He soon after proceeded to insult the Catholics of the south; so that he lost all support among the people, and stripped the Royal station of everything that could command respect or love. In place of these, he set up a new party, and gave birth to an unconstitutional and illegitimate conception-"monstrum horrendum, ingens, cui lumen ademptum"-the high church party,-that origin of evil,-that assumed the name of "Protestant ascendancy," and sought to divide the people under the pretence of upholding the church and state; in other words, a civil and ecclesiastical tyranny.

Such a proceeding was mischievous in the extreme, and the more deserving of censure, because at this period a friendly and conciliatory disposition pervaded all classes throughout the country. There existed discontent but not disaffection,there was some disturbance but no treason; the only hostility that prevailed was against the corruption and abuses of the Government.

The sentiments of the Whig leaders were constitutional as well as patriotic,-safe for the Government and serviceable for the state, and almost universally approved of by the people. Their spirit and character may be judged of from the account of a public dinner given by a society called the Whigs of the Capital, composed of the public-spirited citizens of Dublin, which took place early in 1791;* and when at the close of the year, an attempt was made to excite divisions

On Monday, the Whigs of the Capital dined at the Eagle in Eustacestreet, to which were invited the Lord Mayor, his Grace the Duke of Leinster, Lord Charlemont, Lord Henry Fitzgerald, Mr. Grattan, Mr. Curran, Mr. Ponsonby, and several other noble and eminently patriotic characters.

The following, among a variety of other toasts, were drunk :—

The King. Prince of Wales.-The House of Brunswick; may it ever regard Ireland, as the Parliament of Ireland regarded it, on the Regency anestion.-Righ of the neople.-Friends of freedom.-Glori

CHAP. II.] PUBLIC FEELING IN IRELAND.

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among the people, and kindle a religious war by recommending that legal steps should be taken against Roman Catholics who carried arms contrary to the existing laws,*-the Protestant members of the Volunteer Corps assembled to protest against such a proceeding, and condemned the publication that recommended it. In their resolutions they quoted a decree of that ill-fated monarch, Louis XVI. of France, almost one of his last acts, and which, great as his faults and his weakness may have been, reflects upon his memory the highest honour.†

In England also, bigotry seemed on the decline, and a spirit of liberality had arisen. In the month of March, 1791, Mr. Mitford brought forward his Bill to relieve Roman Catholic Dissenters, opening to them the magistracy, the profession of the bar, legalizing their places of worship, and conferring eligibility to certain minor offices in the state. It passed quickly and quietly through its

ous and immortal memory.-May the connexion between Great Britain and Ireland, founded on equal constitution, last for ever.-Volunteers of Ireland; three cheers.-The Whig Club of Ireland.-Duke of Portland, and Whigs of England.-Unceasing opposition to the system of a pensioned Magistracy. Majority of the Commons of the Common Council; three cheers.- His Majesty's counsellors who advised the court not to trample on the city.-The free electors of the city of Dublin; may they ever choose well, and ever return the objects of their choice. The liberty of the press.-The rights of Ireland.-Glorious revolution of 1782.-The General of the Volunteers of Ireland; may he live long and be happy; three cheers.-Lord Charlemont then gave the following toast, viz. May the Volunteers of Ireland never want a General that loves them as I do! three cheers.. - General Washington; three cheers.— Memory of John Hampden.-Memory of Doctor Franklin.-The immortal memory of Doctor Charles Lucas.-The late Earl of Chatham, his Hawke, his Wolfe, and all the heroes of his day.-Charles J. Fox, a British Senator, who would not bribe Ireland to sell her Constitution.— R. B. Sheridan, and when Ireland celebrates her glorious 110, may she never forget the friend who maintained her rights in England.

* The resolutions of the county of Armagh Grand Jury, in the spring of 1791, stated that a rage for arming existed amongst the Catholics, and to stop it, they ordered a reward of five guineas for the conviction of each of the first twenty persons so arming.

various stages in both Houses without opposition, and without a single division.

Such were the generous sentiments and the liberal spirit which animated both countries and all classes of people. How it happened that this spirit disappeared, that these fine sentiments changed, and that, while America and Europe had progressed in civil and religious freedom, England and Ireland should have retrograded : how, in place of harmony, discord appeared, and in place of religion, bigotry; and why the people were driven into violent courses, and induced to follow extreme principles and measures ;-all this is a matter of surprise as well as sorrow, and can only be accounted for by that fatality which overhung the destinies of Ireland, and swayed those councils which had for so long misruled the realm.

Unfortunately for the peace of Europe, and in particular for Ireland, a direful and portentous event now occurred, which, baffling all conjecture, spread dismay and destruction far and wide. This was the French Revolution.

At the commencement of this astonishing political drama, every lover of freedom must have rejoiced, and ought to have rejoiced at seeing a bad Government destroyed, an insolent and oppressive nobility humbled, and a rapacious clergy restrained. But the people did not stop there; they went to the opposite extreme; they rushed headlong into all sorts of extravagance and madness; they became fanatics, starting aside from the course pointed out by reason and right, like wild men; debating everything-altering everything-inverting everything-giving everything a new name-investing all with a ridiculous affectation; and in seeking to prove that they possessed a better understanding of what a Government

CHAP. II.]

FRENCH REVOLUTION.

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ought to be than any other people, they shewed that they knew nothing about Government whatsoever. It seemed as if a rank and profligate court had called down the judgment of Heaven,to be executed by a set of vain philosophers, who exceeded the very crimes they punished, until they themselves were destroyed by a superior man of blood, who in his turn was extolled, deposed, and executed!

No crime exists in vain. Ambition murders ambition. Liberty-equality-the rights of man, are words very captivating in sound, but much abused in sense. The destruction of the Bastile in 1789, the establishment of a national representative assembly, and the promulgation of a free Constitution, were not considered sufficient securities for the peace and prosperity of the French nation. Greater sacrifices were demanded, and other immolations were required; and that light which arose so bright at its commencement, became bloody and horrid at its close. Doctrines of unlimited democracy were set on foot, and the Irish, who are too aptto catch other people's follies, (for they are an imitative nation,) to a certain extent adopted them.

But the leading and influential portion of the nation were not captivated by the illusions of the French drama. Lord Charlemont, Mr. Grattan, and Mr. Ponsonby sought to restrain the ardour of those who were inclined to embrace the frenzy and folly of foreign and fantastic novelty. The north of Ireland and its stubborn Presbyterians were first affected, -that old leaven which, Mr. Fox said, "fermented and kneaded together the principles of the British Constitution." On the 14th of July, 1791, the Volunteers and citizens held, at Belfast, a meeting in commemoration of the French * Robespierre.

Revolution, the memory of the 14th July, 1789, -the National Assembly of France,-Mr. Paine, &c. &c. They published a declaration of their political opinions, and an address of congratulation to the French people. To this the French replied, and returned them thanks for their approbation.

These demonstrations were not, however, general throughout Ireland. The North, and Dublin were the chief places thus affected; and it is probable that if the Minister had yielded in time to the just demands of the people, and abated the unconstitutional influence that he exercised over the House of Commons, the people would have joyfully acquiesced in the established order of things, and sought for no changes that were unconstitutional, and no interference that was not legitimate. But the persevering violence of the Government; the religious animosity their followers excited; the intemperance of the Chancellor, who assumed and insisted on the mastership of the Government; the rancorous and violent abuse of the people; and the mischievous purposes to which the Catholic question was perverted,— all these baffled the moderate, frustrated the constitutional objects of the Opposition, and goaded the violent and headstrong party (a body wholly distinct from and opposed to the Opposition) into acts of violence, domestic disturbance, foreign alliance, and fatal insurrection.

Lord Charlemont always feared French principles, and stood out against them from the first.* Mr. Grattan also prophetically admonished his countrymen in beautiful language, but unfortunately true-Touch not this plant of Gallic growth; its taste is death, though 'tis not the tree of knowledge."

Amidst the convulsions that agitated Europe,

M'Nevin's Pieces of Irish History, p. 17, New York Ed.