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Pitt was again thwarted by the Irish Parliament on the regency question, when the insanity of George III. required the appointment of his heir as governor of England. The marquis of Buckingham, who was then lord lieutenant, refused to forward their address; but the members sent a deputation of their own. This nobleman was open and shameless in his acts of bribery, and added 13,000l. a year to the pension list, already so fatally oppressive to the country. In 1790 he was succeeded by the earl of Westmoreland, and various clubs were formed; but the Catholics were still excluded from them all. Still the Catholics were an immense majority nationally; the French revolution had manifested what the people could do; and the rulers of the land, with such terrible examples before their eyes, could not for their own sakes afford to ignore Catholic interests altogether. But the very cause which gave hope was itself the means of taking hope away. The action of the Irish Catholics was paralysed through fear of the demonlike cruelties which even a successful revolution might induce; and the general fear which the aristocratic party had of giving freedom to the uneducated classes influenced them to a fatal silence. Again the middle classes were left without leaders, who might have tempered a praiseworthy nationality with a not less praiseworthy prudence, and which might have saved both the nation and some of its best and bravest sons from fearful suffering.

SECTION III. Origin of the United Irishmen.

A Catholic meeting was held in Dublin, on February 11, 1791, and a resolution was passed to apply to Parliament for relief from their disabilities. This was in truth the origin of the United Irishmen. For the first time Catholics and Protestants agreed cordially and worked together harmoniously. The leading men on the Catholic committee were Keogh, M'Cormic, Sweetman, Byrne, and Branghall; the Protestant leaders were Theobald Wolfe Tone and the Hon. Simon Butler. Tone visited Belfast in October 1791, and formed the first club of the Society of United Irishmen, He was joined there by Neilson, Simms, Russell,

and many others. A club was then formed in Dublin, of which Napper Tandy became a leading member. The fundamental resolutions of the society were admirable. They stated: 1. That the weight of English influence in the government of this country is so great as to require a cordial union among all the people of Ireland, to maintain that balance which is essential to the preservation of our liberties and the extension of our commerce. 2. That the sole constitutional mode by which this influence can be opposed, is by a complete and radical reform of the representation of the people in Parliament. 3. That no reform is just which does not include every Irishman of every religious persuasion.'

Tone had already obtained considerable influence by his political pamphlets, which had obtained an immense circulation. There can be no doubt that he was tinctured with republican sentiments; but it was impossible for an Irish Protestant who had any real sympathy with his country, to feel otherwise; it had endured nothing but misery from the monarchical form of government. The Catholics, probably, were only prevented from adopting similar opinions by their inherent belief in the divine right of kings. In 1791 the fears of those who thought the movement had a democratic tendency, were confirmed by the celebration of the anniversary of the French revolution in Belfast, July 1791; and in consequence of this, sixty-four Catholics of the upper classes presented a loyal address to the throne. The Catholic delegates met in Dublin in December 1792, and prepared a petition to the king, representing their grievances. It was signed by Dr. Troy, the Catholic archbishop of Dublin, and Dr. Moylan, on behalf of the clergy. Amongst the laity present were lords Kenmare, Fingall, Trimbleston, Gormanstown, and French. Five delegates were appointed to present the petition, and they were provided with a very large sum of money, which induced those in power to obtain them an audience. They were introduced to George III. by Edmund Burke. His majesty sent a message to the Irish Parliament, requesting them to remove some of the disabilities; but the Parliament treated the message with contempt, and lord chancellor

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FitzGibbon brought in a bill to prevent any bodies from meeting by delegation for the future.

men.

In 1793 a relief bill was passed, in consequence of the war with France; a militia bill, and the gunpowder and convention bills, were also passed, the latter being an attempt to suppress the volunteers and the United IrishA meeting of the latter was held in February 1793, and the chairman and secretary were brought before the house of lords, and sentenced to six months' imprisonment and a fine of 500l. each. The following year, January 1794, Mr. Rowan was prosecuted for an address to the volunteers, made two years before. Even Curran's eloquence, and the fact that the principal witness was perjured, failed to obtain his acquittal. He was sentenced to two years' imprisonment and a fine of 500l. His conviction served only to increase the popular excitement, as he was considered a martyr to his patriotism. An address was presented to him in Newgate by the United Irishmen, but he escaped on May 1, and got safely to America, though 1,000l. was offered for his apprehension.

The English minister now appears to have tried to drive the people into a rebellion, which could be crushed at once by the sword, and would spare the necessity of making concessions; or to entangle the leaders in some act of overt treason, and quash the movement by depriving it of its heads. An opportunity for the latter manœuvre now presented itself. William Jackson, a Protestant clergyman, who had lived many years in France, came to the country for the purpose of opening communications between the French government and the United Irishmen. Jackson confided his secret to his solicitor, a man named Cockayne. The solicitor informed Mr. Pitt, and by his desire continued to watch his victim, and trade on his open-hearted candour, until he had led him to his doom. The end of the unfortunate clergyman was very miserable. He took poison when brought up for judgment, and died in the dock. His object in committing this crime was to save his property for his wife and children, as it would have been confiscated had his sentence been pronounced.

The viceroyalty of earl Fitz-William once more gave the

Irish nation some hope that England would grant them justice. But he was soon recalled; Lord Camden was sent in his stead; and the country was given up to the Beresford faction, who were quite willing to co-operate in Mr. Pitt's plan of setting Protestants and Catholics against each other, of exciting open rebellion, and of profiting by the miseries of the nation to forge new chains for it, by its parliamentary union with England. Everything was done now that could be done to excite the Catholics to rebellion. The Orangemen, if their own statement on oath1 is to be trusted, were actually bribed to persecute the Catholics. Sermons 2 were preached by Protestant ministers to excite their feelings; and when the Catholics resisted, or offered reprisals, they were punished with the utmost severity, while their persecutors always escaped. Lord Carhampton, a grandson of the worthless Henry Luttrell, who had betrayed the Irish at the siege of Limerick, commanded the army, and his cruelty is beyond description. An insurrection act was passed in 1796; magistrates were allowed to proclaim counties; suspected persons were to be banished the country or pressed into the fleet, without the shadow of trial; and acts of indemnity were passed, to shield the magistrates and the military from the consequences of any unlawful cruelties which fanaticism or barbarity might induce them to commit.

1 We give authority for these details. In the spring of 1796 three Orangemen swore before a magistrate of Down and Armagh that the Orangemen frequently met in committees, amongst whom were some members of Parliament, who gave them money and promised that they should not suffer for any act they might commit, and pledged themselves that they should be provided for by government. The magistrate informed the secretary of state, and asked how he should act; but he never received any answer. For further details on this head, see Plowden's History of the Insurrection.

2 On July 1, 1795, the Rev. Mr. Monsell, a Protestant clergyman of Portadown, invited his flock to celebrate the anniversary of the battle of the Boyne by attending church, and preached such a sermon against the Papists that his congregation fell on every Catholic they met going home, beat them cruelly, and finished the day by murdering two farmer's sons, who were quietly at work in a bog.-Mooney's History of Ireland, p. 876.

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Grattan appealed boldly and loudly against these atrocities. These insurgents,' he said, 'call themselves Protestant Boys-that is, a banditti of murderers, committing massacre in the name of God, and exercising despotic power in the name of liberty.' The published declaration of lord Gosford and of thirty magistrates, who attempted to obtain some justice for the unfortunate subjects of these wrongs, is scarcely less emphatic. It is dated December 28, 1795: 'It is no secret that a persecution, accompanied with all the circumstances of ferocious cruelty which have in all ages distinguished this calamity, is now raging in this country; neither age, nor sex, nor even acknowledged innocence, is sufficient to excite mercy or afford protection. The only crime which the unfortunate objects of this persecution are charged with, is a crime of easy proof indeed; it is simply a profession of the Roman Catholic faith. A lawless banditti have constituted themselves judges of this species of delinquency, and the sentence they pronounce is equally concise and terrible; it is nothing less than a confiscation of all property and immediate banishment—a prescription that has been carried into effect, and exceeds, in the number of those it consigns to ruin and misery, every example that ancient or modern history can supply. These horrors are now acting with impunity. The spirit of justice has disappeared from the country; and the supineness of the magistracy of Armagh has become a common topic of conversation in every corner of the kingdom.'

One would have supposed that an official declaration from such an authority, signed by the governor of Armagh and thirty magistrates, would have produced some effect on the government of the day; but the sequel proved that such honorable exposure was as ineffective as the rejected petition of millions of Catholics. The formation of the yeomanry corps filled up the cup of bitterness. The United Irishmen, seeing no hope of constitutional redress, formed themselves into a military organisation. But, though the utmost precautions were used to conceal the names of members and the plans of the association, their movements were well known to government from an early period. Tone, in the meantime, came to France from America, and induced