CHAPTER LV.

IN 1794, earl Fitzwilliam became lord-lieutenant of Ireland. On his arrival in Dublin, in January, 1795, he immediately displaced, with compensation, some of the holders of office who were the most hostile to the plan which he contemplated for the government of Ireland. On the 12th of February, Grattan obtained leave, in the Irish House of Commons, to bring in a bill for the repeal of all the remaining disqualifications of Catholics. A fortnight later, earl Fitzwilliam was recalled, and earl Camden appointed in his place. The moderate Catholics anticipated the most disastrous results from a measure so decided on the part of the British cabinet.

On the 15th of May, 1797, Mr. Ponsonby brought forward a motion for the fundamental reform of the Representation. The general evils of the Representation in Ireland were similar in principle to those of England. "Of three hundred members, above two hundred are returned by individuals; from forty to fifty are returned by ten persons; several of the boroughs have no resident elector at all; and, on the whole, two-thirds of the representatives in the House of Commons are returned by less than one hundred persons. * Mr. Ponsonby proposed the abolition of all disabilities on account of religion. The government rejected the measure. The Whig leaders then seceded from the House of Commons, and the people were left to be acted upon by those who would have handed over their country to the French Directory. A most formidable association was organized under the denomination of United Irishmen. The executive power of this extensive organisation was a Directory. Its five members were Arthur O'Connor, lord Edward Fitzgerald, Oliver Bond, a merchant, Dr. Mac Nevin, a Catholic gentleman, and Thomas Addis Emmett, a barrister. "Many thousands, I am assured," writes Dr. Hussey to Burke, "are weekly sworn through the country, in such a secret manner and form as to evade all the law in those cases.' ." Through 1797 the northern districts were in a disturbed state. Houses were broken into and arms seized by bands of nightly marauders. At funerals, and at gatherings for football and other games, large numbers collected and marched in military array. The government was alarmed; severity and intimidation were alone resorted to; martial law took the place of civil justice. The administrators of martial law were undisciplined troops of yeomanry, headed by ignorant and reckless officers. The plans of a general insurrection were disclosed to the Irish government, and arrests of the Leinster delegates, and of Bond, MacNevin, and Emmett were effected in March, 1798. O'Connor and O'Coigley (a priest) were in England, discussing plans of sedition with "The London Corresponding Society." They were arrested on a charge of high treason, and were tried at Maidstone on the 21st of May, when O'Connor was acquitted, and O'Coigley was convicted, and was executed. The vacancies in the Irish Directory were filled up, and a general rising on

*Grattan's Speech, Feb. 11, 1793.

A.D. 1798.

OUTBREAK OF THE UNITED IRISHMEN.

733

the 23rd of May was determined upon. Lord Edward Fitzgerald had remained concealed for two months. On the 19th of May, he was shot in resisting a warrant for his arrest, and died of his wounds on the 5th of June. In the meantime the insurrection broke out in the immediate neighbourhood of Dublin. A night attack on the city was projected by the United Irishmen. Two brothers, of the name of Sheares, and other chiefs, were arrested on the 23rd of May. A large number of insurgents were collecting on the north and south of the metropolis. An immediate attack was expected. The garrison and the yeomanry were under arms during that night, stationed in the cattle-market. The rebels, however, had learnt that the yeomanry of Dublin were ready to receive them, and deferred their attack, after destroying the mail-coaches that were approaching the city. Skirmishes between bands of rebels and the soldiery were then taking place daily. Martial law was proclaimed. The insurrection appeared to be somewhat quelled, when it broke out with unexpected fury in the county of Wexford. The rebels were generally successful when they fought in small bodies, but the system of these armed bands was little fitted for encounters with regular troops. They were in want of ammunition. Round stones and balls of hardened clay were the substitutes for bullets. By a rapid onset they sometimes seized the cannon of the royal troops, which they contrived to fire with lighted wisps of straw. They chose their stations on hills with a commanding prospect. Here they slept in the open air, both sexes intermingled, for many women were amongst them. Their commissariat was of the rudest description. Wexford surrendered to the insurgents on the 30th of May; but it was retaken by sir John Moore on the 21st of June. The principal battles were those of Arklow, Ross, and Vinegar Hill, near Enniscorthy, which town had surrendered to the rebels. On the 21st of June general Lake attacked the main body of the rebels at Vinegar Hill; dispersed them; and they never again rallied. The desolation of the districts to which this rebellion was confined, and particularly that of the county of Wexford, was excessive. The massacres, the military executions, were frightful. No quarter was given to the rebels; and when the contest assumed the sanguinary character of a religious warfare, the cry of revenge on "the bloody Orange dogs" was the signal for excesses which can better be imagined than described.

Earl Camden had been recalled, to give place to marquis Cornwallis, who arrived in Dublin on the 20th of June. One of his first acts was to interfere to prevent the rash and often unjust severities of inferior officers of the militia and yeomanry. He further used his utmost endeavour "to suppress the folly which has been too prevalent in this quarter, of substituting the word Catholicism instead of Jacobinism, as the foundation of the present rebellion." Neither Catholicism nor Jacobinism was sufficient to have caused the revolt of several hundred thousands of the peasantry, both Catholics and Protestants, had there not been the great social evil of Landlordism—the tyranny of the landlords, and the wretched condition of the tenants-to make men ready to fight for some vague good which was to be effected under a new order of things.

On the 22nd of August a French squadron of three frigates landed eleven hundred men, under the command of general Humbert, in the bay of

Killala, in the county of Mayo. The French Directory had purposed to send a second division of six thousand men, but some financial derangements prevented its embarkation. General Hutchinson had assembled two or three thousand men at Castlebar. The French, with a large number of the country people, advanced to the attack; and "began a rapid charge with the bayonet in very loose order. At this moment the Galway volunteers, the Kilkenny and Longford militias, ran away.”* In their precipitate retreat the depredations these men committed on the road exceeded all description; and they raised a spirit of discontent and disaffection which did not before exist in that party of the country. Upon learning that the French had landed, lord Cornwallis assembled some troops of the line, and made a rapid march from Dublin, so arranging his forces that he could cover the country, and afford an opportunity of rallying to any small bodies of soldiery that might be defeated. Humbert, after the affair of Castlebar, had moved into the heart of the country; and on the 8th of September had reached Ballynamuck, in the county of Longford. Here he was encountered by the troops under general Lake, and after an action of half an hour, the French surrendered at discretion. On the 16th of September a French brig landed Napper Tandy and some men on the north-west coast of Donegal. He issued manifestoes; but found that he had arrived too late. On the 11th of October, the armament that was intended to co-operate with Humbert appeared off the coast of Donegal. The squadron consisted of a seventy-four gun-ship, eight frigates, and two smaller vessels. Sir John Borlase Warren, with a superior force, had pursued the French, and after an engagement of three hours, in which the enemy fought with a desperate bravery, the ship of the line (the Hoche) and one frigate surrendered. The remaining frigates had made all sail to escape; but they were subsequently taken, with the exception of two. On board the Hoche was captured the famous Irish leader, Wolfe Tone. He was tried by court-martial in Dublin; was sentenced to death; cut his throat in prison; and died on the 19th of November. The rebellion was at an end. On the 6th of October an Act of general pardon received the royal assent; its exceptions were very numerous, being calculated to include nearly all the leaders who had taken an active part in the rebellion; but the greater number of these obtained a conditional pardon, and their followers had little to apprehend from the terrors of the law. During the short period of this unhappy conflict, it is calculated that seventy thousand perished, either in the field, by military execution, or by popular vengeance. Of these it is held that fifty thousand were insurgents; and that twenty thousand were soldiers and loyalists.

In the king's message to the British parliament on the 22nd of January, 1799, the proposed measure of a Legislative Union with Ireland was first formally announced. A similar announcement, though in less direct terms, was made by the Lord-Lieutenant to the Irish parliament, in the speech from the throne on the same 22nd of January. The question had formed the constant subject of correspondence between the English ministry and lord Cornwallis. In the British parliament there was an

* Cornwallis, "Correspondence."

A.D. 1799.

PURCHASE OF IRISH VOTES FOR UNION.

735

almost unanimous opinion of the necessity of the proposed Union. In the Irish parliament the supporters and opposers were more evenly balanced; and the personal hostility was displayed, not only in the bitterest denunciations, but in actual or threatened appeals to the last and worst argument, the duellist's pistol. To the Address proposed in answer to the royal speech, Mr. Ponsonby moved an Amendment to declare their intention of maintaining the right of the people of Ireland to a free and independent legislature, resident within the kingdom. The Amendment was carriedafter a debate which continued twenty-one hours-by a majority of five. : This was decisive as to the immediate result in Ireland of the ministerial proposition. But on the 31st of January the king's message was taken into further consideration in the British parliament. Mr. Pitt laid before the House the general nature and outline of the plan, which in his conscience he thought would tend in the strongest manner to insure the safety and happiness of both kingdoms. The resolutions were discussed in both Houses during nearly three months, and then finally agreed to. The chief difficulty in carrying the Union arose out of the necessity of propitiating the placemen and boroughmongers, whose power and influence would be abridged by a measure which, in a great degree, would take what was called "the management of the country" out of their hands. On the 8th of June, lord Cornwallis wrote, "My occupation is now of the most unpleasant nature, negotiating and jobbing with the most corrupt people under heaven." The system of "negotiating and jobbing" had to be worked by promising an Irish peerage, or a lift in that peerage, or even an English peerage, to a crowd of eager competitors for honours. During the administration of lord Cornwallis, twenty-nine Irish peerages were created; of which seve only were unconnected with the question of Union. Six English peerages were granted on account of Irish services; and there were nineteen promotions in the Irish peerage, earned by similar assistance. Borough proprietors had to be compensated; the primary and secondary interests in counties to be compensated; fifty barristers in parliament, who always considered a seat as the road to preferment, to be compensated; the purchasers of seats to be compensated; individuals connected either by residence or property with Dublin, to be compensated. "Lord Castlereagh considered that 1,500,000l. would be required to effect all these compensations." More money had to be expended in giving the necessary activity to the press." Lord Castlereagh wrote to Mr. Wickham of the English Treasury "We have good materials amongst the young barristers, but we cannot expect them to waste their time and starve into the bargain." "50007. in bank-notes by the first messenger" was a moderate demand. At the end of the year the duke of Portland was requested to assist in the same way, and to the same extent. When the Irish parliament met on the 15th of January, 1800, it had become a contest of bribery on both sides. Lord Castlereagh now stated that it was the intention of the government to make the Union the subject of a distinct communication to parliament. An amendment upon the Address was debated through the night. Before it was concluded, at seven o'clock of the morning of the 16th, Mr. Grattan, who had just been returned for the close borough of Wicklow, was led into the House of

Commons, having been taken from a bed of sickness. He delivered an oration which appeared like the prophetic utterance of a dying man, but which produced no permanent effect. There was a majority of forty-two in favour of a Union, when the House divided at ten o'clock on that morning. On the 5th of February, lord Castlereagh read a message from the Lord-Lieutenant, communicating the Resolutions of the parliament of Great Britain in the previous year. The question was debated from four o'clock in the afternoon of the 5th, to one o'clock in the afternoon of the 6th. During that time the streets of Dublin were the scene of a great riot, and the peace of the city was maintained only by troops of cavalry. On the division of the 6th there was a majority of forty-three in favour of the Union. In the parliament of Great Britain, Mr. Pitt, on the 2nd of April, laid on the table of the House of Commons the joint Addresses to the king of the Lords and Commons of Ireland, with Resolutions containing the terms proposed by them for an entire Union of both kingdoms under the name of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, to be represented in one and the same parliament. In this United Parliament there were to be twenty-eight temporal Peers, elected for life by the Irish peerage; and four spiritual Peers, taking their places in rotation. There were to be one hundred members of the Lower House; each county returning two, as well as the cities of Dublin and Cork. The University returned one, and thirty-one boroughs each returned one. The Churches of England and Ireland were to be united. The proportion of revenue to be levied was fixed at fifteen for Great Britain, and two for Ireland, for the suc ceeding twenty years. Countervailing duties upon imports to each country were fixed by a minute tariff, but some commercial restrictions were to be removed. The Union Bill passed the Irish House of Commons at ten o'clock on the night of the 7th of June. When the House adjourned, the Speaker walked to his own residence, followed by forty-one members, uncovered and in deep silence; bowed to the crowd before he entered his doors; and "then the whole assemblage dispersed, without uttering a word." Grattan had fought the battle to the last, in brilliant displays of oratory. The patriotic party of Ireland had not seen half a century of parliamentary existence. It first successfully asserted itself in 1753. The leader who, thirty years after, established the legislative independence of his country, now declared himself "faithful to her fall."

Sir John Shore, afterwards lord Teignmouth, succeeded earl Cornwallis in the government of India. During his administration the two sons of Tippoo, who had been taken as hostages for the due performance of their father's engagements, were given up, however doubtful might have been the continued amity of the Sultaun. In 1798, lord Teignmouth was succeeded by lord Mornington, afterwards created marquis Wellesley; a man of splendid abilities, and of vigour of character well fitted for action in any great crisis. He had a sound adviser, not only in military affairs, but in political, in his younger brother, Arthur Wellesley, then in his thirtieth year, who held the rank of colonel. Lord Mornington had endeavoured, without effect, to detach Tippoo from the dangerous influence of the agents of the French government. His proposal to negotiate was met by evasions. Tippoo rejected every pacific overture. An army under general Harris