CHAPTER XXXII.

The American Revolution-its causes-Sympathy of Ireland with America -Debate in the Irish House of Commons-The Irish people interested in the struggleThe Irish Government persists in its extravagance-An embargo laid on the trade in provisions-The Irish colonists in America-Roman Catholic Relief Bill of 1778-The Government reduced to bankruptcy, and becomes entirely suspended-England refuses relief-Critical state of Britain-Ireland threatened with invasion-Its defenceless state-The PEOPLE arm themselves-The VOLUN TEERS-Military enthusiasm of the country-The Government paralysed-The Volunteer organization-The Government supplies them with arms-Their military discipline-Their democratic constitution-Their patriotic designs--State of the country-Improvement of manners, &c.

FROM the year 1775 may be dated the commencement of a new era in the history of the world. The grand step was then taken, which led to the assertion and future establishment of AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE, which enabled the Irish people to establish for a time the independence of Ireland,-which hurried on the events of the French Revolution and the late great European war,-and which will yet, we believe, issue in the final emancipation of all Peoples.

The oppressive treatment of the high-spirited American colonists by the British government, had at last driven them into rebellion. Urged by an insane monarch, no less than by an insanely loyal people, a war was begun with the colonists to enforce upon them taxation without representation. England went to war in order to enforce on them an unconstitutional principle,-to attack and put down constitutional liberty. The Americans refused to be taxed without their own consent; they took up arms, and insignificant though they were as a colony, they set the mother-country at defiance. The issue of that struggle is well known: England lost in it two armies; one hundred and thirty millions sterling; and an empire in America.

Though the Irish parliament had, by its vote, sent 4000 'armed negociators,' as Mr. Flood termed them, to put down the liberties of America, Ireland had a deep interest in the success of the colonists in their struggle. There were great hopes for Ireland, if America succeeded in throwing off the English yoke; while, if America were put down, then certainly Ireland would have but little prospect of relief. Lord Chatham's clear mind at once saw the closeness of interest between the two countries: "Ireland," said he, in one of his vivid speeches, " Ireland is American!" There were those also in the Irish parliament who did not fail to perceive the same relationship. In the debate on the address to the lordlieutenant, on the opening of parliament in October, 1775, Mr. Hussey Burgh moved an amendment, on the report being brought up, expressive of their concern at the disturbances in America, and

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condemning the causes that led to them: he declared that if America were brought on her knees, Ireland too would be enslaved. On the motion afterwards brought forward, that 4000 of the Irish army be spared for service abroad, Mr. Burgh also made an eloquent speech. "I will not vote a single man, "said he "without an accompanying address, recommending conciliatory measures. foresee the consequences of this war. If ministers are victorious, it will only be establishing a right to the harvest after they have burned the grain-it will be establishing a right to the stream after they have cut off the fountain." Mr. Yelverton, Mr. Bushe, Mr. Ponsonby, Mr. Daly, and Mr. Conolly, took the same view of the question; but the opposition was ineffectual, and the men

were sent.

Though the partial opposition to the war with America thus early showed itself in the Irish House of Commons, it was not until an advanced stage of the contest that the attention of the Irish people was attracted to the nature of the principles involved in the struggle, and that they began to reflect on their own deprivations. The apathy produced by habitual depression prevented the great body of the Catholic population from feeling at first sympathy with the American patriots. But there were many who did not fail to perceive the great principles at issue in the war, and into whose minds the sacred spark of liberty had already fallen and kindled into a flame. There is something electric in the word "Liberty." It acts like the sound of a trumpet in rousing up a sleeping army. The heart of society is stirred by it simultaneously, and from centuries of dumb repose they start up to freedom. The passion of the nation is kindled, and it goes onward with a sweep of power, of which, before, it would have been deemed entirely incapable.

Ireland had now, for eighty years, been tranquil and submissive under her oppressions. The seeds of liberty had, nevertheless, been extensively sown in the minds of the people. Molyneux, Swift, and Lucas, had, at former periods, indoctrinated the Irish mind with the principles of national independence; and the arbritrary proceedings of the British government did much to extend their growth and influence. The example of America now came to fan their patriotism into a flame. As the war proceeded, and the success of the colonists became apparent, Irish enthusiasm was kindled in their behalf. It was a noble and spirit-stirring spectacle that of a colony, insignificant in point of numbers, unprovided and unprepared, throwing off the oppressive yoke of the mother-country. The Irish felt that the lesson existed for them-that they too were a sorely oppressed people, and far stronger in point of numbers, than the victorious colonists of the States. Were not they too taxed without their consent,--and if the Americans vindicated their right to self-government, why should not they too?

At the time when these stirring thoughts were agitating the national mind, the government persisted in its wonted policy of extravagance and oppression. In the month of February, 1776, government laid an embargo, by proclamation, on the export of provisions from Ireland, under the pretence of preventing supplies to the revolted colonies, but, in reality, to enable certain powerful contractors to fulfil their engagements with ease and profit. At the same time the American war closed the trade in Irish linens with the colonies, which afforded the principal markets to the Irish manufactures. In consequence of these circumstances, the distresses of the country greatly increased; her scanty commerce and manufactures were suspended; her provision trade annihilated; thousands of artizans in Dublin were thrown out of employment, and paraded the streets in large bodies, displaying a black flag as a token of their distress and despair; and distress was greatly increased in all parts of the kingdom. Various attempts were made in the House of Commons, by Mr. Grattan and others, to get rid of the embargo, but altogether without effect.

The American Congress publicly declared their independence on the fourth of July, 1776; and scarcely had the intelligence reached the English government, than they began to think of relieving the Roman catholics of Ireland. The heads of a bill were brought into parliament for this purpose, but met with great opposition. It was deferred until the following session, when the Earl of Buckinghamshire was sent over as lord lieutenant in place of Earl Harcourt. The government was stimulated to exertion in the amelioration of the penal code, by the intelligence which arrived from across the Atlantic towards the close of the year. General Burgoyne had surrendered to the American "rebels" at Saratoga, and the entire British army had been led into captivity! Of the Irish colonists in America, a large proportion everywhere stood foremost on the side of the patriots. It seemed as if Providence had mysteriously used the victims of Britain's cruelty to Ireland,-the men whom her persecutions had banished from the bosom of their own land-as the means of her final punishment and humiliation on a foreign soil. As the Irish brigade struck down the British power at Landen and Fontenoy, so did the refugee Irish in the ranks of the American patriot army, contribute to pluck from the haughty brow of Britain the palm of empire.

At length the British government resolved on doing the Irish catholics a tardy and unsatisfactory measure of justice. After considerable opposition, the "Popish Relief Bill" finally passed on the fourth of November, 1778. It enabled Roman catholics who took the oath of allegiance, to acquire by statute an interest in the soil, to take leases of lands for lives or years concurrent, to the extent of 999 years, and also to purchase lands under certain restrictions. Stimulated by the moral influence of the American revolution, the catholics had by this time again joined themselves

into an association, under the leadership of Lord Kenmare, to make renewed efforts for their complete emancipation. But their exertions were feeble compared with the demands upon their zeal and activity. The leader they had chosen was a weak, intriguing man, of small arts and paltry views, quite unsuited to take the lead in a great emancipatory movement. Besides, all the efforts of the catholics were now thrown completely into the shade by another gigantic association which soon after sprung up among the liberal protestants of the north of Ireland, who, sinking their minor differences in the general oppression of their country, in a short space of time showed a spirit and a power which made the government tremble, and succeeded in extorting from them the most extraordinary concessions.

In the year 1778, the Irish government was reduced to a most lamentable state. It was literally bankrupt, and the lord-lieutenant was even reduced to the humiliating necessity of borrowing £20,000 from a private banking house, that of Latouche and Company! By such means was the credit of the government temporarily sustained, and the dissolution of the state prevented! To such a desperate shift were the profligate spendthrifts of Ireland at last reduced! In about a month after, the lord-lieutenant was obliged to stop payment, and all pensions, government salaries, parliamentary grants, barrack and ordnance payments, were at once suspended! The lord-lieutenant's excuse was, that he was compelled to resort to these extraordinary measures in order to be enabled to encamp the army. Mr. Clements, who was at the head of the treasury, had been sent express to London to procure assistance from the government, now under the management of Lord North: but he returned empty-handed. The English government could not spare one farthing; it had already incurred an enormous debt, and was expending upwards of twenty millions annually in armaments and armed men to defend herself from the attacks of her enemies. The lord-lieutenant again sent to the Messrs. Latouche, to borrow another £20,000. The bankers refused,-returning for answer that "it was not in their power, though very much in their inclination.” The government was now placed in an unprecedented dilemma; its wheels were stopt. The march of troops was suspended; and the encampment did not take place. It looked on in passive submission, and allowed the people to take their own course unhindered. Discontent, the universal attendant of distress, prevailed all over the country; the government were reduced to a state of complete inbecility, with neither arms, money, nor people at its command. Yet there was none of that "social chaos" nor "dreadful convulsion," by many supposed to be the inevitable consequence of a cessation of the powers of government. On the other hand, it was only now that Ireland began to date the beginning of her improvement and prosperity. Government had reduced the great mass of the people to beggary, want, and utter destitution. But now that

government had virtually ceased, the people began to "help themselves," and "heaven helped them," ere long, to a share of its choicest blessings.

The people, however, first applied to the English government for aid, the government that had undertaken to guide and to govern them, and assumed the power to bind them by its laws. They first asked for a removal of the restrictions on the trade and industry of Ireland. Their petitions, as of old, were unheeded ; several noble lords took up the case of Ireland, and urged it upon the attention of the ministry in the house of peers, but nothing whatever was done for its relief. Though in 1778, Earl Nugent's motion was carried in the Commons, declaring the expediency of removing many of the restrictions which had been imposed on Irish commerce, no relaxation of the said restrictions took place. For English commercial jealousy was immediately roused, and petitions poured in from the manufacturing towns of Lancashire and the north, deprecating all relaxation of the restrictions upon Irish trade, as ruinous to the commerce and manufactures of England. The government, which was disposed to pay more attention to the petition of an English village than to the complaints of the entire people of Ireland, sternly resisted all measures of inquiry and redress. On Lord Newhaven's motion to enquire into the importation of sugar into Ireland from the West Indies, Lord North, the prime minister, came down to the house expressly on purpose to defeat the measure, which was thrown out by a majority of four. Let us not forget to notice, however, that a bill was passed in connection with the manufactures of Ireland at this period: we allude to the Export Bill, which allowed Ireland to export to the plantations all her manufactures, except woollens and cottons,-that is to say, Ireland was to be permitted to export every thing except her principal produce-namely, woollens! The British merchants were enraged even at the concession, and threatened rebellion in no obscure terms, if ministers persisted in granting measures of this description to Ireland. Mr. Burke was afterwards abused at the Bristol election, for having been a party to this wondrous concession, -which, in fact, was no concession at all, but an insult.

The Irish people felt it to be so, and ceased to indulge in any further hopes of justice from England. They were now thrown upon their own resources, fully persuaded that they could only attain their rights by their own exertions. And the crisis of affairs was now rapidly approaching. Britain was at this time the sport of her enemies: she was bearded on all sides. The enemy's privateers swept the narrow seas, and captured our vessels in sight of our own coasts. Our armies had been repeatedly beaten by the half-drilled colonists of America; our navies had been repulsed by France, and the far-famed superiority of Britain had now become a decided inferiority. The high and palmy days of the British fleet were gone, and a hostile squadron rode unopposed in the

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