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CHAP. V.

Omissions and defects of the bill of 1793-Causes thereof Gratitude of the Catholics-Servility of the Aristocracy-General apathy-Rebellion of 1798-Effects of the relaxations-Improved condition of the Catholics. -Increasing anxiety for their total emancipation Meetings to petition for that purpose in 1805-Draft of petition rejected-Oligarchical meetings in Marlborough Street-Mr. Ryan-Indignation of the country-Aggregate meeting in Stephen's Green-Attempts to reorganise the General Committee-Similar attempts in 1807, 1808-Aggregate meeting in William Street in 1809-Establishment of the Third General Committee on a similar plan to that of 1790-Elements of which it was composed-The Aristocracy-The ClergyThe Bar-The people, still of little influence-Character of the leaders-Lord Fingal-Lord Gormanstown-Lord Ffrench-Lord Trimleston-Mr. Scully-Mr. HusseyMr. Clinch-Dr. Dromgoole-Dr. Troy, Catholic archbishop of Dublin-Surviving members-Proceedings of the Committee-Proclamation to disperse it under the Convention Act by Mr. Secretary Wellesley Pole-Arrest of the members-Trials-Dissolution of the Committee.

THE relaxations of 1793 were given in a narrow, bargain-like spirit. The grant was not on any embracing principle of national policy. It included little of prospective wisdom. It was a panic-struck capitulation,-a sacrifice of

ancient monopoly, given up reluctantly to the command of a superior, and in obedience to the advancing dangers of the times. Even in the moment of grace, party and personal views interfered with the grand interests of the country.* No reference was made to the actual or probable state of the population. The very concession of the Elective franchise, liberal and generous as it appeared, was the gift of an enemy. The aristocracy acceded, but with little intention of conferring a benefit, to the wishes and claims of the people. The parliament of Ireland since the treaty of Limerick had been little better than a junta. Like all juntas, it was influenced by the most profligate personal ambition. The large proprietors in the South, whose estates were covered with Catholic tenants, had often not more than one freeholder; they saw an accession to their territorial power and parliamentary influence in the accession of the new freeholders. The moment the franchise was granted, they thought themselves authorised to take possession of the conscience and vote, as they had already in their manifold tyranny taken possession of the food and clothing, of their half-educated tenantry. Similar

See the Report of the Debate of 1793, p. 181, &c.

I

motives led to admission to the magistracy, to the admission to grand juries, &c.* As long as eligibility to the higher offices of the state was refused, such privileges conferred only a larger patronage on the oligarch; augmented the abuses of the aristocracy, left the people very much where they were, and above all, played the miserable policy of the Caudine Forks, liberated, but disgraced; loosened one hand, idly dreaming that it would never loosen the other; gave power, but continued discontent; and sent out of the prison-house a host of captivesbranding them at the same time with the name of slave, and refusing them, though free, the communion and rights of free citizenship.

This emancipation of shreds and patches, this half-equalization bill, would soon however have produced its natural results; and, in a session or two, the libertino patre nati would have become perfect and natural freemen, had not the perils which the minister apprehended reached

*The Catholics were also rendered admissible to Corporations by the enacting clauses of the act; but this concession was altogether neutralised by the provisos which followed nothing illustrates more clearly the spirit of reluctant surrender in which this bill was framed. The Corporations of course profited by this mistake. Catholics continued to be excluded.

abruptly their climax. The other parties in the state to which we have just referred, looking, not like the Catholic, to a retrenchment of partial abuse, or a redress of partial grievance, but proposing a sweeping away in mass of the good and the bad, advanced between them and their hopes, and plunged the country into a tumultuary warfare, a sudden physical effort at redemption. The organization of the North had now gone on for a considerable period with great secrecy and vigour. The Union had spread through almost every county in Ulster, and was proceeding rapidly towards the West and the South. In proportion as it advanced new views opened upon its leaders. They would have been contented at the outset with parliamentary reform, and other ameliorations of a still minor importance; but discussion-exasperation--the confidence of increasing union, and with it of increasing strength-the sense, that they had now been compromised, beyond all possibility of retreating, enlarged their demands, and they at last looked to the separation of the two islands, and the establishment of a republic, in alliance with or under the protection of France, as the only means by which the happiness of the country could be permanently or securely effected. The Executive of the United Irishmen, established at Dublin, somewhat on the model of the French

Leinster

Directory, opened through its agents a communication with the heads of the republic. The results of this connexion were soon perceptible. Fleets were fitted out, and military preparations were made in every direction through France, to co-operate with the members of the union in their projected attempt to throw off the dominion of England. The promptitude and judgment with which these arrangements were effected, were however rendered nugatory at a most critical moment, by a series of fatal circumstances, over which human wisdom and human effort could have little control.* and Munster had been but partially organised -Connaught not at all. The union after repeated deliberations came to the determination to rest on their arms until the whole of Ireland could be brought into the same state of perfect combination; this in ordinary cases would have been sound policy—the most judicious course which bold but prudent men could have adopted. But it necessarily produced delay. The Irish government were thus allowed both time and means in the interval, to come at an accurate knowledge of the whole conspiracy. It met, instead of waiting for the

Hoche's expedition.-Little less than a miracle saved. Ireland. Steam was not yet in use.