, at the ensuing as- sizes, the grand juries, universally, through- out Ireland, published the most furious, I may say frantic, resolutions, against the plan and its authors, whom they charged witl little short of high treason. Government, likewise, was too successful in gaining over the Catholic clergy, particularly the bishops, who gave the measure at first very serious oppo rion. 'Che committee, however, was not daunted ; and, satisfied of the justice of tleir cause, and ol' their own courage, they labored, and with success, lo inspire the same spirit in the breasts of their brethren throughout the nation. For this purpose, their first step was an admirable one By their order, 1 drew up a state of the case, with the plan for the organization of the Committee annexed, which was laid before Simon Butler and Beresford Burton, two lawyers of great eminence, and, what was of consequence here, king's counsel, lo know * Seine pints df his j 'hbIu indeed will be i'oumI mutt valuable rof&reneea further ou. % -t> ty f\ v wolpe I'oii e's MrroBioon www L'09 whether the committee had in any respect contravened the law of the land, or whether, by carrying the proposed plan into execu- tion, the parties concerned would Bubject themselves to pain or penalty. The answers of both the lawyers were completely in our favor, and we instantly printed them in the pipers, and dispersed them in handbills, letters, and all possible shapes. This blow was decisive as to the legality of (lie meas- ure. For the bishops, whoso opposition gave us great trouble, four or five different missions were undertaken by different mem- bers of the sub-committee, into the prov- inces, at their own expense, in order to hold conferei s with them, in which, with much difficulty, they succeeded so far as to Becure the cooperation of some, and the neutrality of the rest of the prelates. On these mis- sions the most active members went John Keogh and Thomas Braughall, neither of whom spared purse nor person where the interests of the Catholic body were concern- ed.. I accompanied Mr. Braughall in his visit to Connaught, where, he went to meet the gentry of that province at the great fair of Ballinasloe. As it was late in the even- ing when we left town, the postillion who drove us, having given warning, I am satis- lied, to some footpads, the carriage was Stopped by lour or five fellows at the gate of Phoenix Park. We had two cases of pistols in the carriage, and we agreed not to be robbed. Braughall, who was at this time about sixty-five years of age, and lame from a fall off his horse some years before, was as cool ,-Liid intrepid as man could be. lie took the command, and by his orders I let down all the glasses, and called out to the fellows to come on, if they were so in- clined, for that we were ready; Braughall desiring at the same time not to fire, till I could touch the scoundrels. This rather em- barrassed them, and they did not venture to approach the carriage, but held a council of war at the horse's heads. I then present- ed one of my pistols at the postillion, swear- ing horribly that I would put him instantly to death if he did not drive over them, ami I made him feel the muzzle of the pistol Hgainst the Lack of his head ; the fellows on this took to their heels and ran off, and we proceeded on our journey without further 27 interruption. When we arrived at the inn, Braughall, whose goodness of heart is equal to his courage, and no man is braver, begni by abusing the postillion for his treachery and en. led by giving him hall' a crown. I wanted to break the rascal's bones, but he would not suffer me, and this was the end of our adventure. "All parties were now fully employed preparing tor the ensuing session of Par- liament. The Government, through the organ of the corporations and grand juries, opened a heavy lire upon us of manifestoes and resolutions. At first we were like young soldiers, a little stunned with the noise, but after a few rounds we began to look about us, and seeiug nobody drop with all this furious cannonade, we took courage and determined to return the lire. In con- sequence, wherever there was a meetiug of the Protestant Ascendency, which was the title assumed by that party (and a very impudent one it was), we took care it should be followed by a meeting of the Catholics, who spoke as loud, and louder than their adversaries, and, as we had the right clearly on our side, we found no great difficulty in silencing the enemy on this quarter. The Catholics likewise took care, at the same time that they branded their enemies, to mark their gratitude to their friends, who were daily increasing, and es- pecially to the people of Belfast, between whom and the Catholics the union was now completely established. Among the various attacks made on us this summer, the most remarkable for their virulence, were those of the grand jury of Louth, headed by the Speaker of the House of Commons; of Limerick, at which the Lord Chancellor assisted ; and of the corporation of the city of Dublin ; which last published a most furious manifesto, threatening us, iii so many words with a resistance by force. In con- sequence, a meeting was held of the Cath- olics of Dublin at large, which was attended by several thousands, where the manifesto of the corporation was read and most ably commented upon by John Keogh, Dr. Ryan, l>r. McNeven, and several others, and a counter-manifesto being proposed, which was written by my friend Emmet, and in- comparably well done, it was carried >C w£ % *aw ■■;. ■y •. WS3M 210 niSl'OIIY (IP IRELAND itnonsly, and published in all the papers, together with the speeches above mention- ed; and both speeches and the manifesto had such an infinite superiority over those of the corporation, which wore also publish- ed and diligently circulated by the Govern- ment, that it put an end, effectually, to this warfare of resolutions. "The people of Belfast were not idle on their part; they spared neither pains nor expense to propagate the new doctrine of the union of Irishmen, through the whole North of Ireland, and they had the satisfac- tion to see their proselytes rapidly extend- ing in all directions. In order more effec- tually to spread their principles, twelve of the mosl active and intelligent among them subscribed .U'.'-'><) each, in order to set on foot a paper, whose object should he to give a fair statement of all that passed in France, whither every One turned their eyes; to in- culcate the necessity of union amongst Irishmen of" all religious persuasions; to support tin' emancipation of the Catholics; and, finally, as the necessary, though not avowed, consequence of all this, to erect Ill-land into a republic, independent of Eng- land. This paper, which they called, very appositely, the Northern Star, was conduct- ed by my friend Samuel Neilson, who was unanimously chosen editor, and it could not be delivered into abler hands. It is, in truth, a most incomparable paper, and it rose, instantly, on its appearance, with a most rapid ainl extensive sale. The Cath- olics own-where through Ireland (I mean the leading Catholics) were, of course, sub- scribers, and the Northern Star was one great means of effectually accomplishing the union of the two great sects, by the simple process of making their mutual sentiments better known to each other. "It was determined by the people of Bel- fast to commemorate this year the anniver- sary of the taking of the Bastile with great ceremony. For this purpose they planned a review of the Volunteers of the town and neighborhood, to be followed by a grand procession, with emblematical devices, etc. They also determined to avail themselves of this opportunity to bring forward the Cath- olic question in force, and, in consequence, they resolved to publish two addresses, ouc to the people of France, and one to the peo- ple of Ireland. They gave instructions to Dr. Brennan to prepare the former, and the latter fell to my lot. Brennan executed his task admirably, and I made my address, for my part, as good as I knew how. We were invited to assist at the ceremony, and a great number of the leading members of the Cath- olic Committee determined to avail them- selves of this opportunity to show their zeal for the success of the cause of liberty in Prance, as well as their respect and grati- tude to their friends in Belfast. In conse- quence, a grand assembly took place on the 14th of July. After the review, the Volun- teers and inhabitants, to the number of about 6,000, assembled in the Linen-Hall, and voted the address to the French people unanimously. The address to the people of Ireland followed, and, as it was directly and unequivocally in favor of the Catholic claims, we expected some opposition, but we were soon relieved from our anxiety, for the address passed, I may say, uiianimou-ly : a few ventured to oppose it indirectly, but their arguments were exposed and overset by the friends to Catholic emancipation, amongst the foremost of whom we had the pleasure to see several Dissenting clergymen of great popularity in that county." It will be seen that on the whole souk; progress was already made, and much more was sooti to be expected in harmonizing the Catholics and Dissenters, at least in the towns. A harder task remained — to make peace between them in the country, [n the County Armagh, Peep-of-Day Boys were growing more ferocious, and of course, the Defenders more strongly organized for resist- ance. As before, the country gentlemen of that county, as ignorant and savage a race of squires as any in Ireland, took part with the aggressors. At an assizes, in 1791, the grand jury passed a resolution declaring that there had sprung up among the Papists " a passion for arming themselves, contrary to law" — and that this was matter of serious alarm, etc. As the usual pretext of the visits of the Protestant Boys, " Wreckers," and other such banditti was to search for arms, such a resolution of the grand jury wis neither more nor less than an invitation to continue such visits, aud an assurance of i m ! a r;: I 1 ej *m^ \ gJL..^^± [•^; ^ 'V s V PRINCIPLES OP THE initio I RISTTMENT. 211 protection to the " Wreckers." These troub- les had now extended considerably into Tyrone, Down, and Monaghan Counties: and ii Btiis indignation eve"n at tins day to tliink of so many wretched families always kept in wakeful terror; lying down in fear and rising up with a heavy heart, or perhaps flying to the desolate mountains by the light of their own burning cabins. CHAPTER XXVI. 1791—1792. Principles of United Irish Society— Tent — Addressee — Meeting of Parliament — Catholic relict" — Trifling measure of thai kind Petition of the Catholics — Rejeoted — Steady majority of two-thirds for the ( lastle — Plaoeholding merahers — Violent ogitat ion upon tin' Catholic olaims -Questions put to < 'atho- Lio Universities of tlio Continent — Their answers — Opposition to project of Convention — Catholic question in the Whig Club— Catholic Convention in Dublin — National Guard. Thb first clubs of "United Irishmen" were perfectly legal and constitutional in their structure, in their action, and in their aims; and so continued until the new or- ganization was adopted in 1795. They con- sist..!, both in Belfast and in Dublin, of Protestants chiefly, though many eminent Catholics joined them from the first. The tii~! sentence of the constitution of the first club, al Belfast, is in these plain and moder- ate words. " 1st. This society is constituted for the purpose of forwarding a brotherhood of affection, a communion of rights, and a union of power among Irishmen of every religious persuasion, and thereby to obtain a complete reform in the legislature, founded on the principles of civil, political, and reli- gious liberty." Recollecting the hopeless character of the Irish Parliament of that day, one can se iiv.lv pretend that it did not need " re- form ;" and as it most certainly would never reform itself, unless acted upon strongly by an external pressure, the idea seems to have been reasonable to endeavor to procure a union of power amongst Irishmen of everj religious persuasion for that end. It was too clear also that a Parliament so constituted never would emancipate the Catholics — that is, never would tolerate a "brotherhood of affection." or a "communion of rights." It was therefore extremely natural for patriotic Protestants, who felt that Ireland was thei. country, and no longer a colony but a nation to take some means of assuring their fellow countrymen, the Catholics, that they at least did not wish to perpetuate the degradation and exclusion of three millions of Irishmen ; and thereupon to concert with them some common action for getting rid of this incu- rable oligarchy, which was the common enemy of them all. This was the whole meaning and purpose of the society for more than three years; and its means and agencies were as fair, open, and rational as its objects. Addresses, namely, to the people of Ireland, and sometimes to Reform clubs in England and in Scotland ; articles in the newspapers, particularly in the Northern Star; and the promotion of an enlarged personal intercourse between the two sects who had lived in such deadly estrangement for two centuries. When they met one another face to face, worked together in clubs and meetings, visited one another's houses, fondled one another's children, there could not but grow up somewhat of that feeling of "Brotherhood" which is the first word of their constitution, the very cardinal principle of their society. But this " Brotherhood" — what was it but the French frattntite I And their "Civil, political, and religious liberty " was a phrase which to the ear of Government sounded of I'ljaliti and the Champ-de-Mars. The whole. of the programme given above, which looks to day so just and sensible, was then felt to be reeking all over with "French principles." The Government therefore kept an eye steadily on these societies, as will soon ap- pear in the sequel. The Dublin club, which was formed in November of the same year, 1791, adopted the same declaration of principles, or consti- tution; but added a "test,'' which was nothing but a solemn engagement to be taken by each new member — "that he would persevere iu endeavoring to form a brotherhood of affection amongst Irishmen of every religious persnasion," etc., and "that he would never inform on or give evidence against any member of this or similar societies for any act Or expression of theirs done or uiado collectively or iudi- L, f. v£$ M s* & rJR t/> ^ - ® 212 HISTORY OF IRELAND. O ^ I. vidually, in or out of iliis society, in pur- suance of the spirit of tliis obligation," — in other words, that if brotherhood amongst Irishmen, and the claim of civil and religious liberty should be made a crime by law (as it. was but too likely) he would not inform upon his comrades for their complicity in those crimes. From this time active correspondence was carried on. A strong address, written by Dr. Drennan, was sent by the Society of United Irishmen in Dublin to the delegates for promoting a reform in Scotland, in which this sentence occurs — one of many similar suggestions which were undoubtedly in- tended to lead the way to something more and better than a reform in Parliament. "If Government has a sincere regard for the safety of the constitution, let them coin- cide with the people in the speedy reform of its abuses, and not, by an obstinate ad- herence to them, drive that people into Republicanism?' There was another ad- dress from the same body, to "the Volun- teers of Ireland" (for the wreck of that organization still existed in some places), adopted at a meeting of which Drennan was chairman, and Archibald Hamilton Rowan, secretary, and containing still strong- er expressions. This document became in 1794 the subject of a prosecution for se- ditious libel against Rowan the secretary, who was convicted by a carefully packed juiv of bis enemies, and sentenced to two yea's' imprisonment and a fine of five hun- dred pounds. In the mean time, parliamentary proceed- ings were going forward, much in their usual way. A session opened on the 19th of January, 1792; but it is impossible now to take much interest in following the futile efforts of the opposition. Mr. Grattan, who carefully avoided the United Irishmen, could still at least abuse the Government in terms of eloquent scurrility, and did not fail to do so, in moving an amendment to the address: — "By this trade of Parliament the kin" was absolute : his will was signified by both Houses of Parliament, who were then as much an instrument in his hand as a bayonet in the bands of a regiment. Like a regiment they had their adjutant, who sent to the infirmary for the old, and to the brothel for the young; and men thus carted as it were into that House to vote for the minister, were called the representatives of the people." The country, as well as the ministers had heard all this abuse before, ami had begun almost to regard it as a discharge of blank cartridge. Yet the session is in some meas- ure notable for a trilling Catholic Relief measure, introduced by Sir Hercules Lang- rishe, and rather unexpectedly supported by the Government. In fact it was evident to the English Government that the Catholics were becoming a real element for good or for evil in this Irish nation : they had re- fused to be extirpated ; refused to be brutal- ized by ignorance, for they would fly to the cuds of the earth for education; they had so well profited also by the petty and grudg- ing relaxations already granted them, that a large proportion of them were rich and in- fluential ; they were, in short, a power to be conciliated if that could be cheaply done, and so detached from "French principle-." and made grateful to the Government. It is not, therefore, surprising to find Mr. Secre- tary Hobart (of course by orders from Eng- land) seconding the motion of Langrishe for leave to bring in this bill. Sir Hercules thus defines the objects of his bill for the Catholics : — 1st. He would give them the practice and profession of the law, as a reasonable pro- vision, and application of their talents to their own country. 2dly. He would restore to them education, entire and unrestrained, because a state of ignorance was a state of barbarity. That would l»e accomplished by taking oft' the ne- cessity for a license, as enjoined by the act Of 1782. 3dlv. lie would draw closer the bonds of intercourse and affection, by allowing inter- marriage, repealing that cruel statute which served to betray female credulity, and bas- tardize the children of a virtuous mother. 4thly. He would remove those obstruc- tions to arts and manufactures, that limited the number of apprentices, which were so necessary to assist and promote trade, lie then moved, "That leave be given to bring in a bill lor removing certain restraints and disabilities under which his majesty's Roman V' I " T!Sl»ii ^ I O v ^ % M h c ■■-•..':>, TRIFLING MEASURE OF CATHOLIC BELIEF, Catholic subjects labor, from statutes at present in force." Tli is bill was prepared and concerted by its author in concert with Edmund Burke; ami was perhaps as liberal in Us provisions as any bill which could at that moment be presented with any chance of auccess: yet, meagre as it was, it called forth a storm of bigoted and brutal opposition. The General Committee of the Catholics — Edward Byrne, Esq, in the chair— held a meeting and passed some resolutions, which it is some- what humiliating to read, but which were certainly politic in the circumstances. Here is the document : — "Dublin, February 4th, 1792. "General Committee of Roman Catho- lics. Edward Byrne, Esq. in the Chair. "Resolved, That this committee has been informed, that reports have been circulated, that the application of the Catholics for re- lief, extends to unlimited and total emanci- pation ; and that attempts have been made, wickedly and falsely, to instil into the minds of the Protestants of this kingdom an opin- ion, that our applications were preferred in a tone of menace. * Resolved, That several Protestant gen- tlemen have expressed gnat satisfaction on being individually informed of the real ex- tent and respectful manner of the applica- tions for relief; have assured us, that nothing could have excited jealousy, or apparent op- position to us, from our Protestant country- men, but the above-mentioned misapprehen- sions, "Resolved, That we therefore deem it ne- cessary to declare, that the whule of our Lite applications, whether to his majesty's ministers, to men in power, or to private members of the legislature, as well as our intended petition, neither did, nor does con- tain any thing, or extend further, either in substance or in principle, than the four fol- lowing objects : "1st. Admission to the profession and practice of the law, "2d. Capacity to serve in county magis- tracies. "3d. A right to bo summoned, and to servo on grand and petty juries. '■ Mi. The right of voting in counti only for Prutestaut members of Parliament ; in such a manner, however, as that a Roman Catholic freeholder should not vote, unless he either rented anil cultivated a farm of twenty pounds per annum, in addition to his forty shillings freehold; or else possessed a freehold to the amount of twenty pounds a year." That is to say, the Catholic Committee found itself obliged earnestly to disavow the sacrilegious thought of being allowed to vote on the same qualification as the Protes- tant forty-shilling freeholders; disclaimed with horror the idea of voting for Catholic members of Parliament ; and publicly de- clared to Parliament and to all mankind that they did not presume to aspire to " total emancipation." But humble and scanty as their claim was, it was more than the Langrishe bill proposed to grant them. There was no provision in it for admitting them to the elective franchise upon any terms whatever. The committee prepared a petition, which was signed by some of the most respectable mercantile men of Dublin, and while the bill was in progress, the peti- tion was presented by Mr. Egan. This gave rise to a conversation on the following Mon- day (20th February). On that day Mr. David La Touche moved, that the petition of the llomau Catholic committee, presented to the House on the preceding Saturday, should be read by the clerk: it was read, and he then moved, that it should be re- jected. Tho motion was seconded by Mr. Ogle. The greater part of the House was very violent for the rejection of the petition. Some few, who were against the prayer of the petition, objected to the harsh measure of rejection. Several of the opposition members supported Mr. La Touche's motion. Even Mr. G. Ponsonby, on this occasion voted against his friend Mr. Grattan. The solicitor-general attempted to soften the re- fusal to the Catholics by moving, that the prayer of the petition, as far as it related to a participation of the elective franchise should not then be complied with. The attorney-general and some other stanch supporters of Government had spoken simi- lar language; thai they hoped quickly to .& . IIISTOliY OF IRELAND. G^ r * s '&> P. t v ' done away, but that the fulness of lime was not yet come. Mr. Forbes, the Hon. F. Hutchinson, Colonel (now Lord) Hutchinson, Mr. Smith, Mr. Hardy, and Mr. Grattan Bpoke strongly against the motion ami rn favor of admitting the Catholics to a share in ihc elective franchise. Much virulent abuse was heaped upon that part of the body of Roman Catholics which was sup- posed to be represented by the Catholic Committee. At a very late hour the House divided, 208 for rejecting the petition, and 28 only against it. Then Mr. La Touche moved, that the petitiou from the society of the United Irishmen of Belfast, should be also rejected : and the question being put was carried with two or three negatives. The bill itself passed quietly through the committee; and on the third reading, Sir Hercules Langrishe congratulated the coun- try on the growth of the spirit, of liberality. The growth was slow, and the liberality was rather narrow : nor would this measure deserve mention — as it was soon superseded by a much larger one — but to show the very humble and unpretending position taken by the only body then representing the Cath- olics. It must be remembered, too, that war in Europe was by '.his time imminent and certain ; and though England had not yet formally joined the coalition against France, thai event was becoming daily more inevitable; and the Government was very desirous, as usual in such moments of danger, to send a message of peace to Ireland, and to show the three millions of Catholics that their real friends were, not those "fraternal" United Irishmen, but Mr. Pitt and the Earl of Westmoreland. Upon all other questions, the state of parties in Parliament continued nearly the Same thai il had been for many years; that is, the Castle was always certain of more than a two-i birds majority. Mr. G. Pon- sonby, after an elaborate argument, moved for leave to bring in n bill repealing every law which prohibited a trade from Ireland with the countries lying eastward of the Cape of Good Hope; which was fo>t by 150 votes against 70. On the same day, Mr. Forbes, faithful to his special mission, brought forward his regular Place and Pen siou bills: they were both put off to a distant day, without a division, though not without some debate. Indeed these attacks on the places and pensions were now more intolerable to the Government and its sup- potters than ever before; and they were louder than ever in their reprobation of such Jacobin movements, as a manifest attempt to diminish the royal prerogative and bring in French principles. A singular motion was made this session, which merits notice as an illustration of the shameless and desperate corruption of the times. Mr. Browne moved to bring in a bill to repeal an act of the last session touch- ing the "weighing of butter, hides and tallow" in the city of Coik, anil the ap- pointment of a weighmaster in that city. This oliice had long been in the gift of the corporation of the city, and the corporation had always found one weighmaster more than enough : but the Government, iu pur- suance, said Mr. Browne, of their settled policy of "creating influence," had taken the appointment, split it into three parts, and bestowed it on three Members of Par- liament. Mr. Grattan seconded the motion. It was opposed by the chancellor of the exchequer on the express ground that it was an "insult to the crown," and therefore a manifest piece of French democracy and infidelity, intended to overthrow the throne and the altar. There was a sharp debate, in which Patriots said many cutting things; and at half-past two in the morning the motion was negatived without a division. Is it, wonderful that the, minds of honest people were now altogether turned away from such a Parliament! It was prorogued on the 18th of April. The Speaker, in his address to the viceroy, speaks of one gratify- ing fact, "the extension of trade, agriculture, and manufactures, which has with a rapid and uninterrupted progress raised this king- dom to a state of prosperity and wealth never bet'.. re experienced in it." Put at the same time he let his excellency know, that this prosperity "would soon cease" if they did not carefully cherish the blessed consti- tution in church and state. "Its preserva- tion, therefore," he continued, "must ever be the great object of their care, and there is no principle on which it is founded so essential to its preservation, nor more justly [/ ':, ^m \&\ ^ - --■■ ■ AGITATION UPON THE CATHOLIC CLAIMS •ar to their patriotic and loyal feelings, than that which has settled the throne of these realms on his majesty's illustrious house; on it, and on the provisions for securing a Protestant Parliament, depends the Protestant Ascendency, and with it the continuance of the many blessings we now enjoy." It appears from the studied allusions to the Protestant Ascendency, which in the speech of the Speaker were evidently aimed nst the petition of the Catholics for a participation in the cleetive franchise, that Mr. Foster wished to raise a strong and general opposition to that measure through- out the country : but the speech of the lord- lieutenant imported, that the Government, moved by the impulse of the British coun- cils, was disposed rather to extend than contract the indulgences to the Roman Catholics. His majesty approved of their wisdom in the liberal indulgences that had been granted, but suggested no apprehen- sions of danger to the Protestant interest, which had been almost a matter of course in all viceregal speeches, to the great coin- forl of the "Ascendency." 'I his year was a season of most vehement agitation and discussion upon the Catholic claims. That body, was, of course, greatly dissatisfied with the miserable measure of relief granted by the shabby bill of Sir ller- cules Langrishe. Mr. Simon Butler, chair- man of the Dublin society of United Irish- men, published, by order of that society, a ' Digest of the Popery Laws," bringing into one view the whole body of penalties and disabilities to which Catholics still remained subject after all the small and nibbling at- tempts 'ii pretences of relief. The pamphlet thus truly sums up the actual condition of the Catholics at that moment, after Sir Her- cules Langrishe's Act: — '•Such is the situation of three millions of good and faithful subjects in their native Ian 1 ! Excluded from every trust, power, or emolument of the state, civil or mili- tary; excluded from all the benefits of the constitution in all its parts; excluded from all corporate rights and immunities; ex- pelled from grand juries, restrained in petit juries; excluded from everj direction, from • very trust, from every incorporated society, from every establishment, occasional or fixed, instituted for public defence, public police, public morals, or public convenience; firm the bench, from the bank, from the ex- change, from the university, from the col- 'ege of physicians : from what are they not excluded? There is no institution which the wit of man has invented or the progress of society produced, which private charity or public munificence has founded for the advancement of education, learning, »nd g I arts, for the permanent relief of age, infirmity, or misfortune, from the super- intendence of which, and in all cases where common charity would permit, from the en- joyment of which the legislature has not taken care to exclude the Catholics of Ire- laud. Such is the state which the corpora- tion of Dublin have thought proper to assert 'differs in no respect from that of the Protestants, save only in the exercise of po- litical power;' aud the host of grand Junes consider 'as essential to the existence of the constitution, to the permanency of the con- nection with England, and the continuation of the throne in his majesty's royal house.' A greater libel on the constitution, the con- nection, or the succession, could not he pro- nounced, nor one more pregnant with dan- gerous and destructive consequences, than this, which asserts, that they are only to be maintained and continued by the slavery and oppression of three millions of good and loyal subjects." At the same time the General Committee prepared a " Declaration," of Catholic tenets on certain points with regard to which peo- ple of that creed had long been wanton I v belied: such as keeping of faith with her- etics; the alleged pretension of the Pope to absolve subjects from their allegiance; of clergymen to dispense them from oaths, ami M S, the like. All these alleged doctrine the Declaration indignantly and contemptuous- ly denied; and it was signed universally throughout Ireland by clergy and laity. the Declaration was added a republication "I* the well-known ''Answers of six Cath- olic Universities abroad to the queries which had been propounded to I hem, at the re- quest of Mr. Pitt, three years before, on be- half of the English Catholics." The uni- versities were those of Paris, Louva'n, A^cala. n* -Al aSp 210 IIISTOKY OF ICKI.AND. "«? MM. i 1 '"t. 2e. Douay, Salamanca, and Valladolid. The queries and the answers form a highly im- portant document for the history of the time. We give the queries in full, and an extract or two from the answers — only pre- mising that Mr. Pitt sought these declara- tions, not to satisfy his own mind, because he was too well informed to need this, but only to stop the mouths of benighted country gentlemen and greedy Ascendency politicians, who would be sure to bawl out against the concessions to Catholics which he in that perilous time and for political reasons was determined to grant. THE QUERIES. 1. Has the Pope, or cardinals, or any body of men, or any individual of the Chinch of Koine, any civil authority, power, iurisdiv tion, or pre-eminence whatsoever, within the realm of England ? 2. Can the Tope or cardinals, or any body of men, or any individual of the Church of Home, absolve or dispense hi- inajesly's subjects, from their oath of alle- giance, upon any pretext whatsoever. 3. Is there any principle in the tenets of the Catholic faith, by which Catholics are justified in not keeping faith with heretics, or other persons differing from them in religious opinions, in any transaction, either of a public or a private nature ? And the six universities responded unani- mously and simultaneously in the negative upon nil the three points. The answers are all exceedingly distinct and categorical. That of the university of Alcala, in Spain, may serve as a specimen : — "To the first question it is answered That none of the persons mentioned In the proposed question, either individually, or col- lectively in council assembled, have aiiv right in civil matters; but that all civil power, jurisdiction, and pre-eminence are de- rived from inheritance, election, the consent of the people, and other such titles of that nature. "To the second it is answered, in like man- ner—That none of the persons above men- tioned have a power to absolve the subjects of his Britannic majesty from their oaths of allegiance. "To the third question it is answered — llial the doctrine which would exempt Catholic from the obligation of keeping faith will heretics, or with any other persons who dis sent from them in matters of religion, in- stead of being an article of Catholic faith, is entirely repugnant to its tenets. "Signed in the usual form. March 1 7th, 1789." The learned doctors of some of these universities could not refraiu, while they gave their answers, from administering a rebuke to those who asked such questions. For instance, the Faculty of Divinity at Lou vain, "Having been requested to give an opinion upon the questions above slated, does it, with readiness — but is struck with astonishment that such questions should, at the end of this lSth century, be proposed to any learned body, by inhabitants of a king- dom [England] that glories in the talents and discernment of its natives." * The publication of the Catholic Declara- tion, with the opinions of the universities. was very far indeed from satisfying the theO logians of the Protestant interest; especially as there came forth at the same time the detailed plan for electing delegates this year to the Convention of Catholics which hud already been decided upon. These Papists wore evidently preparing to rise a little out of their abject, humility. The Protestant theologians thought themselves too acute to be imposed upon by all those line protesta- tions of Papists, and professions made by Popish universities. Since when, they de- sired to know, was it held that the deehira- tion of persons charged with systematic per- fidy — that they were persons who keep faith — was held to be evidence of their good character? They also cited examples of the Pope having actually, in former ages, absolved, or attempted to absolve subjects from their allegiance. Besides, was it not well known that those universities in France and Spain were full of Popish doctors, who would desire nothing belter than to delude the minds of unsuspecting Irish Protestants, and so pave the way for the overthrow of the Protestant Church, resumption of for feited estates, and fulfilment of Pastorini'a prophecies! It seems to have been more especially the "plan' 7 for election of dele- kt '; OPINIONS M gates to the Catholic. Convention tiiut excited the alarm and wrath uf the "Ascendency." inmediately on the appearance of tins plan, n general outcry was rained against it; Bedition, tumult, conspiracy, and treason, wer h I from county to county, from grand jury to grand jury. Si legislators, high in the confidence of their sovereign, and armed with the influence of station and office, presided .-it. those meetings, and were foremost in arraigning measures, upon ihe merits of which in another place and in an- other function they were finally to deter- mine. The exaggerated and alarming language "i' st of the grand juries imported, thai the Catholics of [reland were ou tl ve of a general insurrection, ready to hml the king from his throne, and tear the whole frame of the constitution to pieces. The Lcitrim graud jury denominated the plan "An inflammatory and dangerous pub- lication," and stated, "that they fell h nc- cessary to come forward at that period to dei 1 are, that they were ready to support, with their lives and fortunes, their present, most valuable constitution in chinch and Btate; and that they would resist, to the ut- most of their power, the attempts of any body of men, however numerous, who should presume to threaten innovation in either." The grand jury of the county of Cork denominated the plan "An unconstitutional [ -''ding, of the most alarming, dangerous, and seditious tendency; an .attempt, to over- awe Parliament;" they stated their deter- mination to "proteel and defend, with their lues and property, the present constitution in church and state." That of Roscommon, after the usual epithets of "alarming, dan- gerous, and seditious," asserted that the plan called upon the whole body of the Roman Catholics of Inland to associate themselves in the metropolis of that king- dom, upon the model of the national assem- bly of Prance, which had already plunged that devoted country into a state of anarchy and tumult unex unpled in any civilized na- tion : they sated it to be "an attempt, to over-awe Parliament;" they mentioned theii serious and sensible alarms for the existence of their present happy establish- 28 ment iii church and stale; and tlvir deter- mination, "at the hazard of every thing dea to them, to uphold .and maintain the l'rot estant interest of Ireland." The grand jury of Sligo Resolved, "that they would, at all times, and l>v every con- stitutional means in their power, resist and oppose every attempt then making, or there- after to be made, by the Roman Catholics, to obtain their elective franchise, or any par- ticipation in the government of the country.'' And that of Donegal declared, that though " they regarded the Catholics with tender- ness, they would maintain, at the hazard of every thing dear to them, the Protestant in- terest of Ireland." The grand jury of Fermanagh, profess- ing also "the warmest attachment to their Roman Catholic brethren," felt it, however, necessary to 'come forward at that period to declare, that they were " ready with their lives and fortunes to support their present invaluable constitution in church and state." Anil that of the County of Derry, after ex- pressing their apprehensions lest that pro- c ling "might lead to the formation of a hierarchy (consisting partly of laity) which would destroy the Protestant Ascendency, the freedom of the elective franchise, and the established constitution of this country," tendered their lives ami fortunes to support the happy constitution as established at the revolution of 1G88. A very great majority of the leading signatures affixed to those resolutions, were those of men either high in the government of the country, or enjoy- ing lucrative places under it, or possessing extensive borough interest. The grand jury of the county of Louth, with the Speaker of the House of Commons at their head, declared, "that the allowing to Roman Catholics the right of voting for members to serve in Parliament, or admit- ting them to any participation in the gov- ernment of the kingdom, was incompatible with the safety of the Protestant establish- ment, the continuance of the succession to the crown in the illustrious House of Hano- ver, and finally tended to shake, if not de- stroy, their connection with Great Britain, on the continuance and inseparability of which depended the happiness and prosper. itv of that kingdom; that they would op !* r~l i <\ •ft 't/»S. C«LUMm/i.0. \.s VaIc $3 -P poso every rit 1 1 • 1 1 1 j > t. towards such ii danger- one innovation, anil thai they would support with (heir lives and fortunes the present constitution, mid the settlement of the throne on liis majesty's Protestant house." The freeholders of the county of Limerick charged the Catholic Committee with an intention to over-awe the legislature, to force a repeal of 1 li>- pennl laws, and to create a Popish democracy for their government and direction in pursuit of whatever objects might be holden out to them by turbulent and seditious men. They then instructed their representatives in Parliament, " at all events, to oppose nny proposition which might be made for extending to Cath- olics the right of eleotive franchise:" at tins meeting the chancellor was present. The corporation of Dublin in strong terma denied the c potency of Parliament to extend the right of IV. bise to the Cath- olics, which they called "alienating their most valuable inheritance;" and roundh H8seried against the fact, that u the last ses- sion of Parliament lefl the Roman Catholics in no wise different from their Protcstaut fellow-subjects, save only in tlio exercise of political power." Some of the grand juries indignantly re- jected the proposals made to ihom of com- ing to any resolutions injurious t<» their Cath- olio In. linen. Agents had been employed to tamper with every grand jury that met during the summer iissizes, Nothing could tend more directly than tins measure of pre- engaging tin- sentiments of the country against three millions of its inhabitants, to raise and foment discord and disunion be- tweon Protestants and Catholics. Counter- resolutions, answers_aiid replies, addresses and pro' est at ions, were puhlishud and circulated in the public papers from some grand jury- men, and from many different bodies of Catholics; several bold and severe publica- tions appeared during the oourse of the summer, not, only from individuals of the Catholic body, bul from the friends of their cause amongst the Protestants. It isscarcelv questionable but that the virulent and acri* mouious opposition raised against the Cath- olic petition for a very limited pari cipation in the elective franchise, enlivened the sense of their grievances, opened their views, and united their energies into a common effort to procure a general repeal of the whole Penal Code. The General Committee of tho Catholics, and the United Irish Society were unavoid- ably coming closer together. In a debate of the committee, Mr. Keogh, a gentleman of great manliness of character as well as power of intellect, fairly said that for a Into publication (Digest of the Popery Laws), the United Irishmen and their respected chairman, Mr. Simon Butler, demanded their wai mest gratitude.* At that time the United Irish Society was the only association of any kind which even admitted a Catholic into its ranks. No Catholic could be iii the Whig Club; nor would it even permit the Catholic question to be agitated there. This point was de- cide, I In a singular debate of the Whig Club in November, L792, when Mr. Huband, hav- ing proposed that the sense of ihe Incctine; should bo taken upon the course to be pur- sued by members with respect to Catholic claims — Some gentlemen deoidodly asserted, that they did not think the Catholic question ought to !"• mentioned or discussed in the Whig ('bib. They were averse to their having any concern in it, and one went so far .is to say, thai if it were admitted to be debated ill that society, lie woiihl with his own band strike bis name out of the list of the members. * Mr. Plowdon, in an apologetio sort of way, Rays upon tliis oocusion, " It whs natural for persons stag- gering undor oppression oordiully to grasp every hand that hold out relief." Nothing oun bo more provoking tlian the affuotation of "loyalty" to the Bouse of Hunover which oertain Ciitholio writers, pre- vious to emauoipation, thought it noedful t" mill,!'. Plowdon, in another pluoe, spoaking of tlio sntne publication made by the United Irishmen, says : — •• It would be unfair, if the historian wore to ropre- acnl tho transactions of a particular period from consequences that appeared at h distant interval of time, and the subsequent fate of many of the iiotora in the soones. It is his duty I'uith fully to represent thrin as they reallj passed at tlie time. Merit and demerit can only attach from previous or co-existing clroumstancos ; noi from the poBthumona issue en- gendered in iii« womb of time by future baae and nnavowed connections, It was u<>i beoause an in- dividual whs guilty of treason in the yoar 179$, that even previous aol or transaotlon in which that In- dividmd wiis concerned for the twenty, "°i " r •i vo preceding years, was afibotod with the venom of hia alter crimo." >, I m V' rATItol.ir CONVENTION IV I>1 HI IN'. 210 4 ,y ^.a On which Mr. A. Hum, Rowan observed, that lie would I"- ua tenacious its any other gentleman, i>f remaining in any society where improper subjects were proposed for di-i-iiss.il. ii ; but that for hi- part, he would not hesitate to strip off liis Whig Club uni- form, and throw it to the waiter, if the Catholic ijur-.ti.ui were deemed an unfit sub- j. i-t for their discussion. Mr. \V. Brown called the attention of mtlemen to the purpose of their associa- tion. They placed ihemsejves in the front of the public cause, to further it, not to stop it- further progress; the second principle of their declaration was, a Bolemn engagement to support the rights of the people, etc. Who, said he, are the people! I dare any gentleman t<> name the people of [reland without including the Roman Catholics. What ! is ii a q tion, Bhall three millions i- [rishmeu continue slaves or obtain their freed ! I> it a question to be deserted by n professing patriotism, professing to re- dress the public oppression, pledged to stand together in defence of their country's liber- ties ' No ; it is not. To desert the cause of the Catholics, would bo to desert the principles of their in- stitution, it would be to deserve the calumny thrown against them by their enemies, that they were an opposition struggling for power, not a band of patriots for the public weal; ii would i"li their names of honor, their rank and wealth of consequence, and it would finally sink them from a station of political importance, down to the obscurity and insignificance of an interested and im- potent party. On the question being put, whether the Qatholic question should be taken into con- sideration or not on Wednesday fortnight, ii w;is negatived on a division by thirteen, Tlie long-talked-of < ''invention of the Catholics was actually held in December of i In- year: the elections of delegates had 1 ii regularly and quietly held, in pursuance of the "plan," and the first meeting of the delegates assembled at Tailors' Ball, Dub- lin, on tin- 2d of December, 1792; two hundred delegates being present. W liile this peaceable convention was holding its meetings, another phenomenon appeared in Dublin, which gave siill greater I uneasiness both to the "Ascendency" and to the Castle. The National Guard, a new military body, WHS lUTayed and disciplined ill Dublin. They wore green uniforms, with buttons engraved with a harp, under a cap of liberty, instead of a crown. Their lead- ers were A. H.Rowan and James {Tapper Tandy ; they affected' to address each other by the appellation of citizen, in imitation of the French. This corps was in high favor with the populace, and was always cordial- ly greeted as they appeared in the street or on p.-uade. Government really felt alarm : a general insurrection w.-is apprehended : they pretended to have information of the particular nights fixed for that purpose. The magistrates, by order of < Jovei-nun-nt, pal lolled the streets with bodies of hoi-- each night. It was given out from the Castle, that the custom-house, the post office, and the jail, were the first places to l«- at- tacked; and that the signal for rising w.-is (0 have been the pulling down of the statue of King William in College Green with ropes. Many Other false rumors of conspiracies and assassinations were set afloat. In the mean while the National Guards, and all the Vol- unteer corps of Dublin, wen: summoned to assemble on Sunday, the 9th of December, 1792, to celebrate the victory of the French, and the triumph of universal liberty. The summons began with an affectation of Gal- licism, "Citizen Soldier? However, the meeting was prevented; and Government issued a proclamation, on the Sth of Decem- ber, against their assembling. The National • iiianls did not a semble ; and the onlj per- sons who appeared on parade were, A. II. Rowan, J. N. Tandy, and Carey the printer. This Catholic Convention, and this Na- tional Guard appeared dangerous in the eyes of Fitzgibbon (now Earl of Clare) — the object of bis life was the legislative union, and he foii-saw thai unless conventions of delegates and associations of armed citizens were prohibited and prevented by law, that great una niv never could lie carried. Ac- cording!} his busy brain was alr.ady busy in maturing a series of measures to deprive all Irishmen, n bether 1 Yo testa at or Catholic, of every means of expressing their wishes by delegates, and even means of asserting their rights by aims. K tii o. -ft ^ . » » I SifSE M ?M o. J(| H1STOKY OF IRELAND. t ,i CHAPTER XXVII. 1792—1793. The Catholic Convention — Reconciliation of din'er- encea amongst 1 1 ie Catholics — Their ileputatiou to the king— Successes of the French fortunate lor the Catholics — DumonTiez and Jcmappes— Gra- cious reception of the Catholic deputation— Bel- fast mob draw tin- carriage of Catholic delegates — Secret Committee of the Lords— Report on De- fenders uml United Irishmen— Attempt of com- mittee to connect the two — Lord Clare creates " alarm among the better classes " — Proclamation against unlawful assemblies— Lord Edward Fitz- gerald — French Republic declares war against England — Lar;;e measure of Catholic relief i ic- diatoly proposed — Moved by Secretary liobart— Aet carried — Its provisions — Wluit it yields, and what it withholds — Arms and gunpowder aet — Act against conventions — Lord Clare the real author of British policy in Ireland as now estab- ishod— Effect and intention of the " Convention net" — No such law in England — Militia bill — Cath- olic Committee — No reform — Close of session. The Catholic Convention mot under rather favorable auspices. In the course of tin- summer a reconciliation or coalition had been generally effected between the commit- tee ami several of the sixty-four addressers, including bishops. Convinced that his ma. jesty's ministers in England were disposed in favor their pretensions, it was found politi- cal in the buily to act in concert; and to this accommodating disposition and desire of internal union, is to be attributed the modera- tion of the public acts of that convention. They framed a petition to the king, which was a firm though modest representation of their grievances: it was signed by Dr. Troy and Dr. Moylan on behalf of them- selves and the other Roman Catholic prel- ates and clergy of Ireland, aud by the sev- eral delegates for the different districts which they respectively represented. They then proceeded to choose five delegates to present it to his majesty : the choice fell upon Sir Thomas French, Mr. Byrne, Mr. Keogh, Mr. Devereux, and Mr. Bellew. These gentlemen went by short seas: in their road to Donaghadee they passed through Belfast in the morning, and some of the most respectable inhabitants waited upon them at the Donegal Arms, where thev remained about two hours: upon their departure, tin* populace took their horses from their carriages and dragged ihem th.otigh the town amidst the liveliest shouts of joy and wishes for their success.* The deli-gates returned these expressions of af- fection and sympathy, by the most grateful acknowledgements and assurances of theii determination to maintain that union which formed the strength of Ireland. On the 2d of January, lV'.KS, the gentlemen delegated by the Catholics of Ireland attended the levee at St. James's, were, introduced to his majesty by Mr. Dundas, secretary of state for the home department, and had the honor of presenting their humble petition to his majesty, who was pleased most graciously to receive it. His majesty had his reasons. Fortunately for the Catholics, England was at this moment in a condition of extreme difficulty and peril. She was already engaged in the coalition of European powers to crush the new-born Hercules of France. The French, under Dumouriez, had happily driven back the Prussian invaders from the passes of the Ar- gonne. Dumouriez had followed up his successes, entered Belgium and gained over the Aiistriaus the glorious victory of Je- mappes. The King of France had already been removed from his throne to the Tem- ple prison ; and on the very day when the King of England was so graciously receiving the Catholic delegates, that unhappy French monarch was awaiting his trial, sentence, and execution at the hands of his people: all of which took place a few days after- wards. This event was to be the signal for England to enter actively into the war. Ever since August of last year the British Court had refused all communication with M. Chauvelin, the French envoy, and he was finally dismissed from England immediately on the arrival of news of King Louis' cxe- • Of this extraordinary demonstration, never ci- ampled before, and never imitated since, Wolfe* Tone says : — " Whatever effect it might have on the, negotiation in England, it certainly tended to raise and confirm the hopes of the Catholics at home. ' Let our delegates,' said they, ' if they arc refused, return by the same route.' To those who look be- yond the surface it was an interesting spectacle, and pregnant with material consequences, to see the Disscuter of the North drawing, with his own bauds, the Catholic of the South in triumph, through what may be denominated the capital of Prcsbytcriauism. However repugnant it might bo to the wishes of the British minister, it was a wholesome suggestion to his prudence, and when ho scanned the whole busi- ness in Ins mind, was probably not dismissed from his contemplation." fa r iM«. l :v.k«a.i ::'': '"< A p. <* RKPUI.'T ON l>i:ri:\l>Ki:s AM) ITSITKIJ lUISHMKN, cution. War, therefore, whs now incvil ible, and war on such a scale ami against such a foe as would tax the utmost energies and resources of Great Britain. It was deter- mined accordingly to endeavov to purchase the three millions of Irish Catholics, who make such excellent recruiting material; so that instead of having Irish brigades against O DO them, they might have Irish regiments for thcni. 1 1 was also a part of this policy to detach the Catholics from the United Irish- men, to disgust them with " French prin- ciples," and predispose them to look favor- ably on the Legislative Union. The dele- gates returned from London, in the compla- cent language of Mr. Plowden : — "the wel- come heralds of the benign countenance and eption they had received from the father of his people." On the 10th of January, 1*792, the Irish Parliament met. The speech from the throne recommended attention to the chums of the Catholics. The House of Lords very early in the session appointed a secret com- mittee to inquire into the state of the nation, with special reference to the troubles in the North between Peep-of-Day Boys and De- fenders. The Secret Committee made a most extraordinary report; in which they appear to find no criminal rioters in the North except the poor Defenders. "All, so far as the committee could discover, of the Roman Catholic persuasion, poor ignorant laboring men, sworn to secrecy, and im- piessed with an opinion that they were as- sisting the Catholic cause." The committee further endeavored to connect in some way wuli those agrarian disturbers, the political demonstrations of the United Irishmen at Belfast and other towns. They report with high indignation : — "That an unusual ferment had for some months past disturbed several parts of the North, particularly the town of Belfast and the county of Antrim ; it was kept up and encouraged by seditious papers and pamph- |i is of the most dangerous tendency, printed »1 very cheap and inconsiderable rates ill Dul. bn and Belfast, which issued almost dailj I'. .mi certain societies of men or clubs in both ■ places, calling themselves committees under various descriptions, and carrying on a constant cones] lence with each other. These publications were circulated amongst the people with the utmost industry, and ap- peared to be calculated to defame the Gov- ernment and Parliament, and to render the people dissatisfied with their condition and with their laws. The conduct of the French was shamefully extolled, and recommended to the public view as an example for imita- tion ; hopes and expectations had been held up of their assistance by a descent upon that kingdom, and prayers had been offered up at Belfast from the pulpit, for the success of their arms, in the presence of military asso- ciations, which had been newly levied and arrayed in that town. A body of men asso- ciated themselves in Dublin, under the title of the First National Battalion : their uniform was copied from the French, green turned up with white, white waistcoats and striped trou- sers, gilt buttons, impressed with a harp and letters importing ' First National Battal- ion,' no crown, but a device over the harp of a cap of liberty upon a pike ; two pattern coats had been left at two shops in Dublin. Several bodies of men had been collected in different parts of the North, armed and dis- ciplined under officers chosen by themselves, and composed mostly of the lowest classes of the people. These bodies were daily increas- ing in numbers and force, they had exerted their best endeavors to procure military men of experience to act as their officers, some of them having expressly stated, that there were men enough to be had, but that officers were what they wanted. Stands of arms and gun- powder to a very large amount, much above the common consumption, had been sent with- in the last few months to Belfast and New- ly, and orders given for a much greater quan- tity, which it appeared could be wanted on- ly for military operations. At Belfast, bod- ies of men in arms were drilled and exercised for several hours almost every night by can- dle-light, and attempts had been made to se- duce the soldiery, which, much to the hon- or of the king's Ibices, had proved ineffect- ual. The declared object of these militai'y bodies was to procure a reform of Parliament ; hut the obvious intention of most of them appeared to be to over-awe the Parliament and the Government, and to dictate to both. The committee forbore mentioning the names of several persons, lest it should in any man- ^\ .MB.S.t. i /^ v ner affect aDy criminal prosecution, or involv llie personal safely of any man who had come forward to give them information. The re- sult of their inquiries was, that in their opin- ion it was incompatible with the public safety and tranquillity of that kingdom, to permit bodies of men in arms to assemble when they pleased without, any legal authority : and that the existence of a self-created repre- sentative body of any description of the king's subjects, taking upon itself the government of them, and levying taxes or subscription*, etc.," ought, not to be permitted. It is very easy to see the object of this report: it was simply Lord Clare's method of preparing the way for his coercion acts, which wire to apply not only to the Defend- ers but also to the United Irishmen and to the Catholic Convention itself. The policy adopted towards the Catholics at that time took the form which it has worn ever since, and which may be described in four words — to conciliate the rich and to co- erce the poor. This extravagant report of the Lords' committee, giving so overcharged a picture of the insurrectionary spirit of the North, was in order to create ''alarm among the better classes," the uniform preparative for coercion and oppression in belaud. On the 31st of January the House of Com- mons took into consideration a proclamation of the lord-lieutenant and privy council, da- ted the 8th December last, for dispersing all unlawful assemblies: and Lord Head fort moved a vote of thanks to the viceroy for this proclamation " to preserve domestic tranquillity from those whose declared objects were tumult, disaffection, and sedition," This occasioned some debate; but the address passed without a division. This proceed- ing of the lions- proves that the great Gov- ernment majority in the House, as well as the Lords, were in full concurrence with the Government in favor of coercion. It is fur- ther interesting from an incident which be- fell at the close of the debate — Lord Edward Fitzgerald, in a very vehement tone, declar- ed, "I gi\e my most hearty disapprobation to that address, for I do think that the lord- lieutenant and the majority of this House, are the worst subjects the king has." A loud cry of "to the bar," and "lake down his from every part of the House. The House was cleared in an iusiant, and strangers were not re-ad- mitted for nearly three hours. He was admitted to explain himself, and on his explaining, the House " Resolved, nem. con., That the excuse of- fered by the Right Hon. Edward Fitzgerald, commonly called Lord Edward Fitzgerald, for the said words so spoken, is unsatisfac- tory and insufficient:" and he was ordered to attend at the bar on the next day, when his apology was received, though not with- out a division upon its sufficiency : for receiv- ing it, 135; against it, CO.— (12 Par. Deb., p. 82.) Mr. Grattan also expressed himself with some indignation in this debate, on the classing up the remnant of his old Volun- teers along with such seditious company as United Irishmen and National Guards: for Mr. Secretary Hobart had read to the House, as part of the outrageous proceed- ing which had dictated the strong meas- ure of the proclamation, a certain summons of the corps of goldsmiths, calling on the delegates of that corps to assemble and celebrate the retreat of the Duke of Bruns- wick (from Valmy), and the French victory in the Low Countries (Jemappes). Mr. Grattan was soon to learn that in the appli- cation of the new laws which were now to l>e enacted the remnant of the classic old Volunteers was to be held no more sacred than the most republican United Irish club, or the poorest lodge of Defenders. On the 1st of February the French Re- public declared war against England (which was now known to be the very head and heart of the coalition against France): aud on the 14ih of that month the Irish secretary, Mr. lb 'bait, presented a petition from some Cath- olics, and described at length the measure which he intended to introduce. A few days after, be brought in his "Relief Bill," and had it lead a first time. It was opposed by Mr. Ogle, and by the famous Dr. Duigenau. Throughout its passage it was supported by the Court party, because it was a Court measure; and Mr. Grattan, Mr. Curran, and most of the opposition supported it, of course, Dr. Duigenan raked up several tunes all the most hideous accusations that ever bigotry had invented and ignorance m : ft ,i I / 'V» m ^ believed against Papists, in order to oppose ibe gTant of any relief lo snch miscreants. < in the second reading, Mr. G.Ponsonby and Mr. Latouche spoke against it. Wheu the bill was in committee, Ml George Knox, in a liberal and able speech moved, that the committee might be empowered to receive a clause to admit Roman Catholics to sit and vote io the House of Commons. Major Doyle seconded the motion, which was strongly supported by Mr. Daly, Col. Hutch- inson, Mr. M. Smith, Mr. John O'Neil, Mr. 1 lardy, and some other gentlemen friendly to Catholic emancipation ; it was, however, rejected upon a division by 103 against 69. The bill finally passed both Houses and received the royal assent, on the 9th of April. This act, which was received with so much gratitude, and was extolled as such a triumph of liberality, enables Catholics to vte for members of Parliament — that is, for Protestant members and none other — admits them to the bar, that is, the outer bar — all the honors and high places of the profession being reserved for Protestants — enables them to vote for municipal officers — that is, Protestant officers exclusively — per- mits them to possess arms, provided they possess a certain freehold and personal es- tate, and take certain oaths, neither of which conditions applied to Protestants ; allows them to serve on juries, but not to sit on parish vestries ; admits them, under certain restrictions, to hold military and naval com- missions, certain of the higher grades being excepted — and it subjects the exercise of most of these, new privileges to the taking of a most insulting and humiliating oath. As this act (38 Geo. III., c. 21.) settled for thirty-six years the whole condition and re- lations of the Catholics, it is here given in full :— • "33 Geo. III., c. xxi. u An Act for the Belief of His Majesty's Popish or Roman Catholic Subjects of Ireland. " Whereas, various acts of Parliament have been passed, imposing on his majesty's subjects professing the Roman Catholic re- ligion, many restraints and disabilities, to which other subjects of this realm are not liable; and from the peaceable and loyal de- meanor of his majesty's Popish or Roman Catholic subjects, it is fit that such restraints and disabilities shall be discontinued: Be it therefore enacted, by the king's most excel- lent majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords, spiritual and temporal, and Commons in this present Parliament as- sembled, and by the authority of the same, That his majesty's subjects, being Papists, or persons professing the Popish or Roman Catholic religion, or married to Papists or persons professing the Popish or Roman Catholic religion, or educating any of their children in that religion, shall not be liable or subject to any penalties, forfeitures, dis- abilities, or incapacities, or to any laws for the limitation, charging, or discovering of their estates and property, real and personal, or touching the acquiring of property or securities affecting property; save such as his majesty's subjects of the Protestant re- ligion are liable and subject to ; aud that such parts of all oaths as are required to be taken by persons in order to qualify them- selves for voting at elections of members to serve in Parliament; and also such parts of all oaths required to be taken by persons voting at elections for members to serve in Parliament, as import to deny that the per- son taking- the same is a Papist or married to a rapist, or educates his children in the Popish religion, shall not hereafter be re- quired to be taken by any voter, but shall be omitted by the person administering the same ; aud that it shall uot be necessary, in order to entitle a rapist, or person profess- ing the Popish or Roman Catholic religion f7l to vote at an election of members to serve in Parliament, that he should at, or previous to his voting, take the oaths of allegiance and abjuration, any statute now in force to the contrary of any of the said matters in any wise notwithstanding. " II. Provided always, and be it farther enacted, That all Papists or persons profess- ing the Popish or Roman Catholic religion, who may claim to have a right of voting for members to serve in Parliament, or of vot- ing for magistrates in any city, town corpo- rate, or borough, within this kingdom, be hereby required to perform all qualifications, registries, and other requisites, which are now required of his majesty's Protestant rt>\ m 7^ a | I J — - •■ « mJ B .t ' .; - I , h ' j subjects, mi lil.c oases, by any law or laws now of fi in this kiugdoui, save and ox oept snoh oaths mill piuis of oatlii us are herein before exoeptod. ■ in. And provided alwagt, That nothing hereinbefore contained shall extend, or be construed to extendi to ropeal or alter any law or act of Parliaiuont now in forco, by whioh < • ■ ■ 1 1 .- ■ 1 1 1 qualifloationi are required to be performed by persons enjoying an} offices or plaoes of trust under bis majesty) bis heirs and suooe sol's, other than as ben n niter is enacted. "IV. Provided also, That nothing heroin contained, shall extond, or be construed lo extend to give Papists, or persons professing the Popish religion, a right to vote at any parish vestry for lovying of money to re build or repair auy pni ish ohui oh, or rospeot ing the demising or disposal of the income of .'my estato belonging to any uhuroh or parish, 01 for the salary of the parish olork, .■I ;ii ill.' eleotion of an) ohurohwnrden. " \'. Provided always, That nothing con i lined in this aot shall extond to, or be con strued to affeot anj notion or suit now de pending, whioh sliall have boon brought or instituted previous to the commencement of i in . -. lion of I 'arliamont. "VI. Provided also, I'hnt nothing herein oont lined, shall extond to authorise any Pa pi i, oi person professing the Popish or Roman Catholic religion, to have or keep in his bauds or possession, any arms, urmor, ammunition, or any warlike stores, aword blades, barrels, locks, or Btocks of guns, or i'u. n in i, or i" exompt bui h pm i on hVom anv foifeiture, or penalty inflioted by anj act re i"'. ting at m , armor, or ammunition, in the hands or po ■ iou of any I 'apist, or respecting Papists having oi keeping buoIi warlike stores, save and exoept Papists, or persons of tlie Roman Catholic relio .i .-.I of a freohold estate of one hundred pounda a year, or possessed of a personal estate of one thousand pounds or upwards, who are hereby authorised to keep arms and .'i I n I nil nil ion as ProtQ li.nl-. no\\ bj law inav j and also, save and except Papists or Roman Catholios possessing a freehold estate of ten pounds yearly value, and loss tlian one hun- dred pounds, or a personal estate of Ihroe hun- dred, and lo •- than one thousand pounds, who shall have at the sossion of the ponce in the oonuty in whioh thoy reside, taken the oath of allegianco proscribed to be taken by an act passed in the thirteenth and fourteenth years ofhii present majesty's reign, entitled, 'An act to enable his majesty's subjects, of whatever persuasion, to testify their alleoianre If liim ,' mill also in open court, swear and subscribe an affidavit, that the) are possessed of a freehold estate yiolding a olenr yearly profit to the person making the same of ten pounds, or a personal property of three bun* died pounds above hisjnsi debts, specifying i Ill-run tho name and nature of suob free- bold, and nature of sneli personal property, which affidavits shall !»' carefull) preserved by the eleil. of the peace, who shall have for Ins trouble a fee of sixpence, and no more, foi overy Buch affidavit; and tho per- son making such affidavit, and possessing BUI li property, may keep and Use anus and aiiiniiinili.ni as Protestants U1IW, 80 hAg as they sliall respectively possess a property of the annual \ alne of ten pounds and Up- « ar.l-.. if ii. ehold, or the value of thre hundred pounds if personal, any statute u i In- oonl i ai j not wil hstanding, •• VII. And it it tnacted, That it shall and nia\ bo lawful for Papists, 01' persons professing the Popish or Roman Catholic) religiou, to bold, exercise, and enjoy all ei\ il and unlit uv offices, or plaoes of trust or profit undor his majesty, his heirs and suc- cessors, in this kingdom; and to hold or lake degroos, or any professorship in, or be in i i. is or fellows of any college, to I"' hereafter founded in this kingdom, provided ill it -a. li oolloge shall be a member of the University of Dublin, and shall not be founded i Kolusivelj for the education of Papists, oi persons professing tho Popish or Roman Catholic religion, nor consist exclu- sively of masters, fellows, or other persons to bo named or elerled on tlie foundation of Biiob oollege, being persons professing the Popish or Roman Catholio religion; or to hold any olliee 01' pine of trnsl in, and to be a member of anv lay body corporate, ex- oept the College of the holy and undivided I'luiiiy of Queen Elisabeth, near Dublin, without t iking and subscribing the oaths of allegiance^ supremacy, or abjuration, or making or subscribing the declaration re- < ) :i— ■:■: a ; "<" 1 ? quired to be taken, made, and subset ibed, to enable anj itch por ion to Imld and enjoj Biiy of such places, and without i living i In i ramcnl of tlie Lord's Supper, accord ing to the rights and ceremonies of tho < Ihurch of Ireland, anj law, i tatuto, or by- law of anj corporation to the contrary not- withstanding; provided that even Mich poi son ball take and subscribe tho oath up- I •• > i 1 1 1 • -• j li\ tho Baid act pa • ed in i lie thir teenl h and fourteenth years of Ins mnje I j ' i , ■•hi itled, ' An act to enable his ma- jesty's subjects, of whatever persuasion, to !■• i if) their allegiance to him ;' and also the oath and declaration following, that is to sat : •' ' I, A. r>., do hereby declare, thai 1 do profi the K an < latbolic religion. I, A., I!., do swear, that I abjure, condemn, and deti t, as 'In istian and impious, the prin ciple thai il i- lawful to murder, destroy, or any ways injure any person whatsoever, for, or under the pretence of being a heretic; and ! do declare solemnly before God, that I believe, that no oct in itself unjust, inv moral, or wicked, can ever be justified or excused by, or under pretence, or color, thai it was do lither for the good of the church, <>r in obedience to any ecclesiastical power whatsoever. I also declare, that it is nol .hi article of the < Sutholic faith, neither am I thereby required t" believe or profe , thai the Pope is infallible, or thai I am b .'I i" oboj an ordeT in its own nature immoral, though the Pope or any ecclesias- tical power should issue or direct such order, but, "ii il mill ai \ , I hold, thai ii would be sinful in me to pay any respect or obedi- ence thereto; I further declare, that 1 < I * * nol believe that any sin whatsoever commit tod by i •an I"- forgiven al the mere will of any Pope, or any priest, or of any person what oever; but that sincere Borrow for past • ti , a firm and • incere lution to avoid future guilt, and t" atone to God, are pre- ii. • I ill. I ■ pi ir able requisite to estab li.-li a well-founded expectation <>f foi • ii. . and thai anj pi i on « ho receives ab- solntion without these previous requi it< ,so far f btaining thereby any remission of is sins, incurs tho additional guilt of viola- ting a sacrament; and 1 do swear, thai [will defend to the utmost of ray power the set 2'J tlemonl and arrangement of property in lliis count i j a • ■ tablii lied by the law e now in being; I do hereby disclaim, disavow, and olomnly abjure any intention to subver' tho present church establishment for the purpo ■• of substituting a Catholic establish- ment in iH stead ; and' I do solemnly swear, thai I will not exercise any privilege, to which I am or may become entitled, to dis« inili and weaken the Protestant religion and Protestant government in this kingdom. So help me ( lod.' "VIII. And be it enacted, Thai Papists, or persons professing the Popi h or Roman Catholic religion, may be capable of being olected professors of medicine, upon thn foundation of Sir Patrick Dunn, any law or statute to the contrary notwithstandin " IX. Provided always, mnl be it enacted, Thai nothing herein contained shall extend, or be construed to extend, to enable any person to Bit or vole in either II.. I par- liament, or to hold, exerciso, or enjoy the office of Lord-lieutenant, lord-deputy, or other chief governor or governors of ihis kingdom, lord high chancellor or keeper, or commissioner of the great seal of this kingdom, lord high treasurer, chancellor of the exchequer, chief justice of thn Court of King's Bench, or < lommon lord chief bai if the < 'ourt of Exchequer, justice of the Court of King's Bench or i in on Plea?, or baron of the < lourl of Exchequer, judge of tho High Courl of Ad- miralty, master or keeper of the rolls, secre- tary of state, keeper of the privy seal, vice- treasurer, or deputy vice-treasurer, teller and cashier of the Exchequer, or auditor general, lieutenant or governor, or custos rotulorum of ci ties, secretary to tho lord- lieutenant, lord deputy, or oiler chief goi - ernor or governors of this kingdom, member of his majesty's iimst honorable privy coun- cil, prime sergeant, attorney -general, solicitor- ral, I and third sergeants al law, or king's council, masters in chancery, provost or fellow of the Colloge of tho holy and un- divided Trinity of Qi n Elizabeth, near I lublin ; postmaster-general, master, lieutenant general of his majesty's ordnance, commander-in-chief of Ins majesty's force , ei.il. on the staff, and sheriffs and sub- sheriffs of any i ty In this kingdom; or 4? pa V I /-" WbfeJ K- *-HUnk4iL •)\^ IAl,i &$*& sr ^ . ... ;eo HISTOKY OF IRELAND. any office contrary to ihe rules, orders, aud directions made and established by tlie lord- lieutenant and council in pursuance of tlic act passed in the seventeenth and eighteenth years of King Charles the Second, entitled, 'An act for the explaining of some doubts arising upon an act entitled, An act for the better execution of his majesty's gracious declaration for the settlement of this king- dom of Ireland, and satisfaction of the sev- eral interests of adventurers, soldiers, and other his subjects there, and for making some alterations of, and additions unto the said act, for the more speedy and effectual settlement of this kingdom,' unless he shall have taken, made, and subscribed the oaths and declarations, and performed the several requisites, which by any law heretofore made, and now of force, arc required to en- able any person to sit or vote, or to hold, ex- ercise, and enjoy the said offices respectively. " X. Provided also, and be it enacted, That nothing in this act contained shall enable any Papist, or person professing the Popish or Roman Catholic religion, to exercise any right of presentation to any ecclesiastical benefice whatsoever. "XI. And be it enacted, That no Tapist, or person professing the Popish or Roman Catholic religion, shall be liable or subject to any penalty for not attending divine service on the Sabbath day, called Sunday, in his oi- lier parish church. " XII. Provided also, and be it niacin!. That nothing herein contained, shall be con- strued to extend to authorize any Popish priest, or reputed Popish priest, to celebrate marriage between Protestant and Protestant, or between any person, who hath been or professed himself or herself to be a Protes- tant at any time within twelvemonths before such celebration of marriage, and a Papist, unless such Protestant and Papist shall have been first married by a clergyman of the Protestant religion, and that every Popish priest, or reputed Popish priest, who shall celebrate any marriage betwen two Protes- tants, or bctweeu any such Protestant and Papist, unless such Protestant and Papist shall have been first married by a clergyman of the Protestant religion, shall forfeit the sum of five hundred pounds to his majesty, upon conviction thereof. " XIII. And whereas it may be expedient, in case his majesty, his heirs and successors, shall be pleased so to alter the statutes of the College of the holy and undivided Trinity near Dublin, and of the University of Dub- lin, as to enable persons professing the Ro- man C itholic religion to enter into or to take degrees in the said university, to remove any obstacle, which now exists bv statute law ; be it enacted, That from and after the first day of June, one thousand seven hundred and ninety-three, it shall not be necessary for any person upon taking any of the degrees usually conferred by the said university, to make or subscribe any declaration, or to take any oath, save the oaths of allegiance and abjuration, any law or statute to the contrary notwithstanding. "XIV. Provided always, That no Papist or Roman Catholic, or person professing the Roman Catholic or Popish religion, shall take any benefit by or under this act, unless he shall have first taken and subscribed the oath and declaration in this act contained and set forth, and also the said oath appointed by the said act passed in the thirteenth and four- teenth years of his majesty's reign, entitled, 'An act to enable his majesty's subjects, of whatever persuasion, to testify their allegiance to him,' in some one of his majesty's four courts in Dublin, or at the general sessions of the peace, or at any adjournment thereof to be holden for the county, city, or borough wherein such Papist or Roman Catholic, or person professing the Roman Catholic or Popish religion, doth inhabit or dwell, or be- fore the going judge or judges of assize in the county wherein such Papist or Roman Catholic, or person professing the Roman Catholic or Popish religion, doth inhabit and dwell, iu open court. "XV. Provided always, and be it enacted, Tint the names of snch persons as shall so take and subscribe the said oath and dec- laration, with their titles and additions, shall be entered upon the rolls, for that purpose to be appointed bv said respective courts; and that the said rolls once in every year shall be transmitted to, and deposited in the Rolls Office in this kingdom, to remain amongst the records thereof, and the masters or keepers of the rolls in this kingdom, or their lawful deputy or deputies, are hereby em- * r-t CM .CfiU'ftlUl/S,^ arms AND GUNPOWDER AND CONVENTION ACTS. 227 powered and required to give and deliver to such person or persons so taking and sub- goribiue the said oaths and declaration, a cer- Uficate or certificates of such person or per- sons having taken and subscribed ibe said oaths and declaration, lor each of which cer- tificates the sum of one shilling anil no more shall he pai "XVI. And be it further prooided and enacted, That from and after the first day of April, one thousand seven hundred and ninety -three, no freeholder, burgess, freeman, or inhabitant of this kingdom, being a Pa- pist or Roman Catholic, or person professing the Roman Catholic or Popish religion, shall at any time be capable of giving his vote for tin- electing of any knight or knights of any shire or county within this kingdom, or citi- zen or burgess to serve in any Parliament, until he shall have first produced and shown to the high sheriff of the said county, or his deputy or deputies, at any election of a knight or knights of the said shire, and to the re- spective chief officer or officers of any city, borough, or town-corporate, to whom the return of any citizen or burgess to serve in Parliament doth or shall respectively belong, at lie' election of any citizen or bur- gee to serve in Parliament, such certificate of his having taken rend subscribed the said oath and declaration, either from the Polls Office, or from the proper officer of the court in which the said oaths and declaration shall be taken and subscribed; and such person being a freeholder, freeman, burgess, or in- habitant so producing and showing such cer- tificate, shall be then permitted to vote, as amply and fully as any Protestant freeholder, freeman, burgess, or inhabitant of such coun- ty, city, borough, or town-corporate, but not otherwise." This law, it, may be thought, saved toler- ably well the main privileges of the odious "Ascendency;" and still left the two sects, or two nations in the relative position of a su- perior and an inferior casle : hut the require- ments of Euglish policy at this time were ab- solute and undeniable. It was however felt bv the thoroughgoing Protestants of Ireland to be a sore humiliation thus at last to have to acknowledge the civil existence of Papists at all, and that Papists no longer breathed altogether by "connivance." But the irrita- tion of the Protestant interest was soothed by certain other measures which the Govern- ment carried through this session — the (Sun powder Act and the Convention Act. The Gunpowder Act, entitled ''An act to prevent the importation of Arms, Gunpowder, and Ammunition into this Kingdom, and the re- moving and keeping of Gunpowder, Arms, and Ammunition without license,''" contained very oppressive provisions, authorizing ma- gistrates and police to make searches for arms ; and may be called the first of the reg- ular series of "Arms Acts," with which Ire- laud is so familiar down to the present day. It was not at all opposed in Parliament : in- deed, like all the other Anns Acts, it purported to be a temporary measure, to be in force only until the 1st of January, 1794, and the end of then next session of Parliament. The Government pretended that it was needed just at that time to defeat and suppress the seditious conspiracy which Lord Clare and the Committee of the Lords had discov- ered; but which did not then exist at all; and which afterwards was occasioned, or in- deed rendered necessary, by the atrocious abuse of the very coercive laws which were said to be intended to defeat it. But the second of these two acts, the Convention Act, Lord Clare's special and favorite measure, stamps that nobleman as the true author and creator of British policy in Ireland, from his own time until this hour. The bill was introduced into the House of Lords by Lord Clare himself. Its real ami plain object was to prevent the prevalence of the successful example of the Catholic Con- vention, and to anticipate a Convention which it was alleged that the United Irish Society was about to convene at Athloue. This act (33 Geo. III., c. 29) to prevent the election or appointment of unlawful assem- blies, under pretence of preparing or present- ing public petitions or other addresses to his majesty or the Parliament, recites, that the election or appointment of assemblies, pur- porting to represent the people, or any de- scription of tic p. ople, under pretence of pre- paring or presenting petitions, complaints, re- monstrances, and declarations, and other addresses to the king, or to both or either Houses of Parliament, for alteration of mat- ft «?; '£M.ciiC,;.s.„ ■t\4 w MM ^tf f« *..'.« ten established by law, tor redress of alleged grievances in church and state, may be made use of to sorve the ends of factious and sedi- tions persons, to the violation of the public peace, and the great and manifesl encourage- ment of riot, tumult, and disorder : and il enacts, that all such assemblies, committees, or other bodies of persons elected, or other- u ise constituted or appointed are unlawful as- semblies, and that nil persons giving or pub- lishing notice of the election to be made of such persons or delegates, or attending, or voting or acting therein by any means, are guilty of a high misdemeanor. The act con- cludes with a declaration, "that nothing in it shall impede the undoubted right of his maj- esty's subjects to petition the king or Parlia- ment for redress of any public or private gi ievance." This measure gave rise to long and acri- monious debates. When ii was in coramil tee, Mr. Grnttan made a vigorous Bpeech against it: his chief objection to it was, that it was a false declaration of law, and deprived the subject of his constitutional right of pe- titioning effectually against grievances by rendering the previous measure of consulta- tion and deliberation criminal. Especially lie was indignant that it by implication con- demned all previous oonvi ntions of delegates which had ever been held, including his own Volunteer Convention, lie said — "This hill is said to be an expedient to restore peace ; why then is il a reflection/ Why do the preamble and declaration pronounce every man who has 1 n a delegate, all the Volun- teers, the delegates nt Dungnnuon, the dele- gates of the convention, the committee of the lawyers' corps, and the corps that appointed that committee; the committee of the Cath- olics, their late conventions, and all the Cntholios who appointed that convention — that is the whole Catholic body^offenders, men guilty of an unlawful assembly, and this moment liable to he prosecuted 1 For so much has the bill in object : not the peace ol the country, but reflection on great bodies, the gratification of spleen at the expense of the constitution, by voting false doctrine into law, au.l the brightest passages of your history into unlawful assemblies. Gentle men have conoeived this hill an expedient to quell insurgents: let them read the bill. It is not a riot act; it does not go against riots thai, are, hut conventions that are not. The title of the bill, as first brought in, was to prevent riots and tumults arising from con- ventions; hut as the hill had nothing to say to riots, and lots appeared to have arisen from conventions, such title was in deceney dropped, and the object of the bill "as now professed to be an act against conventions. Gentlemen said a national convention at Athlono was intended, lie did believe that such aone had been intended some time ago, but that then it was not so; or if then intended, that it would be trifling and con> temptible. Ills objection to the bill was, that it was a trick, making a supposed National Convention at Athlone, in 17'.)-i, a pretext for provenling delegation forever." All opposition was vain. The Govern- ment had fabricated an alarm, purposely to get this act passed. Mr. Secretary Eobart's remarks on occasion of this debatejMJxposa dearly enough the whole policy of the Gov- ernment : — Mr. llohait declared, nothing gave him more pain, than that the debate on this bill should have extended to such length, or that it should, on the close of the session, create any thing like a disunion of sentiment., lie declared that nothing but the very alarming state to which the country had been reduced bj a spint of popular commotion, excited by conventions, usurping the privileges of rep- resentation, and assuming to control Parlia- ment, could have induced him to consent to the introduction of this bill ; and even the nobleman, who had brought it into the other House, before he had done so, had considered it over and over again, and did not bring it forward until" absolute necessity called for some effectual measure to stem the torrent of sedition, at a time when writs had been is- sued by the society called Uniled Irishmen, for the purpose of assembling the convention al Aihlone, and under a conviction, that if Parliament should break up without adopt- ing the bill, which In his idea never did, nor never was intended to meddle with the con- stitutional rights of the people, the constitu- tion itself might be subverted before Parlia- ment could be assembled. 'The act passed : on the final division, the teller In favor of the passage was Arthur h IP -•:"- (.i&rzgr^ There ia not, and never was, any such law in England. From that day to his, it hug effectually prevented the people of eland from deliberating in an orderly and authoritative manner, bj nns of accredited i l< | ites, upon their own affairs. It was af terwarda the rock ahead which ifronted O'Connell in all hie agitation. This law it, was which prevented his calling together the promised "Council of Three Hundred," and fl him only the alternative of inorganic "MonBter n tings" -which latter indeed were also made criminal by a prudent inter- pretati >f law. In this same session of Parliament, and be- fore the passage of the Catholic Relief bill, there was passed ;i new Militia bill, intro- duced by Lord Hillsborough, to establish the militia, as his lordship said, "as nearly as cir- cumstances would permit, on the same plan as that of England." The whole number of men he proposed to be 16,000, upon a rough estimate 500 for cadi county, The new Militia law was one of the must efficient of that series of measures now Becured by the i \o\ eminent to enable them at anj I tine to crush down every popular movement which w.is nol t" .h'-ir on ii taste. The General C mittee of the Catholics had adjourned after dispatching their dele- gates i" the km--, an. 1 they had left a sub- committee sittiug in Dublin, with power to acl for them between their rising and their next meeting; but they made a material teration in its constitution, by associating to the twelve members who then formed it, the whole of tho country deleg ite , each of whom was henceforward lo be, ipso facto, a member thereof. They then resolved, unnn- i n ly, thai they would reassemble when duly summoned by the sub-committee, who were invested with powers for that purpose. " We w ill atteud," cried a member from a remote county (0' Gorman, of Mayo), " if we are summoned to u t across tho Ail intii ." The sub-committee had entered into a of negotiations with Mr. Secretary Ho- ,ari respecting the details of I heir Relief bill. Bui all I i the oi iginal demand in the t.> the king »as for general relief, including admission to both Boubos of Par- li mi. hi, ii ■ n became e\ ident to tl inter that thev woiil'l take much less. Wolfe lone, in his indignant narrative of these I ei line's, says : — "In the first interview with the Irish minister, the two Houses of Parliament were at on jiven np, and the question began to be, not how much must be conceded, hut how much niie'hl, he withheld. So strikine a change did not escape the vigilant i the administration; they instantly recovered from the panio which had led them into such indiscreet, and, as it now appeared, unnecessary concessions at the opening of Parliament; thev dexterously Beduced the Catholics into the strong ground of negotia- tion, so well known to themselves, so little to their adversaries; they procrastinated, and they distinguished, they started doubts, they pleaded difficulties; the measure of relief was gradually curtailed, and, during the le. lions- and anxious progress of discus- Bion, whilst the Catholic mind, their hopes and fears, were unremittingly intent on tho progress of their bill, which was obviously and designedly suspended, the acts already commemorated ( Militia, Gunpowder, ispondency — The " Orangemen " — Beginning of Coercion and Anarchy. The limited and grudging measure for relief i f the Catholics had by no means had the (fleet of destroying the odious distinc- tions which had so long divided Irishmen of different religions persuasions. The law indeed was changed, but the insolent and exclusive spirit which had inspired the Penal Code; the very marked and offen- ive disabilities which still left the Catholic •eople in a condition of legal inferiority, gave the " Ascendency " ample opportunity to make them feel daily and hourly that they were still a proscribed and oppressed race. Great difficulties at first prevailed in raising the different regiments of militia ; for al- though Catholics were rendered capable of serving in them, no Catholic officers were appointed ; this marked reprobation of all gentlemen of that communion so directly in the teeth of the act, diffused a general dif- fidence amidst the lower orders, and it was found necessary to appoint several Catholic officers, before the militia corps could be e irapleted. i atholics were not yet eligible as mayors or sheriffs, but there was now no legal ex- clusion of them from tin: guilds of mer- chants. Accordingly, thirty highly respect- able Catholic merchants of Dublin applied for admission into their guild, but were 1 on the mere ground of their re- ligion. In every part of the kingdom con- tinual cfforis were made to traduce and vilify the whole Catholic body, in order to defeat and annul the measures which the legislature hid passed in their favor. Never, perhaps, in all the history of the country, had the virulent malignity been so busy in charging upon Catholic? all manner of evil principles and practices Their indignant denials of these imputation* were utterly unheeded. Every town cor- poration followed the example of that of Dublin, and excluded Catholics even from the poor privilege of belonging to the guild of their trades. The growth and progress of Defenderism, particularly in the county of Meath, afforded fuel to the enemies of the Catholic body, which they studied to im- plicate in the outrages which were some- times committed. Painful industry was employed to work up the imaginations of the inhabitants into the expectation of a general massacre of all the Protestants throughout that county. No arts were left untried to criminate the Catholic bodv ; every exceptionable word or action of an in- dividual, however contemptible, was charged on the whole ; and the object was now, not so much to suppress the Defenders, as to fasten their enormities on the Catholic body. On several trials which took place at the assizes for Meath County iu prosecuting men charged with being Defenders, the juries were composed exclusively of Prot- estants. Catholics, it is true, were legally competent to sit on juries, but in every case of prosecution by the crown, the Protestant sheriff took care to show them that they were not regarded as "good and lawful men." Irritated and humiliated by such continued oppression, it is not wonderful if many of the Catholics began to despair of being ever allowed to live in peace and honor in their native land without such a revolution as would destroy both the "As- cendency "and the English connection along with it. Great numbers of them about this time joined the United Irish Society, which was not yet indeed a revolutionary or re- publican body in form, although its princi- pal leaders were revolutionists in principle, and already foresaw the necessity which shortly after drove them into armed insur- rection. The Catholic bishops, it must be admitted (if it be any credit to them), most vehemently opposed the United Irishmen, and omitted no occasion of protesting their " loyalty," and pouring execration upon rff\ 3\ )/Q '7,'„ ?« ^^ > ff sr aW/ / A* ,^^#^Wk -V HISTORY OF XEELAJs'D. French principles." In the humble ad- dress to the King- from nine Catholic bishops, we find these strong expressions, which prove a spirit of the most determined submissive- ness under oppression : — "Whilst we lament the necessity that in- flicts the calamities of war upon any, even the must depraved of our fellow-creatures, we incessantly supplicate the Almighty Dis- poser of events, that, blessing your Majesty's arms with success, lie may crown you with the glory of stopping the progress of that atheistical faction, which aims at the sub- version of every religious and moral prin- ciple. " We look towards that unhappy nation, which is the object of hostility, and acknowl- edge with humble thanksgiving the goodness of Divine Providence, which, under the best of constitutions, has bestowed on the land we live in, freedom exempt from anarchy, protection guarded against oppression, and a prince calculated by his wisdom and virtue to preserve that happy condition of society." It is a part of the history of our country that these four archbishops and five bishops diil actually bear this high testimony to the freedom and happiness of Ireland, at a time when every accused Catholic was tried be- fore a packed jury of his enemies — when no Catholic could be a magistrate or sheriff, and therefore no Catholic had the least chance of justice in any court — when the un- fortunate flocks of these prelates were having their staeks of grain sold to pay tithes to cler- gymen they never saw, and church-rates to support churches which they never entered. The government now began a system of active operations against the United Irish- men. Two of their chiefs, Simon Butler and Oliver Bond, the first a barrister, the second a Dublin merchant, had already, in 1792, been summoned to the bar of the House of Lords, charged with having acted as lairman and secretary of one of the meet- ings in Taylor's Hall, at which an address to the people was adopted, very strongly denouncing the corrupt composition of Par- iament. This was construed as an offence against the privilege of Parliament ; and Butler and Bond were condemned to be imprisoned for six months, and to pay each a fine of £500. The next leader marked for vengeance was the famous Archibald Hamilton Ilowan, the friend of Tone, and one of the boldest of the early chiefs of the Society. It was determined to prosecute him on a charge of sedition, on account of an address "to the Volunteers," adopted at a meeting where he acted as secretary. The address had been adopted and pub- lished two years before ; yet the govern- ment had hesitated all this while to bring him to trial. In fact, arrangements had first to be perfected to ensure the packing of the jury. This was done by making John Giffard, one of the most unscrupulous and indefatigable partizans of the "Ascen- dancy," one of the Sheriffs of Dublin ; he knew precisely on what jurors the Castle could depend. It was on occasion of this trial that the system of jury-packing was thoroughly organized and reduced to an art ; it has since that time formed the chief instrument of British government in* Ire- land. The prosecuted address was written by Drennan ; and its first paragraph will show the nature of the " sedition : " — " Citizen-soldiers, you first took up arms to protect your country from foreign ene- mies and from domestic disturbance ; for the same purposes it now becomes necessary, that you should resume them ; a proclama- tion has been issued in England for em- bodying the militia, and a proclamation has been issued by the Lord -Lieutenant and Council in Ireland for repressing all seditious associations ; in consequence of both these proclamations, it is reasonable to apprehend danger from abroad and danger at home, from whence but from apprehended danger are these menacing preparations for war drawn through the streets of this capital, or whence if not to create that internal com- motion which was not found, to shake that credit which was not affected, to blast that volunteer honor which was hitherto inviolate, are those terrible suggestions and rumors and whispers that meet us at every corner, and agitate at least our old men, our women, and children ; whatever be the motive, or from whatever quarter it arises, alarm has arisen, and you volunteers of Ireland are therefore ■summoned to arms at the instance of government as well as by the responsi- M 'AX ,®> « PHE* - ^— "iAc ,u.,„.\in.i,^ vs\ r • "-V >^N Vv '•«-:: bility attached to your character, and the permanent obligations of your constitution. We "ill not at this day condescend to quote authorities for the right of having and of using arms, but we will cry aloud, even amidst the storm raised by the witchcraft of a proclamation, that to your formation was owing the peace and protection of this island, to your relaxation has been owing its relapse into impotence and insignificance, to your renovation must be owing its future freedom and its present tranquillity ; you are therefore summoned to arms, in order to preserve your country in that guarded quiet, which may secure it from external hostility, and to maintain that internal regimen throughout the land, which, superseding a notorious police, or a suspected militia, may preserve the blessings of peace by a vigilant preparation for war." The address went on to recommend a civil and military convention, which was not against the law at that time, though in the next year the " Convention Act" was passed to prevent all such assemblies. Upon this the Attorney-General filed an e:r-o[licii> information. The trial came on the 29th of January, 1794, though the informa- tion had been filed as far back as the 8th of the preceding June. Upon calling over the jury one of them was objected against, as holding a place under the crown, but the Attorney-General insisted upon the illegality of the objection, and observed, that it went against all that was honorable and respect- able in the land. It was, therefore, overruled by the court. After a trial of about ten hours, the jury found Rowan guilty. This was very unexpected by Mr. Rowan's party. A motion was afterwards made in court to set aside the verdict, and grant a new trial grounded on several affidavits. The motion was argued for six days, and was at last discharged. The grounds upon which the defendant's counsel rested their case were, 1. Upon the declaration of a juror against Mr. Rowan, viz., that the country would never be quiet till he was hanged or banished 'J. OpOD the partiality of Mr. Giffard, the sheriff, who had so arrayed the panel as to have him tried by an unfair jury. 3. Upon the incredibility of one Lister, the chief and only witness against him ; and 4. The mis- 30 direction of the court. The sentence of the court upon Mr. Rowan was to pay to His Majesty a line of £500 and be imprisoned two years, to be computed from the 29th of January, 1194, and until the Cue were paid, and to find security for his good be- havior for seven years, himself in .£2,000, and two sureties in £1,000 each. The ver- dict ami judgment of the court gave great dissatisfaction to the popular party. Their disapprobation of the verdict was expressed in court by groans and hisses. Parliament met on the 21st of January ; and in March, Mr. Win. Brabazon Ponsonby presented his bill for amending the state of the representation of the people in Parlia- ment. Mr. Grattan and Sir Lawrence Parsons supported the bill ; the government party does not seem to have even taken the trouble to debate the question, being quite sure of the result. On motion of Sir Her- cules Langrishe it was ordered to be read a second time that day six months ; and so ended all efforts for reform in the Irish Par- liament. The Houses were prorogued on the 25th of March. In the meantime, Hamilton Rowan was lying in Xewgate, according to his sentence. The United Irish Society of Dublin voted him an address in his prison, vehemently denouncing the packing of juries, and prom- ising " inflexible determination to pursue the great object of cur association — an equal ,and impartial representation of the people in Parliament." But the government was now determined to treat these extra-parliamen- tary reformers without ceremony. On the 4th of May, their ordinary place of meeting, the Taylor's Hall in Back laue, was invaded by the police, the meeting dispersed and the papers seized. After this event many of the more timid, or prudent members, fell off altogether from the society ; but the more resolute and indignant, especially the re- publican portion of the body, made up their minds from this moment to re-organize the society upon a distinctly revolutionary and military basis, which they effected in the course of the next year. Their reasons for taking this extreme resolution were — that as the people were not fairly represented in Parliament, and had no hope of being so represented — as the Convention Act had ...^Nii.i.^, -■^-' . Est- >, HISTORY OF IRELAND. deprived them of the right to consult on their common affairs publicly, by means of delegates appointed for that purpose — and as eveu trial by jury was now virtually abolished, so that no man's life or liberty had any longer the slightest protection from the laws, they were thrown back upon their original rights and remedies as human beings — that is to say, the right and remedy of revolution. A few days before the attack of the police upon Taylor's Hall, a certain Rev. William Jackson, a clergyman of the Church of England, was arrested in Dublin on a charge of high treason. He had come from France, with instructions from the govern- ment of the republic to have an emissary appointed by the United Irish leaders who should go to Paris and negotiate for French aid in a revolutionary movement. He had come by way of Loudon ; and there Mr. Pitt, who w:is perfectly aware of his errand and his every movement, contrived that he should be provided with a companion upon his mission. This was one Cockayne, an attorney, who came to Dublin with Mr. Jackson, and affected great zeal in the cause of liberty and of Ireland. Jackson had letters of introduction to Lord Edward Fitzgerald, who refused, however, to hold any communication with him. He was in- troduced, however, to Wolfe Toue, and had several interviews with Rowan iu prison. Tune at first entered into his views, and undertook to be himself the agent who should go to France ; but at the next in- terview, having conceived suspicions of Cockayne, if not of Jackson himself, he drew back, and declined further negotiation. Rowan, however, was less cautious, and had many interviews with Jackson and Cockayne, in which he endeavored first to secure Tone's services as the French agent, and on his re- fusal, Dr. Reynolds'. All this while Mr. Pitt and the government were kept fully apprised of all that was going forward ; and at length, when it was supposed there was evidence enough to involve Jackson, Tone, Rowan and Reynolds in a charge of high treason, Jackson was arrested, brought to trial the next year, convicted on the tes- timony of Cockayne, and about to be sen- tenced to death, when he dropped dead in court, having swallowed arsenic for purpose. On the 1st of May, Archibald Hamilton Rowan, now certain of being tried, convicted and executed for high treason, escaped from Xewgate prison, arrived in France, and thence proceeded to America. Reynolds avoided arrest by timely flight. Tone was not apprehended ; but he was given to un- derstand that the accusation was hanging over him ; and was left the option of quitting the country, but without any promise being exacted on his part as to his course for the future Before going away, he wrote a narrative of the two conversations he had with Jackson. Tone's son, in his memoir of his father, says : " When my father de- livered this paper, the prevalent opinion, which he then shared, was, that Jackson was a secret emissary employed by the British Government. It required the un- fortunate man's voluntary death to'elear his character of such a foul imputation. What renders this transaction the more odious, is, that, before his arrival in Ireland, the life of Jackson was completely in the power of the British Government. His evil genius was already pinned upon him ; his mission from France, his every thought and his views, were known. He was allowed to proceed, not in order to detect an existing conspiracy in Ireland, but to form one, and thus increase the number of victims. A more atrocious instance of perfidious ami gratuitous cruelty is scarcely to be found iu the history of any country but Ireland." Iu May, 1165, Tone proceeded to Belfast with his family, met there some of his early associates in the formation of the first United Irish Club, and made some agreeable excursions with them. One of the scenes which he describes in his memoirs is im- pressive, seen in the light of subsequent events : " I remember, particularly, two days that we passed on the Cave hill. On the first, Russell, Neilson, Sirams, M'Cracken and one or two more of us, on the summit of M'Art's fort, took a solemn obligation, which, I think I may say, I have on my part endeavored to fulfill — never to desist in our efforts, until we had subverted the authority of England over our country, and asserted her independence." m -& y / ^\'~\ flgglL FITZWILLIAM S ADMINISTRATION. i \j Tone had already solemnly promised liis friends in Dublin, that if he now retired to the United Slates, it would only be to pro- ceed thence to France, and labor to form the alliance which he regarded as the grand mis-ion of his life between the French Re- public and a republic in Ireland. In the beginning of the year 1795, owing to certain arrangements between the Eng- lish ministers and those lately "coalized " Whigs who had been admitted to a share in the administration, Lord Westmoreland was recalled from Ireland, and Lord Fitzwilliam was sent over as Lord-Lieutenant. This pave great hope and satisfaction to the Irish Catholics and their friends in Parlia- ment. Lord Fitzwilliam was a Whig of the Burke school, a close friend of the Duke of Portland ; and it was universally under- stood that he had not undertaken the gov- ernment of Ireland save on the express terms that complete Catholic Emancipation would be made a government measure. In- deed, this was well known ; for before con- senting to come to Ireland he had induced Mr. Grattan to go over and confer with him on the policy to be pursued. Mr. Grat- tan, of course, made the emancipation of the Catholics the main and indispensable point ; and the Duke of Portland and Lord Fitz- william fully concurred, with the distinct assent also of Mr. Pitt. For the due un- derstanding of the cruel fraud which that minister was now meditating upon the Irish nation, it is needful that tins previous ar- rangement of policy should be made clear ; and, Fortunately, we have the evidence, both of Mr. Grattan and Lord Fitzwilliam him- self, in full contradiction to the reckless as- sertions of Fitzgibbon. Mr. Grattan, in his Answer to Lord Clare, says: "In summer, on a change being made in the British Cabinet, being informed by some of the learned persons therein, that the admin- istration of the Irish Department was to be- long to them, and that they sent for us to adopt our measures, I stated the Catholic Emancipation to be one of them." And Lord Fitzwilliam, in his letters to Lord Carlisle, makes this explicit statement: " From the very beginning, as well as through the whole progress of that fatal business, for fatal I fear I must call it, I acted in perfect conformity with the original outline settled between me and His Majesty's ministry, previous to my departure from London. From a full consideration of the real merits of the case, as well as from every information I had been able to collect of the state and temper of Ireland, from the year 1790, I was decidedly of opinion, that not only sound policy, but justice, required, on the part of Great Britain, that the work, which was left imperfect at that perioi , ought to be completed, and the Catholics relieved from every remaining disqualifica- tion. In this opinion the Duke of Portland uniformly concurred with me, and when this question came under discussion, previous to my departure for Ireland, I found the Cab- inet, with Mr. Pitt at their head, strongly impressed with the same conviction. Had I found it otherwise, I never would have undertaken the government. I at first pro- posed that the additional indulgences should be offered from the throne ; the very best effects would be secured by this act of un- solicited graciousness ; and the embarrass- ing consequences which it was natural to foresee must result from the measures being left open for any volunteer to bring forward, would be timely and happily avoided. But to this proposal objections were started, that appeared of sufficient weight to induce the adoption of another plan. I consented not to bring the question forward on the part of government, but rather to en- deavor to keep it back, until a period of more general tranquillity, when so many material objects might not press upon the government, but as the principle was agreed on, and the necessity of its being brought into full effect was universally allowed, it was at the same time resolved, that if the Catholics should appear determined to stir the business, and bring it before Parliament, I was to give it a handsome support on the part of the government. " I was no sooner landed, and informed of the real state of things here, -than I found that question would force itself upon my immediate consideration. Faithful to the system that had been agreed on, and anxious to attain the object that had been commit- ted to my discretion, I lost not a moment in gaining every necessary information, or N 9 T ifvl-V K i -a 'j , a ■ ■ ..i.Mfli.5.«. r.c •-'■■ -»r:^7-.. ^-. .<•*.' Oi» ■^y^g^. ■ 23G HISTORY OF IRELAND. in transmitting the result to tlie British Cabinet. As early as the 8th of January, I wrote to the Secretary of State on the sub- ject ; I told him that I trembled about the Roman Catholics ; that I had great fears about keeping them quiet for the session ; that I found the question already in agita- tion ; that a committee was appointed to bring forward a petition to Parliament, praying for a repeal of all remaining dis- qualifications. I mentioned my intentions of immediately using what efforts I could to stop the progress of it, and to bring the Catholics back to a confidence in govern- ment. I stated the substance of some con- versations I had on the subject with some of the principal persons of the country. It was the opinion of one of these, that if the postponing of the question could be nego- tiated on grounds of expediency, it ought not to be resisted by government. That it should be put off for some time, was al- lowed by another to be a desirable thing, but the principle of extension was at the same time strongly insisted on, and forcibly in- culcated, as a matter of the most urgent necessity." Lord Fitzwilliam took possession of his government on the 4th of January, 1195. Parliament stood prorogued until the 22d of January. lie occupied the intervening time in making some dismissals from office, which created great dismay and resentment in the Castle circles, and proportional joy in the minds of the people. Mr. Grattau was in- vited to accept the post of Chancellor of the Exchequer, but declined. Mr. Ponsonby and Mr. Curran were to be made Attorney and Solicitor-General ; and these appointments in themselves were significant of a marked change in the Irish policy. But nothing struck the country with such surprise and pleasure, mingled with apprehension, as the dismissal of Mr. Beresford from the Revenue Board. The Beresford family was at that time the most powerful of the aristocracy of Ire- land ; had the two peerages of Waterford and Tyrone, and had also been so successful in its constant efforts to create for itself a controlling influence by means of patronage and boroughmoua;ering, that it was thought no viceroy could dare to displace a Beres- ford. In the letter cited before, addressed to Lord Carlisle, Fitzwilliam says : "And now for the grand question about Mr. Beresford. In a letter of mine to Mr. Pitt on this subject, I reminded him of a conver- sation, in which I had expressed to him (in auswer to the question put to him by me,) my apprehensions, that it would be necessary to remove that gentleman, and that he did not offer the slightest objection, or say a single word in favor of Mr. Beresford. This alone would have made me suppose that I should be exempt from every imputation of breach of agreement if I determined to re- move him ; but when, on my arrival here, I found all those apprehensions of his danger- ous power, which Mr. Pitt admits I had often represented to him, were fidly justified ; when he was filling a situation greater than that of the Lord-Lieutenant ; and I clearly saw, that if I had connected myself with him, it would have been connecting myself with a person under universal heavy suspicions, and subjecting my government to all the opprobrium and unpopularity at- tendant upon his mal-adm'mistration." This bold step, as it was then felt to be, still further confirmed the joyful expectation, that an ample Catholic Relief bill would soon be brought in and sustained by the government. All the Catholics and liberal Protestants were highly pleased at the pros- pect. The Northern Star, organ of the United Irishmen, published in Belfast, had triumphantly announced Catholic Emanci- pation as a matter settled. The Catholics generally agreed to put their case into the hands of Mr. Grattau, their old and warm advocate; and it seems highly probable that if the compact made with Lord Fitzwil- liam had been observed, and all the remain- ing disabilities of Catholics frankly removed at once, the insurrection would never have taken place, and infinite misery and atrocity saved to the country. But Mr. Pitt knew well that if there were no insurrection there would also be no union. He had his plans already almost matured; and his chief ad- viser for Irish affairs was the thorough Lord Clare. Mr. Beresford, the dismissed Commission- er of the Revenue, at once went to England, laid his complaints before Mr. Pitt, and even had an audience of the Kin"-. Lord 1? '"to ' ' i£S^r---j^ ^ 6\o riV. >i INSURRECTION FIRST " UNION " AFTERWARDS, Fitzwilliam very soon found, from the tenor of the letters he received from Pitt, that the minister was dissatisfied with some of his measures ; and disquieting rumors prevailed that he would not long remain in Ireland. In the meantime, Catholic petitions poured into the House. Mr. Grattan moved for leave to bring in his Catholic Relief bill; and leave was given with only three dissentient voices. This was of itself a very remarkable feature in Irish politics; and what was even more notable was the fact that no counter-petitions of Protestants were sent in. The nation was in good hu- mor; and the House voted larger supplies in men and money for carrying on the war than had ever been voted in Ireland before. Now the unpleasant rumors became more positive, and assumed more consistence. On the 28th of February, Sir Lawrence Par- sons, in his place in Parliament, asked the members opposite if the rumors were true; but received no answer. Sir Lawrence added, " he was sorry to be obliged to con- strue the silence of the right honorable and honorable gentlemen into a confirmation of this rumor; and he deplored most deeply the event, which, at the present time, must tend to throw alarming doubts on the promises, which had been held out to the people, of measures to be adopted for the promotion of their happiness, the concilia- tion of their minds, and the common at- tachment of every class of his majesty's faithful subjects of Ireland, in support of the same happy constitution. If those measures were now to be relinquished, which gentlemen had promised with so much confidence to the country, and on the faith of which, the House had been called on to vote the enormous sum of one million seven hundred thousand pounds, he must consider his country as brought to the most awful aud alarming crisis she had ever known in any period of her history." He then moved tin address to His Excel- lency, entreating him to remain in his gov- ernment; Mr. Duquery seconded the mo- tion, and ased very strong language with respect to the conduct of Mr. Pitt, "who, not satisfied," he said, "with having in- volved the country in a disastrous war, in- tended, to complete the mischief by risking the internal peace of Ireland, making that country the dupe of his fraud and artifice, in order to swindle the nation out of £1, 700,000 to support the war on the faith of measures which it now seemed were to be refused." And now all proceedings on the Catho- lic Relief bill were suspended, by positive orders from England; and as Mr. Grattan had acted in bringing it forward as a min- isterial supporter he could only acquiesce, though with the gloomiest forebodings. Again, on the 2d of March, Sir Law- rence Parsons made a very violent speech, severely reprobating the bad faith of the British Cabinet with regard to Lord Fitz- william. " But the great object," he said, " of the motion he was about to make was to calm the public mind, to irive the people an assurance that the measures which were proposed would not be abandoned; that the Parliament would keep the means in their hands until they were accomplished; and that they would not be prorogued un- til they were fairly and fully discussed. He did not pretend to say specifically what these measures were. The first he believed to be the Catholic bill; and if a resistance to any one measure more than another was likely to promote dreadful consequences it was this. He said nothing as to the orig- inal propriety of the measure; but this much he would say, that if the Irish admin- istration had countenanced the Catholics in this expectation, without the concurrence of the British Cabinet, they had much to an- swer for. On the other hand, if the Brit- ish Cabinet had held out an assent, and had afterwards retracted; if the dremon of dark- ness should come from the infernal regions upon earth, and throw a fire-brand amongst the people, he could not do more to pro- mote mischief. The hopes of the public were raised, and in one instant they were blasted. If the House did not resent that, insult to the nation and to themselves, they would in his mind be most contemptible; for although a majority of the people might submit to be mocked in sobarefaced a man- ner, the case was not as formerly, when all the Parliament of Ireland was against the Catholics; and to back them, the force M- , £! % -A w) if 0m {/' Lr '*%£: '.M. .....NBjS.i/. w= &&L v Al :S^^ ■ 238 HISTORY OF IRELAND. of England." Now, although the claim of the Catholics was well known and under- stood, not one petition controverting it had been presented from Protestants in any part of Ireland. No remonstrance ap- peared, no county meeting had been held. What was to be inferred from all this, but that the sentiments of the Protestants were for the emancipation of the Catholics? A meeting was held on Saturday last at the Royal Exchange of the merchants and traders of the metropolis, which was as nu- merously attended as the limits of that building would admit. The Governor of the Bank of Ireland was in the chair. An address was resolved on to His Excellency Lord Fitzwilliam, full of affection, and re- solutions strong as they could be in counte- nance of the Catholic claim. He would ask them, was the British minister to con- trol all the interests, talents, and inclina- tions in that country ? He protested to God, that in all the history he had read, he had never met with a parallel of such omin- ous infatuation as that by which he ap- peared to be led. " Let them persevere," said he, "and you must increase your army to myriads; every man must have five or six dragoons in his house." Sir Lawrence ended with a motion to limit the Money bill; but this motion was voted down by a large majority. Members could hardly yet believe that so great a villany was intend- ed. Mr. Conolly, however, remarked "that he would vote for it if he did not hear something satisfactory " — namely about the retention of Lord Fitzwilliam. Within a few days after Lord Fitzwilliam was re- called from Ireland. No more was heard about Catholic Relief for nearly forty years. Lord Camden succeeded as viceroy, and the country was delivered over to its now inev- itable ordeal of slaughter and desolation ; an ordeal which, in Mr. Pitt's opinion, was needful to pave the way for the Legislative Union. Air. Plowden has very truly de- scribed the effect of these transactions upon the nation: — " The report of Earl Fitzwilliam's inteuded removal was no sooner credited, than an uuiversal despondency, in some instances bordering on desperation, seized the whole nation. Meetings were formed throughout ^&i the kingdom, in order to convey to their beloved and respected Governor, their high sense of his virtue and patriotism, and their just indignation at his and their country's enemies. The deep and settled spirit of discontent which at this time pervaded all ranks of people, was not confined to the Catholics. The Dissenters and as many of the Protestants of the establishment, as had not an interest in that monopoly of power and influence, which Earl Fitzwilliam had so openly attacked and so fearfully alarmed, felt the irresistible effect : all good Irishmen beheld with sorrow and indignation, the re- conciliation of all parties, interests, and relig ions defeated, the cup of national union dashed from their eager lips, and the spirit of discord let loose upon the kingdom with an enlarged commission to inflame, aggra- vate, and destroy. Such were the feelings, and such the language of those who de- plored the removal of that nobleman, in the critical moment of giving peace, strength, and prosperity to their country. And how large a part of the Irish nation lamented the loss of their truly patriotic Governor, may be read in the numberless addresses and resolutions that poured in upon him both before and after his actual departure, expressive of their grief, despair, and indig- nation at that ominous event. They came from every description of persons, but from Right Boys, Defenders, and the old de- pendants upon the castle." The people of Ireland, of all sects and classes seemed seized with a sudden undefined horror at the prospects before them. They saw that a great opportunity was lost. And they had no mortal quarrel with one another, save the quarrel always made for them, always forced on them, by an English min- ister sitting safe in his Cabinet at Westmin- ster. Many on both sides who were des- tined soon to meet in deadly struggle could have prayed that this cup might pass. On the 25th of March, P795, Lord Fitzwilliam took his departure from Ireland, when the resentment, grief, and indignation of the public were most strongly marked. It was a day of general gloom : the shops were shut; no business of any kind was transact- ed, and the whole city put on mourning. His coach was drawn to the water side by y i * & ,v5»P> OS ;Ctf P /-ft ' H t*G .CituM8l*S.ft • ' '■ GREAT DESPONDENCY THE " ORANGEMEN. A' V v ,S* some of the most respectable citizens, and cordial sorrow appeared on every counte- nance. The reception of Earl Camden, who arrived in Dublin live days after, wore a very different complexion ; displeasure appeared generally : many strong traits of disapprobation were exhibited, and some of the populace were so outrageous, that it became necessary to call out a military force in order to quell the disturbances that ensued. Still the rage for meetings and addresses continued. On the 9th of April a most numerous and respectable meeting of the Catholics was had in their chapel in Francis street, to receive the report of their dele- gates, who had presented their petition at St. James' : when Mr. Keogh reported, that in execution of their mission, they had on the 13th of March presented their peti- tion to His Majesty, and had received what ■was generally termed a gracious reception. That they had afterwards felt it their duty to request an audience with the Duke of Portland, the Secretary of State for the Home Department, to receive such informa- tion as he should think fit to impart rela- tive to His Majesty's determination on the Bubject of their address. That his grace declined giving any information whatever, save that His Majesty had imparted his pleasure thereon to the Lord-Lieutenant, and that he was the proper channel through which that information should pass. Here their mission was determined. Mr. Keogh continued to deliver his sentiments upon the critical situation of affairs, and amongst many strong things, which fell from him, one observation gave particular offence to government. He was not, he said, sorry that the measure had been attempted, though it had been defeated : for it pointed out one fact at least, in which the feelings of every Irishman were interested, and by which the Irish Legislature would be roused to a sense of its own dignity. It showed that the internal regulations of Ireland, to which alone an Irish Parliament was competent, were to be previously ad- justed by a British Cabinet. "Whilst this debate was going on, a very large party of the young men of the college came into the chapel, and were most honorably received. Some of them joined in the debate. They came that hour from presenting an address to Mr. Grattan, to thank and congratulate him upon his patriotic efforts in the cause of Catholic Emancipation, and the reform of those abuses, which had inflamed public indignation, to which Mr. Grattan made an appropriate answer. Every patriotic Irish- man must look back with unavailing regret to the lost opportunity, or rather to the cruel deception, of Lord Fitzwilliam's short administration. There was really at that moment a disposition to bury the hatchet of strife. At no subsequent period, down to this day, were the two nations which make up the Irish population, so well dis- posed to amalgamate and unite. But that did not suit the exigencies of British policy. There was to be an insurrection, in order that there might be a Legislative Union. In this same eventful year of 1795, British policy was materially aided by a new and portentous institution — the Orange Society. The recall of Lord Fitzwilliam, and the abso- lute and most inevitable despair of obtain- ing either Reform of Parliament or Catho- lic Emancipation under the existing order of things, had driven vast numbers of the people, of both religions, into the United Irish Society. A spirit of union and frater- nity was spreading fast. " Then," says Mr. Plowden, " the gentlemen in place became frightfully alarmed for their situations ; ac- tive agents were sent down to Armagh, to turn the ferocity and fanaticism of the Peep of Day Boys into a religious contest with the Catholics, under the specious appear- ance of zeal for Church and King. Personal animosity was artfully converted into relig- ious rancor ; and for the specious purpose of taking off the stigma of delinquency, the appellation of Peep of Day Boys was changed into that of Orangemen." It was in the northern part of Armagh County that this bloody association originated, and Mr. Thomas Verner enjoyed the bad emi- nence of being its first " Grand Master." Their test is said to have been : " In the awful presence of Almighty God, I, A. B., do solemnly swear, that I will, to the utmost of my power, support the King and the present government; and I do further swear, that I will use my utmost exertions M 'f&s iO UE jU ■ ^ . -■ to exterminate all the Catholics of the king- dom of Ireland." But this oath, being secret, has latterly been denied by the Orangemen of respectability and conse- quence. It has been generally credited, that it was taken by all the original lodges, and continued afterwards to be taken by the lower classes. The Orange oath is given in the above terms in a pamphlet published in 1197, called " A View of the Present State of Ireland," which is attrib- uted to Arthur O'Connor. But whatever may have been the original form of engage- ment, or however it may have since been changed by more politic " Grand Masters," nothing is more certain than that the Orange Society did immediately and most seriously apply themselves to the task of exterminating the Catholics. There is quite as little doubt that this shocking society was encouraged by the government, and by most of the magistrates and country geutle- men to keep alive religious animosity, and prevent the spread of the United Irish or- ganization. An union of Irishmen, upon the just, liberal, and fraternal basis of this organization, would have rendered impossi- ble that other "Union" on which Mr. Pitt had set his heart — the Union of Ireland with England. The recall of Lord Fitzwil- iam and the arrival of Lord Camden gave the signal for the bloody anarchy, through which Ireland was doomed to pass for the next four years, ami which, it was deliber- ately calculated, was to end in her extinc- tion as a nation. CHAPTER XXIX. 1795— 17i)7. "To Hell or Connaught" — " Vigor beyond the Law " — Lord Carhanipton's Vigor — Insurrection Act — Indemnity Act — The latter an invitation to Magistrates to break the law — Mr. Grattan on the Orangemen — His Resolution — The Acts Passed — Opposed by Grattan, Parsons, and Lord Edward Fitzgerald — Insurrection Act destroys Liberty of the Press — Suspension of Habeas Corpus — U. I. Society — New Members — Lord E. Fitzgerald — Mac Neven— Emmet— Wolf Tone at Paris— His Journal —Clarke— Carnot—Hoclie— Bantry Bay Expedi- tion — Account of, in Tone's Journal — Fleet An- chors in Bantry Bay — Account of the affair by Secret Committee of the Lords— Government fully Informed of all the Projects. The chief object of the government and its agents was now to invent and dissemi- nate fearful rumors of intended massacres of all the Protestant people by the Catho- lics. Dr. Madden says : " Efforts were made to infuse into the mind of the Pro- testant feelings of distrust to his Catholic fellow-countrymen. Popish plots and con- spiracies were fabricated with a practical facility, which some influential authorities conceived it no degradation to stoop to ; and alarming reports of these dark confed- erations were circulated with a restless assiduity." The effects were soon apparent in the atrocities committed by the Orange- men in Armagh, and by the magistrates and military in other countries. The per secuted "Defenders" of Armagh made some feeble attempts to protect themselves, though almost without arms. This resist- ance led to the transaction called " Battle of the Diamond," near the village of that name, on the 21st of September, 1795. Several writers have alleged that the. Cath- olics invited this conflict by a challenge sent to the Orangemen. Of course, the lat- ter, having abundance of arms, and being sure of the protection of the magistrates, were not slow to accept such an invitation ; but nothing can be more absurd than to term the affair a battle. Not one of the Orange party was killed or wounded. Four or five Defenders were killed, and a propor- tionate number wounded ; and this is the glorious battle that has been toasted at Orange banquets from that day to the present. Mr. Emmet* thus describes the transaction: "The Defenders were speed- ily defeated with the loss of some few killed and left on the field of battle, besides the wounded, whom they carried away. * * The Catholics, after this, never attempted to make a stand, but the Orangemen com- menced a persecution of the blackest dye. They would no longer permit a Catholic to exist in the country. They posted up on the cabins of these unfortunate victims this pithy notice, "To Hell or Connaught;" and appointed a limited time in which the necessary removal of persons and property was to be made. If, after the expiration of that period, the notice had not been complied with, the Orangemen assembled, destroyed the furniture, burned the habitations, and • Pieces of Irish History. W, m X."V \^Wt "szsizr- spite wm^Ms^ ' VIGOR BEYOND THE LAW. 241 forced llic ruined families to fly elsewhere for shelter." Mr. Emmet adds, "Whilethese outrages were going on, die resident magis- trates were not found to resist them, and in si une instances were even more than inactive spectators." Dr. Madden has preserved and printed a number of the " notices," ill- spelled, but sufficiently intelligible, which were posted on the cabin doors. But the Orangemen by no means confined them- selves to mere forcible ejectment of their enemies. Many fearful murders were com- mitted on the unresisting people ; and what gives perhaps the clearest idea of the persecution is the fact that seven thousand persons were estimated in the next year to have been either killed or driven from their homes in that one small county alone.* But the unhappy outcasts, even when they escaped with their lives, had no shelter to fly to. In most cases they could only wan- der on the mountains until either death re- lieved them, or they were arrested and im- prisoned; while the younger men were sent, without ceremony, to one of the " tenders," then lying in various seaports, and tlrcnce transferred on board British men-of-war. This was the device originally of Lord Car- hampton, then commanding in Ireland. It was called a " vigor beyond the law;" a del- icate phrase which has since come very much into use to describe outrages commit- ted by magistrates against the law. Dur- ing all the rest of this year the greater part of Leinster, with portions of Ulster and Minister, were in the utmost terror and agony; the Orange magistrates, aided by the troops, arresting and imprisoning, with- out any charge, multitudes of unoffending people, under one pretext or another. It is right to present a sample of the story as told by " loyal men." Thus, then, the mat- ter is represented by Sir Richard Musgrave, p. 145: " Lord Carhampton, finding that tin' laws were silent and inoperative in the counties which he visited, and that they did nut afford protection to the loyal and peace- able subjects, who in most places were obliged to fly from their habitations, resolved to re- * Mr. Plowden, who in as hostile to the Defenders M :iny Orangeman, says from live to seven thousand. O'Connor, Emmet and MacNeven, in their Memoirs of the Uniuu, say " seven thousand driven from their homes." store them to their usual energy, by the following salutary system of severity : ' In each county he assembled the most respectable gentlemen and landholders in it, and having, in concert with them, exam- ined the charges against the leaders of this banditti, who were in prison, but defied jus- tice, he, with the concurrence of these gen- tlemen, sent the most nefarious of them on board a tender, stationed at Sligo, to serve in His Majesty's navy.' " There is no doubt that great numbers of people were obliged to fly from their habitations ; but then these were the very people whom Lord Carhampton and the magistrates called banditti, and sent to the tender as " nefa- rious." Such is, however, a specimen of the history of these times as told upon Orange authority. In the midst of these painful scenes. Parliament assembled on the 21st of Janu- ary, 1196. Lord Camden, in his speech from the throne, congratulated them on " the brilliant successes of the Austrian armies upon the Rhine;" and then, alluding to dangerous secret societies, he intimated that certain additional powers would be called for ; in other words, martial law. The Attorney-General lost no time in bring- ing forward an Insurrection Act and an Indemnity Act — the latter being for the purpose of indemnifying magistrates and military officers against the consequences of any of their illegal outrages upon the people. Mr. Curran wished to know the extent aud nature of that delinquency, which it was intended to indemnify ; when Mr. M. Beresford observed, the word delinquency was not applicable to the persons intended; a part of the country was alarmingly dis- turbed; the magistrates and others invested with power had, in order to prevent the necessity of proclaiming martial law univer- sally, acted in that particular district, as if martial law were proclaimed : this conduct, so far from being delinquency, was justifi- able aud laudable, and of happy conse- quence in the event. On the 28th of the month, the Attorney- General adverted to the notice he had given on the first night of the session, of his intention of bringing in two bills : the !3 f. j$ 't»i .CLitNilai.*, rs? -«fi 242 HISTORY OF IRELAND. object of one of them was, for preventing in future insurrections, and tumults, and riots in this kingdom; and the object of the other bill was, to indemnify certain magistrates and others, who, in their exertions for the preservation of the public tranquillity, might have acted against the forms and rules of law ; he stated that the bill for the more effectually preventing of insurrections, tu- mults, aud riots, by persons styling them- selves Defenders, aud other disorderly per- sons, was, however repugnant to his feel- ings. He said, that the act then in force for administering unlawful oaths was not suffi- ciently strong, aud the administering of un- lawful oaths was the source of all the trea- sonable actions which had taken place in the country: the bill proposed, that the ad- ministering of unlawful oaths should be felony of death; but he would propose, that that bill should be but a tempo- rary law ; there was also a clause iu the bill to enable the magistrates, at the quarter sessions, to take up all idle vagrants and persons who had no visible means of earning a livelihood, and send them to serve on board the fleet ; lie said he did not propose to hurry this bill through the House, but give time for the considera- tion, as it might be necessary to add much, and make several alterations. lie then moved for leave " to bring in a bill for the more effectual prevention of insurrections, tumults, and riots, by persons styling them- selves Defenders, and other disorderly per- sons;" and leave was given to bring iu the bill. Then he moved for leave "to bring iu a bill for indemnifying such magistrates and others, who might have, siuce the 1st of January, 1795, exceeded the ordinary forms and rules of law for the preservation of the public peace, and suppression of in- surrection prevailing in some parts of this kingdom." There was earnest opposition against these two bills, but without effect : they were both passed into laws ; and they had (lie effect, which they were certainly intended to have, of exciting, or at least hastening, the insurrection of 1798. It is observable that the motive assigned by the govern- ment officials for passing these laws was always the outrages aud alleged secret asso- ciations of Defenders. Not a word was said about the real outrages and extermina- ting oaths of Orangemen. Indeed, the measures in question were really directed not against either Defenders or Orangemen, but against the United Irishmen, the only association of which the government had the slightest fear. Besides the two bills, the Attorney-G eneral proposed four supplement- al resolutions asserting the necessity of giving enlarged powers to magistrates to search for arms and to make arrests. On the reading of these resolutions, Mr. Grattan observed, that he had heard the right honor- able gentleman's statement, and did not suppose it to be inflamed ; but he must ob- serve at the same time it was partial ; he did, indeed, expatiate very fully and justly on the offences of the Defenders ; but with respect to another description of insurgents, whose barbarities had excited general ab- horrence, he had observed a complete silence; that he had proceeded to enumerate the counties that were afflicted by disturbances, and he had omitted Armagh ;— of that, neither had he comprehended the out- rages in his general description, nor in his particular enumeration: of those outrages, he had received the most dreadful accounts ; that their object was the extermination of all the Catholics of that county ; it was a persecution conceived iu the bitterness of bigotry, carried on with the most ferocious barbarity, by a banditti, who being of the religion of the state, had committed with the greater audacity and confidence, the most horrid murders, and had proceeded from robbery and massacre to extermina- tion ; that they had repealed, by their own authority, all the laws lately passed in fa- vor of the Catholics, had established in the place of those laws, the inquisition of a mob, resembling Lord George Gordon's fanatics, equaling them in outrage, and, surpassing them far in perseverance and success. That their modes of outrage were as various as they were atrocious ; they some- times forced, by terror, the masters of fami- lies to dismiss their Catholic servants — they sometimes forced landlords, by terror, to dismiss their Catholic tenantry — they seized as deserters, numbers of Catholic weavers— / V .■■-: ?*S^ Use J£=ShRj3* » ^ ipJ^lEPI g yggg S-J& z$nL- ./ ^ ME. GR.VTTAN ON THE ORANGEMEN HIS RESOLUTION. 243 sent them to the enmity jail, transmitted them to Dublin, where they remained in elose prison, until some lawyers, from com- passion, pleaded their cause, and procured their enlargement, nothing appearing against I hem of any kind whatsoever. Those in- surgents, who called themselves Orange Boys, or Protestant Boys, that is, a ban- ditti of murderers, committing massacre in the name of God, and exercising despotic power in the name of liberty — those insur- gents had organized their rebellion, and formed themselves. into a committee, who sat and tried the Catholic weavers and inhabi- tants, when apprehended falsely and illegally as deserters. That rebellious commilttee, they called the committee of elders, who, when the unfortunate Catholic was torn from his family and his loom, and brought before them, in judgment upon his case— if he gave them liquor or money, they sometimes dis- charged him — otherwise they seat him to a recruiting office as a deserter. They had very generally given the Catholics notice to quit their farms and dwellings, which notice was plastered on the house, and conceived in these short but plain words : " Go to Hell, Connaught won't receive yon — fire and faggot. AVill Tresham and John Thrust- out." That they followed these notices by a faithful and punctual execution of the horrid threat — soon after visited the house, robbed the family, and destroyed what they did not take, and finally completed the atrocious persecutions by forcing the unfor- tunate inhabitants to leave their land, their dwellings, and their trade, and to travel with their miserable family, and with what- ever their miserable family could save from the wreck of their houses and tenements, and take refuge in villages, as fortifications against invaders, where they described themselves, as he had seeu in their affida- vits, in the following manner: "We, (men- tioning their names,) formerly of Armagh, weavers, now of no fixed place of abode or means of living, &C." In many instances this banditti of persecution threw down the houses of the tenantry, or what they called racked the house, so that the family must By or be buried in the grave of their own cabin. The extent of the murders that had been committed by that atrocious and rebellious banditti he had heard, but had not heard them so ascertained as to state them to that house ; but from all the inquiries he could make lie collected, that the Catholic inhabi- tants of Armagh had been actually put ont of the protection of the law ; that the magistrates had been supine or partial, and that the horrid banditti had met with com- plete success and, from the magistracy, with very little discouragement. This horrid persecution, this abominable barbarity, and this general extermination had been acknowl- edged by the magistrates, who found the evil had now proceeded to so shameful an excess, that it had at length obliged them to cry out against it. On the 28th of De- cember, thirty of the magistrates had come to the following resolution, which was evi- dence of the designs of the insurgents, and of their success: "Resolved, That it ap- pears to this meeting, that the County of Armagh is at this moment in a state of un- ' common disorder ; that the Boman Cath- olic inhabitants are grievously oppressed by lawless persons uuknown, who attack and plunder their houses by night, and threaten them with instant destruction, unless they abandon immediately their lands and habi- tations." The " Insurrection act" was intended tp give magistrates most unlimited powers to arrest and imprison, and search houses for arms ; the other act, called of " Indemnity," was an actual invitation to break the law. Mr. Grattan, whose speeches, more than any records or documents, illustrate this period of the history of his country, com- menting on this latter act, says : "A bill of indemnity went to secure the offending magistrates against the consequences of their outrages and illegalities ; that is to say, in our humble conception, the poor were stricken out of the protection of the law, and the rich out of its penalties ; and then another bill was passed to give such lawless proceedings against His Majesty's subjects continuation, namely, a bill to enable the magistrates to perpetrate by law, those of- fences which they had before committed against it ; a bill to legalize outrage, to bar- barize law, and to give the law itself the cast and color of outrage. By such a bill, the magistrates were enabled, without legal ■ : r * , r r r " J ^^m &. \&\ 1 i r?*'V^\ IS 241 HISTORY OF IRELAND. process, to send on board a tender IT is Majesty's subjects, and the country was divided iuto two classes, or formed iuto two distinct nations, living under the same King, and inhabiting the same island ; one con- sisting of the King's magistrates, and the other of the King's subjects ; the former without restraint, and the latter without privilege." Both the bills passed; but amongst those who opposed them to the last in the House of Commons, by the side of Mr. Grattan and Sir Lawrence Parsons, it is with pleasure that one finds the honored name of Lord Edward Fitzgerald. The debates on these bills and resolutions furnish perhaps the most authen- tic documents for the history of the time, and especially for the lawless outrages which were then devastating the north of Ireland. One of the Attorney-General's resolutions spoke of the necessity of punishing persons who "seized by force the arms of His Majesty's subjects." Mr. Grattan moved an amendment, to add "and also the pur- sons of His Majesty's subjects, and to force them to abandon their lands and habita- tions ; " aud in the third resolution, after the words " murdering those who had spirit to give information," to add, "also attempting to seize the persons, and obliging His Majesty's subjects, by force, to abandon their lands and habitations." But the amendment, as it evidently con- templated the protection of the unhappy Catholics of Armagh County, was opposed by the Attorney-General, and rejected as a matter of course. One of the clauses of the "Insurrection act " was vehemently, but vainly, opposed by Sir Lawrence Parsons : it was to em- power any two magistrates to seize upon persons who should publish or sell a news- paper or pamphlet which they, the two magistrates, should deem seditious, aud without any form of trial to send them on board the fleet. This was a total annihila- tion of the Press, saving only the Castle Press. When it is recollected that the magis- tracy and Protestant country gentlemen of Ireland were at that time inflamed with the most furious rage against their Catholic countrymen, and were besides purposely ex- cited by rumors of intended Popish risings for the extirpation of Protestants, (which many of them, in their ignorance, believed,) it will be seen what a terrible power these acts conferred upon them. They naturally conceived, and very justly, that the law now made it a merit on their part to break the law, provided it were done to the op- pression and ruin of the Catholic people; and felt that they were turned loose with a full commission to burn, slay, rob, and ravish. It will be seen that they largely availed themselves of these privileges. There was but one thing now wanted ; and this was the suspension of the Habeas Cor- pus act. . This was supplied in the next ses- sion of Parliament, which took place on t he 13th of October; and from that moment Ireland stood utterly stripped naked of all law and government. In the meantime the United Irish Soci- ety had been steadily increasing and busily laboring and negotiating. Some valuable members had lately joined it, in despair of any peaceable or constitutional remedy. The chief of these was the generous and gallant Lord Edward Fitzgerald, brother to the then Duke of Leiuster, formerly a Major in the British army, and who had served under Coruwallis against the Amer- icans. Since his return to Europe he had several times visited the Continent, and mingled much with revolutionary society in France. Having seen so much of the world, he was not so ignorant and stupid as were most of the Irish gentry at that pe- riod ; and his natural nobility of soul was revolted by the brutal usage to which he saw his countrymen subjected at the hands of the " Ascendancy." It is probable, too, that he, the descendant of au ancient Gallo- Hibernian house, settled in Ireland more than six centuries, which had given chiefs to the ancient Clau-Geralt, and had been called " more Irish than the Irish," had far more sympathy with the Irish race than the mob of Cromwellian and Williamite gran- dees who then ruled the country. Arthur O'Connor was another valuable accession to the ranks of the United Irishmen. He was also highly connected, though by no means equally so with Lord Edward ; but he was nephew of Lord Longueville, had sat in ,!% ft U: .,-X &4 - iW» .CilUt^B'.S.i. ^p%^ =s ^) , y/ *, -?Xjs&± m •- w . s? SUSPENSION OF HABEAS corpus. — : x — C Parliament for Philipstown, and bad la- bored zealously for a time on the forlorn hope of the opposition, by the side of G rat- tun and Ourran. Another was Thomas Addis Emmet, a barrister, a warm friend of Wolf Tone, who had been long intimate- ly associated in principle with the leaders of the United Irish Association, and bad been privy to the design of Tone, to negoti- ate a French alliance ; a fourth was Dr. William James Mac Neven, a physician in Dublin, originally of Galway County, but who had been educated on the Continent, as most of the young professional men among the Catholics then were. These four became members of the " Executive Directory" of the "United Irish Society; and Lord Edward Fitzgerald, when its military organization was formed, was made Commander-in-Chief. It was after the pas- sage of the Insurrection and Indemnity acts, and in the recess between the two ses- sions of Parliament of l"9(i, that the United Irishmen began to make definitive preparations for armed resistance.* Theobald Wolfe Tone was now in Paris, having arrived at Havre the 1st of Febru- ary, 1796, bearing a letter of introduction to Charles De la Croix, Minister for For- eign Affairs, from the French Envoy at Philadelphia. He had another letter to James Monroe, then the representative of the United States in Paris, who very kindly guided him in his proceedings to gain the ear of the French authorities. He had several interviews with De la Croix, with Clarke (who was afterwards Due de Fel- tiv,i and, what was of more importance, with the illustrious Carnot, Chief of the Executive Directory, who really himself controlled at that moment the movements of all the French armies. The journal kept by Tone during the remainder of that year, is at times very entertaining, and again ex- tremely affecting — especially where he re- cords the few pieces of intelligence which reached him from Ireland in those days of iuterrnpted communications. For example, one day at Rennes, he writes : " October * See examination of Arthur O'Connor before the Secret Committee oi the House of Lords: Com.— When did the military organization begin? O'Con- north after the Ivvrutive had n-MiIveil on re- sistance to the Irish Government, and on an alliance With France in Ma)', 17'JU. 29//i. — This morning before we set out, Gen- eral Harty sent for me, and showed me an English paper that he had just borrowed, the Morning Post, of September 24tii, in which was an article copied from the North- ern Star of the 1 6th precedent. By this unfortunate article, I see that what I have long expected, with the greatest anxiety, is come to pass. My dear friends, Russell and Sam. Neilson, were arrested for high treason on that day, together with Rowley Osborne, Haslett, and a person, whom I do not know, of the name of Shanaghan. The persons who arrested them were the Marquis of Downshire, the Earl of West- raeath, and Lord Londonderry, together with that most infamous of all scoundrels, John Pollock. It is impossible to conceive the effect this heavy misfortune has upon my mind. If we are not in Ireland time enough to extricate them, they are gonej for the Government will move heaven, earth, and hell to insure their condemna- tion. Good God 1 If they fall—" His progress in negotiating for substan- tial aid from France had at first been slow, and sometimes looked discouraging. He was required to draw up two " memorials " upon the state and resources of Ireland, for the Government ; and in these memorials, and in the conversations which he records with Clarke and Carnot, it is chiefly impor- tant to remark, that he always pressed ur- gently for a large force, such as would en- able the chiefs of the United Irishmen at once to establish a provisional government, and prevent anarchy; that he strenuously opposed a recommendation of Clarke, for exciting both in England and Ireland a species of c/wuannerie, or mere peasant in- surrection, with no other object than to cre- ate confusion, and operate as a diversion. Tone admitted that it might be natural and justifiable for the French to retaliate in this way, what the English had done to them in La Vendee; but his own object was the independence of his country, which, he rightly thought, would not be served by mere riot and confusion. We find also in these notes that Clarke and Carnot several times questioned him about the dispositions of the Catholic clergy, and how they might be expected to act in case of a landing, 1LNS .CCli.NB.S.0, It r HISTORY OF IKELANTJ. "3 v, k ss K?* He always replied that no reliance could be placed upon the clergy at first, especially if the expedition were not in sufficient force to put dowu quickly all resistance; that they were opposed to republicanism and revolu- tion, but if the French went in sufficient force the clergy neither would nor could give serious opposition to the liberation of his country. While Tone was laboring through these summer months to get those ministers im- pressed with his own ideas, and wondering at their hesitation, when it was in their power to deal a mortal blow upon English power, another negotiation was going on, which at the time was unknown to him. It is stated in the Report of the Lords' Secret Committee, hereafter to be cited, that the agent of the United Irishmen in this second negotiation was Edward John Lcwins, an attorney in Dublin; but this is probably an error. At all events, it is certain that the French Directory was at that moment in correspondence with the Irish chiefs through other channels than Wolfe Tone; and that Lord Edward Fitzgerald and Arthur O'Connor had come to Switzerland by way of Hamburg to meet agents of the Direc- tory; and General Hoche had repaired to Basle, just over the French frontier, to con- fer with those gentlemen. In deciding upon so vast an armament, the Ministers of the French Republic were certainly justified in procuring all possible authentic informa- tion about Ireland ; and in checking the memorials of Tone by the reports of other well-known leaders of the United Irishmen. They had incautiously opened their negotia- tions with the Directory through the medi- um of M. Barthelemi, of whose integrity they had no suspicion; and Dr. Madden in- forms us that by this error " they at once placed the secret of their mission in the sympathizing bosom of Mr. William Pitt."* The Secret Committee of the Lords, indeed, in 1198, details the negotiation with perfect correctness, and hints at the means by which the expedition was frustrated. How- "soever that may be, it is evident that the reports of Lord E. Fitzgerald and Arthur O'Connor respecting their friend Wolfe Tone were in all respects satisfactory. The uext * Maddeu's United Irishmen, 2d series, p. 390. time he was in the Cabinet of Genera] Clarke, on his expressing a wish to be en- abled to write to his friends, to tell them he was alive and well at Paris, Clarke, says the journal, answered, " ' As to that, your friends know it already.' I replied, ' Not that I knew of.' He answered, 'Aye, but I know it, but cannot tell you at present how.' He then went on to tell me he did not know how to explain himself further, 'for,' added he, 'if I tell you ever so little, you will guess the rest.' So it seems I am a cunning fox without knowing it. He gave me, however, to understand that he lunl a communication open with Ireland, and showed me a paper, askirg me did I know the handwriting. I did not. He then read a good deal. It stated very briefly, that fourteen of the counties, in- cluding the entire North, were completely organized for the purpose of throwing off the English yoke and establishing our inde- pendence; that, in the remaining eighteen, the organization was advancing rapirtlv, and that it was so arranged that the inferi- ors obeyed their leaders, without examining their orders, or even knowing who they were, as every one knew only the person immediately above him. That the militia were about 20,000 men, 11,000 of whom might be relied on, that there were about 12,000 regular troops, wretched bad ones, who would soon be settled in case the busi- ness were attempted. Clarke was going on, but stopped here suddenly, and said, laugh- ing, ' There is something there which I cannot read to you, or you will guess.' I begged him to use his discretion without ceremony. He then asked me, did I know of this organization ? I replied that I could not, with truth, say positively I knew it, but that I had no manner of doubt of it; that it was now twelve months exactly since I left Ireland, in which time, I was satisfied, much must have been done in that country, and that he would find in my memorials that such an organization was then begun, was rapidly spreading, and, I had no doubt, would soon embrace the whole people. It is curious, the coincidence between the paper he read me and those I have given here, though, upon second thought, as truth is uniform, it would be still more cxtraordi- M / ;'■. - : ^ , - * &\ jf! nary if they should vary. I am delighted beyond measure with the progress which has been made in [reland since my banish- ment. I see they are advancing rapidly and safely, and, personally, nothing can be more agreeable to me than this coincidence between what I have said and written, and the accounts which I see they receive here. The paper also stated, as I had done, that we wauled arms, ammunition, and artillery; in short, it was as exact, in all particulars, as if the same person had written all. This ascertains my credit in France beyond a doubt. Clarke then said, as to my busi- ness, he was only waiting for letters from General Ilochc, in order to settle it finally; that I should have a regiment of cavalry, and, it was probable, it might be fixed that dav; that the arrangement of the forces in- tended for the expedition was intrusted to Hoche, by which I see we shall go from Brittany instead of Holland. All's one for that, provided we go at all." A few days after this, and just when poor Tone was almost in his last straits for money, he was sent for to the Luxembourg Palace, and there, in the Cabinet of M. Fleury, a very handsome young man came up to him very warmly, seemed to have known him all his life, and introduced him- self as General Hoche— the most rising man at that moment among the young military chiefs of the republic. It was he who had had the honor of defending Dunkirk success- fully against the English, and afterwards of defeating utterly the Vendean force, equip- ped and armed by the same English, and landed at Quiberon under the guns of Ad- miral Warren's fleet. In short, it was against the English he had done most of his service, and he coveted the privilege of commanding the formidable expedition which was now ■ fully resolved on for the liberation of Ire- laud, lie informed Tone that the latter was to be attached to his personal stall', with the grade of Chef de-Brigade. At last, then, the grand object of Wolfe Tone's life and labors seemed on the point of being at- tained, lie was delighted with Hoche, who quite agreed with him iu his views of the scale on which the expedition should be made, and of the necessity of proceeding by the laws of regular warfare, not of chuiiau- nerie. For the due comprehension of the true intent and aims of this celebrated ex- pedition we may here give a passage from Tone's record of his conference with its chief : — " He asked me in case of a landing being effectuated, might he rely on finding pro- visions, and particularly bread ? I said it would be impossible to make any arrange- ments in Ireland,, previous to the landing, •because of the surveillance of the Govern- ment, but if that were once accomplished, there would be no want of provisions ; that Ireland abounded in cattle, and, as for bread, I saw by the Gazette that there was not ouly no deficiency of corn, but that she was able to supply England, in a great de- gree, during the late alarming scarcity in that country, and I assured him, that if the French were once in Ireland, he might rely that, whoever wanted bread, they should not want it. He seemed satisfied with this, and proceeded to ask me, might we count upon being able to form a provisory govern- ment, either of the Catholic Committee, men- tioned in my memorials, or of the chiefs of the Defenders ? I thought I saw an open here, to come at the number of troops in- tended for us, and replied, that that would depend on the force which might be lauded ; if that force were but trifling, I could not pretend to say how they might act, but if it was considerable, I had no doubt of their co-operation. 'Undoubtedly,' replied he, ' men will not sacrifice themselves, wdien they do not see a reasonable prospect of support ; but, if I go, you may be sure I will go iu sufficient force.' He then asked, did I think ten thousand men would decide them? I answered, undoubt- edly, but that early iu the business the Minister had spoken to me of two thousand, aud that I had replied that such a number could effect nothing. No, replied he, they would be overwhelmed before any one could join them. I replied, I was glad to hear him give that opinion, as it was precisely what I had stated to the Minister, aud I repeated that, with the force he mentioned, I could have no doubt of support and co- operation sufficient to form a provisory gov- ernment. He then asked me what I thought of the priests, or was it likely they would \*U &rQ . HISTORY OF IRELAND. give us auy trouble ? I replied I certainly did not calculate on their assistance, but neither did I think they would be able to give us any effectual opposition ; that their influence over the minds of the common peo- ple was exceedingly diminished of late, and I instanced the case of the Defenders, so often mentioned in my memorials, and in these memorandums I explained all this, at some length, to him, and concluded by saying, that, in prudence, we should avoid as much as possible shocking their prejudices unnecessarily, and that, with common dis- cretion, I thought we might secure their neutrality at least, if not their support. I mentioned this merely as my opinion, but added that, in the contrary event, I was sat- isfied it would be absolutely impossible for them to take the people out of our hands. We then came to the army, lie asked me how I thought tiny would act ? I replied, for the regulars I could not pretend to Bay, but that they were wretched bad troops ; fur the militia, I hoped and believed that when we were once organized, they would not only not oppose us, but come over to the cause of their country en masst ; neverthe- less, I desired him to calculate ou their op- position, and make his arrangements accord- ingly ; that it was the safe policy, and if it become necessary, it was so much gained lie said he would, undoubtedly, make his arrangements so as to leave nothing to chance that could be guarded against ; that he would come in force, and bring great quantities of arms, ammunition, stores, and artillery, aud, for his own reputation, see that all the arrangements were made on a proper scale. I was very glad to hear him speak thus ; it sets my mind at ease ou diverse points. He then said there was one important point remaining, on which he de- sired to be satisfied, and that was what form of government we would adopt ou the event of our success ? I was going to answer him with great earnestness, when General Clarke entered, to request we would come to dinner with citizen Carnot. We, accordingly, adjourned the conversation to the apartment of the President, where vre found Carnot, and one or two more. Hoche, after some time, took me aside and repeated his question. I replied, ' Most undoubtedly, a republic.' lie asked again, ' Was I sure ? ' I said, as sure asl could be of any- thing ; that I knew nobody in Ireland who thought of any other system, nor did I be- lieve there was anybody who dreamt of monarchy. He asked me was there no danger of the Catholics setting up oue of their chiefs for King? I replied, ' Not the smallest,' aud that there were uo chiefs amongst them of that kind of eminence. This is the old business again, but I believe I satisfied Hoche ; it looks well to see him so anxious on that topic, on which he pressed me more than on all the others." From this time preparations were pushed forward with more or less activity; but by no means fast enough to satisfy the ardent spirit of Tone. The rendezvous for the troops was appointed at Bcnnes, the old capital of Bretagne ; while the fleet, con sisting of ships of war aud transports, was getting ready at Brest. During the several months which intervened, as news occasion- ally came in from Ireland, telling of the systematic outrages on the country people and new arrests and measures of "vigor be youd the law," his anxiety and impatience redoubled. On the 2Sth of July he writes : "I see the Orange Boys are playing the devil in Ireland. 1 hare no doubt it is the work of the Government. Please God, if I get safe into that country, I will settle those gentlemen, and their instigators also more especially." Again, late in August, he writes : — " The news, at least the report of to day, is, that Richery and the Spaniards are be- fore Lisbon, and that a French army is in full march across Spain, in order to enter Portugal ; that would be a blow to Master John Bull fifty times worse than the affair of Leghorn. Why the unhappy Portuguese did not make their peace at the same time with Spain, I cannot conceive, except, as was most probably the case, they durst not consult their own safety for fear of offending the English. What an execrable nation that is, and how cordially 1 hate them. If this affair of Portugal is true, there will not remain one port friendly to England from Hamburg to Trieste, and probably much further both ways. It is impossible she can staud this long. Well, if the visitation of ^ y Providence be sometimes slow, it is always sure, If our expedition succeeds, 1 tliiuk wo will give her the coup de gj-aa, and make her pay dear for the rivers of blood she has made to Bow in our poor country, her mas- sacres, ler pillages, and her frauds ; 'Alors, Ct sera notre tour.' We shall see ! We shall see ! Oh that I were, this fine morn- ing, at the head of my regiment on the Cave Hill ! Well, all in good time." A ill still the time (lew, while innumerable causes of delay interfered with the dispatch of the fleet. And in the meantime Camden and Carhampton's reign of terror was in full .sway, goading the people to desperation; ami the fiery Chef-de-Brigade gnawing his OWU heart in Paris, or in Heine's. At last, but not until the 15th of Decem- ber, all was on hoard. The troops were to have amounted to In, 000 men, hul they were actually 13,975 men, with abundance of artillery and ammunition, and arms for 4."', 000 men. Tone was on board the line- of-battle ship Tndomptabk, of 80 "'tins. There were on the whole 17 sail of the line, 13 frigates, 5 corvettes, making-, with trans- ports, 43 sail. General Hoehe and the Ad- miral in command of the fleet were on hoard a frigate ; and the second General in com- niaml, of the laud forces was, unfortunately— Grouchy — of unlucky memory. A wretched fatality was upon this fine expedition from the very start. The first night it was at sea it lost both its chiefs ; as the Fraternite frigate was separated from the others, and they never saw more of it until after they had" returned to France. An extract, some- what condensed, from Wolfe Tone's diary, may form the most interesting account of the fortunes and fates of the Bantry Bay Expedition : — "Admiral Morand de Galles, General Hoche, General Delielle, and Colonel Shee, are aboard the Fraternite, and Go. I knows what lias become of them. The wind, too, continues against us, and, altogether, I am in terrible low spirits. How if these damned Euglish should catch us at last, after hav- ing gone on successfully thus far. Our force leaving Brest water was as follows: Indoraptable, so gnu- ; Nestor, Cassard, Droits de riloinme, Tourville, Eole, Fou gueux, Mucius, Redoutable, Patriote, Flu ton, Constitution, Trajan, Watigny, Pegase, Revolution, and the unfortunate Soduisunt, of 7 I guns ( 17 sail of the line); La Ooearde Brave. are, [mmortalite - , Bellone, Coquille, Romaine, Sirene, Impatiente, Surveillante, Charente, Resolue, Tartare, and Fraternite, frigates of 3G guns (13 frigates) ; Scevol.i and Fidele annus en flutes, Mutine, Renard, Atalante, Yoltigeur, and Affronteur, cor- vettes, and Nicodeme, Justine, Ville d'Orient, Suffren, Experiment, and Alegre, transports, making in all 43 sail. Of these there are. missing this day, at three o'clock, the Nestor and Sednisant, of 74 ; the Fraternity, Cocarde, and Roraaine, frigates ; the Mutine and Voltigeur, corvettes ; and three other transports. "December iOt/i. — Last night, in moderate weather, we contrived to separate again, and this morning, at eight o'clock, we are but fifteen sail in company, with a foul wind, and hazy. We shall lie beating about here, within thirty leagues of Cape Clear, until the Euglish come and catch us, which will' be truly agreeable. At ten, several sail in sight to wiudward ; I suppose they are our stray sheep. It is scandalous to part com- pany twice in four days in such moderate weather as we have had, but sea affairs I see are uot our forte. Captain Bedout is a seaman, which I fancy is more than can be said for nine-tenths of his confreres. "DcAxmber 2lst. — Last night, just at sunset, signal lor seven sail in the offing ; all in high spirits, in hopes that it is our comrades ; stark calm all the fore part of the night ; at length a breeze sprung up, ami this morn- ing, at daybreak, we are under Cape Clear, distant about four leagues, so I have, at all events, once more seen my country ; but the pleasure I should otherwise feel at this, is totally destroyed by the absence of the General who has not joined us, and of whom we know nothing. The sails we saw last night have diwappeared, and we are all in uncertainly. It is most delicious weather, with a favorable wind, and everything, in short, that we can desire, except our absent comrades. At the moment I write this we are under easy sail, within three leagues, at most, of the coast, so that I can discover, here and there, patches of snow on the mountains. What if the General should i Ol 9 » not joiu as. If we cruise here five days, according to our instructions, the English will be upon us, iind then all is over. We are thirty-five sail iu company, and seven or eight absent. Is that such a separation of our force, as, under all the circumstances, will warrant our following the letter of our orders, to the certain failure of the expedi- tion? If Grouchy and Bouvet be men of spirit and derision, they will land imme- diately, and trust to their success for justi- fication. If they lie not, and if this day passes without our seeing the General, I much fear the game is up, I am in un- desci'ibable anxiety, and Cherin, who com- mands aboard, is a poor creature, to whom it, is vain to speak ; not but I believe he is brave enough, but he has a little mind. There cannot be imagined a situation more provokiugly tantalizing than mine at this moment, within view, almost within reach of my native land, and uncertain whether I shall ever set my foot on it. We are now, nine o'clock, at. the rendezvous appointed; stood iu for tin- coast till twelve, when we were near enough to toss a biscuit ashore; at twelve, tacked and stood out again, so now we have begun our cruise of live davs iu all its forms, and shall, in obedience to the letter of our instructions, ruin the expe- dition, and destroy the remnant of the French navy, with a precision and punctual- ity which will be truly edifying. We opened Bantry Bay, and, in all my life, rage never entered so deeply into my heart as when we turned our backs on the coast. At half after one, the Atalante, one of our missing corvettes, hove iu sight, so now again we are iu hopes to see the General. Oh ! if he were in Grouchy's place, he would not hesi- tate one moment. Continue making short boards ; the wind foul. "December 22d. — This morning, at eight, we have neared Bantry Bay considerably, but the fleet is terribly scattered; no news of the Fraternite ; I believe it is the first instance of an Admiral in a clean frigate, with moderate weather, and moonlight nights, parting company with his fleet. Captain Gratnmont, our First Lieutenant, told nir his opinion is that she is either taken or lost, anil, in either event, it is a terrible blow to us. All rests now upon Grouchy, I ■.,;■,. and I hope he may turn out well ; he has a glorious game in his hands, if he has spirit and talent to play it. If he succeeds, it will immortalize him. I do not at all like the countenance of the Btat Major in tins crisis. | c? When they speak of the expedition, it is in a style of despondency, and, when they are not speaking of it, they are playing cards and laughing; they are every one of them brave of their persons, but I see nothing of that spirit of enterprise, combined with a steady resolution, whicl r present situa- tion demands. They staled at me this morning, when I said that. Grouchy was the man iu the whole army who had least rea- son to regret the absence of the General, and began to talk of responsibility and dif- ficulties, as if any great enterprise was without responsibility and difficulties. I was burning with rage, however I said nothing, and will say nothing until I get ashore, if ever I am so happy as to arrive there. We are gaining the Bay by slow degrees, with a head wind at east, where it has hung these five weeks. To night we hope, if nothing extraordinary happens, to cast anchor in the month of the Bay, and work up to-morrow morning; these delays are dreadful to my impatience, I am now so near the shore that I can see, distinctly, two old castles, yet I am utterly uncertain whether I shall ever set foot on it. Ac- cording to appearances, Bouvet and Grouchy are resolved to proceed; that is a great point gained, however. Two o'clock; we have been tacking ever since eight this morning, and I am sure we have not gained one hundred yards; the wind is right ahead, and the fleet dispersed, several being far to leeward. 1 have been looking over the schedule of our arms, artillery, and ammuni- tion ; we are well provided : we have 41,100 stand of arms, twenty pieces of field artillery, and nine of siege, including mortars and howitzers ; (U,200 barrels of powder, 1,000,000 musket cartridges, and 700,000 Hints, besides an infiuite variety of articles belonging to the train, but we have neither sabres nor pistols for the cavalry; however, we have nearly three regiments of hussars embarked, so that we can displace with them. 1 continue very discreetly to say little or nothing, as my situation just uow is )£» LMi X8LUNB\tS,^ m ■ rather a delicate one ; if we were once ashore, and things turn out to my mind, I shall Boon 1 hi of my trammels, and, perhaps, in that respect, I may be better off with Grouchy 1 1 1:1 ii wit li Ilnehe. If the people act with spirit, as I hope they will, it is no mallei' who is General, and, if they do not, nil the talents of Hoche would not save ns; so it CO s to the same thing at last. At half-past six, cast anchor off Beer Island, being still four leagnes from our landing place; at work with General Cherin, Writing and translating proclamations, &c, all our printed papers, including my two pamphlets, being on board the Fraternity, which is pleasant. "Decemler I'id. — Last night it blew a heavy gale from the eastward, with snow, so that the mountains are covered this morning, which will render our bivouacs ex- tremely amnsing. It is to be observed, that of the thirty-two points of the com- pass, the E. is precisely the most unfavor- able to us. In consequence, we are this morning separated for the fourth time; sixteen sail, including nine or ten of the line, with Bonvet and Grouchy, are at anchor with us, and about twenty are blown to sea; luckily the gale set from the shore, so I am in hopes no mischief will ensue. The wind is still high, and, as usual, right ahead; ami I dread a visit from the Eng- lish, and altogether I am in great uneasi- ness. Oli ! that we were once ashore, let what might ensue after; I am sick to the very soul of this suspense. It is curious to ±fr how things are managed in this best of all possible worlds. We are here, sixteen sail, great and small, scattered up and down in a noble bay, and so dispersed that there are not two together in any spot, save one, and there they are now so close, that if it blows to-night as it did last night, they will inevitably run foul of each other, unless one of them prefers driving on shore. We lie in this disorder, expecting a visit from the English every hour, without taking a single step for our defense, even to the common one of having a frigate in the harbor's month, to give us notice of their approach; to judge by appearances, we have less to dread here than in Brest water, for when we were there, we had four cor- vettes stationed off the gnu/el, besides the signal posts. I confess this degree of se- curity passes my comprehension. The day has passed without the appearance of one vessel, friend or enemy, the wind rather more moderate, but still ahead. To-night, on examining the returns with Waudre", Chefd'Etat Major of the Artillery, I find our means so reduced by the absence of the miss- ing, that I think it hardly possible to make an attempt here, with any prospect of suc- cess; in consequence, I took Cherin into the Captain's room, and told him frankly my opinion of our actual state, and that I thought it our duty, since we must look upon the main object as now unattainable, un- less the whole of our friends returned to-mor- row, and the English gave us our own time, which was hardly to be expected, to Bee what could be best done for the honor and interest of the republic, with the force which remained in our hands, and I proposed to him to give me the Legion des Francs, a company of the Artilkrie legere, and as many officers as desired to come volunteers in the expedition, with what arms and store re- mained, which are now reduced, by our sepa- ration, to four field pieces, 20,000 firelocks at most, 1,000 lbs. of powder, and 3,000,000 cartridges, and to land us in Sligo Bay, and let us make the best of our way; if we suc- ceeded, the republic would gain infinitely in reputation and interest, and, if we failed, the loss would be trifling, as the expense was already incurred, and as for the legion, he knew what kind of desperadoes it was com- posed of, and for what purpose ; conse- quently, in the worst event, the republic would be well rid of them; finally, I added, that though I asked the command, it was on the supposition that none of the Gen- erals would risk their reputation on such a desperate enterprise, and that if another was found, I would be content to go as a simple volunteer. This was the outline of my pro- posal, which I pressed on him with such arguments as occurred tome, concluding by- observing that, as a. foreigner in the French service, my situation was a delicate one, and if I were simply an officer, I would obey in silence the orders of superiors, but, from my connections in Ireland, having ob- tained the confidence of the Directory, so *C- J ■J ) M HISTORY OF IRELAND. w >'-r far as to induce them to appoint me to the rank of Chef-de-LSrigade, and of General Iloche, who had nominated me Adjutant- General, I thought it ray duty, both to France and Ireland, to speak on this occa- sion, and that I only offered my plan as a pis aller, in case nothing better suggested itself. Cherin answered that I did very rig-lit to give my opinion, and that as he expected a council of war would be called to-morrow, he would bring me with him, and I should have an opportunity to press it. The discourse rested there, and to-mor- row we shall see more, if we are not agree- ably surprised, early in the morning, by a visit from the English, which is highly prob- able. I am now so near the shore, that I can in a manner touch the sides of Bantry Bay with my right and left hand, yet God knows whether I shall ever tread again on Irish ground. Another thing, we are now three days in Bantry Hay; if we do not land immediately, the enemy will collect a su- perior force, and, perhaps, repay us our vic- tory of Qniberon. In an enterprise like OUl'S, everything depends upon the prompti- tude and audacity of our first movements, and we are here, I am sorry to say it, most pitifully languid. It is mortifying, but that is too poor a word; I could tear my flesh with rage and vexation, but that advances nothing, and so I hold my tongue in gen- eral, and devour my melancholy as I can. To come so near, and then to fail, if we are to fail 1 And every one aboard seems now to have given up all hopes. "December Uth. — This morning the whole Ktat .Major has been miraculously con- vcrtcd, and it was agreed, in full council, that General Cherin, Colonel Waudrt, Chef d'Etat Major of the Artillery, and myself, should go aboard the Immortality, ami press General Grouchy in the strongest manner to proceed on the expedition, with the ruins of our scattered army. Accord- ingly, we made a signal to speak with the Admiral, and in about an hour we were aboard. I must do Grouchy the justice to say, that the moment we gave our opinion in favor of proceeding, he took his part de- cidedly, aud like a man of spirit; he instantly set about preparing the ordre de bataitk, and we finished it without delay. We are not more than 6,500 strong, but they are tried soldiers, who have seen fire, and I have the strongest hopes that, after all, we shall bring our enterprise to a glorious termina- tion. It is a bold attempt, and truly original. All the time we were preparing the ordre de balaille, we were laughing most immoderately at the poverty of our means, and I believe, under the circumstances, it was the merriest council of war that was ever held; but 'Des Chevaliers francais tel tst le airaclire.' 1 Grouchy, the Commander-in- Chief, tiever had so few men under his orders since he was Adjutant-General; Wnudre, wdio is Lieutenant-Colonel, finds himself now at the head of the artillery, which is a furious park, consisting of one piece of eight, one of four, and two six-inch howit- zers; when he was a Captain, he never commanded fewer than ten pieces, but now that he is in fact General of the Artillery, he prefers taking the field with four. He is a gallant fellow, and offered, on my proposal last night, to remain with me and eoniunuid his company, in ease General Grouchy had agreed to the proposal I made to Cherin. It is altogeiher an enterprise truly unique; wo have not one guinea; we have not a tent ; we have not a horse to draw our four pieces of artillery; the General-in-Chief marches onfoot; we leave all our baggage behind us; we have nothing but the arms in our hands, the clothes on our backs, and a good courage, but that is sufficient. With all these original circumstances, such as I be- lieve never were found united in an expedi- tion of such magnitude as that we are about to attempt, we are all as gay as larks. I never saw the French character better ex- emplified, than in this morning's business. Well, at last 1 believe we are about to disem- bark; God knows how I long for it. But this infernal easterly wind continues without remorse, and though we have been under way three or four hours, and made I be- lieve three hundred tacks, we do not seem to my eyes to have gained one hundred yards in a straight line. One hour and a half of good wind would carry us up, anil, perhaps, we may be yet two days. My enemy, the wind, seems just now, at eight o'clock, to relent a little, so we may reach Bautry by to-morrow. The enemy has now ^5?m£& 6 ® fp) Hi j -'■U.^-i'-..i,:, FLEET ANCHORED EM BANTRT BAT. A :V had four days to recover from his panic, and prepare to receive us; so much the worse, but I do not mind it. We purpose to make a race for Cork, as if the devil were in our bodies, and when we are fairly there, we will stop for a day or two to take breath, and look about us. From Bantry to Cork is about forty-five miles, which, with all our efforts, will take us three days, and I suppose we may have a brush by the way, bul I think we are able to deal with any force thai can, at a week's notice, be brought against us. " December 25 -ju^ r^' .^ DISTORT OF IRELAND. SV 3. •V' the fleet, tlie capture of the General, and above all, the loss of time resulting from all this, and which is never to be recovered. Our second error was in losing an entire day in cruising off the Bay, when we might have entered and effected a landing with thirty- five sail, which would have s 'cured every- thing, and now our third error is having our Commander-in-Chief separated from the Etat Major, which renders all communication utterly impossible. My prospects at this hour are as gloomy as possible. I see noth- ing' before me, unless a miracle be wrought in our favor, but the ruin of the expedition, the shivery of my country, and my own de- struction. Well, if I am to fall, at least I will sell my life as dear as individual re- sistance can make it. So now I have made up my mind. 1 have a merry Christmas of it to-day. December 2 CM.. — Last night, at half after six o'clock, in a heavy gale of wind still from the east, we were surprised by the Admiral's frigate running under our quarter, and hailing the Indomptable, with orders to cut our cable and put to sea instantly; the frigate then pursued her course, leaving as all in the utmost astonishment. Our first idea was that it might be an English frigate, lurking in the bottom of the Bay, which took advantage of the storm aud darkness of the night to make her escape, aud wished to separate our squadron by this stratagem; for it seems utterly incredible, that an Ad- miral should cut aud run in this manner, without any previous signal of any kind to warn the fleet, and that the first notice we should have of his intention, should be his hailing us in this extraordinary manner, with such unexpected and peremptory or- ders. After a short consultation with his officers, (considering the storm, the darkness of the night, that we have two anchors out, and only oue spare one in the hold,) Captain Bedout resolved to wait, at all events, till to-morrow morning, in order to ascertain whether it was really the Admiral who hailed us. The morning is now come, the gale continues, and the fog is so thick that we cannot see a ship's length ahead; so here we lie in the utmost uncertainty and anxiety. Iu all probability we are now left without Admiral or General; if so, Cherin will com- mand the troops, and Bedout the fleet, bat, at all events, there is an end of the expe- dition. Certainly we have been persecuted by a strange fatality, from the very night of our departure to this hour. We have lost two Commanders-in-Chief; of four Ad- mirals not one remains; we have lost one ship of the line, that we know of, and prob- ably many others of which we know noth- ing; we have been now six days in Bantry Bay, within five hundred yards of the shore, without being able to effectuate a landing; we have have been dispersed four times in four days, and, at, this moment, of forty- three sail, of which the expedition con- sisted, we can muster of all sizes but four- teen. There only wants our falling in with the English to complete our destruction; and, to judge of the future by the past, there is every probability that that will not be wanting. All our hopes arc now re- duced to get back in safety to Brest, and I believe we will set sail for that port the instant the weather will permit. I confers, myself, I now look on the expedition as impracticable. The enemy has had seven days to prepare for us, and three, or per- haps four, days more before we could ar- rive at Cork; and we are now too much reduced, in all respects, to make the at- tempt with any prospect of success — so, all is over ! It is hard, after having forced my way thus far, to be obliged to turn back; but it is my fate, and I must sub- mit. Notwithstanding all our blunders, it is the dreadful stormy weather aud easterly winds, which have been blowing furiously, and without intermission, since we made Bantry Bay, that have ruined us. Well, England has not had such an escape since the Spanish Armada, and that expedition, like ours, was defeated by the weaiher; the elements fight against us, and courage is here of no avail. Well, let me think no more about it; it is lost, and let it go ! " December 21lh — Yesterday several ves- sels, including the Indomptable, dragged their anchors several times, and it was with great difficulty they rode out the gale. At two o'clock, the Revolution, a 74, made signal that she could hold no longer, aud, in consequence of the Commodore's permission, who now commands our little ?xjsM^ K J " 'f» . ft s - FLEET ANCHORED IN BANTRY BAY, squadron, cut her only cable and pal to sea. In tlie night, the Patriote and Pluton, of 7 1 each, were forced to go to sea, with the Nicomede Bate, so that this morning we are reduced to seven sail of the line and one frigate. Any attempt here is now des- perate, but I still think, if we were debarked :it the mouth of the Shannon, we might yet recover all. At ten o'clock, the Commo- dore made signal to get under way, which was delayed l>y one of the ships, which re- quired an hour to get ready. This hour we availed ourselves of to cold a council of war, at which were present, Generals Cherin, Harty, and Humbert, who came from their ships for that purpose; Adjutant- Generals Simon, Chasseioup, and myself; Lieutenant-Colonel Waudre, commanding the artillery, and Favory, Captain of En- gineers, together with Commodore Bedout, who was invited to assist; General Harty, as senior officer, being President. It was agreed that, our force being now reduced to 4,168 men, our artillery to two four- pounders, our ammunition to 1,500,000 cartridges and 500 rounds for the artillery, with 500 pounds of powder — this part of the conntry being utterly wild and savage, furnishing neither provisions nor horses, and especially as the enemy, having seven days' notice, together with three more which it would require to reach Cork, supposing we even met with no obstacle, had time more than sufficient to assemble his forces in num- bers sufficient to crush our little army; con- sidering, moreover, that this province is the only one of the four which has testified no disposition to revolt; that it is the most re- mule from the party which is ready for in- surrection ; and, finally, Captain Bedout having communicated his instructions, which are, to mount as high as the Shannon, aDd cruise there five days; it was unanimously agreed to quit Bantry Bay directly, and proceed for the mouth of the Shannon, in hopes to rejoin some of our scattered com- panions; and \\\im we are there we will de- termine, according to the means in our hands, what part we shall take. I am the more content with this determination, as it is substantially the same with the paper which I read to General Cherin and the •re.-t, the day before yesterday. The wind, it last, has come round to the southward, and the s'gnal is now flying to get under way. At half after four, there being every appearance of a stormy night, three vessels cut their cables and put to sea. The Iu- domptable, having with great difficulty weighed one anchor, we were forced, at length, to cut the cable of the other, and make the best of our way out of the Bay, being followed by the whole of our little sqnadron, now reduced to ten sail, of which seven are of the line, oue frigate, and two corvettes or luggers. "December 2Slh. — Last night it blew a perfect hurricane. At one this morning, a dreadful sea took the ship in the quarter, stove in the quarter gallery, and one of the dead-lights in the great cabin, which was instantly filled with water to the depth of three feet. Immediately after this blow, the wind abated, and, at daylight, having run nine knots an hour, under one jib only, during the hurricane, we found ourselves at the rendezvous, having parted company with three ships of the line and the frigate, which makes our sixth separation. The frigate Coquille joined us in the course of the day, which we spent standing off and on the shore, without being joined by any of our missing companions. "December 29/A. — At four this morning, the Commodore made the signal to steer for France: so, there is an end of our expedi- tion for the present; perhaps, forever. I spent all yesterday in my hammock, partly through sea-sickness, and much more through vexation. At ten, we made prize of an un- fortunate brig, bound from Lisbon to Cork, laden with salt, which we sunk. "December ZO/h and olst. — On our way to Brest. It will be well supposed I am in no great humor to make memorandums. This is the last day of the year 1796, which has been a very remarkable one in my history. "January \st, 1797. — At eight this morn- ing made the island of Ushant, and at twelve opened the Goidct. We arrive seven sail: the Indomptable, of 80; the Watigny, Cas- sard, and Eole, 7-1; the Coquille, 36; the Atalante, 20, and the Vautonr lugger, of 1 4. We left Brest forty-three sail, of which seventeen were of astonished that P, m JBL 4\i ,vj I Hf] 4£Qi\ -o) English ship-of-wai going nor coming bac They must have tanen their measures very ill, not to intercept us, bat, perhaps, they have picked up some of our missing ships. Well, this evening will explain all, and we shall see now what is become of our four Admirals, and of our two Generals-in- Chief." So ended the great " Bantry Bay Expe- dition." Fifteen days after the arrival of Tone at Brest, the missing frigate La Frater- nitd, with General Iloehe and the Admiral onboard, mad" her way after many dangers into the port of La Roehellc. In addition to the hostility of the ele- ments, this attempt at an invasion of Ireland had certain other disadvantages to contend with: it was directed to that portion of the island which was the least ripe for insurrec- tion, and in which the United Irish Society was least extended and organized. It ar- rived at a part of the coast surrounded by desolate mountains, where there were but small resources fur a commissariat, where no good horses could be found for the artillery and wagons, and where the wretched popu- lation had scarcely ever heard either of a French Republic or of an United Irish Society, or of Liberty, Equality, and Fra- ternity. This was against the wishes and counsels of Wolfe Tone, who was in favor of the lauding somewhere near Dublin or Belfast. So ignorant and so ill-prepared were the natives of Bear and Bantry, that they regarded the liberating force as a hostile invasion; and Plowden informs us that when a boat was sent ashore from the squadron to reconnoitre the country, " it was imme- diately captured, and multitudes appeared on the beach in readiness to oppose a land- ing." In addition to this, the English Gov- ernment, had always full and accurate information as to the whole plan of invasion, and had thus been enabled to deceive the leaders of the United Irishmen by false in- formation. The whole affair is thus accu- rately explained in the Report of the Secret Committee of the House of Lords in 119S, (viii Lord's Journal, p. 14'2): — " It appears by the Report of the Secret Committee of this House, made in the last session of Parliament, that, a messenger had been dispatched by the Society of United Irishmen to the Executive Directory of the French Republic, upon a treasonable mis sion, between the month of June, one thou sand seven hundred and ninety-five, and the mon'h of January, one thousand seven hundred and ninety-six, at which time the messenger so sent had returned to Ireland. and your committee have strong reason to believe, that Edward John Lewins, who now is, and has been, for a considerable time, the accredited resident ambassa- dor of the Irish Rebellious Union to the French Republic, was the person thus dis- patched in the summer of one thousand seven hundred and ninety-five. It. appears to your committee, that the proposition so made by the French Directory, of assistance to the rebels of this kingdom, was taken into consideration by the Executive Directory of the Irish Union immediately after it was communicated to them, that they did agree to accept the proffered assistance, and that their determination was made known to the Directory of the French Republic by a special messenger; and your committee have strong reason to believe, that the invasion of this kingdom which was afterwards at- tempted, was fully arranged at an interview which took place in Switzerland, in the sum- mer of one thousand seven hundred and ninety-six, near the French frontier, between Lord Edward Fitzgerald, the aforesaid Mr. Arthur O'Connor, and General Hoche. It appears to your committee, that in the month of October or November, one thou- sand seven hundred and ninety-six, the hos- tile armament which soon after appeared in Bantry Bay, was announced to the Irish Directory by a special messenger dispatched from France, who was also instructed to in- quire into the slate of preparation in which this country stood, which armament was then stated to the Irish Directory to consist of fifteen thousand troops, together with a considerable quantity of arms and ammuni- tion, intended for the use of the Irish Repub- lican Union. In a few clays alter the de- parture of the messenger, who had been thus sent to announce the speedy arrival of this armament on the coasts of this kingdom, it appears to your committee, that a letter from France was received by the Irish Directory, which was considered by them us authentic, JE_ Wr; '.') ,', £A± .Cd4Wv& «, Sg^ -* \£\ P itating that the projected descent was post- poned for some months, ami to this circum- stance ii baa been fairly acknowledged to your committee, l>y one of the Irish Direc- tory, that this country was indebted for the good conduct of the people in the Province of Munster, when the enemy appeared in Bantry Bay. lie has confessed, that these contradictory communications threw the Irish Directory off their guard, in consequence of which they omitted to prepare the people for the reception of the enemy. He has con- fessed, that the people were loyal because they were left to themselves." % CHAPTER XXX. 1797. Reign of Terror in Armagh County — No Orangemen ever Punished — "Defenders' 1 called Banditti — '• Faulkner's Journal,'' Organ of the Castle— Cheers on the Orangemen— Mr. Curran's State- ment of the Havoc in Armagh — Increased Rancor against Catholics and U. I. after the Bantry Bay Affair — Efforts of Patriots to Establish a Permanent Armed Force — Opposed by Government — And Why— Proclamation of Counties — Bank Ordered to Suspend Specie Payments — Alarm — Dr. Duigenan — Secession from Parliament of Grattan, Curran, &c. — General Lake in the North — " Northern Star" Office Wrecked by Troops — Proclamation — Out- rages in the Year 1737 — Salutary Effect of the United Irish System on the Peace of the Country — Armagh Assizes — Slanderous Report of a Secret Committee — Good Effects of United Irishism in the South — Miles Byrne — Wexford County. During the whole of the year that saw Tone negotiating in France for the great Bantry Bay expedition, the Government in Ireland, well seconded by magistrates, sheriffs, military officers and Orangemen, was steadily proceeding, with a ferocious deliberation, in driving the people to utter de-pair. Many districts of Armagh County were already covered with the blackened ruins of poor cabins, lately the homes of in- nocent people, thousands of whom, with their old people, their women and little children, were wandering homeless and starv- ing, or were already dead of hunger and cold, when the Grand Jury of Armagh, at the Lent Assizes, bethinking them that it would be well lo soften or do away with the impressions produced by these horrible events, and the comments of which they were the subject, agreed to an address and resolutions expressive of their full determin- ation to put the coercion laws in force, and to enforce strict justice. Mr. I'lowden savs, artlessly: "Their annunciation of impartial justice, and a resolution to punish offendew of every denomination, was rather unseason- able, when there remained no longer any of one denomination to commit outrages upon, or to retaliate injuries." He might have added that, many of the gentlemen composing that Grand Jury had themselves encouraged and participated in the extermination of the Catholics. But they knew very well that no coercion law of that Parliament was at all in- tended to be enforced against Orangemen; that the " unlawful oaths forbidden under pain of death," did not mean to include the purple oath of Orangemen to extirpate Cath- olics, but only the United Irish oath, to en- courage brotherly union, and seek "an im- partial representation for all the people of Ireland." In fact, no Orangeman was ever prosecuted; nor was any punishment ever inflicted ou the exterminators of Armagh Catholics. This statement might seem almost incred- ible in any civilized nation; but the proofs of the gross partiality of the Legislature and Government, or rather of their strict alliance with the Orange faction, are too numerous and clear to be doubted. For example, a report of a secret committee of the Commons, shortly after this time, in- forms us, " that in the summer of 1790, the outrages committed by a banditti, calling themselves Defenders, in the Counties of Roscommon, Leitrim, Longford, Meath, Westmeath, and Kildare, together with a religious feud prevailing in the County of Armagh, induced the Legislature to pass a temporary act of Parliament, generally called the Insurrection act, by which the Lord- Lieutenant and Council were enabled, upon the requisition of seven magistrates of any county, assembled at a sessions of the peace, to proclaim the whole or any part thereof, to be in a state of disturbance; within which limits this law, giving increased power to the magistracy, was to have operation." What is here mildly called a "religious feud " was the extirpation of one sect of people by another, on account of their re- ligion alone. The British Government in Irelaud ha \Q b" >;> •V© r w* never been able to dispense with an organ at the Press, in the pay of the Castle. The chief Government paper of that d;iy was Faulkner's Journal, which was then savage in its denunciations of Catholics, Defenders, and United Irishmen, hut had only praise for the Armagh Orangemen. The Dublin Evening Post of the 24th of September, 1796, contained the following observations: "The most severe stroke made against t ho character and conduct of the Viceroy, as a moral man and first magis- trate of a free people, who 'ought not to hold the sword lit rain,' nor to exercise it partially, has been in Faulkner's Journal of this day. That hireling print is undeniably in the pay of his lordship's administration; and what administration permits, it is sup- posed to prompt or patronize. In that print, the blind fury of the banditti, which usurps and disgraces the name of Orange in the North is applauded, and all their bloody excesses justified. Murder in all its horrid forms, assassinations in cold blood, the mutilation of members without respect to Oge or sex, the firing of whole hamlets, so that when the inhabitants have been looked after nothing but their ashes were to be found; the atrocious excursions of furious hordes, armed with sword, fire, and faggot, to exterminate a people, for presuming to obey the divine command, written by the finger of God himself, ' Honor thy fatherand thy mother,' and walking in the religion which seemed good in their eyes. These are the flagitious enormities which attract the mercenary applause of Faulkner's Journal, the literary pro]) of the Camden administra- tion." And in this very same month of Septem- ber, while Faulkner's Journal was doing this kind of service for Castle pay, the Northern Star of Belfast, an able and mod- erate organ of the United Irishmen, had its office attacked and ransacked by soldiers; Samuel Neilson, its editor, and several others, were arrested, carried to Dublin, thrown into prison, and kept there for more than a year without having been brought to any trial. Onthe 13th of October, HOC, Parlia- ment met. In his speech from the throne, His Excellency uow for the first time took tender and oblique notice of the disturbances of Armagh. " I have, however, to lament, that in one part of the country good order has not yet been entirely restored; and that in other districts a treasonable system of secret confederation, by the administering of illegal oaths still continues, although no means within the reach of Government have been left untried to counteract it." Mr. Grattan, in the debate upon the ad- dress, objected to this speech, as betraying gross partiality, and moved the following amendment: — "To represent to His Majesty, that tho most effectual method for strengthening tho country and promoting unanimity, was to take such measures, and to enact such laws, as to ensure to all His Majesty's subjects the blessings and privileges of the constitu- tion, without any distinction of religion." The amendment was seconded by Mr. W. B. Ponsonby. The debate was carried on till two o'clock in the morning with extreme heat and viru- lence. Mr. G rattan's amendment was op- posed, as unseasonable and violent, by several of those who had been in the habit of voting with him on all occasions; inso- much that the minority on the division con- sisted only of 12 against 149. In the course of this debate Lord Castlcreagh re- plied with great warmth to Mr. Grattan; and Mr. Pclham spoke more at length than he usually did. He particularly adverted to the two topics, which had formed the prin- cipal ground of the debate; namely, the question of Catholic Emancipation, and the disturbances of Armagh. "As to the first, he thought it very improperly brought, for- ward at that juncture. It was then no time to make distinctions between Catholics and Protestants; no such distinction was made lni Government.'' As for the disturbances in Armagh, of course Mr. Secretary I'clham defended the Government and the magistrates; and said, if the Insurrection act had not been applied there, as in some other counties, it was be- cause the magistrates had not thought the nature of the troubles " would justify the application of that very severe law." It was in this session that the Ilaheai Corpus act was suspended. This suspension, MiiliMMifvjt* EFFORTS OF PATRIOTS TO ESTABLISH A PERMANENT ARMED FORCE. 'Si! together with the Insurrection and Indem- nity nets, completed the arrangements fur putting out of the pale of the law about nine-tenths of the population. When Mr. Secretary Pelham moved, on the 26th of October, U96, that the House should adjourn for about a fortnight; Mr. Our. in strongly opposed it; particularly upon the grounds of the necessity of putting an immediate cheek upon the still contin- uing outrageous disturbances of Armagh, which surpassed in honor everything he had ever heard or read. He had on the first day of the session stated the number of fanaliei that had become the victims of that infernal barbarity at 100; it was with great pain he mentioned, that upon more minute inquiry, he found as many more must be added to the miserable catalogue: he was in possession of.evideuce, ready to be exam- ined at their liar, and whom lie hoped they would hear, that would satisfy them upon oath, that not less than 1,400 families had been thus barbarously expelled from their houses, and then were wandering about the neighboring counties, save such of them as might have been murdered, or burned in their cottages, or perished in the fields, or highways, by fatigue and famine, and despair; and that horrid scene had been transacted, and was still continuing in the open day, in the heart of the kingdom, without any effectual interference whatsoever. This public testimony of Mr Curran, which he would not have dared to give in open Parliament if it could have been con- tradicted, may finish the picture of the north of Ireland in this year. There were now several successive adjournments until the 6th of January, 1197. In the meantime, the French Meet had appeared in Bantry Bay, and disappeared again, giving rise to numberless rumors throughout the island, and rousing sentiments of rage and horror in one party, of hope and joy in another, but on the whole, intensifying the bitterness and vindictive passion of the "Ascendancy" against Catholics and United Irishmen, who had so nearly succeeded in bringing upon them such terrible visitors. On the re-as- sembling of Parliament, many members brought forward resolutions of inquiry or complaint as to the remiss conduct of the Government on occasion of the threatened invasion, of which it was well known Gov- ernment had possessed timely intelligence. The reformers and emancipators of the House showed what the Castle thought a very suspicious anxiety for the defense of the country, when they proposed very large additions to the armed yeomanry of tin? country. The administration did not forget that in 1782 it had been this same alleged lack of sufficient defense against foreign enemies which gave occasion to the volun- teering, and that when the volunteers were enrolled and armed, they very naturally ailed as if they considered England the only foreign enemy they had. The Gov- ernment, therefore, would not suffer any measure of general armament to pass, but assented to a proposal of Sir John Blaqniere, for raising an additional force of 10,000 men; this, however, to be in the nature of militia, officered by Government, and the Government was to have entire control of its organization and its personnel. On a subsequent night, Sir Lawrence Parsons made another attempt, by a resolu- tion that it was necessary to have a per- manent force for protection of the country. The motion was opposed with bitter violence by Mr. Secretary Pelham. Mr. Grattan followed; ami the real nature of the ques- tion at issue will be manifest in this ex- tract from his speech : " The Secretary asked, who could be more interested for the safety of Ireland than the British Minister ? He would answer, Ireland herself. To refer to the British Minister the safety of that country was the most sottish folly; it was false and unparliamentary to say, that the House had no right to recommend a meas- ure, such as the honorable baronet pro- posed. Had it been a proposition to in- crease the regular standing army, it might, perhaps, have been a little irregular; but when an increase of 10,000 to the standing army was proposed by a right honorable baronet the other night, it was not consid- ered as an affront. Now another honor- able baronet comes forward to give an army five fold as many, and five fold as cheap, and administration are affronted. Why ? Because that army was of the people. It the dc w3i ,&. £* C%^$\ PlKs ■ FIIKT0KY OF IRELAND. W'f^ : nble member advanced were true, and that the duty of Parliament now were become nothing more tliiin merely to vote taxes, and echo three million-;, when the Minister said three millions are wanted, then, indeed, actum est tic parliamenlo; a reform of the representation was become then more than ever necessary." It was easy for the Ministers to perceive what was in the minds of Mr. (Jratlan and lis friends: to have another popular army strong euough at once to preserve the pub- lic peace and to protect the Constitution of the country; and Ministers were fully re- solved that neither of these things should be done: the public peace was to be destroyed by insurrection, in order that the Constitu- tion should be destroyed by legislative "union." On this motion of Sir Lawrence Parsons there was a division at four o'clock in the morning — '25 voted for it, 125 against it. In December, January, and February, of this winter, many districts in the Counties of Ulster were "proclaimed" under the Insur- rection act; and more than the horrors of martial law were now raging there. The anxiety and excitement of the country had re-acted disastrously upon trade and general business interests; and in the midst of this came a sudden order from the Privy Council to the Governor and Company of the Bank of Ireland to suspend specie payments. The manifest, object of this measure was still further to aggravate that "alarm of the better classes," which is a needful and un- failing agency of British domination in Ire- land; and it had the desired effect. But it also excited some attention in England; and Mr. Whitbread, in the English Com- mons, and Lord Moira, in the Lords, made ineffectual efforts to procure an inquiry into the conduct of Ministers with regard to Ireland. It is needless to say, these attempts were vehemently resisted by the administra- tion, and were defeated by vast majorities. British Ministers wanted no inquiry; they already knew all; and all was proceeding precisely as they had ordered and intended. A singular feature of this incident is, that the debates on the slate of Ireland in the English Parliament roused the patriotic in- dignation of the notorious Doctor Duigeuan, then a member of the Irish Parliament for Armagh, a doctor of the civil law and a renegade Papist, therefore more desperately vindictive against Papists, and more abusive of their tenets than any Orangeman in the land. The Doctor was seized with a sudden lit of Irish patriotism; and gave notice in the House, on the 30th of March, that after the recess he would move a resolution con- demnatory of such nnconstitutional inter- ferences, and refuting the false statements made in the other Parliament respecting Ireland by Lord Moira, Mr, Whitbread, and Mr. Fox. Mr. (irattan desired him to give due notice of that motion; as it was his intention to demonstrate that the state- ments were both true, and also constitu- tional. But Mr. Grattan had now, at length, come to perceive that labors in that Parlia- ment were utterly thrown away. Accord- ingly, he determined to secede from the body. In a speech of his upon the state of the North, where General Lake was now dragooning the people with unexampled ferocity, he protested solemnly, but molt hopelessly, that the true remedy for all the troubles lay in a just government and reform of Parliament ; and speaking of the United Irish Society : " Notwithstanding your Gun- powder act, it has armed and increased its military stores under that act; notwithstand- ing your Insurrection act, another bill to disarm, it has greatly added to its maga- zines; and not withstanding the suspension of the Habeas Corpus bill and General Lake's proclamation, it has multiplied its prose- lytes. I should have asked, had I been on the Secret Commit tee, whether the number of United Irishmen had not increased very much since General Lake's proclamation, and by General Lake's proclamation. It appears, I say, from that report, that just a< your system of coercion advanced, the United Irishmen advanced ; that the meas- ures you took to coerce, strengthened; to disperse, collected; to disarm, armed ; to render them weak and odious, made them popular and powerful ; whereas, on the other hand, you have loaded Parliament and Gov- ernment with the odium of an oppressive system, and with the further odium of re- jecting these two popular topics, which you allow are the most likely to gain the heart "iKS >C«uU(4ftii,t GENERAL LAKE IN THE NOItTII. \£& M of the nation, and be the beloved objects of the people." Mr. Grattan closed his speech and the debate with these words : " We have offered yon oar measure ; yon will reject ii ; we deprecate yours ; you will persevere ; having ii < > hopes left to persuade or dissuade, and having discharged our duty, we shall trouble yov no more, and after this day, shall not at- tend the House of Commons." 17 Par. Deb., p. 570. Accordingly, at the next general election, Mr. Grattan and Lord Henry Fitzgerald declined to be returned for Dublin. Mr. Curron, Arthur O'Connor, and Lord Ed- ward Fitzgerald followed the example. There has been much discussion upon this "secession." It lias been urged on the one hand, that Grattan and Curran and Lord Henry Fitzgerald, who still appealed to the Constitution, and acknowledged the cxist- ence and authority of a British Government in Ireland, were wrong to abandon the legal and constitutional field. On the other, it has been argued, that, having abandoned that, the only manly and rational course left them was to join the United Irishmen, as O'C ir and Lord Edward had already done. It is hard to blame those excellent men and true Irishmen, Grattan and Curran. If they had joined the United Irish Society, they would have probably found themselves immediately in Newgate, as O'Connor and Lord Edward Fitzgerald soon after did, be- sides, they were not republicans, and abhor- red " French principles ''as earnestly as Lord Clare himself. When Wolfe Tone, in his French exile, heard of the secession, his observation in his journal is : "I see those illustrious patriots are at last forced to bolt out of the House of Commons, and come amongst the people, as .lolm Keogh advised Grattan to do long Bince." They did boll from the House of Commons, but did not come amongst the people. In short, he saw now that the unhappy country was delivered over to its bloody agony, and that he could do DO more than look on in silence. General Lake had en- tered upon his mis, ion with zeal; many seiz- ures of concealed arms and ammunition were made. In the execution of these orders, some barbarous Outrages were committed by the military, which tended to inflame and exasperate the minds of the people, which were already too highly inflamed. Not only some women and children had been murder- ed, but the houses of some respectable per- sons were pillaged and demolished, upon the bare suspicion of their being United Irish- men. The newspaper, called the Morning Slur, in Belfast, after it had been sacked a few months earlier, had been refitted, and was again carried on with spirit, exposing the evil designs of the Ministers, and publishing boldly essays and letters in favor of civil liberty. It was, of course, necessary now that the paper should be suppressed alto- gether. Neilson, its first editor, and the two Simms, its proprietors, were all now in Newgate prison, though not accused of any offence whatever. The newspaper was re- quired by military authority to insert an article reflecting ou the loyalty of the peo- ple of Belfast; the article did not appear as ordered ; the next morning, a detachment of soldiers marched out of the barracks, attacked the printing office, and utterly demolished every part of it, breaking the presses, scattering the types, and seizing the books. Thus disappeared the Morning Star, and it never rose again. There was after that nobody daring enough to even record, or allude to, far less to denounce, the hideous atrocities which the policy of the Castle required to be perpetrated. It was now the avowed opinion of Gov- ernment, that the treason was in the course of the winter of 1790, and the spring of 1797, too deeply moled to yield to the remedy of the law, even where it was put iu force by the magistrates with activity. Such an assumption was prominently calculated to open the door to the strongest measures, and the general command given to the civil and military officers, by proclamation, to use the exertions of their utmost force, and to op- pose with their full power all such as should resist them in the execution of their duty, which was to search for and seize concealed arms, admitted of a latitude of power, not very likely to be temperately regulated by raw ti'oops let in upon a country denounced rebellious, aud devoted to military rigor, as V' ?.■ / rr a necessary substitute for the inefficacy of the municipal law. A regiment of Welsh cavalry, called the Ancient Britons, com- manded by Sir Watkin William Wynne, were at all times prominently conspicuous for the rigorous execution of any orders for devastation, destruction, or extermination. They were marked for it by the rebels, and in the course of the rebellion they were cut to pieces almost to a man. That proclamation, above mentioned, which was published Oil the nth of May, was sent to Lord Carhampton, with a letter from Mr. Pelbam, on the 18th of May, in consequence of which his lordship imme- diately published the following order: "In obedience to the order of the Lord-Lieute- nant in Council, it is the Commander-iu- J^J Chief's commands, that the military do act, without waiting for directions from the civil magistrates, in dispersing any tumultuous or unlawful assemblies of persons threatening the peace of the realm, and the safety of the lives and properties of His Majesty's loyal subjects wheresoever collected." This proclamation, together with the laws then in existence, and the known wishes of the authorities, left everything at the discretion of the soldiery; they were to determine what, was an unlawful assembly; and we shall find that, they often treated as such, families asleep in their own beds at night, provided there were any pretext for suspecting the existence of weapons in the house, or any information of an United Irish oath having been administered there. Of the outrages done in the course of this year, 1197, it is now impossible to pro- cure anything like a complete account. Yet "j^l a few examples well authenticated must be given, to show how martial law worked in those days. Doctor Madden, the indefati- gable Collector of Documents relating to the period, has re-published the pamphlet, before cited, called, " View of the Present State of Ireland." It was published the' same year in London, because no printer in Ire- land could have dared to print it. The statements of this pamphlet have never been contradicted; and old James Hope, one of the last, survivors of the United Irishmen, and a person of intelligence and integrity, thus indorsed it to Dr. Madden: " This pamphlet contains more truth than all the volumes I have seen written on the events of 1797 and 1798." Wc select a few extracts : — " In the month of May last, a party of the Essex Fencibles, accompanied by the Enniskillen Yeomen Infantry, commanded by their First-Lieutenant, marched to the house of a Mr. Potter, a very respectable farmer, who lived within live miles of Ennis- killen, in the County of Fermanagh. On their arrival, they demanded Mr. Potter, saying they were ordered to arrest him, as he was charged with being an United Irish- man. His wife, with much firmness, replied, 'that to be an United Irishman was an honor, not a disgrace; that her husband had gone from home the preceding day on business, and had not yet returned.' They assured her that if he did not surrender him- self in three hours they would burn his house. Mrs. Potter answered, 'that she did not know exactly where he then was, but, if she" did know, she believed it would be impossible to have him home in so short a lime.' In less than three hours they set fire to the house, which was a very neat one, only about five years built; the servants brought out some beds and other valuable articles, in the hope of preserving them, but the mili- tary dashed all back into the flames. The house and properly, to the amount of six or seven hundred pounds, were consumed, and Mrs. Potter, with seven children, one of them not a month old, were turned out, at the hour of midnight, into the fields. "In June, 1797, a party of the Ancient Britons (a feucible regiment, commanded by Sir Watkin William Wynne,) were ordered to examine the house of Mr. Rice, an inn-keeper in the town of Coolavil, County of Armagh, for arms; but on making very diligent, search, none could be found. There were some country people drinking in the house, and discoursing in their native language; the soldiers damned their vicinal Irish stalls, said they Were Speaking treason, and instantly fell on them with their sword-, and maimed several desperately. Miss Hice was so badly wounded that her life was despaired of, and her father escaped with much difficulty, after having received many cuts from the sabres of these assassius. li n r ^^-_i ^ m n r^^ L SWTO OUTRAGES IN THE TEAR 1707. 2C3 " In June, some persons had been refresh- ing themselves sit an inn in Newtownards, County of Down, kepi by a Mr. WCormick, and it was alleged that they wire over- henrd ottering winds termed seditious. M'Cormick was afterwards called on to give information who they were; In' denied hav- ing any knowledge of them, observing that many people might come into his house whom he did nol know, and for whom he could not be accountable. He was taken into custody, and next, day his house and extensive property were reduced to ashes. The house of Dr, Jackson was torn down on suspicion of his being an I'ni/ril Irish- vnni; and many oilier houses in that town and barony were destroyed, or otherwise de- molished, by English Fencibles, on similar pretexts. "On the 22dof June, Mr. Joseph Clot- nev, of Ballinahiuch, was committed to the Military Barracks, Belfast, and his house, furniture, and hooks, worth three thousand ponnds, destroyed; also the valuable house of Mr. Armstrong, of that place, was totally demolished. A parly of fencibles, then quartered in Enniskiilen, were ordered, underthe com- mand of a captain and adjutant, accom- panied by the First Fermanagh Yeomanry, into all adjoining county lo search for arms. About two o'clock in the morning they ar- rived at the house of one Durnian, a farmer, which, without any previous intimation whatever, they broke open, and, on entering it, one of the fencibles fired his musket through the root' of the house; an officer instantly discharged his pistol into a bed where two young men were lying, and wounded them both. One of them, iheonly cJnld of Durnian, rose with great difficulty, and on making this effort, faint with the loss of blood, a fencible stabbed him through the bowels. His distracted mother ran to support, him, but. in a few moments she Bank upon the floor, covered with the Id 1 which issued from the side of her unfor- tunate son; by this time the other young man had got on his knees to implore mercy, declaring most solemnly that they had not bein guilty of any crime, when another fencible dehheralely knelt dotcn, leveled his uiu-ket at him, and was just going to Ore, when a sergeant of yeomanry rushed in, seized, and prevented his committing the horrid deed. There were persona who smiled at the humanity of the sergeant. "Information had been lodged that a house near Newry contained concealed arms. A party of the Ancient Britons re- paired to the house, but not finding the ol>- ject of their search, they set it on fire. The peasantry of the neighborhood came running from all sides to extinguish the flames, believing the fire to have been acci- dental — it was the first military one in that part of the country. As they came up they were attacked in all directions, and cut down by the fencibles; thirty were killed, among whom were a woman and two children. An old man (above seventy years,) seeing the dreadful slaughter of his neighbors and friends, fled for safety to some adjacent rocks; he was pursued, and, though on his knees imploring mercy, a brutal Welshman cut off his head at a blow. " 1 have stated incontrovertible truths. Months would be insufficient to enumerate all the acts of wanton cruelty which were inflicted on the inhabitants of Ireland from the 1st day of April to the 24th day of July, 1191." The same authority narrates this fact also, but without date: "The house of Mr. Bernard Crosson, of the parish of Mullana- brack, was attacked by Orangemen, in con- sequence of being a reputed Catholic. His son prevented them from entering by the front door, upon which they broke in at the back part of the house, and, firing on U 1 the inhabitants, killed Mr. Crosson, his son, and daughter. Mr. Hugh MTay, of the parish of Seagoe, had his house likewise attacked on the same pretence, himself wounded, his furniture destroyed, and his wife barbarously used." The same writer mentions that, "informa- tion having been lodged against a few in- dividuals living in the village of Kilrca, in the County of Derry, for being United Irishmen, a party of the military were or- dered to apprehend them; the men avoided the capture, and about three o'clock in the morning, a reverend magistrate, accom- panied by a clergyman and a body of soldiers, came to m ' ^1& ^ ! a BK « 5* ft' 71 i ; , V I' 2G4 H1ST0ET OF IRELAND. the men, who bad avoided capture, they burned nil their houses, except four, which could not be burned without endangering the whole village. These they gutted, and consumed their contents." 1 1 must l>e remembered that these scenes, which are but a few samples, all took place in the year 1797, and before there was any insurrection in Ireland; and all in two or three counties of one province. But if there was no insurrection, it was fully re- solved at the Castle to provoke one. A re- markable saving used a short time before by a remarkable man, and a very lit partisan of the Irish (iovernment, leaves but little doubt upon the real aims and wishes of the "Ascendancy." The man was John Claudius Beresford, of the noble house of Tyrone and Waterford, and one of the most ferocious tyrants in the world — we shall hear of him again at the " Hilling School." On the 30th of March, in this year, in his place in Parlia- ment, he thus corrects, or rather confirms, the saying attributed to him : — " Mr. J. ('. Beresford begged to correct a misstatement which had gone abroad, of what he had said in a former debate, on the Insurrection bill. It had been stated in a country paper, and from thence copied into those of Dublin, that he had expressed a wish 'that the whole of the North of lie- land were in open rebellion, that the Gov- ernment might Cut them off.' This had been very assiduously circulated, to the detriment of his character; and was, he could confi- dently say, a falsehood. What he had said was, 'that there were certain parts of the the North of Ireland in a state of concealed rebellion; and that he wished those places were rather in a state of open rebellion, that the Government might seethe rebellion, and crush it.'" It was observed that after the late exten- sive spread of the United Irish Society in the North, " Defenderism " had in a great measure ceased there. Many thousands of those who had been Defenders joined their Presbyterian neighbors in the " Union." This, in fact, was the great object of the Union, and the warmest hope of its pro- moters. The United Irish Societies of Ul- ster alone, according to a return seized by Government in Belfast, counted, at least on paper, one hundred thousand men in the month of April. They became more confi- dent in their strength; and having resolved to defer any general rising until the follow- ing year, they would not be goaded into a premature outbreak. During the Summer Assizes, although there were very numerous convictions for the usual class of offenses attributed to United Irishmen and Defenders, (for it was never thought of to prosecute Orangemen — the only criminals,) yet there were also several acquittals, greatly to the satisfaction of the United Irish, and to the dismay of the Government. This certainly arose from the greater difficulty which the sheriffs now had in pocking sure juries, not being able to tell now who might, or might not, be United Irishmen. Mr. Cmran de- fended many cascsoutho Northeast Circuit; amongst which may be mentioned those which occurred in Armagh. There were in the jail of that town twenty-eight persons accused of this species of alleged offense; of whom, however, two trials only were brought to trial. In the former, a suborned soldier, who was brought forward to prose cute one Doghcrty, was, upon Dogherty's ar, initial, put into the dock in his place, to abide his trial for perjury, The Grand Jury found bills against him, and he re- mained in custody to abide his trial. The only other trial was that of the King against Uanlon and Xogher, charged with contemptuously, maliciously, and feloniously tendering to the prosecutor an unlawful oath or engagement, to become one of an unlaw- ful, wicked, and seditious society called United Irishmen. One witness only was produced in sup- port of this indictment, a soldier of the Twenty-fourth Light Dragoons, of the name of Fisher, who swore to the adminis- tration of an oath, "to be united in brother- hood to pull down the head clergy ami half- pay olliccrs." He, upon his cross-examina- tion, said that the obligation had been shown and read to him, in a small book of four leaves, which he had read and would know again. The Constitution of the United Irishmen was then put into his hands by the defendant's counsel, and he admitted the test contained in it to be the same that he had takeu. k a ft - BKE I, 9j^i A '. ,f# « SXAKDEKOUB RF.POnT OF A SECRET COMMITTEE. 2G5 V' vr On the part of the prisoners, A. T. Stewart, Esq., of A.cton, woe examined and cross-examined by the Crown. The sum of his testimony was, that this Society had made a rapid progress throngh the people of all religions, ranks, and classes; that be- fore its introduction into that country, the in. i i horrible religions pevsecotions existed, attended with murder and extirpation; that since its introduction these atrocities bad subsided, as far ns he could learn. He ad- mitted he had heard of murders laid to their charge, bnl could hardly believe such charges, as he conceived them incompatible with anything lie ever could learn of the principles or consequences of their insti- tution. Tlie jailor was also examined, who said, thai fewer persons had been sent to him upon charges of wrecking orrobbing houses, or of murder, than before, and that he un- derstood the religions parties began to agree better together, and to fight less. There was no other material evidence. Mr. Cm-ran spoke an hour and three-quar- ters in defense of the United Irishmen. That lie was delighted to find, after so many of them had been immured in dungeons, with- out trial, that at length the subject had come fairly before the world— and that in- stead of being a system of organized treason and murder, it proved to be a great bond of national union, founded upon the most acknowledged principle of law, and every sacred obligation due to our country and Creator. Mr. Baron George gave his opinion de- eidedlv, that the obligation was, under the act of Parliament, illegal. The Jury with- drew, and acquitted he prisoner, and thus ended the Assizes of Armagh. The "Union" continued to recruit its numbers in the North; but, with still greater secrecy, and the country remaining perfectly tranquil, notwithstanding the cruel outrages Of magistrates and military, trade somewhat revived, and most people seemed to be re- tnrning peacefully to their ordinary pursuits, In short, the United Irish of l'l>ter were resolved not to rise until they should be at least assured of the co-operation of the Other three provinces, if not of aid from France. A report of the " Secret Committee" of the Commons, made this summer, congratulated the country Upon this apparent decline in the treasonable spirit. Such, the Commit- tee stated, had been the beneficial conse- quences of the " measures adopted in the year 1197" — that is, of the rigors of martial law, searches for arms, burnings of houses, and slaughters of women and children. We have already seen, however, that the greater tranquillity and good order of the North arose precisely from the spread of this very " treason," which the Committee pretended to regard ns being itself the only disturb- ance. This Committee goes on to report, that the leaders of the treason, apprehensive lest the enemy might be discouraged from any further plan of invasion, by the loyal dispositi nanifested throughout Minister and Connaught on their former attempt, de- termined to direct all their exertions to the propagation of the system in those pro- vinces, which had hitherto been but, par- tially infected. With this view emissaries were sent into the South and West in great numbers, of whose success in forming new societies and administering the oaths of the Union, there were, in the course of some few months, but too evident proofs in the introduction of the same disturbances and enormities into Minister, with which the northern province had been so severely visiied. In May, 1797, although numbers had been sworn both in Minister and Leinster, the strength of the organization, exclusive of Ulster, lay chiefly in the metropolis, and in the neighboring Counties of Dublin, Kil- dare, Meath, Westmeath, and the King's County. It was very observable, that- the counties in which Defenderism had prevailed, easily became converts to the new doctrines; and in the summer of 1797, the usual con- comitants of this species of treason, namely, the plundering houses of arms, the fabrica- tion of pikes, and the murder of those who did not join their party, began to appear in the midland counties. " In order to engage the peasantry in the southern counties, particularly in the Coun- ties of Watcrford and Cork, the more eagerly in their cause, the United Irishmen found it expedient in nrging their general principles, to dwell with pi « 'Hfk "^-v"^ LHU .£touNiHiA.ii r« the supposed oppressiveness of tithes, which had been the pretext for the old White Boy's insurrections. And it is observable, that in addition to the acts of violence usually resorted to by the party for the furtherance of their purposes, the ancient practice of burning the corn, and houghing the cattle of tliose against whom their resent- ment was directed, was revived, and very generally practised in those counties. " With a view to excite the resentment of the Catholics, and to turn that resentment to the purposes of the party, fabricated and false tests were represented as having been taken to exterminate Catholics, and were in- dustriously disseminated by the emissaries of the treason throughout the provinces of Leinster, Minister, and Connanght. Reports were frequently circulated amongst the ig- norant of the Catholic persuasion, that large bodies of men were coming to put them to death. This fabrication, however extrava- gant and absurd, was one among the many wicked means by which the deluded peas- antry were engaged the more rapidly and deeply in the treason." * So far the Committee; and this document is but one of many examples of legislative slander at the time, and of histories written by " loyal men " since. The report classes under the same head of " enormities" the fabrication of pikes and the murder of those who did not join their party. It is true the United Irishmen did everywhere get pikes forged; but utterly untrue that they did in any instance murder any one for not joining them. As for "burning the corn and houghing the cattle of those against whom their resentment was directed " — it is true that the " supposed oppressiveness of tithes," and of church rates, had for many years been the occasion of such acts of outrage against tithe proctors, &c, butqnite untrue that out- rages of this kind, or any other kind, in- creased when the United Irish Societies spread into the midland and southern coun- ties. On the contrary, they diminished. We have already seen the strong testimony to this effect in the North; and it may be laid down as universally true, that the Irish people on the eve of an insurrection, or in any violent political excitement, are always * riowden. free from crime to a most exemplary extent; which is always considered an alarming symptom by the authorities. "The good effects of the United Irish system in the commencement," says Miles Byrne,* " were soon felt and seen throughout the Counties of Wexford, Carlow, and Wicklow, which were the parts of the coun- try I knew best. It gave the first alarm to the Government; they suspected something extraordinary was going on, finding that disputes, fighting at fairs and other places of public meeting, had completely ceased. The magistrates soon perceived this change, as they were now seldom called on to grant summons or warrants to settle disputes. Drunkenness ceased also; for an United Irishmen to be found drunk was unknown for many months. . . . Such was the sanctity of our cause." f Even Mr. Plow- den, though an enemy of the United Irish- men, and ready enough to call them miscreants for their " treason," is obliged to vindicate them from the charge of encourag- ing or favoring other kinds of crime. But it is true, that if it be an " enormity " to "fabricate pikes," they were guilty of that atrocity, f So much, it is right to say, in vindication of as pure, gallant, and self-sacrificing a political party as ever appeared in any coun- try under the sun. As for the last-cited statement in the * The excellent, chivalrous Miles Byrne, who died only in 1SJ2, a Clief-de-Bataillon in the French service, was one of the first United Irishmen in Wexford County. His Memoirs, edited by his widow, and published in New York and in Paris in L863, form one of the most valuable documents for the history of his time, and the insurrection in Wexford. t The question at one time much agitated — whether the United Irishmen, or any of them, did or did not theoretically hold tyrannicide, that is, political as- sassination, to be lawful, is nothing to the purpose; it is enough to know they never practised it, and their leaders professed their abhorrence of it. Singular to say, the only United Irishman who ever, by any writing of his, gave even a pretext tor such an imputation, was the gentle poet, who sings " The Loves of the Angels," and " The Last Hose of Sum- mer." A letter of his, when a student in Triuity College, signet! Sophisler, contains some rhetoric of that sort ; and resolutions written by him and ofiered in one of the U. I Clubs in College, were the chief occasion of Lord Clare's celebrated Visitation to the University; but Lord Clare himself admitted that the resolution advising tyrannicide had bee - i $ \ -\$$S Ai%m^ GOOD EFFECTS OF UNITED IRISHISM IN THE SOUTH. 267 Committee's report, it was most accurately true that large bodies of men were at that moment " coming to pat them (the Cath- olics) to death." Twelve English and Scottish militia regiments, besides nn im- meiisi' force of the regular army, were com- ing, or already come, for that express pur- pose; which purpose was also carried into effect upon a very great scale. And it was most natural, therefore, that those Catholics should In' urged to unite for their own de- fense with those of their countrymen who were objects of the same conspiracy ; namely, thr Society of United Irishmen. When this monstrous report was presented in the House of Commons, there was naturally some debate. Mr. Fletcher said, that if coercive measures were to be pur- sued, the whole country must be coerced, for the spirit of insurrection had pervaded every part of it. Mr. M. Beresford ordered the clerk to take down these words, and the gallery was instantly cleared. When strangers were again admitted, the debate on the address still continued, and in the course of it M. J. C. Beresford thought himself called on to defend the Secret Committee against an as- sertion which had fallen from Mr. Fletcher in the course of his speech. The assertion was, in substance, that he feared the people would be led to look on the report of the Committee, as fabricated rather to justify the past measures of Government, than to state facts. One statement, however, in the report was true — that during this summer the United Irish system did strike vigorous roots in all the Counties of Leinster, except, perhaps, Kilkenny. It has been affirmed that Wexford, which soon made the most formidable figure in the insurrection, had so few United Irishmen within its bounds up to the end of the year 1797, as not to be counted nt all in the official returns of the organized counties in February; and it is probable that as the peasantry of Wexford were comparatively comfortable and thrifty, and lived on good terms with their landlords, tlere was less disposition to rush into insur- rectionary organizations at first. Vet Mis Byrue, who was himself sworn in an United Irishman in the summer of 1797, tells us: " Before a month had elapsed, almost every one had taken the test." He adds: "We soon organized parochial and baronial meet- ings, and named delegates to correspond with the county members. Robert Graham, of Corcaunon, a cousin of my mother's, was named to represent the county at the meet- ing to lie held in Dublin at Oliver Bond's." Whatever may have been the case in Wex- ford, it is certain that Kildare, Carlow, Meath, and Dublin, were in the course of the summer completely organized. Miles Byrne says: "Nothing could exceed the readiness and good will of the United Irish- men to comply with the instructions they received to procure arms, ammunition, &c, notwithstanding the difficulties and perils they underwent in purchasing those articles. Bikes were easily had at this time, for al- most every blacksmith was an United Irish- man. The pike-blades were soon had, but it was more difficult to procure poles for them; and the cutting down of young ash trees for that purpose awoke great attention and caused great sucpicion of the object in view." It is certain, however, that the County of Wexford neither suffered so much, nor was so ripe for insurrection, as many other counties, until after the 1st of April, 179*, when Lord Castlereagh's " well-timed measures" were taken. In the meantime Lord Edward Fitzgerald and the other leaders were eagerly and impatiently awaiting news of approaching succors from France; keeping the people as quiet as pos- sible, and letting them prepare their arms and steel their hearts, in full view of the corpses blackening upon many a gibbet, and heads impaled on spikes over many a gaol door-way, for the crime of swearing to pro- mote the union of Irishmen, in order to ob- tain a full and fair representation of the people,* and deliverance from their savage oppressors. * It is right to bear in mind throughout, that the original test of the United Irish Society, whichbound them to unite to procure fair representation of all the Irish people in Parliament, was changed in 17'.';. into an engagement to unite for the purpose of ob- taining a fair representation of all the people — ■ dropping the words " in Parliament." From that time, separation and a republican government be- came tli" fixed objects of the principal leaders, but not thr avowed ones till a little later, when, at the. conclusion of every meeting, the chairman waB f w t s n _ J-> !£■ IH ,•: j |i U.I s^.1 CHAPTER XXXI. 1797—1798. Wolfe Tone's Negotiations in France and Holland — Lewins — Expedition of Dutch Government Des- tined for Ireland — Tone at the Texel — His Journal — Tone's Uneasiness about Admitting Foreign Dominion over Ireland — MaeNeven's Memoir — Discussion as to Proper Point for a Landing — Tone on Board the Vryheid — Adverse Winds — Rage and Impatience of Tone— Disastrous Fate of the Ba- tavian Expedition — Camperdowu. The great French armament, destined for the liberation of Ireland, which had looked iu at Bantry Bay, had returned to Brest, without so much loss by the bad weather as might have been expected, and without having met a single British ship- of-war. The frigate Fraternitd, carrying General Hoche and the Admiral Morand de Galles, arrived safely at La Rochelle a fortnight after. Hoche was appointed to the command of the Army of the Sambre and Meuse; and Theobald Wolfe Tone went with him, attached to his personal staff. A great mutual regard seems to have sprung up between the young General and his gallant Aide; and the latter, who had by no means given up the project of a French liberating invasion of Ireland, always cherished the hope of seeing Hoche ap- pointed to the chief command. On the 10th of March, he writes to his wife : "This very day the Executive Directory has ratified the nomination of General Hoche, and I am, to all intents and pur- poses, Adjutant-General, destined for the Army of Sambre and Meuse." In the end of May, after a short stay w ith his family, who had arrived in France, we find him at Cologne, at the headquarters of that army. In the meantime, Mr. John Edward Lewins, already mentioned as an agent of the United Irishmen, had arrived obliged to inform the members of each society, " they had undertaken no light matter," and he was directed to ask every delegate present what were his views and his understanding of those of his society, and each individual was expected to reply, " a republican government and a separation from England." P ieces of Irish History Madden. All this was, of course, as well kuowu to the Gov- ernment as to the members; so that it cannot in candor be said, that the U. I. were treated as crim- inals for the mere fact of uniting — it was for uniting to destroy British domioioa m Ireland, and erect a republic in its place. in France, empowered to treat for another expedition, and to negotiate a loan. When Lewins arrived in Holland, then called the "Batavian Republic," one of the republics dependent upon France, and at war with Eogland, he found the Government very well disposed to essay this bold enterprise of a descent upon Ireland, and to risk their whole navy and army in the effort. An extract from Tone's journal will now af- ford the best insight into the state of this negotiation. While with General Hoche, at his Quartier General, at Friedberg, he writes, under date of June 12th, 1797 : — " This evening the General called me into the garden and told me he had some good news for me. He then asked, ' Did I know one Lewins?' I answered I did, perfectly well, and had a high opinion of his talents and patriotism. ' Well,' said he, ' he is at Neuwied, waiting to see you ; yon must set off to-morrow morning ; when you join him, you must go together to Treves, and wait for further orders.' The next morning I set ojf, and, on the 14th, in the evening, reached — June lith, ~Neuwied; where I found Lew- ins waiting for me. I cannot express the unspeakable satisfaction I felt at seeing him. I gave him a full account of all my labors, and of everything that had happened since I have been in France, and he informed me, in return, of everything of consequence re- lating to Ireland, and especially to my friends now iu jeopardy there. June 17th, Treves ; where we arrived on the 17th. What is most material is, that he is sent here by the Executive Committee of the United People of Ireland, to solicit, on their part, the assistance in troops, arms, and money, necessary to enable them to take the field, and assert their liberty; the organ- ization of the people is complete, and nothing is wanting but the point d'appui. His in- structions are to apply to France, Holland, and Spain. At Hamburgh, where he passed almost two months, he met a Seuor Nava, an officer of rank iu the Spanish navy, sent thither by the Prince of Peace, on some mission of consequence ; he opened himself to Nava, who wrote off, in consequence, to his court, and received an answer, general, it is true, but iu the highest degree favora- ble ; a circumstance which augurs well, is. m \ &\ HISTORY OF IRELAND. '//'#< ft letter. In consequence of this, I waited on the General, whom I found in his bed in the Court Imperiale, and received his orders to set off with Lewins without loss of time, and attend him at — June 27//;, the Hague; where we ar- rived accordingly, having traveled day and night. In the evening we went to the Com- edie, where we met the General in a sort of public incognito ; that is to say, he had combed the powder out of his hair, and was in a plain regimental frock. After the play, we followed him to his lodgings at the Lion d'or, where he gave us a full detail of what was preparing in Holland. lie began by telling us that the Dutch Governor-General Daendels, and Admiral Dewinter, were sin- cerely actuated by a desire to effectuate something striking to rescue their country from that state of oblivion and decadence into which it had fallen ; that by the most inde- fatigable exertions on their part, they had got together, at the Texel, sixteen sail of the line, and eight or ten frigates, all ready for sea, and in the highest condition; that they iutended to embark 15,000 men, the whole of their national troops, 3,000 stand of arms, 80 pieces of artillery, and money for their pay and subsistence for three months; that he had the best opinion of the sincerity of all parties, and of the courage and conduct of the General and Admiral, but that here was the difficulty : The French Government had demanded that at least 5,000 French troops, the elite of the army, should be embarked, instead of a like num- ber of Dutch, in which case, if the demand was acceded to, he would himself take the command of the united army, and set off for the Texel directly; but that the Dutch Government made great difficulties, alleging a variety of reasons, of which some were good; that they said the French troops would never submit to the discipline of the Dutch navy, and that, in that case, they could not pretend to enforce it on their own, without making unjust distinctions, and giv- ing a reasonable ground for jealousy and discontent to their army; 'but the fact is,' said Hoche, ' that the Committee, Daendels, and Dewinter, are anxious that the Batavian Republic should have the whole glory of the expedition, if it succeeds ; they feel that their country has been forgotten in Europe, and they are risking everything, even to their last stake : for, if this fails, they are ruined — in order to restore the national character. The demand of the French Gov- ernment is now before the Committee; if it is acceded to, I will go myself, and, at all events, I will present you both to tile Com- mittee; and we will probably then settle the matter definitively.' Both Lewins and I now found ourselves in a considerable diffi- culty. On the one side, it was an object of the greatest importance to have Iloche and his 5,000 grenadiers ; on the other, it was most unreasonable to propose anything which could hurt the feelings of the Dutch people, at a moment when they were making unexampled exertions in our favor, and risking, as Hoche himself said, their last ship and last shilling to emancipate us. 1 cursed and swore like a dragon ; it went to my very heart's blood and midriff to give up the General and our brave lads, 5,000 of whom I would prefer to any 10,000 ui Europe ; on the other hand, I could not but see that the Dutch were perfectly reasonable in the desire to have the whole reputation of an affair prepared and arranged entirely at their expense, and at such an expense. I did not know what to say. Lewins, how- ever, extricated himself and me with con- siderable address. After stating very well our difficulty, he asked Hoche whether he thought that Daendels would serve under his orders, and, if he refused, what effect that might have on the Batavian troops ? I will never forget the magnanimity of Hoche on this occasion. He said he be- lieved Daendels would not, and, therefore, that the next moruing he would withdraw the demand with regard to the French troops, and leave the Dutch Government at perfect liberty to act as they thought proper. When it is considered that Hoche has a de- vouring passion for fame ; that his great object, on which he has endeavored to es- tablish his reputation, is the destruction of the power of England ; that he has, for two years, in a great degree, devoted him- self to our business, and made the greatest exertions, including our memorable expedi- tion, to emancipate us; t. at he sees, at last, the business likely to be accomplished by an- r-, ,fei t<> have on board the necessary articles of rtchamge; besides, it was certainly the busi- ness of the Dutch fleet to avoid an action by all possible means. Genera] Daendels ob- served that Admiral Dewinter desired noth- ing better than to measure himself with the enemy, but we all, that is to say, General Hoche, Lewins, and myself, cried out against it, his only business being to bring his con- voy safe to its destination. A member of the committee, I believe it was Van Leyden, then asked us, supposing everything succeed- ed to our wish, what was the definite object of the Irish people. To which we replied categorically, that it was to throw off the yoke of England, break forever the connec- tion now existing with that country, and constitute ourselves a free and independent people. They all expressed their satisfaction at this reply, and Van Leyden observed that he had traveled through Ireland, and to judge from the luxury of the rich, and ex- treme misery of the poor, no country in Eu- rope had so crying a necessity for a revolu- tion. To which Lewins and I replied, as is most religiously the truth, that one great motive of our conduct in this business, was the conviction of the wretched state of onr peasantry, and the determination, if possi- ble, to amend it. The political object of our visit being now nearly ascertained, Halm, in the name of the Committee, observed that he hoped either Lewins or I would be of the expedition. To which Hoche replied, ' that I was^ready to go,' and he made the offer, on my part, in a manner peculiarly agree- able to my feelings. It was then fixed that I should set off for the army of Sambre et Meuse lor my trunk, and especially for my papers, and that Lewins should remain at the Hague, at the orders of the Committee, until my return, which might be seven or eight days. The meeting then broke up. We could not possibly desire to find greater attention to us, personally, or, which was far more important, greater zeal and anxiety to forward this expedition, in which the Dutch Government has thrown itself 'a corps per- du! They venture no less than the whole of their army and navy. As Hoche ex- pressed it, 'they are like a man stripped to is breeches, who has one shilling left, which he throws in the lottery, in the hope of being enabled to buy a coat." The mutations of history are sometimes strange. Here, in 171)7, we find the Dutch nation preparing for a grand national effort tii liberate and redeem the very same people whom a century before it had so powerfully contributed, witli the Prince of Orange and its "Dutch Blues," to hurl, prostrate under the feet of this very England which the Dutch Republic was now so eager to over- throw. It deserves to be noticed, injustice to the Irish agents, both in Holland and in France, that they never contemplated bringing an overwhelming force to Ireland, such as might subdue the country to hold it in a state of subjection to France, like the Ligurian, or Cisalpine Republic. The "Secret Committee," already so often cited, which had under examination Messrs. Em- met, MacNeven, ami O'Connor, admit this fact. " It appeared to the Committee, that the Executive of the Union, though de- sirous of obtaining assistance in men, arms, and money, yet were averse to a greater force being sent than might enable them to subvert the Government, and retain the power of the country in their own hands ; but that the French showed a decided disin- clination at all times to send any force to Ireland, except such as from its magnitude might not only give them the hopes of con- quering the kingdom, but of retaining it af- terwards as a French conquest, and of sub- jecting it to all the plunder and oppressions which other nations subdued or deceived by that nation had experienced. In Tone's journal, under date of 1st of July, oc- curs a passage showing how earnestly that true Irishman deprecated a French con- quest of his country : " I then took occa- sion to speak on a subject which had weighed very much upon rav mind, I mean i he degree of influence which the French might be disposed to arrogate to themselves in Ireland, and which I had great reason to fear would be greater than we might choose to allow them. In the Gazelle, of that day, there was a proclamation of Buonaparte's, addressed to the Government of Genoa, which I thought most grossly improper and indecent, as touching on the indispensable rights of the people. I read the most ob- noxious passages to Hoche, and observed, that if Buonaparte commanded in Ireland, k Ci ' * - - Uvf> .QfnitNgiUS,^ mm i 1 1 ami were to pnblish there so indiscreet a proclamation, it would have a most ruinous effect; that in Italy such dictation might pass, but never in Ireland, where we under- stood our rights too well to submit to it. Hoche answered me, ' I understand you, but you may be at, ease in that respect ; Buona- parte has been my scholar, but he shall never be my master.' " lli fore proceeding to narrate the fortunes of this second grand expedition bound for Ireland, it will be well to consider the views of those Irishmen who had studied the sub- ject, with regard to a point then extremely interesting, and which may again become interesting in the course of human events — namely, the most advisable or convenient harbors of Ireland for purposes of a landing hostile to England. This question is treated at length in a memoir, which was, during this same summer, intrusted to Dr. Mac- Is'even, and was by him carried over to France, in order that no such blunder might again be made as the approach to the deso- late mountainous coasts of Bear and Bantry. This memoir, singular to relate, fell into the hands of the British Government; but cer- tainly not through any treachery on the part of Dr MacNeven, who was a most ex- cellent man ; but O'Connor, Emmet and MacNeven tell us, in their memoirs, that on their examination before the Secret Com- mittee of the Lords the next year, they were astonished beyond measure to see the rery original of that memoir lying on the table — so perfect was the spy system of England, both at home and abroad, maintained by an enormous expenditure of "Secret Service money." The account which the Secret Committee has given us of that memoir is as follows : The next communication of consequence was in June, 1797, when an accredited person went from hence to communicate with the French Directory by their desire ; he went by Hamburg, where he saw the French Minister, who made some difficulty about granting a passport, ami demanded a me- morial, which was written by the accredited person, and given to the French Minister nnder the impression that the passport was not to be granted. The memoir was written in English, and 35 : contained the objects of his mission accord- ing to the instructions which he had received from the Executive. It began by stating, that the appearance of the French iu Ban- try Bay, had encouraged the least confident \s3 of the Irish in the hope of throwing off the yoke of England with the assistance of France ; that the event of that expedition had proved the facility of invading Ireland ; that in the event of a second expedition, if the object were to take Cork, Oj-ster Haven would be the best place of debarkation; that the person who had been before accred- ited was instructed to point out Oyster Haven as the best place of debarkation; and it stated the precautions which had been taken, by throwing up works at Bantry, Fermoy, and Mallow. It further stated, that the system of the United Irishmen had made a rapid progress in the County of Cork, and that Bandon was become a second Belfast; that the system had made great progress in other counties, and that, the people were now well inclined to assist the French; that 150,000 United Irishmen were organized and enroled in Ulster, a great part of them regimented, and one-third ready to march out of the province. It detailed the number of the King's forces in Ulster, and their stations ; recommended Lough- swilly as a place of debarkation in the North, and stated, that the people in the peninsula of Donegal would join the French. It stated, also, the strength of the garrison in Londonderry, and that one regiment which made a part of it was supposed to be disaffected. It mentioned Killybegs also as a good place of debarkation, and stated that the Counties of Tyrone, Fermanagh, and Monaghan, were amongst the best affected to the cause. In case of a landing at Killy- begs, it recommended a diversion in Sligo, and stated, that a force of 10,000 United Irishmen might be collected to fall upon Enniskillen, which commanded the pass of Lough Erne; that it was easy to enter the Bay of Galway, but very difficult to get out of it ; that the Counties of Louth, Armagh, Westmcath, King's County, and City of Dublin, were the best organized; that the Catholic priests had ceased to be alarmed at the calumnies which had been propa- gated of French irreligion, and were well XM ,*mm^o 3 J$M-&-- r* 3 ^ \ ; /* s? ^ a* Lrfi affected to the cause; that some of them had rendered great service in propagating with discreet zeal the system of the Union. It declared that the people of Ireland had a lively sense of gratitude to France for the part which she took, and also to Spain for the interest she took in the affairs of Ire- land. It engaged on the part of the Na- tional Directory, to reimburse the expenses of France in the expedition which had failed, and of another to be undertaken. The number of troops demanded was a force not exceeding 10,000, and not less than 5,000 men. It staled that a brigade of English artillery had been already sent over, and that a large body of troops would probably be sent if Ireland were attacked. A con- siderable quantity of artillery and ammuni- tion, with a large staff, and a body of engineers, and as many Irish officers as pos- sible, whose fidelity they were assured of were demanded as necessary to accompany the expedition. A recommendation was given to separate the Irish seamen who were prisoners of war from the British, suppos- ing they would be ready to join in an expe- dition to liberate their country. It further recommended a proclamation to be published by the French General, on his arrival there, that the French came as allies to deliver the country, not to conquer it; it also recommended to the Directory to make the independence of Ireland an indispensable condition of the treaty of peace then pend- ing; and stated, that a proceeding so au- thentic could not be disguised or misrepre- sented, and would very much enconrage the people of Ireland. It contained also an as- surance, that the Irish Militia would join the French if they landed in considerable force.* The difficulty in the way of the Batavian expedition being removed, by the generous self-abnegation of General lloche, (though his heart was set upon this service,) great * The topographical researches into the capabili- ties of harbors for invasion, must be much facilitated by tbe many excellent maps of Ireland published Within these last few years; some of which also afford a very perfect idea of the nature of the coun- try inland. At the period spoken of in the text, the best map of Ireland was, perhaps, that of Beaumont, a very useless one for strategical purposes. activity was exerted to make everything ready. Tone was to accompany the Dutch force, with the same rank which he held ia the French. What greatly increased the hopes and spirits of Tone and his allies, was the famous " Mutiny of the Nore," on board the English fleet, off the mouth of the Thames, which threatened for a few weeks to disable completely the naval power of Eng- land. The mutiny, however, was with some difficulty quelled by some sanguinary pun- ishments, and also by increasing the pay of the seamen; so that the British Channel Fleet was ready for service again, as the Dutch soon found out to their cost. On the 4th of July, we find Wolfe Tone at the Hague, ready to undertake his duties. Wo copy the following extracts from Tone's Journal : — • "July Mh. — Instantly on my arrival I wailed on General Daendels, whom I found on the point of setting out for the Texel. lie read the letter, and told me everything should be settled with regard to my rani?, and that I should receive two months' pay in advance, to equip me for the campaign. His reception of me was extremely friendly. I staid with Lcwins, at the Hague, three or four days, whilst my regimentals, &c, were making up, and at length, all being ready, we parted, he setting off for Paris, to join General lloche, and I for the Texel, to join General Daendels. "July 8 ■i-'- » ADVERSE WINDS. 275 A 'tiZ P V tained bis messenger, and sent back the answer by an officer of his own, with instruc- tions to bring back an exact account of the force of the enemy. "July 1 \th — This day our flag of truce is returned, and tiie English officer released. Duncan's fleet is of eleven sail of the liue, of which three are tliree-deekers.'' When both lleet and army were quite ready, by some fatality similar to that which delayed the Brest fleet before, the wind set in Steadily in an adverse direction, and so continued day after day, week after week.* During the whole of the two months of July and August the departure was postponed ; the supplies put on board the fleet were nearly exhausted ; and it was known that Admiral Duncan, who cruised outside, had been reinforced considerably. Changes of plan were proposed, and England or Scot- land was to be the object of the attempt, not Ireland. When General Daendels men- tioned these new projects to Wolfe Tone, the latter became seriously alarmed. He says iu his journal : " These are, most cer- tainly, very strong reasons, and, unfor- tunately, the wind gives them every hour fresh weight. I answered, that I did not see at present any solid objection to pro- pose to his system ; and that all I had to say, was, that, if the Batavian Republic sent but a corporal's guard to Ireland, I was ready to make one. So here is our ex- pedition in a hopeful way. It is most ter- rible. Twice, within nine months, has England been saved by the wind. It seems as if the very elements had conspired to per- petuate onr slavery, and protect the insolence and oppression of our tyrants What cau I do at this moment ? Nothing. The people of Ireland will now lose all spirit and coufl- * It is painful to sec how Tone's fiery spirit, already Irritated by disappointment, chafed at this cruel de- lay. July 17th, he Bays in his diary: "I hope the wind will not play us a trick. It is terribly foul this evening. Wane it. and damn it for me! lamina rage, which is truly astonishing, and can do nothing to hi Ip : ■ i % -elf. Well! well ! "July ls//t. The wind is as foul as possible this morning; it cannot he worse. Hell! Hell! Hell! Allah! Allah! Allah! I am in a most devouring ****** "July 19fl».— Wind foul still. Horrible ! Horrible ! Admiral Dewinter and l endeavor to paRa away the time, playing the Bate, which he does very well; we have some good duets, and that is some relief." deuce iu themselves and their chiefs, and God only knows whether, if we were even aide to effectuate a landing with 3,000 men, they might act with courage and decision." Iu the interval of waiting at the Texel, two additional agents of the Irish Union made their appearance in Holland. These were Tennant and Lowry; with instruction* to make sure, if possible, of some effectual aid, either from France or Holland. They put themselves at once iuto communication with Tone and Lewins. Nothing seemed immediately possible in that direction, at least until after this Dutch armament should be definitely given up ; and the Batavian authorities were very reluctant to give it up. General Daendels charged Tone with a mis- sion to the headquarters of the Army of the Saiubre and Mcuse, in order to confer with General Hoche ; and when he arrived, he found Hoche dying. He writes : — "September \Bth and ]9lh — My fears, with regard to General Hoche, were, but too well founded. He died this morning at four o'clock. His lungs seemed to me quite gone. This most unfortunate event has so confounded and distressed me that I know not what to think, nor what will be the con- sequences. Wrote to my wife, and to Geu- eral Daendels instantly." Tone evidently believed that Dewinter's Dutch fleet would never sail at all ; there fore, after the death of Hoche, he obtained leave to go to Paris, where he was to meet his wife and children. It is impossible to over-estimate the im- portance of the loss which the Irish cause in Fiance sustained iu the death of General Hoche. He had thoroughly made that cause his own, through his warm admiration for his Irish aide, as well as from his settled conviction, formed on military principles, that to strike England in Ireland is the surest and easiest way to destroy her power. It is now known that Napoleon Buonaparte, then the rival of Hoche, came afterwards to entertain strongly this opinion concerning Ireland, although, unfortunately, he was not then duly impressed with its importance. At St. Helena, he said of Hx-he, that "he was one of the first of French generals ;" and that if he had landed in Ireland he would have succeeded iu the great enter- Eg. ^3 'u-U>i ■ *m!f niSTORT OP IRELAND. ^ /V Mk\ '^£ 1 Ha! yS& M y-^i /¥ prise. And if lie had but livid another year, his influence might hare availed to di- rect upon the coast of Ireland that fine fleet nnd army which made the unavailing and disastrous invasion of Egypt. While Tone seems to have abandoned every hope of decisive action on the part of the Batavian Republic, a sudden resolution was taken at the Hague. In the beginning of October, the British Commander quitted bis station, mid went to Yarmouth Roads to refit. A peremptory order was dispatched by the Dutch Government to Admiral De- wiuter to put to sea. On the morning of the 11th of October, Duncan, having made great haste, came in view of the Dutch fleet near the coast of Holland, off a place called Camperdown. The two fleets were nearly equal in number of ships, but the English were much superior in weight of metal. Dewinter, seeing a battle inevitable, engaged with the utmost gallantry. After a bloody fight, which the Dutch sustained with an intrepidity approaching desperation, De- winter's ship struck, a sinking wreck. Ten Dutch ships (if the line and two frigates were captured ; Duncan became Lord Cam- perdown ; and there was an end of Holland as a great naval power. Thus (here was, and continued to be, a strange fatality dooming the hopes of Ire- land in foreign aid to a series of painful dis- appointments. There were, after this, two more expeditions on a small scale, both French, and both intended to aid the Irish insurrection. As for the "Army of Eng- land," which began to be formed in this very month of October, it is needless to en- ter into the detail of that operation, as it was really never intended for England at all, still less for Ireland. Napoleon Buonaparte was made Commander-in-Chief. While there was apparently busy preparation in the Channel ports of France, Wolfe Tone was in the highest spirits ; and had several inter- views with the conqueror Of Italy, who seemed bent at last upon the grand enterprise of going straight to London, promised Tone that he should be employed in the expedi- tion, and requested him to make out a list of the leading Irish refugees then in Paris, who "would all," he said "be undoubtedly employed." So passed the winter and the spring. Two passages from Tone's journal will tell all that, is needful to be told of the Annie d' Angle! cr re. : — "May 19//*. — I do not know what to think of our expedition. It is certain that the whole left wing of the Army of England is, at this moment, in full march back to the Rhine ; Buonaparte is, God knows where, and the clouds seem thickening more and more in Germany, where 1 have no doubt Pitt is moving heaven and hell to embroil matters, and divert the storm which was al- most ready to fall on his head. " Mai/ 21/7/ and 2f>//i. — It is certain that Bnonaparte is at Toulon, and embarked since the 14th; his speech, as I suspected, is not as it was given in the last journals. The genuine one I read to-day, and there are two sentences in it which puzzle lire completely. In the first, at the beginning of the address, he tells the troops that they form a wing of the Army of England ; in the second, towards the end, he reminds them that they have the glory of the French name to sustain in countries and seas the most distant. What docs that mean '! Is he going, after all, to India ? Will he make a short cut to London by way of Calcutta ? I begin foully to suspect it." In fact, the expedition to Egypt was al- ready at sea ; Tone remained attached to that portion of the "Army of England " which was still quartered in the North of France, and passed his time between Rouen and Havre; Lcwins continued to represent the United Irishmen at Paris with great tact and honesty. Hut in the meantime, Lord Castlereagh had already, by his "judicious measures," caused the premature explosion of the insurrection in Ireland; and tha island was now ringing with the combat of Oulart Hill and the storm of Enniscorthy. v» 'AW w w 'S3 rfc, % fV RHUS —SECRET SERVICE MONEY. 277 CHAPTER XXXII. 17 OS. Bpies— -Secret Service Money — Press Prosecution— "Remember Orr!"- Account of Orr — Curran's Bpeech Mis Description of Informers— Arts of Government— Sowing Dissensions -Forged Assas- sination List— •' Union" Declines— Addresses of ■■ Loyalty" Maynooth Grant Enlarged -Catholic Bishops "Loyal"— For olng a "Premature Explo- sion " — Camden and Carhampton — Outrages on the People, to Force Insurrection— -Testimony of Lord Hoira— Inquiry Demanded in Parliament Repulsed ami Defeated by Clare and Castlereagh— Insolence and Unlimited Power Of Ministers— General Aber- crombie Resigns Remarkable General Order — Pelhara Quits Ireland •Castlereagh's Secretary — The Hessians' Pree Quarters— The Ancient Britons — Proclamation of Martial Law — (Irattan'a Picture of the Timee— Horrible Atrocities In Wexford— Massacres — The Orangemen —Their Address of Loyalty — All these Outrages before any Insurrec- tion. During all the time of these negotiations in France, the British Government was most intimately acquainted with everything the United Irishmen were doing or contemplat- ing, by means of great multitudes of spies; many, or most of these spies being them- selves sworn members of the United Irish Society; whose business was not only to wateh and report, but also to urge on and promote the preparations for insurrection, and who were duly paid at the Castle out of the "Secret Service Money."* The sys- tem of not merely paying informers for in- formation, but hiring them beforehand t<> join illegal societies, and there recommend and urge forward the boldest and most ille- gal counsels, in order to betray their trusting confederates, is a system peculiar to the British Government in Ireland ; and not par- alleled in atrocity and baseness by anything * Dr. Madden has procured and published the ac- eounts of Hiis important branch of the public service for 1797-8. These Bpfes were of all grades of society, and their functions were va\y various. Some, like Reynolds ami Armstrong, men of education and position, were to associate with the leaders, and carry all their Becrets to the ('astir; others, like James O'Brien, were to foment treasons in public houses, aud swear away, at assizes, the lives of those who trusted them. The record is a very carious one; and It may be some satisfaction to us, that if our G iliy has I n always bought and sold for money, we can at least examine and check the accounts, bihI estimate with considerable accuracy the money valii'- ol a traitor, (or "loyal man'') according to Ins talents and opportunities. For seventy years post] it has eost the treasury heavily to purchase "loyal iinu" in Iiiland, from Reynolds down to Nagle. ) . m known to us in the functions of a French or Austrian police. Daring the whole year 171)7 this " battalion of testimony" was in a state of high organization and efficiency; and greatly aided in causing the insurrection to burst out at the very day and hour when the Castle wished for it. It would be an endless task to recount all the oppressions which in the latter part of this year goaded the people at last to seek a remedy in des- perate resistance ; but the case of Orr is too remarkable and notorious to be passed over. A prosecution was instituted against the Press newspaper in 17DK, for seditious libel on Lord Camden's government; contained in certain letters which appeared in that paper in the latter part of 1797. The subject matter of the libel in the Press, signed Marcus, (for the publication of which the printer was prosecuted by the Government,) was the refusal of Lord Camden to extend mercy to a person of the name of William Orr, of respectability, and remarkable for his popularity, who had been capitally con- victed at Carrickfergus of administering the oath of the United Irishmen's Society, and was the first person who had been so con- victed. Poems were written, sermons were preached ; after-dinner speeches, and after supper still stronger speeches, were made, of no ordinary vehemence, about the fate of Orr and the conduct of Lord Camden, which certainly, in the peculiar circumstances of this case, was bad, or rather stupidly base and odiously unjust. The scribes of the United Irishmen wrote up the memory of the man whom Camden (7f\bsL had allowed to be executed with a full ^ Y Pv>v knowledge of the foul means taken to obtain a conviction, officially conveyed to him by persons every way worthy of credit aud of undoubted loyalty. The evident object of the efforts to make this cry, "Remember Orr," stir up the peo- ple to rebellion, cannot be mistaken — that object was to single out an individual case of suffering in the cause of the Union, for the sympathy of the nation, and to turn that sympathy to the account of the cause. Orr's case presented to the people of Ireland, at that period, a few extraordinary features of iniquity and of injustice, lie was a noted, active, aud popular country member of the .i»ii«.i,.. / ■ '" -^'far 1 if society of United Irishmen, He was exe- cuted on account of the notoriety of Unit circumstance, not on account of the suf- ficiency of the evidence or the justice of the conviction that was obtained against him ; for the crown witness, Whcatly, immediate- ly after the trial, acknowledged that he had perjured himself ; and some of the jury came forward likewise, and admitted that they were drunk when they gave their verdict ; and these facts, duly deposed to and attest- ed, were laid before the viceroy, Lord Cam- den, by Sir John Macartney, the magistrate who had caused Orr to be arrested, and who, to llU honor be it told, when he found the practices that had been resorted to, used every effort, though fruitlessly, to move Lord Camden to save the prisoner. William Orr, of Ferranshane, in the Coun- ty of Antrim, was charged with administer- ing the United Irishman's oath, in his own house, to a soldier of the name of Whcatly. lie was the first person indicted under the act which made that offense a capital felony (36 (ieo. HI.). His father was a small farmer in comfortable circumstances, and the proprietor of a bleach green. James Hope, who was intimately acquainted with all the circumstances of the case, informed Dr. Mad- den, "that William Orr was not actually the person who administered the oath to the sol- dier. The person who administered the oath was William M'kcevcr, a delegate from the City of Derry to the Provincial Committee, who afterwards made his escape to Amer- ica." lu a letter of Miss M'Cracken, dated 21th of September, 1797, addressed to her brother, then in Ivilniaiuhain Jail, is found the following reference to the recent trial of Orr: " Orr's trial has clearly proved, that there is neither justice nor mercy to be ex- pected. Even the greatest aristocrats here join in lamenting his fate ; but his greatness of mind renders him an object of envy and of admiration rather than of com- passion. I am told that his wife is gone with a letter from Lady Londonderry to her brother on his behalf. . . . You will be surprised when I tell you that old Archibald Thompson, of Cusheudall, was foreman of I he jury, and it is thought will lose his senses if Mr. Orr's sentence is carried HISTORY OF IRELAND into execution, as he appears already quite distracted at the idea of a person being con- demned to die through his ignorance, as it seems he did not at all understand the busi- ness of a juryman. However, he held out from the forenoon till six o'clock in the morn- ing of the day following, though, it is said, he was beaten, and threatened with being wrecked, and not left a sixpence in the world, on his refusing to bring in a verdict of guilty. Neither would they let him taste of the sup- per and the drink which was sent to the rest, and. of. which they partook to such a beastly degree. It was not, therefore, much to be wondered at, that an infirm old man should not have sufficient resolution to hold out against such treatment. (Signed,) Mart M'Crackkn." Orr was defended by Curran and Samp- son. The judges before whom he was tried were Lord Yelverton and Judge Chamber- laine. The jury retired at six in the evening to consider tliclr verdict. They sat up, dellb- trating, all night, and returned into cofirt at six the following morning. The jury in- quired if they might find a qualified verdict as to the prisoner's guilt. The Judge di- rected them to give a special verdict on the general issue. They retired again, and re- turned shortly with a verdict of guilty, and a strong recommendation of the prisoner to mercy. Next day, Orr was brought up for judgment, when, after an unsuccessful mo- tion in arrest of judgment, chiefly on the the grounds of the drunkenness of the jury, which Judge Chamberlaine would not admit of being made " the foundation of any motion to the Court," Yelverton pro- nounced sentence of death, " in a voice scarcely articulate, and at the conclusion of his address burst into tears." Orr said, pointing to the jury, "That jury has con- victed me of being a felon. My own heart tells me that their conviction is a falsehood, and that I am not a felon. If they have found me guilty improperly, it is worse for them than for me. /can forgive them. I wish to say only one word more, and that is, to declare on this awful occasion, and in the presence of God, that the evidence against me was grossly perjured — grossly and wick- edly perjured ! " The witness, Whcatly, made an affidavit ^ ft )■) /^\- y^s m & ^ ^ Iftu .coiunui.i.o. • A ! . r^\ y ,, k f REMEMBER ORR I before a magistrate acknowledging bis hav- ing sworn falsely iigainst Orr. Two of the jury mode depositions, setting forth that they had been induced to give a verdictcon- trary to their opinion, when under the in- fluence of liqnor. Two others made state- ments that they had been menaced by the other juror-; with denunciations and the wrecking of their properties, if they did not comply with their wishes. James Orr, in the Press newspaper of die 28th of October, 1797, published a state- ment respecting his interference, with a view of saving his brother's life, to the fol- lowing effect : " He, .lames Orr, had been applied to by many gentlemen to get his brother William to make a confession of his guilt, as a condition on which they would use their interest to have his life spared. The high sheriff, Mr. Skeffington, and the sovereign of Belfast, the Rev. Mr. Bristowe, were among the number — the former under- taking to get the Grand Jury to sign a memorial in his favor. James Orr imme- diately went to his brother, anil the latter indignantly refused to make any such con- fession, for ' he had not been guilty of the crime he was charged with.' James Orr not being able to induce him to sign it, returned to Belfast and wrote out a confession, simi- lar in terms to that required by Skeffington and Bristowe, and forged his brother's name. The forged document was then turned to the account it was required for. A respite had been granted ; but the weakness of the In-other was made instrumental to the death of the prisoner. The shaken verdict of the drunken jury, of the perjured witness, was not suffered to preserve the prisoner. The forged testimony of his guilt was brought against him. The promises under which that document was obtained were forgotten, and thus ' a surreptitious declaration,' swindled from the fears of an afflicted family, was made the instrument to intercept the stream of mercy, and counteract the report of the Judge (one of the Judges, namely, Yel- verton,) who tried him." Orr was exe- cuted outside of t'arrick Fergus, on the 14th of October, I7H7, in bis thirty-first year, solemnly protesting his innocence of the crime laid to his charge. The act of James Orr might have led the executive into error ; but William Orr wrote a letter to Lord Camden, dated the 10th of October, plainly informing his lordship of the forgery committed by his brother, and that the confession imputed to him " was base and false ;" but stating, if mercy was extended to him, " he should not fail to en- tertain the most dutiful sense of gratitude for such an act of justice as well as mercy." On the day of the execution, the great body of the inhabitants of Carrickfergus quitted the town, to avoid witnessing the fate of Orr. A person who visited Orr previously to his trial, speaks of his personal appearance and address as highly prepossessing. His ap- parel was new and fashionable — there was a remarkable neatness in his attire. The only thing approaching the foppery of patriotism was a narrow piece of green ribbon round his neck. He was six feet two inches in height, particularly well made — in fact, his person was a model of symmetry, strength, and gracefulness. He wore his hair short and well powdered. The expression of his countenance was frank and manly. He pos- sessed a sound understanding, strong affec- tions, and a kindly disposition. In speaking of the state of the country to his visitor, who remarked that the Government was disposed to act in a conciliatory spirit towards the country, he said: "No, no; you may depend upon it that there is some system laid down, which has for its object murder and devastation." lie added, re- specting the treatment of the Dissenters as well as the Catholics, "Irishmen of every denomination must now stand or fall to- gether." Thus a variety of depositions establishing the drunkenness of the jury and the perjury of Wheat ly were laid before the Lord- Lieutenant. One deposition was of the Rev. George Macartney, a magistrate of the County of Antrim, respecting Wheatly's being brought forward by Mr. Kemmis, and on his (Wheatly's) coming into court, re- lating to Mr. Macartney his having seen a Dissenting clergyman, of the name of Eder, whom be had known elsewhere, and was sure he was brought there to invalidate his testi- mony. Another deposition was that of the clergyman referred to, stating that he had mi m accompanied a brother clergyman, the Rev. A. Montgomery, to visit a sick soldier, ap- parently deranged, named Wheatly, a Scotchman, who had attempted to commit suicide ; that he confessed to Mrs. Ilueys, in whose house lie then was, that he was in Colonel Durham's regiment, and had commit- ted a murder, which weighed heavily upon his mind, and that he had been instigated to give false evidence against William Orr, of which crime he sincerely repented. A simi- lar deposition, before Lord O'Ncil, was made by the Rev. Mr. Montgomery. Two of the jury made depositions respecting their drunkenness. Two others made statements of the menaces t hat had been used by the other jurors. But all were of no avail. Lord Camden was deaf to all the represent- ations made to him. All the waters of the ocean will not wash away the stain his ob- duracy on this occasion has left on his character. Better fifty thousand times for his fame it were, if he had never seen Ire- land. The fate of Orr lies heavy on the memory of Lord Camden. The friends of Earl Camden in vain seek to cast the responsibility of this act on his subordinates in the Irish Government. They say he was a passive instrument in the hands of others. The prerogative of mercy, how- ever, was given to" him, and not to them. On the 26th of October, 1797, a letter ad- dressed to Earl Camden appeared in the Press, signed Marcus, ably and eloquently written, but unquestionably libellous, com- menting on the conduct of his lordship in this case. Marcus used these words in reference to it: "The death of Mr. Orr, the nation has pronounced one of the most sanguinary and savage acts that has dis- graced the laws. Let not the nation be told that you are a passive instrument in the hands of others. If passive you be, then is your office a shadow indeed. If an .active instrument, as you ought to be, you did not perform the duty which the laws re- quired of you. You did not exercise the prerogative of mercy — that mercy which the law entrusted to you for the safety of the subject. Innocent, it appears, he was. His blood has beeu shed, and the precedent is awful. . . . Feasting in your castle, in the midst of your myrmidons and bishops, you have little concerned yourself about the expelled and miserable cottager, whose dwelling at the moment of your mirth was in flames, his wife or his daughter suffer- ing violence at the hands of some com- missioned ravager, his son agonizing on the bayonet, and his helpless infants crying iu vain for mercy. These are lamentations that disturb not the hour of carousal or in- toxicated counsels. The constitution has reeled to its centre — -Justice herself is not only blind, but drunk, and deaf, like Festus, to the words of soberness and truth. " Let the awful execution of Mr. Orr be a lesson to all unthinking jurors, and let them cease to flatter themselves, that any interest, recommendation of theirs and of the presiding judge, can stop the course of carnage which sanguinary, and I do not fear to say, unconstitutional, laws have or- dered to be loosed. Let them remember that, like Macbeth, the servants of the Crown have waded so far in blood, that they find it easier to go on than to go bacjs." Finnerty was found guilty, and sentenced to be imprisoned for two years, to pay a fine of £20, and to give security for future good behavior for seven years. Mr. Curran's speech in defence of this printer, Finnerty, is a model of bold, impassioned, and indignant pleading, which has, perhaps, never been matched since in a court of justice. One passage of this great speech rises above the immediate case of the orator's client, and gives a bold and true picture of the policy of the Government : " The learned counsel has asserted that the paper which he prose- cutes (the Press) is only part of a system formed to misrepresent the state of Ireland and the conduct of its Government. Do you not therefore discover that his object is to procure a verdict to sanction the Parlia- ments of both countries iu refusing all in- quiry into your grievances? Let me ask you, then, are you prepared to say, upon your oaths, that those measures of coercion which are daily practised are absolutely necessary, and ought to be continued ? It is not upon Finnerty you are sitting in judg- ment ; but you are sitting in judgment upon the lives and liberties of the inhabitants of more than half of Ireland. You are to say that it is a foul proceeding to condemn the a ^ ! © rwro-^T^; v- A ' . gg%^ ; #M ^g\j7)i^g^S5 \&l > ^i m I Government of Ireland ; that it is a foul act, founded in foul motives, and originating in falsehood ami sedition ; that it is an attack upon a government under which the people ore prosperous and happy ; that justice is here administered with mercy ; that the statements made in Great Britain are false — are the effusions of party and of discontent ; that all is mildness and tranquillity ; that there are no burnings, no transportations ; that you never travel by the light of con- Qagrations ; that the jails are not crowded month after month, from which prisoners are taken out, not for trial, but for embark- ation ! These are the questions upon which, I say, you must virtually decide. . . I tell you, therefore, gentlemen of the jury, it is not with respect to Mr. Orr or Mr. Fin- nerty that your verdict is now sought ; you are called upon, on your oaths, to say that the Government is wise and merciful ; the people prosperous and happy ; that military law ought to be continued ; that the Consti- tution could not with safety be restored to Ireland ; and that the statements of a con- trary import by your advocates in either country are libellous and false. I tell you these are the questions ; and I ask you if yon can have the front to give the expected answer in the face of a community who know the country as well as you do. Let me ask you how you could reconcile with such a verdict the jails, the tenders, the gibbets, the conflagrations, the murders, the proclamations that we hear of every day in the streets, and see every day in the coun- try'! - What are the processions of the learned counsel himself, circuit after circuit? Merciful God ! what is the state of Ireland, and where shall you find the wretched in- habitant of this land? You may find him, perhaps, in jail, the only place of security, I had almost said of ordinary habitation 1 If you do not find him there, you may see him flying with his family from the flames of his own dwelling — lighted to his dungeon by the conflagration of his hovel ; or you may find his bones bleaching on the green fields of his country ; or you may find him tossing on the surface of the ocean, and mingling his groans with those tempests, l savage than his persecutors, that drift him to a rcturuless distance from his family and his sentence." When Mr. Curran came to speak of that part of the publication under trial, which stated that informers were brought forward by hopes of remuneration — " Is that," he said, " a foul assertion ? Or will you, upon your oaths, say to the sister country that there are no such abominable instrument: of destruction as informers used in the state prosecutions of Ireland ? Let me honest!} ask you, what do you feel, when in my hear ing — when in the face of this audience — yoc are asked to give a verdict that every man of us, and every man of you, know, by the testimony of your own eyes, to be utterly and absolutely false ? I speak not now of the public, proclamation for informers, with a promise of secresy and extravagant reward. I speak not of those unfortunate wretches who have becu so often transferred from tho table to the dock, and from the dock to the pillory. I speak of what your own eyes have seen, day after day, during the pro- gress of this commission, while you attended this court— the number of horrid miscreants who acknowledged, upen their oaths, that they had come from the seat of Govern- ment — from the very chambers of the Castle, (where they had been worked upon by the fear of death and hope of compensation to give evidence against their fellows,) that the mild, the wholesome, and the merciful councils of this Government arc holden over those catacombs of living death, where the wretch, that is buried a man, lies till his heart has time to fester and dissolve, and is then dug up a witness. Is this a picture created by a hag-ridden fancy, or is it a fact ? Have you not seen him, after his resurrection from that tomb, make his ap- pearance upon your table, the image of life and death, and supreme arbiter of both ? Have you not marked, when he entered, how the stormy wave of the multitude re- tired at his approach ? Have you not seen how the human heart, bowed to the awful supremacy of his power in the undissembled homage of deferential horror ? How his glance, like the lightning of heaven, seemed to rive the body of the accused, and mark it for the grave, while his voice warned the devoted wretch of woe and death — a death fc "tlid .riiuHHM/ to' ■&£ 282 HISTORY OF IRELAND. A w H ^ fm '4 which no innocence can escape, no art elude, no force resist, no antidote prevent 1 There was an antidote — a juror's oath ; but even that adamantine chain, which bound the in- tegrity of man to the throne of eternal jus- tice, is solved and molten in the breath which issues from the mouth of the informer. Conscience swings from her moorings ; the appalled and affrighted juror speaks what his soul abhors, and consults his own safety in the surrender of the victim — Et quae sibi quisqno timebat, Unius in uiiseri cxitium convcrsa tulcre. Informers are worshipped in the temple of justice, even as the Devil lias been wor- shipped by pagans and savages— even so in this wicked country is the informer an ob- ject of judicial idolatry — even so is he soothed by the music of human groans — even so is he placated and incensed by the fumes and by the blood of human sacrifices." This extraordinary speech of Mr. Curran is not given here as an example of rhetoric. In fact, there is no rhetoric in it ; his de- scription is but a faint and pale image of the horrible truth; and the informer, O'Brien, was only one of that immense " battalion of testimony/' which was now regularly drilled and instructed at the Castle of Dublin. Through these foul means the administra- tion was kept, fully informed of the designs, the force and the personnel of the United Irishmen ; it was also enabled, by Che same means, to make considerable progress in the grand English policy of sowing dissensions and bad feeling between Catholics and Dis- seuters. On one side were the honest, tole- rant and self-sacrificing leaders of the United Irish Society endeavoring to heal the ani- mosities of ages, to make the people know and trust one another in order to unite for the common good of their unhappy country. On the other was Air. Pitt, ably seconded by Lord Clare and by Castlereagh, and their dreadful army of spies and secret emis- saries, carrying all over the country and scattering broadcast mysterious rumors of intended massacres and assassinations — in- dustriously renewing all the old stories of the " horrors of the Inquisition," (which, iu- deed, were never so horrible as the horrors of the penal laws.) A paper was even care- fully circulated purporting to contain a printed list of persons marked out for assas- sination. Lord Moira, in his place in the English House of Lords, produced this docu- ment in debate, describing thus : " He held now in his hand a paper printed, the con- tents of which were too shocking to read ; its avowed object was to point out innocent men, by name, to the poniard of assassins. It loaded His Majesty with the most op- probrious epithets, and reviled the English nation with every term of contumely, affirm- ing it to be the duty of every Irishman to wrest from the hands of English ruffians the property which these English ruffians had wrested from their ancestors." That this pretended list was the production of some of the Castle emissaries, there can be no doubt. The Lord Chancellor of Eng- land declared that he believed the list to be a genuine programme of the " horrid con- spiracy " then hatching in Ireland. Lord Moira said, in reply : "As to the paper to which the noble and learned lord, and tkc noble Secretary had alluded, concerning the names of persons who were marked out for future assassination, he confessed, he suspect- ed it to be an invention to justify or to sup- port the measures which had been adopted in Ireland, and of which he had already com- plained. He suspected this the more, be- cause no printer of a newspaper could have had it from any authentic source, for no man concerned in a conspiracy for assassination would communicate the intention of himself and colleagues. He wished to speak of as- sassins as he felt, with the greatest indigna- tion and abhorrence ; but he must also add, that he believed that they originated in Ireland from private malice and revenge, ami would do so from any party that hap- pened to be predominant, while the present dreadful system continued. It was not by a general system of terror that it was to be prevented.'' It is easy to conceive, however, what fearful use could be made of all these bold forgeries and wild rumors in the hands of the Castle agents, to exasperate the Protes- tants, create " alarm," and stop the good work of Union. From one cause or another, it is evident, that towards the close of the year 1197, the Union rather abated than ! ft K &j ,ft ' j_ > r f-\'~\ & Sjgf . (ftZ? m &■■ 9 V // -S3? CATHOLIC BISHOPS LOYAL. increased. One unequivocal symptom of its decline was the renovation of dissension between the Dissenters and the Catholics in the North. Sir Richard Musgrave, from an anonymous acquaintance, reports, that mosl of the Presbyterians separated from the Papists in the year 1797 ; some from " principle, some because they doubted the sincerity of persons in that order ; and others, foreseeing that the plot must fail anil cud in their destruction, took advantage of the proclamation of the 17th of May, and renounced their associates. Numbers with- drew because they doubted of success with- out foreign assistance. The Presbyterians of the Counties of Down and Antrim, where they are very numerous, and where they are warmly attached to the Union from pure republican principles, thought they could succeed without the Papists." Mr. Plowden bears nearly the same testi- mony : " Certain it is," says he "that the Northern Unionists generally held back from this time ; the Protestants of Ulster were originally Scotch, and still retain much of that guarded policy, which so peculiarly characterizes the inhabitants of North Britain. Some barbarous murders in differ- ent parts of the kingdom were committed ; but they do not appear to have been perpe- trated by members of the Union, or persons in any manner connected with them. By the report of the Secret Committee, it ap- pears, that from the summer of 1797 the disaffected entertained no serious intention of hazarding an effort independent of foreign assistance, until the middle of March. Their policy was to risk nothing so long as their party was gaining strength. Whatever were the immediate cause of the Union's falling off, we find that from the autumn of 1797 the Roman Catholics, Crst in the North, and afterwards successively through- out the kingdom, published addresses and re olutions expressive of their horror of the principles of the United Irishmen, and pledging themselves to be loyal and zealous in the defence and support of the King and Constitution. The northern addresses ad- mitted the fact, and lamented that many of the Catholic body had been seduced into the Union, and they deprecated the attempts which were made to create dissensiou amongst persons of different religions. This example was followed by the generality of the Dissenters. If addresses were tests of loyalty, His Majesty had not more loya subjects throughout the whole extent of the British Empire, than the Irish in the be- ginning of 1798. Scarcely a parish through- out the kingdom, scarcely a dissenting meeting-house, from which an address of loyalty was not issued, signed by the priest or minister of the flock." The Catholic addresses, of which Mr. Plowden speaks, were chiefly procured by the influence of the bishops and higher cler- gy, who were much relied upon at this time, as well as frequently since, to keep the high- er classes of Catholics " loyal " to the Eng- lish Government. The Catholic College of Maynooth had been incorporated by law in June, 1795, and had been opened in the fol- lowing October for students. Thus for the first .time Catholic young men could be edu- cated for the priesthood in their own coun- try without incurring the penalty of death or transportation. The Parliamentary grant, which had amounted to £8,000, was increased to £10,000 in February, 1798, on motion of Mr. Secretary Pelham, who under- took, in this debate, to reply to the furious and foaming declamation of Dr Duigenan. This was a great step in the way of concili- ation ; and it is further certain that mem- bers of the Government deceived the Catho- lic bishops by implied promises to complete the emancipation at an early day. Indeed, Dr. Hussey, Bishop of Waterford, in a pas- toral of his this year, assures his flock very positively : " The Popery laws are upon the eve of being extinguished forever ; and may no wicked hand ever again attempt to divide this land, by making religious distinctions a mask to divide, to disturb, to oppress it." Thus the bishops and most of the clergy were secured to the English party in the approaching struggle — and by the same treacherous artifice by which they were made generally favorable to the Legislative "Union" two years later ; namely, by hold- ing out the hope of speedy emancipation. These hopes were disappointed ; the pro- mises were broken, and the Catholics suffered under all their disabilities for thirty years louder. - <$ rJSA, y !lt> tf % PI Ss 2TO 284 HISTORY OF IRELAND. The strength of the United Irish Society then, as we have seen, was in the North in a great measure broken up. In the other provinces it was, however, growing and strengthening ; but without occasioning either disorder or crime ; rather, indeed, preventing all evil of that description. This state of things began to surprise and alarm Mr. Pitt, who found the " conspiracy " be- coming rather too extensive and dangerous for his purposes ; for a moment he felt he might possibly get beyond his depth, and he conceived the necessity of forcing a prema- ture explosion, by which he might excite sufficient horror throughout the country to serve his purpose, and be able to suppress the conspiracy iu the bud, which might be beyond his power should it arrive at its ma- turity. Individually, Lord Camden was an excel- lent man, and, in ordinary times, would have been an acquisition to the country, but he was made a cruel instrument in the hands of Mr. Pitt, and seemed to have no will of his own ; so that, although we are assured by Sir Jonah Barring ton that he was per- sonally and privately a most amiable person, his name will always be pronounced with horror and execration by Irishmen, as the official head of the Irish Government in these dreadful years of the reign of terror. On a review of the state of Ireland at that period, it must be obvious that the de- sign of Mr. Pitt to effect some mysterious measure in Ireland was now, through the unaccountable conduct of the Irish Govern- ment, beginning to develope itself. The seeds of insurrection, which had manifested themselves in Scotland and in England, were, by the vigor and promptitude of the British Government, rapidly crushed ; and, by the reports of Parliament, Lord Melville had obtained and published prints of the different pikes manufactured iu Scotland, long before that weapon had been manufac- tured by the Irish peasantry. But in Ire- land, though it appeared, from public docu- ments, that Government had full and accu- rate information of the Irish United Socie- ties, and that their leaders and chiefs were well known to the British Ministry, at the same period, and by the same means that England and Scotland were kept tranquil, so niitrht have been Ireland. Mr. Pitt, however, found he had tempo- rized to the extremity of prudence ; the dis- affected had not yet appeared as a collected army, but, in his opinion nevertheless, prompt and decisive measures became abso- lutely indispensable. The Earl of Carhamp- ton, Commander-in-Chief in Ireland, first expressed his dissatisfaction at Mr. Pitt's inexplicable proceedings. His Lordship had but little military experience, but he was a man of courage and decision, ardent and obstinate ; he determined, right or wrong, to annihilate the conspiracy. Without the consent of the Irish Government he had commanded the troops that, on all symptoms of insurrectionary movements, they should act without waiting for the presence of any civil power. Martial law had not then been proclaimed. He went, therefore, a length which could not possibly be supported ; his orders were countermanded by the Lord Lieutenant ; but he refused to obey the Viceroy, under color that he had no rank in the army. Lord Carhanfpton found that the troops in the garrison of Dublin were indoctrinated by the United Irishmen; he, therefore, withdrew them, and formed two distinct camps on the south and north, some miles from the capital, and thereby, as he conceived, prevented all intercourse of the army with the disaffected of the metropolis. Both measures were dis- approved of by the Lord-Lieutenant, whom Lord Carhampton again refused to obey. The King's sign manual was at length procured, ordering him to break up his camps and bring back the garrison ; this he obeyed, and marched the troops into Dublin barracks. " He then resigned his command, and publicly declared that some deep and insidious scheme of the Minister was in agi- tation ; for, instead of suppressing, the Irish Government was obviously disposed to ex- cite an insurrection. " Mr. Pitt counted on the expertness of the Irish Government to effect a premature explosion. Free quarters were now ordered, to irritate the Irish population ; slow tortures were inflicted under the pretence of forcing confessions ; the people were goaded and driven to madness." * General Abercrombie, who succeeded as ft K in I n •£b ■S?3 ,, «A, & y t 'r-^'-s "t«* ..C'iU.NthSw. ^M -k'M ipp*5 OUTRAGES ON THE PEOPLE TO FORCE INSURRECTION. 285 Commander-in-Chief, was not permitted to abate these enormities, anil therefore re- signed with disgust ; but not before delib- erately stating, in general orders, that the army placed under his command, from their state of disorganization, would soon be much more formidable to their friends than to their enemies ; and that he would not countenance or admit free quarters. About this time occurred an episode in the history of the United Irishmen — the ar- rest and trial of Arthur O'Connor, Coigley, and others, in England. From the time O'Connor became a mem- ber of the Leinster Directory of the society of the United Irishmen, he was the foremost leader in their affairs. When the United Irishmen solicited the intervention of Prance in 1796, O'Connor negotiated the treaty with the agent of the French Directory. He and Lord Edward had an interview sub- sequently with Hoche, and arranged the place of landing, and consequent military operations. i In the early part of 1197 O'Connor had been arrested and committed to the Tower, " vehemently suspected of sundry treasous," rather than charged with any specific crime against the state. After an imprisonment of six mouths he was liberated. In Febru- ary, 1798, he came to England, with an in- tention, as it afterwards appeared, of pro- ceeding to Fiance, in conjunction with John Binns, member of the London Correspond- ing Society, James Coigley, an Irish priest, and a person of the name of Allen. In the latter end of February they went to Mar- gate, intending to hire a small vessel to con- vey them to France. Some circumstances iu their conduct, however, exciting suspicion, they were all apprehended, and first com- mitted prisoners to the Tower, and after- wards to Maidstone jail. At Maidstone they were tried by a special commission on the 21st and 22d of May, and all of them acquitted, except Coigley, on whom had been found a paper, purporting to be an address from " the Secret Committee of Eng- land to the Executive Directory of France." Coigley was condemned and executed ; and Mr. O'Connor and Binns, after their ac- quittal, were detained on another charge of treason preferred against them. Iu the meantime, and in consequence of the motion of Mr. O'Donnel, an act had passed the Irish Parliament, authorizing grand juries to present any newspaper containing sedi- tious or libellous matter as a nuisance ; and also authorizing the magistrates, on such presentation, to suppress the paper, and seize and destroy the printing materials, &c. The paper called The Press was, therefore, suppressed, and some of its principal sup porters taken into custody ; but no discovery of importance resulted from this transac- tion. During the first three months of 1798 the outrages committed by the magistrates, with the aid of the troops and yeomanry, upon the simple and defenceless people of Leins- ter, became fearful and notorious. But, painful as must be the details of a slow and uniform agony of a whole people, there can be no history of Ireland in which sucli de- tails do not hold a conspicuous place. As a perfectly authentic historical document, the speech of the Earl of Moira, in the Brit- ish House of Peers, (uot one statement of which has ever been contradicted,) may be taken as a sufficient picture of the state of the country, even as early as the November of 1797. Here follows an extract: "My lords, I have seen in Ireland the most ab- surd, as well as the most disgusting tyranny, that any nation ever groaned under. I have been myself a witness of it in many instances ; I have seen it practiced and unchecked ; and the effects that have resulted from it have been such, as I have stated to your lord- ships. I have said that, if such a tyranny be persevered in, the consequence must iuevi- tably be the deepest and most universal dis- content, and even hatred to the English name. I have seen in that country a marked distinction made between the English and Irish. I have seen troops that have been sent full of this prejudice — that every inhab- itant in that kingdom is a rebel to the Brit- ish Government. I have seen the most wanton insults practiced upon men of all ranks and conditions. I have seen the most grievous oppressions exercised, in conse- quence of a presumption that the person who was the unfortunate object of such op- pression was iu hostility to the Government ; and yet that has been done iu a part of the •a !*■"! n. ,tmMi i . HISTORY OF IRELAND. y country as quiet and as free from disturb- ance as the city of London. Who states these things, my lords, should, I know, be prepared with p roofs. I am prepared with them. Many of the circumstances I know of my own knowledge ; others I have re- ceived from such channels as will not permit me to hesitate one moment in giving credit to them. " His lordship then observed that, from education and early habits, the air f no was ever considered by Britons as a badge of slavery and oppression. It then was prac- ticed in Ireland with brutal rigor. He had known an instance where a master of a house had in vain pleaded to be allowed the use of a candle to enable the mother to ad- minister relief to her daughter struggling in convulsive (its. In former times, it had been the custom for Englishmen to hold the infa- mous proceedings of the inquisition in detes- tation. One of the greatest horrors with which it was attended was that the person, ignorant of the crime laid to his charge, or of his accuser, was torn from his family, im- mured in a prison, and in the most cruel un- certainty as to the period of his confinement, or the fate which awaited him. To this in- justice, abhorred by Protestants in the practice of the inquisiton, were the people of Ireland exposed. All confidence, all se- curity were taken away. In alluding to the inquisition he had omitted to mention one of its characteristic features. If the sup- posed culprit refused to acknowledge the crime with which he was charged he was put to the rack, to extort confession of whatever crime was alleged against him by the pressure of torture. The same proceed- ings had been introduced in Ireland. When a man was taken up on suspicion he was put to the torture ; nay, if he were merely ac- cused of concealing the guilt of another. The rack, indeed, was not at hand ; but the punishment of picqueting was in practice, which had beeu for some years abolished, as too inhuman even in the dragoon service. He had known a man, in order to extort confession of a supposed crime, or of that of some of his neighbors, picqueted till he actu- ally fainted — picqueted a secoud time till he fainted again, and, as soon as he came to himself, picqueted a third time till he once more fainted ; and all upon mere suspicion I Nor was this the only species of torture. Men had beeu taken and hung up till they were half dead, and then threatened with a repetition of the cruel treatment unless they made confession of the imputed guilt. These were not particular acts of cruelty, exercised by men abusing the power committed to them, but they formed a part of our system. They were notorious, and no person could say who would be the next victim of this oppression and cruelty, which he saw others endure. This, however, was not all ; their lordships, no doubt, would recollect the fa- mous proclamation issued by a military com- mander in Ireland, requiring the people to give up their arms. It never was denied that this proclamation was illegal, though defended on some supposed necessity ; but it was not surprising that some reluctance had been shown to comply with it by men who conceived the Constitution gave them a right to keep arms in their houses for their own defence ; and they could not but feel indignation in being called upon to give up their right. In the execution of the order the greatest cruelties had been committed. If any one was suspected to have concealed weapons of defence his house, his furniture, and all his property was burnt ; but this was not all. If it were supposed that any district had not surrendered all the arras which it contained, a party was sent out to collect the number at which it was rated ; and, in the execution of this order, thirty houses were sometimes burnt down in a sin- gle night. Officers took upon themselves to decide discretionally the quantity of arms ; and upon their opinions these fatal conse- quences followed. Many such cases might be enumerated; but, from prudential mo- tives, he wished to draw a veil over more aggravated facts which he could have stated, and which he was willing to attest before the Privy Council, or at their lordships' bar. These facts were well known in Ireland, but they could not be made public through the channel of the newspapers, for fear of that summary mode of punishment which had been practiced towards the Northern Star, when a party of troops in open day, and in a town where the General's headquarters were, went and destroyed all the offices and *\ OS I . ?*> i a •> ;":"( r 's>'!> A L \fi\ 3* -' £r« fr*^ <■ ■A it V [v_ ( ^t--' T^^T^T / ,-' ■/TV : IS tSFI INQUIRY DEMANDED IN PARLIAMENT. 287 property belonging to that paper. It was llais authenticated accounts were sup- pressed." The same system of horrors had proceed- ed, with aggravations of brutality, from No- vember, \~'J1 ; ami it was in vain that any patriotic Irishman, who still attended Par- liament, attempted, from time to time, to procure some kind of inquiry into the neces- sity for all this. Both Houses of Parlia- ment were entirely in the hands of the Cas- tle ; and Clare and Castlereagh bore down nil such efforts by the most insolent audacity of assertion. On the 5th of March, Sir Lawrence Par- sons, after a long and interesting speech, made a motion that a committee should be appointed to inquire into the state of the country, and to suggest such measures as were likely to conciliate the popular mind. Lord Caultield, in a maiden speech of much ability, seconded the motion. Lord Castle- reagh, with whom the majority of the House went, vehemently opposed it. He entered into a history of the country for some years back, and concluded from the events that the United Irishmen were not men who would be contented or conciliated by any measures of concession short of a separation from England, aud fraternity with the French Republic ; that they were in open rebellion, aud, therefore, only to be met by force. He reasoned also to prove that the coercive measures of the Government had been the consequences, nut the causes, of the discontents ; that the excesses charged on the soldiery were naturally to be expected from the state of tilings, though he did not cease to lament them ; and he also contend- ed that where excesses had taken place the laws were open, and able to punish them. This last assertion of his lordship, about the law, was well known by every man who heard him to be simply false ; but not more false than his assertion that military out- rages were the consequences, not the cause, of the existing troubles. But being sure of an immense majority at his back, lie could gny what he pleased. The resolution offered by Sir Lawrence Parsons was negatived by an immense majority. It was the same case in the House of Lords. Lord Moira, after vainly trying to make an impression on the peers of England, came over to make a last effort with those of Ireland. He made a speech very similar to that which he had made at Westminster, and reciting the same facts ; ending with a motion for an address to the Viceroy. Lord Clare, the Chancellor, replied in the same tone of cool and dashing insolence which had now become the settled aud pre- concerted style of debate with the partisans of the Castle. The Lord-Chancellor, after paying a just compliment to the character of the noble earl, attributed to his residence out of his own country his iguorance of it. "He as- serted, that the system of Government had been a system of conciliation ; that in no place had the experiment been so fairly tried as in Ireland ; in none had it so completely failed." Lord Moira's motion was also negatived, of course ; and it was evident that, so far as Parliament was concerned, the people were to be delivered over without reprieve to the picketinga of the soldiery aud the knotted scourges of the yeoman. Some degree of color began at last to be given to the constant statements of Lord Castlereagh — that the country was in open rebellion ; for in the months of February and March, there were several tumul- tuous assemblages at night ; their object was to search for arms ; and assuredly no people ever stood in more deadly need of arms than the Irish people theu did. On one day in March, a party of mounted men even entered the little town of Cahir, County of Tipperary, in the open day, and took away all the arms they could find there. They appear to have gone as they came, without committing any violence or outrage.* Still there was not that general insurrectionary movement for which Mr. Pitt was waiting; and it was now, therefore, resolved to give another turn to the screw * Plowden Hist. Review. This writer, indeed, al- leges that the peasants in those two mouths " com- mitted many murders;" but though a Catholic writer, his well-known political principles make him always too ready to charge crimes, on very doubtful evi- dence, upon all Catholics who were not "loyal'' to the King of England. He does not particularize any of these " man; murders;" aud it may, therefore, be fairly doubted that there were any murders, except, perhaps, of an occasional tithe-proctor. R? .i'l''^- ' '" -: t ri.«e.cgu/Nd«t,4 l V W. ) i of coercion. It was in the mouth of April that Sir Ralph Abercroinbie, after two or three months' experience of his command, when he found that the army was expected to be used to goad the people to despair, while habits of marauding and " free quar- ters" were fast destroying the discipline of the troops themselves, resigned his post as Commander-in-Chief. His resignation was undoubtedly caused, as Lord Carhampton's had been, by his discovery that he was ex- pected to act, not for the repression of re- bellion, but in order to excite it. Of course, his military habits and principles would not permit him to say as much, nor to hint at any fault on the part of the Lord-Lieute- nant ; yet the first paragraph of his famous "General Order" was at once seen to be so wholly at variance with the plans and policy of the Government, that there was nothing left for Sir Ralph but to resign, and seek some more honorable employment for his sword. The General Order is as follows : — " Adjutant-General's Office, Dublin, ) February 26th, 1798. \ ["General Orders.] "The very disgraceful frequency of courts martial, and the many complaiuts of the conduct of the troops in this kingdom, having too unfortunately proved the army to be in a state of licentiousness, which must render it formidable to every one but the enemy ; the Commander-in-Chief thinks it necessary to demand from all generals com- manding districts and brigades, as well as commanding officers of regiments, that they exert themselves, and compel, from all of- ficers under their command, the strictest and most unremitting attention to the discipline, good order, and conduct of their men ; such as may restore the high and distinguished reputation the British troops have been ac- customed to enjoy in every part of the world. It becomes necessary to recur, and most pointedly to attend to the standing orders of the kingdom, which at the same time that they direct military assistance to be given at the requisition of the civil magis- trate, positively forbid the troops to act (but in case of attack) without his presence and authority ; and the most clear and pre- cise orders are to be given to the officer commanding the party for this purpose. "The utmost prudence and precaution are also to be used in granting parties to revenue officers, with respect to the person requiring such assistance and those employed on the duty ; whenever a guard is mounted, patrols must be frequently out to take up auy soldier who may be found out of his quarters after his hours. "A very culpable remissness having also appeared on the part of officers respecting the necessary inspection of barracks, quar- ters, messes, &c, as well as attendance at roll-calls, and other hours ; commanding of- ficers must enforce the attention of those under their command to those points, and the general regulations ; for all which the strictest responsibility will be expected from them. "It is of the utmost importance that the discipline of the dragoon regiments should be minutely attended to, for the facilitating of which the Commander-in-Chief has.dis- pensed with the attendance of orderly dragoons on himself, and desires that they may not be employed by any general or commanding officers but on military and indispensable business. "G. HEWIT, "Adjutant-General. "Lieut-Gen. Craig, "Eastern District Barracks, Dublin." The resignation of Sir Ralph Abercrom- bie was immediately followed by the de- parture of Mr. Secretary Pelham ; who, as Mr. Plowden alleges, also disapproved of the new plan of "prematurely exploding the rebellion " by the simple machinery of goad- ing the people to despair. It is notorious that in Ireland the active Minister, upon whom the odium or merit of the Govern- ment measures personally fell, was the first Secretary of the Lord-Lieutenant. Through his mouth did His Excellency speak to the House of Commons ; from him did the na- tion expect the reason, and upon him chic-fly rested the responsibility of the Government measures iu the belief of the public. His sentiments were, of course, concluded to be in perfect unison with the Lord-Lieutenant, as his voice was the organ of His Excellency. It appears that Mr. Pelham, however earn- % X, ft \ ' - , V ' A > »rW^ ■ / r ''&) ^v THE HESSIANS FREE QUARTERS. 2S0 est and firm he had been in opposing Catho- lic Emancipation and Parliamentary Reform', which two questions Earl Camden had avowedly been senl to oppose, was very far from approving the harsh aud sanguinary mi atis of dragooning the people which had been for some time practiced, and were in- tended to be persevered in.* He resolved, therefore, to retire from a situation in which he was under the necessity of giving official countenance and support to a system, which in principle he abhorred, and which he knew to have been extorted from the Chief Gov- ernor, whose immediate and responsible agent he was before the public. The last time he spoke in public was on Sir Law- rence Parsons' motion, which he opposed in a manner that evidently betrayed the un- easiness of his own situation. Mr. Pelham, however, did not resign. Indeed, Sir Jonah Barrington, and other authorities, affirm that he only went to England on account of * We do not desire to use stronger language than the facts will warrant, nor to advance, without suf- ficient authority, against any government so atro- cious a charge as that of resolving to goad a people into Insurrection, in order to make a pretext for slaughtering them first, and depriving their country of its national existence afterwards. This system at this time, viz., 5th April, 1798, Mr. Grattan has thus described: "Here we perceive and lament the ef- fects of inveteracy, conceived by His Majesty's Min- isters against the Irish. ' Irritable and quellable, devoted to superstition, deaf to law, and hostile to property;' such was the picture, which at different times bis Ministers in Ireland have painted of his peo- ple, with a latent, view to (latter the English by the idation of the Irish, and by such sycophantship and malice, they have persuaded themselves to con- sider their fellow subjects as a different species of human creature, fair objects of religious proscription and political incapacities, but not of moral relation- ship, or moral obligation; accordingly, they have afforded indemnity for the rich, and new pains and penalties for the people; they have given felonious descriptions of His Majesty's subjects, and have easily persuaded themselves to exercise felonious practices against their lives and properties; they have become as barbarous as their system, and as savage as their own description of their country- men and their equals: and now it seems they have , aunicated to the British Minister, at once, their deleterious maxims and their foul expressions, and he too indulges and wantons in villainous discourses against the people of Ireland, sounding the horrid trumpet of camage and separation. Thus the lan- guage of the Ministers 1 omes an encouragement to tie- army to murder the Irish. " We leave these scenes, they are dreadful; a Min- istrv in league with the abettors of the Orange Boys and at war with the people : a people unable to pro- cure a»hearing in either country, while the loquacity of their enemies besieges the throne." 37 ill-health. At any rate, his successor in active duly (lint only at first as /<,cnm tenens) was Lord Castlereagli — afterwards Lord Londonderry — perhaps the ablest, and cor tainly the worst, man who ever "did the King's business" in Ireland, lie was not gazetted as Secretary till the next, year. General Lake was placed provisionally in command of the forces ; and the way was now open for the full development of the bloody conspiracy of the Government against the people. There was now concen- trated in Ireland a force of at least 1:'>0,000 men, including regular troops, English and Scottish fencible regiments and Irish militia. But even this was not enough. On the 23d of April, the new Secretary announced to the House of Commons that two regi- ments of " foreign troops " had been ordered to Ireland. These were the Hessians, Ger- man mercenaries from Hesse Darmstadt and Hesse Casscl, who had been for some time favorite instruments of the British Govern- ment for dragooning any refractory popula- tion. On the 30th of March, the whole country was placed uuder martial law by proclama- tion. It was the first time that the County of Wexford had been proclaimed uuder the "Insurrection act;" aud "from that mo- ment," says Miles Byrne, " every one con- sidered himself walking on a mine, ready to be blown up ; and all sighed for orders to begin." Orders were at once issued from the Castle that the military should proceed at their own absolute discretion in all meas- ures which any officer should judge needful for suppressing that rebellion which did not yet exist, but which it was fully determined should immediately break out. A favorite measure of Lord Castlereagli was the sys- tem of " free quarters." His lordship knew thoroughly the people of his country ; aud was aware that nothing could so certainly and promptly goad them into desperate re- sistance as the quartering of an insolent aud licentious soldiery in their houses and amongst their families. "Free quarters," therefore, were at once ordered ; the magis- trates of the "Ascendancy" were at, the same time assured that whatever they should think fit to do against the people should be considered well doue. They had already ,c r j i. ^"^.Si, .U 1 j,;4B«i.,j, ;..-. tf»^J (l>y the "Indemnity act") carte blanche, at any rate ; and now, under the new impul- sion given by the new Secretary, they vied with one another in atrocity. In the Coun- ties of Kildare, Meath, Dublin, Carlow, Wicklow, and Wexford, the horrors of th ; s oppression were especially grievous. The good Miles Byrne, every word of whose nar- ration is thoroughly worthy of implicit trust, says : " The military placed on free quar- ters with the inhabitants were mostly fur- nished by the Ancient Britons ; a cruel regiment, which became obnoxious from the many outrages they committed, wherever they were stationed ; being quartered in houses where the men had to absent them- selves, the unfortunate females who re- mained had to suffer all sorts of brutality from these ferocious monsters. What hard- ships, what calamities and miseries had not the wretched people to suffer, on whom were let loose such a body of soldiery as were then in Ireland 1 " This gallant old Miles Byrne, writing from his notes sixty years afterwards, (he was but eighteen years old in 1798,) thus details some few of the scenes which passed in his county, and within his own knowledge :— " Many of the low-bred magistrates availed themselves of the martial law, to prove their vast devotion to Government, by persecuting, and often torturing, the in- offensive country-people. Archibald Ham- ilton Jacob and the Enniscorthy yeomen cavalry never marched out of the town with- out being accompanied by a regular execu- tioner, with his ropes, cat o' nine tails, &c. " Hawtry White, Solomon Richards, and a Protestant minister of the name of Owens, were all notorious for their cruelty and perse- cuting spirit ; the latter particularly so, put- ting on pitch caps, and exercising other tor- ments. To the credit of some of his victims, when the vile fellow himself was in their power, and was brought a prisoner to the in- surgent camp at Gorey, they sought no other revenge than that of putting a pitch cap on him. I had often difficulty in preventing the others, who had suffered so much at his hands, from tearing him to pieces. He, in the end, escaped, with many other prisoners, being escorted and guarded by men who did not consider that revenge, or retaliation of any kind, would forward the sacred cause they were embarked in ; particularly, as they were desirous it should not be thought that it was a religions war they were en- gaged in. Although several of the principal chiefs of the United Irishmen were Protes- tants, the Orange magistrates did all they could to spread the belief, that the Catholics had no other object in view but to kill their Protestant fellow-subjects, and to give weight to this opinion, they did what they could to provoke the unfortunate people to commit outrages and reprisals, by killing some and burning their houses. " In short, the state of the country pre- vious to the insurrection, is not to be imagined ; except by those who witnessed the atrocities of every description committed by the military and the Orangemen, who were let loose on the unfortunate, defence- less population. " The infamous Hunter Gowan * now sighed for an opportunity to vent his fero- cious propensity of murdering his CatTiolic neighbors in cold blood. When the yeo- manry corps was first formed, he was not considered sufficiently respectable to be charged with the command of one ; but in consequence of the proclamation of martial law, he soon obtained a commission of the peace and was created a captain, and was commissioned to raise a cavalry corps ; in a short time he succeeded in getting about thirty or forty low Orangemen, badly mounted ; but they soon procured better horses, at the expense of the unfortunate fanners, who were plundered without redress. This corps went by the name of the black mob ; their first campaign was, to arrest all the Catholic blacksmiths, and to burn their houses. Poor William Butter, James Hay- don, and Palton, smiths whom we employed to shoe our horses and do other work, for many years before, were condemned to be transported, according to the recent law enacted, that magistrates upon their own authority could sentence to transportation. * This Hunter Gowan had been horsewhipped by one of the Byrnes, old Garrett Byrne, of Ballynianus. Miles Byrne says, "Gowan took the law of Garrett Byrne, and ran him into great expense." He soon, however, found out even a more effectual rnathod of having his revenge upon the Byrnes. \'( :" te *Cv \ "iMG .ca.nHtllii.ti. & But the monster Hunter Gowan, thinking tins kind of punishment too slight, wished to give his yonng men an opportunity to prove they were staunch blood-honnds. Poor Garrett Fennel), who hud just landed from England, and was on his way to see his father and family, was met by I his corps, and tied by his two hands up to a tree ; they then stood at a certain distance and each man lodged the contents of his carabine in the body of poor Pennell, at their captain's command. "They then went (o a house close by, where they shot James Darcy, a poor inoffensive man, the father of live children. The bodies of these two murdered victims were waked that night in the chapel of Monaseed, where the unhappy women and children as- sembled to lament their slaughtered rela- tives. This chapel was afterwards burned. Poor Fennell left a young widow and two children. This cruel deed took place on the road between our house and the chapel. The day after, the 25th of May, 1198, dis- tant about three miles from our place, one of the most bloody deeds took place that was ever recorded in Irish history since the days of Cromwell. Tweuty-eight fathers of families, prisoners, were shot and massacred in the Ball Alley of Caruew, without trial. Mr. Cope, the Protestant minister, was one of the principal magistrates who presided at this execution. I knew several of the mur- dered men ; particularly, Pat Murphy, of Knockbrandon, at whose wedding I was two years before ; he was a brave and most worthy man, and much esteemed. Wil- liam Young, a Protestant, was amougst the slaughtered. "At Dunlavin, County of Wieklow, pre- vious to the rising, thirty-four men were shut without auy trial; officers, to their disgrace, presiding and sanctioning these proceedings. But it is useless to enumerate or continue the list of cruelties perpetrated ; it will suffice to say, that where the military were placed on free quarters, and where all kinds of crime were committed, the people were not worse off than those living where no soldiers were quartered ; for in the latter instance, the inhabitants were generally called to their doors, and shot without cere- mony ; their houses being immediately burned or plundered. "This was the miserable state our part of the country was in at the beginning of .May, 1198. All were obliged to quit their houses and hide themselves the best way they could. Ned Fennell, Nicholas Murphy and I, agreed, the last time we met, previous to the insurrection, that through the means of our female friends, we should do every- thing in our power to keep the people from desponding, for we had every reason to hope, that ere long, there would be orders received for a general rising from the Directory. We also promised to endeavor to get news from Dublin, if possible, and at least from Arklow, through Phil Neilland young Gar- rett Graham, of that town ; both of them very active and well-known to the principal men in Dublin, and through them and Anthony Perry, we expected shortly to re- ceive instructions for what was best to be done, under the critical circumstances in which we were placed. I was daily in hopes of getting some information from my step- brother Kennedy (at Dublin), and on this account I remained as long as I could iu the neighborhood of our place, keeping away, however, from my mother's house ; sleeping at night in the fields, watching iu the day- time from the hills and high grounds, to see if the military or yeomen were ap- proaching." It was a needful part of the general plan of Government to extend and encourage the Orange societies, and to exasperate them against their Catholic neighbors. Of the precise connection between the Castle and the Orange lodges, it is not, of course, easy to ascertain the precise terms and extent. It is, however, notorious, that while the Irish and English Government has always pro- fessed to disapprove the sanguinary princi- ples of the Orangemen, they have always re- lied upou that body in seasons of threatened revolt, as a willing force to crush the mass of the people ; and that even so late as 1848, arms were secretly issued to the lodges from Dublin Castle. We have al- ready seen Mr. G rattan's distinct that "the Ministry was in league with the abettors of the Orange Boys, and at war with the peo- ple." Iu the examination of Mr. Arthur O'Connor before the Secret Committee, we find O'Connor describing the proceedings of the Government in tlnsj terms : — h V. M /-" ;:> '0mj HE H ?2 r\ rS il ■r -rTl 1 JtAj If 1 @ft «& d a ■"£«* . UI/MBUS.e, fu- ~iU >v7, 55 . ' ■ i HISTORY OF IRELAND, " Finding how necessary it was to have some part of the population on their side, they had recourse to the old religious fends, and set an organization of Protestants, whose fanaticism would not permit them to see they were enlisted under the banners of religion, to fight for a political usurpation they abhorred. No doubt, by these means you have gained a temporary aid, but by destroying the organization of the Union, and exasperating the great body of the peo- ple, you will one day pay dearly for the aid you have derived from this temporary shift. "Committee. — Government had nothing to do with the Orange system, nor their extermi- nation,. ' O'Connor. — You, my lord, (Castle- reagh) from the station you fill, must be sensible that the executive of any country has in its power to collect a vast mass of in- formation, and you must know from the secret nature, and the zeal of the Union, that its executive must have the most minute information of every act of the Irish Gov- ernment. As one of the executive it came to my knowledge, that considerable sums of money were expended throughout the na- tion in endeavoring to extend the Orange system, and tiiat the oath of extermination was administered. When these facts are coupled, not only with general impunity, which has been uniformly extended towards the acts of this infernal association, but the marked encouragement its members have re- ceived from Government, I find it impossible to exculpate the Government from being the parent and protector of these sworn extir- pators.'' In commou fairness, we must give the Orange body the benefit of whatever credit can possibly be accorded to their own denial of their alleged oath of extermination. Early in this year, while the Government was scourging the people into revolt, certain Grand Masters of the Orangemen met in Dublin, and published the following docu- ment : — " To the Loyal Subjects of Ireland : " From the various attempts that have oeeu made to poison the public mind, and slander those who have had the spirit to adhere to their King and Constitution, and to maintain the laws, " We, the Protestants of Dublin, assuming the name of Orangemen, feel ourselves called upon, not to vindicate our principles, for we know that our honor and loyalty bid de- Gance to the shafts of malevolence and dis- affection, but openly to disavow these prin- ciples and declare to the world the objects of our institution. " We have long observed with indigna- tion, the efforts that have been made to foment rebellion in this kingdom, by the seditious, who have formed themselves into societies under the specious name of United Irishmen. " We have seen with pain the lower or- ders of our fellow-subjects forced or seduced from their allegiance, by the threats and machinations of traitors. "And we have viewed with horror the successful exertions of miscreants to en- courage a foreign enemy to invade this happy land, in hopes of rising into conse- quence, on the downfall of their country. "We, therefore, thought it high tiiTie to rally round the Constitution, and pledge ourselves to each other to maintain the laws and support our good King against all his enemies, whether rebels to their God or to their country, and by so doing, show to the world that there is a body of men in this island who are ready in the hour of danger to stand forward in the defence of that grand palladium of our liberty, the Constitution of Great Britain and Ireland, obtained and established by the courage and loyalty of our ancestors, under the great King William. " Fellow-subjects, we are accused of being an institution founded on principles too shocking to repeat, and bound together by oaths at which human nature would shudder ; but we caution you not to be led away by such malevolent falsehoods, for we solemnly assure you, in the presence of the Almighty God, that the idea of injuring any one on account of his religious opinions never en- tered into our Marts! We regard every loyal subject as our friend, be his religion what it may, we have no enmity but to the enemies of our country. " We further declare, that we are ready at all times to submit ourselves to the or- ders of those in authority under His Majesty, and that we will cheerfully undertake any ) v> \p? \f& i.l\>* ■\^*'l\k. w§5 ^4X^ I IT ft mi ARRESTS OF V. I. CHIEFS IN DUBLIN. 2D3 duty which they should think proper to point out fur as, incuse either a foreign enemy shall dare to invade our coasts, or that a domestic foe should presume to raise the standard of rebellion in the land ; to these principles we are pledged, and in Bup- port of them we are ready to shed the last drop <>f our hlood. " Signed by order of the several lodges in Dublin, for selves ami other Masters. " Thomas Verner, " Edward Ball, "John Claudius Beresford, " William James, " Isaac Dejoncourt. The credit which can be given to this profession of principles is much diminished, or reduced to nothing, by the fact already recorded, that immediately ou the establish- ment of the first Orange Lodges in Armagh County, ( the first of the above addressers being the founder and first Grand Master) the members of those lodges did forthwith set themselves to the task of extirpating all their Catholic neighbors ; solely because they were Catholics; and that in one year they had slain, or driven from their homes, fourteen hundred families, or seven thousand individuals. It is further notorious that the Orange yeomanry serving in Leinster, were amongst the most furious and savage torturers of the people. CHAPTER XXXIII. 1798. Reynolds, the Informer — Arrests of U. I. Chiefs in Dublin— The Brothers Sheares— Their Efforts to Delay Explosion — Clare and Castlereagh Resolvt to Hurry it— Advance of the Military— Half-Hang ing— Pitch Caps — Scourging — Judkin Fitzgri.ilil Sir John Moore's Testimony — His Disgust at the Aiim jitii is General Napier's Testimony — Catholic I psand Peers Profess their "Loyalty" — Arra- Bl ~. [nformer — Arrest of the Sheares — Arrest and Death of Lord Edward — Mr. Emmet's Evidence before Secret Committee — Insurrection Breaks Out — The 'Jijd of May— Naas— Prosperous— Kilcul- l-ii Proclamation of Lake- Of the Lord .Mayor of Dublin Skirmishes at Carlow — Hacketstown, &c. —Insurgents have tin- Advantage at Dunboyne Attack on Carlow Executions — Sir B. Crosbie— Ho icre at Gibbet Bath ol Kildare Slaughter on Tara Hill— Suppression of Insurrection in Kildare, Dublin and Mcath. The Government was now preparing its master-stroke, which was both to cause a premature explosion of the insurrection, and to deprive the people at one blow of their leaders, both civil and military. There ex- isted, unfortunately, at that period, one Thomas Reynolds, a silk mercer of Dublin, wlio had purchased an estate in the County of Kildare, called Kilkea Castle, and from the fortune he had acquired, commanded considerable influence with his Catholic brethren. Lord Edward Fitzgerald and Oliver Bond, two leaders in the conspiracy, having, for these reasons, considered him a proper person to assist in forwarding their revolutionary designs, easily attached him to their cause ; and having succeeded, he was soon after sworn an United Irish- man, at the house of Oliver Bond, in Dublin ; in the year 1797, he accepted the commission of colonel, the offices of treasurer and representative of the Coun- ty of Kildare, and at last that of delegate for the province of Leinster. Die had mon- ey dealings about a mortgage of some lands at Castle Jordan with a Mr. Cope, a Dublin merchant, who having lamented to him, in the course of conversation, the undoubted symptoms of an approaching rebellion, Mr. Reynolds said that he knew a person con- nected with the United Irishmen, who, he believed, would defeat their nefarious pro- jects, by communicating them to Govern- ment, in order to make an atonement for the crime he had committed in joining them. Mr. Cope assured him that such a person would obtain the highest honors and pecu- niary rewards that administration could confer. In short, after making his condi- tions, and receiving i:i hand live hundred guineas as a first payment on account, he told Mr. Cope that the Leinster delegates were to meet at Oliver Bond's on the 12th of March, to concert measures for an insur- rection which was shortly to take place, but did not at that time acknowledge that the information came directly from him, but insinuated that it was imparted by a third person. In consequence of this, Justice Swan, at- tended by twelve sergeants in colored clothes, arrested the Leinster delegates, thirteen in number, while silting in council in the house of Oliver Bond, in Bridge Street, on the 12th of March, 17'JS, and S3 © IWi -tp ■ &JL£n OF IRELAND. w ./'S ess; ijji I ' seized several of their papers, which led to the discovery of all their plans ; and on the same day Messrs. Emmet, M'Neven, Boml, Sweetman, Henry Jackson, and Hugh Jack- son were arrested and taken into custody ; and warrants were granted against Lord Edward Fitzgerald and Messrs. M'Cormick and Sampson, who, having notice thereof, made their escape.* The leaders did not intend to make an insurrection till the French came to their assistance ; and they meant in the mean- time to continue to increase their numbers, and to add to their stock of arms. On the removal of so many valuable lead- ers everything was done that could be done to repair the loss, and to keep the United Irishmen quiet ; for it was now very well understood that the design of the Govern- ment was to provoke a premature explosion. The two brothers Sheares, Henry and John, both barristers, and gentlemen of high character and excellent education, took charge of the government of the Leinster Societies. A handbill was immediately circulated, to keep up the spirits of the people, cautioning them against being either " goaded into untimely violence or sunk into pusillanimous despondency." The hand- bill concluded thus : " Be firm, Irishmen ; but be cool and cautious. Be patient yet awhile. Trust to no unauthorized commu- nication; and above all, we warn you — again and again we warn you — against doing the work of your tyrants by premature, by par- tial or divided exertion. If Ireland shall be forced to throw away the scabbard, let it be at her own time, not theirs." But Lords Camden, Clare, and Castle- reagh were determined that it should be at their time. Universal military executions and "free quarters" were at once pro- claimed all over the country. It is difficult to detail with due historic coolness the horrors which followed the proclamation of the 30th of March; nor can we wonder that Dr. Madden expresses him- * A few days after these arrests there was a meet- ing of the Provincial Committee at the " Brazen Head Hotel." It was there proposed, by a man n 1 Reynolds, a distant relative of the traitor, that Thom- as Reynolds should be put out of the way— that is, assassinated. The proposal was rejected unani- mously. Madden, 1st Series. self thus upon the occasion: "The rebel- lion did not break out till May, 1798, and, to use the memorable words of Lord Castle- reagh, even then 'measures were taken by Government to cause its premature explo- sion;' words which include the craft, cru- elty, and cold-blooded, deliberate wicked- ness of the politics of a Machiavelli, the principles of a Thug, and the perverted tastes and feelings of a eunuch in the exer- cise of power and authority, displayed in acts of sly malignity and stealthy, vindictive turpitude, perpetrated on pretence of serving purposes of state." Besides, Lord Castlereagh, if he was really the chief adviser of those measures to cause a premature explosion, was not the only per- son who approved of them. The same Se- cret Committee whose report is so often cited, states, "that it appears, from a va- riety of evidence laid before your committee, that the rebellion would not have broken out as soon as it did had it not been for the well-timed measures adopted by Government subsequent to the proclamation of the Lord- Lieutenant and Council, bearing date 30th of March, 1198." It is necessary to ascer- tain what these well-timed measures were. On the examination of the state prisoners before this committee in August, 1798, the Lord-Chancellor put the following question to Mr. Emmet: "Pray, Mr. Emmet, what caused the late insurrection?" To which Mr. Emmet replied: "The free quarters, house-burnings, tortures, and the military executions in the counties of Kildare, Car- low, and Wicklovvl" Messrs. M'Neven and O'Connor gave similar replies to the same query. However that, may be, it remains now to give something like a connected narrative of what was actually done, and how the pre- mature explosion did burst out.* The proclamation, which was published on the 30th of March, declared that a trai- torous conspiracy, existing within the king- dom for the destruction of the established government, had been considerably extend- * The authorities for this period are numerous- Sir Richard Musgrave, Hay, Gordon, Miles Byrne, Ac, — for County Wexford. In the text, we adopt in the main the narrative of Plowden, checking it where ii Iful by the documents assembled together by Madden, Lord Camden's dispatches, <£c. r f«ii\ «&e f fe ' fV ed, :iinl had manifested itself in acts of open violence and rebellion ; and that, in conse- quence thereof, the most direct and positive orders had been issued to the officers com- manding Ins Majesty's forces to employ them with the utmost vigor and decision for the immediate suppression of that conspiracy, and for the disarming of the rebels and all disaffected persons, by the most summary and effectual measures. To Sir Ralph Abercrombie, then chief commander of the forces, orders were issued from the Lord-Lieu- tenant to proceed with his army into the disturbed counties, vested with full powers to act according to his discretion for the at- tainment of the proposed object. A mani- festo, dated from his headquarters at Kil- dare, the 3d of April, was addressed to the inhabitants of the county by the General, requiring them to surrender their arms in the space of ten days from the date of the noiiee, threatening, in case of non-compli- ance, to distribute large bodies of troops among them to live at free quarters — pro- mising rewards to such as would give infor- mation of concealed arms or ammunition — and announcing his resolution of recurring to other severities if the county should still continue in a disturbed slate. On the advance of the military into each county, the same noiiee was given to its in- habitants, and at the expiration of the term prescribed the troops were quartered on the onsesof the disaffected or suspected, in num- bers proportioned to the supposed guilt and ability of the owners, whose pecuniary cir- cumstances were often deeply injured by the maintenance of the soldiery, and the waste which was otherwise made of their effects. Numbers of houses, with their furniture, were burned, in which concealed arms had leen found, in which meetings of the Union had been holden, or whose occupants had been guilty of the fabrication of pikes, or had been suspected of other practices for the promotion of the conspiracy. Numbers Were daily scourged, picqueted, or other- wise put. to pain, to force confessions of con- cealed arms or plots. Outrageous acts of severity were often committed by persons not in the regular troops -some from an \\\\- feigned and others from an affected zeal for the service of the Crown. These various vexatious amounted on the whole to such a mass of disquietude and distress that the exhortations of the chiefs to bear their evils with steady patience, until an opportunity of successful insurrection should occur, proved vain with the lower classes. To authorize the burning of houses and furniture, tin; wisdom of administration may have seen as good reason as for other acts of severity, though to many that reason was not clear. These burnings, doubtless, caused no small terror and consternation to the dis- affected ; but they caused also a loss to the community at huge, rendered many quite desperate who were deprived of their all, augmented the violence of hatred in those among whom those houseless people took refuge. Men imprisoned on suspicion, or pri- vate information, were sometimes half hanged, or strangled almost to death, be- fore their guilt or innocence could be ascer- tained by trial. Reflecting loyalists were much concerned at the permission or impu- nity of such acts, which tended strongly to confirm the pi "judices already so laboriously excited by the emissaries of revolution. Among the causes which, in the troubled interval of time previous to the grand insur- rection, contributed to the general uneasi- ness, were the insults practised by pretended zealots, to the annoyance of the truest loy- alists as well as malcontents, on persons who wore their hair short, or happened to have any part of their apparel of a green color, both of which were considered as emblems jf republican or of a revolutionary spirit. The term croppy was adopted to signify a revolutionist, or an enemy to the established government. Persons of malevolent minds took advantage of these circumstances to indulge their general malignity or private malice, when they could with impunity. On the heads of many, who were selected" as ob- jects of outrage, were fixed by these pre- tended loyalists caps of coarse linen or strong brown paper, smeared with pitch on the in- side, which in some instances adhered so firmly as not to be disengaged without a laceration of the hair, and even skin. On the other side, several of the united party made it a practice to seize violently such as they thought proper or were able, and cropped or cut their hair short, which rendered them ^sl R? ,^> C/j S^VV^- poor people, takes occasion to give his own recollections of tlio period. He exclaims: "What manner of soldiers were thus let loose upon the wretched districts which the Ascendency-men were pleased to cull disaffected ? They were men, to use the venerable Abercrombie's words, who were 'formidable to everybody bnt the enemy.' We ourselves were young at the time ; yet, being connected wiih the army, we were continually amongst the soldiers, listening with boyish eagerness to their conversation, and we well remember — and with horror to this day — the tales of Inst, and blood, and pillage — the record of their own actions against the miserable peasantry — which they used to relate." And it is important to re- member that all this while there was no in- surrection. True, insurrection was intended and longed for ; but the people were then neither ready nor inclined to turn out and fight the King's troops. They knew well that they needed a small organized force of regular troops to form a nucleus of an army, I were still waiting and looking out for the French. In the very midst of the horrible scourg- ing oppression which was thus driving the people to madness, one can derive no pleas- ure from the fact that Catholic bishops and peers took that very time to testify their loyalty, their attachment to the English Throne, and their detestation of rebellion. On the 6th of May, the Lords Fingal, Gor- man-town, Southwell, Kenmare, Sir Edward Bellew, and forty-one other noblemen, gen- tlemen, and professors of divinity, including Bishop Enssey, President of Maynooth, published a declaration under their signa- tures, " with a view," says Mr. Plowden, " of rescuing their body from the imputation of abetting and favoring rebellion ami treason." The document was thus addressed: "To such of the deluded people now in rebellion against His Majesty's Government in this kingdom as profess the Roman Catholic re- ligion." Those doctors of divinity could vilify rebels very much at their case; but if one of them had found himself in the po- sition of Father John Murphy, when, on a certain day in this same month of May, re- turning to his home, he found his house and his humble chapel of Boolavogue smoking in ruins, and his poor parishioners crowding round him in wild affright, not daring to go even to the neighborhood of their ruined homes, "for fear of being whipped, burned, or exterminated by the Orangemen, hearing of the number of people that were put to death unarmed and unoffending through the country" — one would be curious to know what that doctor of divinity would have clone upon such an emergency. Probably very much as Father John did. A certain Captain Armstrong, an officer of the Kildare militia, a man of some landed property and decent position in society, was the person who now undertook to act the part of Reynolds, and serve as a spy upon the brothers John and Henry Sheares. Armstrong gained access to the confidence, and even intimacy, of the Sheares, not only by his agreeable social qualities, but by his pretended zeal in the cause to which they, were devoted. He dined with the two brothers, at their house in Baggot street, on the 20th of May: the next morning they were both arrested. Doctor Madden says of this transaction: "Captain Armstrong, in his evidence on the trial of the Sheares, did not think it necessary to state that at his Sunday's interview (May 20th, 11 98,) he shared the hospitality of his victims ; that he dined with them, sat in the company of their aged mother and affectionate sister, enjoyed the society of the accomplished wife of one of them, caressed his infant chil- dren, and on another occasion — referred to by Miss Steele — was entertained with music — the wife of the unfortunate man, whose children he was to leave iu a few days fath- erless, playing on the harp for his entertain- ment ! These things are almost too horri- ble to think on. "Armstrong, after dining with his victims on Sunday, returned to their house no more. This was the last time the cloven foot of treachery passed the threshold of the Sheares. On the following morning they were arrested and committed to Kilmain- ham jail. The terrible iniquity of Arm- strong's conduct on that Sunday — when he dined with his victims, sat in social inter- course with their families a few hours only f ^A \mi ■».^^t/»e .ctii.«su5.n. before lie was aware his treachery would have brought ruiu on that household, — is unparalleled.'' We may mention here, parenthetically, that Captain Armstrong, after having hanged his hospitable entertainers of Bag- got street, lived himself to a good old age (he died in 1858) ; but in his interview with Dr. Madden, touching some alleged inaccuracies in the work of the latter, he denied having caressed any children at Sheares'. He said " lie never recollected having seen the children at all ; but there was a young lady of about fifteen there, whom he met at dinner. The day he dined there (and he dined there only once) he was urged by Lord Castlereagh to do so. It was wrong to do so, and he (Captain Arm- strong) was sorry for it ; but he was per- suaded by Lord Castlereagh to go there to dine, for the jfurpose of getting further in- formation." Perhaps the history of no other country can show us an example of the first minister of state personally exhorting his spies to go to a gentleman's house and mingle with his family in social intercourse, in order to pro- cure evidence to hang him. However, his lordship did procure the information he wanted. He found that the leaders of the United Irishmen, being at length convinced of the impossibility of restraining the people and keeping them quiet under such intolera- ble tyranny, had decided on a geueral rising for the 23d of May. The whole of the United Irishmen throughout the kingdom, or at least throughout the province of Leinster, were to act at once in concert ; and it was their intention to seize the camp of Loughlins- town, the artillery of Chapel-izod, and the Castle of Dublin, in one night — the 23d of May. One hour was to be allowed between seizing the camp of Loughlinstown and the artillery at Chapel izod ; and one hour and a half between seizing the artillery and sur- prising the Castle ; and the parties who ex- ecuted both of the external plans were to enter the city of Dublin at the same mo- ment. The stopping of the mail coaches was to be the signal for the insurgents every- where to commence their operations. It was also planued that a great insurrection should take place at Cork at the same time. The united men were, however, at that pe- riod, not exactly agreed as to the nature of the insurrection Mr. Samuel Xeilson, with some other of the leaders, were bent upon attacking first the county jail of Kihnainham and the jail of Newgate, in order to set their comrades at liberty ; and the project for attacking the latter was also fixed for the 23d of May, the night of the general insur- rection. The Sheares, however, and others were of a contrary opinion, and they wished to defer the attack on the jails till after the general insurrection had taken place. Although the Government had been long in possession, through the communications of Reynolds, Armstrong, and other inform- ers, of all the particulars of the conspiracy, they had hitherto permitted or encouraged its progress, in order, as it has been alleged, that the suppression of it might be effected with more eclat and terror. As the ex- pected explosion, however, now drew so near, it was found to be necessary to arrest several of the principal leaders, who might give direction, energy, and effect to the in- surrection. Lord Edward Fitzgerald had concealed himself since the 12th of March ; and, on the 18th of May, Major Sirr having received information that he would pass through Watling street that night, and be preceded by a chosen bund of traitors as an advanced guard, and that he would be ac- companied by another, repaired thither, at- tended by Captain Ryan, Mr. Emerson, of the attorneys' corps, and a few soldiers in colored clothes. They met the party which preceded him, and had a skirmish with them on the quay at the end of Watling street, in which some shots were exchanged ; and they took one of them prisoner, who called himself at one time Jameson, at another time Brand. The arrest of Lord Edward Fitzgerald was effected next day, the 19th of May. Government having received information that he had arrived in Dublin, and was lodged in the house of one Murphy, a ("cat 1 1- erman in Thomas street, sent Major Sirr to arrest him. He, attended by Captain Swan, of the revenue corps, and Captain Ryan; of the Sepulchre's, and eight soldiers disguised, about five o'clock in the evening repaired in ST N> -■•■:' w rVM CM.u'MHuS.4 v&w "h. roaches to Mnrphy's house. While they were posting the soldiers in such :i manner as in prevent the possibility of nn escape, Captain Swan perceiving a woman running hastily upstairs, for the purpose, as he sup- posed, of alarming Lord Edward, followed her with the utmost speed ; and, on enter- ing an apartment, found Lord Edward lying on a bed, in his dressing jacket. He ap- proached the bed and informed his lordship that he had a warrant against him, and that resistance would be vain ; assuring him at the same time that he would treat him with the utmost respect. Lord Edward sprang from the bed and snapped a pistol, which missed fire, at Cap- tain Swan ; lie then closed with him, drew a dagger, gave him a wound in the hand, and different wounds in his body ; one of them, under the ribs, was deep and danger- ous, and bled most copiously. At that moment, Captain Ryan entered, and missed lire at Lord Edward with a pocket pistol ; on which he made a lunge at him with a sword cane, which bent ou his ribs, but affected him so much that he threw himself on the bed ; and, Captain Ryan having thrown himself ou him, a violent scuffle ensued, during which Lord Edward drew a dagger and plunged it into his side. They then fell on the ground, where Cap- tain Ryan received many desperate wounds ; one of which, in the lower part of his belly, was so large that his bowels fell out on the oor. Major Sirr, having entered the room, saw Captain Swan bleeding, and Lord Edward advancing towards the door, while Captain Ryan, weltering in blood ou the floor, was holding him by one leg and Swan by the other. He, therefore, fired his pistol at Lord Edward, wounding him in the shoulder. His lordship then, quite overpowered, surrendered himself. He was conveyed at once to the Castle. This was two days before the arrest of the Sheares. In their house in BaggOt street was found a rough draft of a proclamation, which seems to have been intended for publication on the morning alter taking possession of Dublin. It is violent and vindictive, though not approaching in atrocity to the actual scenes which were then daily enacted under the auspices of Government. Still, having been published by the Government, and being authentic, (at least as a rough draft,) it tonus a part of the history of the times. It is in these words : — " Irishmen, your country is free, and you are about to be avenged. That vile Gov- ernment, which has so long and so cruelly oppressed you, is no more. Some of its most atrocious monsters have already paid the forfeit of their lives, and the rest are in our hands. The national flag — the sacred green — is at this moment flying over the ruins of despotism ; and that capital, which a few hours past had witnessed the de- bauchery, the plots, and the crimes of your tyrants, is now the citadel of triumphant patriotism and virtue. Arise then, united sons of Ireland — arise like a great and pow- erful people, to live free, or die. Arm your- selves by every means in your power, and rush like lions ou your foes. " Consider, that for every enemy you disarm you arm a friend, and thus become doubly powerful. In the cause of liberty, inaction is coward- ice, and the coward shall forfeit the property he has not the courage to protect. Let his arms be secured and transferred to those gallant spirits who want and will use them. Yes, Irishmen, we swear by that eternal justice, in whose cause you light, that the brave patriot who survives the present glo- rious struggle, and the family of him who has fallen, or hereafter shall fall in it, shall receive from the hands of the grateful nation an ample recompense out of that property which the crimes of our enemies have for- feited into its hands ; and his name shall be inscribed on the great national record of Irish revolution, as a glorious example to all posterity ; but we likewise swear to punish robbery with death and infamy. We also swear that we will never sheath the sword till every being in the country is restored to those equal rights which the God of nature has given to all men ; until an order of things shall be established in which no supe- riority shall be acknowledged among the citizens of Erin but that of virtue and tal- ents. As for those degenerate wretches who turn their swords against their native country, the national vengeance awaits them. Let them find no quarter, unless they shall prove their repentance by speedily exchaug- k ^ <£J - m *\s & 1 ! 300 HISTORY OF IRELAND. ing the standard of slavery for that of free dom, Dtider which their former errors may be buried, and they may share the glory and advantages that are due to the patriot bands of Ireland. Many of the military feel the love of liberty gluw within their breasts, and have joined the national .standard. Re- ceive with open arms such as shall follow so glorious an example. They can render sig- nal service to the cause of freedom, acd shall be rewarded according to their deserts. But, for the wretch who turns his sword against his native country, let the national vengeance be visited on him ; let him find uo quarter. Two other crimes demand House all energies of your souls ; call forth all the merits and abilities which a vicious government consigned to obscurity ; and, under the conduct of your chosen leaders, march with a steady step to victory. Heed not the glare of hired sol- diery, or aristocratic yeomanry ; they can- not stand the vigorous shock of freedom. Their trappings and their arms will soon be yours ; and the detested Government of England, to which we vow eternal hatred, shall learn that the treasures it exhausts on its accoutred slaves, for the purpose of butchering Irishmen, shall but further ena- ble us to turn their swords on its devoted head. Attack them in every direction, by day and by night. Avail yourselves of the natural advantages of your country, which arc innumerable, and with which you are better acquainted than they. Where you cannot oppose them in full force, constantly harass their rear and their Hanks. Cut off their provisions and magazines, and prevent them as much as possible from uniting their forces. Let whatever moments you cannot devote to fighting for your country be passed in learning how to light for it, or preparing the means of war ; for war, war aloue must occupy every mind and every hand in Ire- land, until its long-oppressed soil be purged of all its enemies. Vengeance, Irishmen ! Vengeance on your oppressors 1 Remember what thousands of your dearest friends have perished by their merciless orders. Remem- ber their burnings, their racking*, their tor- turings, their military massacres, and their legal murders. Remember Orr!" In this proclamation — if it really was intended to be issued as it was drawn up — we have at least the evidence that the United Irishmen were banded together to procure "equal rights for all," and contem- plated no oppression of any sect or class of their countrymen. However, such as it was, it must be considered to have been dis- avowed by other leaders of the United Irish- men, then in prison. In the examination before the Secret Committee of the Lords, as we learn by the memoir of Emmet, Mac- Xeven, and O'Connor, the following examin- ation is found : — ■ "Lord Jul warden — You seem averse to insurrection ; I suppose it was because you thought it impolitic. "Emmet — Unquestionably; for if I im- agined an insurrection could have succeeded, without a great waste of blood and time, I should have preferred it to invasion, as it would not have exposed us to the chance of contributions being required by a foreign force ; but as I did not think so, and as I was certain an invasion would sucTud speedily, and without much struggle, I pre- ferred it even at the hazard of that incon- venience, which we took every means to prevent. "Lord Dillon — Mr. Emmet, you have stated the views of the executive to be very liberal and very enlightened, and I believe yours were so ; but let me ask you whether it was not intended to cut off (in the begin- ning of the contest) the leaders of the oppo- sition party, by a summary mode, such as assassination. My reason for asking you is, John Sheares' proclamation, the im>st terri- ble paper that ever appeared in any country. It says that 'many of your tyrants have bled, and others must bleed,' &c. " Emmet — My fords, as to Mr. Sheares' proclamation, he was not of the executive when 1 was. "Lord Chancellor — lie was of the new executive. " Emmet — I do not know he was of any executive, except from what your lordship says ; but I believe he was joined with some others in flaming a particular plan of insur- rection lor Dublin aial its neighborhood ; neither do I know what value he annexed to those words in his proclamation ; but I can answer that, while I was of the executive, S^ ,CiUi^a»4, \a\ \¥\ i S*> there was no such design, but the contrary ; for we conceived when one of you lost your lives we lost an hostage. Our intention was to seize you all, and keep you as hos- tages for the conduct of England ; and, after the revolution was over, if you could not live nuclei- the new governmeut, to send you out of the country. 1 will add one thing more, which, though it is not an answer to your question, you may have a curiosity to hear. In such a struggle it was natural to expect confiscations. Our intention was, that every wife who had not instigated her husband to resistance should be provided for out of the property, notwithstanding confiscations ; and every child who was too young to be his own master, or form his own opinion, was to have a child's portion. Your lordships will now judge how far we intend- ed to be cruel. "Lord Chancellor— Tray, Mr. Emmet, what caused the late insurrection? "Emmet — The free quarters, the house- burnings, the tortures, and the military exe- cutions in the Counties of Kildare, Carlow, and Wicklow. "Lord Chancellor — Don't you think the arrests of the 12th of March caused it? "Emmet — No; but I believe if it had not been for those arrests it would not have taken place ; lor the people', irritated by what they suffered, had been long pressing the executive to consent to an insurrection ; but they had resisted or eluded it, and even determined to persevere in the same line. Alter these arrests, however, other persons c:iine forward, wdio were irritated, and thought differently, who conseuted to let that partial insurrection take place." On the 21st of May, Lord Castlereagh, by direction of the Lord-Lieutenant, wrote to the Lord-Mayor of Dublin, to inform him that there was a plan for seizing the city, and ret unending precautions. The next dav, his lordship presented a message to the House of Commons to the same effect, and a loyal address was presented in reply. Great preparations for defence were now ,„ ;,,!,. iii Dublin. Various civic bodies armed themselves in haste, and placed them- selves at the service of the authorities. Among these was the lawyers' corps, which showed great zeal ou the occasion ; and amongst the members of that body we find the name of a young lawyer who had very lately been called to the bar— Daniel O'Connell. It was now impossible to prevent the rising. The United Irishmen of Leinster, though thus left without leaders, had got their instructions for action on the 23d of May ; and, besides, they felt that no re- verse of fortune in the open field could be worse than what they were already suffer- ing. It appears that the plan of attack formed by Lord Edward Fitzgerald had been com- municated to most of the insurgents ; for their first open acts of hostility, though ap- parently fortuitous, irregular, and confused, bore evident marks of a deep-laid scheme for surprising the military by separate, though simultaneous attacks, to surround in a. cordon the city of Dublin, and cut off all succors and resources from without. Ou thai day, (May 23d,) Mr. Neilson* and some others of the leaders were arrested ; and the City and County of Dublin were proclaimed by the Lord-Lieutenant and Council in a state of insurrection ; the guards at the Castle and all the great ob- jects of attack were trebled ; and, in fact, the whole city was converted into a be- sieged garrison. Thus the insurgents were unable to effect anything by surprise. Without leaders, and almost without arms or ammunition, they ventured on the bloody contest. Notwithstanding the apparent forwardness of the North, the first commo- tions appeared in different parts of Leinster. The Northern and Connaught mail coaches were stopped by parties of the insurgents on the mght of the 23d of May ; and, at about twelve o'clock on the morning of the 24 th, a large body of insurgents attacked the town and jail of NaaS, about fourteen miles from Dublin, where Lord Gosford commanded. As the guard had been sea- * Mr. Neilson was seized between nine and ten in it, ,. evening, by Gregg, the keeper "l Newgate, as he was v inoitering the prison. A souffle ensue.!, and \, ,1 on Bnapped a pistol al him; by the interven- tion ,,i i«,, yeomen I"- was secured and committed. It is reported, ami appears probable, that a large number of the conspirators who were awaiting his orders, having lost their leader, dispersed for that night. K B r ] >i «s r^ "tM ...^md.s.v. £>tf, mmmy^,tf^ <£ if: -» — i HISTORY OF IRELA.ND. -M ;V ■ » ,: sonably increased, in expectation of such an attack, the assailants were repulsed and driven into a narrow avenue, where, with- out order or discipline, they sustained for some time the attack of the Armagh militia, dud of the fencible corps, raised by Sir Wat- kin William Wynne, and known by the name of the Ancient Britons. The King's troops lost two officers and about thirty men ; and the insurgents, lis was reported, lost ltO iii the contest and their flight. They were completely dispersed, and several Of them taken prisoners. On the same day, a small divison of His Majesty's forces were surprised at the town of Prosperous ; ami a detachment at the village of Chine cut their way through to Naas, With considera- ble loss. About the same time, General Dundas encountered a large body of insur- gents on the hills near Kilcullcn, and loOof them were left dead upon the field. On the following day, a body of about 400 insurgents, under the command of two gentlemen of the names of Ledwich and Keougb, marched from Etathfamham, in the neighborhood of Dublin, along the toot of the mountain towards Belgatt and Clondal- kin. In their progress, they were met by a party of thirty-five dragoons, under the command of Lord Roden. After some re- sistance, the insurgents were defeated, great numbers were killed and wounded, and their leaders — Ledwich and Kcough — were taken. They were immediately tried by a court-martial, and executed. Although the first effort of the insurgents had been thus defeated, still they entertained the most sanguine hopes of succeeding in another attempt. General Lake, who, upon the resignation of Sir Ralph Abercrombie, had been appointed Commander-in-Chief, published the following notice on the morn- ing of the 21th of May :— " Lieutenant-General Lake, commanding His Majesty's forces in this kingdom, having received from His Excellency the Lord- Lieutenant, full powers to put down the rebellion, and to punish rebels in the most Bummary manner by martial law," Ac. On the same morning, the Lord-Mayor of Dublin issued a proclamation to this effect :— " Whereas, the circumstances of the present crisis demand every possible pre- caution, these arc, therefore, to desire all persons who have registered arms, forthwith to give in (in writing) an exact list or inven- tory of such arms at the Town Clerk's office, who will file and enter the same in a book to be kept for that purpose ; and all per- sons who have not registered their arms are hereby required forthwith to deliver up to me, or some other of the magistrates of this city, all arms and ammunition of every kind in their possession ; and if, after this proclamation, any person having registered their arms shall be found not to have given in a true list or inventory of such arms; or if any person who has not registered shall be found to have in their power or possession any anus or ammunition what- ever, such person or persons will, on such arms being discovered, be forthwith sent on board His Majesty's navy, as by law di- rected. "And I do hereby desire that all house- keepers do place II) the outside of theft doors a list of all persons in their respective houses, distinguishing such as are strangers from those who actually make part of their family ; but as there may happen to be persons who, from pecuniary embarrass- ments, arc obliged to conceal themselves, I do not require such names to be placed on the outside of the door, provided their names are sent to me. And 1 hereby call upon all His Majesty's subjects within the County of the City of Dublin immediately to com- ply with this regulation, as calculated for the public security ; as those persons who shall willfully neglect u regulation so easy and salutary, as well as persons giving false statements of the inmates of their houses, must, in the present crisis, abide the conse- quences of such neglect." Parliament, being then in session, met as usual, and Lord Castlercagh presented to the House of Commons a message from the Lord-Lieutenant, that he thought it his in- dispensable duty, with the advice of the Privy Council, under t lie present cir- cumstances of the kingdom, to issue a proclamation, which he had ordered to be laid before the House of Commons, to whom he remarked, the time for speaking was now gone by, and that period at last come when ^ j/t-j\li 1"- l ' **, i < • .-)■'. /^.-■"..tt-K' M KHf die, Is and not words were to Bhow the dis- positions of members of thai House, ami of every man who truly valued the Constitution of the laud, or wished to maintain the laws, inn! protect the lives and properties of His Majesty's subjects. Everything which cour- age, honor, fortune, could offer in the com- mon cause was now called for. The rebels had openly thrown off the mask, &C, &C. Open war having now been fairlj com- menced, the Government proceeded to the strongest measures of cdercion. Although by no public official act wore the picquet- ings, stranglings, floggings, and torturiugs, to extort confessions, justified or sanctioned, yet it is universally known, that under the very eye of Government, and with more than their tacit permission, were these outrages practiced. In mentioning the Irish Gov- ernment, it is not meant that this system proceeded from its Chief Governor; it was boasted to have been extorted from him. And to this hour it is not only defended and justified, but panegyrized by the advocates and creatures of the furious drivers of thai system of terrorism. So far from there being any doubt of the existence of any such practices a short time previous to and during the rebellion, Sir Richard Musgrave has, in an additional appendix tn his memoirs of the different re- bellions in Ireland, given to the public his observations upon whipping and free quar- ters, lie admits, indeed, that whosoever considers it abstractedly, must, of course, con- demn it as obviously repugnant to the letter of the law, the benign principles of our Con- stitution, and those of justice and humanity; hill he was convinced, thai SUCh persons as dispassionately- considered the existing cir- cumstances, and the pressure of the occasion under which it was adopted, would readily admit them to be, if not an excuse, at least uu ample extenuation of that practice. " Suppose," says he, " the fullest information could have been obtained of the guilt of every individual, it would have been imprac- ticable to arrest and commit the multitude. Some men of disci rnmenl and fortitude per- ceived that sunn: new expedient must be adopted to prevent the subversion of Gov- ernment, and the destruction of society ; and whippiug was resorted to. 1NSUKKECTI0N BREAKS OUT, "As to the violation of the forms of the law by this practice, it should be recollected the law nf nature, which suggested the ne- cessity of it, supersedes all positive institu- tions, as it is imprinted on the heart of man for the preservation of his creatures, as it speaks strongly and instinctively, and as its end will be baffled by the slowness of de- liberation. " When the sword of civil war is drawn, the laws are silent. As to the violation of humanity, it should be recollected, that nothing could exceed the cruelty of this banditti ; that their object was the extirpa- tion of the loyalists ; that of the vvhippers, the preservation of the community at large. "This practice was never sanctioned by Government, as they, on the contrary, used their utmost exertions to prevent it ; and the evidence extorted from the person whipped never was used to convict any per- son, and was employed for no other reason lint to discover concealed arms, and to de- feat the deleterious schemes of the traitors. Free quarters were confined merely to the province of Leinster. " When Government was possessed of the evidence that the inhabitants of a village or a town, who had taken the usual oaths to lull and deceive the magistrates, were possessed of concealed arms, and meditated an insurrection and massacre, they sent amongst them a certain number of troops, whom they were obliged to maintain by contributions levied on themselves. This took place a few days before the rebellion broke out. "It has been universally allowed, that the military severities practiced in the County of Kildare occasioned a premature explosion of the plot, which the Directory intended to have deferred till the French effected a landing; and one of them, Mr Emmet, declared in his evidence, upon oath, before the Secret Committee of the Lords, that, but for the salutary effects of those military severities, there would have been a very general and formidable insurrection in every part of the country." Tuis warm advocate for the torture has not with his usual minuteness favored his reader with any instances of innocent per- sons having undergone this severe trial from K\ k r-i , i i .'■• r. J. ^^*\ tV" ^ . ■■ :«~ v MX '»*« .St.l»««l.ii. F3S & \\ » -;j/p $-,. V& wanton suspicion, personal revenge, or male- volent cruelty. Yet many such there were ; as must necessarily be the case, where the very cast of a countenance that displeased a corporal or common yeoman sufficed to sub- ject the unfortunate passenger to this mili- tary ordeal. No man can give credit to the assertion, that Government used their utmost exertions to prevent it, who knows anything of the state of Ireland at that disastrous pe- riod. In Bercsford's Riding House, Sandys' Prevot, the Old Custom House, the Royal Exchange, some of the barracks, and other places in Dublin, there were daily, hourly notorious exhibitions of these torturings, as there also were in almost every town, village, or hamlet, throughout the kingdom, in which troops were quartered.* Many attacks were made by the rebels on the second day of the rebellion, (the 24th of May,) generally with ill-success; the chief of which were those of Carlow, Hack- etstown, and Monastereven. There were also several skirmishes near Rathfarnham, Tallagh, Lucan, Luske, Dnuboyne, Barrets- town, Collon, and Baltinglass. At Dun- boyne and Barretstown the insurgents are allowed to have had the advantage. But in all the other encounters, though greatly superior in numbers, they were defeated, with incredible loss of their men. The non-arrival of the mail-coach at the usual hour of eight o'clock in the morning at Carlow, was to be the signal for rising there and its vicinity. This town lies about forty miles southwest of Dublin. Of the in- tended attack the garrison was apprised by an intercepted letter, and from Lieutenant Roe, of the North Cork militia, who had observed the peasants assembling in the vicinity late in the evening of the 24th of May. The garrison consisted in the whole of about four hundred and fifty men, com- manded by Colonel Mahon, of the Ninth Dragoons, and they were very judiciously posted for the reception of the assailants. * It is too large a credit to be allowed to this author's assertion, that the evidence extorted from ihe person whipped utter tens used to convict any person. If the security of the monarch be to be found in the affectionate hearts of Ids people, it is matter of important consideration how far these prac- tices tended more to unite or separate the two kingdoms. A body, perhaps amounting to a thousand or fifteen hundred, having assembled before the house of Sir Edward Crosbie, a mile and a half distant from Carlow, marched into the town at two o'clock in the morning on the 25th of May, in a very unguarded and tumultuary manner, shouting as they rushed into Tullow street, with vain confidence, that the town was their own : they received so destructive a fire from the garrison, that they recoiled and endeavored to retreat ; but finding their flight, intercepted, numbers took refuge in the houses, which were imme- diately fired by the soldiery. About eighty houses, with some hundred men, were con- sumed in this conflagration. As about half this column of assailants had arrived within the town, and few escaped from that situa- tion, their loss can hardly be estimated at less than four hundred ; while not a man was even wounded on the side of the King's troops. After the defeat, executions commenced here, as they did elsewhere in this calami- tous period, and about two hundred, in a short time, were hanged or shot, according to martial law. Among the earliest vic- tims was Sir Edward Crosbie, before whose house the rebel column had assembled, but who certainly had not accompanied them in their march ; he was condemned and shot as an United Irishman. Sir Edward Cros- bie had no further connection with the rebels than that they exercised on a lawn before the house, which of course Sir Ed- ward could not prevent. In the attack upon Slane, a mere hand- ful of troops, about seventeen yeomen and forty of the Armagh militia, although sur- prised in the houses on which they were bil- letted, fought their way separately to their rallying post, and then made a vigorous a stand, that some hundreds of the people were with considerable slaughter repulsed. Sev- eral of the assailants of this small town appeared dressed in the uniforms of the Cork militia and Ancient Britons; which appear- ance, in this and several other instances, proved a fatal deceit to the King's troops. They were the spoils taken at Prosperous : at which place the success of the insurgents, amongst other causes, was owing to their having been headed or led on to the attack j% S )^-7Ly h MASSACRE AT GIBBET RATH OF KILDARE. 305 bj an officer ; :is their defeats in most other places, with immense superiority of numbers, were to be attributed, to the want of some intelligent person to control and direct them, 'heir discomfitures in general wen' not the effect of fear or cowardice, but of want of discipline and organization. KiMare County was not favorable to the insurgents, because it is generally a flat, grassy plain, whore regular cavalry can act with terrible effect. Two weeks were, suf- ficient to crush all insurrectionary move- ments in that county, and in Meath and Carlow. Yet in that short campaign splen- did feats of gallantry were achieved by the half-armed peasantry. At Monastereven, the insurgents were repulsed with some loss, the defenders of the place being in part " loyal " Catholics, commanded by one Cas- sidy. At Old Kilcullen the insurgents de- feated and drove back the advance-guard of General Pandas, with the loss of twenty- two regular soldiers, including a Captain Erskine. But after the first few days, there was in reality no insurrection at all in Kil- dare County ; and the operations of the troops there, though called sometimes "battles," were nothing but onslaughts on disarmed fugitives — in other words, mas- sacres. These proceedings were hailed with triumph in Dublin, as great military achieve- ments. For example, the slaughter of the unresisting, capitulated people at the Gibbet Hath of Kildare, was regarded as a vigor- ous measure which the emergencies of the time required. The rebels, according to Sir R. Musgrave, amounted to about 3,000 in number ; they had entered into terms with General Dnndas, and were assembled at a place that had been a Danish fort, called the Gibbet Rath. Having offered terms of submission to General Dnndas on the 26th of May, that General dispatched General Welford to receive their arms and grant them protection. Before the arrival of the latter, however, on the 3d of June, the mul- titude of unresisting people were suddenly attacked by Sir James Duff, who, having galloped into the plain, disposed his army in order of battle, and with the assistance of Lord II' nidi's Fencible Cavalry, fell upon the astonished multitude, ns Sir Richard Musgrave states, " pell uiell." Three hun- dred and fifty men, under terms of capitula- tion, admitted into the King's peace and promised his protection, were mowed down iu cold blood, at a place known to every peasant in Kildare as " the Place of Slaugh- ter," as well remembered as Mullaghmast itself, the Gibbet Rath of the Curragh of Kildare. The massacre took place on the 3d of June ; the terms of surrender were made by one Perkins, a rebel leader, on the part of the insurgents, and General Dnndas, on the part of the Government, and with its ex- press sanction and permission for them, on delivering up their arms, to return to their homes. Their leader and his brother were to be likewise pardoned and set at liberty. It was when the people were assembled at the appointed place, to comply with these conditions, that Sir James Duff, at the head of 600 men, then on his march from Limerick, .proceeded to the place to procure the surrendered weapons. One of the in- surgents, before giving up his musket, dis- charged it in the air, barrel upwards ; this simple act was immediately construed into a hostile proceeding, and the troops fell on the astonished multitude, and the latter fled with the utmost precipitation, and were pursued and slaughtered without mercy by a party of Fencible Cavalry, called "Lord Jocelyn's Foxhunters." According to the Rev. James Gordon, upwards of 200 fell on this occasion ; Sir R. Musgrave states 350. " No part of the infamy of this proceed- ing," says Dr. Madden, " attaches to Gen- eral Dnndas. The massacre took place without his knowledge or his sanction. His conduct throughout the rebellion was that of a humane and brave man." The brutal massacre on the Curragh is thus described by Lord Camden, the Lord- Lieutenant, in his dispatch to the Duke of Portland :— " Dublin Castle, May 29th. "My Lord ; — I have only time to inform your grace, that 1 learn from General Dun- das that the rebels in the Curragh of Kildare have laid down their arms, and delivered up a number of their leaders. " By a dispatch I have this instant re- ceived, I have the further pleasure of ac- quainting your grace that Sir James Duff. as* J i ''\ 1 ' ^ ^> id • ^""tXS .CGUINBtS.i WMz, M & who, with infinite alacrity and address, has opened the communication with Lim- erick, (that with Cork being already open,) had arrived at Kildare whilst the rebels had possession of it, completely routed them and taken the place. " I have the honor to be, &c., " Camden." The same transaction is thus described by the chief actor : — Extract of a letter from Major-General Sir James /'«//* to Lieutenant-General Luke, dated Monastereven. " I marched from Limerick on Sunday morning with sixty dragoons, Dublin militia, three field pieces, and two curricle guns, to open the communication with Dublin, which I judged of the inmost importance to Gov- ernment. By means of cars for the in- fantry, I reached this place in forty-eight hours. 1 am now, at seven o'clock this morning, (Tuesday,) marching to surround the town of Kildare, the headquarters of the rebels, with seven pieces of artillery, ISO dragoons, and 350 infantry, determined to make a dreadful example of the rebels. I have left the whole country behind me per- fectly quiet, and Well protected by means of the troops and yeomanry corps. " 1 hope to be able to forward this to you by the mad coach, which I will escort to N.ias. I am sufficiently strong. Yon may depend on my prudence and success. My gnns are well manned, and all the troops in high spirits. The cruelties the rebels have committed on some of the officers and men. have exasperated them to a great degree. Of ray future operations I will endeavor to inform you. " I'. S— Kildare, two o'clock, p.m. — We found the rebels retiring from the town on our arrival, armed ; we followed them with the dragoons. I sent on some of the yeo- men to tell them, on laying down their arms, they should not. be hurt. Unfortunately, some of them tired on the troops ; * from that moment they were attacked on all Bides— nothing could stop the rage of the troops. 1 believe from two to three liun- * Plowden describes the affair thus: Aatlio troops advanced near the Insurgents to receive their surren- dered weapons, one of tho latter, foolishly Bwearlng that ho would not deliver his Run otherwise than empty, discharged it with the muzzle upwards. red of the rebels were killed. We have three men killed and several wounded. I am too much fatigued to enlarge." There is no need to recount in detail the various slaughters done by the troops, some- times upon armed insurgents, sometimes upon mere masses of unarmed people. These were all commemorated indifferently by Lord Camden in his dispatches as "battles," " defeat.", of the rebels," and the like. One of his dispatches describes the most serious part of the rising in Wieklow County : — " Dublin Castle, May 26tb, 10 a. m. " Mil Lord: — I have detained a packet, in order to transmit to your grace the in- formation received this morning. " I have stated in a private letter to your giace, that a party of the rebels, to the amount of several hundreds, were attacked by a detachment of the Antrim militia, a small party of cavalry, and Captain Strat- ford's yet inry; and that, being driven into the town of Baltingloss, they lost about 1 50 men. "This morning an account has been re- ceived from Major Hardy, that yesterday a body of between 3,000 and 4,000 had col- lected near Dunlavin, when they were en- tirely defeated, with the loss of 300 men, by Lieutenant Gardner, at the head of a de- tachment of Antrim militia, and Captain Hardy's and Captain Hume's yeomanry. "The troops and yeomanry behaved with the utmost gallantry in both actions." On the same 26th of May another slaugh- ter took place on Tara Hill, in Moath. Some chiefs of thcLeinster insurgents had assembled at that point, where they expect- ed to be joined by a force coming from the North. They were here attacked, and after an obstinate defence, killing thirly-lwo of the soldiers and yeomanry, they were again overpowered, by discipline and superior arms. The issue is told in this dispatch : — Extract of a letter from Captain Seobie, of tlie Reay Fencibles, to Lieutenant-General Lake, dated DunsAaughlin, Sunday mom- ui!!, M«!i 27 ■4 m ,o. . mU- &\ ■ t; I- ' A • ■ 808 HISTORY 01T IRELAND. a sample of the proceedings which were carried on throughout the comity from the moment of the formidable proclamation of martial law, He writes: (See Madden.) "Upon the 28th of April, 1198, my house, offices, and grounds, which are verj considerable, were taken possession of by 120 cavalry and infantry, and L2 officers, who possessed themselves of all kinds of property within and without, and whai they could not consume senl to Athy barracks. They continued in possession about thirty days, until the press of the times obliged them to change their position, Upon the approach of the military, my wife and fami- ly, of course, were obliged to By my habita- tion, without theshortesl previous intimation, ami 1 was sent, under a military escort, to Dublin, where, after an arrest of ninety-one days, I was liberated, without the slightest specific charge of any kind. At the time of ray arrest, 1 commauded as respectable a corps of cavalry as any m the kingdom, con- taining fifty-six in number, and iiol the slightest impropriety was ever attached to any of its members. From the time the military possessed themselves of my resi- dence, the most iuiquitous enormities were everywhere practiced upon the people of tho country ; their houses pluudered, their stock of all kinds seized, driven to the barracks, ami sold by auction ; their persons arrested, nnil sentenced to lie dogged, at the arbitrary will iif the most despicable wretches of the community, A man of the name of Thomas ■James Liu w son, of the lowest order, the of- I'ul of a dunghill, had every person tortured and stripped, as liis cannibal will directed, lie would seal himself in a chair in the cen- tre of n ring formed around the triungles, the miserable victims kneeling under the tri angle until they would be spotted over with tht Hood of the others. People'tif the name of Crouiu were thus treated, tie made the father kneel under the sun while Bogging, the son uuder the father, &e." Why such a demoniac system was intro- duced amongst a peaceful people save to goad them into revolt it is quite impos- sible to comprehend, Thousands of men who had avoided the United Irish Society bel ire, now begun to join it, The priests were Still COUUSOll US patience and subinis shin, ami doing all in their power to make the people deliver up their pikes ami other weapons. Miles Byrne Bays: "The priests did everything in their power to stop the progress of the association of United Irish- men; particularly poor Father John Red- mond, who refused to hear the confe-siou of any of the United Irish, and turned them away from his knees. lie was ill-rei|iiited afterwards for his great y.eal and devotion to the enemies of his country ; for after the insurrection was all over, Earl M-otiiitiiorris brought him in a prisoner to the British Camp at (iorey, with a rope about his neck, hung him lip to B tree, and tired a brace of bullets through his body. Lord Mounfnor- ris availed himself of this opportunity to show his 'loyally,' lor he was rather su - pected on account of not, being at the head of his corps when the insurrection broke out in his neighborhood. Both Redmond and the parish priest, Father Frank CttVa- nagh, Were mi the best terms with Karl Mountnorris, dining frequently with him at, his sent, Camolen Park; which place Father Redmond prevented being plundered during the insurrection. This was the only pari he had taken in the struggle," Various kinds of torture were now habit- ually applied by the magistrates to extort confession of the two great crimes— having arms, or being United Irish; and the mi rest suspicion, or pretence of suspicion, was quite enough to cause a man to tic half- hanged, Bogged almost, to dentil, or tilled with u pitch cap, Edward Hay gives a good general account of the methods by which the \Yc.\ford people were at last maddened to revolt : — "The Orange system made no public appearance in the County of Wexford until tin- beginning of April, on the arrival there of the Ninth Cork militia, commanded by Lord hkiugsborough, In this regiment there were a great number of Orangemen, who were zealous in making pi'OSelyteS and displaying their devices liaviug medals and Orange ribbons triumphantly pendant from their bosoms. It is believed that previous lo this period there were but ivw actual Oraugemen in the county ; but. soon after, those whose principles inclined that way, bndiug themselves supported by ihe inih- f 'V, V $ TOKTUUK IN' WEXFORD. rfc^ c $3 \ iK? tary, joined the association, and publicly avowed themselves by assuming the devices of tin' fraternity, " It is said that the North Cork regiment were also the inventors (bnt they oertainly were the introducers) of pitch-cap torture into the County of Wexford. Any person having his hair cul short, (and, therefore, called a croppy, by which appellation the soldiery designated an United Irishman,) on being pointed out by some loya] neigh- bor, was immediately seized and brought into a guard-house, where caps, either of coarse linen <>r strong brown paper, be- smeared inside with pitch, were always kept ready for Bervice, The unfortunate victim had one of these, well heated, compressed tin his head, and when judged of a proper degree of eoolness, so thai it could not be easily pulled off, the sufferer was turned out amidst the horrid acclamations of the merci- less torturers ; and to the view of vast num- bers of people, who generally crowded about t In; guard-house door, attracted by the cries of the tormented. Many of those persecuted in this manner experienced addi- tional anguish from the melted pitch trick- ling into their eyes. This afforded a rare addition of enjoyment to these keen sports- men, who reiterated their horrid yells of ex- altation on the repetition of the Beveral neei- dents to which their game was liable from being turned out ; for, in the confusion and hurry of escaping from the ferocious hands of these nunc than savage barbarians, the blinded victims frequently fell, or inadver- tently dashed their heads against the walls in their way. The pain of disengaging this pitched cap from the head must be uexl to intolerable. The hair was often torn out by the roots, and not uufrequently parts of the skin wore so scalded or blistered as to ad- hero and i • off along with it. The terror and dismay that these outrages occasi 'd are inconceivable. A sergeant of the North Cork, nicknamed Tnm the Devil, was most ingenious in devising new methods of tor- ture. Moistened gunpowder was frequently rubbed into the liair cul close, and then set on fire. S , while shearing for this pur- pose, had the tips of their cars snipped off. Sometimes an entire ear, and often both ears were completely Cut off , and many lost part of their noses during the like prepara- tion. But, strange to tell, these atrocities were publicly practi 1 without the least reserve, in open day ; and no magistrate or officer ever interfered, lint shamefully con- nived at this extraordinary mode of quieting the people I Some of the miserable suffer- ers on these shocking occasi6ns, or some of their relations or friends, actuated by a prin- ciple of retaliation, if not of revenge, cut short the hair of several persons, whom they either considered as enemies, or suspected of having pointed them out as objects for such desperate treatment. "This was done with a view that those active citizens should fall in for a little ex- perience of the like discipline, or to make the fashion of short, hair so general that it might no longer be a mark of party distinc- tion, females were also exposed to tin: grossest insults from these military ruffians. Many women had their pel ticoals, handker- chiefs, caps, ribbons, and all parts of their dress that exhibited a. shade of green, (con- sidered the national color of Ireland,) torn oil', and their ears assailed by the most vile and indecent ribaldry. This was a circum- stance so unforeseen, and, of course, so little provided against, that many women of en- thusiastic loyally suffered outrage in this manner. "The proclamation of the County of Wexford having given greater scope to the ingenuity of magistrates to devise means of quelling all symptoms of rebell mi, as well as of using every exertion to procure discov- eries, they soon fell to the burning of houses wherein pikes, or other offensive weapons, were discovered, n atter how brought there ; but they did UOt Stop here, for Hi" dwellings of suspected persons, and those from which any of the inhabitants were found lo lie absent at. night, were also con suuieil. The circumstance of absence from the houses very generally prevailed through- out the country, although there were I lie strictest, orders forbidding it. This was occasioned at first, as was before observed, from upprehensi f tlic Orangemen, but afterwards proceeded from the actual expe- rience of torture by the people fr the yi ten and magistrates. Some, too, aban. doned their houses lor fear of being whipped, f. — ... .s-e«E ^ ^ - if, ou being apprehended, confession satisfac- tory to t he magistrates could neither be given or extorted ; and this infliction many persons seemed to fear more than death itself. Many unfortunate men, who were taken in their houses, were Strung up, as it were to be hanged, but were let down now and then to try it strangulation would oblige them to become informers. After these and A the like experiments, several persons lan- T ', finished for some time, and at length per- ished in consequence of them. Smiths ami carpenters, whose assistance was considered indispensable in the fabrication of pikes, were pointed out on evidence of their trades as the first and fittest objects of torture. Hut the sagacity of some magistrates be- came at length so acute, from habil and ex- ercise, that they discerned an United Irish- man even at the first glance I Au<\ their zeal never suffered any person whom they designed to honor with such distinction to puss oil' without convincing proof of their attention " Mr. Hunter Gowan had for many years distinguished himself by his activity in ap- prehending robbers, for which he was re- warded with a pension of JU100 per annum. Now exalted to the rank of a magistrate, and promoted to be captain of a corps of yeomanry, he was zealous in his exertions to inspire the people about Gorey with dutiful submission to the magistracy and a respect- ful awe of the yeomanry. On a public day in the week preceding the insurrection, the town of CJorcy beheld the triumphal entry of Mr. Gowan, at the head of his corps, with his sword drawn and a human finger stuck ou the point of it. "With this trophy he inarched into the town, parading up and down the streets several times, so that there was not a per- son in Gorey who did not witness this exhi- bition ; while in the meantime the triumph- ant corps displayed all the devices of Orange- men. After the labor and fatigue of the day, Mr. Gowan and his men retired to a public house to refresh themselves, and, like true blades vf game, their punch was stirred about with the finger that had graeed their ovation, in imitation of keen fix hunters, who whisk a bowl of punch with the brush of a fox before their boozing commences. This captain and magistrate afterwards went to the house' of Mr. Jones, where his daughters were, and while taking a snack that was set before him, he bragged of hav- ing blooded his corps that day, and that they were as staunch blood-hounds as any in the world. The daughters begged of their father to show* them the croppy finger, which he deliberately took from his pocket ami handed to them. Misses dandled it about with senseless exultation, at which a young lady in the room was so shocked that she turned about to a window, holding her hand to her face to avoid the horrid Bight. Mr. Gowan, perceiving this, took the finger from his daughters, and archly dropped it into the disgusted lady's bosom. She instantly fainted, and thus the scene ended 1 ! ! " Having spent Friday, the 25th of May, with Mr. Turner, a magistrate of the coun- ty, at Newfort, lie requested me to attend him next day at Newpark, the seat of Mr. Fitzgerald, where, as the most central pl;*ee, he had appointed to meel the people of the neighborhood. 1 accordingly met him there on Saturday, the 'Jlilh, where he continued the whole day administering the oath of allegiance to vast numbers of people. A certificate was given to every person wdio look the oath and surrendered any offensive weapon. Many attended who offered to lake the oath, and also to depose that they were not United Irishmen, and that they possessed no arms ol any kind whatever, and earnestly asked for certificates. But so great was the concourse of these, that, con- sidering the trouble of writing them out, it was found Impossible to supply them all with such testimonials at that time. Mr. Turner, therefore, continued to receive surrendered arms, desiring such as had none to await a more convenient 1 opportunity. Numbers, however, still conceiving that they would not be secure without a written protection, offered ten times their intrinsic value to such as had brought pike blades to surrender ; but these being unwilling to forego the benefit of a written protection for the mo- ment, refused to pari with their weapons on any other condition. Among the great numbers assembled on this occasion were some men from the village of Ballaghkeeo, Tn gu ■v^; fill Cuil'MBI.S.t &Z.Z FATHER .iniiN- MriU'IIY. :ui i\ who had the appearance of being more dead than alive, from ihe apprehensions they were onder of having t 1, 'r houses burned or themselves whipped should they return home. These apprehensions had been ex- cited to tins degree because that, on the night of Thursday, the 24th, the Enniscor- iliy cavalry, conducted by Mr. Archibald Hamilton Jacob, had come to Ballaghkeen; but, on hearing the approaching noise, the inhabitants run out of their houses, and lied into large brakes of furze on ;i Mil imme- diately above the village, from whence they could hear the cries of one of their neigh- bors, who was dragged out <>f his house, tied Up to a thorn tree, and while one yeoman continued flogging him, another was throwing water on his back. The groans of the unfortunate sufferer, from the stillness of the night, reverberated widely through the appalled neighborhood ; and the s|iut of execution these men represented to have appeared next morning 'as if a pig had been killed.'"* On the 25th of May was perpetrated the iniissacre of Carnew. A large number of prisoners had been shut up in the jail of that place, on suspicion of being guilty of pos- sessing arms, or of knowing some one who possessed arms These prisoners were all taken out of-the jail and deliberately shot in the ball alley, by the yeomen and a party of the Antrim militia, in presence of their officers.^ Father John Murphy was curate of Monagcer and Boolevogue. He was a gen- tleman of learning and accomplishments, having studied in the University of Seville, lie had now been resident several years, quietly doing the saered duties of his calling, enjoying the esteem of all his neighbors, and little dreaming that it was to fall to his lot to head an insurrection. Miles Byrne, who knew him well, narrates with much simplicity the story of the good priest's first act of war : — "The Reverend John Murphy, of the parish of Monageer and Boolevogue, was a worthy, simple, pious man, and one of those Roman Catholic priests who used the great- est exertions and exhortations to oblige the people to surrender their pikes and fire-arms • Edward Hay. t Hay, Madden. ^ f, r rfT of every description. As soon as the cow- ardly yeomanry thought that all the arms were given np, and that there was no fur* ther risk, they took courage, and set out, on Whit Saturday, the 26th of May, 1798, burning and destroying all before them. Poor Father John, seeing his chapel and his house, and many others of the parish, all on lire, and in several of them the inhabitants consumed in the flames, and that no man seen in colored clothes could escape the I'm y of the yeomanry, betook himself to the next wood, where he was soon surrounded by the unfortunate people who had escaped ; all came beseeching his reverence to tell them what was to become of them and their poor families, lie answered them abruptly, that they had better die courageously in the field than be butchered in their houses ; that, for his own part, if he had any brave men to join him, he was resolved to sell his life dearly,, and prove to those cruel monsters that they should not continue their murders and devastations with impunity. All an- swered and cried out that they were deter- mined to follow his advice, and to do what- ever he ordered. ' Well, then,' he replied, ' we must, when night conies, get armed the best way we can, with pitch-forks and other weapons, and attack the Camolen yeo- man cavalry on their way back to Earl Mountnorris, where they will return to pass the night, after satisfying their savage rage on the defenceless country people.' " Father John's plan was soon put in ex- ecution. He went to the high road by ^Sv^^V^ which the corps was to return, left a few //jArSl ?> •_ a y MB! m a irps men near a house, with instructions to place two cars across the road the moment the last of the cavalry had passed, and at a short distance from thence, half a quarter of a mile, he made a complete barricade across the highway, and then placed all those brave fellows who followed him behind a hedge along the road-side; and in this position he waited to receive this famous yeomanry cavalry, returning from being glutted with all manner of crimes during this memorable day, the 26th of May, 1198. "About nine o'clock at night, this corps, riding in great speed, encountered the above- mentioned obstacle on the road, and were at the same moment attacked from front to m % HISTORY OF IRELAND. Pi'« - ither John and his brave men, with their pitch-forks. The cavalry, after discharging their pistols, got no time to re- load them, or to make much use of their sabres. In short, they were literally lifted out of their saddles, and fell dead under their horses' feet. Lieutenant Booky, who had the command in the absence of Earl Mountnorris, was one of the first killed ; he was a sanguinary villain, and it seemed a just judgment that befell them all. But, be that as it may, Father John and his men were much elated with their victory, and getting arms, ammunition, and horses by it, considered themselves formidable, and able at least to beat the cruel yeomanry in every encounter. They marched at once to Ca- molen Park, the residence of Lord Mount- norris, where they got a great quantity of arms of every description, and which had been taken from the country people for months before ; and even the carabines be- longing to the corps, and which had not been distributed, waiting the arrival of the Earl from Dublin. "During the night, and the nest day, Whit Sunday, the 27th of May, the people flocked iu to join Father John's standard, on hearing of his success ; and as soon as the news was known in Gorey, the troops took fright and abandoned the town, letting the prisoners go where they pleased ; but finding that Father John had marched in another direction, they returned and re- sumed their persecutions as before ; they again arrested great numbers and had them placed in the market-house loft, ready to be butchered the moment the insurgents made their appearance before the town. Poor Perry was amongst the prisoners, aud iu a dreadful state, having the skin as well as the hair burned off his head. Esmond Cane was arrested that day and made a pris- oner." Father John might now have marched Into Wicklow County without much opposi- tion, "but," continues Miles Byrne, "he thought it would be more advisable to raise the whole County of Wexford first, and get possession of the principal towns. In conse- quence of this decision, on Whit Sunday, the 27th of May, he marched with all his forces, then amounting to four or five thou- '3 C.M6 .CbLMNtiUi.iL >M i? ^T^P r ~^W a , | ■ *-i iN . y t ssTs>"Mfi3ii!3Mfcif' Jl |[ /?■•'■"■■ '^i 1^ , /IT ,■* 814 IIIHTtiKY -s lesBod no Influence with tho people, who liml ordered him t" return and announce their determination of marching to the attack of Wexford ; adding thai they had detained Mr, Fitzgerald, Mr, Colclough then re- quo tod lo be Informed, ii ii were Intended to make further trial of Ins services, or to require his longer attendance, as otherwise they must be Bonslbla how eager he mu I iir to rcllove the anxiety of his family by his presence, He was then eutreated to endeavor to maintain tranquillity In lii^ own in i ■■ iiii.H I i, w hlch ba\ lug promlsod to tin, ns much us in Ids power, he called al ilu> jiul in visii Mr. Harvey, with whom he agrood (according to the oompaot with t laptaln Boyd | to return next daj and toko In place in tho jail, and then set "it i lirough tho barony of Forth, for liis own dwelling hi Bullytelgue, diitaul about ton miles from Woxfordi t'liiilv iii the morning of tho 20th, Colonel Maxwell, of the Donegal militia, wiiii two hundred men of his regiment and a Bis pounder, arrivod in Wexford from Duncan- n. hi Fort, dispatched by General Fuwcett, who had beon apprised of the Insurrection on the 21th, by Captain Knox, an officer sent in escort Sergeant Stanley, a Judge of i Ize, on bis way to Monster, This rein> forcement being Insufficient, an express was sent from the Mayor of Wexford to the Qenornl, requesting an additional force ; ho expeditiously returned with an exhilarating answer, that tho General himself would com* rnonco his march for Wexford on tho same eve g, from Duncannon, "iiii the Thir- teenth Regiment, four companies of the Meal ii 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 n, mill b party of artillery " iili two howitzers, On the receipt of this In- telligence, Colonel Maxwell, leaving the live passos into the town guarded hy the yeomei I North < lork militia, took post M Mil lu> nun on llir Windmill I 1,11 nliove tlie town, ni daj break on the following morning, the BOth, wiili the resolution to march against the enemy on ilie arrival of Qeneral Fuwcet t's army, That General liml marched according to his promise, on the evening of the 29th ; but hultiug at Taghmon, seven miles from Wex- ford, he had sent forward a dotachmenl of eight} oight men, Including eighteen of the artillery, with the howitzers, under the com- mand of Captain , Vilnius, of the Month militia, This detachment was Intercepted ni 1 1 \ in i Iir moruiug oi' i lie BOth, by the hi- snrgents, undor the Throe Rocks, which they hud occuplod »s a military station, l>c- Ing about throe miles from Wexford j the howitzers were taken and almost the whole part v ■ lain * Colonel Maxwell, Informed of the de- struction of Captain Adams' detachment, by two officers who had escapod the slaugh- ter, advanced immediately with what forces he could collect, with design to retake the howitzerB, and cttopernto with Geuoral Faw- ceil, of whoso retreat ho bad no suspicion, ' iiie following , .iii, mi :i, , ,'uni vru given of thts all. in " Dublin i'i'nr,.ii 2d, L708, ■• \ ..'••> 1 1 ■ i , have boon rtoolvod from Wojor-Qon- ,'i ni i;h in,,', ni Ni'\ li.'MH, etatlag that M.ii"i' i;,'n- i I .il I' .1 H 01 H ll i\ '":' 1 1 1, Iir 1 1,', I \\ I III II .',,111 1 * : 1 1 1 \ ,,| (In, Men t h K'i'iiii, nl lioiii liiiiKiiiiiioii I'', mi, thil hiiiiiII foj'ofl wanurroundari bv n vorj largo bodj botwoon 1 i "liiiinii mill \\<"it,,i,l. mi, I ,ltli'iilt',l. I.i'inriil FilWOOtt ill, -el,, I Inn o In. it to I'llluaiitiou 1'ViL." s , Fa .Vi V ' ,lk*~- Ifc , ,u*u.ii ■ m ..<: V^ , . 1 mkm ^ . i — — < Mi, ,-i L^ '"mfi irm^JHa3s^Bfc^l-:L!l. — -£ IMJ2 — - > ^ WKXI'OKI) ICVAOI miii in I in. KINCt H TUoni'H. 815 >>; Wi but mm iii . i, ii ii.iiiK oxposod bj Hi'' retreat mi .11 i iii.. Tugl ii cavalry, inn! tin- onomy making a motion to Burrouud ii.m ho retired to Woxford, wttU the I" ol l.ii'iiiriiniii Colonel Watsou killed, aud two privates " ouudod Everything now wore the aspoot of a el n , .I |n i .id- con tornatlon, Some \ . ..iii.ii and Bupplomontarios, posted noarlj oppo ii'- the Jull, were heard continually to threaten to put nil the prist ra to doath, « hicl i led the attonllon of the Jallet' to proteel his charge, thai ho bnrrleudod tlio door, and delivered up tho Ivy to Mr li, h\i\ Sum i<>'ist rnti's were admitted i.i , , \ii ii.u \rv in tho Jail, and, at tliolr most urgenl oulrealies, ho wrote the follow in notice to tin- Insurgonl " | have boon treated in prison with nil no [bio humanity, and am now at liborl y I have procured tho liberty of nil tho prut oners, 11 von pretoud i" Christian charity, il.i ii.,i commit massacre, or burn tho pro I ii it \ ni the Inhabitants, and spare your pi era 1 lives, " B, It ll ua i \ •• 1 1, dnuday, May BOM, 1108 " <' solor Richards, vmiIi ins brothor, then undertook to unuouueo tho surrender of tho town in tho In ui gouts, » hose camp tlir\ reached In safotj , I hough clad In full aniform, Scarcely had those deputies set mil upon their mission, wlton all the military eorp . n pat I ol tho Vt oxford Infuntrj under Oaptaln Hughes onl) excepted, made tho I,, i of tbolr way out of town In whatovor ,in oi lion i hoy Imagined thoy could Qnd safety, without acquainting tholr neighbors on dutj of their Intention . The principal Inhabitants, wl i Ices had boen uc ceptcd nl for the defence of tho town, wore mostly Catholics, and, according i" tho prevulont system, wore subjeol to tho greal est Insults and taunts. They were nl ways placed In front of tho po its, and cau tloued in behave well, or that death should be i ho i cqnotico, A.ocord ly, po win' placed behind to koop them to their duty, and I he e » o " atchful of their charge, that the) would not oven |» I ii,. in i,, turn about their head The i wore tin' ni in. ,l Inhabitants left at thole po >. ui,. in, I, hi,, l by their offlcors, aud uotuallj •5 i ' I ignorunl of the Sight "I tho soldiery, until nil pos ilblo means of rotroating wore cut off. G l >< m tho approach "i tbo Insurgent , I ho confusion aud dismay wero oxcos Ive, tho few remaining offlcors and privuirs inn mn || H.? fusedly through the town, threw off tholr uniforms, aud hid themselves whorever their inn's suggostod, Some ran for boats to convoy them off, and throw their arms and ammunition into the'Wator, Some, from an in ufflctoncy of men's clothos, assumed fe male attiro for tlie purpo le "i dl gul a Extreme confusion, tumult, and panic wore everywhere exhibited The North Cork regiment, on quitting tho barracks, hml m>i ilirin mi Hro, imi tho lire was soou after |»m, mil Iii ilu' moantlmo, Mr, Richards having ni rivod ni i ho Tin 1 '' Rock , in idu ll known to the in urgent chiefs, that the) wero do- putod i<> Inform tho people thul tho town would bo surrondorod to thorn, on condition ol {in lug llvos and properties ; those tei ihb, they were Informotl, would not be cotnpllod u ilh, null- . ilia miii'. mill iiiiiniunil mn of tllQ : ..ii 1 1 .mi iinr al io surrondorod, Mr, Loftus Rlchnrds wus, therefore, dutaiuod us u hos- tage, ninl Oouusulor Richards and Mr Fitzgerald wore sent back to tho town, to settle and arrange I ho art icle i ol capltula imn Those gentlemon, on tholr arrival, to tholr astonl ihuiout, I'uuud tho place abitti donod by tho military A multiludo of in ni .,ni was Ju il i cod) in pour in aud taka uncondil ioual poi i ion of tlio tow n, ii was thoreforo thought neci m to treat ^N h iih them, in order to proven! tho i qtioncos opprehouded rrom such a tumul tuary luflux of people, Dr Jacob, then Mayor of tho town and Oaptaln of tho Woxford Infantry, entreated Mr Fitzgerald in announce to the people rushing In, that the town was actually surrendered ; aud to ii i ovon argument that his prudonce might suggost in make their ontrj us poauoablo as po [bio Mr Fitzgerald complied, aud In- Btantly ofter this com ication, thousands of people pourod Into the town, over tho wooden bi klgo, hominy and exhibiting all il lr iii.ii L . ol i'..ini iguiii nn. i \ Ivtorious exultation, 'I In ) Hi - proceeded i" the i ni, n i, ii , ,i all the pi i onei . and Insl iti d that Mr. llarvo} should becomo their oonv » 31G HIST0KY OF IRELAND. m & mander. All the houses in town, not aban- doned by the inhabitants, now became decorated with green boughs, and other em- blematic symbols. The doors were univer- sally thrown open, and the most liberal offers made of spirits and drink, which, how- ever, were not as freely accepted, until the persons offering them had first drank them- selves, as a proof that the liquor was not poisoned — a report having prevailed to that effect. The insurgents being in possession of the town, several of the yeomen, having tin own ofif their uniforms, affected, with all the signs and emblems of the United Irishmen, to convince them of their unfeigned cordial- ity and friendship ; those who did not throw open their doors with oilers of refreshment and accommodation to the insurgents, suf- fered by plunder, their substance being con- sidered as enemy's property. The house of Captain Boyd was a singular exception. It was, though not deserted, pillaged. Those troops who had Bed from Wexford signalized themselves in their retreat by plundering and devastating the country ; by burning the cabins and shooting the peas- ants in their progress; and thus they aug- mented the number and rage of the insur- gents. These excesses were seen from the insurgents' station at the Three Rocks, and it was with extreme difficulty that the en- raged multitude were hindered by their chiefs from rushing down upon Wexford, ami taking summary vengeance of the town and its inhabitants. The whole County of Wexford was now in open insurrection. Perhaps, it would be more correct to say that the people had taken to the field because their houses were mostly burned down, and had collected themselves into masses, with such poor arms as they hail for their common protec- tion. The aggregate numbers of persons, whether insurgents or fugitives, with their crouds of women and children, far exceeded the numbers of lighting men that the county could furnish. The population of Wexford at that time did not much, if at all, exceed one hundred and fifty thousand persons.* * In 1841, it was 202,033. In 1851, it was 180,159.- 27iom'« Almanac. The men who were properly of fighting age, therefore, were not more than thirty thou- sand. Sir Jonah Barrington has estimated the whole number of those who rose in this county at thirty-five thousand ; but even to attain this amount, there must have been counted many thousands of old men, women, ami children, besides many thousands more who were unarmed, or only half-armed. These straggling multitudes, then, without camp equipage, or accoutrements, or artil- lery, (except a few ship-gnus, oot mouuted, ami some captured field-pieces, ) were now committed to a desperate struggle against the force of a powerful empire, well supplied with everything, and led by veteran gen- erals. The only wonder, to those who read this narration, will be, not that they were finally overpowered, but that they achieved such successes, as for a time they certainly did. If the other thirty-one counties had done as well as Wexford, there would have mcii that year an end to British dominion. M. V, h CHAPTER XXXV. 1798. Camp on Vinegar Hill— Actions at Ballycannoo — At Newtownbarry — Tubberneering— Fall of Walpole — Two Columns — Bagenal Harvey Commands insur- gents— Summons New Ross to Surrender Battle of New Roi — Slaughter of Pris rs -Retaliation — Scullabogue — Bagenal Harvey Shocked by Affair of SouUabogue Resigns Command— Father Philip Roche General— Fight at Arklow — Claimed as a Victory by King's Troops— A unit of it by Miles Byrne — The Insurgents Execute some Loyalists in Wexford Town — Dixon — Retaliation— Proclamation by "People of Wexford "—Lord Kingsborough a Prisoner — Troops Concentrated round Vinegar Hill — Battle of Vinegar Hill— Enniscorthy and Wexford Recovered— Military Executions— Ravage of the Country Chiefs Executed in Wexford Treatment of Women— Outrages in the North of the County- Fate of Father John Murphy's I tolumn - Of Antony Perry's — Combat at Ballyellis — Miles Byrne's Ac- count of it — Extermination of Ancient Britons — Character of Wexford Insurrection— Got up by the Government. While the insurgents were holding the town of Wexford, two large "encampments" id' tin in were formed, one at Carrigrcw llil the other at Carrickbyrne, within six miles of the town of New Koss, situated on the arge river Nore, and commanding the main passage into the County of Kilkenny. Their principal headquarters was still at m y a fresh party from thf camp. Such great numbers of the exasperated of the people from the adjacent country (locked to their camp that it soon consisted of at leasl ten thousand men, wo- men, mid children. They posted strong picket-guards, sentinels, and videttes in all the avenues leading to the town, and for some miles round it. They then proceeded to destroy the interior of the church of En- niscorthy.* A body of more than one thousand insur- gents, in advancing towards Gorey, on the 1st of June, had taken possession of a small village called Ballycannoo, four miles to the south of Gorey, and were proceeding to take possession of an advantageous post, called Ballymanaan Hill, midway between the vil- lage and the town, when they were met. by the whole of the small garrison of Gorey, and by a steady and well-directed lire the people were soon completely routed. This victorious hand, on their return to Gorey, tired most of the houses at Ballycannoo, and entered the town in triumph, with one hun- dred horses and other spoil which they had taken. In this, as in every other engage- ment at the beginning of the rebellion, the insurgents elevated their guns too much for execution, which accounts for the paucity of the slain on the part of the King's troops. Ou this occasion three only were wounded, and in killed. The insurgents are said to have lost above three score. "j" This success, coupled with that at New- townbarry, gave a momentary cheek to the ardor of the people. A party from Vinegar ilill Burr led this latter town in such a * Thi-i was done strictly in retaliation for the burn- ing and wrecking <■ appointed and elected commander-in-chief of the United Army of the County ol Wexford, Prom and after the first day of June, 17as. "Signed, by order of the different commanding officers of the camp, •' Nil rim. as Gray, Secretary." "It was likewise agreed, that Edward Roche should, from ami after tin: 1st day of June Instant, lir elected, and is hereby elected, a general officer ol Hi United \ 1 1 1 1 v of the County of Wexford. "Signed by the above authority, " Nicholas Gray." f To shoot all persona carrying flags ol* tr from the insurgonts, appears to have been a maxim with Ills Majesty's forces, lu Furlong's pocket was found fantry, seized the cannon, and being followed in their successful career by crowds from the hills, seemed some time nearly masters of the town. From a full persuasion of a decided victory in favor of the insurgent army, some officers of the garrison fled to Waterford, twelve miles distant, with the alarming intelligence. The original plan of attack was thus de- feated by this premature, though successful onset, in one quarter. The Dublin and Donegal militia maintained their posts at the market-house, and at a station called Fairgate, and prevented the insurgents from penetrating into the centre of the town ; while Major-General Johnson, aided by t lie extraordinary exertions of an inhabitant of Ross, named M'Cormick, who had served in the army, though not then in commission, brought back to the charge the troops that had fled across the river to the Kilkenny side. They presently recovered their post, and drove the insurgents from the town, the outskirts of which were now in flames, fired by the assailants or disaffected inhabitants, as Enniscorthy had been. The insurgents, in their turn, rallied by their chiefs, returned with fury to the assault, and regained sonic ground. Again dislodged by the same ex- ertions as before, and a third time rallied, they were at last finally repulsed, after an engagement of above fen hours, ending about two o'clock in the afternoon. The official bulletin, published at Dublin on the 8th of June, stated that, on the 5tb, about six in the morning, the insurgents attacked the position of General Johnson, at New Ross, with a very large force and the following letter of summons to General John- son :— " Sir — As a friend to humanity, I request yon will surrender the town of Itoss to the Wexford forces, now assembled against that town. Your resistance will but provoke rapine and plunder, to the ruin of the most innocent. Flushed with victory, the Wex- ford forces, now innumerable and Irresistible, will not be controlled if they meet with resistance. To prevent, therefore, the total ruin of all property in the town, I nrge you to a sj ly surrender, which you will be forced to in a lew hours, with loss and bloodshed, as you are surrounded on all sides. Your answer is required in four hours. Mr. Furlong car- ries this letter, and will bring the answer. " I am, Sir, II. B. Harvey, " (iencral commanding, &c, ic, Ac. "Camp at Corbet Hill, half-past three o'clock in the morning, June 5, 1798." & se 4A6 ■ COuNtfb) ^^~^w A E3i^^^ jgs^ £g 320 HISTORY OF IRELAND. great impetuosity ; but that, after a contest of several hours, they were completely re- pulsed. The loss of the insurgents was very great, the streets being literally strewed with their carcasses An iron gun upon a ship carriage had been taken ; and late in the evening they retreated entirely to Car- rickburn, leaving several iron ship guns not mounted. General Johnson, in his dispatch, greatly regretted the loss of that brave officer, Lord Mountjoy, who fell early in the contest. A return of the killed and wounded of His Majesty's forces had not then been received, but it appeared not to have been considera- ble. It was supposed to have been about three hundred, though the official detail afterwards made reduced it to about half that number.* Sir Jonah Barrington, on the authority of a Protestant gentleman, who was an eye- witness, gives in these words the horrible sequel of the affair of New Ross : — " The firing, however, continued till towards night, when the insurgents who had not entered the houses, having no offi- cers to command them, retreated through the gate by which they had entered, half a mile to Corbet Hill, leaving some thousands of their comrades asleep in different houses, or in the streets to which the flames had not communicated. Of these, the garrison pnt hundreds to the sword, without any resistance ; and more than five thousand were either killed or consumed by the cou- agration." We now come to a scene of savage ven- geance, which, however provoked, it will be always painful for an Irishman to read of. The same night of the defeat and carnage * The impetuosity and ardor with which the insur- gents assailed the town of Ross, and the prodigality with which they threw away their lives, surpassed belief. The troops did not stand it; and the difficulty with which General Johnson rallied them proves the terror which this charge of the insurgents had creat- ed. The first assailants had no sooner dislodged the troops, than, instead of pursuing them on their re- treat, they fell to plunder, and became quickly dis- abled to act from intoxication, whereby they were so easily repulsed on the return of the fugitive troops. Sir Richard Mnsgrave says, [p. 410,] " that such was their enthusiasm that, though whole ranks of them were seen to fall, they were succeeded by others, who seemed to court the fate of their companions, by rushing on our troops with renovated ardor." in New Ross, the barn of Scullabogue at the foot of Carrickburn Hill, containing about one hundred loyalist prisoners, and guarded by a small party of insurgents, under John Murphy, of Loughgur, was de- liberately Bred, and all its inmates burned to death. The occasion of this proceeding was as follows : Some of the people, retreat- ing from New Ross, arrived in violent ex- citement, and announced that the troops and yeomanry were slaughtering the unre- sisting prisoners after the fighting was all over — which was true. Moreover, cases were notorious, as at Dunlavin and Carnew, where prisoners had heen put to death with the most wanton cruelty, contrary to all the laws of civilized war ; and men maddened by defeat are not likely to form a cool judg- ment as to the proper application and ex- tent of the doctrine of retaliation in war. Yet there is, unhappily, no other way of enforcing upon an enemy due observance of the laws of war than the sternest retaliation for every outrage done by that enaniy against those laws. All the historians of the insurrection* represent that the peoplo who burned the barn did it by way of re- taliation. Sir Jonah Barrington says : — " R is asserted that eighty-seven wounded peasants, whom the King's army had found, on taking the town, in the market-house, used as an hospital, had been burned alive ; and that, in retaliation, the insurgents burned above a hundred royalists in a barn at Scullabogue." Mr. Plovvden, although, as a "loyal" Catholic, he thinks it his duty to give hard measure to the "rebels," yet has conscien- tiously placed this affair of Scullabogue in its true light- He says : — "There is no question but that the insur- gents were universally and unexceptionably determined upon the principle of retaliation and retribution. They considered every man that lost his life under military execu- tion, without trial, as a murdered victim, whose blood was to be revenged — so san- guinary and vindictive had this warfare fatally become. Besides numerous in- stances of such military executions, wher- ever the a nny had gained an advantage, * Except Sir Richard Mnsgrave, whose authority is not to be taken into consideration at all. mm ^EMM&SMmE \&Vt v #€?-> l^ \ %> <& , ■ y"N. BAGENAL HAltYEY SHOCKED BY AFFAIB OF SCDLLABOGUE. 321 they bore deeply in their minds the deliber- ate and brutal murder of thirty-eight pris- oners, most of whom had not (at least who were said and believed not to have) commit- ted any act of treason, at Dunlavin on the 21th of May; and the like wanton and atrocious murder of thirty-nine prisoners of the like description at Carnew, on the morn- ing of Whitsun Monday, merely because the party which had them in custody had orders to march ; and they were unwilling to discharge them, bilt wanted time to ex- amine, much more to try them. A gentle- man of punctilious veracity and retentive memory has assured me that he was present in the House of Commons at the examina- tion of a Mr. Fri/.ell, a person of respecta- bility, at the bar of that House, in the sum- mer of H98, who was a prisoner in the house of Scullabogue on the 4th of June. He was asked every question that could be suggested relative to the massacre ; to which his answers were substantially as fol- lows : That, having been taken prisoner by a party of the rebels, he was confined to a room on the ground floor in Scullabogue house, with twenty or thirty other persons ; that a rebel guard with a pike stood near the window, with whom he conversed ; that persons were frequently called out of the room, in which he was, by name, and he be- lieves were soon after shot, as he heard the report of muskets shortly after they had been so called out ; that lie understood that many were burned in the barn, the smoke of which he could discover from the win- dow ; that the sentinel pikemau assured him that they would not hurt a hair of his head, as he was always known to have be- haved well to the poor ; that he did not know of his own knowledge, but only from the reports current amongst the prisoners, what the particular cause was for which the rebels had set fire to the barn. Upon which, Mr. Ogle rose with precipitancy from his seat and put this question to him with great i agerness : ' Sir, tell us what the cause was V It having been suggested that the question would lie more regularly put from the chair, it wos repeated to him in form; and Mr. Prizell answered that the only cause thai lie or, he believed, the other prisoners ever understood induced the rebels to this action, was, that they had received intelligence that the military were again putting all the rebel prisoners to death in the town of Ross, as they had done at Dunlavin and Carnew Mr. Ogle asked no more questions of Mr. Prizell, and he was soon after dismissed from the bar. To those gentlemen who were present at this examination, the truth of this statement is submitted." As to the number of victims, Dr. Madden, who has examined the subject carefully, sets it down at " about one hundred " General Bagenal Harvey was inexpressi- bly shocked by the affair of Scullabogue, especially when he learned that it was done upon a pretended order from himself. When Cloney saw Harvey, after the flight from New Ross, he found the hitter and several of the leaders " lamenting over the smoking ruins of the barn and the ashes of the hapless victims of that barbarous atrocity." Mr. George Taylor, whose views are those of the Ascendency party, states that Bagenal Harvey, the next morning, was in the greatest anguish of mind when he be- held Scullabogue barn: "He turned from the scene with horror, and wrung his hands, and said to those about him : ' Innocent people were burned there as ever were bom. Your conquests for liberty are at an end.' He said to a friend he fell in with, with re- spect to his own situation : ' I see now the folly of embarking in this business with these people. If they succeed, I shall be murdered by them ; if they are defeated, I shall be hanged.'" They were defeated, and he was hung. The next day after the defeat, the insur- gents resumed their position on Carrickburn Hill. There were loud murmurs against their unfortunate Commander-in-Chief ; wh I, on his side, was not too well pleased with the conduct of his men. He, therefore, re- signed, and retired to Wexford : but not before issuing "General Orders"— and it was his last act of military command— de- nouncing the penalty of death against " any person or persons who should take it upon himself or themselves to kill or murder any prisoner, burn any house, or commit any plunder, without special written orders from the Commander-in-Chief." ^ C ^ m ~r>\ «S/'<' -^ >£^ i? Lfsji*!rt f> i? 322 HISTORY OF IRELAND. By election Father Philip Roche was uow made Commander iu-Chief. The insurgents next attacked some gunboats in the river, but without success. Father Roche then led them to the hill of Lacken, within two miles of Ross, the scene of their late discom- fiture. Iu the meantime, some important movements took place on the northern bor- der of the county. Perhaps, the most crit- ical occasion during the whole insurrection was the advance of the insurgents upon Arklow, iu Wicklow County, on the 9th of June, and the battle at that place. The commanders on this occasion were the two Fathers Murphy, John and Michael, and the force was the same which had so thoroughly defeated the King's troops at Tubberneering. After the defeat of Walpole's army on the 4th of June, the insurgents had wasted much time in Carnew. At length, however, they collected their force at Gorey, and ad- vanced to attack Arklow on the 9th, the first day iu which that post had been pre- pared for defence. Their number exceeded twenty thousand, of whom near five thou- sand were armed with guns, the rest with jiikcs, and they were furnished with three serviceable pieces of artillery. The garrison consisted of sixteen hundred men, including yeomen, supplementary men, and those of the artillery. The insurgents attacked the town on all sides, except that which is washed by the river. The approach of that column, which advanced by the sea-shore, was rapid and impetuous ; the picket-guard of yeoman cavalry, stationed in that quar- ter, instantly galloped oil' iu such tenor that most of them stopped not their flight till they had crossed the river, which was very broad, swimming their horses, iu great peril of drowning. The further progress of the as- sailants was prevented by the charge of the regular cavalry, supported by the fire of the infantry, who had been formed for the de- fence of the town, in a line composed of three regiments, with their battalion artil- lery, those of the Armagh and Cavan militia, and the Durham Fencibles. The main ef- fort of the insurgents, who commenced the attack near four o'clock in the evening, was directed against the station of the Durham, whose line extended through the field in front of the town to the road leading Gorey. As the insurgents poured their fire from the shelter of ditches, so that the opposite fire of the soldiery had no effect, Colonel Skerret, the second iu command, ordered his men to stand with ordered arms, their left wing covered by a breastwork, and the right by a natural rising of the ground, un- til the enemy, leaving their cover, should advance to an open attack. This open at- tack was made three times in most formid- able force, the assailants rushing within a few yards of the cannons' mouths ; but they were received with so close and effective a fire, that they were repulsed with loss in every attempt. The Durhams were not only exposed to the fire of the enemy's small arms, but were also galled by their cannon. General Needham, fearing to be overpow- ered by numbers, began to talk of a retreat ; to which Colonel Skerret spiritedly replied to the General, that they could not liope for victory otherwise than by preserving their ranks ; if they broke, all was lost. By this answer, the General was diverted some time from his scheme of a retreat, anil in that time the business was decided by the retreat of the insurgents, who retired, when frus- trated in their most furious assault, and dispirited by the death of Father Michael Murphy, who was killed by a cannon shot, within thirty yards of the Durham line, while he was leading his people to the at- tack. Such is the generally-received account of the light at Arklow. The loyalists have always claimed victory. Indeed, the official bulletin runs thus : — "Dcblin, June 10th, 1798. " Accounts were received early this morn- ing by Lieutenant-General Lake, from Major-General Needham, at Arklow, stating that the rebels had, iu great force, attacked his position in Arklow at six o'clock yester- day evening. They advanced in an irregu- lar manner, and extended themselves for the purpose of turning his left flank, his rear and right flanks being strongly defended by the town and barrack of Arklow. Upon their endeavoring to enter the lower end of the town, they were charged by the Fortieth Dragoon Guards, Fifth Dragoons, and An- ^ £NH .CulMMtiiiS,^ \ * • . 2 ^ LOYALISTS l.XI.CUTED IN WEXFORD. 323 cicnt Uri i oiis, and completely routed. All round the other poiuts of the position they were defeated with much slaughter. The loss of His Majesty's troops was trifling, and their behavior highly gallant." One part of this dispatch is certainly false. The insurgents were not "routed." but after remaining for some time in posses- sion of the field of battle, they retired at their leisure, carrying off all their wounded. Sir Jonah Barrington calls it "a drawn bat- tle;" and Miles Byrne, who fought in it, was under the impression that his party had gained a victory, though lie admits they did not follow it up as they ought to have done. This line old soldier, writing of it sixty years afterwards, in Paris, exclaims with bitter regret : — "How melancholy to think a victory, so dearly bought, should have been abandoned, ami for which no good or plausible motive could ever be assigned. No doubt we had expended nearly all our ammunition, but that should have served as a sufficient rea- son to have brought all our pikemen in- stantly to pursue the enemy whilst in a slate of disorder, and panic-struck, as it really was that day at Arklow. " My linn belief is, to-day, as it was that day, that if we had had no artillery, the battle would have been won in half the time ; for we should have attacked the position of the Durham Fencibles at the very onset, with some thousand determined pikemen, in place of leaving those valiant fellows inac- tive to admire the effect of each cannon- shot. No doubt our little artillery was admirably directed, and did wonders, until Esmond Cyan's wound deprived the Irish army of this gallant man's services ; he was in every sense of the word a real soldier and true patriot. " Never before had the English Govern- ment in Ireland been so near its total de- struction. When lloche's expedition ap- peared on the coast in 1196, the Irish nation was ready to avail itself of it, to throw nil' the English yoke ; but now the people found they were adequate to accom- plish this great act themselves without for- eign aid. What a pity that there was not ■ome enterprising chief at their head at Arklow, to have followed up our victory to the city of Dublin, where we should have mustered more than a hundred thousand in a few days ; consequently, the capital would have been occupied without delay by our forces ; when a provisional government would have been organized, and the whole Irish nation called on to proclaim its inde- pendence. Then would every emblem of the cruel English Government have disappeared from the soil of our beloved country, which would once more take its rank amongst the other independent slates of the earth." The town of Wexford was still in the hands of the insurgents. They had ap- pointed a certain General Keogh Governor and Commandant of the town. This ex- traordinary man, having been a private in His Majesty's service, had risen to the rank of Lieutenant in the Sixth Regiment, iu which he served in America. He was a man of engaging address, and of that com- petency of fortune which enabled him to live comfortably in Wexford. Proud and ambitious, he appreciated his own abilities highly ; in clubs and coffee-houses, he had long been in the habit of censuring the cor ruptions of Government, and was so violent an advocate for reform, that the Lord-Chan- cellor had deprived him of the Commission of the Peace, in the year 1796 In order to introduce some order into the town, the insurgents chose certain persons to distribute provisions, and for that purpose to give tickets to the inhabitants to entitle them to a ratable portion of them, according to the number of inhabitants in each house. Many habitations of the Protestants who had made their escape were plundered, some of them were demolished. Several of the Protestant inhabitants of the town were imprisoned at this time, but oidy those who were considered the most obnoxious, or were known ns Orangemen, and, therefore, bound by oath to exterminate their Catholic neighbors. It must be ad- mitted, that during the three weeks while the insurgents occupied Wexford, many mili- tary executions took place; but always on the plea of retaliation. For example, on the 6th day of June, und r an i nn r from Eun's- corthy, ten prisoners at Wexford were seleeted for execution, and suffered accord- ingly. Conjectures have been hazarded !■■* Rl \i M tHt ...... Mi. >... V- 3^ <$M^ jp ^ .-•■- " : tl ■'•?■■:'■ . \ yfbi HISTORY OF IRKLAND. why such orders emanated from Enuiscorthy rather than from Wexford. The natural in- ference from the limitation of the victims to half a score, is that the insurgents, who professed to act upon the principles of retalia- tion, had received information that a similar number of their people had 'suffered in like manner on the preceding' day. Mr. Plowden remarks, very reasonably : " Bloody as the rebels are represented to have been, there could have been no other reason for their limiting their lust for mur- der to the particular number of ten." Most of the sanguinary executions per- petrated at Wexford during this time are attributed to the violence of a man named Dixon, a ship-captain belonging to the port. His atrocity is ascribed to private vengeance. The Rev. Mr. Dixon, his relative, a Roman Catholic clergyman, having been sentenced to transportation, had been sent off to Duncannon Fort the day preceding the insurrection ; he was found guilty on the testimony of one Francis Murphy, whose evidence was positively contradicted by three other witnesses. Under these circum- stances, Dixon took a summary method of avenging himself ; and was always ready to undertake the charge of doing military execution upon those who were abandoned to Ins ministrations. An author of candor and credit, the Rev. Mr. Gordon, has stated that he could not ascertain with accuracy the number of persons put to death without law in Wexford during the whole time of its oc- cupation by the insurgents ; but believed it to have amounted to one hundred and one. Probably ten times that number of innocent country people had been, during the Same three weeks, murdered in cold blood by the yeomanry. It is sad to be obliged to go into such a dismal account; but as- the "rebels" have been always very freely vili- fied for their cruelties, and have had but few friends to plead for them, it is right, at least, to establish the truth, so far as that can now lie discovered. Most of the san- guinary t}v^i\a were done without, or against, the orders of the leaders, who could not al- ways restrain their exasperated followers; ami the following proclamation, issued in Wexford, seems to show that there was no wish to spill the blood of any who had not been guilty of some peculiar atrocities towards the people : — "Proclamation of the. People of the County of Wexford. " Whereas, it stands manifestly notorious, that .lames Boyd, Hawtrv White, Hunter Qowan, and Archibald Hamilton Jacob, late magistrates of this county, have com- mitted the most, horrid acts of cruelty, vio- lence, and oppression, against our peaceable and well-affected countrymen. Now, we, the people, associated and united for the purpose of procuring our just rights, and being determined to proteel the persons and properties ol those of all religious persua- sions who have not oppressed us, and are willing with heart and hand to join our glorious cause, as well as to show our marked disapprobation and horror of the crimes of the above delinquents, do call on our countrymen at large to use every exer- tion in their power to apprehend the bodies of the aforesaid James Boyd, &c, &£, &c, and to secure and convey them to the jail of Wexford, to be brought before the tri- bunal of the people. "Done at Wexford, this 9th day of June, 1198 " Goo save the People." On the 2d of June, a small vessel was taken on the coast and brought into Wex- ford ; and on board this vessel Lord Kings- bQFOUgh and three officers of the North Cork militia were captured. During his lordship's detention he was lodged in the house of Captain Keogh, and to his humane, spirited, and indefatigable exertions, and those ol' .Mr. Harvey, his lordship acknowl- edged that his life was due, mi the many oc- casions that the fury of the multitude broke out against him. There were few men in Ireland at this period more unpopular than his lordship — his exploits in the way of ex- torting confessions by SCOUrgingS, and other tortures, had rendered his name a (error to the people. The difficulty of preserving his life from the vengeance of a lawless multi- tude must have been great. A considerable concentration of regular troops was now rapidly being formed in the county, with a view to crush the insurrec- tion at once. !D & : I • -.uysii«i..«. ^sm ■ a i"- bk -nSw IW^Ilp a :': V, ES*- TliOOI'S CONCENTRATED ROTND VINEGAR HILL. 325 On the 19th of Jane, General Edward Roche, and such of the insurgents of his neighborhood as were at Vinegar Hill, were sent home to collect the whole mass of the people for general defence. By the march dt' the royal army in all directions, towards Vinegar Hill and Wexford, a general flight of. such of the inhabitants as could get off took place. The alarm was now general throughout the country ; all men were called to attend the camps ; and Wexford became the uni- versal rendezvous of the fugitives, who re- ported, with various circumstances of hor- ror, the progress of the different armies approaching in every direction, marking their movements with terrible devastation. Ships of war were also seen off the coast ; gunboats blocked up the entrance of the harbor; and from the commanding situation of the camp at the Three Rocks, Oil the mountain of Forth, the general conflagra- tion, which was as progressive as the march of the troops, was clearly visible. On the approach of the army, great numbers of countrymen, with their wives and chil- dren, and any little baggage they could hastily pack up, fled towards Wexford as to an asylum, and described the plunder and destruction of houses, the murders and out- rages of the Soldiery let loose and encour- aged to range over and devastate the country. General Moore, who advanced with a part of the army, did all in his power to prevent these atrocities, and had some of the murderers immediately put to death ; but his humane and benevolent intentions were greatly baffled by the indomitable ferocity and revenge of the refugees re- turning home. These cruelties, being reported in the town of Wexford, provoked additional cruellies there also ; and it was in this moment of alarm, when peremptory orders came lor all the lighting men to repair to Vinegar Hill, that the savage Dixon, with the assistance Of seventy or eighty men, whom he had made drunk for the purpose, perpetrated upon the Protestant prisoners the slaughter called " Massacre of the Bridge of Wexford," in revenge for the slaughters which the Orangemen were com- & %< mitting upon unarmed | pie in the country around. When about thirty-five unfortunate W * iW V men had been murdered, the butchery was . jfl 'vys stopped, at seven in the evening, by the in- ' Hfx^ terference of Father Corrin, and by the S3 I Pfi * alarming intelligence that the post of Vin- egar Hill was already almost beset by the King's troops. After the indecisive affair at Arklow, the royal army, under General Needham, re- mained for some days close within its quar- ters; then proceeded to Goivy on the 19th of June, and thence towards Enniscorthy 01) the 20th, according to a concerted plan, conducted by Lieutenant-General Lake, that the great station of the insurgents at Vinegar Hill should be surrounded by His Majesty's forces, and attacked in all points at once. For this purpose, different armies moved at the same time from different quar- ters ; one under Lieutenant General Dun- das ; another under Major-Generals Sir Janus Duff and Loftus ; that already men- tioned from Arklow ; and a fourth from Ross, under Major-Generals Johnson and Eustace, who were to make the attack on the town of Enniscorthy. The march of the army from Ross was a kind of surprise to the bands of Philip Roche, on Lucken Hill, who retired after a sharp fight, leaving their tents and a great quantity of plunder be- hind ; separating into two bodies, one of which took its way to Wexford, the other to Vinegar Hill, where the Wexford insur- gents where concentrating their fureis This eminence, with the town of Enniscorthy at its foot, and the country for many miles round, had been in possession of the insur- gents from the 28th of May, during which time the face of affairs had been growing |j/.£,$j more and more gloomy for the cause of the lySii people. With the despondency, there also came upon the insurgents a feeling of more vindictive rage. They saw the people could expect 00 mercy ; and as the advancing columns spread devastation and slaughter, and the people on the hill could see the smoke of burning villages, and almost hear the shrieks of tortured and mangled women and children, they again applied their system of retaliation. The prisoners who had lalleti into the hands of the in- x rv 10 . surgents, after a sham trial, or no trial at all, were shot or piked. About eighty- four suffered death here in this manner.* It was at Vinegar XI ill that the last en- gagement of any importance took place be- tween the troops and the people. It was on the 21st of June, and little more than three weeks after Father John Murphy's rising. Vinegar Hill is a gentle eminence on the banks of the river Slauey ; at its foot lies the considerable town of Euniscorthy. At one point the ascent is rather steep, on the others, gradual ; the top is crowned by a dilapidated stone building. The hill is ex- tensive, and completely commands the town and most of the approaches to it ; the country around it is rich, and sufficiently wooded, and studded with country-seats and lodges. Few spots in Ireland, under all its circumstances, can be more inter- esting to a traveler. On the summit of the hill the insurgents had collected the remains of their Wexford army ; its num- ber may be conjectured from General Lake deciding that twenty thousand reg- ular troops were necessary for the at- tack ; but, in fact, the effective of his army amounted, on the day of battle, to little more than thirteen thousand. The peasantry had dug a slight ditch around a large extent of the base ; they had a very few pieces of small half-disabled cannon, some swivels, and not above two thousand fire-arms of all descriptions. But their sit- uation was desperate ; and General Lake considered that two thousand fire-arms, in the hands of infuriated and courageous men, supported by multitudes of pikemen, might be equal to ten times the number under other circumstances. A great many women mingled with their relatives, and fought with fury ; several were found dead amongst the men, who had fallen iu crowds by the bursting of the shells. General Lake, at the break of day, dis- posed his attack in four columns, whilst his cavalry were prepared to do execution on the fugitives. One of the columns (whether by accident or design is strongly debated) did not arrive iu time at its station, by which the insurgents were enabled to re- * Hay's History. Plowden says that report car- ried the uuniber of victims as high as four hundred. treat to Wexford, through a country where they could not be pursued by cavalry or cannon. It was astonishing with what fortitude the peasantry, uncovered, stood the tremendous fire opened upon the four sides of their position; a stream of shells and grape was poured on the multitude ; the leaders encouraged them by exhortations, the women by their cries, and every shell that broke amongst them was followed by shouts of defiance. General Lake's horse was shot, many officers wounded, some killed, and a few gentlemen became invisible during the heat of the battle. The troops advanced gradually, but steadily, up the hill ; the peasantry kept up their fire, and maintained their ground ; their cannon was nearly use- less, their powder deficient, but they died lighting at their post. At length, enveloped in a torrent of fire, they broke, and Bought their safety through the space that General Needham had left by the non-arrival of his column. They were partially charged by some cavalry, but with little execution ; they retreated to Wexford, and that night occupied the town. The insurgents left behind them a great quantity of plunder, together with all their cannon, amounting to thirteen in number, of which three were six-pounders. The loss on the side of the King's forces was very in- considerable, though one officer, Lieutenant Sandys, of the Longford militia, was killed, and four others slightly wounded — Colonel King, of the Sligo regiment; Colonel Vesey; of the County of Dublin regiment ; Lord Blaney, and Lieutenant-Colonel Cole. Enniscorthy being thus recovered after having been above three weeks in the hands of the insurgents, excesses, as must be expected in such a state of affairs, were com- mitted by the soldiery, particularly by the Hessian troops, who made no distinction be- tween loyalist and insurgent. The most diabolical act of this kind was the firing of a house, which had been used as a hospital by the insurgents, iu which numbers of sick and wounded, who were unable to escape from the flames, were burned to ashes f f The Rev. Mr. Gordon says, he was informed by a surgeon, that the burning was accidental, the bed- clothes having been set on tire by the wadding of the soldiers' guns, who were shooting the patients in their beds. ^ ■^r?/C«£S.^-^tA6 -Ci,L4fMta5,irf. CHIEFS EXECUTED IN WEXFORD. 327 2 '-3 &>~ t The town of Wexford was relieved on tlie same day with Bniiiscorthy, Brigadier-Gen- eral Moore, according to the plan formed by General Lake, having made a movement towards that quarter from the side of Ross, on the 19th, with a body of twelve hundred troops, famished with artillery ; and having directed his march to Taghmon, in his in- tended way to Enniscorthy, on the 20th, was. en his way thither, between one and two o'clock in the afternoon, attacked by a large force of the people from Wexford, perhaps five or six thousand, near a place called Goffs Bridge, not far from Hore w n. After an action, which continued till near eight, the insurgents were repulsed with some loss ; yet the fate of the day was long doubtful, and many of the King's troops were killed. Wexford, which had been taken by the insurgents on the 30th of May, was surren- dered to the King's troops on the 23d of June. "Relying on the faith of Lord Kings- borongh's promises of complete protection of persons and properties," we are told by Hay, "several remained in the town of Wexford, unconscious of any reason to ap- prehend danger ; but they were soon taken up and committed to jail. The Rev. Philip Roach had such confidence in these assur- ances, and was so certain of obtaining simi- lar terms for those under his command, that he left his force at Sledagh, in full hopes of being permitted t) return in peace to their homes, and was on his way to Wexford unarmed, coming, as he thought, to receive a confirmation of the conditions, and so lit- tle apprehensive of danger that, he advanced within the lines before he was recognized, when all possibility of escape was at an end. lie was instantly dragged from his horse, and in the most ignominious manner taken up to the camp on the Windmill Hills, pulled by the hair, kicked, buffeted, and at length hauled down to the jail in sneh a condition as scarcely to be known. The people whom he left in expectation of being permitted to return quietly home, waited In- arrival ; but at la^t being informed of his fate, they abandoned all idea of peace, and set off, under the command of the Rev. through Scollaghgap into the County of Carlow. . . " From the encampment at Ballenkeele, commanded by General Needham, detach- ments wvre sent out to scour the country. They burned the Catholic chapel of Belle- murrin, situate on the demesne of Ballen- keele, on which they were encamped, besides several houses in the neighborhood." It is not clear that Lord Kingsborough, who was in Wexford as a prisoner, had power to " promise protection of person and property," in ease of surrender. At all events, no attention was paid to those nego- tiations. Two of the insurgent chiefs, Clo- ney and O'Hea, repaired to Enniscorthy, to make proposals for capitulation " Lieutenant-General Lake cannot attend to any terms by rebels in arms against their sovereign. While they continue so, he must use the force entrusted to him with the ut- most energy for their destruction. To the deluded multitude he promises pardon on their delivering into his hands their tenders, surrendering their arms, and returning with sincerity to their allegiance. "(Signed) G. Lake. "Enniscorthy, June 22, 1198." Lord Lake established his headquarters in the house of Captain Keogb, the late commandant of the post — Keogh being now lodged in jail. Cornelius Grogan sur- rendered, relying on the protection. Messrs. Colclough and Harvey attempted to escape, and concealed themselves in a cave upon the Great Saltee Island, off the coast. Here they were discovered ; were brought to Wexford ; and, a lew days after, all these gentlemen, with many others, were tried by martial law and executed. Their heads were cut off and spiked in a row in front of the court-house.* * Bagenal Harvey was proved, on the trial, to have constantly opposed deeds of blood, and endeavored to prevent the wanton destruction of loyalist prop- erty. It waB so much the worse for him. The Rev. Mr. Gordon tells us a remarkable trait of the times: "The display of humanity by a rebel was. in general, in the lii. ils by court-martial, by no means regarded as a circumstance in favor of the accused. Strange as it may .-inn, in times of cool reflection, it was very frequently urged as a proof of guilt. Whoever could be proved to have saved a loyalist from assas- Bination, bis bouse from burning, or his property from plunder, was considered as having influence U K(\ R? m k I jk John Murphy, to Look's Mill, and SO OU | among the rebels— consequently a commander. Thin "t*t .Ult.MI.I), ! 4A Si & i(&Z t As for the unfortunate country people, now left to the mercy of a savage soldiery, they were hunted dowu in all directions by the yeomanry cavalry. A detail of these horrors would be revolting. We must take a summary from the testimony of those who saw it. " In short," says Mr. Edward Hay, "death and desolation were spread through- out the country, which was searched and hunted so severely that scarcely a man es- caped. The old and harmless suffered, whilst they who had the use of their limbs, and were guilty, had previously made off with the main body of the people. The dead bodies scattered about, with their throats cut across, and mangled in the most shocking manner, exhibited scenes exceeding the usual horrors of war. The soldiery on this occasion, particularly the dragoons of General Ferdinand Hompesch, were per- mitted to indulge in such ferocity and brutal lust to the sex as must perpetuate hatred and horror of the army to generations." The treatment of women by these Hes- sians and the yeomanry cowards was truly horrible; and the less capable of any excuse, as, in this matter at least, there could be no pretence for retaliation. "It is a singular fact," says Sir Jonah Barrington, "that in all the ferocity of the conflict, the storming of towns and of vil- lages, women were uniformly respected by the insurgents. Though numerous ladies fell occasionally into their power, they never experienced any incivility or misconduct. But the foreign troops in our service ( II < mi- pesch's) not only brutally ill-treated, but occasionally shot gentlewomen. A very re- spectable married woman in Enniscorthy (Mrs. Stringer, the wife of an attorney,) was wantonly shot at her own window by a German, in cold blood. The rebels (though her husband was a royalist) a short time seeras to have arisen from a rage of prosecution, by which the crime of rebellion was regarded as too great to admit any circumstances of extenuation iu favor of the person guilty of it, and by which every mode of conviction against such a person was deemed justifiable." He makes mention of the notoriety of this practice having drawn the following extraordinary exclama- tion from a Roman Catholic gentleman who had been one of the insurgents: " I thank my God that no person can prove me guilty of saving the life or [jerty of any one ! " after took smiie of those foreign soldiers prisoners, and piked them all, as they told them — 'just to teach them how to shoot ladies' Martial law always affects both sides. Re- taliation becomes the law of nature wherever municipal laws are not in operation. It is a remedy that should never be resorted to but in extremis." On the same shocking subject Mr. Plow- den observes : — " As to this species of outrage, which rests not in proof, it is uuiversilly allowed to have been on the side of the military. It produced an indignant horror in the country which went beyond, but prevented retalia- tion. It is a characteristic mark of the Irish nation neither to forget nor forgive an insult or injury done to the honor of their female relatives. It has been boasted of by officers of rank that, within certain large districts, a woman had not been left unde- fined; and upon observation, in answer, that the sex must then have been very comply- ing, the reply was, that the bayonet removed all squeamishness. A lady of fashion, hav- ing in conversation been questioned as to this difference of conduct towards the sex in the military and the rebels, attributed it, in disgust, to a want of gallantry in the crop- pies. By these general remarks it is not meant to verify or justify the saying of a field- officer, or a lady of quality, both of whom could be named ; but merely to show the prevalence of the general feelings and pro- fessions at that time upon these horrid sub- jects ; and, consequently, what effects must naturally have flowed from them. In all matters of irritation an I revenge, it is the conviction that the injury exists which pro- duces the bad effect. Even Sir Richard Musgrave admits (p. 428) that, "on most occasions, they did not offer any violence to the tender sex." There was little more fighting in the county. Separate bauds of the insurgents were making their way either into Wicklow on the north, a country of mountains, glens, and lakes, or westward into Carlow by way of Scollaghgap, between Mount Leinster and Blackstairs Mountain. The northern part of the County of Wex- ford had been almost totally deserted by all the male inhabitants on the 19th, at the ap fir r I fit d, ftCHCi. "VjfUS .UUr.MSiS.SI, \ mm m m>m£m i$eP€ f 0UT1UOES IN THE NORTH OF THE COUNTY. 329 V 9 hH proach of the army under General Need- ham. Some of the yeomanry, who had for- merly deserted it, returned to Gorey on the 21st, and, on finding no officer of the army, us was expected, to command there, they, with many others, who returned along with them, scoured the country round, and killed great numbers in their houses, besides all the stragglers they met, most of whom were making the besl of their way home unarmed from the insurgents, who were then believed to be totally discomfited. These transac- tions being made known to a body of the in. invents encamped at Peppard's Castle, on the 22d, they resolved to retaliate, and directly marched for Gorey, whither they had otherwise no intention of proceeding. The yeomen and their associates, upon the near approach of the insurgents, fled buck with precipitation ; and thence, accompa- nied by many others, hastened toward Ark- low, but were pursued as far as Coolgrcncy, with the loss of forty-seven men. The day was called bloody Friday. The insurgents had been exasperated to this vengeance by discovering through the country as they came along, several dead men with their skulls Bplit asunder, their bowels ripped open, arid their throats cut across, besides some dead women and children. They even saw the dead bodies of two women, about which their surviving children were creeping and bewailing them ! These sights hastened the insurgent force to Gorey, where their exasperation was considerably augmented by discovering the pigs in the streets de- vouring the bodies of nine men, who hud been hanged the day before, with several others recently shot, and some still expiring. Alter the return of the insurgents from the pursnit, several persons were found lurk- ing in the town, and brought before Mr. Fitzgerald, particularly Mr. Peppard, sov- ereign of Gorey ; but, from this gentleman's age and respectability, he was considered incurable of being accessory to the perpe- tration Of the horrid cruelty which provoked and prompted this sudden revenge, and he and others were saved, protected, and set at liberty. At this critical time, the news of the burning of Mr. Fitzgerald's house, still further maddened the people ; but, for- getful of such great personal injury, he ex- erted his utmost endeavors to restrain the insurgents, who vociferated hourly for ven- geance for their favorites, and succeeded in leading them off from Gorey; when, after a slight, repast, they resumed their intended route, rested that night at the "White Heaps, on Croghan Mountain, and on the 23d set oil' for the mountains of Wicklbw. Such Wexford men us still remained in arms, having no longer any homes, and afraid to go to their homes if they had, were endeavoring to join the insurgents in other counties. One of these bodies, com- manded by the Rev. John Murphy, (with whom was Miles Byrne,) proceeded through the County of Carlow ; and, having arrived before the little town of Goresbridge, in the Comity of Kilkenny, a show of defence was made at a bridge on the river Barrow, by a party of Wexford militia ; but- they were quickly repulsed, driven back into the vil- lage, and nearly all either killed, wounded, or taken prisoners. The prisoners were conveyed with the insurgents until they ar- rived on a ridge of hills which divides the Counties of Carlow and Kilkenny from the Queen's County. Here they put some of the unfortunate prisoners to death, and buried their bodies on the hill. Others es- caped and joined their friends. In justice to the memory of the Rev. John Murphy it must here be stated that these murders were done contrary to his solemn injunc- tions, and that they were the result of long- felt and deadly hatred, entertained by some of the insurgents towards the militia-men. The example of murdering in cold bl 1 was, no doubt, constantly set them by their enemies. If a war of partial extermination had not been proclaimed, no justification whatever could be offered for this atrocity ; but it is well known that, although the prac- tice was not avowedly sanctioned by the constituted authorities, it was in almost all cases unblushingly advised by the nmiii:- lings of power in Ireland. '" Having rested for the night of the 23d of June on the Ridge, as those hills are called, they proceeded early next morning to Cas- tlecomer, and commenced a furious attack on the town at ten o'clock. The principal re- sistance offered to their progress was from a party stationed in a house at the foot of A /•.«.!.- ^~-i.»lt . c l/U/«BiS. K, 2 '■i'; ■ ' v " ... / /' I_ h I sp5 330 the bridge, which was ably defended, and opposite to which many bravo men tell, by rashly exposing themselves in front of so strong a position ; for the town could have been attacked and carried with very little loss from another quarter. In fact, every other position was speedily abandoned by the military and yeomanry, who retreated and took up a position on a hill at a respect- ful distance from the town. Here, as well as in most other places where the insurgents had been engaged, skill alone was wanting to insure success. The people had numbers and courage enough to overthrow any force which had been sent against them, if they had been skilfully commanded. The attack on the well-defended house was fruitlessly kept up for four hours, from which they finally retreated with severe loss, and marched in a northwest direction about five miles, into the Queen's County.* Soon after, finding themselves hard pressed by bodies of troops on three sides, they were obliged to retreat once more in the direction of the Carlow mountains. At Kilcomncv they were forced to fight, but without any chance of success. They were entirely rout- ed. Father Murphy was taken three days later, brought to General Duff's headquar- ters at Tullow, tried by martial law, and, after being first cruelly scourged, was exe cuted. Ilis head, as usual, was spiked in the market-place of the town. Another of the scattered bands, led by Antony Perry, of Inch, and Father Kearns, penetrated into Kildare, and joining with the Kildare insurgents, attempted to march upon Athlone. They were beaten, however, at Clonard ; Perry and Father Kearns were both taken prisoners, and met the usual doom.f Edward Fitzgerald, Miles Byrne and some other chiefs, still kept a considerable band on foot in the mountains on the bor- der of Wicklow, from whence they occa- sionally made descents, and attacked some bodies of troops with success. One of these affairs was the assault upon the barracks at Hacketstown ; and another was the memo rable extirpation of that hated regiment, the "Ancient Britons," at Ballyellis. Be- niKTOItY OF IRELAND. Cloney's Memoir. t Madden'a Livea fore Miles Byrne finally retired into the fastnesses of Wicklow, to join Holt, he had the satisfaction to bear a hand iu that bloody piece of work. We let him tell it in his own words : — " Early in the morning of the 29th of June, it was resolved to march and attack the town of Carnew. The column was halted at Monasced to repose and take some kind of refreshments, which were indeed dif- ficult to be had, as every house had been plundered by the English troops on their way to Vinegar Hill a few days before. "The Irish column resinned its inarch on the high road to Carnew, and in less than half an hour alter its departure, a large div- ision of English cavalry, sent from Corey by General Needham, marched into Mona- sced. This division consisted of the noto- rious Ancient Britons, a cavalry regiment which had committed all sorts of crimes when placed on free quarters with the un- fortunate inhabitants previous to the rising. This infernal regiment was accompanied by all the yeomen cavalry corps from Arklow, Gorey, Ooolgreeny, &c, and the chiefs of those corps, such as Hunter Cowan, Beau- mont, of Hyde Park, Earl Mount norris, Earl Courtown, Ram, Hawtry White, &e., could boast as well as the Ancient Britons of having committed cold-blooded murders on an unarmed country people. But they never had the courage to meet us on tho field of battle, as will be seen by the das- tardly way they abandoned the Ancient Britons at Ballyellis " The officers of the Ancient Britons, as well as those of the yeomen corps, learned that the Irish forces had just inarched oft on the road to Carnew, and were informed at a public house, that the insurgents who had been there were complaining how they were fatigued to death by the continual marching and countermarching, and that although they had lire-arms, their ammuni- tion was completely exhausted, and scarce a ball-cartridge remained iu their army. The, truth of this information could not be doubt- ed. All the information coming through so sure a channel, encouraged the English troops to pursue without delay the insurgents, and to cut them down and exterminate them to the last man, for they could uot *n &j * I >-r - V J g f LL-^ A) \ ^g :',' f "Protection"— Not Efficacious— Testimony of Lord Camden Mm- self True .Vceiiunt of the "CoUipaot" *Uinl>"l Irishmen sent to fort lieorge. Tin: rising of the United Irishmen of Ul- ster WaB delayed for two weeks after I lie day agreed upon (May 23d) by the arrest of some Of their leaders. On the 7th of June, however, a nice ting of magistrates having been appointed in the town of Antrim, for the prevention of rebellion, some insurgents, with design of seizing their persons, attacked the tow ii at two o'clock in the afternoon, and soon overpowering the troops within it, very nearly gained possession. Major-tlen- eral Nugent, who commanded in that dis- trict, having received intelligence of the in- tended rising, had ordered a Imdy of troops' In march Io Antrim, who arrived after the rebels had taken possession of the town. 'They then attacked the insurgents in the town, but their vanguard, consisting of cav- alry, being repulsed with the loss of twenty- three men killed and wounded, of which three were officers, Colonel Durham, who commanded the troops, brought the artillery to batter the town, which obliged the in- surgents to abandon it, together with a six-pounder which they had brought with them, and two curricle gnus which they had taken from the King's army. They were pursued towards Shane's Castle and Ran- /, - S«^ 'V^' SSzss; '. A (ft* rk dal's Town, with considerable slaughter ; on this day Lord O'Neil was mortally wounded. * A small body made an unsuccessful assaull ou the town of Lame, and si feeble attempts were also mad.' al Ballymena and Ballycastle. The mam body of these northern insurgents retired to Donegar Hill, where, disgusted with their want of success and other circum- Btam is, they agreed to surrender their arms, and almost all of them dispersed. On the mIi "I' June another body of in- surgents in the County Down, nciii- Saint Geld, under the command of a Dr. Jack on, set lii'c to the house of a mini named Mackee, an informer against the United [rishmen. They placed themselves the next day in ambuscade, and nearly surrounded a body of troops under Colonel Stapleton, consisting of York Feucibles and y< tan cavalry, of whom they killed about sixty. The infantry, however, on whom the cavalry had been driven back in confusion, rallying with a coolness not very common in this war, succeeded in repulsing their assailants, but could not pursue, and ('Mutually them- selves retreated to Belfast. The hiss of the insurgents was very small. The next day, under command of Henry Monro, a shop- keeper in Lisburn, they took possession of a strong post on Windmill Hill, above the little town of Ballinahinch, near the centre of the County Down, and at the house and in the demesne of Lord Moira. On the l'jih, General Nugent, marching from Bel- fast, and ( lolonel .Stewart from Dow npatriek, formed with fifteen hundred men a junction near the Windmill Hill, of which they gained possession, together with the town, which before the action they wantonly set on fire. The action was maintained about three hours with artillery, with little or no exe- cution. At length, the Mouaghan regi- ment Of militia, posted Willi two I'm Id pieces at Lord Moira's great gate, was attacked with such determined fury by the pikemen of the insurgents that it fell back iu disor- der. The want of discipline iu the insur- * Ho bad ridden Into the town to attend the meet- Id j .in,, .I,,)!, ii. ■«, not knowing that the insur- in ; i "i It. He ii"i « ho had , i : bndio ol iii- hoi ie, after which he was Ilia iddlo, and 10 wounded with pikes Unit hi died i" -i few dayu. gents lost what their valor had gained The disordered troops found means to rally, while the A.rgylesbire Feucibles, entering the demesne, were making their attack on another side. The insurgents, confused and distracted, retreated up the hill, and making a stand at the top, at, a kind of fortification, defended the post for some time with great courage, but at length gave way and dis- persed iu all directions. Their loss exceed- ed a hundred ; that, of the royal army not above half that number. The main body of these insurgents retired to the mountains of Slieve Croob, where they soon surrendered or separated, returning to their several homes ; and thus terminated this short and partial, but active insurrection ill the north, in the course of which some slighter actions had taken place, particularly at 1'orlaferi'y, where they were repulsed by the yeomanry. They also set. lire to a revenue cruiser, in which forty men perished. The official bulletin of the affair of Balli- nahinch is as follows : — " Dum.iN Castle, eleven o'clock, a m , ) June 14, 1198. ) " Intelligence is just arrived from Major- General Nugent, stating that, on the 1 1 if instant, he had marched against a large body of rebels who were posted at Saint- field. They retired on his approach to a strong position on the Saint Held side of Bal- linahinch, and there made a show of resist- ance, and endeavored to turn his left Hank ; Lieutenant-Colonel Stewart arriving from Down with a pretty considerable force of infantry, cavalry, and yi anry, they soon desisted, and retired to a very Btrong posi- tion behind Ballinahinch. "General Nugent attacked them next morning at, three o'clock, having occupied two hills on the left and right of the town, to prevent the rebels from having any other choice than the mountains in their rear for their retreat. He sent Lieutenant-Colonel Stewart to post himself, with part of the Ar- ... \ le Feucibles and some yeomanry, as well as a detachment of the Twenty second Light I la oi his, iu a .situation from w hence he could enfilade the rebel line ; whilst Colonel Les- lie, with part of the Monnghan militia, Bti B cavalry, and yeoman infantry, should make an attack upon their front. Having two R? II -t - I'M « i.^ >i howitzers and six Buc-pounders with the two detachments, the Major-General was ena- ed to annoy them very Hindi From differ- mi parts of liis position. "The rebels attacked impetuously Colonel Leslie's detachment, and even jumped into the road from the Earl of Moira's demesne to endeavor to take one of his guns ; Imt. they were repulsed with slaughter. Lieu- teuaut-Colonel Stewart's detachment was attacked by them with the same activity, but he repulsed them also, and the fire from his howitzer and six-pounder soon obliged them lo By in all directions. Their force was, on the evening of the L2th, near live thousand ; but, as many persons arc pressed into their service, ami almost entirely un- armed, the genera] does not suppose that, on the morning of the engagement, their numbers were so many. "About four hundred rebels were killed in Hie attack ami retreat, and the remainder were dispersed all over the couutry. Parts nl' the (owns of Saiut field anil llallinahineh were burned. . . . Three or four green colors were taken, ami six one-pounders, not mounted, Imt which the rebels fired very often, and a considerable quantity of ammunition." Of course, the failure in Ulster was ai- tended by the usual penally of failure. The leader of the Anirim insurgents was Henry Joy McCrackea, a manufacturer of Belfast, a brave, well-educated, and highly-estimable man in the prime of life. Be and some others were tried and executed in Belfast Monro was carried to Lisburn ami hung al Ins own door, his wife ami family being in I he house. An attempt at insurrection was next made in Cork County. The principal ac- tion, ami the only one, which Government has though! proper to communicate to the public, took place near the village of Bally- uascarty, where, on the 19th of June, two hundred and twenty men of the Westmeath regiment of militia, with two Bix-pounders, umler the command of their Lieutenant' Colonel, Mi 1 Hugh O'Reilly, wire attacked on their march from Clognakelty to Bandun, by a body of between three and four hun- dred men, mostly armed with pikes. The attack was made from a height, on the left Hi the column BO rapidly and fiercely that the troops had scarcely time to form. It seems plain, from Sir Hugh O'Reilly's dis- patch, that al this moment there was immi- nent danger of his detachment being cut to pieces, when, Fortunately for him, a hundred men of the "Caithness Legion," Under Ma- jor I lines, came up on the Hank of the in- surgents, anil assailed them with so sharp and well-sustained a fire of musketry that, O'Reilly had time to rally his me the prison in which Mr. A. O'Connor was confined, on the 24th of July, with 11 paper* signed by seventy state prisoners, purposing to give such in- formation as was in their power of the arms, ammunition, Bchemes of warfare, internal regulations and foreign negotiations of the United Irishmen, provided the lives of Messrs. Bond and Byrne should be spared. In consequence of this agreement, some of the insurgent chiefs, who were Mill in iinns, among whom was Mr. Aylmer, of Kildarc, Burreudered themselves.*)' Several principals of the Union, particularly Arthur O'Connor, Thomas Addis Emmet, Dr. Mac- • The following ma the agreement signed i>y scv- entj three on 1 1 ■ * - "j:nli of July: — " Thai the undersigned state prisoners, in the three prisons "i Newgate, rlilmainham, and Bridewell, en- i < to give every information In their power, of the whole of the Internal trananotions of the United Irish- men, and thai each of the prisoners shall give de toiled information "t every transaction that has pass- ed between the TJnited Irishmen and foreign states ; bnl thai the prisoners are not, by naming or dosorib in^'. to Implicate any person whatover, and thai they ire ready to emigrate i<> Buch oonntry as shall be igreed on between them and Gover ent, and give aeonrity not to return t" ihis oonntry wit] i bhi permission of Government, and give security not to pa Into an enemy's oonntry, If on tholr bo doing they ore to he frei d from proseoul , and ai o )h . Oliver Bond hi- permitted t<> take the benefit "i this proposal. The Btate pi i- rs also hope, that the benefit of ihis proposal may be extended t" suoh persons In oustodj . <>i noi In oustodj . a i maj ohoose to benefit by it." Bio 1 by Beventy three persons. 20th of July, 1708. fin a pamphlet, styled ;i Letter from Arthur O'Connor to l .< tr. l Castlercagh, dated from prison, January the nh, I V'.ei, that Minister is dircotlj . I m [od with a violation of the oontraot, and a mis. n pn Bentatlon to Parlli mi of tho transactions be- twi ■ □ iiim and the pria rs ol tato. Other charges are made, one "i whioh is thai the Information given by these prisoners i" Government was garbled, to the pni i"' i "i the ministry . and partli ulnrli (h ii "i a hundred pages, delivered by O'Connor him- solf, only one had been published In tho reports of the ocret c Ittees. Binoe n> this pamphlot, in whioh his lordship is peremptorily ohallei d to dl prove any "i tho i sin made, no i eply has ■. .' i, i\ . ..ni\ tin honor "i ois lord ihip for u disproof <»l tl . a. a asations, s hah may be u vin- dication i" persons onacquaintod with tiis lordship 1 oharacter. The pamphlet was said to have been suppressed bj Goven int, at least was not other- v i i i San , landi itinerj sold and circulated. N'mii, I S;in I Neilson, gave details on oath in their examinations before the secret committees of the two Bouses of Parlia- ment, in whose reports, although garbled and falsified, published by authority of Gov- ernment, is contained n mass of information concerning the conspiracy. Yy ministers to retain them in custody, at least during the continuance of the war with Prance. Oliver Bond died in the meantime in prison, "of apoplexy," as was given out; bul the friends of this gentleman believe to the present hour that he was murdered at night by one of the jailers or turnkeys of Newgate prison — for what cause or at whose instigation was never known. The other prisoner, Byrne, to save whose life, along with that. of I! I, the contract was expressly made — was hung. During the whole time of the insurrec- tion the city of Dublin was held under strict military law. A large force, consist- ing chiefly of yeomanry, was kepi constantly in the metropolis. The grand and royal canals, which were fifty feel broad and twelve deep, were a security against a sur- prise ; and the several bridges were strongly palisaded, and guarded both 1 >y night and by day. The trials and executions of some of the principal leaders iii the rebellion tend- ed to Keep others in awe, and prevented any further attempts of individuals. An g others, an insurgent officer, a Protestant, named Bacon, having been apprehended dis- guised in female apparel, was executed cm the 2d of June, near Carlisle bridge. On the Nth, was executed, on the same scaf- folding, Lieutenant Esmond. On the 12th of .Inly, Henry and John SheaiTS "ere brought to trial, condemned, and soon after put i" death. The trial of John M'Cann, who had been Secretary of the Provinciul Committee of Leinster, followed <>n the nth ; that of Michael William Byrne, dele- gate from the County (' lillee of Wick- low, and that of Oliver Bond, on the 23d Mr. Cumin was the leading counsel on all K R? r "£, .-/ ■ * .^— i*', ; HISTORY OF ICELAND, these trials ; and it was a service of daDger. The Court was usually crowded with armed men ; and as the undaunted advocate deliv- ered his powerful and indignant pleadings, often at midnight, amidst a hostile and menacing audience, the lamplight glittered upon serried bayonets, and he was some- times interrupted by a clash of arms. "What is that?" he sternly exclaimed, ou the trial of Oliver Bond. "The question was occasioned by a clash of arms among the military that thronged the Court. Some of those who were nearest to the advocate appeared, from their looks and gestures, about to oiler him personal violence ; upon which, fixing his eye sternly upon them, he exclaimed : ' You may assassinate, but you shall not intimidate me.'"* While the insurrection was raging in Wexford, aud capital convictions and execu- tions were very frequent all over the coun- try, it must be supposed that the people of Dublin were in a state of profound alarm, sometimes real and genuine terror, some- limes a factitious alarm, created by the agents of Government to furnish excuse for brutal acts of severity. Then was the reign of the " three Majors," Sirr, Swan, and Sandys. These men had been officers of the militia ; and all in a sufficient ly-dc- ccnt rank of life— the last-named, indeed, was brother-in-law to Mr. tinder-Secretary Cooke. This triumvirate were now really the rulers of Dublin ; and the most indis- pensable of all the agencies of I he Castle. Their services chiefly consisted in organizing and maintaining a band of wretches, who were employed at the assizes throughout the country, but, especially in the vicinity of Dublin, as informers. They were known to the people by the name of the " Batallion of Testimony." It is said, on high authority, that the em- ployment of spies ami informers tends rather to the increase than the suppression of crime, and that, a good government has no need of their infamous services. One thing is certain, that their services were thought useful to a bad government ; and the same Circumstance that rendered their services necessary, made their infamy a matter of little moment to their employers. From the * Life of Curran. Uy his son. year stc< 1796 to 1800, a set of miscreants, in crime, sunk in debauchery, prone to violence, and reckless of character, con- stituted what was called the " Major's People." A number of these people were domiciled within the gates of the Castle, where there were regular places of enter- tainment allotted for them contiguous to the Viceroy's palace; for another company of them, a house was allotted opposite Kilninin- ham jail, familiarly known to the people by the name of the "Stag House;" and lor one batch of them, who could not be trusted with liberty, there was one ol the yards of that prison, witli the surrounding cells, as- signed to them, which is still called the " Stag Yard." These persons were consid- ered under the immediate protection of Majors Sirr, Swan, and Sandys, ami to in- terfere with them in the course of their du- ties as spies or witnesses, was to incur the vengeance of their redoubtable patrons. Sandys had been a captain in the Long- ford militia. Shortly after Ins marriage*Svith the sister of the under-Secretary's wife, Ik was appointed Brigade-Major to the garri son of Dublin. In 1191, '98, and '99, he presided over the Prevot Prison, in the Royal Barracks, a filthy, close, dark, and pestilential place of confinement, with a small court-yard, and some ill-constructed sheds, set up to afford increased accommoda- tion for the multitude of persons daily sent to the depot. Major Sandys carried on a regular trade in the official advantages of his fund ions in the I'revot. He sold indulgences to the state prisoners, of a little more than the or- dinary scant allowances of air, light, and food. He sold exemption from the taws aud triangles for money aud for goods, for every marketable commodity. Tiie court-yard of that miserable den was ringing forever, by day and by night, with" the shrieks of wretches scourge, 1 at the Major's triangles, to extort confessions, or to force the prisoners to make statements iu- culpating others. The court in the rear of the Royal Exchange was another place of torture; but, perhaps, the most dreadful scene of continual lacerations, pitch-cup- pings, and picketings, in Dublin, was in the Riding-School in Marlborough street, where m . ( EW ti .'.Mi .... ?Ho ^^ $ \& m c& the panishmcnta were administered under the eye and by the direction of Mr. Johu Claudius Beresford, a scion of the great house of Waterford.* Yet, in a debate in the English House of Commons, in March, 1801, on the Irish Martial Law bill, in re- ply to an observation with respect to the use of torture, made by Mr. Taylor, Lord Cas- tlereagh had certainly the boldness to affirm, that " torture never was inflicted in Ireland, with the knowledge, authority, or approba- tion of Government." Mr. John Claudius Beresford, who was the most competent of all men to speak on that subject, observed, thai " it was unmanly to deny torture, as it was notoriously practiced ;" and in a subse- quent debate in the House of Lords, on another occasion, in the Imperial Parlia- ment, Lord ("hire avowed the practice, and defended it on the grounds of its necessity. No specific orders, undoubtedly, emanated from the Government to Mr. Beresford to convert the Hiding-School into a scourging- hall — to Mr. Hepenstal to make a walkicg- gallows of his person — to Mr. Love for the half-hanging of suspected rebels at Kilkea Castle -to Mr. Hunter (Jowan for burning down the cabins of the croppies — to the High Sheriff of Tipperary for the laceration of the peasant's back, of which Sir John Moore was an eye-witness — to Captain Swaine for the picketings at Prosperous, or Sir Richard Mnsgrave for writing a treatise in defence of torture ; or to all the other gentlemen of "discernment and fortitude" for adopting " the new expedient " for dis- covery ol' crime. "But," observes Dr. Madden, "it is in vain, utterly futile and fruitless, to deny the constant use of torture in 1197 and 1798, in the Riding-House, Marlborough street, under the direction of John Claudins Beres- ford, and in the Prevot Prison in the Royal Barracks, then gover I by Major Sandys, brother-in-law to Mr. nnder-Secretary Cooke, (Lord Castlereagh's chief official in the Sec- Ktary's office ;) occasionally, too, in the Royal Exchange, and in the small vacant spare adjoining the entrance to the Upper * Dr. Madden tins gone to the trouble of collecting a great ninny of the authentic cases of half-hangings, seourgings, and other tortures inflicted in those days. 43 Castle Yard, immediately behind the offices of Lord Castlereagh, and having on the op- posite side the back part of the Exchange where, under the very windows of Lord Cos tlercagh's office, the triangles were set up for fastening the wretches to, who were flogged — tortured even to death." There was at that time a military order enforced in Dublin, that every householder should expose a list, on his front, door of all the inmates of his house ; but this observ- ance being complied with by no means in- sured families against domiciliary visits from the military, or from the "Major's People," whenever there was any suspicion that obnoxious persons or papers might be secreted there. There are still alive many who recollect the terror and agony of house- holds when invaded by these odious wretches, who did not generally confine themselves to their ostensible errand, but insulted women and girls, and carried off valuable plate. One instance of this is mentioned in a speech of Curran, where a silver cup was taken possession of because it had engraved upon it the words Erin go hragh ! The accounts of pay ami weekly "subsistence money," given to the "Major's People," as well as to other common swearers, are extant, and may be read in the collections of Dr. Mad- den. When it is remembered that scenes similar to these were passing iu every town, as well us Dublin ; that many bridges and "gallows-hills" showed their blackening corpses swinging in the winds; that in front of many court-houses, and over the gate- ways of many jails, ghastly heads were grin- ning upon spikes,* while every hour gave birth to some new and fearful rumor of hor- rors yet, unknown, some idea may bo formed of the Terror in Ireland. The country was now, therefore, precisely •On the trial of John Magee for libel, in 1818, O'Oonnell, in his memorable Bpeech <>n that occasion, thus alludes to Toler, (Lord Norbury.) when em- ployed mi special issinns: "Win, in one cir- cuit, during the administration of the cold-hearted ami cruel Camden, there were mie hundred individ- uals tried before One judge; of these, ninety-eight were capitally convicted, and ninety-seven hanged ! One escaped, but he uas a soldier, who murdered a peasant— a thing of a trivial nature. Ninety-seven victims in *>>tf circuit I .' " Toler was Solicitor-General in 179S, but was some- times put on the Commission, and went circuit. K &N r .-\J:^.U. ^s^^i «&/SK I' ;V HISTOKY OF IRELAND. in the frame of mind which Mr. Pitt con sidered favorable for facilitating his favorite measure, a Legislative Union. Divided in- to two bitterly hostile parties, vindictive age on the one side, affright and despond- ency on (he other — the United Irish Society ruined, partly by the savage extirpation of Catholic insurgents, partly by the defection of the Republican Presbyterians of the North, and the mutual distrust which had been carefully sown between these two sec- tions of that organization -all hope of either Catholic Emancipation or Reform (through an Irish Parliament) being now apparently adjourned to an indefinite futurity, it was believed that the parties would, at last, be led to throw themselves into the arms of England, Who would know how to lake care of them all. Accordingly, Lord Camden, having done his office in stirring up rebel- lion, was recalled, and the Marquis Corn- wallis, already unfavorably known in two worlds, arrived in Ireland on the 20th day of June — the very day before the battle of Vinegar Hill — to assume the reins of gov- ernment, but invested, besides the vice-regal power, with the additional authority of Commander of the forces. It appeared that the instructions of this nobleman were to moderate by degrees the horrible rage of extermination. The estimates given of his character and conduct by contemporary Irish writers are wonderfully various. Sir Jonah Harrington says of him : " Lord Cornwallis was now selected to complete the project of a Union, and Lord Onstle- reagh was continued as Chiei Secretary. His system was of all others the most artful and insidious ; he affected impartiality while lie was deceiving both parties; he encour- aged the United Irishman, and he roused the royalist ; one day he destroyed, the next, day he was merciful. His system, however, had not exactly the anticipated effect. Everything gave reason to expect a restoration of tranquillity ; but it was through the impression of horror alone that a union could be effected ; and he had no time to lose, lest the country might recover its reason." Mr. l'lowden, on the other hand, who was devoted to the measure of a union, and was himself already writing pamphlets in its favor, can find no terms strong enough in lauding Lord Cornwallis. He says : "This appointment, in this critical juncture, ap pears, under Providence, to have been the immediate salvation of Ireland, not only by putting an immediate check upon the uncon- trolled ferociousness of the soldiery, by Stopping military executions, suspending the sentences of courts-martial till he had him- self revised the minutes, by converting the system of coercion and terrorism into that of conciliation, by gaining tire affections of (he people, by drawing upon himself the hatred of the Orangemen, by bringing to hear /lie incorporate union with Great Britain, as the efficient means of redressing popular grievances, and crushing the seeds of per- petual feuds and acrimony kept up chiefly by the subsistence of Orangcisin." Lord Cornwallis certainly did, not long after his arrival, begin to interpose a clink upon the bloody work then going on in Wex- ford. On the liS t li of June, after the heads of the Wexford leaders had been duly spiked in front of the jail, and the yeomanry cav- alry had glutted themselves lor one whole week with carnage and conflagration, pick- etings, and scoiirgings, Lord Lake was re- moved from command in that quarter, and it was given to General Hunter, with direc- tions to put an end to the indiscriminate slaughter. A proclamation was issued and printed in the Dublin Gazette, but not till the 3d of July (thus giving the Orange- men one other week's bloody carnival) — authorizing His Majesty's generals to give protections on certain terms. The proclama- tion is ill these words : — " Whereas, it is in the power of His Ma- jesty's generals, and of the forces under their command, entirely to destroy all those who have risen in rebellion, against their sovereign and his laws: yet it is neverthe- less the wish of Government, that those per- sons who, by traitorous machinations, have been seduced, or by acts of intimidation, have been forced from their allegiance, should be received into His Majesty's peace and pardon, commanding in the county of specially authorized thereto, does hereby invite all persons who may lie now assembled in any part of the said county against His Majesty's peace, to surrender % £ c ^~m » m ' ! IMl'Kr.SSloN OF IlilliUoli. ;;:::» themselves and their arms, and ii> desert the leaders who have seduced them ; and for the acceptance ol such surrender and submission the spoi f fourteen days from the date liereol i- allowed, and the towns of me hereby specified, al each of which places one (if His Majesty's officers and a Justice of the Peace will attend ; and upon entering their names, acknowledging their guilt, and promising good behavior for the future, and taking the oath of allegiance, and, at the same time, abjuring all other engage- ments contrary thereto, they will receive a certificate, which will entitle them to protec- tion so long as they demean themselves us becomes good subjects. " And, in order to render such acts of submission easy anil secure, it is the general's pleasure that persons who arc now with any portion of the rebels in arms, and willing to surrender themselves, do send to him, or to any number from each body of rebels not exceeding ten, with whom the j i:d, or will settle the manner in which they may repair to the above towns, BO that no alarm may be exeited, and no in- jury to their persons be offered. "June 29, 1798." Then follows the form of certificate of "protection." Next, on the 11th of July, a message from the Viceroy was read in the House of Commons, signifying the King's pleasure that an " Amnesty act" should be passed, with certain conditions and large ex- ceptions. Accordingly, such a bill was passed in favor of all rebels who had not been leaders ; who had not committed man- slaughter, except in the heat of battle, and who should comply with the conditions men- tioned in the proclamation. But, practi- cally, there was no cessation, at least in the unhappy County of Wexford, of the horrors of military outrage, even after the procla- mation. General Hunter, indeed, seems to have endeavored to appease the minds of the people, and restore confidence and tran- quillity to that distracted country. But some principal gentlemen of the county, and others besides, attempted to interpose their authority to supersede the tenor of the general pardon held out by proclamation, pursuing the same line of ar- bitrary conduct which they had practiced previous to the insurrection. They even pro- ceeded to the length of presuming to tear some of the protections, which the country people had obtained ; but this coming to the General's knowledge, he quieted them by threatening to have them tied to a cart's tail and whipped. Others hail been rash enough to levy arbitrary contributions for the losses they had sustained during the in- surrection. A curate was induced to wait on the General with an account of an intend- ed "massacre" of the Protestants, which he detailed with the appearance of the utmost alarm, and was patiently heard out, by the General, who then addressed him with this marked appellation and strong language : — " .1/;-. Massacre, if you do not. prove to me the circumstances you have related, I shall get you punished in the most exemplary manner, for raising false alarms, which have already proved so destructive to this unfor- tunate country." The curate's alarm in- stantly changed its direction and became personal ; and on allowing that his fears had been excited by vague report to make this representation, his piteous supplication, and apparent contrition, procured him for- giveness. The various outrages that were committed in the country, prevented numbers from com- ing into the quarters of the several com- manding officers to obtain protections, us many of the yeomen and their supplenicnt- aries continued the .system of conflagration, and shooting such of the peasantry as they met ; and this necessarily deterred many from exposing themselves to their view, and prevented, of course, the humane and mod- erate intentions of the present, govern- ment from having their due effect. The mel- ancholy consequence of such a system of terror, persecution, and alarm, had very nearly brought on the extermination of an extensive and populous tract of the County of Wicklow, called the Macomores ; the perpetrati if the plan was providentially prevented by the timely and happy interven- tion of Brigade-Major Fitzgerald, under the directions and orders of General Hunter. Incessant applications and remonstrances had been made by different magistrates in Corey and its vicinity to Government, complaining that this range of country was infested with % '<->/ \ m i.ii mt- IUSTOUY OF IBELANT). H$ ' ' «** ■ , p constant meetings of rebels, who committed every species of Outrage, and these reports were confirmed by affidavits ; they were credited by Government, to whom they were handed in by a magistracy presumed to be deliberate, grave, and respectable ; the Vice- roy was rendered indignanl at these reiter- ated complaints, and orders were sent to the different generals and other commanding officers, contiguous to the devoted tract, to form a line alone- its e\!ent on the western border, and at both ends, north and south, on the land side, so as to leave no resource to the wretched inhabitants, who were to be slaughtered by the soldiery, or to be driven into the sea, as it is bounded by the Channel on tho eastward. Even women and children were to be included in this terrific example. The execution of this severe exemplary mea- sure was intrusted to the discretion of Gen- eral Hunter, who fortunately discovered the inhuman misrepresentation that had produced those terrific orders. The devoted victims found an opportunity to implore protection from the incursions of the black mob (they thus denominated the supplementuries to the different corps of yeomanry) who wreaked their vengeance even upon those who had re- ceived protection from General Needham, at Gorey, as different parties of the soldiery and yeomanry waited their return in ambush, and slaughtered every one they could over- take. This prevented many from coming in for protection. Afterwards these sanguinary banditti made incursions into the country, tired into the houses, thus killing' and wound- ing many unoffending peasants. Several houses after being plundered were burned, and the booty was brought into Gorey. By the frequency of these horrible excesses and depredations, such houses as remained tin- burned were of course crowded with several families, and this multiplied the number of victims at each succeeding incursion. At last, most of the inhabitants took refuge on the hills, and armed themselves with every offensive weapon they could procure. The false alarmists were not depressed by several discomfitures, for although General Hunter reported the country to be in a per- fect state of tranquillity, they again returned to the charge, and renewed their luisrcpre sen tat ions. Mr. Hawtry White, Captain of the Ballaghkeen Cavalry, and a Justice of the Peace lor the county, sent several in- formations lo Government of the alarming state of the country ; and the commanding officer at Gorey was si) far persuaded of the intention of a general rising, that he quitted the town and encamped on a hill above it. These representations, made under the sem- blance of loyalty, had not, however, the wished-for weight with the Government. General 11 miter was ordered to inquire into the information of Mr. Hawtry White. Major Fitzgerald was again sent out, and the result of his inquiry was, that the infor- mation was unfounded. Upon this the Gen- eral ordered Mr. Hawtry White to be brought to Wexford, and he was accordingly conducted thither and put under arrest ; and on his still persisting in his false representa- tions, he was conducted to the island, where, he asserted, the rebels were encamped, and, lo I no island appeared above the water. Mr. Hawtry While was conducted buck to Wexford, atal General Hunter determined to bring him to a court-martial. Many gentlemen and ladies, however, interfered in the most earnest manner to prevent this in- vestigation, representing that Mr. White's great age might have subjected him to the imposition of fabricated information ; and the firmness of the General relaxed at the instance of so many respectable per- sons. To show how very far the people of the country were really protected by the pro- clamations and protections, announced by Lord Cornwallis, it will be needful only to give one or two extracts from the " Memoirs and Correspondence" of that uobleman, pub- lished many years later : — [ Extract of n Idler of Lord Cornwallis lo Ik,- Duke, of Portland, dated the Hl/i of July, 1798.] "The Irish militia are totally without dis- cipline, contemptible before the enemy when any serious resistance is made to them, but ferocious and cruel in the extreme when any poor wretches, either with or without arms, come within their power — in short, murder appears to be their favorite pastime." — (Vol. ii., p. 357.) K £ ft '■-'> A i V I ovrr.ua of ['I I [ONH NOT l i l I0A0IO1 :i. :iii | Extract of a Uttn fr< m Warqv.it ( torn ir,il/i\ to Major General Ross, | " ill r.i.i . (\ ill , July 34, 1798. " Bxcept in the insiin s of tlio six Btato trials thai mv golug on hero, tlioro I no law oithor in ton • country but muvtial law, and you know enough of that to boo nil tho horrors of It, ovan In the bosl admin htratlon of ii Judge, then, how ll nans! I it oonduoted by Irishmen, heated «iili pas il mil rovenge. But nil this is n tiling oompared to the nnmberless murdors thai are hourly oommitted by our people withoul any proce i or exam tlon « hatever The yeomanry ore In the Btyle of the loyalists In America, only much more numerous and powerful, and a thousand times more foro clous, Those men have saved the country, Inii they now take the load in rapine aud murder. The Irish militia, with few officers, iukI those chiefly of the worst kind, follow olosoly "ii the heels of the y< anr) In mur der mnl every kind of atrocity, and the fon oiblea take a Bhare, although much behind- hand »iili the others, The feeble outrugi . burnings, and murders, w*hloh are Btill com- mitted by the rebels, Berve to keep up the 1 : 1 1 1 - 1 1 1 1 1 m i - v .Ii po M i our Bide ; aud as long us they furnish o pretext forourparties going in quasi of them, I see no pro peel of amendment. "The conversation of the principal per- sons of the country nil tends to encourage this system of blood ; and the convor al even al my table, where you will Buppose I do nil | run to prevent It, always turns on hi lug, shooting, burning, dec ; and if a priest i i:i been put to death, tho greatesl joy is expressed by the whole company. So i -li for [roland and my wretched situation." ^ ol u |.. 808). The Marquis Oornwallis issued the fol lowing "Qonoral Orders," with the view of n ,i raining the murderouB and rapaciou oonducl of the troops in Ireland, dated Augu i 81, 1798 :— •• ii is u ii li great c lern thai l iord I lorn wallis finds himself obliged to call on the general officers aud the commanding officers of regiini ni in particular, and in general ou officers of the army, to ossis! him in putting ,, top to the lid iitlous conduct of the troops, aud hi .urn • the wretched Inhabitants from being robbed, and In the most shocking man* nor ill treated, by tho le to n hom they had a ii- Li in Link for Bttfety and protection, " Lord Ooruwallis declare that if he limls that the Boldiors of anj Imonl have had opportunities of committing those excesses from tho negligence of thoir officers, he will ke those officers answerable for their con- duct ; and that if any soldiers are caught either In the aot of robbery, or »iili the articles of plunder in their posso Bion, t ln-y shall be Instantly tried, and immediate exe cation shall follow tholr conviction." The editor of the Oornwallis me Irs in- forms n . 1 1> 1 8, vol. in , i iliui bet "ii'ii the landing of the French, lu tho autumn of i i us, mill the mouth of February, 1190, in period of lour months,) although there were three hundred aud eighty porsous tried by court martial, our hundred and thirty one capitally ( vioted, and ninety exocutod, yet the number of tho latter fell short of what •• the loyal party expected and desired " mill bo mills, " Many persons in England, as well as in Ireland, who were considered mild mill temperate In their views, severely cen- sured what they termed a ruinous \ tern of lenity; nor was the British Government free from n participation In such reelings." At p. 90, vol. 111., we find tho following ni, ervatlons : "To Dr. Duigenan's letter Lord Oastle ruagh repliod on tho tiili of March, 1199, that, oxcluslve of nil prisons tried at the assizes, Lord Oornwallis had deoided per- sonally upon lour hundred oases; thai out nf our hundred and thirty our idemned to ,lr:ii li, eight j one had been executed ; and i ii i - hundred and eighteen persons bad been transported or bauiBhed, in pur ua ui i Lr Bontencos of courts martiul, siuce Lord t 'niiiu allis had orrivod In Ireland." | Extract from a letter of Marquis Conwal Ir.ir \fajm General Ross, April 15, 1799. " Vmi write as If you really bolieved that there was any foundation for all the lies and nonsensical rl.nuor about ray lenity, <>n my arrival in this country I put a slop to the buruiug of lion oa and murder pf the inhabi tauts by the yeomen, or anj other porsons who delighted in that u Bement ; to the i [|ng for iiu' purpose of extorting con- Mi : "V f! \&j$ * [ M V*) V fession ; and to the free quarters, whicl comprehend universal rape and robbery throughout the whole country." — (Vol. iii., p. 89.) Wo have seen that the clamor about. Lord Corn wall is' clemency was in reality "nonsensical," as he declares; and that ho is not even to be credited with the amount of lenity to which he himself lays claim. In fact, it is altogether impossible to believe that, with the immense military force then in Ireland, and of which lie was absolute Commander-in-Chief, be could not (if lie would) have put a stop to the murders and depredations upon the now defenceless peo- ple. The only admissible theory of his eon- duet is, that lie bad instructions to keep alive what Barrington calls the "impres- sion of horror," until the Union shonld be effectuated. All this time there was nothing changed in the state of things in Dublin itself. The three majors and their " people " still pre- dominated with absolute sway, and the state trials were proceeding, before carefully packed juries, of course. It, was under this lenient and conciliatory Comwallis that some of the best, and worthiest gentlemen of Ireland were hunted to death by the basest of mankind, with the prostituted forms of law, before judges predetermined to convict, and juries of Orangemen specially brought together by perjured sheriffs, nol to try, but simply to hang. The two broth- ers Sheares were hung ami beheaded in front of Newgate prison on the 22d of .Inly, (a month after the accession of Comwallis to the viceroyalty.) Byrne and Bond were bolh convicted and sentenced to death. It Was at this moment that the "compact" already mentioned was entered into by cer- tain of the slate prisoners with the Govern- ment, with a view of stopping, if possible, the further effusion of blood, and specifically and expressly of saving the lives of Byrne and Oliver Bond. As the Government not only violated that compact, but, made it the occasion of slandering men to whom all was lost except their honor, it, is necessary, in justice to those best and purest of Irish patriots, to record the actual fads. They are to be found in the collections of the laborious Dr. Madden. The account of the compact of the state prisoners with the Irish Government, taken from the original draft of that, document in the handwriting of Thomas Adilis Emmet, John Sweetman, ami William James Mae- Neven, was drawn up by them in Prance, on their liberation from Fort, George, ami remained in the possession of John Sweet- man. The following part of the statement is in the handwriting of Thomas A. Em- I : — " We, the undersigned, until this day slate prisoners and in close custody, fee] that the first, purpose to which we should apply our liberty is to give to the world a short account of a transaction which has been grossly misrepresented and falsified, but respecting which we have been com- pelled to silence for nearly the last three years. The transaction alluded to is the agreement entered into by us anil Other stale prisoners with the Irish Government, at the close of the month of .Inly, 1198; and we take this step without hesitation, because it can in nowise injure any of our friends and former fellow-prisoners, we being among the last victims of perfidy and breach Of faith. " From the event of the battles of Antrim and Ballinahinch, early in June, it was manifest that the northern insurrection had failed in consolidating itself. The seven! battle of Vinegar Hill, on the 21st of the same month, led to its termination in Leius- ter ; and the capitulation of Ovidstown, on the 12th of July,* may be understood as the last public appearance in the Held of any body capable of serving as n rallying point. In short, the insurrection, for every useful purpose that, could be expected from it, was at an end; but blood still continued to How — courts-martial, special commissions, and, above all, sanguinary Orangemen, now rendered doubly malevolent and revengeful from their recent terror, desolated the conn- try, and devoted to death the most virtuous of our countrymen. These were lost to lib- * The event preoeding tin 1 massaore of the oapita- Lated body of tin* United Irishmen, en the Rath of the Ourragh of Kildare, by thi tnmand of Major- General Sir James Duff, exoouted ohiefly by the yeomanry oavalry of Captain Bagot, ami the Fox-hunters' Voiys, commanded, by Lord Ho- den. M <-/: / j , 'tMG . Culm w b>" > ■'> Li TRUE ACCOUNT OF THE "COMPACT. arty, while she was gaining nothing by the sacrifice. "Such was the situation of affairs when the idea, of entering into a, compact witli Government was conceived by one of tin' undersigned, ami communicated to tin' rest of us conjointly with the other prisoners confined in the Dublin prisons, by the terms of which compact it was intended that as much mighl lie saved anil as little given up as possible. It was the more urgently pressed upon our minds, and the more quickly matured, by the impending fate of two worthy men. Accordingly, on the 24th of July, the state prisoners began a negotia- tion with Government, and an agreement was finally < eluded, by the persons named by their fellow-prisoners, at the Castle of Dublin, and was finally ratified by the Lord Chancellor, Lord Castlereagh, ami Mr. Cooke, three of the Kind's ministers. In no part of this paper were details or perfect accuracy deemed necessary, because the ministers, and particularly Lord Castle- reagh, frequently and .solemnly declared that it should in every part be construed by Government with the utmost, liberality and good faith ; and particularly the last clause was worded in this loose manner to comply with the express desire of the minis- ters, who insisted upon retaining to Govern- ment lie- entile popularity of the measure ; but if was clearly and expressly understood, and positively engaged, that every leading man, not guilty of deliberate murder, should be included in the agreement who should choose to avail himself of it, in as full and ample a manner as the contracting parlies themselves, and that there should be a geueral amnesty, with the same exceptions, for the body of the people. "We entered into this agreement the more readily, because it appeared to us that by it the public cause lost, nothing. We Knew, from the different examinations of the state prisoners before the IVivy Council, and from conversations with ministers, that Government was already in possession of all the important knowledge which they could Obtain from us. Fjom whence they derived their information was not entirely known to us, but it is now manifest that Reynolds, M'Ginn, and Hughes— not to speak of the minor informers -had put them in posses- sion of every material fact, respecting the internal state of the Union ; and it, was from particular circumstances well known to one of us, and entirely believed by the rest, that its external relations had been betrayed to the English Cabinet, through the agency of a foreigner with whom we negotiated. "This was even so little disguised that, on the preceding 12th of March, the con- tents of a memoir which had been prepared by one of the undersigned at Hamburg, and transmitted thence to Paris, were minutely detailed to him by Mr. Cooke. Nevertheless, those with whom we nego- tiated seemed extremely anxious for our ( imunications. Their reasons for this anxiety may have been many, but two, par- ticularly, suggested themselves to our minds. They obviously wished to give proof to the enemies of an Irish republic and of Irish in- dependence of the facts with which they were themselves well acquainted ; while, at the same time, they concealed from the world their real sources of intelligence. Nor do we believe we arc uncharitable in attrib- uting to them the hope and wish of render- ing unpopular and suspected men in whom the United Irishmen had been accustomed to place an almost unbounded confidence. The injurious consequences of Government succeeding in both these objects were merely personal; and, as they were no more, though they were revolting and hateful to the last degree, we did not hesitate to devote our- selves that, we might make terms for our country. "What were these terms? That it should be rescued from civil and military execution; that a truce should be obtained for liberty, which she so much required. There was also another strongly-impelling motive for entering into this agreement. If Government, on the one hand, was desirous of rousing its dependents by a display of the vigorous and well -Concerted measures that were taken for subverting its authority and shaking oil' the English yoke; so we, on the other hand, wire not less solicitous for the vindication of our cause in the eyes of the liberal, the enlightened, and patriotic. Wc perceived that, in making a lair and LhQ .CffLnrwa,^ 344 H ;.-. candid development of those measures we should bo enabled boldly to avow and justify the cause of Irish union, as being founded npon the purest principles of benevolence, unil as aiming only at the liberation of Irc- hi ml. We felt that we could rescue our brotherhood from those foul imputations which had been industriously ascribed to it — the pursuit of the most unjust objects by means of the most, flagitious crime. " If our country has not actually bene- fited lo the extent of our wishes and of our stipulations, let it be remembered that this has not been owing to the compact, but to the breach of the compact — the gross and flagrant breach of it, both as to the letter and spirit, in violation of every principle of plighted faith and honor. " Haviug been called upon to fulfill our part of the compact, a stop being put to all further trials and executions, a memoir was drawn up and sinned by two of the under- signed, together with another of the body, (they being selected by Government for that purpose,) and was presented to Mr. Cooke on the 4th of August. It was very hastily prepared in a prison, and, of course, not so complete and accurate as it might otherwise have been ; but sufficiently so to draw from Mr. Cooke an acknowledgment that it was a complete fulfillment of the agreement; though he said the Lord-Lieu- tenaut wished to have it so altered as not to be a justification Of the United Irishmen, Which, he said, it manifestly was. "Upon the refusal to alter it, Govern- ment thought proper to suppress it altogeth- er, and adopted a plan which they had al- ready found convenient for promulgating, not the entire truth, but so much of the truth as accorded with their views, and whatever el>e they wished to have passed upon man- kind under color of authority for the truth This was no other than examination before the secret committees of Parliament, r>\ these committees several of us were exam- ined ; and, to our astonishment, we soon alter saw in the newspapers, and have since seen in printed reports of these committees, misrepresented and garbled, and, as far as relates to some of us, very untrue and falla- cious statements of our testimony— even in some cases, the very reverse of what was HISTORY OF Iltr.l.VNIi. given. That no suspicion may attach to this assertion from its vagueness, such of us as were examined will, without delay, stale the precise substance of our evidence on that occasion. "The Irish Parliament thought lit, about the month of September in the same year, to pass an act to be founded expressly on this agreement. To the provisions of that law we do not think it worth while to al- lude, because their severity and injustice are lost in comparison with the enormous false- hood of its preamble. In answer to that we most distinctly and formally deny that any of us did ever publicly or privately, directly or indirectly, acknowledge crimes, retract opinions, or implore pardon, as is therein most falsely stated. A lull and ex- plicit declaration lo this cll'cct would have been made public at the time, had it, not been prevented by a message from Lord ComwalliS, delivered In one of the subscrib- ers, on the 12th of that month. Notwith- standing we had expressly stipulated fit the time of the negotiation for the entire liberty of publication, in cast; we should find our conduct or motives misrepresented, yet ihis perfidious and inhuman message threatened that such declaration would be considered as a breach of the agreement on our part, and in that ease the executions in general should go on as formerly. "Thus was the truth stilled at the time ; and we believe firmly that to prevent its publication has been one of the principal reasons why, in violation of the most, sol- emn engagements, we were kept, in close custody ever since, and transported from our native country against our consent. "We conceive that, to ourselves, to our cause, and to our country, and lo posterity, we owe this brief statement of lads, in which we have suppressed everything that is not of a nature strictly vindicatory ; be- cause our object in this publication is not to criminate, but to defend. As to their truth, we positively aver them, each for himself, as far as they fall within his knowl- edge, and we firmly believe the others to bo the truth, and nothing but the truth." The following part of the statement is in (he handwriting of John Sweetman : — "Ou the 12th of March, 1TJ8, the depu- Qi I ^ i ,":> iM m. : z ■%■ TEUE ACCOUNT Or Till', " l'< IMI'.UT. 345 :iea from several counties having met in Dublin, lo deliberate npon some general i urea for tTuion, were arrested in a body at Mr. Bond's, as were also many otber of Its principal agents, and put into a slate of solitary confinement. Some of those persons wit.' examined by the Privy Council pre- vious to their committal to prison ; when it appeared, beyond a possibility of doubt, thai the negotiations of the United Irish- men with France had been betrayed to the British Government. On the 30th, the kingdom was officially declared in a state of reiirllimi, and pui under martial law. A proclamation from the Lord-Lieutenant had directed the military to use the most sum- mary methods tor repressing disturbances; and it was publicly notified by the com- manders in some counties that, unless the people brought in their arms within ten days from the period of publication, large bodies of troops would be quartered on them, VgllO should be licensed to live at free-quarters, and that oiler severities would be exercised to enforce acquiescence. In the latter end of May, the uuited armed n of the Coun- ty Kildare felt themselves obliged to take the field, and hostilities commenced between them and the King's forces on t lie '24th. About this time the Counties of Wexford and Wicklow were generally up, and those oi Down, Derry, Antrim, Carlow, and Meath were preparing to rise. The appeal to arms ill these counties was attended with various success on both sides, and the mili- tary were invested .villi further powers by a proclamation, issued by the Lord- 1, untenant and Council, directing the generals to punish all attacks npon the Kind's forces, according to martial-law, either by death or otherwise, as to them should seem expedient. For some time the people had the advantage in the field ; lint the defeat at New lloss on the 5th of June, at Antrim on the 7th, that of Arklow on the '.iih, of Ballinahinch on the 12th, of Vinegar Hill on the 21st, and Kilconnell on the 26th, with the evacuation of Wex- ford, and some unsuccessful skirmishes which afterwards took place ill the Count \ oi Wicklow, removed all lmpe of maintain- ing the contest for the present with any probability of success. In the interim troops were arriving from England, and several regiments of Euglish militia had volunteered their services for Ireland. About the end of June, a proclamation was issued, promising pardon and protec- tion to all persons, except the leaders, who should return to their allegiance and deliver up their arms, which, it was said, had a wry general effect. A large body of the Kildare men had already .surrendered to General Ihmdas, and on the 21st of July another party, with its leaders, capitulated to General Wilford. The King's troops by this ti were victorious in every quar- ter ; and the park of artillery which had been employed in the south had returned to the capital. "It was now upwards of two months since the war broke out, during which time no attempt had been made by the French to land a force upon the coast, nor was there any satisfactory account then received that such a design was in contemplation. The expedition of Buonaparte and the forces un- der his command were already ascertained to have some part of the Mediterranean for their object. No Other diversion was made by the French to distract the British power during this period. Military tribunals, com- posed of officers who, in many instances, as it was publicly admitted, had not ex- ceeded the inconsiderate age of boyhood, were everywhere instituted, and a vast num- ber of executions had been the consequence. The yeomen aud soldiery, licensed to in- dulge their rancor and revenge, were com- mitting those atrocious cruelties which unfortunately distinguish the character of civil warfare. The shooting of innocent peasants at their work was occasionally re- sorted to by them as a species of recreation — a practice SO inhuman that unless we had incontcstible evidence of the fact we never should have given it the slightest cre- dence. During these transactions, a special commission, under an act of Parliament, passed for the occasion, was sitting in the capital ; and the trials having commenced, it was declared from the bench that to be proved an United Irishman was sufficient to subject the party to the penally of death, and that any member of a baronial committee was accountable for ev I) i'*6 .CCUNB»4.t S^4^ HISTORY OF IRELAND. W .fa fa^t r w* fV *■_■ r* 4 done by the body to which he respectively belonged in its collective capacity, whether it was done without his cognizance in his absence, or even at the extremity of the land. As it was openly avowed that con- victions would be sought for only through the medium of informers, the Government nsed every influence to dignify the charac- ter of this wretched class of beings in the eyes of those who were selected to decide on the lives of the accused ; and they so ef- fectually succeeded as to secure implicit re- spect to whatever any of them chose to swear, from juries so appointed, so prepos- sessed. It was made a point by the first con- nections of Government to Hatter those wretches, and some peers of the realm were known to have hailed the arch-apostate Reynolds with the title of ' Saviour of his country.'" The following part of the statement is in the handwriting of William James Mac- Neven : — " In the case of Mr. Bond, the jury, with an indecent precipitation, returned a verdict of guilty, on the 23d of July, and on the 25th he was sentenced to die. Byrne was also ordered for execution. In this sit- uation of our affairs a negotiation was opened with Government, and proceeded in through the medium of Mr. Dobbs. An agreement was in consequence concluded ond signed, which among other things stipu- lated for the lives of Byrne and Bond ; but Government thought fit to annul this by the execution of Byrne. As, however, the main object, the putting a slop to the useless effusion of Mood, was still attainable, it was deemed right to open a second negotiation. In its progress, Government having insisted OU some dishonorable requisitions, which were rejected with indignation, occasioned the failure of this also. It was, however, pro- posed by them to renew it again, and depu- ties from the jails were appointed to confer with the official servants of the Crown. A meeting, accordingly, took place at the Castle on the 29th of July, when the Bnal agreement was concluded and exchanged. " In addition to the fulfillment to the letter of this agreement, the official servants of the Crown pledged the faith of Government for two things— one that the result and end of that measure should be the putting a stop to the effusion of blood, and that all execu- tions should cease, except in cases of willful murder ; the other was, that the conditions of the agreement should be liberally inter- preted. The agreement was, in the course of a day or two, generally signed by the prisoners, " [laving thus stated the facts, we pro- ceed to declare our reasons for entering into and ratifying this agreement : First, lie- cause we had seen, with great affliction, that in the course of the appeal to arms, while four or five counties out of the thirty- two were making head against the whole of the King's forces, no effectual disposition was manifested to assist them, owing, as we believe, to the extreme difficulty of assem- bling, and the want of authentic informa- tion as to the real state of affairs. Second. Because the concurring or quiescent spirit of the English people enabled their Govern- ment to seud not only a considerable addi- tional regular force, but also many regiments of English militia into Ireland. Third. Be- cause it was evident that in many instances the want of military knowledge in the lead- ers had rendered the signal valor of the people fruitless. Fourth. Because, not- withstanding it was well known in France that the revolution had commenced in Ire- land — an event that they were previously taught to expect — no attempt whatever was made by them to land any force during the two months which the contest had lasted, nor was any account received that, it was their intention even shortly to do so. Fifth. Because, that by the arrest of many of the deputies and chief agents of the Union, and by the absence of others, the funds necessary for the undertaking were obstructed or un- collected, and hence arose insurmountable difficulties. Sixth. Because, from the sev- eral defeats at New Ross and Wexford, no donbt remained on our minds that further resistance, for the present, was not only vain, but nearly abandoned. Seventh. Be- cause we were well assured that the procla- mation of amnesty issued on the 29th of June had caused great numbers to surrender their arms, and take the oath of allegiance. Eighth. Because juries were so packed, jus. lice so perverted, and the testimony of the basest informers so respected, that trial was ! R? c» "S3 tg fi*- ', i TRUE ACCOUNT OF THE " COMPACT. 347 but a mockery, and arraignment bat the I shed. We have ever since been constrained l\ sC"^ 1 kery tocsin for execution. Ninth. Because we were convinced by the official servants of the Crown, and by the evidence given on the trials, that Government was already in pos- session of our external and internal transac- tions—the former they obtained, as we be- lieve, through the perfidy of some agents of the French Government at Hamburg; the latter through informers who had been more or less confidential in all our affairs. Tenth, and final. Every day accounts of the mur- ders of our most virtuous and energetic countrymen assailed our ears ; many were perishing on the scaffold, under pretext of martial or other law, but many more the victims of individual Orange hatred and re- venge. To Stop this torrent of calamity, to ], nscrvc to Ireland her best blood . . . we determined to make a sacrifice of no trivial value — we agreed to abandon our country, our families, and our friends. " And now we feel ourselves further called upon to declare that an act, passed in Ireland during the autumn of 1798, re- citingour names, and asserting that we had 'retracted out opinions, acknowledged our crimes, and implored pardon, 5 is founded upon a gross and flagrant calumny— neither we, the undersigned, nor any of our fellow- prisoners, so far as we know or believe, hav- ing ever done cither the one or the other ; and we solemnly assert that we never were consulted about that act, its provisions, or preamble, and that no copy of it was ever sen I to us by any servant of the Crown — though repeatedly promised by the under- Si cretary— nor by any other person. On the the contrary, it had, unknown to us, passed the House of Commons, when one of us, (Samuel Neilson,) having seen by mere ac- cident an abstract of it in an English news- paper, remonstrated with the servants of the Crown on the falsity of the preamble, and was >ilenced only by a message from the Lord-Lieuteuant, that it was his posi- tive determination to annul the agreement and proceed with the executions, &c., if any further notice whatever was taken of the preamble, or if one word was published on the subject. We did not conceive ourselves warranted, situated as things then were, in being instrumental to a renewal of blood- to silence, for, in violation of a solemn agreement, we have been kept dose prisoners. "To our country and to our posterity, we felt that we owed this declaration ; and to their judgment upon our conduct and mo- tives we bow with respectful submission." These gentlemen were all still kept close prisoners. Three of them, Thomas Addia Emmet, Arthur O'Connor, and Dr. Mac- Neven, were twice, in the course of the year 1798, brought up and examined, as already described, before secret committees of both Houses, and in April, 1799, were sent to Fort George, a strong place near Inverness, in the Highlands of Scotland, where they were kept prisoners until the peace of Amiens. The names of the Fort George prisoners were : — ■ Thomas Annis Emmet. Arthur O'Connor, Roger O'Connor, William James MacNeven, John Sweetman, Matthew Dowumo, John Chambers, Edward Hudson, George Gumming, Samuel Neilson, Thomas Russell, Robert Simms, William Tknnent, Robert Hunter, Hugh Wilson, John Sweeny, Joseph Cuthbert, William Steele Dixon, Joseph Cormick. "We were selected," says Dr. Steele Dixon, in his narrative, "from the three provinces of Ulster, Leinster, and Minister, but principally from the city of Dublin and town of Belfast ; we comprehended in our body three magistrates, three barristers, two physicians, one attorney, one apothecary, one printer and bookseller, one printer and proprietor of a newspaper, one dentist, one military captain, one runner to a bank, one merchant tailor, and one Presbyterian min- ister, with an eminent porter brewer, two wholesale merchants, one broker, and two young gentlemen without profession, trade, or calling. ... 1 should have added, "fc fr. V w V ? ^ £ Sit . ■ . ■ HISToKY OF lltLLAND. I S A ; a clergyman of the Church of England, as Arthur O'Connor was ordained as such pre- vious to his being called to the bar ; and as Episcopal ordination impresses au indelible character, he not only then was, and mow is, but ever must be, a clergyman, Of our cir- cumstances, I shall only say, that we had all been independent, must of us respectable, in our professions, some possessed ol large capitals in trade, and others of considerable lauded property. Perhaps it may not be amiss to mention here (hat, as we were se- lected from the three principal provinces of Ireland, we were respectively members of the three priucipal Churches in the kingdom, and which alone Government has yet ac- knowledged as Churches. Nor is it un- worthy of notice that the number of Catho- lics, Protestants, and Presbyterians in our little colony, was in an inverse ratio of the number of each denomination in Ireland at large. Perhaps the proportion may be staled as follows, though not, correctly : — Catholics, (two-thirds of the people,) prisoners. . . 4 Presbyterians, (more than one tit t li »i the people.,) prisoners o* Protestants, (less than one seventh of the people,) prisoners l't CHAPTER XXXVII. 1798. Parliament— The Acta of Attainder — French Landing under Humbert Killalo Conduct of the little French Arm} Ballina The Racea of Castlebar— Panic aud Rout of the British Force Freuchgive .i Ball Lord Cornwallia Collects a Great Irnij Marches to meet the French Encounters them at Ballinamuch Defeat and Capture of the Frenoh - Recover; of Ballina Slaughter Courts-Martial, &c Kiul of the insurrections oi IT'.is — New Frenoh Expedition Com lore Bompart— T. W. Tone— Encounter British Fleet at Mouth of Lough Swilly— Battle —the Hoche Captured Tone a Pris- oner Recognized bj Sir George Hill Carried to Dublin in Irons Tried by Courl Martial Con- demned to be Hiii I lli> Lddrossto the Court - \ \ ls a Favor to bo Shot Refused by Cornwal lis— Suicide in Prison. In the midst of tins reign of terror and of vengeance, Parliament continued to sit from time to time. Lord Castlereagh's majority in Parliament had its functions to discharge, as well us the " Major's People," in the gen- eral system of operations which were all to ad towards, and end in, the one grand point — a Legislative Union. On the l s th of duly. Lord Castlereagh, after a long speech on the rebellion in general, and its atrocities, (which were all, according to him, on the part of the people,) proposed that a measure should lie brought ill to grant compensation to such of His .Majesty's loyal subjects as had sustained losses in their property during the insurrection. This bill was brought in, was passed, and commis- sioners were appointed for carrying it into effect On the '27th, the Attorney-General brought in a bill for the attainder of Lord Edward Fitzgerald, Cornelius Grogan, and Beanchamp Bagenal Harvey, in order that their estates migh) be forfeited. All efforts in opposition to this new procedure against men who were all dead and had never been convicted of any crime, proved quite fruit- less. It was the informer Reynolds, who bad been implicitly trusted by the unsus- pecting Lord Edward, that proved the case against him, to the satisfaction of the Com- mittee. Curran was heard in defence, on the part of Lady Pamela Fitzgerald and her children, aud made a very strong argu- ment. On the unheard-of nature of ibis species of proceeding, he said : " Upon the previous and important question, namely, the guilt of Lord Edward, (without the full proof of which no punishment can be just,) 1 have been asked by the Committee if 1 have any defence to go into. . . . Sir, 1 now answer the question : 1 have no de- fensive evidence — it is impossible that I should. 1 have often of late gone to the dungeon of the captive, but, never have I ,, to tin' grave of the dead, to receive iu- siruetioiis for his defence — nor, in truth, have 1 ever before beeu at the trial of a dead man." It was all in vain ; that Par- liament was quite ready to make a new pre- cedent, iii order to starve the widows aud children of dead rebels. 'The liills ol' At- tainder passed.* Besides these, the Parlia- ment was busy with its ■• Fugitive hill," and its •• Bauishmeut hill," excepting from all * A remnant of Lord Edward's property was saved tor liis wi.low by Mr. Ogilvie, Lord Edward's Btep- lallier, ulio Imuuht il when sold iii Chancery to sat,- isfy a mortgage, lint what, was saved was a trifle ; ami Lady Pamela died in poverty. As to Mr.Urogan, wlio possess.-. i a large estate, sir Jonah Barringtou s.o - : " This Attainder bill was oue of the most illegal y^r HI f S. " -v. l®5.r£ WCfM^m IH D ;.-•' •• B1 m 1 Kl sen LANDING UNDER HUMBERT. £% I '. v R B J §1« amnesty certain United irishmen not then in the country, and certain others who were to be allowed to exile themselves. These two lists comprehend one hundred and forty names, including Napper Tandy, Wolfe Tone, Richard McCormick, I 'ran Swift, LewillS, Funnel, Ncilson, O'Connor, &c; and all the names may be found in one of tin' appendixes of Madden. The last-named gentlemen, indeed, before their banishment, had snine years to pass in the dreary fort- ress of Fort George. The whole country was still under mar- tial-law ; many were suffering the extreme penalty, and that wholesome feeling, called by Barrington "an impression of horror," was sufficiently prevalent for all the purposes of Mr. Pitt, when his policy was materially Served by a new and most pitiful French in- vasion, which Came too late to serve Ireland, but was in admirable time to help England. Fortunately for England, and, therefore, unhappily for Ireland, the French Republic was, during the year L7>98, in its most help- less ami chaotic condition. Napoleon was in Egypt ; ami the miserable Directory, with neither money nor credit, was lamenta- bly unequal to the exigencies of the time. Wolfe Tone was still in France. As the news of each arrest, and of each action. Successively reached France, he urged the generals and Government to assist the gal- lant and desperate struggle of his country- men, and pressed on them the necessity of availing themselves of the favorable oppor- tunity which Hew so rapidly by. They be- gan their preparations without delay; lint money, anus, ammunition, and ships, all were wanting. By the close of June, the insurrection was nearly crushed, and it was not till the beginning of July that Tone was Called up to Paris, to consult, with the Min- isters of the War and Navy Departments on the organization oi a new expedition. At this period Ins journal closes, and the subsequent events are elsewhere recorded. The plan of the new expedition was to and in M titutionat acta ever pr oted by any gov- ernment ; inn after much more than £10,000 coats to Crown officers, and in Lord Norbury, as Attorney- Gem oil. I. nl i" 'ii extracted from tie' property, tin; , \m re restored to the surviving brother." The surviving brother had fought mi tin: royalist biiu liming Hie insurrection. ispatch small detatchments from several ports, in the hope of keeping up the insur- rection, and distracting the attention of the enemy, until some favorable opportunity should occur for landing the main body, under General Omaiue. General Hum- bert, with about one thousand men, was quartered for this purpose at Rochelle ; General Hardy, with three thousand, at Brest ; and Ivihnaiue, with nine thousand, remained in reserve. This plan was judi- cious enough, if it had been taken up in time. But, long before the first of these expeditions was ready to sail, the insurrec- tion was subdued in every quarter. The indignation of the unfortunate Irish was just and extreme against that French Government, which had so repeatedly promised them aid, and now appeared to desert them in their utmost need. A miserable expedition, at the instance of Napper Tandy, was at length fitted out, of which Tone's sou thus speaks : — ■ " The final ruin of the expedition was hurried by the precipitancy and indis- cretion of a brave but ignorant and impru- dent officer. This anecdote, which is not generally known, is a striking instance of the disorder, indiscipline, and disorganiza- tion which began to prevail in the French army. Humbert, a gallant soldier of for- tune, but whose heart was better than his head, impatient of the delays of his Gov- ernment, and fired by the recitals of the Irish refugees, determined to begin the en- terprise on his own responsibility, and thus oblige the Directory to second or to abandon him." With three or four ships, about one thou- sand men, and a small force of artillery — without instructions, and without any as- surance of being supported, he compelled the captains to select for the most desperate at- tempt which is, perhaps, recorded in history. Three Irishmen accompanied him, Mat- thew Tone, Bartholomew Teeling, of Lis- burn, and Sullivan, nephew to Madgett, whose name is often mentioned in Tone's memoirs. On the '22.1 of August, they made the coast of Oonnaught, and landing in the Hay of Killala, immediately stormed and occupied that little town. The Protestant Bishop of Kill F2 PL ~zrf \ ' BR '(V I1ISTOKY OF IIIF.LAND. es '., 'It? A ,v i then at bis bouse, called the Castle, and there was with him ti company of parsons, holding a visitation. It is from his narra- tive that we Irani the details ; and he especially hears witness to the excellent con- duct of the French, both officers and men; although his testimony to this effect was "at the expense of Ins own translation "* The French entered the bay under Eng- lish colors; and the feint succeeded so well that two of the bishop's sons, with the l'orl- Surveyor, took a fishing-boal and went out with the intention of going on board one of the ships; they were presently surprised to find themselves prisoners, Between seven and eight, a terrified messenger came and told tin' bishop that the French were honied, and that near three hundred of them were within a mile of the town. 'The cavalry of- ficers rode off directly, in full speed, with the intelligence to Ballina. The yeomanry and fencibles drew up before the castle-gate, and resolutely advanced into the main street to meet the French advance-guard. Borne down by numbers, and seeiug two of their corps fall, they were seized with a panic, and fled. ELirkwood and nineteen yeomen were taken, and ordered into close custody at the castle. All opposition being now at an end, the French General marched into the castle-yard at the head of his offi- cers, and demanded to sic the bishop, who, fortunately, was conversant with the French language. Humbert desired him to be un- der no apprehension for himself Or his peo- ple ; they should be treated with respectful attention, and nothing should be taken by the French troops but what was absolutely necessary for their support ; a promise which, as long as those troops continued in Killala, was most religiously observed. Mr. Ktrkwood was examined, as to the supplies that could be drawn from the town and neighborhood to assist the progress oi the invaders. The queries were interpreted by some Irish officers, who came with the French, to which he answered with such an appearance of frankness and candor, that he gained the esteem of the French General, who told him he was on his parole, and should have full permission to return to his * Sir J. Harrington, fttie timl Fail, <£o. family, and attend to his private affairs. The conjugal affection of this gentleman on the next, day made him forget his parch', and go to attend his sick wife, who, from the dread of the enemy, had secreted her- self in the mountains. Enraged at this breach of parole, the French took every- thing they wanted out of his stores — oats, salt, and iron, to a considerable amount; nor had they been careful to prevent depreda- tions by the rebels in his dwelling-house, as they would have done if he had not lied ; so that when he returned he found it a u reek. The bishop's castle was made the head- quarters of [he French General. But such excellent discipline was constantly main- tained by these invaders while they re- mained in Killala, that with every tempta- tion to plunder, which the time and the number of valuable articles within their reach, presented to them — a side-board of plate and glosses, a hall lillcd with hats, whips, and great-coats, as well of the guests as of the family — not. one single article of private property was carried away. On the morning after his arrival, Hum- bert began his military operations by push- inn- forward to Ballina a detachment of a hundred men, forty of whom he had mount- ed on the best horses he could seize. A green flag was mounted over the castle-gate, with the inscription Erin go Bragh, import- ing to invite the country people to join the French Their cause was to be forwarded by the immediate delivery of arms, ammu- nition, and clothing to the new levies of the country. Property was to be inviolable. Ready money was to come over in the ships expeeled every day from France. In the meantime, whatever was bought was paid for in drafts on the future Directory. Though cash was wanting, the promise of clothing and anus to the recruits was made good to a considerable extent. The first that offered their service received com- plete clothing to the amount of about a thousand. The next, comers, at least as many, received arms and clothing, but no shoes and stockings, To the last, arms only were given. And of arms, Colonel Charost assured the bishop, five thousand and five hundred stand were delivered. n r, -j-:.^. ■ . r ■ - r- V&\ Tin' Right Rev. narrator thus describes thr little army of invaders : — " lutelligence, activity, temperance, pa- G Op i tience, to a surprising degree, appeared t.> In- combined in 1 1 1 < - soldiery that came over with Humbert, together with the exactesl obedience to discipline ; yet, if you except the grenadiers, they had nothing to catch the eve. Their stature for the most part was low, their complexion pale and sallow, their clothes much the worse for the wear ; to a superficial observer they would have appear- ed almost incapable of enduring any hard- ship. These were the men, however, of whom it was presently observed that they i M lie well content to live on bread or potatoes, to drink water, to make the stones of the street their bed, and to sleep in their \/^x5?5 clothes, with no cover lint the canopy of heaven. One half of their number had served in Italy, under Buonaparte, the rest were from the Army of the Rhine." The French, anil the Irish officers who aei ipanied them, did not find the Con- nanght people so well prepared to receive them, nor so well organized, as they had hoped and expected. The general insurrec- tion which was just suppressed had not pene- trated into Mayo at all ; yet the bishop mentions some circumstances to show that the landing was not unexpected by the peas- antry of those parts. At any rate, a French Bag displayed anywhere in Ireland, was sure tn attract the fighting part of the popula- tion around it — as, indeed, the same pheno- menon would do at this day. The bishop, whose professional prejudices may lead him to exaggerate a little, gives a curious ac- eoiint of the astonishment of the French when they fonnd their Irish allies were de- vout Catholics— as if they had not known this before ; he says : — "The contrast with regard to religious sentiments between the French and their Irish allies was extremely curious. The atheist despised and affronted the bigot; but the wonder was, how the zealous papist should come to any terms of agreement with a set of men who boasted openly in our heating, that they had just driven Mr. Pope out ot Italy, and did not expect to liud him again so suddenly in Ireland. It aslonishci the French officers to hear the recruits, when they offered their services, declare, that they were come to take arms for France and the Blessed Virgin." Humbert left Killala with a quantity of ammunition in the possession of two hundred men and six officers, and on the 25th, about seven o'clock in the evening, took possession of Ballina, from whence the garrison (led on his approach. Here he left behind him an officer named True, With a very small part of the French and several of the Irish re- cruits. Humbert was sensible of the ad- vantage of pushing forward with vigor, and a rapid progress into the interior could alone bring t ho natives to his standard. At Ballina many hundred peasants repaired to the French standard, and with eagerness re- ceived arms and uniforms. The French commander determined to attack the forces at Castlebar, and began his inarch on the morning of the 26th, with eight hundred of his own men, and less than fifteen hundred Irish. There was then in Castlebar an army of six thousand men, under command of Gen- eral Lake, including some fine militia regi- ments, with the Marquis of Ormond, Gen- eral Lord Hutchinson, the Earls of Long- ford and Granard, and Lord Rodeu, with his boasted regiment of cavalry, called the " Foxhunters," who had shown themselves capable of at least riding down flying and disarmed peasants in Meath and Kildare. It was a force with which General Lake reasonably enough thought he should give a good account of eight hundred French and Mune raw levies of Connanght men. The English commander expected the French to advance by the high road leading to Castle- bar ; but Humbert, having good guides, took the way over the pass of Barnagee, westward, and so appeared, early in the morning, not precisely at the point where he was looked for. General Lake with his staff had just ar- rived and taken command, (as an elder of- ficer,) as Lord Hutchinson had determined to march the ensuing day and end the ques- tion, by a capture of the French detachment. The change of commanders had occasioned discontent and demoralization amongst the troops ; at least that is one of the reasons or excuses which loyalist writers have been fr e* m *L*9 .CW.U«||Y1.6, HISTORY OF IRELAND. fain to allege for the shameful conduct of the British force in the action which fol- lowed. Plowden says, on this" subject : — "There is no question but that a very serious difference happened previous to the disgraceful action at Castlebar, between Genera] (now Lord) Hutchinson and Gen- eral Lake ; and that the army in general was strongly affected by the former's hay- ing been superseded in his command by the latter. General Hutchinson was acquainted with every inch of the country, and had prepared an able and efficient plan for stop- ping the progress of the enemy ; he com- manded ;ilike the confidence of the army and the affections of the natives. As cruelty and cowardice are ever inseparable, it was unlikely that troops, which had debased themselves by massacring the fugitive, sur- rendered or unoffending, by burning their houses and destroying their property, by torturing, strangling, and flogging the sus- pected to extort confessions, should, when left to themselves, or under the command of the promoter of that savage warfare, bravely face an enemy, upon whom they dared not exercise their wonted atrocities." However that might be, on the appear- ance of the French and Irish deploying from the pass of Barnagee, Sir Jonah Barrington describes thus the singular action that fol- lowed : — "The troops were moved to a position, about a mile from Castlebar, which, to an unskilled person, seemed unassailable. They had scarcely been posted, with nine pieces of cannon, when the French appeared on the opposite side of a small lake, descending the hill in columns, directly in front of the English. Our artillery played on them with effect. The French kept up a scattered fire of musketry, and took up the attention of our army by irregular movements. In half an hour, however, our troops were alarmed by a movement of small bodies to turn their left, which, being covered by walls, they had never apprehended. The orders given were either mistaken or misbelieved ; the line wavered, and, in a few minutes, the whole of the royal army was completely routed ; the flight of the infantry was as that of a mob, all the royal artillery was taken, our army fled to Castlebar, the heavy cavalry galloped amongst the infantry and Lord Jocelyn's Light Dragoons, and made the best of their way, through thick and thin, to Castlebar, and towards Tiiain, pursued by such of the French as could get horses to carry them. "About nine hundred French and some peasants took possession of Castlebar, with- out resistance, except from a few Highland- ers, stationed in the town, who were soon destroyed." So violent was the panic of the British, that they never halted till they reached Tuam, forty miles from the field of battle. They lost the whole of their artillery — four- teen pieces— five stand of colors, and in killed, wounded, and prisoners, eighteen officers and three hundred and fifty men — but the French calculated the loss of the enemy at six hun- dred. The fugitives renewed their march, or rather flight, from Tuam on the same night, and proceeded to Athlone, where an officer of Carbineers with sixty of his men arrived at one o'clock, on Tuesday, the 29th, having performed a march of above seventy English miles — the distance of Athlone from Castlebar — in twenty -seven hours. Thu whole battle and rout are familiarly known to this day in Connaught, as the "Races of Castlebar." The French having thus easily possessed themselves of the county town of Mayo, immediately gave a ball and supper. Sir Jonah Barrington says :— "The native character of the French never showed itself more strongly than after this action. When in full possession of the large town of Castlebar, they immediately set about putting their persons in the best order, and the officers advertised a ball and supper that night, for the ladies of the town ; this, it is said, was well attended ; decorum in all points was .strictly preserved ; they paid ready money for everything; in fact, the French army established the French character wherever they occupied." But they thought of something else be- sides amusement. With that love of order which is a distinguishing trait of their na- tion, they established districts, each under its own elected magistrate ; they repressed any disposition which showed itself on the part of the people to maltreat the loyalist inhabitants, if, indeed, such disposition ex- X Wi tr-r^ V I v is ted, us the bishop affirms. A provincial government was at once established, with Mr. Moore, of Moore Hall, as President, and proclamations were issued in the name of the "Irish Republic." From tin' terror which this handful of French troops inspired, we may form some idea of the effects which might have fol- lowed the landing of even Humbert's little force anywhere in the south of Ireland, while the Wexford men were gallantly hold- ing their own county ; or we may conjecture what might have been the result if Humbert had lirought with him ten thousand men in- stead of one thousand, even, in that month of August, crushed as the people had been by the savage suppression of their insurrec- tion ; — or, if Grouchy had marched inland with his six thousand men, at the moment when the people were eager to begin the rising, and the English had but three thou- sand regular troops in the island. It seemed as if England were destined to have all the luck, ami either by favor of the elements or the miscalculations of her enemies, to escape, one after another, the deadly perilst hat fur- ever beset her empire. As it was, this arrival of Humbert, even followed by so brilliant a victory, was really s uch profit to the British Government. Barrington truly remarks: — "The defeat of Castlebar, however, was a victory to the Viceroy ; it revived all the horrors of the rebellion which had been sub- siding, and the desertion of the militia regi- ments tended to impress the gentry with an idea that England alone could protect the country." The Marquis Oornwallis determined to collect a great army, and march iu imposing force ; but he did not hasten his movements so much as it was thought he might have done ; and, in the meantime, the French and insurgents were profiting by the delay. It was said that forty thousand of the West- ]ii> Mtli people were preparing to assemble at the Crooked Wood, in that county, so as to join the French on their passage, and march OD the metropolis. At length, the Marquis was ready; and having assured himself of the presence of twenty thousand men on his line of inarch, he thought himself strong enough to en- counter the eight hundred audacious French- men and their Irish allies. These latter were by no means increasing, but rather dim- inishing since the day of Castlebar ; and in- deed, at no time exceeded two thousand men — a circumstance which greatly surprised and disgusted the French. The Marquis proceeded on the 30th of August on the road to Castlebar, and ar- rived on the 4th of September at Holly- niount, fourteen miles distant from Castle- bar ; iu the evening of that day he received intelligence, that the enemy had abandoned his post, anil marched to Foxford. The advanced guard of the French hav- ing arrived at Coloony, was opposed on the 5th by Colonel Vereker, of the city of Lim- erick militia, who had inarched from Sligo for the purpose, with about two hundred infantry, thirty of the Twenty-fourth Regi- ment of Light Dragoons, and two curricle guns. After a smart action of about an hour's continuance, he was obliged to re- treat, with the loss of his artillery, to Sligo. This opposition, though attended with defeat to the opposers, is supposed to have caused the French General to relinquish his design on Sligo. He directed his march by Drumnahair towards Manorhamilton, iu the County of Leitrim, leaving on the road, for the sake of expedition, three six-pound- ers dismounted, and throwing five pieces more of artillery over the bridge at Drum- nahair, into the river. In approaching Manorhamilton he suddenly wheeled to the right, taking his way by Drumkeriu, per- haps with design of attempting, if possible, to reach Granard, in the County of Long- ford, Where an insurrection had taken place. Crawford's troops hung so close on the rear- guard of the French, as to come to action with it on the 7 th, between Drumshambo and Ballynamore, in which action they were re- pulsed with some loss, and admonished to observe more caution in the pursuit. The French army passing the Shannon at Ballintra, and halting some hours iu the night at Claone, arrived at Balliuamuck, County Longford, on the 8th of September,— so closely followed by the troops of Colonel Crawford and General Lake, that its rear- guard was unable to break the bridge at Ballintra, to impede the pursuit ; while /J ,fc V-l J { $i f&vle .0^ a* ; ' m Lord Cornwallis, with the grand array, crossed the same river at Carrick-on-Shan- iidii, marched by Mohill to Saint-Johnstown, in the County of Longford, in order to in- tercept the enemy in front, on his way to Granard; or, should he proceed, to surround him with an army of thirty thousand men. In this desperate situation, Humbert ar- ranged his forces, with no other object, as it must be presumed, than to maintain the honor of the French arms The rear-guard having been attacked by Colonel Crawford, about two hundred of the French infantry surrendered. The rest continued to defend themselves for above half an hour, when, on the appearance of the main body of General Lake's army, they also surrendered, after they had made Lord Roden, with a body of dragoons, a prisoner. His lordship had precipitately advanced into the French lines to obtain their surrender. The Irish insur- gents who had accompanied the French to this fatal field, being excluded from quar- ter, fied in all directions, and were pursued with the slaughter of about five hundred men, which seems much less to exceed the truth than the returns of slain in the south- eastern parts of the island. About one thousand five hundred insurgents were with the French army at Bailinamuck, at the time of the surrender of Humbert. The loss of the King's troops was officially statl d at three privates killed, twelve wounded, three missing, and one officer wounded. The troops of General Humbert were found, when prisoners, to consist of seven hundred and forty-six privates, and ninety-six officers, having sustained a loss of about two hun- dred men since their landing at Killala on the 22d of August. Vengeful executions began on the field of battle. It appears that, on the day of the " Races of Castlebar," a considerable part, of the Louth and Kilkenny regiments, not finding it convenient to retreat, thought the next best thing they could do would be to join the victors, which they immediately did, and in one hour were completely equipped as French riflemen. About ninety of those men were hung by Lord Cornwallis at Lai linamuek. One of them defended himself by insisting " that it, was the army, and not he, who were deserters ; that whilst he was lighting hard they all ran away, and left him to be murdered." A Mr. Llnke, who had been an officer in the British army, was also executed on the field. Bartholomew Teeling and Matthew Tone (brother of Theobald Wolfe Tone) were among the prisoners, and were both exe- cuted within a few days in Dublin. Air. Moore, President of the Provincial Govern- ment, which had been instituted at Castle- bar, was one of the prisoners at Bailina- muck, and was sentenced to banishment. Roger Maguire, one of the leaders of the Irish insurgents, was transported, and his father, a brewer, was hung. The small French garrison which had been left in Killala still occupied that place, and great part of Norlh Connaught contin- ued in insurrection. On the 22d of September, thirty-two days after the landing of the French army, and fifteen after its capture at Bailinamuck, a large body of troops arrived at Killala, under the command of Major-General Trench, who would have been still some days later in his arrival, had he not been hastened by a message from the bishop, to announce the fearful apprehensions his lord- ship's family and the other loyalists were under. The bishop's narrative of what followed indicates that the recovery of this place by the British forces was a scene rather of in- discriminate massacre than of combat. He describes how "a troop of fugitives in full race from Ballina, women and children, tum- bled over one another to get into the castle, or into any house in the town where they might hope for a momentary shelter, contin- ued for a painful length of time to give no- tice of the approach of an army." There was, however, a momentary re- sistance. The insurgents quitted their camp to oc- cupy the rising ground close by the town, on the road to Ballina, and posted them- selves under the low stone-walls on each side, in such a manner as enabled them with great advantage to take aim at the King's troops. They had a strong guard also on the other side of the town towards Foxford, having probably received intelli- gence, which was true, that General Trench 9/7 toa v mrnmsm .--^-j^--^^— DEFEAT AND CAPTURE OF THE FRENCH. Ml had divided bis forces at Crosmolina, and sent one pari of them by a detour of three miles to intercept the fugitives that might take that course in their Bight. This last detachment consisted chiefly of the Kern militia, under the orders of Lieutenant Col- onel Crosbie and Maurice Fitzgerald, the Knight Of Kerry, their Colonel, the Karl of Glandore, attending the General. The two divisions of the royal army were supposed to make up about twelve hundred men, and they had live pieces of cannon. The number of the insurgents could not be ascertained. Many ran away before the L-ugag nt, while a very considerable num- ber Hocked into the town in the very heat of it, passing under tin' castle windows in view of the French officers on horseback, ami running upon death with as little ap- pearance of reflection of concern as it' they wnc hastening to a show. About four hun- dred of these people fell in the battle, and immediately after it Whence it may lie con- jectured that their entire number scarcely ( xceeded eight or nine hundred. The whole seme passed in sight of the castle, ami so near it that the family could distinctly hear the balls whistling by their ears. The attempt at resistance lasted twenty minutes, when the insurgents scattered in two directions, s w . i termined, however, to hurry all their prepa- rations, and send off at least the division of General Hardy, to second his efforts, as s as possible. The report of his firsl advan- tages, which shortly reached them, aug- mented their ardor and accelerated their movements. But Buch was the state of the French navy and arsenals, that it was not until the 20th of September that this small expedition, consisting of one sail of the line and eight frigates, under Commodore Bom- part, and three thousand men, under Gen- eral Hardy, was ready for sailing. The news of Humbert's defeat had not yet reached France. Paris was then crowded with Irish emi- grants, eager for action. Some Irishmen embarked before Bompart, in a small and fast-sailing vessel, with Napper Tandy at their head. They reached, on the 16th of September, the Isleof Raghliu, on the north coast of Ireland, where they heard of Hum- bert's disaster ; they merely spread some proclamations, and escaped to Norway. Three Irishmen only accompanied Tone in Hardy's flotilla ; he alone was embarked in the Admiral's vessel, the Hoche, the others were on board the frigates. These were Mr. T. Corbett, and MacGuire, two brave officers, who afterwards died in the French service, and a third gentleman, con- nected by marriage with his friend Russell, At the period of this expedition, Tone was hopeless of its success, and in the deep- est despondency al the prospect of Irish affairs. Such was the wretched indiscretion of the Government, that before his departure, he read himself, in the Bien In/ormi, a Paris newspaper, a detailed account of the whole armament, where his own name was mentioned in full letters, with the circum- stance of liis being on hoard the Hoche. There was, therefore, no hope of secresy. He had all along deprecated the idea of those al tempts on a small scale. But he had also declared, repeatedly, that, if the Government sent only a corporal's guard, he felt it his duty to go along with them ; he saw no chance of Kilmaine's large expedi t ion being ready in any reasonable lime, and, therefore, determined to accompany Hardy. His resolution was, however, deliberately taken, in caso he fell into the hands of the enemy, never to suffer the indignity of a public execution. And his sm, William Theobald Wolfe Tone, informs us that he had expressed himself to this effect " at din- ner, in our own house, and in my mother's presence, a little before leaving Paris," * At length, about the 20th < f September, 1798, that fatal expedition set sail from the May de Gamaret. It consisted of the Hoche, ,-cventy-four; Loire, Resolue, Bel- lone, Coquille, Erabuseade, Immortality, Romaine, and Semillante, frigates ; and Biche, schooner, and aviso. To avoid the British fleets, Bompart, an excellent sea- man, took a large sweep to the westward, and then to the northeast, in order to bear down on the northern coast of Ireland, from the quarter whence a French force would lie least expected, lie met, however, with contrary winds, and it appears that his flotilla was scattered ; lor, on the I 01 li of October, after twenty days' cruise, he ar- rived off the entry of Loch Swilly, vvith the Hoche, the Loire, the Resoluc, and the Biche. He was instantly signalled, and, on the break of day, next morning, llth of October, before he could enter the hay or land his troops, he perceived the squadron of Sir John Borlase Warren, consisting of six sail of the line, one razee of sixty guns, ami two frigates, bearing down upon him. There was no chance of escape for tin 1 large and heavy man-of-war. Bompart ,gnve in- stant signals to the frigates and schooner to retreat through shallow water, and prepared alone to honor the flag of his country and liberty, by n desperate hut hopeless defence. Al that moment, a boat came from the Biche for his last orders. Thai ship had the li.sl chance to get off. The French officers all supplicated Tone to embark on hoard of her. " Our contest is hopeless," they ob- served, " we will be prisoners of war, but what will become of you ? " "Shall it be said," replied he, "that I (led, whilst the French were fighting the battles of my country?'' He refused their offers, and de- termined to stand and fall with the ship. The Biche accomplished her escape. The British Admiral dispatched two men- ♦ Memoirs of WoTft Tone; by his son. Tub- lished in Washington. Tlio Euglish edition is much mutilated. \W\\ S3 m r .. ays i ■ v. ^. I* ■B&^I fl y cr, jci \'J^ TONE \ I'lUSONKll — CARRIED TO I'liu.iN IN IRONS. 857 of-war, the razee and a frigate, after the Loire and [tesolae, and the I Indie was soon BQiTonnded by four sail of the line and ;i frigate, and began one of the mosl obstinate mill desperate engagements which have ever been fought on the ocean. During six hours 'hi' Bastained the Sre of a whole fleet, till lift' masts and rigging were swept away, her Bcnppers flowed with blood, her wound- ed idled the cock-pit, her shattered ribs yawned at each new stroke, and let in live feel of water in the hold, her rudder was curried oil', and she floated a dismantled wreck on the waters ; her sails and cordage 111111^ i» shreds, nor could she reply with a single lmiu from her dismounted batteries to the nnabating cannonade of the enemy. At length, she struck. 'The Kesolue and Loire were soon reached by the English fleet; the former was in a sinking condi- tion ; she made, however, all honorable de- fence ; the Loire sustained three attacks, drove oil' the English frigates, and had almost effected her escape ; al length, en- gaged by the Anson, razee of sixty guns, sin- struck, alter an action of three hours, entirely dismasted. Of the other frigates, pursued in all directions the Bellone, Im- mortalite, Coquille, and Embuscade were taken, and the Roinaine and Seinillante, through a thousand dangers, reached sepa- rate ports in France. During the action, Tone commanded one of the batteries, and, according to the re- port of the officers who returned to France, fought with the utmost desperation, and as if he was courting death. When the. ship struck, confounded with tic other officers, he was not recognized lor some time ; for he had i pletely acquired the language ami appearance of a Frenchman. The two fleets were dispersed in every direction, nor was it, till sonic days later that, the lloehe was brought into Loch Swilly, and the prisoners landed and marched to Letter- kei.nv. V'l rumors of his being OU board most have been circulated, for the fact was public at, Paris. But it, was thought he had been killed in the action. It was, at length a geutleman well-known in tin County Deny n- a leader of the Orange parly, and one of the chief magistrates in thai neighborhood, Sir George Hill, who hod been his fellow-student, in Trinity Col- lege, and knew his person, who undertook the task of discovering him. It is known thai in Spain, grandees and noblemen of the first rank pride themselves in the functions of familiars, spies, and informers of the Holy Inquisition ; it remained for Ireland to offer a similar example. The French officers were invited to breakfast with the Earl of Cavan, who commanded in that dis- trict. Time sat undistinguished amongst them, when Sir George Hill entered the room, followed by police officers. Looking narrowly at the company, he singled out the object of his search, and, Stepping up to him, said, " Mr. Tone, I am very happy to see you." Instantly rising, with the utmost composure, he replied, " Sir George, I am happy to see you; how is Lady Hill and your family?" * Beckoned into the next room by the police officers, an unexpected indignity awaited him. It was filled with military, and one General Lavau, who com- manded them, ordered him to be ironed, de- claring that, as On leaving Ireland, to enter the French service, he had not renounced his oath of allegiance, he remained a subject of Britain, and should be punished as a trai- tor. Seized with a momentary burst of in- dignation at such unworthy treatment and cowardly cruelty to a prisoner of war, he Hung off his uniform, and cried, " These let- ters shall never degrade the revered insignia of the free nation which I have served." Resuming then his usual calm, he offered his limbs to the irons, and 'when they were lixed, he exclaimed, " For the cause which 1 have embraced, I feel prouder to wear these chains than if I were decorated with the star and garter of England." From Letterkeuny he was hurried to Dublin wlhout delay. Contrary to usual custom, ho was conveyed, during the whole route, lettered and Oil horseback, under an escort of dragoons, The escort was com- posed of Cambridgeshire yeomanry cavalry, and commanded by a Captain Thackeray, af- » Dr. Madden points out that this Sir George Hill was a regular secret ; 1 1/ . • 1 1 1 of the G6vernmcnt, and quotes several payments made to him and through him to "Hut agents out of the Secret Service money. See aooouuts of Seoret Service money in Uaddeu's work. \ % ») c f-x '& terwards a clergyman and Rector of Dan- dalk. lie often, long afterwards!, described this journey, and said that Tone was the most delightful companion he ever traveled with. Though the reign of terror was drawing l<> a close, and Lord Cornwallis had re- stored some appearance of legal order and regular administration in the kingdom, a prisoner of such importance to the Irish Protestant Ascendancy party, as the founder and leader of the United Irish Society, and the most formidable of their adversaries, was not to be trusted to the delays and common forms of law. Though the Court of King's Bench was then sitting, prepara- tions were instantly made for trying him summarily before a court-martial. It has been erroneously stated that Tone imagined his French commission would be a protec- tion to him, and that he pleaded it (in his trial. He never, indeed, was legally con- demned ; for, though a subject of the Crown, (not of Britain, but of Ireland,) he was not a military man in that kingdom ; he had taken no military oath, and, of course, the court-martial which tried him had no power to pronounce oil his ca.se, which belonged to the regular criminal tri- bunals. Bui his heart was sunk in despair at the total failure of his hopes, and he did not wish to survive them. To die with honor was his only wish, and his only re- quest to he shot like a soldier. For this purpose he preferred himself to be tried by a court-martial, and proffered his French commission, nut to defend his life, but as a proof of his rank, as he stated himself on his trial. If I'uri her proof were required that he was perfectly aware of his fate, according to the English law, hi.-; own journals, written during the Bantry'Bay expedition, afford an incontestible one. (SeeJournalof Decem- ber 26, 1796.) "Jl we are taken, my fate will not. lie a mild one ; the best I can expect is to be shot, as an emigre rentre, unless I have the good fortune to be killed in the action ; for, most assuredly, if the enemy will have us, he must fight for us. Perhaps I may lie luserved for a trial, lor the sake of striking terror into others, in which case I shall lie hanged as a traitor, and emboweled, &c. As to the emboweling, ' Je rrCen ficlu? If ever they hang me, they are welcome to em- bowel me if they please. These are pleasant prospects 1 Nothing on earth could sustain me now but the consciousness that I am en- gaged in a just and righteous cause." Tone appeared before this Court in the uniform of a Chef de Brigade (Colonel.) The lirmness and cool serenity of his whole deportment gave to the awe-struck assembly the measure of his soul. Nor could his bitterest enemies, whatever they deemed of his political principles, and of the necessity of striking a great example, deny him the praise of determination and magnanimity. The members of the Court having taken the usual oath, tin; Judge Advocate pro- ceeded to inform the prisoner that the court- martial, before which he stood, was ap- pointed by the Lord-Lieutenant of the king- dom, to try whether he had or had not acted traitorously against His Majesty, to whom, as a natural-born subject, he owed all allegiance, from the very fact of his being born in the kingdom. And, according to the usual form, he called upon him to plead guilty or not guilty. The prisoner admitted all the facts, " stripping the charge of its technical word traitorously. ," He would make no defence, and give no trouble, but. asked leave to read an address, giving his own account of his conduct. This address is given at full length in his son's memoir, and is in these words : — " Mr. President, and Gentlemen of the Court-martial — I mean not to give you the trouble of bringing judicial proof to convict me legally of having acted in hostility to the Government of His Britannic Majesty in Ireland. 1 admit the fact. From my earliest youth, I have regarded the connection be- tween Ireland and Great Britain as the curse of the Irish nation ; and felt convinced that, whilst it lasted, this country could never be free nor happy. My mind has been confirmed in this opinion by the ex- perience of every succeeding year, and the conclusions which I have drawn from every fact before my eyes. In consequence, I de- termined to apply all the powers which my individual efforts could move, in order to sep- arate the two countries. ;s\ yk" TRIED EV COURT-MARTIAL. 359 i\ ': \). rV It " That Ireland was not able, of hi i i If, to throw I'll' i In- yoke, I knew. I, therefore, sought l'"i' aid wherever it was to be found. In honorable poverty 1 rejected offers, which, to a man in my circumstances, might becon- Bidered highly advantageous. 1 remained faithful to what I thought the cause of my country, ami sought in the French Repub- lic an ally to rescue three millions of my countrymen, from — " The President here interrupted the pris- oner, observing, that, this language was neither relevant to the charge, nor such as onula to be delivered in a public court. One member said, it seemed calculated only to inflame the minds of a certain descrip- tion of people, (the United Irishmen,) many of whom might probably be present ; ami thai, therefore, the Court ought not to suffer it. The Judge Advocate said, he thought, thai if Mr. Tone meant this paper to be laid before His Excellency, in way of exteaw- ^->-N £*& .Cl/UJtttiui.l^ HISTORY OF IRELAND. v^raN u ing adieu to his wife, while the soldiers were erecting a gibbet fur him in the yard before his window, he cut his throat with a knife. But it was not effectually done, and he lin gered in that dungeon, stretched on his bloody pallet, in the extremity of agony, seven days and uights. No friend was allowed access to him ; and nobody saw him but the prison surgeon, a French emi- grant, and, therefore, his natural enemy. At length he died.* The Government allowed the body to be carried away by a relative named Punbuvin, and it was buried in the little churchyard of Bodenstown, County Kildare, where Thomas Davis caused a monumental slab to be erected in his memory. "Thus passed away," says Madden, "one of the master spirits of his time. The curse of Swift was upon this man — he was an Irishman. Had he been a native of any other European country, his noble qualities, his brilliant talents, would have raised him to the first honors in the state, and to the highest place in the esteem of his fellow- citizens. His name lives, however, and his memory is probably destined to survive as long as his country has a history. Peace be to his ashes !" The expenses incurred in first exciting the insurrection, next in suppressing it, and afterwards in carrying cut its real object — a Legislative Union, are estimated moderately by Dr. Maddtn, as follows :— From 17'JT In L802, the cost of the large military force that was kept up in lie- land, estimated at £1,000,000 per an- num £ir,,ooo,ooo Purchase of the Irish Parliament . . 1,500,000 Payment of claims of suffering loyalists . 1,500,000 secret Service money, from 1797 to 1804, (from official reports,) 63,547 Secret Service money previous to Au- gust 21, 1707, date of first entry in pre- * Madden states that one friend of Tone, a Mr. Fitzpatriek, of Capel street, wa - admitted to see him once. This is a matter r. MacNeven, proceeded before the secret committees. While the report of these examinations was still secret, the Dub- lin newspapers under the control of the Gov- ernment, published .some very garbled and falsified accounts of them, calculated not only to criminate and degrade those gen- tlemen themselves, but to hold them forth as betraying their comrades and associates. The object of this was very plain. They thought it necessary to protest against it by a published card. Thereupon, they were examined again ; were asked whether they meant to retract anything ; were shown the minutes of their evidence as taken down, and interrogated as to its correctness and fidelity. They answered that they found it correct, so far as it went; but Kmmet de- clared that very much of their evidence was omitted. On the whole, they admitted that the report shown to them was substan- tially correct, (except the omissions,) and that they had only meant to protest against the false newspaper accounts. Their new examination was triumphantly paraded as a complete exculpation of the committees from all charge of garbling ; but, in fact, the newspapers could not have come by even t heir partial and carefully-distorted accounts of this evidence, except through some one connected with the Government or secret committees ; and so the intended effect was in part produced, without the Government seeming to be a party to il. This affair is obscure; but, in justice to the unfortunate gentlemen then in the hands of most unscru- pulous enemies, it is right to throw nil the light possible upon it. Arthur O'Connor, in a letter to Lord Castlereagh, gives this account of the misunderstanding : — " At the instance of Government, Emmet, MacNeven, and I, draw up a memoir con- taining thirty-six pages, giving an account of the origin, principles, conduct, and views of the Union, which we signed and delivered to you on the 4th of August last. On the 6th, Mr. Cook came, to our prison, and after acknowledging that the memoir was a perfect performance of our agreement, he told us that Lord Cornwallis had read it, but, as it was a vindication of the Union, and a condemnation of the Ministers, the Government, anil Legislature of Ireland, he could not receive it ; and, therefore, he wished we would alter it. We declared we would not change one letter — it was all true, and it was the truth we stood pledged to deliver, lie then asked us if Govern- ment should publish such parts only as might suit them, whether we would refrain from publishing the memoir entire. We answered that, having stipulated for the liberty of publication, we would use that right when and as we should feel ourselves called on. To which he added that, if we published, he would have to hire persons to answer us; that then he supposed we would reply, by which a paper war would be carried on without end between us and the Govern- ment. Finding that we would not suffer the memoir to be garbled, and that the literary contest between us and these hire- lings was not likely to turn out to your credit, it was determined to examine us be- fore the secret committees, whereby a more complete selection might be made out of the memoir, and all the objectionable truths — with which it was observed it abounded — might be suppressed. For the present I shall only remark that, of one hundred pages, to which the whole of the informa- tion I gave to the Government and to the secret committees amounts, only one page has been published." On the 6th of October, Parliament was prorogued with a highly congratulatory speech from the Throne, on the suppression of the "dangerous and wicked rebellion," and on the glorious victory obtained by "Sir Horatio Nelson over the French fleet in the Mediterranean." \t w mk - ■ & e ^ f> rfc- i p About the same time occurred a certain sham court-martial, under the presidency of the Earl of Enniskillen, a Colonel in the army — a great favorite with the Orange- men, aud probably an Orangeman himself. A man named Wollaghan, a yeoman, had brutally shot a poor, peaceable man in his own house. The affair is not otherwise de- serving of notice than that the evidence on this trial shows the horrid .state of the coun- try. A corporal of the corps deposed that a certain Captain Armstrong, who com- manded at Mount Kennedy before and alter the murder, had given orders " that any body of yeomanry going out, i, he would not wish them less than nine or ten for their own safety,) and, if they should meet with any rebels, whom they knew or suspected to be such, they need not be at the trouble of bringing them in, but were to shoot them on the spot; that he (the witness) communi- cated this to the corps, and, is' wry certain, in the hearing of the prisoner Wollaghan, who was a sober, faithful, and loyal yeoman, and not degrading the rest of the corps — one of the best in it ; that it was the prac- tice of the corps to go out upon scouring parties without orders," &c. The affair, however, made a noise — be- came notorious; and Lord Cornwallis thought himself obliged to disapprove the judgment of the court-martial, (which ac- quitted Wollaghan,) and to rebuke Lord Enniskillen. The murderer, however, was only dismissed the service. The Orange- men were highly disgusted with Lord Corn- wallis, and called him " Croppy Corny." But the cases of local tyranny and brutality exercised upon the people were very seldom, indeed, brought into any court. Scldomer still were they punished. The juryman who should have ventured to hesitate about ac- quitting an Orangeman would have been himsell hunted down as a "croppy." The moment was come to propose the Union as the only way of putting a stop to these hor- rors, and to all the other woes of Ireland. Even before the fury of rebellion had subsided, had the British Ministry recom- mended preparatory steps to enable the Irish Government to introduce the proposal of a Legislative Union with plausibility and effect upon the lirst favorable opening. In pursuance of this recommendation, a pam- phlet was written, or procured to be writ- ten, by Mr. Edward Cooke, the under-Sec- retary of the Civil Department. It was pub- lished anonymously, but was well under- stood to speak the sentiments of the IJritish Administration, aud the Chief-Governor, and those of the Irish Administration who went with his excellency upon the question of union. It was circulated with incredible industry and profusion throughout every part of the nation, and certainly was pro- ductive of many conversations on the ques- tion under the then existing circumstances of that nation ; the most prominent of which were — the still unallayed horrors of blood and carnage, the excessive cruelty and vindictive ferocity of the Irish yeomanry towards their countrymen, compared with the pacific, orderly, and humane conduct of the English militia, of which about eighteen regiments were still in the country, and, above all, the confidence which the concili- atory conduct of the Chief- Governor in- spired. This pamphlet was considered as a kind of official proclamation of the senti- ments of Government upon the question, aud had no sooner appeared than it pro- duced a general warfare of the press, and threw the whole nation into a new division of parties. No sooner was the intention of Govern- ment unequivocally known, than most of the leading characters took their ranks according to their respective views aud sentiments, the Earl of Clare at the head of the Unionists, aud the Right Honorable Mr. Foster, his late zealous colleague in the extorted system of coercion and terror, put himsell at the head of the Anti-Union- ists. Amongst the first dismissals for op- posing the LTniou were those of Sir John Parnell, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, ami Mr. Fitzgerald, the Prime-Sergeant. The most interesting public meeting upon the subject of the Union was that of the gentlemen of the Irish bar. It has before been observed, that in Ireland the bar was the groat road that led to preferment, and lew were the families in the nation which looked up to it that did not furnish one member or more to that profession. The bar, consequently, commanded a very pow- ( ag? /* '1 / &m PROJECT OF UNION BAR MEETING. 36£ fi In! influence over the public mind, even independently of the weight of respectability attending tbe opinions of that learned body. In pursuance of a requisition signed by twenty-seven lawyers of the first respecta- bility and character in the professi m, a meeting of the Irish bar took place on the 9th of December, at the Exhibition House in William street, to deliberate on the ques- tion of Legislative Union. The meeting was very numerous. It must 1h: observed that the bar of Ire- land was the only great body in the state or in society that Lords Clare and Castle- reagh feared, as a serious obstruction to their plans. In its ranks were the st accomplished statesmen and most formida- ble debaters of the country, and the most earnest opponents of Union to the last were barristers. Lord Clare, therefore, had ta- ken measures to corrupt the bar, by creating a great many new legal offices, which they were expected to solicit, and for which they would sell themselves to the Castle. He 'doubled the number of the bankrupt com- missioners ; he revived gome unices, created others, and, under pretence of furnishing each county with a local judge, in two months lie established thirty-two new offices, of about six or seven hundred pounds per annum each. His arrogance in court intimi- dated many whom his patronage could not corrupt ; and he had no doubt of overpow- ering the whole profession. There was much interest, therefore, felt in the result of this preliminary meeting of the bar. Among tl "ho had called the meeting were fourteen of the King's coun- sel : E Mayne, W. Saurin, W. C. Piunket, C. Bushe, \V. Sankey, B. Burton, J. Bar- rington, A M'Cartuey, G. O'Farrell, J. O'Dliscoll, J. Lloyd, P. Burrowes, 11. J ebb, ami II. Joy, Esquires, — a very distinguished list of names ; some of which will be met with again and agaiu, before the final catas- trophe of the nation. Saurin spoke against the Cuion project. " He was a moderate Huguenot," says Sir Jonah Barrington, " and grandson of the great preacher at. The Hague— an excellent lawyer and a stead- fasl and pious Christian." Sir Jinub goes eribe this important meeting : — Mr. Saint George Daly, a briefless barrister, was the first supporter of the Union. Of all men he was the least, thought of for preferment ; but it was wittily ob- served, 'that the Union was the first brief Mr. Daly had spoken from.' He moved an adjournment. "Mr. Thomas Grady was the Fitzgibbon spokesman— a gentleman of independent property, a tolerable lawyer, an amatory poet, a severe satirist, and an indefatigable quality-hunter. He had written the 'Flesh Brush,' for Lady Clare ; the 'West Briton,' for the Union; the ' Barrister,' for the bar; and the 'Nosegay,' for a banker at Limer- ick — who sued him successfully for a libel. "'The Irish,' said Mr. Grady, 'arc only the rump of an aristocracy. Shall I visit posterity with a system of war, pestilence, and famine?* No! no! give me a Union. Unite me to that country where all is peace, and order, and prosperity. Without a Union we shall see embryo chief judges, attorney- generals in perspective, and animalcula ser- geants. All the cities of the south and west are on the Atlantic Ocean, between the rest of the world and Great Britain ; they are all for it — they must all become warehouses ; the people are Catholics, and they are all for it,' &c, &c., &c. Such an oration as Mr. Grady's had never before been heard at a meeting of lawyers in Europe. " Mr. John Beresford, Lord Clare's nephew and purse-bearer, followed, as if lor the charitable purpose of taking the laugh from Mr. Grady, in which he perfectly suc- ceeded, by turning it on himself. Mr. Beres- ford afterwards became a parson, and is now Lord Decies. "Mr. Goold said: 'There are forty thousand British troops in Ireland, and with forty thousand bayonets at my breast the Minister shall not plant another Sicily in the bosom of the Atlantic. 1 want not the assistance of divine inspiration to foretell, for I am enabled by the visible and uucrr- * Nothing could be more unfortunate than this crude observation oi Mr. Grady, a- the very three evils— war, pestilence, and famine,— which he de- clared a union would avert, have since visited, and are still visiting, the onioned country; which has, ■ the connection with England, been depopulated in the famim which that I' » caused; anil, in- oculati i « Hi- H"' late plague from Greai Britain, they are now declared in a state of war by the British Legislature. ft . ft m "' ;tjl -'^V -"-• : M a n •^ & I 3(i8 niSTDHY OF I1!KI,AN1\ nized" This motion was also negatived by u division of forty-nine against sixteen. Fourteen of the lords in the minority pro- tested.* In the House of Commons were many anxious faces and gloomy brows. It had already been sufficiently indicated that Oov- ernment, to carry this measure, would stop at nothing. Immediately after the bar meeting the Right Honorable James Fitz- gerald, Prime Sergeant, was dismissed from oilier, and deprived of his precedency at I lie bar. It was known, also, that unlimited funds would be used by Government, with- out scruple, both in buying up boroughs (which were then treated as the private property Of their patrons,) and in direct bribery, to pay for votes, The innumerable methods which a powerful government has at its disposal both to reward and to pun- ish — all these considerations rose up before the anxious minds of the members occupy- ing those benches. It must be confessed, too, thai the previous history of the Irish Parliament, as recorded in these pages, was not calculated to make the country expect any exhibition of stern patriotism, "I have now seen,'' said Theobald Wolfe Tone, '• the Parliament of Ireland, the Parliament of England, the Congress of the United States of America, the Corps Legislatif of France, and the Convention of Batavia ; I have likewise Been our shabby Volunteer Convention in 1158, and the Genera] Com- mittee of the Catholics in 1793 ; so that I have seen, in the way of deliberate bodies, as many 1 believe as most men, and of all those 1 have mentioned, beyond all com- parison the most shamelessly profligate and abandoned by all sense of virtue, principle, or even common decency, was the Legislature of my own unfortunate country ; the scoun- drels 1" But when we read so harsh a judgment upiHi the Legislature of our country, it must Mot lie forgotten that it did not repre- sent the country ; did not even represent * Viz., Lolnstor (ininanl. Beli Idere, Allan, Charlemont, I'm II. ll, Mountoashel, Kilkenny, Belmore, Pon araoourt, 1 v \ ,.>»'i, Duns&ny, l.ismoro. Win. Down and Connor, the Protestant minority of the country; represented nothing (as to its vast majority,) save a few nolile families, great proprietors, and the enormous " interest " of place and pension. Considering all this, it is rather surprising, and was, indeed, very surprising to Lord Castlereagh, that on the present vital occasion, the policy of the Castle met With so hearty an opposition, The address in the Commons was moved by Lord Tyrone, eldest son of the Marquis of Waterford. The address, lie said, did not pledge him in any manner to support the asure of ar. union ; let that question of policy stand upon its own merits; let it he adopted or rejected as the interests of Ireland and the prosperity of the empire should dictate. Colonel Fitzgerald, (member for the County of Cork,") seconded the address, i icpressillg a zealous desire that any step likely to cement and strengthen the connec- tion between the two countries should be adopted. * After several speeches, Opposing the mea- sure of a union, in a vague and hypotheti- cal sort of way, as if there were really no such question before the House, Lord Castle- reagh, whose fault was certainly not lack of boldness, rose to say, that although there were not in the address any Specific pledge to a measure of union, yet it was clearly implied in the wish to Strengthen the re- sources of the empire; lor he hail DO diffi- culty in saying, that he thought the only means of Bottling that unhappy country in permanent tranquillity and connection with Britain, were to be found in a. Legislative Union ; and on that subject he did intend at an early day to submit a specific motion to tin' House.* Mr. (J. Ponsonby entered on an able at- tack and exposure of the general principle of an union, by boldly avowing the princi- ple, that neither the Legislature, nor any power on earth, had a right or authority lo * On occasion of tlii-- first and most remarkable of the debates on tie' Union, II ins been judged expe- dient i" go Borneo iiit farther into detail than osual. It wuh new that Members of Parliament took their positions en that great question ; from whloh posi- tions iiemv of them afterwards retreated an, l ohanged Bides : from motives, onhappily, too well known, as will BOOD appear. *£/« . ( ^ iMmimyiiWwmm IN THE LORDS IN THE COMMONS. 309 a ■ /.'■ '< U £5$ "-JO? C I (» annihilate the Irish Parliament, and deprive people forever of their rights to tlic bene- fits of the Constitution, and civil liberty. The Minister had told them they ought to discuss this measure with coolness ; bul wheu the Minister himself would not leave men to the free exercise of their lerstand- ing, bul turned oul of office the best and oldest servants of the Crown, because they would not prostitute their conscience, when the terror of dismissal was thus holden oul to deter men in office from a fairexerci eof their private judgment, how could he talk of cool discussion f He concluded by mov- ing an amendment, which would give every gentleman, who did not wish to pledge him- self to a surrender of the rights of the country, an opportunity of speaking his mind. The amendment was ■ - that after the passage which declared the willingness of the House to enter on a consideration of what measures might best tend to confirm the common strength of the empire, should be inserted, "maintaining, however, the un- doubted birth-right of the people of Ireland to have a resident and independent legisla- ture, such as was recognized by the British Legislature in 1782, and was finally .settled at the adjust incut of all differences between the two countries." Sir L. Parsons seconded the amendment. Many gentle n warmly supported Pon- sonby's amendment ; amongst others, Mr. Fitzgerald, ex-Prime-Sergeant, who raised the vital Constitutional question — "It was not, in his opinion, within the moral compe- tence of Parliament, to destroy and extin- guish itself, and with it the rights and lib- erties of those who created it. The consti- tuent parts iif a state are obliged to hold their public faith with each other, and with all those who derive any serious interest, un- der their engagements ; such a compact may, with respect to Great Britain, be an union ; but with respect to Ireland, it will be a re- volution, and a revolution of a most alarm- ing nature.'' Mr. Fitzgerald also quoted Dr. Johnson's remark to an Irishman, on the subject of an union : " Don't unite with us," said he, "we shall Quite wilh you only to rob you ; we should have robbed the Scots, if they had anything to be robbed of." 'I'ic debate proceeded, warming as ii went. Sir 1'ioyle Roche, in Ids blundering way, stumbled upon a most accurate descrip- tion of the real Castle policy. He said " he was for an union to put an end to uniting between Presbyterians, Protest- ants, and Catholics, to overturn the Consti- tution." One of the most patriotic speeches made in tin' course of this historic argument was by Sir Jonah Bnrrington, then a. Indue of the Admiralty Court. lie strongly deprecated this plan to subject irrevocably one in- dependent country to the will of another, and both to the will of a Minister already stronger than the Crown, and more power- ful than the people ; and this great and im- portant usurpation stolen into Parliament through the fulsome paragraphs of an echo- ing congratulation, pledging the House to the discussion of a principle subversive of their liberties, and in the hour of convales- cence calling on it. to commit suicide, Ire- land (he said) had not fair play ; her Par- liament had not fair play ; the foulest and most unconstitutional means, he believed, had been used to intimidate and corrupt il, and either to force or to seduce a suffrage, when nothing but. general, independent, un- influenced opinion could warrant for a mo- ment the most distant view of so ruinous a subject. lie had good reason to believe, that corrupt and unconstitutional means hail I n used by the noble lord to individuals of the Irish Parliament. Some of those means were open and avowed ; two of the oldest, most, respectable, and most beloved officers of the Crown had been displaced, because they presumed to hint an opinion adverse to the stripling's dictates, on a subject where their country was at stake ; their re- movals crowned them with glory, and the Minister with contempt, lie asserted, that other gentlemen in office, whose opinions were decidedly adverse to the measure, but whose circumstances could not bear similar sacrifices, were dragged to the altar of pollution, and forced, against their will, to vote against their country ; he had good reason to believe, that unconstitutional in- terference had been used wilh the executive power with the legislative body ; one gentle- man refused the instructions of his coustitu- N ^^ ^5 'J V A: pflfjg 370 HISTORY OF IRELAND. fins, ami had been promoted. Peerages (us was rumored) were bartered for the rights of minors, and every effort used to destroy the free agency of Parliament ; if this were true, it encroached on the Consti- tution, and if the executive power overstep- ped its bounds, the people wire warranted to do the same mi their part, and between both it might be annihilated, and leave a wondering world in amazement how the same people could have been wise enough to frame the best constitution on earth, and foolish enough to destroy it. One king and two kingdoms was the cry of the people of Ireland. Sir John Blaquiere, on the side of the Government, remonstrated against " the charges of undue influence and corruption;" and then proceeded to use an argument in behalf of the Union, which may serve as a sample of the means by which SO many of the Catholics were induced to favor that measure. Sir John said, " the houorable member who proposed amendment, with a flow of such transceiidant eloquence as had seldom been heard in that House, had ex- pressly stated, that the Roman Catholics must oppose the Union. He knew not the mind of Catholics upon the subject ; but he should speak his own — that the Ro- man Catholics, under the present order of things, could never lie accommodated, us he feared, with what they asked, without im- minent danger to the Protestant establish- ment, both in church and state ; but ('/' once mi union should be adopted, (ill those dif- ficulties would vanish, and lie should see none in granting them everything they desired." Mr. Knox and Mr. Hans Hamilton made violent attacks upon the Union and upon the Government. Mr. Knox (member for Philipstown) la- mented that that accursed measure had long- been the favorite object of that Minister of England, whose wild ambition had already led to the destruction of empires ; and which then sought to annihilate that nation. In order to forward that wicked scheme, great paius had been tiken by those who man- aged the affairs ol Government under his guidance, to promote and beep alive among the people ever} dsiinction of party and religion, all differences of opinion, whether in politics or religion, had been industriously fomented and encouraged, and every means taken to distract and divide the inhabitants of that land. If that fatal measure should ever be carried, henceforth that insulted, de- graded, debased country would be made a barrack, a depot from whence to draw the means of enslaving Great Britain, and no resource left to save either country but a revolution. Mr. Hans Hamilton declared that an union was a measure he should very firmly oppose within those walls with his vote, w ith- out them with his life ; but he foresaw that the hour was at hand which would prove this to be the most glorious day that Ireland had ever beheld, and enable the members to go forth to their constituents, and as- sure them they were represented by an Irish Parliament, and never would betray their independence. Lord Castlereagh felt that the day was going against him. He rose to State his reasons for favoring the measure of a Legis- lative Union ; and spoke, as he well knew how, with a noble air of candor. It is al- most incredible, however, that in the ab- stract of his speech which has come down to us, actually appear the following words : — " His lordship trusted, that no man would decide on a measure of such importance as that in part before the House, on private or personal motives; for if a decision were thus to be influenced, it would bo the most unfor- tunate that could ever affect the country." His reasons for supporting the mea- sure were, of course, of the purest descrip- tion ; if the means he used to support it had been as free from taint as his personal conduct, his lordship's name and fame would now be much higher than they are. " Dis- sensions" and "divisions" unhappily exist- ing in Ireland (which Mr. Knox said the Government bad " industriously fomented,") formed the chief motive, in his mind, for our country to tling itself |into the arms of the English, who hail carefully created and kept alive those dissensions and divisions in Ire- land for centuries ! One passage in his lord- ship's argument reads strangely in the light of subsequent history : — " Absentees (he said) formed another ob- jection. They would be somewhat increased, , >.. ft j r*?zz \£ t ;v c\ IMMV.HS EXPLANATION SPEECH OF PLUNKET. 371 no doubt, by an union ; but the evil would be compensated by other advantages, and among them by the growth of am interne- iltute. class of men between the landlord and the peasant ; a class of wen whose loss was fell in Ireland, to train the mind of the lower These an union would bring over from England. They would also have lal from theme. At all events, these in- conveniences would be but a grain of sand compared with the advantages which would be derived from internal security, and their growing together in habits of amity and af- fection." The next powerful speech on the debate was that of William Conyngham Plnnket, then in the prime of life ; he had been the warm friend of Tone and of Emmet, and was now Cast rising into high eminence, both a> a barrister and a member of Parliament. It is his famous llamilear speech, in which he assails the Government, as he had promised to do, more daringly than Sir Jonah Bar- riugton. He spoke of the apparently bluff, downright old soldier (Cornwallis) " who, as an additional evidence of the directness and purity of his views, had chosen for his sec- retary a simple and modest youth ( Ptier bngenui rutins ivgenuique jntdoris) whose in- experience was the voucher of his innocence ; yet, was he bold to say, that during the Vice-royalty of that unspotted veteran, and during the adminstration of that unassum- ing stripling, within the last six weeks, a system of black corruption had been carried on within the walls of the Castle, which would disgrace the annals of the worst period of the history of either country. Did they choose to take down his words ? He needed to call no witnesses to their bar to prove them. He saw two right honorable gentle- men sitting within those walls, who had long and faithfully served the Crown, and who had been dismissed, because they dared to express a sentiment in favor of the freedom of their country. He saw another honor- able gentleman, who had been forced to re- sign his place, as Commissioner of the Re- venue, because lie refused to cooperate in that dirty job of a dirty Administration ; did they dare to deny this? I say, (he continued,) that at this moment, the threat of dismissal from office is suspended over the heads of the members who now sit around me, in order to influence their votes on the question of this night, involving everything that can be sacred or dear to man"; do you desire to take down my words? Utter the desire, and I will prove the truth of them at your bar. Sir, I would warn you against the consequences of carrying this measure by such means as this, but that I see the necessary defeat of it in the honest and uni- versal indignation which the adoption of such means excites ; I see the protection against the wickedness of the plan iu the imbecility of its execution, and I congratu- late my country that when a design was formed against their liberties, the prosecu- tion of it was entrusted to such hands as it is now placed in." Mr. Plunket then dealt with the Consti- tutional grounds of opposition to a union, and especially to the time of its being pro- posed. It is impossible, within our limits, to give more than a mere abstract of such a speech : — " At a moment," he said, "when Ireland was filled with British troops, when the loyal men were fatigued and exhausted by their efforts to subdue rebellion — efforts in which they had succeeded before those troops arrived ; whilst their habeas corpus act was suspended, whilst trials by court- martial were carrying on in many parts of the kingdom, whilst the people were taught to think that they had no right to meet or to deliberate, and whilst the great body of them were so palsied by their fears and worn down by their exertions that even the vital question was scarcely able to rouse them from their lethargy; at a momentwhen they were distracted by domestic dissensions — dissensions artfully kept alive as the pre- text for their present subjugation, and the instrument of their future thraldom. He thanked Administration for the measure. They were, without intending it, putting an end to Irish dissensions. Through that black cloud, which they had collected over them, he saw the light breaking in upon their unfortunate country. They had com- posed dissensions, not by fomenting the em- bers of a lingering and subdued rebellion ; not by hallooing the Protestant against the Catholic and the Catholic against the Pro- % ft ,y %&k V ,D, r^ ^m 5fe testant; nut by committing the North against the South ; not by inconsistent appeals to local oi- party prejudices. No ! but by the avowal of that atrocious conspiracy against the liberties of Ireland they had subdued every petty feeling and subordinate distinc- tion. They had united every rank ami de- scriptiou of men by the pressure of that grand and momentous subject ; and he told them that they would see every honest and independent man in Ireland rally round her Constitution, and merge every other consid- eration in his opposition to that ungenerous and odious measure. For his own part, he would resist it to the last gasp of his exist- ence, and with the last drop of his blood ; and when he felt the hour of 1 1 is dissolution approaching, he would, like the father of Hannibal, take his children to the altar, and swear them to eternal hostility against the in- vaders of their enuntrys freedom." This gallant speech was often cited after- wards against Plunket ; and it was re- marked that Hamilcar, after that swearing scene, never helped the Romans to govern Carthage as a province. Strange to say, of all the Beresfords, John Claudius Beresford (of the Riding-House and the pitch-caps) opposed the Govern- ment measure, and supported Mr. Pouson- by's amendment. Some of the strongest Irish nationalists of that day were Orange- men, and bitter persecutors of Catholics. At length, after twenty-two hours' de- bate, at ten o'elock on the morning of the 24th, the House divided, and the vote stood ■ — fur Mr. Ponsonby's amendment, 105 ; against it, 10G. Majority for the Govern- ment, 1. It was held by both sides of the House to be substantially a defeat for the Govern- ment, and the multitudes who had been thronging the corridors, the porticos, and the streets all around, burst into acclama- tions of joy. The mob waited for members as they came out, and hooted or cheered, as they heard each member had voted for the Castle or the nation. As to the method by wdiich Castlereagh had gained oven that apparent and most unsatisfactory victory, Sir Jonah Barring- ton, an eye-witness, gives us this detail, which illustrates the whole mode aud ma- chinery whereby the Union was finally car- ried : — ■ "Avery remarkable incident," says Sir Jonah, "during the first night's debate oc- curred in the conduct of Mr. Luke Fox an 1 Mr. Trench, of Woodlawn, afterwards ere- aied Lord Ashtown. These were the most palpable, undisguised acts of public tergiver- sation and seduction ever exhibited in a popu- lar assembly. They afterwards became the Subject of many speeches and of many pub- lications ; and their consequences turned the majority of one in favor of the Minister. "It was suspected that Mr. Trench had been long in negotiation with Lord Castle- reagh ; but it did not, in the early part of that night, appear to have been brought to any conclusion — his conditions were supposed to be too extravagant. Mr. Trench, after some preliminary observations, declared, in a speech, that he would vote against the Min- ister, and support Mr. Ponsonby's amend- ment. This appeared a stunning blow to Mr. Cooke, who had been previously in con- versation with Mr. Trench. He was imme- diately observed sideling from his seat nearer to Lord Castlereagh. They whispered ear- nestly, and, as if restless and undecided, both looked wistfully towards Mr. Trench. At length, the matter seemed to be determined on. Mr. Cooke retired to a back seat, and was obviously endeavoring to count the House, probably to guess if they could that night dispense with Mr. Trench's services, He returned to Lord Castlereagh — they whispered, again looked most affectionately at Mr. Trench, who seemed unconscious that he was thy subject of their considera- tion. But there was no time to lose — the question was approaching — all shame was banished — they decided on the terms ; and a significant and certain glance, obvious to everybody, convinced Mr. Trench that his conditions were agreed to. Mr. Cooke then went and sat down by his side ; an earnest but very short conversation took place ; a parting smile completely told the House that Mr. Trench was that moment satisfied. These surmises were soon verified. Mr. Cooke went back to Lord Castlereagh ; a congratulatory nod announced his satisfac- tion. But could any man for one moment suppose that a member of Parliament, a man }£$? \fc*J ni/i '£<«« ,C4.vuf»a»s..u. k vX'X I 11 f* ".-■'? METHODS OF CONVERSION TO UNIONISM. of very large fortune, of respectable family, ami gooil character, could be publicly, and without shame or compunction, actually se- duced by Lord Castlereagh, in the very body of the House, and under the eye of two hundred and twenty gentlemen ? Set this was the fact. In a few minutes Mr. Trench rose, to apologize for having indiscreetly declared lie would support the amendment. He added, that he had thought better of the subject since he had unguardedly expressed himself; that he had beeu convinced he was wrong, and would support the Miuister. "Scarcely was there a member of any parly who was not disgusted. It had, how- ever, the effect iutended by the desperate purchase]', of proving that ministers would stop at nothing to effect their objects, how- ever shameless or corrupt. This purchase of Mr. Trench had a much more fatal effect upon the destinies of Ireland. His change of sides, and the majority of one to which it contributed, were probably the remote causes of persevering in a Union. Mr. ^Trench's venality excited indignation in every friend of Ireland.* " Another circumstance that night proved by what means Lord Castlereagh's majority of even one was acquired. "The Place Bill, so lontr and so pertina- ciously sought for, and so indiscreetly framed by Mr. (j rattan and the Whigs of Ireland, now, for the first time, proved the very eu- gine by which the Minister upset the oppo- sition, and annihilated the Constitution. "That bill enacted, that members accept- ing offices, places, or pensions, during the pleasure of the Crown, should not sit in Parliament unless reelected ; but, unfortu- nately, the bill made no distinction between valuable offices which might influence, and nominal offices, which might job; and the Chiltern Hundreds of England were, under the title of the Bscheatorships of Minister, Leiuster, Connaught, &c, transferred to Ireland, with salaries of lolly shillings, to 1h- used at pleasure by tin- Secretary. Oc- Casioual and temporary seats were thus bar- tered for by Government, and by the ensu- * No fewer tli. 111 three Trenches are found in the "Black Last," as voting for the L'ni<»n. They were all appointed e> valuabli offices i"i it, and one was made u peer and an ambassador. iug session made the complete and fatal in- strument of packing the Parliament, and effecting a union. " Mr. Luke Fox, a barrister of very hum- ble origin, of vulgar manners, and of a coarse, harsh appearance, was indued with a clear, strong, and acute mind, and was possessed of much cuuning. He had ac- quired very considerable legal information, and was an obstinate and persevering advo cate. He had been the usher of a school, and a sizcr in Dublin University ; but nei- ther politics nor the belles-lettres were his pursuit. On acquiring eminence at the bar, he married an obscure niece of the Earl of Ely's, lie had originally professed what was called whiggism, merely, as people sup- posed, because his name was Fox. His progress was impeded by no political princi- ples ; but he kept his own secrets well, and, being a man of no importance, it was per- fectly indifferent to everybody what side he took. Lord Ely, perceiving he was man- ' ageable, returned him to Parliament as one of his automata; and Mr. Fox played his part very much to the satisfaction of his manager. "When the Union was announced, Lord Ely had not made his terms, and remained long iu abeyance ; * and, as his lordship had not issued his orders to Mr. Fox, he was very unwilling to commit himself until he could dive deeper into probabilities ; but rather believing the Opposition would have the majority, he remained in the body of the House, with the Anti-Unionists, when the division took place. The doors were scarce- ly locked, when lie became alarmed, and slunk, unperceived, into one of the dark cor- ridors, where he concealed himself. He was. however, discovered, and the Sergeunt-at- Arms was ordered to bring him forth, to be counted amongst the Anti-Unionists. His confusion was very great, and he seemed at his wit's end. At length, he declared he had taken advantage of the Place Bill ; had actually accepted the Eschmtorship of Minis- ter, and had thereby vacated his scat, and could not vote. * He "made his term-,'' however, m due time. We afterwards find him in receipt of a sum of £45,000, the price of his three boroughs, which he sold to Govern- ment that it might put its own creatures into the representation. .£». 'A ft jp HISTORY OF IRl.I.AND. "The fact was doubted ; but, alter much discussion, his excuse, upon his honor, was admitted, and he w:is allowed to return into the corridor. On the numbers being count- ed, there was a majority of one for Lord Castlereagh, and exclusive of Mr. Trench's conduct ; but for that of Mr. Fox the num- bers would have been equal. The measure would have been negatived by the Speaker's vote, aud the renewal (if it, the next day would have been prevented. This would have been a most important victory. " The mischief of the Place Bill now stared its franicrs in the face, and gave the Secre- tary a code of instruction how to arrange a Parliament against the ensuing session. "To lender the circumstance still more extraordinary and unfortunate for Mr. Fox's reputation, it was subsequently discovered, by the public records, that Mr. Fox's asser- tion was false. But the following day, Lord Castlereagh purchased him outright ; and then, and not before, appointed hi in to the nominal office of Escheator of Muuster, and lefl the seal of Lord Fly for another of his creatures.* This is mentioned, not only as one of the mosl reprehensible public acts committed during the discussion, but be- cause it was the primary cause of the mea- sure being persisted in." Thus the preliminary contest on the very threshold of the Union question may be said to have ended in a drawn battle. It was known, however, that it was to be renewed on that very evening. It was an exciting dav for the people of Dublin ; and to those who know into wdiat a dismal condition the Union has since dragged down the once proud metropolis of our island, there is something pathetic in the passionate anxiety with which its thronging people then crowd- ed round their Parliament House, hanging on the momentous vote ; watching with beating hearts, the progress of a Struggle which was to decide the destinies of their City and their nation. * This did not conclude the remarkable acts of Mr. Fox. After liis m ;ii had been so vacated, he got himself reelected for a borough under the Influence oj i 1 "' Earl ofGranard, a zealous Anti-Unionist; here he "i more betrayed the country, and was ap- pointed a Judge when the subject was decided. CHAPTER XXXIX. i7:iy Second Debate on Union — Sir Lawrence Parsons— Mr. Smith -Ponsonby and Plnnkel — Division— Ma- jority against Government — Posonby's Resolution for Perpetual Independence Defect!) f Fortes- cue and Others — Resolution Lost — " Possible Cir- cumstances " — Tumult — Danger of Lord ('hire— Second Debate in the Lords — Lord Clare Triumph- ant "Loyalists' Claim-Bill" -"RebelB Disqualifi- cation Hill" — "Flogging Fitzgerald"- asks In- demnity — Regenoy Act— opposed by Castlereagh. It was naturally supposed that if the Minister was left in a minority on the sec- ond debate upon the reception of the ad- dress, he would, according to all precedents, resign his situation ; whilst an increased ma- jority, however small, in favor of his mea- sure might, give plausible grounds for pressing it forward at all hazards. No wonder, then, that the excitement and anxiety were intense on that day. Sir Jonah Harrington de- scribes the scene : — "The people collected in vast multitudes around the House ; a strong sensation was everywhere perceptible ; immense numbers of ladies of distinction crowded at an early hour, into the galleries, and by their pres- ence and their gestures animated that patri- otic spirit, upon the prompt energy of which alone depended the fate of Ireland. " Secret messengers were dispatched in every direction, to bring in loitering or re- luctant members — every emissary that Gov- ernment could rely upon was busily employ- ed the entire morning ; and live and thirty minutes after four o'clock, in the afternoon of the '24th of January, 1799, the House met to decide, by the adoption or rejection of the address — the question of national in- dependence or annihilation. Within the cor- ridors of the House, a shameless aud un- precedented alacrity appeared among the friends of the l.ovcrnnient. " Mr. Cooke, the under-Secretary, wdio, throughout all the subsequent stages of the question, was the private and efficient actu- ary of the Parliamentary seduction, on this night exceeded even himself, both in his public and private exertions to gain over the wavering members. Admiral l'akenham. a naturally friendly and good-natured gentle- man, that night acted like the captain of a press-gang, and actually hauled in soma ;sS' m <*>* } \ M , y^< members who were desirous of retiring. He had declared thai he would acl in any capacity, according to the exigencies of his party ; and he did not sin-ink from his task. " This debate, in point of warmth, much exceeded the Former. Lord Castlereagh sat long silent ; his eye run round the assembly, ns if to ascertain his situation, and was often withdrawn, with a look of uncertainty and disappointment. The members had a little increased since the last division, principally by members who had nol declared them- selves, and of whose opinions the Secretary was ignorant." When the address was reported, on the reading of that part of it which related to the Union, Sir Lawrence Parsons offered an amendment, objecting to the paragraph which "pledged the House, under a meta- phorical expression (' maintaining and im- ploring a connection,' &C.,) to admit the principle of the Legislative Union." Two short passages of his long speech are enough to show its spirit : — " Were the Union ever so good a measure, why bring it forward at that time ? Was it not evidently to take advantage of Eng- land's strength there, and their own internal weakness? It. was always in times of di- vision and disaster that a nation availed it- self of the infirmities of its neighbor, to obtain an unjust dominion. That Great Britain should desire to do so, he did not, much wonder ; for what nation did not de- sire to rule another? Nor was he surprised that there should he some among them base enough to conspire with her in doing so ; for no country could expect to be so fortu- nate as not to have betrayers and parricides an l; its citizens." " Annihilate the Parliament of Ireland ; thai i- the cry that came across the water. Now is I hi' lime -Ireland is weak- Ireland is divided — Ireland is appalled by civil war Inland is covered with troops, martial Ian brandishes its sword throughout the laud - now is the time to put down Ireland for- ever—now Btrike the blow. Who? is it Will vim obey that voice? Will SECOND DK1SATE ON UNION. you betray your country ?" On the second debate, the mosl important speech in la vor of union (though Castlereagh spoke strongly,) was that -if Mr. William Smith, a barrister — afterwards rewarded with the place of a Baron of the Exchequer. lie addressed himself principally to the re- futation of th,. main Constitutional objection to an union, decreed by Parliament— namely, the objection that Parliament had been "elected to make laws, and not legisla- tures,"-- that it had no powers to divest it- self of its legislative capacity to give itself away to another people, still less to sell it- self, and sell its constituents along with it- self. Mr. Smith said : — "Of the competency of Parliament to the enactment of such reform he had never heard any doubts expressed ; and the argu- ments which, he thought, might be offered against the alleged right were inconclusive, yet, perhaps, as plausible as any (hat could be urged against, the competency of the Leg- islature to a decree of union. That the authority of the Parliament had this extent, he had not the slightest doubt. His opinion'' he said, was founded on precedent, on the mischiefs which would result from a contrary doctrine, on the express authority of Con- stitutional writers, and on the genuine prin- ciples of the Constitution itself. By enact- ing an union, Parliament would do no more than change (it. would not surrender or sub- vert) the Constitution. Ireland, after a Leg- islative incorporation, would still be gov- erned by three estates ; and her inhabitants would enjoy all their privileges unimpaired. If the Legislature could new-model the suc- cession of the Crown, or change the estab- lished religion, it might certainly ordain those alterations which an union would in- volve. To controvert its right, would be to deny the validity of the act for the incor- poration of Scotland with England and Wales. But (he added) that, if he con- ceived that the measure would be a surren- der of national independence, he would by no means agree to if ; but it would merely he an i irporation of national distinctions ■ nor would he promote the scheme, if he thought that it would not. insure an iden- tity or community of iteresls." Between Lord Castlereagh and Mr. Pon- sonby, the debate took a very bitter per- sonal turn. The Secretary was .provoked out of his usual cool indifference. To the 13? So t*& ,tULfaAittflnls and Com- mons residing in this kingdom, as staled and approved by His Majesty and the British Parliament in 17*2.'" Lord Castlereagh, conceiving that fur- ther resistance was unavailing, only said, "that he considered such a motion of the most dangerous tendency ; however, if the House were determined on it, he begged to declare his entire dissent, and on their own heads be the consequences of so wrong and inconsiderate a measure." No further op- position was made by Government ; and the Speaker putting the question, a loud cry of approbation followed, with but two negatives — those of Lord Castlereagh anil Mr. Toler (Lord Noibury); the motion was carried, and the members were rising to withdraw, when the Speaker, wishing to be strictly correct, called to Mr. Ponsonby to ■write down his motion accurately. He, ac- cordingly, walked to the table to write it down. During this short delay, the Ministerialists and Opposition regarded one another in si- lence. Some members who had voted with Mr. Ponsonby did not wish the Govern- ■'^i * ' inent to be finally defeated. They had heard of the determination of the Castle to ba\ a majority, and that at very high prices ; and these patriots, though they would not give themselves away, desired to sell them- selves Accordingly, when Mr. Pjnsonby's absolute resolution was put in writing, and the Speaker had read it, and put the ques- tion, aud a loud cry of "Aye" burst forth, Jp Mr. Chichester Forteseue, of Louth County, desired to be heard before the resolution should finally pass He said he was "adverse to the Union — had voted against it, — but did not wish to bind himself forever ; possi- ble circumstances might occur which should render that measure expedient for the em- pire," &c. This was caught at by some moderate and hesitating members of Parlia- ment — by some from honest, and by others from dishonest motives — amongst others by John Claudius Beresford (of the Hiding- House); and the motion was not pressed by Mr. Ponsonby, for fear of a defeat.* This created great despondency and alarm amongst the honest Anti-Unionists. But lor this incident Cornwallis and Castlereagh must probably. have resigned ; lint now cha- grin and disappointment had changed sides, aud the friends of the Union, who a moment before had. considered their measure as near- ly extinguished, rose upon their success, re- torted in their turn, and opposed its being withdrawn. It. was, however, too tender a ground for either party to insist upon a di- vision ; a debate was equally to be avoided, and the motion was suffered to be withdrawn. Sir Henry Cavendish keenly and sarcastical- ly remarked, that "it was a retreat after a victory." After a day's and a night's de- bate, without intermission, the House ad- journed at eleven o'clock the ensuing morn- ing. Upon the rising of the House, the popu- lace became tumultuous, aud a violent dis- position against those who had supported the Union was manifest, rot only amongst the common people, but amongst, those of a much higher class, who had been mingling with them. On the Speaker's coming out of the House, the horses were taken from his carriage, and he was drawn in triumph through the streets by the people, who conceived the whimsical idea of tackling the Lord-Chancellor to the coach, and (as a captive general in a Roman triumph) forcing him to tug at the chariot of his conqueror. The populace closely pursued his lordship * Those " possible circumstances " did occur— and very soon. Both Mr. Fortescue and others who had voted with I'onsonby voted for the Union on its pas sage in the next session. K R? sy t ... ^ 'iArS.COU/NHIii.J, ~nW PI ~ \MWi'^^\ '- .'A /. &l >■-•> #^i .4? r 378 HISTOnY OF IRELAND. for that extraordinary purpose ; lie escaped wiili great difficulty, and Bed, with a pistol in his hand, to a receding doorway in Claren- don street. But the people, who pursued him in sport, set up a loud laugh at him, as he stood terrified against the door. They offered him no personal violence, and re- turned in high glee to their more innocent amusement of drawing the Speaker. Formally, however, ami for the moment, the division of that day was a triumph. A scene of joy anil triumph appeared universal ■ — every countenance had a smile, through- out all ranks anil classes ol the people men shook their neighbors heartily by the hand, as if the Minister's defeat, was all event, of individual good fortune, the mol> seemed as well disposed to joy as mischief, and that was savin;;' much for a Dublin as- semblage. Hut a view of their enemies, us I hey ciune skulking from behind the corri- dors, occasionally roused them to no very tranquil temperature. Some members had to try their speed, and others their intre- pidity. Sir Jonah Barrington, who looked on at all these proceedings with the eye rather of a humorist than of a statesman, tells us that Mr. Richard Martin, unable to get clear, turned on his hunters, and boldly faced a mob of many thousands, with a small pocket pistol in his hand. lie swore most vehe- mently that, if they advanced six inches on him, he would immediately "shoot every mother's babe of them as dead as that paving stone" (kicking one). The united spirit and fun of his declaration, and his little pocket pistol, aimed at ten thousand men, women, and children, were so entirely to the taste of our Irish populace, that all symptoms of hostility ceased. They gave him three cheers, mid lie regained his home without, further molestation. In the House of Lords, on the same ques- tion, upon the reception of this aidress, Lord flare carried everything with a high hand The same handful of Spirited peers who had voted against Union on the former division agaiu opposed it; and it is remarked that Dr. Dickson, Bishop of Down, and Marlay, Bishop of Limerick, were the only two spiritual peers who ventured to stand up against the stern and haughty Chancel- lor. The Bishop of Limerick was Qrattan's uncle, and the Hishop of Down was an inti- mate friend of Mr. Fox. That degraded assemblage, the Irish House of Peers, many of whom had bought their titles within the past few years for money, or for the Castle- votes of their borough members, and others of whom were promised a noble price for those boroughs to promote the Union, lay helplessly prostrate at the feet of Govern- ment, and the low-born but audacious Chancellor cracked his whip over the coro- netted slaves. Not much business of great national im- portance was transacted in the remainder of that session ; the Government had re- solved to employ all its resources in favor of union during the recess. 'The Loyalist Claim bill, however, was passed; under which bill the country was afterwards charged more than a. million sterling, to compensate "loyalists'' who had suffered loss by the insurrection. An attempt was made to pass also a " Rebel Disqualification hill ;" the title was " A Bill for preventing persons who have ever taken the Oath of the United Irishmen from voting for members to serve in Parliament." On the second reading this hill of disfranchisement, was opposed '•)' Sir Hercules Latigrishe, sup- ported vehemently, of course, by Dr. Dui- genan, John Claudius Beresford, and Mr. Ogle ; but was defeated. A very singular discussion took place in the Souse of Commons this session, on the presentation of a petition from Mr. Thomas Judkill Fitzgerald, known as the "Hogging sheriff" of Tipperary. It seems that he had been so wanton and indiscriminate in his flagellations, that he thought even the "Indemnity act" not sufficient to screen him from the legal consequences of such a raging loyalty; and this petition was to ask a special indemnity for himself. " Many actions," the petition said," had been brought, and many more threatened.'' Several mem- bers of Parliament from Munster, bore the wannest testimony to the zeal and activity of this monster in dealing with rebels. The Attorney-General "bore testimony from of- ficial information, as well as from local knowledge, to the very spirited and meritori- ous conduct of Mr. Fitzgerald, and he %r ( ^ Ll/NBUS.0, -1 'il it I VI -■- a*, r ^ / i ~ ■ ■ br"'\ ' -i. ' i — ' i I. .iv; 1 i r/ni:icAl.n i INDEMNITY, trusted the Bouse would cheerfully accede tu the prayerof the petition." Mr. reiver- ton then read to the Hou e the Bworn testi- mony of witnesses in one case that of Mr. Wright, (which has been already mention- ed "The action (he said) bronght by Mr. Wright was for assault and battery. It appeared thai Mr. Wright was a teacher of tin- French language, of which lie was employed as professor by two eminent board- ing-schools al Clnmncl, anil in the families of several respectable gentlemen in the town and neighborhood. '• Mr. Wright had heard that Mr. Fitz- gerald had received so charges of a sedi- tions nature against him, and with a prompti- tude not very characteristic of conscious guilt, he immediately went to the house of Mr. Fitzgerald, whom he did not find at home, and afterwards to that of another magistrate, who was also out, for the pur- pose of surrendering himself for trial ; he went again the same day, accompanied l>y a gentleman, to the lionse of Mr. Fitzgerald, and being shown into his presence, explained the purpose of his coming, when Mr. Fitz- gerald drawing his sword, said, ' down on your knees, you rebellious scoundrel, and re- ceive your sentence.' In vain did the poor man protest his innocence ; in vain did he implore trial, on his knees. Mr. Fitzgerald sentenced him first to lie flogged, and then shut. The unfortunate man surrendered his keys to have his papers searched, and ex- pressed his readiness to suffer any punish- ment the proof of guilt could justify ; but no — this was not agreeable to Mr. Fitzgerald's principles of jurisdiction ; his mode was first to sentence, then punish, and afterwards in- vestigate. Ilis answer to the unfortunate man was, ' What, you Carmelite rascal, do you dare to speak after sentence ?' and then struck him, and ordered him to prison. " Next day this unhappy man was dragged to a ladder iu Clonmel .street, to undergo his sentence. He knell down in prayer with his bat Inline his face. Mr. Fitzgerald came up, dragged his hat from him and trampled on it, seized the man by the liair, dragged him to the earth, kicked him, and cut him across the forehead with his sword, uud then had hnu Stripped naked, tied up to the ladder, lashes. " Major Rial, an officer in the town, came up as I he fifty lashes were completed, and asked Mr. F. the cause. Mr. F. handed the major a note, written in French, saying, he did not himself understand French, though he understood Irish, but lie (Major Rial) would find in that letter, what would justify him in flogging the scoundrel to death. " Major Rial read the letter. lie found it to be a note addressed for the victim, translated in these words : — "'Sir, — I am extremely sorry I cannot wait on you at the hour appointed, being unavoidably obliged lo attend Sir Lawrence Parsons. Yours, " ' Baron de Clues.' "Notwithstanding this translation, which Major Rial read to Mr. Fitzgerald, he or- dered fifty lashes more to be inflicted, and ■ with such peculiar severity, that, horrid to relate, the bowels of the bleeding victim could be perceived to be convulsed and working through his wounds 1 Mr. Fitz- gerald finding he could not continue the ap- plication of his cat-o'nine-tails on that part without cutting his way into his body, or- dered the waistband of his breeches to be cut opeu and fifty more lashes to be inflicted there. He then left the unfortunate man bleeding and suspended, while he went to the barrack to demand a file of men to come and shoot him ; but being refused by the commanding officer, he came back and sought for a rope to hang him, but could not get one. He then ordered him to be cut down and sent back to prison, where he was confined in a dark, s II r i, with no other furniture than a wretched pallet of straw, without covering, and there he re- mained six or seven days, without medical assistance I * * Mr. Plowden records another case, almost pre- cisely alike, in which Fitzgerald's victim was a young man, named I > . ._%!*■ . a respectable tradesman oi Car- rick. Tin- action u as tried at < llonmel Spring Assizes, in 1801. Mr, Plowden says: "The plaintiff, who was a young man of excellent character and untainted loyalty, was seized in the strei i by the defendant in order to be flagellated. In vain ; a r geut ; and, therefore, I - bdl CCuld not effect that unity ot the e.xecu- of the yeomanry, of which he was a member ; that was refised. He offered to go to instant execution if the least nice of guilt appeared against him on inquiry ; that was also refused. Bail was offered to any amount tor ins appearance. ' No,' says the shcr- ill, • I know bj his lace that l.e is a traitor - a Carme- lite scoundrel.' The plaintiff was tie. I to the whip- ping-post; ne reoeived one hundred lashes, till his rihs appeared, rhe young man's e was afterwards fully established, lie applied to a court of law for redress ; the action was tried at Clonmel As- sizes ; these facts tally proved ; an Orange jury acqnit- td the defendant." * Piowden'B Hist. Review, 6th vol. live winch the measure proposed to estab- lish. Circumstanced as the countries were, the questions of peace and war, of. treaties with foreign powers, of different religions, might, ai - e future period, had to a difference of decision between their Parliaments; and such an occurrence would shake the connec- tion, and, in consequence, the empire, to its foundations. If c|iiesiinns of comparative advantage between countries might arise, how could a Regency bill operate as a remedy for the evil ? His lordship wished to be informed how a bill, which went to establish the unity of the regal powers, could identify the necessary :s of a regent for other countries. Might not the particular circumstances of one country differ so materially from the other that the Regency tor both kingdoms could not conveniently be exercised by the same person? Or, did not the bilLtro to oblige the monarch to appoint one ami the sune Regent, which, in fact, went to restrict the regal authority? Thus, either the regal powers «ere curtailed, or the Regency bill was inefficient to remove the inconvenience it went to remedy The Regent was, to all intents and purposes, a deputy : and could a B gent in thai case appoint u Lord-Lieu- tenaut? Could a deputy appoint a deputy .' He presumed he could not ; and should a R gent send over a Lord-Lieutenant to that country, he was satisfied that the Council . object to his authority. His lordship read part of a speech of Mr. Pox, to show that the adjustment of I'^l was not considered as a linal one ; that it wenl merely to quiet the political struggle which then existed : and that it was indis- pensably necessary to give up something for that imperial purpose. His lordship concluded by saying that the measure was inefficient to the purpose it held forth ; calculated to blind the country, and disgrace the Legislature. It must be acknowledged licit these argu- ments of Lord Castlereagh have considera- ble weight, and that the only possibility of Ireland's real and effective independence lies in complete separation from England. It was on the discussion of the Regency bill 1 \ c '5 ' kR § Ay <& i ! UNION PROPOSED IN BRITISH PARLIAMENT. 381 W h A-y Vv ^ thai Mr. Poster, the Speaker, took ocea e i ;i to express his sentiments with greal weight :iik1 earnestness against the project of [Jnion ; < tending that the settlement of 1789 was a final settlement, ami that the pending Regency bill would remove the last remaining difficulty in the way of harmouious action between the two independent coun- tries. The Regency bill, however, was not acted upon. That, with all other legislation having reference to the Union, was thrown over tili the next session ; i>y which time, Lord Castlereagh hoped to have his votes r,a.lv to carry his grand measure. Hi' vio- lently opposed tic Regency bill, and got rid of it by moving an adjournment of tie- Hon e, which was carried. In the meantime, the Euglish Lords and Commons wire also busy upon the Union ; ami we must now turn from College Green to Westminster for a time. 1 commending a Union in tin' following terms : "His Majesty is persuaded that the m CHAT IT.;: XL. 1709. Union Proposed in British Parliament— Oppo ed bj i ,.j ,n Supported by Canning Great Speech of Mr. Pitt— Ireland to be Assured of English Pro- tection -Of laiu'li-h Capital Promises t" tin- Cath- olics—Mr. Pitt's Resolutions for Onion— Sheridan Dnndas -Resolutions Passed — In the House of Lords— Labors of Cornwallis and Castlereagh— Corruption— Intimidation -Onslaught of Troops in Dublin -Lord Cornwallis Makes a Tour — Lord Downstiire ! ' lluiUock of Athlone-^His Song and Palinode— Opposition Inorganic— The Orangemen -The Catholics— Arts to Delude Them —Dublin Catholics Against Onion — O'Connell — System of Terror— County Meeting Dispersed by Itoops— Castlereagh'a Announcement of "Com- pensation. 11 On- the same day, (January 2'2, 17 DO,) on which the Union was proposed to the Irish Parliament in the speech of Lord Corn- wallis, the same business was brought be- fore both Houses in England. -Mr. Pitt was .,, confident "f his power to carry that measure that he did not think it advisable to await the result. of the deliberations of the Irish Senate upon it; hut, presuming on his Strength in the Irish as much as in the British Houses of Parliament, he opened his plan of operations in both on the same day Accordingly, on the 22d of January, 1799, a message from the Sovereign was delivered to the British Peers by Lurd G ten ville, re- remitting industry with which our enemies persevere in their avowed design of effecting the separation of Ireland from this kingdom cannol fail to engage the particular atten- tion of Parliament ; ami His Majesty recom- mends it to this House to consider of the most effectual means' of counteracting and finally defeating this design; and he trusts thai a review of all the circumstances which have recently occurred (joined to the senti- ments of mutual affection and common in- terests) will dispose the Parliaments .of both kingdoms to provide, in the manner which they shall judge most expedient, for settling such a complete and final adjustment as may best tend to improve and perpetuate a con- nection."' The same day a similar message was pre- sented to the Commons by Mr. Dundas, who moved that it should be taken into consid- eration on the morrow. Richard Brinsley " Sheridan, though a member for an English borough, did not forget that he was an Irishman. He immediately rose, and while he declared his concurrence in the general sentiments which the message conveyed, he thought it but fair thus to give early notice that he viewed the bringing forward of that question at that time as a measure replete with so much mischief, that he held it his duty to take the first opportunity to do everything in his power to arrest the fur- ther progress of it. Mr. Pitt, in reply, said he was at a loss to guess on what grounds the honorable gen- tleman would attempt to satisfy the House they ought not to proceed to the considera- tion of the important, measure, which His Majesty, from his paternal regard to the iu- terests of the empire, had thought proper to recommend to their consideration ; at the same time, he informed the House that his intention was only to propose an address to His Majesty on the nexl day ; and then, after a sufficient interval, (about ten days, | to proceed to the further discussion of the subject. When the address, accordingly, was pro- posed the next day, Mr. Sheridan made a I „,(, and able speech against the whole pro- ject. "He thought It incumbent,'' lie said, fC > ID £r*^\ .-,< A\ A &^ %**\ "upon Ministers to offer some explanations with regard to the failure of the last solemn adjustment between the countries, which had been generally deemed Bnal. There was the stronger reason to expect this mode of pro- ceeding, when the declaration of the Irish Parliament in 1782* was recollected. The British Legislature having acquiesced in this declaration, no other basis of connection ought to be adopted " He thru spoke of the injustice of attempt- ing to consummate this union by intimida- tion and corruption. He contended that the adjustment proposed would only unite two wretched bodies : thai the minds would still be distinct ; and that eventually it mighl lead to separation. "Let no suspicion," he continued, "be entertaiued that we gained our object by intimidation or corruption. Lei our Union oe an union of affection and attachment, of plain-dealing and free-will. Lot it be an union of mind and spirit, as well as of interest and power. Lei il nol resemble those Irish marriages which commenced in fraud and were consummated by force. Let us nol sommit a brutal rapt' on the independence :f Ireland, when, by tenderness of behavior, we may have her the willing partner of our fate. Tho state o( Ireland did not admit such a marriage. Her baus ought not to be publish, '.l to the sound of the trump,'!. with an army of forty thousand men. She was not qualified for hymeneal rites, wheu the grave and the prison held so large a share of her population." Sheridan was answered by George Can- ning ; who spoke earnestly in favor of an l ion. Canning is sometimes claimed as an Irishman, but he was born in Loudon, and never in all his Life allowed the claim, n i * •• We beg leave to represent to His Majesty thai the Bubjeots >>t" Ireland are entitled to a tree Consti- tution; that the Imperial Crown of Ireland is insepa- rably annexed to the Crown of Great Britain, on which connection the happiness of t<> > t li nations es- sentially depends ; but tli.a tlio kingdom of Ireland is a distinct dominion, having a Parliament of her out, the sol,- legislature thereof; tli.it there is no powei v, ii , i apetent to nuke laws to bind tins nation, except the King, Lords, and C ot Ireland, Upon which exclusive right of Legislation we ci nsider the \ of oar liberties to de- pend a right which we claim as the birthri the people of Ireland, and which wo are determined, In every situation of life, I id maintain." more than Swift, who said it wast,'" hard if hr was to be considered an Irishman, although he had the misfortune to be "drop- ped" in that island. At any rate, Mr. Can- ning, never, in his whole career, showed the slightest Irish feeling ; and on this occasion he viewed the question wholly as an Eng- lishman, as he was. Here is an extract from lliS speech ; — " It had been said, that for the space of three hundred years we had oppressed Ire- land ; but for the last twenty years, tho conduct of England had ben a series of ssions. The Irish wanted an octennial parliament — it was granted. They wished lot' ail independent legislature — they had their wish. They desired a free trade — it was given to them. A very large body of the people of Ireland desired a repeal of a part of the Penal Code which they deemed oppressive— the repeal was granted. The honorable gentleman had spoken as if noth- ing had been done for Ireland but jghat she extorted, and what she had a right to demand he seemed to think that past favors were no proofs of kindness. It was, undoubtedly, expedient that these advanta- ges should be giveu to Ireland, because her prosperity was the prosperity of England; but they were not privileges whit h she amid IS mutters of right.'' It was on the 3 1 st, after the message had again read, that Mr. Pitt made his great speech, tally developing the view which the British Ministry desired to be re- ceived on the question of Union. In jus- tice to the Unionists it is necessary to give an abstract of what this able Statesman urged on his own part : — "The nature of the existing connection," hesaid, "evidently did not afford that de- gree of security, which, even in times less dangerous and less critical, was necessary to enable the empire to avail itself of its Strength and resources. "The settlement of 1782, far from deserv- ing the name ol a final adjustment, was one that left the connection bet ween Great Brit- ain and Ireland exposed to all the attacks ,f party and all the effects of accident. Dial settlement consisted in the demolition ,,f the system which before held the two countries together. A system unworthy of M. rl § ft Br • (If v \i>' '-.\^ N..J*. MIL ^4 MB. PITT s GREAT SPEECH. S33 ,/P the liberality of Qrea( Britain, and injurious to the interests of Ireland. But to call thai a system in itself to call that a glo- rious fabric of human wisdom, which was no more than the mere demolition of an- other system was a perversion of terms." Mr, Pitt then quoted the Parliamentary journals, to prove that the repeal of the Declaratory act was not considered by the Minister of the day as precluding endea- vours for the formation of an ulterior settle- ment between the kingdoms. Mr Pitt was good enough to add, that Great Britain had always felt a common in- terest in the safely of Inland ; but that in- terest was never so obvious anil urgent as when the common enemy made her attack npon Britain through the medium of [re- and, and when the attack upon Ireland tended to deprive her of her connection with Britain, and to substitute in lieu of it the new government of the French Republic. When that danger threatened Ireland, the purse of Great Britain was opened for the wants of Ireland, as for the necessities of England. To those who know how Ireland has been ,ir lined of her wealth and crushed in her in- dustry since the Union, and by the Union, the following paragraph of Mr. Pitt'sspeech will seem strange : — " Among tie' great and known defects of Ireland, one of the most prominent features was its want of industry and of capital. How wnr those wants to be supplied, but by blending more closely with Ireland the industry and capital of (treat Britain?" The Minister enlarged very much npon the benefit which Ireland would derive from the certainty of being defended by England against foreign enemies, and upon her ina- bility to protect herself. Of course, he did not advert to the fact (which he well knew) that the great majority of the Irish people. Protestants as well as Catholics, knew of no other foreign enemy than England ; that in resisting French invasions of Ireland, England Was defending not Ireland but her- self ; and that in capturing Frenchmen at Bnllinamnck, or in Loigh Swilly, the Eng- lish forces were not capturing Ireland's ene- mies, but Ireland's friend-. He drew a glowing picture of the great advantages which the lesser country would draw from her union with the greater, the protection which she would secure to herself in the hour of danger ; the most effectual means of increasing her commerce and improving her agriculture, the command of English capital, the infusion of English manners and English industry, necessarily tending to meliorate her condition, to accelerate the progress of internal civilization, and to ter- minate those feuds and dissensions, which distracted the country, and which she did not possess within herself the power either to control or to extinguish. She would see the avenue to honors, to distinctions, and exalted situations in the general seat of em- pin., opened lo all those, whose abilities and talents enabled them to indulge an honora- ble and laudable ambition. lie did not forget to make his bid for the Catholics ; and without giving, in this speech, any distinct pledge of emancipation by the Imperial Parliament, he intimated very clearly that the principal difficulty in the way of that measure would be removed by the Union. " Xo man could say," he re- marked, " that, in the present state of things, and while Ireland remained a separate king- dom, full concessions could be made to the Catholics, without endangering the State, and shaking the Constitution of Ireland to its centre. On the other hand, when the conduct of the Catholics should be such as to make it safe for the Government to ad- mit them to the participation of the priv- ileges granted to those of the established religion, and when the temper of the times should be favorable to such a measure, it was obvious that this question might be agitated in an United Imperial Parliament, with much greater safety than it could be in a separate Legislature." The Minister dwelt much upon the weak- ness of Ireland, which was not, he said, able to protect herself— he had not said so in the days of the volunteers ; upon the confusions and atrocities which prevailed at that mo- ment throughout the country — but he did not sny that it was he. wdio had ordered and organized those horrors ; upon "the hos'ile division of sects in Ireland, and the animosi- ties 1., t iveen ancient settlers and original in habitants"— but without saying that Eug- Ifo nr -g w 1 ■■ I 1 is ti policy had created and perpetuated those evils ; upon the " ignorance and want of civilization which," he was pleased to say, " marked that country more than any in Europe" — bill lie forgot to say i hat for a cen- tury it had been a penal offence for any Catholic lo go to school, or to teach a school. For all iliis, lir insisted there was no cure lut in the formation of a General Imperial Legislature, free alike from terror and from resentment, removed from the danger ami agitation, uninfluenced by the prejudices, ami nninflamed by the passions of that dis- tricted country. Ireland, Mr. Pitt admitted, might suffer somewhat "by the absence of the chief nobility and gentry who would flock to the imperial metropolis ;" but this disadvantage would be far more than counterbalanced by the beneficial results of the system in other respects. And as to the idea that the pro- ject of union with England meant subject- ing Ireland to a foreign yoke, Mr. Pitt met that with a quotation from Virgil — -Nee Teucris Italos parere jubebo, Nee imva regna peto : paribus se legibus ambec tnvictSB gentes eeterna in ttedera mittant." All this looks to-day like cruel and deadly irony. It was with the most severe gravity, however, thai Mr. Pitt enumerated all the great blessings which would flow from the Union to Ireland; — if England was to benefit by it, he did not seem to be aware of that circumstance, did not think of it ap- parently at all; so much absorbed was he U by the generous thought of binding up the bleeding wounds of Ireland, and whispering peace to her distracted spirit. He ended by moving his eight, resolutions, to serve as a basis for the proposed Union. As these preliminary resolutions were greatly en- larged in the subsequent "Articles" and "Act of Union," they need not be here given at length. They were to the effect that it was fit to propose an union of the two kingdoms of Great Britain and Ireland. That the succession to the Crown should re- main settled as it was. That the United Kingdom should be represented in one Par- liament, in proportions afterwards to be agreed upon. That the two Churches of England and Ireland should be preserved. That the people of the two kingdoms should stand on the same looting, as to trade and navigation, and no duties should be imposed on export or import between the two islands That the charge for the debts of the two kingdoms should be separately defrayed ; the proportions of future expenses to be set- tled by the two Parliaments previous to the Union. That all laws and courts should re- main as they were theu established, subject to future modifications by the United Par- liament. Mr. Sheridan opposed these reso- lutions from first to last. " If the condition of Ireland," he said, •' were really as deplorable as it was stated to be, the House ought to be informed from what misconceptions such evils had arisen, amidst the advantages which God and na- ture had bestowed upon her. It might be concluded, iudeed, that her poverty was chiefly occasioned by the narrow, unwise policy of Britain, a policy which, he was glad to find, the Minister now disapproved. Her weakness, perhaps, was not so great as it was supposed to be ; and, if it were," it was ungenerous to insult her. Such an in- sult would not have been offered to hci while her volunteers were in arms." In the course of the several debates which took place, Sheridan was supported by sev- eral eminent members of the House ; by Mr. Grey, (afterwards Lord Grey,) by General Fitzpatrick, (who had been Irish Secretary under Lord Portland,) Mr. Tier- ney, the Honorable Mr. St. John, Mr. Hob- house, and others ; most of whom opposed i he measure on account of the time being improper for ils discussion. Of those who supported it may be named Sir John Mit- ford, Mr. Perceval, Mr. Dudley Ryder, Mr. Secretary Duudas, afterwards Lord Mel- ville, (a Scotchman,) spoke warmly for the Union ; ami in his speech took occasion to throw out again tin- bail which was to catch the Catholics ; and as he was a member of the administration, his words were supposed to have weight. He said " that, after union, the Protestants would lay aside their jeal- ousies and distrust, being certain that against any attempt to endanger their establishment the whole strength of the United Legislature would be exerted ; and, on the other hand, the Catholics would expect that their cause would be candidly and impartially considered ^8 ■) fe I T/^- . A)fJ '' *~r ■CT IE *.• bj a genera] Parliament, the great body of which would be relieved from the apprehen- sions and animosities interwoven with t lie Constitution of the existing Legislature." Mr. Dundas further vaunted the excellent effects which, he said, had followed the union of Scotland with England, and re- ferred to a letter of Queen Anne to the Northern Parliament, predicting the various blessings, with respect to religion, liberty, and property, which would result from the Bcheme ol incorporation ; and, he said, thai not one syllable of her predictions had failed. It is observable that, throughout the whole of these debates in the English Par- liament, not one of the advocates of Union ever seems to have thought of the interest or honor of his own country. It was for Ireland they were all ( rued. At length, On the 12th of February, came the division on bringing up the report. The ayes were 120 ; nays, 16. This was followed by a con- ference between the Lords and Commons ; and the House of Peers ordered a month's interval before entering upon the discussion in their House. On the 19th of March, the matter was brought before the British House of Peers by Lord fjrenville. He went through all the common arguments for the Union, and re- peat, d the usual carefully-calculated phrases intended to win the Irish Catholics without any distinct ministerial pledge for emancipa- tion. He said : — " The good consequences of union would quickly appear, in the progress of civiliza- tion, the prevalence of order, the increase of industry and wealth, and the improvement of moral habits. The Hibernian Protestants would feel themselves secure under the pro- !• cl ion of a Protestant Imperial Parliament ; and the anxiety of the Catholics would be allayed by the hope of a more candid exam- ination of their claims from a Parliament not influenced by the prejudices of a local legislature." The Union was opposed by Earl Fitzwil- liam, advocated by the Marquis of Town- shend, Lord Clifton, Lord Minto, the Bish- op of Llandaff, and many others. Lord Moira opposed it. Lord Camden (the re- bellion Viceroy) supported it. This noble- man took occasion to cuter on a defence of 49 333 lis own administration in Ireland, which seemed indeed to need defence. He denied that the recall of Earl Fitzwilliam was pro- ductive of disorder or disaffection, and af tinned that the rigorous proceedings of the Government were rendered neei ssary by that seditious spirit which existed independently of the Catholic question. He declared that all the severities imputed to his administra- tion were preceded by acts of outrage, of in- surrection, or of rebellion. He allowed that his conduct, in adopting active and vigorous measures, and apprehending some of the leaders, did accelerate the rebellion ; but, as the same steps facilitated its suppression, he did not think that he could justly be blamed. Lord Minto advised the insertion of a dis- tinct clause in the articles or act of Union, providing for the "just claims of the Catholic Irish ;" but he did not insist on this, and Ministers took care that no such clause should be inserted. Their policy at that moment, with regard to Catholics, was only to whisper hopes and private promises into the ear of bishops and peers of that persua- sion, as will be seen more fully hereafter. At the end of a long debate the address was finally adopted, embracing Mr. Pitt's pro- posals ; and so the matter rested until the next session. The remainder of the year 1199 was a busy time for Lord Cornwallis, Lord Clare, Lord Castlereagh, and nnder-Seeretary Cooke. They were all excessively mortified at the temporary failure of this measure ; but if certain too credulous and generous Irishmen fondly imagined that the danger was over, they were signally mistaken. Nei- ther Clare nor Castlereagh was the man to be so easily discouraged at a crisis on which their own future political honors and exist- ence depended. They had it in command from London to carry the Union through. Mr, Pitt, by a private dispatch to Lord Corn- wall^, desired that the measure should not be pressed unless he could be certain of a majority of fifty ;* and his lordship knew what that meant, coming from Mr. Pitt. Lord Cornwallis seems to have been quite a willing agent in the system of corruption and * " This original dispatch I saw and read."— Sir J. Barrunjton. TO K fo\$ m *va ay *) kSIs -H 3S6 HISTORY OF IRELAITD. intimidation now to be inaugurated on a grander .scale than ever before ; and, indeed, to an extent never witnessed, either before or since, in any country of the globe. And never bad a government two more efficient officers for snch a purpose than Clare, the Lord-Chancellor, and Castlereagh, the Sec- retary. The Chancellor, in fact, was too violent and arrogant to be politic. He called that a pusillanimous idea ; and could have been well content for his part to cany the Union with a majority of one, and then dra- goon the island into submission. In his rage at the first check in Parliament, and at tile somewhat tumultuous rejoicings of the Dub- lin mob, (who, however, hurt nobody,) he hastily hail the Privy Council called togeth- er, and urged the necessity of making what in Ireland is called a salutary example. Ac- cordingly, about nine at night, u party of the military stationed in the old Custom House, near Essex Bridge, silently sallied out, with trailed arms, without any civil magistrate, and only a sergeant to command them ; arriving at Cupel street, the populace were in the act of violently huzzaing for their friends, and, of course, with equal vehemence execrating their enemies ; but no riot act was read, no magistrate appeared, and no disturbance or tumult existed to warrant military interference. The soldiers, however, having taken a position a short way down the street, with- out being in any way assailed, fired a volley of balls amongst the people. Of course, a lew were killed and some wounded ; amongst the former, were a woman and a boy. A man fell dead at the feet of Mr. P. Hamil- ton, the King's Proctor of the Admiralty, who, as a mere spectator, was viewing the illumination. This is only mentioned to evince the violent spirit which guided the Government of that day, and the tyrannic means which were employed to terrify the people from testifying their joy at their de- iverance, as they fancied, from the proposed annexation.* Lord Castlereagh, however, knew a bet- ter way of going to work: The session had scarcely closed, when his lordship recom- menced his warfare against his country. The treasury was in his hands, patronage in *Sir J. Barrington. his note-book, and all the influence w the scourge or the pardon, reward or pun- ishment, could possibly produce on the tremb- ling rebels, was openly resorted to. Lord Cornwallis determined to put Irish honesty to the test, and set out upon an experiment- al tour through those parts of the country where the nobility and gentry were most likely to entertain him. He artfully select- ed those places where he could best make his way with corporations at public dinners, and with the aristocracy, country-gentlemen, and farmers, by visiting their mansions and cottages. Ireland was thus canvassed, and every jail was converted to a hustings, at which prisoners of various grades of crime were asked to sign petitions for the Union, by the promise of pardon. f Lord Castle- reagh's ulterior efforts were extensive and in- defatigable, his spirit revived and every hour gained ground on his opponents. He clear- ly perceived that the ranks of the Opposi- tion were too open to be strong, and too mixed to be unanimous. The extraordi- nary fate of Mr. Ponsonby's declaration of rights, and the debate on a similar motion by Lord Corry, which so shortly afterwards met a more serious negative, proved the truth of these observations, and identified the persons through whom that truth was to be afterwards exemplified. It was soon perceived by the Anti-Union- ists, that Government was recruiting and marshalling its forces to carry its measure with a high hand in the next session ; and that they also must do somewhat on their side, to maintain the high national spirit in resistance to the hated measure. The Mar- quis of Downshire, the Earl of Charlemont, and William Brabazon Ponsonby, member for the county of Kilkenny, sent circular letters to the Irish gentry and yeomanry, to the following effect. They were authorize 1, they saitl, by a number of gentlemen of both houses of Parliament — thirty eight of whom were representatives of counties — to intimate their opinion, that petitions to Par- liament, declaring the real sense of the free- holders on the subject of a Legislative Union, would at that time be highly expedient. f This fact, that felons in the jails were thus induo- ed to sign Union petitions, was mentioned in Parlia- mentary debate, and not contradicted. Sir J, Bar- riwjt&ii. 'J*T-- : k i£3 ^TtM .ClUNBbS. r ■ * ^ HANDCOCK OF ATHLONK HIS 80NO AXD PALINODE. 387 The Marquis of Downshire was at once dismissed fi <>m the government of his coun- ty—the colonelcy of the Royal Downshire regiment of twelve hundred men, and his name was erased from the list of Privy i louncillors.* All the resources of Govern- ment, either for reward or punishment, were to be used, and that without reserve. The management of Mr. Handcock, mem- ber forAthlone, is an example of the system ol treatment opposite to that, ]iursue>l to- wards Lord Downshire. Immediately after the close of the session of 1799, a public din- ner of the patriotic members was had in Dub (in, to commemorate Lhe rescue of their coun- try from so imminent a danger. One hundred mid ten members of Parliament sat down to that splendid and triumphant entertainment. Never was a more cordial, happy assem- blage of men of rank, consideration, and integrity, collected in one chamber, than upon that remarkable occasion. Every man's tried and avowed principles were sup- posed to be untaintable, and pledged to his own honor and his country's safety ; and amongst others, Mr. Handcock, member for Athh .appeared to be conspicuous. Up spoke Btrongly, gave numerous Anti-Union toasts, vowed his eternal hostility to so in- famous a measure, pledged himself to God and man to resist it to the utmost, and, to finish and record his sentiments, lie had composed an Auti-Union son- of many stan- i , , which he sun- himself with a general chorus. In short, he was the life of the party. Lord Castlereagh marked him as a man to lie won upon any terms. Before Parliament assembled iu the next session, Mr. Uandcock was composing and singing Union songs. He received a large bribe in money ; " but," says Sir Jonah Barrington, "still" lie held out until title was added to the bribe, his own conscience was not Strong enough to resist the charge, the vanity of ,is tainily lusted tor nobility, lie wavered, but be yielded ; his vows, his declaration, bis son- all vanished before vanity, and the year 1 son, saw Mr. Handcock of Atldone, Lord Castlemaine." It is unnecessary to say that he voted for the Union. The very heteroge us nature of the Opposition which had rejected the Union in • l'luwtkn. the last session, gave Lord Castlereagh great facilities in breaking it down. In that for- tuitous concourse of members, were to be found old reformers, and those who had always opposed reform, Catholic Emanci- pators, as well as the most violent and bit- ter of the Orangemen. Indeed, the most fatal cause of division amongst them, was their radical difference of opinion on the Catholic question. Those who had deter- mined to support the Catholic cause, as the surest mode of preventing any future attempts to attain a Union, were obliged to dissemble their intentions of proposing eman- cipation, lest they should disgust the As- cendancy party who acted with them solely against the Union. Those who were ene- mies to Catholic relaxation, were also oblig- ed to conceal their wishes, lest their deter- mination to resist that measure should dis- gust the advocates of emancipation, who had united with them on the present occasion. The latent of Parliament principally exist- ed amongst the members who had formed the general opposition to the Union. Some habitual friends of administration, therefore, who had on this single question seceded from the Court, and who wished to resume their old habits on the Union being disposed of, obviously felt a portion of narrow jealousy at being ltd by those they had been accus- tomed to oppose, and reluctantly joined in any liberal opposition to a Court which they had been iu the habit of supporting. They desired to vote against the Union iu the abstract, but to commit themselves no fur- ther against the Minister. Many, upon this temporizing and ineffective principle, cau- tiously avoided any discussion, save upon the direct proposition ; and this was remarkable, and felt to be ruinous iu the succeeding ses- sion. In the meetings and discussions which took place during that anxious interval be- tween the two sessions, and in the first days of the new one, the Orange body held aloof from the question as Orangemen ; and iu the first days of the new session, a circular was issued signed by the " Grand Master," and " (J rand Secretary," and dated " Grand Orange Lodge," exhorting Orangemen "to avoid, as injurious to the institution, all con- troversy upon subjects not connected with ( v iM 2 Z?K vm$. HISTORY OF IRELAND. '>:- \ \^- l }■ their principles." There is no doubt, how- ever, that most of the (Srangemen were for the Union ; and both the Grand Master and Grand Secretary, being members of Parliament, voted for it in 1800. To the countless petitions which were poured in, almost all against the Union, were signed the names of Catholics and Protestants indiscriminately ; but the Cath- olic Bishops certainly used their influence in many cases to dissuade the people of their flocks from coining forward against the mea- sure. " It may, indeed, be said with truth," says Mr. Plowden, "that a very great pre- ponderance in favor of the Union existed in the Catholic body, particularly in their nobility, gentry, and clergy." The same authority accounts for this by " the severities and indignities practiced upon them after the rebellion by many of the Orange party, and the offensive, affected confusion, in the use of the terms, papist and rebel, producing fresh soreness in the minds of many." But this is not a satisfactory account of the in- different or hostile position assumed at that time of peril, by many leading Catholics towards the Legislature of their country. If they did see some Orangemen sitting upon the Opposition benches, they also saw there all their own old and tried friends and advocates; ami their attitude is rather to be ascribed to the impression produced by the underhand half-promises made by people connected with the Government. Sir Jonah Barrington says : — "The Viceroy knew mankind too will to dismiss the Catholics without a comfortable conviction of their certain emancipation ; he turned to them the honest side of his coun- tenance ; the priests bowed before the sol- dierly condescensions of a starred veteran. The titular archbishop was led to believe he would instantly become a real pre- late ; and before the negotiation conclud- ed, Dr. Troy was consecrated a decided Unionist, and was directed to send pas- toral letters to his colleagues to promote it." Sir Jonah tells us, further, that "some of the persons, assuming to themselves the title of Calholic leaders, sought an audience, in order to inquire from Marquis Cornwallis, ' What would be the advantage to the Catholics, if a union should happen to be effected in Ireland ?' " .Mr. Bellew, (brother to Sir Patrick Bel- lew,) Mr. Lynch, and some others, had sev- eral audiences with the Viceroy ; the Catho- lic Bishops were generally deceived into the most disgusting subservience, rewards were not withheld, Mr. Bellew was to be appoint- ed a County Judge, but that being found im- practicable, he got a secret pension, which he has now enjoyed for thirty-two years." But, undoubtedly, the main motive of the anti-national conduct of leading Catholics is to be sought in those uniform declarations of Ministers, both in England and in Ire- land, that the Union, and the Union alone, would remove all impediments to a fair set- tlement of the demands of the Catholics. There were, however, some Catholics not to be so easily deluded. The trading and com- mercial class of Catholics in Dublin was ve- hemently opposed to union ; and, immediately before the opening of the session, a meeting of these people was held at the Royal Ex- change, to deliver their opinions upon it. It was proposed to prevent this meeting from assembling, by military force — such was always Lord Clare's first m thought ; but better counsels prevailed, and the meet- ing was held, Mr. Ambrose Moore in the chair. >*o less a person than Darnel O' Council, then a rising young barrister, took the lead- ing part at this meeting; and it is interest- ing to see with what patriotic earnestness he then protested against the perpetration of that Union which, near half a century later, he laid down his life iu the effort to repeal, lb' s iid : — "That under the circumstances of the present day, and the systematic calumnies flung at the Catholic character, it was more than once determined by the Roman Catho- lics of Dublin to stand entirely aloof, as a mere sect, from all political discussion, at the same time that they were ready, as forming generally a part of the people of Ireland, to confer with and express their opinions in conjunction with their Protest- ant fellow-subjects. This resolution, which they had entered into, gave rise to an extensive and injurious misrepresentation, and it was asserted by the advocates of © J iO*fV\4 >« iU^4i.S,ii., VH 8F I? 5 "il^ COUSTI MEF.TIN'O DISPERSED BY TROOPS. t ■> frfc ■.' Union, daringly and insolently asserted, that the Roman Catholics of Ireland were friends to the measure of Onion, and silent allies to that conspiracy formed against the name, the interests, and the liberties of Ireland. This libel on the Catholic character was strengthened by the partial declarations of some mean and degenerate members of the commnuion, wrought npon by corruption or by fear, and, unfortunately, it was received with a too general credulity. Every Union pamphlet, every Union speech imprudently j m t forth the Catholic name as sanctioning a measure which would annihilate the name of the country, and there was none to re- fute the calumny. In the speeches and pamphlets of A.nti-T7nionists, it was rather admitted than denied, and, at length, the Catholics themselves were obliged to break through a resolution which they had formed, in order to guard against misrepresentation, for the purpose of repelling this worst of misrepresentations. To refute a calumny di- rected against them, as a sect, they were 'obliged to come forward as a sect, and in the face of their country to disavow the base conduct imputed to them, and to declare that the assertion of their being favorably inclined to the measure of a legislative in- corporation with Great Britain, was a slan- der the most vile ; a libel the most false, scandalous, and wicked, that ever was di- rected against the character of an individual or a people. "Sir," continued Mr. O'Connell, "it is my sentiment, and I am satisfied it is the sentiment, not only of every gentleman who now hears me, but of the Catholic people of Ireland, that if our opposition to this in- jurious, insulting, and hated measure of Union were to draw upon us the revival of the penal laws, we would boldly meet a pro- scription and oppression, which would be the testimonies of our virtue, and sooner throw ourselves once more on the mercy of our P otestant brethren, than give our assent to the political murder of our country ; yes, 1 know — I do know, that although exclu- sive advantages may be ambiguously held forth to (he Trish Catholic, to seduce him from the sacred duty which he owes his country ; I know that the Catholics of Ireland still re- member that they have a country, and that they will never accept of any advantages, as a sect, which would debase and destroy them as a people." After which Mr. O'Connell moved cer- tain resolutions which were unanimously agreed to. The first of these resolutions was — " Resolved, That we are of opinion that the proposed incorporate Union of the Leg- islature of Great Britain and Ireland, is, in fact, an extinction of the liberty of this country, which would be reduced to the ab- ject, condition of a province, surrendered to the mercy of the Minister and Legislature of another country, to be bound by their absolute will, and taxed at/heir pleasure by laws, in the making of which this country could have no efficient participation what- ever." As the decisive moment approached for the trial of this great issue, men's minds be- came more and more excited on both sides of the question. The patriotic leaders did ' what was possible to evoke a respectable body of public, opinion by way of meetings, petitions, and resolutions ; but this was a service of danger, as Lord Downshire had found. A far more extraordinary example of the determination of Government to crush down all legitimate expression of pub- lic feeling occurred at a proposed county meeting in Kings County. The circum- stances were thus related by Sir Lawrence Parsons, in his place in Parliament, and were never denied : — ■ " Some time ago, Major Rogers, wdio com- mands at Birr, having been told that there was an intention of assembling the freehold- ers and inhabitants to deliberate on the pro- priety of petitioning against a Legislative Uuion, the Major replied that he would dis- perse them by force if they attempted any such thing ; that the Major, however, ap- plied to Government for direction. 'What answer or directions he received could only be judged of by his immediate conduct. On Sunday last, several magistrates and respec- table inhabitants assembled in the session bouse, when the High-Sheriff (Mr. Derby) went to them and ordered them to disperse, or he would compel them. They were about to depart, when a gentleman came and told them the army was approaching. The As>- V sembly had but just time to vote the resolu- tions, but not to sign them. They broke up, and as they went out of the session house they saw moving towards it a column of troops with four pieces of cannon in front, matches lighted, and every disposition for an attack upon the session house — a building so constructed that if a cannon had been fired it must have fallen on the magistrates and the people, and buried them in its ruins. A gentleman spoke to Major Rogers on the subject of his approaching in that hostile manner. His answer was that he waited but for one word from the Sheriff that he might blow them to atoms ! These were the dreadful incisures, Sir Lawrence said, by which Government endeavored to force the Union upon the people of Ireland, by stifling their sentiments and dragooning them into submission." Sir Jonah Barrington states positively that many other meetings throughout the counties were thus prevented by simple " dread of grape-shot." English generals then quartered in various parts of the island, at a moment when either martial law still existed or the horrible memory of it was fresh, could not fail to have their own influ- ence over proclaimed districts and a bleeding peasantry. To them nothing could be easier than to prevent any political meetings, under pretence that they might endanger the pub- he peace. Tne Anti-Union addresses, innumerable and ardent, in their very nature voluntary, and with signatures of high consideration, were stigmatized by Government journals as seditious and disloyal ; " while those of the compelled, the bribed, and the culprit, were printed and circulated by every means that the Treasury or the influence of the Government could effect."* There were a good many new elections held this summer ; because members were persuaded to resign their seats " upon terms,'' says Mr. Plowden ; but he does not tell us what those terms were. In fact, they simply * Sir Jonah Barrington. He states, and O'Connell baa affirmed the same, that, notwithstanding all ob- stacles and intimidation-, seven hundred thousand persons petitioned against union; ami. notwithstand- ing all inducements, only three thousand petitioned for it — the most of these being Government officials and prisoners iu the jails. accepted one of the " Escheatorships," a species of " Chiltern Hundreds," to vacate their seats, that those seats might be filled by creatures of the Castle. In this way a small majority had already been secured be- fore the opening of the session. Lords Uornwallis and Cnstlereagh, having made so good progress during the recess, now discarded all secrecy and reserve. Many of the peers and several of the commoners had the patronage of boroughs, the control of which was essential to the success of the Minister's project. These patrons Lord Cas- tlereagh assailed by every means which his power and situation afforded. Lord Corn- wallis was the remote, Lord Cnstlereagh the intermediate, and Mr. Secretary Cooke, the immediate agents on many of these bargains. Lord Shannon, the Marquis of Ely, and sev- eral other peers commanding votes, after much coquetry had been secured during the first session ; but the defeat of Government rendered their future support uncertain, .The Parliamentary patrons had breathing time after the preceding session, and began to tremble for their patronage and importance ; and some desperate step became necessary to Government, to insure a continuance of the support of these personages. Accordingly, Lord Castlereagh boldly an- nounced his intention to turn the scale, by bribes to all who would accept them, under the name of compensation for the loss of pa- tronage and interest. lie publicly declared, first, that every nobleman who returned members to Parliament should be paid, iu cash, £1 5,000 for every member so returned; secondly, that every member who had purchased a seat in Parliament should have his purchase- money repaid to him out of the Treasury of Ireland ; thirdly, that all members of Par- liament, or others, who were losers by the Union should be fully recompensed for their losses, and that £1,000,000 should be devot- ed to this service. In other words, all who should affectionately support his measure were, under some pretext or other, to share iu this " bank of corruption." A declaration so desperately and reckless- ly flagitious was never made in any country on earth by the Minister of any Sovereign. It was treating the elective franchise of the country as the private property of those pro- A A Vi (f mzs m - prietors « bo returned the members by means of their unconstitutional influence. It was acknow ledging and consecrating the practice of those tubers themselves in treating their seats also as a property, fi i which, during their tenure, they drew profit in bribes, or place, or some substantia] Court favor. And it was charging the whole expense of this nefarious transaction to the Irish tax-payers themselves, the very people who were thus to be sold by their representatives, and pur- chased with their o\\ li money by their ene- mies. But the declaration had a powerful effect in favor of the Castle ; and before the meet- ing of Parliament in January he found, throngh the infallible information of the under-Secretary, Mr. Cooke, that he could count npon a small majority of about eight. This he hoped to increase. C II AFTER XLI. 1799—1800. Progress of Union Conspiracy — Grand Scale of Brib- ery— Castlereagh I Organizes " Fighting Men'' — Din- ner at liis House— La9t Session of the Irish Parlia- ment—Warm Debate the First Day — Daly Attacks Bnshe and Plnnket — Reappearance of Grattan — His Speech— ( lorry Attacks Him— Division — Majority for Government— Castlereagh Proposes " Articles" of Union — His Speech— Promises Great Cain to Ireland from Union — Ireland to " Save a Million a Year " — Proposed Constitution of United Parlia- ment— Irish Peerage— Ponsonby — Grattan — Again a Majority for the Castle— Lord Clare's Famous Speech — Duel of Grattan and Corry— Torpor and Gloom in Dublin — The Catholics — " Articles " final- ly Adopted — By Commons — By Lords. Is the cool, calculating head of the Irish Secretary, the whole project was now ma- tared, and its accomplishment provided for. Things »ere, he thought, in a good train. County meetings of freeholders were pre- vented by "dread of grape-shot ; " the Cath- olic Bishops and gentry were lulled asleep by what Mr. O'Connell had well described as "hopes of advantage ambiguously held forth ;" the people were crashed, disarmed, bleeding ; there were one hundred add fifty thousand armed men in the country, one- third regular troops, the other two-thirds of- ficered and controlled by Government ; and above all, ami beyond till, Mr. Cooke was successfully driving his bargains with the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and Com- mons of the Parliament of Ireland. Yet his lordship evidently dreaded the meeting of Parliament, lie loved not that inevitable encounter with so many honest, ardent, and able men, who all knew and would proclaim the villanies he was practising. In fact, he felt, with uneasiness, that the genius and elo- quence of the land, as well as its integrity, were full against him ; and no legislative body ever yet sitting in one house has pos- sessed so large a proportion of grand orators, learned lawyers, and accomplished gentle- men. It may be fearlessly added, that no Parliament has ever had so large a propor- tion of honorable men. Had it not been so, the splendid bribes then ready to be thrust into every man's band would have insured to the Castle a much greater majority, and we should not have seen the noble ranks of un- purchasable patriots thronging so thick on the Opposition benches to the last. What Parliament or Congress has ever been tempt- ed so?* There is no need to make inviili- - ous or disparaging reflections ; but English- men, and Frenchmen, and Americans, should pray that their respective Legislatures may never be subjected to such an ordeal. But still, Castlereagh disliked this meet- ing with the Irish Parliament ; and, as his party fell so far short of their opponents in point of talent and oratory, he bethought him of a singular expedient to make sure of an effective corps of fighting men amongst his supporters iu the House. He was him- self a man of most reckless courage ; but he saw the necessity of infusing a little of that spirit into his party. Sir Jonah Barriugton describes his system of procedure in this * It must be remembered that the compensation fund of £1,500,000 represents a small part of the bribery. Vast sums were also paid for votes out of the Secret Service money. O'Connell, in his Corporation Speech, estimates these latter bribes at "more than a million." Then there were about forty new peer- ages created, and conferred as bribes. The tariff of prices for Union votes was familiarly known— £8,000, or an office worth £2,000 a year if the member did not like to touch the ready-money. Ten bishoprics, one chief-justiceship, six puisne-judgeships, besides regiments and ships given to officers of the army and navy. Ou the whole, the amount of all this in money must have been, at least, five millions sterling— $25,- 000,000. If bribery npon the same scale, say, $100,- 000,000, were now judiciously administered in the En- glish Parliament, a majority could be obtained which wnul, 1 annex the Three Kingdoms to the United States. K ft? <^j l --X ~ZJ m H.J~tM ... JO£ - msx kx or :-.-.-.-_ lsd. ' the time aud of the country to be here omitted : •' He invited to dinner, at Lis house in - supporters, consist! g mer.' ghting ' who ridoal pride in i - f the Opposition, and iu ir own honor . s dinner was snmp- tnous _ and Madeira had < man could be more con- ..a the noble h.- & r due " was. skiiif.: duecd by Sir John I - nee created ho, of ail men. be>: fighting the o'.d school, an able diplo:_ . with most polished mauuersand imposing 35, he con. heart, and de- lit ; in p .viality he was ..led. "11.. _ • I round many loyal, mingled with - and exhilarate z • • e understood sed to personal even iuci-. - I 3 His Majesty's friends — the D sts of 1 .'.and. 11. rmined that no man should ad upou him by _ g the party he had and the measures he was ] » . A full bumper proved hi- cerity, the subject was ■ -- . • '.;e company began to feel r ' r.l serrice.' je coquetry, . --aould a pi _ with him : a he perceived many had made up their mi:. I even on I - i:nly observed. some mode s - sen to ■ - number ol 3 during - •• ::most im- r want of due attendance. > . _ -j.and man juggle more exi - repared accessor- re a new _ roposed, hum have a dinuer for I .he comm. could • .: hand to make up a Hous . tor an unexpected reinforcement, during any part of the dis- - 'U. '"The noTel id 'a a detachment of le_ • and humorous, and, of course, wa- : ted. Wit ai .'. puns - bot- Mr. Cooke, the £ en, ^'::'z ■ _ : nods and smirking iuuendos, be- ite his official rewar i- I i company. The hints and the claret, u- to rais risions of t - _ _ every man became in a pros official pr 2 — embryo j 3 :;isel to boards, envoys to foreign courts, com- pensation pe;.- aen and com- missioners iu assortments, ail revelled in g substent'. . iven to every member who would d. Secretary the honor of ae . - me was unanimously a". ■ . v After mo many fl - - .. ry, the meet g sepai got, :"ul!y res i ~;>eak, and^Af for Lord ( I re one of tlemen found an oj -his >t session of ti T . : :' led. / member expected that the speech Throne would have again introduc- ed : ■ - - for D of iiament i tides I • I ex- ■ neat upon " victories of the combined imperial armies" over I npon good u upon the failure of the p'. ins of in India ; upc:. pane's Eg; and he went on to demanu - • • ".to prom - — and earnestly recom- mended to their care and patron . _ - i - . . i . • ended without saving one word of Union* > * rj l >, h I Lord Viscount Loftns i afterwards Marquis of Ely) moved the address, which was as vague as the speech was empty. It was this gentleman's father, Marquis of Ely, who had been pnniiivrd £45,000 for his roughs. Sir Jonah Barrington says this young nobleman "had been chris- tened by the humorous party of the House, and was only selected to show the Commons that his father had been purchas- i ii other words, pour encwrdger les a u tin. T i re was not a point in the Viceroy's speech intended to be debated. Lord Cas- tlereagh, having judiciously collected his Qock, was better euabled to decide on num- bers, and to count, with sufficient certainty on the result of his labors since the pre- ceding session, without any hasty or pre- mature disclosure of his definitive measure. This negative and insidious mode of pro- ceedii g, however, could not be permitted by the Opposition, and Sir Lawrence Parsons, after one of the most able and luminous ehes he bad ever uttered, moved an amendmeut, declaratory of the resolution of Parliament, to preserve the Constitution as established in 1782, and to support the free- dom and independence of the nation. This motion occasioned a warm debate on the very first day of the session. Lord Castle- reagh, in pursuance of the bullying policy which had been agreed upon, spoke con- temptuously of the arguments of Sir Law- rence. The silence of the Lord-Lieutenanl (.n the subject, did not arise from any con- viction of the impolicy of prosecuting the me. The question had been withdrawn, when the House of Commons seemed unwil- ling to entertain it, but, as a great majority •/<• people now approved the measure, and as there was reason to believe, that many of its late Parliamentary opponents had re- nounced their ideas of its demerits, His Majesty's counselors had resolved to give it a new chance of regular investigation. The reason of its not having been mentioned in the Viceroy's speech, was merely that it was to be made a subject of distinct communi- on to Parliament. I ensued a vehement debate on the whole question of Union. Many men now ventured to show their hands. After 60 Bushe made a vigorous Mr. Ponsonby had spoken strongly and earn- estly in favor of Sir L. Parsons' amendment, up rose Dr. Brown, member for the Univer siiy, who had voted against the Union iii the preceding session. He said "he had become more inclined to the Union than he had been in the preceding session, because he th Might it more necessary from interme- diate circumstances." Unhappily, we know what ilio>e circumstances were. lie had been promised the place of Prime-Sergeant, and got it for his vote, and for that alone, as he had no other merit.* Charles Kendal speech in Ibis debate. He said : — " You are called upon to give up your in- dependence, and to whom are you to give it up ? To a nation which for six hundred years has treated you with uniform oppres- sion and injustice. The Treasury Bench startles at the assertion — Ncm mens hie sermo est. If the 'Treasury Bench scold me, Mr. Pitt will scold them, it is his assertion in so many words in his speech. Ireland, says he, has always been treated with injustice and. Uliberality. Ireland, says Junius, has been uniformly plundered and oppress- ed. This is not the slander of Junius, or the candor of Mr. Pitt, it is history. For centuries has the British nation and Parlia- ment kept you down, shackled your com- merce, paralyzed your exertions, despised your character, and ridiculed your preten- sions to any privileges, commercial or con- stitutional. She never conceded a point to you which she could avoid, or granted a favor which was not reluctantly distilled. They have been all wrung from her, like drops of her heart's blood, and you are not m possession of a single blessing, except I hose which you derive from God, that has nod been either purchased or extorted by the virtue of your own Parliament from the il- liberally of England." Mr. Plunket also had spoken with his usual force against the project of Pinion, when Mr. St. George Daly, a very third-rate barrister, who had been appointed Prime- Sergeant on the dismissal of Mr. Fitzgerald, rose and began to put in practice the bully- ing policy which had been settled upon at Tj % * This gentleman was by birth an American. lAi«.;^i,«s,s..^ HISTORY OF IEFI.AXP. i Lord Castlereagh's. " He was a gentle- man," says Sir Jonah Barrington, "of ex- cellent family, and, what was formerly high- esteemed in Ireland, of :i "fighting fami- ly.' He was proud enough for his preten- sions, and sufficiently conceited for his capac- ity, and a private gentleman he would have remained, had not Lord Castlereagh and the Union placed hira in public situations where ho had himself too much sense not to feel that he certainly was over elevated." This Mr. Daly ventured upon the system of per- sonal insolence. Barringtoo describes the scene : " Mr. Daly's attack on Mr. Bushe, was of a clever description, and had Mr Bushe had one vulni rable point, his assailant might have prevailed. He next attacked Mr. Plunket, who sat immediately before him, hut the materials of his vocabulary had been nearly exhausted ; however, lie was making some progress, when the keen visage of Mr. Plunket was seen to assume a curled sneer, which, like a legion offensive and de- fensive, was prepared for an enemy. No speech could equal his glance of contempt and ridicule. Mr. Daly received it like an arrow, it pierced him, he faltered like a wounded man, his vocal infirmity became more manifest, and after an embarrassed pause, he yielded, changed his ground, and attacked by wholesale every member of his own profession who had opposed an Union, and termed them a disaffected and danger- ous faction" But the House had nearly wearied itself out, and exhausted the subject, when, ab lUt seven o'clock in the morning, a sudden ap- parition broke upon the House, which can- ed men to hold their breath for a time. It was the entrance of Henry ti rattan. Since ln> "secession" from Parliament, more than two years before, along with Curran, Fitz- gerald and others, Grattan had been an in- valid, trying to recruit his shattered consti- tution, by change of scene and climate. He had spent some time in the mild air of a vacancy having occurred, it was tendered to Mr. Grattan, who would willingly have declined it but for the importunities of his fl ieuds. The Lord-Lieutenant ami Lord Castle- reagh, justly appreciating the effect his pres- ence might have on the first debate, had withheld the writ of election till the last moment the law allowed, and till they con- ceived it might be too late to return Mr. Grattan in time for the discussion. It was not until the day of the meeting of Parlia- ment that the writ was delivered to the re- turning officer. By extraordinary exertions, and, perhaps, by following the example of Government in overstraining the law, the election was held immediately on the arrival of the writ, a sufficient number of voters were collected to return Mr. Grattan before 111 By one o'clock, the return was on its road to Dublin ; it arrived by live ; a party of Mr. G rattan's friends repaired to the private house of the proper office^ and making him get out of bed, compelled him to present the writ to Parliament before seven in the morning, when the House was in warm debate on the Union. A whisper ran through every party that Mr. Grattan was elected, and would immediately take his scat. The Ministerialists smiled witii incred- ulous derision, and the Opposition thought the news too good to be true. Mr. Egau was speaking strongly against the measure, when Mr. George Pousonby and Mr. Arthur Moore, (afterwards Judge of the Common Pleas,) walked out, and im- mediately returned, leading, or rather help- ing, Mr. Grattan, in a state of total feeble- ness and debility. The effect was electric. Mr. G rattan's illness and deep chagrin had reduced a form, never symmetrical, and a vis- age at all times thin, nearly to the appearance A a spectre. As he feebly tottered into the House, every member simultaneously rose from his seat. He moved slowly to the table ; his languid countenance seemed to the Isle of Wight, then among the moiin- revive as he took those oaths that restored tains of Wales, and had but lately return- him to his preeminent station ; the smile of ed to his house of Tinnehineh, near Dray, inward satisfaction obviously illuminated his when this momentous session of Parliament features, and reanimation and energy seemed opened. to kindle by the labor of his mind. The At that time. Mr Tighe returned the men.- House was silent, Mr. Egau did not resume bers for the close borough of Wicklow, and \ his speech, Mr. Grattan, almost breathless, f?A 3r IW tlSSRi / V MVISI0X— MAJORITY I'OR GOVERNMENT. attempted to rise, but found himself unable at first to stiind, and asked permission to addre 9 the House from his seat. Never was a finer illustration of the sovereignty Of iniinl over matter, (irattan Bpoke two hoars, with all his usual vehemence and lire, against the Union, and in favor of the amendment < f Sir Lawrence Parsons. The Treasury Bench was at first disquieted ; then became avage ; and it was resolved to bully, or to kill Mr. (Irattan. Sir Jonah Barrington describes the scene : — •■ II.- had concluded, and the question was loudly culled for, when Lord Castlereagh was d earnestly to whisper to Mr. Corry, they for an instant looked round the House, whispered again, Mr. Corry nodded assent, and, amidst the cries of 'question,' began a . which, as far as it regarded Mr. (i rattan, few persons in the House could have prevailed upon themselves to utter. Lord Castlereagh was not clear what im- pression Mr. (i rattan's speech might have made upon a few hesitating members ; he had, in the course of the debate, moved the question of adjournment ; he did not like to meet Sir Lawrence Parsons on his mo- tion, and Mr. Corry commenced certainly an able, but, towards Mr. G rat tan, an un- generous ami an unfeeling personal assault." For that time the Castle bravo carried the matter with a high hand; the exhaust- ed invalid was too feeble to attend to him ; perhaps, did not even hear hint. At ten o'clock in the morning, a division was called for. Ninety-six voted for the amendment of Sir Lawrence Parsons ; one hundred and thirty-eight against it ; a majority of forty- two tor the Castle. This majority of forty- two exceeded the warmest expectations of Government ; and the Viceroy hoped to in- crease it by allowing an interval of some weeks to pass, before he scut to either House a copy of the resolutions of the Par- liament of Great Britain. The defeat of the Anti-Unionists by a majority of forty-two, Hushed the Minister with ( fidence. The members were now so far marshaled into their ranks, that con- siderable changes or conversions were not to t ic pec ted on either side. Some solitary instances of conversions did appear. A hot and open canvass was carried on in the House itself, by the friends of Government, wherever an uncertain or reluctant member was observed, or his convictions, interests, anil aspirations could lie discovered. What effect attended this canvass is seen in the subsequent divisions, and in the Black List. It was on the 15th of February that Lord Castlereagh, for the . first time, formally brought the project of Union before the House, by reading a message from Lord Cornwall!*, recommending that measure to the earnest attention of Parliament. His lordship then delivered a long speech, set- ting forth the several articles of Union, as agreed upon by the British Houses. He affirmed, without scruple, that public opin- ion was now favorable to Union. With re- gard to the multitudinously-signed petitions which had poured in against it, he remarked : "That had also been the case in the Scot- tish Union. • The table of the Parliament was day after day, for the space of three months, covered with such petitions ; but the Scottish legislators acted as, he trusted, the Irish Parliament would act ; they con- sidered only the public advantage ; and, steadily pursuing that object, neither misled by artifices nor intimidated by tumult, they received, in the gratitude of their country, that reward which amply compensated their arduous labors in the great work so hap- pily accomplished.'' * As to the principle of the measure — the competency of the Parliament of Ireland to extinguish itself — his lordship affirmed that this had been so firmly established by a speech, (that of Mr. Smith,) which had been published, "that he considered it as placed beyond question or doubt." He then de- scribed the articles in succession. He at- tempted to show that the contemplated financial arrangement, making the two coun- tries bear separately the charge of their re- spective debts, and requiring Ireland to pay in the proportion of one to seven and a half, towards the general expenses of the United Kingdom, for twenty years— the propor- tions to be afterwards modified, according to the respective abilities of the two countries — * The reader will recollect that the Scottish Union also was accomplished by purchasing a majority with money and office. ra m €>,/ ,& '•:/ ■ i .1 ' U* la was an arrangement by which Ireland wonld sure a milium per annuvi. The proposed commercial regnlations also he discussed, most elaborately, and showed to the satis- faction of his friends, that in this article, also, Ireland would be the gainer. His lordship then spoke of the article to con- solidate the Chinch of England and Church of Ireland. Ju this place he took care to introduce the regular ministerial phrase, in- tended to comfort the Catholics : — " The cause of distrust must vanish with the removal of weakness : strength and con- fidence would produce liberality ; and the claims of the Catholics might be temperately discussed and impartially decided before an Imperial Parliament, divested of those local circumstances, which would ever produce ir- ritation and jealousy." With respect to the composition of the United Parliament, his lordship observed that, while the population of Great Britain exceeded ten millions, that of Ireland was only three million live hundred thousand or four millions ; * and while Ireland's share in the general expenses of the empire was to be only one, against Great Britain's seven and a half, she was to have a hundred members in the Imperial Parliament. Lord Castlereagh next approached the delicate question — what was to be done with the Irish Peerages? According to the ar- ticles of Union, Irish Peers were not to sit in any House of Lords by their own right ; yet, they were uot to be altogether degraded to Commoners, (which would have been re- publican, and savoring of "French princi- ples.") So the awkward compromise which was adopted caused his lordship some trouble to explain, in a plausible manner. They were to be represented in the Imperial House of Lords by four spiritual Peers, elected by their order, and twenty-eight temporal Peers, elected by theirs, and hold- ing their seats for life. Peers of Ireland * It was at least five millions. Mr. Plowden, though he does nut like to contradict Lord Castlereagh, says, •■ there are many strong reasons for believing that it amounted to near five millions. Si\ years Later, it was five million three hundred and ninety-five thousand loin- hundred and-fifty-six, according to the estimate fur that year, (1803,) given in the official Irish Direc- tory. But as tli.-re was then no census, Lord Castle- reagh felt iimself at liberty to give his own esti- mate. were to 1>e capable of holding seats in the House of Commons, but not for an Irish constituency ; only for a county or borough in England. In describing the apportionment of the re- presentation between counties and boroughs, giving sixty-four to the former and thiriy- six to the latter, his lordship said this would necessarily disfranchise many boroughs ; and here he took occasion formally to promise "compensation"' — not to the disfranchised electors, but to the landed proprietors who were the "patrons'' of those boroughs, and were' supposed to own the franchise of those electors. This intended purchase of the "pocket boroughs," and the immense prices to be paid for them, had been known be- fore ; but this was the first, time the stupend- ous bribe had been mentioned in Parlia- ment. Lord Castlereagh coolly said : — " As the disfranchisement of many bor- oughs would diminish the influence and privileges of those gentlemen whose.prop- eriy was connected with such places of election, he endeavored to obviate their t t- plaints by promising that, if the plan sub- mitted to the House should be finally ap- proved, he would offer some measure of compensation to those individuals whose pe- culiar interests should suffer in the arrange- ment. " Much and deep objection might be stated to sucU a measure ; but it surely was conso- nant with the privileges of private justice ; it was calculated to meet the feelings of the moderate ; and it was better to resort to such a measure, however objectionable, than adhere to the present system, and keep afloat, forever, the dangerous question of Parliamentary reform. If this were a mea- sure of purchase, it should be recollected that it would be the purchase of peace, and the expense of it would be redeemed hij one of the Union." Lord Castlereagh did not feel it neces- sary to mention any of the other classes of bribes which were to reward those patriots who would consent to enrich Ireland by till these gains and savings. He knew that the faithful Mr. Cooke was arranging those matters of business in the* lobbies, in the corriders, on the very floor of tin' House. Air. George Ponsonby made a violent at- R&i 0" to bo led into measures which oan, bj construction, givo a handle to the opposers of their w isb.es, either to misinterpret their principles or to ;ument for resisting their claims ; but that by their prudent and exemplary demeanor they will afford additional .mounds to the growing number of their advocates to enforce their olaims on proper oo- easions, until their objeots oan be finally and advan- tageously attained. ments were readily approved by the Com- mons; and Lord Castlereagh immediately proposed an address to His Majesty, in which both Houses concurred. In ihis address they declared that they cordially embraced the principle of incorporating Great Britain and Ireland into one kingdom, by a corap and entire union of their Legislatures; that they considered the resolutions of tbe British Parliament as wisely calculated to form the basis of such a settlement ; that by those propositions they had been guided in their proceedings ; and that the resolutions now offered «ere those articles which, if approved !>y the Lords and Commons of Q real Britain, they were ready to confirm and ratify, in or- der that the same might be established forever by the mutual consent of both Parliaments. At this stage of the business, the matter rested in Ireland ; and the British Parlia- ment had next to ilo its part, a matter which might be supposed somewhat doubtful, if all the advantages of the proposed Union were to be, as Lord Castlereagh said, on the side of Ireland ; but we shall Bud that this <-ou- suh ration did not act upon the Lords and Commons of England. Sentiments ofa Sincere Friend | i. »., Warquit aims. ".'It the Catholics should now proceed to violence, or entertain any ideas ol gaining their object by con- vulsive measures, or forming associations with men lal principles, they iim.~t. of course, lose the support and aid of those who hoe sacrificed their owu situations in their cause, but who would, at the Bame time, feel it to be theii i duty to oppose everything I confusion. "'On the other hand, should the Ci besensl- of the benefit they possess by haviu ; so i i oharaol pledged not to embark in the service of Government, except on the terms of the - being obtained, it is to he b t that, on balancing the advantages and disadvantages of their situation, the] would prefer a quiet aide demean < line of conduot of an opposite. ption.' "The originals of these two declarations \\.re handed, to Dr. hoy, and afterwards to lord Fingall on the same day. bj Marquis Cornwallis, in the pres- of Lieutenant-Colonel Littlehales, in the begin- ning ol U iy. 1801, shortly before his departure from the Government c i before the arrival of Lord Hardwicke, his successor* His excellency de- sired they should b communicated i i pa and principal Catholics, but not inserted in the Mtospapera." lis em ...^.vjii.»^ Tnr. union rN icnoukii paumament. ( HAPTER XI, II Tl»' I'n n I nglisb Perliamenl Opposed by Lord Holland -Mr. Grey Bhcrldan lii-h Act for Elec- tor! -Distribution ol its— Ca n igh brings in Bill for the l nion Warm Debates— Unl le- nounced byPlunket,Bushe,8anrIn, Grattan Their Enrncsl Last Da] of the Parliament i ne r. i i the Lords The Protei ting Pei i li mpen ation Act The King I longta tnlates the British Parliament Lord Cornwallis — The I'i h i " i" date from January 1, 1*01 — [rial li' iii History of it. In the Parliament of England, there was no danger thai any time would be lost. Tin' articles of Union passed through the [rish Parliament as they bad been origin- ally framed by the British Ministry, having received no other alterations in their pro- gress than such as were dictated by the Court. They were now brought forward as terms proposed by the Lords and Commons df Ireland, in the form of resolutions. And on April 2, 1S00, the Duke of Purtland communicated to the House of Lordsames- e from the King, anil at the same time presented to them, as documents, a copy of the Irish address, with the resolutions. Lord Holland in vain opposed the ap- pointment of a committee ; he objected to the whole project of Union. " It was cvi- dently offensive to the great body of the Irish ; ami, if it should lie carried into ef- feci against the Beuse of the people, it would endanger the connection between the countries, and might produce irreparable mischief. He should oppose the motion for a committee." All rri -trance was useless. Ministers felt that their arrangements were perfect, anil the result sure ; they wonlil never, per- haps, lmlil Ireland so thoroughly in hand as they held her now — thanks to Lord Castlereagh. On a division, only three Peers (the Earl of Derby, and the Lords Holland anil King,) voted against, and eighty-two sup- ported the motion for going into a commit tee. The three lirst articles were then pro- posed t" Hi'' committee, and received the as- sent uf the Peers. The motion for a committee was made in the House of Commons by Mr. Pitt. On :.l the House resolving itself into a committee, Mr. Pitt entered at great length into the whole question, going in general over th< same well-beaten gri 1. In closing hi speech, this Minister, (knowing well the sys- tem of management uf the Irish Parliament — and knowing, also, thai, everybody else knew it,) was not ashamed to say : — "The ample discussion which every part of i his subject has met with, (so ample that nothing like its deliberation was ever known before in any legislature) has silenced clam- or, has rooted out prejudice, has overruled objections, lias answered nil arguments, has refuted all cavils, and caused the. plan to be entirely esteemed. Both branches of the Leg- islature, "after long discussion, mature delib- eration, and laborious inquiry, have expres- sed themselves clearly and decidedly in its favor. The opinion of the people, who, from their means of information, were most likely, because best 'enabled to form u correct judg- ment, is decidedly in its favor." Mr. Grey-, (afterwards Lord Grey,) still opposed the Union. Referring to Mr. Pitt's last assei't ions, he permitted himself to doubt their accuracy : — " It was said that the public voice was in its favor, after a fair appeal to the unbiassed sense of the nation. Nineteen counties were said to have signified a wish for its adop- tion ; and he believed that addresses had really been presented from that number of shires; but by wdiom they were signed he did not exactly know, though it had been understood they were procured at meetings not regularly convened, and promoted by the personal exertions of a governor, who, to the powerful influence of the Crown, ad- ded the terrors of martial law. To speak of the uncontrolled opinion of the commu- nity, in such a case, reminded him of the Duke of Buckingham's account to Richard III. of the manner in which the citizens of London had agreed to his claim of the ( Irown — " Rome followers of mine own At lowest end "' Hie hall hurl'd np their raps, Ami some t'-n voices cried, God save King Rich- ard. An. I thus I took the 'vantage of those few Thanks, gentle citizens I friends, quoth I ; This genera) applanse unit oheerfnl bI t, Argues your wisiloni and your love to Hichard." I *£-, ,>ft V A \ \& a etfVt^ 409 HISTORY OF ir.Kl.AXT. Mr. Grey proceeded further. He indig- nantly exposed n portion of the infamies then perpetrated in Ireland ; and in snch a manner as to show tliat he had fully in- formed himself, lie said : — "lie did not mean to speak disrespect- fully of the Irish Parliament. But the facts were notorious. There are three hundred members in all, and one hundred and twenty of these Strenuously opposed the measure: among whom were two-thirds of the county members, the representatives of the city of Dublin, and almost all the towns which it is proposed shall send members to the Imperial Parliament. One hundred and sixty-two \ ted in favor of the Union — of those, one hundred and sixteen were placemen, some tern were English Generals e Staff, V • one foot of ground in Ireland, and completely dependent upon Government. 1- there anj ground, then, to presume that even the Parliament of Ireland thinks as the right honorable gentleman supposes ; or that, acting only from a regard. to the good of their country, the members would not have reprobated the measure as strongly and unanimously as the rest of the people ? But this is not all ; let us reflect upon the arts which have been used since the las: . . sion of the Irish Parliament, to pack a ma- jority in the House of Commoi - A hold- ing offices under government, even the most intimate friends of the V - . who had uniformly supported his administration till the present occasion, if they hesitated to vote as directed, were dismissed from office, ami stripped kA their employments. Even this step was found ineffectual, and other arts were had recourse to, ichich I amm4 nam in ttispUat; all will easily conjecture. A bill for pros _ the purity of Parlia- ment was likewise abused, and UQ less than sixty-three sea's were vacated by their hold- - having received nominal offices. I will uot press this subject further upon the at- tention of the committee. I defy any man to lay his hand upon his heart and say, that he believes the Parh'amei Lwassut- i y in favor of the measure" Mr, Grey then moved an address to His Ma praying him to direct his Ministers to sus- pend all proceedings on the Union, till the sentiments of the people of Ireland respecting that measure should have been ascertained. Mr. Sheridan, of course, was at his post and supported the motion of Mr. Grey. He deprecated the prosecution oi a measure, which, if it should be carried into effect by corruption or violence, would become the fatal source of discontent and rebellion. That the Union had the general approbation and independent assent of the Irish nation, a number of addresses and declarations « mentioned as a proof ; b inert tktst ■- • ' The addresses against it were easy to be found. Twenty-seven of the counties had openly declared against it ; and with these would have united Antrim and 8 - '. if martial law had not been proclaim- ed, and prevented the intended meetings. If the measure were thus to be carried, he had no hesitation in saying, that it would be an act of tyranny and oppression, and must be- come the fatal source of ne.w discontents and future rebellions ; and the only standard round which the pride, the passions, aqd the prejud ces of Irishmen would ra i be that which would lead them to the recoi y • >f a constitution that would have been thus foully and oppressively wrested from them. \ tempi hail bt-tn m ult to deny the uotoriemt - \ -five seats had been vacated to make places for men. whose obsequi uess would not permit them to oppose the - ire ; and it was equally notorious, that in) art or influence which the policy oi ■ ruptiou and intimidation could put in i had been left untried to gain over partisans to the Union. 1' is, indeed, singular, that in the course of these debates, no Minister was hardy enough to deny tl - - n of intimidation and bribery. Mr Secretary Dundas contented himself on this occasion with saying, "he would not admit " that the Irish in general dis- sented from the scheme. Lord Carysfbrt I ly propounded a strange argument : he af- firmed, that the Unionists in the Irish Par liament. had a much greater extent <.<: prop- erty than their adversaries, in : I - ten to one, and that the judging portion of the people approved the project Mr. Pitt, 1 ever, indignantly scooted the idea of ap- _: to a community so influenced by fao - leaders ; he was satisfied witb the con- stitutional asseut of Parliament. ^ [I - -A-> . . ; mw oi 5» t PC W^&m^M pi?^ • A r * r.P 0PP0SKII IIY LORD HOLLAND MR. GRKY SHERIDAN. 403 In Bhort, Mr. Grey's tion to "suspend proceedings on the Union, till the sentiments of the people of Ireland should be ascer- tained," whs negatived bj a rote of two hnn- dredand thirty-six, againsi thirty. And the three lir-t articles were adopted by the com- mit tee. Other debates npon various parts of the articles, had uniformly the Bame result, vast mojorities Cur the minister. Two in- cidents only r prospect of the abolition of the disabilities, to which they were still Bubject both in Ireland and Great Britain. This was opposed on the pari of Government us "unseasonable." Ministers, in fact, intended that the Catholic Bishops nuil influential leaders, should con- tent themselves with the vague promises al- ready so often mentioned. The Government was practically receiving support for their measure, from many of those prelates and gentlemen, on the faith of the treacherous promises of Lord Cornwallis and his under- lings ; and had no idea of pledging the Brit- ish Parliament to emancipation. Lord Grenville "was of opinion that these ques- tions would be best determi I by an United Parliament." So the subject dropped. The Other incident arose from the alarm of the woollen-manufacturers. It will be remembered how this class of manufactur- ers, in the reign of 'William III, had been aide to procure express acts of the English Parliament for the destruction of that kind of industry in Ireland, and to en- sure to themselves I he full monopoly of Iri-h wool in fleece. They were now very natur- nlly of opinion that the Commercial " Ar- ticle," in the articles of Union permitting the tree mutual import and export between the two islands, was a gross infringement upon ihcir vested rights. They, accordingly, petitioned the Boose of Commons against the " Article." Their demand was too mon- strous, lint it was sustained in the Souse by Mr. Peel and Mr. Wilberforce. Mr. Pitt, however, who knew that the English nionop- oly of the woollen manufacture was now practically safe enough, maintained, that, if any transfer of manufacture should result from tin.' permission of exporting wool, it would he gradual and inconsiderable ; that any void, which it might occasion, would be much more than Idled up by the great in- crease of our trade in this article; that wc had no reason to apprehend a scarcity of the commodity, or dread the rivalry of the Irish in the manufacture ; and that his friend's proposal would lie an unnecessary deviation from that liberal principle of a free intercourse, which was the intended basis of the Union. Tin? article, therefore, was adopted as it stood, to the deep, indig- nation of the good people of Leeds and all Yorkshire. All the articles had been adopted before tin; !llh of May. A joint address was on that day preseuted to the King, importing that they were now ready to conclude an Union with the Irish Parliament upon the basis of the' articles. This address, in a tone which resembles a cold and solemn sneer, expresses the "unspeakable satisfac- tion "of Parliament at " the general conform- ity of the articles transmitted from Ireland with those which they had voted in the pre- ceding year." The next thing in order, was that each Parliament was to frame the articles into a bill, and so pass the Act of Union. As an Irish act for regulating elections was to be incorporated in the general bill of Union, Lord Castlereagh at once, in the [rish House of Commons, brought in that parliamentary measure. It passed the House of Commons on the 20th of May. This measure arranged the representation as it remained from the Union until the " Re- form act." It gave one member of Parlia- ment to each of the following towns : — Waterford, Limerick, Belfast, Drogheda, Carrickfergus, Xewry, Kilkenny, London- derry, Galway, C'lonuiell, Wexford, Armagh, Youghall, Bandon, Dundalk, Kinsale, Lis- burne, Sligo, Catherlogh, Ennis, Dungar- van, Down-Patrick, Coleraine, Mallow, Ath- lone, New-Ross, Tralee, Cashel, Dungannon, PortarHngtoo, and Enniskillen. One mem- ber for each of these towns, with four for Dublin and Cork, one for the University, and sixty-four representatives of the thirty- two counties. Uh <3\p n ■■ - ■ if) 'SSk^ Ujs. iOl HISTORY OF IREI.ANP. The act then made its singular provision to allow present Irish members of Parlia- ment, to sit in a Parliament they had never been elected t" serve in. It provided, that if the King should authorize the present lords and commons ol Great Britain to form a part of the first Imperial Legislature, the sitting members for Dublin and Cork, and for the thirty two counties of Ireland, should represent the same eities and shires in that Parliament ; that the written names of the members for the college of the Holy Trini- ty, for the cil es of Waterford and Limer- ick, and the other towns before-mentioned, should be put into a glass, aud successively drawn out by the clerk of the Crown, and that, of the two representatives of each of those places, the individual whose name should he first drawn, should serve for the same place in the fi>st Unit! :re ; and that, when a new Parliament should be convoked, writs should be sent to the Irish counties, to the University, and to the cities and boroughs above specified, for the tion of members in the usual mode, accord- ing to t'ne number then adjusted. aet also arranged the rotation in which the four Irish bishops should sit in the House of Peers, and also the election of the twenty-eight Irish Peers by their own order. On the very next day — for Ministers were in hot haste — Castlereagh moved for have to bring in his bill for the Legislative Union. Leave was given by a vote of one hundred and sixty, against one hundred. ]'. was at once presented, read, and ordered to be printed. On the 25th, it was read The uncorrupted members of the House looked on with impotent indigna- tion. Mr. Grattan proposed a delay until the first August, to allow the measure to be more fully canvassed. He proceeded also to argue very warmly against the whole principle of it. He said it was "a breach of a solemn covenant, an innovation promo- ted by martial law, an unauthorised assump- tion of a competency to destroy the inde- pendence of the realm ; an unjustifiable at- tempt to injure the prosperity of the coun- try. The bill would be, fuoad the constitu- tion, equivalent to a murder, and. quoad the carried into effect, he foretold its want of permanence, and intimated his apprehensions, that popular discontent, perhaps dangerous commotions, might result from its enforce- ment." Lord Castlereagh defended the bill, and censured the inflammatory language of Mr. Grattan. "But he defied," he said, "their incentives to treason, aud had no doubt of the energy of the Government in defend- ing the Constitution against every atta. , " i was the insolent and half-menacing tone adopted upon system by t'ne adminis- tration. Several earnest debates followed. T'ne faithful representatives of the people, whom money, and place, aud title, could not buy, did their sad duty to the end. The ablest lawyers in the country, and some of the purest patriots of whom history makes mention, could at least protest against this parricide and suicide, and their solemn and well-weigh- ed words of warning and expostulation if they could not save the country, for that time remain on record as a protest, as a continual claim, and perpetual muniment of title, on behalf of the independence of the Irish nation. As several passages of these Anti-Union pleadings have been often eited by Mr. O'Connell, and others, who have never eeased to demand the repeal of that evil act, they have become class and must always be held an essential part of any history of Ireland. William Conyngham Phuket, afterwards Lord-Chancellor, said : — S . I, in the most express terms, deny e tmpetency of Parliament to do this aet. I warn you. do not dare to lay your hands upon the Constitution. I tell you, that if. circumstanced as you are, veil - this aet, it will be a mere nullity, and no man in Ireland will be bound to obey it. I make the assertion deliberately. I repeat it. 1 eali on any man who hears me to take down my words. You have not been elect- ed for this purpose. You are appointed to make laws, and not legislatures. You are appointed to exercise the function of 1 • and not to transfer them. " You are appointed to net under the Constitution, and not to niter it ; and if C ,v I -:-^ LAST BATS OF PARLIAMENT LAST SCENE. 405 ,/ . >-• 'fc^t government — you resolve society into its original elements, and nan in the land is bonnd to Obey yon. Sir, I state doctrines that are not merely founded on the immut- able laws of truth and reason; I state not merely the opinions of the ablest and wisest men who have written on the science of government ; bat 1 state the practice of our Constitution, as settled at the era of the revolution; and I state the doctrine upder which the House of Hanover derives its title to the Throne. " For me, I do not hesitate to declare, that if the madness of the revolutionists were to t> II me, ' You must sacrifice British connection,' I would adhere to that connec- tion in preference to the independence of my country. But I have as little hesitation in saying, that if the toanlon ambition of a Mint ister should assail the freedom, of Ireland, and compel me to the alternative, I would fling the connection to the winds, and clasp the im- dept ndence of my country to my heart." Mr. Bnshe, (subsequently Chief Justice «of Ireland,) spoke these words: — "I strip this formidable measure of all its pretensions and all its aggravations ; I look on it nakedly and abstractedly, and I see nothing in it but one question — will you give up the country? I forget for a mo- ment the unprincipled means by which it lias been promoted ; I pass by for a mo- ment the unseasonable time at which it has been introduced, and the contempt of Parliament upon which it is bottomed, and I look upon it .-imply as England reclaim- ing in a moment Of your weakness that do- minion which you extorted from her in a moment of your virtue — a dominion which she uniformly abused, which invariably op- pressed anil impoverished you. and from the Ci sation of which you dale all your pros- peril 11 "Odious as this measure is in my eves, and disgusting to my feelings, if I see it is carried by the tree and uninfluenced sense of the Irish Parliament, I shall not only de- er and submit, but I will cheerfully obey. t will be the first duty of every good sub- ject But fraud., and oppression, and un- constitu , lice may, / ossibly, be a rwther question. If this be factious language, Lord Somen was factious, the founders of the K revolution were factious, Wiiliam III. was an usurper, and the revolution was a re- bellion.'' Mr. Saurin, (subsequently a Privy Conn- f|\~< cillor and an Attorney-General,) spoke these H? words : — " You make the Union binding-, as a law, but you cannot make it obligatory on conscience. It will 'be obeyed so long as England is strong — but resistance to it will be in the abstract a duty ; and the exhibi- tion of that resistance will be a mere ques- tion of prudence." Mr Grattan, who was afterwards deemed worthy of a resting-place in Westminster Abbev, spoke these words in the Irish Ibmse of Commons, in one of the debates ou Union : — " Many honorable gentlemen thought dif- ferently from me. I respect their opinions, but I keep my own ; and I think now as I thought then, that the treason of the. Minis- ter against the liberties of the people was in- finitely worse than the rebellion of lite people against the Minister "The cry of the connection (the Union measure) will not in the end avail against the principles of liberty. . . . " The cry of disaffection will not in the end avail against the principle of liberty. "Yet I do not give up the country. I see her in a swoon ; but she is not dead. Though in her tomb she lies helpless and motionless, still there is on her lips a spirit of life, and on her check a glow of beauty. " Thou art not conquered ; beauty's en- sign yet is crimson on thy lips and in thy cheek, and death's pale flag is not ad- vanced there." * Eloquence and constitutional law-learn- ing were alike vain. The bill was hurried to its third reading ; and when it was seen that the evil deed was inevitable, most of the they might not witness the division by v. hich * It is true that several of these Anti-Union ora- tors subsequently acted as if iliiv lot i] not been alto- gether sincere ia .so strongly denouncing the Union, pronouncing it a nullity, and proclaiming, as land i'limket and Mr. Saurin did, that no man would be bound to obey a that i-. to obey laVs enacted intlie Imperial Parliament IT et the speakers were inc re at the nine : ami even if their own personal imsitiou afterwards Beem inconsistent with the principles then laid down, yet the principles are not to Buffer, uor i the law less sound on that account. m &+/'■ ■■•-..■'. _ :. » . . u? Anti-Unionists rose and left the House, that it was to be carried. This was on the 7th of June. There was, if we are to credit Sir Jonah Barrington, a certain theatrical solemnity in some of these last scenes of our national life. For example : — " Before the third reading of the bill, when it was about to be reported, Mr. Charles Ball, member for Clogher, rose, and, without speaking one word, looked round impressively, every eye was directed to him, he only pointed his hand significantly to the bar, and immediately walked forth, casting a parting look behind him, and turning his eyes to heaven, as if to invoke vengeance on the enemies of his country. His example was contagious. Those Anti-Unionists who were in the House immediately followed his example, and never returned into that Sen- ate, which had been the glory, the guardian, and the protection of their country. There was but one scene more, and the curtain was to drop forever." On these last days of the Irish Parlia- ment there was an ostentatious display of military force. Troops were drawn up un- der the Ionic colonnades of the superb Par- liament House ; and the citizens of Dublin knew that batteries of field artillery were ready at convenient spots to sweep their streets at a moment's notice — an arrange- ment to which they have been long accus- tomed. Sir Jonah, who was present and saw all, and who, though not in all respects an estimable man, at least stood by his coun- try in this crisis to the last, describes the scene lor us : — "The day of extinguishing the liberties of Ireland had now arrived, and the sun took his hist view of independent Ireland ; he rose no more over a proud and prosperous nation. She was now condemned, by the British Min- uter, to renounce her rank amongst the states of Europe ; she was sentenced to can- cel her Constitution, to disband her Com- mons and disfranchise her nobility, to pro- claim her incapacity, and register her cor- ruption in the records of the empire. "The Commons House of Parliament, on the last evening, afforded the most melan- choly example of a line, independent people, betrayed, divided, sold, and, as a state, anni- hilated. British clerks and officers were j smuggled into her Parliament to vote away the Constitution of a country to which they were strangers, and in which they had nei- ther interest nor connection. They were em- ployed to cancel the royal charter of the Irish nation, guaranteed by the British Gov- ernment, sanctioned by the British Legisla- ture, and unequivocally confirmed by the words, the signature, and the great seal of their monarch. "The situation of the Speaker on that night was of thi most distressing nature ; a sincere and ardent enemy of the measure, he headed its opponents ; he resisted it with all the power of his mind, the resources of his experience, his influence, and his eloquence. " It was, however, through his voice that it was to be proclaimed and consummated. His only alternative (resignation) would have been unavailing, and could have added nothing to his character. His expressive countenance bespoke the inquietude of his feeling ; solicitude was perceptible in cvwy glance, and his embarrassment was obvious in every word he uttered. " The galleries were full, but the change was lamentable ; they were no longer crowd- ed with those who had been accustomed to witness the eloquence and to animate the debates of that devoted assembly. A monotonous and melancholy murmur ran through the benches ; scarcely a word was exchanged amongst the members ; nobody seemed at ease ; no cheerfulness was appa- rent, and the ordinary business, for a short time, proceeded in the usual manner. "At length, the expected moment arrived The order of the day — for the third reading of the bill for a 'Legislative Union between Great Britain and Ireland' — was moved by Lord Castlereagh. Unvaried, tame, cold- blooded, the words seemed frozen as they issued from his lips ; aud, as if a simple citi- zen of the world, he seemed to have no sen- sation on the subject. " The Speaker, Mr. Foster, who was one of the most vehement opponents of the Union from first to last, would have risen ami left the House with his friends, if he could. l!ut this would have availed nothing. With grave dignity he presided over ' the last agony of the expiring Parliament.' He held up the bill for a moment in sileuce, Q> ^ - • r&~ e \ vi; 'V C* then asked the usual question, to which the response, 'aye,' was languid, but unmistak- able. Another momentary pause ensued. Again his lips seemed to decline their office. At length, with an eve averted from the ob- ject which he hated, he proclaimed, with a subdued voice, "The ayes have it.' For an instant he stood statue-like ; then, indig- nantly and in disgust, flung the bill upon the table, and sunk iuto his chair with au ex- hausted spirit." * So far, the picturesque historian of the "Rise and Pall of the Irish Nation ;" and, doubtless, to man)- readers this closing per- formance will appear somewhat histrionic and melodramatic. Yet in sad and bitter earnest, that scene was deep tragedy ; and its catastrophe is here with ns at this day — in thousands upon thousands of ruined cab- ins, and pining prisoners, and outlawed reb- els, and the poverty and hunger that move and scandalize the world. A few details will fitly close up this subject. The bill was carried up to the Rouse of Peers by Lord Cfasllereagh, but the consid- eration of it was postponed. On its second reading, the Earls of Farnham and Bella- niont offered some clauses, which were nega- tived, and the bill was committed. It passed the committee without amendment, was re- ported in due form, and, after an uninterest- ing debate, was read a third time on the 13th of June. A protest was entered by the Duke of Leinster and the other dissenting Peers. This protest is given at full length * It is well to preserve the record of those Irish- men who voted against the extinction of their conn- by, Asfor the names of those persons, placemen, pensioners, and bribe-takers, who voted on the other aide, it « ere better to forget them. But their names „,,,] crime are al o a portion of history; and many readers may be interested to know the manner in which Bome great families in Ireland obtained their titles and laid the foundation of their fortunes. Candor also requires it to be stated that some few members did vote for the Union without either bribe or pension, without being influenced either by inter- est or intimidation; and, therefore, it is pre tunable, from a Bincere conviction that this measure would benefit the two oountries. There was published soon the Union a " Red List" and a "BlacS Li t," giving the names of those who were r..r and against asuro. The lists have often been reprinted. They maj be found in Plowden's Appendix and in Sir Jonah Barrington's Bisi and Fall. But as the latter has added rvations to many of the name-, eithi it from his own personal knowledge, or from common notorietj at the time, we adopt his edition ol the lists. — See Ippendix, .Vo. 11 in the Lords' journals ; but it. will be enough in this place to record its last paragraph and summing up, with the names of the dis- sentient Peers. It concludes in these words • "Because the argument made use of in ^J favor of the Union, namely, that the sense of the people of Ireland is in its favor, we know to be untrue ; and as the Ministers have declared that they would not press the measure against the sense of the people, and as the people have pronounced decidedly, and under all difficulties, their judgment against it, we have, together with the sense of the country, the authority of the Minister to en- ter our protest against the project of Union, against the yoke which it imposes, the dis- honor which it inflicts, the disqualification passed upon the peerage, the stigma thereby branded on the realm, the disproportionate principle of expense it introduces, the means employed to effect it, the discontents it has excited, and must continue to excite. Against all these, and the fatal consequences they may produce, we have endeavored to inter- pose our votes, and failing, we transmit to after-times our names, in solemn protest on behalf of the Parliamentary Constitution of this realm, the liberty which it secured, the trade which it protected, the connection which it preserved, and the Constitution which if supplied and fortified. This we feel ourselves called upon to do in support of our characters, our honor, and whatever is left to us worthy to be transmitted to our posterity. Leinster, Arkan, Mount Cashel, Farnham, -\v tKA Belmore, by proxy, Massy, by proxy, Strang ford, Graxard, Ludlow, by proxy, MoiRA, by proxy, Rev. Waterfoud and Lismore. PoWERSCOURT, Df. Yesci, Charlemont, Kingston, by proxy, Riversdale, by proxy, Mf.ath, Lismore, by proxy, Sunderlin." * ' M w \ m ^ (®Z l( t W^-i j^ No part of the plan now remained for the Secretary to bring forward, but the scheme of compensation. This he plausibly ushered in upon a principle of justice. lie proposed a grant of £1,200, 0U0 for those who should suffer a loss of patronage, and be deprived of a source of wealth, by the disfranchise- ment of eighty-four boroughs — at the rate of £15,000 to each. Mr. Saurin, Mr. J. Clau- dius Beresford, and Mr. Dawson, maintained that the grant of compensation to those who had no right to hold such a species of prop- erty, would be an insult to the public and an infringement of the Constitution. Mr. Pren- dergast defended the proposition, alleging that, though such possessions might have been vicious in their origin, yet, from pre- scriptive usage, and from having been the subject of contracts and family settlements, they could not be confiscated without a breach of honor and propriety. In the House of Peers, this bill was chiefly opposed by the Earl of Farnham ; but it passed into law with little opposition in either House, the Anti-Unionists having now given up the question as lost.* Soon after the Union bill had passed through both Houses of the Irish Parlia- ment, Mr. Pitt brought a bill in the same form into the British House of Commons. It proceeded through the usual stages, without occasioning any important debate ; and was sent, on the 24th of June, to the Peers. On the 30th, Lord Grenville moved for its third * When the compensation statute had received the royal assent, the Viceroy appointed four commission- ers to carry its provisions into execution. Three ■were members of Parliament, whose salaries of ft .'200 a year each (with probable advantages) were a tolerable consideration for their former services. The Honorable Mr. Annesley, Secretary Hamilton, and Dr. Duigenan, were the principal commissioners of that extraordinary distribution. Unfortunately, we have not full details and accounts of this scandalous pecuniary transaction. Sir Jonah Barringtonsays: — " It is t" in- lamented that the records of the pro- ceedings have been unaccountably disposed of. A voluminous copy of claims, accepted and rejected, was published, and partially circulated ; but the great and important grants, the private pensions, and oc- cult compensations, have never been made public, further than by those who received them. It is known that — " Lord Shannon received for his patronage in the Commons £-15,000 " The Marquis of Ely 45,000 " Lord Clanmorris (besides a peerage) . 23,000 " Lord Belvidere (besides his douceur) . 15,000 " Sir Hercules Langrishe . 15,000 " reading, declaring that he rose for that pur- pose with greater pleasure than he had ever felt before in making any proposition to their lordships. The Marquis of I)ownshire merely said that his opinion of the measure remained unaltered, and that he would, therefore, givo the bill his decided negative. It passed without a division ; and, on the 2d of July, it received the royal assent. On the 29th of July, in proroguing the last separate Parliament of Great Britain, the King felicitated his Parliament, as he well might : — " With peculiar satisfaction I congratu- late you on the success of the steps, which you have taken for effecting an entire Union between my kingdoms. This great measure, on which my wishes have been long earnest- ly bent, I shall ever consider as the happi- est event of my reign." The royal assent was given in Ireland to the Union bill on the 1st of August, the anniversary of the accession of the House of Brunswick to the thrones of these rearms. The next day, the Lord-Lieutenant put an end to the session, with an appropriate speech from the Throne. Lord Cornwallia said, amongst other fine things — speaking to the legislators whom he had bribed : — "The whole business of this important session being at length happily concluded, it is with the most sincere satisfaction that I communicate to you by His Majesty's ex- press command, his warmest acknowledg- ments for that ardent zeal and unshaken perseverance which you have so conspicu- ously manifested in maturing and completing the great measure of Legislative Union be- tween this kingdom and Great Britain. "The proofs you have given on this occa- sion of your uniform attachment to the real welfare of your country, inseparably con- nected with the security and prosperity of the empire at large, not only entitle you to the full approbation of your Sovereign, and to the applause of your fellow-subjects, but must afford you the surest claim to the grati- tude of posterity. "You will regret, with His Majesty, the reverse which His Majesty's allies have ex- perienced on the Continent ; but His Majes- ty is persuaded that the firmness and public spirit of his subjects will enable him to per- ■I ' >•£> ;u . ^TfMS .tiU/NMl.S.B, IRISH DEDT — -niSTORY OF IT, --'; >\V ; M'vcrc in the line of i Inct which will bi -t provide for the honor, and tlie essential in- terests of bis dominions, whose means and ri ourcea have now, by your wisdom, more closely and intimately combined." Immediately after passing the English Acl of Union, early in July, the British Par- liament was prorogued ; ami tin' " Union," iii so far us parchment cau make an union, was complete. It "as In take effect from the 1st df January, 1801. Pursuant to proclamation, a new Imperial Standard was on that day displayed on tin- Tower of Lon- don, and on the Castles of Edinburgh and Dublin. It was tin! same Royal Standard now in nse ; being "quartered, first ami fourth, England ; second, Scotland ; third, I laud " Bo, since thai day, the Harp of Ireland has its place in the corner of the great Ba r of England. The " Union Jack " was also ordained ami described by the same proclamation — " And it is our will and pleasure that the Union flag shall lie azure, the crosses, sal- tin - of St. Andrew and St. Patrick, quar- terly per saltire, connterchanged, argent and gules; the hitter iaihriated (if the second, surmounted by the Cross of St. George of the third, as the saltire." As for the Public Debt of Ireland, which was to remain a separate charge on the rev- enues of that country, that debt had bei n less than four millions just before the insur- rection. At the Union, that debt was de- clared to be £96,841,219, being increased nearly seven-fold in three years. That is to say, the whole of i lie expenses incurred in pro- voking that insurrection — then in maintain- ing a great army to crush it — -the cost of keeping English and Scotch militia regiments in the couutry — the pay of the Hessians — the bribes ami pensions to spies, informers, ami members of Parliament — the Compen- sation-fund to owners of boroughs — all was charged to Irish account. O'Connell said, "it was strange that Ire- land was not afterwards made to pay for the knife with which Lord Castlereagh, twenty- two years later, cnl his own throat." Tlii- enormous debl was to remain separ- ate from the English Debt, according to the Act of Union,* until these two conditions • 8ce the act in the Appendix, Xo. III. should occur : First. That the two debts should come to hear to each other the pro- lortion of fifteen parts for Great Britain to two purl I'm' Ireland, and, Second. That the respective circumstances of the two countries should admit of uniform taxation. After that, they were to be consolidated. Since that day, an English Chancellor of the Exchequer has "kept the books" of the two islands; so that while the debt of England went on increasing rapidly, owing to the war, and subsidies to all enemies of France, the debt of Ireland was somehow found to increase more than twice as fast as that of England — as if Ireland had a double interest in crushing France. " Woe to the land on whose judgment- seats a stranger sits — at whose gates a stranger watches ] " We may add — " whose books a stranger keeps ! " f The two debts were consolidated in 1817. According to Lord Castlereagh's report to Parliament, the military force in Ireland at the time of the Union amounted to one hundred and twenty six thousand five hutt- dred men — viz., forty-five thousand eight hundred and thirty-nine regulars, twenty- seven thousand one hundred and four militia, and fifty-three thousand i\\i: hundred and fifty-seven yeomanry. t Mr. O'Neill Daunt, in his excellent paper en- titled, "Financial Grievances of Ireland," extracts from Parliamentary Paper j\"o. 3.">, of 1810, this table : — T yeah. BRITISH DEBT. AN. CH.UIGE. IBISH DEBT. „„ A '• CHARGE. 6th Jan. 1801. £ 450,504,984 £ 17,718.851 £ 28,545,134 £ 1.244,463 5th Jan 1817. 734,522,104 28,238,410 112,704,773 4,104,514 The difference between the statement of the Irish Debt given in this table, and that given in the text, (from another Parliamentary paperof the same year,) is made Dp by adding a small amount of unfunded debl Thus, while the Imperial Government less than doubled the British Debt, they quadrupled the Irish Debt By this management the Irish Debt, which in lsnl had linn tn tlii- British as one to sixteen and a half, was forced up to bear to the British Debt the ratio of one to seven and a half This was the pro- portioD required by the Act of Union, as a condition of subjecting Ireland to indiscriminate taxation with Great Britain Ireland was to bo loaded with inoidi- ikiii .],m ; and then this debt was to be made the pretext for raising her taxation to the high British standard, and thereby rendering her liable to the pre- union debt of Great Britain ! w* ^ '& e / & 410 bA o o¥ ^v 'K m HISTOnT OF IRELAND. CHAPTER XLIII. 1800—1803. The Catholics Doped— Resignation of Pitt— Mystery of tlii- Resignation— First Measure of Unite. 1 Par- liament Suspension of Habeas Corpus — Report - n't Committee— Fats of Lord Clare — Lord Hardwlcke Viceroy — Peace of Amiens — Treaty Violated by England— Malta— War again Declared by England Mr. l'itt resumes Office — Coalition against France The Union had scarcely been accomplish- ed, when those [rish Catholics who had sup- ported the measure found they had been cheated, sis usual, by the British Govern- ment. They had been told that Catholic Emancipation would at once be made a Ministerial measure : and in so far as the distinct pledges of Mr. l'itt and of Lord Cornwallis could avail them, they were as- sured of their liberties. The first United Parliament met on the 83d i'( January. It immediately began to be rumored that Mr. Pitt and his Ministry were about to resign. The reason falsely alleged for the resignation was that Kimr t. irge 111. would not tolerate the idea of Catholic Emancipation, which he imagined to be contrary to his Coronation oath ; and us Mr. l'itt pretended to he pledged to that measure, he made this difference the pretext i'.'i- a temporary resignation, which he found . -nt at this time for other reasons. Mr. l'itt had been the all-powerful Min- ister who had governed England for seven- teen years. It was he who had recalled Lord Fitzwilliam from the Irish Vice-royalty, because that nobleman favored Catholic Emancipation. It was he who had sent over Lord Camden with express instruc- tions to prevent such emancipation by the Irish Parliament : and in desiring Lord i nwallis and Lord Castlereagh to prom- ise Catholic relief after the Union, he in- tended to delude the Catholics into a sup- port of his measure, and to deceive them afterwards. He knew the Kind's opinion upon that question — if anything that passed in the mind of George III can be called an opinion — and that the obstinate ami stupid old man would ucrtr suffer any pro- ject of Catholic Emancipation to be made a Ministerial measure. No human being acquainted with public affairs ever believed that Mr. Pitt resigned office at that time on account of the Catho- lic question, or any other Irish question whatever. The truth was, simply, that Mr. Pitt's continental policy had failed, ami that the English people, devoured by taxes, and wearied out with the still nufulrilled predic- tions of the total ruin of their French enemy, were crying aloud for peace. Mr. l'itt saw that peace must be made, at least for a little while ; but his sullen pride could not submit to negotiate that peace himself. Mr. Plow 'ten * says : — •'The only transaction which furnished him with a plausible or popular ground for resignation, was the CcUhatic question, which that crafty Minister and his followers have so frequently used as a most powerful engine for the worst of political purposes. With- in very few days after the meeting of Par- liament, he made no secret of his resigna- tion. Great were the surprise and conster- nation which attended the report. Few, indeed, gave credit to the alleged cause of resignation — namely, his inability to t the Catholic question, which was imperiously necessary for the safety of the state. lie was too fond of power, his influence in the country was too imposing, Ireland was too insignificant to have caused such an im- portant change in all the departments of the state. Abstracting from the merits and justice of the question, and from the expe- diency or necessity of its being then pro- pounded and carried, neither Mr. Pitt's friends nor opponents could bring their minds to believe that an administration, which had established itself in spite of tiie House of Commons ; which had baffled, and at last subdued, a most formidable opp si- tion ; which had maintained itself upon new courtly principles for seventeen years, ami still commanded a decided majority in the Cabinet and Senate, should have been thus broken up from the Premier's inability to carry so simple and just a measure as that • Worthy Mr. Plowden, who had rather supported the Union, as many other leading Catholics had done, when ho wrote, ten years later, the second series of his Historical C cl'.eclions. says, in its first page : " They (the Catholics) now Beheld the baleful mea- sure of Union m its full deformity." But they beheld it too late P m , i a m \ • ';: \ ' r ^--^vSsft V <2^T M -„ \1 I K1CSIGNATI0N OF ME. PITT. 411 of an equal participation of Constitutional rights amongst all the King's Bnbjects." " Simple ami just, a measure " as this naturally appeared to the Catholic histo rian, it was steadily refused and resisted, both liy Mr. Pitt aud l>y his whole party for twenty-sine years longer, and then only carried on account of the imminent danger of cavil war, as its Ministerial supporters alleged. There was an air of mystery about the retirement of Ministers at this crisis. No- body gave credit to the ostensible motives of it ; and several distinct reasons were alleged and discussed. In fact, every con- ceivable reason, except the true one, was assigned by the friends of Mr. Pitt. One was a serious difference which had sprung up between the Minister and the Duke of York,* partly with re pect to military ar- rangements and operations ; partly, because eeii am "unconstitutional influence in a high quarter counteracted and embarrassed the important duties of His Majesty's offi- cial and responsible advisers;" ami partly, it was also aliened, because the Duke of York, as the special patron of the Orange Society, was resolutely opposed to the project of Catholic Emancipation. His Royal High- ness might have 1 spared his uneasiness. No Grand Master of Orangemen was ever more violently opposed to all claims and rights of Catholics than Mr. Pitt himself. innocent Catholics had been expecting that the King's speech, on opening this ses- sion, would have recommended a measure * Prom the year 1TH7 the Orange Societies were so tenderly cherished and zealously promoted by the Duke of York, thatr almost even regiment, even of militia in Ireland, received from the office of the Com- mander-in-Chief, encouragement, authority, or orders for establishing Or bodges in their respective regiments. The person delegated for this mission ».e generally the Sergeant Major, or some other non-commissioned officer, Bignalized for his zeal against the Catholics, in some instai 3, the institu- 1 inge Lodges, under this high and official sanction has produced ferment and dissension, which > pelted the commanding otlierr to investigate and pnnlsh both those nrbo L r a\<' rise to, and those who pi rpetrated, the consequent outrages Wlien often, to the astonishment Oi tin: corp*. and in d'dianeo hi' ipline and subordination, the conduct of it,,' Sergeant has been justified by the production of the official document 01 warrant, >t irregularly ■npera ding that immediate authority, upon which atom- the subordination and union of a regiment de- pend. for their emancipation. The subject was not once alluded to. The address was moved in the House of Commons by Sir Wat kin William Wynne, (commander of the Ancient Britons). Mr. Grey moved an amendment, and made some pointed ob- servations upon Ireland and the Union. " If any good effect," he said, "could result from a measure so brought forward, and so sup- ported, he hoped it would be the extension of the British Constitution to the Catholics of Ireland, and their restoration to all the rights <>f British subjects. This they had been taught to expect, aud this was the least they were entitled to in return for that measure having been forced upon litem by England." Mr. Pitt, in replying to Mr. (Jrey, studiously avoided even remote refer- ence to Ireland. Ireland had served his turn ; she was now safe under British law and government ; and he desired to hear of her no more: But he had much to say in denunciation of "Jacobinism," which was the name then given to any assertion of any kind of right or liberty, concluding his speech with a warm appeal to the majority of the House, whether all the public calam- ities of this, and all the nations of the Con- tinent, were not occasioned by those princi- ples, which the gentleman opposite to him had uniformly supported, and which he and the gentlemen on his side of the House had as uniformly combated. Before quitting the subject of Mr. Pitt's deliberate deception upon the Irish Catho- lics, it must be mentioned that the paper which had been delivered by Lord Cornwal- lis to Doctor Troy, Catholic Archbishop of Dublin, and Lord Fillgal, soon became pub- lic ; although Lord Cornwallis had prudent- ly stipulated that it should be " discreetly communicated to the Bishops, and should not find its way into the newspapers,"! When Mr. Crey, on the 25th of March, moved the House of Commons to resolve it- self into a Committee of the Whole House to take into consideration the slate of the na- tion, he referred to these written pledges, and roundly charged them with having been given without sincerity and without author- ity. " If Catholic freedom were offered to f This is the document which is printed in a cote )- Mi & -^* v _£^-i , } " Insurrection Act," " Crime and Outrage Act," and the like, this coercive code has been substantially the law of Ireland from that day to the present. Another Irish measure, passed about the game time, was an act to regulate the office of Master of the Rolls in Ireland. Before the Union, this office was a mere sinecure, holden at the pleasure of the Crown by two Peers, (Lords Glandore and Carysfort, ) with considerable salaries. These had been promised a large compensation for the loss of their places, in case the Union should be carried. Henceforward it was to be an ef- ficient legal office, to be holden for life, with a suitable salary, in order to give the Irish Chancellor an opportunity of attending his Legislative duties in the House of Peers. It v/as warmly contended that, as the Com- missioners tor t he Rolls were removable at pleasure from the sinecures, they were en- titled to no compensation, as the Chancel- lor of the Exchequer and Prime-Sergeant had been. Mr. Pitt and Lord Castlereagh justified the compensation ; because it had been promised by the Irish Parliament, and they were bounden in honor to make it good. " In fact," as Mr. Plowden bitterly ob- serves, " none but the Catholic supporters of the Union had to complain of Ministerial infidelity in the observance of previous stipu- lations and promises." There was one other who thought he had reason to complain. This was Lord Clare. The Irish Chancellor had for many years made himself the instrument — and a most able and thorough-going instrument of Mr. Piti's policy in Ireland. Scarcely had Lord Castlereagh himself beeu more efficient in accomplishing the Union ; and his lordship, who was naturally arrogant and presumptu- ous, evidently imagined that he was only promoting himself from a narrow provincial stage to the wide imperial theatre, where his audacity and powerful will would soon enable him to predominate in London, as he had done in Dublin. In the discussion of this bill to complete the great job of the Rolls Court, Mr. Pitt said, " it was highly desirable that the House of Lords should enjoy the benefit of that great luminary of the law, who had rendered such eminent sef- viees to his country." Mr. Grey replied, that much had been said that night in praise of the Irish Chancellor. " ne only knew his politics ; and those he highly disapprov- ed of. It had been already shown that night, that the noble lord vindicated the use of torture to extort confessions." Lord Clare, from his first arrival in England, put himself at the head of the opponents of the Catholic claims. Foreseeing that the new administration was to consist of men as- suming the arrogant appellation of the lung's friends, he attempted, by decrying his own country in the Imperial Parliament, to secure, as one of the King's friends, an influence in the councils of Great Britain. He failed in this unworthy ambition. He was reminded, in the House of Lords, that he was not now predominating over an as- sembly of Irish Peers. He was not at all consulted in the arrangements for the new Addington Administration. He returned to Ireland, consumed by disappointment, and did not scruple to express his bitter regret at the part he had taken in car- rying the Union. If he did regret that act, it was for his own sake alone, not for the sake of his country. He remained some time in London, in or- der to negotiate for some more efficient in- fluence in the British Cabinet than the Great Seal of Ireland was ever likely to give him. Mr. Pitt, who well knew that nobleman's insatiable .ambition, cautioned Mr. Addington against admitting him to a situation, in which, in case of resumption, (of which Mr. Pitt never lost sight,) he might meet a rival in the colleague. Lord Clare, foiled in his projects of British ambi- tion, his pride wounded by the speeches of the late Duke of Bedford, and some other of the Whig Lords in Parliament, who freely re- minded him, that Union had not transferred his dictatorial powers to the Imperial Par- liament, had, in disgust, formed the resolu- tion of withdrawing from scenes which he neither directed nor controlled. He had determined to return to his official situation in Ireland ; but, by the Union, the Irish Seal had been shorn of its lustre, and all political consequence. Lord Clare soon fell into bad health ; and he died within the year and day after / j- ( to \ V y - ' <•-/ LORD DAEDW1CKE YICEKOY PEACE OF AMIENS, that Act of Union which was to have crowned him with triumph. He died in January, 1802. His remains were interred with great pomp, in St. Peter's Church- yard, in Dublin. Some of the populace at- tempted ai the funeral to express their horror of the deceased by offering indignities to his corpse. It is singular that the only two eminent nun who were within the present century, borne to their graves amidst the hootings of the i pie, were the Karl of Clare and the Marquis of Londonderry, (Castlereagh,) the two able tools of British policy in ruin- ing the independence of their country. The Earl of Hardwicke arrived in Dub- lin, to assume his government, on the 25th of May. Lord Cornwallis proceeded to England in June ; and we next hear of him as the negotiator of the Peace of Amiens. The English and French people both eagerly desired peace. The First Consul, Buonaparte, was also sincerely desirous of giving repose to his countrymen, after so many years of bloody warfare. As Mr. Pitt and his high Anti-Jacobin friends were notoriously the party of war, it was believed in France that the change of Ministry be- tokened a disposition towards peace in the Councils of England. The First Consul was not aware that Mr. Pitt still continued really to govern the country ; and that he had made this new arrangement because he desired that other men than himself should make that treaty, and afterwards violate it. It is manifest that Napoleon Buonaparte did not at that time fully know how incom- patible, how mutually destructive were a French Government, the product of the re- volution — and an English oligarchy. He not only truly desired peace, but could see no reason why it might not be attained ; while Mr. Pitt and the Court were fully re- solved that, while England had a ship afloat, and a guinea to hire allies, the struggle inust go on. The momentary Peace of Amiens was intended to delude the French ; and Mr. Pitt ceased for a while to be the ostensible Minister, adroitly availing him- self of his pretended zeal fa- the Cath- olic question, by which he had deluded the Irish. The preliminaries of peace were signed at London, the 1st of October, in this year, 1801. The treaty itself was signed at the city of Amiens, the 27th of March, 1802, between Fiance, Great Britain, Spain, and the BataTian Republic. France and Eng- land were represented by Joseph Buona- parte and Lord Cornwallis. England was to preserve, of her maritime conquests, the two islands of Ceylon, and Trinidad. France was to re-possess all her colouies. The Re- public of the Seven Islands was to be recog- nized. Malta was to be restored to the Order of the Knights. Spain, and the Ba- tavian Republic were to have back all their colonies, except Ceylon and Trinidad ; and the French were to evacuate Rome, Naples, and the Isle of Elba. A cessation of hos- tilities, by land and sea, had been already proclaimed ; and on the signature of the treaty, the people really began to taste the luxury of peace. The popular outcry for peace was now satisfied ; but as it had been resolved upon from the first that this repose should be of very short duration, pretexts began to be immediately sought for breaking the treaty. The French Government was making active naval preparations in the port of Brest, in- tended, ostensibly, for St. Domingo ; but it was assumed that the armament was really for Ireland. Similar naval preparations and military movements were on foot in England in the winter of 1802. In the spring of 1803, volunteering in England and the raising of yeomany corps in Ireland, were matters of public notoriety. In fact, the English Government was re- solved uever to give up the island of St. Malta ; and as this was a vital article of the treaty in the eyes of Buonaparte, it was evident that war must again break out. Lord Whitworth was sent over as Minister to France ; and from his dispatches to Lon- don, and those of Lord Hawkesbury in reply, it is easy to discover what were the true ob- stacles to the real establishment of peace. Buonaparte, hi a conference with Lord Whitworth, communicated to the British Government, 21st February, 1803, reiter- ated his complaints agiinst the British Gov eminent in reference to the retention of Malta, in direct violation of the terms of 'W V# ---'\ MB, W> iff 38®W Ajr M n 416 history or n.i the treaty. He said: "Of the two, he would rather see us (the English) in pos- session of the Faubourg St. Antoine lhan of Malta." ... llo coinplaiued of the protection given in England to the assassin Georges, handsomely pensioned, and of his plans being permitted to be carried into ef- lect in France, and of two of his fellow-agents being sent into France by the migris to as- sassinate him (Buonaparte) and being then in custody. The two men, be referred to. were subsequently tried, and convicted of the crime they were charged with on their own confessions. In regard to the abuse launched on Buo- naparte in the English papers and French emigrant journals, published in Loudon, he (the First Consul) said to Lord Whit- worth : " The irritation he felt against England increased daily, because wind which blow from England brought nothing but enmity and hatred against him." 1 ord Hawkesbury, in reply to Lord Whit- worth's communication, 18th February, ISO;:, made the following admission, for the Brst time explicitly and plainly expressed : •• \Yiih regard to that article o( the treaty which relates to Malta, the stipulations con- tained in it, owing to circumstances which it was not iu the power of His Majesty to control, had not boon found capable of execution.*' In Lord Whitworth*s communication (dat- ed February 91, ISOS,) to Lord Hawkesbury, an account is given >.>( an interview with Be ipai ■ when the latter, in reference to the proofs he had given o( a desire to main- tain peace, said ho wished to know what he had to gain by going to war with Eng- land. A descent was the only nn .. • fence he had. and if determined to attempt one, it must be made by putting himself at the head ^( an expedition. But how could it be supposed that, after having gained the height on which lie stood, he would • sk his life and reputation in si: ardous attempt, unless forced to it by necessity, when the chances were, that he and th< K t He talked much on the subject, but never affected to dt- ihe danger. He acknowledged there but still he was determined to attempt it, if war should be the consequence of the present discussion ; and, such was the dis- position of the troops, that army after army would be round for the enterprise. He concluded by stating, that France, with an army of four hundred and eighty thousand men, to be immediately completed, was ready for the most desperate enterprise ; that England, with her Beet, was mistress of the seas, which he did not think he should be able to equal in ten ;,.i;\ Two such countries, by a proper understanding, might ::i the world, but by their strifes might overturn it On the 9th of March, ISO:., a me from the King was delivered to the Parlia- ment, wherein II is Majesty " thinks it necessary to acquaint the House o( Com- mons that, as very considerable military preparations were carrying on in the ports of France and Holland, he had judged it expe- dient to adopt additional measun • caution for the security o( his dominion?." Lord Whitworth, in March, by tl structions o\ his Government, demanded an explanation of the motives and objects ot the warlike preparations in the French ports, and the reply (not official) o( M. Talleyrand, was said to have been short and not satisfactory j " It was the will of the First Consul." Buonaparte, on the other hand, on the 11th of March, at a lew. the Tuillerics, attended by the different am- atdors and a great number of distin- guished persons, on entering the grand sa- loon seemed violently agitated, and appeared to be conversing with his attendants, or rather thinking aloud, for the following words, pronounced iu a very audible voice, were heard by all the persons iu the audi- ence chamber: '■Vengeance will fall on that power which will be the cause of the war " He approached the British An; - l ird Whitworth, and said : " 5*ou know my lord, that a I storm has arisen between England and France" 1 Whitworth said it was to be hoped storm would be dissipated without any seri- snci s. Buouaparte replied : " It will be dissipated when England shall have evacuated Malta ; if not the cloud would were a hundred chances I - him ;| burst and the bolt must fall. The King of fc ;>- - ^N {Li . ' I y . FIRST YEAR OF THE UNION. England bad promised by treaty to evacuate thai place- and who wbb to violate the faith of treaties ? " All this while, Mr. Pitt w:is out of office ; and it was given oul that his health was so shattered as to render him quite incapable di the cares and labors of public busine ; yet, in reality, while the London I 'hronidt officially announcing his great suffer- ings, Mr. Pitt had never been so intensely and indefutignbly occupied with state affairs us he wa al the verj time of these negotia- tion! * There can be no reasonable doubt that he directi d and governed them from point to point, On the loth of May, the Court of London presented certain new projects plainly inad- n ible ; making further demands on France, and Baying nothing of the surrender of Malta. The new conditions being re- jected, Lord Whitworth demanded his pass- > , iii order to quil the country. On the 15th of May, 1803, His Britannic Majesty sent a message to Parliament, an- nouncing the recall of the British Ambas- sador from Paris, and the departure of the French Ambassador fi Loudon. The declaration of hostilities with France was pnbli hedin Tht Ga ette.ot 18th May, 1803. Mr. Pitt's health was immediately re- stored. On the 23d of May, there was an animated debate in the House on an address to the King, pledging the House to support him in the vigorous prosecution of the war. On that night, the night of the debate of the 23d of May, Mr.Pitl was found in his place in Parliament, and it is hardly necessary to add, that his " voice was still for war." Perhaps, greater vigor of mind or body was never exhibited by him than on thai occa Mun. The ex-Minister was himself again — war was about to be let loose on the world, and all the principles of evil eemed concen- trated iii the unholy exultation with which the prospect Of war was hailed on that, occasion. In the heat of lhs passion, he reviled Buonaparte in the most vehement terms of invective ; he spoke of the First Consul as " a sea of liquid fire, which destroyed everything which was unfortu- • Doctor Maddea ( TT. 1 Third Series, n. .110,) makes this statement on the authority ol Lady He* ter Sunliopc , Mr. Pitt's niece and private secretary. 63 ' nute enough to come in contact with it." It then only remained for honor- able members to express a hope that" the only man in the empire qualified to conduct the war to a successful issue" should be re- called to the Councils of his Sovereign. Mr. Pitl resumed in May, 1804, the su- preme direction of public affairs as Prime Minister He made no' stipulation with the King concerning the Catholic claims ; nor did he ever again offend his Sovereign's ear upon this subject, nor urge bim to "violate his coronation oath " by emancipating lour millions of his subjects. Mr. Pitt's first greal task now was to form that gigantic coalition of European Powers against France ; and occupied by these mighty projects he thought no more of In land unless when she seemed to need more cdercion. CHAPTER XLIV. 1802— 1803. First Year of the Union— Distress in Ireland— Biot la Dublin ln-li Exiles in Franco Renewed Hopes of French Aid -The two Emracte, MacNevcn and O'Connor in France— Apprehensions of Invasion in England— Robert Emmet comi i from France to Ireland— 'His Associates— His Plans Miles Byrne — Despard's Conspiracy in England I. t' Prepa- rations—Explosion in Patrick Street — The 23d of July — Failure — HI ly Biot Murder of Lord Kil- warden — Emmet Bends Miles Byrne to France- Retires to Wicklow Returns to Dublin -Arrested Tried — Convicted--Hanged— Fate of Russell. The first year of the Union was, for lie- land, a year of severe distress. The crops of 1801, had in great measure failed ; and as the people then depended or subsistance chiefly upon agriculture, as they do still, the usual results ensued. Hunger and hardship produced discontent, and in some places dis- order also. The fair promises of immediate prosperity which was to have followed the Union, were not realized. Even trade and commerce were languishing. Mr. Foster, late Speaker, stated, in bis place in the Im- perial Parliament, that in 1801, the decrea e of exported linen was five million yards. The taxes were increasing, as the means of paying them diminished ; for Ireland had now to provide for the charges ol that im- mense debt which had been contracted for E u 3 . \&\ A I Rl HISTORY OF IRELAND. slaughtering her people and purchasing her Parliament. Mr. Foster, in the same speech mentioned — that, although it had beer, acknowledged that the expenses of the current year would be considerably less than they had been in the preceding year, yet a million more was borrowed for the present than for the last year. The infer- ence to be drawn from that measure, (for various Union purposes,) was too obvious to mention. The revenue was then collected at a much lighter rate of expense, than it had been in 11S2, when it was at £11 12s. 4d. per cent. The revenues of the Post Office were, at the time he was speaking, collected at the enormous expenditure of £224 per cent, In !>00, the amount of grants, pensions, &c, on that score, was £34,000 ; in 1802, £51,000 ; and this is what he called "a falling year." Then the Catholics, whose eyes were at length opened to the gross deception of which they had been victims, felt sore and disappointed ; es- pecially as the persecuting Orange Societies were now greatly multiplied, aud became each day, by direct encouragement of the Government and of a Royal Duke, more insolent aud aggressive. A serious riot took place in Dublin. The anniversary com- memoration of the battle of Aughnm, on the 12th of July, was in 1802 solemnized with more than ordinary pomp. The statue of King William, in College Green, was most superbly decorated with orange colors, aud several corps of yeomanry paraded round it in the course of the day. Ju the evening, the conduct of the yeomanry, and the spirit of this ill-judged and mischievous commemo- ration, so worked on the popular feelings, that the most serious consequences were ap- prehended. Mr. Alderman Stamer, failed in his endeavors to prevent outrages ; some yeomeu were beaten to the ground. Major Swan was knocked down aud severely wound- ed : nor was the mob dispersed, until Alderman Darley arrived with a large party of the Castle guard. Some of the populace were taken and severely punished. At- tempts were made to raise this expression of popular soreness into a general spirit of dis- affection, and a renovation of rebellion. Nothing, however, could be certainly traced beyond the temporary and local outrage upon the popular feeling, from this senseless annual ovation of the Ascendancy, lately rendered more poignantly provoking by the ferocity and growing power of the Orange societies. On the whole, therefore, when the insidi- ous negotiations of the English Govern- ment, preparatory to the violation of the treaty of Amiens, were going forward in London and Paris, the mass of the Irish people was still thoroughly disaffected ; and persons connected with the Government were of opinion that, immediately on the fresh outbreak of war with France, a new French expedition, and on a larger scale than that of Hoche, would be dispatched to Ireland ; in which case there was no doubt of a gen- eral rising in the island. The two Emmets, O'Connor, and many other Irish exiles, were then on the Conti- nent ; aud were in communication with the First Consul, provisionally, with a view to future operations in case of the renews! of the war, which theu seemed highly probable. Robert Emmet was then about twenty-four years of age. lie had seen the atrocities of '98, the frauds and villauies by which the Union was accomplished : he saw his un- happy country stiil groaning under martial law — the great majority of his compatriots shut out from the Constitution, and by means of packed juries and Orange mag- istrates effectually deprived of the protectiou of law. His ardent spirit burned to re- dress these wrongs, and to do at least what one man might, to rouse the people for one more manly effort The purity and elevation of his motives have never been questioned, even by his enemies. What he desired and longed for with all the intensity of his pas- sionate nature, was simply to see his people invested with the ordiuary civil right of human beings, leading peaceful and honor- able lives uuder the protecting shelter of a native Legislature, aud having a law over them which they might revereuce aud obey, not curse aud abhor.* * Lord Castlereagh, a young man like Robert Emmet, but more " prudent," thus describes Emmet and his insurrection, after the danger was over, in a speech in Parliament: "In place of a formidable con- spiracy fraught with danger to the existiug Govern- ment, it was only the wild and contemptible project of Mr. Emmet, a young man, of a heated and enthu- V ^ wvs.4 \. A' i . Robert Emmet passed several months of the years 1800 and lhOl on the Continent and Peninsula, the greater part of that time on the tour in which he visited the south of France, Switzerland, and some parts of Spain. On his return from this tour, he visited Amsterdam and Brussels, where his brother, T. A. Emmet, had been sojourning since his liberation from Fort George, and banishment, in June, 1S02. li was impossible for Irishmen to be in France or Belgium in that year without perceiving the evident symptoms of a new and formidable struggle approaching. The English Minister had already refused to give up Malta ; and formidable military and naval preparations were rapidly advancing both in France and in England. Equally impossible was it for the exiled United Irish- men not to turn with anxious hope to this new conjuncture of affairs. Doctor Mac- Neven was then in France, as well as Tone's friend Thomas Russell. With whom the idea originated of entering upon a negotiation with the French Government does not seem clear ; but certain it, is that Robert Emmet, iu the summer of 1802, had interviews both with Buonaparte aud Talleyrand. His desigu was, then, based on the ex- pi ctation of a speedy rupture of the amica- ble relations between Great Britain ami France, on a knowledge of extensive naval preparations iu the northern seaports of France, and the impression left on his mind, by his interview with Buonaparte, and his frequent communications with Talleyrand, that those preparations were for an invasion of England, which was likely to be at- tempted iu August, 1803 ; on the knowledge, communicated to him by Dowdall, of a move- ment being determined on by the Secret Society of England, with which Colonel Biastic imagination, who inheriting a property of ; '"»> from his fattier, which was entirely at his own disposal, though he could not dispose of it to more advantage, than in an attempt to overturn the Gov- ernment <»f his country." What a contrast between these two Irishmen ! Castlereagh certainly was not of ■■ a heated and en- thusiastic imagination " lie did not invest his patri- nionj in pikes. The "in- sold his country to her enemies, and was laden Willi riches and honors. The other, who spent all he possessed, in an effort to redeem that coontry, perished on a gibbet, and the tog* oi Thomas street lapped his blood. Pespard was connected ; on the assurance of support and pecuniary assistance from very influential persons in Ireland ; and, lastly, on the concurrence of several of the Irish leaders in Paris. |H? The late Lord Cloncurry iuformed Doctor Madden that he dined in company with Robert Emmet and Surgeon Lawless, the day before the departure of the former for •Ireland. " Emmet spoke of his plans with extreme enthusiasm ; his features glowed with excitement, the perspiration burst through the pores, and ran down his fore- head." Lawless was thoroughly acquainted with his intentions, and thought favorably of them ; but Lord Cloncurry considered the plans impracticable, and was opposed to them. Poctor MacNcven, Hugh Wilson, Russell, Byrne, William aud Thomas Corbett, Hamilton, and Sweeney, were intimate and confidential friend of Robert Emmet, as well as of his brother — several of them, there is positive proof, concurred in the at- tempt. All of them, it may be supposed, were cognizant of it. All their surviving friends are agreed on one point, that the project did not .originate with Robert Emmet. The letters of T. A. Emmet, at this period, establish the fact that, iu the autumn and wiuter of 1802, the leading United Irish- men then on the Contiueut, in the event of a rupture between France and England, were bent on renewing their efforts, and that they looked upon the struggle iu Ireland as suspended, but not relinquished. q^% That this also was the opinion of the English Government, is equally certain. After the declaration of war, a number of intercepted letters, found on board the East (/_ «-\ ' Indiaman, Admiral Aplin, captured by the French, and published in the Moniteur, by the Government, afford abundant proof of the panic which prevailed iu England, and of the expectation of invasion that was general at that period. Very serious ap- prehensions were expressed in these letters of the results of an invasion in Ireland. It was stated, in a letter of Lord Charles Ben- tinck to his brother, Lord William Beutinck, Governor of Madras: "If Ireland be not attended to, it will be lost ; these rascals, (an endearing, familiar, gentlemanlike-way Sr, 1 kB of describing the people of Ireland,) " are as ripe as ever for rebellion." Iu an extract of a letter to General Clin- ton, of the 2d of June, we find the follow- ing passage : " I have learned from them, (Irish people in England,) with regret, that the lower classes of the men in Ireland were more disaffected than ever, even more than during the last rebellion, and that if the French could escape from our fleet, and land their troops in the north of Ireland, they would be received with satisfaction, and joined by a great number." In a letter of Lord Grenville to the Mar- quis of Wellesley, dated the 12th of July, 1S03, we find the following passage : "I am not certain whether the event of the war, which our wise Ministers have at last declared, may not have induced them to beg vou to continue your slay in India some time longer. I hope nothing, however, will pre- vent me from having the pleasure of seeing you next year, supposing at that period that you hare slilt a country to revisit." Letter from Mr. Finers to General Lake, July 14th : "The invasion, which has been so long the favorite project of the First Con- sul, will certainly take place." Letter from one of the Directors of the East India Company, Thomas Faulder, to Mr. J. Ferguson Smith, Calcutta, August 3d : "I have heard from the first authority, that if the French can land in Ireland with some troops, they will be immediately joined by one hundred thousand Irish." * Robert Emmet set out for Ireland in the beginning of October, 1S0'2, and arrived in Dublin in the course of the same mouth. His brother, Thomas Addis, was then in Brussels. His father, the worthy Doctor Emmet, and his mother were then residing at Casino, near Milltown ; and here Robert remained some weeks in seclusion. Gradu- ally and cautiously he put himself in com- munication with those whom he knew to be favorable to his enterprise — especially the old United Irishmen of '9S. The principal per- sons concerned with him were — Thomas Rus- sell, formerly Lieutenant of the Sixty fourth Regiment of foot; John Allen, of the firm of Allen & Hickson, woolen-drapers, Dame • The above extracts are given by Dr. Madden. — XT. 1. Third Series, p. 315. street, Dublin ; Philip Long, a general mer- chant, residing at No. i Crow street ; Heury William Hamilton, (married to Russell's niece,) of Enniskillen, barrister-at-law ; Wil- liam Dowdall, of Mullingar, (natural son of Hussey Burgh, (formerly Secretary to the Dublin Whig Club ;) Miles Byrne, of Wex- ford ; Colonel Lamm, of the County Kil- dare ; Carthy, a gentleman farmer, of Kildare ; Malachy Delany, the son of a landed proprietor, County Wicklow ; the Messrs. Perrot, farmers, County Kildare ; Thomas Wylde, cotton manufacturer, Cork street; Thomas Lenahan, a farmer, of Crew Hill, County Kildare ; John Hevey, a tobac- conist, of Thomas street ; Denis Lambert Redmond, a coal factor, of Dublin ; Brauagan, of Irishtown, timber merchant ; Joseph Aliburn, of Kilmacmi, Windy Har- bor, a small landholder ; Thomas Frayne, a farmer, of Boven, County of Kildare ; Nicholas Gray, of Wexford. f Some other persons of more humble * - ank, tradesmen, whose services would be required in the preparations, are enumerated by Doctor Madden : James Hope, of County Antrim ; Michael Quigley, a master bricklayer, of Rathcoffy, in the County Kildare; Henry Howley, a master carpenter, who had been engaged in the former rebellion ; Felix Rourke, of Rathcoole, a clerk in a brewery in Dublin, who had been engaged in the former rebellion ; Nicholas Stafford, a baker, of James street ; Bernard Duggan, a work- ing cotton manufacturer, of the County Tyrone, who had been engaged in the for- mer rebellion ; Michael Dwyer, the well- known Wicklow insurgent, who, along with Holt and Miles Byrne, had kept up their resistance amidst the glens and mountains of Wicklow. The plau of Robert Emmet's insurrection was, while agents were quietly organizing both the city and county, to make secret preparations in the city of Dublin itself; — tlu-n, when all was ready, to make one spring at the Castle, to seize upon the authorities, and give the signal for a gem ral insurrection from Dublin Castle. There is 'good military authority for approving this t Pr M.ulden adds the names of Lord Wycombe au.l John Keogh, as favorable to the enterprise, not actually concerned in it. fc 2*# . ...-5-i'... I 1 Nv ROBERT EMMET COMES FROM FRANCE TO IRELAND. plan of a rising in Ireland ; and it certainly might well 'nave succeeded, but for one fatal accident. The gallant Miles Byrne, after many a campaign, as a French officer, in every quarter of Enrope, deliberately, in his latter days, avowed his preference for Em- met's -wheme to every other that could be devised in the circumstances of Ireland. He says, in closing his own narrative of that part of his career : — " I shall ever feel proud of the part I took with the lamented Robert Emmet. I have often asked myself, how could I have acted otherwise, Beeing all his views and plans for the independence of my country so much superior to anything ever imagined before on the subject? They were only frustrated by accident, and the explosion of a depot, and, as I have always said, when- ever Irishmen think of obtaining freedom, Robert Emmet's plans will be their best guide. First, to take the capital, and then the provinces will burst out and raise the some .standard immediately." * 1 Miles Byrne himself, after being much sought after by the Government, on accouut of his part in the Wexford insurrection, and after many escapes, was, in 1*02, under a feigned name, employing himself as a mea- surer of timber, in the timber-yard of his step-brother, Kennedy ; but still keeping up his connections with the remnant of Wex- ford rebels, and hoping for better times. Here, while he was one day measuring logs, news came of the Peace of Amiens. "I felt," he says, "unnerved and disappointed at the news of the peace. I had been liv- ing in hopes that ere the war terminated, something good would be done for poor Ireland." Soon after the arrival of Robert Emmet, we find him in close communication with Air. Byrne. In reporting their first conversation, Mr. Byrne gives Iris unimpeachable testimony wilh regard to the real views of Emmet, ou d his motives for engaging in the eutcr- prise, niei his anxious care to avoid French domination as well as to abolish that of England, The Memoir says :— " Mr Emmet soou told me his plans ; he said he wished to be acquainted with all those who had escaped in the war of '98, and who continued still to enjoy the confidence of the people ; that he had been inquiring since his return, and even at Paris ; he was pleased to add that he had heard my name mentioned amongst them, &c. He entered into many details of what Ireland had to expect from France, in the way of assistance, now that that country was so energetically governed by the First Consul, Buonaparte, who feared (he, Buonaparte,) that the Irish people might be changed, and careless about their independence, in conse- quence of the union with England. It be- •ame obvious, therefore, that this impression ;hould be removed as soou as possible. Ro- bert Emmet told me the station his brother held in Paris, and that the different mem- bers of the Government there frequently consulted him ; all of them were of opinion that a demonstration should be made by the Irish patriots to prove that they were as ready as ever to shake off the English yoke. To which Mr. Thomas Addis Emmet re- plied, it would be cruel to commit the poor Irish people again, and to drive them into another rebellion before they received assist- ance from France, but at the same time, he could assure the French Government, that a secret organization was then going on throughout Ireland, but more particularly in the city of Dublin, where large depots of arms, and of every kind of ammunition were preparing with the greatest secrecy, as none but the tried meu of 179S were intrusted with the management of those stores and depots. " After giving me this explanation, Mr. Robert Emmet added, 'if the brave and unfortunate Lord Edward Fitzgerald ami his associates felt themselves justified in seeking to redress Ireland's grievances by taking the field, what must not be our just- ification, now that not a vestige of self. government exists, in consequence of the accursed Union ; that until this most bar- barous, fraudulent transaction took place, from time to time, in spite of corruption, use- ful local laws were enacted for Ireland. Now, seven-eighths of the population have no right to send a member of their body to represent them, even in a foreign parlia- 5 IM^MMM WW ^ewq: HISTORY OF IRELAND ruent, and the other eighth part of the popu- lation are the tools and task-masters, acting for the cruel English Government and its Irish Ascendancy ; — a monster still worse, if possible, than foreign tyranny.' " Mr. Emmet mentioned again the prom- ises obtained from the chief of the French Government, given to himself, his brother, and other leaders, that, in the event of a French army landing in Ireland, it should be considered as an auxiliary one, and re- ceived on the same principle ax General llo- chambeau and his army were received by the American people, when fighting for their independence. He added : ' that though uo one could abhor more than he did the means by which the First Consul came to lie at the bead of the French nation, still he was convinced, that this great military chief would find it his interest to deal fairly by the Irish nation, as the best and surest way to obtain his ends with England ; he, therefore, thought the country should be organized and prepared for those great events, which were now inevitable. That, as for himself, he was resolved to risk his life, and to stake the little fortune he possessed, for the accom- plishment of those preparations so necessary for the redemption of our unfortunate couu- try from the hands ot a cruel enemy.' " It was while Mr. Emmet was making his preparations in Dublin, that an English rev- olutionary conspiracy was detected and broken up in London. A certain Colonel Despard and thirty other persons were ar- rested, on a charge of high treason, at a public house in Lambeth, the loth of No- vember, 1802. By some of the witnesses, it appeared that Government was cognizant of the treasonable proceedings of Despard and his associates six mouths previous to their arrest ; that spies were set on them, and Suggested acts in some cases to them which were adopted ; that they had printed pages to the following effect: "Constitution, the independence of Great Britain and Ireland ; an equalization of civil, political, and reli- gious rights ; an ample provision for the families of the heroes who shall fall in the contest ; a libera] reward for distinguished merit. These are the objects for which we contend. We swear to be united in the aw ful presence of God." February 7, 1803, Colonel Despard was tried at the Surrey Assizes, before Lord Ellenborough, on a charge of high treason, conspiring to assassinate the King, &c. Of this last charge there was no evidence, but it plainly appeared that Despard, as well as Robert Emmet, had been encouraged to make his attempt by the French Govern- ment ; which very naturally desired to cre- ate for the English Government as much embarrassment as possible at home. Des- pard was convicted and hung. In the meantime, Emmet was quietly collecting anus and forming depots of them at several points in Dublin. In January, 1803, his good father, Doctor Robert Em- met, died, and was buried in the churchyard of St. Peter's, Auugier street. Robert could not even attend his father's funeral ; because his presence in Dublin was intend- ed to be a secret ; and he knew there was a warrant for his apprehension in the hands of .Major Sirr, since early in the jjear 1800.* He was proceeding actively with his preparations. Miles Byrne and others were busy in getting pikes, pistols, and blunderbusses, manufactured and ammuni- tion hud in. Emmet invented a species of explosive machines, consisting of beams of wood bored by a pump augur, and filled with powder and small stones, intended to be exploded in the face of advancing troops at the moment of action. Large quantities of pikes were forged and mounted, and carried from their places of manufacture to the depots in hollow logs prepared for their reception, and which were drawn through the streets like ordinary lumber. It is not a little strange that the Irish Go* eminent, usually so vigilant and suspicious, seems to have had no knowledge of these for- midable arrangement. This was not for want of warnings, and reports of spies; but the Government did not believe them. And it is no wonder that the executive was so incredu- lous, because there had not, probably, been one week, tor the past half century when the Government had not received some alarming intelligence of this nature. Plainly, also, the information was not so precise as to indicate persons and places ; so that uo interruption * Madden discovers this fact hi " Sirr's Papers," deposited ia Truuty College Library. W ^ w 'tr< EXPLOSION IN PATRICK STREET. 423 A •> ^N - was given to the arrangements ; and the 33d of July, 1803, was fixed for the Out- break. Before thai day arrived a circumstance occurred which threatened to ruin all : — On 'he Saturday night week previous to t!ic turnout, an explosion of some combusti- bles took place in tlie depot of Patrick street, which gave some alarm in the neigh- borhood. .Major Sirr came to examine the house — previous to his coming, some one removed the remaining powder; arms, kc, and all matters which were movable in the place, notwithstanding some obstruction given by the watchman. Other arms were secreted on the premises, and were not dis- covered until .some time afterwards. It was concluded that the affair was only some chemical process, which had accidently caused tl xplosion. The accident does not seem to have placed any serious obstacle in the way of the enter- prise. Miles Byrne says : — "Now the final plan to be executed, con- -isi. d principally in taking the Castle, whilst the Pigeon House, Island Bridge, the Royal Barracks, and the old Custom House Bar- racks were to be attacked, and if not sur- prised and taken, they were to be blockaded, and intrenchments thrown up before them. Obstacles of every kind to be created through the streets, to prevent the English cavalry from charging. The Castle once taken, undaunted men, materials, implements of every description, would be easily found in all the streets in the city, not only to impede the cavalry, but to prevent infantry from passing through them. " As I was to be one of these persons de- signed to cooperate with Robert Emmet in taking the Castle of Dublin, I shall here re- late precisely, the part which was allotted to me in this daring enterprise : I was to have assembled early in the evening of Satur- day, the 23d of duly, 1803, at the house of Denis Lambi it Redmond, on the Coal Quay, the Wexford and Wicklow men, to whom I was to distribute pikes, anus and ammunition, and then a little before dusk, I was to send one of the men, well known to Mr. Emmet, to tell lino that we were at our post, armed and ready to follow him ; men were placed in the house in Ship street, ready to seize on the entrance to the Castle on that side, at the same moment the principal gate WOnld be taken. "Mr. Emmet was to leave the depot at Thomas street at dusk, with six hackney coaches, in each of which, six men were to be placed, armed with jointed pikes and blunderbusses, concealed under their coats. The moment the last- of these coaches had passed Redmond's house where we were to be assembled, we were to sally forth and follow them quickly into the Castle courtyard, and there to seize and disarm all t he sentries, and to replace them instantly with our own men, &<•. Emmet, after the explosion in Patrick street, took up his abode in the depot in Marshalsea lane. There he lay at, night on a mattrass, surrounded by all the implements of death, devising plans, turning over in his mind all the fearful chances of the intended struggle, well knowing that his life was at the mercy of upwards of forty individuals, who had been, or still were employed in the depots ; yet confident of success, exaggerat- ing its prospects, extenuating the difficulties which beset him, judging of others by him- self, thinking associates honest wdio seemed to be so, confiding in their promises, and animated, or rather inflamed by a burning sense of the wrongs of his country, and au enthusiasm in his devotion to what he con- sidered its rightful cause The morning of the 23d of July, found Emmet and the leaders in whom he confided not of one mind ; there was division in their councils, confusion in the depots, consterna- tion among the citizens who were cognizant of what was going on, and treachery track- ing Robert Emmet's footsteps, dogging hira from place to place, unseen, unsuspected, but perfidy nevertheless, embodied in the form of patriotism, employed in deluding its victim, making the most of its foul means of betraying its unwary victims, and couuting already on the ultimate rewards of its treachery. Portion after portion of each plan of Robert Emmet was defeated, as he imagined, by accident, or ignorance, or neg- lect, on the part of his agents. "But it never occurred to him," says Madden, "that he was betrayed, that every design of his was frustrated, every project neutralized, as K ft > I £2 mnnt <& 36 -At iwm, mi effectually as if an enemy had stolen into the camp.' " There is, however, no satisfactory evi- dence of treason, on the part of any of those whom he trusted. The rest of this sad tale is soon told : — Various consultations were held on the 23d, at the depot, in Thomas street, at Mr. Long's, in Crow steeet, and Mr. Allen's, in College Green, and great diversity of opinion prevailed with respect to the propriety of an immediate rising, or a postponement of the attempt. Emmet and Alien were iu favor of the former, and, indeed, in the posture of their affairs, no other course was left, except the total abandonment of their project, which it is only surprising had not been determined on. The Wicklow men, under Dwyer, on whom great dependence was placed, had not arrived ; the man who bore the order to him from Emmet neglected his duty, and remained at Rathfarnham. The Kildare men came in, and were informed, evidently by a traitor, that Emmet had postponed his attempt, and they went back at live o'clock in the afternoon. The Wex- ford men came in, and, to the number of two hundred or three hundred, remained in town the early part of the night to take the part assigned to them, but they received no orders. A large body of men were assembled at the Broadstone, ready to act when the rocket signal agreed upon should be given, but no such signal was made. It was evident that Emmet, to the last, counted on large bodies of men at his dis- posal, and that he was deceived. At eight o'clock in the evening, he had eighty men nominally under his command, collected in the depot iu Marshalsea lane. A man rushed in to announce that troops were at that moment marching upon them, which was not true; yet it seems to have been believed by Emmet and the rest. It was then he resolved to sally out, with such poor following as he had, march upon the Castle, and, if necessary, meet death by the way. Even this happiuess — of dying with arms in his hands — was not reserved for the unfortunate gentleman. The motley assembly of armed men, some of them intoxicated, marched along Thomas street, with their unhappy leader at their <* head, who was endeavoring to maintain some order, with the assistance of Stafford, a man who remained close by him through* out this scene, and faithful to the last. It was now about half-past nine, and quite dark. The sequel is painful to tell ; yet it must be told. Doctor Madden says :— " The stragglers in the rear soon com- menced acts of pillage and assassination. The first murderous attack committed in Thomas street was not that made on Lord Kil warden, as we find by the following ac- count in a newspaper of the day : — " ' A Mr. Leech, of the Custom House, was passing through Thomas street in a hackney coach, when he was stopped by the rabble ; they dragged him out of the coach, without any inquiry, it seemed enough that he was a respectable man ; he fell on his knees, implored their mercy, but all in vain ; they began the work of blood, and gave him a frightful pike wound in the groin. Their attention was then diverted from their humbler victim by the approach of Lord Kilwarden's coach. Mr. Leech then sue ceeded in creeping to Yicar street watch house, where he lay a considerable time ap- parently dead from loss of blood, but hap- pily recovered from his wound.'" Now, of all the judges, and other high official persons in Ireland, in those days, not one was so estimable, so good, and humane, as Lord Kilwarden, Chief Justice of the King's Bench. He had often stood between an innocent prisoner and the death to which his enemies had already doomed him. Most unfortunately, just as the mad mob of riot- ers had got beyond the control of their leader, and had already dipped their hands in blood, a private carriage was seen moving 1/* € along that part of Thomas street which leads to Vicar street. It was stopped and attacked ; Lord Kilwarden, who was inside * with his daughter and his nephew, the Rev. Richard Wolfe, cried out : " It is I, Kit- warden, Chief Justice of the King's Bench." A man, whose name is said to have been Shannon, rushed forward, plunged his pike into his lordship, crying out : " You are the man I want." A portmanteau was then taken out of the carriage, broken open, and rifled of its contents ; then his lordship, mortally wounded, was dragged out of the UW .»Ivj..Y»'.S.*-. I 426 HISTORY OF IKELA>T>. that it could only lead to the effusion of blood, but to no successful issue. His friends pressed him to take immediate mea- sures For effecting his escape, but unfortu- nately he resisted their solicitations ; he had resolved on seeing one person before he could make up his mind to leave the country, and that person was dearer to him than life — Sarah Curran, the youngest daughter of the celebrated advocate, John Philpot Curran. With the hope of obtaining an interview with her, if possible, before his intended departure — of corresponding with her — and of seeiug her pass by Harold's i iss, which was the road from her fath- er's country-house, near Rathfarnham, to Dublin, he returned to his old lodgings at Mrs. Palmer's, Harold's Cross. Here. on the 35th of August, he was arrested, at about seveu o'clock in the evening, by Major Sirr, who, according to the newspaper ac- counts, " did not know his person till he was brought to the Castle, where h<- identified by a gentleman of tke I On Monday, September 19, 1803, at a special commission, before Lord Norbnry, Mr. Baron George, and Mr. Baron Daly, R ibert Emmet was put on his trial, on a charge of high treason, under 25th E I ward III. The counsel assigned him were Messrs. Ball, Burrowes, and M'Xaily. The counsel for the prosecution wer M Staudish O'Grady, Attorney-General, and William Conyngham Plunket, King's Coun- sel. There is nothing specially worthy of remark on the trial, except the very bit- ter and superfluous speech of Mr. Plunket. Mr. Plunket had been the friend of Emmet's father. It was the political doctrine so loudly announced by Mr. Plunket in his Anti-Union speeches — that the Union would leave Ireland without any i a or law which men would be bound to obey — it was this, and other eloquent denunciations, which had so deeply sunk into Emmet's mind, that heat length resolved to put those doctrines iu practice, at the risk of his life. This could only be done by expelling the British authorities from his country. It is true that Mr. Plunket, if he prac- ticed his profession at all, was bound to * Madden says ;!iis was Doctor Elrington, Provost of ihe Colle •<;. take the brief for the Crown ; but he was not bound to display a furious and vindictive zeal in prosecuting his friend's son, especial- ly as the prisoner made no defence. When the witnesses for the prosecution had all been examined, Mr. M'Nally said, as Mr. Emmet did not intend to call any witness, or to take up the time of the Court by his counsel stating any case or making any ob- servations on the evidence, he presumed the trial was now closed on both sides. Mr. Plunket declined following the exam- ple of the prisoner's counsel, and launched into a most violent and needless philippic, ending with this passionate imprecation : — " They imbrue their hands iu the most sacred blood of the country, and yet they call upon God to prosper their cause as it is just ! But as it is atrocious, wicked, and abominable, I must devoutly invoke that God to coufound and overwhelm it.'' How nobly Emmet asserted himself and his cause, in his last speech, is knowrMo all who read our language. There exist at least ten editions of that speech, some of them varying materially from others. The latest and probably most correct version of it, is that contained in Doctor Madden's "Me- moir of Emmet," in the Third Series of his collections. Thomas M i >r •. in his diary, February 15, 1831, mentions Burrow es having remarked to him, on the subject of Plunket's conduct in Emmet's case, -: Plun- ket could not have refused the brief of Gov- ernment, though he might hare avoided, per- ■ speaking to evidence. It was no: true, I think he said, tnat Plunket had been ac- quainted with young Emmet. The passage iu a printed speech of Emmet, where he is made to call Plunket ' that viper,' &c, was never spoken by Emmet " On the 20th of September, he was exe- cuted. The same morning the death of his mother was announced to him in his prison. Early in the afternoon he was removed, at- tended by a strong guard, both of cavalry aud infantry, to Thomas street, where a scaffold and gibbet had been erected. He died with the utmost calumess and forti- tude. It is said that Robert Emmet had been made acquainted with a desigu that was in contemplation to effect his escape at the time ft u [i &*i '&. m and place appointed for execution. Of that design, Government appears to have had in- formation, and had taken precautionary mea- sures, which had probably led to its being abandoned. The avowed object of Thomas Russell's going to Dublin, after his failure iu the North, was to adopt plans for this pur- pose. Russell, the close friend and associate both of Tone and Emmet, was himself soon after arrested, and executed at Down- patrick ; and this was the end of the United Irishmen, at least for that generation. Rus- sell's burial slab is to be seen in a church- yard of Downpatrick, with no word on it but the simple name "Thomas Russell." Robert Emmet's tomb is still uninscribed. CHAPTER XLY. 1303—1804. Reason to Believe that Government was all the time aware of the Conspiracy— " Striking Terror"— Martial Law— Catholic Address— Arrests— Inform- ers —Vigorous Measures— In Cork— In Belfast— Hundreds of Men Imprisoned without Charge— Brutal Treatment of Prisoners— Special Commis- sion—Eighteen Persons Hung- Debate in Parlia- ments-Irish Exiles in France— First Consul Plans a New Expedition to Ireland— Formation of the •• Irish Legion "—Irish Legion in Bretagne— Official Reply of the First Consul to T. A. Emmet— Designs of the French Government— Buonaparte's Mistake French Fleet again ordered Elsewhere— The Legion goes to the Rhine, and to Walcheren— End of the Aldington Ministry— Mr. Pitt Returns to Office- Condition of Ireland— Decay of Dublin— Decline of Trade— Increase of Debt— Ruinous Effects of the Union— Presbyterian Clergy Pensioned, and the Reason. A lakge number of the bravest and purest men whom Ireland ever produced, having now within three or four years been either hung or banished, it was hoped that the Protestant Ascendancy and British connection, the Tithes, the Oligar- chical Government, the packed juries, in short our Constitution in church and state, were at last secure against "Jacobins," and all manner of French principles. Although the government of Lord Hard- wicke had seemed to shut its eyes and see nothing of the preparations for Emmet's insurrection, there is reason to believe that most of its details were well kuowu at the Castle. In the collection of papers of Major Sirr, in the volume for 1S03, and a succeeding volume containing miscellaneous letters, of dates from 1798 to 1803, are found various letters of spies and informers, of the old battalion of testimony of 1798, giving infor- mation to the Major of treasonable proceed- ings, meetings, preparing pikes, &c, being in existence iu the three mouths preceding the outbreak of the insurrection of the July 23, 1803. In the latter volume are many similar letters from a Roman Catholic gentleman iu Monastereven, suggesting ar- rests to the Major, and, amongst others, the arrest of a gentleman of some standing in society, a Brigadier-Major Fitzgerald. It is also plain that Government knew of Emmet's having come from France to Dub- lin, aud knew his errand, and at hast some of his movements ; for in October, 1802, Robert Emmet dined at Mr. John Keogh's, of Mount Jerome, shortly after his arrival in Dublin, in the company of John Philpot Curran. The conversation turned on the political state of the country — on the dispo- sition of the people with respect to a renewal of the struggle. Robert Emmet spoke with great vehemence and energy in favor of the probability of success, in the event of another effort being made. John Keogh asked, in case it were, how many counties did he thiuk would rise ? The question was one of facts aud figures. Robert Emmet replied that nineteen counties could be relied on. This dinner party was immediately known to Government ; aud, next day, a well-known magistrate, with two attendants, waited on Mr. Keogh, demanded aud carried off his papers.* Mr. Plowdeu does not hesitate to speak of the Government on this occasion as hav- ing "made the full experiment of their favorite tactic of not urging Ike rebels tu •postpone their attempts by any appearance of too much precaution and preparation of invit- ing rebellion, in order to ascertain its extent, aud of forcing premature explosion for the purpose of radical cure." After the danger was past, however, and after it was known how very wretched and impotent the whole attempt had turned out, * Madden. Memoir of Emmet, 'fldrd Series. w ^ '<& - \ fc i superabundant precautions were taken with the usual objects of "creating alarm," and striking terror. A Privy Council sat for s iveral hours, ami a proclamation was prepared and issued immediately, order- ing the army to disperse all assemblies of armed rebels, and to do military execu- tion upon all such found in arms. Barriers were erected in Dublin, and strong detach- ments stationed with cannon upon the bridges, and in the most frequented avenues and passes in the city. On the 28th of July, the Kins: sent a message to both Houses of Parliament, asking for additional powers in Ireland — that is, a renewed suspension of the writ of Habeas Corpus. The act was passed at once. In Ireland, the judges went circuit that summer with - rts of troops. We now again find the Catholics of rank and title coming forward to profess their loyalty ; and, indeed, the brutal murder of the excellent Kilwarden, and others, on ill-omened night, appeared but too well to justify L r oo,l citizens in treating the whole movement as a mere riot for pillage and as- sassination. On the 4th of August, an ad- dress by the most respectable Roman Catholics in and about Dublin, was present- ed to the Lord-Lieutenant, by a deputation consisting of the Earl of Fingal and Lord Viscount Gormaustown, and the Catholic Archbishops of Armagh and Dublin. It expressed their utmost horror and detestation of the late atrocious proceedings, their at- tachment to the King, and admiration of the Constitution. It contained a S] di claration, that, however ardent their wish might be U' participate in the full enjoyment of its benefits, they never should be brought to seek for such participation through any r medium than that of the free, unbias- sed determination of the Legislature. In Lord Hardwieke's reply he made not the slightest allusion to the wish those gentlemen had expressed, that they might be admitted within the pale of that Consti- tution they so much admired. A sj stem of suspicious repression was now once more enforced. Even before the suspension of the Habeas C. . s act. Many persons, who had been obnoxious to Government, or to the agents or fa- vorites of the Castle, were apprehended, without any charge or ostensible cause of detention.* And, as it usually happens, when strong measures are resorted to by a t-* weak government, the subalterns, who advis- |V ed against reason, executed these measures without discretion. On this occasion, in -t ise who, upon the Secretary's warrants, were thrown into jail, under color of the suspension of the JBa - C pws, were treat- ed with a rigorous inhumanity, which the law neither inteuded nor warranted. The system of espionage was extended, and the wages of information raised. \ only rewards of .11,000 were offered for the information of any of the murderers of Lord Kilwarden, or his nephew, Mr. W< .-, and for the apprehension of Mr. Russell, but a reward of £50 for each of the first one hundred rebels, who might be rered, that were of the number who appeared under arms iu Thomas street, on Saturday night, the 23d of July. « The whole of the yeomanry of Ireland was put upon permanent duty, at the en- ormous expense of £100,000 per month. In Cork, too, precautionary measures were adopted, viz., that no one should quit the county without a passport, and that every householder should affix a list of the fam- ily and inmates on their doors, by order of Genera] Myers, who commanded in that district. The Sovereign of Belfast issued an order, for the inhabitants to remain with- in their houses after eight o'clock in the evening, and for several other regulati - of strict observance. In Dublin, the magis- trates convened a meeting, at the suggestion of Government, at which they determined that the city should be divided into forty- eight sections, each section to be divided by a fheviur de /rise, to prevent a surprise from the pikemen, which would not at the same time prevent the tire of the musketry of the troops and yeomanry. From the moment of the passage of mar- tial law, the arrests became much more nu- merous ; and any one pointed out as su • tows, generally by a personal enemy, was at - ime of these were William Todd Jones, at Cork, who Iras arrested on the '2,'th of July, and after him Hessts. Preunan, Donovan, and others ; Mr. Ross Me ami. Bernard Coile, Mr. Janies Tandy, and others, \ \' at Dublin. ic '*>.. ...-..: > Am e }A once thrown into a dungeon. The horrors of these Irish dungeons came out, years afterwards, on an inquiry before Parliament. Mr. Plowden cautiously and timidly alludes to them in this manner * : — ■ " Sensible, that general charge and invec- tive come not within the province of the historian, the author felt it his duty to in- form the reader, that at this time commenc- ed a new system of gradual inquisitorial tor- ture in prison. Suffice it here to observe, that there are many surviving victims of these inhuman and unwarrantable confinements, who, without having been charged with any crime, or tried for any offence, have from this period, undergone years of confinement, and incredible afflictions and sufferings, un- der the full conviction that they were in- flicted from motives of personal resentment, and for the purpose of depriving them of life." In fact, although only eighty men had turned out with Robert Emmet, and very few of these were ever found, the jails were, -in the autumn of this year, crowded with many humdreds of persons ; and all the hor- rors of the Prevot prison were repeated upon their unfortunate victims. This was the more unaccountable as Emmet never al- lowed any of his followers to be sworn in; there was no pretext— as in '98— for charg- ing suspected persons with having taken " unlawful oaths," nor for torturing men in order to wring out information of such an offence having been committed. The sys- tem of Government, then, has no assignable motive, save one — to strike terror and wreak vengeance. Every house in the city and neighborhood of Dublin was searched for arms ; and the names of the inmates of each house were once more required to be posted on the outer door. Thus the entire system of Irish coercion, to which our country is so well accustomed, was in full operation within a few days after Emmet's attempt. On the 11th of August, the day before Parliament was prorogued, Mr. Hutchinson made one effort to draw attention to these atrocities. He moved an address to the King, praying to have papers laid before the House preparatory to an inquiry into * Plowden. History of Ireland since the Union. HUNDREDS OF PERSONS IMPRISONED WITHOUT CHARGE the state of Ireland. The moticn was op- posed by Ministers on the ground, that it was more than useless to demand informa- tion from Government upon the state of Ire- land, without having proposed any specific measure to be based upon such informa- tion when received, and that on the very eve of a prorogation. They roundly as- serted that the Irish Government had not been surprised on the 2-3d of July, and that the prevention of what did happen would have taught wisdom and given strength to the rebel cause. The motion was negatived without a division. At the "special commission " which tried Emmet, twenty persons were tried for their lives. Of these, one was acquitted and one respited ; the rest were hung. Parliament met again on the 22d of November. Charles James Fox originated a short debate on the state of Ireland. He charged the Government with want of can- dor, in eudeavoring to convey an idea that it was the intention of the rebels in Ireland to put that country into the hands of France, when such a design had been so strongly disavowed by their leaders. "It was not," he added, "to he hoped or ex- pected, that as long as grievances existed, Ireland could become loyal, and he sincerely hoped that the House would not, by confid- ing in words, leave her exposed to a repe- tition of those scenes that had lately oc- curred. Mr. Addington insisted that some leaders of the United Irishmen "were really dispos- ed to subserve the purposes of France. From the close intercourse now carried on between the two countries, he concluded that the people of Ireland would be led to compare the different principles of the two governments, by which they would learn to appreciate the blessings of their own Consti- tution, and to foresee the miseries which any change would bring upon them." Fur- ther, Mr. Addington and .Mr. Yorke vehe- mently urged the House to give them credit in assuring them, that though the leaders of the late insurrection were not immediately connected with the French Government, they were yet connected with Irish traitors abroad, who held immediate intercourse with that Government. J!- P ( ISPS !\fx2; >04.) he was Chan- quer and Firs: Lord of the Treu- The £ : was Lord Camden — a name associated in Ireland with President of the Board of Control, was Lor . stlereag K to G rernment more hostLe to Ireland laree K - -. Ihe Ki-j's mental malady had .rming about the time of Mr. m ; and his advisers could by no means think of troubling the conscience of the invalid by any • _ ■ - a teudic: emancipation of CathoL. - reach of .-^nation o..~ Ireland had now had more than three - experience of I _ and already began to experience the wa- ■ and draining effects of that odious and fatal •action. Trade was declining, debt and taxes increasing ; but the debt much : i than the produce of The absen- j of prop: is had been expe ■- and indeed iutended, occasioned ye.r • - riter and greater depletion of we i The fioe couu:: wealthy propri- were generally deserted, and their esl were managed by agents. Dublin, which in .rsof independence (even such partial independence as .: : - I to the rank of a fine metropolitan city, had been adorned by many sumptuous ; and enriched by the ex peoditure of a lux i now . into a provincial town. re of _al interest, of intellectual activity and ^aionable life, had been transferred to London. The fine mansions of Irish F- - and wealthy Commoners, after . g g va- " turneii to other uses.* :me that Ireland might well afford to thont the? great] - ..id feudal pro* ne : but the d ence is. that in Ireli .raw I :e produce of the land ; they -ind to be zed in Eusrland : they are fora. I by sacking up all 1 juices ol our :, and which then float ofl^ " to rain down in London or dissipate at Cnelten- ham." Thus it was fou:. Cuion, that the exports of I: increased; be: I oris of com, i raw material for mac . top:.; u tee rent ; while our ira: were : mauufactared articies and colonial produce, from England — England - - - ■ - • _ Poweiseoort H I & TiT - The m-jnei^n - - ■ I AMboroagh Hoase is x turrici. ic. •' w _s_ RUINOUS EFFECTS OF THE UNION. 433 4 ,' JM\ W m *m thus deriving the profit both from our exports and from our imports. Then there was the enormous cost of the war in Europe, to put down French principles, to which ex- pense Ireland was made to contribute in a much greater ratio than England. Mr. Foster, in a speech in Parliament, on the Irish budget, immediately after Pitt's return to office, said he lamented to find the predic- tions, which he had ventured to urge on the probable state of Ireland, during the dis- cussions upon the Union, but too forcibly verified by the then deplorable state of her finances, as compared with her public debt and expenditure. Within the last ten years, the public debt of Ireland had made an alarming progress. It stood in 1793, at £2,400,000, in 1800, at £25,400,000. On January 5, 1804, at £43,000,000, and in that year there had then added to it no less a sum than £9,500,000. This formed a quota far exceeding the ratio established by the Union compact to be paid by Ireland. This ruinous race, in which Ireland was so far ex- ceeding her means by her expenditure, would shortly equalize her debt in proportion to that of England, and entitle England to call for a Parliamentary decision, and con- solidation of accounts and equalization of taxes. He then stated to the House the corresponding produce of the Irish revenue. In the year 1800, which immediately preced- ed the Union, the net produce of the reve- nue was £2,800,000, when she owed £25,- 000,000, in the last year it was only £2,- 789,000, whilst the debt amounted to £53,- 000,000. There was every reason to believe, that for the running year, the produce of the Irish revenue would not yield one shilling towards Ireland's quota in the common ex- penditure of the empire. Snch was the situation of Ireland in the summer of 1804, as depicted by Mr. Foster, with an enor- mous and growing increase of debt, a rapid falling off of revenue, and a decay in com- merce and manufactures. It rnay^of course, be alleged, that as the Act of Union places, or purports to place, the two countries on a footing of perfect equality a-nd reciprocity, in respect to trade and commerce, there has been nothing to prevent Ireland, if its inhabitants had energy and enterprize, like Englishmen, to manufac- ture for themselves and so keep at home a great portion of the wealth which is annually drained from them. The fallacy of this sag gestion is now well understood ; it is true, the laws regulating trade are the same in the two islands ; Ireland may export even woollen cloth to England; she may import, in her own ships, tea from China, and sugar from Barbadoes ; the laws which made those acts penal offences no longer exist, they are no longer needed ; England is fully in pos- session ; and by the operation of those old laws Ireland was utterly ruined. England has the commercial marine — Ireland has it to create. England has the manufacturing machinery and skill, of which Ireland was deprived, by express laws for that purpose. England has the current of trade establish- ed, setting strongly in her own channel ; while Ireland is left dry. To create or re- cover at this day these great industrial and commercial resources, and that in the face of wealthy rivals already in full possession, is manifestly impossible, without one or other of these two conditions — either im- mense command of capital, or effectual pro- tective duties. But by the Union our capi- tal is drained away to England ; and by the Union we are deprived of the power of imposing protective duties. It was to this very end that the Union was forced upon Ireland, through " intolerance of Irish pros- perity." " Do not unite with us, sir," said Samuel Johnson ; " we shall rob you." It was in the year l-<03, that the British Government bethought itself of making the Presbyterians of Ulster more " loyal," and weaning them the better from "French prin- ciples," by largely increasing the scanty means of the Dissenting clergy. The Ministers had been previously aided, in a very grudging and shabby manner, by a sort of bribe, the Regiwn Donum, or royal gift, first granted in 1672, by Charles II, who gave £600 of " Secret Service money " to be distributed in equal portions among them annually. The grant was discontinued towards the close of his reign, and during that of James II, but wns renewed by William III, who augmented it to £1,200 a year. In 1784, the amount was increased to £2,200 ; in 1792, to £5,000. Still this was a most paltry pittance for so large a body of clergy- vj K.V AX\ ia *xiaa ; ^*7\ ■ 0»?^ 434 HISTORY OF IRELAND. men, and rather degraded than enriched those who received it ; while the Anglican Church, with a smaller proportion of the population, was so munificently endowed with hinds and tithes. The Government took alarm on finding that the Presbyterians of Ulster, both clergy and laity, had been generally Republicans and United Irishmen in 1798. Overtures were soon after made to them through their most influential pastors, especially Doctor Black, of Londonderry, giving them a pros- pect of great increase to their grant, if they would not oppose the Union. This Doctor Black had been a delegate to the Dungan- non Convention, in 17 7:2, and had appeared amongst the other delegates in his uniform, as a voluuteer officer. Tiiese overtures had the desired success ; and, therefore, in 1S03, the Regium Demon was quintupled. The total yearly grant to non-conforming Ministers in Ireland amounted, in 1852, to £38,561. {Thorn's Official Directory.) Doctor Black had a good place ; he was agent and distributor of this disgraceful Dnnum, and some years afterwards he very naturally, (like Castlcreagh,) committed sui- cide, by throwing himself off the bridge of Derry into the River Foyle. CHAPTER XLTI. 1804—1505. Mr. Pitt in Office— Royal Speech— No Mention of Ire- land — Alarm about Invasion — Martello Towers — Reliance of the Irish Catholics on Mr. Pitt — Treat- ment of the Prisoners — Mr. James Tandy— Mr Pitt Raises a Storm against the Catholics— Catholic Meeting in Dublin — Habeas Corpus Act again Sus- pended — Ireland " Loyal " — Duplicity of Lord Hardvvicke — Catholic Deputies go to Mr. Pitt — A "Sincere Friend "—Mr Pitt Refuses to Present Catholic Petition— Declares he will Resist Emanci- pation — Lord Greuville and Mr. Fox Present it — Debate in the Lords — In the Commons — Speeches of Fox. Doctor Duigenan, Grattan — Perceval, Pitt, Sir John Newport — Emancipation Refused, both by Lords and Commons — Great Majorities. When Mr. Pitt returned to office in 1804, lie did not find himself so omnipotent in the country, as he had been during his former administration, or even during that of his heam-k nens. Although Mr. Addingtou had affected uot to control the late elections by any treasury influence, he now exerted his personal influence upon all the members, who owed their seats to his patronage or fa- vor, to join him in opposing Mr. Pitt. Though he could brook the injury of being displaced, in order to readmit Mr. Pitt to power, he could neither forgive nor forget the insult of being expelled for incapacity and weakness. Mr. Pitt expected to regain more of his lost power by negotiation during the recess, than by his oratory in the Senate ; but was reluctantly constrained to prolong the session to the 31st of July. Under the combination of great external and internal difficulties, it beeaiue an object of peculiar anxiety with the Minister to give the nation some open and unequivocal proof of the complete recovery of His Majesty's health. When the King went to prorogue the Par- liament, the House of Peers was attended by an unusual crowd, and particularly by the few foreign Ministers then resident in London. In no part of the speech yas there even an indirect reference to Ireland. Ireland, indeed, was completely removed into the buck-ground by the Union ; and while the Government felt it had her safe under the coercion of a great army, and the exhaustion and terrorism, which now formed the single British policy for that island. Ministers evidently thought the less said about Ireland the better. The apparent alarm about invasion was carefully kept up during the whole summer. The Government prints sedulously warned the public against the machinations of the French party, which then prevailed through- out the country. Upon this assumption they inveighed against French tyranny and in- justice, and decried the loyalty of the native Irish. Thus they justified the expense of their public measures of defence, and affec- ted to sanction the necessity of internal coercion. The encampment of fifteen thousand men near the Curragh of Kildare, consisted of regular militia, artillery, British horse artillery, and a vast commissariat and drivel's corps. Even thing bore the appear ance of active service. The Martello Towers and other defensive works on the coast, were forwarded with unusual energy. Many ad- ditional persons were taken into custody under the suspension of the Habeas Corpus, and tl»e w 3? in fa e n. ALARM ABOUT INVASION. rigorous treatment of the state prisoners, who had been for several months in confine- ment, was sharpened without any visible or known cause.* The Catholics, whom Pitt had insidiously deluded by prospects of emancipation, were now so simple as to anticipate on his return to place, some efficient steps for carrying that object, for which he professed to have aban- doned his official situation. They now publicly rejoiced in the benefit of having so many characters of eminence pledged twt to embark in the service of Government, except on the terms of Catholic privileges being ob- tained." Frequent Catholic meetings were holden in Dublin, in which the general sense of the body to petition Parliament for their total emancipation, was unanimously resolved. Mr. Pitt dreaded nothing so much, as to have the sincerity of his pledges brought under discussion. As Lord Fingal from his rank iu life, and more from the amiable qualities of his mind, was known to possess the confidence of many of his Catholic countrymen, Sir Evan Nepean was directed to attempt through his lordship * Mr. James Tandy, and thirteen other of the prin- cipal state prisoners of the first class, as they were stiled at the Castle, petitioned the Lord-Lieutenant July 11, 1804 ; and after having specified many of the acts of barbarous cruelty inflicted upon them, as sworn to in the King's Bench, they concluded in these words : In short we experience a treatment rather calculated for untamed beasts, than men. They assured his excellency, that to the pressing and repeated remonstrances, which they bad present- ed to Doctor Trevor, (the inspector of the prisons,) against the harshness of their treatment, they had re- ceived a formal answer ; that it had not only the sanction, but its origin in the express directions of Lord Hardwicke's government. The first petition having not been attended to, was followed by a second on August 12th, which again complained, that Doctor Trevor executed his office in a manner at once mean and malicious: and pleaded orders from Oovernmcnt for their rigorous treatment. They com- plained, that they were so reduced by their sufferings (not merited by them, nor necessary for safe custo- dy,) that their lives were become of no value and literally a burden to them, and that there was not one of the petitioners, who from many concurring circumstances, could not on oath declare a firm belief of an intention to deprive them of life by un- derhand means. These appeals recived not the smallest attention, and great numbers of the prisoners, without a charge against them, were kept in various prisons for years. Mr. J. Tandy, indeed, was liberated before the end of the year; having first promised not to flog Mr. Secretary Marsden, as he says he had threatened to do. every means to hold back the petition. He was invited to dinner, frequently closeted at the Castle, and more sedulously courted, than on any former occasion. However, his lordship may have been personally disposed to hold back, few or none of the body could be induced to postpone their petition. In proportion to the failure of the Minis- ter's Continental plans, did the Catholic body of Ireland feel their own weight in the Imperial scale. The aggrandizement of Napoleon had been the unvarying result of Mr. Pitt's vehement exertions to crush him. He was quietly and solemnly crowned Em- peror of the French at Paris by Pope Pius the VII ; a circumstance, which Mr. Pitt with his usual craft attempted to convert into an engine of obloquy on the Catholic body, and an opportune and plausible ob- jection to their petition, which in spite of his secret manoeuvres, through Sir Evan Nepean, he bow forsaw would be brought forward. The Government papers industri- ously published, and severely commented upon a memorial, said to have been written by MacNeven at Paris, addressed to the Irish officers of the several Continental Powers, particularly to those in the Austrian service, encouraging them to join iu the then intended attempts to liberate Ireland from the thraldom of England ; and promising to give them timely notice of the sailing of the expedition. These Ministerial journals vied also with one another iu republishing and commenting on the Papal allocution, addressed by His Holiness to a secret consistory at Rome, on October 28, 1804, immediately before his de- parture for Paris to perform the ceremony of the Imperial coronation. It referred to the gratitude due to Napoleon for having re- established the Catholic religion iu France by the concordat; since which he had put forth all his authority to cause it to be freely professed and publicly exercised throughout that renowned nation, and had again re- cently shown himself most anxious for the prosperity of that religion. It also con- tained confident assurance that a personal interview with the Emperor, would be for the good of the Catholic Church, which is the only ark of salvaiian. Here was a dreadful thing ! they ex- ,o. ,& g f ft Jil cgd^ 11 436 HISTORY OF IRELAND. claimed; as it' all the world had Dot known before that Catholics believed their Church to be the only ark of salvation. Editors, preachers, and pamphleteers, shrieked out in all the tones of alarm and horror, that this meant banting heretics. Here was ex- treme danger, thej insisted, to a " Protestant state ;" — in this ominous reconciliation of the Emperor with the Church ; as it would give him greater influence in Ireland when he nld land there to overthrow Church and Mate, throne and altar. These topics were enlarged on with so much apparent sincerity of terror, that an enlightened public really began to fancy the dungeons of the Inqui- sition were already yawning before them. Those scribes, indeed, did not mention the fact, that along with the Catholic Church, Emperor had also reestablished the Protestant Church in France. They forgot to state, that in Prance, the Protestants had long been emancipated ; and stood, then and thenceforth, on a footing of perfect equality with their Catholic neighbors. The Irish Catholics did not yet know the meaning of this new outbreak of foaming rage against them and their religion ; and at any rate thought Mr. Pitt must be above all the storm of stupid malice which they saw ragatg : as. in fact, lie was, but he was not above exciting it and directing it to his own ei The hading part of the Irish Catholics, most of whom hail supported the Union in plenary confidence of the professions made by Mr. Pitt and Lord Cornwallis that emanci- pation would immediately follow it, held frequent meetings in Dublin, in order to e ocert tie most efficient means of render- ing available Mr. Pitt's disposition to favor their cause, which they fondly assumed had returned with him into power. The general | cipitancyof the body to briug the Minis- terial sincerity to the test, was with difficulty repressed by those, who were considered to be most directly under the influence of the Castle. An adjournment was carried from December 3 ist to February 16th, Parliament met again January 15, - and not one word in reference to Ireland. It mentioned the prompt and decisive steps which he had been oblisred to take in order to guard against the effects of hostility from Spain.* The speech also denounced the '■violence and outrage" of the French Government, and spoke vaguely of the European coalition against France which .Mr. Pitt was engaged in negotiating. Several interesting debates passed in the Commons upon Sir Evan Xepeaii's motion for suspending the Habeas Corpus act in Ireland, which he proposed to extend to six weeks after the commeucemeut of the next a of Parliament. He and Mr. Pitt urged as the grounds for that harsh mea- sure, that there were then at Paris com- mittees of United Irishmen, who communi- cated with traitors in Ireland upon the most efficient means of effecting the invasion of that country; and when the House con- sidered the humane and just character of I., ,/ Bardwickf, they would with plenil of confidence deposit that extraordinary power in his hands. Mr. Fox, on the other hand, warmly replied, that the character of the Lord-Lieutenant was immaterial. The Coustitutiou taught him to be jealous of granting extraordinary powers to any man ; and if there were a possibility of their being abused, the mild character of the man, in whom they were to be vested was the worst of arguments. If the powers were not necessary, they ought not to be granted ; and if necessary, and the Lord-Lieu tenant were not lit to be entrusted with them, he ought to be removed. Mr. Fox added that it was universally admitted that Ire- land was at that moment as tranquil as any county in England; why not as well, then, propose to suspend the Coustitutiou in England? But the bill passed — out of two hundred and thirteen members, only fifty-four voted against it. A : lie Catholic writer} 1 speaking of this debate says, " Ireland in the mean- time was loyal and tranquil, in spite of the aspersions and calumnies of the hired writers, and the unsupported charges of some of the Ministerialists in Parliament." Now Ire- * This meant the sadden attack upon a Spanish Beet in harbor, previous to a declaration of war ; :i His Majesty's speech contained ..lie .1- nf arms (like the seizure of the Danish licet under similar circumstances.) by which Great Bl - ii was enabled to boast that she " rated the seas. 1 + Plowdcu's l'ost-Union History. ft \ : ft* 7 W •rw I ^/v*. C N^ -dT : land was, indeed, " tranquil " at that moment, but not "loyal," if loyalty means attach- ment to the King of England. Irish Catho- lics of that day who could be loyal, must have been something more, or a good deal less, than men. Tranquil they were ; but had never been better disposed to rise around the standards of a French army ; and, indeed, the English Government knew then, as they know now, that tranquillity is a bad omen for loyalty ; and that the Irish people are never so eager to shake off the British yoke, as when sheriffs present judges with white gloves. On the 16th of February, pursuant to adjournment, a numerous meeting of Catho- lic noblemen, gentlemen, and merchants, was held in Dublin, at which they unanimously entered into the following resolutions : First. That the Earl of Fingal, the Honorable Sir Thomas (now Lord) French, Sir Ed- ward Bellew, Counselor Denys Scully, and Mr. Ryan, should be appointed as a deputa- tion, to carry into effect the under-mentioned -instructions ; and that the other Roman Catholic Peers, (of whom Lords Gormans- town and Southwell were then present,) should be requested to accede to the depu- tation. Second. That the petition prepared by the Catholic committee, and reported by Lord Fingal to that meeting, should be then signed by Lord Fingal and the other Catholic gentlemen, and that the above- mentioned deputies should present it to Mr. Pitt, with a request, that he would bring it into Parliament. Now was seen the excessive duplicity of Lord Hardwicke. He had been selected from the mass of peerage, as the best quali- fied to resist the emancipation of Ireland, under the insidious mission of reconciling her to thraldom. The ordinary manoeuvres of the Castle upon Lord Fingal, and other leading men of the Catholic body, to induce them to hold back their petition had failed. His lordship could not consistently with his duty to his employers back, countenance, or recommend their petition, however just the claims, however worthy the claimants. But dow, under the British Minister's assurance of a decided majority against the question, the Irish Viceroy affected to favor the Catho- lics' application by discountenancing couuter- petitions, as encroaching upon the freedom of Parliamentary debate. He even did one act, which was intended as a proof of his sincerity : he dismissed the notorious Mr. John Giffurd from a lucrative post for having proposed and carried, in the Dublin corpora- tion, some violent resolutions against Catho- lic Emancipation. He thought the sacrifice of one man was a trifle ; and so punished Giffard for opposing a measure which he himself was doubly pledged to resist. The Catholic Deputies proceeded to Lon- don, and had their conference with Mr. Pitt, on the 12th of March. Eight deputies attended the conference, viz., the Earl of Shrewsbury, (Waterford and Wexford in Ireland,) Earl of Fingal, Viscount Gor- manstown, Lord Southwell, Lord Trimbles- town, Sir Edward Bellew, Counselor Denys Scully, and Mr. Ryan. They told Mr. Pitt they regarded him as their " sincere friend ;" that they hoped everything from his liberality and justice, and so urged him to present their petition to Parliament. Mr. Pitt declared " that the confidence of so very respectable a body as the Catho- lics of Ireland was highly gratifying to him ;" but he added that the time had not come ; there were obstacles ; that, in short, he would not present their petition at all. After many arguments and much urgency, they at hist entreated him only to lay it on the table of the House of Commons, they would autho- rize him to state to the House, that they did iwl press the immediate adoption of the mea- sure prayed for. Mr. Plowden, who had the best means of knowing what passed at this conference, says, with asperity, that Mr. Pitt " drily repeated his negative ;" and then adds : "He neither threw out a suggestion for their applying to any other channel, nor gave any ground for presuming, that the introduction of the petition through any Ministerial member would be likely to soften his opposition. For he very explicitly declared, that he should fed ii 'his duly to resist it. The only advice he condescended to offer, was to withdraw their petition altogether, or at all events to postpone it." * >( S> rT [fcljfc m ,&. * Mr Pitt might on this occasion have candidly acknowledged what Lord Hawkesbury publicly and officially declared in the House of Lords, March 26, 'Sides . yr'£M .cchku.5, 0, The " leading Catholics" found themselves now completely in the position of dupes : and they richly deserved it. for having as- sented to the destruction of their country's national independence, seduced by the pro- fessions of mi English Minister. At all events, the time was not yet come : nor the man. But a more vigorous race of Catho- lics was growing up; and in especial one bold, blue-eyed young man, who was then carrying his bag in the hall of the Four Courts — destined one day to hold the great leading brief in the mighty cause of six millions of his countrymen. O'Connell was not vet a leading Catholic; but was fast becoming well known in his own profession : and an Orange judge, in a party ease, pre- ferred to see any other advocate pleadtug before him. The Catholic Delegates next applied to Mr. l-'ox and Lord Grenville, who agreed to present the petition — one in the 1 the other in the Commons, This was none on the 25th of March. 'When Lord Gran- ville moved in the House of Lords, that it should lie on the table. Lord Auckland rose with precipitancy, and observed with some warmth, that as far as his ears could catch the tenor of it, it went to overthrow the whole system of Church and State : and if the prayer of it were to be granted, he should soon see a Protestant Church without a Protestant congregation, and a Protestant King with a P.p.-: 1 gislature. He ex- prosed great anxiety, that the question should be calmly ami fully discussed, sum- moned the Reverend Bench to arm them- selves for the combat. Ac The venen Lord E :. objected even to the formal : the petitiou should be printed. After .Mr. Fox presented it in the House of Commons, the matter stood over for early day- in May, in both Houses of Parliament. Petitions against it were presented from the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge, from the cities of London and Dub. in. the County Fermanagh, and other corporations public bodi - ISO", in debating the grounds of the • ministration's retiring from office; that, although Mr. rut had in 1801 gone out of office on thai question, yet ou iiis retui Lord Fitzwilliam, who was still a friend to the Catholics, and well remembered how Mr. Pitt had cheated Mm also upon that question, conceived the idea of bringing Mr. li rattan into the debate ; and, accordingly, induced the Honorable C. L. Pandas to va- cate his seat for the borough o( Malton, and Mr. Grattan was .returned for it. On the appointed day, the discussion in the Lords arose, on motion to commit the bill. After some other Peers had been heard, 11- Royal Highness the Duke of Cumberland, (an Orangeman,) gave his de- cided opposition to the motion before the Bouse, ami urged every resistance in his power to a "measure subversive of all the principles which placed the House of Brans- wick upon the throne of these realms." 1 i Camden found full reason posing the motion in the grounds upon which the Irish Parliament had negatived the n, whilst he had the honor of being placed at the head of the Irish Govern- ment. Bishop of Durham, the wealthiest in Europe, and who naturally valued that Constitution in Church and State which had made him so, urged that the motion could not be acceded to without danger to the Church and State. It would be a direct surrender of the security of the best consti- tution in the world. Lord Redesdale made a very violent s(>eeeli against the motion. He said, "to pass such a measure would be to take the t. - and lauds from the Protestant hierarchy, and give them to the Catholic Bishops." He said, further, "If the Catholic hier- archy were abolished, something might W done to conciliate the Catholic body ; and to the generality o( that body, he was eon- lident, the aboliti in of the hierarchy would grateful." an Irish judge, ran over all the usual Protestant phrases, about the faith- lessness and cruelty of Catholics. He laid much stress upon certain " maps of the feited estates." which, he said, had been prepared, in order to guide the proceedings .. ...*■ Lord Carleton added a * Hi- lords - I ■ D»p of Ireland, prep&n antiquary, Mr. Charles OXtanor, of Baku • ; the situation of the tribe-land] of the ancient clans before the reign of Elizabeth. ftd Sat i sS ^ r i ^ 3 «fS* singular legal opinion : " That the spiritua supremacy of tlic Church was by the law of this country vested in the Crown ; and surely it was a piece of the highest contu- macy in a sect of His Majesty's subjects to deny that supremacy, and to vest the control in a foreign potentate." Lord Buckinghamshire, like all other op- posers of the motion, spoke much of his own disposition to liberality and concilia- tion ; denied that any such pledge for eman- cipation, as had been alluded to, was or could have been given, and deemed it most in (I a minatory to allege, that the Catholics would be sore or irritated at the refusal of the prayer of the petition. After an astonishing mass of benighted spite and bigotry had been vented all night, at six in the morning a division was had. The motion to commit was rejected by a majority of one hundred and twenty-nine ; and so ended Emancipation in the Lords for that time. In the Commons, Mr. Fox introduced the same subject in a long and able speech. He gave a history of the Penal Code, and of its successive relaxations ; pointed out how useless and, at the same time, how irritating were the remaining links in t lie chain, which it was then proposed to strike off ; proved that the Catholics had received assurances, on the part of Mr. Pitt, which induced them, as a body, to remain passive at the time of the Union ; and that now those pledges ought to be redeemed. Mr. Fox concluded an excellent address, by saying : "He relied on the affection and loyalty of the Roman Catholics of Ireland ; but lie would not press them too far ; he would not draw the cord too tight. It was surely too much to expect, that they would always light, for a constitution, in the benefits of which they were assured, they never should participate equally with their fellow-subjects. Whatever was to be the fate of the peti- tion, he rejoiced at having had an opportun- ity of bringing it under their consideration, and moved to refer it to a committee of the whole House." The famous Doctor Duigenan had the courage to reply to Mr. Fox ; although he saw Grattan opposite, who already threat- ened him with his eye. He opposed the mo- tion in a long speech, which lasted above three hours ; the general spirit and sub- stance of which was to prove, that by the ancient councils of the Catholic Church, and her invariable doctrine, no Catholic could take an oath, from the obligations of which he could not at the will of the priest be released ; that the Catholics maintained no faith was to be kept with heretics, and such they considered every denomination of Christians but themselves ; and that it was impossible for a Catholic to be truly loyal to a Protestant King. He contended that the ninety-one persons who had signed the Catholic petition, did not by any means represent the body of the Irish Catholics ; he assumed, that none of the clergy had signed, because they still maintained the obnoxious doctrines which the best in- formed of the laity wished to renounce. He contended that the oath of supremacy (swearing that the King is head of the Church, ) was a mere simple oath of allegiance, and that it imported neither exclusion nor restriction to any but traitors. He com- mented largely upon the oath of canoni- cal obedience to the Pope taken by the Catholic Bishops ; inveighed fiercely against Doctor Hnssey, the lad' Catholic Bishop of Waterford, for forbidding his Hock to send their children to Protestant schools for educa- tion, and he drew the conclusion from Doctor Hussey's remark — that the loss or abandon- ment of his religion by the Catholic soldier might be felt in the day of battle, that in plain English, the Romish soldier might then turn upon and assassinate his officer or desert to the enemy. This measure would let in an uni- versal deluge of atheism, infidelity, and anar- chy. It would admit the Pope's supremacy over the Church of these realms ; it would violate the conditions of both Unions, with Scotland and with Ireland ; and to tender to His Majesty a bill of that import for his royal signature, would be to insult him, by supposing him capable of violating his Coronation oath. Mr. Grattan rose, and his rising was greeted with breathless attention. He had never appeared in that House before ; ami his fame as a noble orator, and incorruptible patriot, impressed the English legislators more than they would have liked to own to themselves. K ■ O, (ft ous, including many cases of " unjust fines," "excessive" fines, partiality, seeking to bring Lord Abercorn into contempt, casting censure on Lord Euniskiilen, impeding the course of justice, and the like ; and the Pro- testant interest of the North of Ireland was filled with anxiety for the result. Lord Abereorn pressed these prosecutions with wonderful virulence ; Lord Hardwicke and the Irish Government aided it.* The pub- lic purse was opened to pay for it. A great mass of evidence, (all exparte,) was pro- duced. The proceedings lasted three years ; and the excellent judge was ruined in health and fortune. At last, on motion of Lord Grenville, the House of Lords voted, by a small majority, that the proceedings should be quashed. The cost to the public in the prosecution of this ease amounted to £30,- 000. On the division in the House of Lords, the old Lord Thurlow voted for getting rid of the whole matter, as unconstitutional and vexations. He said it was a proceeding " to gratify the malignant resentments of indi- viduals who fancied themselves insulted and exposed by any instance of virtuous inde- pendence upon the Bench." Lord Eldon voted for continuing the pro- secution to the end ; and the Duke of Cum- berland, (Queen Victoria's uncle,) an Or- angeman, and special friend of Lord Aber- corn, strongly opposed Lord Grenville's mo- tion. " He trusted," he said, " and expected, that the matter would not be put off sine, die." His Royal Highness was naturally of opinion that no justice could be done in Ireland if there were to be judges going round checking the wholesome severities of the very masters of lodges. It is but justice towards the British House of Lords to admit, that after speudiug the pub- lic time and the public money for three years, iu prosecuting a virtuous judge, because he was a virtuous judge, did at last grow ashamed of the foul trausaction, and by a small majority, thrust it out of Court. The case of Mr. Justice Johnson, one of the Justices of the Common Pleas, was * The Marquis read, as a part of his speech be- fore the Lords, a letter from the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland to the British Minister, in which the judicial conduct of Mr. Justice Pox, on the Xorthwest Cir- cuit, was arraigned in terms of marked reprobation. even more extraordinary. Some anonymous Irishman, signing himself " Juverna," had, in November of 1803, immediately after Robert Emmet was executed, published a scries of letters in Cobbett's Political llesfis- ler, containing severe animadversious upon Lord Redesdale, Lord Hardwicke and his government, upon the public proceedings of Secretaries Wickham and Marsden, upon a charge delivered by Mr. Justice Osborne, and other matters. No government in Ire- laud ever before had the press so thoroughly corrupted or intimidated as that of Lord Hardwicke ; and the first of the "Jiu-enm" letters was sent to Mr. Cobbett avowedly because every printer in Dublin had refused to publish it. The sturdy William Cobbett, (who was then, and for many years after, a sharp thorn in the side of Pitt and Castle- reagh,) admitted the letter at once to his Register; and then several others. These letters excited much attention, and extreme- ly exasperated the Government, because they were evidently the production of some per- sonage highly placed, who knew the secret machinations of the Irish officials against the people. Great efforts were made to discover the audacious "Juverna ;" but, in the meantime, as the next best thing, the Attorney-Gener- al prosecuted Cobbett himself for publish- ing the "libels." His trial took place on .May it, 1804. Cobbett had an interval of repose from persecution of two days allowed him, when, at the suit of the Right Honorable W. C. Plunket, Solicitor-General of Ireland, he was again called on to sustain an action for libels contained in letters sigued "Juverna," published in the Register, reflecting on Mr. Plunket's conduct on the occasion of Robert Emmet's trial. Cobbett was again con- victed, and damages were awarded to the plaintiff to the amount of ii.iOO. It was believed, by the Irish Government, that the letters in question, had been written by Judge Johnson. On the second trial of Mr. Cobbett, the manuscript of the letter relating to Lord Plunket, was produced ; and witnesses were easily found to swear that it was in the handwriting of the Judge. The Government, therefore, determined to prosecute him al=o, and to bring him over to ,¥; V' ^ London for trial, as the publication had been in the County Middlesex. But there was a difficulty in the way ; there was no law then, no law in existence, giving power to remove offenders from Ireland to England, or vica versa, for trial. But Parliament was in session, and a new law was quickly pro- cured, the two principal persons on the committee which framed it, being Mr. Per- ceval, brother-in-law of Lord Redesdale, and Mr. Yorke, brother of Lord Hardwieke, who were two of the persons complaining of being libelled. A warrant was issued to bring the judge to London, and he was arrested at his house near Dublin. Tims he was taken under an ex-post facto act, which his counsel contended could not operate retrospectively. The matter was discussed, during six days, in the King's Bench in Ireland, in Janu- ary, 1805. The legality of the warrant was confirmed. In the meantime, the perse- cuted judge procured a writ of Habeas Cor- pus from the Court of Exchequer, where the "case was argued February 4th and 7th, and, subsequently, in the Court of Common Pleas ; and in both courts, the arrest was held good. Tlie judge was then brought over to Lon- don, and put on his trial before Lord Ellen- borough, November 23, 1805. Lord Ellenborough, staunch and consis- tent — always ready to lend the weight of his judicial character and position to the Government on any seditious libel case prose- cution, unjustly on this occasion threw dis- credit on the respectable witnesses produced by Judge Johnson, to prove that the MSS. of the libel prosecuted, was not in the hand- writing of the defendant. But the jury, misdirected by Lord Ellenborough, brought in a verdict of "guilty;" the Attorney- General, however, never applied for judg- ment. It was true, indeed, that Judge Johnson was the author of the letters of "Jucerua ;" which were a very just, necessary, and well- merited castigatiou of the Irish Government ; yet he was found guilty on bad evidence, for the manuscript was not his.* * '• The libel above-mentioned I know (on the authority of t.ord Cloncurry), though the production of Judge Johnson, was sent to Cobbett in the .hand- writing of the judge's daughter."— Madden. The matter, however, was pressed no further. It was judged sufficient to dis- grace a judge of the land by a criminal con- viction, to ruin him by heavy expenses in- curred in his defence, and to render the jus- tice of Westminster Hall auxiliary to the police of Dublin. But the prosecution had caused great scandal by its unusual features ; and in order to put as quiet a close to the matter as possible, the Attorney-General was directed, and he, accordingly, did enter a nolle prosequi on the record, as of Trinity Term 1S06. The learned judge, whose health was much on the decline, was allowed to retire upon a pension for his life.f The treatment of these two honest judges was a significant warning to the judges of Ireland, first that they were not to embarrass Orange justice with thdr justice, and second, that they were not to presume to say that a Lord-Lieutenant, or Chaucellor, or Secre- tary, could do wrong.- In this year, Mr. Pitt's political power begau to decline ; and many of his partizans fell from him. Lord Sid mouth deserted him on the occasion of the impeachment of Lord Melville. Mr. Foster, the Irish Chancellor of the Exchequer, had tendered his resignation ; and it was known that Lord Hardwieke was resolved to tender his. The star of the great Minister was growing pale ; his Continental combinations against Buonaparte, were all failures ; and men were already beginning to speculate upon their chances under Mr. Pitt's successor, about the time when Parliament was suddenly prorogued on July 12th. The defection of Lord Sidmouth, the im- peachment of Lord Melville and consequent shiftiegs in the Cabinet, created the necessity of Lord Castlereagh's vacating his seat for the County Down, in order to accept the office of Secretary of State for the Colo- nies and War Department. He sought a re- election for Down ; but in that county, there was a very strong feeling against him, on ac- count of the outrage put upon the Marquis f This excellent judge, afterwards in his retirement in France, wrote a very excellent treatise on the "Military Defence of Ireland," under the name of Captain Philip Roche Fermoy. This work has speci- ally in view, a defence of the country by the inhabi- tants of it, against the English ; and has been much studied since that time. 'Ni ,&. • S*Z£.N6 .CUuNti..5.u J V Al » was, as usual, placed in the back-ground. lie had upon his hands the difficult business of negotiating a peace with France ; and his fast-failing health did not permit him to go into the details of Irish appointments and Irish grievances. Yet, Charles James Fox was of a char- acter noble, open, and generous ; as oppo- '(SiR site to Mr. Pitt, in personal qualities, as he was in his place in the House of Commons. If he had, at this juncture, accepted the po- sition of Viceroy — if he had seen with his own eyes the insolent and audacious cruelty of the Orange magistracy, which was now strong enough to brave both law and Gov- ernment — the too-patient suffering of the great mass of the people, and the decaying trade and industry of the towns — it would Sa, have been impossible to repress indignation in such a nature as his. But he had been specially brought into power for the purpose of negotiating a peace with France ; and this was enough for his diminished en- ergies. Lord Grenville, the Premier Min- ister, who had been an active agent in carrying the Union, was by no means so favorable to Ireland as the Foreign Secre- tary. Lord Sid mouth was the boasted and pledged opponent to Catholic concession, un- der every possible variation of political occur- rence. The friends and cBoperators of Lord Redesdale, the Attorney and Solicitor-Gen- eral, retained their situations and confi- dence ; Mr. Alexander Marsden, the secret adviser and machinist of the late adminis- trations, was not displaced. The whole of the Orange magistracy remained undisturb- ed in the commission of the peace. Even Major Sirr was still seen, as the tutelary guardian of the Castle-yard. No floating patronage was removed from any promoter of the late, to countenance or encourage the supporters of the new, system. The name of Grattan, the friend and father of Irish liberty, was not seen on the list of changes, and Mr. Curran, the unwavering asserter of Ireland's rights and freedom, remained nearly five months unpromoted. As for the Catholics, they were deluded again. They soon found that there was no dis- position to disquiet the United Kingdom with an importunate insistance upon any claims of theirs. But at the first moment of the V change of Viceroys, they were so confident of their affairs being now in good hands, that they resolved not to press the matter too keenly. A newly-constitnted Catholic Committee met in March, before the Duke of Bedford had yet arrived, at Mr. M'Don- nell's house, in Allen Court, and there re- solved, with the exception of two dissent- ing voices, that it was inexpedient to press a discussion of the Catholic question, during the present session, of Parliament ; and that it would be proper to present an address, on behalf of the Catholics, to the Duke of Bedford, congratulating him on his appointment to the chief government of Ireland, and expressing their confidence in the wisdom and abilities of the illustrious personages who composed the present ad- ministration. Indeed, nothing cau well be conceived more helpless than the management of the Catholic cause during the whole of the Bed- ford administration. A Mr. Ryan, a mer- chant, who had a large house in Marlborough street, threw his house open to informal meetings of active members of the Commit- tee, and entered into correspondence with Mr. Fox, as an authorized agent, or rather leader, amongst the Catholics. This pro- duced jealousies and discontents ; other meet- ings were held in various places ; where con- siderable diversity of opinion made itself manifest, chiefly on this question — should they press for emancipation at once, or await a more convenient season ? Many gather- ings of Catholic gentlemen and merchants took place in some of the counties, and strong resolutions were passed. It was manifest that a good share of public spirit had been roused amongst them ; but they lacked organization, and sage and bold counsel. The new Viceroy received their ultra-loyal and rather mealy-mouthed ad- dresses with courtesy ; but answered them with equivocation, For example, one ad- dress, from the Catholics of Dublin, signed by Lords Fingal, Southwell, Kenmare, Gormanstown, &c, was presented at the Castle on the 29th of April, 1806. It closes in this humble style : — " May your Grace permit ns to conclude with the expression of those sentiments, in which all Irish Catholics can have but one % 'v 450 HISTORY OF IRELAND. dress ; thirty-four opposed it. The question was warmly debated for several hours. In opposition to, and defiance of the professional ] lowers and political influence of Messrs. Saurin and Bushe, the spirited independence of the bar was honorably asserted, and the talent, integrity, and virtue of the country triumphed over the jealousies and intrigues of the system and its abettors. While the Catholics found themselves once more thrust back from the threshold of that Constitution which they so much longed to cuter, the Northern Orangemen, on their side, (who had been a little nervous at first about the advent of these Whigs,) soon found that they had no cause for alarm. A very singular correspondence passed this summer between Secretary Elliott and Mr. Wilson, a Tyrone magistrate, touching certain outrages perpetrated on Catholics in his neighborhood, and particularly, the burn- ing down the house of a man named O'Neill, a hatter. This outrage was done by night, without any provocation ; and was alleged to have been perpetrated in mere wanton- ness hy a mob of Orangemen coming out of a lodge, and headed by two sons of Mr. Yerner, a magistrate, and himself a famous Orangeman. Mr. Wilson's representations were so earnest, demanding inquiry and re- dress, that Mr. Sergeant Moore was sent down to the neighborhood, accompanied by a Crown Solicitor, to investigate the facts. Mr. Plowden affirms, on the authority of Mr. Wilson, probably, that Sergeant Moore, on his arrival, put himself in communication with the Messrs. Verner, the accused house- burners, to procure him evidence of what took place. " The evidences were brought forward by the young Messrs. Yerner ; but lie could not get anything out of them, (after the most strict examination,) which could tend towards the crimination of these gentlemen. The house certainly was burn- ed ; but the incendiaries could not be iden- tified. It was true, the two young Messrs. Yerner were there, but only as spectators, lfter the house was destroyed ; but nothing ippeared to justify an opinion that either of those gentlemen was concerned in the outrage." Of course, the learned Sergeant returned as wise as he came. Some days after Mr. Wilson was sum- moned to Dublin, and had an interview with Lord-Chancellor Ponsonby, who questioned him as to the outrage, and as to the in- quiry. Mr. Wilson attempted to make some comment upon the way which the Sergeant hail taken for arriving at the facts — the Chancellor twice interrupted him with great energy to declare, that Mr. Sergeant. Moore's conduct entitled him to, and possessed the warmest approbation of Government. Mr. Wilson made some observations on the state of the magistracy in his part of the country, and the Chancellor asked, how he proposed to remedy the evil ? Mr. Wilson replied, that the only effectual mode would be, by issuing a general new commission. This would not give any partial offence ; and care afterwards should be taken not to ad- mit any improper persons into it. His lordship replied by a smile. This ended his personal communications with Govern- ment ; but not his correspondence. He wrote several times again on the subject ; but without effect. He applied to have his nun commission, as a magistrate, extended from Tyrone into Armagh, (as he dwelt on the border,) in order that he might have some power to protect the poor Catholics, who lived in daily and nightly terror under the shadow of the original Orange Lodge, and in that very neighborhood which had been the scene of the " Hell-or-Connaught" exterminations, ten years earlier ; but Mr. Wilson's application was refused. This af- fair would be in itself too trilling to occupy space in a general narrative like the present, but that it is, unfortunately, only one ex- ample of very much of the same kind of wanton oppression and official connivance which made the North of Ireland itself a hell for the Catholic people, during many a year since — and which is by no means over at this day. Poor Mr. Wilson, who was so Quixotic as to interest himself for the oppressed Catholics of Tyrone and Armagh, after the refusal of an Armagh commission to that gentleman came to be known, was himself subjected to the outrages of the Protestant " wreckers." His range of offices, filled with hay, was burned down one night ; and as he still continued to importune the Secre- tary and the Chancellor I M 'A (> lNG . UttiMBos.^ £§ J *,^\ behalf, not of himself, but of his persecuted neighbors, he was finally (3d of July, 1807,) deprived of the commission of the peace for Tyrone, by a regular writ of Supersedeas. CHAPTER XL VIII. 1808—1807. Revenue and Debt of Ireland — Rapid Increase of Debt — Drain of Wealth from Ireland— Character of the Imports and Exports — Rackrents, Tithes, &c. — Distress of the People— The "Threshers" — Threshers Hung— Catholic Meetings — Increase of Maynooth Grant — From Apprehension of the Irish College in France — Catholic Officers' Bill — To Promote Depopulation — Bill Abandoned — Change of Ministry — The King Demands a No-Popery Pledge — Duke of Cumberland — Perceval Adminis- tration — Camden and Castlereagh in Office— Xo- Popery — Recruiting in Ireland— John Keogh on Catholic Officers' Bill- -O'Connell— Too-Easy "Grati- tude of the Irish towards Whigs — Populace Draw the Duke of Bedford's Coach. Ireland, until the period of the consoli- dation of the National Debts, had a separ- ate Chancellor of the Exchequer ; and the actual Chancellor, Sir John Newport, in bringing forward his Irish Budget, iu this session of 1806, made as favorable a repre- sentation of the finances of the country as possible, according to the usual custom of Finance Ministers. Everything, according to him " afforded proofs of the increase of prosperity and confidence in tlue Government." The revenue of Ireland for the year he pro- posed to increase, from £3,360,000 to £3,- 800,000, by means of several new taxes ; but later in the session Sir John Newport brought in a bill " for relief of the Irish poor." On his financial statement, Mr. Parnell drew the attention of the House to the general financial situation of the country, as repre- sented by the Chancellor of the Exchequer himself. He calculated, that were the debt of Ireland to increase with the same rapid- ity as at present for fifteen years, it would at that period amount to £120,000,000. He, therefore, called upon Ministers to adopt some efficient measures for restraining the progress of so alarming an evil. Mr. Parnell either did not know, or pre- tended not to know, that Ministers did not regard this as an alarming evil at all, and that it was precisely for this, amongst other r m great objects, the Union had been effectuat- ed. Mr. Parnell also fell short in his esti- mate of the rate of future increase of our debt : — "So well have British book-keepers worked our account, that, within eleven years |S3 (in 1817) our debt was found to amount, not to 120,000,000, but to£130, 561, 037, and so brought Ireland up to the condition of in- debtedness which entitled her to share equal- ly in all the public liabilities of England." The truth is, that although from the increase of population, and, therefore, of con- sumption, the actual amount of taxes now ground out of the Irish people was increasing year by year, those taxes were becoming more and more difficult to pay, and were reducing great numbers of people continually to abject poverty ; so that at the very mo- ment when the Chancellor of the Exchequer was felicitating Parliament upon Ireland's financial prosperity, he had also to bring in a bill for relief of the poor. The system of drainage of Ireland for imperial purposes was even then in full operation, although nut so highly developed as we have seen it since that day. There were some circumstances then existing, which in part counteracted . that imperial policy — iu the first place, the enfranchisement of Catholics as voters, iu 1793, had considerably promoted and in- creased the practice of giving leases of small farms ; so as to create freeholders to support their landlords' interests at county elections ; and next, the war in Europe, though occas- ionally interrupted by short seasons of armed peace, maintained a good price for all kinds of agricultural produce ; because the British Government was constantly obliged to victual o-reat fleets and garrisons in all quarters of the world ; and as such large numbers of the cultivators of the land had leases, their in- creased profits could not be immediately appropriated by their landlords in the shape of increased rents, and so carried off to Eng- land- to be spent ; an inconvenience and loss to the " sister-kingdom " which was after- wards fully repaired by the abolition of the " forty-shilling freeholders," as will be seen further on. In the meantime, however, the war cer- tainly enhanced the profits of Irish agricul- ture ; and although that increase was not altogether for behoof of the people theui- ft / ii Z 1 • ill "\\ £AG .CfcU/VBUS.u, HISTORT OF IRELAND. >v dress ; thirty-four opposed it. The question w ras warmly debated For several hours. In tion to, and defiance of the profi • - and political influence of Messrs. Saurin and Bushe, the spirited independence of the bar was honorably asserted, and the talent, integrity, and virtue of the country triumphed over the jealousies and intrigues -• sti m and it- - While the Catholics found themselves once more thrust back from the threshold of that Constitution which they so much longed to enter, the Northern Orangemen, on their o had been a little nervous at first about the advent of these W igs soon found that they had no cause for alarm. A very singular correspondence passed this summer betweeu Secretary Elliott and Hi Wilson, a Tyrone magisfar I touching certain outrages perpetrated on Cat: _-:iborhood, aud particularly, the burn- ing down the house of a man named x a hatter. This outrage was done by night, without any provocation : and was alleged to have been perpetrated in r.: a mob of iremen coming out of - -\ and headed by t sons of Mr. Terner, a magistrate, and himself a famous Orangeman. Mr Wife n's repr - were so earnest, demanding inquiry and re- ss thai Mr. Sergeant Moore was - down to the neighborhood, accompanied by S Ikitor, to investigate the facts. Mr. Tlowden affirms, on the auth> : Mr Wilson, probably that Serg d, put himself in communi with the Messrs. Temer. the accused house- burners, to procure him evidence of what took place. " The evidences were b forward by " J g Messrs Verner; but he could n get anything it of them, • examination,] which could tend t - - .ination of these geutlemeu. The house certainly was burn- ed ; but the ine- • ■ inld not be iden- tified. It was 1 Terner were there, but only as - ifter the house was - I ; but nothing ippear . . opinion that either " those g vtlemen was concerned in the itrage," the leant . - a returued as wise as he came. moned to Dublin, and had an interview with Lord-Chancellor Ponsouby, who questioned him as to the outrage, and as to the in- quiry. Mr. Wfls d attempted to make some comment upon the way which the Sergeant had taken for arriving at the facts — the Chancellor twice interrupted him with great - ■ declare, f tat M v . M -re's I him to, and possessed the warmest approbate rnment. Mr W\ - o ■" - m ' 3) rvattons on the SI I - • art of the country, and the Chancellor asked, how he prop - to remedy the evil ? Mr. Wilson replied, that the only effectual mode would b issuing a geueral new commission. T lis would not give any partial offence : and care afterwards should be taken not to ad- mit any improper persons into it. His lordship replied by a smile. This ended his personal communications with Govern- ment ; but not his correspondence. He wrote several times again on the subject ; but without effect. He applied to ha\ • own commission, as a magistrate, extended . Tyrone into Armagh, i^as he dwelt on the border.) iu order that he might have some power to protect the poor Cat who lived in daily and nightly terror under the shadow of the original Orangt L and in that very neighborhexxi which had been the scene of the " ffell-or-Oonnaug exterminations, ten years earlier ; but Mr. Wi - n's application was refused. Tuis af- ould be in frilling to occupy iu a general narrative like the pit- but that it is, unfortunately, only one ex- ample of very much the s \ kind of want --ion and juivanee which mace the North of I: self a hell for the C;r pie, during many a year since — and which is by no means over - ' - day. 1' : Mr Wits :. who was so Quix tor the oppr<.-- . Cath - I '_■ roue aud Armagh, after the sal of an Armagh commission to that gentleman came to be known, was hints ires of 1 Protestant " wreckers." His r.^tige of offices, filled with hay, was burntd down one night ; and > :.e- f5i ►f l\ Some r Mr. Wilson was snm-| tary and the Chaucellor with applications oa Vi\ ®^z 'W rv behalf, not of himself, but of his persecuted neighbors, he was finally (3d of July, 1801,) deprived of the commission of the peace for Tyrone, by a regular writ of Supersedeas. & CHAPTER XLVIII. lSOG— 1807. Revenue and Debt of Ireland— Hapid Increase of Debt — Drain of Wealth from Ireland— Character of the Imports and Exports— Raokrents, Tithes, &c.— Distress of the People— The " Threshers "— Threshers Hung — Catholic Meetings — Increase of Maynooth Grant— From Apprehension of the Irish College in France — Catholic Officers' Bill — To Promote Depopulation — Bill Abandoned — Change of Ministry — The King Demands a No-Popery Pledge— Duke of Cumberland — Perceval Adminis- tration— Camden and Castlereagh in Office— No- Popery — Recruiting in Ireland — John Keogh on Catholic Officers' Bill— O'Connell— Too-Easy Grati- tude of the Irish towards Whigs — Populace Draw the Duke of Bedford's Coach. Ireland, until the period of the consoli- dation of the National Debts, had a separ- ate Chancellor of the Exchequer ; and the actual Chancellor, Sir John Newport, in bringing forward his Irish Budget, in this session of 1806, made as favorable a repre- sentation of the finances of the country as possible, according to the usual custom of Finance Ministers. Everything, according to him " afforded proofs of the increase of prosperity and confidence in t/ie. Government." The revenue of Ireland for the year he pro- posed to increase, from £3,360,000 to £3,- 800,000, by means of several new taxes ; but later in the session Sir John Newport brought in a bill " for relief of the Irish poor." On his financial statement, Mr. Parnell drew the attention of the House to the general financial situation of the country, as repre- sented by the Chancellor of the Exchequer himself. He calculated, that were the debt of Ireland to increase with the same rapid- ity as at present for fifteen years, it would at that period amount to £120,000,000. lie, therefore, called upon Ministers to adopt some efficient measures for restraining the progress of so alarming an evil. Mr. Parnell either did not know, or pre- tended not to know, that, Ministers did not regard this as an alarming evil at all, and that it was precisely for this, amongst other great objects, the Union had been effectuat- ed. Mr. Parnell also fell short in his esti- mate of the rate of future increase of our debt : — "So well have British book-keepers worked our account, that, within eleven years (in 1811) our debt was found to amount, not to 120,000,000, but to £130,561, 031, and so brought Ireland up to the condition of in- debtedness which entitled her to share equal- ly in all the public liabilities of England." The truth is, that although from the increase of population, and, therefore, of con- sumption, the actual amount of taxes now ground out of the Irish people was increasing year by year, those taxes were becoming more and more difficult to pay, and were reducing great numbers of people continually to abject poverty ; so that at the very mo- ment when the Chancellor of the Exchequer was felicitating Parliament upon Ireland's financial prosperity, he had also to bring in a bill for relief of the poor. The system of drainage of Ireland for imperial purposes was even then iu full operation, although not so highly developed as we have seen it since that day. There were some circumstances then existing, which in part counteracted that imperial policy — in the first place, the enfranchisement of Catholics as voters, in 1193, had considerably promoted and in- creased the practice of giving leases of small farms ; so as to create freeholders to support their landlords' interests at county elections ; and next, the war in Europe, though occas- ionally interrupted by short seasons of armed peace, maintained a good price for all kinds of agricultural produce ; because the British Government was constantly obliged to victual great fleets and garrisons in all quarters of the world ; and as such large numbers of the cultivators of the land had leases, their in- creased profits could not be immediately appropriated by their landlords in the shape of increased rents, and so carried off to Eng- land* to be spent ; an inconvenience and loss to the "sister-kingdom" which was after- wards fully repaired by the abolition of the " forty-shilling freeholders," as will be seen further on. In the meantime, however, the war cer- tainly enhanced the profits of Irish agricul- ture ; and although that increase was not altogether for behoof of the people them- ¥ \<$s £A6 . LUi^'BuS.u, HISTOET OF mELAXP w solves, (for much of it could be carried off by taxation, as we have seen, to pay the charges of an unjust debt,) yet they were not then by any means so cunningly plundered, so scientifically stripped bare, (for want of the requisite machinery,) as they have been since, and are now. Population, therefore, was rapidly increasing during all these years of war. although thousands of young Irishmen wire each year recruited for the British ar- i. y, to fight against Jacobinism, French principles, and the rights of man. The imports and exports of Ireland con- tinued to increase after the Union, iu pro- portion to the increasing population ; but by no means at so rapid a rate as during the eighteen years of national independence, when the country had the fostering care of a native legislature, bad and corrupt as that legislature was. But it is very material to observe the character of those imports and exports. The imports consisted more and more of British manufactures, and of foreign and colonial produce purchased in England, and imported l/ience : the exports more and more of cattle, meat and grain, raw agricul- tural produce — and of spirits made from grain. There is au exception in the single article of linen cloth ; yet the increase in that trade did not keep pace with the in- crease of population. * Iu the table given below of the official returns of the exports aud imports for ten years before, and teu years after, the Union, (assuming those offi- cial returns to be correct,) this very material difference may be studied and appreciated : Mr. Marmiou, in his History of t/te Mar- itime Forts of Ireland, of this Ta- ble : "These returns were no doubt furnished to support the opinions of certain advocates for the Legislative Union, as tciut — the con- sumption of which was likely to show the means of tiie country, if progressing, as cor- rectly a< any other article — has been exclud- ed altogether. The import of wine, in 1799, was one million two hundred and thirty-eight thousand live hundred and twelve gallons ; and it has gradually decreased siuce then to live hundred and twelve thousand three hun- dred and nineteeu gallons in 1S4S, about which quantity still continues to be consum- ed annually.'' * See annexed table. The high " war prices," then, for agricul- tural produce, helped to establish a s - : current of exportation in all that species of commodities, out of Ireland into Englaud ; while at the same time the increasing ab- senteeLsm of Peers aud landed-proprietors (who now preferred to drink their wine in England,) carried off also to that country more aud more of the prices received iu Ire- land for those commodities. Tims England •\ as already gaining every way by the Union, aud Ireland losing every way. Yet the system was not yet by any means perfect : so long as voters for counties had to be created by small freeholds, there wtre large and increasing numbers of working farmers not wholly at the mercy of their landlords, nor liable to be turned out at the end of any six months. These people could live, and could eveu employ labor iu im- DISTRESS OF THE PEOPLE THE " THRESHERS.' 453 proveraents ; so that there was a certain comparative prosperity ; although manufac- tures (except liucn) still continued to de- cline ; and the market was flooded with English fabrics. It was not till the peace brought low prices that the series of Irish famines recommenced ; and after that, the abolition of the "forty-shilling freeholders" — then the systematic refusal of leases — then the universal " tenaucy-at-will" — and finally the Poor law, rendered the British system as nearly perfect as any system of human invention can lie, for leaping the full fruits of the Legislative Union. It was under great difficulties and oppres- sions that Irish fanners, at the period we have now arrived at, made out life even so well as they did. Their chief troubles arose from middlemen, rack-rents, tithes, church-rates, and the monstrous Grand Jury jobs by which gentlemen accommodated one another, at the expense of the county with roads and bridges, which were not useful to the county, but were convenient or ornamen- 1tal to the demesnes of those gentlemen them- selves. Those who knew Ireland in the early years of this century can well remem- ber the many cases of exasperating oppres- sion, the scenes of misery and despair which were caused by each oue of the plagues above enumerated. In some counties during this very year, 1806, the too-long suffering coun- try people were goaded into secret combina- tions and violent local resistance. In consequence of recent exactions by the tithe proctors in the counties of Mayo, Sligo, Leitrim, -and parts of Roscommon, formerly notable for their pacific aud orderly demeanor, a body of people, styling themselves Thresh- ers (i. e. of tithe proctors' corn) had ap- peared in a sort of public confederacy. Up to that time, they had punctiliously confined their outrages and depredations to the col- lectors of tithes and their underlings. They frankly averred their reasons for their con- duct, viz., that from the late unprecedented rise in the tithes, beyond what had before been insisted upon, the profits of their crops centered almost entirely in the tithe proctor. They sent letters, signed Captain Thresher, to the growers of flax and oals, warning them, under severe pains, to leave their tithes in kiud on the fields, but on no account to pay any monied composition to their rectors and vicars, or their lessees or proctors. Had the managers of the Bedford administration in all things minutely followed the example of their predecessors, those couuties would have been proclaimed, and probably a more gen- eral insurrection have existed in Ireland, than in the year 1198. Many of the task- drivers under the former Government (all found in place were retained, except Lord Redesdale and Mr. Foster, discharged by Mr. Fox,) urged the Government to proclaim the disturbed counties, and recommence the discipline and goadings of 1798. But there was then no motive for resort- ing to the system of Camden aud Carhamp- ton ; there was no need now of provoking an insurrection, because the Uniou had been carried, aud all was safe. Accordingly, it was resolved to meet the case of the poor "Threshers" by the usual Constitutional mea- sures, assises, special commissions, packed juries, and the gallows. During the whole of the Bedford administration, not a single measure was adopted nor attempted for the redress or abatement of this curse of tithes ; the people were left at the mercy of the grind- ing proctors and rectors, * and if they com- mitted " outrage," they were hung. Twelve Threshers were executed in the autumn of this year in Mayo County alone ; and others suffered death in Galway, Roscommon, and Longford. There was not the smallest evi- dence that they had any political views ; or French principles. They were simply White- Boys under another name. During this summer, the anxious negotia- * Grinding was not the worst of it. Rectors dis- covered a practice of swindling farmers in the follow- ing manner : In order to encourage the labor and industry of husbandmen in improving their lands, many clergymen granted leases of tithes to the ten- ants during their incumbencies The lessee specula- ting upon the life of the incumbent, would make ex- penditures in the improvement of his lands propor- tionate to the probability of his own enjoyment of the fruits of his improvements. When the improved lands began to yield increased crops, in order that the church should not lose the advantage of them (decirnee. uberiores), the incumbent would effectuate an exchange of livings (often preconcerted), with some other lessor of Itis tithes for his incumbency; thus letting each other gratis into the full benefit of the tenant's labor and expenditure, upon the specu- lation of a life interest, at least, in his improvement*. In some instances, this fructifying process has been known in two or three years to have doubled, aud in others to have trebled the v *lue of the living. \t K fc 4fcr iMU(,S.w 4 % HISTORY OF IRELAND. r$? ^ tions for peace with France, conducted by Lord Lauderdale failed ; and his lordship returned to London. This was the death of Charles James Fox — he died on the 13th of September, and relieved the administration of the embarrassment of the presence of one honest man. The death of Mr. Fox caused no alteration in the Irish Government. In England, Lord Howick quitted the Admi- ralty, and went to the Foreign Office. Catholic meetings were held from time to time during the winter of 1806-7, mostly at the Star and Garter in Essex street. At one of these a committee of twenty-one was appointed to prepare a petition for Catholic Relief ; and amongst the twenty-one we find the names of John Keogh, the old and faith- ful leader of the Catholics, Daniel O'Con- nell, the young and ultimately victorious leader, Furcell O'Gorman, Doctor Drom- goule, Thomas Wyse, and others, whose names were afterwards household words in every Catholic home during the long strug- gle fur emancipation. A petition was framed, adopted, and committed to Henry G rattan for presentation. On the 4th of March, 1807, on the Re- port of the Committee of Supply being brought up in Parliament, it appeared that the committee estimated the grant to May- nooth College at £13,000 instead of £8,000. This increase was, of course, opposed by Mr. Perceval, who always showed himself the most zealous Protestant in Parliament. The increased grant, however, was carried ; not through any feeling of liberality towards the Catholics ; but for the reasons set forth by- Lord Howick in supporting the grant. lie said he did so on the large principle of con- necting the Irish Catholic with the state. It was then particularly necessary to promote the domestic education of the Catholic clergy, as an institution of great extent had been formed at Paris, at the head of which was a Dr Walsh, a person of considerable notoriety, with a view to reestablish the practice of Irish Catholic education at that place, and to make that education the chan- nel of introducing and extending the political influence of the French Government in Ire- lud.* * " Iu the latter end of autumn, 1S0G, some printed copies of an arret, or decree, signed ' Napoleon, English governments, after having so long prohibited by penal laws the education of Catholic youths at home, and having thug driven them abroad for education, were now almost willing to bribe them to stay at home and receive that education which within the memory of men then living, would have merited transportation or death. Yet there was nothing inconsistent in these two modes of treatment. A century before, the great object of law and government had been to get and keep possession of Catholic lands and goods — and for that purpose to debase Catholics to the condition of brutes for want of education — but in I80T, the great need and absorbing passion of the Government was to crush France, and keep out French princi- ples ; and it was desirable to keep young divinity students away from Paris, where they might learn matters not expedient to be known in Ireland ; might Learn, for in- stance, that it is not so very miserable a case for each man to be his own landlord ; that country-people can be pretty comfort- able even without paying tithes — that peo- ple of all religions in France are equal be- fore the law — that the French are not a race of creatures altogether abandoned to crime, debauchery and atheism, for want of noble landlords ; and many other things of this nature. Therefore, when the Government at one time drove young Irishmen abroad for education, and at another time induced them to stay at home for education, it knew very well each time what it was doing, and acted in both cases upon the invariable principle that all Irish life, activity and industry, physical and intellectual, lay and clerical, be- llugh B. Maret, Champagny, and Walsh, Administra- tor General,' dated Milan, 28th Floreal, An. xiii , uniting the English, Irish, and Scotch Ecclesiastical Establishment, in the French dominions, under the general administration of tin- Reverend Dr. Walsh, tat" Superior of the Irish College at Paris, were Ben1 from thence via Hamburg, to England and Ire- land. At the same time Dr. Walsh invited the stu- dents of St Patrick's Irish College at Lisbon, to re- pair to Paris, to prosecute their studies, and encour- aged them to undertake the journey, by promising that the expenses of it would lie defrayed. The Roman Catholic Archbishops and other Prelates, Trustees of Maynooth College, having met in Dublin on business concerning it in January, Isiit, availed themselves of the occasion, to express their disapprobation of the invitation from Paris, in a letter to the Rev. Doctor Crotty, Hector of the Irish College at Lisbon, a copy of which was sent to Mr. Secretary Elliott, and also to Lord Howick. Wh ^•*.. • Wv -;-i- 3g '«' V iO» "^# es> 9 THE KING DEMANDS A NO-POPERY PLEDGE. 455 long to England, and are to be regulated and disposed of, displaced, transferred, en- couraged, and prohibited, as British policy and interest shall from time to time require. Upon the very same invariable principle, the Government in this session introduced what was called the "Catholic Officers' bill," to enable Catholics to hold commissions in the arm}' or navy. This measure was intended by Ministers for two purposes ; first, to stop by a small concession, the threatening agita- tion of the Catholics for their complete re- lief ; and secondly, by commissioning some Catholic officers, to make the British service more popular with the people, and thus pro- mote enlistment. On this latter point, the words of Lord Howick, who introduced the bill, are worth preserving : — " On the Commonalty of Ireland the measure must have a powerful effect, by af- fording a salutary c.huk to the increasing su- perabundant population of that country ; as it would induce numbers to enter into the service of His Majesty, even of those, who by their own discontents, and by the artifi- ces of others, had so lately been urged into insurrection and rebellion." It is needless to say that this measure also was resisted by the model Protestant, Perce- val, "lie greatly feared," he said, "that this was but the beginning of a system, which would in its consequences, when fully disclosed, be highly dangerous to the Con- stitution and Protestant establishment. He perceived, that step by step, and from day to day, they were bringing forward measures, which he thought must end in the totai, re- pkal of the Test act." Mr. Perceval was himself, he declared, " as great a friend to toleration as any man," but he could not see how the Constitution in Church and State was to stand, if persons were allowed to command t lie King's troops who believed in Seven Sacraments. The bill was read a first time ; and immediately arose a violent fer- ment, both iu England and amongst the "Ascendancy" in Ireland. The University of Oxford petitioned against the measure ; so did the Corporation of Dublin. The Dukes of York and Cumberland, Lord Eh Ion and Lord Hawkesbury, had frequent access to the King, whose mental disorder was then, iudeed, so much aggravated, that he had need of advisers, if those advisers had been honest. George III. was at that time an idiot ; sometimes a helpless and moping idiot ; sometimes a talking and busy idiot ; and, unfortunately, he was in the latter spe- cies of paroxysm. Mr. Perceval advertised in the public papers that "the Church was in danger ; " and a great cry of " No-Po- pery ! " arose over all England. The events that followed are clearly set forth in the ex- planations given by Lord Grenville and Lord Howick in the two Houses, of the causes which led to the sudden change of Ministry. It appears that the Ministers had had sev- eral interviews with the King, who seemed at first satisfied with their statements of the expediency of the measure proposed ; but the unhappy patient had evidently not un- derstood their statements. He asked Lord Howick one day, " What was going on in the House of Commons V On being told that the Catholic Officers' bill was to come on, he expressed his general dislike. "The next day (said Lord Howick) His Majesty, in the same gracious manner that we have been accustomed to experience from him, informed us, that he must look out for new servants. Two days afterwards, I was authorized to state this circumstances to the House, and on Tuesday last, His Majesty signified his pleasure that we should resign our offices next day." Ministers then pro- posed to drop the bill altogether ; but this was not euough for the King, in the condi- tion of nervous irritation to which he had been worked up by Lord Eldon and their Royal Highnesses, his two sous, the Dukes of York and Cumberland. He required from them a pledge that they would never more bring forward any measure whatever respecting Papists — in other words, would never advise His Majesty to do any act of justice towards one-fourth part of his sub- jects. This was two much. The Ministers had no idea of emancipating the Catholics ; it was to stave off that question of emanci- pation that they had proposed the trifling concession in question ; but to give such a pledge as he required (a pledge which had, however, been given him by Mr. Pitt,) would have been contrary to their duty as Minis- ters of State, and to their oath as Privy« Councillors, who swear " faithfully aud truly «; '&'~ y . ,U ^tM .iUU»HUi,t, 456 HISTORY OF IRELAND. ^ t' to declare their mind and opinion, according to their hearts and consciences, in all things to be moved, treated, and debated in coun- cil." Before the resin-nation, however, seve- ral debates took place. In one of these. Mr. Plnnket, making his first speech in a united Parliament, brought under the no- tice of the House the singular proceeding of the Duke of Cumberland. He said:— "Not satisfied with their placards, &c, an attempt has been made by the Chancellor (il the University of Dublin (the Duke of Cumberland) to disturb the peace of that University, by endeavoring to procure a pe- tition against the Catholic bill. Finding (to the honor of that learned body) the first application unsuccessful, a second had bnii sent, in which it was intimated, that the only way to preserve the favor of the royal Duke, was by signing such a petition. lie was not aware, whether the latter ap- plication took place after the measure had been abandoned in Parliament, or before. If after, it was apolitical scheme to support the new administration — if, while the bill was pending, it was an unconstitutional and unwarrantable interference." The matter ended with the resignation of Ministers ; and the installation of the fa- mous "No-Popery" Cabinet, with the pious Perceval at its head as Chancellor of the Exchequer. Lord Castlereagh, who had become indispensable to the councils of his sovereign, was Secretary for the Colonies and the War Department ; Lord Camden was President of the Privy-Council ; and George Canning Secretary for Foreign Af- airs. Lord Eldon was Lord-Chancellor of England ; the Duke of Richmond Lord- Lieutenant of Ireland ; and the Chief Secre- tary of that country was to be the victor of Assaye, and conqueror of the Mahrattas, who had just returned alter his brilliant cam- paign in India. The Baron Sutton was created Lord Manners, and appointed Chan- cellor of Ireland. The occasion or pretext for this change of Ministry was so absurd, and gave such an impression of craziness, that many mem- bers of both Houses of Parliament wrn- unwilling to resign themselves, and the conn- try to be governed by the fitful caprices of an idiot ; and several efforts were made by offering resolutions against the principle of the required fledge to keep Ministers in their places. Of the Parliamentary debates on these resolutions, it is only material in this place to notice such passages as throw any light on Irish affairs. Mr. Tighe, an Irish member, said the tranquillity of Ireland would, he feared, be affected by the remov- al of the Duke of Bedford. He did not, however, see any ground for apprehending any alarming disturbance, because the peo- ple of Ireland had been accustomed to view with colli, determined apathy, all changes in administration here, as none of those changes were attended with any benefit to them. Few recruits were to be had in the South, or in the West, because there was no secu- rity for the free exercise of religion. Some years ago, a gentleman had got some men in his neighborhood, upon his own pledge, and the pledge of a magistrate, that they should always be allowed the free exercise of their religion ; but when they arrived at their quar- ters in the Isle of Wight, they were com- pelled to attend the Protestant worship, and forbidden ever to attend a neighboring chape of their own, under pain of military punish- ment. Consequently, the recruiting pro- ceeded but slowly in Ireland, though tho country was poor, and the bounties offered extravagantly high. Since the Union, Ire- laud had felt no community of rights, no community of commerce ; the only commu- nity it felt, was that of having one hundred assessors in the British Parliament, who were to give ineffectual voles for the interest <>/' their country, as he might do th In ifc> mm m^p^^j^ A\ ,-V- \, >y>~ V DUKE OF RICHMOND VICEIiOT. tinder the authority of the Doble Lord oppo- site, could not be evaded, though the noble Lord m:iy not aet as it required him. The noblu Duke at the head of the present gov- ernment had given a still stronger pledge. He had written two letters to two officers of the Irish Brigades, inviting them to enter into the service of this country, on the prom- ise Hi' making the Irish act of 1193 general, and further, of opening the whole military career to them. In Ireland, these Ministerial changes caus- ed a great commotion among the Catholics. Their committee Imd drawn np Heir petition for complete emancipation ; and had sent it to Mr. Grattan for presentation. He had consulted with the friends of their cause in L Ion, particularly with Sheridan, and wrote to the committee that they had better withhold it. A Catholic meeting was then held, at which the venerable John Keogh moved the postponement — not abandonment — of further proceedings upon their petition. A*, to the paltry measure of conciliation which had been proposed by Govern- ment, and which the Catholics had not pe- titioned for at all, Mr. Keogh thus truly described it : " The English Ministers re- solved to encourage our Catholic gentlemen to enter into the army and navy, and through their influence to induce our peas- antry to enter the service in great numbers. One of their objects, they admit to be, to lessen our population, and, on the whole, to change disorder and weakness into subordi- nation and strength. l>ut candor must com pel us to allow, that this bill would not have given them any great claim for gratitude from the Catholics ; to relieve them was not the object of the bill; it did not profess to admit them to the privileges of their conn- try. It has been called a boon to the Cath- olics ; but, in truth, had it been carried into effect, it would have been a boon given by the Catholics; the boon of their blood, to defend a constitution from which they, and they only, were cautiously excluded." Yet Mr. Keogh praised warmly the Min- istry who had attempted to grant even this "1 i;" and proposed that from respect to them, and in deference to the advice of Mr. Grattan and other friends, their petition lor emancipation should not then be pre- sented. This motion was opposed by Mr. O'GormaD, but sustained by the potent voice of Daniel O'Conncll, who spoke oa thil occasion with a warm and Glial regard of the veteran Catholic agitator, John Keogh, and his long services to the cause. The res- olution to postpone was carried ; the com- mittee was dissolved ; and Lord Fingal was deputed to present a respectful address to the Duke of Bedford ; although, how his grace merited any confidence or gratitude from the Irish Catholics it would now be difficult to explain. The whole policy of his administration had been directed to keep back their claim for emancipation, and to preserve the Orange Ascendancy in its op- pressive domination. Yet the Duke seemed to be removed from office upon a question which touched the Catholics, though never so little. The Or- ange men were excited against him; party spirit had been roused ; and such zealous partizans are the Irish populace, and so grateful for' any presumed kind intention, that the Dublin mob, absolutely took out the horses from the Duke's carriage, and from the Duchess' carriage, yoked some of themselves to the carriages, and tle^w them to the water side, where they embarked for England on the 21st of April, 1807. CHAPTER XLIX 1807—1808. Duke ui Quimper Means Used to Create Exas- peration against Catholics—" Shanavests" and "Caravats 11 — "Church in Danger 11 .Catholic Pe- tition — Influence of O'Connell — Lord Fingal — Growing Liberality amongst Prot< jtanl May- nootli Grant Curtailed- Doctoi Dnigenan Privy- Councillor — ■ Catholic Petition Presented — The " Veto " Offered — Mr. Ponsonby ami Mr. Grattan — They Urge the Veto as a Security — Petition Re- jeeted— Controversies (in I In- \'vlo -l!ish(i|is' Reso- lutions— No Catholics in Rank of Ireland— Dublin Police. The Duke of Richmond had arrived iii Dublin, as Lord-Lieutenant, a few days be- fore his predecessor left it. jjL . T \ s.;. w n m [wijSte 9 i ^C, vu,Hnui t a, - W^B^ _ft- « 458 distort of Ireland. ( Sfy \&^ tr $3 /< w As the new administration had accepted office immediately after the King had re- quired a pledge from his Ministers that no Catholic claims, or rights, or wrongs, should cm- be mentioned to him again, this accept- ance of cilice was itself a pledge to that ef- fect l'_v the new advisers of the Crown ; and, bo far as they were concerned, they certainly redeemed the pledge. They were profess- edly a " No-Popery " Cabinet ; and the first principle of their policy was resist- ance to all reform, and especially to all concession to Catholics. Such being their merits, the Viceroy and his Secretary, Sir An liar Wellesley, were at once presented by the Dublin Corporation with the free- dom of the city in a sold and in a silver box, respectively. The vote was accom- panied by an enthusiastic speech of the no- torious Mr. John Giffard, who said, this was not the mere compliment of custom, but a special recognition of their known deter- mination "to maintain the Constitution in Church and State" — that is, the Protestant Ascendancy, and the exclusion and debase- ment of Catholics. It may well lie understood that this event aggravated the insolence of Orange magis- trates and squires, all over the island, mak- ing the lot of the Catholic country-people still more bitter than before ; and that it caused despondency, irritation, and some de- gree of disorganization amongst the Catho- lic leaders, who were striving in such hope- less circumstances for the civil rights of their countrymen. It would be difficult to con- ceive any political prospect more gloomy than that of the Catholic body at that mo- ment ; dreading the rigor of the new ad- ministration, with its ferocious Orange sup- porters, and reduced to be thankful to the out-going Ministers for attempting a paltry army-reform, avowedly intended to diminish the Catholic population. This is the first time — seven years after the Union — that we first find British Ministers urging the depop- ulation of the island ; a policy which lias since been prosecuted with such eminent success. The new Parliament opened in June. In the elections which preceded it, the Govern- ment made unusual exertions to secure a large majority. Of the nature of the influ- ences employed in Ireland for this purpose, one example may suffice : Soon after the House met, Mr. Whitbread stated, from a paper which he produced, to the House, that Mr. Ormsby, the Solicitor for the For- feited Estates in Ireland, went down to the election for Wexford County, and person- ally waited on Mr. James Grogan, for the purpose of influencing him to support the Ministerial candidates, by a promise of a restoration to the family of all the estates of his late brother, Cornelius Grogan, which had been forfeited Ministers neither de- nied nor blamed, nor offered to investigate the fact, or punish the delinquent. Mr. Perceval assured Lord Howick, that he had never before heard of it ; and Sir Arthur Wellesley declared, that the Government of Ireland had given no instructions to Mr. Ormsby on the subject ; and any improper use of such influence was unknown to Gov- ernment. The actual abuse of the Govern- ment influence, the overt negotiation of their confidential servant, and his subse- quent impunity, tell the whole story plainly enough. The first act passed for Ireland in this Parliament was a new "Insurrection act." The second was an " Arms act." They were brought in by Sir Arthur Wellesley ; and it appeared on the debates that they had been actually framed by the late Gren- ville administration, but there had not been time to pass them. The Duke of Bedford and Mr. Secretary Elliott had recommended, and now supported them ; — yet, the Dublin people had harnessed themselves to Lord Bedford's carriage 1 So easily won by even pretended kindness are our generous-hearted countrymen — and so minute is the difference between Whigs and Tories. The " Insurrection act" renewed the pow- er of the Lord-Lieutenant to proclaim dis- turbed counties, and the authority of the magistrates to arrest persons who should be found out of their dwellings between sun- setting and sunrising. There was a clause enacting, " that magistrates might have the power to enter any houses, or authorize any persons, by warrant, to do so, at any time From after sunset, to sunrise, from which they should suspect the inhabitants, or any of them to be then absent, and cause ^ r*7 I rW t 7/ A.T ■■>££=: '<& -^ m£Mmm$K> GRATTAN ADVOCATES c8eRCION ACTS SHERIDAN OPPOSES THEM. 459 \&\ v r-;;^:. absent persons to be apprehended, and deem- ed idle and disorderly, unless they could prove they were absent upon their lawful occasions." Many persons thought it singular to find Mr. Grattan, then member for Dublin, sup- porting this coercion law ; but in truth, it was quite consistent with his former course ; he had supported the former Insurrection act, and Gunpowder act, in the Irish Parliament. Nobody could have a greater horror of re- volutionary movements, and of French prin- ciples than Grattan ; and Air. Elliott, the late Secretary, assured him that the poor "Threshers" were at bottom no other than Jacobins. He said, on this occasion : — " He understood from his Right Honor- able friend beside him, (Mr. Elliott,) that there were secret meetings of a dark and da n- gerous description in Ireland. This formed a ground lor the bill. He was afraid of a French interest in Ireland, and he wished that Government should be furnished with the means not merely of resisting, but of extir- pating that interest, wherever and whenever it should appear." But his support of so cruel a measure greatly alienated his friends in Ireland. To do him justice, he vehemently objected to the clause authorizing magistrates to enter houses by night, on suspicion, or to give a warrant for that purpose to any one who might say he hud a suspicion. " But who," he exclaimed, " were the persons to be vest- ed with the power ? Perhaps some lawless miscreant — some vagabond. Perhaps, the discretion of that reasonable time was to be lodged in the bosom of some convenient menial, some postillion, coachman, host- ler, or ploughboy, who, under the sanction of the law, was to judge when it would be a rea- sonable time for him to rush into the apart- ment of a female, while she was hastily throwing on her clothes, to open the door to this midnight visitor. This would give a wound that would be felt long." Richard Brinsley Sheridan, to his honor be it said, went against his friend and most of his party upon this question. " His Plight Honorable friend had said, that the mea- sure could only be justified by an imperious necessity ; now it was that necessity which he wished to have clearly made out to exist, before the measure was resorted to. It was no answer to him, that the measure had been prepared by his friends. If it had, the Threshers were then engaged in their dis- turbances, and administering unlawful oaths. Ireland was now as loyally tranquil as any part of the empire. Would they state in the preamble of.the bill, " Whereas, a very small part of Ireland was some time ago disturbed by the Threshers, and whereas, that disturbance has been completely put down by the ordinary course of the law, and Ire- land is now completely tranquil, be it, there- fore, enacted, &c. That most extraordinary powers, &e." The bill passed into law, however, with all its clauses ; and by continual renewals (for it is always temporary, like the Mutiny act,) it has been substantially the law of Ireland even to this day. Next came the Arms bill. It was the needful complement of the other ; for if the people were not very carefully deprived of arms, it was known that they would not submit to the daily and nightly outrages which were intended to be perpetrated upon them under the " Insurrection act." Put while the latter was to be contingent upon the Viceroy's proclamation, the Arms act was universal and was to operate at once. Mr. Sheridan opposed this measure also. He said that if the former bill seemed odious in its form and substance, this was ten thou- sand times more so ; it was really abomina- ble. Put at the same time, as if it were meant to make the measure both odious and ridiculous, it was so constructed, as that it would plunder the people of their arms, and put down the trade of a blacksmith. Noth- ing like a blacksmith was to exist in Ireland, lest he might possibly form something like a pike. If ever there were an instance, in which the liberties of a loyal people were taken from them, and they were thereby tempted to become disloyal, it was the pres- ent. Indeed, from the general spirit, with which the bill was framed, he thought there only wanted a clause to make it high trea- son for any man to communicate either of these bills to Napoleon Buonaparte, Emperor of the French, lest he should conceive them to be direct invitations to him to visit that part of His Majesty's empire. Q ft. •> .O, ^> frfr^ ?\ w> — (i^ M^h- J3£i HISTORY OF IRELAND. On the 14 th of August, Mr. Sheridau moved for a serious Parliamentary inquiry into the state of Ireland, Mr. Perceval eagerly opposed the motion ; earnestly de- precated " the time and the spirit " of Mr. Sheridan's motion ; and got rid of it by the " previous question." Thus, at I lie moment when Catholics were told to despair of ever being admitted to the privileges of the Constitution, they were to be disarmed and coerced on suspicion and hearsay ; and all inquiry into the causes of their discontent was refused, because the right time had not come. And, in fact, it has never come. We have said the Catho- lics were to be disarmed and coerced ; for although no religious distinction is made in the acts, yet every one knew then, as now, that such laws are never enforced against a Protestant, unless it be, perhaps, some Pro- testant like Mr. Wilson, the Tyrone mag- istrate, who makes himself obnoxious by standing up for his Catholic neighbors. The stem and eternal negative put upon Catholic claims soon reached France. A certain Bishop of Quimper, in a pastoral to his flock, very naturally drew a striking con- trast between the intolerance of England and the regard for religion and absolute tol- eration shown by the Emperor's Govern- ment* These remarks were, in the eyes of the English Government, a development of the most infamous French principles, or ather a proof of a Franco-Irish conspiracy. Indeed, nothing ever has so bitterly provok- * The good Bishop of Quimper says amongst other things : " He (the Emperor) shall hear the acclama- tions of your gratitude and your love. They will prove to the eternal enemy of the glory and prosper- ity of France that all her perfidious intrigues will never be able to alienate from him your religious and faithful hearts Pora momentshe had Bednced you — at that unhappy epoch when anarchy ravaged this desolatedland, and when its impious furies overturned your temples and profaned your altars. She only af- fected concern tor the reestablishment of your holy religion in order to rend and ravage your country. See the sufferings which England inflicts upon Ire- land, which is Catholic like you. and subject to her dominion. The three last ages present only the af- fi .tin.,' picture of a people robbed of all their relig- ious and civil rights. In vain the most enlightened men of that nation have protested against the tyran- nical oppression. A new persecution has ravished from them even the hope of seeing an end to their calamities. An Inflamed and misled (the English) people, dares applaud such injustice, it insults with sectarian fanaticism the Catholic religion, and its ed the British public and its Government, as when the eloquent tongue of some illus- trious French prelate proclaims aloud the shocking truth about Irish rule, and pours forth the hot torrent of sacred indignation upon the deliberate, cold-blooded atrocities of England. f Upon the slender foundation of the Bish- op of Quiroper's Pastoral, Government un- derlings engrafted a most base fabrication, for the double purpose of raising indignation against the French, and of throwing odium upon the body of the Irish Catholics. The Government prints gave out, that a very important document, pregnant with danger to this country, signed by Napoleon and Talleyrand, had fallen into the hands of his Majesty's Ministers, together with a docu- ment of still more importance to the Catho- lic cause in Ireland, asserted to have been solemnly issued from the Vatican. It was falsely asserted, that the Tope had lately issued a Bull, addressed to the titular bish- ops of Ireland, exhorting them in the most forcible terms to excite in the minds o.f all people of the Roman Catholic persuasion under their influence and direction, an ar- dent devotion to the views and objects of Buonaparte, and an expectation, that by his assistance and protection they might eventu- ally obtain an uncontrolled exercise of their rights, religious and political. It was also stated, that this address from the Roman Pontiff, was accompanied by another paper containing a solemn declaration on t lie part of the French ruler, that it was his firm de- knows not how to be just towards its own subjects, and dates to calumniate this, which has given us se- curity and honor. Whilst the Irish Catholics groan beneath laws so oppressive, our august Emperor docs not confine himseli to the protection and establish- ment of that religion in his own states. He demand- ed in his treaty with Saxony, that it should there en- joy the same liberty as other modes of worship." fit is hut a very few years since Monsieur Dupanloup, the eloquent bishop of Orleans, having given out that he was about to preach a charity sermon, for the re- lief of the exterminated Irish, Lord Plunket, bishop of Tuam, wrote to Monsieuer d'Orleans that lie knew In- was going to libel Kim, and fling foul sland- ers upon him. Efforts were even made through the English Embassy to induce the Emperor ta forbid the sermon. It was preached, however, to avast as- semblage, and though his grace of Tuam was not slandered nor named in the discourse, yet it was a most scathing and touching expose of the whole course of British policy in Ireland. The English ^ m& venerable chief; and it is that Government, which ' press was bitterly indignant. L<© f iAi .CaAWSkSiti, SHANA VESTS " AND " CARAVATS ' termination to give the Roman Catholic religion the ascendancy in Ireland. By foul means such as these the " No-Po- pery " cry was stimulated to its most savage pitch of blood-thirsty ferocity. Even the rural organizations, calling themselves " Shanavesls," and " Caravats," which arose this year in Tipperary, and who were noth- ing in the world but White-Boys and Thresh- ers, under local names, were carefully given out to be secret political societies, which were going to bring in the French. In truth, those unhappy people had their thoughts much more occupied about the tithe-proctor than about the Emperor Na- poleon ; and knew more about County-cess than about French principles. Unfortuna- tely, however, the Shanavests and Caravats were not one agrarian faction, but two ; and sometimes, when they ought to have been threshing the tithe-corn, they threshed each Other at fair and market. Mr. Plowden says : — "Both parties seemed to be indiscrimina- tely sore at the payment of tithes ; both complained of the exorbitancy of the ad- vanced demands of rack-rents for lands out of lease. Both manifested symptoms of a natural and interested attachment to the soil they had occupied, by their undisguised " ostility to every competitor for the farms of the old occupiers. They had not then begun (as they were afterwards charged,) to lix a general rate of tithe and rent, and .to enforce the observance of it by threats of visiting those who should dare to exceed it. They assumed no appellation expressive of, or appropriate to, any of those objects which they have since pursued to the disgrace and disturbance of the country. When the In- surrection and Arms bills passed into laws, it is no less true, than singular, that in all the counties, then said to be disturbed, not a single charge was to be found on the calen- dar, of sedition or insurgency, at the prcced- ng assizes. Widely as the Threshers had extended their outrages, they had been com- pletely put down and tranquillized by the arm of the common law, without recourse to the violent measure of suspending the Constitution. The objects of their outrages had been ascertained by the judges, who had gone into the disturbed parts on the late special commission ; and not even a spurious whisper had reached their ears, that there was amongst them anything describa- ble as an existing French party." These miserable writhings of a crushed I s3 peasantry, under the heel of local tyrants, were, however, eagerly seized and dwelt upon, as both justifying the coercion bills, and exhibiting the unchangeable, ineradica- ble wickedness of Papists ; so that when Parliament met, on ' the 21st of January, 1808, No-Popery! and Church in Danger! rung Bercely through the Three Kingdoms. Tivo days before Parliament assembled, there was a large meeting of Catholics in Dublin, Lord Fingal in the Chair. On mo- tion of Count Dalton, it was resolved to petition Parliament for the repeal of the re- maining Penal laws. Some gentlemen, as Mr. O'Conor, of Belanagare, moved an adjournment of the meeting, as they de- spaired of any success, under the existing regime ; but O'Connell, who now constantly attended these meetings, and took a leading part in them, had already adopted his well- known maxim — Agitate! Agitate! He supported the resolution to petition ; so did John Byrne, of Mullinahack. The resolu- tion of adjournment was withdrawn, and that for a petition unanimously passed. O'Connell's influence was, even thus early, very powerful in softening down irritation, soothing jealousies, and inspiring self-abne- gation, for the sake of the common cause. It was this great quality, not less than his commanding ability, which made him, soon afterwards, the acknowledged head of the Catholic cause. Nf Tjsk^'-^x The petition was intrusted to Lord Fin- gal, who went to London and asked Lord Greuville and Mr. Grattan, to present it, after the Duke of Portland, to whom it was first offered, hail coldly refused to have anything to do with it. And humiliating enough it must have been, to that Peer ol ancient race, to be obliged to hawk round among " Liberal " members of both Mouses the humble petition of himself and his conn- VS^^'Q trymen, to be admitted to the common civil rights of human beings, and to see the re- presentative of oneof King William's Dutch- men turn his back upon the importunity of the Irish Papist. Nothing came of this petition. It was laid on the table of the Lords; but when Mr. G rattan offered it in the Commons, the sharp eyes of Canning and Perceval detected an informality — seve- ~V\ J rul of the names appeared to be written in the same handwriting — a fatal objection, as they insisted, and the petition was not re- ceived. Evidently, the right way had not yel been discovered, to command the atten- tion of that House to Catholic claims ; and it was not till twenty-one years later that the right way was suddenly found out by O'Connell. It is agreeable to have here to record, that the furious bigotry of the Ministry and the studied excitations to religious animos- ity, were not responded to by the Irish Pro- testants altogether as had been expected. The Duke of Cumberland had entirely failed to induce or intimidate the University of Dublin into petitioning against the Catholic claims, as Oxford had done. The Protest- ant inhabitants of many of the counties in Ireland presented petitions in favor of the claims of the Catholics. There were nine counties that had shown the noble example of liberality and sound policy. The Counties of Clare and Galway had, at meetings con- vened by the sheriff, expressed their ardent wish for admitting their Catholic brethren to tile benefits of the Constitution. In the Counties of Tipperary, Kilkenny, Roscom- mon, Waterford, ami Meath, and in the town of Newry, resolutions to the same ef- fect were entered into, as well by the Pro- testant gentry ami inhabitants, as by the great bulk of Protestant proprietors of land. That recommendation was owin" partly to the growing influence of liberality 'SjQ^ I and confidence, partly to the absence of all suspicion of any real intention to invade the landed property of the county on a conve- nient occasion, but more particularly to the strong and immediate feeling of danger which a divided country would have to en- counter in case of hostile invasion. On that principle did wise Protestants deprecate the terrible privilege of an exclusive monopoly of Constitutional right and political power. The Duke of Cumberland, indeed, hail the gratification of presenting to the House of Lords one petition from the Orange Cor- poration of Dublin against the Catholics ; but the example was not generally followci One reflection arises upon these facts : — That the most potent and unrelenting enemy to the Irish Catholics, at all limes, was not the Irish Protestants, bat the British imperi- al system. It was the English Parliament, in King William's time, then assuming to bind Ireland by its own acts, which first violated the treaty of Limerick, by excluding Cath- olic Peers and Commoners from Parliament. It was while the English Parliament com- pletely controlled the action of that of Ire- land, (by requiring the heads of bills to be sent over,) that the dreadful Penal Code was successively elaborated and maintained in force. But it was Ireland's free Parlia- ment which, in 1793, gave the grand shock to that infamous code, admitting Catholics to the bar, to the corporations, to the juries, allowing them to go to school, and to teach school, to bear arms, to own horses, to hold lands in fee, to take degrees in the Univer- sity ; — in short, it was the Irish Protestant Parliament, once free, that swept away, in "iie day, live-sixths of the oppressions, |*en- alties, and disabilities, accumulated and piled upon the Catholics, during a whole century, by the unappeasable hate of England. This accounts for O'Connell's frequent declaration, that, rather than remain in the Union, he would gladly take back the Irish Protestant Parliament — consent to repeal of Catholic Emancipation, and take his chance with his Irish fellow-countrymen. And O'Connell was right. Two of the first things recommended for Ireland by the Duke of Richmond were, the curtailment of the Maynooth Grant, and the appointment of Doctor Daigenan to a seat on the Irish Privy-Council. The whole spirit of the Perceval administration is ap- parent in these two exampl s. Doctor Duigenan had devoted his life to raking up all the vile, forgotten slanders tiiat had ever been heaped upon Catholics since the days of Calvin ; and was never so much in his clement as when pouring forth his foul col- li, -lion, by the hour, in a full-foaming stream of ribald abuse. The appointment of such a man to such a place, was a public affront and a significant warning to Catholics, show- ing them in what estimation they and theii claims were held by the new Government. % r~7 ( ■ / DOCTOR DUIGENAN PRIVY-COUNCILLOR. ft L \ > r^Ti-i TF", The other pitiful manifestation of No- Popery spite was cutting down the appro- riation for Maynooth College. This was evidently a subject of difference and discus- sion in the Cabinet. Mr. Foster, Chancel- or of the Irish Exchequer, in Committee on the Supplies, slated, that additional build- ings were in progress at Maynooth ; that the establishment was capable of accommo- dating two hundred and fifty students ; and that it was his intention to move that the Slim of £9,250 should be granted to that institution for the current year. Sir John Newport moved that it should lie £13,000, which was the annual grant lixed by the late administration, as will be remembered, in their alarm lest the Irish College of Paris should again attract Irish pupils. A warm debate ensued. Mr. Perceval, as a matter of course, opposed the larger grant, upon strictly evangelical principles ; so did William Wilberforce, (a gentleman whose sympathies were strongly excited by the de- gradation of oppressed people, provided they were of a black color.) General Mathew, a good and generous Irishman, earnestly supported the proposal to grant the larger sum. He had been, within the last ten days, at Maynooth, and he could assure the House, that, unless the whole of the last year's grant should be voted, the buildings upon which former grants had been expended, woidd fall. There was no lead on the roofs, and the rain penetrated through them. He al- luded to the offer made by order of Napo- leon, to induce Irish students to go for edu- cation to France from Lisbon and Ireland, upon a promise of the restoration of all the Irish Bmvrses ; and read an extract from the answer of the Irish Catholic Bishops, stating their gratitude to the Government for the liberal support of Maynooth, and denouncing suspension against any functionaries, and exclusion from preferment in Ireland against any students, who should accept the offers of the enemy of their own country. Would any one say after that, that the Catholics were not to lie confided in? If they were not to be trusted, why not dismiss them from the army and navy ? Why allow them to vote at elections ? But this was not the act of Ministers. He was sorry to be obliged to allude to the conduct of any of the Royal family. But, however, it was rumored, that even Minis ters were disposed to agree to the grant, ti they went to St. James' Palace, and were closeted for several hours with a Royal Duke, after which they resorted to the pres- ent reduction. That Royal Duke was the Chancellor of the University of Dublin ; lie was Chancellor of a Protestant school, and might wish to put down the education of the Catholics ; but no man, who knew or valued Ireland, as he did himself, could countenance such a project. Ministers, however, had a sure majority, and succeeded in cutting down the proposed graut to Maynooth. One can only wonder that the Catholic body, clergy and laity, persisted in such an obstinate "loyalty" to the British Government, and did not turn tc France, and hearken to the liberal invitation of the Emperor Napoleon. Amongst the bitter opponents of the May- nooth Grant was Doctor Duigeuan, the new Privy-Councillor, who was member for an Irish Borough. He vented some of the ven- om, of which he had plenty, upon his Cath- olic countrymen ; said they were always trai- tors in theory, and wanted but the opportu- dity to be traitors in action. This gave rise to some sharp debating. Mr. Barham could not contain his execra- tion of such scandalous and wicked senti- ments. This drew from Mr. Tierney the question to Mr. Perceval, whether the offi- cial order for making Doctor Duigenan a Privy-Councillor had been sent over to Ire- land. On a negative answer from the Chan- cellor of the Exchequer, Sir A. Wellesley apprised the House, that the Right Honor- able and learned gentleman had been speci- ally recommended by the Lord-Lieutenant to be a Privy-Councillor, as from his knowl- edge of ecclesiastical business he could be of great service in Ireland in that situation. This induced Mr. Barham on a subsequent day to move the House, that an humble ad- dress be presented to His Majesty, praying that he would order to be laid before the House, copies of the extracts of the corres- pondence, which passed between the Lord- Lieutenant of Ireland and the Government of England, as to the appointment of Doctor J~L <7. iW$ fj •a ,-A I ,er> ^ Ss •V » 4Gi HISTORY OF IRELAND. Patrick Duigenan to a scat in the Privy- Council of Ireland. The question being put, Mr. AV. Wynne said he was anxious to hear a vindication of so extraordinary an appoint- ment, and one which was so much lamented. Mr then alluded to the dismissal and subse- quent advancement of Mr. Giffard, and con- sidered the present only as a fresh endeavor to irritate the feelings of the Catholics of Ireland. Sir A. Wellesley repeated, that applications had been made to Government here, to grant to the learned Doctor as Judge of the Prerogative Court, the office of member of the Privy-ConnciL Till the time of his predecessor this had been the uniform custom, and it was now resorted to again as a matter of convenience. He be- lieved, that the present session was the first time it had been attempted to be argued, that because u man was friendly to the Church, he ought not to be trusted. If the Honorable and learned Doctor had been indiscreet in his language, why was it not taken down at the time, and complaint made to that House? lie did not cure of what religion a man was. If he could be useful in any line, in that line, he was of opinion, he ought to be employed. There is no doubt that Sir Arthur Wel- lesley was quite sincere in these declarations ; he did not care of what religion a man was ; he was always a practical person ; he de- sired, in a privy-councillor, as in a staff-offi- cer or a commissary, precisely such quali- ties as were serviceable for the business in hand ; and as the business in hand at, that moment was to trample down and humiliate ,1m' Catholics, he approved of Doctor Duig- enan for Privy-Councillor. The Catholic petition which had been re- jected by the House of Commons, on a point of form, hail been sent back to Ire- land to lie signed anew. Iu the meantime, Lord Fingal remained in Loudon, ami had frequent interviews with the friends of the Catholics, particularly with .Mr. Ponsonby. It was now that the delicate subject of the veto lirst took a tangible shape. Lord Fin- gal was aii amiable, high-minded, and un- suspicious man ; but a weak one. The success of the petition, he was assured by the friends of the Catholic cause, would be greatly forwarded by an admission of the royal veto in the nomination of the Irish prelacy. This negotiation, which has since produced effects of great national import- ance, though then iinl'orseen, was of n pri- vate nature ; and the particulars of it would not have reached the public, had not subse- quent events induced the parties to it to make them public. Never was a point of poUiico-l/ieologicalcoatvovtirsy so fiercely con- tested, and, consequently, so misconceived and misrepresented as this question of veto. Lord Fingal had certainly received no spe- cific instruction concerning it from the Cath- olic meeting, which voted him the side dele- gate, guardian, and manager, of their peti- tion ; and the subject of a veto was not iu contemplation of that meeting. The history of this affair proves, in a most striking manner, how dangerous it is for any national Church, in matters affecting its discipline, government, and independence, to take counsel of any one outside of itself. In the present case, Lord Fingal, only anxious for the emancipation of his coun- trymen, and credulous enough to believe that the English Parliament would grant it upon fair terms, without the strongest coercion, acted by the advice of Doctor Milner, an English Vicar-Apostolic, and author of a learned controversial work ; and as Doctor Milner was a kind of agent iu England for the Irish Bishops, though not with any such purpose as this, the two together took it upon them to authorize Mr. Ponsonby and Mr. (J rattan (as both those gentlemen af- firmed,) to reinforce the prayer of the Catholic petition, by offering the veto power to the Crown. The petition having returned from Ire- land, duly signed, was presented by Mr. rattan, on the '2. r >ih of May. The only remarkable passage in his speech, is that in which he proposes the veto. He said : — "The influence of the Pope so far was purely spiritual, and did not extend even to the appointment of the members of his Cath- olic hierarchy. They nominated themselves, ami looked to the Pope, lint for his Spiritual sanction of such nomination. Dut if it should be supposed, that there was the smallest danger iu this course, he had a proposition to suggest, which he hail autho- rity to state, which, indeed, he was instructed V s& i^Vf \&W SS\ to make ; namely, thai His Majesty may interfere upon nny such occasion with his negative. This would have the effect of preventing any Catholic ecclesiastic being advanced to the government of that Church in [reland, who was not politically approved of l>y the Government of that country." Air. Ponsonby, in supporting the petition, made the same proposal ; and said he did so upon the authority of Doctor Milner, who was a Catholic Bishop in England, and who was authorized by the Catholic Bishops of Ireland to make the proposition, in case the measure of Catholic Emancipation should be acceded to. The proposition, lie said, was this: That the person to be nominated to a vacant Bishopric should be submitted to the King's approbation; and that, if the approbation were refused, another person should be proposed, and so on, in succession, until His Majesty's approbation should be obtained, so that the appointment should finally rest with the King. Mr. Perceval, us might have been expect- ed, earnestly and prayerfully opposed Mr. Grattan's motion, and all other possible con- cession to Papists, whether on thecondition of veto, or any other condition. Not that he would be averse, lie said, front giving contentment to his Catholic brethren, whom lie loved as a Christian, as much as any man; and "should not conceive himself precluded from supporting their claims un- der different circumstances, in the event, for instl e, of a change Inking place in the Catholic religion itself." On the division upon Mr. Grattan's motion, the Minister had a majority of one hundred and fifty- three — one hundred and twenty-eight having voted for going into committee, and two hundred and eighty-one against it. Lord Grenville presented the same peti- tion in the Lords ; made the same offer of the veto, and the petition met the same fate as in the Co ions. These debates at once raised an immense controversy both in England and in Ireland ; which lasted many years, and produced in- numerable books and pamphlets ; discuss- ing the limits between spiritual and tem- poral power ; the meaning of loyalty, and of the oath of supremacy, and the "liber- ties of the Gallican Church "■ — which ought 59 rather to be termed the "Slavery of the Gallican Church," because it means the subordination of the government of tha Church to the civil power. That civil power, indeed, is native and not foreign ; but when it comes to be a question of subordin- ating the government of the Catholic Church in Ireland to a Protestant King of Eng- land, one must only wonder that even the eagerness for civil emancipation could ever have made tiny Irish Catholic entertain such an idea for a moment. Into the merits of the question we do not here enter ; but it is matter of history that when Mr. Pitt and Lord Castlercagh wei'e intriguing for sup- port to the Union, in L799, they had deluded certain Irish Bishops into accepting the principle of the veto, by holding out to them the bait of immediate emancipation titer the Union* The alarm and indignation excited in Ire- land, both amongst clergy and laity, by the veto project, were quite vehement. The conscientious' Catholic historian, Plow. leu, says : — "The prospective view of a national re- ligion, preserved with a virtuous hierarchy, without any civil establishment or state in- terference, through three centuries of op- pression and persecution, produced alarm in * The Rev. Mr. Brenan, in his Ka-lrsinflicril Hut.wtj of Ireland, narrates the circumstances thus: — "During the course of that year, ten of lie- Irish Bishops, constituting the Board of Maynootb Col- lege, happened to lie convened in Dublin, on the ar- rangement of some ecclesiastical business, when Lord Castlereagh, then Secretary for [reland, availed himself of their presence, and submitted for their adoption two vitally momentous measures, originat* ing from the British Ministry.* " By the first of these it was proposed, that His Majesty should lie invested with the power of a veto in ail future ecclesiastical promotions within this kingdom, and agreeably to the second, the Catholic clergy of Ireland were to receive a pension out of the treasury; at tie- same tune, assurances were sol- emnly pledged by Government, that on the acquies- cence of the Irish hierarchy in these Btate measures, the fate of that great national question, Catholic Emancipation, entirely depended. Thus In-set by Ike proffers of the Minister on the one hand, and by the alarming posture of the country on the other, the Bishops already alluded to agreed, ' that in the * The prelates composing the board were as follows :— Richard O'Reilly, R C A B., Armagh; J. T Troy, B. a A B , Dublin ; Edward Dill I:, C A B , Team ; Thomas Bray, K. C. A. I!., C.slel ; P. .1 Ptardrett, R. C 1: , Meathj I\ Movlan, R. O. I!., Cork ; Daniel DeJaney, R C. J'.., Kil- dare ; Edmund French, R, (' B. , Elphin ; James Caul- lield, K. C. B., Ferns ; Johb Cruise, R. C. B., Aidauu. » y .a <& 4G6 HISTORY OP IRELAND. &\ W IS w H& ^ C HP every reflecting mind. The proposed inno- vation of introducing Royal and Protestant connection, influence, and power into the constitution and perpetuation of a Catholic hierarchy, to the otter exclusion of which the Irish Catholics ascribed that almost mi- raculous preservation, threw the public mind into unusual agitation. The laity abhorred the idea of the ministers of their religion becoming open to Court influence and in- trigue, and shuddered at the prospect of prostituting the sacred function of thai apostolic mission and jurisdiction, to which they had hitherto submitted as of divine in- stitution, to its rcvilers, persecutors, and sworn enemies, At the same time, the whole Catholic clergy of Ireland were driven by a Common electric impulse into more than or- dinary reflection u] the stupenduons effi- cacy of that evangelical purity and inde- pendence by which the spiritual pastors hail so long, and under such temptations and dif- ficulties, preserved their flocks iu the relig- ion of their Christian ancestors. "The general voice of the people crying out against religious reform, was an awful warning to the clergy ; and although the in- sidious concordat of 1799, was still clothed in darkness, the Irish Catholic prelates met appointment of Roman Catholic prelates to vacant sees within the kingdom, such intcrivrcnce of Gov- ernment as may enable ii in be satisfied of the loy- alty of the person appointed is just, and onght to be agreed to ; ' this statement was accompanied w ith an admission, ' Mint ;i provision, Mirou^li Government, for tin' Roman Catholic clergy of this kingdom, com- petent iiml secured, onght to be thankfully ac- cepted.' " This transaction remained a Becret for many years. Mr. Plowden speaks of "the long and mysterious suppression from the knowledge of the Catholic body, of the resolutions of the Clerical Trustees of May- M. 10 ili i !ollege in 1799, which never came folly to light till Is 10. It is not si 1 1| Mis i ng, n he adds, " I hat respect- able prelates should wish to conceal them from the eyi s of the public, ami particularly of such of their friends as they wished to engage in their cause, and whose esteem and confidence they subsequently courted. They were the base offspriug of their un- guarded connection with Mr, Pitt, whilst he was meditating the Union ; which they have been Borely lamenting from the hour they round themselves swindled out of the stipulated price of their seduc- tion." It should he stated, in justice I o I loci or M il nor, that, after the use of his name in Parliament, as authoriz- ing the offer of a r, to, he published a statement Mint lie had DO authority to sanction such an offer; and that he had been misquoted. After the Irish llishops passed their Bynodical resolutions, there was no Dtore ardent opponentof the veto than Doctor Milnor. in regular National Synod on the 14th and 15th of September, 1808, in Dublin, and came to the following resolutions: — " It is the decided opinion of the Roman Catholic Prelates of Ireland, that it is inex- pedient to introduce any alteration in the canonical mode hitherto observed in the nomination of the Irish Roman Catholic Bishops, which mode, long experience, has proved to be unexceptionable, wise, and salutary. " That the Roman Catholic prelates pledge themselves to adhere to the rules by which they have been hitherto uniformly guided ; namely, to recommend to His ho- liness only such persons as are of unimpeach- able loyally and peaceable conduct." These Synodical resolutions were signed by twenty- three prelates. Three only (they were three of those who had signed the resolu- tions of 1199,) dissented."* Immediately were held many meetings of Catholics throughout Ireland, who, by their resolutions and addresses, protested vehe- mently against the whole project of veto, and thanked the Bishops for their linn'resu- lutions. When the real nature of the pro- posal was explained, and fully known, the Catholics of Ireland indignantly resolved rather to remain uticinancipatcd, than suffer their Church to lie enthralled. O'Connell was a strong opponent of the veto from the first ; the more active and educated of the laity repulsed the plan with scorn ; the press teemed with pamphlets, of which none made so much impression as the republication of Burke's letter to a peer iu Ireland, in which he treats of a similar project, of giving the Crown a voice in the nomination of Catho- lic Uishops.f * Plowden. Poet-Union History, p. .IDS, et $eq. f Kdmund Burke, who was as warm a friend to his Catholic countrymen as Grattan, and a much wiser friend, says, in his letter to a Peer: "Never were tin- members <»l one religious sect lit to appoint pas- tors to another. Those, who have no regard for their well, no, reputation, or internal quiet, will not appoint such as are proper. The Seraglio of Con- stantinople is as equitable as we are, whether Catho- lics or Protestant; and where their own sect is concerned, full as religions; but the sport which they make of the miserable dignities of the Greek Church, the factions of the Harem, to which they make them subservient, the continual sale to which they expose and r&expoBe the same dignity, and by which they squeeze all the inferior orders of the clergy is nearly equal to all the other oppressions t» fc fcAlG.CXUMUls.O ft M Si h'^'.'' The project of enslaving the Irish Catho- lic Church to the English Protestant State, was for. thai time defeated ; but it was brought forward again and again, during the struggle for emancipation, and for many years, greatly agitated the Catholic public. In the course of this session, Lord Gren- ville made his unit ion to make Catholic mer- chants admissible as Governor and Directors of the Bank of Ireland. Lord Westmore- land opposed the motion, on the general ground that no further concessions whatever should, under the present circumstances, be granted to the Catholics. But to this not very intelligent argument, his lordship added a sensible observation. He said " he was surprised to see such motions so often brought forward by those who, when they were themselves in power, employed every exertion to deprecate and prevent such dis- cussions." This was true. Ireland and her grievances, the Catholics and their wrongs, had become, in the Imperial Parliament, a stock-in-trade for Whigs out of place ; and have so remained ever since. When these politicians are in power, they still " depre- eate such discussions." Lord Ilcdesdale, late Chancellor of Ireland, was alarmed at the danger to the Protestant interest which would arise, from allowing Catholics to be Bank Directors. He said he had only to re- peat his former objections to such claims " The more you were ready to grant them, the more power and pretensions you gave to the Catholics to come forward with fresh chums, and perhaps to Insist upon them. His lordship then launched out into a general invective against the Catholics, and particu- larly the priests." gether, exercised by Husselmen over the unhappy niL-inbera of the Oriental Ctiurch. It is a great deal to Buppose, that the present Castle would nominate Bishops l<>r the Roman Church uf Ireland, with a re- ligious regard lor its welfare. Perhaps they cannot, perhaps dare not do it." And in another letter to Doctor Hnssey, the Catholic Bishop of Waterford, he iid: "If you (the Catholic Bishops,) have not wisdom enough to make common cause, they will cut you off, one by one. I am sure, that the constant meddling of yum- Bishopsand Clergy with the Caslle, and the CasUe withlhem, will infallibly set them ill with their own body. AH the weight, which the clergy have hitherto had to keep tin- people quiet will be wholly lost, if this once should happen. At bestyouwill have a marked schism, and more than one kind, and I am greatly mistaken if this is not in- tended, and diligently and systematically pursued." This debate about the Bank of Ireland, is not, by any means, worth recording (lor the motion was rejected, as its mover knew it would be,) save to illustrate the party tactics of the Whigs, anil the cool and stu- pid insolence of the "Ascendancy." The Dublin Police bill was carried, crea- ting eighteen new places for police magis- trates ; and Parliament was prorogued on the 8th of July, 1808. CHAPTER L. 1808—1809. The Duke of Richmond's Anti-Catholic Policy The Orangemen Flourish— Their Outrages and Murders — Castlereagh and Perceval Charged with Selling Seats— Corruption— Sir Arthur Wellesley— Tithes Catholic Committee Reorganized—John Keogh on Petitioning Parliament — O'Connell and the Con- vention Act — Orangemen also Reorganized — Or- ange Convention — More Murders by Orangemen Crooked Policy of the Castle — Defection of the Bandon Orangemen— Success of the Castle Policy in Preventing Union with Irishmen. The administration of the Duke of Rich- mond showed a venomous determination to keep down the Catholic people, and to rule the island most strictly through the Orange Ascendancy, and for its profit. The legislative rejection of the Catholic petition had been aggravated by the resto- ration of a certain Mr. Jacob, a notorious Orangeman, to the magistracy, the appoint- ment of Mr. Giffard to a more valuable sit- uation than that from which he had been displaced, the admission of Doctor Duigenan to the Privy-Council, and the curtailed grant to Maynooth College. A fostering counte- nance was given to the Orangemen, that tended more to foment and encourage, than to put down or punish their atrocities. It is certainly not an agreeable part of our duty to narrate anil to dwell upon these Orange outrages ; because this helps, more or less, to keep alive the religious animosities between the two religions sects ; which was the very object of the English Government in encouraging those outrages. Much more pleasing would it be to draw a veil of obliv- ion over them, and to think of them no more. But for two reasons this cannot be : lirst, the modern history of Ireland would 111 most a blank page without the villanies of Orange persecution, the complicity of Gov- ernment in those villanies, and their conse- quences upon the general well-being of the island ; next, because however well-inclined to forget those horrors, we have not been permitted to do so for a moment down to the present day. It was as late as 1848 that Lord Clarendon secretly supplied the Orange Lodges with arms ; as late as '49, that a magistrate of Down County led a band of Orangemen and policemen to the wreck- ing and slaughter of a Catholic townland.* Later still, the records of assizes in the northern circuits show us the frequent pic- ture of an Orange murderer shielded from justice by his twelve brethren who have been carefully packed into the jury-box by a sheriff who is an officer of the Crown. All this odious condition of society being ;i direct product of British policy, and now nourish- ing and still bearing its poisouous fruit, a student of Irish history is bound to look at, and to study, the wretched details. On the evening of the 23d of June, 1808, n considerable number of men, women, and children, were assembled round a bonfire at Corinshiga, within one mile and a half of the town of Xewry. They had a garland, and were amusing themselves, some dancing, others sitting at the fire, perfectly unappre- hensive of danger, when in the midst of their mirth, eighteen yeomen, fully armed and ac- coutred, approached the place, where they were drawn tip by their sergeant, who gave them the word of command to " present and fire," which they did several times, leveling at the crowd. One person was killed ; many were grievously wounded. The magis- trates of NewrVj although far from being friendly to the Catholic people, were scan- dalized at this atrocity. They offered a reward for the discovery of the perpetrators ; inclosed a copy of their publication to the J hike of Richmond, and prayed him to take some measures for the protection of the Catholics, who they said were all unarmed, 'while the very lowest class of Protestants were well provided with fire-arms. The * It is true that the magistrate was dismiss'',] from tlio Commission. Ho had somewhat exceeded the Intentions of the Castle in getting up a " loyal de- monstration.' 1 Yet the arms of that banditti had beeu furnished out of tno Castle vaults. Duke made a civil, but unmeaning, reply, expressing his "regret" at the sad circum- stance. Some weeks elapsed ; and still no measures were adopted. In the meantime, one of the persons concerned in the outrage was apprehended, but was allowed to escape by the yeomen, to whose custody Lord Gos- ford had intrusted him ; and a number of the same corps, to which the murderers be- longed, so far from showing any shame or regret at the conduct of their comrades, one day returning from parade, fired a volley (by way of bravado) over the house of M'Keown, (father of the deceased,) the report of which threw his wife into convulsions. Several inhabitants of the townland of Corinshiga, came to the magistrates and made depositions as to the continual terror and danger of themselves and their families, and the atrocious threats of the Orange yeomen who lived near them. Mr. Waring, one of the magistrates, who appears to have exerted himself earnestly in this affair, sent to the Castle copies of these depositions, ami entreated the Government to issue a proclamation, offering a reward for (Tie as- sassins, and to take some measures of repress- ing open outrage. Mr. Secretary Traill replied, coldly, that the Government declined to do anything in the matter. Mr. Waring again wrote, still more earnestly, "that the magistrates had expected that Government would have is- sued a proclamation offering a reward for prosecution, and pardon to some concern- ed for evidence against the others; that if this had not the desired effect, still much good might be expected to arise from the marked disapprobation of Government of an outrage of so dangerous and alarming a tendency ; that it might appear not un- worthy the consideration of his grace, whether such a measure might not even then (the 3d of August, 1808,) be adopt- ed with propriety, and that this procedure SO far front having a tendency to supersede the exertions of the local magistracy, could not but prove an efficient aid to them." This last letter was not answered, mid so the business dropped.* The advertisement or proclamation of the Newry magistrates * See abstract of the whole correspondence in l'lowdeu's (Volume III,) Post- Union lliMory. \-\ i»A<* ^.vu^d*^*., ' I was sent to the Hue and Cry, but was not Inserted. Not the least notice was taken of it, or t lie letter accompanying it. Such was 1 1 ic unblushing tenderness of the Duke of Richmond for the band of eighteen Orange- men, each and every one of whom was guilty of open murder. Not one of them was ever brought to justice ; and to this day the inhabitants of that and many another Catholic neighborhood in Ulster, when the anniversaries of the 1st and 12th of July come round, either bar themselves up in their houses and put out all lights, or else prepare for defensive battle. The foregoing incident is related in detail, because it is a characteristic example of many similar cases ; save, indeed, that the local magistrates, instead of seeking to bring offenders to justice, as in this case, have generally sought to screen them. If an atrocity like this had been at any time done by Catholics, troops would immediately have been sent down to quarter themselves upon their houses, and a special commission would have issued to hang at least eighteen, guilty or innocent. It was not merely in the way of direct encouragement to lawless Orangeism, that Lord Richmond's administration showed its settled design of trampling down the Catho- lics. We have seen that in Dublin, the wealthiest and most respectable merchants were insultingly kept out of the Bank Di- rection, because they were Catholics. In the counties, Catholic gentlemen, whose pro- perty and position entitled them to be called upon the Grand Juries, were studiously ex- cluded. If any High Sheriff of a county was not a supporter of the Ministerial policy, or was known to be favorable to his Catho- lic neighbors, his "name was carefully ex- cluded from the next list. And in all these measures, Sir Arthur Wellesley was unusu- ally active and rigorous. The time, indeed, had almost come, when his services would be required in the Spanish Peninsula ; and his native country could well spare him. During this year, (1808,) corruption seems to have been almost as rife in Ireland as it had been immediately before the Union ; and seats in Parliament were bought and sold. Early in the session of 1809, Mr. Maddox brought forward a specific charge of this sort of corruption, criminating Lord Castlereagh and Mr. Spencer Perceval, stating, amongst other things, that at the last general election, a sum of money was paid by Mr. Quintin Dick to Lord Castle- reagh, through means of the Honorable Henry Wellesley ; and that gentleman (Mr. Dick) was thereby returned member for Cashed, and Mr. Spencer Perceval was also a party to the transaction. Upon occasion of the late investigation as to the Duke of York, Mr. Quintin Dick waited upon Lord Castlereagh, and informed him of the vote he meant to give, and the noble lord not approving of that mode of voting, suggest- ed to him the propriety of relinquishing his seat in Parliament. Mr. Perceval, indeed, refused to plead to the charge ; said it was an insidious plan to lay the foundation for a measure of Parlia- mentary reform — which it certainly was — and so bowed to the Speaker, and went out. Lord Castlereagh followed his example ; but it is quite' evident the charge must have been true, otherwise, there wotdd not have been, in a House of six hundred and fifteen, in the teeth of all Ministerial influence, the large minority of three hundred and ten for a motion to inquire. There is every reason to believe that Sir Arthur Wellesley, dur- ing his Secretaryship, took the largest share in all this traffic for seats and votes and in- fluence. He had a mind of the character usually termed "eminently practical ;" and thought he had a right, as he declared long after, speaking of his administration in Ire- land, " to turn the moral weakness of indi- viduals to good account ;" that is, to the account of his party. In the session of Parliament, in 1809, little or no attention was given to the af- fairs of Ireland. An attempt was made by Mr. Parnell, to carry a motion for inquiry into the mode of collecting tithes in this country. The grievances and oppressions connected with the Church establishment, and the irritating spoliation of the people, for support of clergymen whose ministrations were of no use to them, were but too well known already, and needed no Committee of Inquiry at all. On this very ground, the motion was opposed by Ministers, who, hav- ing no idea whatever of giving any relief, or > &y ,&. ¥i S5T\ 'm redress, naturally enough refused the empty formality of an inquiry. The Chancellor of the Exchequer "did not think that the House was in ignorance, with respect to the suliject of tithes in Ireland, but that the difficulty was, how to find out a practical mode of securing the property of the Church. He could not be persuaded, that any inquiry, either by commission or com- mittee, would do any good ; for they did not wailt information?' In the short debate on this motion, Sir John Newport observed, that he thought Lord Castlereagh bound, by his former pro- fessions at the Union, to find out some mod- ifications to lighten the burdens of the poor, oppressed people of Ireland. Instead of doing so, that noble Lord appeared to for- get all his pledges for the public good, and merely to attend to those that went to pro- vide for individuals, whom he had taken care to seduce to his own standard. Lord Cas- tlereagh arrogantly asserted, that he knew of no pledge made, either by Mr. Pitt or himself, upon the subject of tithes, or the Catholic question. He most distinctly denied, that he hail OXr wail,' any pledge whatever as to Ireland. Mr. C. Hutchinson deprecated the conduct of Lord Castlereagh as to Ire- hind. He was the parent of the Union, and, in order to effect it, he had made many promises ; but whenever any question as to the amelioration of the situation of Ireland came to be agitated, he either put a nega- tive upon it, or moved the previous question. And, in fact, by the "previous question," the whole question was put aside upon this occasion also. On the 21th of .May, was held in Dublin a numerous meeting of the Catholics, to consider what, step they should take to fur- ther their claims. The requisition convening the meeting was signed by Lord Netter- ville, Sir Francis Goold, Daniel O'Connell, Richard O'Gorman, Edward Hay, Denis Scully, Doctor Dromgoole, and many others, whose names havij since been familiar, in connection with the Catholic cause. Mr. O'Gorman opened the proceedings with a speech, in which lie proposed to petition Parliament. Tiiis was opposed by the vete- ran John Keogh, who spoke with great bit- terness of the treachery practiced towards the Catholics in the matter of the Union, and deprecated petitioning altogether, at least while the existing Ministry remained in power. Mr. Keogh observed, that, with respect to the existence and oppressiveness of their grievances, they were unanimous ; and differed only as to the means most likely to remove them. He was ready, on his part, to sacrifice, to burn, with his own hands, the resolution, which he was about to propose to the meeting, if any man could show him what was likely to be more effec- tual to promote the object of all their wish- es. A petition at the present moment, must, if presented, be presented to decided enemies, or lukewarm friends ; upon neither of whom could be placed any reliance for success. Mr. Perceval and his colleagues were admitted into office, upon the express condition of excluding the Catholic claims from the relief of the Legislature; and their predecessors had very willingly con- sented to give up a bill, nominally only in favor of the Catholics, rather than resign their places. Mr. Keogh adverted in strong and pointed terms, to the double imposition practiced upon the Catholics at the time of the Union. He insisted, that the proposals for their support from the Unionists and the Anti-Uniouists, were equally hollow, and equally insidious. Had it been otherwise; had the Catholics been liberally treated by their Parliament, they would have raised a cry in its defence that would have been heard, and would have shaken the plan of Union to atoms. No man had a right to suppose, that he wished to relinquish the Catholic claims. With his dying breath, with his last words, as a testamentary be- quest to his countrymen, he would recom- mend to them never to relinquish, never even to relax, in the pursuit of their un- doubted rights. No man could expect suc- cess to the petition. Without that expec- tation, lie saw nothing likely to accrue from the measure but mischievous and injurious consequences. He resisted the measure, not for the purpose of retarding, but of for- warding the Catholic claims. Mr. Keogh, therefore, moved a. resolution in accordance with these views, which was passed ; but the meeting then proceeded to organize a new Catholic Committee, consist- % vm& 'tNS.Cl/UMBbS 1 >' I ing of the Catholic Peers, ami the survivors of the Catholic Delegates of 1793, together with certain gentlemen who had been lately appointed by the Catholics of Dublin to prepare an address. It was resolved that these persons "do possess the confidence of the Catholic body." This new committee was to be permanent ; and was to consider the expediency of pre- paring a petition, not to the then sitting, but to tin; next session of Parliament. The committee, undoubtedly, was capable of be- ing regarded as a virtual representation of the Irish Catholics, and, therefore, as com- ing under the penalties of the "Convention act ;" for which reason Mr. O'Connell, who knew that the Government was watching their proceedings with a jealous eye, endea- vored to guard against this legal peril by introducing a resolution which was carried unanimously : " That the noblemen and gen- tlemen aforesaid are not representatives of the Catholic body, or any portion thereof; nor shall they assume or pretend to be rep- resentatives of the Catholic body, or any portion thereof." We thus find Mr. O'Connell, from the first of his long series of agitations, always anxiously steering clear of the rocks and shoals of law ; and find, also, that the most dangerous of those rocks and shoals was al- ways the same " Convention act." It em- barrassed the Catholic Committee in 1809 ; it stopped the "Council of Three Hundred," in 1845 — and, in fact, it had been passed for the very purpose of preventing all organized deliberation, and all effectual action, by Catholics for the attainment of their rights. There is no doubt that the Government might at any time have prosecuted to con- viction the members of this Catholic Com- mittee as delegates, (notwithstanding their disclaimer,) by means of a well-packed Castle jury ; but, in the meantime, the af- fairs of the Catholics seemed to acquire some consistency and strength from the permaneut organization of the committee and the respectability of its members. Of course, this circumstance alarmed and in- furiated the Orangemen ; who are generally believed to have at the same time remodeled and improved their societies. It is not easy to arrive at the exact truth regarding all the secret tests and oaths and " degrees " of this mischievous body — the precise forms have beeu from time to time altered ; and their "Grand Masters" and their organs at the press have boldly denied what is alleged against the Society, although such allegation had been true very shortly before, and was substantially true when denied, even if some trifling form may have been altered, to jus- tify the denial. Mr. Plowden, writing in 1810, says, very distinctly, that "a renovation of the system (of Orangeism) actually prevailed in the year 1809," and that new oaths were intro- duced. He says, further : — " It was reported, believed, and not con- tradicted, that about the time, at which the Catholic Bishops of Ireland were assembled in National Synod to oppose the veto, the Orange associations met by deputation in Dawson street, Dublin, in order, as may be naturally presumed, to counteract the pre- sumed resolutions of that Episcopal Synod, and to make head generally against the alarming growth of Popery. A deputy from the seventy-two English (almost all Lancastrian) Lodges came over iu unusual pomp of accredited diplomacy to the Irish Societies. Throngh the gloom of Orange darkness it would be presumption to ascer- tain the points of debate within their strict- ly-guarded sanctuary iu Dawson street." The same writer observes : — • " So much undeniable truth has lately been brought before the public concerning the Orange institution, so glaringly has the illegality and mischief of the system been ex- posed, snch weighty and fatal objections urged against it, that, it has become fashion- able with many Orangemen, of education and fortune, to affect to disclaim everything objectionable in the system, and to throw it exclusively upon the incorrigible ignorance and bigotry of the rabble, who are alike in every country, and of every persuasion. This was base artifice to disguise or conceal the countenance and support which the Or- ange societies have uniformly and unceasing- ly received from Government. If the obli- gations and oaths of Orangemen were of a virtuous and beneficial tendency, why not proclaim them aloud? If illegal and dan- gerous, why criminally conceal them 1 Whilst fa rXL t &>': T*W? m HISTORY OF rRFXANB. '5 L< tlie Orange aristocracy thus affects to dis Claim their own institute, in detail, their activity in keeping the evil on foot is super- eminently criminal. Nor can they redeem their guilt without revealing in detail the whole mischief of the system, by enabling others, or cooperating effectually themselves, (as far as they possess power,) to expose and effectually extinguish it." Upon the subject of the new and alarm- ing development of the Orange system which took place at this date, we may fur- ther cite the language of O'Connell, at an aggregate meeting, in May, 1811. He said : " From most respectable authority I have it, that Orange Lodges are increas- ing in different parts of the country, with the knowledge of those whose duty it is to suppress them. If I have been misin- formed, I would wish that what I now say may be replied to by any one able to show that I am wrong. I hold in my hand the certificate of an Orange purple man, (which he produced,) who was advanced to that degree as lately as the 24th of April, 1811, in a Lodge in Dublin. I have adduced this facl to show you, that this dreadful and abominable conspiracy is still in existence ; and I am well informed, and believe it to be the fact, that the King's Ministry are well acquainted with this circumstance. I have 1 n also assured, that the associations in the North are reorganized, 1 that a com- mittee of these delegates, in Belfast, have printed and distributed live hundred copies of their new constitution. This I have heard from excellent authority ; and I should not be surprised if the Attorney-General knows it. Yet there has been no attempt to dis- turb these conspirators ; no attempt to visit them wiih magisterial authority ; no attempt to rout this infamous banditti." In truth, the " banditti " were so useful and indispensable an agency of British domi- nation in Ireland, that they were perfectly safe from the law and the Attorney-General ; and that functionary was not in the least obliged to O'Connell for his information. It was against Catholics only that penal sta- tutes were made. Thus, although the Con- vention act makes no distinctions between Catholic and Protestant, the Orange Lodges were never at all embarrassed about sending delegates to a meeting in Dublin. And al- though the acts against administering secret oaths, especially apply to the oaths of Or- angemen, no Orangemen was ever prosecut- ed by the Crown under those laws. The oath which Government punished, was not an oath to extirpate one's neighbors, but an oath to promote the union of Irishmen. It would be easy to accumulate examples of Orange outrages at this time in many parts of the country ; but these incidents have a wearisome sameness. On the 12th of August, 180S, fifty unarmed men of the King's County militia, who had volunteered into the line, marched from Strabane into Omagh, in Tyrone County, where fifty of their comrades occupied the barracks. As they came into the town, it happened that three hundred Orange yeomen had assem- bled, and were celebrating the battle of Aughrim. A yeoman began operations by knocking off and trampling upon the cap of one of the militiamen, because it was bound with green, which, though regimental, was not considered " loyal " enough for that oc- casion. The militiaman resented the .out rage by a blow. A general assault was made by the whole body of yeomanry upon the fifty unarmed men ; tbey retreated in good order to the barrack, where they were attacked again ;. but as they were now sup- plied with arms, they defended themselves to some purpose, and killed four of their as- sailants. Thomas Hogan, a corporal of the King's County militia, was tried for the murder of those four men, and was actually found guilty of manslaughter. Again, at Mountrath, the annual return of the Orange festival, in July, 1808, had been disgraced by the most atrocious mur- der of the Rev. Mr. Dnane, the Catholic priest of that parish ; and it was followed up in the succeeding year by the no less bar- barous murder of a Catholic of the name of Kavanagh, into whose house the armed yeomen rushed, and barbarously fractured his skull, in the presence of his wife ami four infant children. On the first day of this same July, at Bailieborough, in the County Cavan, the Orange armed yeoman went in a body to the house of the parish priest, at whom they fired several shots, and left him for dead. They then wrecked % , wmrm.k^ DUKE OF RICHMOND 8 "CONCILIATION. ■M i* ■ h m iu both the speeches which he made in this session, spoke against the petition which he had presented. It would be tedious to make even an abstract of the debate ; and it will be sufficient to say that on the motion for going into committee with the Catholic petition, Mr. Ponsonby, Mr. Grattan, and Sir John Cox Hippesley, were in favor of the motion, subject to veto ; Mr. Hutchesou, Mr. Parnell, and Sir John Newport, in fa- vor of it, without veto — Lord Castlereagh wholly against it in every shape ; so, of course, were Mr. Perceval, and all other members of the No-Popery administration ; and the motion was lost by a majority against the Catholic claims of oue hundred and four. In June, the petition was presented by Lord Donoughmore to the Lords, in a very fair and just speech. He said, speaking of the Catholic Church: "No man was so ignorant as not to know, that its profess- ed unity in doctrine and in discipliue, un- der one and the same declared head was the essential distinguishing characteristic of the Catholic Church, and yet they were told, that the Irish Catholics were the most un- reasonable of men, because they would not renounce, upon oath, this first tenet of their religion, and consent to recognize a new head of their Church iu the person of a Protestant King. The Irish Catholic, under the existing tests, solemnly abjures the au- thority of the Pope iu all temporal matters, pledges himself to be a faithful subject of the King, and to defend the succession of the Crown, and the arrangement of proper- ty as now established by law, and that he will not exercise any privilege, to which he is, or may become, entitled, to disturb the Protestant religion or Protestant govern- ment. What possible ground of apprehen- sion could there be, which was not effectual- ly provided against by the terms of this oath. With respect to that ill-fated veto, the introduction of which, into the Catholic vocabulary, he witnessed with sincere re- gret ; he could only say for himself, that he wanted no additional security ; but he was equally ready to acknowledge, that it was the bounden duty of the Catholic, whenever the happy moment of conciliation should ar- rive, to go the full length his religion would ft permit, him, to quiet the scruples, however groundless and imaginary, of the Protestant Legislature." After a short debate, in which we find Lord Holland, Lord Erskine, the Duke of Norfolk, and Lord Grey, speaking in favor '.- _ of going into committee on the petition ; against it, Lord Liverpool, Lord Claucarty, Lord Redesdale, and the Lord-Chancellor — there appeared on a division : for the mo- tion, sixty-eight ; non-contents, one hundred and fifty-four ; majority against the Catho- lics, eighty-six. It was now at last tolerably evident that there was no use in petitioning that Parlia- ment to acknowledge the rights of Catho- lics ; that the insidious promises made by Lord Coruwallis and Lord Castlereagh, for l he purpose of carrying the Union, were to be deliberately disregarded ; and that the Catholic cause must be either abandoned al- together, or must be taken up by some more potent hand than any of those which had guided it up to that time. Daniel O'Con- nell was to be the new leader of the Irish Catholic cause, and may be said to daTe the commencement of his wonderful career of agitation from the Parliamentary defeat sus- tained by the petition of 1810. In a month alter the rejection of that petition, the gen- eral committee of the Catholics, after pass- ing a vote of thanks to the worthy old John Kcogh " for "his long and faithful services to the cause of Catholic Emancipation," issued an address to all the Catholics of Ireland, urging upon them a new and more combined cf- lbrm of political action, and bearing the signature of "Daniel O'Connell, Chairman." The programme of action presented in this address is substantially the same which was followed up by Mr. O'Connell, under sev- eral successive names, throughout all his agi- tations — local organizations holding frequent meetings, and corresponding with a central committee iu Dublin. All proceedings were to be peaceful and legal ; yet there was the hint of a possibility that millions of people steadily denied their rights, might in the end be driven to extort them wijth the strong band. Here is an extract : — "Still, whilst time and opportunity i/el re- main for peaceful counsels, the virtuous Catholic will deeply revolve in his mind the ■■■-, 98 Ewe. KSPSiSi* \&\ ift -■ , >> i* « isest course for his redemption. He will prefer that success, which promises the greatest permanent enjoyment to himself and his family ; the most salutary to his country ; the most conformable to the best laws ami dearest precepts of civil society. He will prefer to "opposite courses — those of peace, of reason, aud of temperate, but firm perseverance, in well-regulated efforts. " The committee, sir, consulting not merely local, but general feelings, entertain every wish and hope, of calling into fair and free exercise the unbiased judgment and in- dependent opinions of the Catholics of Ire- land, thinking and acting for themselves throughout their respective counties, dis- tricts, cities, and towns, and deciding upon snch measures as shall appear to them most eligible. " They hope that the Catholics will take frequent opportunities, and as early as pos- sible, of holding local meetings for these purposes ; and there, unfettered by external authority, and unaffected by dictation, ap- ] tions for the preparation of a petition for repeal of the Uuion, were adopted unani- mously. What we have to remark is, that in these first movements favoring repeal of the Union, all speakers concurred in represent- ing the material aud financial effects of that measure as disastrous in the extreme to lre- * Dean Swift estimated the absentee rents in Ilia time at half a million sterling, and thought that same a great grievance. In 1818, Mr. Smith O'Brien, always moderate in his statements, said the. drain through this single chauuel amounted to five mil- lions. S.^TiMS .ecu MB 3H50? HISTORY OF IRELAND. *rt W& J*" V and ; yet those speakers do not appear to have bethought them that the impoverish- ment of Ireland was the exact measure of the profit to England ; that this was the specific object for which England had de- manded, contrived, and accomplished the Union ; and that the existing relation be- tween the two countries, was the accurate fulfillment of the prediction made by that honest Englishman, Samuel Johnson, to an Irish acquaintance — " Sir, we shall rob you." The Catholics of Ireland were by this time quite unanimous in favor of repealing that Union, the perpetration of which they had been induced to regard with indifference, or almost with complacency. At least, they knew how treacherously they had been dealt with on that occasion by the English Government and its agents, Cornwallis aud Castlereagh ; and the natural soreness which they felt at being duped, aggravated the sufferings which fell upon them, as well as upon the Protestants, in consequence of de- pressed trade and ruined manufactures. "Repeal" was, therefore, fairly before the country ; but it was too late for any peace- ful redress. When the shark has once made his union with his prey, he does not easily disgorge ; for this there needs, either a miracle, as in the case of Jonah's fish, or else that the shark be killed and cut up. Feli! inn his; for restitution of that rich prey, is, perhaps, the most imbecile idea that ever possessed any public man since the begin- ning of the world. Catholic Emancipation, however, was another kind of question ; and one quite susceptible of a peaceful solution ; because to emancipate Catholics would cost England nothing ; but, on the contrary, would prob- ably win over many of the leading, educated, and professional Catholics, who might be in- duced, by the prospect of honors and emo- luments for themselves, to abandon their people to plunder and extirpation, and to sell the cause of their country to its ene- mies ; — an anticipation which we have un- happily seen realized on a large scale. Catholic Emancipation, then, although a minor question, was the immediately-prac- tical one for an Irish agitator ; and O'Con- nell saw that it was so, and devoted him- self to it accordingly. In October, King George III. fell into his final and irremediable insanity ; and the Prince again became Regent ; this time with almost full regal powers. It was a matter of no interest whatsoever to Ireland ; save that many Catholics were simple enough to believe that it removed the only real ob- stacle to their emancipation ; namely, the stupid scruples of the idiot King as to his Coronation oath. The Prince had made many professions, even distinct promises and pledges, afterwards minutely specified by O'Connell, that so soon as he should enjoy actual power, he would do all that in him lay to bring about Catholic Emancipation. In 1806, he had made such a pledge, through the Duke of Bedford, then Viceroy, in or- der to induce the Catholics to withhold their petitions ; his good friends, the Catholics, were to trust all to him, the Prince. Mr. Ponsonby, then Chancellor, had, in the same year, promulgated a similar promise in the Prince's name. He had himself given such a pledge to Lord Kenmare, at Cheltenham. Finally, he had given a formal verbal pledge to Lord Fingal, in presence of Lord Petre and Lord Clifford, which was reduced to writing by those three noblemen, and signed by them soon after the interview ended. The Prince had now uncontrolled power ; and, as usual, the Catholics found them- selves cheated. He retained as his Prime .Minister, the No-Popery Perceval, and was surrounded by advisers intensely hostile to the Catholic cause ; his mistress at that time was the wife of the Marquis of Hert- ford ; aud the conscience of that lady could not reconcile itself to the thought of con- ceding any right to persons who believed iu Seven Sacraments. Even the two Protest- ant Sacraments were one too many for her ladyship.* * Certain resolutions passed in the Catholic Com- mittee but too plainly referred to this woman, when they spoke of the " fatal witchery " which had led the Regent t" form a Ministry hostile to liberty of conscience in Ireland. The enchantress was over fifty years of age ; and her husband ami her son were the closest 1 n-companioxis of the lover of the fath- er 1 ! wife and of the son's mother. These famous " witchery " resolutions were supposed to have so strongly aroused the Protestant feelings of the Prince as to adjourn all thought of Catholic Emancipation for many years, and to have been the cause of the exceedingly bad grace with which King George IV. at last assented to that measure. v . * i wm%. <& ( \ w $ ; ^\ 1 Almost tlie first act of any consequence done in Ireland, after the Prince became Regent, was a State prosecution, instituted against the Catholic Committee, in the per- sons of two of its members, Mr. Kirwan and Doctor Sheridan, who were charged to have been elected as delegates, in breach of the Convention act. The Government had been long watching for this chance, and now the Castle strained every nerve to insure a con- viction. Mr. Saurin, Attorney-General, com- menced his speech thus : " My Lords and Gentlemen of the Jury — I cannot but con- gratulate you and the public, that the day of jus/ice has at last arrived ;" surely a most extraordinary expression, under the circum- stances ; seeing that these Catholics were but peacefully claiming their manifest right ; and seeing that the crime of which they were now accused was unknown to the law of England. Mr. Bushe, then Solicitor- General, afterwards Chief Justice, speaking of the committee, constituted as it was, thus concluded his speech upon that trial : " Compare such a constitution with the es- tablished authorities of the land, all con- trolled, confined to their respective spheres, balancing and gravitating to each other — all symmetry, all order, all harmony. Be- hold, on the other hand, this prodigy in the political hemisphere, with eccentric course and portentous glare, bound by no attrac- tion, disdaining any orbit, disturbing the system, and affrighting the world ! " The remedy for this horrible comet was a packed jury ; which is one of those " established authorities — all symmetry and harmony — " spoken of by Mr. Bushe. A conviction was obtained ; and the Catholic Committee, in that form, ceased to exist. Mr. Sheil says : " A great blow had been struck at the cause, and a consideraye time elapsed be- fore Ireland recovered from it." But although that organization was at an end, many angry meetings were held ; and the Catholic press assumed a tone of aggres- sion and defiance which had not been usual with it. Mr. O'Connell, in conjunction with Mr. Scully, a gentleman of large property and high talent, established a newspaper ; and both in the press and in public assem- blies there was manifested by the popular leaders, so much boldness and activity, as assured all men that the cause of the nation was now in a fresh and vigorous hand. Mr. Wellesley Pole, had been appointed Irish Secretary of State, as successor to his brother, Lord "Wellington ; and his admin- istration was chiefly noted for his circular letter against meeting in conventions, with a view to the suppression of the Catholic Com- mittee. Mr. Wellesley Pole was soon after succeeded by Mr. Robert Peel, who proved himself during many years after the most deadly, and, indeed, most fatal foe the Irish nation ever encountered. He was but twen- ty-four years of age ; and continued Chief Secretary for six years, during which ho closely studied the character and wants of the people ; so that of all English statesmen, in modern times, Sir Robert Peel may be said to have understood Ireland best, to Ire- land's bitter cost. In 1812, Mr. Perceval, the "No-Po- pery" Prime Minister, was assassinated by a maniac, in the lobby of the House of Commons ; 'and a change of administration became necessary. But the new arrange- ments had little interest for Irishmen, and presented no hope of any approach to jus- tice, in the treatment of that country. Lord Liverpool was Prime Minister, and both Canning and Castlereagh were members of the Cabinet. A dissolution of Parliament and general election followed, at which sev- eral additional "Liberals" were returned from places in Ireland. Mr. Curran was persuaded by his friends, and invited by the Liberal electors of Newry, to permit him- self to be placed in nomination for that borough. He had never, since the Union, sought to enter the British Parliament ; and it was with no sanguine hope of being able to eft'ect any good there for his conn- try, that he now essayed to enter public life once more. He was defeated at Newry ; defeated by General Needham, one of the military tyrants who had dragooned the peo- ple into insurrection, in 1798. But in Mr. Curran's speech, on that occasion, to the electors of Newry, though imperfectly re- ported, is found a passage most vividly de- picting the condition of Ireland twelve years after the Union, and Curran's esti- mate of the nature and effects of that mea- sure. He said : " The whole history of man- R? Puv Mitn.y^tNe .cjuKvn.ii. HISTORY OF IRELAND. fX~- W-"7& l"~ '<■ r'T... .S\ ^ kiinl records no instance of any hostile Cab- inet, perhaps, even of any Cabinet, actuated by the principles of honor or of shame. The Irish Catholic was, therefore, taught to believe that if he surrendered his country he would cease to be a slave. The Irish Fro- tostaut was cajoled into the belief that, if he concurred in the surrender, he would be placed upon the neck of a hostile faction. Wretched dupe ! you might as well per- suade the jailer that he Is less a prisoner than ijie captives he locks up, merely be- cause hp carries the key in his pocket. By that reciprocal animosity, however, Ireland was surrendered — the guilt of the surrender was most atrocious — the consequences of the crime most tremendous and exemplary. We put ourselves into a condition of the most unqualified servitude ; we sold our country, and we levied upon ourselves the price of the purchase ; we gave up the right of disposing of our own property ; we yielded to a for- eign legislature, to decide whether the funds necessary to their projects, or their profligacy, should be extracted from us, or be furnished by themselves. The conse- quence has been, that our scanty means have been squandered in her internal corrup- tion, as profusely as our best blood has been wasted in the madness of her aggressions, or the feeble folly of her resistance. Our debt has, accordingly, beeu increased more than ten-fold — the common comforts of life have been vanishing — we are sinking into beggary— our poor people have been wor- ried by cruel and unprincipled prosecutions ; and the instruments of our Government have been almost simplified into the tax- gatherer and the hangman." This dismal picture of the condition of his country, could not have been made in so public a manner, and by a man of Curran's charac- ter, unless it had been true. He could not have ventured to tell a large assembly of his countrymen, that they were ground down by taxes and sinking into beggary, if they could all have risen up and contradicted him tin the spot. Besides, the evidence from other quarters is too clear and strong to al- low us to doubt of the accuracy of any one feature in the sombre scene he depicts. The country was during all those years, as usu- al, disturbed now and then by a vindictive murder of some bailiff, or agent, who had turned poor families adrift, and pulled down their houses ; or some tithe-proctor, who had seized on a widow's stack-yard. And all these acts of vengeance or despair were uniformly treated as seditions " insurrec- tions." Ireland, therefore, remained under an almost uninterrupted Insurrection act The act of Habeas Corpus had been sus- pended in 1800 by the act for the suppres- sion of the rebelliun ; that act had been con- tinued in 1801, and again in 1804 ; and had been replaced in 1807 by another martial law (substantially the same law,) called Insurrection act, which was maintained un- til 1810. It will be seen hereafter, how steadily the same exceptional coercion laws — but with ingenious variations of name, have been continued down to this day. When Mr. Curran mentioned that the people were "worried by cruel and unprin- cipled prosecutions," he had in his thoughts the long series of "special commissions" sent down in state to the country, to hang up some scores of haggard wretches, and to terrify the rest ; he was thinking of the many fathers of poor families, who were of- ten dragged to jail, without a charge against them, and without the right to demand a trial ; he was thinking of the free course which suspension of the Habeas Corpus gave to the vindictive outrages of Orange magistrates, and to the fanatical rage of packed juries. So uniform has been the long passion of Ireland — generation after generation, wast- ing and withering under the very same atro- city which calls itself "Government;" the children losing heart and hope, as their fathers had done, and begetting a progeny to pine way under the same miseries still — until they arc tempted to doubt whether a just God reigns over the earth. j ;% I' ) ft f CH£&.S*^LMS .it'U.M«l.S.«, y& Grattan's Emancipation Bill— More Veto— Qnaran- totti — Unanimity in Ireland against Veto— Mr. Peel and his New Police— Stipendiary Magistrates- Close of the War— Restoration of the Bourbons — Waterloo— Evil Effects on Ireland— The Irish Legion in France— Its Fate— Miles Byrne and his Friends— Effects of the Peace in Impoverishing the Irish— Cheap Ejectment Law Passed— Beginning of Extermination— " Surplus Population"— Catho- lic Claims Ruined by the Peace— O'Connell and Catholic Board— Board Suppressed— O'Connell in Court— His Audacity— His Scorn of the Dublin Corporation— Duel with D'Estcrre— Distress in Ire- land—Famine of 1817— Coercion in Ireland—" Six Acts " in England— Mr. Plunket's Emancipation Bill— Peel and the Duke of York— Royal Visit to Ireland— Catholics Cheated Again. I Mr. Grattan made his final effort to ef- fect the emancipation of the Catholics in the first session of the new Parliament, in 1813. The bill which he proposed was a very imper- fect and restricted one ; but it provided that Catholics should sit in Parliament, and hold certain offices— excepting those of Lord- Chancellor— either in England or in Ireland, and that of Lord-Lieutenant, or Lord-De- puty, in Ireland. It did not include a pro- vision fur the royal veto upon Catholic Bish- ops. The debate which ensued is scarce worth recording, inasmuch as after several amendments, providing for veto, and at last an amendment, striking out the clause ena- bling Catholics to sit and vote in Parlia- ment, the bill was withdrawn, and finally lost. The veto amendments proposed by Castle- reagh and Canning were the work of Sir John Hippesley, that indefatigable patron of veto. They proposed to constitute a Board of Commissioners, to examine into the loyalty of those proposed for Episcopal functions, and to exercise a surveillance and control over their official correspondence with Rome. But the Irish Catholics were now fully alive to the insidious nature of this proposal; and both clergy and people, with great unanimity, rejected all idea of emancipation upon any such terms. But the English Catholics, not having any na- tional interest at stake in the matter, were quite favorable to the project, and used their utmost endeavors to have it accepted 481 at Rome, and recommended from thence. English influence was then very strong at Rome ; the Pope was a prisoner in France • and it was to the coalition of European sovereigns against Buonaparte, that the Court of Rome looked for its reestablish- ment. A certain Monsignor Quarantotti exercised, in the year 1814, the official au- thority of the Pope ; and was induced, un- der English influence, to recommend submis- sion to the veto, in a letter, or rescript, to "the Right Rev. William Poynter," Vicar- Apostolic of the Loudon District. As the question of veto at that period occupied so large a share of public attention, both in England and in Ireland, it may be but just to let this Monsignor Quarantotti state, in his own way, the view which was taken of it at Rome ; and, therefore, we give an ex- tract from the most material passage of his rescript : — " As to the desire of the Government to be informed of the loyalty of those who are promoted to the dignity of Bishop or Dean, and to be assured that they possess those qualifications which belong to a faithful sub- ject ; as to the intention, also, of forming a board, for the ascertainment of those points, by inquiring into the character of those who shall be presented, and reporting thereon to the King, according to the tenor of your lordship's letter ; and, finally, as to the de- termination of Government to have none ad- mitted to those dignities, who either are not natural-born subjects, or who have not been residents in the kingdom for four years pre- ceding ; as all these provisions regard mat- ters that are merely political, they are enti- tled to all indulgence. It is better, indeed, that the Prelates of our Church should be acceptable to the King, in order that they may exercise their Ministry, with his full concurrence, and also that there may be no doubts of their integrity, even with those who are not in the bosom of the Church. For, 'it behoveth a bishop (as the Apostle teaches, 1 Tim., iii : 7,) even to have a good witness from those who are not of the Church.' Upon these principles, we, in vir- tue of the authority intrusted to us. grant permission, that those who are elected to and proposed for Bishoprics and Deaneries by the clergy, may De admitted or rejected K r W 9 w iiVG.CiUMflyi, HISTORY OF IRELAND. h^ :<5> ^ by tlie King, according to the law proposed. When, therefore, the clergy shall have, ac- cording to the usual custom, elected those whom they shall judge most worthy in the Lord to possess those dignities, the metropo- litan of the Province, in Ireland, or the sen- ior Vicar-Apostolic of England and Scot- land, shall give notice of the election, that the King's approbation or dissent may be had thereupon. If the candidates be re- jected, others shall be proposed, who may be acceptable to the King ; but if approved of, the Metropolitan or Vicar-Apostolic, as above, shall send the documents to the Sa- cred Congregation here, the members where- of having duly weighed the merits of each, shall take measures for the obtainmcnt of canonical institution from His Holiness. I perceive, also, that another duty is assigned to the board above-mentioned, namely, that they are charged to inspect all letters writ- ten by the ecclesiastical power to any of the British clergy, and examine carefully whe- ther they contain anything which may be injurious to the Government, or anywise disturb the public tranquillity. Inasmuch as a communication on ecclesiastical or spir- itual affairs with the head of the Church is not forbidden, and as the inspection of the board relates to political subjects only, this also must be submitted to. It is right that the Government should not have cause to en- tertain any suspicion with regard to the com- municatiou between us. What we write will bear the eyes of the world, for we in- termeddle not with matters of a political nature, but are occupied about those things which the divine and the ecclesiastical law, and the good order of the Church, appear to require. Those matters only are to be kept under the seal of silence which pertain to the jurisdiction of conscience within us ; and of this, it appears to me sufficient care has been taken in the clauses of the law al- luded to. We are perfectly convinced, that so wi.^e a Government as that of Great Bri- tain, while it studies to provide for the pub- ic security, does not on that account wish to •ompel the Catholics to desert their religion, but would rather be pleased that they should be careful observers of it. For our holy and truly-divine religion is most favorable to public authority, is the best support of thrones, and the most powerful teacher both of loyalty and patriotism." This did by uo means suit the views of the Irish Catholics, or their idea of " loyalty and patriotism." As they did not them- selves " possess those qualifications which be- long to a faithful subject," they naturally thought that their clergy should not. They believed, indeed, and not without reason, that loyalty and faithful attachment on the part of the Irish Catholic clergy towards a foreign and hostile Government, meant neither more nor less than a formal aban- donment of the people to the mercy of their enemies, and a desertion of the cause of those faithful and devoted Catholics who had stood by their clergy in the worst of times, when a price was set upon a priest's head. In fact, the sequel proved that the Irish clergy of that day were not so base as it was hoped they would be. The Bishops sent a strong remonstrance to Rome, by the hands of Doctor Murray, coadjutor to the Archbishop of Dublin ; which, however, was not regarded in the least — so powerful was the political influence of England in the councils of the Holy See. Doctor Mur- ray returned to Ireland. At a meeting of the Prelates, very energetic resolutions were adopted, one of which ran in these terms : " Though we sincerely venerate the Supreme Pontiff as visible head of the Church, we do not conceive that our apprehensions for the safety of the Roman Catholic Church in Ireland can or ought to be removed by any determination of His Holiness, adopted, or intended to be adopted, not only with- out our concurrence, but in direct opposition to our repeated resolutions, and the very en- ergetic memorial presented on our behalf, and so ably supported by our deputy, the Most Rev. Doctor Murray — who, in that quality, was more competent to inform His Holiness of the real state and interests of the Roman Catholic Church in Ireland than any oiher with whom he is said to have con- sulted." This last phrase meant the emissaries of the English Catholics, then busy at Rome ; and the English Catholics have been at all times as zealous and resolute to keep Ire- land subject to English domination, in all respects, as any " No-Popery " Briton or fo =1 itW .ClUIKHUi.O, Orange Grand-Master could be. The reso- lutions were signed by all the Catholic Bish- ops in Ireland, and transmitted to Rome by the same Doctor Murray, accompanied by the Bishop of Cork. A vehement agitation was aroused in Ireland ; which extended to the laity as well as the clergy ; and un- der the potent impulse of O'Connell, a reso- lute spirit of resistance manifested itself in the whole Catholic population, against any orders or recommendations coming even from Rome itself, teudiug to enchain their nation- al Church. While this veto commotion agitated the Catholics, Mr. Robert Peel, the Irish Secre- tary, was engaged in reorganizing and greatly increasing the Constabulary force, with a view to render it a more efficient in- strument in the bauds of the English Gov- ernment for the coercion of the country, and the detection of seditious proceedings. With the same view, Mr. Peel invented and established the class of stipendiary or police- magistrates, who were to take their instruc- tions from the Castle, and whose business was to control and direct, as far as possi- ble, the proceedings of justices of the peace at petty sessions and quarter-sessions, and to guard against any movement of inde- pendent feeling on the part of country gentlemen who were in the commission of the peace. The men chosen for this office of stipendiary magistrate have been usually briefless barristers, or broken-down politi- cians in a small way, to whom the salary was a desirable livelihood ; and as they have at least legal phrases at their com- mand, a supposed acquaintance with the views of the Castle, and great self-import- ance of maimer, it has been found in prac- tice that, these paid officials have really to a great extent controlled and managed the local administration of justice ; which, in all conscience, had been bad enough before. Mr. Peel's police arrangements were ex- tremely unpopular ; and his new constables and stipendiaries were popularly termed Peelers; but although the Irish, by an in- fallible instinct, abhorred the new system, thry were yet far from suspecting to what a deadlv use Mr. Peel would eventually put his new force. In the meantime, the grand war of coal- ized Europe against the French Empire drew to a close. The French armies were driven out of Spain by the patriotic efforts of the Spanish people, aided by a British force under Lord Wellington — for the English Government, with the great object of crush- ing the French, was willing, in a distant country, to ally itself even with patriotism The Emperor Napoleon, after the tremend- ous slaughter at Leipsie, (in which he fought all Europe,) had been obliged gradually to withdraw his forces into France ; but though he made a most brilliant and fierce resist- ance to the advance of the allies, they sur- rounded Paris in overwhelming numbers ; and the great Emperor was forced, in an evil hour, to abdicate at Fontainbleau. The coalized kings and oligarchies of Europe triumphed ; and the expelled Bourbons came back to sit on the throne of France for a while. The "Congress of Vienna" was called, to settle Europe upon the basis of a distinct denial of every human right and every national aspiration ; and the fitting representative of England in that Congress was no other than Lord Castlereagh, the artizan of the Irish Union. It does not enter within the compass of this narrative to detail the wonderful series of events which followed — the escape of Buonaparte from Elba, the enthusiastic up- rising of France in his favor, the tricolor flying from steeple to steeple, the reign of a Hundred Days, the renewed concentration of the forces of the allies, and the sad dis- aster of Waterloo — AVaterloo, like every other triumph of the arms and policy of England, was, of course, a fatal misfortune to Ireland. It confirmed the odious rule of an insolent oligarchy, both in England and in Ireland, and placed it high, as was hoped and believed, above all apprehension of rev- olution and democracy. Waterloo put an end at once to all interest in Catholic claims on the part even of the " Liberals," and ad- journed for fourteen years all thought either of emancipation or of reform. The defeat of Waterloo was not, indeed, so much a defeat for France, as for other oppressed countries of Europe ; for in France, the great revolution had been accomplished, and its work could not be undone. In France, all religious sects were equal, and ;?- (Tip M3i MM ♦2* ■rf / \&\ $ ' . %, w ^ IeE^' A 484 HISTORY OF IRELAND. remained equal, before the law ; all feudal privilege was, and remained, abolished ; and all men, like all religions, were on an equal footing ; in France, the people were in possession, and remained in possession, of the great confiscated estates, each one of which made hundreds or thousands of farms for free peasants ; in France, tithes were, and remained, abolished ; the highest dig- nity of the state was open to the meanest mechanic ; the highest grade in the army to the humblest private. It was earnestly hoped, indeed, by the eoalized allies of the Bourbons, that the forcible restoration of that family would speedily reverse and abol- ish all these dangerous privileges of the French people — but that was impossible. The sentiment and practice of justice and equality had entered too deeply into the life and soul of France, to be eradicated even by foreign bayonets. But for Ireland, the case was very different. The apprehension of a triumph of " French principles" — that is, principles of equality and justice — which had been for twenty-five years a dreadful bugbear to the British oligarchy — was now at an end ; and privilege, and Church and State, and the " Asceudaucy," reigned su- preme. Of the armies which triumphed on the field of Waterloo, about one-fourth consist- ed of British troops ; and of these " Brit- ish" troops, nearly one-half were Irish. It is a shame to be obliged to confess it. Their country can take no pride in those Irishmen ; Irish history refuses to know their names. They fought under a commander who always opposed and denied their right to rank on an equality with his other soldiers ; they fought to perpetuate a domination which oppressed and despised them ; fought against their own enfranchisement, and their own right to land and life on their own soil ; and to establish, on an immovable basis, that odious British system which has since degraded, impoverished, and almost depopu- lated their country. While a vestige of genuine Irish feeling remains amongst our people, Irishmen will speak with pride of the Irish Brigade at Fontenoy, and with shame ami repugnance of the Irish regi- ments at Waterloo. There were, indeed, some true Irishmen in the service of France at that period ; the Irish Legion, the relics of '98, as the old brigades were the relics of Limerick. In this Legion and its gallant officers, Ware, Allen, Byrne, Corbet, Lawless, MacSheehy, centred the genuine military renown of the Irish race at that day. But the Legion was not present at Waterloo ; it had fought through the Peninsular campaign, and had taken part in some of the last battles of the campaign of 1814. It had thus been sadly reduced in numbers ; and during the first Restoration, (before the Hundred Days,) it had been entirely reorganized and reduced to a regiment. At the time of the final struggle on the plains of Belgium, the regi- ment was stationed at Montreuil, on the shore of the British Channel ; and after the calamity of Waterloo, and the treacherous capture of Napoleon, the Irish regiment, as well as all the rest of the army, was dis- banded ; and the officers were allowed at first to retire upon their half-pay to any town they might select in France, where, says the venerable Miles Byrne, " they hoped at least to enjoy their pittance and the protection of the law." But it is morti- fying to learn that through the paramount in- lluence of Castlereagh with the new Govern- ment, and through the base compliance of Clarke, Due de Feltre, (himself the sou of an Irishman,) these forlorn exiles were per- secuted with a mean malignity, which only the spite of Lord Castlereagh could have suggested. Before quitting Montreuil to be disbanded, orders had been given to de- face and destroy all their insignia and me- morials of service — a bitter ordeal for the veteran heroes. Colouel Byrne, in his late- ly published memoirs, gives some account of the affair. He says : — "Two beautiful standards were sent to Spain by the Emperor in 1810, for the second and third battalions of the Irish regiment, but they were left at Valadolid, as those battalions were then in Portugal. These standards were brought to the depot of the regiment and were destroyed by Lieu- tenant Montague at Montreuil. They were green, with a large harp in the centre. Ou one side, in gold letters, "Napoleon I. to the second Irish Battalion." And on the other, " The Iudependeuce of Ireland." The third •It! /J ■■j*t - x 3 i- SS 3 ItlJV e$ am o ■a® '<- 'i'«,.iWJl.'i. m BR £ \'--^ R ;•*£ the snme. The Eagle was carried by the first battalion, which, of course, had its colors like the others. " The officers of the council left at Mon- treal] received two-thirds of their pay until the February following', and when all was finished, they retired on half-pay like the oilier officers, hoping, at least, to remain un- molested But soon after the battle of Waterloo, the brave regiment was disbanded by Louis XVIII., and the Irish officers were made to feel that Lord Castlereagh and English influence prevailed in the French councils. " Commandant Allen, who had retired to Melun, was ordered from that town to Rouen, and passing by Paris, was there ar- rested by order of the Duke of Feltre, and informed he must qnit the French territory without delay. Thus, without trial or judg- ment, one of those officers, whose gallant ac- tions had gained such renown for the Irish regiment, both in Spain and Silesia, was to be banished from his adopted country, by -the orders of General Clarke, the son of an Irishman." Many others of the officers, including Miles Byrne himself, were in like manner ordered in the harshest manner to quit Fiance ; but long afterwards we find most of them again upon active duty in the French service. Scarcely one was base enough to offer his services to England ; and nothing could irritate these gentlemen so much as any suggesion of seeking a British pardon, or accepting a British favor.* Poor Cnrran, when near his last, and in great misery of body and mind, had made a visit to Paris in August 1S14, and had met there some of the Irish officers. In a letter to a friend, which afterwards was made pub- lic, he had spoken of his wish to see mercy and compassion shown them by the English Government. Miles Byrne tells ns in his memoirs : — " I recollect a coincidence. In August, 1> 14, whilst at Avesnes, Inspector-General * The officers of the Legion were almost all re- stored afterwards to active service in the armies 01 their adopted country. Corbet became a Ma- jor-General, and for some time commanded at Caen. Miles Byrne was commandant of Patras, in the war of Greece ; aud died in 18G2 ; his rank was that of Chief de Batailloti in the Fifty-sixth Regiment of the line. Burke was preparing his report to the Min- ister of War on the merits and claims of the brave Irish officers returning from the Russian prisons of Siberia, as well as those officers who escaped from Flushing, and from the English pontons, Cumin's very ill- timed and most silly letters from Paris, in August, 1814, to his friend, Counselor Denis Lube", were published in the Dublin newspa- pers. The following extract is from one of them on the Irish exiles : — " ' I had hopes that England might let them back. The season aud the power of mischief is long past ; the number is almost too small to do credit to the mercy that casts a look upon them. But they are destined to give their last recollection of the green fields they are never to behold, on a foreign deathbed, and to lose the sad delight of fan- cied visits to them in a distant grave.' " It caused no little indignation amongst the Irish officers who had read it, and seve- ral of them met at dinner at the Trois Freres, in the Palais-Royal, to talk it over. These were General Lawless, who came in from Saint Germains for the meeting, Com- mandant O'Reilly, Captain Luke Lawless, Edward Leweus, and John Sweetman, &c'. We were a mixture of civil and military at dinner. " General Lawless asked Arthur Barker, as the youngest, (for he was still astuden tat the Irish College,) to read those famous let- ters. When read, General Lawless, turn- ing to Lewens, said : ' You must have told Curran that our number was not worth the commiseration of Castlereagh.' 'Me, Sir!' cried Lewens, in a great passion ; ' how could you think me capable of any such thing?' General Lawless rejoined: 'Of the exiles at Paris, Curran only saw you and Corbet.' It would have been better had he vented his spleen and ill-humor on something else ; he might have let the brave Irish officers who have escaped the dangers of their various campaigns, be again placed on active service." Indeed, to the very last, we find the sur- vivors of these noble Irish exiles looking forward with anxious hope to a renewal of war between France and England, that they might have one other chance of striking a mortal blow at the enemy of their country. PC R? [r*7 8p .*> 7T£NG .Ca.lM3\,i.U, i^ "V j> % a» m"- K ■ We may be excused for giving one other characteristic extract from the Byrne me- moir. Speaking of Corbet, (who died a French Major-General,) Colonel Byrne says : " General Corbet was officer of the Legion of Honor, Knight of Saint Louis, and Com- mander of the Order of the Saviour in Greece. He valued those distinctions as highly honorable, no doubt, but he would sometimes say : ' How much the more valu- able would they have been, had they been gained in the cause of my native country ! ' And to his last moment he lamented that her independence was not obtained ; and he seemed ever anxious for something to arise between the governments of France and England, which might prove beneficial to his own country. " In 1S-10, we frequently consulted about the way we could be best employed to serve Ireland, in the event of a war between France and England, which was then on the point of being declared. I remember one day, after an audience he had had with the Minister of War, on the situation of Ire- laud, he told mc that the Minister; Gene- ral Schneider, was very desirous to have a conversation with me, respecting the reliance which could be placed on the then leader of the Irish, when a French army should land in Inland. When lie saw that there was tn be no war with England, lie would speak to me of going to the United States of America, being sure, he said, that from that country, one day or other, Ireland would receive ultimate assistance." So the wholesome tradition is handed down unbroken ; any and every foe of England is the Irish exile's friend ; and the power of Britain must be, indeed, broadly and deeply bused, if it forever with- stand the loug-g&therihg tempest of just wrath which has been laid up against the day of wrath. The "lose of the great war on the Conti- nent nad certain direct effects upon Ireland. The immense demand for agricultural pro- duce for victualing of armies and fortresses, hud maintained high prices ; and as larce numbers of the small farmers then possessed leases — granted by landlords in order to manufacture voting freeholders — the people generally lived with some approach to com- parative comfort. Immense contracts for the provisioning of the English navy were also made at Cork ; and thus the war-prices, one way and another, brought money into the country, which was not all immediately sent out again, but actually circulated, to some extent, amongst the people. It is true, that landlords, wherever they had ten- ants from year to year, steadily raised the rents as prices advanced, but still the good- natured and kindly people helped one an- other ; and, on the whole, there was not very much of either extermination or emi- gration. In 1815, however, and the few following years, prices of grain, cattle, and other produce, fell very low, and rents were not reduced in proportion. The increase of population — for there were now six millions of people in Ireland — produced that deadly competition for small farms which has en- abled Irish landlords to wring the vitals out of a helpless peasantry, who had been left no other resource but labor on the land. Extermination may properly be said to have began in good earnest, just after " French principles " were crushed at Waterloo ; and to facilitate this process for the landlords, by recommendation of Mr. Robert Peel, the first of the series of cheap ejectment laws was passed in this very year, 1815. It provided that, in all cases of holdings, the rent of which was under £10 — which in- cluded the whole class of small farms — the assistant barrister, at. sessions, could make a decree, at the cost of a few shillings, to eject a man from house and farm. Two years after, the proceedings in ejectment were still further simplified and facilitated by an act making the sole evidence of a landlord of his agent sufficient testimony for ascertain- ing the amount of rent due. By these two acts it was rendered very easy to sweep out on the highways the whole population of a village or a townlnnd ; and this was very often done towards tenants-at-will — a race of beings which exists in no country of Europe save Ireland. As for the possess- ors of a forty-shilling freehold, their leases and their voting capacity protected them for a time. It is about this date that we first meet with the expression, "surplus-popula- tion in Ireland ;" although, indeed, the idea itself had been common enough nearly a ^ a m) \ O CONNELL IN COD] IT HIS AUDACITY, •V i'l m^tl Tr.» hundred years earlier, when Swift published his " Modest Proposal" At all events, it is evident that from this moment, and for many years after, every English statesman, pub- licist and political economist, held it as the grand fundamental maxim, in treating of Irish affairs, that there was a surplus-popu- lation in that island ; and the steadiest and most earnest aim of every administra- tion, of every party, has been to devise and execute some sure method of removing — that is, extirpating or killing the said sur- plus. The young Irish Secretary, Mr. Peel, who was destined to become one of Eng- land's greatest statesmen, had, of course, turned his attention to this momentous ob- ject, and had commenced operations, as we have seen, by laws providing for cheap and easy ejectment ; but he had yet other methods in his mind, which were not then matured, or for which the time was not yet come. The effect of the peace upon the pros- pects and claims of Catholics was altogether adverse and discouraging. England felt not only secure, but triumphant ; and, according to the invariable rule, it fared ill with Ire- land. The English oligarchy, and its de- pendant, the Irish Ascendancy, were abso- lutely drunken with an insolent aud malig- nant pride. Concession of anything, was no lunger to be thought of ; and if any person presumed to hint that there existed such a thing as human rights, he was set down as a Jacobin. A "Catholic Board" had main- tained its struggling existence until the mid- dle of summer, 181 i. But whenever the news of the capitulation of Paris and im- prisonment of Napoleon arrived in England, orders were at once sent to Lord Whitworth, the Lord-Lieutenant of Irelaud, to suppress the board summarily by proclamation ; which was, accordingly, done upon the 3d of June, in that year. The board met no more ; but, under O'Connell's direction, the agitation took the form of " Aggregate Meetings ;" thus avoiding all possibility of incurring the penalties of the Convention act ; while the meetings were even more use- ful than the board in arousing the people, dif- fusing sound information as to their rights and their wrongs, and keeping up a contin- ual public commentary upon current events. There ensued, however, differences and dis- sensions amongst the Catholic leaders, as to the most expedient policy to be pursued. The veto question had not yet entirely sub- sided ; and something of the old jealousy between the aristocratic Catholics and the mass of the people revived. Lord Fingal, in fact, together with some other Catholic gentlemen of rank, and others who courted rank and position, retired from all partici- pation in public affairs for some years. On the other hand, O'Connell led and stirred the Democracy. But it must he confessed that it was a most arduous and difficult en- terprize for him, although then in the ftdl vigor of his vast powers, to keep alive the cause of Catholic Emancipation at all in those days of triumphant bigotry and tyranny. Richard Lalor Slieil, speaking of this gloomy period, scruples not to say : " The hopes of the Catholics fell with the peace. A long in- terval elapsed in which nothing very import- ant or deserving of record took place. A political lethargy spread itself over the great body of the people ; the assemblies of the Catholics became more unfreqnent, and their language more despondent and hopeless than it had ever been." * And never be- fore, for half a century, had the " Protest- ant interest " shown itself so aggressive ami so spiteful towards the Catholic people. O'Connell, by his activity and audacity, concentrated upon himself the greater part of this Protestant wrath. For he made no scruple, whether in a public harangue to the people, or in a speech to a jury, (where the trial had anything of a political charac- ter,) to denounce, with a rough and rasping tongue, all kinds of injustice aud bigotry, packed juries, church-rates — in short, the most cherished principles and practices of " our glorious Constitution in Church and State." In the celebrated speech for John Magee, proprietor of the Evening Post, who was prosecuted for a seditious libel upon the Government, O'Connell had not only adopted and repeated the " libel," but aggravated it a thousand fold. With a fierce and vindictive energy he laid bare the whole atrocious system which in Ireland passes for government. He thundered into * Notice of " Catholic Leaders and Associati'. ns," in Slielclies of the Irish Bar % ^ jiMliiii.j, HISTORY OF IRELAND. ^ asssfiA . & > rais K'fZQ Wf> the ears of the judge, that he had first ad- vised this prosecution, which he was now pretending to try ; — and as for the twelve pious Protestants in the jury-box, (all " saints," and members of the "Society for the Suppression of Vice,") he told them, with cruel taunts, that they knew they were fraudulently packed, that they should find a man guilty (so help them God!) for stat- ing what they knew to be true. Mr. Sheil, in his admirable sketch of O'Connell, says : " The admirers of King William have no mercy for a man who, in his seditious moods, is so provoking as to tell the world that their idol was ' a Dutch adventurer.' Then his intolerable success in a profession where many a staunch Protes- tant is condemned to starve, — and his fash- ionable house in Merrion Square, — and a greater eyesore still, his dashing revolution- ary equipage, green carriage, green liveries, and turbulent, Popish steeds, prancing over a Protestant pavement, to the terror of Pro- testant passengers — these and other provo- cations of equal publicity, have exposed this learned culprit to the deep detestation of a numerous class of His Majesty's hating subjects in Ireland. And the feeling is duly communicated to the public ; the loyal press of Dublin teems with the most as- tounding imputations upon his character and motives." The provocation of the "Popish horses prancing over a Protestant pave- ment," was more serious than it may now appear ; for the pavement was strictly Pro- testant ; and so were the street-lamps. No Catholic, though he might drive a coach- and-four, could be admitted upon any pav- ing or lighting board in that sacred strong- hold of the Ascendancy, the Corporation of Dublin.* O'Connell was in the habit of speaking with supreme contempt of the lit- tle municipal close-borough ; and in one of his speeches of this year, 1815, he termed it " a. beggarly Corporation." " One of its most needy members," says Sheil, " was Mr. D'Esterre"; and he, thinking the epithet * It was at the height "f the Catholic agitation that a Town-Councillor, who was a tailor, said at a Corporation Dinner: "My Lord, these Papists may get their emancipation— they may sit in Parliament — they may preside upon the Bench— a Papist may become Lord Chancellor, or Privy Councillor ; but never, never shall one of them set foot in the an- cient and loyal guild of tailors. " beggarly " too scurrilous, and too closely personal, at. once sent a challenge to the speaker. O'Connell committed his conduct as to the reception of the challenge, to the decision of his friends. The parties met ; fought with pistols, and D'Esterre was killed, to the very great and lasting sorrow of his slayer. Mr. Shiel does not say ex- pressly — but says "it is understood" — that 'D'Esterre was induced to attempt O'Con- nell's life, by the expectation that if he should rid the Government of so formidable an agitator, he would be rewarded with a place ; and he adds : " His claims would probably not have been overlooked by the patrons of the time." On what precise evi- dence Mr. D'Esterre was charged with un- dertaking the base job of a mercenary as- sassin, we have not been able to satisfy our- selves. At any rate, no dishonorable prac- tice in the conduct of the affair was ever imputed. In the year 1816, Sir John Newport moved in Parliament for a committee to in- quire into the state of Ireland, which was then suffering greatly from scarcity of fo«d. Sir Robert Peel steadily and successfully resisted the proposed inquiry. That prudent -talesman had not been several years Chief Secretary of Ireland for nothing. He had no need of inquiry, being quite well awaro of what was passing in Ireland, where he knew that things were falling out exactly according to his calculations. If there was some extermination of starving wretches, it was because his cheap ejectment laws were working well. If there was some distur- bance, and "agrarian crime," he had his new police ready to repress it. Better than all, he had procured the renewal of the "Insurrection act" in 181-1 — had caused it to be continued in 1815, and it was now (1816) in full vigor, filling the jails with persons who could not give a good account of themselves, and transporting men for pos- sessing a fowling-piece. He felt that an as- siduous Irish Secretary could do no more ; and naturally, resisted Sir John Newport's meddling motion for inquiry. But, in truth, the low price of produce had made thousands of farmers unable to pay the rent ; then they had been ejected ; and then that lowness of price could uot en- ft *£s ¥ X 9k E m B »liiO"rt«S . (OUiMlus.il, Wd \&V/ m w d! 1 4W; DISTRESS IN IRELAND FAMINE OF 1817. 489 able them to procure food, because they had no money. Then there was an occasional murder, or attempt at murder. Magistrates wonH meet, and write to the Castle for im- mediate proclamation of the county, under the Insurrection act. It is useless to go through the unvarying detail of torturing oppression which lias continued and repeated itself year after year, and will never end while the British Empire stands. But in sad earnest, this year, IS 17, was a season of dreadful famine and suffering ; and, of course, the Coercion act of the year before was carefully renewed. The potato-crop had failed ; and although Ireland was then largely exporting grain and cattle to Eng- land,* yet this good food was not supposed to lie sent by Providence, for the nourish- ment of those who sowed and reaped it on their own soil. It is instructive to remark the constant similarity of the circumstances attending the series of Irish famines — the wholesale export of the Irish crops to Eng- land — the wholesale disappearance, also, of the money received as the price of those crops, in the shape of absentee rents, of " sur- plus revenue," &c. — and the never-failing Co- ercion acts. If in the famine cf 1847-8, there was a much greater destruction of the people — and, at the same time, a much larger export of their food and their money to England, it is only because the British sys- tem was then more fully perfected in all its details, than in 1817. In that year, however, the suffering from famine and typhus fever was already dread- ful enough ; and in the most fertile counties of Ireland, multitudes of people fed upon weeds of various sorts — some boiled nettles ; others subsisted upon the wild kail, called in Irish, prashogh. All political movement was suspended for several years, both in Ire- land and in England, and in 1819, Lord Sid- niouth introduced and carried his celebrated " Six acts," principally to quell the " sedi- tions" aspirations of the English people. These acts imposed heavy penalties upon the possession of arms, and upon " blasphemous and seditious libels " — meaning all plain and truthful comments upon the proceedings of * In this year, 1S17, the export to England, of grain alone, was G95.651 quarters.— Thorn's Official 'fables in Directory. 62 Government. A horrible military massacre was perpetrated this year at Peterloo, near Manchester, by the onslaught of a body of troops upon a perfectly peaceable mjeting of the people to demand reform. This bloody day was the 16th of August, 1819, and one of the " Six acts," passed immedi- ately after, prohibited, under cruel penalties, the assembling of more than fifty persons together, unless at a meeting called by the magistrates. In short, it was the British " Reign of Terror," not inaugurated, as in France, by the people, to rid themselves of their oppressors, but by the oppressors, to crush the people and their French principles into the earth. On the 2Sth of February, 1821, Mr. Plunket brought up in Parliament a bill for Catholic Emancipation. It was at an un- favorable time ; all the governing and con- trolling opinion of England was averse to any kind of claim for rights. The bill was vehemently opposed by the Tory party, and especially by ' Sir Robert Peel. In the House of Lords, the Duke of York, heir presumptive to the throne, made a furious speech against it ; saying, amongst other things, that " there is a great difference be- tween allowing the free exercise of religion, and the granting of political power " — as if there could be any freedom without poli- tical power, or as if freedom and politi- cal power were things to bo allowed and granted, by persons who might lawfully withhold them. It was in the same year, in the month of August, that King George IV. condescended to make a triumphal visit to Ireland ; and that Mr. O'Conuell, with certain views of " policy," which will not be universally appreciated, testified an enthu- siastic loyalty to that individual, and drank at a public dinner the " Orange Charter toast." Overpowered by the cordiality of his reception, the King quitted the soil of Ireland with tears of emotion in his eyes. On the spot where he embarked stands a granite monument, surmounted by a crown ; and Dunleary changed its name to Kings- town. It would be agreeable not to record these incidents ; but they form, unhappily, part of the history of Ireland. Touching this royal visit — not to insist in this place upon the savage comment of Lord Ife tl >^«8'Mt ' "^m !f] : i§^m^0Mr^^m m 490 HISTORY OF IRELAND. ^ m i^\ A' P '§? i* Byron, we may give the more moderate prose of Richard Lalor Sheil : " Sir Ben- jamin Bloomfield arrived in Dublin l)efore his master, and intimated the royal anx- iety that all differences and animosities should be laid aside. Accordingly, it was agreed that a public dinner should be held at Mor- rison's, where the leaders of both parties should pledge each other in libations of ever- lasting amity. This national festivity took place ; and from the vehement protestations on both sides, it was believed by many that a lasting reconciliation had been effected. Master Ellis and Mr. O'ConncIl almost em- braced each other. The King arrived ; the Catholics determined not fa obtrude their grievances upon him. Accordingly, onr gra- cious sovereign passed rather an agreeable time in Dublin. He was hailed with tumul- tuous hurrahs wherever he passed ; and in return for the enthusiastic reception which he had found, he directed Lord Sidmouth to write a letter recommending it to the people to be waited. His Majesty shortly after- wards set sail, with tears in his eyes, from Kingstown. For a little while the Catholics continued under the miserable deception un- der which they had labored during the royal sojourn, but when they found that no inten- tion existed to introduce a change of system into Ireland — that the King's visit seemed an artifice, and Lord Sidmouth's epistle meant nothing — and that while men were changed, measures continued substantially unaltered, they began to perceive that some course more effective than a loyal solicitude not to disturb the repose of His Majesty should be adopted." In short, the Irish Catholics were once more cheated ; and it is not saying much for their perspicacity — for they were twice cheated by the same cheat. Neither can we ever look back with pleasure on the scenes of "loyal" servility enacted at that period by leading Irishmen — O'Connell toasting the glorious, pious, and immortal memory of the " Dutch adventurer," and presenting a huge bunch of shamrocks to the discreditable being who then represented the desolating British domination. Doubt- less these hypocritical demonstrations of "loyalty" to an enemy, were transacted with an idea that it was a cunniug policy to conciliate tyrants in England, and to disarm animosities at home. In these views they failed utterly, and have their place in history only as a signal example of gratuitous crouching and crawling. The senseless gala of 1821 passed away ; the horrible famine of 1822 immediately fol- lowed.* . CHAPTER LIII. 1822—1825. Famine of 1822— Its Causes — Financial Frauds npon Ireland— Horrors of the Famine— Extermination — Suspension of Habeas Corpus Act— Castlereagh Cuts his Throat— Marquis Wrllesley Viceroy — Sir Haroourt Lees — The Bottle Riot— Catholic Associ- ation Formed— Dr. Doyle; " J. K. L."— Progress of Catholic Association— " Catholic Rent"— May- nooth Professors " Loyal "—Rage of the ( h-angemen — "O'Connell, the Pope, and the Devil "— Passive- iicss of the Dissenters — O'Connell's Appeals to Them — Intellectual and Literary Power of the Movement — Act to Suppress " Unlawful Associa- tions" — First Attempt to Cheat the Catholics— A Relief Bill, with "Wings"— Defeated— Catholic De- putation in London— O'Connell and the Whigs — Strong Feeling in Ireland against " Wings." BEFORE proceeding to the details of this dreadful famine of 1S22, it is needful to consider the financial relations of the two islands since the period of the "Union." In 1816 was passed the act for consoli- dating the British and Irish Exchequers — it is the 56th George III., chap. 98. It be- came operative on the 1st January, 1817. The meaning of this consolidation was, charging Ireland with the whole debt of England, pre-union and post-union ; and in like manner charging England with the whole Irish debt. Now the enormous English national debt, both before and after the Union, was con traded for purposes which Ireland had not only no interest in promoting, but a direct and vital interest in contravening and resist- ing — that is, it had been contracted to crush American and French liberty, and to destroy those very powers which were the natural allies of Ireland. * John Philpot Civrran died in 1817, on the Hth of October. His remains were buried lirst in London; afterwards removed to the cemetery of tilasnevin. (■rattan died three years after, and had the very doubt- ful honor ofa tomb in Westminster Abbey. These two great Irishmen left the country they loved in one of the gloomiest periods of her gloomy story -t/Vfl.CCil/NBl.S.t FAMINE IN 1822 ITS CAUSES FINANCIAL FRAUDS UPON IRELAND )tr*l _«? >S? But this is not all : we have next to see the proportions which the two debts bore to each other. It will be remembered that by the terms of the so-called " Union " I. Ireland was to be protected from any liability on account of the British National Debt contracted prior to the Union. II. The separate debt of each country being first provided for by a separate charge, Ireland was then to contribute tu o seventeenths towards the joint or com- mon expenditure of the United Kingdom for twenty years ; after which her contribu- tion was to be made proportionate to her ability as ascertained at stated periods of revision by certain tests specified in the act. III. Ireland was not only promised that she never should have any concern with the then existing British Debt, but she was also assured that her taxation should not be raised to the standard of Great Britain un- til the following conditions should occur : — 1. That the two debts should come to bear to each other the proportion of fifteen parts for Great Britain to two parts for Ireland ; and, 2. That the respective circumstances of the two countries should admit of uniform taxation. It must be further borne in mind, that previous to the Union the National Debt of Ireland was a mere trifle. It had been enormously increased by charging to Ire- land's special account, first, the expenses of getting up the rebellion ; next, the expenses of suppressing it ; and, lastly, the expenses of bribing Irish noble lords and gentlemen to sell their country at this Union. Thus the Irish Debt, which before the Union had been less than three millions sterling, was set down by the act of Uniou at nearly twenty- seven millions. On the 20th of June, 1804, (four years after the Union had passed,) Mr. Foster, Chancellor of the Irish Exchequer, observ- ed, that, whereas, in 1194 the Irish debt did not exceed two millions and a half, it had in 1!S03 risen to forty-three millions; and that during the current year it was in- creased to nearly fifty three millions. During the long and costly war against France, and the second American war, it happened, by some very extraordinary spe- cies of bookkeeping, that while the English debt was not quite doubled, the Irish debt was more than quadrupled ; as if Ireland had twice the interest which England had in forcing the Bourbons back upon France, and in destroying the commerce of America. Thus, in 1816, when the consolidation act was passed, the whole funded debt of Ire- land was found to be £130,561,031. By this management the Irish debt, which in 1801 had been to the British as one to six- teen and a half, was forced up to bear to the British debt the ratio of one to seven and a half. This was the proportion re- quired by the Act of Union as a condition of subjecting Ireland to indiscriminate taxa- tion with Great Britain — a condition equally impudent and iniquitous. Ireland was to be loaded with inordinate debt ; and then this debt was to be made the pretext for raising her taxation to the high British standard, and thereby rendering her liable to the pre- union debt of Great Britain I By way of softening down the glaring in- justice of such a proposition, Lord Custle- reagh said that the two debts might be brought to bear to each other the prescribed proportions, partly by the increase of the Irish debt, but partly also by the decrease of the British. To which Mr. Foster thus answered, on the 15th of March, 1800 : "The monstrous absurdity you would force down our throats, is that Ireland's increase of poverty, as shown by her increase of debt, and England's increase of wealth, as shown by diminution of debt, are to bring them to an equality of condition, so as to be able to bear an equality of taxation." But bad as this was, the former and worse alternative was what really befel. The given ratio was reached solely by the in- crease of the Irish debt, without any de- crease of the British. We take from the excellent pamphlet of Mr. O'Neill Daunt,* already quoted in a former chapter, a passage presenting a sum- mary of the financial dealings of England with Ireland : — " The following facts stand unshaken, and should become familiarly known to every man in Ireland : — * " Financial Grievances of Ireland.*' Publica* tions of the irisk National League. P& ■ O, & '£NG .CQLUMB\,S,t), (if? *Z &l BK \\t-xz, w ?* ®) Parliament was so prompt to clothe him. Indeed, the Marquis, from the conciliatory and mild way in which he spared the suffer- ing people, and from Ins courtesy towards the Catholic leaders, some of whom he en- tertained at the Castle, soon became unpop- ular with the Orange faction. The most prominent Orange agitator was then a cer- tain Sir Harconrt Lees. He was a clergy- man by profession, and held preferment in the Church ; but occupied himself chiefly in discovering Popish plots for the massacre of Protestants, denouncing, in the newspapers, " O'Connell, the Pope, and the Devil," and sending petitions to Parliament, praying to "put down Popery," and send O'Connell to the Tower. Sir Ilarcourt was slightly in- sane ; but his morbid visions of Jesuit con- spiracies, and wild stories from " Fox's Book of Martyrs," were well enough suited to excite the ignorant Orangemen of Dublin. These pestilent people soon began to sus- pect that Lord Wellesley was in league with "O'Connell, the Pope, and the Devil ;" and the city resounded with their imprecations. At length, on the night of the 14th of De- cember, their rage broke out in the form of a riot at the theatre. Some ruffians threw a bottle and a piece of wood at the Vice-regal box, but failed to strike the Mar- quis. Three Dublin tradesmen were arrest- ed, charged with participating in the riot, and indicted. The Grand Jury of Dublin, (all Orangemen,) ignored the bill. The Attorney-General, Mr. Plunket, then pro- ceeded, ex officio, and sent them up for trial. As might have been anticipated, the jury would not convict ; and in short, no person was ever punished for the " bottle riot." The year 1S'23 is notable for the forma- tion of the "Catholic Association." lis foundations were laid by Mr. O'Connell, in conjunction with Air. Shiel, then a very young barrister, but already remarkable for a certain kind of polished, figurative, and antithetical rhetoric. These two gentlemen met at the house of a common friend in the Wicklow mountains; "and after exchang- ing their opinions," .-ays Mr. Shiel, "on the deplorable state to which the Catholic mind had been reduced, and the utter want of or- ganization in the body, it was agreed that they should both sigu an address to the Irish Catholics," and inclose it to the prin- cipal people of that religion. The result of this procedure was for a time not very en- couraging. " A very thin meeting," says Mr. Sheil, "which did not consist of more than twenty individuals was held at a tavern in Sackville street ; and it was there deter- mined that something should be done." The work, in truth, was difficult. The old alienation between the Catholic Peers and the democratic masses still subsisted. Old Lord Fingal, Lord Gormanstown, and others of the highest rank and influence, who would have been glad to accept eman- cipation even on the terms of the veto, were somewhat scandalized at the violence with which O'Connell and the famous Dr. Droin- goole repudiated that project of enslaving the Church. Yet a combination of all the sections and elements of the Catholic com- munity, however difficult, was precisely the indispensable condition of effecting any very notable good to the cause. To this, then, O'Connell bent all the energies and resources of his mind. Happily the Earl of Fingal had a son, Lord Killeen, who not only did uot share all the prejudices or apprehensions of his father, but louged to throw himself heart and soul into the movement by the side of O'Connell. Lord Killeen had good abilities, and was free from those habits of submission which the Catholic aristocracy had contracted at the period of their ex- treme depression. His example was soon followed by Lord Gormanstown, a Peer of ancient descent, and hitherto of retiring habits, so far as political agitation was con- cerned, lie conceived that the course of the aggressive agitators had the effect oidy of irritating enmity ; and, therefore, had very much secluded himself amongst his woods near Balbriggan. Next came in the Karl of Kenmare ; who, though he did not formally join the association, (having an aversion to public appearance,) — sent in the authority of his name and his pecuniary contribution. Prom this time the union of the aristocracy with the rest of their coun- trymen was assured. Another and still more powerful element in the confederacy was the Catholic priesthood. The celebrat- ed and very able and energetic Doctor Doyle, Bishop of Kildare and Leighliu, was a i 8 ' ^M- \&\ SV Cv « DOCTOR DOYLE ; *' J. K. L. the first Prelate who openly joined the as- sociation — bis potent pen was devoted to its service ; and the whole world was long fa- miliar with the signature "J. K. L., (the initials of his Episcopal office,) signed to many a vigorous pamphlet and letter. Other Bishops and the great body of the clergy soon became members of the associa- tion, and the movement which had begun so humbly swelled into a puissant and appar- ently-irresistible torrent of public opinion. O'Connell was at last in his element ; and ably supported by Sheil and Wyse, labored continually to give a practical character to the meetings ; and to bring under calm and well-considered discussion all great questions arising in the state. In structure, the Catholic Association much resembled all the other political soci- eties instituted by Mr. O'Connell. It con- sisted of members paying a guinea each year, and of associates paying one shilling. The executive consisted of a standing com- mittee. The regular meetings were weekly each Saturday ; and the proceedings con- sisted in the reading of correspondence, per- fecting organization, the discussion of public questions which bore any relation to the cause, and deciding on petitions. There was little or no oratorical display at these Weekly meetings ; the members rather ap- plying themselves to treat subjects of dis- cussion with a moderate and business-like calmness, so as to develope facts and diffuse sound information. Still the proceedings attracted little attention during the first year. Indeed, Mr. Shiel informs us that " the association in its origin was treated with contempt, not only by its open adver- saries, but Catholics themselves spoke of it with derision, and spurned at the walls of mud which their brethren had rapidly thrown op, which were afterwards to become alia, viaiiia Roma" It was only in the course of the following year, that Mr. O'Connell instituted the new system of monthly sub- scriptions of one penny (which he called " Catholic Rent,") when it became evident both to friends and enemies how deep a hold the cause had upon the hearts of the Catho- lic masses, and how wide-spread was their determination to achieve their liberties. The Ministry began to take some alarm. The Cabinet at that time was extremely Anti- Catholic ; Lord Liverpool being still First Lord of the Treasury and Premier ; the Duke of Wellington, Master-General of the Ordnance ; Lord Eldon, (an extreme ex- ample of the narrowest bigotry,) was Lord Chancellor ; and Mr. Peel, (not yet Sir Robert,) was the Home Secretary. It is true that Canning, well understood to be a friend of the Catholic claims, was in the Ministry, but his place was that of Foreign Secretary, so that he could have little special influence upon that great question which was now agitating the three kingdoms, and at length disquieting seriously His Majesty's advisers ; for, in truth, no phenomenon like this had ever been seen in Ireland before ; within two years after its origin, the penny subscriptions to the rent averaged £500 a week, which represented half a million of enroled associates, and produced a fund quite sufficient to pay the expenses of de- fending men unjustly accused, to prosecute Orange violators of the law, (but this was generally a hopeless enterprise,) — to pay the expenses of Parliamentary and election agents, and even to afford considerable ap- propriations for the support of Catholic schools for the poor. But not even these evidences of imposing numbers and close organization so much alarmed the Government, as the determined attitude taken by some of the clergy, and the bold writings of Doctor Doyle. He broached doctrines which not only startled the "Protestant Ascendancy," but even af- fected the nerves of some of the Maynooth (7i Professors. In his letter to Mr. Robertson, alter speaking of the possibility of a rebel- lion and a French invasion, he says : "The Minister of England caunot look to the exertions of the Catholic priesthood ; they have been ill-treated ; and they may yield for a moment to the influence of nature, though it be opposed to grace. The clergy, with a few exceptions, are from the ranks of the people ; they inherit their feelings ; they are not, as formerly, brought, up under despotic governments ; and they have im- bibed the doctrines of Locke and Paley more deeply than those of Bellarmine, or even of Bossuet, ou the divine right of kings. They know much more of the principles of >?3 L M a Ik %-£ i i/^^ wi '^•|CS.> s.*u 1;. .•'»^tAS .(i'U,,\llii.^ Sim v a;.. r O COKVELL IN COUKT HI3 ATTDACITT. 407 w. ™ sssKl m who wherever tyranny and intolerance show- e JET?, t. Ji^N '©' P HISTORY OF IRELAND. it encountered most infuriated opposition in 1 1n- Lords; and the Duke of York made a speech of the intensest malignity, which had the more serious effect, as lie was heir pre- sumptive to the Crown of England. lie declared in the most solemn manner that he never would consent to allow the claims of the Catholics — " ncrer, so help him Hod!" On the second reading in the House of Lords the bill was defeated. There was at this time in London a verv imposing deputation of Irish Catholics. O'Counell and Shei] had been requested by the Catholic Association to go over and demand to be heard at the bar of the House of Commons ngainst the bill for suppression of the " Unlawful Associations in Ireland." The motion that they should lie heard was made by Mr. Brougham ; bat was rejected; and that part of their mission failed. Sever- al distinguished gentlemen had been asso- ciated with the deputation ; amongst others, Mr. O'Ciormnn and Sir Thomas Esmonde. They were very warmly Welcomed and courteously entertained by many leading Whigs, Brougham, Burdett, the Duke of Norfolk, and the Duke of Sussex, the " Lib- eral " member of the royal family. An incidenl occurred during the discussion upon Mr. Brougham's motion to hearO'Con- nell and Sheil at the bar, which pave occa- sion to one of the very few imprudent things which Peel committed in his Parliamentary life. He was opposing the motion with much vehemence, and denouncing the asso- ciation as a treasonable body; alluding to a friendly address which it had presented to the venerable patriot Archibald Hamilton Rowan ; "he became heated with victory," says Mr. Sheil, "and cheered, as he was re- peatedly, by his multitudinous partizans, turned suddenly towards the part of the House where the deputies were seated, and looking triumphantly at Mr. O'Counell, with whom he forgot for a moment that he had been once engaged iu a personal quarrel, shook his hand with scornful exultation, and asked whether the House required any bet- ter evidence than the address of the associ- ation ' to an attainted traitor.' " This lan- guage was held to be in very bad taste ; and Mr. Brougham made a fierce and damaging reply. The incident, however, showed in very strong light the bitter feeling of Sil Robert Peel towards the Catholics. Before the deputation quitted London, the other bill for emancipation, with pay- ment of the clergy and disfranchisement of forty-shilling freeholders, was pending. These two conditions were called the "wings" of the bill; and the deputies, especially Mr. O'Counell, had much conver- sation with leading Whig politicians upon the terms of the proposed measure, and upon the way in which it might, probably, be received in Ireland as a final settlement. Those Whig politicians were naturally de- sirous that the measure should pass, wings and all — for they cared nothing about the independence of the Church, or the rights of electors. What they thought of was, that some Irish Catholic members coming into Parliament would be an accession of force to their party, and might carry them into office. Mr. O'Counell did not then, probably, so fully know as lie afterwards came to know — that British Whigs regard all Irish questions solely with a view to the in- terests of the Whig party. The courtesies also, and the persuasive phraseology of those courtly "Liberals," and of the English Cath- olics, who were all for the bill, certainly im- posed somewhat upon O'Connell's mind ; insomuch that he is known to have signified to some principal Whig statesmen his wil- lingness to take the bill as it stood, with the two offensive "wings." The fortunate loss of the measure in the House of Lords prevented any evil consequences arising from this unaccountable weakness ; and when the deputation returned to Ireland, and found what was the state of feeling amongst the Catholics; and when O'Counell found that his complying disposition was very likely to injure his popularity and his power for good, he very promptly and frankly retracted, and took his position again with his countrymen. It had been well, indeed, if he had firmly held his grouud against both those Wings to the last. % i '•■^Tine .couinsiiS.}, ELM 1 ACTION OF THE CATHOLIC ASSOCIATION. CHAPTER LIV. 182')— 1829. Action of the Catholic Association— Waterford Elec- tion— Louth Election— Change of Ministry — Can- ning Premier— Lord Anglesea Viceroy — The "New Reformation "—Pope and Maguire— Death of Can- ning— Godoricb Cabinet — Catholic Petition for Re- peal of Test and Corporation Acts — Acts Repealed — Clare Election— O'Connell Returned — Its Results — Suppression of Catholic Association — Peel and Wellington Prepare Catholic Relief Hill— tiage of the Bigots — Reluctance of the King — O'Connell at the Bar of the House — Passage of the Emancipa- tion Act — Disfranchisement of the Forty-Shilling Freeholders — Abstract of the Relief Act — The New Oath— Meaning and Spirit of the Relief Act. The Catholic Association continued its op- erations and extended its organization, with even greater vigor and success than before. It had a machinery which extended not only into every county but into every parish. Its funds were given to employ lawyers to protect the people in cases of extreme op- pression ; and in such cases as the wrecking of a chapel, or an Orange riot in the North — cases which the magistrates at petty and quarter-sessions had been in the habit of treating upon the general principle that Pa- pists had no rights which Protestants were bound to respect, their worships were now sometimes thunderstruck by the apparition of clever barristers or attorneys from Dub- lin, who not only knew more law than the whole bench of justices, but were attended by newspaper reporters, sure to publish abroad to the world any too-outrageous in- stance of magisterial partizanship. But the machinery of the association, both cen- tral and provincial, was capable of being employed with more striking effect in the elections of representatives in Parliament ; and its efficiency began to be proved in the general election of 1826. It was resolved in the association that all its efforts should be concentrated upon favoring the return of certain liberal Protestants (seeing that Catholics were not eligible,) for some coun- ties which had been up to that time con- trolled absolutely by a few great families of the old colonial aristocracy. The Beres- fords, for example, had long represented Waterford in the person of some member of their family ; the idea of opposing the Beresford interest in that county seemed the wildest dream ; and the Beresford, who was Marquis of Waterford, naturally thought that he did not more clearly own the de- mesne of Curraghmore than he owned tlio representation of his county. At the elec- tion of 1826, Lord George Beresford was boldly opposed by Mr. Villiers Stuart, an- other large proprietor of the county, and a friend to the Catholic claims. The latter was supported by the parochial organizers and by the Catholic clergy, and won his election, to the intense mortification of the house of Curraghmore, and perfect conster- nation of the whole Protestant interest. AYliile society in Dublin was much agi- tated by the progress of this contest in the South, news arrived in that city of a still more stirring nature : Louth County was in like manner, held to be an apanage of the two noble houses of Foster and Jocelyn ; their titles were Oriel and Rodeu. Lord Oriel was that John Foster, Speaker of the Irish House of Commons at the time of the Union, with whom this history has already had much to do ; all his life a high place- holder, and bitter opponent of the Catholics. The politician of the family was now John Leslie Foster, who had long sat in Parlia- ment as one of the members for the county, and consistently on every occasion, resisted the slightest concession to the Catholics. The Jocelyns had as their nominee for the other seat, Mr. Fortescue, a politician of the same deep Orange hue. At the election in 1826, there presented himself to the people to ask their suffrages, a Mr. Dawson, a re- tired barrister of some fortune, who was favorable to the enfranchisement of six mil- lions of his countrymen. He was attended to the polls by immense multitudes of the worthy forty-shilling freeholders, who march- ed with him into Dundalk with green ban- ners flying in the wind. The contest was close ; for the influence of the great land- lords was nearly irresistible, unless at mortal peril. It needed all the energy of the local managers of the association to bring up the voters, and get them to defy those potent despots. Mr. Sheil went down from Dublin as counsel for Dawson ; in short, at the close of the poll, Dawson was declared duly elect- ed ; Mr. Foster was the second mcmbei, --3S^^ ^ *cA6 .:(.UJ*>'Bi.S.U. 4W Ife? Sin" HISTORY OF IRELAND. tH35 aud Fortcscue, nominee of Lord Roden, stood defeated. Some few other successes of a similar character, showed what the association could do. The effect of such events upon the pub- lic mind in England was very great. As for the " Ascendancy" Faction in Ireland, it was as usual in a foam of rage ; the great family interests — the mighty Orange houses winch had been long a rock and strong tower to Protestant monopoly and religion, were now, as it seemed, to be assailed, not by sap or mine, but by open storm and esca- lade. The Protestant mind of that day could not help believing that there was some Jesuit conspiracy at work in this matter, and that the Waterford election was won virtually by the Tope of Rome. Sir Har- court Lees demanded of Parliament whether his vaticinations would be at length listened to — Popery "put down," aud O'Counell sent to the Tower. Early in the first session of the new Par- liament, Lord Liverpool, the Premier, was struck with paralysis. He was a helpless and timorous creature ; afraid to read his letters in the morning, lest they should bring news of an insurrection in some part of the country ; anil his only idea of government was to disturb nothing, to reform nothing, (sufficient unto the day being the evil thereof,) and only praying that all mankind might remain precisely as it was, for his day. In short, he was a " Conservative " of the stu- pidest sort.* On his death, which followed very soon, Mr. Canning, who had been For- eign Secretary in his administration, was sent for by the King, and received his com- mands to form a Cabinet. But Mr. Cau- uing, only a month before, had made a pow- erful speech in favor of Catholic Emancipa- tion ; the King, therefore, must have known that in making this statesman his Prime Minister, he was taking an almost irrevoca- ble step towards that clearly-inevitable con- summation. Accordingly, Sir Robert Peel, the Duke of Wellington, Lord Eldon, and other Tory members of the outgoing Cabi- net, refused to serve with Mr. Cannim * His order of Conservatism is admirably charac- terized by Pan] Louis Courier, who, speaking of one of Lord Liverpool's character, said : " If he had been present on the morning of the creation he would have cried : Mun Dieu .' vcmservoits le chaos .' who, thereupon, formed a Ministry which was generally in favor of concession. Lord Wcllesley was succeeded in the Viceroyalty of Ireland by the Marquis of Anglesea, formerly Earl of Uxbridge, a very brilliant cavalry officer, but not much of a statesman. The Chief Secretary was Lord Francis Leveson Gower. When Lord Anglesea arrived in Ireland, lie found the Ascendancy faction in high ex- citement, The very Orangemen began to perceive the ominous signs of the times. They were making preparations to celebrate with great pomp the grand Orange anniversary of the 12th of July ; being resolved, if they could not much longer trample on their fellow- countrymen, to insult them to the last. As the time approached, however, Lord An- glesea prohibited by proclamation the cus- tomary procession in Dublin, and the gar- landing with Orange lilies the statue of King William in College Green. In Ulster, how- ever, the anniversary was celebrated with even more than the usual show of insolent triumph. In every town and village the brethren assembled in great numbers, march- ed from town to town, all flaunting with purple and orange sashes, generally halting in the midst of districts inhabited by Catho- lics, firing a volley over their houses, and playing " The Protestant Boys," aud " Crop- pies Lie Down." The prohibition of the Dublin procession, and other alarming signs of an approaching compromise with Jezebel — for such was held to be the meaning of the threatened admis- sion of Papists to Parliament and the Cor- porations — aroused all the " No-Popery " an- imosities of their hereditary oppressors ; ami the clerical agitators projected a " New Reformation." If the Catholics could but be convinced of their idolatry aud supersti- tion, (which seemed so manifest to those clerical persons,) it was thought that they could no longer persist in their audacious pretensions. In general, this new scheme of proselytism was carried on by mere ribald abuse of everything held sacred in the an- cient, religion, and by repeating the old stories out of " Fox's Martyrs ; " but certain of the new reformers challenged public dis- cussion with the most learned Catholic the- ologians in every diocese ; aud at first some W \ "Vi^Uw.Hli^.i. PSSs? , M ! il,V 5$ ; . ' ii J THE NEW REFORMATION of these challenges were promptly met by Catholic clergymen, who thought, on their Bide that their religion could lose nothing, and might gain much by public exposition and defence of its tenets. Several oral dis- cussions took place accordingly, of which the most notable was that between a Rev. Mr. Pope, an English clergyman, and Father Maguire, a parish priest of Leitrim County. The bold acceptance of the challenge by "Father Tom," was thought by his own partisans rather unfortunate, as he had never debated in public, though known to be a learned theologian, while Mr. Pope was a practiced controversialist. The discussion was to take place in Dublin; each champion to defend three articles of his own and assail three of his adversary's faith. The occasion excited intense interest. Not only the pub- lic room where the meeting took place, but all Sackville street was thronged with eager sympathizers. As the two disputants ar- gued within the building, thousands of minor " oral discussions" were taking place on the 'streets, and the talk of Dublin carmen was of Two Sacraments and of Seven. This scene lasted many days : the debate was carried on with sufficient courtesy : Father Maguire proved himself a master of theolo- gical learning, and Mr. Pope of controver- sial declamation : and the affair ended, as might have been expected — that is, Catho- lics were convinced that Mr. Maguire had demolished the Protestant religion, and Protestants were satisfied that Mr. Pope had not left Popery a leg to stand on. Nobody was converted on cither side. Many other similar discussions, in which laymeu sometimes bore a part, raged in each province of the islaud, aud generally rather inflamed intolerance than advanced any good cause ; the Plight Rev. Dr. Doyle dis- approved of them,- and soon interdicted the clergy of his diocese from engaging in them. So did the Archbishop of Armagh, and then the other Bishops. Soon not a priest could be found to accept a challenge — and their opponents took this as a plain proof that the Catholic religion was afraid of the light of day. They eagerly pressed their invitations, Dut in vain. They urgently offered to their Catholic friends to prove the Mass a plain idols, and Purgatory a lamen- table infringement on the prerogatives of Hell — the Catholic priests would no longer strip for this polemical prize-ring ; although still ready and willing to expound their faith by the old methods of theological argument. The year 1827 was remarkable for the first great example of the emigrant Irish in every foreign country, and in every colony taking an active part in the struggle for liberty of their friends at home. And the sympathy and substantial aid were not con- fined to Irishmen alone ; nor even to Catho- lics alone. The bold attitude of O'Conncll; the mighty power he had created aud direct- ed ; the vigor and wisdom of that agitation now so evidently shaking the deep-rooted and broad-based structure of the British Empire, attracted the admiration of the world. The powerful French press occupied itself warmly in the struggle ; and from French Catholics, as well as from Americans of all religions, came addresses and subscrip- tions to the Catholic Association. Multitu- dinous meetings of " Friends of Ireland " were held in all considerable American cities ; and a large part of the business of the association began to be reading foreign correspondence, aud receiving addresses from not only France aud America, but from va- rious German States, from Italy, from Spain, even from British India. All these things, while they violently irritated the national pride of the English, suggested to them at the same time the impossibility of continued resistance, in so very bad a cause. Mr. Canning died in August, after a very short tenure of office. lie had to contend with a compact and very acrimonious oppo- sition, consisting not only of the Tories, but of the aristocratic party of the old Whigs, headed by Lord Grey — a party which was jealous of Canning, because it sincerely believed him an interloper upon the pre- scriptive right of a few great families to govern the country.* * Canning was a man of strong passions and high spirit, with great talent for satire ; and of course had made many enemies — and without enemies, no man is entitled to have friends. He had been a. Tory too. and had written pungent squibs in the " Anti-Jaco- bin" against " French principles ; " n>r example the very clever satire of the " Xeedy Knife-Grinder " In one of these jeux d' esprit, lie had contrasted the statesmanlike qualities of certain Tory Lords with " The temper of Grey And treasurer Sheridan's promise to pay."' % -V J& .CCU/MBIiS.O, HISTORY OF IRELAND. >y^, XS\ ;V But the head and tlie heart of this ven- omous opposition was Sir Robert Peel, who saw that Carmine: was destined, if his gov- ernment lasted, to carry the great measure of Catholic Emancipation, and who was determined, if possible, to supersede him and carry that inevitable measure himself — a policy not unfamiliar to this prudent statesman, which lie afterwards pursued in the l\ '■■ H4f ■ I3 t»a3rcS : V ' most vengeance of landlord-wrath, and carry the " Man of the People" triumphantly to the door of Parliament. The famous Father Maguire traveled all the way from Leitrim, that lie might help to swell the excitement. John Lawless, (or as he was usually named honest Jack Law- less,) was then editor of a newspaper in Bel- fast, called the Irishman ; he left his news- paper to other hands, and hurried to Clare, to put his fiery leading articles, into the form of fiery speeches. The town of Ennis, which had a population of eight thonsand, contained thirty thousand human beings, on the day when O'ConncIl's green carriage was expected in that place. Green flags waved from the windows ; priests and agi- tators addressed multitudes from a balcony or a flight of steps ; and the excitement of expectation was at its highest. Yet there was not. the slightest appearance of turbu- lence or disorder. On the contrary, through- out all the exciting canvass, and still more exciting days of the actual poll, eld family feuds were suspended, or terminated forever. There was no drunkenness, no angry language, and no man ventured (so strong was public opinion) to raise a hand against another upon any provocation. O'Connell, at length, appeared, with two or three friends ; and there was one continu- ous shout from thirty thousand throats. Women cried and laughed ; strangers who had never seen one another, wrung each other's hands ; and from every window ladies (Mr. Shicl says, " of great beauty,") waved hands and handkerchiefs. No won- der that such a tempest of patriotic zeal, whirled away Mr. Fitzgerald's own tenants out of the hands of their marshaling bailiffs • nor that one wave of O'Connell's arm, left Mr. Vandelenr deserted by his whole army of freeholders. Sir Edward O'Brien's feu- dal pride was mortally hurt by the defec- tion of his people, and he shed tears of vex- ation ; but his son, William Smith O'Brien, then member for Ennis, though his family pride may have been hurt by such a result, was not inconsolable, being, indeed, a con- tributor to the "Catholic Rent," and one who at all times, valued justice and fair dealing more highly than the broad acres and high towers of Drumoland. t;t The details of an election contest, even that of Clare in 1828, need not be related at length. Sir Edward O'Brien proposed Mr. Fitzgerald, who was seconded by Sit Augustus Fitzgerald. O'Connell was pro- posed by O'Gorman Mahon and Mr. Steele, both proprietors in the county. The speeches were made ; the poll proceeded ; and at its close the numbers stood, for O'Connell, two thousand and fifty-seven ; for Fitz- gerald, one thousand and seventy-five. After an argument before the assessor, Mr. Keat- ing, in which it was contended that a Catholic could not be legally returned, the objection was overruled, on the ground that it rested with the Parliament itself, on the oath being tendered and refused, to exclude a representative, and O'Connell was pro- claimed duly elected. It is somewhat difficult, at this day, fully to comprehend the profound impression which this event produced throughout Ire- land, as well as in the other island. Mr. Vesey Fitzgerald, though deeply mortified, took his defeat with a gentlemanlike calm- ness ; but the great proprietors of Clare County, who had supported.him, could not con- ceal their ominous apprehensions. "Where is all this to end ?" was a question frequently put in his presence ; to which he replied otdy by looks of gloom and sorrow. In fact, the worthy Protestant "Liberals," dis- ciples and followers of Grattan and Pon- sonby, had accustomed themselves to regard the Catholic claims as their affair they were the Parliamentary patrons of the Irish Catholics, and had never dreamed of the possibility of their clients taking the case into their own hands ; not only throwing off all dependence upon them, but even flinging aside, so decisively one of the most dis- tinguished of their advocates, and coming in their proper person to thunder at the doors of Parliament. Still more fearful and ter- rible to them was the example of independ- ence now set by the voting tenantry — the hereditary family "interests" were no longer omnipotent ; and the end of the world seemed at hand. The exultation of the Catholic people of Inland was unbounded. O'Connell traveled back to Dublin in the midst of one continued triumphal procession. Mr. Lawless, the Belfast editor, was escort- n ^ m ^mCHLS. yr'tNG .UlUiNBIti.^ 9l ed, on his return to Belfast, by enormous multitudes of the peasantry. Through the plains of Meath they passed in peaceable triumph, and through the southern part of Monnghan ; but in this region the Orange- men were strong, armed, resolute, and infuriated ; and a vast concourse of armed Protestants, excited by the harangues of ^r^i their preachers, and prayerfully determined to resist this triumph of "Jezebel," at least in their county, were assembled at Ballybay, and showed a stern purpose of opposing the passage of Mr. Lawless and his followers. It needed all the exertions of the Catholic clergy, and the friendly expostulations of General Thornton, military commandant of the district, to prevent a collision, and induce the multitudinous escort of Mr. Lawless to disperse and go to their homes. For a week or two there were serious apprehen- sions of collision, and of civil war ; and large numbers of troops were hastily sent over from England. It was even formally pro- posed in the Catholic Association that a run should be made on the banks, with a view of disorganizing society and opening the way for armed revolution ; but these coun- sels were rejected. The actual results of this election are well known, and may be shortly summarized. The Duke of Wellington, who had a few mouths before declared that " he could not comprehend the possibility of placing Roman Catholics in a Protestant Legislature with any kind of safety; as his personal knowledge told him that no King, however Catholic, could govern his Catholic subjects without the aid of the Pope ;" this Duke, the consistent and conscientious opponent of Catholic liberties, and who had taken office expressly to defeat their claims, became suddenly converted, and felt that the choice lay between Catholic Emancipation and civil war. As for Sir Robert Peel, he had *t& W already divined the course of events — his policy was clear ; and his conscience pre- sented no serious difficulty. Lord Anglesea, the Lord-Lieutenant, though he had come )ver to Ireland with no friendly feeling towards the Catholics, had greatly altered his views, and now made no secret of his opinion that the time was come to settle the vexed question in the only way it could be fcS» settled — for which expression of opinion he was summarily removed from his govern- ment. The Parliament met in February, 1829. The King's speech, prepared, no doubt, by Peel, recommended the suppression of the Catholic Association, and the subsequent consideration of Catholic disabilities, with a view to their adjustment and removal. As for the Catholic Association, there could be no difficulty about that ; it had done its work, and not wailing for the law to sup- press it, dissolved itself at ouce — that is, nominally, for substantially the organization still subsisted, and could easily resume its usual business in case of necessity. It was Sir Robert Peel who, on the 5th of March, moved for a Committee of the Whole House, " for consideration of the civil disabilities of His Majesty's Roman Catholic subjects ;" and the motion was carried, after warm debate, by a large majority. And now arose the most tremendous clamor of alarmed Protestantism that had been heard in the Three Kingdoms since the days of James II. — -the last King who had ever dreamed of placing Catholics and Protestants on something like an ap- proach to equality. Multitudinous petitions, not only from Irish Protestants, but from Scottish Presbyteries, from English Univer- sities, from corporations of British towns, from private individuals, came pouring into Parliament, praying that the great and noble Protestant State of England should not be handed over as a prey to the Jesuits, the Inquisitors and the Propaganda. Never was such a jumble of various topics, sacred and profane, as in those petitions ; vested interests — idolatry of the Mass — principles of the Hanoverian succession— the Inquisition —eternal privileges of Protestant tailors, or Protestant lightermen — our holy religion- French principles — -tithes — and the Beast of the Apocalypse — all were urged, with vehe- ment eloquence, upon the enlightened legis- lators of Britain. What may seem strange, one has to ad- mit that a great number of these frightened petitioners were truly sincere and conscien- tious. The amiable Dr. Jebb, Protestant Bishop of Limerick, for example, writes an earnest letter to Sir Robert Peel, on the 1 1th 3? w m m I . .Ult/MBlJS.iJ, \&\ 5 %\ ■' RELUCTANCE OF THE KINO. of February, 1829, (so soon as he saw the course that matters were taking:,) and says to him : " Infinitely more difficulties and dangers will attach to concession than to uncompromising resistance In defence of all that is dear to British Pro- testants, I am cheerfully prepared, if neces- sary, as many of my order have formerly done, to lay down life itself." On the other hand, the good Dr. Doyle, Catholic Bishop of Kildure and Leighlin, had uttered this prayer for O'Connell when he started for the contest in Clare : " May the God of truth and justice protect and prosper you 1" What Very different — what very opposite ideas of truth and justice had these two excellent Prelates ! Sir Robert Peel, however, had taken his part — the Catholics were to be emancipat- ed ; and by him. But the King would not yield, save at the last extremity. To assent to an act of justice, seemed to George IV., like the loss of his dearest heart's blood. He endeavored even to get rid of the Wellington Cabinet, and to form a new Ministry, which would pledge itself not to do justice. But in this he failed. Sir Robert Peel tells us : " At a late hour on the evening of the 4th of March, the King wrote a letter to the Duke of Wellington, informing him that His Majesty anticipated so much difficulty, in the attempt to form auother administration, that he could not dispense with our services ; that he must, therefore, desire us to withdraw our resigna- tion, and that we were at liberty to proceed with the measures, of which notice had been given in Parliament."* Mi-. O'Connell, who had arrived in Lon- dun, to claim his seat for Clare, as a Cath- olic, finding that there was now a Govern- ment pledged to emancipation, having carte llanche fur that purpose, decided not to present himself for the present, lest it should embarrass the administration. The Emancipation act was forthwith in- troduced ; it was prepared by Sir Robert Peel ; it contained neither the provision for veto, nor that fur bribing the priests ; but it * Memoirs. By the Right Honorable Sir Robert Peel, Bart. Published by the trustees of his papers, Lord Mahon and Right Honorable Ed. Cardwell, M.' P. London: 1856. was accompanied by a certain other act, as fatal, perhaps, as either of those, namely, for disfranchisement of all the forty-shilling freeholders in Ireland. Sir Robert was de< termined at least, not to yield this point. It was the forty-shilling freeholders, who had humbled the Beresford domination in Waterford, and destroyed the Foster mo nopoly in Louth ; it was the forty-shilling freeholders who had carried O'Connell tri- umphantly to the head of the poll in Clare ; and by destroying that whole class of voters, Peel, hoped very reasonably, not only to render the remaining voters more amenable to corrupt influences, but also to take away the motive, which had heretofore existed, for granting leases to small farmers, and thus in good time, to turn those independent far- mers into tenants-at-will. He had his own profound reasons for this— which will fully appear hereafter. The debates on the Relief bill were, as might have been expected, very violent and bitter. The fanatical section of English and Irish Protestantism, was deeply moved. In the mind of those people, all was lost ; and Sir Robert Peel and the Duke, were almost directly charged with being agents of the Pope of Rome. However, the bill passed through its two first readings iu the Com- mons ; and the third reading was passed on the 30th of March, by a majority of thirty- six. Xext day it was carried to the House of Lords ; and on the 2d of April, its sec- ond reading was moved by the Duke of Wellington, who made no scruple to urge its necessity, iu order " to prevent civil war." Sir Robert Peel, in his arguraeut for the law, had been less explicit and straightfor- ward than the Duke — he had only said the measure was needful, to prevent great dangers and "public calamity." f After violent debates in the House of Lords, lasting several days, the bill was passed a third time, and passed by a major- "S tSir Robert Peel, in his letter to Doctor Jebb, Bishop of Limerick, in February, said : " It is easy to blame the concessions that were made in 1782, and in 1793 ; but they were not made without an in- timate conviction of their absolute necessity in order to prevent greater dangers." Sir Robert says again: |' I can with truth affirm, that in advising and promot- ing the measures of 1S29, I was swayed by no fear, except the fear of public calamity."— Memoirs by Sil Robert Peel. 'i'MI.CCUMBtS.I/, \n '■ ? i ff-y 60S HISTORY OF IRELAND. ity of one hundred and four. It then re- ceived the royal assent ; and what is called Catholic Emancipation, was an accomplish- ed fact. O'Connell, in the meantime, presented himself at the bar of the House of Com- mons, claiming to take his seat as member for Chue. This was before the passage of the bill into a law. But an election petition was pending, sent forward by certain elec- tors of Clare, against the validity of his re- turn. The investigation of this petition con- sumed time ; but, at length, the committee reported Mr. O'Connell duly elected. The Emancipation act was now passed, and was the law of the land. O'Connell, thereupon, held himself entitled to go in and take his seat, subject only to the new oaths. For this purpose, he repaired to the House, on the 15th of May, was introduced in the usu- al form by Lords Ebrington and Duncan- non, and walked to the table to be sworn by the Clerk. But Sir Robert Peel, had pru- dently provided against this in the new law ; which admitted only those who should, " after the commencement of that act be re- turned as members of the House of Com- mons," to take their seats under the new oaths. It was a mean piece of spite ; and its special object was, to give Sir Robert an opportunity of snubbing O'Connell one lust time, before yielding Gnally to his im- perious demand. Accordingly, the Clerk of the House ten- dered to the new member the now-abrogated oaths — one being the oath of Supremacy, (namely, that the King of England is head of the Church,) and the other, "that the Sacrifice of the Mass is impious and idola- trous," and so forth. He refused to take these oaths : he was then heard at the bar of the House, where he claimed his right to sit and vote : his claim was dissallovved by a vote : the old oaths were once more ten- dered to him : he read over the stupid trash in an audible voice ; then said, raising his head, that he declined to take that oath, because " one part of it he knew to be false, and another he did not believe to be true." A new writ was then issued to hold an elec- tion for the County Clare. The series of measures called " Emanci- pate " consisted of three acts of Parlia- ment. The first, an act for suppression of the Catholic Association, as an illegal and dangerous society ; the second an act for the disfranchisement of the forty-shilling freeholders in Ireland (not in England, where that qualification was retained) — and third, the Relief act proper, abolishing the old oaths against transubstantiation, &C., and substituting another very long and in- genious oath (for Catholics only) testifying allegiance to the Crown ; promising to main- tain the Hanoverian settlement and succes- sion ; declaring that it is no article of the Catholic faith " that Princes excommuni- cated by the Pope may be depose'd or mur- dered by their subjects ; that neither the Pope nor any other foreign prince has any temporal or civil jurisdiction within the realm ; promising to defend the settlement of property as established by law ; solemnly disclaiming, disavowing, and abjuring ' any intention to subvert the present church estab- lishment as settled by law;' and engaging never to exercise any privilege conferred by that act ' to disturb or weaken the Protes- tant religion or Protestant government.' " The act admitted Catholics, on taking this oath, to be members of any lay body- corporate, and to do corporate acts, and vote at corporate elections ; but not to join in a vote for presentation to a benefice in the gift of any corporation. The act farther most formally affirmed and preserved the great principle of Protes- tant Ascendancy, by specially excluding Catholics from the high offices of Lord-Lieu- tenant and Lord Chancellor ; the former being the officer who makes nearly all ap- pointments in Ireland, and exercises the royal power to pardon— or not to pardon ; the latter being the person who decides on the guardianship of minors, and orders in what religion they are to be brought up, in the absence of express directions from their pa- rents. The Lord Chancellor also has con- trol over the commissions of magistrates, and cancels them at his pleasure, thus con- trolling, in a very great degree, the admin- istration of justice. Bearing in mind these important provis- ions and exceptions — and, further, that the Anglican Church still continued the estab- lished religion of the land, and still devoured k\ /Y'vA tyj & ^ \?$l £c (i m 3 s& I ^ 'V^'-v .jjm & ■'■I .1 .Gs~ ^C the Catholic people by its exactious — it is tolerably clear that by the Relief bill Catholics were not quite half emancipated. But the most fatal blow to the liberties of the Irish people was the contemporaneous act for disfranchisement of the forty-shilling freeholders ; and for raising the county qualification to £10 a year — five times the qualification required in England. Only seventeen members of the House of Com- mons voted against this grievous injustice. It was introduced by Sir Robert Peel, on the ostensible ground that there was too great a disposition on the part of Irish landlords to divide their land into minute portions ; that the franchise was a mere in- strument with which the landed aristocracy exercised power aud control over the elec- tions ; and that this control had lately passed into the hands of the priests, (which was worse,) and he cited as an example what had lately taken place in Louth and Monaghan and Waterford. In other words, he would disfranchise those small farmers because they ->bad shown themselves capable of defying landlord control and acting independently. Amongst those who opposed this measure were Lord Duncannon, Lord Palmerston, and Mr. Huskisson. Their argument was, " If the forty-shilling freeholders had been corrupt, like those of Penrhyn, their dis- franchisement might be defended ; but the only offence of the persons against whom the bill was directed had been that they exer- cised their privilege honestly and independ- ently, according to their conscience."* It is singular that O'Connell said not a word at any meeting, nor wrote any letter, protesting against this wholesale abolition of the civil and political rights of those to whom he owed his election for Clare. He thus consented by his silence to see cut away from under his own feet the very ground- work and material of all effective political action in Ireland; and often, afterwards, had occasion, as Ireland also had, to lament the impotence and futility of all patriotic effort "or the real advancement of their country, in MEANING AND SPIRIT OF THE BELIEF ACT. consequence of the destruction of the forty- shilling freeholders. Many thousands of these freeholders, and of their children, are now working on canals and railroads in America. The new and cheap ejectment laws were in full force ; and were soon to act with fatal effect. We can now appreciate in some measure the true spirit in which " Catholic Emanci- pation " was effected. It was "to avert civil war" said the Duke of Wellington ; it was " to avoid greater dangers " said Sir Robert Peel. It was emphatically not to do justice, nor to repair a wrong. In the words of an eminent French writer on Irish affairs f nothing is more certain, than that neither the King nor his Ministers intended to do an act of justice and reparation to- wards the Catholics ; the bill of 1829 was nothing else than a concession wrested from them by circumstances; which the King would never have consented to, if he had found Ministers decided— even at the cost of a civil war, to perpetuate an iniquity of three centuries, and which his Ministers would never have proposed if they had not apprehended that civil war, in the interest of the Protest- ant establishment itself. Now when a con- cession has been extorted by force, and is not a spontaneous homage to truth and jus- tice, those who grant it may, perhaps, respect it as to its mere letter ; but certainly tiny will not loyally comply with its spirit. When we see their practical application of it, it is evident that they desire to hold back' with one hand what they have been obliged to bestow with the other ; and that deeply re- gretting the necessity they have had to obey, when that necessity becomes less ur- gent, they observe only so much of their engagement as is needful to save them from the charge of perjury. Hence comes it also that there is so little gratitude manifested for this concession — and in truth, those may dispense with gratitude who owe only to fear, " a little justice and a little freedom." t Le Pere Perraud. Eludes sur VIrlande con- temporaine. %'m f, ffG\ w m 'vi CHAPTER LV. 1829—1840. Results of the Relief Act— O'Connell Reelected for Clare— Drain of Agricultural Produce — Educated Class Of Catholics Kought— The Tithe War -Lord Anglcsea Viceroy — O'Connell's Associations — — Anglesea's Proclamations — Prosecution of O'- Connell— National Education — Tithe-Tragedies — Newtownbarry — Carrickshock — Change of Dynasty in France — Reform Agitation in England— What Reform Meant in Ireland — Cholera — Resistance to Tithe— Lord's Grey's Coercion Act — Abolition of Negro Slavery — Church Temporalities Act — Re- peal Debate — Surplus Population — Surplus Pro- duce Titlie-Cain;iL'c at liatheuriuack— t^ueen Vic- toria's Accession — Three Measures Against Ireland Poor Law — Tithe Law — Municipal Reform — Castle Sheriffs. Imperfect and stinted and guarded as the Catholic Emancipation act was, it was, nevertheless, fell in Ireland to be a great triumph and noble achievement of O'Connell, who at once rose to the highest pinnacle of popular favor. The Catholics almost wor- shipped him, as their Heaven-sent deliverer ; and the partizans of the good old tradition- ary Protestant Ascendancy thought the end of the world was at hand. The sword brandished in the hand of Walker's statue, standing upon a lofty column on a bastion of Derry walls, fell down with a crash, and was shivered to pieces, upon the very day when His Majesty, George IV., placed his signature on the Emancipation net ; which lie did not do, however, without having first broken ami trampled upon a pen which was handed to him for that pur- pose, in a highly dramatic manner, and with the most perfect mimicry of deep feeling. Sir Hareourt Lees, for his part, thought the time was now at last surely come to " put down Popery " by act of Parliament, and to send the " A rch- Agitator " to the Tower. As for O'Connell himself, and the more thoughtful amongst his friends and support- ers of the Catholic Association, they saw too well that little or nothing was gained. Not only was their civil and political in- feriority maintained and formally reasserted ; bill the great, body of brave farmers, who had frightened tint "empire" by their inde- pendence, was swept out of civil existence at a blow. It at once became evident to 0"Couuell that there was no salvation for Inland but in a repeal of the odious and fraudulent Union. On his return to Ireland, as if sensible that what had been already effected for his country was rather apparent than real, he declared openly that the next victory to be achieved must be the repeal of the Union. Both at Ennis and at Youghal he made speeches enforcing the ne- cessity of this great measure, and promising never to rest until it should be accomplished; a pledge which, indeed, he labored all his life to redeem. On the passage of the law disfranchising the forty-shilling freeholders, orders had been at once sent to Ireland to commence a "registration" of those who still retained the franchise, possessing a freehold of £10 yearly value. This haste was for the pur- pose of acting as soon as practicable upon Irish elections, and, if possible, defeating O'Connell when he should again present himself in Clare under the new writ, lie was not opposed, however, on his second election at Clare, and was again sent back to Parliament, with all the qualifications re- quired even by the new law. He did* not at once take his seat, as Parliament was prorogued on the 24th of June. This year, Ireland was said to be in an "alarming" state — there was "crime and outrage" in several counties, and especially in Tipperary. In fact, the old exaction of tithes not only continued to be enforced, but was pressed with even increased rigor, seeing that Papists had become so insolent. The consequence was the most natural in the world — some tithe-proctors were forced to cat their processes, and also had their ears cut off. The Tipperary magistrates as- sembled in great alarm, and demanded the immediate application of the " Insurrection act," for they could not understand how people should thus resist payment of their lawful tithes, unless there were a conspiracy to subvert the Protestant government and bring in the Pope. In truth, there was throughout the is- land, a very unsettled and uneasy condition of the popular mind. Men were told that they were " relieved " and " emancipated," but they felt no advantage from it whatso- ever. They tried to feel pride in the vic- tory, which they were assured they had I 1 1 mm •jftNG .CVUNIilii.il, EDUCATED CLASSES OF CATHOLICS BOUGHT. 511 \i ESfeea won over a British Ministry ; but in the meantime, they found themselves very gen- erally disfranchised ; and what was worse — landlords were refusing to make new leases of farms, and were breaking the existing leases where they could ; having no longer the motive to rear up a small freehold pop- ulation for the hustings. The chairmen of quarter-sessions, and the sheriffs and bailiffs, were busy with their ejectments ; and pauperism began extensively to prevail. The seasons, indeed, had been for some time rather favorable ; and grain and cattle were abundant ; but the British system had now been so well established in our island, that all this wealth of bounteous nature flowed off instantly to England, and the price of it also. All went the same way. The export of agricultural produce to Eng- land out of Ireland, had grown so enor- mous within the past few years, that it had been judged expedient in 1820, to place that trade " on the footing of a coasting trade." In other words, no cnstom-house accounts were to be kept of it ; and the amount of it was thus concealed for many years. In that year, 1826, however, the exports to England, had been to the value of almost eight millions in corn and cattle. It was but small benefit to the Irish people to have favorable seasons and plenteous harvests ; their wealth not only made itself wings and flew to England ; but as tenancy- at-will now became the fashion, landlords increased rents in proportion to increased produce ; and then went to England — the centre of political action and fashionable life, to spend those improved rents. Por all this there was no remedy in emancipa- tion. It soon became evident also, that the ef- fects of the Relief act would be disastrous in another respect. Parliament and the Judicial Bench being now opened, (always with the exception of the place of Lord Chancellor,) to aspiring Catholics of the educated class, their interests and sympathies became separ- ated from those of their countrymen. Un- doubtedly, this result had been calculated by the prudent statesman who accomplished the Belief measure ; and his plan succeeded but too well. That plan may by described in general terms, as a plan for corrupting the higher classes, and extirpating the lower ; and emancipation, disfranchising the latter, and offering bribes to the former, was admirably calculated to buy over to the British interests, such as aspired to the offices and emoluments dispensed by Eng- land, and to make them forget the duty they owed to their own countrymen, and the honor and welfare of their native land. Since that day, therefore, we have seen constantly more and more of the higher class of Catholics, in various positions hdjt- ing England to govern — that is to pillage and depopulate — this ill-fated island. Since that day, have been many Catholic members of Parliament ; — they have solicited places for useful constituents — Catholic Attorney- Generals — they have packed juries to "do the King's business." Catholic judges — they have sat complacently on the bench, and permitted those juries to be packed, and pretended to try their fellow-country- men before those packed juries, to glut the vengeance of a government, which cannot bear to be disquieted while clearing off its " surplus population." In other words, those members of Parliament, attorney- generals and judges, have sold themselves for money and station, to a Government which they know to be the mortal euemy of their countrymen and kinsmen, and have abandoned those countrymen and kinsmen to certain slaughter and extermination. Such have been the substantial results of the "Relief Measures" of 1829; and O'Connell had good reason for his conclu- sion, that no effectual service could be ren- dered to the country, short of annulling the union with England. The discontent and disappointment of the people, (who found that emancipation did not save them from starvation,) found vent in occasional deeds of violence ; and, always for the old reasons — ruthless seizures for tithe, and wholesale ejectment of tenants. Many thousands of farmers, now found themselves emancipated, but disfranchised, and in imminent danger of being ejected and thrown out on the highways. They were capable by law of holding high office, but exposed, in fact,- to see their children perishing by hunger and hardship. The crimes committed iu Ireland, have nearly Rs .\ m m 512 HISTORY OF IRELAND. , v , 1 always one specific character, and one ob- vious motive and provocation ; their victims have been almost uniformly tithe-proctors, who seized upon the small store of the poor — or landlords or agents who cleared estates — or incoming tenants, who rented farms from which others had been ejected. Mur- ders for money, from jealousy, or in person- al quarrel, have been at all times, much more rare in Ireland than in England ; and, indeed, the lamentable acts of violence which did occur, were generally perpetrated by men who had not previously known the doomed victim ; and in obedience to the de- cree of a secret society. The hapless peo- ple of the country had long felt and expe- rienced that the laws were made not for them but agaiust them ; they had long been accustomed to see law at one side, and jus- tice at the other ; they could not perceive why there should be any law, compelling them to pay clergymen whom they never saw, and at whose services they would shud- der to assist ; nor why there should be a law to fling them out from the little farm, which they had improved and rendered fer- tile by the sweat of their brows. Hence the series of secret combinations, with their own judicial sentences and desperate execu- tions. Tliese proceedings, however, always drew down upon the peasantry of the neigh- borhood, a most ferocious and disproportion- ate vengeance, and formed the excuse for keeping Arms acts and Iusurrectiou acts almost iu permanence. The grievance of tithes, and the whole of that monstrous iniquity, called the Establish- ed Church, seemed to be felt by the people, with even more intensity of irritation, since they were told that they were now " eman- cipated," and that there was an end of Pro- testant Ascendancy. What this emancipa- tion might be, they did not well understand, and knew no other result from it, than that they were deprived of their franchise, and could, therefore, get no more leases. And they thought that they saw Protestant As- cendancy all around them as rampant as ever. Protestant Ascendancy was always at their doors ; it entered their cabins, and carried off their pans and pots, their calves, and pigs, to satisfy a Protestant rector ; Protestant magistrates (who were in the great majority,) were always ready to brow- beat them from the bench, and to send po- licemen to search their beds for concealed arms ; Protestant jurors always met them in the courts of justice, and proved to them that the laws of the land were not for them. If sometimes, therefore, these pec- pie desperately took the law into their own hands, or even associated together, to be a kind of law unto themselves, and executive also — dismal as such a state of society cer- tainly is, the whole blame of it rests upon that unjust and savage system of dealing with Ireland, which was called " govern- ment," aud of which, a faint outline ouly has been traced in these pages. King George IV. died in 1830 ; and was succeeded by his brother King Wil- liam IV. ; — an event of little or no interest to Ireland. The next year was occupied in England, by a most energetic agitation for a Reform in Parliament ; — an affair which also con- cerned Ireland extremely little. The Re- form was to consist chiefly in disfranchising old boroughs, which had become ruinoiurand almost uninhabited ; and giviug the franchise to large centres of population, which had never returned members of Parliament be- fore. Excitement on this question ran very high throughout the other island, but did not extend iu any great measure to Ireland, whose proportions of representation had been fixed by the act of Union. O'Counell aud the other Catholic and Liberal Irish members, all supported the "Reform" Min- istry, and helped to carry the measure in 1832 ; imagining, probably, that Ireland would thereby establish a claim upon the popular party in England, for support and friendly sympathy iu asserting her own rights — an expectation which was signal- ly disappointed. On the 4th of February, 1830, Parlia- ment opened, but was soon dissolved, and a new election took place. This time, O'Cou- nell abandoned Clare, aud achieved another brilliant victory over the Beresford interest at Waterford. A considerable number of Catholics now entered Parliament for the first time ; O'Gorman Mahon for Clare, Richard More O'Ferrall for Kildare, Lord Killeen for Meath, &c. Mr. Smith CBrieu \m m ... ■•■'•<' 'S.SKSS.^r^As .ieumm.e. y 1 9 r ll in ii \ C >1 5PW ''S'^eS continued to represent Ennis ; and was a most atteutive and industrious member of Parliament ; acting on most questions with the Whig party, and sincerely cherish- ing the delusion, (which he afterwards had to give up,) that Whigs were more friendly to right and justice in Ireland, than Tories. In the beginning of 1830, the Duke of Northumberland was Lord-Lieutenant. On the change of Ministry, the Marquis of An- glesea, was again sent over as Viceroy ; and Lord Plunket was made Lord Chancellor, an office which he discharged with great abil- ity for many years. He had by this time forgotten that the Union was a nullity and a fraud, which his sons were to be sworn to resist and annul. One of his sons became a Bishop by the gracious appointment of the King. Yet Mr. Plunket was right in de- nouncing the Union as a nullity and a fraud ; and if he had been thoroughly honest, he would now have been found by O'Connell's side, demanding the restoration of an inde- pendent Irish Legislature. During the course of this year, there was established a " Society of the Friends of Ireland." It was nothing but the Catholic Association under another name ; and its object was to agitate the repeal of the Union. But the course pursued by Mr. O'Conncll, since the Relief act had occa- sioned violent irritation in England, amongst both Whigs and Tories. That, after so generous and noble a concession as emanci- pation was represented to be — which was to have fully satisfied the Irish people, and filled them with rejoicing " loyalty " — that, instead of gratitude and loyal contentment, there should immediately spring up a new and acrimonious agitation, openly aiming at the " dismemberment of the empire," seem- ed to those Whigs and Tories, an example of the basest ingratitude. O'Connell, too, whose deportment in Parliament was per- fectly dignified and business-like, when he came to Ireland, and found himself the cen- tre of a great meeting of his countrymen, often used violent and denunciatory lan- guage concerning political opponents ; and even sometimes turned into ridicule, some grave and reverend Tory, or some sneaking and intriguing Whig. In short, it was decided by the adminis- 65 tration, all liberal as it was, to put a stop to the "Arch-Agitator's" exciting proceed- ings ; and as the " Friends of Ireland" fell, undoubtedly, under the former act, for sup SD ii pressing illegal associations, the Viceroy was instructed to "proclaim it under that act, and threaten prosecution." The society was, as usual, at once dissolved, and was at once succeeded by the "Anti-Union Asso- ciation." O'Connell omitted no opportuni- ty of insisting upon a restoration of the Irish Parliament, and demonstrating the necessity of that measure — which made him more popular and powerful in Dublin, than he had ever been before. For it was in Dublin chiefly that the repeal spirit then existed ; the country-people, and the pro- vincial towns, were not yet aroused on that question ; but the metropolis appreciated it at once. There was to be held on the 27th of December, a great assembly and proces- sion of the trades of Dublin, with the ex- press object of complimenting Mr. O'Con- nell for his advocacy of an Irish Parliament. The bands were to form at Phibsborough, in the suburbs of Dublin, and march with their banners and insignia into the city, to O'Connell's house ; where they were to pre- sent him with an address. This procession of peaceful and unarmed meu, appeared to Lord Anglesea, too perillous a thing to be permitted, with due regard to the peace of the city ; and he issued a proclamation absolutely forbidding the assembly. This, of course, implied an intention of dispersing it by force. By O'Connell's advice, there- fore, the meeting was not held. This was but the beginning of a long contest between the Arch-Agitator and the Marquis of Anglesea, the former, using every legal device and contrivance, to make for the people some occasion of meeting, and expressing their sentiments, and the Marquis regularly laying on the heavy hand of power, and menacing unarmed citi- zens with military violence. Mr. O'Connell was uumeasured enough in the terms of very natural resentment, which he applied to Lord Anglesea, and the whole Whig government, whom he characterized, as "base, brutal, and bloody Whigs." But while he could use indignant language, the Lord-Lieuteuaut had all the practical advan- ^ k a <:, tv •i' f^^t »s 514 HISTORY OP IRELAND. tagcs in such a contest ; he had his sheriffs and juries at hand, and the court of King's Bench always open— so that anything was an •' illegal and dangerous association " which he might choose to prosecute ; — he had the garrison of Dublin constantly ready tor action ; and besides these things, the noble Marquis opened O'Connell's letters in the Post Office, as well as letters addressed to him, in order that he might know who were his correspondents, what were his de- signs, and what were his resources. The Marquis had the letters always resealed with the utmost care, with counterfeited Beak, so that the persons receiving the let- ters should not. suspect they had been open- ed and so be put on their guard.* The next name under which Mr. O'Con- nell made his association appear was the Irish Volunteers, for repeal of the Union ; but this had no better fate than the rest. When it was " proclaimed," however, and commanded not, to meet, Mr. O'Connell, for once, did not. submit. lie said -and this was true — that a proclamation could not make law ; and pledged himself, as a lawyer, that his organization was perfectly legal, as it was. lie, therefore, and many of his usual attendants, went and held the meeting. Thereupon, O'Connell, together with Mr. Lawless, Mr. Steele, Mr. Barrett, Mr. Redmond, Mr. Olooney, and two or three others, were forthwith arrested, and brought before magistrates, where they were required to give bail. On issuing from the magistrate's Office, the Arch-Agitator found * The Marquis of Anglesea is first, on the list of letter-spies, winch was hiiil liefore Parliament ia 1844, lint that list extends ever a period of only eleven years, it was avowed by Ministers that the Post Office espionnage hail existed long before Lord Anglesea's time— as it certainly existed long alter tlr.it .of Earl cle liny, in 1st.'.. Earl de (trey is the last of the letter-spies mentioned in the return. That return, however, has taken care not to inform as whose letters wire thus opened ami oopled. It only Rives a list of tlie Viceroys. Chancellors, Arch- bishops, ami Lord-Justices, who did order such man- ipulations of letters, ami the years in which tlicy so ordered it. It. appears that such warrants were con- stantly in existence for ten years oui of the eleven; hut we arc not informed as to the numbers of the persons whose correspondence was thus investigat- ed ; nor any of their names. O'Connell was, of course, one ; ami it was in the very height of the contest waged with O'Connell to put down his several associations that the Marquis of Anglesea is first returned as a letter-spy. a grent crowd in the streets ; made them a speech, of course — " Yesterday," he ex- claimed, " I was only half an agitator — to-day 1 am a whole one. Day and night will 1 now strive to fling off despotism, to redeem my country, to repeal the Union." The prosecution proceeded ; and as Mr. O'Connell knew perfectly well that he could have no chance before a Castle jury properly arranged, which would be sure to liud him at once guilty of whatever he should be charged withal, he dexterously delayed the striking of the jury, and gained time. The Orange party was in vehement excitement ; and it. need scarcely be. added that in England all parties were charmed with the idea of having the loud-tongued agitator locked up in a jail for a misdemeanor. After some ingenuity in pleading, O'Connell allowed judgment to go by default upon several of the counts ; that is, substantially pleaded guilty on those counts. lie knew lie might as well do so, as he would be arraigned before a sure jury ; and all the world waited till he should be called up for sentence. Hut he was never«called up for sentence. It happened just then that llie Whig Ministry was straining every nerve to secure a good majority for their Reform ; and O'Connell, and those others whom he could influence, or. who would be, revolted by any severity exercised towards him, were not allies to be thrown away for the sake of gratifying the Orangemen. For I hat. time, therefore, legal proceedings against the agitator went no further. The year 1S31 was marked by the estab- lishment of the national system of education in Ireland, in pursuance of a bill introduced by Lord Stanley. Two years after, (1833,) the grants of public money for the educa- tion of the poor, which had previously been enjoyed by the Kildare Place School So- ciety and other proselytizing institutions, were intrusted to the Lord-Lieutenant, to be expended on the instruction of children of all sects, under the superintendence of commissioners appointed by the Crown, and called "Commissioners of National Educa- tion.'' Two years afterwards, ( 1835,) these commissioners were incorporated with power to hold lands. The ostensible principles of this new establishment were " Liber "TWrJC S . y—'tftlt .CtU/fMU^S,^ \sw \<5\ ) -a Mk~> HDI Kn ■V there was to be no interference with the religious creed of any pupil ; and clergymen of each denomination wen; to be allowed the opportunity of giving religious instruc- tions to the children of their respective faiths. But practically the Government took good care that, both on the first establish- ment of the board and ever since, the great majority of the commissioners should be Protestants. The scheme was intended to take into the bauds of the British Govern- ment the formation of the minds of young Irishmen, and the moulding of their first im- pressions, in such a way that they might forget they were Irish, and feel and think ns like English children as possible. Their reading lessons have been carefully edited to this end ; most of them by Dr. Wheatley, nn Englishman, and others by Mr. Carlisle, a Scotchman. The intention was not so much to convert Catholic children as to de- nationalize them. It had been for long ages prohibited to the Irish Catholics to be educated at all, under heavy penalties. When these penal laws had disappeared, and the British Government found that the Irish were very desirous to educate their children, that Government resolved, if they must be taught, to teach them itself, and especially to keep them as much as possible ignorant of the history of their own country — a very pru- dent and politic design, if it could only have been accomplished. For the rest, these national schools have been tolerably well conducted ; but in dis- tricts where the population is of mixed religions, Catholic children, for the most part, have received no benefit from them, on account of the objections of the Catholic clergy against mixed education. In other districts, where Catholics form the whole population, these objections did not practi- cally apply. In 1850, there were nearly five thousand schools under this board, and five hundred and eleven thousand two hundred and thirty nine scholars. The tit lut war raged violently this year — the people were becoming more and more indisposed to pay Protestant rectors, especi- ally in the South of Ireland, where those NATIONAL EDUCATION— TITHE TRAGEDIES. rectors often have no flocks. On the banks of the Slaney, on the very border between Wexford and Carlow County, and at the foot of the stately Mount Leinster, stands the little town of Newtownbarry. Ou the 18th of June, 1831, this usually quiet vil- lage was the scene of a bloody tithe-tragedy. The Rev. Mr. McClintock would have his tithe ; and by aid of the police and yeoman- ry, he had seized the crops and goods of several persons in the neighborhood. These things were to be auctioned in Newtown- barry market-place on the market-day. Be- fore that day anonymous written notices were sent to many persons in the country, requesting them to come in and attend the sale of their neighbors' pigs, beds and ket- tles. Considerable numbers of people at- tended in consequence, but not armed : their object being only to keep all persons back from bidding at this auction. It was known that large crowds had come in and that the forced sale must almost certainly produce a collision. But the Ilev. Mr. McClintock would have his rights. The property seized was brought into town guarded by a large force of constabulary, who were to be su|>- ported, if needful by another large force of yeomanry. The sale opened ; the people pressed forward, and kept away, by a show of intimidation, the few who might have been disposed to purchase. At last, the police attacked the unarmed multitudes ; were seconded with great alacrity by the yeomanry ; and very soon thirteen slain men and twenty wounded were lying in their blood on the street of Newtownbarry. No person was ever brought to punishment for this slaughter. Indeed, it was felt by the Orange party, that the Rev. Mr. McClin- tock had only shown proper spirit iu vindi- cating his right — that this course of intimi- dation had gone too far — and that it was lime an example should be made ; more moderate persous, however, even of the Es- tablished Church, could not but think it unfortunate that ministers of religion should so often have to wring their blood-stained dues out of the very vitals of parishioners who hate them and all their works Six months after the affair of Newt barry, befel the other tithe- slaughter Carrickshock. Certain moneys were due Rj .o, M¥f| g %l HISTORY OF IRELAND. -xa ,:■ tithe to the Rev. Hans Hamilton, rector of Knocktophcr, in the County Kilkenny ; a jirocess-server was sent out to serve the needful documents, and this functionary was protected l>y a large force of armed police. The people assembled in considerable and still-increasing numbers, their object being to get hold of the bailiff and force him to "eat the latitats" — papers of that nature being supposed in those parts to be the na- tural food of process-servers. Menacing crowds of country-people gathered around the line of march of the officer and his 'escort ; and when they arrived at a bare and descilate tract called the Common of Carrickshock, traversed by a lane which is bordered by a low wall, iu most places broken down, the demands of the people to have the process-server delivered up to them became pressing and loud. At length, a young man sprang into the lane, seized the process-server, and endeavored to carry him off, out of the hands of his protectors. He was instantly shot dead. Then there was a general onslaught — the people had armed themselves with a species of short pikes, and they fell upon the police with fury. Eleven of the constables were killed, and a good many of the people also ; but the legal doc- uments were not served that day. It was fast becoming evident that some measures must be adopted to prevent these sanguin- ary collisions. In England the resistance of the Irish to levies for tithes was, as usual, represented as the evidence of a deep Popish conspiracy to overturn the Protestant Church ; and the Whigs were almost as much excited by this idea as the Tories. The voluminous Tory historian, Alison, discovered indeed, for once that "the Pope's influence in Ireland" was on the present occasion beneficial : inasmuch as " The Vatican threw off the mask, and measures were commenced evidently intend- ed to destroy the Protestant Establishment iu Ireland, and open the door to the re- placing of the Catholic faith in these realms." Thus, English Whigs drew off in some measure from their association with the Irish Catholics ; and this weakened the party of reform. The Cholera, also, raged all through the summer of 1832 ; and this, according to the same historian, was another beneficial event, as it sensibly abated the reform mania. The King, however, in a speech from the Throne, recommended attention to the question of tithes ; and a committee of the Lords was appointed to investigate and re- port upon it. They reported in favor of commuting the tithe to a charge upon land. In the debate on reception of this report, it was stated that the arrears of tithes due but not recoverable in the four dioceses of Ossory, Leighlin, Cashel, and Ferns, were computed at £84,954. A law was, in the meantime, proposed and carried by Govern- ment, authorizing an issue from the consol- idated fund of a large sum of money fir relief of those clergymen who could not collect their tithes. A part of the county Tipperary was also proclaimed under the Coercion act then pending ; and Lord Grey was preparing a still more stringent Coercion act for the next year. Mr. O'Connell vehemently opposed the grant from the consolidated fund, which was accompanied by an authority to levy the amount due, in order to repay the aiTvance. This was, in fact, the Government assuming upon itself the function of the tithe-proctor and the bailiff, with the aid of all the troops and police ; and it was plainly intended to make a few salutary examples of slaughter. ■ Throughout the Parliamentary discussions on these questions, there does not appear to have been the slightest intention on the part of either party to relieve Ireland from the burden of the Established Church ; all their anxiety was how to insure to the clergy their income out of the pockets of the people in some way which it would be im- possible to resist or evade. On the other hand, O'Connell declared in Parliament — "The Irish people are determined to get rid of tithes, and get rid of them they will." l>ut the resistance of the farmers was carried on peacefully ; and generally consist- ed in deterring purchasers at tithe-sales by the demonstration of a resolute public opinion. The same force operated to pre- vent neighbors from aiding to remove crops or other things, even in case they should have been nominally sold. It cannot be denied that this force was nothing but a very manifest intimidation, and would have been I quite unjustifiable if the claim for tithe had been just. The next year Lord Grey brought for- ward his CBercion bill, and the Tories not [j/\ , only supported it with alacrity, but hailed it with joy, as a proof that the most "liberal" of English reformers had eome round to their poliey for the government of Ireland ; and, in fact, since that day English Tories and English Whigs have generally been in the most gratifying accord upon coercion bills for Ireland. However, they may differ upon other matters, they are an unit whenever it is a question of dragooning the Irish. The Coercion acts are all very /like one another ; but this one contained the new y provision that the Viceroy might suppress and disperse any meeting which he should deem dangerous to the public peace. The bill contained the usual powers and penal- tics — the Lord-Lieutenant might "proclaim" any district — all persons in proclaimed dis- tricts to remain within doors from one hour 'after sunset until sunrise, and also to abstain from attending any meeting whatso- ever. No meeting was to be held, even to petition Parliament, without ten days' previous notice to the Lord-Lieutenant, and his sanction to hold such meeting. The proclaimed districts were to be subject to martial law ; every offender was to be tried before a court-martial ; and all officers of justice and military on duty were (in such proclaimed district,) to have authority to enter houses at any hour and search for arms. The writ of Habeas Corpus was to be suspended for three months after the arrest of any person, as respected that person. These atrocious provisions for torturing the people, and for repressing even all open and peaceful expressions of opinion, continued to be the law of the land for five years. This law was then succeeded by another law of the same kind ; and that by another and another. It might be sup- plied that the British Parliament might as Well pa^s a perpetual Coercion act for Ireland at once, and take away altogether the writ of Habeas Corpus ■ but such a measure as this would be supposed to be too abhorrent to the spirit of the British Constitution. The Coercion acts, therefore, are all proposed for a limited time, and a hope is regularly expressed, by the member of the Government who introduces one of them, that the time is approaching when these "exceptional" measures will be no longer needful to the good-government and well-being of Ireland. In the same session, Parliament passed the act for abolishing negro slavery in tho British West Indies, and appropriated twenty millions sterling to compensate the planters. Of course, the money was bor- rowed, and added to the national debt ; a"hd England and Ireland have been paying the interest on it ever since. " The Church Temporalities act " for Ireland, was passed in the year 1833. It was introduced by Lord Althorpo, and be- came law on the 30th of July. His lordship stated the entire revenue of the Irish Church at £T32,000 sterling. The new act abolished ten Bishoprics, by con- solidating their sees with sees adjoining. The consolidation was to take place gradu- ally, on the death of Bishops. " Church- rates " were abolished. The revenues of the sees which were to cemain in existence were diminished ; and the Church property of the suppressed sees, together with the saving by diminished revenues, were estimated as creating a fund of £3,000,000, to be vested in a board of " Ecclesiastical Commissioners," to be expended for strictly ecclesiastical purposes ; the principle being that no Chnrch property could be alienated from its legal owners, and that the country was not to be relieved of any part of the burden of this enormous establishment. Accord- ingly, the people were not at all benefited by this act ; even the abolition of " Church- rates" was only a boon to the landlords, who immediately raised the rents to their tenants-at-will. Next was introduced and passed another bill, appropriating one million sterling to the parsons, in compensation for the tithes due and unpaid for three years. In 1834, O'Conuell commenced seriously the work of repeal of the Union, in Par- liament. 1 1 is first move was a proposal to appoint a committee to inquire into the conduct of Barou Smith, one of the % ■ o SR3 iJi >V ^ -^ . -A4, [*c niRTOKY OF IRELAND. judges, whom he accused of introducing pol- itics into his charges from the bench. The committee was refused ; because it was held that an Irish judge could not avoid the subject of politics in his judicial addresses, seeing that Irish "crimes" were almost wholly of a political character. On the 23d of April, O'Connell formally brought forward in Parliament, the question of re- pealing the Union. There followed a de- bate of four days. ITis chief opponent was Mr. Spring Rice, (afterwards Lord Mon- teagle,) who labored to prove that Ireland had largely profited by the Union ; and was at that moment enjoying exemption from several specific taxes which pressed upon Great Britain. In truth, according to his statistics, Ireland was growing rich, or at least ought to be, in consequence of the generous forbearance of the English people and Government, in burdening the other parts of the empire with imposts, which she had not to pay. But, notwithstanding statistics, the noto- rious truth was, that England was becoming always richer, and her people more luxu- rious in their style of living, while Ireland was fast sinking into destitution. The Irish rents spent by absentee-proprietors now amounted to more than four mil- lions. Manufacturers in Ireland, (with the single exception of linen,) no longer ex- isted. Extermination of tenantry, (or as the people were now always termed, "sur- plus population,") had increased to a dread- ful extent ; and those who had means to emigrate were flying from the country in wild terror. A writer in Blackwood's I\Jag- azint for January, 1833 — the writer being no other than Sir Archibald Alison — states that the emigration in 1831, from Ireland, amounted to eighteen thousand. The writer adds : " J\o reason can be assigned why it should not be one hundred and eighty thousand." From this time the leading idea of English statesmen and econ- omists was, to devise some way of getting rid ot the "surplus" people. Vet while the people were said to be sur- plus, the island in which they lived was steadily and rapidly increasing her export of provisions ; the export of grain and cat- tle into England, which had amounted in 1826, to nearly eight millions sterling, had now been augmented by about one-half ; and this wasting process — shipping off men in one direction, and the food they had raised in another — went on developing itself, as we shall see, until the export of the sur- plus people reached three hundred thousand a year, and the export of the surplus food amounted to at least twenty millions ster- ling — Ireland being the only country known in ancient or in modern times, which had these two kinds of " surplus " for export at one time. It was so plainly demonstrated, however, in Parliament, by Mr. Spring Rice and other speakers, that the country was prospering under the Union, that O'Connell's motion was at once voted down. On the same occasion, the House of Peers not only rejected the proposition unanimous- ly, but addressed the King, declaring their firm resolution to maintain the " integrity of the empire." Various efforts were made in this and the following year to force upon Parliament some just measure for the reduction of the Irish Church Establishment. Mr. WariT, an English member, was especially zealous iu this cause ; but as these proposals were steadily resisted, and came to nothing whatever for several years, we need not oc- cupy ourselves with them here. The Church bill of Mr. Ward, contained what was called the " Appropriation clause," for devoting to state purposes, and the general improvement of the country, the funds to be curtailed from the wealth of the Church. This was the great stumbling-block to the, Tories, and to the House of Lords ; and the mea- sure was abandoned, The last scene of tithe-carnage, was en- acted at Itathcormack, a village in Water- ford County. It was on the 18th of De- cember, 1834. Seizure had been made upon the stackyard of a poor widow, to pay the Protestant rector. Her neighbors be came strongly excited ; aud assembled in crowds, with the apparent purpose of resist- ing the abstraction of the property. A narrow lane, or boreen, led up from the high- road to the widow's place. In this lane, the people had overturned a wagon to block up the way, and seemed resolved to defend their barricade. The officers of the law op- £?> (! • ^TfiSe .t(/uAidi*s,ii # ■A L M ¥ J. QUEEK VICTORIAS ACCESSION. proached, well supported by armed men, both police and military. There was some parley ; stones were thrown ; the Riot act was read ; and then orders were given to Are. A de- structive volley was poured in upon the un- armed crowd, many of them fell, killed and wounded ; and his reverence carried off, over the bleeding corpses, his tithe of the widow's sheaves. The excitement and indignation aroused by this " Rathcormack massacre," were profound and wide-spread. The com- binations amongst the peasantry to resist tithe-sales, and to prevent all persons from purchasing, at their own proper peril, be- came more organized and formidable. Doc- tor Maellale, Archbishop of Tuam, writing a public letter at this time to the Duke of Wellington, thus expresses himself : " All the united authorities, and the Senate, can never annex the conscientious obligations of law to enactments that are contrary to right, reason, and justice. And hence, the stubborn and unconquerable resistance of the people of Ireland to those odious acts — I will not call them laws — which have forc- ed l hem to pay tribute to the teachers of an adverse creed. I shall freely declare my own resolve. I have leased a small farm, just sufficient to qualify me for the exer- cise of the franchise. After paying the landlord his rent, neither to parson, proctor nor agent, shall I consent to pay, in the shape of tithe, or any other tax, a penny which shall go to the support of the great- est nuisance in this, or any other country." It may well be supposed, that such a declar- ation as this, coming from a reverend digni- tary of the Catholic Church — affirming that the Church laws were no laws, and that he himself would deny and defy them, greatly aggravated and encouraged the organized resistance of the people. If an attempt had been made to levy tithe from the Arch- bishop's farm, no man in the diocese would have dared to bid for his corn-sheaves. King William IV., died in June, 1831, and Queen Victoria reigned in his stead ; a disastrous reign to Ireland. Within the first three years of this Queen's reign, three measures of great im- portance were passed for Ireland ; all brought forward under pretext of Conces- sion aud Liberalism ; but all marked reality with the invariable, inevitable stamp of mortal enmity towards the people of our country. These were, the Poor Law, the Tithe Law, and the I,aw for Municipal Re- form. Poor laws had become at once necessary in England, on the supression of the mon- asteries in the reign of Dlcnry VIII. In Catholic times, and according to Catholic ideas, alms-giving was a Christian duty; from that moment it had to become a tax. Those monasteries had been endowed by charitable and religious people mainly for the relief of the poor ; but when their lands came into possession of King Henry's courtiers, the poor immediately began to be regarded as public enemies to be suppressed. The poor man had been a brother, whom it was a privilege and duty to console ; he became one of the " dangerous classes," to be well watched, to be- often punished, and to bo forever degraded and disgraced. The first English Poor law (27 Henry VIII.,) prohibited alms-giving under heavy penal- ties ; and as for "sturdy beggars" — "a sturdy beggar is to be whipped the first time, and if he again offend, he shall suffer death as a felon and an enemy of the com- monwealth." The fourteenth of Elizabeth provided that these terrible sturdy beggars " should for the first offence be grievously whipped, and burned through the gristle of the right ear with a hot iron of the compass of an inch about ; for the second, be deemed as felons ; and for the third, suffer death as felons without benefit of clergy." Innu- merable amendments and alterations have been made since those days in the English system of Poor laws, by which, although these ferocious punishments were mitigated, the principle was maintained, of treating the poor as enemies, and making charity a com- pulsory tax. All this system had been hitherto un- known in Ireland — as it is still unknown in France and Spain. Poor men had been al- ways with us, and that in plenty; but no " able-bodied paupers," by profession. If a third of the population was sometimes in a half-starving condition fur half the year, the others, who had more comforts around them, shared generously with their suffering neigh- % S5# ye-'A, ,0 bors, aud thought they God :*f '«.£«E4..>-i«8 .CSU/MIUI.J,' HISTORY OF IRELAND. SS\ Up — cJ this d vice. Christian charity was not yet worked by machinery, nor exacted by sheriff's offi- cers. In short, poor as the Irish were — and they were only poor because the Eng- h ate them out of house and home — their whole nature and habits were totally abhor- ent to the idea of Poor laws. But it was now the settled 'design of the British Gov- ernment to fasten upon them this plague ; and for two principal reasons — first, to ob- tain absolute control, through their own offi- cials, of the great mass of the poor, who might otherwise be turned into elements of revolutionary disturbance ; second, to aid and encourage the extermination of the "surplnpos pulation" — thus coming in aid of the new code of cheap and easy eject- ment — for when there should be great poor- houses in every district to receive the home- less people, landlords would have the less hesitation in turning out upon the highways the population of whole townlands at once. Besides, the immense patronage which the new system would place in the hands of the Government — a patronage to be chiefly ex- ercised amongst the class a stage or two re- moved above the very poor themselves, would give to that Government, in every " Poor-Law Union," a very extensive con- trol over the interests and whole way of life of the farming class. A person named Nicholl, a Scotchman, was sent to make a tour in Ireland, and to report on the distresses of the poor. After a journey of a few weeks, in a country quite unknown to him, this man made a re- port. He saw much suffering and privation ; and reported that during half the year, there were five hundred and eighty-live thousand persons, with two millions three hundred thousand more depending on them, in a slate of utter destitution. He took care to report nothing of the reason of this destitution ; namely, the drain of Irish pro- duce to England. Upon the report of this Scotchman, a measure was prepared and in- troduced by Lord John Russell, to estab- lish an universal system of Poor laws ; a board of commissioners, and distribution of the island into "Unions." It was in vain that O'Connell, many Catholic Bishops, many Protestant Irishmen, even, opposed readful law. It was carried by large majorities, and became law in July, 1838. Two years later there, were one hundred and twenty-seven Unions marked out and consti- tuted ; fourteen immense Poor Houses, built like prisons, had been built, and the others were in rapid progress. Ireland has been blistering and festering under this British pestilence ever since that day. One of the first consequences of it was a large increase in the number of ejectments. The ejected people, when they had no money to emigrate, could only take refuge in these Toor law jails, bid adieu to all decency and independence, and become paupers forever, cursing the cruel " charity " that prolonged their miserable existence. The second of these measures was the Tithe bill ; passed in May, 183S. It abol- ished Church tithes in Ireland ; that is to say, it converted them into a charge upon the land ; called tithe rent-charge, payable in the first place to the parsons by the land- lords, and then leviable on the tenants by distress, along with the rent. Thus, the parsons were relieved from the necessity of coming into immediate collision witli the farmers, aud raising bloody riots to come at their tenth sheaf and tenth potato. The tithe was, in fact, confounded with the rent, and put into a form impossible to be resist- ed or evaded. In return for the additional security and tranquillity thus assured to the clergymen, and for the saving of their heavy expenses to proctors aud tithe-farmers, they were made to submit to a deduction of twenty-five per cent, upon the amount claimed by them. On the whole it was a profitable change for the parsons, who have been better paid since that time than they had been for many years before. The people were assured that they were relieved from the " tithe ;" and the Church was supposed to have escaped the odium of this shocking imposition ; but, at the same time, many a poor family saw its last bed carried off by the landlord's bailiffs, to pay " tithe rent-charge." Nothing can demonstrate in a more offensive manner the savage resolu- tion of the British Government and people to make us pay for support of that alien church, or die. The third great measure which signalized the first years of Queen Victoria, was the UiS .£14XM*tS.Jl -^^" jmm POOR LAW TITHE LAW MUNICIPAL REFORM. 521 A. Municipal Reform act. The Emancipation act had hern quite inoperative in giving to Catholics their rightful place in the corpora- tions. A Municipal Reform bill had been hitrodnced into Parliament, in 1836, by O'Loghlen, then Attorney-General. He A .-> V ml | | had stated in his speech, that "although the whole number of corporators in Ire- land were thirteen thousand, and although since 1792, the corporations had been nominally open to Catholics, not more than two hundred had been admitted." The municipal bodies also, being quite free from popular control, and all other control, had become quite as conspicuous for corrup- tion as for Protestantism ; and independ- ently of the claims of the Catholics, some cleansing process was absolutely needful I ingst those dens of iniquity. The prin- ciple of the new bill was to give to the in- habitants of the towns (subject to a qualifi- cation according to rating,) the power to elect town councillors, and thus infuse a popular element into the little close boroughs of municipal jurisdiction. A Municipal Reform bill had been within a few years enacted for England ; and an- other object of the Government was to assim- ilate, as far as was prudent, the Irish insti- tutions of this kind with the English. One great difficulty, however, at once presented itself. Some of the functions of municipal officers were connected with the administra- tion of justice. The mayor is a magistrate. What is of still graver importance, the sheriff of a corporate city is the officer who has charge of the list of qualified jurors in that city, and who summons a certain num- ber of them to serve at each assize or com- mission. If such sheriff should be a Cath- olic, there was reason to fear that he might not exercise due vigilance in keeping Catho- lics off those juries which might have to try " political offences "— a large and essen- tial department of what is called "govern- ment " in Ireland. Violent opposition was made to the bill, on this and other grounds ; and it was thrown out by the House of Lords. The agitation, however, was quite vehement on the subject in Ireland ; and the demand for corporate reform grew loud. While the Marquis of jS'ormanby was Lord-Lieutenant 66 • of Ireland, he did not prevent and repress political meetings, as he was invested with power to do ; and the Whig Ministry soon found they could not calculate on Catholic support, (which they needed,) without some measure of this character. During the three years, 1837-8-9, the bill underwent several modifications, and was several times passed by the Commons and thrown out by the Peers. At last, it took its final shape, and was introduced by Lord Morpeth, on the Uth of February, 1840. Iu his bill, the amount of rating fixed as the qualification for voters was £S. When it was sent up to the Lords, they insisted upon the qualifica- tion of a £10 rating ; and with this change it was accepted by the Commons, and be- came law* The Municipal Reform act would have been indeed an invaluable concession of right and equity to Ireland ; and we should here be called upon to greatly modify or re- tract very much of the bitter reflections which have been made upon the deadly hostility shown by all British Governments against the Irish people, but for one circum- stance. A clause of the new act, not only renders all the rest comparatively worthless, but provides with deliberate malignity for the subversion of all law and justice in Ire- land. It enacts that the sheriff shall not be elected by the Town Councils, as in Eng- land, but appointed by the Lord-Lieute- nant. That is to say, the Town Councils were to be allowed to submit certain names to that functionary, amongst wdiom they should pray him to appoint their sheriff; and if none of the names pleased him, the nomination was to rest with him — that is to say, the officer who had charge of the jury-lists, and whose special duty it is to take care that his fellow-citizens are fairly represented in the jury-box, was to be, not an elected servant of the people, but a crea- ture of the Castle and the Crown. There is no occasion for hesitation or delicacy in affirming, that the intention of this clause was to enable the Crown to pack its juries with the utmost certainty, and to destroy a political opponent at any time, under a false pretence of law. To what deadly use Ml &j K & m 9 n $> 8&(rJk 522 HISTORY OF IRELAND. this provision lias been turned will be but too evident throughout tlie later history of the country. In the meantime, however, the Catholic townsmen of Ireland took their place in the municipal bodies, and in such municipal business as had no reference to the administration of justice. O'Connell was elected first Catholic Lord Mayor of Dublin ; and took much state in his scar- let cloak and gold chain ; but at the same moment was nominated a sheriff, whose business it was to secure a jury that would send this Lord Mayor to jail on the first occasion when the Castle might desire to imprison him as a criminal. These three measures were the first fruits of 'Whig legislation for Ireland, in the three first years of Queen Victoria. CHAPTER LVI. 1840—1843. Spirit of Legislation for Ireland — More Spying in the Post Office — Savings' Banks — "Precursor Society" Support to the Whigs— Whigs Go Out — Peel Conies In— Repeal Association — Export of Food — Exter- mination- The Repeal Year — Corporation Debate — The Younger Nationalists — New "Arms Bill" — O'Brien Moves fur Inquiry — Preparations for Coer- cion—All England against Repeal — Monster Meet- ings — Mallow — Tara — Mullaghmast — Clontarf — Proclamation. We can now appreciate, in some mea- sure, the spirit and motive of all the legisla- tion for Ireland after " Emancipation." Catholics having been admitted into Parlia- ment and into the Corporations, it became necessary, in the interest of British domin- ation, to take securities against the employ- ment of the new franchises for any Irish purpose. By the "National Education" system provision was made for stifling all national sentiment in the young. By the Poor law, the life or death of certain mil- lions of the people was placed at the dis- posal of British officials. By the Tithe law the impositions of the Established Church were rendered inevitable. By the Municipal law the perpetual packing of juries was made certain. Every enactment of the British Parliament was expressly designed and admirably calculated to nullify alto- gether the sentiments and aspirations of the Irish people, and to subject their whole way of life to the will and the interests of Eng- land. The police force had been gradually converted into a standing army, under the absolute control of the Castle. The Poet Office espionnage had been systematized and perfected. Government officers were trained to open letters and re-seal them, without showing any trace of their manipulation ; and Her Majesty's Lords-Lieutenant read the correspondence of all suspected persons. Ill 1834, it was Mr. Secretary Littleton, (afterwards Lord Hatherton,) who inspect- ed men's letters. In 1835, it was Lord Mulgrave, (afterwards Marquis of Nor- manby,) who discharged this needful office, The next year it was the same noble mar- quis, and the Irish Secretary, Mr. Drum- mond — the man who scandalized the whole British interest in Ireland by a casual obser- vation of his, (which, however, he did not mean,) that "property had its duties as well as its rights." It was this Mr. Drumnioud who was the spy upou our correspondence both in 1836 and 1837. Iu the same year, 1837, it appears that both Lord Chancellor Pluuket, one of the Lords-Justices, and Doe- tor Whateley, Archbishop of Dublin, a member of the Privy Council, had a curios- ity to know what Mr. O'Connell and others might be writing about to their friends. • They, therefore, gave directions that the let- ters to and from that gentleman, and all the other gentlemen named in their orders, (we are not told who they were,) should be opened in the Tost Office, softening the seals, or envelopes, by a cunning application of steam, then copied for the study of those functionaries, and then sealed up again with great skill. In 1838, Lord Morpeth, (after- wards Lord Carlisle,) had the opening of our letters. In 1839, the Marquis of Nor- manby, Lord Ebrington, and General Sir T. Blakeuey, one of the Lords-Justices. Iu 1840, Lord Ebrington again freely indulged his curiosity.* When to all these methods of inspection and control, we add the immense police force — about thirteen thousand men, well- armed and scientifically distributed over the whole island — with their complete code of * Parliamentary Retur:. Session of 1815. Papers relating to Mazzini. ® C<3 <\ \i*\ HO^ ( m m mm w ■jTtNIt .CUiftlBUS.tj, gpglpg \«aVi rrl .■ ■■ " ? f*TF c%a signals for communicating from station to station, with blue lights, red lights, and other apparatus — when we add the numer- ous corps of detectives, (a sort of institution in which Great Britain is unmatched in all the world,) and when we remember the Disarming acts and Coercion acts always in force, * it is easy to understand how the unfortunate Irish nation, bound hand and foot, muzzled, disarmed, and half starved, could but writhe helplessly under the lash of its greedy tyrant. Yet the pictures of these engines of subjugation is not complete, without an account of the savings' bunks. These institutions were the only means left to industrious and frugal people by which they could safely invest their savings. Manufacturing industry was out of the question ; land in small lots was not to be had ; even leases for lives or years were no longer obtained, (for there was now no use fur small freeholders at the hustings,) and those who could save a little money could do no better than deposit it in the savings' bank of the nearest town. The system of savings' banks had been introduced from Scotland into Ireland in 1810. Soou after it had been made a Government institution, and the rate of interest was fixed by law : the depositors were allowed £o 0s. lOd. per cent. ; and the savings' bank was bound to invest the whole of the money deposited with it in the Government funds. Thus the small savings of every industrious artizan and of every prudent maid-servant were in the hands of the Government ; and their value depended upon the value of the Government funds — that is, on the credit and stability of the existing British system. This was a substantial security against revo- lution — because every depositor felt that his little all depended on the tranquillity of the state : in other words, on the peaceful per- petuation of the hateful system, which was really making beggars of them all. It must be admitted that in so very help- less a condition of the country, it was a difficult task for even the most jjowerful and popular agitator to produce any movement that would be really formidable to the * Lord Grey's Coercion act remained in force till 183U. It was soou succeeded by another Coercion act. 523 enemy's Government, or would exert any serious pressure upon their action. O'Con- nell was, for several years, in a state of manifiest perplexity and indecision. He always knew and felt, it is true, that the repeal of the Union — the destruction of the British Empire — was the only salvation for his country. But that British Empire was now on its guard at all points. Besides, the governing faction at that moment was Whig ; full of fine, liberal professions ; always employed in some fraudulent pretence of friendly legislation fur Ireland ; and even courting him and his influence for its own party purposes. It is not to be wondered at, then, that when the Liberal Lord Melbourne was Prime Minister, and the more than Liberal Lord Normanby and Lord Ebrington were Viceroys of Ireland, who were willing to distribute a large share of the Government patronage on his re- commendation, (whilst they inspected his letters in the Post Office,) it cannot be thought strange that he held in abeyance for a time the real and rightful claims of Irish nationhood, and gave a certain quali- fied support to the " Liberal " administra- tion, which bestowed profitable offices on his friends. It was at this period that the Tories accused the Government of truckling to O'Connell, and that the thorough-going nationalists of Ireland accused O'Connell of trafficking with the Whigs ; and, in fact, this was the most questionable part of his whole political career. Yet, O'Connell was too mnch devoted to the cause of his country to sell it to any English party. He insisted no longer on the restoration of a native legislature, but loudly claimed "justice to Ireland,'' aud affected to believe that these Whig statesmen would consent to such justice. Thereupon, he established a new agitating association, which he called by the peculiar name of " Precursor Society," in the be- ginning of 1839. The meaning of the name was, that Ireland was now making a last ap- peal fur "justice," and that if this were still denied, the existing suciety was but the pre- cursor of a new and universal agitation for repeal of the Union. In the me&uthue, all the influence of the organization was to be used in support of the Whig administration. ! * \&- ' '>'!<& £v^ & W) *i.^a .LLLumis.u, $P < ■ ' 1 ^Bl " What am I here for ?" exclaimed O'Con- nell, at a meeting of the 6th of March, 1839 ; " What am I here for? To call on all Ireland to rally round the Ministry ; to call for my two millions of enroled Pre- cursors." Lord Normanby, while in secret he pried into everybody's letters, omitted in public none of the usual arts of popularity. He procured places for Catholic lawyers ; he dismissed from the commission of the peace Colonel Verner, and other outrageous Orange magistrates, for publicly celebrating that ruffianly slaughter called Buttle of the Diamond ; he received Catholic nota- bilities at the Castle with distinguished courtesy ; he made excursions through the provinces, and liberated from the jails great numbers of prisoners who were either un- justly confined, or undergoing punishment for trifling offences. At length, English opinion became inflamed against him ; and Lord Brougham (who had entirely aban- doned all pretence to liberalism, when Ireland was in question,) moved a vote of censure against Lord Normanby in the House of Lords, on the express ground of an abuse of patronage and of the pardoning power. It appeared on the debate that his lordship had, between November, 1837, and the 3!st January, 1839, released eight hun- dred and twenty-two prisoners — but not with- out inquiry into their cases, and not without rejecting appeals for clemency amounting to nearly as large a number. The vote of censure passed, however. Lord Normanby retired from the Vice-royalty, and was suc- ceeded in 1839 by Lord Ebrington, another Liberal, who \oA no time in commencing his duties as Post Office spy ; which, in- deed, he continued faithfully to discharge during the whole period of his government. The "Precursor" Association continued its meetings at the Corn Exchange, on Burgh Quay, and Mr. O'Connell, regularly once a week, while he demanded justice to Ireland, called on the people to sustain the Whig Government. This anomalous political situation ended in November, 1841. The Whig administra- tion went out ; and Sir Robert Peel, the proved and inveterate enemy of Ireland and of the Catholics, became Prime Minister. There was to be no more patronage at the disposal of the Corn Exchange ; no more pretext for affecting to expect justice for Ireland at the hands of an English Govern- ment ; and the Precursor Society merged into the Repeal Association. For the next two years, this new organ- ization attracted but little attention in England, or even at home. The country had become so much accustomed to Mr. O'ConnelPs successive forms of agitation, that it would have surprised nobody if the Repeal Association had been upon any morning " proclaimed " out of existence — or if its versatile author had again changed its name and character, and called it the " Liberal Association," or "Justice to Ire- land Association." But, in truth, no person could be more fully sensible than Mr. O'Connell that there was no justice for Ire- land save in national independence. For full thirty years he had constantly avowed this creed ; and if he had waived the claim lor awhile, it was only to aid and encourage the Whigs in granting what he called "instalments" of justice, which might strengthen the nation to demand and en- force all that was due, or in putting "good men " into office, who, he said, were certain- ly belter than bad men. Now, at last, he felt himself standing upon the only plain and ' honest principle, engaged in the only agita- tion by which his countrymen would be really stirred and tired to the very hearts' core. Nothing important took place during these two years. Mr. O'Connell was now Lord .Mayor of Dublin^ and held his levees in state at the Mansion House, while the Lord- Lieutenant was studying his private letters to find matter of accusation against him. The people were pleased to see their chosen chief adorned with the splendid corporate insignia, so long appropriated by the "As- cendancy," and did not yet perceive how firmly, instead of that old "Ascendancy," British domination was fastened upon them. In 1843, more than three million quarters of grain were exported out of Ireland into England ; besides, almost a million head of live stock, including horned cattle, sheep and swine. * l m < f^r m Corpus suspended ; that, in 1800, the number of soldiers concentrated in that small island, was one hundred and twen- ty-nine thousand, as "good lookers-on;" that, notwithstanding all intimidation, sev- en hundred thousand persons had peti- tioned against the measure ; and, notwith- standing all enticements, only three thou- sand had petitioned for it, most of these being Government officials, and prisoners in the jails. If he had stopped here, most per- sons would think it enough — that was a deed which at the earliest possible moment must be undone and punished. liut he did not stop here ; he went into all the details of mined trade and manufac- tures since the Union — immensely-increased drains in the shape of absentee-rents and surplus-taxation — frauds in subjecting Ire- land to a charge for the English national debt, and even charging to Ireland's special account the very monies expended in bribes and military expenses for earning the Union ; which, he said, was about as fair as " making Ireland pay for the knife with which Lord Castlereagh cut his throat ;" — injustice in giving Ireland but one hun- dred members in the House of Commons, while her population and revenue entitled her to one hundred and seventy-five ; and, above all, the injustice of fixing the qualifi- cation of electors of these members much higher in Ireland, the poorer country, than in England. This is a sketch only of the case for re- peal (if the Union ;— the necessity for some remedy or other was only too apparent in the poverty and wretchedness which moved and scandalized all Europe. The petition for repeal was adopted by a vote of forty one to 6 f teen in the Corpo- ration ; and a similar petition, shortly after, by th« Corporation of Cork. Hitherto the English press, am! Irish press in the English interest, looked on with affected or real in- difference and contempt. O'Connell then left Dublin for the prov- inces. Then began the series of vast open- air meetings, to which the peasantry, ac- companied by their priests, repeal wardens, and " temperance bands," flocked in numbers, varying from fifty thousand to two hundred and fifty thousand — (we take the reduced and disparaging estimate of enemies ; but the re- peal newspapers put up the Tara meeting to four hundred thousand.) Of course, the orator always addressed these multitudes, but though his voice was the most powerful of his day, he could not be heard by a tenth of them. Neither did they come to hear ; they were all well indoctrinated by local re- peal wardens ; had their minds made up ; and came to convince their leader that they were with him, and would be ready at any time when called upon. But all was to be peaceable ; they were to demand their rights imperatively ; they were, he assured them, tall men and strong ; at every monster meeting he had around him, as he often said, the materials of a greater army than both the armies combined that fought at Waterloo. " But take heed,'' he cried, " not to misconceive rae. Is it by force or violence, bloodshed or turbulence, that I shall achieve this victory, dear above all earthly considerations to my heart ? No ! perish the thought forever. I will do it by legal, peaceable, and constitutional means alone — by the electricity of public opinion, by the moral combination of good men, and by the enrolment of four millions of repealers. I am a disciple of that sect of politicians who believe that the greatest of all sublunary blessings is ton dearly pur- chased at the e.rpense of a single drop of human blood." Many persons did not understand this sort of language. The prevailing impres- sion was, that while the Repeal Association was, indeed, a peaceful body, contemplating only " Constitutional agitation," yet the par- ade of such immense masses of physical force had an ulterior meaning, and indicated that if the British Parliament reinai:>"-d absolutely insensible to the reasonable de- mands of the people, the association must lie dissolved ; and the next question would be, how best and soonest to exterminate the British forces. Many wdio wire close to O'Connell expected all along that the Eng- lish Parliament and Government never would yield ; and these would hav taken small interest, in the movement, if it -- \l I **^aa >- v excitement ; until at Tara, and at Mullagh- mast, the agitator sliook with the passion of the scene, as the fiery eyes of three hun- dred thousand upturned faces seemed to crave the word. Whig newspapers and politicians in Eng- land, (the Whigs being then in opposition,) began now to suggest various conciliatory measures — talked of the anomaly of the "Established Church" — and generally ;»ave it to be understood, that if they were in power they would know how to deal with the repeal agitation. At every meeting O'Coimell turned these professions into ridicule. It was too late, now, he said to offer to buy up repeal by concessions, or good measures. An Irish Parliament in Collage Green : this was his ultimatum. We approach the end of the monster meetings. Neither England nor Ireland could bear this excitement much longer. The two grandest and most imposing of these parades were at Tara and Mullagh- mast ; both in the Province of Leinster, 'within a short distance of Dublin ; both conspicuous, 'the one in glory, the other in gloom, through past centuries, and haunted by ghosts of kings and chiefs. On the great plain of Meath, not far from the Boyne river, rises a gentle eminence, in the midst of a luxuriant farming country. On and around its summit are still certain mouldering remains (if earthen mounds and moats, the ruins of the " House of Cormac," and the "Mound of the Hostages," and the " Stone of Destiny." It is 'femora of the Kings. On Tuesday morning, the 15th of August, most of the population of Meath, with many thousands from the four counties round, were pouring along every road leading to the hill. Numerous bauds, ban- ners and green boughs, enlivened their march, or divided their ordered squadrons. Vehicles of all descriptions, from the hand- some private chariot to the Irish jaunting- car, were continually arriving, and by the wardens duly disposed around the hill. In Dublin, the "Liberator," after a public breakfast, set forth at the head of a cortege, ami his progress to Tara was a procession and a triumph. Under triumphal arches, and amidst a storm of music and acclama- tions, his carriage passed through the several little towns that lay in his way. At Tara, the multitudes assembled were esti- mated in the Nation at seven hundred and fifty thousand ; an exaggeration, certainly. But they were at least three hundred and fifty thousand. Their numbers were not so impressive as their order and discipline ; nor these so wonderful as the stifled en- thusiasm that uplifted them above the earth. They came, indeed, with naked hands ; but the agitator knew Well that if he had in- vited them, they would have come still more gladly with extemporaneous pikes or spears, "or instruments serving for pikes and spears." He had been proclaiming from every hill-top in Ireland for six months that something was coming — that repeal was "on the wild winds of Heaven." Expectation had grown intense, painful, almost intoler- able. He knew it ; and those who were close to him as he mounted the platform, noticed that his lip and hand visibly trembled, as he gazed over the boundless human ocean, and heard its thundering roar of welcome. He knew that every soul in that host de- manded its enfranchisement at his hand. O'Conncll called this meeting "an august and triumphant meeting ; " and as if con- scious that he must at least seem to make another step in advance, he brought up at the next meeting of the Repeal Association, a detailed "plan for the renewed action of the Irish Parliament," which, he said, it only needed the Queen's writs to pnt in op- eration. The new House of Commons was to consist of three hundred members, quite fairly apportioned to the several constituen- (j) cies ; and, in the meantime, he announced that he would invite three hundred gentle- men to assemble in Dublin, early in Decem- ber, who were to come from every part of Ireland, and virtually represent their re- spective localities. This was the " Council of Three Hundred," about which he had often talked before in a vague manner ; but had evidently great difficulty in bringing to pass legally. For it would be a " Convention of Delegates," — and such an assembly, though legal enough in England, is illegal in Ire- land. Conventions, (like arms and ammu- nition,) are held to be unsuitable to the Irish character. For, in fact, it was a convention which proclaimed the independence of Ire- -■& • rT"£«W.C0U«8I.S.6 ( r * i n \:M ! > «g 2ri R. : :- ' *' > 534 HISTORY OP IIIKLAND. land in Dtingannon ; and the arms and am- munition of the volunteer army that made ii good, in 1782. Two weeks after this, the London Par- liament was prorogued ; and the Queen's Bpeech, (composed by Sir Robert Peel,) was occupied almost entirely by two sub- jects—the disturbances in Wales, and the repeal agitation in Ireland. There had been some rioting and bloodshed in Wales, in resistance to oppressive turnpike dues, and the like — there was a quiet and legal expression of opinion in Ireland, unattended by the slightest outrage, demanding back the Parliament of the country. The Queen first dealt with Wales. She had taken mea- sures, she said, for the repression Of violence — and, at the same time, directed an in- quiry to be made into the circumstances which led to it. As to Ireland, Her Ma- jesty said, there was discontent and dis- affection, but uttered not a word about any inquiry into the causes of that. " It had ever been her earnest desire," Her Majesty said, " to administer the government of that country in a spirit of strict justice and im- partiality" — and "she was firmly determin- ed, under the blessing of Divine Provi- dence to maintain the Union." The little principality of Wales was in open revolt— I Ik re Ministers would institute inquiry. Ireland was quiet, and stand- ing upon the law — there they would meel the ease with horse, fool, and artillery ; for nil knew that was what the Queen meant by " the blessing of Divine Providence." Again the agitator mustered all Con- naught, at three monster meetings— in Ros- common, Clifden, and Loughrea. Again he asked them if they were for the repeal ; and agniu the mountains and the sea-cliffs re- sounded with their acclaim. Yes ; they were for the repeal ; they had said so be- fore. What next ? Leinster, too, was summoned again to meet on the 1st of October, at Mnllagh- mast, in Kildare County, near the road from Dublin to CnrloW, and close on the borders of the Wicklow highlands. This was the most imposing and effective of all the meetings. The spot was noted as the scene of a massacre of some chiefs of Olfaly and Lcix, with hundreds of their clansmen, in 1577, by the English of the Pale, who had invited them to a great feast, but had troops silently drawn around the banqueting-hall, who, at a signal, attacked the place and cut the throat of every was- sailer. The hill of Mullaghmast, like that of Tara, is crowned by a rath, or ancient earth- en rampart, inclosing about three acres. The members of the town corporations repaired to the rath, in their corporate robes. O'Connell took the chair, in his scarlet cloak of alderman ; and, amidst the breathless silence of the people, John Bogan, the first of Irish sculptors, came forward and placed on the Liberator's head a richly-embroider- ed cap, modeled after the ancient Irish Crown, saying : " Sir, I only regret this cap is not of gold.'' Then the deep roar of half a million voices, and the waving of at least a thousand banners, proclaimed the enthu- siasm of the people. Again O'Connell as- sured them that England could not long re- sist these demonstrations of their peaceful resolve— that the Union was a nullity — that he had already arranged his plan for the new Irish Parliaments — and that this was the repeal year. In truth, it was time for England either to yield with good grace, or to find or make some law applicable to this novel "political offence," or to provoke a fight and blow away repeal with cannon. Many of the Pro- testants were joining O'Connell ; and even the troops in some Irish regiments had been known to throw up their caps with " hur- rah lor repeal 1" It was high time to grap- ple with the "sedition." Accordingly, the Government was all this time watching for an occasion on which it could come to issue with the agitation, and on which all advantages would be on its side. The next week that occasion arose. A great metropolitan meeting was appointed to be held on the historic shore of Clontarf, two miles from Dublin, along the bay— on Sunday, the 8th of October. The garrison of Dublin amounted then to about four thousand men, besides the one thousand police ; with abundance of field artillery. Late in the afternoon on Saturday, when ii was already almost dusk, a proclamation was posted on the walls of Dublin, signed by the Irish Secretary and Privy Council- \J *| W 'rsA ,'^A 'H.h\ X- <>£> » ••:■• £NG .auNtus. A ( i \&\ ND COULD NOT YIELD. 535 ! J '..'I WHY ENGLAND COULD NOT YIELD. lors, and the Commander of the forces, forbidding tlie meeting ; and charging all magistrates and officers, "and others whom it might concern, to be aiding and assisting in the execution of the law, in preventing said meeting." "Let them not dare," O'Connell had often said, " to attack ns I " The challenge was now to be accepted. K'lHt^^J CHAPTER LVII. 1843— 1S44. Why England could not Yield— Cost to Her of Re- peal — Intention of Government at Clontarf-- The " Projected Massacre" — Meeting Prevented — State Prosecution — O'Brien Declares for Repeal — Pack- ing of the Jury — Verdict of Guilty — Debate in Parliament — Russell and Macaulay on Packing of Juries— O'Connell in Parliament— Speculation of tlic Whigs— Sentence and Imprisonment of "Con- spirators'" — Effects on Repeal Association — Ap- peal to the House of Lords — Whig Law Lords— Reversal of the Sentence — Enthusiasm of the People— Their Patience and Self-Denial— Decline of the Association. British Government then closed with repeal ; and one or the other, it was plain, must go down. For this was, in truth, the alternative. The British Empire, as it stands, looks vast and strong ; but none know so well as the statesmen of that country how in- trinsically feeble it is ; and how entirely it depends for its existence upon ■prestige — that is, upon a superstitious belief in its power. England, in short, could by no means afford to part with her "sister island :" — both in money and in credit the cost would be too much. In this repeal year, for example, there whs tin export of provisions from Ireland to England of the value of £16,000,000. And between surplus revenue remitted to Eng- land, and absentee-rents spent in England, Mr. O'Corinell's frequent statement that £9,000,000 of Irish money was annjially spent, in England, is not over the truth. These were substantial advantages, not to be yielded up lightly. In point of national prestige, England could still less afford to repeal the Union, because all the world would know the con- cession had been wrong from her against her will. Whigs and Tories were of one mind upon this; and nothing can be more bitter than the language of all sections of the English press, after it was once determined to crush the agitation by force. "A repeal, (says the Times,) is not a matter to be argued on ; it is a blow which despoils the Queen's domestic territory- splinters her Crown — undermines, and then crushes, her Throne — exposes her to insult and outrage from all quarters of the earth and ocean ; a repeal of the Union leaves England stripped of her vitality. Whatever might be the inconvenience or disadvantage, therefore, or even unwholesome restraint upon Ireland — although the Union secures the reverse of all these — hut even were it gall to Ireland, England must guard her own life's blood, and sternly tell the disaffected Irish : You shall have me for a sister or a subjngatrix ; that is my ultimatum." And the Morning Chronicle, speaking of the act of " Union," says : — " True, it was coarsely and badly done ; but stand it must. A Cromwell's violence, with Machiavelli's perfidy, may have been at work, but the treaty, after all is more than parchment." The first bolt launched, then, was the proclamation to prevent the meeting at Clontarf. The proclamation was posted in Dublin only an hour before dusk on Satur- day. But long before that time thousands of people from Meath, Kildare, and Dublin Counties were already on their way to Clontarf. They all had confidence in O'- Connell's knowledge of law ; and he had often told them, (and it was true,) that the meetings, and all the proceedings at them, were perfectly legal ; and that a proclama- tion could not make them illegal. They would, therefore, have most certainly flocked to the rendezvous in the usual numbers, even if they had seen the procla- mation. Many persons did not at first understand the object of the Privy Council in keeping back the proclamation to so late an hour on Saturday, seeing that the meeting had been many days announced ; and they might as well have issued their command earlier iu the week. One may also be at a loss to understand why the proclamation called not only upon all magistrates, aud % (fir % ML i-AVl ^ civil mid military officers to assist in pre- renting the assembly ; but also, "all others whom it might concern." Bui the thing was simple enough : they meant, to take O'Connell by surprise — so that he might bo unable to prevent the assembly entirely, or to organize it, (if such were his policy,) for defence — and thus they hoped to create confusion and a pretext for an onslaught, or "salutary lesson." Be- sides, they had already made up their minds to arrest O'Connell and several others, and subject, them to a state prosecution ; and the Crown lawyers were already hard at work arranging a case against him. It is quite possible that they intended, (should O'Connell go to Clonlarf in the midst of such confusion and excitement,) to arrest llim then and there ; which Would have been certainly resisted by the people ; and so there would have been a riot ; and every- thing would have been lawful then. As to the "others whom it might concern," that meant the Orange Associations of Dublin, and everybody else "ho might take the imitation to himself. " Others whom it may concern 1" exclaimed O'Connell. "Why, this is intended for, and addressed to Tresham Gregg ami his auditory."* Thus, the enemy had well provided for confusion, collision, and a salutary lesson. Lord Cloucurry made no scruple to term the whole of these Government arrangements "a projected massacre." For O'Connell and the committee of the Repeal Association, there were but two courses possible — one to prevent the meeting, and turn the people back from it, if there was still time ; the other was, for O'Connell to let the people of the country come to Clon tarf — to meet them there himself as he had invited them— but, the troops being almost all drawn out, of the city, to keep the Dublin repealers at home, and to give them a commission to take the Castle and all the barracks, ami to break down the canal bridge, and barricade the streets leading to Clontarf. The whole garrison and police were five thousand. The city has a popula- tion of two hundred and fifty thousand. The multitudes coming m from the country * Rev, Tresham Gregg was then the Orange agitator, ou whom bud fallen the mantle uf Sir Iiarcuurt Lees. would, probably, have amounted to almost as many ; and that handful of men between. There would have been a horrible slaughter of the unarmed people without, if the troops would fire on them — a very doubtful mat- ter — and O'Connell himself might have fallen. But those who have well considered the destinies of Ireland since that day, may reasonably enough be of the opinion that the death of five or ten thousand men at Clontarf, might have saved Ireland the slaughter by famine of an hundred times as many shortly afterwards. The first course was the one adopted. The committee issued another proclamation, and sent it off by parties of gentlemen known to the people, and on whom they would rely, to turn back the crowds upon all the roads by which they were likely to come in. All that, Saturday night their exertions wire unremitting ; and the good Father Tyrrell, whose parishioners, swarm- ing in from Fingal, would have made a large part of the meeting, by his exertions and fatigue that night, fell sick and died. The meeting was prevented. The trocgk were marched out, and drawn up on the. beach and on the hill ; the artillery was placed in a position to rake the place of meeting, and the cavalry ready to sweep it ; but they met no enemy. Within a week, O'Connell and eight others were held to bail to take their trial for "conspiracy and other misdemeanors." O'Connell, on his side, laughed both at the "Clontarf war" and at the state trials, lie seemed well pleased with them both. The one proved how entjrely under disci- pline were the virtuous, and sober, and loyal people, as he called them. The other would show how wisely he had steered the agita- tion through the rocks and shoals of law. In this he would have been perfectly right, his legal position would have been impreg- nable, but, for two circumstances — first, "conspiracy" in Ireland, means anything the Castle judges wish ; second, the Castle sheriff was quite sure to pack a Castle-jury — SO that, whatever the Castle might desire, the jury would affirm on oath, " so help them God!" The jury system in Ireland we shall have occasion, more than once, to explain hereafter. •7, ijKS.SUU.NlltS.J, THE " PROJECTED MASSACRE " MEETING PREVENTED. 53T ^ For the next eight months, that is, until the end of May, 1S44, the state prosecution wns the grand concern around which all public interest in Ireland concentrated itself. The prosecuted "conspirators" were nine in number — Daniel O'Connell ; his son, John O'Connell, M. P , for Kilkenny; Charles 0-avan Duffy, Editor of the Nation; the Rev. Mr. Tyrrell, of Lusk, County Dublin, (he died while the prosecution was pending ;) the Rev. Mr. Tierney, of Clon- tibret, County Monaghan ; Richard Rarrct, Editor of the Pilot, Dublin ; Tl la's Steele, " Head Pacificator of Ireland ;" Thomas M. Ray, Secretary of the Repeal Association ; and Dr. Gray, Editor of the Freeman's Journal, Dublin. During all the eight months of these legal proceedings, the repeal agitation continued to gain strengtll and impetus. The open- air meetings, indeed, ceased— Clontarf was to have been the last of them, owing to the approach of winter. But the new hall, which had been built as a place of meeting for the association, was just finished ; and O'Connell, who had a peculiar taste in nomenclature, christened it "Conciliation Hall ;" intending to indicate the necessity for uniting all classes and religions in Ire- land in a common struggle for the inde- pendence of their common country. On the 22d of October the new hall was opened in great form, and amidst great en- thusiasm. The chair was taken by John Augustus O'Neill, of Bunowen Castle, a Protestant gentleman, who had been early in life a cavalry officer, and member of Parliament for Hull, in England. Tetters from Lord French, Sir Charles Wolesley, Sir Richard Musgrave, and Mr. Caleb Powell, one of the members for Limerick County, were read and placed on the minutes — all breathing vehement indignation against the " Government," and pledging the wannest, support. But this first meeting in the new hall was specially notable for the adhesion of Mr. Smith O'Brien. Nothing encouraged the people, nothing provoked and perplexed the enemy so much as this. For O'Brien was not only a member of the great and ancient House of Thomond, but was further well-known as a man both 68 of calmness and resolution. The family had been Protestant for some generations ; and Smith O'Brien, though always zealous in promoting everything which might be use ful to Ireland in Parliament, had remained y attached to the Whig party, and was hardly expected to throw himself into the national cause so warmly, and at so dangerous a time. It has been already related how this ex- cellent and gallant Irishman had flung to the Lord Chancellor his Commission of the Peace, when that functionary began to dismiss magistrates for attending peace- ful meetings. He now saw that the British Government had commenced the deliberate task of crushing down a just na- tional claim in the blood of the Irish people. The letter in which he announced his adhe- sion was extremely moderate; and it pro- duced the deeper impression upon that ac- count. One passage of it is highly charac- teristic of the writer. He says : — " Lest I should be led to form a precipi- tate decision, I availed myself of the interval which followed the close of the session to examine whether, among the Governments of Central Europe, there are any so indif- ferent to the interests of their subjects as England has been to the welfare and happi- ness ol our population. After visiting Bel- gium, and all the principal capitals of Ger- many, I returned home impressed with the sad conviction that there is more human misery in one county in Ireland, than through- out all the populous cities and districts which I had visited. On lauding in England, I learn that the Ministry, instead of applying themselves to remove the causes of com- plaint, have resolved to deprive us even of the liberty of discontent — that public meet- ings are to be suppressed — and that state prosecutions are to be curried on against Mr. O'Connell, and others, on some frivol- ous charges of sedition and conspiracy. " I should be unworthy to belong to a nation which may claim, at least as a char- acteristic virtue, that it exhibits increased fidelity in the hour of danger, if I were to delay any longer to dedicate myself to the cause of my country. Slowly, reluctantly convinced that Ireland has nothing to hope from the sagacity, the justice, or the gene- ^?2- MX <&■ m is' n TO £> 9 538 HISTOKT OF IRELAND. rosily of the English Parliament) my reli- ance shall henceforth be placed upon our own native energy and patriotism." This chivalrous example, set by a man so justly esteemed, of course, induced many other Protestants to follow his example. The weekly contributions to the revenue of the association became so great as to place in the hands of the committee a large trea- sury, to be used in spreading and organizing tin' movement ; arbitration courts decided the people's complaints, with general accept- ation ; and great meetings in American cities sent, by every steamship, their words of sympathy and bills of exchange. It is not very certain that the " Govern- ment" was at first resolutely bent on press- ing their prosecution to extremity. Prob- ably they rather hoped that the show of a determination to put down the agitation somehow would cool the ardor both of dema- gogues and people. Plainly it had no such effect ; and it was, therefore, resolved to pursue the " conspirators " to conviction and imprisonment, at any cost, and by any means. The "state trials" then began on the 2d of November, 1843. These trials cannot be considered as really a legal proceeding, though invested with legal forms. It was a dt facto government using its courts and tribunals and juries, and all the other appa- ratus of justice, to crush a political enemy, under the false and fraudulent pretence of a trial. Everybody understood from the first that there was here no question of pleading, or of evidence, or of forensic-rhetoric ; and that all depended upon the role of the jury ; — which vote, however, was to be termed a " verdict." A revisal of the special jury-list took place before Mr. Shaw, Recorder of Dub- lin, with a special view to these trials. The names, when passed by the recorder, from day to day, were then sent to the sher- iffs office, to be placed on his book. Coun- sel were employed before the recorder to oppose, by every means, the admission of every Catholic gentleman against whom any color of objection could be thought of ; yet, with all this care, a large number of Catho- lics were placed on the list. As the names wi re transferred to the sheriff's office, it happened that the slip which contained the largest proportion of Catholic names missed its way, or was mislaid ; and the sixty seven names it contained never appeared on the sheriff's book. This became immediately notorious, and excited what one of the judges called "grave suspicion." In striking a special jury in Ireland, forty- eight names are taken by ballot out of the the jurors' book, in the Crown office. Then each party, the Crown and the traverser, has the privilege of striking off twelve — leaving twenty-four names. On the day of trial, the first twelve out of these twenty- four, who answer when called, are sworn as jurors. Now, so well had the sheriff dis- charged his duty in this case, that of the forty-eight names there were eleven Catho- lics. They were all struck off by the Crown, together with a great number of Protes- tants, whose British principles were not con- sidered sure at the Castle, and a "jury" was secured on whose patriotic vote Her Majesty could fully rely. These details respecting juries may not, perhaps, lie very interesting to the gffneral reader ; yet the history of our country can by no means be understood without them. Ever since the days of Queen Elizabeth, juries have been merely one of the arms of British domination in Ireland, just as the ' troops and police, the detectives and spies are. The jury may be said to be the one point at which the government and the people touch one another; and if it be a real jury of the " neighborhood," as de- scribed in the law books, then can be easily appreciated that profound saying—" that the only use of a government is to make sure that there shall be twelve impartial men in the jury-box." Hut the English Government has never been able to sustain itself in Ireland, without making sure of the very opposite arrangement. And it has been said, with truth, that the real Palla- dium of the British Constitution in that land, is a packed jury and the suspension of the Habeas Corpus. If Ireland truly and effectively possessed those two institutions, as England possesses them, the British power would not exist in our island three months. The details of the trials are of small in- &/ n h ' terest. Ail know how they would end. The Government, on this prosecution for " conspiracy," had not only its inevitable Q^j J U1 7. ljllt its Post Office spies at work, by whose means the " authorities " had spread out before them every morning all the corres- pondence of all the traversers, and of all their counsel and attorneys ; no small ad- vantage in dealing with conspiracy— if there had been a conspiracy. Early in February the trials ended ; and when the Chief Justice in his charge to the jury argued the case like one of the counsel for the prosecution, and so far forgot him- sel as to term the traversers' counsel " the gentlemen on the other side," there was more laughter than indignation throughout the country. The jury brought in their ver- Sj<^ diet of guilty— of course. O'Connell ad- dressed a letter to the people of Ireland, informing them that " the repeal" was now sure ; that all he wanted was peace, patience, and perseverance ; and that if they would only " keep the peace for six, or at most, for twelve months, repeal was certain." In the meantime, he and his friends were appointed to come before the Court on a certain day in May, to receive sentence. Immediately on the verdict being known in Londou, there arose in Parliament a vio- lent debate on the state of Ireland. The Whig party, being then out of place, and who saw in this whole repeal movement noth- ing but a machinery by which they might raise themselves to power, affected great zeal for justice to Ireland, and even indignation at the conduct of the trials. It is almost incredible, but remains on record, that Lord John Russell used these words : — "Nominally, indeed, the two countries have the same laws. Trial by jury, for in- stance, exists in both countries; but is it ad- ministered alike in both ? Sir, I remember on one occasion when an honorable gentle- man, Mr. Brougham, on bringing forward a motion, in 182:3, on the administration of the law in Ireland, made use of these words : ' The law of England esteemed all men equal. It was sufficient to be born within the King's allegiance to be entitled to all the rights the loftiest subject of the laud enjoyed. None were disqualified ; the only distinction was be- tween natural-born subjects and aliens. Such, indeed, was the liberality of our system in the times which we called barbar- ous, but from which, in these enlightened days, it might be as well to take a hint, that if a man were even an alien-born, ho was not deprived of the protection of the law. In Ireland, however, the law held a directly opposite doctrine. The sect to which a man belonged, the cast of his re- ligious opinions, the form in which he worshipped his Creator, were grounds on which the law separated him from his fel- lows, and bound him to the endurance of a system of the most cruel injustice.' Such was the statement of Mr. Brougham, when he was the advocate of the op- pressed. But, sir, let me ask, was what I have just now read the statement of a man who was ignorant of the country of which he spoke ? No ; the same language, or to the same effect, was used by Sir M. O'Loghlen, in his evidence before the House of Lords. That gentleman stated that he had been in the habit of going the Minister circuit for nineteen years, and on that circuit it was tin' general practice for the Crown, in criminal prosecutions, to set aside all Catholics and all the Liberal Protestants ; and he added, that he had been informed that on other circuits the practice was carried on in a more strict manner. Sir M. O'Loghlen also mentioned one case of this kind which took place in 1834, during the Lord- Lieutenancy of the Marquis of Welles- ley, and the Attorney-Generalship of Mr. Blackburne, the present Master of the Bolls, and in which, out of forty-three per- sons set aside (in a cause, too, which was not a political one,) there were thirty-six Catholics and seven Protestants, and all of them respectable men. This practice is so well known, and carried out so generally, that men known to be Liberals, whether Catholics or Protestants, have ceased to attend assizes, that they might not be ex- posed to these public insults. Now, I would ask, are these proofs of equal laws, or laws equally administered? Could the same, or similar eases, have happened in Yorkshire, or Sussex, or Kent, ? Are these the fulfillment of the promise mado Iftl ; ; if/ In ^6 ^^^ & Bfi si „£3^ ^ SENTENCE AND INPRISONMENT OP " CONSPIRATORS." England was, that the Union must be main- tained at any cost, and by all means. And O'Connell was to return to Dublin by a certain day for judgment and sentence. His taunts and invectives against the whole system of Irish government were very wel- come, anil highly entertaining to English Whigs, who only looked to their own party chances. But no man in all England ever, for one moment, suffered the idea to enter his head, that Ireland was to be in any case permitted to govern herself. And British Whigs could well afford to let O'Connell have a legal triumph, to the damage of British Tories, so long as the real and substantial policy of England in Ireland was pursued without interruption. As to this point, there must be no mistake — no British Whig or British Tory regarded the Irish question in any other point of view than as a question on which might occur a change of Ministry. An army of fifty thousand men, includ- ing police, was all this while in full military -occupation of the island. The Arms bill had become law ; and, in the registration of arms before magistrates under that act, those who were in favor of their country's independence were refused the privilege of keeping so much as an old musket in then- houses for purposes of self-defence. * The police-barracks were still further strengthened ; the detectives were multi- plied ; the regular troops were kept almost constantly under arms, and marched to and fro with a view of striking terror ; improved codes of signals were furnished to the police for use by day and night— to give warning of everything they might conceive suspicious. With so firm a hold upon the island, the * Of the proceedings upon these applications for registry of arms at all the petty sessions of Ireland, we have no record, but to the Cork Southern lie- porter we are indebted for the minute report of a session at Marcroom, in that county, which may be taken as a kind of sample. " Maurice Dullea, Glaun— Applicant for leave to keep one gun. " Mr. Gillman. Magistrate— Are you a repeal warden ? 1 am not. " Would you answer the question on your oath, if it were put to you ? I would. " Mr. Warren— The question should not be asked, unless it was known he had so acted. Admitted. " John M'Auliffe, Millstreet — One pistol. " Captain Wallace — Are you a repeal warden ? I am, sir. British Ministers might have thought them- selves in a condition to abandon their questionable prosecution ; but they had the idea that O'Conuell's power lay very much in the received opinion of his legal infalli- bility ; so they were resolved to imprison him, at any rate, for a short time— even though he should finally trample on their prosecution, and come forth iu trimmph— as, in fact, he did. On the 30th May, the "conspirators" were called up for sentence ; and were im- prisoned in Richmond Penitentiary — a suburban prison at the south side of Dublin, with splendid gardens and handsome ac- commodations ; here they rusticated for three months, holding levees in an elegant marquee in the garden ; receiving daily deputations, and visits from Bishops, from Americans, and from ladies. O'Connell still wrote once a week to Conciliation Hall, that repeal never was so sure, never so im- minent, as now, if only the people would keep the peace. The great multitudinous people looked on ' in some amaze. " Peace " was still the or- der ; and they obeyed ; but they much mar- veled what it meant, and when it would end. Still it was doubtful whether the enemy's government had really gained much by their prosecution. Very considerable indignation had been excited, even amongst the reason- able Protestants, by the means which had been used to snatch this conviction. The agitation had rather gained than lost ; and many gentlemen who had held back till now, sent in their names and subscriptions. Smith O'Brien was now a constant attend- ant at the association ; and by the boldness and purity of his character, and by his ex- tensive knowledge of public affairs, gave it both impetus and steadiness. " Mr. M'Carthy O'Leary, Attorney— The man bears a most unimpeachable character. " Mr. Warren— We cannot reject one repeal war- den, and admit another. Rejected." At the same sessions was made manifest the fact that the Protestant "gentry" of the country were providing themselves with a sufficient armament. For example, Mrs. Charlotte Stawell, of Kilbritton Castle, registers "six guns and six pistols." and Richard Quinn, of Skivanish, "nine guns, one pair pistols, two dirks, two bayonets, and one sword." No objection was offered against these persons keep, ing as many fire-arms as they chose ! So worked tho Disarming act. K h n Yet O'ConiK'll and his friends were in prison, sentenced to an incarceration of one year ; and it would be vain to deny that there was humiliation in the fact. True, the jury had been notoriously packed ; the trial had been but a .sham ; and the sentence would probably be reversed by the House of Lords. Still there was Ireland represent- ed by her chosen men Buffering the penalties of crime in a jail. The island was si ill fully and effectively occupied by troops, as u hostile country ; and all its resources were in clear possession of the enemy. Many began to doubt, whether the "moral- force" principle of O'Conuell would be found sufficient. In truth, the repeal agitation, as a living and formidable power, was over from the day of imprisonment. The judgment of the Irish Court of Queen's Bench was brought up to the British House of Peers on Writ of Error ; and on the 2d and 4th of Sep- tember, the opinions of nine English judges were delivered, and the decision pronounced. Eight of the judges gave their opinion that the jury was a good jury, the verdict good, and the judgment good. It appeared, how- ever, that Mr. Justice Coleridge dissented Lord Lvndhurst, the Lord Chancellor, then delivered his decision ; — he agreed with the majority of the judges, and thought the judgment should stand, the packing of the jury Vicing immaterial. He was followed by Lord Brougham — and nobody could doubt what, would be the decision of that learned person — the jury was a good enough jury : some of the counts in the indictment might be bad ; but, bad or good, the judgment of the Irish Court was to stand, and O'Con- uell was to remain in prison. Lord Denman, Chief Justice of England, then arose. 1 have already told you that the whole Irish question was regarded in the British Parliament solely with reference to its affording a chance of turning out the Tory Ministry, and conducting the Wings into power and place. We have seen, ac- cordingly, the pretended indignation of Lord .John Russell, and of Mr. Macaulav, against the packing of the juries. It may seem an atrocious charge to make upon judges and law lords — that they could be influenced by any other considerations than the plain law and justice of the case. But the mere matter of fact was, that the ma- jority of the English judges were of the Tory party. Of the law lords, also, Lord Chancellor Lyndhurst was a violent Tory, and, moreover, an avowed enemy to Ireland. Lord Brougham was at that time a Tory, and, also, a well-known personal foe to O'Connell, having been often stung by the vicious taunts and sarcasms of that gentleman. But Lord Denman, Lord Cot- lenham, and Lord Campbell were Whigs ; and Denman, Cottenham, and Campbell gave i! as their opinion that the jury had been unfair and fraudulent — that no fair trial had taken place — and, therefore, that the judgment against the repeal conspirators should be reversed. Now, it is to be observed that the Brit- ish Government, by openly and ostentatious- ly striking off from the jury panel all Cath- olics, without exception, and all Protestants of moderate ami liberal opinions, made pro- clamation that they knew the great mass of the people to be averse to them and their rule — avowed that they accounted that sinaTl remainder, out of whom they selected their jurors, to be the only "good and lawful men." These were the vicinage contem- plated in the law books ; and the repeal conspirators being arraigned, not before their countrymen, not even before one sect of their countrymen, but before chosen men carefully selected by the Crown out of one section of one sect, were told to consider themselves on their trial per pais. This, to be sere, amounted to an admission that nine-lenlhs of Irishmen desired the freedom of their country — but then it also amounted to a de- claration that the English meant to hold the country, whether Irishmen would or not. On the reversal of the judgment, however, there was a show of high re- joicing in Dublin, and the prisoners were es- corted from the jail through the city by a vast and orderly procession, to O'Conuell'g house. The procession marched through College Green ; and just as O'Connell's car- riage came in front of the Irish Parliament House, (the most superb building ill Dub- lin,) the carriage stopped ; the whole pro- cession stopped ; and there was a deep silence as O'Conuell rose to his full height -ft » i ft 1 1 CI i^\V\ fWhcs . yr^tus .ci.ii, wans Will/ \&\ ':■ ainl, pointing with his finger to the portico, turned slowly round and gazed into the faces of the people, without a word. Again and-again, lie stretched forth his arm and pointed ; and a succession of pealing cheers seemed to shake the city. The state trials, then, were at an end ; and all the country, friends and enemies, Ireland and England, were now looking eag- erly and earnestly for O'Connell's first move- ment, as an indication of his future course. Never, at any moment in his life, did he hold the people so wholly in his hand. Dur- ing the imprisonment, both clergy and re- peal wardens had labored diligently in ex- tending and confirming the organization ; and the poor people proved their faith and trust by sending greater and greater con- tributions to the repeal treasury. They kepi the " peace" as their Liberator bade them ; and the land was never so free from crime— lest they should give strength to the enemy. It is impossible to record, without pro- found admiration, the steady faith, patient zeal, self-denial, and disciplined enthusiasm, which the Irish people displayed for these two years. To many thousands of those peasants the struggle had been more severe than any war; for they were expected to set at nought potent landlords, who had over them and their children power of life and death — with troops of insolent bailiffs, and ejecting attorneys, and the omnipresent police ; and they did set them at nought. Every vote they give at an election might cost them house and home, land and life. They were naturally ardent, impulsive, ami impatient ; but their attitude was now calm and steadfast. They were an essen- tially military people ; but the great "Lib- erator" told them that " no political ameli- oration was worth one drop of human blood." They did not believe the formula, and in assenting to it often winked their eyes ; yet steadily and trustfully, this one good time, they sought to liberate their country peace- fully, legally, under the advice of counsel. They loyally obeyed that man, and would obey no other. And when he walked in triumph out of his prison, at one his mouth they would have ma Dublin from all the five ends of ENTHUSIASM OF THE PEOPLE. made short work with police and military barracks. But O'Connell was now old, approaching seventy ; and the fatal disease of which he was then really dying, had already begun to work upon his iron energies.* After his release he did not propose to hold the Clon- tarf meeting, as many hoped. He said nothing more about the "Council of Three Hundred," which the extreme section of nationalists were very desirous to see carried into effect ; and the more desirous because it would be illegal, according to what passes for law in Ireland. Yet the association all this time was becoming more powerful for good than ever. O'Brien had instituted a "Parliamentary Committee," and worked on it continually himself ; which, at all events, furnished the nation with careful and authentic memoirs on all Irish questions and interests, filled with accurate statistical de- tails. Many Protestant gentlemen, also, of high rank joined the association in 1844 and 1845 — being evidently unconscious how certainly and speedily that body was going to destruction. In short, the history of Ireland must henceforth be sought for elsewhere than in the Repeal Association. CHATTER LVIII. 1844. Decadence of Repeal Association — band Tenure Commission — Necessity of Exterminating "Sur- plus Population" — Report of the "Landlord and Tenant Commission "--Tenant Right to be Disal- lowed- Farms to be Consolidated — People to be Extirpated — Methods of the Minister to Divide Re- pealers — Grant to Maynooth — Queen's Colleges— Secret Agent at Rome — American Slavery — Dis- traction in Repeal Ranks— Bill for "Compensation to Tenants "—Defeated Death of Thomas Davis— The Famine — Commission of Chemists to Gain Time — Demands of Ireland — Of the Corporations — Of O'Connell and oilricn — Repudiation of Alms — Coercion Bill — Repeal of Corn Laws — Irish Har- vests go to England—" Relief Measures" — Delays — Fraud — Havoc of the People — Peel's System of Famine-Slaughter Fully Established — Peel Resigns Office During the two last years of the exist- ence of the Repeal Association, it made no fdf <&, 10 ~— '^5*'" LANDL0BD AND TENANT COMMISSION, *-^' population ;" and then, as there would be fewer months to be fed, so there would be more produce for export to England. The clearance system, then, hud begun in 1829, and had proceeded with great activity ever after, but never with such remorseless fun- as just after the year of the "monster meetings." The surplus population had ap- peared more than usually excessive and perilous in the form of those huge masses of powerful men, whom O'Connell's voice could call around him upon any hill in the island. Now, therefore, the "assistant barristers" were especially busy in decreeing ejectments, which they issued by whole sheaves. These formidable documents, once placed in the ha mis of sheriffs' officers, often came down upon the people with a more sweep- ing desolation than an enemy's sword and torch. Whole neighborhoods were often thrown out upon the highways in winter, and the homeless creatures lived for a while upon the charity of neighbors ; but this was dangerous ; for the neighbors were often themselves ejected for harboring them. S e landlords contracted with emigration companies to carry them to America " for a lump sum," according to the advertisements cited before. Others did not care what became of them ; and hundreds and thou- sands perished every year of mere hardship. The new Poor law was now in full opera- tion, and workhouses, erected under that law, received many of the exterminated people ; but it is a strangely significant (act, that the denths by starvation increased rapidly from the first year of the Poor law. The' Report of the Census Commissioners, for 18.51, declares that while in 1842 the deaths registered as deaths by famine amounted to one hundred and eighty-seven, they increased every year until the registered deaths in l s 4"i were five hundred and sixteen. The " registered " deaths were, perhaps, one- tenth of the unregistered deaths by mere hunger. Such, then, was the condition of Inland in 1844-5 ; -and all this before the "Fa- mine " Now, the "Landlord and Tenant Com- mission" began its labors in '44. The from it. The commissioners, it was diligent- ly given out, would inquire into the various acknowdedged evils that were becoming proverbial throughout Europe and America — and there were to be Parliamentary "ameliorations." This "commission" looked like a deliberate fraud from the first. It was composed entirely of landlords ; the chairman, Lord Devon, being one of the Irish absentee-landlords. It was at all times quite certain that they would see no evi- dence of any evils to be redressed on the part of the tenants; and that if they re- commended any measures, those measures would be such as should promote and make more sweeping the depopulation of the country. " You might as well," said 0'- Conuell, "consult, butchers about keeping Lent, as consult these men about the rights of farmers." The report of this set of commissioners would deserve no more especial notice than any of the other reports of innumerable commissions' which the British Parliament was in the habit of issuing, when it pretend- ed to inquire into any Irish "grievance;" but that the report of this particular " Devon Commission " has become the very creed and gospel of British statesmen with regard to the Irish people from that day to this, and has often been cited by Secretaries for Ireland, as affording the fullest and most conclusive authority upon the relations of landlord and tenant in that island. It is the programme and scheme upon which the last conquest of Ireland was undertaken, in a business-like manner, twenty-four years ago ; and the completeness of that, conquest is due to the exactitude with which the pro- gramme was observed. The problem to be solved was, how to get rid of the Irish people. But, one of the strongest demands and most urgent needs of these people had al- ways been permanence of tenure in their lands. O'Connell called it " fixity of tenure," and presented it prominently in his speeches as one of the greatest benefits to be gained by repealing the Union. It was, indeed, the grand necessity of the nation — that men should have some security — that they who sowed should reap — that £ ea ■Tf/lWES. ^T'tfia .UUItmi^, ' ga ^:L 1 '': / k? /<5^ cm IIISTOUY OK IUKXAND. farms should, in part, at least, profit those who expended it. This would at once abol- ish pauperism, put nn end to the necessity of emigration, supersede Poor laws, and prevent the periodica] Famines which had desolated the island ever since the Union. It is 11 measure which would have been sure to be recommended as the first, or, indeed, the only measure for Ireland by any other commission than a commission of Irish land- lords. In the northern Province of CTlster, there was, as before-mentioned, a kind of un- written law, or established custom, which in some counties gave the tenant such needful security. The " Tenant-Right of Ulster" was the name of it. By virtue of that tenant-right, a fanner, though his tenure might be nominally "at will," could not be ejected so long as he paid Ins rent ; and if he desired to remove to another part of the country, he conld sell his " good-will " in the farm to an incoming tenant. Of course, the greater had been his improvements, the larger price would his tenant-right com- mand ; in other words, the improvements created by his own or his father's industry were his own. The same custom prevented rents from being arbitrarily raised in pro- portion to the improved value ; so that in many cases which came within the knowledge Of all lawyers' lands held "at will" in Ulster, and subject, to an ample rent, were sold by one tenant-at-will to another tenant-at-will at full half the fee- simple value of the land. Conveyances were made of it. It was a valuable pro- perty, and any violent invasion of it, as a witness told I, ord Devon's commission, would have "made Down another Tippcrary." The custom was almost confined to Ulster. It was, by no means, (though this has often been stated,) created or com- menced by the terms of the Plantation of Ulster, in the time of King .lames I., but was a relic of the ancient free social polity of the nation,* and hud continued in Ulster longer than in the other three provinces, limply because Ulster had been the last pari of the island brought under British • Sec nn article on tin- Trin> Origin of Tenant Bight, written bj Samuel Ferguson, in tie Dxtblin liiictrtt.'ij Magaxin* for May, 1848. dominion, and forced to exchango the ancient, system of tribc-liinds for feudal tenures. Neither is " tenant-light" by any means peculiar to Ireland, but prevails in all countries formerly embraced by the feudal system, except Ireland alone. The people of Ireland are not idle. They anxiously Bought opportunities of exertion on fields where their landlords could not sweep oil' all their earnings ; and many thousands of small fanners annually went to England and Scotland to reap the harvest, lived all the time on food that would sustain no other working men, and hoarded their earn- ings for their wives and children. If they had had tenant-right, they would have labored for themselves, and Tipperary would havo been a peaceful and blooming garden. In this stage of our narrative, a difficulty arises. It is hard to conceive it possible thai noble lords and gentlemen, the landlords and legislators of an ancient and noble people, should deliberately conspire to slay one out, of every Bight men, women, and little children— to strip the remainder barer than they were — to uproot them I'romMhe soil where their mothers bore them — to force them to flee to all the ends of the earth — to destroy that tenant-right of Ulster where it was, and to cut off all chance and hope, of it where it was not. There is nothing but a patient examination of the facts and documents which can mako this credible to mankind. First, then, for the Report of the Devon Commission. As first printed, it tills four stupendous Blue Books. But it contained too much valuable matter to be buried, like other reports, in the catacombs which yawn for that species of literature. The secre- tary of the commission, therefore, was employed to abstract and condense, and present the cream of il in an abridgement, This had the advantage not only of con- densation, but of selection ; the commission- ers could then give the pieces of evidence which they liked the best, together with their own recommendations. This portentous abstract is called a "Digest of the Evidence," &c; is published In authority ; and has a preface signed •• Devon." Much of the volume is occupied with dis- £ M Hb o , '•- -iVj .tv.uMmi.j, ZpJ M . __, fey -■■■\ ./,• •.-•g»vr^y..V l ,Ar| /'^ y ^ff., >,: thit ■ : ■:• rt i* TKNANT-IUOIIT TO BE III ' l.l .- i .. 11, 517 sertations and evidence respecting " tenant- right," which the North had, and the South demanded. The commissioners are clearly against it in every Bhape. They tern it " unpfailosopbical ;" and in the preface they stafe that the Ulster landlords and tenants look ii; •< ii j it in the light of a life insurance — that is, the landlord allows the sale of tenant-right, and the incoming tenant buys it, lest they should i >* > 1 1 1 be murdered l>y the out-going tenant. The following passage treats this tenant-right as injurious to the tenant himself: — "It is even questionable whether this growing practice of tenant-right, which would nl the first view appear to be a valu- able assumption on the part of the tenant, be 'i in reality : as it, gives to him, without any exertion on his own part, an apparent properly or security, by means of which he is enabled to incur future incumbrance, in order to avoid present inconvenience — a practice which frequently terminates in the utter destitution of liis family, and in the sale of his farm, when the debts thus created at usurious interests amount to what its sale would produce." It appears, then, that in the opinion of these landlords, it is injurious to the ten- ant to let liim Have anything on the security of which he can borrow money ; a th< 01 which the landlords would not relish if ap- plied to themselves. Further, the com- missioners declare, that this tenant righi is enjoyed without, any exertion on the part of tenants. Set they have, in all cases, either created the whole value of it by the sweat of their brows, or bought it from t bo e who did so create it. The commissioners "foresee some danger to the just rights of property from the un- limited allowance of this tenant-right." But they suggest a substitute: "corn- pen ation for future improvements;" sur- rounding, however, that suggestion with dif- ficulties which have prevented it from ever being realized. Speaking of the consolidation of farms, they say : — •■ When it it seen in the evidence, and in the j •■ t n 1-1 1 of the si/.e of the farms, how ■mall those holdings ore, it cannot be denied tlmt BUch a step is absolutely necessary." And then, us to the people whom it is thus " necessary " to eject, they say : — " Em'iruiluiii is considered hy the com- mittee to be peculiarly applicable, as n re- medial men ure." They refer to one of their tables, (No. !):">, p. of!!,) where — "The calculation is put forward showing that the cod olidation of the Entail holdings up to eight acres, would require the removal of about one hundred, and ninety-two thou- sand three hundred and sixty-eight families." That is, the removal of about one million of persons. Such was the Devon programme : Ten- ant-right to be disallowed ; — one million of people to l>e removed — that is, swept, out on the highways, where their choice would he America, the pool' house, or the grave. We shall see with what accuracy the details were carried out, in practice. In affirming that there was a con-piracy ol landlords and legislators to destroy the people, it would !»■ unjust, as it i; unneces- sary, to charge all members of the Queen's Government, or all of the Devon Commis siouers with a privity to that design. Sir Robert Peel knew how Irish landlords would inquire— and what report they would make — just as well as he knew what verdict ii jury of Dublin Orangemen would #ive. Sir Robert Peel had been Irish Secretary. Ill- knew Ireland well ; he had been Prime Minister at the tine- of Catholic Emancipa- tion ; and he had taken care to accompany that measure with another, disfranchising all the small farmers in Ireland. This dis- franchisement, as before explained, had given a stimulus and impetus to the clearance system. He had helped it hy Cheap Eject* mint acts. It had not, worked la t enough. The same Sir Robert Peel was now again Prime Minister in 1855, when the first of the reports was published hy the Land Ten- ure Commission ; and it at once opened to him a plan for the faster clearing off of the "Irish enemy," uuder the pretext of " ameliorations." In tin- meant ime, a the repeal movement was still considered formidable, and as Davis and the younger nationalists were earnestly laboring to give it more of a mili- tary organization, it became necessary to ~ter island" for forly- six years, and had brought us to this. Sft Olid, a great majority Of the Irish people had been earnestly demanding back those pow- ers, revenues, and resources ; ami the Eng- lish people, through their Executive, Parlia- ment ami press, had unanimously vowed this must never he. They would govern us iu spite of us, "under the blessing of l>i- viue Providence," as the Queen said. " Were the Union gall," said the Times, " swallow it you must." Well, then, whatsoever duties may bo supposed to fall upon a government, in case of such a national calamity, rested on the English Government. We had no Legisla- ture at home ; in the Imperial Legislature we had but a delusive semblance of repre- sentation ; and so totally useless was it, that national Irish members of Parliament preferred to stay at home. We had no au- thoritative mode of even suggesting what measures might, (in mere Irish opinion,) meet the case. lint we will see what was proposed by such public bodies iu Ireland as still hud power of meeting together in any capacity — the city corporations, for example, and especially the Repeal Association. It has been carefully inculcated upon the world by the British press, that the moment Ireland fell into distress, she became an object beg- gar at England's gate —nay, that she even craved alius from all mankind. Many will, perhaps, be surprised to learn that ueitjier Ireland, nor anybody in Ireland, ever asked alms or favors of any kind, either from Eng- land, or from any other nation or people. On the contrary, it was England herself that begged for us, asking a penny for the love of God to relieve the poor Irish. And further, constituting herself the almoner and agent of all that charily, she, England, took all the profit of it Before describing the actual process of the " Relief measures," it is well to con- sider what would be the natural, obvious, and inevitable course of conduct in a nation which was, indeed, one undivided nation : France, for example. It blight and famine fell upon the South of France, the whole common revenue of the kingdom would cer- tainly be largely employed in setting the people to labor upon Works of public utility; in purchasing and storing, for sale at a cheap rate, such quantities of foreign corn as might be needed, until the season of dis- tress should pass over, and another harvest should conic. If Yorkshire ami Lancashire had sustained a like calamity iu land, ^ / r~l «v i here is no doubt such measures as these would have been taken, promptly and liberally. THE FAMINE. "T^ 551 >:■ m •■j. :-y .And we know that the English Government is not slow to borrow money for great public objects, when it suits British policy so to do. They borrowed twenty millions sterling to give away to their slaveholdiug colonists for a mischievous whim. In truth, they are always glad of any oc- casion or excuse for borrowing money and adding it to the national debt ; because, as they never intend to pay that debt, and as the stock and debentures of it are, in the mean- time, their main safeguard against revolu- tion, they would be well pleased to incur a debt of hundred millions more at any moment. But the object must be popular in England ; it must subserve some purpose of British policy — as in the case of the twenty millions borrowed to free negroes — or the loans freely taken to crush the people of India, and preserve and extend the opium trade with China. To make an addition to the national debt in order to preserve the lives of a million or two of Celts, would have seemed in England a singular application of money. To kill so many would have been well worth a war that would cost forty millions. On the first appearance of the blight, the Government sent over two learned com- missioners, Playfair and Lindley, to Ireland, who, in conjunction with Doctor (now Sir Robert,) Kane, were to examine and repor! upon potatoes generally, their diseases, habits, &c. This passed over the time for some weeks. Parliament was prorogued, and did not meet again till January. In the meantime, the Corporation of Dublin sent a memorial to the Queen, pray- . ing her to call Parliament together at an early day, and to recommend the appropri- ation of some public money for public works, especially railways, in Ireland. A depu- tation from the citizens of Dublin, including the Duke of Leinster, the Lord Mayor, Lord Cloncurry, and Daniel O'Connell, waited on the Lord-Lieutenant, (Lord Heytesbury,) to offer suggestions as to opening the ports to foreign corn, at, least for a time, stopping distillation from grain, providing public works, and the like ; and to urge that there was not a moment to lie lost, as millions of people would shortly be without a uursel of food. The reply of Lord Heytesbury is a model in that kind. He told them they were premature ; told them not to be alarmed ; that learned men had been sent over from England to in- quire into all those matters ; that, in the neantime, the inspectors of constabulary, and stipendiary magistrates, were charged with making constant reports from their several districts ; that, in the meantime, there was " no immediate pressure on the market ; " finally, that the case was a very important one, and it was evident " no decision could be taken without a previous reference to the responsible advisers of the Crown." In truth, no other answer was possible, because the Viceroy knew nothing of Sir Robert Peel's intentions. To wait for the report of learned men — to wait for Parliament — in short, to wait; that was the sole policy of the enemy for the present. lie could wait ; lint he knew that hunger could not wait. The Town Council of Belfast met and made suggestions similar to those of the Dublin Corporation, hat neither body asked charily. They demanded that if Ireland was indeed an integral part of the realm, the common exchequer of both glands should be used — not to give alms, but to provide employment on public works of general utility. The plea of the enemy for not being ready with any remedy, was the suddenness of the calamity. Now, it happened that nearly eleven years before, a certain "select ( i- niittee," composed principally of Irish mem- bers of Parliament, had been appointed by the House of Commons to inquire into the condition of the Irish poor. They had re- ported, even then, in favor of promoting the reclamation of waste lands ; had given their opinion decidedly (being Irish,) that there was no real surplus of population, see- ing that the island could easily sustain much more than its actual population, and export immensely besides. Nevertheless, they warn the Government that, " if the potato crop were a failure, its produce would be con- sumed long before they could acquire new means of subsistence ; and then a famine ensues. . tJx * Report of the " Select Committee," 1636. ft U'.J,., ^ Wj! 1 " « ^ > r*^£ 552 HISTORY OF IRFX.VND. Yet, when the famine did ensue, it took "the Government " as much by surprise (or they pretended that it did,) as if they had never been warned. Not only the citizens of Cork and Belfast, but the Repeal Association, also, had sug- gestions to make. Indeed, this last-named body was the only one that could pretend especially to represent the very class of peo- ple whose lives were endangered by the dearth. Let 08 see what l/iey had to propose. On the 8th of December, O'Connell, in the Repeal Association, said : " If they ask me what are my propositions for relief of the distress, I answer, first, tenant-right. 1 would propose a law giving to every man his own. I would give the landlord his land, and a fair rent for it ; but I would give the tenant compensation for every shilling he might have laid out on the land in permanent improvements. And what next do I propose? Repeal of i/ie Union." In the latter part of his speech, after detailing the means used by the Belgian Legislature during the same season shutting the ports against exports of provisions, Imt opening them to import, and the like — he goes on : — " If we had a domes! ie Parliament, would not the ports be thrown open — would not the abundant crops with which heaven has blessed her be kept for the people of Ireland — and would not the Irish Parliament be more active even than the Belgian Parlia- ment to provide for the people food and employment? The blessings that would re- sult from repeal— the necessity for repeal — the impossibility of the country enduring the want of repeal ami the utter hopeless- ness of any other remedy- -all those things powerfully urge you to join with me, and hurrah for the repeal." Still earlier, in November, O'Brien had used these word "I congratulate you, that the universal sentiment hitherto exhibited upon this subject hasbctn tliiit we will accept no English charity. The resources of this Country are still abundantly adequate to maintain our popu- lation, and until those resources shall have been utterly exhausted, I hope there is no man in Ireland who will SO degrade himself as to ask the aid of a subscription from England." And the sentiment was received with "loud cheers" O'Brien's speech is an earnest and vehement adjuration not to suf- fer promises of " relief," or vague hopes of English boons to divert the country one moment from the great business of putting an end to the Union. Take one other ex- tract from a speech of O'Connell's : — " If we had a paternal government, I should be first to counsel the appropriation of a portion of the revenues of Ireland to the wants of the people, and this, too, with- out very strictly considering whether the whole should be repaid or not. We have an abstract claim to such application of the Irish revenues ; but were we to advocate such an arrangement now, we, should be mocked ami insulted. Therefore, I approach the Government of England on equal terms. I say to the English people : You are the greatest money-lenders in Europe, and I will suppose you to be as determined as Shylock in the play. During the last ses- sion of Parliament, an act was passed for the encouragement of drainage in Eng land and Ireland. According to the pro- visions of that act, any money advanced for the purpose of draining estates takes prior- ity over the other charges affecting those eslates ; so that whatever amount of money may be BO applied becomes the first charge on the estate of the proprietors of Ireland, and thus is its repayment secured beyoud all hazard. The Government can borrow as much money as they please on Exchequer bills at not more than three per cent. If they lend it out for the purposes of drainage, they can charge such proprietors as may i lioose to borrow, interest at the rate of lour per cent. They, therefore, will have a clear gain of one per cent., and we shall owe them nothing, lint they will stand indebted to us for affording them an oppor- tunity of obtaining an advantageous invest- ment of the capital at their disposal." All this while, until alter the meeting of Parliament, there was no hint as to the in- tentions of Government ; and all this wh;le the new Irish harvest of 1845, (which was particularly abundant,) with immense herds .if cattle, sheep, and hogs, quite as usual, was floating off on every tide, out of every one of our thirteen seaports, bound for ^ ^ m ( y r ■ ^TiSUB .JUJjMill.*.^ ^- \&\ M\ '& England ; and the landlords were receiving; their rents, unci going to England to spend them ; and many hundreds of poor people hod lain down and died on the road-sides for want of food, even before Christmas ; and the famine not yet begun, but expected shortly.* All eyes were turned to Parliament. The commission of learned naturalists — the in- quiries and reports made by means of the constabulary — and various mysterious inti- mations in the Government newspapers — all tended to produce the belief that the Im- perial "Government" was about to charge itself with the whole care anil administra- tion of the famine. And so it was — with a vengeance. Late in January, Parliament assembled. From the Queen's (that is, Sir Robert Peel's,) speech, one thing only was clear — thai Ireland was to have a new " Coercion bill." Extermination of tenantry had been of late more extensive than ever, and, therefore, there had been a few murders of landlords and agents — the most natural and inevitable thing' in the world. The Queen says : — " My Lords and Gentlemen : — I have ob- served with deep regret the very frequent instances in which the crime of deliberate assassination has been of late committed in Ireland. " It will be your duty to consider whether any measure can be devised, calculated to give increased protection to life, and to bring to justice the perpetrators of so dreadful a crime." This meant more police, more police- taxes, police-surveillance, and a law that every one should keep at homo alter dark. The speech goes on to refer to the ap- proaching famine, and declares that Her Majesty had "adopted precautions" for its alleviation. This intimation served still further to make our people turn to " Gov- ernment" for counsel and for aid. Who *The Census Commissioners admit only five hun- dred and sixteen " registered deaths,'' by starvation alone, up to January 1st. There was, at that time, do regi$try for tbcra at all; and thousands perished, registered by none hut the Recording Angel. Be- sides, id'- commissioners do not count the much greater numbers who died of typhus fever, the con- sequence of insufficient nourishment. 70 can blame them? "Government" had seized upon all our means and resources. It was confidently believed they intended to let US have the use of some part of our own money in this deadly emergency. It was even fondly imagined, by some sanguine persons, that the Government had it in con- templation to stop the export of provisions from Ireland— as the Belgian Legislature had done from Belgium, and tin; Portuguese from Portugal, until our own people should first be fed. It was not known, in short, what "Government" intended to do, or how far they would go ; all was mystery ; and this very mystery paralyzed such private and local efforts, by charitable persons, as might otherwise have been attempted in Ireland. The two great leading measures proposed in this Parliament by the administration were, first, a Coercion hill for Ireland, and, second, repeal of the Corn laws. This repeal pf the duties on foreign corn had long been demanded by the manufacturing and trading interests of England, and had been steadily opposed by the great landed-proprietots. Sir Robert Peel, as a Conservative states- man, had always hitherto vigorously op- posed the measure ; but early in this Parliament he .suddenly announced himself a convert to free-trade in corn ; and even used the pretext of the famine in Ireland to justify himself and cany his measure. He further proposed to abolish the duties on foreign beef, and mutton, anil bacon. Shall we exclude any kind of food from our ports, he said, while the Irish are starving? That is to say, the Premier proposed to cheapen those products which England bought, and which Ireland had to sell. Ire- land imported no corn or beef — she exported those commodities. Hitherto she had an advantage over American and other corn- growers in the English market, because there was a duty on foreign, but not on Irish, provisions. Henceforth, the agricul- tural produce of all the world was to be admitted on the same terms, duty-free ; and precisely to the extent that this would cheapen provisions to the English consumer, it would impoverish the Irish producer. The great mass of the Irish people wera almost unacquainted with the taste of bread ^ ft*' vr* 9 H^ l»«% H & ' 8 r> HISTORY OF IRELAND. »?'• V i v ami meat ; llicy raised those .articles, not to eat, but to sell and pay their rents with. Yet many of the Irish people, stupified by the desolation they saw around them, hod cried oat fur " opening the ports," instead of closing them. The Irish ports were opi n enoogh ; much too open ; and an Irish Parliament, if there had been one, would instantly have closed them in this emergency. In looking over the melancholy records of those Famine years, we find that usually the right view was seized, and the right word said, by William Smith O'Brien. He said, in the Repeal Association : — " With respect to the proposal before us, I have to remark that it, professes to abro- gate all protection. It is, in my opinion, a proposal manifestly framed with a view to English rather than Irish interests. About two-thirds of the population of England (that, I believe, is the proportion,) are de- pendent on manufactures and commerce, directly or indirectly. In this country about nine-tenths of the population are dependent on agriculture, directly or indirectly. It is clearly the object of the English Minister to obtain the agricultural produce which the people of this country send to England, at the lowest possible price — that is to say, to give as little as possible of English manufactures and of foreign commodities in return for the agricultural produce of Ireland." If this was the Minister's design, we may appreciate the spirit in which he ad- dressed himself to the "relief measures" for Ireland. The other measure was the Coercion bill. It authorized the Viceroy to proclaim any district in Ireland lie might think proper, commanding the people to remain within doors (whether they had houses or not,) from sunset to sunrise ;— authorized him to quarter on such district any additional police force he might think needful — to pay re- wards to informers and detectives — to pay compensation to the relatives of murdered or injured persons — and to levy the amount of all by distress upon the goods of the occupiers, as under the Poor law — with this difference, that whereas under the Poor-law the occupier could deduct a portion of the rate from his rent, under the new law he could not — and with this further difference, that whereas under the Poor law, house- holders whose cabins were valued under .£4 per annum were exempt from the rate, under this law they were not exempt. Thus, every man who had a house, no matter how wretched, was to pay the new tax ; and every man was bound to have a house; for if found out of doors after sun- set, and convicted of that offence, he was to be transported for fifteen years, or im- prisoned for three — the court to have the discretion of adding hard labor or solitary confinement. Now, the first of these two laws, which abolished the preference of Irish grain in the English markets, would, as the Premier well knew, give a great additional stimulus to the consolidation of farms — that is, the ejectment of tenantry ; because " high- farming" — farming on a large scale, with the aid of horses ami steam, and all the modern agricultural improvements — was what alone would enable Irish agriculturists to compete with all mankind. The second law would drive the survif ors of the ejected people (those who did not die of hunger,) into the poor houses or to America ; because, being bound to be at home alter the sun-set, and having neither I se nor home, they would he all in the absolute power of the police, ami in con- tinual peril of transportation to the colonies. By another act of this Parliament, the police force was increased, and taken more immediately into the service of the Crown ; the Irish counties were in part relieved from their pay ; and they became, in all senses, a portion of the regular army. They amount- ed to twelve thousand chosen men, well armed and drilled. * *No population was ever more peaceable than the Irish at this time; but they were assumed to be in an unusually dangerous temper, ami to require the especial vigilance of this terrible police-force. To show the pains taken by the authorities for re- pressing all disturbance, we may give a tew sen- tences out of a manual published in this saute year, 1846, by David Duff, Esq., an aotive police magistrate, it is entitled, " The Constable's Guide ": — " Tim great point towards efficiency is. tliat every man should know his duty ami do it, ami should have a thorough ami perfect knowledge of the neighbor- hood of his station ; and men should make them- selves not only acquainted with roads and | the character of all, which, with a little m> } ) I ¥■ siz ( ft mil •STTtHG .CW.i/WOLS.Q, m Mi! \ < ,Q^ £3 \ 'xss&ma ^ & V The police were always at the commanc of sheriffs for executing ejectments ; and if they were not in sufficient force, troops, of the hue could be had from the nearest garrison. No wonder that the London Times, within less than three years after, was enabled to say: "Law has ridden roughshod through Ireland : it has been taught with bayonets, and interpreted with ruin. Townships leveled with the ground: straggling columns of exiles, work-houses multiplied and still crowded, express the determination of the Legislature to rescue Ireland from its slovenly old barbarism, and to plant the institutions of this more civilized land "— meaning England. These were the two principal measures for the prudent administration of the famine; but there was also another, purporting to aim more directly at relief. Mr. Secretary Labouehere making his Ministerial statement in Parliament this session, estimated the total money-loss ac- cruing by the potato-blight at sixteen mil- lions sterling. It was about the value of the Irish provisions consumed every year in England. The people likely to be affected by this dearth were always, in ordinary years, on the brink of destruction by famine, and many were every year starved to death. Now, to replace, in some measure, this absolutely necessary food by foreign corn, and to pay the higher price of grain over roots, (besides freight,) would have required an appropriation of twenty millions sterling — the same amount which hail been devoted, without scruple, to turning of West India negroes wild. K<: conld be easily accomplished. A policeman cannot be considered perfect in his civil duty as a constable, who conld not, when required, march direct to any house at night. ********* " Independent of regular night patrols, whose hours Bhonld vary, men should by day take post on Wis commanding the houses of jhtsous having registered arms, or supposed to be obnoxious. The men so posted will in- within view of other parties, so as to ciSopi rate in pursuit of offenders. * * * * * # * * # "Patrols hanging about ditches, plantation , and, above- all, visiting the houses of suspicious charac tcrs, are rnosl e sentiai. " The telescope to be taken always on day patrol, and rockets and blue-lights used, as pointed out in the confidential memorandum." The "confidential memorandum'' we have not been privileged to see. England had, for so many years, drawn so vast a tribute from Ireland, (probably eight millions per annum, for forty years ) that now, when the consequence of our in- tercourse with the sister island turned out to be that she grew richer every year, while Ireland, on her side of the account, had ac- cumulated a famine, we claimed that there was something surely due to us. It is out of the question to enter here into these mul- tifarious accounts. England beats all man- kind in bookkeeping by double entry ; and as she has had the keeping of the books, as well as everything else, it has been very dilli- cult even to approximate to the truth. Hut to l hose who have followed the course of this narrative, and who call to mind the im- mense drain, lirst of provisions, and then of ""' ' iey paid for those provisions steadily going on, from Ireland to England, since the Union, it will seem quite within bounds to affirm that the value of one year's plun- der—or the loan of that amount,"(if Ireland had had a legislature to effect such a loan,) would have amounted to the needful twenty millions sterling; would have saved Ireland the first year's famine, and made the suc- ceeding famines impossible. Considering all these things, it was be- lieved not unreasonable, that the common Exchequer of the "Three Kingdoms" (so liberal when it was a question of turning ne- groes wild,) ought to devote at least as great a sum to the mitigation of so dread- ful a calamity as the famine. Accordingly, our people demanded such an appropriation, not as alms, but as a right. The Commit- tee of the Repeal Association for example, said : — " Your committee beg distinctly to dis- claim any participation in appeals to the bounty of England or of Englishmen. They demand, as a right, that a portion of the revenue which Ireland contributes to the state, may be rendered available for the mitigation of a great public calamity." Up to the meeting of Parliament, the enemy concealed their intentions in mystery ; they consulted nobody in Ireland about this Irish emergency, but prepared their plans in silence. In the meantime, the abundant and mag- nificent crops of grain and herds of cuttle m fow «fe mi) : $P i ji 'T % C5G HISTOKY OF IRELAND. wore going over to England, l>'>t!i earlier in tin- season and in greater quantities than ever before, for speculators were anxious to real- ize, ami the landlords were pressing for their rents ; and agents and bailiffs were down upon the farmers' crops before they could even get them stacked. So the farm- ers sold them at a disadvantage, in a glut- ted market, or they were sold for them, by auction, and with costs. The great point was to put. the English Channel betw< the people and the food which Providence had sent them, at the earliest possible moment. By New Year's Day, it was almost swept oil Up to that date, Ireland sent away and England received, of grain alone, of the crop of 1845— three millions two hun- dred and fifty thousand quarters — besides innumerable cattle ;— making a value of at least seventeen millions sterling * Now, when Parliament met in January, the sole "remedial measure" proposed by Sir Robert Peel, (besides the Coercion bill, and the Corn bill, to cheapen bread in England,) was a grant of £50,000 for public works, and another grant of as nmch for drainage of estates; — both these being grants, not to Ireland, but to the "Commissioners Of Public Works;" and to be administered not as Irishmen might suggest, but as to the said commissioners might seem good.f It was the two-hundredth part of what might probably have sufficed to stay the famine. It might have given sensible re- lief — if honestly administered — to the small- est of the thirty-two counties. How it was used, not for relief, but for aggravation of the misery, we shall see hereafter. For that season's famine it was at any rate too late, and before any part of it became available many thousands had (lied of hun- ger. The London newspapers complacently stated that the impression " in political * Thorn'/ Official Directory. It appears, even in tln\t Government publication, that the export of grain from Ireland t<> England was considerably greater in this first famine year, (1845,) than it had been in anj year before. So that the famine i* not ut all a mysterious dispensation of Providence. t O'Connell pointed out that the Qait and Crown rents draw n from Ireland last year, and spent at that time iii beautifying Trafalgar Bquare and Windsor Castle, amounted to more than £00,000. circles" was, that two millions of the people must perish before the next harvest. January, February, and part of March passed away. Nothing was done for relief ; but much preparation was made in the way of appointing hosts of commissioners and commissioners' clerks, and preparing the voluminous stationery, schedules, specifica- tions, and red-tape to tie them up neatly, which so greatly embarrass all British offi- cial action — a very injurious sort of embar- rassment in such a ease as the Crimean war, but the very thing that did best service (to the Government) on the present occasion. % O'Connell, O'Brien, and some other re- peal members, proceeded to London, in March, to endeavor to stir up Ministers, or at least discover what they were intending. In answer to Mr. O'Brien, Sir James Gra- ham enumerated the grants and loans I have above mentioned ; and added some- thing about other public moneys, which, he said, were also available for relief of dis- tress ; adding : — " Instructions have been given on the re- sponsibility of the Government, to meet every emergency. It would not be expe- dient for me to detail those instructions ; but 1 may state, generally, there is no por- tion of this distress, however wide-spread or lamentable, on which Government have not endeavored, on their own responsibility, to take the best precautions, to give the best directions of which circumstances could admit." O'Brien had just come from Ireland, where he had anxiously watched the pro- gress of the " relief measures," and of the famine ; he had seen that while the hit- ter was quick, the former were slow — in fact, they had not then appeared ill Ireland ut all ; but the very announcement that Government intended to interpose in some decisive manner, had greatly hastened col- lection of rents and ejectment of tenants ; and both hunger, and its sure attendant, the typhus, were sweeping them off rapidly. British Ministers listened to all he could say, with a calm, incredulous smile. "Have {In April of next year, (1S4G.) Jones. Twisleton, &c., were enabled t<> report that they had sent to Ire- land " ten thousand books— besides fourteen tons of paper." Xti ,«S &SP ^ W*ikW» fe% '•* .'- we not told you," they said, " we liave sent persons — Englishmen, reliable men — to in- quire into nil those matters? Are we not going to 1 t every emergency?" " Mr. W, S. O'Brien was bound to say, with regard to the sums of money mention- ed by the right honorable baronet, as hav- ing been, on a former occasion, voted by the House for the relief of Ireland, that as far as his own information went, not. one single guinea had ever been expended from those sources. He was also bound to tell the right honorable baronet that one hundred thousand of his fellow-ereaturcs in Irel I were famishing." And here the report, adds: The honorable gentleman, who appeared to labor under deep emotion, paused for a short time. Doubtless, it was bitter to that haughty Spirit to plead for his plundered people, as it were in forma pauperis, before the plun- derers ; and their vulgar pride was soothed ; lint soon it was wounded again, for he added :— i " Under sneh circumstances did it not become the House to consider of the way in which they could deal with the crisis? He would tell them frankly — and it was a fnling participated in by the majority of Irishmen — that he was not disposed to ap- peal to their generosity in the matter. They had taken, and they had lied, the purse- strings of the Iri.-h purse I " Whereupon the report records that there were cries of oh! oh! They were scandal- ized at the idea of Ireland having a purse. Notwithstanding this repeated repudia- tion of alms, all the appropriations of Parlia- ment, purporting to be for relief, but really calculated for aggravation of the Irish fa- mine, were persistently called alms by the English press. These Irish, they said, are never done craving alms. It is true, they did not answer our Statement that we only de- manded a small part of what was due; they chose to assume that the Exchequer wns their Exchequer; — neither did they think it tit to remember that, Mr. O'Brien, and such as hi-, were by no means suffering from famine themselves, but. were retrench- ing the expenses of their households at home to relieve (hose who were suffering. To the common English intellect it was enough to present this one idea — here are these starv- ing Irish coming over to beg from you. Thus, it will be easy to appreciate the feelings which then prevailed in the two islands — in Ireland, a vague and dim sense that, we were somehow robbed — in England, a still more vague ami blundering idea, that an impudent beggar was demanding their money, with a scowl in his eye and a threat upon his tongue. In truth, only a few, either in England or in Ireland, fully understood the bloody game on the board. The two cardinal principles of the British policy in this busi- ness seem to have been these two : First, strict adherence to the principles of " poli- tical economy;" and, second, making the who] [ministration of the famine a Gov- ernment concern. " Political economy " be- came, about the time of the repeal of the Corn laws, a favorite study, or rather, in- deed, the creed and gospel of England. Women and young boys were learned in its saving doctrines ; one of the most funda- mental of which was, " there must be no interference with the natural course of trade." It was seen that this maxim would insure the transfer of the Irish wheat and beef to England ; for that was wdiat they called the natural course of trade. More- over, this maxim would forbid the Govern- ment, or relief committees, to sell provis- ions in Ireland any lower than the market price— for this is an interference with the enterprize of private speculators ; it would forbid the employment of Government ships — for this troubles individual ship owners ; and further, and lastly, it was found, (this invaluable maxim,) to require that the pub- lic works to be executed by laborers em- ployed with borrowed public money, should be unproductive works ; that is, works which would create no fund to pay their own expenses. There were many railroad companies at. that time in Ireland that, had got, their charters; their roads have been made Since; but it was in vain they asked then for Government advances, which they could have well iecured, and soon paid oil'; the thing could not be done. Lending mon- ey to Irish railroad companies would be a discrimination against English companies- flat interference with private enterprize. V £ « i/O yj' m ^HSo* rfWt 1 ?. ¥fr it HISTORY OP IRELAND. m k \6 V The other great leading idea completed Sir Robert's policy. It was to make the fa- mine a strictly Government concern. The famine was to be administered strictly through officers of the Government, from high commissioners down to policemen Even the Irish General Relief Committee, and other local committees of charitable persons who were exerting themselves to raise funds to give employment, were either induced to act in subordination to a Gov- ernment Relief Committee, which sat in Dublin Castle— or else were deterred from importation of food, by the announcement in Parliament that the Government had given orders somewhere for the pnrchase of for- eign corn. For instance, the Mayor of Cork, and some principal inhabitants of that city, hurried to Dublin, and waited on the Lord-Lieutenant, representing that the local committee had applied for some por- tion of the Parliamentary loans, but " were refused assistance on some points of official form — that the people of that county were already famishing, and both food and labor were urgently needed. Lord Heytesbury simply recommended that they should com- municate at once with the Government Re- lief Committee''— as for the rest, that they should consult the Board of Works. Thus every possible delay and official difficulty was interposed against the efforts of local bodies — Government was to do all. These tilings, together with the new measure for an increase in the police force, (who were the main administrative agents throughout the country,) led many persons to the con- clusion that the enemy had resolved to avail themselves of the famine in order to in- crease Governmental supervision and tspion- imgr ; so that every man, woman, and child in Ireland, with all their goings out and com- ings it, might be thoroughly known and re- gistered—that when the mass of the people began to starve, their sole resource might be the police barracks — that Govern- ment might be all in all ; omnipotent to give food or withhold it, to relieve or to starve, according to their own ideas of po- licy and of good behavior in the people. It is needless to point out that Govern- ment patronage also was much extended by this system ; and by the middle of the next year, 1S4T, there were ten thousand men salaried out of Parliamentary loans .and grants for relief of the poor — as com- missioners, inspectors, clerks, and so forth ; and some of them with salaries equal to that of an American Secretary of State. So many of the middle classes had been dragged down almost to insolvency by the ruin of the country, that they began to be eager for the smaller places, as clerks and inspectors; for those ten thousand officers, then, it was estimated there were one hun- dred thousand applicants and canvassers — so much clear gain from "repeal." The Repeal Association continued its re- gular meetings and never ceased to repre- sent that the true remedies for Irish famine were tenant-right — the stoppage of export — and repeal of the Union ; — and as those were really the true and only remedies, it was clear they were the only expedients which an English Parliament would not try. The repeal members gained a kind of Parliamentary victory, however, this spring ; — they .itised the defeat of the Coercion bill, with the aid of the Whigs. Sir Rob- ert Peel had very cunningly, as he thought, made this bill precede the Corn Law Re- peal bill ; and as the English public was all now most eager for the cheapening of bread, he believed that all parties would make haste to pass his favorite measure first. The Irish members went to Loudon, and knowing they could not influence legislation otherwise, organized a sort of mere mechan- ical resistance against the Coercion bill ; that is, they opposed firsl reading, second reading, third reading, opposed its being re- ferred to committee, moved endless amend- ments, made endless speeches, and insisted upon dividing the House on every clause. In vain it was represented to them that this was only delaying the Corn law repeal, which would "cheapen bread." O'Brien replied that it would only cheapen bread to Eng- lishmen, and enable them to devour more and more of the Irish bread, and give less for it. In vain Ministers told them they were stopping public business — they an- swered that English business was no busi- ness of theirs. In vain their courtesy was invoked. They could not afford to be courteous in such a case, and their solo !* H5> * ■3P\ B i errand in London was to resist an atrocious and torturing tyranny threatened against their poor countrymen. Just before this famous debate, there had been very extensive clearing of tenantry in Connanght ; and, in particular, one case, in which a Mrs. Gerrard had, with the aid of the troops and police, destroyed a whole village, and thrown out two hundred and seventy persons on the high road. The Nation thus improved the circumstances with reference to the "Coercion bill" : — " Some Irish member, for instance, may point to the two hundred and seventy per- sons thrown out of house and home the other day in Galway, and in due form of law, (for it. was all perfectly legal,) turned adrift in their desperation upon the wide world — and may ask the Minister, if any of these two hundred and seventy commit a robbery on the highway — if any of them murder the bailiff who, (in exer- cise of his duty,) flung out their naked children to perish in the winter's sleet — if any of them, maddened by wolfish famine, break into a dwelling-house, and forcibly take food to keep body and soul together, or arms for vengeance — -what will you do ? How will you treat that district ? Will you, indeed, proclaim it? Will you mulct the householders, (not yet ejected,) in a heavy fine, to compound for the crimes of those miserable outcasts, to afford food and shelter to whom they wrong their own children in this hard season ? Besides sharing with those wretches his last po- tato, is the poor cottier to be told that he is to pay for policemen to watch them day and night — that he is to make atone- ment in money, (though his spade and poor bedding should be auctioned to make it up, ) for any outrage that may be done in the neighborhood ? — but that these Ger- rards are not to pay one farthing for all this- -for, perhaps, their property is in- cumbered, and, it may be, they find it hard | upon it enough to pay their interest, and keep up such establishments, in town and coun- try, as befit their rank ? And will you, in- deed, issue your commands that those house- less and famishing two hundred and seventy — after their roof-trees were torn down, and the ploughshare run through the founda- tions of their miserable hovels — are to be at home from sunset to sunrise ? — that if found straying, the jails and the penal colonies are ready for their reception ?" It was precisely with a view to meet such cases that the Coercion bill had been de- vised. The English Whigs, and, at length, the indignant Protectionists, too, joined the repealers in this resistance — not to spare Ireland, but to defeat Sir Robert Peel, and get into his place. And they did defeat Sir Robert Peel, and get into his place. Whereupon, it was not long before Lord John Russell and the Whigs devised a new and more murderous Coercion bill for Ire- land themselves. It was on the 25th of May, that the Co- ercion bill for Ireland was defeated — the first Coercion bill for Ireland that was ever refused by a British Parliament ; and it was rejected, not by the exertions of Ire- land's friends, but by political combinations of her enemies. Sir Robert Peel immediately resigned office, and left the responsibility of dealing with the Irish affair to the Whigs. He knew he might do so safely. His system was inaugurated. His two great ideas — free trade and police administration — were fully recognized by the Whigs ; and Lord John Russell was even a blind bigot about what he imagined to be political economy. This " liberal" statesman never had an idea of his own ; and as the system of Sir Rob- ert Peel was really the true and only English method of dealing with the Irish difficulty, it was quite certain that the Whigs would not only adopt it, but improve TO RSI IWfliV w t? §F /s «C v 'v >3 m I 5G0 HISTORY OF IRELAND. CHAPTER LIX. 1816—1847. Progress of the Famine Carnage— Pretended Belief Measures— Imprisonment of O'Brien— Dissensions in Repeal Association Break up of that Iiody — ltaviigew of Famine " Labor Kate Ant" llscli'ss Public Works Extermination— Famine of 1847 - How tlioy lived in England -Advances from the Treasury — Attempts of Foreign Countries to Re- lieve the Famine Defeated by British Govern- ment — Vagrancy Aot— Parish Coffins — Constant Repudiation of Alms— An Englishman's Petition for Alma to Ireland " Ingratitude " of the Irish — ]>ia11i of o'lminrll 1'ivparations to Insure the Next Tear's Famine— Emigration —British Famine Policy — New Cderolon Aot called for — Famine In Ireland. In tlie first year of the famine, then, we find that the measures proposed by the English Government were, first, repeal of the Com laws, which depreciated Ireland's only article of export ; second, a new Coercion law, to torture ami transport the people ; and, third, a grant of £100,000 to certain clerks or commissioners, chiefly for their own profit, and from which the starring people derived no benefit whatever. Yet, Ireland was taunted with this grant, as if it were alms granted to her. Double the sum (£200,000,) was, in the same session, appropriated for Battersea Park, a suburban place of recreation much resorted to liy Londoners. Ii is to be observed thai all the employ- ment to be provided for the poor under this first " Relief act," was to be given under the order and control of English officials ; further, the professions of "Government" — that they had taken all needful measures to guard against famine — had made people rely upon them for everything, and thus turned the minds of thousands upon tl - sands from work of their own, which they might have attempted if left to themselves. This sort of government spoon-feeding is highly demoralizing ; and for one who de- rived any relief from it, one thousand neg- lected their own industry in the pursuit of it. In truth, the amount of relief offered by these grants was infinitesimally small, when we consider the magnitude of the calamity, and had no other effect than to unsettle the minds uf the peasantry, and make them more careless about holding on to their farms. It is true, also, that the Government did, to a certain small extent, speculate in Indian corn, and did send a. good many cargoes of it to Ireland, and form depots of it at several points ; but as to this, also, their mysterious intimations had led all the world to believe they would provide very large quantities, whereas, in fact, the quantity imported by them was inadequate to supply the loss of the grain exported from any one COUIlty ; and a Government ship, sailing into any harbor with Indian corn, was sure to meet half a do/.en sailing out with Irish wheat and cattle. The effect of this, there- fore, was only to blind the people to the fact, that England was exacting her tribute as usual, famine or no famine. The effect of both combined was to engender a dependent and pauper spirit, and to free England from all anxiety about "repeal." A land- less, hungry pauper cannot afford to think of the honor of his country, and cares nothing about a national flag. i How powerfully the whole of this systcau and procedure contributed to accomplish the great end of uprooting the people from the soil, one can readily understand. The ex- hibition and profession of public " relict' " for the destitute, stilled compunction in the landlords ; and agents, bailiffs, and police swept- whole distiiets with the besom of de- struction. Another act hail been done by Sir Robert Peel's .Ministry, just before retiring, with a view of breaking up the Repeal Association. This was the imprisonment, of Mr. Smith O'Brien several weeks in the cellar of the House ol Commons. It grievously irritated the enemy that O'Connell, O'Brien, and the Repeal members, still continued to absent themselves from Parliament. The House of Commons tried various methods of per- suading or coercing them to London. Mr. Hume had written them a friendly letter, imploring them to come over to their legislative duties, and he would aid I hem in obtaining justice for Ireland. A "call of the House" was proposed; but they de- clared beforehand, that if there were a call of the House they would not obey it, and the Sergeaul-at-Arms must come to Ireland L ^ ( £AIS.(lUAUil fi '*^.S» after paying their rents. These people, l>y the Labor-Rate act, had an additional tax laid on them ; and not being able to pay it, could but quit their holdings, sink to the class of able-bodied paupers, and euro themselves in a gang of Government navvys — tlms, throwing themselves for support upon those who still strove to maintain themselves by their own labor on their own land. In addition to the proceeds of the new Poor-rate, Parliament appropriated a further sum of JJoO,000, to be applied in giving work in some absolutely pauper districts, where there was no hope of ever raising rates to repay it. £50,000 was just the sum which was that same year voted out of the English and Irish revenue to improve the buildings Of the British Museum. So there was to be more Poor law, more commissioners, (this time under the title of Additional Puhlio Works Commissioners ;) innumerable officials in the public works, commissariat and constabulary departments; and no end of stationery and red tape — all to be paid out of the rates. On the whole, it was hoped that provision was made for stopping the "Irish howl" this one season. Irishmen of all classes had almost uni- versally condemned the Poor law at first ; so, as they did not like Poor law, they were to have more Poor law. Society in Ireland was to be reconstructed on tin; basis of Poor-rates, and a broad foundation of able- bodied pauperism. It did not occur to the English— and it never will occur to them — that the way to Stop Irish destitution is to repeal the Union, so that Irishmen might make their own laws, use their own re- sources, regulate their own industry. ' It was in vain, however, that anybody in Ireland remonstrated. In vain that such journals as were of the popular party con- demned the whole scheme. The Nation of that date treats it thus : — " Unproductive work to lie executed with burrowed money — a ten years' mortgage of a new tax, to pay for cutting down hills and filling them up again — a direct, impost upon landed-proprietors in the most offensive form, t il^L t" !4" > ' IB CO I HTSTOUT OF IRELAND. with flat refusal and n lecture on political economy, (for political economy, it seems, declared thai the works mnsl be strictly useless :is cutting down a road where there was no hill, or building a bridge where there was no water until many good roads became impassable on account of pits and trenches ;) plenty of jobbing and peculation nil this while ; and the laborers, having the example of a great public fraud before their eyes, themselves defrauding their fraudulent employers — quitting agricultural pursuits and crowding to the public works, where they pretended to be cutting down hills and filling 1 1 1 > hollows, and with tongue in cheek received half wages for doing nothing. So the labor was wasted ; the laborers were demoralized ; and the next year's famine was insured. Now began to be a rage for extermina- tion beyond any former time ; and many I lion- sands of the peasants who could still scrape Up the means, (led to the sea, as if pursued by wild beasts, and betook themselves to America. 'The British army, also, re- ceived numberless recruits this year, (for il is sound English policy to keep our people SO low that a shilling a day would tempt them to fight for the Devil, not to say the Queen,) and insane mothers began to eat (heir young children, who died of famine before them— and still fleets of ships were Bailing with every tide, carrying Irish cattle and corn to England. There was also a large importation of grain from England into Ireland, especially of Indian corn ; and the speculators and ship-owners had a good time. Much of the grain thus brought to Ireland had been previously exported from Ireland, and came back laden with mer- chants' profits, and double freights, and insurance, to the helpless people who had sowed and reaped it. This is what com- merce and tree trade did for Ireland in those days. Two facts, however, are essential to be borne in mind -first, that the nelt result of this importation, exportation, and reim- portation (though many n ship-load was canied four times across the Irish Sea. as prices "invited" it,) was, that England finally received the harvests to the same amount as before ; and, second, that she gave Ireland — under free trade in corn — less for it than ever. In other words, it took more of the Irish produce to buy n piece of cloth from a Leeds manufacturer, or to buy a rent-receipt from an absentee proprietor. Farmers could do without the cloth, but as for the rent-receipts, these they must absolutely buy ; for the bailiff, with his police, was usually at the door, even before the fields were reaped ; and he, and the Poor- rate Collector, and the Additional Poor- rate Collector, and the County-cess Collector, ami the Process-server with decrees, were all to be paid out of the first proceeds. If it took the farmer's whole crop to pay them, which it usually did, he hud, at least, n pocketful of receipts, and might sec lying in the next harbor, the very ship that was to carry his entire harvest, anil his last cow to England. What wonder that so many farmers gave up the effort in despair, and sunk to paupers? .Many Celts were cleared off this year, and the campaign was, so fur, suc- cessful. The winter of ISIti--';, and succeeifing Spring, were employed in a series of utterly unavailing attempts to use the "Labor-rate act," so as to afford some sensible relief to the famishing people. Sessions were held, as provided by the act, and the landed- proprietors liberally imposed rates to repay such Government advances as they thought needful ; but the unintelligible directions constantly interrupted them, and, in the nicanti , the peasantry, in the wild, blind hope of public relief, were abandoning their farms, and letting the land lie idle. Even the Tory or British party in Ire- laud furnish ample testimony to this deplor- able state of things. From Limerick we learn, through the Dublin Evening Mail: — "There is not a laborer employed in the county, except on public works ; and there is every prospect of the lands remaining un- titled anil unsown for the next year." In Cork, writes the Cork Constitution: "The good intentions of the Government are frustrated by the worst regulations -re- gulations which, diverting labor from its le- gitimate channels, left the fields without hands to prepare them for the harvest." At a Presentment Session in Shanngold- m fM & . *>. ..• VI I — ;. ■ f.ri ~ |fi| S3 en, after a hopeless discussion as to what possible meaning could be latent, in the Castle " instructions," and " supplemental instructions,* the Knight of Glin, a land- lord of those parts, said that, "While on the subject of mistakes," he might as well mention, "on the Glfa road, some people are filling up the original cutting of a bill with the stuff they had taken oul of it. That'll another Blice out of our £450." Which he and the other proprietors of that barony had to pay, For you i IMI i bear in mind, thai all the advances under this act were to be sti-ictly loam, repayable bythenltes, Becured bythe whole value of the land and at higher interest than the Gov- ernment borrowed the money bo advanced. The innocent. Knight of Glin ascribed the perversions of labor to "mistake." Bui there was no mistake at all. Digging holes and filling them op again was precisely the kind of work prescribed in such case bythe principles of political economy ; and then there were innumerable regulations to be al ■tended to before even tin's kind of work could be given. The Board of Work Would have the roads lorn pp with BUch tools as they approved of, and none other ; that is, with picks and short shovels, and picks and short shovels were manufactured in England, and sent, over by ship load for thai purpose, tothegreal profil of the hard- Ware merchants in Birmingham. Often there Were no adequate supply of these on the spot ; then tin: work was to lie l.r.l, work, and the poor people, delving mac- adamized roads with upades and tint cutti i could not, earn as much as would keep then, alive, though, luckily, they were thereby dis- abled from destroying so much good road. That all interests in the country were swiftly rushing to ruin was apparent to all. A committee of lords and gentlemen was formed, called " Reproductive Committer-," to urge upon the Governmenl that, if the country was to tax- itself to supply public work, the labor ought, in some cases at least, to lie employed upon i : , i., thai mighl l«e of use. This movement u:i , ,, r. ir ,„. '•■ - ful that it elicited a letter from the 1 ' He, authorizing uch application, but With supplemental instructions, BO intricate aad occult, that this also wa fruitli And the people perished more rapidly than ever. The famine of 1847 was far more terrible and universal than that of the pre . viousyear. The Whig Government, bound by political economy, absolutely refused to interfere with market prices, and the mer- chants and Speculators were never so busy '«' ''"'I' M'les of ti,e channel, In this year ii was (hat the Irish famine began to be a world's wonder ; and men's hearts were moved in the utter,,,,, I ends of the earth by ""' recital of its horrors. The London Il- lustrated News began to bo adorned with engravings of tottering windowlet i hovels in Skibbereen, and elsewhere, with naked wretches dying on a truss of wet straw -and the eon tant language of English Ministers and members of Parliament created i,|„. impreg. ion abroad that Ireland was in need of alms and nothing but alms; whereas, Irishmen themselves uniformly protested that what, they reqnired was a repeal of the rjnion, so 1 1" i the English might cease to devour their substance. It may be interesting to know how the English people were raring all this while ; ond whether "that portion of the Unit,, I Kingdom," a-; it i, called, Buffered much by- the famine in Ireland and in Europe. Au- thentic data upon this point are to be found ill the financial statement of Sir Chorli I Wood, Chancellor of the Exchequer, in Feb- ruary, 1847. In that statement he de- Clan and he tells it, he says, with greal ati faction -that, "the English people and working classes" were steadily growing more comfortable, nay, more luxurious in their , style of living. II,- goes into particulars, even, to Bhow how rapidly a taste for good things spread; among t. Engli h laborers, and bids his hearers " recollect that, con- sumption could not be accounted for by at- tributing it to the higher and wealthier cla e , lint must have arisen from the , on sumption of the large body of the people and the Working clas-.cs." In the matter of coffu, they had u ed nearly seven million pounds of ii more than they did in I -\:; • of butter and cheese, they devoured double as much within the year as they had done three year, before wilhiu the Same period. " I will next," -ays the Chancellor of the Exchequer, " take cur- ^ ie> B *•> r* 1 ' ^ ;V rants," (for currants are one of the neces- saries of life to an English laborer, who must have his pudding on Sunday at least ;) and we End that the quantity of currants used by the "body of the people and work- ing classes," had increased, in three years, from two hundred aud fifty-four thousand hundred weight to three hundred and fifty- nine thousand hundred weight, by the year Omitting oilier things, we come to the Chan- cellor's statement, that since 1843, the con- sumption of tei had increased by live million four hundred thousand ponnds. It is unneces- sary to suy they had us much beef and lia- con as they could eat, and bread a discre- tion — and beer ! This statement was read by Sir Charles Wood, at the end of a long sj eh, in which he announced the necessity of raising an additional loan to Keep life in some of the surviving Irish ; and he read it, expressly in order "to dispel some portion of the gloom which had been east over the minds of mem bers," by being told that, a port ion of the surplus revenue must go to pay interest on a slight addition to the national debt. And the gloom vxtt dispelled ; and honorable members comforted themselves with the re- flection, that whatever lie the nominal debl of the country, after all, a man of the work- ing classes can ash no more than a good dinner every day, and a pudding on Sundays. One would not grudge the English labor- er his dinner, or his tea ; and we refer to his excellent table only to bid the reader re- mark that during those same three years, exactly as fasl as the English people and working classes advanced to luxury, tin' Irish people and working classes sank to starvation ; and further, that the Irish people were still sowing and reaping whttl thev of the sister island so contentedly de- voured, to the value of at least .LI 7, HOI), - 000 sterling As an English fanner, artizan, or laborer, be^an to insist on tea in the morning as well as in the evening, an Irish farmer, arti- san, or laborer, found it necessary to live on oik' meal a day ; for every Englishman who added 10 his domestic expenditure by a pud- ding thrice a week, an Irishman had to re- trench his lo cabbage leaves and turnip tops ; us dyspepsia creeps into England, dysentery ravages Ireland ; "and the exact correlative of a Sunday dinner in England is a coron- er's inquest in Ireland." Ireland, however, was to have "alms." The English would not see their useful drudges perish at their very door for want, of a trifle of alms. So the Ministry an- nounced in this month of February, a new loan of leu millions, to be used from time to time for relief of Irish famine — the half of the advances to be repaid by rales — the oilier half to be a grant from the treasury lo Iced able-bodied paupers for doing useless work, or no work at all. As to this latter half of the ten millions, English newspapers and members of Parliament said that it was so much English money granted to Ireland. This, of course, was a falsehood. It was a loan raised by the Imperial Treasury, on a mortgage of the taxation of the Three Kingdoms ; and the principal of it, like tin; rest of the " national debt,"' was not intend- ed to be ever repaid ; and as for the interest, Ireland would have to pay her proportion of it, as a matter of course. This last act was the third of the " be- lief measures" contrived by the British Par- liament, and the most destructive of all. It was to be put in operation as a system of out-door relief; and the various local boards of Poor Law Guardians, if I hey could only understand the documents, were to have some apparent part in its administra- tion, but all, as usual, under the absolute control of the Poor Law Commissioners, and of a new board - namely, Sir John Bur- goyne, an engineer; Sir Randolph Routh, Commissary-General ; Mr. Twisleton, a Poor Law Commissioner; two Colonels, called .bines and M'tlregor, Police Inspectors; and Mr. Redington, LTnder-Secretary. In the administration of this system there were to be many thousands of officials, great and small. Tin' largest salaries were for Eng- lishmen ; but the smaller were held up as an object of ambition to Irishmen ; and it is very humiliating lo remember what eager and greedy multitudes were always canvass- ing and petitioning for these. In the new act of the out-door relief, there was one significant clause. It was, thai it any farmer Who held land should be forced to apply for aid under this act, for himself and / % !^ lis Of x hi • jrtMi .....,\„.i "*&te -M I In i CONSTANT REPUDIATION OF ALMS. 507 p« Ifi his family, be should not have it until he had first given up all his land to the landlord— except one quarter of an acre. It was called the quarter-acre clause, and was found the mosl efficient and the cheapest of nil the Ejectment acts. Farms were there- after daily given up, without the formality of a. notice to quit, or summons before Quar- ter Sessions. On (he Gth of March, there were sev- en hundred and thirty thousand heads of families on the public works. Provision was made by the last recited act for dismissing these in batches. On the 10th of April, the nnmber was reduced to five thousand seven hundred and twenty-three. Afterwards, hatches of a hundred thousand or so were in like manner dismissed. Mo I Of these had now neither house nor home ; and their only resource was in the out-door relief. For this they were ineligible, if they held but one rood of land. Under the new law it was able-bodied idlers only who were to be fed —to attempt to till even a rood of ground was death. Steadily, bul surely, the "Government" was working out its calculation; and the product anticipated ],y "political circles" was likely to come out about September, i" round numbers — two millions of Irish corpses. That "Government" had at length gol into its own hands all the means and mate- rials for working this problem, is now plain. There was no longer any danger of the ele- ments of the account being disturbed I >y ex- ternal interference of any kind. At, one time, indeed, there were odds against the Government sum coming out right ; for charitable people in England and America, indignant at the thought of a nation perish- ing of political economy, did contribute generOU8ly, anil did full surely believe that every pound they subscribed would give Irish famine twenty shillings worth of bread ; they thought so, ami poured in their contri- butions, and their prayers and blessings with them. In vain I "Government" ami political economy got hold of the contributions, and di posed of them in such fashion as to pre- vent their deranging the calculations of po- litical circles. For example, the vast supplies of food purchased by the " British Relief Associa- tion," with the money of charitable Chris- tians in England, were everywhere locked up in Government stores. Government, it, seems, contrived to influence or control the managers of that fund ; and thus, there were thousands of tons of food rotting with- in the stores of Haulbowline, at Cork liar bor ; and lens of thousands rotting without, For the market, must, be followed, not, led, (to tin; prejudice of Liverpool merchants I) — private; speculation must, not, be disap- pointed, nor the calculations of political circles falsified I All tin: nations of the earth might bo defied to feed or relieve Ireland, beset, by such a Government as this. America tried another plan ;— the ship Jamestown sailed into Cork Harbor, and discharged a, large Cargo, which actually began to come into consumption ; when lo ! Free Trade- anoth- er familiar demon of (Joverniiicnl — Free Trade, that, carried oil' our own harvests of the year before- comes in, freights another ship, and carries off from Cork to Liver- pool, a cargo against tin: American cargo. For the private speculators must be c - pensated ; the i -kets must not be /,•,/,- if these Americans will not give England their corn to lock up, then she defeats them by "the natural laws of trade I " So many Briarean hands has Government- -so surely do official persons work their account. Private charily, one might, think, in a. country like Ireland, would put, out the cal- culating Government sadly ; but thai, too, was brought in great, measure under con- trol. The "Temporary Relief act," talking of eight millions of money, (lo be used if needed,) — distributing, like Cumsean Sybil, ils mystic leaves by the myriad and the mil- lion — setting charitable people everywhere to con its pamphlets, and compare clause with clause— putting everybody in terror of ils rales, and in horror of its inspectors- was likely to pa88 the summer bravely. It would begin to be partly understood about Angust, would expire in September ;— and in September, the " the persons connected with Government" expected their round two millions of carcasses. further piece of the machinery, p. is fifoi -'«»;U.> ....'■: i //i.j. <$ HISTORY OF IKELAND. I3~ !tU working to the same great end, was the " Vagrancy act," for the punishment of va- grants — that is, of about four millions of the inhabitants — by hard labor, "for any time not exceeding one month." Many poor people were escaping to Eng- land, as deck passengers, on board the nu- merous steamers, hoping to earn their living by labor there; but "Government" took alarm about typhus fever — a disease not in- tended for England. Orders in Council were suddenly issued, subjecting all vessels having deck passengers to troublesome exam- ination and quarantine, thereby quite stop- ping up that way of escape ; — and, six days afterwards, four steamship companies, be- tween England and Ireland, on request of the Government, raised the rate of passage for deck passengers. Cabin passengers were not interfered with in any way ; for, in fact, it is the cabin passengers from Ireland who spend in England five millions sterling per annnm. Whither now were the people to fly? Where to hide themselves ? They hail no money to emigrate ; no food, no land, no roof over them ; no hope before them. They began to envy the lot of those who had died in the fust year's famine. The poor houses were all full, and much more than full. Each of them was an hospital for typhus fever : and it was very common for three fever patients to be in one bed, some dead, and others not yet dead. Par- ishes all over the country being exhausted by rates, refused to provide coffins for the dead paupers, and they were thrown coffin- less into holes, but in some parishes, (in or- der to have, at least, the look of decent in- terment,) a coffin was made with its bottom linged at one side, and closed at the other jy a latch — the uses of which are obvious. It would lie easy to horrify the reader with details of this misery ; but let it be enough to give the results in round num- bers. Great efforts were this year made to give relief by private charily ; and sums Contributed in that way by Irishmen them- selves far exceeded all that was sent from all other parts of the world beside. As for the ship-loads of corn generously sent over by Americans, it has been already shown how the benevolent object was defeated. The moment it appeared in any port, prices became a shade lower ; and so much the more grain was carried off from Ireland by "free trade." It was not foreign corn that Ireland wanted — it was the use of her own ; that is to say, it was repeal of the Union. The arrangements and operations of the Union had been such that Ireland was bleeding at every vein ; her life was rushing out at every pore ; so that the money sent to her for charity was only so much added to landlords' rents and Englishmen's profits. The American corn was only so much given as a handsome present to the merchants and speculators. That is, the English got it. But no Irishman begged the world for alms. The benevolence of Americans, and Australians, and Turks, and Negro slaves, was excited by the appeals of the English press and English members of Parliament ; and in Ireland, many a cheek burned with shame and indignation at our country being thus held up to the world, by the people who were feeding on our vitals, as abject beg- gars of broken victuals. The Repeal Asso, elation, Ion as it had fallen, never sanction- ed this mendicancy. The true nationalists of Ireland, who had been forced to leave that association, and had formed another society, the "Irish Confederation," never ceased to expose the real nature of these British dealings — never ceased to repudiate ami disavow the British beggarly appeals ; although they took care to express warm gratitude for the well-meant charity of for- eign uations ; and never ceased to proclaim that the sole and all-sufficient "relief mea- sure " for the country would be, that the English should let us alone. On the 16th of March, for example, a meeting of the citizens of Dublin assembled, by public requisition, at the Music Hall, presided over by the Lord Mayor, expressly to consider the peril of the country, and pe- tition Parliament for proper remedies. It was known that the conveners of the meet- ing contemplated nothing more than sug- gestions as to importing grain in ships of war, stopping distillation from grain, and other trifles. Richard O'Gorman was then a prominent member of the Irish Confeder- ation ; and, being a citizen of Dublin, he ft £A*.t,wji\^>.^ v : (H m % jp «$ resolved to attend this meeting, and if nobody else should say the right word, say it himself. After some helpless talk about the " mistakes " and " infatuation " of Par- liament, and suggestions for change in va- rious details, O'Gorman rose, and in a pow- erful and indignant speech, moved this res- olution : — "That for purposes of temporary relief, as well as permanent improvement, the one great want, and demand of Ireland is, that foreign Legislators and foreign Minis- ters shall no longer interfere in the manage- ment of her affairs." In this speech he charged the Government with being the " murderers of the people," and said : — "Mr. Fitzgibbon has suggested that the measures of Government may have been adopted under an infatuation. I believe there is no infatuation. I hold a very different opinion on the subject. I think the British Government are doing what they intend to do." Another citizen of Dublin seconded Mr. O'Gorman's resolution, and the report of his observations has these sentences : — " I have listened with pain and disap- pointment to the proceedings of a meeting purporting to be a meeting of the citizens of Dublin, called at such a crisis, and to deliberate upon so grave a subject, yet at which the resolutions and speakers, as with one consent, have carefully avoided speaking out what nine-tenths of us feel to be the plain truth in this matter. But the truth, my lord, must be told— and the truth is, that Ireland starves and perishes, simply because the English have eaten us out of house and home. Moreover, that all the legislation of their Parliament is, and will be, directed to this one end — to enable them hereafter to cat us out of house and home as heretofore. It is for that sole end they have laid their grasp upon Ireland, and it is for that, and that alone, they will try to k> ep her." Greatly to the consternation of the quiet ami submissive gentlemen who had conve I the meeting, O'Gorman's resolution was adopted by overwhelming acclamation. Take another illustration of the spirit in Irish people. The harvest of Ireland was abundant and superabundant in 1841, as it lad been the year before. The problem was, as before, to get it quietly and peacefully ovei to England. First, the Archbishop of Canterbury issued a form of thanksgiving for an "abundant harvest," to be read iu all churches on Sunday, the 17th of Octo- ber. One Trevelyan, a Treasury Clerk, had been sent over to Ireland on some pretence of business, and the first thing he did when he landed was to transmit to England an humble 'entreaty that the Queen would deign to issue a Royal "Letter," asking alms in all the churches on the day of thanksgiving. The petition was complied with ; the Times grumbled against these eternal Irish beggars ; and the affair was thus treated in the Nation, which certainly spoke for the pmple more authentically than any other journal : — " Cordially, eagerly, thankfully, we agree with the English Times, in this one respect — there ought to be no alms for Ireland. "It is an impudent proposal, and ought lo be rejected with scorn and contumely. We are sick of this eternal begging. If but one voice in Ireland should lie raised against it, that voice shall be ours. To-morrow, to-raorrow, over broad England, Scotlan ! fo which British charity was received by the alms from England. and Wales, the people who devour our sub- stance from year to year, are to offer up their canting thanksgivings for our ' abundant harvest,' and fling us certain crumbs and crusts of it for charity. Now, if any church-going Englishman will heark- en to us, if we may be supposed in any de- gree to speak for our countrymen, we put up our petition thus : Keep your alms, ye canting robbers— button your pockets upon the Irish plunder that is in them — and let the begging-box pass on. Neither as loans nor as alms will we take that which is our own. We spit upon the benevolence that rolis us of a pound, and flings back a penny in charily. Contribute now if you will — these will be your thanks ! "But who has craved this charity? Why, the Queen of England, and her Privy Council, and two officers of her Govern- ment, named Trevelyan and Bnrgoyne 1 No Irishman, that we know of, has begged -a '',,;'■ £\ If W3> I',;.-' 570 HISTORY OF IRELAND. " But the English insist on our remaining beggars. Charitable souls that they are, they like better to give us charity than let us earn our bread. And consider the time when this talk of alms-giving begins : our 'abundant harvest,' for which they arc to thank God to-morrow, is still here ; and there has been talk of keeping it here. So, they say to one another : ' Go to ; let us promise them charity and church subscrip- tions — they are a nation of beggars — they would rather have alms than honest earn- ings — let us talk of alms, and they will send us the bread from their tables, the cattle from their pastures, and the coats from their backs. " We charge the ' Government,' we charge the Cabinet Council at Osborne House, with this base plot. We tell our countrymen that a man, named Trevelyan, a Treasury Clerk — the man who advised and administered the Labor-Rate act — that this Trevelyan has been sent to Ireland that he, an Englishman, may send over from this side the channel a petition to the charitable in England. We arc to be made to beg, whether we will or no. The Queen begs for us ; the Archbishop of Canterbury bigs for us ; and they actually send a man to Ireland that a veritable Irish begging petition may not be a-wanting. "Prom Salt Hill Hotel, at Kingstown, this piteous cry goes forth to England. 'In justice,' Trevelyan says, 'to those who have appointed a general collection in the churches on the 17th, and still more in pity to the unhappy people in the western districts of Ireland,' he implores his country- men to have mercy ; and gets his letter published in the London papers, (along with another from Sir John Burgoyne,) to stimulate the charity of those good and well-fed Christians who will enjoy the lux- ury of benevolence to-morrow. "Once more, then, we scorn, we repulse, we curse, all English alms ; ami only wish these sentiments of ours could reach, before noon to-morrow, every sanctimonious thanks- giver in England, Scotland, Wales, and Berwick-upon-Tweed." In the same number the Nation took the pains to collect and present statistics by which it appeared that ererv dai/, one day with another, twenty large steamships, not counting sailing vessels, left Ireland for England, all laden with that " abundant harvest" — for which the English, indeed, might well give thanks in their churches. It must be acknowledged that if the English Government and people really and truly did endeavor to relieve the famine in their sister country, that generosity met a most ungrateful return, from a people, too, who are proverbially warm-hearted. For the famine of 1847, it is only needful to add that, during this year, coroners' juries in several counties repeatedly, on in- quests over famine-slain corpses, found, upon their oaths, verdicts of " Willful Murder against John Russell, commonly called Lord John Russell," he being then the Queen's Prime Minister. The verdict was perfectly justifiable, and the crime quite manifest ; but as there was no power to bring the criminal over to Ireland for trial, and as there would have been no use in arraigning him before an English jury, he was never brought to justice. * It is essential that foreign nations should never believe, for the future, (what the English press has diligently inculcated,) that our people, when wiiitteu by famine, fell a-begging, from England or from America. Let them never hereafter wonder when they meet with Irishmen ungrateful for the "relief measures" — and, above all, if Ire- land should again starve, (as she is most likely to do,) anil should still be under' British dominion, let them never scud her a bushel of corn or a dollar of money. Neither bushel nor dollar will ever reach her. In February, 1847, and amidst the deep- esl gloom and horror of the famine, O'Cou- nell, old, sick, and heavy-laden, left Ireland, and left it forever. Physicians in London recommended a journey to the south of Europe, and O'Connell himself desired to see the Pope before he died, and to breathe out his soul at Rome, in the choicest odor of sanctity. By slow and painful stages he proceeded only as tar as Genoa, and there died on the 1 5th of May. For those who were not close witnesses of Irish politics in that day — who did not seo -ft V3\ A U > \M '■ how vast tlii.s giant figure loomed in Ireland and in England for a generation and a half — it is not easy to understand the strong emotion caused by bis death, both in friends and enemies. Vet, for a whole year before, he bad sunk low, indeed. His power had depart- ed from him ; and in presence of the terrible apparition of his perishing country he had Seemed to shrink and wither. Nothing can be conceived more helpless than his speeches in Conciliation Hall, and his appeals to the British Parliament during that time — yet, as I before said, he never begged alms for Ireland, lie never fell so low as that ; and the last sentences of the very last letter he ever penned to the association still proclaim the true doctrine : — "It will not be until after the deaths of hundreds of thousands that the regret will arise that more was not done to save a sinking nation. " How different would the scene be if we had our own Parliament — taking care of our own people — of our own resources. But, alas I alas ! it is scarcely permitted to think of these, the only sure preventatives of misery, and the only sure instruments of Irish prosperity." To no Irishman can the wonderful life of O'Connell fail to be impressive — from the day when, a fiery and thoughtful boy, he sought the cloisters, of St. Omers for the education which penal laws denied him in his own land, on through the manifold struggles and victories of his earlier career, as he broke and flung off, with a kind of haughty impatience, link after link of the social and political chain that six hundred years of steady British policy had woven around every limb and muscle of his country, down to that supreme moment of the blackness of darkness for himself and for Ireland, when he laid down his burden and closed his eyes. Beyond a doubt, his death was hastened by the misery of seeing his proud hopes dashed to the earth, and his well- beloved people perishing ; for there dwelt in that brawny frame tenderness and pity soft as woman's. To the last he labored on the "Belief Committees" of Dublin, and thought every hour lost unless employed in rescuing some of the doomed. O'Conuell's body rests in Ireland, but without his heart. He gave orders that the heart should be removed from his body and sent to Rome. The funeral was a great and mournful procession through the streets of Dublin, mid it will show how wide was the alienation which divided him from his former confederates, that when O'Brien signified a wish to attend the obsequies, a public letter from John O'Connell sullenly forbade him. In the year 1847 great and successful exertions were used to make sure that the next year should be a year of famine, too. This was effected mainly by holding out the prospect of " out-door relief" — to obtain which tenants must abandon their lands and leave them unfilled. A paragraph from a letter of Mr. Fitzpatrick, parish priest of Skibbereen, contains within it an epitome of the history of that year. It was pub- lished in the Freeman, March 12th : — "The ground continues unsown and un- cultivated. There is a mutual distrust between the landlord and the tenant. The landlord would wish, if possible, to gel up his land; and the unfortunate tenant is anxious to stick to it as long as he can. A good many, however, are giving it up, and preparing for America ; and these are the substantial farmers who have still a little means left." "A gentleman traveling from Borris-in- Ossory to Kilkenny, one bright spring morning, counts at both sides of the road, in a distance of twenty-four miles, ' nine men and four ploughs,' occupied in the fields ; but sees multitudes of wan laborers, ' beyond the power of computation by a mail-car passenger,' laboring to destroy the road he was traveling upon. It was a 'public-work.'" — {Dublin Evening Mail.) In the same month of March — "The land," says the Mayo Constitution, " is one vast waste : a soul is not to be seen working on the holdings of the poor farmers through- out the country, and those who have had the prudence to plough or dig the ground, are in fear of throwing in the seed." When the new " Out-door Belief act" began to be applied, with its memorable Quarter-acre clause, all this process went on with wonderful velocity, and millions of people were soon left landless and homeless. n w Y r$- er- p) I i Tliat they should be left landless and home- less was strictly in accordance with British policy ; but then there was danger of the millions of outcasts becoming robbers and murderers. Accordingly, the nest point was to clear the country of them, and di- minish the Poor-rates, by emigration. For, though they were perishing fast of hunger and typhus, they were not perishing fast enough. It was inculcated by the English press that the temperament and disposition of the Irish people fitted them peculiarly for some remote country in the East, or in the West — in fact, for any country but their own — that Providence had committed some mistake iu causing them to be bora in Ireland. As usual, the Times was foremost iu finding out this singular freak of nature ! Says the Times, (Feb- ruary 22, 1847,) :— " Remove Irishmen to the banks of the Ganges, or the Indus — to Delhi, Benares, or Trincomalee — and they would be far more in their element there than in a country to which an inexorable fate has con- fined them." Again, a Mr. Murray, a Scotch banker, writes a pamphlet upou the proper measures for Ireland. " The surplus population of Ireland," says Mr. Murray, " have been trained precisely for those pursuits which the unoccupied regions of North America re- quire." Which might appear strange — a populatiou .expressly trained, and that precisely, to suit any country except their own ! But these are comparatively private and individual suggestions. In April of this year, however, six Peers and twelve Com- moners, who call themselves Irish, but who include amongst them such " Irishmen " as Dr.. Whateley and Mr. Godley, laid a scheme before" Lord John Russell, for the transportation of one million and a half of Irishmen to Canada, at a cost of nine millions sterling, to be charged on " Irish property," and to be paid by an income tax. Again, within the same year, a few months later, a "Select Committee," (and a very select one,) of the House of Lords brings up a report " On Colonization from Ireland." Their lordships report that all former committees on the state of Ireland (with one exception,) had agreed, at least, on this point — that it was neci sary to remove the " excess of labor." They say : — " They have taken evidence respecting the state of Ireland, of the British North Amer- ican Colonies, (including Canada, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Newfoundland,) the West India Islands, New South Wales, Port Philip, South Australia, Tan Diemen's Land, and New Zealand. On some of these points it will be found that their inquiries have little more than commenced ; on others, that those inquiries have been carried somewhat nearer to completion, but in no case can it be considered that the subject is yet exhausted The committee are fully aware that they have as yet examined into many points but superficially, and that some, as, for example, the state of the British possessions in Southern Africa, and in the Territory of Natal, have not yet been considered at all. Neither have they obtained adequate inform- ation respecting what we sincerely h»pe may hereafter be considered as the prospering settlement of New Zealand. The important discoveries of Sir T. Mitchell in Australia, have also been but slightly noticed." It appears that any inquiry into the state of Ireland naturally called their lord- ships to a consideration distant of latitudes and longitudes. Their lordships further declare that the emigration which they recommend must be " voluntary " — and, also, that " there was a deep and pervading anxiety for emigration exhibited by the people them- selves." A deep and pervading anxiety to fly, to escape any whither 1 From whom ? Men pursued by wild beasts will show a pervad- ing anxiety to go anywhere out of reach. If a country be made too hot to hold its in- habitants, they will be willing even to throw themselves into the sea. All this while, that there were from four to five millions of acres of improv- able waste lands in Ireland— and even from the land in cultivation Ireland was exporting food enough every year to sus- tain eight millions of people iu England. ^ ts>/ V" I* J h BRITISH FAMINE POLICY. m € %<& None of the vast public schemes of emi- gration was adopted by Parliament in its full extent ; though aid was, from time to time, given to minor projects for that end ; and landlords continued very busy all this year and the next, shipping all their "sur- plus tenantry" by their own private re- sources, thinking it cheaper than to maintain them by rates. The Poor Law Guardians, also, were authorized to transport paupers, and to appropriate part of the rates to that purpose. There has now been laid before the read- er a complete sketch, at least in outline, of the British famine policy — expectation of Government spoon-feeding at the point of police bayonets — shaking the farmers loose from their lands, employing them for a time on strictly useless public works — then disgorging them in crowds of one hundred thousand at a time, to beg, or rob, or perish— -then, " out-door relief," administered in quantities altogether infinitesimal in pro- portion to the need — then that universal 'ejectment, the Quarter-acre law — then the corruption of the middle class by holding out the prize of ten thousand new Govern- ment situations — then the Vagrancy act, to make criminals of all houseless wanderers — then the " voluntary " emigration schemes — then the omnipresent police, hanging like a cloud over the houses of all "suspect- ed persons" — that is, all persons who still kept a house over their heads — then the quarantine regulations, and increased fare for deck passengers to England, thus de- barring the doomed race from all escape at that side, and leaving them the sole al- ternative : America or the grave. This, gives something like a map or plan of the field as laid out and surveyed for the final conquest of the island. The Irish landlords were now in dire per- plexity. Many of them were good and just men ; but the vast majority were fully identified in interest with the British Gov- ernment, and desired nothing so much as to destroy the population. They would not consent to tenant-right ; they dared not trust themselves in Ireland without a Brit- ish army. They may have felt, indeed, that they were themselves both injured and insulted by the whole system of English legislation; but they would submit to any- thing rather than fraternize with the injured Catholic Celts. A few landlords and other gentlemen met and formed an " Irish Coun- cil ;" but these were soon frightened into private life again by certain revolutionary proposals of some members, and especially by the very name of tenant-right. At last, about the end of this year, seeing that another season's famine was approaching, and knowing that Violent counsels began to prevail amongst the extreme section of the national party, the landlords, in guilty and cowardly rage and fear, called on Parliament for a new Coercion act. From this moment all hope that the land- ed gentry would stand on the side of Ire- land against England utterly vanished. This deadly alliance between the landlords and the Government brought Irish affairs to a crisis ; broke up the " Irish Confederation," (com- posed of the extreme nationalists, who could no longer exist in the Repeal Associa- tion,) and provoked an attempt at insurrec- tion. Before going further, however, two facts should be mentioned : First, That by a care- ful census of the agricultural produce of Ireland for this year, 18-17, made by Cap- tain Larcom, as a Government Commission- er, the total value of that produce was •£44,958,120 sterling; which would have amply sustained double the entire people of the island.* This return is given in detail, and agrees generally with another estimate of the same, prepared by John Martin, of Loughorn, in the County Down — a gentle- man whose name will be mentioned again in this narrative. Second, That at least five hundred thousand human beings perished this year of famine, and of famine-typhus ; f and two hundred thousand more fled beyond the sea, to escape famine and fever. Third, That the loaus for relief given to the Public Works and Public Commissariat Departments, to be laid out as they should * In Thorn's Official Almanac and Directory, the Government has taken care to suppress the state- ment of gross amount. f The deaths by famine of the year before, we may set down at three hundred thousand. There is no possibility of ascertaining the numbers ; and when the Government Commissioners pretend to do so, they intend deception. HM-\ ^f ; ':fTT ^. >> ■■? think proper, and to lie repaid by rates mi Irish property, went in the first place to maintain ten thousand greedy officials ; ami that the greater part of these funds never reached the people at nil, or reached them in Bucb ••<■ way us lo ruin niul exterminate thrill. A kind of sacred wrath took possession oi a lew Irishmen at tliis period, They •on!. I ('inline the horrible scene no longer, si.iil resolved to cross the path of Hie Brit- ish car of conquest, though it Bhould crush tliem to atoms. fC A I- CHAPTER LX. [S 17 ISIS. Lord Clarendon Vioeroy tiis Means of toBorlog the Sillipinrlil In KiiL'lalnl of III'' I'siial Tribute I'.iiIm i in- n.isei Sort "i Gdftor Patronnge for Catholla Lawyers Another Cderoion Ait Projects for Stopping Export of Grain Arming Uarmof Cov- er nt Willis Ariiy.' in Coercion FronoU Re- volution ft February Confederate Cluba Dopu to from Dublin in Paris O'Brien's Last &p poaranoo in Parliament Trials of O'Brien and Meagher— Trial of Uitohel Paoklng of the Jurj tli Ign ei' Terror in Dublin. In Hie summer of tins year, I s 1 7 ( Lord Clarendon was sent over, as Lord-Lieuten- ant, to finish the conquest of Ireland— jusl ns Lord Mountjoy hud been sent to bring to an end the wars of Queen Elizabeth's reign ; ami by the same means substantially— that is, bj Corruption of the rich and starva- tion of 1 he poor. The form of procedure, indeed, whs somewhat different ; for Eng- lish statesmen of the sixteenth century had in 'i learned to use the weapons of "amelior- ation" ami " political economy ;" neither had they yet established the policy of keeping Ireland as n store-farm to raise wealth for England. Lord Mountjoy's system, then, had BOmewlmt of a rilde character ; and he could think of nothing better thau Bonding large bodies of troops to cut down the green corn, and bum the houses. In one expedi- tion into Leinster, his biographer, Moryson, estimates that he destroyed "teli thousand pounds worth of corn," that is, wheat ; an amount which might now lie stated at £200,000 worth. In OVahau's country, in Ulster, as the same Morysou tells us, after a razzia of Mountjoy : " We have none left to give us opposition, nor of late have seen any but dead carcasses, merely Starved for want, of meal." So that Mouuljuy could boast ho had given Ireland to Elizabeth, "nothing but carcasses and ashes." Lord Clarendon's method was more in the spirit of the nineteenth century, though his slaughters were more terrible in the end than Mountjoy's. Again there was growing! upon Irish soil 11 noble harvest ; but it had been more economical lo carry if over to England by help of free trade, than to burn if on the ground. The problem then was, as it had been the last year, and the year before, how lo insure ils speedy and peaceful transmission. Accordingly, Lord Clarendon came over with concilia- tory speeches, and large professions of the desire of "Government" now, at last, to stay the famine. Sullen murmurs had been beard, and even open threats and urgent recommendations, that the Irish har- vest must not ln> Buffered to go another year ; ami there were rumors of risings in the harvest to break up the roads, to pull down the bridges, ill every way lo slop the* tracks of this fatal " commerce ; " rumors, in short, of tin insurrection. Some new tneth- od, then, had to be adopted, to turn tho thoughts and hopes of that too credulous people once more towards Ihe "Govern- ment." Lord Clarendon recommended a lour of agricultural "lectures,'' the expense io be provided for by the Royal Agricul- tural Society, aided by public moncv. 'The lecturers were to go upon every estate, call the people together, talk to them of the In- nevoient intentions of his excellency, and give them good advice. The poor people listened respect fully, but usually told the lecturers that there was no use in following thai excellent agricultur- al advice, as they were all goillg lo lie tunifii i'ii/ 1 he next sprimr. These lecturers published their report -a most amazing pic- ture of patient suffering on the one hand, and of official insolence on the other. One Fitzgerald, a most energetic lecturer, lull oi Liebi-'s Agricultural Chemistry, tells us : "They all agreed Ihal what 1 said was just ; lint they always hud stmt exeuie, that they could not get seed, or had nothing to live on m the meantime." / »VW ( 3fe «> (J A I , LOW) CLARENDON YICKROY. 575 f ft Mr \ ■m "*..,' "a Wfif\ §v I And a Mr. Goode, who was also instruct* Ing the West, says : — " The poor people here appeared to be in a must, desponding state : they always met me with the argument that there was no use in their working there, for they were going to be turned out in spring, and would have their houses pulled down over them. I used to tell them that I had nothing to do with that ; that 1 w;is sent among them by some kind, intelligent gentlemen, bandy to tell them what course to pursue." Thai was all. Lord Clarendon h;id not sent down Mr. Qoode to lecture on tenant- right ; and the people had no business to obtrude their Jacobin principles npon a Government "instructor." They might as well have prated to him about repeal of the Union. Another measure of Lord Clarendon was 1)0 buy support at the press with Secret- Service money. To the honor of the Dublin press, this was a somewhat difficult matter. The Government had, at that time, only one leading journal in the metropolis on which it, could surely rely — the Evening Post — Loi'd Clarendon wanted another organ, and of lower species ; for he had work to do which the comparatively respectable Post might shrink from, lie sought out a creature named Birch, editor of the World, a paper which was never named nor alluded to by any reputable journal in the city. This Birch lived by hush-money, or black- mail of the most infamous kind — that is, extorting money from private persons, men and women, by threats of inventing mid publishing scandalous stories of their domestic circles. Be had been tried more than once and convicted of this species of swindling. "1 then offered him L100, if I remember rightly," says Lord Clarendon,* " for it did not make any great impression on me at the time. He said that would not be sufficient for his purpose, and 1 think it was then extended to about -8350." On further examination, his lordship confessed that he hail paid Birch "further sums" — in short, kept him regularly in pay ; and, finally, on Birch bringing suit against him for the balance due lor " work and labor," had paid him in one sum £2,000, at the same time taking up all the papers and litters, (as he thought,) which might bring the transaction to light. Everybody can guess the nature of Birch's work and labor, and quantum meruit. His duty was to make weekly attacks of a private and revolting nature upon Smith O'Brien, upon Mr. Meagher, upon Mr. Mitchel, and every one else who was prom- inent in resisting 1 exposing the Govern- ment measures. Further, the public money was employed in the gratuitous distribution of the World; for otherwise, decent persons would never have seen it. It was long afterwards that the public learned how all this subterranean agency had come to light on the trial of one of the suits which Birch was forced to institute for recovery of his wages. A third measure of the Viceroy was — extreme liberality towards Catholic lawyers and gentlemen in the distribution of patron- age ; that so they might be the more effectually bought oil' from all common interest and sympathy with the " lower orders," and might stand patiently by and see their people slain or banished. Amongst others, Mr. Monahan, an industrious and successful Catholic barrister, was made Attorney- General lor Ireland — from which the next step was to the bench. Mr. Monahan became n grateful and useful ser- vant to the enemies of his country. The summer of '47 had worn through wearily and hopelessly. All endeavors to rouse the landlord class to exertion entirely failed, through their coward fear of an out- raged and plundered people ; and, at last, when out, of the vast multitudes of I i thrown from public works, houseless and famishing, a few committed murders and robberies, or shot a bailiff or an incoming tenant, the landlords in several counties besought for a new Coercion and Anns act ; so as to make that code more stringent and inevitable. Lord .John Russell was but too happy to comply with the demand ; but the landlords were to give something in exchange for this security. Addresses of confidence were voted by Grand Juries and county meetings of land- ords. The Irish gentry almost unanimous- ly volunteered addresses denouncing repeal wl *3 (t5\ T Qi W\ HISTORY OF IRELAND. t&Zt k aar and repealers, and pledging themselves to maintain the Union. At the same time ejectment was more active than ever, and it is not to be denied that amongst the myriads of desperate men who then wandered house- less, there were some who would not die tamely. Before taking their last look at the sun, they could, at least, lie in wait for the agent who had pulled down their houses and turned their weeping children adrift ; him, at least, they could send to perdition before them. The crisis was come. The people no longer trusted the ameliorative professions of their enemies ; and there were some who zealously strove to rouse them now at last, to stand up for their own lives ; to keep the harvest of '47 within the four seas of Ire- land ; and by this one blow to prostrate Irish landlordism, and the British Empire along with it. This was a perilous, and, perhaps, an utterly desperate enterprize, while England was at peace with all the world, and at full liberty to hurl the whole mass of her mili- tary power upon a small island which she already held with so linn a grasp. Even those who counseled armed resistance were fully conscious of the desperation of that course, but honestly thought that any death — especially death in just war — was better than the death of a dog, by hunger. In the meantime, the beautiful metropolis of Ireland was extremely gay and brilliant. After two years' frightful famine — and when it was already apparent that the next famine, of 1847-48, would be even more desolating — you may imagine that Dublin City would show some effect or symptom of such a national calamity Singular to relate, that city had never before been so gay and luxurious ; splendid equipages had never before SO crowded the streets ; and the theatres and concert-rooms had never been filled with such brilliant throngs. In truth, the rural gentry resorted in greater numbers to the metropolis at this time — some to avoid the sight and sound of the misery which surrounded their country seats, and which British laws almost ex- pressly enacted they should not relieve ; some to get out of reach of an exasperated and louseless peasantry. Any stranger, arri- ving in those days, guided by judicious friends only through fashionable streets and squares, introduced only to proper circles, would have said that Dublin must be the prosperous capital of some wealthy and happy country. The new Poor law was now on all hands admitted to be a failure ; — that is, a failure as to its ostensible purpose; for its real pur- pose, reducing the body of the people to "able-bodied pauperism," it had been no failure at all, but a complete success. Near- ly ten millions sterling had now been ex- pended under the several relief acts ; — ex- pended mostly in salaries to officials ; the rest laid out in useless work, or in providing rations for a short time to induce small farmers to give up their laud ; which was the condition of such relief. Instead of ten millions in three years, if twenty millions had been advanced in the first year, and ex- pended on useful labor, (that being the sum which had been devoted promptly to turn- ing wild the West India negroes,) the whole famine-slaughter might have been averted, and the whole advance would havf been easily repaid to the Truasury.* Long before the Government Commis- sioners had proclaimed their law a failure, the writers in the Nation had been endea- voring to turn the minds of the people towards the only real remedy for all their evils — that is, a combined movement to pre- vent the export of provisions, and to resist process of ejectment. This involved a de- nial of rent and refusal of rales; involved, in other words, a root and branch revolu- tion, socially and politically. Such revolutionary ideas could only be justified by a desperate necessity, and by the unnatural and fatal sort of connection between Irish landlords and Iris!; tenants. Tin' peasantry of England, of Scotland, and of Ireland, stand in three several rela- tions towards the lords of their soil. In England they are simply the emancipated serfs and villeins of the feudal system ; * Of the £10,000.000 advanced by the Treasury, three millions had been repaid by rates in L854. What may have been refunded since, it is not easy to learn with any accuracy. The accounts between Ireland and the Imperial Treasury are kept in England. :v' ^ ■ sLi^gfe PROJECTS FOR STOPPING EXPORT OF GRAIN. 577 ft ' JP r w never knew any other form of social polity, nor any other lords of the soil, since the Norman conquest. As England, however, prosecuted her conquests by degrees in the other two kingdoms, she found the free Celtic system of cl unship ; and as rebellion after rebellion was crashed, her statesmen insisted npon regarding the chiefs of (dans as feudal lords, and their clansmen as their vassals or tenants. In Scotland, the chiefs gladly assented to this view of the ease, and the Mac Callum More became, nothing loath, Duke of Argyle, and owner of the territory which had been the tribe lands of his clan. Owing mainly to the fact that estates in Scotland were not so tempting a prey as the rich tracts of Ireland — and partly owing also to the Scottish people «g having generally become Protestants on the change of religion — there was but little change in the ruling families ; and the Scot- ti-.li clansmen, now become "tenantry," paid their duties to the heads of their own kin- dred as before. So it has happened that to this day there is no alienation of feeling, or distinction of race, to exasperate the lot of the poor cultivators of the soil. In Ireland, wherever the chiefs turned Pro- testant, and chose to accept "grants" of their tribe-lands at the hands of British kings, (as the Do Burghs and O'Briens,) much the same state of things took place for a while. Bat Ireland never submitted to English dominion as Scotland has done ; and there were continual " rebellions," (so the English termed our national resistance,) followed by extensive confiscations. Many hundreds of great estates in Ireland have thus been confiscated twice, and three times ; and the new proprietors were Englishmen, and, in a portion of Ulster, Scotchmen. These, of course, had no common interest or sympathy with the people, whom they considered and called, " the Irish enemy." Still, while Ireland had her own Parliament, and the landlords resided at home, the state of affairs was tolerable ; but when the Act. of "Union," in 1800, concentrated the pride and splendor of the empire at London, aud made Englaud the great field of ambition and distinction, most of our grandees re- sided out of Ireland, kept agents and bail- iffs there, wrung the utmost farthing out 73 of the defenceless people, and spent it elsewhere. Now, it never would have entered the mind of any rational or just man, at this late date, to call in question the title to long-ago confiscated estates ; nor, suppos- ing those titles proved bad, would it have been possible to find the right owners. But when the system was found to work so fatally — when hundreds of thousands of people were lying down and perishing in the midst of abundance, and superabundance, which their own hands had created, society itself stood dissolved. That form of so- ciety was not only a failure, but an intoler- able oppression, and cried aloud to be cut up by the roots and swept away. Those who thought thus, had reconciled their minds to the needful means — that is, a revolution, as fundamental as the French revolution, and to the wars and horrors in- cident to that. The horrors of war, they knew, were by no means so terrible as the horrors of peace which their own eyes had seen ; they were ashamed to see their kins- men patiently submitting to be starved to death, and longed to see blood How, if it were only to show that blood still flowed in Irish veins. The enemy began to take genuine alarm at these violent doctrines — especially as they found that the people were taking them to heart ; and already, iu Clan; County, mobs were Stopping the transport of grain towards the seaports. If rents should cease to be levied, it was clear that not only would England lose her five millions steriiug per annum of absentee rents, but mortgagees, fundholders, insurance companies, and the like, would lose dividends, interests, bonus, and profits. There was then in England a gentleman wdio was iu the habit of writing able but sanguinary exhortations to Minis- ters, with the signature " S. G. 0." His addresses appeared in the Times, and were believed to influence considerably the coun- sels of Government. In November, 18-17, this " S. G. 0." raised the alarm, and call- ed for prompt, coercion iu Ireland. Here is one sentence from a letter of his reverence — for " S. G. 0." was a clergyman : — " Lord John may safely believe me when I say that the prosperity — nay, almost the •> * ' & * r X rf-s.' it ' A\r( ■f<&> K r 1 } : S I ' — — -»v ' " "> sy ; .--hJi ^. •-■. V •'■' 1 f .Z& ii<2 f^ 3& 578 HISTORY OF IRELAND. ''K' very existence of many insurance societies, the positive salvation from utter rain of many, very many mortgagees, depends on gome instant steps to make life ordinarily secure in Ireland ; of course, I only mean life in that class of it in which individuals effect insurances and give mortgages." Iu short, his reverence meant high life. Lord Clarendon, as Parliament was not then sitting, issued an admonitory address, wherein he announced that, : — "The constabulary will be increased in nil disturbed districts, (whereby an addi- tional burden will be thrown upon the rates,) military detachments will be stationed wher- ever necessary, and efficient patrols main- tained ; liberal rewards will be given for in- formation," &c In the meantime, large forces were con Centrated at points where the spirit, of re- sistance showed itself ; for a sample of which we take a paragraph from the Tippcrary Fret Press: — " A large military force, under the civil authority, has seized upon the produce of snch farms in Boytonrath, as owed rent and arrears to the late landlord, Mr. Roe, and the same will he removed to Dublin, and sold there, if not, redeemed within fourteen days. There are two hundred soldiers and their officers garrisoned in the mansion house id Rockwell." Whereupon, the Nation urged the people to begin calculating whether ten times the whole British army would he enough to act as bailiffs and drivers everywhere at once ; or, whether, if they did, the proceeds of the distress might answer expectation. In fact, it, was obvious that it' the enemy should he forced to employ their forces in this way over the island to lilt, and carry the whole harvests of Ireland, and that, over roads broken up and bridges broken down to ob- struct them, and with the daily risk of meet- ing hands of ahlc-hodied paupers to dispale their passage the service would soon have been wholly demoralized, and after three months of such employment, the remnant of the army might, have lieen destroyed. Parliament was called hastily together. Her Majesty told the Houses that, there Were atrocious ciimes in Ireland- -a spirit ot insubordination, an organized resistance to " legal rights ; " and, of course, that she re- quired "additional powers " for the protec- tion of life — that is, high life. The meaning of this was u new Coercion hill. It was carried without, delay, and with unusual unanimity; and it, is instructive hero to note the difference between a Whig in power, and a Whig out. When Sir Robert Peel had proposed his Coercion hill the year In-fore, it, hail been vehemently op- posed by Lord John Rnssell and Lord Grey, It was time to have done with coercion, they had said ; Ireland had lieen " misgov- erned : " there had been too many Anns acts; it was "justice" that, was wanted now, and they, the Whigs, were the men to dispense il. Karl Grey, speaking of the last Coercion bill, (it, was brought ill by the other party,) said, emphatically, (see debate iii the Lords, March -:s, 1846,) " that, mea- sures of severity had been tried long enough;" and repeated with abhorrence, tin' list of coercive measures passed since 1800, all without effect ; how, in 1S0O, the Habeas Corpus act was suspended, the act for the suppression of the rebellion beiifg Still in force ; how coercion was renewed iu 1801 ; continued again in ISO I ; how the Insurrection act was passed iii 1807, which (rave the Lord-Lieutenant full and legal power to place any district under martial law, to suspend trial by jury, and make it a transportable offence to be out of doors from sunset to sunrise ; how this act, remain- ed in force till 1810; how it was renewed in 1814 — continued in '16, 46, 'IT — reviv- ed in '--!, and continued through '2.'i, '-J1, and '2;'); — how another Insurrection act, was needed in 1833, was renewed in '34, and expired but live years ago. " And again," continued this Whig, "again in 1846, We are called on to renew it I" Hor- rible ! revolting to a Liberal out of place I "We must look further," continued Karl Grey — vociferating from the Opposition bench— -"we must look to (he root of the evil ; the slate of law ami the habits of the people, in respect to the occupation of land, ore almost at the roots of the disorder ; — ■ it was undeniable thai the clearance system prevailed to a great extent, in Ireland ; anil that such thing's could take place, he cared not how large a population might be suf- '% PQ^c . . 3 T rV fered to grow np in a particular district, was a disgrace to a civilized country." And Lord .John Russell in the Commons had said, on the same occasion: "If they were to deal with the question of the crimes, they were bound to consider also whether there were not measures that might lie in- troduced which would reach the causes of those crimes" — and he horrified the House by an account, he gave thcni of "a whole village containing two hundred and seventy persons, razed to the ground, and the entire of that large number of indviduals sent adrift, on the high road, to sleep under the hedges, without even being permitted the privilege of boiling their potatoes, or ob- taining shelter among the walls of the houses." Disgusting I — to a Whig states- man in opposition ! Now, these very same men had had the en- tire control and government of Ireland for a year and a half. Not a single measure had been proposed by them in that time to reach "the cause of those Crimes ; " not a single security had been given " in respect of the occupation of laud ;" not one cheek to that terrible "clearance system," which was "a disgrace to a civilized country." On the c trary, every measure was carefully cal- culate,! in accelerate the clearance system ; and tin: Government had helped that sys- tem ruthlessly by the employment of their tmops and police. They bad literally swept the people oil' the land by myriads upon myriads ; and now, when their relief acts were admittedly a failure, and when mul- titudes of homeless peasants, transformed into paupers, were at length making the landed men, and mortgagees, and Jews, anil insurance officers, tremble for their gains — the Liberal Whig Ministry had nothing to propose but more jails, more handcuffs, more transportation. The new Coercion bill was in every re- spect like tic rest of the series ; in Ireland, tlie-e bills are all as much like one another as one policeman's carabine is lil< other. Disturbed districts were to be proclaimed by tin- Lord-Lieutenant He might proclaim a whole county, or the whole thirty-two coun- ties. Once proclaimed, everybody in that district was to be within doors, (whether he bad a house or not,; Iroiu dusk till morning. Any one found not at home, to be arrested and transported. If arms were found about any man's premises, and he could not, prove that they were put, there without his knowl- edge — arrest, imprisonment, and transport- ation. All fhe arms in the district to bo brought in on proclamation to that effect, and piled ill the police offices. Lord Lieu- tenant to quarter on the district as many ad- ditional police, inspectors, detectives, and sub -inspectors, as he might think lit ; offer such rewards to informers as he might think fit ; — and charge all the expense upon the tenantry, to be levied by rates — no pari of these rates to be charged to the landlords — con tabulary to collect them at the point of the bayonet ; — and these rates to be in ad- dition to Poor-rates, cess, tithe, {rent-charge,) rent, and imperial taxes. The passage of the Coercion bill at, iho instance of the landlords, and the break-up of the Irish Confederation, occasioned the r tablishment of the United Irishman, an avowed organ of insurrection. Events for a time moved rapidly. Soon there bnr«1 in upon us news of the February revolution in Paris, and the flight of King Louis Philippe; for between the French people and the Irish there has always been an elec- tric telegraph, whose signals never fail ; and British statesmen had not forgotten that it was the first great French revolution which cost them the war of '98. The February revolution, also, at once obliterated the feuds of the Irish Confederation. Nobody would now be listened to there, who proposed any other modi' of redress for Irish grievances than the sword. A resolution was brought up, with the sanction of the committee, and passed with enthusiastic acclamation, that the confederate clubs should become armed and officered, so that each man should know his right hand and his left-hand com- rade, and the man whose word he should obey. All the second-rale cities, as well as Dublin, and all the country towns, were now lull of chilis, which assumed military and rev- olutionary names — the " Sarslield Club," the "Emmet Club," and so forth ; I the business of arming proceeded with CI m- meiidable activity. Such young men as could afford it, provided themselves with rilles and bayonets ; those who had not tho 1% r i : t c mt ' C ■Li ' &M^^W^ w ttfe -^i (•;! y.- 1 fir m 580 HISTORY OF IRELAND. meaus for this, got pike-lieads made, and there was much request for ash poles. What was still more alarming to the enemy, the soldiers in several garrisons were giving unmistakable symptoms of sharing in the general excitement ; not Irish soldiers alone, but English and Scottish, who had Chartist ideas. A large part of the circulation of the United Irishman, in spite of all the exertions of the officers, was iu military barracks. Undoubtedly, it behooved the British Government, if it intended to hold Ireland, to adopt some energetic measures ; and, as it certainly did so intend, these measures were not wanting. New regiments were poured into Ireland, of course ; and Dublin held an army of ten thousand men, infantry, cavalry, artillery, and engineers. The barrack accommoda- tions being insufficient, many large buildings were taken as temporary barracks ; the deserted palaces of the Irish aristocracy — as Aldborongh House on the northeast — the deserted halls of manufactures and trade in " The Liberty," and the Linen Hall, were occupied by detachments. The Bank of Ireland — our old Parliament House — had cannon mounted over the entablatures of its stalely Ionic colonnades ; and the vast and splendid Custom House, not being now needed for trade, (our imports being all from the "sister country," and our exports all to the same,) was quite commodious as a barrack and arsenal. The quiet quadrangles of Trinity College were the scene of daily parades ; and the loyal board of that institution gave up the wing which commands Westmoreland street, College street, and Dame street, to be occupied by troops. Superb squadrons of hussars, of lancers, and of dragoons, rode continually through and around the city ; infantry practiced platoon-firing in the squares ; heavy guns, strongly guarded, were forever rolling along the pavement ; and parties of horse artillery showed all mankind how quickly and dexterously they could wheel and aim, and load and fire at the crossings of the streets. These military demonstrations, and the courts of "Law," constituted the open and avowed powers and agencies of the But there was a secret and subterranean machinery. The editor of the World was now on full pay, and on terms of close intimacy at the Castle and Viceregal Lodge. His paper was gratuitously furnished to all hotels and public-houses by meaus of Secret Service money. Dublin swarmed with de- tectives ; they went at night to get their instructions at the Castle, from Colonel Brown, head of the police department ; and it was one of their regular duties to gain ad- mittance to the Clubs of the Confederation, where it afterwards appeared that they had been the most daring counselors of treason and riot. Frankly, and at once, the Confederation accepted the only policy thereafter possible, and acknowledged the meaning of the European Revolutions. On the 15th of March, O'Brien moved an Address of Con- gratulation to the victorious French people ; and ended his speech with these words : — " It would be recollected that a short lime ago he thought it his duty to deprecate all attempts to turn the attention of the people to military affairs, because it seemeU to him that, in the then condition of the country, the only effect of leading the people's mind to what was called ' a guerrilla warfare,' would be to encourage some of the misguided peasantry to the commission of murder. Therefore, it was that he de- clared he should not be a party to giving such a recommendation ; but the state of affairs was totally different now, and he had no hesitation in declaring that he thought the minds of intelligent young men should be turned to the consideration of such questions as, how strong places can be captured, and weak ones defended — how supplies of food and ammunition can be cut off from an enemy — and how they can be secured to a friendly force. The time was also come when every lover of his country should come forward opeidy, and proclaim his; willingness to be enrolled as a member of a national guard. No man, however, should tender his name as a member of that national guard unless he was prepared to do two things — one, to preserve the state from anarchy ; the other, to be ready to die for the defence of his country." Two days after this meeting was Saint 1 \t t£5 „v-<. ' fm & '& tMS.Ctf.«N(aOs»5, W'^k ■ ^^^^ife^ O BRIEN S LAST APPEARANCE IN PARLIAMENT. .->':' Patrick's Day. A meeting of the citizens of Dublin was announced for that anniversary, to adopt an address, from Dublin to Paris, but was adjourned for two or three days to allow time for negotiations to unite all repealers of the two parties in the demon- si ration. Lord Clarendon, doubtless under the advice of his Privy-Councillor of the World, thought it would be a good oppor- tunity to strike terror by a military display. He pretended to apprehend that Saint Patrick's Day would be selected for the first day of Dublin barricades ; and the troops were kept under arms — the cavalry, with horses ready saddled iu all the bar- racks, waiting for the moment to crush the first movement in the blood of our citizens. The meeting was adjourned ; but there was no intention of abandoning it. O'Brien had offered, even in case of a Proclamation forbidding it, to attend and take the chair ; and what he promised, the enemy well kuew lie would perforin. The meeting was held without interrup- tion ; but it was well known that the public buildings, and some private houses, were filled with detachments under arms. These addresses, both from the Confederation and from the city, were to be presented in Paris to the President of the Provisional Govern- ment, M. de Lamartine ; and O'Brien, Meagher, and an intelligent tradesman, of high character and independence of mind, named Hollywood, were appointed a deputa- tion to Paris. All this, it was evident, could not go on long. The Clubs were, in the meantime, rapidly arming themselves with rifles ; and blacksmiths' forges were prolific of pike- heads. The Confederates hoped, and the Government feared, that no armed collision would be made necessary until September, when the harvest would be all cut, and when the commissariat of the people's war, the cause of the war, and the prize of the war, would be all bound up in a sheaf togeth- er. But the foe to be dealt with was no weak fool. The Government understood these views thoroughly, and resolved to pre- cipitate the issue somehow or other. One morning, after that meeting of Dublin citizens, three men, Smith O'Brien, Mr. Meagher, and Mr. Mitchel, were waited on by a police-magistrate and requested to give bail that they would stand their trial on a charge of sedition. The ground of prose- cution in the two former cases was the language held at the meeting of the Irish Confederation, (quoted above in part.) In the third case, there were two distinct indictments, for two articles in the United Irishman. Before the trials, O'Brien and Meagher went to France and presented their address to the Provisional Government.* On their return, O'Brien walked into the British Parliament, and found that august body engaged in discussing a new bill " for the further security of Her Majesty's Crown." Ministers, in fact, had determined to meet the difficulty by a new "law," the Treason-felony law, by which the writing and printing, or open and advised speak- ing, of incitements to insurrection in Ireland should be deemed " felony," punishable by transportation. The bill was introduced by the Whigs, and was warmly supported by the Tories ; Sir Robert Peel declaring that what Ireland needed was to make her national aspirations not only a crime, but an ignominious crime ; so as to put this species of offence on a footing with arson, or forgery, or waylaying with intent to murder. O'Brien rose to address the House, and never, since first Parliament met. in Westminster, was heard such a chorus of frantic and obscene outcries. He persisted, however, and made himself heard ; and those to whom the name and fame of that good Irishman are dear, will always remember with pride that his last ^ * These were mere addresses of congratulation and of sympathy. De Lamartine made a highly poetic, but rather unmeaning reply to them. He has since, in his history, violently misrepresented them ; being, in fact, a mere Anglo-Frenchman. Mr O'Brien has already convicted him of these misrepresentations. We content ourselves here with pronouncing the two following sentences poetic fictions : " Les Irlandais, unis aux chartistes anglais, se precipitaient sur le continent et cherchaient des complicities insurrec- tionnelles en France, a la fois parmi les demagogues au nom de la liberte, et parmi les chefs du parti Cath- olique an nom du Catholicisme." And again : " L'- Angleterre n'attendait pas avec moins do sollicitude la reception que ferait Lamartine aux insurges Ir- landais, partis de Dublin pou- venir demander des encouragements et des armei i la Republiijue fran- chise." :.». . -A-t* . Ciiyt4liu j, b . \-3\j ■ '■•'■■ .■ " U •" ;V 582 HISTORY OF IRELAND. utterance in the London Parliament was one of haughty defiance, in the name of his oppressed and plundered country. He avowed that he had advised his country- men to arm, and fight for their right to live upon their own soil ; and he added, amidst the horrible yells of the House : — " I conceive that it is the peculiar duty of the Irish people to obtain the possession of arms at a time when you tell them you are prepared to crush their expression of opinion, not by argument, but by brute force." The bill was passed into " Law," by im- mense majorities ; and, thereafter, an Irish repealer of the Union was to be a " felon." O'Brien returned to Dublin. The deputies were received by a multitudinous and en- thusiastic meeting in the Dublin Music Hall, and Meagher presented to the citizens of Dublin, with glowing words, a maguilieenl flag, the Irish Tricolor, of Green, White, and Orange, surmounted by a pike-head. The trials came on. They were to be before special juries, struck by t he process before described. O'Brien and Meagher were first tried, and as their "sedition" had been so open and avowed — and as the Whig Ministers were extremely reluctant to pack juries if they could help it — the Crown officers left on each of the two juries om repealer. It was enough. A true repealer knew that no Irishman Could commit any offence against a foreign Queen ; and in (arh case the one repealer stood out, refused to convict, though he should be starved to death ; and the traversers, amidst cheering multitudes, were escorted triumphantly from the Four Courts to the Confederate Com- mittee Rooms, where they addressed the people, and promised to repeat and improve upon all their seditions. The excitement of the country was intense. The defeat of the " Government " was celebrated all over the country by bonfires and illuminations, and the clubs became more diligent in arming themselves ; but Mr. Monahan, the Attorney-General, foamed ami raged. Next came the two trials of Mr. Mitch el ; and it was very evident to the Government that there must be no possibility of mistake or miscarriage here. The time, indeed, was become exceedingly dangerous, and the people rapidly rising into that state of high excitement in which ordinary motives and calculations fail, and a single act of despera* tion may precipitate a revolution. As usual in such cases, the British Government had recourse to brutality, in order to strike terror. Police magistrates were ordered to arrest parties of yonng men practising at targets in the neighborhood of country towns, and march them in custody through the streets. Men in Dublin were seized upon and dragged to jail on the charge of saying " halt" to the clubmen marching to a public meeting — it was "training in military evolutions " under the act ; and one young man was actually brought to trial, and transported for seven years, on an indictment charging him, for that he had, in a private room in Dublin, said to thirteen nt her young men, then and there ranged in line, these fatal words : " Bight shoulders forward," contrary to the peace of our lady, the Queen, and so forth. On the two juries being struck for the trial of Mr. Mitchcl, it was at once evident « that upon each of them would be one or two men who desired the independence of their country ; and, perhaps, one or two others of whom the Castle could not be perfectly sure. But, as the new " Treason- felony" act had now become law, the Government suddenly abandoned the two prosecutions already commenced, and arrest- ed Mr. Mitehel on a charge of treason under the new act. On this occasion it was determined to pro- ceed, not by a special, but by a common jury ; which latter method, as was supposed, gave the sheriff more clear and unquestioned power of fraudulently packing the jury. For the jury was to lie closely packed, of course. Lord John Russell and Mr. Macanley, who had been in opposition in 18-14, ami who had then mi earnestly de- nounced the ]iackiug of juries in Ireland, were now in office ; were responsible for the government of the country, and understood perfectly that upon the careful packing of this jury depended the Queen's Government in Inland. The judges had already appointed the day for holding the commission to try cases in Dublin ; and the sheriff had sum- moned his select huudred and fifty jurors V W. v\\V> I "■ < c > 'C c ■^ES^rr^ TcM ,Ci*u«ais,o, j> ' ,,j :.'ii: i:»i ,: "',T rfc, to try the cases ; but after the arrest of this new prisoner, and when the sheriff knew 1 -\1 thai important business was to be done, he ,QjS\ altered his list, and summoned a new set, so that all was ready for the trial. Ill the meantime, Lord Clarendon was busily getting up, through the Grand Masters of the Orangemen, loyal addresses, and declaratious against " rebels " and " traitors." In fact, the Orange farmers and burghers of the North were fast be- coming diligent students of the United Irish- man, and although they and their Order had been treated with some neglect of late both by England and by the Irish aristo- cracy they were now taken into high favor, and anus were very secretly issued to some of their lodges from Dublin Castle.* fj<0 But this needed prudence ; for Protestant Repeal Associations had been formed in Dublin, in Drogheda, and even in Lurgan, a great centre of Orangeism. To counteract the progress we had made in this direction, the aristocracy and the clergy were incessant in their efforts, and the Protestants were assured that if Ireland should throw off the dominion of Queen Victoria, we would all instantly become vassals to the woman who sit t eth upon Seven Hills. The Viceroy, at the same time, took care to frighten the moneyed citizens of Dublin and other towns by placards warning them against the atrocious designs of " Commuu- ists" and "Jacobins," whose only object, his lordship intimated, was plunder, f Whether the Whigs and " Liberals" who then ruled the English Councils were really desirous to give a fair trial to their political enemy, or whether they only pretended this desire — or what communications took place i «C $' time : one case of it only ever came clearly to light. |Yt^ h It was a shipment of the hundred stand of arms to the Belfast Orangemen ■(•These placards may be attributed to Lord Claren- don, without scrapie. They were printed ljy the Government printer, and paid for out of our taxes. Bat it is quite possible that the Viceroy, if charged with these things, would deny them, because they were done through a third party— perhaps, Birch. In like manner, he denied all knowledge of the shipment of muskets to the Belfast Orangemen— they were sent, however, from his Castle, and through a subordinate official of his household. I- 0* v. Nil but we find that only two days before this most foul pretence of a trial, Lord John Russell, in answer to questions in the House of Commons, declared that he had written to " his noble friend," (Lord Clarendon,) that " he trusted there would not arise any charge of any kind of unfairness, as to the composition of the juries ; as for his own part, he would rather see those parties acquitted, than that there should be any such unfairness." J Lord Clarendon, however, informed him that for this once he could not adhere to the Whig maxims — that a conviction must be had, per fas et nefas. The venerable Robert Holmes, brother- in-law of the Emmets, defended the prison- er ; but no defence could avail there. Of course, he challenged the array of jurors, on the ground of fraud ; but the Attorney- General's brother, Stephen Monahan, clerk in the Attorney-General's office, and also one Wheeler, clerk in the Sheriff's office, had been carefully sent, out of the city to a dis- tant part of Ireland ; and Baron Lefroy was most happy to avail himself of the de- fect of evidence to give his opinion that the panel was a good and honest, panel. The Crown used its privilege of peremptory challenge to the very uttermost ; every Cath- olic, and most Protestants, who answered to their names, were ordered to " stand by." There were thirty-nine challenges ; and of these but nineteen were Catholics, all the Catholics who answered to their names were promptly set aside, and twenty other gentle- men, who, although Protestants, were sus- pected of national feeling — that is to say, the Crown dared not go to trial before the people, Catholic or Protestant. The twelve men finally obtained by this sifting process had amongst them two or three Englismcn ; the rest were faithful slaves of the Castle, and all Protestants, of the most Orange dye. Of course, there was a "verdict,'' of guilty ; and a sentence of fourteen years' transportation. The facts charged were easily proved ; they were patent, notorious, often repealed, and perfectly deliberate ; insomuch, that jurymen who felt themselves $ Debate of 23d May. J ffo m ti >-- m 6? $.&> MU» to be subjects of the Queen of England, could not do otherwise than convict. On the other hand, any Irish nationalist must acquit. Never before or since have the Government of the foreign enemy and the Irish people met on so plain an issue. Never before was it, made so manifest that the enemy's Government maintains its suprem- acy over Ireland, by systematically break- ing the " law," even its own law, defiling its temples of justice, and turning the judges of t lie land into solemn actors iu a most im- moral kind of play. An armed steamer waited in the river, on the day of Mr. Mitchel's sentence; the whole garrison of Dublin was under arms, on pretence of a review in the Park ; a place was secretly designated for the prison- er's embarkation below the city, where bridges over a canal, and over the entrance to the Custom House docks could be raised, ia order to preveut any concourse of the people in that direction ; and, two or three hours after the sentence, Air. Mitchel was carried off, and never saw his country any more. The enemy were themselves somewhat surprised at the ease with which they had borne him out of the heart of Dublin, at noon-day, in chains ; and evidently thought they would have but small trouble in crush- ing any attempt at insurrection afterwards. The confederates waited until "the time" should come ; and some of them, indeed, were fully resolved to make an insurrection in the harvest ; yet, as might have been ex- pected, "the time " never came. The indi- vidual desperation of Dillon, Meagher, O'Gorman, Leyne, Reilly, could achieve nothing while the people were dispirited both by famine and by lung submission to insolent oppression. " When will Ike lime come ? " exclaimed Martin, " the time about which your orators so boldly vaunt, amid the fierce shouts of your applause ? If it come not when one of you, selected by your enemies as your champion, is sent to perish among thieves and murderers, for the crime of loving and defending his native land — then it will never come — never." During the trial, Dublin was under a complete reign of terror. Reilly was ar- rested on the charge of saying to men of his club, when turning into their place of meeting — "left wheel." It was a term of military drilling, though the clubmen were without weapons. He was kept in a sta- tion-house all night ; and bail was refused in the morning. Iu the course of the day he was fully committed for trial, and bail was taken. During the whole week, the whole large force of the city police had or- ders to stop all processions, to arrest citi- zens, on any or on no charge ; and gene- rally to " strike terror." Iu the meantime, every day was bringing iu more terrible news of the devastation of the famine, and evictions of the tenantry. " On Friday," says the Tipperary Vindicator, (describing one of these scenes,) " the landlord appear- ed upon the ground, attended by the sheriff and a body of policemen, and commenced the process of ejectment," &e. On that morning, and at that spot, thirty persons were dragged out of their houses, and the houses pulled down. One of the evicted tenants was a widow — "a solvent tenant comes aud offers to pay the arrears due by the widow ; but a desire on Mr. SeullyW part to consolidate, prevented the arrange- ment." The same week, a writer in the Cork Ex- aminer, writing from Skibbereen, says : — " Our town presents nothing but a mov- ing mass of military and police, conveying to and from the Court House crowds of fa- mine culprits. I attended the court for a few hours this day. The dock was crowded with the prisoners, not one of whom, when called up for trial, was able to support him- self in front of the dock. The sentence of the court was received by each prisoner with apparent satisfaction. Even transport- ation appeared to many to be a relaxation from their sufferings." On Tuesday, of the same week — it being then well known that the Crown would pack their jury — a meeting of the citizens of Dub- lin was held at the Royal Exchange, to pro- test ; and Mr. John O'Connell went so far as to move this resolution : " Resetted, That we consider the right of trial by a jury as a most sacred inheritance : in the security of person, property, and. character." The meeting then proceeded to protest against " the practice of arranging juries to obtain U ! r.i . ft * fwe. ^—iAe.cuA'.vs.i,! P*lp &\ convictions." During the same week the poor houses, hospitals, jails, and many build- ings taken temporarily for the purpose, were overflowing with starving wretches ; and fevered patients were occupying the same bed with famished corpses ; — but on every day of the same week large cargoes of grain and cattle were leaving every port for Eng- land. The Orangemen of the North were holding meetings to avow hostility to repeal- ers and to "Jezebel," and eagerly crying, "To hell with the Pope 1 " Thus British policy was in full and successful operation at every point, on the day when the Government- seized on its first victim, under a new law specially made for his case, and carried him off in fetters, under the false pretence of a trial and conviction. CHAPTER LXI. 18-18—1849. Reconstitution of the Irish Confederation— New Na- tional Journals Established — The Tribune — The Fz'on — New Suspension of Habeas Corpus — Numerous Arrests — O'Brien Attempts Insurrection — Ballingarry — Arrest and Trial of O'Brien and Others — Conquest of the Island — Destruction of the People — Incumbered Estates Act — Its Effects — No Tenant-Right — " Rate-in- Aid " — Queen's Vnit to Ireland — Places Given to Catholics — Catholic Judges— Their Office and Duty — Ireland "Prosper- ous " — Statistics of the Famine Slaughter — De- struction ot Three Millions of Souls — Flying from " Prosperity." The fierce enthusiasm of the Irish Con- federates appeared to be redoubled after the removal of the first convicted " felon." They hoped, at least, that if they were re- strained from action then, it was to some good end, with some sure and well-defin- ed purpose ; and, assuredly, there were many thousands of men then in Ireland who longed and burned for that end and that purpose, to earn an honorable death. How the British system disappointed them even of an honorable death, remains still to be told. A man may die in Ireland of hunger, or of famine-typhus, or of a broken heart ; but to die for your country — the death didce tt decorum — to die ou a fair field, fighting for freedom and honor — to die the death ever of a defeated soldier, as Hofer died ; or so much as to mount the 71 gallows, like Robert Emmet, to pay the penalty of a glorious " treason " — even this was an euthanasia which British policy could no longer afford to an Irish Nationalist. Yet, with all odds against them — with the Irish gentry thoroughly corrupted or frightened out of their senses, and with the "Government" enemy obviously bent on treating our national aspiration as an igno- minious crime, worthy to be ranked only with the offences of burglars or pickpockets — still, there were men resolved to dare the worst and uttermost for but oue chance of rousing that down-trodden people to one manful effort of resistance against so grievous a tyranny. The Irish Confedera- tion reconstituted its council, and set itself more diligently than ever to the task of inducing the people to procure arms, with a view to a final struggle in the harvest. And as it was clear there was nothing the enemy dreaded so much as a bold and honest newspaper, which would expose their plots of slaughter, and turn their liberal pro- fessions inside out, it was, before all things, necessary to establish a newspaper to take the place of the United Irishman. It was a breach as deadly and imminent as ever yawned in a beleaguered wall ; but men were found prompt to stand in it. Within two weeks after Mitchel's trial, the Irish Tribune, was issued, edited by O'Dogh- erty and Williams, with Antisell and Savage' as contributors. In two weeks more, on the 24th of June, came forth another, and, perhaps, the ablest of our revolutionary organs — the Irish Felon. Its editor and proprietor was John Martin, a quiet country gentleman of the County Down, who had been for years connected with all national movements in Irelaud — the F^epeal Asso- ciation, the Irish Confederation — but who had never been roused to the pitch of desperate resistance till he saw the bold and dashing atrocity of the enemy on occasion of Mitchel's pretended trial and conviction. He came at last, along with many other quiet men, to the conclusion that the nation must now set its back to the wall. James Fintan Lalor, one of the most powerful writers of his day, came up from Kildare County to aid in conducting the Felon, and for five weeks thereafter, " Treason-felo i m p ■ a continued to be taught and enforced with great boldness and ability. But six weeks would have been too much for the patience of the Government. The police were ordered to forcibly stop the sale of papers by vendors in the streets ; and warrants were issued for the arrest of all the editors — Martin, Duffy, O'Dogherty, and Williams. The country was beginning to bristle with pikes ; men were praying for the whitening of the harvest ; and it was plain that, before the reign of "Law and Order" should begin, other terrible examples must be made ; other juries must be packed ; then, after thai, a Whig "Government" would surely begin to deal with Ireland in a conciliatory spirit 1 Throughout all these scenes the horrible (amine was raging as it had never raged before — the police and military, both in towus and in the country, were busily em- ployed in the service of ejecting tenants — pulling down their houses — searching out and seizing hidden weapons — and escorting convoys of grain and provisions to the sea- side, as through an enemy's country. Yet, rumors began to grow and spread, (much exaggerated rumors,) of a very general arming amongst the peasantry and the clubmen of the towns ; and the police had but small success in their searches for anus ; for, in fact, these were carefully built into stone walls, or carried to the grave-yards, with a mourning funeral escort, and buried in Collins, shrouded in well-oiled flannel, " in hope of a happy resurrection." The enemy thought it wisest not to wait for the harvest, and resolved to bring matters to a head at once. Accordingly, they asked Parliament to suspend the Habeas Carpus act in Ireland, so as to enable them to seize upon any person or number of persons whom they might think dangerous, and throw them into prison without any charge against, them. Parliament passed the bill at once ; and, in truth, it. is an ordinary procedure in Inland. Instantly, numerous warrants were placed in the hands of the omnipresent police ; and in every town and village in Ireland sudden arrests were made. The enemy had taken care to inform themselves who were the leading and active confederates all over the island, the Presidents and Secretaries of Clubs, and zealous organizers of drilling and pike exercise. These were seized from day to day, sometimes with circumstances of brutality, (which was useful to the enemy in "striking terror,") and thrust into dun- geons, or paraded before their fellow- citizens in chains. Martin and the other editors were in Newgate Prison, awaiting transportation as felons. Warrants were out against O'Brien and Meagher. Well, Ihe time had come at last. If Ire- land had one blow to strike, now was her day. Queen A r ictoria would not wait till the autumn should place in the people's hands the ample commissariat of their war, and decreed that if they would fight, they should, at least, light fasting. O'Brien was at the house of a friend in Wexford County when he heard of the suspension of the Habeas Corpus, and that a warrant had been issued for his own arrest. lie was quickly joined by Dillon and Meagher — Doheny and MacManus, with some others, betook themselves to the Tipperary hills* and "put themselves upon the country." O'Oorinan hurried to Limerick and Clare, to see what preparation existed there for the struggle, and to give it a direction, lleilly and Smith ranged over Kilkenny and Tipperary, eagerly seeking for insurrection- ary fuel ready to be kindled, and sometimes in communication with O'Brien and his party, at other times alone. To O'Brien, an account of his character, his services, and his value to the cause, the leadership seemed to be assigned by common consent. It is very easy for those who sat at home in those days, to criticise the proceedings of O'Brien, and the brave men who sought, in his company, for an honorable chance of throwing their lives away. But, it must be obvious, from the narrative of the three years' previous famine, what a hopeless sort of material for spirited national resistance was then to be found in the rural districts of Ireland. Bands of exterminated pea- sants, trooping to the already too full poor houses ; straggling columns of hunted wretches, with their old people, wives, and little ones, wending their way to Cork or Watertord, to take shipping for America ; ^ ^ % m m^ *••. a «: -..-A'u. j.J 1 ,, eXjgrJ* 5 &. m-M IV u IW ,0 O BRIEN ATTEMPTS INSURRECTION. 587 the people not yet ejected frightened and desponding, with no interest in the land they tilled, no property in the house above their heads, no food, no arras, with the slavish habits bred by long ages of oppression ground into their souls, and that momentary proud flush of passionate hope kindled by O'Coimell's agitation, long since dimmed and darkened by bitter hunger and hardship. It \v;is no easy task to rouse such a people as this. But there is in the Irish nature a wonderful spring and an in- tense vitality, insomuch that the chances of a successful insurrection in '48 may have been by no means desperate. At any rate, O'Brien and his comrades were resolute to give the people a chance, knowing full well that though they should be mown down in Jya] myriads by shot and steel, it would be a ■a better lot than poor houses and faniiuc- graves. It is needful, here, to speak of the Irish priesthood, and the part which they took in that last agony of our country, Hitherto, there has not been occasion to say much of the Catholic Church, though it makes so potent an element in Irish life, for the reason that in all vehement popular movc- 1f£ life *& M I'M f^ 588 HIST0BV OF IRELAND. £ i^:V — .« windows ; and Captain Trant, seeing that the people could not be controlled much longer by O'Brien, gave orders to fire. O'Brien rushed between the people and the window, climbed on the window, and once more called upon the police to sur- render. At the first volley from the house two men fell dead, and others were wounded, and the crowd on that side fell back, leaving O'Brien almost alone in the garden before the house. Traut was shortly afterwards reinforced by the force he expected. Mr, O'Brien's followers were by this time scattered and gone. He scarce made an effort even to provide for his own safety, and was soon arrested. In fact, there was no insurrection. The people in those two or three counties did not believe that he meant to fight ; and nothing would persuade them of that but some desperate enterprise. Yet, they were all ready and willing ; and, indeed, are at all times ready anil willing to fight against a dominion, which represents to them nearly all that they know of evil in this world. From the first moment that the repeal of the Habeas Corpus act placed the liberties of Irishmen at the disposal of Lord Clar- endon, the police received secret orders to arrest all leading confederates, both in town and country. A return was in the be- ginning of the next year, 1849, made to Parliament of the number of persons, and their names, who were imprisoned under that law. There were one hundred and eighteen of them ; including most of the very men on whom O'Brien might reason- ably have relied to sustain his movement. They were all imprisoned in various jails, without any charge, or one word of explan- ation ; removed in batches from one prison to some other, in a distant part of the island, with no other object, apparently, but to exhibit them in chains, and strike a wholesome terror into all spectators. To arrive at an accurate list and due selection of leading confederates, Lord Clarendon employed without scruple, both Post Office spying * and the regular service of detectives. * The return on this subject laid before Parliament only brings down the letter-spies as far as Lord Do Certain " trials " ensued in the usual style. First, the editors were brought to trial under the new " Treason-felony " act ; and O'Brien and his immediate comrades, under the Common Law, for the crime of " high treason," having appeared in arras against the " Government." The Govern- ment would gladly have dispensed with these trials, and removed their captives out of the way by a more summary process. But they must not forget that they were a " liberal " Government, aud had a reputa- tion to support before the world. Ireland was not Naples, but, indeed, a far more mis- erable country, and political offenders could by no means be suffered to perish by long confinement iu subterranean dungeons with- out trial. But, then, arose the question of juries; aud the "Government" knew full well that no jury iu Ireland impartially em- paneled according to law, and really repre- senting the nation, would convict one of those men for any offence whatsoever. They could not refuse a trial ; but one thing they could do, which the King of Naples had not yet learned — they coufd pack the juries. No doubt it was painful to have to pack juries again. Whig repu- tation could ill endure it. But they hoped this would be the last time. They knew that iu the eyes of Englishmen, the extreme urgency of the occasion would justify this one last tremendous fraud. When we say, " in the eyes of Englishmen," the reader will understand that we mean the ruling classes of Englishmen — namely, the landed interests, aud the monied and mercantile in- terests ; in short, those Englishmen whose opinions and interests are alone consulted in the government of that country. To them it was an absolute necessity of their ex- istence that Irish national movements should be crushed down by any means and all means. The Whig Government, in fact, felt that if they satisfied the men of rank and money in Englaud, they did the whole duty of Whigs ; and the men of rank and money were eagerly crying out to have the Grey, in 1843. But as the report on the occasion de- clared the Post Office espionnatje a needful branch of administration in Ireland, it may be assumed, without scruple, that it was resorted to not only by Lord Clarendon, but by every Viceroy since. Vm I \"5» v m y§\~jJ&?iAJn ARREST AND TRIAL OF O BRIEN AND OTHERS. V5A P # SH^ ^ •rv OJ last embers of tliat long national struggle stamped out. O'Brien, Meagher, MacManus, and 0'- Donohoe were to have their trial before a special commission in Clonmel, the capital of Tipperary. On the details of these trials we need not dwell ; because they were on the same pattern with other scenes of tliis same kind already narrated. The officials of the Crown showed a stern, dog- ged determination to disregard every re- monstrance, to refuse every application, and to do the work intrusted to them in the most coarse, insolent, and thorough-going style. For example, Mr. "Whiteside, O'- Brien's counsel, reminded the Court "that, in England, persons charged with high treason are allowed a copy of the jurors' panel, and a list of the witnesses to be examined on tlio part of the Crown." Here is oue extract from the report of the "trial":— " The learned counsel put it to the Court, whether Mr. O'Brien, under trial in a country said to be under the same Govern- ment and laws as England, should not have the same privilege which he would enjoy, as a matter of right, if he happened to be tried on the other side of the channel. " Tlie Court decided that the prisoner was not entitled to the privilege." When the clerk read the names of the jury-panel, Mr. O'Brien, of course, chal- lenged the array, ou the ground of fraud ; and, of course, the Court ruled against him. " Mr. Whiteside stated that it made little difference whether his client were tried by a jury selected from a panel thus consti- tuted, or taken and shot through the head ou the high road. ±so less than one hun- dred Catholics had been struck off the panel, and so few left on, that Mr. O'- Brien's right to challenge was now little better than a farce. This objection was also overruled — Chief Justice Blackburne having decided that the panel was properly made out." O'Brien, whose mind was made up to meet any fate, stood in the dock during this nine days' trial, with a haughty calm- ness. What thoughts passed through that proud heart as the odious game proceeded, no human eye will ever read ; but of one thing we may be sure — his grief, shame, and indignation were not for himself, but for the down-trodden country where such a scene could be enacted in the open day, and against the will of nine-tenths of its in- habitants. There followed, in due course, the usual barbarous death-sentence : — "That sentence is, that you, William Smith O'Brien, be taken from hence to the place from whence you came, and be thence drawn on a hurdle to the place of execution, and be there hanged by the neck until you are dead ; and that after- wards your head shall be severed from your body, and your body divided into four quarters, to be disposed of as Her Majesty shall think fit. And may the Lord have mercy on your soul." He hears it unmoved as a statue ; inclines his head in a stately bow ; politely takes leave of his counsel, and returns to his prison. Again, and again, and again, the same process was performed in all its parts. MacManus was next tried, then O'Donohoe, then Meagher ; their juries were all carefully packed ; they were all sentenced to be hanged ; and they all met the announce- ment of their fate as men ought. For more than a month these trials went on, from day to day ; and it was the 23d of October when the last sentence was pro- nounced. A strong garrison of cavalry, in- fantry, and artillery occupied the town, and inclosed the scene with a hedge of steel. Outside, the people muttered deep curses, and chafed with impotent rage. A few daring spirits, headed by O'Mahony, once contemplated an attack and rescue ; but the people had been too grievously frightened, and too effectually starved by the Govern- ment, to be equal to so dashiug an exploit ; and so that solemn and elaborate insidt was once more put upon our name and nation ; and tl'.e four men who had sought to save their people from so abject a condition, lay undisturbed in Clonmel jail, sentenced to death. And whosoever has studied even the imperfect sketch given in these pages of the jotent and minutely-elaborated system of oppression that pressed upon that nation at every point, ht-- ((?. yt^ HISTORY OP IRELAND. watching over every man, woman, and child, at their uprising and downlying, so as to be enabled to foresee and to baffle even the slightest approach to combination for a na- tional purpose* — will assuredly not wonder at the utter and abject helplessness of the nation, in presence of so cruel an outrage. The newspaper editors were still to be " tried." In the months of October and November, 1848, Duffy, of the Nation, Williams and O'Doherty, of the TVibwne, and Martin, of the Felon, were successively brought up for trial in the City Court House, of Green street. Their newspapers had been suppressed weeks before, their offices broken up, their types, and presses, and books seized. O'Doherty and Martin were " convicted " by well-packed juries, con- taining not a single Catholic. In the cases of Duffy and Williams, the enemy ventured to leave one or two Catholics on the juries. Williams was acquitted ; Duffy's jury dis- agreed, and he was retained in prison till a more tractable jury could be manufactured. Again he was brought to trial, and again the jury disagreed. Still he was kept in custody, though his health was rapidly fail- ing ; and, at hist, when all apprehension of trouble seemed to be over, and the more dangerous conspirators were disposed of, the " Government " yielded to a memorial on his behalf, and abandoned the prosecution. In the matter of those sentenced to death, Ministers, after much deliberation, decided on sparing their lives, and commuting their punishment to transportation for life. This was done under the false pretence of clem- ency ; but it was, in truth, the most refined cruelty ; it was, moreover, illegal — there being no law to authorize such a commuta- tion. The prisoners, therefore, objected through their counsel ; they had no use for life under such circumstances ; and demand- ed to have the extreme benefit of the law. Ministers, however, were resolved to be merciful — introduced an act into Parlia- ment, empowering the Queen to transport * We may once more refer to the memorable words ('I' an English Attorney-General's description of tbe British regime in Ireland : " Notice is taken of every person that is able to do either good or hurt. It is known not only now they live, and what they do, but it is foreseen what they purpose or intend to do." them — had it passed at once — and imme- diately shipped them off to herd with felons in the penal colony of Van Diemeu's Land. O'Doherty and Martin having been origin- ally sentenced to ten years' transportation, were sent away at the same time, but in an- other ship ; and for more than five years, in the most degrading bondage, they expia- ted the crime of " not having sold their country." A few unconeerted and desperate at- tempts were made in Monster, by O'Ma- hony and Savage, by Brennan and Gray, to draw the people together, and achieve some one daring act, which might awak- en the insurrectionary spirit. They all failed, or were easily suppressed. The clergy were now decidedly and actively in the interest of "law and order ;" that is, in the interest of England ; and the more regular police were on the alert by day and night, and the island bristled with forty thousand bayonets. " Tranquillity reigned in Warsaw." John O'Connell, in Conciliation Hall, pointed to the sad jjite of those who had disregarded the counsels of the "Liberator" — entreated the people to sustain him in his moral and peaceful appeals to Parliament ; and promised that Irelaud should be, at some early day, " first flower of the earth and first gem of the sea." What to do now with this Ireland, thus fal- len under the full and peaceful possession of her " sister island," was the subject of seri- ous thought in England. The famine was still slaying its tens of thousands ; and the Government emigration scheme was draw- ing away many thousands more and shoot- ing them out naked and destitute on the shores of the St. Lawrence ; so that it was hoped the "Celts" would soon be thinned out to the proper point. The very danger so lately escaped, however, brought home to the British Government, and to the Irish landlords, the stern necessity of continued extermination. It was bntter, they felt, to have too few hands to till the ground, than too many for the security of law and order. A plan for a new " Plantation of Ire- land" was promulgated by Sir Robert Peel — that is, for replacing the Irish with good ¥i e> i'f >£ (S^ *$&■ Anglo-Saxons. Tins project for a new Plantation in Ireland was anxiously revolv- ed in the Councils of the Government. It be- gan to be believed that the peasant class, being now almost sufficiently thinned out — mid the claim of tenants to some sort of right or title to the land they tilled, having been successfully resisted and defeated — that the structure of society in Ireland hav- ing been well and firmly planted upon a basis of able-bodied pauperism, (which the English, however, called " independent la- bor,") the time was come to effect a trans- fer of the real estate of the island from Irish to English hands. This grand idea afterwards elaborated itself into the famous " Incumbered Estates act." The conquest of the island was now re- garded in England as effectually consum- mated — England, great, populous, and wealthy, with all the resources and vast patronage of an existing government in her hands — with a magnificent army and navy — with the established course and current of commerce steadily flowing in the precise direction that suited her interests — with a powerful party on her side in Ireland itself, bound to her by lineage and by interest — and, above all, with her vast brute mass ly- ing between us and the rest of Europe, en- abling her to intercept the natural sympa- thies of other struggling nations, to inter- pret between us and the rest of mankind, and represent the troublesome sister island exactly in the light in which she wished to be regarded — England prosperous, potent, and at peace with all the earth besides — had succeeded, (to her immortal honor and glory,) in anticipating and crushing out of sight the last agonies of resistance in a small, poor, and divided island, which she had herself made poor and divided, care- fully disarmed, almost totally disfranchised, ami almost totally deprived of the benefits of that, very British " law " against which we revolted with such loathing and horror. England had done this ; and whatsoever credit and prestige, whatsoever profit and power could be gained by such a feat, she has them all. "Now, for the first time these six hundred years," said the London Tims, " England has Ireland at her mercy, and can deal with her as she pleases." It was an opportunity not to be lost, for interests of British civilization. Parliament met late in January, 1849. The Queen, in her " speech," lamented that "another fail- ure of the potato crop had caused severe distress in Ireland ; " and, thereupon, asked Parliament to continue, "for a limited pe- riod," the extraordinary powers ; that is, the power of proclaiming any district under martial law, and of throwing suspected per- sons into prison, without any charge against them. The act was passed, of course. Then, as the famine of 1848 was fully as grievous and destructive as any of the pre- vious famines — as the rate-payers were im- poverished, and, in most of the unions, could not pay the rates already due — and were thus rapidly sinking into the condition of paupers ; giving up the hopeless effort to maintain themselves by honest industry, and throwing themselves on the earnings of others ; as the poor houses were all filled to overflowing, and the exterminated people were either lying down to die or crowding into the emigrant ships — as, in short, the Poor law, and the New Poor law, and the Improved Poor law, and the Supplementary Poor law, had all manifestly proved a " fail- ure." Lord John Russell's next step was to give Ireland more Poor laws. The expression failure must, however, be qualified as before. They were a failure for their professed purpose — that of relieving the famine ; but were a complete success for their real purpose — that of uprooting the people from the land, and easting them forth to perish. Irishmen have not much faith in the "Government" statistics of their country ; but as it is well to see how much the enemy was willing to admit, we give some details from a report furnished in '48 by Captain Larcom, under the orders of Government, and founded on local reports of police inspectors. The main facts are epitomized thus, for one year : — ■ "In the number of farms, of from one to fire acres, the decrease has been twenty- four thousand one hundred and forty-seven ; from fire to fifteen acres, twenty-seven thousand three hundred and seventy-niue ; from fifteen to thirty acres, four thousand two hundred and seventy-four ; whilst of farms above thirty acres the increase has been \t\\\ 11 % a • ff.e«is. y^LUs .c«.vramiii^ &l Q/v^Xra'WiSMv - Pv3 HISTORT OF IRELAND. *Y ^ H4 three thousand six hundred and seventy. Seventy thousand occupiers, with their fami- lies, numbering about three hundred thou- sand, were rooted out of the land. " In Leinster, the decrease in the number of holdings not exceeding one acre, as com- pared with the decrease of '41, was three thousand seven hundred and forty-nine ; above one, and not exceeding five, was four thousand and twenty-six ; of five, and not exceeding fifteen, was two thousand five hun- dred and forty-six ; of fifteen to thirty, three hundred and ninety-one ; making a total of ten thousand six hundred and seventeen. " In Minister, the decrease in the hold- ings, under thirty acres, is stated at eighteen thousand eight hundred and fourteen ; the increase over thirty acres, one thousand three hundred and ninety-nine. " In Ulster, the decrease was one thousand five hundred and two ; the increase, one thousand one hundred and thirty-four. " In Connaught, where the labor of ex- termination was least, the clearance has been most extensive. There, in particular, the roots of holders of the soil were never planted deep beneath the surface, and consequently were exposed to every ex- terminator's hand. There were in 1841, thirty-five thousand six hundred and thirty- four holders of from one to five acres. In the following year there were less by nine thou- sand seven hundred and three ; there were seventy-six thousand seven hundred and seven holders of from five to fifteen acres, less in one year by twelve thousand eight hundred and ninety-one ; those of from fifteen to thirty acres were reduced by two thousand one hundred and twenty-one ; a total depopula- tion of tweuty-six thousand four hundred and ninety-nine holders of land, exclusive of their families, was effected in Connaught in one year." On this report it may be remarked that it was a list of killed and wounded in one year of carnage only — and of one class of people only. It takes no account of the dead in that multitudinous class thinned the most by famine, who had no land at all, but lived by the labor of their hands, and who were exposed before the others, as having nothing but life to lose. As for the land- lords, already incumbered by debt, the pressure of the Poor-rates was fast breaking them down. In most cases, they were not so much as the receivers of their own rents, and had no more control over the bailiffs, sheriffs, and police, who plundered and chased away the people, than one of the pillars of their own grand entrance- gates. The slaughter by famine was enormous this season. Here is one paragraph from amongst the commercial reports of the Irish papers, which will suggest more than any labored narrative could inculcate : — - " Upwards of one hundred and fifty ass hides have been delivered in Dublin from the County Mayo, for exportation to Liverpool. The carcasses, owing to the scarcity of provisions, had been used as food I" But those who could afford to dine upon famished jackasses were few, indeed. Dur- ing this winter of 1848-9, hundreds of thousands perished of hunger. During this same winter, the herds and harvests raised on Irish grouud were floating off to England on every tide — and, during this same winter almost every steamship from England daily carried Irish paupers, men, women, and children, away from Liverpool and Bristol to share the good cheer of their kinsmen at home. It was in this state of things that Lord John Russell, having first secured a con- tinued suspension of the Habeas Corpus act, proposed an additional and novel sort, of Poor-rate for Ireland. It was called the " Rate-iti-Aid." That is to say, Poor Law Unions which were still solvent, and could still in sonic measure maintain their own local poor, were to be rated for relief of such unions as had sunk under the pressure. Assuming that Ireland and England are two integral parts of an " United Kingdom," (as we are assured they are,) it seems hard to understand why a district in Leinster should be rated to relieve a pauper territory in Mayo — and a district in Yorkshire not. Or to comprehend why old and spent Irish laborers, who had given the best of their health and strength to the service of Eng- land, should be shipped off to Ireland to increase and intensify the pauperism and despair. But so it was : the maxim was, o ) U x i2t t/HO.C&ii.VSiiS.'i INCUMBERED ESTATES ACT. 593 that " the property of Ireland must support the poverty of Ireland ; " without considera- tion of the fact that the property of Ireland was all this time supporting the luxury of England. The next measure passed in the same session of Parliament was the " Incumbered Estates act" — the act of Twelfth and Thirteenth Victoria, chap. 77. Under this, a royal commission was issued, consti- tuting a new court " for the sale of In- cumbered Estates ; " and the scope and intent of it were to give a short and sum- mary method of bringing such estates to sale, on petition either of creditors or of owners. Before that time the only mode of doing this was through the slow and ex- pensive proceedings of the Court of Chancery ; and the number of incumbered landlords had grown so very large since the famine began, their debts so overwhelming, and their reutal so curtailed, that the Lon- don Jews, money-brokers, and insurance offices, required a speedier and cheaper method of bringing their property to the hammer. What -ought to be fully under- stood is, that this act was not intended to relieve, and did not relieve, anybody in Ireland ; but that, under pretence of facili- tating legal proceedings, it contemplated a sweeping confiscation and new plantation of the island. The English press was already complacently anticipating a peaceable trans- fer of Irish land to English and Scotch capitalists, and took pains to encourage them to invest their money under the new act. Ireland, it was now declared, had be- come tranquil ; "the Celts were gone; " and if any trouble should arise, there was the Habeas Corpus Suspension act ; and the horse, foot, and artillery, and the juries. Singular to relate, however, the new act did not operate satisfactorily in that direction. English capitalists had a wholesome terror of Tipperary, and of the precarious tenure by which an Irish landlord holds his life ; insomuch that the great bulk of the sales made by the commissioners were made to Irishmen ; and in the official return of the operations of the Court, up to October, 1851, it appears that while the gross amount produced by the sales had been more than three and a half millious sterling, 75 there had only been fifty-two English and Scottish purchasers to the amount of £319,436.* Seeing this imperfect progress in the new plantation of Ireland, Ministers, iu March, 1850, introduced a supplemental bill. The Solicitor-General who moved it was even so incautious as to admit the motive. " They had devised a plan," he said, " which, it was hoped, would induce capitalizes from England to take an interest in these sales." The plan was a mere financial operation, creating a species of debentures chargeable on the land, and passing current like any other stock or scrip ; but it need not be de- scribed in detail ; for the plan was aban- doned, and it is only mentioned here to exhibit the policy of England as indicated by the Solicitor-General. Down to the 25th May, 1857, there had been given orders for sale to the number of three thousand one hundred and ninety- seven ; the property had been sold to seven thousand two hundred and sixteen pur- chasers, of whom six thousand nine hundred and two were Irish — the rest English, Scotch, or other foreigners. The estates already sold brought upwards of twenty millions sterling, which was almost all distributed to creditors and other parties interested. The result to Ireland was simply this — about one-fifteenth part of the island had changed hands ; had gone from one landlord and come to another landlord ; the result to the great tenant class was simply nil. The new landlord came over them armed with the power of life and death, like his predecessor ; but he had no local or personal attachment which iu some cases used to mitigate the severity of land- lord rule— aud he was bound to make inter- est on his investment. The estates, there- fore, have been broken up, on an average, into one-half their former size, and this has been much dwelt upon as an " ameliora- tion ; " but we have yet to learn that small landlords are more mild and merciful than great ones. On the whole, the " Incum- bered Estates act " has benefitted only the money-lenders of England. As to " tenant-right," the salutary custom explained before, aud whieli did once prac- * Almanac and Directory, 1S52. If * X miL ^ -nieijLs^-ri.Ne .ci/u/Meus.a. - BISTORT OF IRELAND. tf5 tically secure to tlie tenantry in some por- tions of Ulster, a permanency of tenure on payment of their rent, our Parliamentary patriots have been agitating for it, begging for it, conferring with Ministers about it, eating public dinners, making speeches, and soliciting votes on account of it ; but they have never made, and are never likely to malic, an approach by one hair's-breadth to its attainment. It is absolutely essential to the existence of the British Empire that the Irish peasant class be kept in a condition which will make them entirely manageable — easy to be thinned out when they grow too numerous, and an available materiel for armies. It is a necessity for the British commercial, social, and Governmental sys- tem — but this is not said by way of com- plaint. Those who arc of opinion that Brit- ish civilization is a blessing, and a fight to lighten the world, will easily reconcile themselves to the needful condition. Those who deem it the most base and horrible tyranny that has ever scandalized the earth, will probably wish that its indispensable prop • — Ireland — were knocked from under it. In the meantime, neither the Incumbered Estates act, nor any other act, made or to be made by an English Parliament, has done or aimed to do anything towards giving the Irish tenant-at-will the smallest interest in the land he tills ; but, on the contrary, the whole coarse of the famine- legislation was directed to the one end of shaking small lease-holders loose from the soil, and converting them into tenants- at-will, or into " independent laborers," or able-bodied paupers, or lean corpses. Un- derstand, further, that the condition of an Irish " tenant-at-will " is unique on the face of the globe,* is utterly unintelligible to most civilized Europeans, and is only to be found within the sway of that Constitution which is the envy of surrounding nations. The German, Von Rauiner, making a tour in Ireland, thus tries to explain the thing:— ''How shall I translate I, luinls-ct-uill ? Wegjagbare ? Expellable? Serfs? But n the ancient days of vassalage, it consisted rather in keeping the vassals attached to * Paralleled in some sort only liy the ryots of India — another people privileged to enjoy the blessings of British rul«. the soil, and by no means in driving them away. An ancient vassal is a lord com- pared with the present tenant-at-will, to whom the law affords no defence. Why not call them Jagabare ( mj "-' tf s I ;» IP* - MP Upper classes, and lower classes, merchants, lawyers, state-officials, civil and military, are ndebted for all that they have, for all that they are, or hope for, to the sufferance and forbearance of a foreign and hostile na- tion. This being the case, the prosperity of Ireland, even such ignominious prosper- ity as it, is, has no guarantee or security. A few statistics may fitly conclude this part of the subject. The census of Ireland in 1841 gave a population of eight millions one hundred and seventy-five thousand one hundred and twenty-five. At the usual rate of increase, there must have been, in 1846, when the famine commenced, at least eight millions seven hundred and fifty thousand ; at the same rate of increase, there ought to have been, in 1851, (according to the estimate of the Census Commissioners,) nine millions eighteen thousand seven hundred and ninety-nine. But in that year, after five seasons of artificial famine, there were found alive only six millions five hundred and fifty-two thousand three hundred and eighty-live — a deficit of about two millions and a half. Now, what became of those two millions and a half? The " Government" Census Commission- ers, and compilers of returns of all sorts, whose principal duty it has been, since that fatal time, to conceal the amount of the havoc, attempt to account for nearly the whole deficiency by emigration. In Thorn's Official Almanac, we find set down on one Bide, the actual decrease from 1841 to 1851, (that is, without taking into account the increase by births in that period,) one million six hundred and twenty-three thou- sand one hundred and fifty-four. Against this, they place their own estimate of the emigration during those same ten years, which they put down at one million five hundred and eighty-nine thousand one hundred and thirty-three. But, in the first place, the decrease did not begin till 1846 — there had been till then a rapid increase in the population — the Government returns, then, not only ignore the increase, but set the emigration of ten years against the de- population of Jive. This will not do ; we must reduce their emigrants by one-half, say to six hundred thousand — and add to the depopulation the estimated increase up to 1846, say half a million. This will give upwards of two millions, whose disappear- ance is to be accounted for — and six hundred thousand emigrants in the other column. Balance unaccounted for, a mi/lion am! a half. This is without computing those who were born in the five famine years ; whom we may leave to be balanced by the deaths from natural causes in the same period. Now, that million and a half of men, women, and children, were carefully pru- dently, and peacefully slain by the English Government. They died of hunger in the midst of abundance, which their own hands created ; and it is quite immaterial to distinguish those who perished in the agonies of famine itself from those who died of typhus fever, which in Ireland is always caused by famine. Further, this was strictly an artificial famine — that is to say, it was a famine which desolated a rich and fertile island, that produced every year abundance and superabundance to sustain all her people and many more. The English, indeed, call that famine a dispensation of Providence ; and ascribe it entirely to the blight of the potatoes. But potatoes failed in like man- ner all over Europe, yet there was no famine save in Ireland. The British ac- count of the matter, then, is, first, a fraud ; second, a blasphemy. The Almighty, in- deed, sent the potato blight, but the English created the famine. And, lastly, it has been shown, in the course of this narrative, that the depopula- tion of the country was not ouly encouraged by artificial means, namely, the Out-door Relief act, the Labor-rate act, aud the emigration schemes, but that extreme care and diligence were used to preveut relief coming to the doomed island from abroad ; and that the benevolent contributions of Americans and other foreigners were turned aside from their desired objects — uot, let us say, in order that none should be saved alive, but that no interference should be made with the principles of political economy. The Census Commissioners close one of their late reports with these words : — % nm> m ■'■ DEPOPULATION EMIGRATION. i m i '■-<'- m v. J &? i #1 if), " In couelusion, we feel it will be gratify- ing to your excellency to find that, although the population has been diminished in so remarkable a manner, by famine, disease, and emigration, and has been since decreas- ing, the results of the Irish census are, on the whole, satisfactory." The commissioners mean to say that, although there are fewer men and women, there are more cattle and hogs for the English markets. But the depopulation of the country by no means ended with the famine. Between 1851 and 1861, during which period of ten years there was no officially-declared famine, but, on the contrary, Ireland was continually felicitated by English Viceroys and states- men upon her returning prosperity, we find that the diminution of the people steadily proceeded, so that, in 1801, the Census Commissioners found alive upon the Irish soil only five millions seven hundred and sixty-four thousand five hundred and forty- three individuals — less by three millions of souls than the population in 1845. This destruction of people is to be accounted for only in part by emigration, although emigration was very large in all those years. But, there is no fact better established in social and economic science than that emi- gration never does thin the people of any country to anything like its apparent amount ; because, iu a healthy coudition of society, the loss from this cause is compensated by the greater increase of people at home. But the cruel truth is, that society in Ireland is iu ruins ; it has no longer any recuperative energy. British civilization has taken so powerful and deadly a hold of it, that not ouly do the people fly in multitudes from the terrible "prosperity" of their country, but those who remain and strive to hold their grouud are perishing where they stand. _e_ 5t7 CHAPTER LXII. 1850—1851. Depopulation — Emigration — " Plea for the Celtic Race"— Decay of the Irish Electoral Body— Act to Amend Representation — "Papal Aggression" —Rage in England— Ecclesiastical Titles Bill- Never Enforced — And Why— Orange Outrage in Down County—" Dolly's Brae "—Style of Orange Processions— Condition of the Country— Further Emigration— Still more Extermination— Crime and Outrage— Plenty and Prosperity in England Conclusion. In 1851 the island of Ireland still con- tained six and a half millious of people ; which was much too large a pophlation to be compatible with English policy. It has been seen, iu an earlier page of this narrative, that the British Government and Parliament had been long anxiously occu- pied, even before the first symptom of the "famine," in devising the best, cheapest, and readiest mode of getting rid of what was constantly called the " surplus popula- tion " of Ireland. In fact aud practice, the migration of the poorer people had been proceeding on a considerable and still in- creasing scale for many years. No season passed in which thousands of Irishmen, wearied and worn out by the struggle against remediless misery aud hopeless ag- gression, did not bid adieu to their dear native country, to seek a happier future in some distant land. The general use of steam in ocean navigation had also greatly facilitated the movement of emigration, by shortening distances and bringing continents nearer to one another. The whole amount of the emigration from Great Britain and Ireland for the year 1815, was but two thousand and eighty-one persons ; but in 1S52 it amounted to one hundred aud seventy-six times that number — namely, three hundred and sixty-eight thousand seven hundred and sixty four.* In 1835, a Parliamentary Commission reported that there were in Ireland two millions three hundred and eighty thousand persons always in danger of perishing by hunger ; aud the island (although the most fertile country in all the earth,) being even * General Report of the Emigration Commission- ers, 1861. Appendix. K * ® HISTORY OF IRELAND. 8r jz \H- vn - then periodically visited by terrible dearths and famine, it may have been natural to con- clude that it would be doing Ireland a signal service to multiply the means of emi- gration ; but in carrrying out this idea, the Government was resolved to bring the whole movement of emigration, as well as everything else that was Irish, under its own control, as far as possible. During the fifteen years which preceded the famine, (1831-1846,) Ireland alone had furnished more than eight hundred thousand emigrants out of the total emigration from the three kingdoms. The exact numbers are eight hundred and nine thousand two hundred and forty-four, making an annual average of fifty-three thousand nine hundred and forty-nine ; and the number for all the three kingdoms during the same period was one million one hundred and seventy-one thousand four hundred and eighty five.* Yet, the excess of births over both deaths and emigra- tions continued to make a sensible increase in the population ; and in the very same year (1841,) in which had occurred the largest exodus during that period, the census showed that the population of the island was greater than it had ever been before, and greater than it has ever been since officially declared, namely, eight millions one hundred and seventy-five thousand one hundred and twenty-four. J This result, showing the nullity of emigra- tion as an agency of depleting a population, might have been more surprising if it had not been long foreseen. Far from derang- ing the calculations of economic science, it confirmed the conclusions of the best econ- omists. No writer, native or foreign, who has treated of Irish affairs, has estimated with more sagacity the actual condition and necessities of our country than the illustri- ous French publicist, M. Gustave de Beau- mont. Studying, in 1839, the condition * Reports of Commissioners of Emigration, in Thorn's Official Directory. We often cite this sta- tistical annual, prepared by authority of the British Government. But (on that very account,) it is un- li-ustworthy, unless when it bears necessarily or unintentionally against the Government, and it is only for such evidence that we have recourse to it. t But, in 1M.">, (when no census was taken.) the population must have amounted almost to nine mil- lions. This fact is too often overlooked, and by the enemy's Government purposely ignored, for obvious reasons. of Ireland, and considering whether the favorite British prescription of emigration could in any great measure cure the miseries which he had witnessed in the country, M. de Beaumont applied himself to the solution of these questions : 1st. What should be the proportions of the emigration if it were to materially affect the situation of the people ? 2d. Would emigration npon such a scale be possible ? 3d. Supposing it possible, would it be a radical solution of the difficulty ? The advocates of wholesale emigration (all of them Englishmen,) answered the first question by estimating at two millions — or from two to four millions — the number of persons who must quit Ire- land, in order to create at once so sensible a void in the population as should leave the rest at ease. The second question, then, was easy to answer — that on so vast a scale the project was simply impossible, for want of sufficient means of transport. For sup- posing that each emigrant vessel carried a thousand passengers, there must be em- ployed in the operation two thousand ships. This would put in requisition the whole British merchant navy, and withdraw it from the commerce of the world for a project iu itself chimerical ; for it would have been impossible to provide funds for the needful expenses ; and no country, not even the United States, could be expected to receive such an invasion en masse, and provide the unhappy invaders with the means and opportunity of earning their bread by their labor. But, assuming all these difficulties overcome, then arose M. de Beaumont's third question : Was it certain that, the system of land-tenure remaining the same, emigration would cure the evils of the country, and effect a social transforma- tion? On this point, our very intelligent foreign visitor found it easy to demonstrate that the removal of one-third, or even half, of the population would be no radical remedy. The difficulty for Ireland, as he plainly saw, was not to make the land pro- duce a sufficiency of food for all its people, but lay altogether in the system of land- tenure. " For," says the author, " if it be one of the settled principles of laud pro- prietors, that the farmer should have no other profit out of his cultivation but just 9~J-SL thr >$,■"' I ¥ V &P> 9@ § [y£h )?>, il I M what is strictly necessary for his subsistence; mid if it be the general custom to apply this Bystem rigorously, so that every improve- ment in the farmer's way of living brings with it necessarily a rise in his rent — on this hypothesis, which, for those who know Ireland, is a sad reality, what would be the advantage of a diminution of the popula- tion ?'' * "Thus," he continues, "after many thousands of the Irish shall have dis- appeared, the lot of the remainder will probably be no way altered — they still may remain as miserable as they were before It has been seen, in the preceding in- quiry, that with but one-third of its present inhabitants, Ireland was a century ago as indigent as in our own day, being subjected thru, as at present, to the same causes of misery, independent of numbers." M. de Beaumont here refers to the authority of Swift and of Berkeley, which sufficiently establishes the misery of Ireland in their days. In all this investigation the singularity is, that M. de Beaumont, knowing the wealth and fertility of Ireland, and how- she not only produced every year more than her people could consume, but also exported immense quantities of her produce, did not come at once to the conclusion, and pro- claim his conclusion — that Ireland and the Irish are under the control of mortal ene- mies, whose single policy is to abolish the Irish race off the face of the earth. Another calm and diligent inqnirer,f after giving an account of the immense schemes of wholesale emigration, remarks : " It. is in view of these sad teachings of the past that the most sincere and intelligent friends of Ireland counseled the British Government, rather to expend in vast works of drainage and cultivation, the sums esti- mated as required for the transport of emi- grants. Lord Devon's Commission calcul- ated that the emigration of one hundred thousand persons per annum, if effected at the public expense, and putting the cost at the moderate amount of six pounds sterling for each person, would cost £600,000 a vear . — a sum which, annually applied to the purchase and improvement of unproductive lands, would undoubtedly permit the Irish to live at home, and rescue them from the necessity of goiug into exile to save their lives." Here the Abbe" Perraud also seems to misapprehend, or else shrinks from utter- ing the horrible fact — that the object of all British policy in Ireland is now, and ever has been, to make it impossible for the Irish to live at home. In the writings of foreigners, even the most acute, and most friendly to Ireland, there is a steady — ■ almost stolid — persistence in assuming that British statesmen, if they only knew how, would hasten to redress the ills of Ireland. For this reason, and for this alone, has the real history of Ireland remained a puzzle and a secret to even the most intelligent inquirers from other countries. They may as well understand at once, that the key of the whole mystery is this one fundamental truth — the single policy of England towards Ireland is, as it always has been, to extir- pate the Irish nation. This maxim, well borne in mind, everything becomes simple enough. In 1841, the number of inhabited houses in all Ireland, according to the official cen- sus,! was one million three hundred and twenty-eight thousand eight hundred and thirty-nine. In 1851 , it was one million forty- six thousand two huudred and ninety-four. But this decrease between those two periods of the census does not by any means repre- sent the actual amount of destruction ; be- cause from 1841, (the census year,) till 1845, the population had been rapidly in- creasing, (as has been observed in a former chapter.) When the " famine" commenced, in 1840, we may fairly assume that the in- habited houses amounted to one million and a half; the decrease, then, in 1851, must be set down at almost half a million of houses or cabins, giving shelter on an aver- ago to five human beings each. These fio-ures are in themselves sufficient to give a ghastly idea of the agony of Ireland, and of the too cruel efficiency of the methods so steadily pursued for the extirpation of its native inhabitants. "The Celts were ; rial Almanac and Directory, . Jjfl V^' M • lUhLi.jr^tKH .souwms.p, ,!i ; l or rapidly going ; and this not the result of emigration, as we have seen, but of mere hunger and hardship. The system, and the motives and operation of the system became at length so clear and plain, that Mr. Isaac Butt, a Protestant barrister, (O'Connell's opponent in the famous Corporation Debate upon Repeal,) published some years later, (1866,) a work entitled "A Plea, for the Celtic Race" urging the impolicy, even in the interest of England, of entirely abolish- ing the whole breed.* It is no way surprising, then, to find that the number of persons in all Ireland qualified to vote for county representatives in Parlia- ment, had dwindled down on January I, 1850, to considerably less than one thou- sand for each county ; or twenty-seven thousand one hundred and eighty for the thirty-two counties. The great County of Mayo had but two hundred electors ; and these almost all landed proprietors. This cannot be surprising to those who have fol- lowed the narrative of that long, wasting war systematically made on the race of small farmers — first by the abolition of the forty-shilling franchise; then by the "con- solidation" of farms ; by the frequent eject- ment acts ; by the stimulus given to exter- mination and emigration ; fiually, by the Poor laws and the famine. The condition of the county representa- tion, therefore, had become so scandalous, that Ministers, in 1850, judged it needful to extend, somehow or other, the numbers qualified to vote. But here arose a difficulty — there were no more freeholders ; that class had been too effectually shaken loose from the soil, impoverished, and extirpated. * We give two suggestive passages from this per- formance: "Whatever maybe the difficulties that attend the discussioa of the question, any man who can contribute ever so little to its investigation does some service to his country. To say that the land question is the most important part of all Irish pub- lic questions, but feebly expresses its magnitude. It would be nearer the truth to say, that it forms the whole. While the "unsatisfactory relations" be- tween the owners and occupiers of the soil continue, there can never be peace or prosperity in the land. Let these relations be placed on a satisfactory busis, and all other questions will very soon adjust them- selves. The question, however, is not exclusively of Irish interest. It is true that, so far as Ireland is concerned, it involves nothing less than the contin- ued existence in their own land of the old Irish race, i the face of troubles which are gathering and Many thousands of them who had escaped death, were by this time digging canals and railways in America. It was evident that nothing like an apparently adequate repre- sentation could be looked for, based upon the old and respectable condition of a free- hold estate in land. But it occurred to Lord John Russell to found the franchise upon the Poor-rales; thus connecting this ancient privilege of freemen with the odious and destructive system of public pauperism, which had been forced upon the island against its will, and had been corroding its people so fatally ever since. Accordingly, a bill was introduced to " amend " the representation, both in coun- ties and in boroughs. The Irish Official Directory thus shortly states the facts : — " The number of electors under the Re- form act was, in 1832, ninety-eight thou- sand eight hundred and fifty-seven ; on January 1, 1850, the constituency had dim- inished to sixty-one thousand and thirty-six — twenty-seven thousand one hundred and eighty in the counties, and thirty-three thousand eight hundred and fifty-six in tile cities and boroughs. The act 13th and 14th Yic , chap. 69, was passed in 1850, to amend the representation ; and in addition to those persons previously qualified to register and vote in county elections, occupiers of tene- ments rated in the last Poor-rate at a net an- nual value of £12 and upwards, are entitled to vote in elections for counties, subject to registration, in accordance with the act, and to certain limitations therein ; also owners of cetain estates of the rated net annual value of £b. But no persons are to be entitled to vote in counties in respect of darkening over Europe, it is not too much to say, that the continuance of England's greatness may de- pend upon her being able to satisfy and conciliate that race in their native land. " English statesmen must ask themselves whether the British Empire can afford to lose the hardy and bold population, portion of which every month is now- transferring itself to the other side of the Atlantic. They must seriously reflect on the danger which arises from sending a hostile and embittered Irish colony to the American continent. All the emigrants who are now leaving the country carry with them the most determined hatred of British power. Those whom they leave behind sympathize in their feelings, and whenever the opportunity occurs, the Irish abroad and a large portion of the Irish at home will be ready to aid any attempt that can strike a blow at that power. fo &£ I 1 1 >i^ii .& ,\*i 'PCliIi.y-'LNi .ttLi.,MBlv£ W&~" "5£ ^^^f^ WjF, ' PArAL AGGRESSION RAGE rN ENGLAND. C01 m tenements in virtue of which tlicy may be entitled to vote in boroughs. In boroughs, occupiers rated in the last Poor-rate at X'S anil upwards an: entitled to vote, subject to registration and certain limitations in the act. By the 13th and 1 4 Mi Vic, chap. OS, the polling at contested elections is to con- tinue in counties for two days only, and in cities and boroughs for one day only ; the returning officer is to provide booths, so thai UOt more than six hundred voters shall poll at each booth for a county, and two hundred for a city or borough. The num- ber of electors registered under the new act, on January 1, 1851, was one hundred ami sixly-three thousand five hundred and forty- six, being one hundred and thirty-five thou- sand two hundred and forty-five in the coun- ties, and twenty-eight thousand three hun- dred and one in the cities and boroughs." This enlargement of the electoral basis was undoubtedly a seeming advantage — as- suming that the Irish representation in a British Parliament is a thing desirable. But it. was not in the nature of the Whigs, nor, indeed, of the Tories, to concede to Ireland even an apparent advantage, and not ac- company the "boon" with an outrage. Lord John Russell flung us the Franchise act with one hand, and with the other n new Coercion law, and the "Ecclesiastical Titles act." As for t'|n former, it was only the usual atrocity ; this time under the title of an "Act for the better Prevention of Crime and Outrage in Ireland;" with the customary powers, to proclaim districts, to quarter police on them, to search for anus, to keep everybody at home alter sun- set, and to transport delinquents. There was nothing uncommon in this ; and the uncom- mon and exceptional thing for Irishmen would have been to find themselves living under the civil laws of the land. But, the other measure, (Ecclesiastical Titles bill,; needs further notice. In the summer of this year, 18.i0, arrived in England a most startling document ; nothing less than a Papal Brief, direct from Rome, directing the English Catholic "Vicars Apostolic" — who were Bishops, in fact, possessing all episcopal jurisdiction — to assume the true titles of their Sees, as Bishop of Hexham, Bishop of Birmingham, 7« and so forth ; and further appointing the il- lustrious Doctor Wiseman a Cardinal and first Archbishop of Westminster. The soil of Protestant Englaud was thus mapped out by a foreign prince into separate governments, (dioceses,) and placed under the control of certain Popish priests ; in utter disdain of the exclusive rights of the Anglican Church and of the Queen as its Pope and head. Hen; was papal aggression 1 Immediate- ly arose a vehement "No-popery" excite- ment throughout England, it is true, that the Pope herein exercised the un- doubted jurisdiction which he possessed in things spiritual over his Church ; and which he had lon^r notoriously exercised under other names and forms. Still, it was against the "law" — that is, against some of the old penal laws, yet unrepealed, but always vio- lated, to introduce into Great Britain or Ireland any Papal Bull, Brief, Rescript, or writing whatsoever. And then the high tone assumed (necessarily) by the Pope, in his Uriel', and by Cardinal Wiseman in promul- gating it, appeared to the enlightened mind of Protestant England, to a mount to noth- ing less than Jezebel herself, formally enter- ing in and taking possession. At once there was a shout of alarm and wrath, from all the ends of England and Scotland, to which the Irish Orangemen, of course, contributed their best vociferation. County meetings were laid, nil over Eng- land, to denounce this audacious " Papal aggression;" and plat forms, pulpits, and press rung for months with the old and well- worn denunciations against Jezebel, the Sac- rifice of the Mass, and the whole mystery of iniquity generally. Lord John Russell, a statesman who hated Catholics and their religion, with all the venom of his small, shriveled, and spiteful soul, and who was distressed besides by the late concession of frauehi.se to certain Catholics in Ireland, Lord John Russell, though Prime Min- ister of the Queen, was not, above the paltry task of stimulating this ignoble rage. He selected the 4th of November, the day be- fore the anniversary of the " Gunpowder riot," to publish in the newspapers a letter to the Bishop of Durham, expressing alarm and indignation, " but less alarm than indig- nation," at the daring invasion of England r vx x 9 - 1 *y U UTS' f® s*W C02 HISTORY OF IRELAND. by t ho Pope of Rome ; enlarging upon the enormity of Catholic doctrines, and terming Catholic worship "superstitious mummery." His lordship, however, though he saw great cause for apprehension, assured the Bishop that the noble Protestant State of England should never, never be yielded up into the hands of a foreign priest. Next day was the fifth, when Guv FaWkes is always burned in effigy. This time there was in many towns ot England, ami especially in London, an astonishing uproar of "No-Popery" zeal ; multitudinous processions celebrated the occasion ; orators sponted out of Fox's Martyrs, (taking care to say nothing of the martyrs that Protestants had made,) and the ignorant masses were inflamed to mad- ness by pictures of the racks and pincers which they were assured were shortly to be introduced into England, under the new Papal Boll. Instead of Guy Fawkes, they burned effigies of the Pope, of the Virgin, of Cardinal Wiseman ; and swore deep oaths, under the influence of deep potations, that they would all die, with the Bible on their bosoms, before they would submit to the tyranny of the Propaganda and the pincers of the Inquisition. It would have been an insane action, on the part of any Catholic priest, to allow himself to be seen in the streets upon that evening. The conclusion of this affair of " Papal Aggression" belongs to the following year, 18.il ; but we may here anticipate a little. Lord John Russell lost no time in availing himself of the stupid fanaticism of his conn try men. Parliament met again in February, 1851 ; he made the chief feature in the Queen's speech this very affair of the Pope's Bull ; and made her earnestly recom- mend to Parliament efficient action upon so important a subject. A bill was at once intro- duced by his lordship, absolutely prohibiting the assumption of the title of any existing See, or of any title whatsoever, from any pliice in the United Kingdom, under a penalty of £100 for each such offence. This was an extension of the provisions of the Catholic Relief act of 1829, which im- posed the same penalty on the assumption of the title to any existing See only. That prohibition in Ireland, and the penalty at- tached to it, had been always entirely neglected and ignored by the Catholic hier- archy ; and the Catholic Archbishop of Armagh signed himself Archbishop of Ar- magh and Primate of All Ireland, just as the other one did. In the new ecclesiastical division of England, however, care had been taken to avoid giving to Catholic Bishops the precise titles of Protestant Sees — except in one instance — and, therefore, it became necessary for the legislators against Papal Aggression to extend the prohibition and penalty to all territorial titles whatsoever, derived from any place in the three kingdoms. The new bill, which was intended to be highly stringent and menacing — a new ami formidable bulwark to the Reformation in England — was only on its passage when Lord John Russell's Government went out, and the Tories, under'Lord Derby, came in. It made no difference in this case. The bill to repress " Papal Aggression " was not only taken up by the new administration, but was eventually passed, with amendments, extending the penalty to the introduction of any document or rescript from Rome, ^is well as the one lately arrived, and further empowering and inviting any common in- former to prosccnte. The bill was carried through all its stages by immense majorities, English Whigs and English Tories being ' once more an unit on this vital matter ; and, thereafter, it was not only to be illegal for the Archbishop of Westminster to sign himself Archbishop of Westminster, but for the Archbishop of Armagh to take the title of his undoubted office, under the penalty of JU100 for each offence. On the passage of this bill, it was really believed by ignorant Protestants, that a new and mighty bulwark had been set up against the Pope, and that the "Reforma- tion " was at length secured. Much to the surprise of these ignorant Protestants, no notice whatever was taken of the new law by English Bishops or by Irish Bishops. Indeed, Doctor MacHule, the bold Arch- bishop of Tuam, who has the spirit of a patriot and, if need be, of a martyr, took an early occasion of publicly violating the new law, by reading in his cathedral the actual rescript of the Pope, and inviting any informer, or priest-hunter, who mil R? sS5 — 1 \ : ;« ■ w iMJ.cai/wfloS.j, ECCLESIASTICAL TITLES BILL DOLLY S BRAE. 003 Ul fc vlr&s --■ ' to earn a hundred pounds, to institute a prosecution against him. The law was never executed in a single instance. Doctor Newman signed his name in public docu- ments as Cardinal Archbishop of West- minster, and the Archbishop of Armagh continued to style himself Primate of All Ireland. The "Law" stands on record upon the scandalous chronicle of English legislation as a mere impotent example of No-Popery spite. Why was this law, passed by immense majorities, and with every appearance of determination, never enforced in a single case ? Why were not the Catholic Bishops prosecuted under its provisions ? The answer is too obvious — the Irish Catholic bishops have been so useful to the British Government, ever since the Union, in pre- serving the " peace of the country ;" that is, its perpetual subjugation to England, that it was not safe to make enemies of them. On this subject we may trust the Rev. Father Perraud, who thus expresses himself in his able work on Ireland. * " It is useless to eouceal the fact ; it is not the regiments encamped in Ireland ; it is not the militia of twelve thousand peelers distributed over the whole of the surface of the laud, which prevents revolt and preserves the peace. During a long period, especially in the last century, the excess of misery to which Ireland was reduced, had multiplied, even in the most Catholic counties, the secret societies of the peasantry. At this very moment, it is said, America is making great efforts to entice patriotic young men into those obscure associations in which men swear hatred to governments, in which are prepared the conspiracies' against public institutions, in which are silently organized social wars. . . But, who have ever been so energetic in resistance to secret societies as the Irish episcopacy ? Who have denounced these illegal associations with the most persevering, powerful, and formidable condemnation? On more than one occasion the Bishops have even hazarded their popularity in this way ; they could at a signal have armed a million * Etudes sur V Irland conlemporaine. Par le R. P. Adolphe Perraud. Paris : lbM. combatants against a persecuting govern- ment ; and that signal they refused to give." Passing over the various singular mis- statements of the reverend writer — that secret societies in Ireland swear hatred to governments in general, instead of the Eng- lish Government alone — that they conspire against " public institutions " generally, instead of the institutions of famine and packed juries, and the rest of our British institutions — and that they organize "so- cial war," instead of war against the English troops — passing over these errors one thing is, at least, evident from the pages of the Fere Perraud — that the Catholic Bishops take credit to themsel- ves for preserving British institutions and British Government in Ireland."}" It is possible that they are entitled to this credit, such as it is. And herein lies the reason why they were never prosecuted under the "Ecclesiastical Titles Bill." The English Government did not enforce its own law, because it dared not. J The Parliamentary session of 1S50 is further notable as the occasion of a dis- cussion upon the Orange outrage at Dolly's Brae, near Castlewellan, in the County Down. The transaction had taken place in the July of the year before, at the usual celebration of the Orange anniversary. It happened in this manner: The Orangemen of various districts of that region had as- sembled, marching by various routes, at the splendid demesne called Tollymore Park, the seat of the Earl of Roden, one of the highest dignitaries of their Order. One of the parties had marched through an ex- clusively Catholic district, and iu the true spirit of the anniversary, had insulted the peaceable people with the flaunting of their Orange banuers and lilies, and by playing f II. Perraud had made two visits to Ireland, in order to collect materials for his valuable work ; had communicated freely with the Catholic Bishops ; and must be supposed to speak for them in claiming merit for them on account of their loyal efforts. t It is observable that Father Perraud speaks of the Bishops as denouncing -illegal associations." But there is no society in Ireland so ille'jal as the Catholic Episcopacy. No White-Boy, Young Ire- lander, or "Fenian," ever more deliberately broke the law than those Bishops habitually do, in taking the title of their Sees, and in reading Rescripts from Rome. .o. m£ o^ lNj .eWifflffftS.B. 7 "M J* before the poor cabins the time of " Croppies Lie Down."* After the muster at Tolly- more Pnrk, a dinner, and some drink, and a speech from Lord Rodeo concerning the Mystery of Iniquity, and the duty of all good Protestants — if they were to be martyred for their faith — at least to die with their Bibles clasped to their bosoms, it was determined to march back by way of Dolly's Brae. One Beers, a very ignorant Orange magistrate, accompanied them. Violent proceedings were expected to occur upon the passage by Dolly's Brae, and might have been prevented by Lord Roden and other magistrates present at the banquet, if they had used their influence to prevent the march by that particular road ; but it was thought advisable to give the Papists a lesson ; and the Lodges started for Dolly's Brae. It appeared, on the subsequent in- vestigation, that so strong was the. reason to apprehend disturbance as to induce some magistrates to send forward a strong force of police. On the arrival of the Orange- men in the townlanil, it was found that most of the inhabitants were gathered near the roadside, whether for mutual protection or for active resistance to the Orange march in that direction, did not clearly appear; but the latter motive was unlikely, as the * The usual Orange style is thus described by one who knew the North of Ireland well: "In bo districts of tbat country, Protestants are the majority of the people: the oM policy of the "government 11 has been to arm the Protestants and disarm the < lath- olirs. The magistrates at all sessions are Orange- men or high British loyalists. In those districts, therefore, Catholics lead tie- lives of dogs lie down in fear and rise up with foreboding; their worship is insulted, and their very funerals are made an occas- ion of riot. One of the July anniversaries comes round— the days >A' Aughrim and the Hovne ; the pious Evangelicals must eelebrate those disastrous bin hard fought battles where William of Nassau. with his army ol French Huguenots, Danes, and Dutchmen, overthrew the power of Inland, and made the noble old (Yltie raee hewers of wood and drawers of water even unto this day Lodges as. l >t» I scmblc at some central point, with drums and tiles playing the " Protestant boys." At the rendezvous the Grand Masters, with their sashes and aprons — a beautiful show Procession formed, they walk in Lodges, each i\ iih its banner of orange or purple, and garlands of orange lilies borne high on poles. Most have arms, y nanry-rauskets or pistols, or ancient swords, whetted for the occasion. They ar- rive at some other town or village, dine in the pub- Ho-houseS, drink the " glorious, pious and Immortal memory of King William," and "To Hell with the Pope;" re-lorui their procession after dinner, and Catholics were quite unarmed, save with a few scythes and hayforks. An immediate collision took place, of course. The chief of police led his men at once into the scene of disorder, ascertaining to his own .satis- faction, us usual, that the Catholics were solely to blame, and were the atrocious aggressors, he directed all the efforts of his force against them. In short, by the joint Operations of the armed Orangemen and the armed police, the unarmed Papists were victoriously defeated ; several corpses were left upon the held, and most of the houses were burned or wrecked. Such was the day of Dolly's Brae. A lawyer was sent down from Dublin as a " Commissioner," on the usual pretence of examining into the fads, and collecting the evidence ; and it appears that his report was not so grossly partial as had been ex- pected ; for Lord Clarendon could not avoid the plain necessity of dismissing from the Commission of the Peace both Lord Roden and Beers. It was on this report that the debate arose in Parliament, and many severe judgments were expressed of tfle conduct of the Irish Government in en- couraging and arming such a banditti as the Orangemen. Lord Clarendon, who attend- ed in his place in the House of Peers upon then comes the time for Protestant action. They march through a Papist townland: at every house they stop, and play "Croppies lie down!" and the Boyne Water, tiring a few shoU over the house at the same time, 'flu; doors are shut — the family in terror the father standing on the floor with knitted brows and teeth olenched through the nether lip, grasping a pitchfork, (for the police long since found out and took away his gun.) Bitter memories of the trials of ages darken his soul — Outside, with taunt- ing inusie. and brutal jests and laughter, stand in their ranks the Protestant communicants. The old grandmother can endure no longer : she rushes out with gray hair streaming, and kneels on the road he- tore them, she clasps her old thin bands, and curses them in the name of Cod anil his Holy Mother. Loud laughs are The answer, and a shot or two over the house, or in through the window. The old crono in frantic ex.ispi ration takes up a stone and hulls it with feeble hand against the insulting crew There; the first assault is committed; everything is lawful now : smash go the unglazed windows and their frames; zealous Protestants rush into the house rag- ing; the man is shot down at his own threshold ; tho cabin is wrecked ; and the procession, playing " Croppies lie down !" proceeds to another Popish den. "So the Reformation is vindicated. Tho namei of Ikillyvarley and Tullyorier will rise to the lips of many a man who reads this description." "^ 5 T s m v3» ^ w g teag ^ y*^. &\ m - ■ c\ M I V iv» I' this occasion, defended his proceedings as he best could ; and in particular, lie most emphatically denied that in 1848 he had furnished arms to Orange Lodges. He said that, in fact, a certain Captain Kennedy (at the time of the debate serving in India,) had given money out of his own pocket to provide arms for Lodges ; but he, Lord Clarendon, was quite innocent of any such proceedings. It is scarcely necessary to say that nobody believed his lordship. What had been charged was, that not money, but arms, had been sent from Dublin Castle to Belfast lor distribution amongst Orangemen ; and, besides, if the money given by Captain Kennedy came, in fact, out of the Secret Service fund, Lord Clarendon, as the distributor of that fund in Ireland, would have felt it his right and his duty to deny the fact when charged. It is an official necessity ; because, other- wise, there would be nothing secret nor sacred in Secret Service money. It only remains to be mentioned, that no person was ever brought to justice for the predetermined massacre of Dolly's Brae. At this point — the middle of the current century — the present history closes. It leaves in full operation the whole system of British rule in Ireland. Every department of Irish life was brought under complete subordination to English interests ; and the arrangements seemed to be perfect for pre- venting national aspirations or national in- terests in Ireland from ever again becoming a disturbing element in the course of im- perial policy. The Celtic population was securely put in the way of steady diminu- tion.* The famine was past ; and the people were continually called on by the smooth-spoken Viceroy, to rejoice in the re- turn of prosperity ; yet there was still a multitudinous rush to the sea, in order to escape from such prosperity. The emigra- tion from Ireland, in 1851, amounted to two hundred and fifty-seven thousand three hundred and seventy-two. The number of paupers relieved iu the poor houses in 1850, was eight hundred and five thousand seven hundred and two, without counting nearly * It 19 now, (18C8,) considerably under six mil- lions. four hundred thousand who were receiving "out-door relief." No attempt had been made to secure to the tenant by just laws any right whatsoever in the improvements he might make on his farm. Extermination of peasantry was not only the practice but the fashion ; and ruthless consolidation of farms had come to be thought the criterion of high intelligence, and even philanthropy in an Irish proprietor ; because it proved that he had studied the " Devon Commis- sion " report, and appreciated the conclu- sions of the Commissioners. In the same year, 1850, the Government was holding iu its own hands, by means of the Savings Banks, the earnings and sav- ings of poor Irish people to the amount of £1,21)1,798 ; so that every industrious ar- tizan and careful maid-servant who had made a deposit, was directly interested to the amount of such a deposit, in maintain- ing what is called " the peace of the coun- try," that is to say, submitting implicitly to the British system, and influencing others to submit. The Established Church and the police were flourishing ; the Orangemen were as insolent and ferocious as they had ever been ; and the Coercion act (for suppression of " Crime and Outrage,") was always ready in the Castle, to be launched at a moment's warning against any barony or county in the land. Yet the truth is, that Ireland was at that time remarkably free from crimes and outrages, (except those perpetrated against her people,) and it is in- structive to remark, that crimes and out- rages were at the same time steadily on the increase in England and Scotland. A speech in Parliament of Lord John Russell, contains a wonderful revelation upon this point.')" His lordship stated, that iu one year, (1857,) the convictions in Great I5iit- aiu were — for "shooting, stabbing, and wounding,", two hundred and eight ; for highway robbery, three hundred anil seven- ty-eight ; for burglary and housebreaking, one thousand and thirty-four ; for forgery, one hundred and eighty-four ; a catalogue which could by no means be matched in Ireland. However, those English and t Tt in cited by Sir Archibald Alison, in Chapter 56 of his History. >:xs,^\ ^^j .:-.. ....... HISTORY OF IRELAND. ,.- <6. i ) ■ Scotch crimes and outrages were not done assertion of public right, or resistance of public, wrong ; that is to say, they were real crimes and outrages ; they did not alarm the higher classes ; and had seldom any social, political, or religious character. Therefore, it never entered into the mind of Government or Parliament to apply their " Crime and Outrage act " to England or Scotland. In other words, the series of CCercion laws for Ireland have always been proposed and passed under a false pretence ; they are not to prevent crime, but to keep the people forever helpless in the hands of their mortal enemies. They are not mea- sures for reformation of society, but engines and arms for perpetuation of British rule in Ireland. While our count ry was so rapidly sinking to beggary, and diminishing in population, it may be useful to cast a glance at the progress Of the other island. This cannot be done better than by quoting a passage from Alison, {chop. 5(5,) in which he gives a general view of English affairs during a period of four years: "From 18-18," he says, "to 1853, the effects of free-trade were displayed, undisturbed by any other or counteracting influences. Plenty had again returned, and spread its sunshine over the land. The harvest of 184 7 had been so favorable, that at Lord John Russell's sug- gestion, a public thanksgiving was offered np for it ;* and this blessing continued un- abated in a sensible degree throughout the period." The same historian proceeds to give statements exhibiting the enormous development of English commerce and wealth during the same period of four years, by reason of the gold discoveries in California and in Australia. But nothing of all that prosperity is for Ireland. Having scarcely any manufactures, she has no commerce, except her fatal commerce with England, under that "free-trade" which cheapens all which she has to sell, and makes dearer to that precise amount everything which she is forced to buy. It may, therefore, be affirmed that in on * The harvest of 1847 was also very abundant in Ireland, and it was one of the deadliest years of famine. The English offered thanksgivings to God for the Irish harvests, and then devoured them. about the year 1850, Ireland became thor- oughly subjugated, without almost a hope of escape. Everything was fatted to the hand of her enemy, and that enemy made most unrelenting use of the advantage. The Catholic bishops counseled obedience and submission ; the formidable kind of "agitation" devised by O'Connell had be- come altogether impossible : because in the tirst place the very material for it, (the "surplus population,") had been swept off the face of the earth, and besides the English Government had now so firm a hold of the poor, through "Crime and Outrage acts," police and poor-laws, that it was more diffi- cult than formerly to move the masses Parliamentary efforts, or rather pretences of effort, were made from time to time, to obtain ameliorations of some grievance or other. These pretences of effort, if they really tended to any good for Ireland, were always defeated, or rather indeed, spurned by Parliament with disdain and insult, as it was always known they would be : and the total result of those Parliamentary move- ments may be defined as consisting of a few* places distributed to rhetorical patriots. Thus, far from the Irish representation in Parliament serving as means of asserting Irish rights or interests, it helps to rivet the chains of our unhappy island, by opening a market overt, where patriots may be pur- chased, (while still vociferating for justice to Ireland,) and so silenced forever. Whatever has been effected for the good of the Irish people, whether to promote their moral and intellectual culture, or even to aid them in saving their lives, has been done exclusively by themselves. Two wonderful examples of this nature must be mentioned: first, the establishment of the Catholic Uni- versity ; and second, the immense fund which has been systematically contributed lor some years by Irish people settled in the United States to aid their friends in escaping from British government. It has already been seen, in the course of this history, what rigorous means were used during the last century to prevent the Cath- olic people, under the heaviest penalties, from being educated at all ; and how tuo extraordinary eagerness for education on the part of those people had impelled them J TV % LE i »Jc J ft f? \ ~^JL^^_ MM to seek iii foreign schools and universities the instruction which none dared to give them at home ; although there were both great risk and enormous expense incurred in these efforts to obtain contraband learning. it was the true English horror of "French principles," about the time of the great French Revolution, which caused the penal laws against education to be relaxed ; but no measures were taken by the enemy's government to supply the place of that con- tinental education for many years after, and when at last the "National Schools" were established, atid, later still, when the three " Queen's Colleges" were built and endow- ed, it was found that the National Schools were so constituted as to be extremely un- natioiial, or anti-national ; and that the Queen's Colleges were still more adroitly arranged to wean Catholic students both from national sentiment, and from the faith and morals of their church. Such, at least, was the judgment of the majority of the Irish bishops and clergy ; and when we reflect upon the two chairs of history and moral philosophy, which must exist in every university, and on the effect of training up Catholic youth in the British principles upon these subjects, and causing them to regard human life and history from a strictly British point of view, it cannot be matter of wonder if the Catholic hierarchy lifted its voice against the new plans of education imposed on us by a London Parliament, h) short, there was a. necessity to provide some other and better system for the collegiate educa- tion of Catholic youth, ami therefore, in the year lsfit, pursuant to a recommendation coming from Rome, the Irish bishops form- ally instituted a free Catholic University, destined, like the Church (whose offspring it was,) to subsist only upon the charity of the faithful, and to be completely independ- ent of the State. Yet all this while the wealthy I'roicstaut Corporation of Trinity College was maintained in splendor by estates plundered from Catholic monasteries, and the "Queen's Colleges" were kept up at, the public cost, to which the Catholics, as tax-payers, of course had to contribute their full share. There was nothing, in- deed, new in all this: they had been long used to maintain schools and churches for NATIONAL SCnOOT.S others, and to find the means of providing for their own religious services, and instruc- tion also, as best they could. The Hoard of the Catholic University of Dublin consists of the four archbishops, and two other prelates for each province. The institution comprises five faculties : those ot theology, law, medicine, belles-lettres, and science. Its government is carried on by a committee of archbishops and bishops, meet- ing once a year. The immediate and ordi- nary administration is conducted by the " Senate " of the university, consisting of the rector and vice-rector, the secretary, the. professors, the superiors of certain institu- tions dependent on the University, and the Fellows.* A yearly collection, made in every diocese, provides for the expenses of the foundation. The spirit and zeal with which this great national enterprise has been sustained, form an admirable, illustration of the unselfish devotedness of the Irish people to an object which they believe to be good, or in other words, anti-English. In the year 1859, they had already bestowed freely — and given their blessing along with it — the considerable sum of jES%0,00() sterling, for promotion of this noble object ; and every year, even in the poorest chapels among the mountains of remote parishes, the appeal of the parish priest in favor of an institution blessed by the Pope and the bishops, brings forth an offering even from the poorest. All this great work has been done, it is true, in contravention of the views and policy of the British Government, not only without its help, lint under the frown of its displeasure. The Catholic University has no charter of incorporation, ami no legal right to confer degrees in arts or laws. h\ the eyes of the Government, it is but a private association, tolerated but not recognized, as indeed the Catholic Church itself is. Another strange and admirable example of the generous zealot' the Irish people in resisting the utter destruction of their race, is seen in the regular and systemized aid furnished by Irish citizens of the United * Kules and Regulations. § 7. The institutions dependent on the Catholic University arc those of St. Patrick, St. Lawrence, (Ilarcourt street,) Carmel anil Corpus Christi. f, V5\ »') %, !■■( ' H.SUCS. y^tkQ .C0tUMUU4.il, s f?pEl 5*6 States, to assist their friends and relatives in withdrawing themselves from the domi- nation of England, and establishing them- selves in a free country. The emigration of what is called the " surplus population " of Ireland, has been aided and furthered in several ways. The landed-proprietors, with a view to facilitate the consolidation of farms, and also to reduce the burden of poor-rates in their respective " unions,'' have largely contributed to help the emigration of the poor people whom they themselves exterminate ; but this is a matter of private arrangement, and no data exist for even approximating to the amount, supplied from this source. In 1848 the Poor-Law Unions were invited by the Government to cooper- ate in the movement of deportation, in order to furnish a gratuitous passage to such poor persons as had no other resource- than ex- patriation. But this was to be at the expense of the Irish rate-payers, and was, moreover, to be in strict accordance with the views of the British Government itself. The emigration, thus promoted, was, there- fore, to be almost entirely to the British Colonies, especially Australia. From 1841 to- 1859 inclusive, the unions contributed about £100,000 to the cost of emigration, removing from Ireland about 25,000 persons. But this was a trifle : the great rush of emigrants was to the United States, and the cost of the immense exodus was mainly provided for by the savings of Irish citizens already settled in that Republic. The Colonial Land and Emigration Com- missioners, in their twelfth report, state that they do not believe that "The emigration will be arrested by anything short of a great improvement in the position of the laboring population in Ireland; all those obstacles which in ordinary cases would be opposed to so wholesale an emigration, appear in the case of the Irish to be smoothed away. The misery which they have for many years en- dured, has destroyed the attachment to their native soil, the numbers who have already emigrated and prospered, remove the appre- hension of going to a strange and untried country, while the want of means is rem- edied by the liberal contributions of their relutions and friends who have preceded them. The contributions so made, either in the form of prepaid passages, or of money sent home, and which nre almost exclusively provided by the Irish, were returned to us, as in 1818, upwards of. £460,000 1849, " 540,000 1850, " 957,000 1851, " 990,000 And although it is probable that all the money included in these returns is not ex- pended in emigration, yet as we have reason to know that much is sent home of which these returns show no trace, it seems not unfair to assume that of the money expend- ed in Irish emigration in each of the last four years, a very large proportion was pro- vided from the other side of the Atlantic." The Abbe Perraud, in his Eludes sur V Iiliinde Contcmporaine, says : " From the returns furnished by American bankers, the Emigration Commissioners give the precise amount of those remittances of money ; but for North America only. The total for thirteen years, (1848-61,) is £11,674,596 sterling. These statistics apply, indeed, to the emigrants from the three kingdoms; but as the Irish are in the immense majority, . so it is the Irish who remit the far larget proportion of the money." It must be add- ed, that the reports made up by American bankers, can represent only a portion of the remittances from Irish citizens to their friends at home, because much money ia sent through other channels, which cannot enter into those returns. Ou the whole, however, it is evident that the strong natural affection of the Irish for their parents and relatives, and their constant and ardent de- sire to deliver them from an odious bondage, have in this instance materially served the policy of the British Government, which is, to get rid of the Celtic enemy by any and by all means. And, for the present, the policy of that Government seems to be eminently success- ful. The Celtic Irish in Ireland have greatly diminished in numbers, and are still diminish- ing. Yet there is another aspect of this affair : a vast mass of Irish power and Irish passion has been gathering and growing in the United States, all of it cherishing a mortal hatred of the British Empire, and a fierce thirst of vengeance on their enemies, as well as a loving and generous desire to te ■ W'jfil ^TX . -J,t J.M^.-.i.iJ, ■ M^xr ^8&' A &\fi f ,:is r _-.a — CONCLUSION, 609 M: « *.: M l^ 5 ft I •-■'-.- rtr,- j ' K « 2fe ■^ emancipate their native country from the bitter thraldom of so many ages. From the Celtic Irish on the American continent, arises one universal cry of execration againsl English dominion and English ideas. With independent means, a fair career for industry, and an increased and still increasing acquaint- ance with the story of their native country, there has grown up in their hearts an intense desire to right the wrongs of centuries, to lift up their kinsfolk and ancient clansmen out of the abject misery in which British policy requires them to be kept, and to See their countrymen in fair and full possession of the lovely land where Providence has placed them. This is a dangerous matter for the British Empire. For the present, indeed, it may seem, that by the operation of all the well-devised ar- rangements for getting rid of the Irish people, what used to be called the " Irish Difficulty" has become more manageable; the " Irish Enemy," if not wholly destroyed, is at least disarmed and bound. No way of redress is left open except a violent revolu- tion ; and for this the people of Ireland and their kinsmen in America only await the opportunity of a war which shall tax the strength of their enemy. A tabular summary of the financial con- dition of the country, (as furnished by her enemy,) up to the year 1852, may fitly close this story. It is to be observed upon these official returns, that we have no means of checking them, because our books are kept in England. Yet one or two remarks are obvious : — Most Irishmen are of opinion that they do not receive value for the charge on ac- count of "Army, Navy, and Ordnance;" believing, in fact, that the money would be much better spent in destroying those British services [Tabular Summary, see next page.] CONCLUSION. The compiler of this continuation of the Abbe MacGeoghegan's History of Ireland, purposely stops short of the most recent events which have agitated that country, and disquieted and exasperated England The time for relating the history of those events has not yet arrived. It may be said, however, that a powerful illustration has been thereby given to the fact, that while England is at peace with other powerful nations, it is extremely difficult, if not im- possible, to make so much as a serious attempt at a national insurrection, in the face of a government so vigilant and so well prepared. The high patriotic enthusiasm that im- pelled many brave Irishmen in America to fly across the Atlantic and devote to the rescue of their country that art of war which they had learned chiefly to that end, their experience in training men, the gal- lantry of the peasants, their extensive secret organizations — all seemed to break and dis- solve away in the very hour of highest hope and resolve. All honor be to the men who made the daring effort, and staked their lives upon it. Whatever judgment may be formed of others, they, at least, " stood the cast their rashness played," and the best of them are expiating in dungeons the crime of loving their country and striving to serve her — just as Irishmen have generally- expiated that offence for many ages. Yet no cause is utterly lost so long as it can inspire heroic devotion. No country is hope- lessly vanquished whose sons love her belter than their lives. ft f6"Ji \fi\ ' ; 1»J flF if':-.','' /:■ .. ■ '^ Account of the Income and Expenditure to 1852, inclusive; showing the whole together with the application thereof. 1^0; No. 477, 1851 ; No. 6U4, 1852.] of Ireland, in the Years ending 6th January, from 1817 of the Ways and Means provided within the same period. — [House of Commons Papers, No. 528, 1849; No. liUO, EXPENDITURE. Dividends, Interest, and Management of Public Funded Deb', payable in Ireland, Other Payments out of the Consolidated Fund, Total Payments out of the Consolidated Fund, Payments on account of Grants of Parliaments, viz. : Other Payments : — Money Advanced out of the Consolidated Fund for Total Expenditure, Application of the Ways and Means provided :— Applied to the Redemption of Exchequer Bills, per Act 57, Geo. III. .cup. 48 (Deficiency Bills,). Sums remitted through the Excise in Ireland, to Money remaining in the Exchequer at the end of Total Net Payments into the Exchequer of the following several Duties or Revenues, viz. : — Poundage Fee, Pells Fee, Treasury Fees, Hospital Total Ordinary Revenue Moneys remaining in the Exchequer at the corn- Other Receipts : — Repayment of Money Advanced for Public Works and other Public objects, ..... Moneys Repaid by Public Accountants, and other O o a CT "*- i co "co r. ~ tO -i -3 -i "-* 00 en —> f en CO CO O CO S i CO tn 2,218,41)5 18 10 1,148,980 3.940 105,000 4(38,463 13 6 790,214 3 5 oc tn Ct M o o en CO -. to '. en «- -3 co -a "co en co tc en to ^- co "oo O Ct "co 00 H- O CO -3 1-' »*»■ tO CO -3 00 -3 O tO -3 O OiVtO IO -1 Ci CT l, tn to jw _-i j» r» O . 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CT .. _CO CT >— /. — Pi "tO CO CT CO (O S 1 gscs k" o ci ai oi o o .- Ot -4 ?• X CT I Q> J V, ^Ju ;u,v..s,.. BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES. FLORENCE O'MAOLCONAIRE, OR CONROY. Archbishop of Tnam, Founder of the Irish College, Li'uvain, Author of "Compendium of the Works of Saint Augustine," " Christian Instruction," "Peregrinus Jeri- couthus," &o., &C. Florence Coxroy was a native of Gal way — it is tlus country of his family. They were in Connaught, in earlier days, the crowners of the Provincial Kings and bestowers of the white wand of dominion. But the office had become one of title merely, without duties or emolu- ments, and the young members of the crowning house were now destined either for the Church at home, or for some stranger's service abroad. The lot of Florence was cast in the former field of duty. At au early age he was sent abroad for the completion of his studies. His education was partly derived from a college in the Nether lands, and afterwards from some Spanish semi- nary. Before he had ever published, he seems to have enjoyed a general reputation for learning, and was held to be the best student of Saint Augustine's works, then in Europe. Although lie entered the Franciscan Observantine Order, he did not abandon that favorite author, to whom, as his life wore on, he appears to have grown attached more and more. The question of the Immaculate Conception formed at the close of the sixteenth century the leading controversy with the Schoolmen. The Dominicans and Jesuits were opposed in the matter. The debated point was, whether the Virgin Mother was conceived without sin, and if so, whether this was a received Doctrine of the Church of Rome. The Franciscan Order contended that it was and should be so. In Spain, the affirmative was argui-d with great fervor in many publications. It was in that country a dispute of old standing. Its char- acter, of course, reached Conroy, who at once turned for aid to his great authority, Augustine. Out of that Doctor's works he drew such reasons in its affirmation, as greatly enhanced his own fame, and procured him the acquaintance of Philip the Second, then fitting out his grand Armada against Elizabeth and England. Soon alter his introduction at Court he was appointed '• Provincial " of the Franciscans in Ireland, and prepared to return to his country, at the request of the Spanish King, with the royal fleet. In 15SS, that tremendous navy lumbered out to sea, steering towards the North. In which ship our ecclesiastic came we cannot ascertain. How he fared in the destruction of the Armada, is not apparent ; whether his ship bore him like a late to his native shore, or cast him upon the less friendly one of the Scots, we cannot decide ; but we find him hack again in Spain, in 1593. In this year he translated from Spanish into Irish, a short work of a religious character, which he calls "A Christian Instruction."* Conroy continued to reside in the Peninsula, ever planning with a loving heart some good for Ireland. In 1002, Hugh Roe O'Donnell, Prince of Tyr- connell arrived at Corunna, to seek an interview with King Philip to the end that one last grand rally should be made for Ireland. He saw the king at Zamora, and then retired to Simancas to await the lilting out of a new Armada.t Here he was attended by Conroy who seems to have acted as his chaplain from the date of his arrival in Spain until his death. In ]li0!)-10, Maolmuire OTIiggin, brother to the famed Munster bard of that name, then Arch- bishop of Tuam, returning from a visit to Rome through the Netherlands, died at Antwerp. To the vacant Arcbiepiscopacy, the Propaganda and Pope appointed Conroy, with equal wisdom and propriety. He was one of the first, if not the very first, to start the project of au " Irish College " on the Continent. His influence with King Philip was all exerted for the accomplishment of this scheme, and he met with full Bticcess. It was arranged that Louvain should be the site of the building, and the patron St. Anthony of Padua. In the year of grace 1616, the corner stone was laid by the Archduke Albert, Governor of the Spanish Netherlands, anil his Princess, the Infanta Isabella, daughter of Philip the Second. The establishment and discipline of the new college did not solely occupy the mind of its founder. He in common with the Irish then in Spain fondly entertained the hope of a Spanish alliance, which would restore Catholicism and Nationality together. A correspondence between them and Aodh O'Neil and his fellow exiles in Rome, did but increase their anxiety and industry. But still some event or other occured to frustrate their plans. In 1618, Conroy presented to the Council of Spain, Philip O 'Sullivan Beare'a " Re- lation of Ireland and the numbers of Irish therein," and in the following year his own '■ statement of the severities practiced by Euglaud against the Irish Catholics." Towards the close of his days he returned to Madrid, and took up his abode in one of the Franciscan convents of that capital. There he remained until the 18th of November, 1629, when full of services and of sanctity he breathed his last. In 1604 the faculty of the Louvain College had his remains transferred from Madrid to their Collegiate Chapel, where, under a marble monu- ment, with a fitting inscription in Latin, they repose, at the Gospel side of the high altar. •O'Reilly, in hie Irish Writers, calls it a " Mirror of Christian Life," and mentions it as published at Louviau in 1626 ; but it is called as in the text in the MS. copy, in the Itoyal Irish Academy. t ilitchers "Aodh O'Neill,' *M YC^ >'' . BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES. FATHER LUKE WADDING. Author of "Scriptures Ordinum Mlnornm," "Annals of the Friars Minor," and Founder of St Isidore's Col- lege Kome. Father Like Waddrto whs a native of the city of VVaterford. He was born on the sth of Octo- ber, 1688. His lather was a merchant in wealthy circumstances ; his mother, sister to Peter Lom- bard. I lie Catholic Primate of Ireland. An elder brother, Matthew, superintended liis preliminary studies, until lie was of an a^c to be sent abroad for their completion. In 1603, he was placed under the tuition of the Irish .Jesuits in Lisbon. lie graduated, finally, under the tool's of the ven- erable Coimbria. In his seventeenth year lie commenced a Jovi- tiate. according to the rules of the Friars Minor nl St. Francis, ami at twenty-live was ordained by John Emanuel, bishop >>f Visco. As a priest, the first held of his labors was the convent church of l.iria," in whose pulpit lie preached with great success, " in the language of the country." From Lit-ia, be was called by the University of Salamanca, famous all over Europe for its learning and munificence, where he was successively installed as Master of the Students, and as Professor of Divinity. Here the contro- versy of the ■■ Immaculate Conception " was stren- uously urged to a determination, and by none more so than by Madding. In 1618, Philip the Third resolved on feuding a deputation on this purpose to Kome. at the head of which, was a' Trejo, bishop of Carthagena. Wadding was ap- pointed theologian to the embassy, and he set out with the rest from Madrid lor the eternal city. Arrived in Home, the deputation took tip its abode in the palace of Cardinal a" Trejo, brother to the bishop. The latter, after various inter- views with the college of cardinals, effected his purpose, and all. l m t Wadding, returned rejoic- ingly io Spain. He bad resolved to remain in Rome. Here was to him a whole world o! labor, and in tin- centre of Christendom, where the Chiefs ol the church had their home. Here, in innumerable archives, were mouldering manu- scripts, passing daily into dust, and thus dissolving the labors of many a laborious brain. It would, indeed, lie a shame if. while Florence and all Italy were raging, iii their Hellenic fever, ot Plato, anil Aristotle, and Sophocles, the pious writings of Christian saints and fathers, with which the city abounded, should know no revival, lie beheld herein a great literary province stretched out before him. but one totally untrodden and unused by man. He, therefore, resolved not to return to Salamanca. fhe success of the mission of the Immaculate Conception had made his name extensively known in Catholic countries. From various religious bodies in Italy and Spain he received letters of thanks for hi.s great exertions, and full of admi- ration at his learning. Angelo de 1'az. a deceased brother of St. Peter's convent, had left behind him several tracts of value and learning, which Wadding collected and published in successive volumes in the years 1621, '2% and '25 successively. In lti'Jit. he also pub- lished an edition of the works of St. Francis, the * This ancient city is in the heart of the classic ground of Portugal. Above it frowna the castle of King Dinis " the fai mer, " and a lew hours journey on the one hand, conducts io tlie ancient moriastetieB of Bathalla and Aloo- hd. .1, and on the other to the University . . t c , nubia. founder of his Order, with original annotations. In 1624, he edited two separate works on Biblical Criticism, which had hitherto lain unknown ; the one from the pen of St. Anthony of Lisbon, the other composed by an anonymous Irish Franciscan, styled Thomas Hibernicus. Wadding's industry now took an historical di- rection, lie resolved on writing the Annals of his wide-spread Order, from its institution to his own time. It proposed to inweave the records ot its thousands of saints and doctors, its missionaries and authors. The design was gigantic, but the giant's load is light to the giant's arm. Yet he took twenty-six years to tiring out his eight tomes of the •• Annals ''—from 1628 to 1651. In 1637, he published a "Life of Thoinasius. Patriarch of Alexandria," and in 1611. that ot St. .lames of I'icenium. In 1660, he wrote the life of the Franciscan Gaullousis. and, in 1(137, "A Me- moir of Ansel m, Bishop ol Lucca." In 1625, when but seven years in Rome, he founded on the ruins of a Spanish convent dedi- cated to St. Isidore, patron of Madrid, the Irish college, which bore and bears the same name. In 1628, he sueeeeded in inducing Cardinal Loudo- visiu- to establish a si lar Irish college. In 1630 he was elected Procurator of the Franciscans at Rome, and in 1645, he was Vice-Commissary ol his ( Irder. The news of the Irish rising of Hill had no sooner reached Wadding than lie exerted himself to procure foreign co-operation for the confeder- ates. The •• confederate Catholics " aware of his anxiety lor their success, appointed him in 1642 their agent at Kome, at the same time formally thanking him for his "past zeal and services* Soon after, when Urban VIII., id' the family ot Barberini, was raised to the Papacy, his influence still increased, ami he obtained the appointment, or caused it to be rendered operative, of Nicholas Kinnuneinni, Archbishop of Fermo, as Nuncio to Ireland. The mission of Rinnuncinni failed. While be was in Ireland, the sword of Aodh O'Neil came into the posse — ion of Father Wadding ; he trans- mitted it by the Dean of Fermo to the Nuncio, who presented it to Owen Roe O'Neal. In 11145, the conledcrates sent Mr. Richard Eel- ling, as their ambassador to Kome, to congratulate Urban on his elevation to the Papacy, In '46 the confederates petitioned his Holiness that he might raise him to the dignity of Cardinal. Alter the return of the luckless Nuncio to Italy, the connection between Ireland mid Kome ceased to be official, and Wadding's duties as Irish agent became less numerous and pressing. The inter- vals of his leisure ho again turned to literary account. lu his declining years he became for a second lime president of St. Isidore's College. Here lie had gathered about him Irish professors whose names are distinguished in the church literature of their age. In 1650, he was seized with an illness, from the debilitating effect Of which his constitution did not n ot. He lived on for seven years more. Buffering in body, yet active and industrious in mind. On the 18 th of October, 1657, he was relieved by death. His funeral w is solemnly celebrated : hi- grave is in St. Isidore's, and over it a tomb, raised to his memory by a noble Roman, who was his friend through life- Hercules Rocconii. It bears a brief inscription in Latin. , . . r.^< ,-. J A ■'■ '.n BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES. 1 er OLIVER PLUNKETT, ARCHBISHOP OF ARMAGH. He was born early in the century of the noble house of Fingall. His Btudies were completed at the Irish College in Home, from whence he was selected, in 1657, as one of the divines of the Congregation de Propaganda Fide. On the death of Primate O'Keilly, often before mentioned in these pages, he was nominated by Pope Clement IX. Archbishop of Armagh, the ninety-fourth in succession from Saint Patrick. This was in the year 1669, while he still was doctor of divinity to the Congregation lor the Propagation of the Faith. He upheld with firmness, and asserted with tempered strength, the pre-eminence of his see over all others in Ireland. Not only in the BynodE of the clergy but in private life he bore himsell as became the successor of Saint Patrick. The only work of which he was the author is written to the same effect. During the incumbency of his Becond removed successor the question was de- cided for Armagh, and no rival claim has been since revived. Doctor Plunkett, beside his acquirements as a divine, was also somewhat of a verse-maker. There still exists an Irish address or ode written by him on the altered fortunes of the royal hill of Tara. The most instructive and glorious part of Plun- kett's life is the manner with which he met an unjust and ignominious death. The story of his persecutions and his fortitude is, perhaps, the most touching and noble that can be told of a Christian bishop. In December, 1G79, he was arrested and com- mitted to Newgate, Dublin. Informations were sworn against him by two condemned Friars, named Mac Moyar and Duffy; but after they had so sworn, they suddenly left the kingdom and went over to London, preferring to prosecute there. The English Court of King's Bench re- ceived their testimony, and Plunkett, in October. 1680, after Buffering ten months' incarceration, was removed to England. After being held seven months more in prison, he was, on the 3rd of May, 1681, arraigned at the bar of King's Bench, bolore the Lord Chief Justice. He then put in the plea that he had no notice of his arraignment ; that he had been kept close prisoner since Octo- ber, and had neither time nor liberty allowed him to send into Ireland for witness of his innocence. Thereon five weeks' time were allowed him to col- lect his witnesses, and on the 8th of June, 1U81, he was again summoned to the bar. In the mean- while, his messengers, in crossing the channel, had been put back by storm to Holyhead, and had not time afterwards to gather the scattered parties necessary to disprove so extensive an indictment, lie asked ten days more, but that was peremp- torily denied him. The Chief Justice told him his case must go on. aud could not again be post- poned. The jury were then sworn in, Sir John Roberts being foreman. The indictment was read, and the counsel for the prosecution spoke in succession. These were, Mr. Heath, Mr. Sergeant Maynard, Mr. Sergeant Jeffries, the Solicitor-General, and the Attorney- General. Then were called the witnesses for the crown : Wyer, Henry O'Neil, Edmotid O'Murfey, and Friars Duffy and Mac Moyar. The sole wit- ness that was present in Plunkett's favor was an unexpected one. His name is given as Gormar. He was a crown agent for procuring convictions, yet ''a stranger" introduced him, at his own re- quest, just as the trial was about to close. He admitted his occupation, but swore that in his opinion the primate " had always done more good than ill in Ireland." Sergeant Jeffries, in an un- merciful tirade, closed the prosecution, when the jury retired " for a quarter of an hour," and re- tured with a. verdict of •' Gctilty." It was then the accused was heard in his own behalf. When Sir John Roberts pronounced his doom from the jury box, he merely exclaimed — i; Deo gratias. God be praised." When asked if he had any rea- son to offer why the sentence should not be pronounced, he briefly recapitulated the argu- ments urged by him at the outset, and again asked for ten days' time. The Chief Justice then sentenced him to be hung, embowelled, and quar- tered on Friday, the 1st day of the succeeding month, (July,) at Tyburn. On the appointed day of execution, Plunkett was carried on a hurdle to Tyburn. " A good, religious, quiet man." says Harris. " He suf- fered very decently," says Bigot Burnet, " ex- pressing himself in many respects like a Christian bishop." £^ ^3$&m D>, V '<& APPENDIX No. THE ARTICLES OP UNION. t-m RESOLVED, I. That in order to promote and se- cure 1 tie essential interests of Great Britain and Ireland, and consolidate the strength, power, and resources of the British Empire, it will be advis- able to concur in such measures as may best tend to unite the two kingdoms of Great Britain and Inland into one kingdom, in such manner, and on such terms and conditions as may be estab- lished by the acts of the respective Parliaments of Great Britain and Ireland. lienulced, 2. That for the purpose of establish- ing an Union upon the basis stated in the resolu- tion of the two Houses of Parliament of Great Britain, communicated by His Majesty's command in the message sent to this House by his excellen- cy the Lord-Lieutenant, it would be fit to propose as the first article of Union, that the kingdoms of Great Britain and Ireland shall upon the first day of January, which shall be in the year of Our Lord, one thousand eight hundred and one, and forever after, be united in one kingdom, by the name of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, and that the royal style and titles appertaining to the Imperial Crown of the said United Kingdom and its dependencies, and also Ihe ensigns, armorial Bags, and banners thereof. shall be such as His Majesty by his royal proclam- ation, under the Great .Seal of the United King- dom shall be pleased to appoint. Resolved, 3. That for the same purpose, it would be lit to propose, that the succession to the Imperial Crown of the said United Kingdom, and of the dominions then unto belonging, shall continue limited and settled in the same manner, as tin- succession to the Imperial Crown of the said kingdoms of Great Britain and Ireland now stands limited and settled, according to the exist- ing laws, and to the terms of the Union between England and Scotland. Resolved, 4. That for the same purpose, it. would be fit to propose, that the said United Kingdom be represented in one and the same Parliament, to be styled the Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. liesolved, 5. That fur the same purpose, it would be lit to propose, that the charge arising from the payment of the interest and sinking fund, lor the reduction of the principal of the debl incurred in either kingdom before the Union, shall continue to be separately defrayed by Great Britain and Ireland respectively. That lor the space of twenty years after the Union shall take plaee, the contribution of Great Britain and Ireland respectively, towards lie- ex- penditure of the United Kingdom in each yeat hh ill l>e defrayed in the proportion of fifteen parts for Great Britain and two parts lor Ireland, that at the expiration of the said twenty years. the future expenditure of Ihe United Kingdom, other than the interest and charges of the debt to which either country shall be separately liable. shall be defrayed in such proportion as the said United Parliament shall deem just and reason- able, upon a comparison of the real value of tilt) exports and imports of the respective countries, upon an average of the three years next preced- ing the period of revision, or on a comparison of the value of the quantities of the following arti- cles consumed within the respective countries, on a similar average, viz., beer, spirits, sugar, wine, tea, tobacco, and malt ; or according to the aggre- gate proportion resulting from both these consid- erations combined, or on a comparison of the amount of income in each country, estimated from the produce for the same periods of a gen- eral tax, if such shall have been imposed on Hie same descriptions of income in both countries, and that the Parliament of the United Kingdoms shall afterwards proceed in like manner, to revise and fix Ihe said proportions according to the same rules or any of them, at periods not more distant than twenty years, nor less than seven years from each other, unless previous to any such period the United Parliament shall have declared as hereinafter provided, that the general expenses of the empire shall be defrayed indiscriminately by equal taxes, imposed on the like articles in both countries. Resolved, (!. That for defraying the said ex- penses, according to the rules above laid down, the revenues of Ireland shall hereafter constitute a consolidated fund, upon which charges equal to the interest of the debt and sinking fund, shall, in the first instance be charged, and the remain- der shall be applied towards defraying the pro- portion of the general expense of tie: United Kingdom, to which Ireland may be liable in each year. That the proportion of contribution to which Great Britain and Ireland will by these articles be liable, shall be raised by such taxes in each kingdom respectively, as the Parliament of the United Kingdom shall from time to time deem lit. provided always, that in regulating the taxes in each country by which their respective proportion shall be levied, no article in Ireland shall be liable to !»• taxed to any amount exceeding t hat which will be thereafter payable in England on the like article.-. Resolved, 7. That if at the end of any year, any surplus shall accrue from the revenues of Ireland, alter defraying the interest, sinking fund. and proportioned contribution, and separate charges to which the said country is liable, eith- er taxes shall be taken oil' the amount of such surplus, or the surplus shall be applied by the lulled Parliament' to local purposes in Ireland, of to make good any deficiency which may arise in her revenues in time of peace, or invested by the commissioners of tin' national dent of Ireland iu the funds, lo accumulate for the benefit of Ire- land, at compound interest, iu case of coutribu- % ,& A PITT '?£$, 9 ff '-. AITKNl'TX. 7' &? fig Hon in time of war. Pr,>r'ulrd. The surplus so to accumulate, shall at bo future period be suffered to exceed the sum of five millions. Resolved, 8. That all monies hereafter to be raised bj loan in peace or war. for the Bervice of the United Kingdom by the Parliament thereof, shall be considered to be a joint debt, and the charges thereof shall In- borne bj the respective countries in the proportion of their respective contributions. Provided, That if at any time in raisin;; the respective contributions hereby fixed for each kingdom, the Parliament of the united Kingdom shall judge it tit to raise a greater pro- portion of such respective contributions in one kingdom within the year than in the other, or to set apart a greater proportion of sinking fund for the liquidation of the whole, or any part of the loan raised on account of the one country than that raised on account of the other country, then Buch pari of the said loan for the liquidation ol which different provisions have been made for the respective countries, shall lie kept distinct, ami shall he borne by each separately, and onlj thai part of the saiil loan be deemed joint and cum inoii. lor the reduction of which, the respective countries shall have made provision in the pro- portion ol their respective contributions. Resolved, 9. Thai if at any future day, the sep- arate debt of each kingdom respectively shall have been liquidated, or the values of their re- spective debts (estimated according to i he amount of the inlet', -st and annuities attending the same, of the sinking fund applicable to the reduction mil the period within which the whole capita! of such debt shall appear to be redeem- able by such sinking fund.) shall be to each other. in the same proportion with the respective con tributions of each kingdom respectively, or where the amount by which the vain,' of the larger ol such ih'bts shall vary from such pi'oportion, shall not exceed one hundredth part of the said value ; and it' it shall appear to the United Parliament, that the respective circumstances of the two countries will thenceforth admit of their contri- buting indiscriminately, by equal taxes imposed on the Bat u*ticles in each, to the future general expense ol the United Kingdom, it shall be com- petent to the said United Parliament to declare, that all future expense thenceforth to be incurred. together with the interest and charges of all joint delns contracted previous to such declaration, shall be defrayed indiscriminately bj equal taxes imposed on the same articles in each country, and thenceforth from time to time as circumstances in u require to impose and apply such taxes ac cordingly, subject only to such particular exemp- tions or abatements in Ireland, and that part ol Great Britain call d Scotland, aa circumstances may appear from time to time to demand, that from the period ol Buch declaration, it shall no longer be necessary to regulate the contribution of the two countries towards the future general B, according to any of the rules hcreinbe- I pro\ ided. Uted, nevertheless. That the interest or charges which may remain on account of any part lit' the separate debt with which either coun- try is chargeable, and which shall not be liquidat- ed or consolidated proportionately as above, shall, until extinguished, continue to be defrayed by Beparate taxes in each country. ted LO. That a sum not less than the sum which has been granted by the Parliament of lie- laud, on the average ol six years, as premiums for the internal encouragement of agriculture oi manufacture, or for the maintaining institutions for pious and charitable purposes, shall be ap- plied for the period of twenty years after the Un- ion to such local purposes, in such manner as tha Parliament of the United Kingdom shall direct. Resolved. 11. That from and after the first day of January, one thousand eight hundred and one, all public revenue arising from the territorial de- pendencies of the United Kingdom, shall be ap- plied to the general expenditure of the empire, in the proportions of the respective contributions of tlie tw o countries. Resolved, 12. That fur the same purpose it would be lit to propose that lords spiritual of Ireland, and .... lords tem- poral of Ireland, shall be the number to sit and rote on the part of Ireland in the House of Lords of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, and one hundred commoners (two tor each county of Ireland, two lor the city of Cork, one for the Uni- versity of Trinity College, and one for each of the thirty-one most considerable cities, towns, and boroughs,) be tiie number to sit and vote on the part ol Ireland, in the House of Commons in the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Resolved, 13. That such acts aa shall be passed in the Parliament of Ireland previous t" the Un- ion, to regulate the mode by which the lords spir- itual and temporal and the commons to serve in the Parliament of the United Kingdom on the part of Ireland, shall be summoned ..r returned to the said Parliament, shall be considered as forming part of the treaty of Union, and shall be incorporated in the act ol the respective l'arlia incuts, by which the said Union shall be ratified* ami established. Resolved, 11. That all questions touching the election of members to sit on the part of Ireland in the House of Commons of the United King- dom, shall be heard ami decided in tiie same manner a- questions touching such elections in tlieat Britain now arc. or at anytime hereafter, shall by law be. heard and decided, subject never- theless, to such particular regulations in respect of Ireland, as from loe.il circumstances the Par- liament ol the said United Kingdom may from time to time deem expedient. Resolved, 15. Thai the qualifications in respect of property of the members elected on the part ol' Ireland lo sit in the House of Commons m the United Kingdom, shall be respectively the same as are now provided by law. in cases of elections lor counties, and cities, and boroughs. respective- ly, in that part of Great Britain called England, unless any other provision shall hereafter be made in thai respect by act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Resolved, Hi. That when His Majesty, his heirs, or successors, shall declare his. her. or their plea- sure, for holding the first or an} subsequent Par- liament of the United Kingdom, a proclamation Shall issue under llie (ileal Seal of tile United Kingdom, to cause the lords spiritual and tempo- ral and commons who are to serve in the Parlia- ment thereol on the part of Ireland, lo be returned in such manner as by any act of this present session of the Parliament of Ireland shall be pro- vided; and that the lords spiritual and temporal and Commons of t freal Britain shall together with the lords spiritual ami temporal ami commons s,i returned as aforesaid, on the part of Ireland, con- stitute the two Houses ol Parliament of the United Kingdom. -'..\„ . APPENDIX. WM ~k : r Resofotd, 17. That if Hia Majesty on or before the tir.-.t day of January, one thousand eight hundred and one, "ii which day the 0nion ie to take place, shall declare, under the Great Seal ■ •I Great Britain, that it is expedient that the lords and commons of the present Parliament of Great Britain should be members of the re- spective Houses of (he first Parliament of the United Kingdom on the part of Great Britain, then the said lords and commons of the present Parliament of Great Britain shall accordingly be the members of the respective Houses of the Si I Parliament of the United Kingdom on the pari of Great Britain, and they, together with the lords spiritual and temporal and commons so summon- ed and returned as above on the part of Ireland, shall be the lords spiritual and temporal and commons of the first Parliament of the United Kingdom ; and such first Parliament may, (in that jU ca.se.) if not sooner dissolved, continue to sit so long as the present Parliament of Great Britain may now by law continue to sit, and that every one of the Lords of Parliament of the United Kingdom, and every member of the douse of Commons of the United Kingdom in the first, and all succeeding Parliaments, shall, until the Parlia- ment of the United Kingdom shall otherwise provide, take the oaths, and make and subscribe the declaration, which are at present by law en- joined to be taken, made and subscribed by the lords and commons of the Parliament of Great Britain. 1!' solved. 18. That for the same purpose it would be lit in propose that, the churches of that part of Great Britain called England, and id' Ireland, should b" united into one Church, and tie' arch- bishops, bishops, deans and clergy of the churches of England ami Ireland shall, from time to time, be summoned to ami entitled to sit in convocation of the United Church in the like manner, and subject to the same regulations as are at present by law established, with respect to the like orders of the Church of England, and the doctrine. worship, discipline and government of the United Church shall be preserved as now by law estab- lished tortile Church of England; and the doctrine, worship, discipline ami government of the Church ol .Scotland shall likewise be preserved as now by law established for the Church of Scotland. Ami that the continuance and preservation forever of the said United Church, as tie' Established Church of that part of the United Kingdom called England and Ireland, shall be deemed and taken to be an essential and fundamental condition of the treaty ol Union. Resolved, 19. That for the same purpose, all laws in force at the time of the Union, and all courts of civil and ecclesiastical jurisdiction withiu the respective kingdoms, shall remain as now by law ■ -i.iblislied, subject only to such alterations and regulations, from time to time, as circumstanced may appeal- to the Parliament of the United King- dom to require, provided that all writs of error and appeals depending at the time of the Union, or hereafter to I"' brought, and which might now be finally decided by the House of Lords of either kingdom, shall from and alter (he Union be finally decided by the House of Lords of the United Kingdom ; and provided, that from and after the Union there shall remain in Ireland an instance Court of Admiralty, tor the determination of causes, civil and maritime only ; and that all laws at present in force in either kingdom, which shall be contrary to any of the provisions which may be enacted by any act for carrying this article into effect, be from and after the Union repealed. Resolved, 20. That for the same purpose it would be fit to propose that His Majesty's subjects of Great Britain and Ireland shall, from and aftet the first day of January, one thousand eight hundred and one, be entitled to the same privi- leges, and be on the same footing as to enc 'age- ment and bounties on the like articles, being the growth, produce or manufacture of eilher kingdom respectively and generally in respect of trade ami navigation in all ports and places in the United Kingdom and its dependencies; ami that in all treaties made by Hi, Majesty, his heirs and successors, with any foreign power, His Majesty's subjects of Ireland shall have the same privileges, and be on the same footing as His Majesty's subjects of Great Britain. Resolved, '21. That from the first day of January, one thousand eight hundred and one. all prohibi- tions and bounties on the export of articles, the growth or manufacture of either country to i he other shall cease and determine ; and that thesaid articles shall thenceforth be exported from one country to the other without duly or bounty on such expot I. Resolved, 22. That all articles, the growth, pro- duce or manufacture of either Kingdom, not here- inafter enumerated as subject to specific duties, shall from henceforth lie imported into each coun- try from the other free from duly, other than such countervailing duty as shall be annexed to tho several articles contained m the Schedule No. 1 ;* and that the articles hereinafter enumerated shall be subject for the period of twenty years from the Union, on importation into each country from the other, to the duties specified in the .Schedule No. II.* annexed to this article, viz.: Apparel, Millinery, Brass wrought, Paper, stained, Cabinet U are, Pottery, Coaches and carriages, Saddlery, Copper, wrought, Cottons, Glass, Haberdashery, Hats, Lace, gold and silver Silk, manufactured, Stockings, Thread, bullion for lace, pearl, ami spangles, Tin plates, wrought iron, and hardware. gold ami silver threads And that the woolen manufacture shall pay on importation into each country, the duties now payable on importation into Ireland; salt and hops on< importation into Ireland, duties not ex- ceeding those which are now" paid in Ireland; and coals on importation to be Subject to burdens not exceeding those to which they are now subject. That calicos and muslins be subject and liable to the duties now payable on the same, until the fifth day of January one thousand eight hundred and eight; and from and after thesaid day. the said duties shall be annually reduced in such pro- portion, ami at such periods as -hall hereafter be enacted, so as that the said duties shall stand at ten per cent, from and alter the fifth day of January, one thousand eight hundred and sixteen, until the fifth day of January, which shall be in [he year one thousand eight hundred and twenty one; and that cotton, yarn, and cotton twist, shall also be subject and liable- to ihc duties now payable upon the same, until the fifth day of January, one thousand eight hundred and eight, and from and after the said day. tiie said duties shall be annually reduced at such times, and in such proportions, as ♦Tie refei to Schedules annexed to tho resolutions, as originally introduced. V^.\ ft :a>j .;..■-* am -s- r^ APPENDIX. (&, ^f ^9l s> shall be hereafter enacted, so as that all duties shall cease OD the said articles from and after the tilth day of January, one thousand eight hundred and sixteen. Resolved, 23. That any articles of the growth, produce i>r manufacture of either country, which are or may lie subject to internal duty, or to duty on the materials of which they are composed, may he made subject on their importation into each country respectively from the other, to such coun- tervailing duly as shall appear to lie just and reasonable in respect to such internal duty or duties on the materials ; and that for the said pur- poses the articles specified in the said Schedule No. I. should, upon importation into Ireland, he subject to the duty which shall be set forth therein. liable t<> lie taken nil. diminished or increased in the r herein specified; and that upon the like export of the like articles hem each country to the other respectively, a draw hack shall be given, equal in amount tit the countervailing dutj . payable en the articles herein before specified, on the import into the same country with the other; and that in like manner, in future, it shall be com petent to the United Parliament to impose any new or additional countervailing duties, or to lake off or diminish such existing,countervailing duties as may appear on like principles to bo just ami reasonable, in respect of any future or additional internal duty on any article of the growth or manufacture of either country, or of any new additional duty on any materials of which such article may be composed, or any abatement of (he same ; and that when any such new or addi- tional countervailing duty shall lie so imposed on the import of any article into either country from the other, a drawback equal in amount to such countervailing duty, shall he given in like manner on the export of every such article respectively from the same country. Resolved, 21. That all articles, th e growth, pro- duce or manufacture of either kingdom, when ex- ported through the other, shall in all cases be ex- ported subject to the same charges as if they had been exported directly from the country of which they were the growth, produce, or manufacture. Resolved, 25. That all duty charged on the im- port of foreign or colonial goods into either country, shall, on their export to the other, he either drawn hack, or the amount, if any be re- tained, shall be placed to the credit of the country to which they shall tie so exported, so long as the general expenses of the empire shall he defrayed by proportional contributions. Protridad, Nothing herein shall extend to take away any dul\ . bounty or prohibition which exists with respect to corn, meal, malt, flour, and lii-cuit, but that the same I may be regulated, varied or repeated, from time to time, as the United Parliament shall deem ex- I pedieut. ORIGINAL RED LIST, Or the Members who voted against the Union in 1799, and ISOO, with observations. Those names with a (*) affixed to them, are County Members ; those with a (t) City Members; and those with a (§) Borough Members. Those in Italics changed sides, and got either .Money or Offices. NAMES. 1.* Honorable A. Acheson 2.* William t'. Alcock . . 3.* Mervyn Archdall . . 4.§ W. II. Armstrong . . 5." Sir Richard Butler . . ti.* John Bagwell .... 7.§ Peter Burrowes . . . 8.* John Bagwell, Jan. . . 9.t John Ball lO.f Charles Ball . . . . ll.f Sir Jonah Harrington . 12.§ Charles Bushe. . . . 13. f John C. Beresford . . 14. Arthur Brown . . . 15.§ William Blakeney . lli.* William Burton . . 17.* II. V. Brooke. 18.6 Blayney Balfour. 19.§ David Babington . 2u.f Hon. James Hutler . 21.* Col. J. Maxwell Barry 22.§ William Bagwell . . 0BSEKYATI0N. Son to Lord Gosford. County Wexford. Count] Fermanagh. Refused all terms from Government. Changed sides. See Black List. Changed sides rwicts. See Black List. Now Judge of the Insolvent Court; a steady Anti-Unionist. Cltanged sides. See Black List. Member for Drogheda— incorruptiofc. Brother to the preceding. King's Counsel —Judge of the Admiralty.— refused all terms. Afterwards Solicitor-General and Chief Justice of Ireland — incor- ruptible. Seceded from Mr. Ponsonby in 1799. on his declaration of indepen- dence. That secession was latal to Ireland. Member for the University, changed sides in 1800; was appointed Prime Sergeant by Lord Castlereagh, through Mr. Under-Sec- retary Cooke — of till others the most open and palpable case. See Black List A Pensioner, but opposed Government. Sold his Borough, Carlow, to a Unionist (,Lord Tullamore.) but re- mained staunch himself. Connected with Lord Be) more. (Now Marquis of Ormonde.) voted in 1800 against a Union, hnl with Government mi Lord Corry's motion. (Now Lord r'nrnhuin.) nephew to the Speaker. Changed sides twice, concluded as a Unionist. See Black List. ^qK t ^^m, cAlfi .'AKuKtHjS.Q, ,».'."i , U r» NAMES. 23* Viscount Corry 24.f Robert Crowe . 25.* Lord Clements 26.* Lord Colo . . 27.§ Hon. Lowry Cole . . 28.* R. Shapland Carew . . Z9.f Son. A. Oreighton . . 3().f Hon. •/. Oreighton . . 31.* Joseph Edward Cooper. 32. t James Cane .... 33.* Lord Caulfield . . . 34. f Henry Coddington. 35.§ George Crookshank , 36.* Denis li. Duly. . . 37. f Noah Dal way. 38.* Richard Dawson. 39.' Arthur Dawson . . 4u.* Francis Dobbs . . 41. f John Egan , 42. R. L. Edgeworth. 43.f George Evans. 44.* Sir John Freke, Bart., . 4i.* Frederick Falkiner . . 4(i.§ lit. Hon. J.Fitzgerald. 47.* William C. Fortescue, ( Poisoned by accident.) 48.* Rt. Hon. John Foster . 4H.* Hon. Thomas Foster. 60.* Sir T. Fet/ierston, Bart. 51.* Arthur French . . . 52.§ Chichester Fortescue . . 63.§ William Gore .... 54. § Hamilton Georges . . 55. § Rt. Hon. Henry Grattan. 6il.§ Thomas Goold . . . ,"'7.f Hans Hamilton . . . 58.] Edward Hardman . . 59. ij Francis Hardy . . . «).§ Sir Joseph Hoare . . 61.* William Hoare Hume . 02. § Edward Hoare . . . C3.6 Bartholomew Hoare iii.tj Alexander Hamilton C5. ^ Hon. A. C Hamilton. GU.§ Sir F. Hopkins, Bart. 67.t H. Irwin. 68.' Gilbert King. 69 t Charles King. 70.* Hon. Robert King. 71.* Lord Kingsborough 72. Hon. <■ - ge Knox . 73.f Francis Knox . . . 7 1.* Rt. Hon. Henry King 75.f Major King . . . 7i- .§ Gusravus Lainbert . 77.' David Latouche. jim., 78.6 Robert Latouche 79. § John Latouche, sen., OBSERVATIONS. (Now Lord Belmnre.) dismissed from his regiment by Lord Corn- wallis — a zealous leader of the Opposition. A Barrister, bribed by Lord Castlereagh. See his Letter to Lord Belvidere. (Now Lord Leitrim.) (Now Lord Enniskillen,) unfortunately dissented from Mr. Ponson- by 's motion for a declaration of independence in 17!)!), whereby the Union was revived and carried. A General ; brother to Lord Cole. Changed sides, and became a Unionist. See Black List. Changed sides. See Black List. Changed sides. See Black List. (Now Earl Charlemont.) sou to Earl Charlemont, a principal leader of the Opposition. A son of the Judge of the Common Pleas. Brother-in-law to Mr. Pousonby ; a most active Anti-Unionist. Formerly a Banker, father to the late Under-Secretary. Famous for his Doctrine on the-Mlllennium ; an enthusiastic Anti- Unionist. King's Council, Chairman of Kilmainham ; offered a Judge's seat, but could not be purchased, though far from rich. (Now Lord Carberry.) Though a distressed person, could not be purchased. Prime Sergeant of Ireland ; could not be bought, and was dismissed from his high office by Lord Comwallis : father to Mr. Vesev Fitzgerald. One of the three who inconsiderately opposed Mr. Ponsonby, and thereby carried the Union. Speaker; the chief of the Opposition throughout the whole contest. Changed sides. See Black List. Unfortunately coincided with Mr. Fortescue in 1799, against Mr. Ponsonby. King at Aims ; brought over in 1800, by Lord Castlereagh ; voted both sides ; ended :i Unionist. Sought by Lord Castlereagh in 1*00. A distressed man. but could nut be purchased ; father-in-law to Un- der-Secretary Cooke. Now .Sergeant, brought into Parliament by the Anti-Unionists. Member for Dublin County. City of Drogheda ; the Speaker's friend. Author of the Life of Charlemont ; brother-in-law to the Bishop of Down. Wicklow County. Though very old, and stone blind, attended all the debates, and sat up all the nights of debate. King's Counsel. King's Counsel ; son to the Baron. Prevailed on to take money to vacate, in 1800, and let in a Unionist. (Now Earl Kingston.) Brother to Lord Northland ; lukewarm. Vacated his seat lor Lord Castlereagh. See Mr. Crowe's Letter. He opened the Bishop of Clogher's Borough in 1800. Brother to Countess Talbot. A Banker. Ditto. Ditto. pj •j u ^ em .^ ' NAM |,;s. OBSERVATIONS. 80.§ John Latouche, inn., . . A Banker. 81.* Charles Powell Leslie. 82.* Edward Lee Member for the County of Waterford ; zealous. 88.1 Sir Thomas Lighten, Bart, A Banker. 84.* Lord Maxwell .... Died Lord Farnham. b'5.' Alexander Montgomery. 86.8 Sir J. M'Cartney, Bart, . Much distressed, but could not be bribed; nephew, by affinity, td the Speaker. 87. & William Thomas Munsel . Actualh purchased by Lord Castlereagh. .--s ^ Stephen Moore .... Changed sides on Lord Corry's motion. 89 § John Moore. 90. Arthur Moore .... Now Judge of the Common Pleas ; a staunch Anti-Unionist 91.* Lord Mathew .... (Now Earl Llandaff,) Tipperary County. 92.6 'I I Et8 Malum. H'i.ts John Metge Brother to the Baron of the Exchequer. 94.6 Richard NeviUe . . . . Had been a dismissed treasury officer; sold his vote to be reinstated , changed sides. See Black List. 95.§ Thomas Newenham . . Tlie Author of various Works ou Ireland; one of the steadies! Anti-Unionists. 96.' Charles O'Hara . . . . Sligo County. 97.* Sir Edward O'Brien . . Clare County. 98.§ Col. Hugh O'Donnel . . A most ardent Anti-Unionist ; dismissed from his regiment of Mayo militia. 99. § James Monro O'Donnel . Killed by Mr. Bingham ill a duel. 100.§ Hon. \V. O'Callaghan . . Brother to Lord Lismore. 101. Henry Osborn .... Could not be bribed ; his brother wasi 102.' Right Hon. Geo. Ogle . Wexford County. 103.6 Joseph Preston in eccentric character ; could not be purchased. 104." JohnJPreston .... Of Belintor, was purchased by a title, (Lord Tara,) and bis brother, a Parson, got a living of £700 a year. 105.* Bt Hon. Sir J. Farnell . Chancellor of the Exchequer, dismissed by Lord Castlereagh; in- corruptible. 10U.6. Henry Parnell.* 1 07.§ W. C. Plunkel .... Now Lord Plunket 10S.* Rt. Hon. W. B. Ponsonby Afterwards Lord Ponsonby. * 109.5 J. B. Ponsonby .... Afterwards Lord Ponsonby. 110.5 Major XI. Ponsonby . . A General, killed at Waterloo. 111." Rt. Hon. yj Q ^m '.' N & J ''\ . n. .... -J.;. OB i.KV.vnoxs. Voted against the Union in 1799 ; was gained by Lord Castlereagh, whose relative be married, and voted for it in 1800, was created an Earl, and made an Ambassador to Holland; one of the Vienna Carvers ; and a Dutch Marquess. (Now Lord Gort,) City Limerick First voted against the Union ; purchased by Lord Castlereagh; was Lord Clare's brother-in-law. See Black List he 9. Joseph II. Blake . 10 sir J. (;. Blackwood 11. Sir John Blaquiere 12. Anil y Botet . . 13. Colonel Burton . . 14. Sir Richard Butler 15. Lord Boyle 16. Rt. Hon. D. Brown 17. Stewart Bruce . . 1 8 I ge Burdet . . 19. George Bunbury . 20. Arthur Brown . . Bagwell, sen.,. I. jun., . 21. 22. 23. 21. 25. 26. 27. 2.-. VJ. Thomas Casev William Bagwell Lord Castlereagh . George < !avendish . sir ll. Cavendish . Sir R Cbinnery James I lane . . . 30. Colonel C. Pope 31. General Cradock 32. .I.uii' - < !ro by . Member for the County Wieklow ; Colonel of the Kildare Militia ; refused to vote for Government, and was cashiered ; could not be purchased. '£'■',. lid uard Cooke ORIGINAL BLACK LIST. OBSERVATIONS. English Clerk in the Secretary's office; no connection with Ireland. Chairman of Ways and Means ; cousin of Lord Caledon ; his broth- er mole a Bishop ; himself a Colonial Secretary at the Cape of G I Hope. Commissioner of the Board of Works. Commissioner of the Board of Work-. fust Commissioner of Revenue ; brother-in-law to Lord Clare. Then Purse hearer to Lord Clare, afterwards a 1 'arson, and now Lord Decies. A Colonel in the Army, son to the Bishop, Lord Clare's nephew. Created a Peer; got £8,000 for two seats ; and £15,000 compensa- tion for Tnam This gentleman first offered himself for sule to the Anti-Unionist ; land Clanmorris. Oreaied a Peer — Lord Wallscourt, &c. ('faled a Peer — Lord Dufferin. Numerous Offices and Tensions, and created a Peer — Lord De Bla- quiere. Appointed Commissioner of the Barrack Heard, £."'110 a year. Brother to Lord Conyngham ; a Colonel in the Army. Purchased and changed sides ; voted against the Union in 1700, and for it in 1800. Cash. Son to Lord Shannon : they got an immense sum of money lor their peats anil Boroughs ; at £15,000 each Borough. Brother to Lord Sligo. Gentleman Usher at Dublin Castle ; now a Baronet. Commissioner of a Public Board, £500 per annum. Commissioner <>l a Public Board, £500 per annum. Changed sides and principles, and was appointed Sergeant ; in 1700 opposed the Union, and supported it in 1800; be was Senior Fellow of Dublin University ; lost his seat the ensuing election, and died. Changed twice: got half the patronage of Tipperary ; his son a Dean, Ac. Jtc. CI, ami,, I i h rcK ; got the Tipperary Regiment, &c. His brother. The Irish Minister. Secretary to the Treasury during pleasure; son to Sir Henry. Receiver General during pleasure ; deeply indebted to the Crown. Placed in office after the Union. Reoegaded. and ^nt ;] pension, A Commission ol Bankrupts under Lord Clare ; made a City Mag- istrate. Renegaded : gol a Regiment, and the patronage of his county Returned bj Government ; much military rank ; now Lord Howden. A regiment and the patronage of Kerry, jointly ; seconded the Ad- dress. Under-Secretary at the Castle. ,«.; -e> * The Author of this work was deputed to learn from Mr. Bingham n ba( hia expectations from Government for his «*;ttn irore ; he proposed to take from the Op] e tbi I'aiuu. Gov- eminent afterwards added a Peers . . rough. 35. Rt. lion. I. Cony . " •r i J. Cotter. . . 87. Richard Cotter. 88. Hon. 11. Creighton [ S9. Hon. J. Creighton ) 10. W. \ Crosbie . . 41. James Cuffe . . . General Dunne. 48. William Elliot . . . ■I i. General Eustace . . 45, l.onl C. Fitzgerald ■It'.. Rt lion. W. Fitageiald. 47. Sir c. Fortesone . . 48. A. Fergusson . . . v.*. Lnke Fox .... BO. William Fortesone 51. J. Galbraith . . 52. Henrj D. Grady* 63. Richard Hare . 54. William Hare . 65. Col. 1>. Henniker 66. Peter Holmes . .'■7. George Union . 58. Hon. •' Hutchinson 63. Hugh 11. ovar.l . . 60. \\ m. Handcock, (Athlone til John Hobson .... o'.'. O -on . . . S3. Denham Jephson . . . 64. Hen. <;. Jooelyn . . . 65. William Jones. 66. Theopbilns Jones . . . 67. Major-General Jackson . 68. \\ illiam Johnson . . . 69. Robert Johnson . . . 7 John Keane , 7 1. Jamea Kearny .... 7 ! Henrj Kemmis ... 7:'.. \\ illiam Knot . . . . . 71. Andrew Knox. '.'. Colonel Keatinge. 76 Rt Hon Sir 11. L&ngrishe 77. T. Lingray, son 7S. T. Lindsay, jun., ... 7i> J. Longfield 80. Capt J. Longfield. . . , OBSERVATIONS. Obtained a Regiment (which was taken from Colonel Warburton,] patronage of Queens County, and a Peerage, (Lord Castle- coote.) and £7,600 in cash for bis interest at the Borough of v tryborough, in which, in fact, ii was proved before the Com- missioners that Sir Jonah Barrington bad more interest than his Lordship, Appointed Chancellor of the Exchequer, on dismissal of Sir John Parnell. Privately brought over by cash. Renegaded (see Rod Listl privately purchased. Comptroller to the Lord-Lieutenant's Household. Natural son to Mr. Cuffe of the Board ol Works, his fathei created Lord Tyrawly. Returned for Maryborough by the united influence of Lord Castle- oooio and Government, to keep out Mr. Barrington ; gained the election by only one. Secretary ai the Castle. A Regiment Duke of l.oinstor's brother : a Pension and a Peerage ; a Sea Office! of no repute. Rei egaded (see Red List) Officer, King at Arms. Got a place at the Barrack Board, £500 a year and a Baronetcy. Appointed Judge of Common Pleas: nephew by marriage to Lord! (.let a secret Pension, out of a fund (£3,000 a year,) intrusted by Parliament to the Irish Government, solely to reward Mr. Rey- nolds, Cope, &c, Ac. and those who informed against rebels. Lord Abercorn's Attorney : got a Baronetage, First Counsel to the Commissioners. Put two members into Parliament, and was created Lord Ennismore for their \ His sen. « A regiment and paid £3,600 for hi- Seat bj the Commission Compensation. A Commissioner of Stamps. Appointed Commissioner of Stamps, \ General lend Hutchinson. Lord Wicklow's brother, made Postmaster-General. An extraordinary instance; lie made and sang Bongsagainsi th* Union in 1799, at a public dinner of the Opposition, and made and sang BOIlgS for it in 1800 : he get a Peerage, Appointed Storekeeper at I Irdnance. A Regiment Master ol Horse to the Lord-Lieutenant. Promotion in the Army, and his brother consecrated Bishop of Lis- more. Collector of Dublin. A Regiment. Returned to Parliament by Lord Castlereagh, ns he himself de- clared. - to put an end to it :" appointed a Judge since. Seceded front his patron, Lord Dow nshire. aud was appointed a Judge. \ Rei i a Pension; See Red List. Returned b\ Lord Clifton being his Attorney ; got an office. Son te the Crown Solicitor. Appointed a Commissioner of Appeals £S00 a year. A Commissioner of the Revenue, received £15,000 cash for his pat- ronage at Knoctopher. Commissioner of Stamps, paid £1,500 for his patronage. Usher at the Castle, paid £1.500 for his patronage. Created a Peer ; Lord Longueville. office ot Ship Entries of Dublin taken from Sir Jonah Barrington. •Tins gentleman was known te i„- entirety indisposed to a CTnion, bnt peculiar dnunutancea prevented him I but honorably from following bis own impression, sir.' is be thought It but justice to Mr. Grsdj, who. on aomi 2nd ..cud l-urly. f b« ■ -* 'J xt«. &Sfc ^A ^j6_g^ ' ^X^P^Vi-^''^) V, ; : E*!* ?s* -ir?* NAMES. 81. Lord Loftus . 82. General Lake . 83. Rt. Hon. David Latouche. 8 1. ( teneral Loftus . . 85. Francis M'Namara . 86. Ross Malum . . . 87. Richard Martin . . 88. I.'t. Hon. Monk Mason 89. II. I). Massy . . . 90. Thomas Mabon. 91. A. E. M'Naghten. . 92. Stephen Moore . . 93. N. M. Moore. '.» I. Rt. Hon. Lodge Morris l 1 ".. Sir R. Musgrave . . 96. Ja s M'Cleland . 97. Col. C. M'Dimnel. . 98. Richard Magenness . 99. Tl as Nesbit . . lUII. Kir II'. " dee I and taken < an c i i ting peerage ; and no peei igc shall be deemed extinct, unless on default of claimants to the inheritance of Biich i i age Cor the Bpacii ol ear from the death of the person u liu shall lini D In ''ii lu i po '■ ''il thereol ; I ii mi claim shall be i le to the inheritance ol Kim Ii peerage, in such form and manner > may from time to time be pre cribed by the House of Lord - ni the United Kingdom, before the i cpii limi ni the -ml pei iod "i a yeai . then and in thai Ca •■ ncli peei age hall bt deemed extinct j Provided. Thai nothing herein Mini exclude any person from afterwards putting in ;c claim to the I r iv ' i" 1 'i extinct ; and If such claim shall in- allowed valid, by jud ; menl of the House "l Lord of the I niled K ingdom, rcpoi ted to Ih- Maje i) mil pi ragi hull bo i on iden d ns revived; and in ens ly new creation of n peerage of that pari ol United Kingdom called [reland mall hai e taken place in the iuti i val, in con equei ol the i uppo "■! extinction ,,i -mil peerage, then no new right ol creation shall accrue to Hi Majo t ■. . hi hei soi . i lence ol the next extinction w liich shall take i ol any p ei ia pai t of the I uitod Kingdom called In Thai .ni qui tion touching the election oi n,i mini' to it on the pari ol [reland in the I louse of • lommons of the United Kingdom h:i I be heal I and dei ided in the same m uini question tounhi ion in ( rreal Hi ituin i . or nl mi time lici eafti i shall 1 »_% law be heard and dec I ; ibject m ertheii to icl I articular reguli in pect to Ireland u I i.iii loi al ci e l'arl ol the i i ;dom may from time to l e di • xpedii tliflcationB in re pi ct ol prop of the members elected on tho pari nf Ireland to ii in tho House or Commons nf the United Kingdom, shall !"■ respectively tho is are m.u provided by law In the cases of el ction ror counties and cities, and borough re i \\ ely In that part of Greal Bi italn calle l England, unle < any other provision shall hereafter be made In that respeel bj act ol Parliament of the United Kingdom, That when His Majesty, bis heir oi sue i, slinll declare lii". her, or their pleasure for holding a first or any subsequent Parliament ol the United K i lorn, ii priH I iiii.H hall i , lor the < [real Seal of the United Kii gd , to run.- the lords spiritual and temporal, and commons, who are to serve in the Parliament Ihei eol on the pnrt nl Ireland, to be returned in Much manner m l>y any act of this present i e ion of the I 'aril nt nl [reland Bholl be provided ; and that the lords spiritual and temporal and commons of Great Britain shall, together with the lord piritua] and temporal and comn s so returned n afore aid mi the purl nl' [reland, constitute tho two hou es of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Tbnl il Hi- Majesty, on or before the Hi i day of J tnuary. one thousand eight h Ired and one, mi which day the Union le to lake place hnll deel " '■. under the Greal Seul of Greal Bi il tin, iliii ii is expedient that tho lords and commons ni the present Parliament of Greal Britain si Id I"' Me- members of the respective boil ol the in i Parliament of the United K ingdon tho part of Grcul Britain; then the said lords and 1 ""'ii i the |ir i. I'M liamcnl of Great U shall accordingly !"• the members of the i" pi ctive hou " of Hi" in i I'm litmenl of Ilia l nited I. ingdom on the pai t of Greal Britain ; and in" 1 , , i ther with the lord i ph itual and temporal and commons o itmmoned and return- ed ae aboi the pari of ii eland, shall bo the lords spiritual and temporal and con n ol the first Parliamenl of the United Kingdom ; and ic i fir i Parliamenl may (in that case) if not soonor dissolved, continue to sit bo long as the present Parliament of Great Britain ma; bj lawnow con- tinue i" -n ii in, i iei di oh "<1 : Provided always, 'I hal until an ai I hall liavi pn ed In the Parliament of the United Kingdom providing in what ni ■■ pel "'i ii" r place ol profll undei the cro« n of Ireland, hall be incap i - ble "l being ml I the I lou >e of Commons "i the Parli unent ol the i niti 'l Is ingdom greater nuinber of membei than I ■ enl . ho mil offices or placi I ifon aid ihall i apable of sitting in the laid 1 1"" •■ ol < ommon of l I'm liamenl "I the I nitcd K ingdom ; and ii such a number of •members shall be returned to sei a in Me- - tid hou ' i ,, hole number "I "" ni- 1 i "i ii" lid hou - hold h oflii i or place " ifon aid moi u than twenty . then and In -I lie eal oi placi ol neb membei a hi-. " mi accepted uch offices or j'l ici shall be vac I, at ilm option "l such membei . io to red i ci the Dumber ol members Inditing "i. "in.' or place to the number of twen hi i no i ' ' "ii holding uny such ofHi e or pi hall he i iji iblc "I In ing elected or "I Itting in tlie iid i while i here ai e twenl ■ p holdin uch office oi placi itting in the I hou e; and I it every one i ol pai lia- menl of Hi" Uuited Kingdom . id ever] momb i" "I III" I i I ' "ililie.il. in Mi" I ini.il kin;"|i in, . | I'll liulm il hull, . P liameut oi the United Kingdo u .. II : . J "M^n .AS ', fr^vTe otherwise provide, take ths oaths, and make and subscribe the declaration, and take and subscribe the oath now by law enjoined to be taken, made. and subscribed bj the lords and commons of the Parliament of t treat Britain fhal the lords of Parliament on the part of Ireland, in the House of Lords of the United Kingdom, shall at all times have the same privi- leges of Parliament which shall belong to the lords of Parliament on the part of Great Britain : and the lords spiritual and temporal respeotivelj on the part of Ireland shall at all times have the same rights in respect of their sitting and vi upon the trial of peers, as the lords spiritual and temporal respectively on the part of Greal Britain; and that all lords spiritual of Ireland shall have rank and precedency next and imme- diately after the lords spiritual of the same rank and degree of Great Britain, and shall enjoy all privileges as fully as the lords spiritual ol Greal Britain do now or may hereafter enjoj the same (the right and privilege of sitting in the House of Lords, and the privileges depending thereon, and particularly the right of Bitting on the trial of peers, excepted); and that the persons holding. any temporal peerages of Ireland, existing at the time of the Union, shall, from and alter the Union, hue rank and precedency next and immediately after all the persons holding peerages of the like orders and degrees in Greal Britain, subsisting at the time of the Union: and that all peerages ol Ireland created after the Union shall have rank and precedency with the peerages of the United Kingdom, so created, according to the dates ol their creations; and that all peerages both ol Great Britain and Ireland, now subsisting or here after to be created, shall in all other respects, from the dale .if the I llion, he Considered as peerage, of tin- United Kingdom; and that the peers ol Ireland shall, as peers of the United Kingdom, he sued and tried as peers, except a- aforesaid, and shall enjoy all privileges of peers as tally as the peers ol t.reat Britain; the right and privilege ol fitting in the Hon e ol Lords, and the privilege dcpcuding.thei'cou, and the right of silting- on the trial of peers, onlj excepted. Article V. 'I hat" it he the lii'lh article ol' Union, thai the churches ol' l'.ngland and Ireland, a- now by law established, be united into one Protestant Episcopal Church, to be called, ,d ; and that the doctrine. worship, discipline, and government of the said United Church shall In' an. I -hall remain in lull forever, as the same are now by law estab- lished for the Church of England; and that the continuance and preservation of the said United t hurch as the Established > burch of England and Ireland, shall he deemed and taken to he an essen- tial and fundamental part of the Union ; ami that in like manner the doctrine, worship, discipline, and government ol" the Church of Scotland, shall remain and he preset \ i d a, the same are n..w i 5- tablished bj law, and bj the acts tor the Union ol the two kingdoms ol l'.ngland and Scotland. Article VI. 'I hat it he ihe sixth article of Union, thai llis Majesty's subjects of Great Britain and Ireland shall, from and after the firsl on ol Jan- nary, one thousand eight hundred ami one. be entitled to the same pri\ llegeS. and he ^n the -ante ajj . a- to em nis and bounties on the like to tides beii rwth pn luce or manu- facture of eithci i spectn ely, ally in respect of trade and navigation in all P its a in the United Kingdom and its dependencies ; and that in all treaties made by His Majesty, his heirs and successors, with any foreign power. His .Majesty's subjects of Ireland shall have the s privileges, and he on the sa in-' footing, as llis Majesty's subjects of Great Britain. That, from the first day of January, one thou- sand eight hundred and one. all prohibitions and bounties on the export of articles, the growth, produce, or manufacture of either country, to the other, shall cease and determine; and that the said articles shall thenceforth be exported from one country to the other, without duty or bounty on such export. Thai all articles, the growth, produce, or manu- facture of either country, (not hereinafter enume- rated as subject to specilic duties,) shall from thenceforth be imported into each country from the other, free from duty, other than such counter- vailing duties on the several articles enumerated in the Schedule Xuniher (lite. A. and 1!.. hereunto annexed, a- an' therein specified, or to such other countervailing duties as shall hereafter be impos- ed by the Parliament of the United Kingdom, in the manner hereinafter provided; and that, lor the period of twenty years front the Union, the articles enumerated in the Schedule NumberTwo, hereunto annexed, shall be subject on importation into each country from the other, to the duties specified in the said Schedule NumberTwo; and the woolen manufactures, known by ti ames ol ., shall pay, on importation into each country from the other, the duties now payable on importation into Ireland: Sail and hops, oil importation into Ireland from Great Britain, duties not exceeding those which are BOW paid on importation into Ireland ; and fo.ulri on importation into Ireland from Great Britain shall he subject to burdens not exceeding i to which the) are now subject. That calicoes and muslins shall, on their impor- tation into either country from the other, be sub- ject and liable to the duties now payable mi the same, on the importation thereof from Great Britain into Ireland, until the fifth day of January, one thousand eight hundred and eight ; and from and alter the said day, the said duties shall be annually reduced, by equal proportions, as near as may he ill each year, so as that the said duties -hall stand -at leu per centum from ami alter the tilth day of January, one thousand eight hundred ami sixteen, until the fifth day of January, one thousand eight hundred and twenty-one ; ami that cotton vara ami coiioti twist shall, on their impor- tation into either country from the other, be subject aud liable to the duties now payable upon the same mi the importation thereol from Great In itain into Ireland, until the li'th day of January, one thousand eight hundred and eight, and from and after the said day. the said duties shall be annually reduced by equal proportions as near as may he in each year, so that as that all duties shall cease on the said articles from and after the n oi January, one thousand eight hundred .icon. That any articles of the growth, produce, or i. 'lure ot either country, which are or may be subject to internal duty, or to duty on the materials Ol which they are composed, may be made subject, on their importation into each country respectively from the other, to such countervailing duty as shall appear to be just ami reasonable in respect ol such internal duty or - on the materials ; and that for the said purposes the articles specified in the said Schedule ) is o : 2& (g ?4< 5$% -»* »..* .* . APPENDIX. C27 TP* Number One, A. and 15. Bhall be Bubject to the dutios Bet forth therein, liable to be taken off, diminished, or Increased, in the manner herein specified; and that upon U sport of the said articles from each country to the other respective- ly, a drawback shall be given equal in amounl to the countervailing duty payable on such articles on the import thereof into the Bame country from the other ; and that, in like manner in future it shall be competent to the United Parliament to impose any new or additional countervailing duties, or to take off, or diminish such existing countervailing duties as may appear, on like principles, to be just and reasonable in res] I of any fnture or additional internal duty on any article of the growth, produce, or manufacture of either country, or of any new or additional duty on any materials of which such article may be composed, ot of any abatement of duty on the Bame ; and that when any such new or additional countervailing duty shall be so imposed on the import of any article into either country from the other, a drawback, equal in amount to such coun- tervailing duty, shall be given in like manner on the export ol everj Bnch article respectively from the same country to the other. That all articles, the growth, produce, or manu- facture ol' either country, when exported through the other, shall in all cases be exported subject to tin- same Charges as if they had been exported directly from the country of which they wen' the growth, produce, or manufacture. That all duly charged on the import of foreign or colonial goods into either country, shall on their expert to the other, be either drawn back, or the amount, if any be retained, shall be placed to the credit of the country to which they shall be so exported, so long as the expenditure of the United Kingdom Bhall be defrayed by proportion- al contributions: Provided aluvn/s. That nothing herein shall extend to take away any duly, bounty, or prohibition, which exists with respect to corn, meal, malt, Hour, or biscuit; but that all duties, bounties, or prohibitions, on the said articles, may be regulated. l.U'ied. or repealed, from line- to ti , as the United Parliament shall deem expe- dient. Article VII. That it be the seventh article ot Union, that I he charge arising from the payment of tin' interest, and the sinking fund for th.- reduc- tion of the principal, of the debt incurred in cither kingdom before the Union, shall continue to be separately defrayed by Great Britain and Ireland respectively, except as hereinafter pro- vided. That for the space of twenty years alter the Union shall take place, the contribution of Great Britain and Ireland respectively, towards the ex- penditure of the United Kingdom in each year, shall be defrayed in the pro]. onion ot fifteen parts for Groat liritaiu and two parts for Ireland; and that at the expiration ol Ihct said twenty years, the future expenditure of the United Kingdom (Other than tie- interest and charges of lie; debt to w hich either country -hall l.e separately Liable,) shall bedefrayed in such proportion as the Pai liament of the United Kingdom shall deem just and reasonable upon a c parisou of the real vab f tie- exports and imports of the respective countries, upon an average ol the three years next preceding the period of revision; or on a com parison of the value of the quantities of the billowing articles consumed within the respective countries, on a similar average ; viz., beer, spirits, sugar, wine. tea. tobacco and mall : or according io die aggregate proportion resulting from both these i siderations combined; or on a compar- ison of the amount of income- in each country, estimated from the produce for the same pet iod ol a general lax, if such shall have been imposed on the same descriptions of income in both countries ; and that, the Parliament of the United Kingdom shall afterwards proceed in like manner to revise and fix the said proportions according to the Bame rules, or any of them, at periods not more distant than twenty years, nor less than seven years from each oilier; unless, previous to any such period, the Parliament of the United Kingdom shall have declared, as hereinafter provided, that the expen- diture of the United Kingdom shall be defrayed indiscriminately, by equal taxes imposed on the like articles in both countries: that, lor the de- fraying the saiil expenditure according lo the rules above laid down, the! revenues of Ireland 'hall hereafter constitute a consolidated fund, which shall be charged, in the first instance, with the interest id' the debt of Ireland, ami with the sink- ing fund applicable to the reduction of the said debt, and the remainder shall be applied towards defraying the proportion of the expenditure ot the United Kingdom, lo which Ireland may ho liable in each year: that the proportion of con- tribution to which Great Britain and Ireland will he liable, shall be raised by such taxes in each country respectively, as the Parliament of the United Kingdom shall from time to time deem til ; Provided always, That in regulating the taxes in each country, by which their respective propor- tions shall be levied, no article in Ireland shall be made liable to any new or additional duly, by which the whole amount of duty payable thereon would exceed the amount which will be thereafter payable in England on the like article: thai, if at the end of any year any surplus shall accrue from the revenues of Ireland, alter defraying Ihe interest, sinking fund, and proportional contribu- tion and Beparate charges to which the said country shall then be liable, taxes shall be taken oil' lo Ihe amounl of such surplus, or ihe surplus hill he applied by the Parliament ol tie- United Kingdom to local purposes in Ireland, or to make g,„„l any deficiency h hich may arise in the revenues of Ire- land in time of peace, oi' be invested, by the commissioners of the national debt of Ireland, in the funds, to accumulate hu- the benefit of Ireland at compound interest, in case of the contribution ol Ireland in lim" of war ; /'/ore/../. That the sur- plus so to accumulate shall at no future period lie Buffered to exceed the sum of five millions: that all moneys lo be raised alter the Union, by loan, in peace or war, for the service of the United Kingdom by the Parliament thereof, shall be con- sidered to be a joint debt, ami the charges thereol shall be borne by the respective countries in the proportion ol their respective conn 1 1) ii I io,,,; Pro- vided, That, if at any tunc, in rairing their respect- ive contributions hereby fixed lor each country, ihe Parliament of tie- United Kingdom shall judge i, in p, raise a greater proportion ol such respect- ive contributions in one country within the year than in the other, or lo set apart a greater propor- tion of sinking bind lor the liquidation ol the whole or any part ol the loan raced on account of the one country than that raised on account of l|„. other country, then such part of the said loan, lor the liquidation "l which different provisions shall lea.- been made for the respective countries, no by each % v I 4k ^LNC, iL-JUil.il 4 aitendix. K&KL v : ossaa .v separately, ami only that pari of the said loan be deemed joint and common, for the reduction of which the lespective countries Bhall have made provision in the proportion of their respective contributions: that, if at any future day the ep i rate debt of each country respectively shall have been liquidated, or, if the values ol their respect- ive debts (estimated according to the amount of the interest and annuities attending the same, and of the sinking fund applicable to the reduction thereof, and to the period within which the whole capital of such debt Bhall appear to be redeemable by such sinking fund) shall be to each other in the same proportion with the respective contribu- tions of each country respectively : or if the amount by h hich the value of the larger of such debts shall vary ft such proportion> shall not exceed hundredth part of the said value; and if it shall appear to the Parliament of the 1 nited Kingdom, that the respective circumstances of the two countries will thenceforth admit of their contributing indiscriminately, bj equal taxes imposed on tit" same articles in each, to the future expenditure of the United Kingdom, it shall be competent to the Parliament of the Dnited King- dom to declare, that all future expense thence forth to be incurred, together with the interest and charges of all joint debts contracted previous to such declaration, shall be so detrayed indis crimiuately by equal taxes imposed on the same articles in each country, and thenceforth from time to time, as circumstances may require, to impose and apply such taxes accordingly, subject only to such particular exemptions or abatements in Ireland, and in that part of Great Britain called Scotland, as circumstances may appear from lime to time to demand : that, rrom the period of such declaration, it shall no longer be necessary to regulate the contribution of the two countries to wards the future expenditure of the United King- dom, according to any specific proportion, or according to any ol the rules herein before de sei ibed ; /' ■ erffteii se, Thai the iuteresl or charges which may remain on account of any p nt ol the separat <• debt with which either country shall be chargeable, and which shall not be liqui- dated or consolidated proportionably as above shall, until extinguished, continue to be defrayed li\ separate taxes ill eaeh country ; that a BUU), ii.it less than the ^iiiu which has been granted by the Parliament of Ireland on the average ol six years immediately preceding the first d.\y of Jan nary, in the year one thousand eight hundred, in premiums for the internal encouragement of agriculture or manufactures, or for the maintain- ing institutions for pious and charitable purposes, shall be applied, for the period of twenty years alter the Union, to snob local purposes in Ireland, in such manner as the Parliament of the United Kingdom shall direct; that, from and alter the firs! day ol January, one thousand eight hundred and one, all public revenue arising to the United Kingdom from the territorial dependencies thereof, and applied to the general expenditure of the United Kingdom, shall lie so applied in the pro- portions of the respective contributions of the two countries. Article VIII. That it be the eighth article o! the Tit ion. that all laws in force at the lime of the Union, and all the courts of civil and ecclesiastical jurisdiction within the respective kingdoms, shall remain as now by law established » ithin the same, subject only to such alterations and regulations from time to time as circumstances may appear lo the Parliament ol the United Kingdom to require. Provided, That all writs of error and appeals de- pending at the time of the Union or hereafter to he brought, and which might now lie finally de- eded by the House of lands of either kingdom, shall, from and alter Ihe Union, he finally decided by the House of Lords of the United Kingdom; .i»i/ prtnirfnl. That from and after the Union, there shall remain in Ireland an instance Court of Ad- miralty, for the determination of causes, civil and maritime only, and that the appeal from sentences Of the said Court shall fie to His Majesty's dele. gates in his Court of Chancery in that part of Ihe l nited Kingdom called Ireland ; and that all laws at present, in force in either kingdom, which shall be contrary to anj of the provisions which may lie enacted by any act for carrying these articles into effect, be from and after the Union repealed. And whereas, the said articles having, by ad- dress of the respective Bouses of Parliament in Great Britain and Ireland, been humbly laid before His Majesty. His Majesty lias been gracious- ly plea-ed to approve the same; and to recom- mend it to his two Houses of Parliament in Greaf Britain and Ireland, to consider of such measures a- may he i -sary forgiving elfeel lo the said articles; in order, therefore, to give lull effect and validity to the same, lie if enacted by the King's Host Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the lords spiritual and tem- poral, and commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, that the said foregoing recited article-, each and every one of them, according to the true import and tenor thereof, be rat died, confin I, and approved, and he and they are hereby declared to lie the allele- ot the I'llioll ol '(ire.lt I In l.li II a nd Ireland, and the same shall lie ill force and hue effect for- ever, from the first day ol January, which shall lie in the year ol our Lord, one thousand eight hundred and one. Pmvided, That before that peii.nl an act shall have been passed by the Par- liament of Ireland, for carrying into effect, in the like manner, the said foregoing recited articles. | Here rollows the supplementary enactment for regulating the mode ol summoning the Irish lords an. I commons to sit in the then current United Parliament. This enactment is sufficiently de- scribed iu the text.] W\ j W>':^ Al . APPENDIX No. IV. PROCLAMATIONS FOUND IN EMMETS ARMS-DEPOTS, INTENDED TO BE ISSUED ON THE DAY OF THE OUTBREAK. >!■:• «:. ,£ ^3 o.a / Provisional Government to the People of Treland : — " Yon are now called upon to show lo the world thai yon are < ipetent to take your place among nations, that you have ;i right to claim their re- cognizance "I yon as an independent country, by the only satisfactory proof you can furnish of your capability of maintaining your independence, vour wresting it from England with jonr own hands. ••In the development of this system, which lias been organized within the last eight months, at the c of internal defeat, and without the hope of external assistance; which bas been conducted with a tranquillity, mistaken ror obedience ; which neither the failure ol a Bimilar attempt in England bas retarded, nor the renewal of hostilities lias accelerated ; in the development of this system, you will show to the people of England, that there is a spirit of perseverance in this country beyond their power to calculal ' repress. You will show tin-in. that as long as they think to hold unjust dominion over Ireland, under no change of circumstance: can they i it upon its obedience ; under no aspect of affairs can they judge of its intentions ; yon will show in them, that the ques- tion, which it now behooves them to take into mil instant consideration, is not, whether tbey will resist a separation, which it is our fixed determination to effect, but whether or not they will drive us beyond separation; whether they will, by a sanguinary resistance, create a deadly national antipathy between the two countries, or whether they will take the only means still left of driving such a sentiment from our minds— a prompt, manly, and Bagacioua acquiescence in our ju i and unalterable detei initiation. •■ If the Bccrecy, with which the present effort bas been conducted shall have led our enemies to suppose, thai it - extent mnst have boon p u tial, a lew days will undeceive them. That confidence, which was once lost by trusting to external sup- port, and Kuffering our own means to be gradually undermined, has been again restored. We have bi en mutually pledged to each other, to look only al our oh ii strength and thai the first introduction of a system of terror, the firsl attempt to execute an individual in one county, should i»- asignal for insurrection in all. We have now, without the with our ans of communication nigh! our plans to the moment when for execution, and in the prompti- ich nineteen counties will co i- in execute them, it will be found unfidonoo inn' communication are people of Ireland. a our coiinti \ men to come forward, .ves bound at the Bame time, to m in their confidence by a precise mi- i iews. We, theref Bolemnly r object is to i stabli b a free and , ublic in Ireland ; thai the pursuit we will relinquish only with our ill never, but al the express call abandon our post till theackuowl- iud pendence U obtained from that wu will enter into uo negotia- 7U tion (but for exchange of prisoners) with the government of that country, while a British army remains in Ireland. Such is the declaral ion H bich wo cull on the people of Ireland to support. And we call first on that pail of Ireland which was once paralyzed by the wani of intelligence, to show thai to thai cause only was its Inaction to be attributed; on that pail of Ireland which was once foremost by iis fortitude in suffering; on that part of Ireland which once offered to take the salvation of the country on itself; on that part of Ireland where the Same of liberty lir.st glowed; we call upon the North to stand up and shake off their slumber and oppressions. " Citizens of Dublin : "A band of patriots, mindful of their oath anil faithful to their engagement 08 United Irishmen, have determined to give freedom to their country, and :i period to the long career of English op- pression. "In this endeavor they are now successfully engaged, and their efforts are seconded by com- plete and universal cooperation from the country, every part of which, from the extremity of the North to that of the South, pours forth its warriors in support of our hallowed cause. Citizens of Dublin, we require your aid ; necessary secrecy has prevented, to many of you, notice of our plan, but the erection of our national standard, the sacred, though long degraded, Green, will Iw Sufficient to call to arms and rally round it every man in whose breast exists a spark of patriotism or sense ol duly. Avail yourselves of your local advantages — in a city each Btreet becomes a defile, ami each hou e a battery- impede the march of your oppressors -charge them with the arms of the brave — the pike — and from your windows and tools hurl stones, bricks, bottles ami all oilier convenient implements, on the head of the satel- lites of your tyrant, the mercenary, the sanguinary soldiery of England. '•Orangen ! add not to the catalogue of your follies ami crimes ; already have you been duped to tlie ruin of your country, in the legislative union with its tyrant attempt not an opposition, which will carry with it your inevitable destruc- tion. Return from your pal lis of delusion, return to the arms of your countrymen, who will receive and hail your repentance. "Countrymen of all descriptions, let us act with union and conceit. All -eels. Catholic, Profc- e unit. Presbyterian, are equally and indiscrim- inately embraced in ihe benevolence of your object. Repress, prevenl and discourage excesses, pillage and intoxication ; let each mall do Im duty, and remember, that during public agitation inaction becomes a crime, lie no other competi- tion known than thai of doing good; remember against whom you fight ; your oppressors lor six hundred years. Remember their massacres, their tortureB— remember yourmurdered friends your burned I see your violated females keep in mind your country, to whom we are now ghing her high rank among nations, ami in Ihe honest tenor of feeling, let us exclaim, that as in the hour of her trial we Berve Ibis country, so may God serve us in that, which will be lu.tl of all." N f, rU' IP it -tbSHLU. ^-'iUKfi ,CeUNKw*.i(, INDEX. K 5 R? W A message of peace to Ireland Abb£ MacGeoghegan Abbe 1 'it llilil Abolition of negro slavery . Absenteeism .... Account of lirst rising . Acl repealed .... Act dI Union .... Acts hi attainder . Address of the American Congress Address of tbe Catholics received Address to the patriot minorities Address to the King Addresses .... Addresses of loyalty Adopted precautions Adi erse winds Affidavits .... Agber, rector of Agit ition lor Septennial Parliaments Agitation apon Catholic claims Ajax Alarm in England . Alarms Alarms got np by (government Albermarle's battalions Alliance with Austria Almanza, battle of . Alms, repudiation of American affairs American corn American revolution American slavery . Amiens, peace of . Amnesty act .... Ancient Britons at Ballyellis . Ami I'm a hundred and eleven Anderson .... Anglo-Irish nationality . Anne of Denmark . Anne's brother Announcement of compensation Answers ..... Anti-Gallican .... Antrim Antrim, earls of Arachue ..... Aragon, troops of . Arch-agitator .... Archbishop Burnet Archbishop of Canterbury Archibald Hamilton Rowan, escape Archibald Hamilton Rowan, prose Archibald Hamilton Rowan, treaso \rchly dropped Arguments of Macaulay Ark of salvation Arklow, Bgbt at Armagh assizes Armagh county, reign of terror in Armed force, efforts to establish Armed force opposed of in in n of n of paqp: . 70 . 4 . 699 . 517 . 63 . 312 . 152 . 884 . 848 . 116 . 78 . 145 . 151 . 211 . 283 . 553 . 275 . 201 . 88 . 91 . 215 . 53 . 68 . 177 . 177 . 34 . 24 . 83 . 552 .114 . 5(i8 . 114 . 649 . 415 . 389 . 830 . 376 . «1 . 18 . 22 . 3(i . 390 . 216 . 201 . 882 . 43 . 46 . 34 . 610 . It) . 669 . 284 . 282 . 234 . 310 1 . 435 . 822 . 265 . 258 . 25!) . 26>J Armed negotiators . • Arming . . ... Arms act .... Armstrong, informer Arrest of Arthur O'Connor . Arrest, of chiefs In Dublin Arresfcand death of Edward Fitzgerald ArreBt of the Sheares Arrests ..... Arrests of Bond and liutler . Arthur Wellesley . Arthur Young, testimony of . Articles ..... Articles, Castlereagh proposes Articles exported Irom Ireland Articles Finally adopted . Articles imported into Ireland Articles of Limerick, act to confirm Arts of governi it Ascendancy, iu.Milcnce of the Asks indemnity Assurance of protection Athy barracks Atrocious bill Attack on Carlow . AtWOpd and Carey . Augbrim', avenge the carnage of Augmentation of the army . Avesncs Baltina Ballinahinch .... Ballycannoo, actions at . Ballyellis, combat at Banishment bill . . . Bank of Ireland Bank of Ireland, no Catholics in Bantry l!ay expedition . Bar n ling .... Barcelona, siege of . Baron Macaulay Barry Vclverlon Batai ian expedition, disastrous fate of the Batavian republic . Bailie of Dettingen Battle of the Diamond . Battle of Landen . . . Battle of Meeai . Battle of Steinkirk Bear arms .... Beaucliamp Bagenal Harvey . Beggarly Corporation, a Belfast mob .... Belfast, Tone goes to Belfast, town council of. Bereslord Burton . Beresford, dismissal of . Bereslord, John Claudius liurestord's riding house Bernard Crosson of Mullanabrack Berkeley Berkeley's querist . Ka ,i . . _ — . . ■ _ _ ' ' ,-^Vn w 632 IN D Berwick-upon-Tweed I: i w ick'a array i lieo Inform^ .... Bill ol resumption . Hill of righto .... Bi iop Aiiorlinry . Bishop of Cloj ue . op of Derrj . George Stone Bishop of Quimper, the . Black li-t .... Bloody riot .... Boia ile Barri .... Bolingbroke impeached . Bond dies in pi ison l;. 'ill.' riot, ilio Ion bons, restoration of tho . I"'\ le ainl Matone . . . Bradstreel the reoordei . Bi mded Bra ''ii bead hotel . lir. mi in the ecclesiastical historian Brian boru .... Kill..' the priests, new attempt to Briberies of Buckingham Bring in tin- Pretender . Bl' li-li famine policy British museum I'm isl) i ''.rails Brother! .1 .... Broth' i ires h mged Bi othei - She ires, the Brothers She ires 1 1 ied . In ,n il treatment ol pri Buckingham leaves Ireland . Buonaparte al foulon Buonaparte, hh-.v.-.'s of Pin ke'a book .... ll\ mo hanged Caithness Legion . i ' ledouia .... Calm in Ireland i . ttdon and I larbampton Camperdowi (.'.uimul:. death of . Capitulation <'t I limeriok i laptaiu Luke Law less . C.ipinr.- ..I Namur . Caravata .... Cardinal Iberoni . . ;i tl \\ i-em.iu . Carrickshook .... tile, nobles of . < lastle press .... . eagli cuts ins throat Castlereagh's explanation Castlereagh's judicious measures . ilic, Protestant marrying a c liolio address ■ itholio address nol noticed . i. commencement Catha ." .hi. .n. action of mo Cathol oialion formed . olic bishops loj al . i board C« iM. clergy, preoarious condition o Catholic com ention C i i >n. deputation to Cull'.'::.' emancipation . Catholic general committee . Catholic general committee, progr of the ja oi' PAQX . 257 I . '.': I' . 'J I . l.'l . 42 . CO . 62 . -tr.ii . 407 429, . in . 42 . 335 . 494 . -is:; . 71 . no . 628 . 21U . -II . 112 . 13!) . 196 19, ." I . ."...t . '.' il . SS5 . 294 185 193 27li in. 202 S3 i :;:;i ;ii. 43 284 27 (i 502 li. I-.. 13 461 •17 CO I 516 :;i ■j 1 1 622 i;i.; :;7i 48 7 ■ 56 78 499 194 283 7 in;. 220 220 ■110 •J J: i 207 . ; ■. ilio Catholio meeting in Dublin Cull.. in- in etings . Catholic officers' bill Catholic petition . . . Catholic petition presented i ittholio petition, refusal to present Catholic question in the \\ big club Catholic relief Catholic relief bill, provisions of i latholic relief immediately proposed Catholic relier, trifling measure ol Catholio rout .... Catholio tradesmen ami artificers i latholic university os an.l Dissenters Catholics, oivil an.l religious liberties ol Catholics duped, i ho i latholics excluded . < 'nil. .lios exoluded by a resolution Catholics, t'xtei mination of . Catholics, liumiliation ol' the . Catholics, loyaltj ..I tho i ' uh .il, -. iii i" istratos marrying i ' itholics, pin. us gh on io Catholics, promises i" the Catholics, rage against the i ' itholics, temporary toleration ol i Jeltio oloiiioni Celtic race, plen lor the . Censuring the Irish government " dj misty in France . ■I dust Sarsfiold . . Charlemont .... Cbarlemont's intolerance . Charles B ill, ••: Clogher i ihateau Renault Chatham, conquests of . i Iheap ejectmenl laws passed . i ihevalier ,!' Rntrngues . ('hio: Justice Robinson . ( Ibiefa exeouted in \\ exford . Cholera Christ church cathedral . Church in dauger . Church, Km;; head of tho Church ..i En 'land, rites of tho Church rates .... Church temporalities act . .'I' c,\ il constitution . eagh . Clare constantly employed Clare election .... Clare's dragoons Clonmeljail .... Clontarf war .... Coal-porters .... Cockayne .... Coercion an.l anarchy, beginning o Coercion, preparing for . Colonel irw in .... Colouy oi the Palatines . . Commissioners, betrayed by . i ',.iii:iii doners of public accounts public M orks Committee on grievances Commodore Bompart Comp i pi isoners ami go ■ i i \ olated bj government ' irisoo between Ireland ami Compensation not . ition hall . . . ■ --■■S..V r i & / % y v ^ f®. %€.- .til oi Hocbe Death of Lucas .... Death of Sarsflcld .... Debates on money bills . Debal the nipplies . Debt, rapid increase of . i lei ■ p i engers .... Declaration Declaration defeated in Parliament Declaration of right Declaration uci essful in the country Decline of trade . . 885, 897 . 369 8. r >4 . 368 . 886 . 66 l . 663 887, 4 li!) . 895 . 548 . 20 . 405 . 4:t . 62 . in . 85 . 17(1 . 20 . 46 . II 369, 864 . 214 . 32 . 142 . 6 . 600 . 71 . 310 . 286 . 167 . 336 . 2*1 . 449 . 281 . 393 . 888 . 201 . Ill . :\'.) . 41 . 89 . 5 . 662 . 62 . 275 . 112 . 12 . 59 '. 45 i . 668 . 11 . 13« . 186 . [36 Defeat or the French Defenceless state of the country Defenders 182,195, Defenders, trials of. Demand tor reform . Depopulation .... i lepre Ion of Catholics De olatlon of the country Despnrd's conspiracy In England Devon commission Dige "i the evidence . Digest of the ropery laws Dingle bay . . ... Disaffection .... Dissensions .... Dissensions as to rights of CaMiol l ii enters, agitation ol . Dissenters, clause against the i >i .Hi. 'i . |, i h eness of the Dissenters, Swift's virulence against the Dissenters, the Distinctions kept up Distress of the country . hi .I.' of the people Distribution of Beats Dii i ion Dizoi Doctor Dopplng, Bishop of Meath Doctor Doyle ; "J, K. I,." . Doctor Duigenan Doctor Duigenan privy-councillot Doctor Lucas .... Doctor Madden Doctor Mmcioii Doctoi Newman i loctor Reynolds Doctor Sacheverell . Doctor Samuel Johnson . Doctor Wbateley, archbishop of Dublii Dolly's Brae .... Dominant nation, the Donegal to Kerry, from . Down county. Castlereagb defeated Drapier's Idlers Dublin Catholics against union Dublin, decline of . Dublin grand jury, advice to the Dublin police bill . Dublin, reign of terror in Dnblin, riot in Dui, liu. torpor and gloom in . Dublin, toi ture In . Dublin university . Dublin eolunteei j under arms Duel oi t.i attan and Corry . Dully, trial of .... Duke of Bedford's coach Dui. i- of Berwick . Duke of Cumberland Duke oi Dot et, unpopularity of Duke of Richmond's policy . Duke of Rutland, death of Duke of Savoy Duke of Wellington Dnmouriez and Jemappes Dnie .in'.- fleet Dungannou convention, ti i -it . Dungannon convention, second Dangannon, meeting in church at Dm bam i-cur,ii,ies . . . Karl (jf Drogheda . . . Earl ol KilcUre * ;? % PAGK r. w Earl of Kildare's address Earl of Mar . Earl of Shannon, death of Earnest language . Ecclesiastical tilles bill . Edicl <>l Nantes, recall of the Editors bribed Edmund Burke Educated classes bought Edward Fitzgerald . Edward Sprag Edward Sullen Effort i" save Byrne and Bond Efforts of patriots . Efforts of patriots all in vain . Efforts to delay explosion Eighteen persons banged Eighty two club Elections, interference in Emancipation act, passage of the Emancipation refused Embezzlement Emigration .... Emigration agent . Emmet arrested Emmet, examination of . Gunnel executed Emmet retires to Wicklow Emmet returns to Dublin Emmet, Thomas Addis . Emmet's evidence . Encouragement to fisheries End devastations Ktal of insurrection of 1798 . England against repeal . England yields at once . English commercial policy English interest, triumph of . English parliament, decisive action of the English parliament, predominance of tho English parliament, the Union in Enmity of Flood and Grattan Enuiscorthy, storm of Eniiiskillen y< ten infantry . Enthusiasm of the people Erin s" bragh .... Escheatorship of Minister Essex Fencibles Established church . European revolutions E\ idence extorted . Excitement against Catholics . Excitement in Dublin Executions .... Executed in Wexford, loyalists Exodus Expedition of Dutch government Expenditures of the kingdom Explosion in Patrick street . Exterminating, necessity of . Extermination Extinction of civil existence lor Catholics Extravagance and corruption Failure of Forbes' motion Failure of Grattan's efforts . Failure of the patriots . Famine ..... Famine carnage, progress of . Famine carnage, statistics of . Famine, cause of the Famine, horrors of the . . Famine of 1S17 ... ,647 ;;:;; 42 95 4U6 60S 31 575 142 511 222 14 530 335 189 190 294 429 561 4:)S 508 441 107 ,697 626 426 368 426 426 426 217 300 117 340 355 533 , 151 , (II 111 , 18 17 , 40 . 155 , 313 262 . 543 , 330 . 373 . 2(12 . 51)5 . 580 . 304 . 231 . 374 . 305 . 321 . 698 . 2li9 . 141 . 42:'. . 544 . 02."> . 8 . 91 . 180 . 178 . 92 . 57 . 560 . 592 . 491 . 491 . 489 '^u . .;i uNbgVi Famine of 1822 . Famines, other Father John Murphy Father John Murphy, fate of . Father Maguire Father Philip lioche . . Father Tyrrell Faulkner's journal . Fenian Fermanagh yeomanry . Fighting men .... Financial distress . Financial frauds First act in violation of the treaty First octennial parliament dissolve First parliament in this reign First recognition of the Catholics as First Ulster regiment First united Irish club . First whisper of repeal . Fitzgerald and Ay liuer. surrender Fitzgerald, treatment of Fitzgerald's Bpeech on pension list Fitzgibbpn's speech on the regency Fitzwilliam recalled Fitzwil liam's administration Five years of independence Fleet anchors in Bantry bay Flesh brush Flogging sheriff of Tipperary Flood and the patriots Flood's reform bi" Flood's reform bill rejected Fontainbleau . Foutenoy Forbes and the pension list Forfeitures of rich estates Forged assassination list Formation of an Irish character Fortj -shilling freeholders Four thousand Foxliuulcrs' corps . Fox's martyrs France' and England in India France, coalition against Francis Bacon Flee parliament Free trade Freer trade act Freeman's journal . French and Americans at Yor French, conduct of the . French, disasters of the . French give a ball . French government, designs French lauding under llumbci French principle trench republic declares war French revolution . French revolution, progress of the Galling ascendancy of privileged neighbors . Gardiner's measure Gardiner's measure, Burke's opinion of Gardiner's measure, debate on Gardiner's measur Garrett Fennel] General Abercrombie General Abercroinbie, resignation General corruption . General Daendels . . . General determination . General lioche A of •;0 General Lake in the rili General order, remarkable < reogbegans, the George I 1 1 ge I., death of. i re Ill Germanic empire, power of the Gibbet Rath of Kildare, massacre at Giukell, ai my of Ginki'U's camp ... Glenlyon .... Godericb cabinet . Good effects in the south < rovernment funds . Government intention at, Clontarf Government, majority for . Governments] i feeding Government supporters, discipline Grain, Btopping export of ( rrand scale of bribery Gratitude and affeotion Grattan 98, 11 Grattan advocates coercion . Grattan on tithes Grattan's emancipation * > 1 1 1 . Grattan's financial expose" Grattan's motion for free trade Grattan's picture of the times Grattan's revenue bill Great despondency Great di>iress .... Great majorities Grievances of the Protestant colonies Growing liberality . Gunpowder act i runpowder plot Habeas Corpus act Habeas Corpus, suspension of 215, 41 493, 617, 52 Hague, the .... Halt-banging .... Hamilton Rowan . Haudcock of Athlone Handcock's son;; and palinode Hanging of Father Redmond Hans Hamilton Hapless enthusiasm Harcourt Lees Hardy Harvey, Beancbamp Bagenal. Harvey commands insurgents Harvey shocked Harvey summons New Ross to sui Head pacificator of Ireland . Hell or Connaught. to . Hercules Langrisbe Heroism of Catholic priests . Hessians' free-quarters, the Hoadley appointed to the sec of A lloche captured, the Hochstet, battle of . Holj wells, laws againsi meeting at Horrible atrocities in Wexford Horror of French principles . House of Hanover, loyalty to the House "f Hanover, toleration and House of Tbomond 1 1 ue and Cry Hugh M'Fay, of Seagoe Hunter Gowan Hnssey Burgh . Uyberuicuj ender rmagh r the 123 261 288 81 •12 51 85 22 305 1 2 10 602 207 52:; 535 395 573 122 577 391 188 120 . 489 . 178 . 481 . HI . 130 . 291 . 100 . 239 . 53 . 442 . 13 . 403 . 227 . 001 428 578 140 4 30 580 270 295 193 387 387 334 370 159 40-1 107 310 319 321 310 537 240 171 47 280 62 357 30 2:il 202 218 105 537 400 203 201 131 413 up the English Illegal combinations Imperial standard, a now Impression of horror Imprisoned without charge Improvement "I the country . Income ami expenditure of Ireland, accou Incumbered estates act . Indemnity act Independence, claim of . Independence of Curran Independent kingdom . Individual representative Informers honorable, making Ingratitude "I the Irish '. Inquiry demanded . Insanity of the king Insolence of ministers . Insolence of the castle . Insult, to tin' crown . Insurgent camp at Gorey Insurgents defeated Insurrection act Insurrection breaks out . Insurrection first Insurrection in Scotland . Interest, new plan of keepin Intimidation . Invasion, alarm about . Invasion, apprehensions of an Inverriggen and MacDonalds Ireland, address to the people Ireland, distress in . Ireland, laudable efforts for poor . Ireland loyal ..... Ireland on her smaller end Ireland, peace in Ireland, promises of gain to . Ireland, resolutions adopted in every 1 Ireland, supremacy of England over Ireland to save a million a-year Ireland, unhappy Catholics of Irish act fur electors Irish army, uniforms of the . Irish articles, nun confirmation of . Irish brigade, casualty in the Irish brigade, the .... Irish Catholics, divisions amongst . Irish Catholics, reliance in Irish confederation, end of Irish debt Irish debt, history of Irish exiles in France Irish families suffering . Irish Felon Irish harvests go to England . Irish House of Lords favor an Union Irish independence .... Irish independence, effects of. Irish legion in France . Irish on the Continent . Irish I Irangemen .... Irish parliament .... Irish parliament, corruption of Irish parliament, declaratory act of Irish parliament, degraded condition Irish peerage Irish Protestant nationality . Irish railroad companies Irish Tribune Irish tricolor Irvine's address .... Is it possible 178 409 839 420 168 lit of 010 691,593 . 243 . 51 . na . 9 . 8 . 34 . 500 . 287 • 182 . 280 . 201 . 214 . 200 . 333 . 243 . 301 . 237 30, 4 2 111 3.-7 435 4 10 10 no 417 75 407 08 1 396 167 . 173 . 300 . 12 . 403 . 135 . 15 . 07 . 64 . 202 . 435 . 573 . 409 . 400 . 430 . 585 . 553 . 36 151, 152 . 152 . 185 17, 32 . 001 . 43 \! irt of I I 151 45 II I 397 H 557 , 5 -2 145 69 ' A * f ?^9 t w INDEX ncobina .... .ttiu-s 111. nmestown in Cork harbor ohn Blaquiere ohn Ulaudiiu Beresford uhn Keogb . . packing of tho uverna .... Kaisarswart, siege of K. ■ ■ i • [ > peace with nil men Keogb lodged in jail Kiloullen Kilkea castle . Killala .... Killcavan bill . King congratulates parliamen King Frederick the Greal King i Stiorge II.. death of King George II.. on the French frontier i. ig ( leoi ;e IV. King George l\'., death of k n . in miiv of the King Louis and the young dauphi reluctance of the . K i ■ W illiam, death of . King William, vexation of k ig William IV. . King William IV. death of King William's birthday. Kiug's friends. lugu n prisoner Kuighl of Gliu Kuights of >i. Patrick . l.ili .r-ratc act I i i\ Hester Stanhope . Lady Pamela Fitzgerald 1, ike's proclamation Lally .... 1 .ally's campaign in India Land tenure commission Landlord and tenant commission Lasl lose ol summer session of the Irish parliament Laws againsl eduoation . Laws against priests Leech murdered 1. n wheel Lvitrira grand jury Lew ins . Liberator, the . • ..... u the Netherlands I. ^ . . . . l ,ord I lee creates alarm Lord ci no. death ol I ird Clare, (irallan's reply to Lord Fingal . L 1.1 Godulphin 1- v. . i 201 42 .'0,7 370 337 203 18 6G1 681 171 1711 828 38 97 278 442 llo 161 87 538 ■HI 827 802 S37 349 331 408 HI 80 62 489 6 1 'J 178 ol 507 22 21 51 ' 619 198 414 327 663 161 UJ 848 802 63 87 ol I 640 266 14 15 424 584 217 268 202 II in oi>2 411 234 461 Lord Grey's coercion bill Lord Hardwioke, duplicity of Lord John Russell .... Lord K i ire dis ivowed Lord Kilwarden, murder of . Lord-Lieutenant, Bolton Lord-Lieutenant, Buckingham Lord-Lieutenant, Capel . . ■ Lord-Lieutenant, Dorset . Lord Lieutenant, Duke of Bedford Lord. Lieutenant, Duke of Devonshire Lord-Lieutenant, Duke ol Portland Lord-Lieutenant, Duke of Richmond Lord-Lieutenant, Duke of Rutland Lord Lieutenant, Duke of Shrewsbury Lord-Lieutenant, Earl of Northumberland Lord-Lieutenant, L.ul of Westmoreland Lord-Lieutenant, Grafton Lord-Lieutenant, Uarcourt Lord-Lieutenant, Lord Anglesen . Lord Lieutenant, Loi l I lamden Lord-Lieutenant, Lord Carlisle Lord Lieutenant, Lord Carteret Lord l.ieulenailt. Lord Clarendon . Lord-Lieutenant, Lord Fitzwilliam Lord- Lieutenant, Lord Halifax Lord-Lieutenant, Lord Hardwicke Lord Lieutenant, Lord Hartford . Lord Lieutenant, Lord Tow nshend Lord Lieutenant Marquis Cornwullis Lord-Lieutenant, Marquis of Buckingh Lord Lieutenant. Marquis of Xorui.uil.y Lord-Lieutenant, Marquis Wellesley Lord Lieutenant, Ormoud Lord-Lieutenant, Pembroke . Lord-Lieutenant, Rochester . Lord Lieutenant, Wharton Lord Middleton and Justin MaeCarthy Lord North's first measure favoring Catholics Lord North j ields .... Lord Polmerston .... Lord Sydney Lord Sydney's administration Lord remple Lord i ol\ erloii .... Louis the MV Louth election .... Lo\ es ol the angels, (he Loyalty of the Irish .... 43. Lucas and the [' ttriots . . Lucas, the failure uf ■ . Lucasiau mobs .... M. de L-iln ai line .... MacUonalds, ol Glenooe MacHale, Archbishop of Tuam Mi, l in. oi Glencoe M.n l iii's » do. murder of MacNeven .MaeNeven and O'Connor in Franco M u Neven, examination of MucNeven's memoir Macomores Magn i aharta UacNamara .... Vliihony Major Kial M yoi 's people, the .... rity ol ono .... Malta m in ol the people .... Marechal de Noaillea M. ire. Hal de SoXfi .... 63 < ! *-> -«^>^ , \-» » ' ,-i PI . $WBfflffl •r _f ,.„ ■ , {ar*r INDEX. 037 m,v- PAOK FAUIfi Marquis Cornwallis .... . 838 New arms bill . 629 Marquis of Breadalbane .... . a New election . L99 Marquis of Buckingham .... . 184 New era . Ill Marquis of Buckingham, unpopularity of . 18!) New insurrection act .... . 468 Marquis of Downshire .... . :;m; New Jerusalomites . 1 1 3 Marquis of Drogbeda at Clogheen . . 100 New oath, the ...... . 609 Marshal Boufflers . 13 New peers . 199 Marshal Broglie . 61 New propositions of Mr. Pitt ■ . 17:; Marshal Luxembourg .... . 10 New reformation ..... . 500 Martello towers . 434 New Ross, battle of .... . 320 Marl ill law ...... . 428 New system . 96 m range in the north .... 25 Military system 127 1 'i ai outrages and murders 468 Militiabill 123 . 229 Orange purple man .... 472 Millenarians 412 1 Iraogemen, address of the . 2!I2 M i"i trj . change of .... 'l.'ii . 50 i Orangemen ever punished, no 267 Mirabeau ...... 201 Orangemen Sourish, iho .... 46' Misery 120 Orungi men, Grattan on iho . 243 Mitehcl, trial of • r >-:; i )rangemen, Insolence of 458 Mitchel, sentence of ... . Oh:-, Orangemen, the Mol ■ neaux ...... 18 i li angemen, the Armagh 460 Mon ter meetings 533 1 »i iu' commercial propositions . . 172 , li i Montchevreuil ..... 12 Oregon 6 l i Moore hall 35!) i ii ■■.in "i the castle . . . ■ Morning Star 2 . 285 . 863 . 590 . 591 . 232 . ll . 852 . 601 . 601 . 15 . 11 . 6s . 6a . 89 . 138 . 17 . 139 . 406 109, 191 129, 46J . 233 . 169 . 169 8 . 59 . 17(i . Tti . 21 . 40 . 483 . 603 . 524 . 551) . 483 L95, 239 . 288 . 94 . 31 . 31) . 81 . 10G 76, 194 . 557 . 4. r )5 . 94 . 218 . 214 . 295 . 447 . 383 . -Ill) . 417 . 446 . 214 . 236 . 661 . 17.'. . 201 . 168 . 377 . 5111 . 5U1 of the Popery bill, Catholic laws against the Popery bill passed .... Popery, bill to prevent the further growt Popish conspiracy, a Popish massacre Population Population of Ireland Portuguese Jew, I rorzia the Post office espionnage Potato blight . Poyning's law Practical toleration for four years . Pragmatic sanction Prashagh P-reoursor society . Presentment session Press prosecution . pretender, the Pti'vot prison . Priest catchers Priests, courag Primate Boulte Primate Boulter ruler of Ireland Primate Boulter's policy Primate Stone Primate Sunn', death of . Primates in hiding . Prince Charles Edward, expedition i Proceedings of convention Process Ben er Proclamation .... Proclamation of the people . Progress of union conspiracy Projected massacre, the . Prosperous .... Protection .... Protective duties demanded . Protestant ascendancy . Protestant boys, the Protestant charter schools Protestant coal porters . Protestaut succession, act for establishing Protesting peers, the Purchasing votes Quarantotti .... Queen Anne .... Queen Victoria's accession Queen's colleges Queen's speech Queen's \ i-it to Ireland . Questions to Catholic universities Quilca in the County Cavan . Races of Castlebar. Rackrents .... Rage and impatience of Tone Rage in England Rage of tin' bigots . Rage ol the English Rath of the Curragh of Cildare Rathcormack, tithe carnage at Rathfarnham .... Ravages of famine . . Reappearance ol Grattan Rebel disqualification bill Reclaim bogs, bill to Reconciliation of differences . Recovery ol Ballina . . Rector of Agher Red list Redoubt of Ell Regency act .... of . 40 . 336 . 44 . 47 . 51 . 64 . 64 . 112 . 95 . 106 . 68 . 161 . 664 . 634 . 824 . 391 .>H7 . 302 . 839 . 170 . 358 . 500 . lit) . 14 . " 21 . 4117 . 1U0 . 481 . 22 . 619 . 549 . 503 . 595 . 216 . 52 . 361 . 63 . 275 . 801 . 505 . 131 . 342 618 . 302 . 565 . 394 . 378 .113 . 220 . ; is i . 38 . 41)7 64 . 380 w & a /-6 TO ) ' i Nfi .. t/h sus.v. H § Wi! INDEX. GIJ'J - Regency, the . . . Regium donum Relief aet, meaning of . Relief iict. results of Belief bill with wings, a Belief measures Relief measures, pretended Relief lo Catholics, paltry Remember Limerick Remember Orr Renunciation act . Repeal association, decadence of Repeal of Poj [ling's law Repeal of the test act . Repeal year, the Reproductive committee Republican . . . Republicanism Resolutions Retaliation Revenge .... Reve and debt of Ireland Revenue, the . Revenues of the kingdom Reversal of (lie sentence Re\ ieu'H .... Rewards for discoverers Rej Holds, the informer . Richard Brinsley Sheridan Richard Johnson Richard Lalor Shiel Richard O't Gorman . Richi id penitentiary . Rights of man Riots .... Robert Emmet . . Robi it Holmes . . Rockwell . . Roscommon . . . Round Robin . . . Royal speech . Rumors oi disturbances. Rump of an aristocracy . ■Sacramental test Saintfleld Sale of peerages haul, case of . Savings banks Scottish insurrection, the Secret committee of the lords Secret committee, report of Secret Bervice money Secretary Pelham . Sedition .... Selling seats, charged with Septennial bill changed into Octennial Settlement not liual Shanavests Sherlock and Anuesley, cause of Simon Butler . Sincere friend, a Sir Robert Walpole's policy Sir Toby Butler, pleading of Sirr, Swan and Sandys . .- ituation of the Catholics Slanderous report . Slaughter Slaughter of prisoners . Slaughter on Tara bill . Sligo volunteers Sowing disseusions . Specie payments, suspension of TAOIC . 188 . 138 . fill!) . 510 . 188 . 556 . 5110 . US . 12 . 277 . 156 . 643 . 152 . mi . 525 . 5 (if, . 201 . 212 . M4 . 82:; . 196 . 451 . 88 . Ml . 642 . 137 . 37 . 298 . 17;s . 142 . 4110 . 568 . 541 . 201 . 80 . 418 . 683 . 578 . 584 . 11)2 . 431 . 178 . 3U5 . 57 . 333 . 20IJ . 77 . 623 . 72 . 221 . 413 . 277 . 288 . 634 . 169 . 97 . 153 . 4lil . 45 208, 232 . 438 . 02 . 24 . 336 . 6 . 2115 . 355 . 321 . 30(1 . 142 . 282 . 2G0 Speech from the throne . Speecb, George Ill.'s Speech of Plunket . Spensonians . Spies . . ' . . Spiked heads . Spying in the post office. Stag house Star and garter State of Ireland Staunch bloodhounds Steady majority Steel-boys Stipendiary magistrates' . Striking terror -nil criptions . Subsistence money . Successes of the Americans Successes of the French, fortunate Successes under Marlborough Suicide in prison . Supersedeas Swift and Wood's copper Swift popular with the Catholi Swin- feeling towards Catholii Swift's modest proposal . Swift's pamphlet Sysie r conciliation . System of terror Tabular statements . Talent of Parliament . Tux absentees, proposal to Te Di van Temperance hands Tenant right disallowed Testimony ot Lord .Moira The i.uh of February . The I '.nli of April . The 23d of July . Tie- 23d of May . Theobald Wolfe Tone . Thomas Davis, death of . Thomas Francis Meagher Thomas Russell, late of . Three evils Three hundred, council of Three majors . Three rocks Threshers hanged . Threshers, the. Tliurot's expedition Tipperary Free- Press Tithe-law Tithe-tragedies Tithes .... Tollymore park Tom the devil Tone allowed to quit the country Tone at I lie Tcxcl . Tone in Paris . Tone on board the Vryheid Tone's negotiations in France Tone's pamphlet Tone's uneasiness . Torture in Wexford Tory ministry . Tournay .... Townshend's golden drops Trade, distress of . Treatment of Catholic soldiers Treatment ot women Treaty of Limerick h m\ .vJ s& &th% % 12 '.»". '. J",M(»ui,fl, m •> 1 rx<2 rvt, ; ^C^ ■ ;jpwI% INDEX. Tiench and Fox Troubles in County Armagh . Tubberneering Twenty-fourth light dragoons Two columns . Typhus fever . Ulster, emigration from . Ulster, presbyterians of . lister, rising in ... Ultimatum Unavailing efforts against corruption Under-secretary Cooke . Undertakers ..... Union, barristers who supported the Union declines Union denounced . Union, effects of the Union, English plots for the . Union, first year of the . Union jack .... Union of England and Scotland Union, project of . Union proposed Union proposed in British parliament Union, repeal of the Union, ruinous effects of the . Unionism, methods of conversion to United Irish society United Irish society, constitution of United li ish society, principles of . United Irishmen .... United Irishmen, association of United parliament, first measure of United parliament, proposed constitution Unlawful assemblies, act against . Unlawful assemblies, act to suppress Verdict of guilty 278. Veto, debate in parliament oti Veto offered, the Veto, unanimity against the . Vicar apostolic Viceroy, equivocation of the . Viceroyalty of Chesterfield Vigor beyond the law Vigor, Lord Carhampton's Vinegar hill, battle of . Vinegar hill, camp at Vinegar hill, troops concentrating at Violation of treaty .... Violated or not .... Volunteers, Catholics desirous to join the Volunteers, end of the .... PAGE . 373 . '210 . 318 . 264 . 319 . 553 . 90 . 434 . 332 . 529 . 197 . 336 . 90 . 306 . 282 . 405 . 480 . 152 . 417 . -lull . 35 79, 365 . 367 . 381 . 477 . 483 . 373 . 246 . 264 .211 . 167 . 192 . 412 397 222 198 of 415 . 475 . 4'. I . 482 . 601 . 419 . 71 . 241 . 241 . 326 .817 . 325 . 418 . 1 . 126 . 167 Volunteers get the militia arms Volunteers, loyalty of the Volunteers, numbers in 1780, of Volunteers Protestant at first Volunteers, thanks to the Volunteers, the Volunteers, the arms of the . Volunteers, uniforms of the . Vow of the Cave hill Wake in Monaseed chapel Wales, disturbances in . Walpole, fall of . War, close of the . \\ ar in the Netherlands . War on the continent Wuterford election. Waterloo .... \\ at kin William Wynne . Welsh cavalry Wexford county Wexford county, insurrection iu Wexford evacuated Wexford, massacre of the bridge of Wexford occupied by insurgents Wexfodr, popuhtti.ni ol county Wheatly, the perjurer Whig club .... \\ big club. Lord Clare on Whig ministry Whigs, support to the . White-boys . . . . i Wild alarm, country in . Wilson, the magistrate . Willful murder William Brabazon Ponsonby . William Convugham l'lunket. William Jackson, Rev. . William Orr, execution of William Orr, of l"'ei ranshaue . William Smith O'Brien . William III. an usurper . , Williams, trial of . Windmill hill .... Wolfe Tone a prisoner . Wolfe 'I'oue carried to Dublin Wolfe Tone recognized by George Hill Wolfe Tone tried by court-martial Wolfe Tone's autobiography . Woolen manufacture, suppression of Yeomanry corps, Catholics driven out of Young Ireland Younger uatiouists, the . . Vo; 307 648 627