CHAP. IX.] MR. FOX'S MOTION. 275 its sanctity was violated; and at any hour, day or night, and by any of the lowest of the soldiery. Rapine-rape-violation-conflagration-outrage and insult were committed under the appearance of authority, and with perfect impunity, till public calamity became so aggravated, that men began to look upon Government, not merely with horror, but execration.* The dangerous state to which Ireland was brought, had, ere this time, excited the alarm of many in England. Those opposed to Mr. Pitt, dreaded the effects of his policy; the monied men grew alarmed about the connexion; they saw, that the late escape from invasion was attributable solely to accident. They saw that the just complaints of the people were treated with neglect, and that strong measures had failed. Accordingly, Lord Moira, in the House of Lords, and Mr. Fox, in the Commons, moved an Address to the King, praying him to take into consideration the state of the kingdom of Ireland, and to adopt such healing and lenient measures as were best calculated to restore tranquillity, and conciliate the affections of all classes of his subjects. Mr. Fox was seconded by Sir Francis Burdett, but his motion was defeated by 220 to 84; and Lord Moira's was equally unsuccessful. Mr. Pitt's party contended that the British Parliament could not interfere in the affairs of Ireland without violating the independence of the Parliament of * In June, two Roman Catholic chapels in the counties of Tyrone and Armagh were broken open and destroyed by the Orange Party, and their altars levelled to the ground, and this with perfect impunity. In the succeeding year upwards of thirty chapels were burned in the southern parts of Ireland. † This individual, who began his political career by professing the most democratic principles, now terminates it by ultra tory doctrines, leaving his party, and opposing the Irish, not only with violence but virulence- -a melancholy instance how much too long a man may live for the consistency of his character, or the permanence of his fame. 276 LORD MOIRA TO THE WHIG CLUB. [CHAP. IX. that kingdom. The speech of Mr. Fox was admired and applauded in Ireland,* and his exer April 7th, 1797. * At a meeting of the Whig Club, Abraham Wilkinson, Esq. in the chair, the following resolution was agreed to: "That the thanks of this Club be given to the Earl of Moira and the Right Hon. Charles James Fox, and the Minority that supported their late motions in the British Parliament, for their just and necessary exertions against the malignant interference of the British Ministry in the government of this country, by a system of corruption and coercion, tending to subvert the independence of Parliament-introductory of military execution in the place of law, and threatening to shake the connexion between Great Britain and Ireland." The following was Lord Moira's reply. Mr. Fox merely returned thanks. To the Secretary of the Whig Club. April 30, 1797. SIR, I have the honour to acknowledge the receipt of your letter, enclosing the resolution by which the Whig Club has testified its approbation of my having called the attention of the British Parliament to the state of Ireland. It is infinitely gratifying to me, that my sentiments respecting our country are sanctioned by this concurrence on the part of persons, who to respectability of private character, add the merit of having associated to support the principles which form our Constitution : principles, the object of which is not only to give to the individual the comfort of feeling himself secure from insult or oppression, but to ascertain the extent of men's privileges, and thereby prevent those dangerous struggles for imaginary rights which so frequently occur against governments of undefined power. No evasion could be more wretched than the argument of Ministers, that the British Parliament, by deliberating on such a question, would trench upon the exclusive functions of the Irish senate: as if a prayer to his Majesty to curb a perverse and ruinous interference of the British Minister in the domestic affairs of Ireland could be an attack on that independence of the Irish Legislature, which I have ever loudly inaintained to be indispensable for the harmony and stability of the empire. I have only noticed that point, because the sophistry carried with it this injurious implication, that the Minister spoke the probable sense of the Irish Parliament: and if any thing could ever diminish the veneration of the public towards so exalted an assembly, it would be the supposition that it was capable of lending itself to such a collusion, when scarcely any man of any class in the two kingdoms can be imagined incompetent to make the obvious discrimination. By such as know the tone of the Irish Parliament, the suspicion could not for a moment be entertained; but I rejoice that the case cannot now be misconceived by the less informed part of the public in this country. Against the mischievous inference to which I have alluded, they will oppose the declared sentiments of the most jealous asserters of the Irish Constitution: so that the resolution which you have conveyed to me, is no less satisfactory from patriotic considerations, than flattering as applied to my present feelings. I have the honour to be, Sir, your most obedient and humble servant, MOIRA. CHAP. IX.] DR. DUIGENAN'S MOTION. 277 tions on behalf of the Irish were received with thanks and gratitude; but by the partisans of the Irish Government with dissatisfaction not unmixed with apprehension, lest their conduct should become a matter of public and general enquiry, and a national effort be made to remove the ministers. Doctor Duigenan took up the subject, and brought it before the House of Commons, denouncing Mr. Fox's speech as a false, seditious, and malicious libel on the Irish Parliament, and as a flagitious attempt to excite treason and rebellion in the country; and on the 3rd of May, he moved that the libel be read at the bar; he accompanied this proceeding by a most violent attack on the Opposition, and on the people, but in such a strain of abuse that the Government could not support his motion, they moved the order of the day, which was carried, and thus got rid of this extraordinary proposition. Unfortunately for Ireland, the danger which Mr. Grattan had so often deprecated, and against which he had cautioned his countrymen, when he used that figurative phrase " Touch not this plant of Gallic growth-its taste is death, though 'tis not the tree of knowledge!!"-this great calamity had now befallen the country. The people of the north of Ireland, vexed by repeated disappointmentstheir hopes frustrated, and their favourite measures rejected; goaded by cruel and tyrannical acts of violence, proceeded from turbulence to sedition, and from sedition to treason; they plotted the overthrow of the Government, the alteration of the Constitution, the establishment of a Republic, and the appeal to France for assistance. On the 14th of April, 1797, in consequence of private information,* fifteen individuals, forming two *These individuals were Presbyterians and Protestants; not a single Catholic was among them; and those most conspicuous who suffered in the ensuing year, were 278 ARRESTS OF UNITED IRISHMEN. [CHAP. IX. committees, were apprehended in Belfast, by a party of military, under the command of Colonel Barber, and their papers seized: these, on the 29th were laid before the House of Commons, by order of the Lord Lieutenant; they were referred to a Secret Committee; and on the 12th of May their report appeared, which fully disclosed the proceedings of the United Irishmen. It stated the origin of the Society in 1791; that after the French Revolution they sought to establish a Republic in Ireland, and to overturn the Constitution; encouraged by the expectation of aid from France, they represented the connexion between Great Britain and Ireland as incompatible with the happiness of the latter; they communicated with seditious societies in Great Britain. Their constitution was a union of Irishmen, of all persuasions, to obtain a reform in the Legislature, founded upon the principles of civil and religious liberty. The test was a voluntary declaration that they would persevere in their endeavours to form a brotherhood of affection among Irishmen of every religious persuasion, and to obtain an equal and adequate representation of all the people of Ireland, and with a further declaration that nothing would ever The Rev. Mr. Acheson, Presbyterian minister of Glenarm, County Antrim-life saved. The Rev. Mr. Dickson, Presbyterian minister of Portaferry, County Down. The Rev. Mr. Kilburne, Presbyterian minister of Belfast, County Antrim. Imprisoned on tenders, and sent to The Rev. Mr. Smyth, Presbyterian minister, County Fort George. Derry. The Rev. Mr. Stevelly, Covenanter. The Rev. Mr. Simpson, Presbyterian minister, New- tonnards, County Down. The Rev. Mr. Birch, Presbyterian minister, Saintfield, The Rev. Mr. M'Mahon, Presbyterian minister, Holly- The Rev. Mr. Gibson, Covenanter. The Rev. Mr. M'Kenny, Covenanter. >Transported. Fled to exile. CHAP. IX.] REPORT OF SECRET COMMITTEE. 279 induce them to give evidence against any member of the Society; that committees and societies had been appointed in various parts of the country, had collected money and arms, enrolled men, and fee'd counsel to defend their partizans at the assizes; they had of late assumed a military character, but their numbers were much exaggerated. Such was the report. In various Appendixes were set out, the papers seized, which recited the number of men, and the quantity of arms. The Committee annexed to these the declaration of the Society of United Irishmen, in 1791. That of the Belfast United Irishmen in the same year; likewise a letter of Wolfe Tone, condemning the Whig Club, and stating that Mr. Grattan would hesitate very much at their resolutions. These were obviously introduced, with a view to connect the proceedings of the society in latter years with those of 1791, with which they had no relationship whatever-to inculpate the Roman Catholics, and injure their question. If any opinion is to be formed from the style of their papers and their writings, the tenor of their orders and the orthography, the members would appear to have belonged to an ignorant and illiterate class but the groundwork of the Society was able and efficient.* Every district containing three or more societies elected three persons from each, by ballot, to form a baronial committee; three or more baronial committees elected two persons from each to form a county committee; two or more counties elected three from each to form a provincial committee; and two or more provincials five from each to form a national committee, to meet every month. In ten northern counties they enrolled 99,411 *Report of Select Committee of House of Commons, May, 1797, No. 2, p. 57. |