93

CHAP. IV.

Review of the progress of the Catholics-Causes thereofSalutary effects of the bill of 1776-Gratitude of the Catholics-Renewed courage and exertions-Continuance of the Committee under Lord Kenmare-Character and politics of that nobleman-New divisions-New secession of the aristocracy-Inefficiency of the Committee-Its total dissolution-New plan suggested by Wolfe Tone-compared with that of Mr. Wyse-Establishment of the Second General Committee, or Association of 1790-Exertions of that body-Important concessions to the Catholics. -Bill of 1793-Review of the causes which led to that event-Domestic-Foreign: amongst the Protestantsamongst the Catholics How far influenced by the General Committee, and by its leaders-Mr. KeoghDissolution of the Committee.

It is at this period that we can for the first time look back, and consider with something like a clear and dispassionate feeling, the causes of the progress which the Catholic had made, and the natural influence of that progress on his future destinies. At every epoch of these annals, we feel more fully the justice of the observations with which this sketch has set out. It is utterly impossible in a free state, for one portion of its

citizens to keep in permanent subjection the other. Living in sight of free institutions, every man must naturally desire to be free. In such societies, there is always a tendency to proper and just equalization, which no restrictive or oppressive statute can long continue to prevent, without injury to every portion of the community. Palliatives and expedients will not do. The moral law cannot be violated with greater facility than the physical. Press the air into one place, it will gain elasticity and try to escape in another; throw a stone into a smooth stream, it will foam up into a torrent about you; bridge or bar it across, even in the moment you are turning round it will overflow upon you. The code which stripped the Catholic of almost every civil right, could not altogether pluck from him the heart of a true citizen. It left some redeeming recollections, some stings of honest indignation, some stubborn visitings of ancient feeling, which in their good time were destined to rescue him from the "foedum crimen servitutis," from the deep debasement (sin and misfortune at the same time) of general and unresisted slavery. The progress of this great change even in its commencement is singularly striking. With all the littleness clinging about them, the first efforts of the Catholics gave

strong pledges of ulterior success. It is surely an impressive moral spectacle to see mind directing thus a peaceful insurrection (if so it it may be called) to peaceful purposes; to trace the progress of intellect discovering, by degrees, the rights and energies of a country, and to meet at last a nation of high-spirited and united men determining openly, at any cost, to attain them.

If the Catholic, in every law which regulates the advances of civil society, had a sort of assurance, that he must sooner or later burst from the unnatural condition in which a series of anti-social as well as anti-national enactments had confined him, the ascendancy on the other side evinced not less abundant proof of the perishable nature of its power; and discovered, even at the moment of its utmost prosperity, how truly it contained within itself the seeds of its future dissolution. Enjoyment produced negligence; negligence false security; false security erroneous views; erroneous views unjust measures; and such measures, by a wise law of our nature, ultimate and inevitable downfall. The Whig or Cromwellian ascendancy in Ireland had no sooner succeeded in effecting a revolution, far more violent and universal than the mere transfer of property usually consequent upon foreign

invasion, than they began to experience in their own persons and properties the painful results of their own insane policy. The land was cleared of its cultivators; the Papist was ejected by public hostility and private fear in every direction; the equal was reduced to the state of servant, and the servant soon debased to the state of slave. But when every passion was gratified, and every evil wish was made deed, they found themselves as far from the imaginary national or even personal advantages which their selfishness had pictured to them, as at the very outset of their legislative career. The taskmaster had been injuring his own property: in impoverishing the Papist, the Protestant had been impoverished also. It was soon found necessary to allow the "hewer of wood" and "the drawer of water" sufficient force for the task: there was no advantage to be derived from a sick or a dying servant; their avarice calculated, and the matériel of their subsistence, of their luxuries, of their power, being Catholic men, Catholic men were allowed just as much of liberty as was found essential for Protestant purposes. The chain was loosened that the slave might work.

Ignovit abavus tuus victis; nam si non ignovisset, quibus imperâsset?-Seneca de Clementia.

The Protestants, when matters became tranquil in the country, began to think of improving their new mastership. The old system of selling their lots, customary under the Cromwellian dispensation, had produced a new race of resident proprietors. To cultivate their Protestant lands, they were obliged, in despite of statute and detestation, to recur at last to Catholic cultivators: the Catholic cultivators had no motive for zeal or industry; they were thorough "glebæ astricti" serfs, with no rights, no hopes, sunk in the worst moral and physical villainage. The race dwindled, decreased; the proprietor had gone too far. Palatines and Jews were then seduced to fill up the vacuum. They came, and melted away into the surrounding population; in a few years they became Papists, and Papists still remained the occupiers of the country. The remedy, whe

Numerous instances of this absorption of the minority by the majority of the community, occur in the South. The mountain of Slieve Grine, county of Waterford, was formerly "planted" by an English Protestant colony; the names, still English, indicate their origin. Their descendants are Papists, and speak nothing but Irish. The Marquess of Waterford introduced a similar colony on his estate in the same county from the North. Protestantism for a time flourished-then dwindled-then died. The 240 fa

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