to accept the teaching of the United Irishmen, but only with the result that many of the Defenders joined that society, and so connected it with the party of violence. Napper Tandy, who was engaged in the attempt to bridge over the gulf between the two factions, was detected by the Government in correspondence with the Defenders at Castle Bellingham, and, receiving timely warning of his intended arrest, escaped to America.

The United Men had grown rapidly in boldness and activity. They were constantly employed in distributing handbills and circulars of a semi-seditious character. They affected the French fashion of calling each other "citizen." Though Tone told them that they might as well try to make themselves " peers and noblemen by calling each other 'my lord.'" The Government determined to take strong measures with the society. Mr. Simon Butler, their chairman, and Mr. Oliver Bond, a Dublin merchant, had published an address to the people of Dublin, condemning the conduct of the secret committee of the House of Lords in examining witnesses upon oath as to their own conduct and opinions. They were summoned before the committee and sentenced, without trial, to six months' imprisonment, and to pay a fine of £500. Dr. Reynolds, who had been called before the secret committee as a witness, was committed to gaol for refusing to answer some questions which were put to him. Hamilton Rowan, a gentleman of family and fortune in the north of Ireland and the secretary of the United Irishmen, had two years before, in 1792, published a

bombastic and rather violent address to the volunteers, written by Dr. Drennan, calling them to arms for the preservation of the liberties of the people. He was prosecuted for libel, and sentenced to two years' imprisonment, and to pay a fine of £500.

But a more subtle stroke was in preparation. An English clergyman named Jackson, who had resided some years in France, had formed a friendship with an Irish exile named Madget, who held an appointment in the French foreign office. England and France had now been at war some twelve months. The French Government were anxiously canvassing the possibility of making a successful descent on the Irish coast. They had received exaggerated reports of the Defender disturbances, and believed that a general rising was imminent. Jackson was accordingly commissioned to go over and sound the popular leaders. He arrived in London, and incautiously confided his secret to an attorney of the name of Cockayne, who at once communicated the whole story to Pitt. Instead of dealing with Jackson's treason at once, Pitt took the tortuous course of permitting him to proceed to Dublin, and sending Cockayne with him as a spy, with the view of entrapping those with whom Jackson should be found to communicate in Ireland. Jackson succeeded, through Mr. McNally, a barrister in the pay of the Government, in obtaining introductions to Tone, Simon Butler and others of the leaders of the United Irishmen, and also to Hamilton Rowan, who was then in Newgate. Cockayne was always at Jackson's elbow,

and Tone appears to have at first looked upon the latter as a Government spy, but subsequently talked with him openly about the prospects of a French alliance, and drew up, for his instruction, a paper upon the condition of Ireland, of which Rowan made a copy while he was in prison, for Jackson's use. Then, finding that Jackson was a vain and indiscreet person, Tone and his friends dropped all communication with him; and the Government, finding nothing more was to be gained by leaving Jackson at liberty, arrested him on a charge of treason. Rowan, on hearing of his apprehension, and fearing that his having copied Tone's document might be used to involve him in the charge, managed to escape from Newgate, and fled to America. He was proclaimed as a traitor and outlawed, though no further offence than the one for which he had been convicted was ever proved against him. Tone, boldly admitting that he was the author of the paper found in Jackson's possession, remained in Dublin. His friends, Mr. Marcus Beresford a nephew of Lord Clare, Mr. George Knox, and Wolfe, the solicitor-general, used their influence to deter a Crown prosecution; and no steps were taken against him, upon the understanding that he would leave the country as soon as he could arrange his private affairs. He sailed for America, with his wife and children, about a twelvemonth later. Shortly after Jackson's arrest, having now successfully connected the United Irishmen with a treasonable design, the Government struck another blow at the society. Taylor's Hall, their place of meeting, was broken into by the sheriffs and a body of constables, and all their papers seized.

CHAPTER XIV.

BLIGHTED HOPES. A.D. 1794, 1795.

IN the summer of 1794, the moderate Whigs in England, alarmed at the violent course of the Jacobin oligarchy, which had usurped the control of the French Convention, deserted the Opposition benches and formed a coalition with Pitt. Amongst the number were the Duke of Portland, Lord Spencer, Lord Fitzwilliam, Edmund Burke, and William Wyndham. The price of their adhesion on the question of the French war, was the adoption of Burke's policy on the Roman Catholic question in Ireland. Burke and Fitzwilliam were for total emancipation of the Roman Catholics; liberty to sit in Parliament; liberty to enter the corporations; liberty to bear arms. It was upon their exclusion from these privileges that the Protestant ascendency had rested. It had been shored up by artificial means for a hundred years. Burke believed that the time had come when it could run alone, and that the admission of the Roman Catholics to equal rights with the Protestants would unite the Irish into one nation, which would thenceforth become a source

of strength to England instead of being a thorn in her side.

This was not the opinion of the Ascendency party, who were violently opposed to concession in any shape. Grattan and the Opposition held with Burke. Pitt was half convinced, and was willing to try the experiment; as, in the event of failure, he calculated on carrying out his darling scheme of the union.

In August, Grattan, George and William Ponsonby, and Sir John Parnell, the chancellor of the exchequer, came over to England to arrange matters with Pitt. Pitt was undecided for many weeks. The difficulty was about the dismissal of Lord Clare, a due provision for Lord Westmoreland, and the powers to be allowed to the new viceroy. It was eventually decided that Lord Westmoreland should be recalled if an office of fitting dignity could be found for him in England, and Lord Fitzwilliam appointed lord-lieutenant in his place. Pitt clung to Lord Clare, but the old system was to be changed, and coercion laid aside. As to the question of emancipation, Pitt told Grattan that "it would not be brought on as a Government measure; but if Government were pressed, they would yield."

The Duke of Portland was appointed a third secretary of State, with special care for Irish affairs. He accepted office, according to what he told Mr. Burke, on the express terms "that the administration of Ireland was left wholly to him." Lord Fitzwilliam, according to the same authority, was under a similar belief as to his own powers. He himself says, in his letter to Lord