club in a great procession, with drums, banners, and flags on which were depicted various scenes enacted at the Revolution; ending with a banquet, where such toasts were drunk as "The national assembly of France," "The rights of man," &c. There was nothing illegal in all this, but it gave great uneasiness to the government, who, with the example of France before them, looked on all such proceedings with an unfriendly eye.

864. Theobald Wolfe Tone was born in Dublin in 1763, and became a barrister in 1789. In the year 1791 he was appointed paid secretary to the Catholic Committee in Dublin. In the same year he visited Belfast, and thinking the Northern Whig club not sufficiently bold or advanced, he founded the society of United Irishmen in October 1791. The fundamental objects of this society, which were quite legal, were :-to include all classes and religions in its body; to reform parliament so as to break down the unconstitutional influence of the government; and to remove the grievances of all Irishmen of every religious persuasion. This last mainly aimed at the repeal of the penal laws against Catholics.

865. He next formed a branch of the society in Dublin under the auspices of the Catholic Committee; James Napper Tandy, a Protestant shopkeeper of Dublin, was its secretary.

866. The Catholic Committee had been in existence in

Dublin for several years. It was formed for the purpose of looking after Catholic interests; and the main purpose it had in view was to obtain a relaxation or repeal of the penal laws. The members felt that this business gave them quite enough to do, and as a body they did not mix themselves up much in other political movements.

867. There were two parties in this Committee, the aristocratic and the democratic. The former included the Catholic nobility and hierarchy; they looked with horror on the French revolution and its excesses, and were inclined to be timid. The democratic party consisted chiefly of business men, of whom the ablest was John Keogh, a

Dublin merchant. These were for pressing their claims boldly, including the right to vote at elections, which the aristocratic party wished at least for the present to postpone. On this question, and to clear themselves from the suspicion of sympathy with revolutionary principles, sixtyfour of the aristocracy seceded from the Committee.

868. Notwithstanding this defection the democrats carried their point. They assembled a meeting of Catholic delegates on the 2nd of December 1792, in Back-lane, Dublin-whence it is sometimes called the "Back-lane Parliament "at which a petition to the king was prepared asking for the franchise and some other privileges. It was signed by Dr. Troy Roman Catholic archbishop of Dublin, by Dr. Moylan bishop of Cork, and by all the county delegates. It was presented to the king on the 2nd January 1793 by five delegates, among them John Keogh, who were graciously received by his majesty.

869. On the 9th of April 1793, a bill was passed through the Irish parliament which granted the Catholics a substantial measure of relief. The franchise was restored to them, so that all who were forty-shilling freeholders had the right to vote for members of parliament. They could enter Trinity College, Dublin, and obtain degrees; almost all civil and military situations were opened to them—they could serve on juries and be justices of the peace. The higher classes of Catholics were allowed to carry arms. They might open colleges to be affiliated to Trinity College, provided they were not exclusively for the education of Catholics.

870. In order to have the benefit of the act they should take the oath of allegiance, which however any Catholic might take. But many restrictions still remained; the most serious of which was that no Catholic could sit in parliament neither could a Catholic be lord lieutenant or lord chancellor.

871. On the other hand, in the same session two coercion acts were passed:-"the Convention act" against “unlawful assemblies" (brought in by Fitzgibbon, now lord

Clare) intended to prevent meetings of delegates such as the "Back-lane parliament": the Gunpowder act to prevent the importation and sale of gunpowder and arms, and giving magistrates the power of searching for arms whereever and whenever they pleased. Another act was passed to raise 16,000 militia, and to increase the army from 12,000 to 17,000.

872. The government kept a strict watch on the United Irishmen, the Catholic Committee, and all such associations, so as to be ready for prosecutions as occasions might arise. At a meeting of United Irishmen held in Dublin in February 1793, with the Hon. Simon Butler as chairman, and Oliver Bond, a Dublin merchant, as secretary, an address was adopted and circulated, animadverting on the conduct of the lords in a secret inquiry about the Defenders. For this Butler and Bond were sentenced to be imprisoned for six months and to pay a fine of £500 each.

873. Archibald Hamilton Rowan, the son of a landed proprietor of Ulster, who had been conspicuous as a volunteer, and was now a United Irishman, circulated an address to the volunteers written by Dr. Drennan. For this he was prosecuted, and was defended by Curran in one of his most brilliant speeches. He was convicted of a seditious libel, and sentenced to be imprisoned for two years, and to pay a fine of £500.

874. While Rowan was in prison, an emissary from France arrived in Ireland to sound the people about a French invasion: the Rev. William Jackson, a Protestant clergyman of Irish extraction. He had with him a London attorney named Cockayne, to whom he had confided his

secret, but who was really a spy in the pay of Pitt. These two had interviews with the leading United Irishmen in Dublin-Wolfe Tone, Leonard Mac Nally, Hamilton Rowan then in the Dublin Newgate prison, and others.

875. Mac Nally was a Dublin attorney, who managed the legal business of the United Irishmen: he was trusted by them with their innermost secrets, and lived and died in their friendship and confidence. Long after his death it was discovered that he was all the time a spy in government pay. Tone drew out a report on the state of Ireland for Jackson, who kept a copy of it in Hamilton Rowan's handwriting.

876. When the government, who knew all that was going on, thought matters were sufficiently ripe, they arrested Jackson on the 28th of April 1794. Rowan, knowing that his handwriting would betray him, contrived to escape on the 1st of May by bribing a jailer: and although £1,000 were offered for his arrest he made his way to France and thence to America. On the 23rd April of the following year Jackson was tried and convicted of treason on the evidence of Cockayne. But he had managed to take a dose of arsenic before coming into court, and dropped dead in the dock.

877. Towards the end of 1794 people's minds became greatly excited in Ireland, when it became known that Pitt had determined to adopt a policy of conciliation, and to drop coercion. With this object lord Westmoreland was recalled, and the earl of Fitzwilliam, a just, liberal, and enlightened man, having large estates in Ireland, came as lord lieutenant on the 4th of January 1795 with the firm determination, which he did not conceal, to completely emancipate the Catholics. His arrival naturally excited their hopes, and they gave him an enthusiastic reception.

878. He at once applied himself to the work intrusted to him He removed Edward Cooke from the post of undersecretary on a pension of £1,200 a year; also John Beresford, the commissioner of customs, whose relations held most of the lucrative offices of his department, and who

retired on full pay. Both of these had been identified with the system lord Fitzwilliam came to break up. In the joy of the good news, parliament voted a large sum of money for the expenses of the navy in the war now going on with France, and 20,000 men for the army.

879. As the first direct move, Grattan, having previously arranged the matter with the viceroy, brought in a bill on the 12th of February for the admission of Catholics to parliament. But an unexpected obstacle arose which disconcerted all the intended reforms, and dashed the hopes of the Catholics.

880. A bill in order to become law must have the concurrence of the three branches of the legislature :—the king, the lords, and the commons. Beresford, after his dismissal, went to England and made bitter complaints. He had a long private interview with the king and seems to have persuaded him that the Protestant religion was in danger. The king interposed his veto: and that ended the matter. All progress was stopped. Beresford was restored, ascendancy got another lease of life, and the old policy of coercion was resumed. Earl Fitzwilliam was recalled and left Ireland on the 25th of March 1795. He was escorted by sorrowing crowds to the water side, and his coach was drawn along by some of the leading citizens, while the shops were closed and the city put on the appearance of mourning.

881. The disappointment spread sorrow and indignation all over the country, not only among the Catholics, but also among the Protestants of the two parties-the mode rates led by Grattan and the more advanced represented by the United Irishmen. That cruel disappointment, from whatever cause, was in a great measure answerable for the tremendous evils that followed.

The king's objections are commonly put forward as the cause of the sudden change of policy. But some suppose that the whole scheme was planned by Pitt in order to obtain large supplies from the Irish parliament.

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