and boroughs the right of voting for members of Parliament, and it also gave them the municipal franchise in the cities and corporate towns. It admitted them to the University of Dublin, and enabled them, under certain restrictions, to fill almost all civil and military offices, including those of grand juryman and justice of the peace. It permitted all Roman Catholics possessed of freehold property to the amount of £100 per annum, and personal property to the amount of £1000 per annum, to bear arms, and empowered them to found colleges to be affiliated to Dublin University, provided they should not be exclusively Roman Catholic. It was however provided that no person should have the benefit of the Act who did not take and subscribe the revised Oath of Allegiance,† which denied the Pope's temporal jurisdiction; and comprehended a declaration denying his infallibility and his power to absolve unconditionally. The dismay of the Protestant ascendency party at the course adopted by the Government was complete. Lord Farnham and the Archbishop of Cashel were utterly disconcerted; Dr. Dugenan raved with frantic indignation. Ogle protested that even an Act of Union *In consequence of the provisions of the penal code, the Roman Catholic clergy were accustomed to resort to the Continent for their education. The French Revolution had put a stop to this practice; and the Government was desirous of cutting off all communication with revolutionary France. Accordingly, in 1795, by the 35th Geo. III., c. 21, Maynooth College was founded "for the education exclusively of persons professing the Roman Catholic religion," and an annual sum of £8000 was granted for its support out of the Consolidated Fund. † 13, 14 Geo. III., c. 35. would be preferable to such a bill; and Fitzgibbon, now Lord Clare, who had not been consulted by the ministers, spoke with bitter hostility against the proposed measure. The Government were, of course, supported by the Opposition; and the bill passed both Houses, and received the royal assent on April 9th.* Yet another portion of the pitiless penal code had become a thing of the past. But when the Government gave relief with one hand, they launched a Coercion Bill with the other. The same Parliament which had so grudgingly passed the Roman Catholic Relief Bill, hastened cheerfully to arm the Castle with three Coercion Acts: the Convention Act,† to prohibit “unlawful assemblies," which was intended to enable the Government to prevent the recurrence of such an event as the "Back Lane Parliament;" the Gunpowder Act,‡ imposing severe penalties on the importation and transporting of munitions of war, and giving magistrates unlimited powers of search; and an Act to raise sixteen thousand militia, and to increase the regular army from twelve thousand to seventeen thousand men.§ The session was not unfruitful in other directions. The Government gave way upon some other long demanded reforms. Grattan's Barren Land Bill was passed, exempting from tithes for seven years all waste land which should be reclaimed. Mr. Forbes' continued efforts to carry a Pension and Place Bill were rewarded with a limited amount of success. * 33 Geo. III., c. 21. † 33 Geo. III., c. 29. § 33 Geo. III., c. 22. The hereditary 33 Geo. III., c. 2. 33 Geo. III., c. 25. revenue was exchanged for a civil list of £145,000 a year for the payment of salaries, and other charges of the civil establishment. The pension-list was to be provided for by an annual grant, until it should be reduced by deaths to the amount of £80,000. At this figure it was then to stand limited, and the sum of £80,000 transferred to the civil list, making it in the whole £225,000, out of which the pensions would thereafter be defrayed. In future no pension was to be given of more than £1200 a year, except to one of the royal family, or on an address by either of the Houses of Parliament. The fund for secret service was limited to £5000 a year, unless the chief secretary required it "for the purpose of detecting, preventing, or defeating treasonable or other dangerous conspiracies against the State," in which case the expenditure was to be unlimited.* An Act was also passed, declaring that persons holding places of profit under the Crown created after the passing of the Act, or holding pensions, or having wives who held pensions, should be incapable of sitting in the next House of Commons, exceptions only being made in favour of commissioners of the treasury and their secretaries.† These three last-mentioned Acts were sops thrown to the Opposition by the English Cabinet. Where the corrupt Irish Commons were left to take their own course, all idea of concession was thrown to the winds. William Ponsonby's two motions for reform were summarily rejected by majorities of two to one. * 33 Geo. III., c. 34. † 33 Geo. III., c. 41. CHAPTER XIII. PROSECUTIONS. A.D. 1792-1794. THE plea upon which the Government based their demand for Coercion Bills was the continued state of disturbance prevailing in many parts of the country. This unfortunate condition of things was due to the fanatical antagonism of the "Defenders" and the "Peep-o'-day Boys," or "wreckers." The object of the Protestant faction was to expel from the country those Roman Catholics who were scattered about amongst the Protestants of the north, and to occupy their holdings. Both parties, owing to the negligent indifference of the local magistrates, had greatly increased in numbers. The Defenders especially had become extremely formidable; so that they had begun to turn the tables upon the "wreckers," and were the terror of the country side. They retaliated fiercely on their persecutors, extending their operations to the attacking of country houses, for the purpose of obtaining arms. Roving bands appeared in Meath and Cavan, and fought with the Protestant population settled there. They spread through all the midland counties, parties springing up right and left, plundering houses of arms, and committing other enormities. In the south and west the Rightboys reappeared under the name of Defenders, with the old system of swearing the people not to pay tithes and hearth-money. Scattered parties of soldiery were despatched by the Government to restore order. In many cases the Defenders ventured to resist, and considerable loss of life ensued. A secret committee of the House of Lords, consisting of Lord Clare and eight other peers, sat to inquire into the causes of the disturbances, and published a report in which they endeavoured to show that the Defenders were encouraged by the respectable Roman Catholic population, and insinuated that both the one and the other were disaffected and imbued with the spirit of French Republicanism. Defenderism, however, does not appear to have been a political movement. It was a lawless outbreak of the lowest and most ignorant of the peasantry, induced by miserable poverty and harsh treatment, while the better class of the Roman Catholics was fairly content with the repeal of the penal laws; and the Roman Catholic Convention was dissolved. Tone and the United Irishmen, however, were determined to continue the agitation, and to rest satisfied with nothing short of Parliamentary reform and the admission of the Roman Catholics to seats in Parliament. The antagonism between the Defenders and the Peep-o'-day Boys was a great trouble to Tone, whose plan had been to unite Protestant with Roman Catholic in one common cause. He endeavoured to induce them |