relax in his efforts to bribe, to terrify, and to seduce members to support his measure. When Parliament again met, Lord Castlereagh laid before it the Union propositions, as passed by the British Parliament, and moved that they should be printed and circulated, with a view to their ultimate adoption. The division

This was the decisive division on the subject, and the Irish legislature, it was now obvious, was doomed to extinction. The contest however, proceeded with unremitting ardour, and numerous debates and divisions took place before the measure was finally consummated. Although the popular spirit was now completely crushed, government was nevertheless afraid of popular resistence, and while the discussion went on, the House of Commons was surrounded by strong bodies of military. The ministry were unsparingly denounced for their tyranny and corruption. But they were shameless, and denunciation, no matter how eloquent, took no effect on them.

At length, as the catastrophe arrived, the Anti-Unionists almost ceased to resist. On the day of the third reading of the Act of Union, before it was reported, most of the members of the opposition left the House, and never entered it again. An armed soldiery guarded the Houses of Parliament, large bodies occupied the very precincts of the hall where the members were sitting. The sight was a most melancholy one-it was sad as a funeral. After a short period of dead silence, the order of the day for the third reading of the Bill for a Legislative Union between Great Britain and Ireland was moved by Lord Castlereagh. The question was put from the chair, by the Speaker, in a voice which betokened deep sorrow and anguish; and after declaring that "the AYES have it," he sunk back into his chair with an exhausted spirit." Ireland was no longer a nation!

One of the last acts of the Irish House of Commons appropriately was, to pension the officers whose emoluments would cease after the Union, and to vote the compensation-in plainer terms, the bribes-to the proprietors of the Irish burghs. No difficulty was experienced with the Irish House of Lords, which was throughout the most humble instrument of the English minister.

By the Act of Union, Great Britain and Ireland were to be' united for ever, from the 1st of January, 1801; one parliament only was to serve for the two kingdoms, four spiritual and twentyeight temporal lords, and one hundred commoners, representing Ireland in the Imperial Legislature; the Churches of England and Ireland were to be united; and all subjects of Great Britain and

Ireland were to be placed on the same footing in trade and navigation. These and various other regulations, financial and legal, were detailed at length in the Act; which received the Royal assent on Friday, the 1st of August, 1800.

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The Union was now law; the strength and resources of the empire" were now "consolidated," and Ireland, according to the predictions of the English minister, had now achieved peace, happiness, and religious tranquillity, and was about to enter upon a brilliant career of manufacturing and agricultural prosperity!

CONCLUSION.

THE Union ought to have been a benefit-Causes of its failure-The Standing Army -Coercion Acts-Insurrection of 1803--Robert Emmett-Military coercion increased-Popular discontent-The Catholics deceived-Renewal of the Catholic agitation-The Veto controversy-Rejection of the Catholic petition-Formation of the General Committee of 1809-The leading members prosecuted--Remarkable instance of Mr. O'Connell's judgment-Dissensions of the Catholics and dissolution of the Board-Visit of George IVth to Ireland-General torpor of the Irish people-Characteristics of Daniel O'Connell-Rouses the peopleOrigin of the Catholic Association-Its first Meeting-Its rapid growth-Its great influence Is suppressed by the Government-The “Algerine Act”—The Association revived in another form-The Waterford Election-Defeat of the Beresfords -Perfect organization of the people-The Clare Election-Return of Mr. O'Connell-Catholic Emancipation granted-Conclusion.

THE History of Ireland and the Irish People subsequent to the Act of Union, is worthy of a much more detailed consideration than we can now afford to give it. We have already so far o'erstepped the bounds which we had originally fixed for the consideration of the subject, that we can now lay before the reader only a brief outline of the course of events since 1801, leaving it to be filled up at some future and more convenient opportunity.

The Union of the two countries might, and ought to have been, a great step in the history of civilization. Union is one of the great ideas of modern times. As provincialism has merged towards nationality, so do nations tend to unite, to amalgamate, to confederate with each other, to the effacement of local laws, manners, and customs. The tendency of humanity is towards cosmopolitanism, brotherhood, universal kinsmanship. The Union of England and Ireland, therefore, on just and equitable principles, ought to have proved of immense advantage to the Irish people, and given a great impulse to improvement and civilization in that country.

But the measure was conceived in a narrow, bigotted, and tyrannical spirit; and it was carried into effect by means of a system of corruption of the most villainous kind. The Union was so contrived and forced upon the Irish people, as to remind them constantly of their galling subjection to English domination. It was the consum

mation of the Conquest,-not a measure of equal law and equal justice. Hence, instead of love and confidence, the Union was productive only of increased fear and distrust of British power and authority. It was born amid hate, and strife, and bloodshed; and, at the time and in the manner in which it was carried, it proved an act of Separation rather than an act of Union. It left the corrupt interests chief among which were the church and the aristocracy, -untouched; and did nothing to relieve the injuries of the nation. All that was accomplished, was an alteration of the seat of the legislature. The government of the ascendancy was transferred from College Green to St. Stephen's, and Ireland was coerced by a corrupt parliament sitting in London instead of Dublin. As Grattan had predicted-" the talents of the country, like its property, were dragged from the kingdon of Ireland to be sold in London." The one hundred gentlemen, who were now entrusted with the representation of Ireland in the Imperial Parliament, indeed proved "adventurers of the most expensive kind-adventurers with pretensions -dressed and sold, as it were, in the shrouds and grave-clothes of the Irish Parliament, and playing, for hire, their tricks on her tomb-the only repository the minister would allow to an Irish constitution-the images of degradation, and the representatives of nothing."*

The large standing army kept up by the government for many years after the passing of the Union, affords a sufficient proof of the hatred and distrust for a long time subsisting between the government and the people. One hundred and thirty thousand bayonets were not thought too many to keep Ireland in a state of "peace." The annual expense of maintaining these government fighting men, for several years after the Union, averaged about three millions and a half sterling. All constitutional protection was likewise taken away from the subject. For four years, from 1801 to 1805, the whole country was under Martial Law. For two years immediately after the Union, the Insurrection Act was in full force; an act by which persons who were found out of their houses during any period between sunset and sunrise, were subject to transportation! During the latter period the Habeas Corpus Act was also suspended. In fact, from 1801 down to the present day, Insurrection Acts, Coercion Bills, and Arms Bills, have been in almost constant force.

The year 1803 was distinguished by the brief and frantic insurrection conducted by Robert Emmett,-younger brother of Thomas Addis Emmett, already mentioned in the course of this history. According to the testimony of all who knew him, he was a young man of the purest and most patriotic motives, of earnest and ardent enthusiasm in the cause of his country, which he saw groaning under all the agonies of a military despotism. About the end of 1802, Emmett arrived in Dublin from Paris, whither he had fled

* GRATTAN'S Speech on the Union.

during the disturbances of '98, and commenced the organization of another revolution against the British dominion in Ireland. He devoted the whole of his family portion, which consisted of about £2,500, to the purchase of arms and ammunition of various kinds. These he stored up in different depôts in Dublin, ready for use. One of these, in Patrick-street, containing a large quantity of gunpowder, accidentally blew up, and hastened the outbreak-the conspirators fearing that the explosion would lead to their discovery by the government. It would appear that Emmett had considerable promises of support, from the immense quantity of pikes, &c., that he had prepared. In this, however, he was completely disappointed, for on the evening of the outbreak, he could only muster a few hundred men, very illfitted for an undertaking of the kind that he meditated. On the evening of the 23rd of July, 1803, he sallied forth from his head-quarters in Marshal-lane, at the head of a small body of armed men. He had previously directed the distribution of pikes among a large crowd waiting in Thomas-street in anticipation of the rising. The body proceeded onward as far as the Corn-market, their numbers, however, diminishing as they advanced. The design was to seize the several depôts and arsenals in the vicinity of Dublin, and above all to gain possession of the Castle. As the body of insurgents were advancing in a confused mass, an equipage drove up, and, after a moment's enquiry, it was found to be that of Lord Kilwarden, the Lord Chief Justice of Ireland, A halt was ordered; and the cry of "vengeance" was raised,— when the venerable lord exclaimed from his carriage, "It is I, Kilwarden, Chief Justice of the King's Bench !” "Then you are the man we want," cried one of the insurgents, plunging a pike into his body, which killed him on the spot. A strong detachment of soldiers now came up, and commenced firing on the remaining insurgents, compelling them to disperse and take to flight. About eighty lives were lost in the course of the affray; and many were wounded, who, of course, took care not to show themselves. Emmett fled to the Wicklow mountains, where he exerted himself to prevent another intended rising of the peasantry; after which, though urged by his friends immediately to fly the kingdom, he returned to Dublin to obtain a last interview with a woman to whom he was devotedly attached-the daughter of the celebrated Curran.*

*The history of this young lady is a romance. It has already been made the subject of a beautiful and touching paper by Washington Irving, in his Sketch Book. She entertained a devoted and undying affection for poor Emmett, whom she visited in his cell the night before his execution. She continued to love him to her last breath. Her father was exceedingly enraged on learning his daughter's attachment, and banished her from his roof. But she found numerous friends, some of the highest rank, who offered her an asylum in their homes. They led her into society, and tried all methods to wean her from her grief. But she remained disconsolate. A brave and estimable military officer, won by her beauty and tenderness, as well as her constancy of affection, offered his hand; but was declined on the ground that her heart was another's, who was in his grave. The gentleman persisted in his suit, soliciting merely her esteem; and at length, convinced of his worth, and perhaps sensible of her dependance on the kindness of friends, she yielded to his solicitations, and they were married. He took her to Sicily, and endeavoured to draw her from her sorrows by change of scene. But a deep and settled melancholy had become rooted in her soul; and she slowly wasted away, at last sinking into the grave, the victim of a broken heart. This melancholy event furnished Moore with a subject for one of his most exquisite songs--beginning

"She is far from the Land where her young Hero sleeps."

While waiting in his lodgings for an answer to his letter, the house in which he lived was suddenly surrounded by armed men, headed by Major Sirr, who, rushing into the apartment, took Emmett prisoner, and dragged him off to a dungeon. He left it for the scaffold, where he suffered with seventeen others who had been engaged in the same insurrection.

This unhappy and ill-judged affair only served to increase the system of military coercion throughout the country. The government, egged on by the ascendancy, revived many of the terrors and tortures that had preceded '98; they knew that all the causes of burning discontent which had provoked that outbreak were still in existence, and that the great body of the people still entertained towards them the same feelings of hatred and resistance. The government could not trust the people; they feared them as men invariably do the victims of their injustice. From this time forward, however, all attempts at general insurrection were suspended; though there is every reason to believe that the secret organization of the United Irishmen survived under other forms, till at length it became almost habitual to the people. In some cases it seems to have been applied to the purposes of resistance to agrarian oppression, of which such dreadful instances yet exist to fright the isle from its propriety. It is not probable that an organization so extensive and widespreading as that of the United Irishmen was so suddenly broken by the Union-which the people of Ireland so much hated -as to entirely disappear and leave no permanent traces behind it. We need scarcely say that the government broke faith with the Catholics, and refused to grant the Emancipation they had promised on condition that they would support the measure of a Union. This was a disastrous error; for it at once ranged the entire Catholic population in opposition to the government, and, after an organized agitation of thirty years, during which enmity to England and to the Union had time to become habitual, the Irish Catholics at length wrung from the fears of Britain what they could not obtain by appeals to either reason or justice. When the concession was at length made, there was no grace in the act: it caused a sense of scorn rather than of gratitude; and it rooted still more deeply in

Robert Emmett himself, according to Moore (who knew him at College), seems to have inspired almost all with whom he came in contact, with the most devoted attachment. "Were I to number" says Moore, "the men, among all whom I have ever known, who appeared to combine, in the greatest degree, pure moral worth with intellectual power, I should, among the highest of the few, place Robert Emmett. Wholly free from the follies and frailties of youth,-though how capable he was of the most devoted passion events afterwards proved,-the pursuit of science, in which he eminently distinguished himself, seemed the only object that divided his thoughts with that enthusiasm for Irish freedom, which, in him, was an hereditary as well as national feeling,--himself being the second martyr his father had given to the cause." After a very high eulogium on his powers of eloquence, Moore concludes" Such, in heart and mind was another of those devoted men, who, with gifts that would have made them the ornaments and supports of a well-regulated community, were yet driven to live the lives of conspirators and die the death of traitors, by a system of government which it would be difficult even to think of with patience, did we not gather a hope from the present aspect of the whole civilized world, that such a system of bigotry and misrule can never exist again."* It was in reference to the last speech of Emmett, in which he asked of the world "the charity of its silence," that Moore wrote the beautiful Irish Melody beginning "Oh! breathe not his name, let it sleep in the shade."

* MOORE's Life of Lord Edward Fitzgerald, vol. i. p. 303-4-6.