230

CATHOLIC QUESTION REJECTED.

[CHAP. VIII. The Catholic question was now speedily disposed of.* On the 4th of May (1795), Mr. Grat

tan moved that the bill be read a second time; it was opposed with increased virulence. Mr. Toler (Solicitor General), in a prepared harangue, replete with prejudice, moved its rejection, which was carried by 155 to 48. On this occasion,

Arthur O'Connor made a very able and talented speech in favour of the bill. Doctor Duigenan and Mr. Robert Johnson (afterwards judge) distinguished themselves by sentiments very violent and very hostile to the people. Mr. Grattan's splendid speeches on this great question are too well known to render necessary even a partial recital; one passage, however, which relates to the passing events of that time, may be referred to.

"To what allies and assistance have this ministry resorted, who, for the sake of the connection, would exclude Irish Catholics? Are not their armies mostly Catholics? Is not your militia mostly Catholics? Is not a great portion of their seamen Catholics? Are not the princes with whom they are leagued Catholics? The King of Prussia is not so, nor the Dutch, I acknowledge. What Catholic prince have they not sought? What Popish potentate have they not trusted? Have they not canvassed every Papist in Europe, and bought every pennyworth of blood, and every pound of flesh, and begged of princes to take their subsidies?-and do they now cast off three millions of Irish? They think it better, it seems, to buy Prussian faith with English money, than Irish soldiers with Irish privileges. They think it better to neglect unanimity against France, and throw up new dikes and fortifications against the Pope and the Pretender. They see, with

*The Catholics had assembled in Dublin, and urged Mr. Grattan to bring forward their claims; and, apprehensive that Mr. Pitt meant to propose the measure of Union, they passed a resolution, pledging themselves to resist their emancipation if proposed to be conceded on the ignominious terms of an acquiescence in the fatal measure of a Union, which they pronounced to be a surrender of the liberties of their country.

CHAP. VIII.] LORD WESTMORELAND'S CONDUCT. 231

dismay, two or three servants of the Crown dismissed; the exclusion of three millions of men they regard not, it seems; they alienate the subject to preserve the connection. At what does the English cabinet tremble? At the loss of Holland ?-No! they bore that well-very well. The loss of Brabant?-No! they bore that well-very well. The anxious state of the West Indies?-No! that too they bore very well; but when a proposal is made to give Irish subjects constitutional privileges, their fears, such as they might have felt at the event of their own operations, begin to scare the ministry of Great Britain. So trembled the Carthaginian assembly. Those great men who had the honour to preside over the disgrace of their country, had borne the loss of their armies, the loss of their elephants, the loss of their power, with much philosophy; but when something that touched their own cabal, some tax on themselves was proposed, then they also trembled. The senate of Carthage trembled; like the British ministry, they were moved by nothing, but by the least of their misfortunes."

The session of Parliament ended in June. A motion of censure on Lord Westmoreland, proposed by Sir Lawrence Parsons was rejected. When Viceroy, in the preceding year, he had sent the troops out of the country without leave of Parliament; and the law passed in 1769, during the administration of Lord Townsend, directed that 12,000 men should always be kept in Ireland, and on this compact 3000 additional men were voted, so as to raise the Irish army to 15,000. In violation of this arrangement, Lord Westmoreland withdrew the army, and reduced it to 7000. His conduct was, however, defended, and, among others, by Colonel Wellesley (Duke of Wellington), who was then aide-de-camp to Lord Camden. Another motion, proposed by Mr. Curran, to address the King on the state of the country, was equally unsuccessful; and the only important measure of the session was the act to establish the Roman Catholic College of

232

RESULTS OF THE CHANGE

[CHAP. VIII. Maynooth, for which a vote of 8,000l. a-year was passed-as the Catholic clergy were liable to be affected in their education abroad by antiEnglish sentiments, it was thought advisable to adopt this mode of preventing it.

The change of Government was now felt throughout the country. Protestant and Catholic broke out into acts of hostility: the Defenders* increased in numbers and violence, and in order to counteract them, the Peep of Day Boys, as they were originally termed, now came forward in a new and more dangerous character. Inflamed in a great degree by the violent speeches of Dr. Duigenan, Mr. Toler, Mr. Johnson, and others, who in the late Catholic debate had made vehement appeals to the prejudices of that party, on the subject of the glorious memory of King William and the Revolution of 1688, invoking all loyal Protestants to unite in the defence of its principles against the Roman Catholics. These men assumed the name of Orangemen-said they were united to uphold the Protestant ascendancy, and commenced a fierce and almost open war against their Catholic countrymen. The parties met at a place called the Diamond, in the county of Armagh, in the month of September, 1795, where a conflict took place, in which the Catholics were worsted; and ever since the country has been a prey to the fury and folly of the contending parties, -and Orangeism has scarcely ceased to exist, even at the

*The Defenders, who were Roman Catholics, though barbarously treated, and almost put out of the pale of society by the Orange party, had not yet joined the United Irishmen; the latter, however, were greatly assisted by the violence of Lord Clare and the high Protestants in their efforts to effect the junction. Mr. Nevin, in his Pieces of Irish History, confirms this when he speaks of "the great probability of getting into the confederation at the end of that year all the Defenders."-New York Edition, 1807.

CHAP. VIII.] OF THE GOVERNMENT.

233

period in which these pages are written. Such was the height to which the disturbances arose, that the governor of the county of Armagh (Lord Gosford), found it necessary, in December, to convene a meeting of the magistracy, and from his speech on that occasion, the situation of the country, and the excesses committed upon the Catholics, will best appear. After mentioning that they had assembled to devise a plan to check the enormities that disgraced the county, his lordship gave this lamentable description :

"It is no secret that a persecution, accompanied with all the circumstances of ferocious cruelty which have in all ages distinguished the dreadful calamity, is now raging in this country. Neither age nor sex, nor even acknowledged innocence as to any guilt in the late disturbances, is sufficient to excite mercy, much less to afford protection!!!

"The only crime which the wretched objects of this ruthless persecution are charged with, is a crime, indeed, of easy proof; it is simply a profession of the Roman Catholic faith, or an intimate connection with a person professing that faith. A lawless banditti have constituted themselves judges of this new species of delinquency, and the sentence they have pronounced is equally concise and terrible'tis nothing less than a confiscation of all property, and an immediate banishment!!!

"It would be extremely painful, and surely unnecessary, to detail the horrors that attend the execution of so wide and tremendous a proscription-a proscription, that certainly exceeds in the comparative number of those it consigns to ruin and misery, every example that ancient or modern history can supply; for where have we heard, or in what story of human cruelties have we read, of more than half the inhabitants of a populous country deprived at one blow of the means, as well as of the fruits of their industry, and driven, in the midst of an inclement season, to seek a shelter for themselves and their helpless families where chance may guide them!!!

"This is no exaggerated picture of the horrid scenes now acting in this country, yet surely it is sufficient to awaken sentiments of indignation and compassion in the coldest bosom. These horrors, I say, are now acting, and acting

234

LORD GOSFORD'S PROCEEDINGS. [CHAP. VIII.

with impunity. The spirit of impartial justice (without which law is nothing better than an instrument of tyranny) has for a time disappeared in this country, and the supineness of the magistracy of Armagh is become a common topic of conversation in every corner of the kingdom.

"It is said, in reply, the Roman Catholics are dangerous. They may be so-they may be dangerous from their numbers, and still more dangerous from the undoubted views they have been encouraged to entertain; but I will venture to assert, (without fear of contradiction,) that upon those very grounds, these terrible proceedings are not more contrary to humanity than they are to sound policy."

Lord Gosford, who seems to have been assailed by much violence and abuse, thought it necessary to declare that he was a Protestantholding his property under a Protestant title, which, with the blessing of God, he was resolved to defend to the utmost of his power,-such was the spirit, or, perhaps, the necessity of the times. He then submitted a series of resolutions, two of which were as follows:

"That it appears to this meeting, that the county of Armagh is at this moment in a state of uncommon disorder; the Roman Catholic inhabitants are grievously oppressed by lawless persons unknown, who attack and plunder their houses by night, and threaten them with instant destruction, unless they immediately abandon their lands and habitations."

"That the Committee of Magistrates shall use every legal means in their power to stop the progress of the persecution now carrying on by an ungovernable mob against the Roman Catholic inhabitants of this county."

Such was the state of the north of Ireland under Lord Camden's administration,-such the result of recalling Lord Fitzwilliam, and changing the system of government. In truth, Mr. Pitt seemed to have abdicated the function of minister, and evinced a reckless and unpardonable carelessness with regard to Ireland; and having first deceived

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