VIEWS OF THE UNITED IRISHMEN

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cratic legislation, made it one of the great objects of the priesthood to obtain the same complete control over the higher as they already possessed over the primary education of their co-religionists.

Grattan and Ponsonby always maintained that if the Constitution of Ireland was to be made really representative, and the dangers of revolution averted, it was necessary to carry a reform of Parliament on the lines I have already indicated, abolishing the system under which more than two-thirds of the House of Commons consisted of men who were practically nominated. Sir Lawrence Parsons, in the speech to which I have referred, maintained that the Catholic question and the reform question should be indissolubly connected, and that the concession of political power to the Catholics ought to be made a part of a Reform Bill. He desired that they should be fully admitted to Parliament, but that they should be only admitted to the electorate on a twenty-pound franchise. A measure of this kind would have given the Irish Constitution an immense accession of real strength, though Burke reminded the House that if the growing agitation was to be effectually met they must also deal speedily with the tithe system, which was the chief practical grievance of the poor. But neither the Irish Government nor the English Government had any wish to carry a Reform Bill. They did not desire that the Irish Parliament should be a really independent body; they probably did not desire that it should be a permanent one, and under the existing Constitution they possessed a power which could not easily be broken.

The United Irishmen, whose influence was growing in the country, already included some men who hated England and her Government; but the object of the majority was simply parliamentary reform, and they

cared for the Catholic question chiefly as a means of obtaining that reform or as being a necessary part of it. The Catholic Relief Act of 1793 was therefore quite incapable of conciliating them. The process by which the more moderate members of the society were turned into rebels is well shown in the clear and evidently truthful memoir on the rise and aims of the United Irishmen, which was drawn up by their three leaders, O'Connor, Emmet, and Macnevin, when State prisoners.' The society, they tell us, was at first simply and frankly loyal, aiming solely at parliamentary reform and Catholic Emancipation, and valuing the latter chiefly as a condition or an element of the former. But, even in 1791, 'it was clearly perceived that the chief support of the borough influence in Ireland was the weight of English influence.' About 1795 the persistent and successful opposition of the Government to reform made the United Irishmen for the first time disloyal. They began to be convinced that it would be as easy to obtain a revolution as a reform, so obstinately was the latter resisted; and, as this conviction impressed itself on their minds, they were inclined not to give up the struggle, but to extend their views. . . . Still,' they add, the whole body, we are convinced, would have rejoiced to stop short at reform.' They tried to avail themselves of French assistance because 'they perceived that their strength was not, and was not likely to become, equal to wresting from the English and the borough interests in Ireland even a reform.' They decided ultimately upon making separation rather than reform their ideal, because 'foreign assistance could only be hoped for in proportion as the object to which it would be applied was important to

1 Castlereagh Correspondence, i. 353-372,

AMELIORATORY MEASURES

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the party giving it. A reform in the Irish Parliament was no object to the French; a separation of Ireland from England was a mighty one indeed.'

Several secondary measures were, however, carried in this session, which fulfilled the wishes of the Whig Club and in some degree ameliorated the state of the Irish Parliament, though it left the ascendency of the nomination boroughs untouched. The Pension List was reduced to 80,000l. a year. Placemen and pensioners were in future obliged to vacate their seats and to be re-elected to Parliament, and some considerable classes of them were made ineligible. The King gave up his hereditary revenue for a fixed civil list. A measure which Grattan had long advocated for encouraging the cultivation of barren lands by exempting them for seven years from tithes was accepted. The Irish libel law was assimilated to that of Great Britain. Some slight relaxation was given in the East Indian trade from which Ireland had been largely excluded by the monopoly of the East India Company, and, what was perhaps more important than any of these measures, the hearth tax, which was the one tax that weighed heavily on the poor, was materially lightened by a complete exemption of cottages with only one hearth.

The military and police measures required by the war were voted, as was always the case under the Irish Parliament, with great unanimity and liberality. A militia force of 16,000 men, raised by conscription for four years, did much to supersede the volunteer movement, and a Convention Act was carried which made illegal those representative bodies elected like a Parliament by different denominations of Irishmen, which had recently become so popular. An intended convention of the United Irishmen at Athlone appears to have been the immediate cause. The Bill was a declaratory

one, and therefore involved a retrospective condemnation of the Volunteer Convention at Dungannon and of other conventions which had been considered perfectly legal. On this ground it was opposed by Grattan, but to the great indignation of the United Irishmen he declared that bodies of this kind outside Parliament had become a grave danger to the State, and that the Government was fully justified in taking measures to repress them. Grattan also entirely dissented from the policy of Fox who, with the English Whig party, opposed the war. On the whole, this long and memorable session of 1793 ended with a great approach to unanimity in Parliament, and the Irish Government for a time, at least, believed that the disaffection in the country had seriously abated. Ten new promotions in the peerage were made, and it was a significant fact that among the promoted peers was Fitzgibbon, who now became a viscount.

The part which Grattan had taken in supporting all the military measures of the Government; his emphatic repudiation of that sympathy with the French Revolution which was so common among the English Whigs, and his denunciation of the scheme of democratic reform which had become popular in Ulster, severed him from a large proportion of the reform party which had once looked on him as their leader. His position was a very independent but also a very difficult He hated the Revolution and its principles almost as much as Burke, but unlike Burke, and unlike most English opponents of the Revolution, he continued to be an earnest though a temperate reformer. Although he had lost touch with the democracy of the north, he was still a great parliamentary power, and he carried with him the confidence of a large portion of the more moderate gentry throughout the country.

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GRATTAN STATES HIS POLICY

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In a very confidential letter from Cooke, which was written during the session of 1794, there are some remarkable sentences, showing the part which Grattan had been playing and the effect it had upon at least one important member of the Government. 'You are doubtless extremely pleased,' he said, 'in England with the conduct of the Irish Parliament. . . . What would have been the effect of a strong parliamentary Opposition which could add the discontent of the moderate to the plots of the factious is easy to be conjectured. But now the support of the moderate conjoined to the force of Government is able to extinguish sedition. .. Much credit is due to Mr. Grattan. He told Sir J. Parnell last year privately that if the concessions in agitation were granted he would no longer give any vexatious opposition. He has more than made good his word, for he has given decided support.

My best opinion is that Grattan is the most important character in Ireland, and that attaching him to Mr. Pitt's Government would be essential. This is difficult. He is very high-minded, and resentful, and suspicious. He is, however, very steady and honourable, and will act up to his professions. He has great sway over the public mind, and he must play such a part as not to lose his authority. He wants not, perhaps would not take, situation; he would stipulate for measures. If any compliment were shown him, he would like it immediately from Mr. Pitt. In the uncertainty of events his conduct here might be decisive, and therefore he should be early thought of. Government is strong in numbers. They want not aristocratical addition. They want the chief of the people.'

Ponsonby's Reform Bill was brought forward again, though without success, in 1794, and Grattan took the occasion to give a distinct outline of his policy. He

VOL. I.

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