prosperity is the influence of England. I believe that influence will ever be extended while the connection between the countries continues. Nevertheless, as I know, that opinion is for the present too hardy, though a little time may establish it universally, I have not made it a part of the resolutions. "The Whig Club are not sincere friends to the popular cause. They dread the people as much as the Castle does. I dare say that my Lord Charlemont, and I am pretty sure that Mr. Grattan would hesitate at the resolutions which I send. I beg you will dismiss the respect for great names. Read them, and read what I have now said,1 and determine impartially between us. I have alluded to the Catholics, but so remotely as not to alarm the most cautious Protestant. It is, indeed, nonsense to talk of a reform in Ireland in which they shall not have their due share. To fear the Catholics is a vulgar and ignorant prejudice. Look at France and America: the Pope burnt in effigy at Paris; the English Catholic at this hour seceding from his Church; a thousand arguments crowd on me; but it is unnecessary here to dwell on them. The opportunity for publishing the resolutions will be the 14th of July, at the commemoration of the French Revolution, that morning-star of liberty to Ireland." 1 The resolutions were three : "1. That the weight of English influence was so great as to require a cordial union of all the people of Ireland to maintain liberty. "2. That the only constitutional method of opposing that influence was by Reform of Parliament. "3. That no Reform was practicable which did not include Irishmen of every religious persuasion." SECTION III. As a preparation for the celebration of the taking of the Bastile at Belfast, the Northern Whig Club held a preliminary meeting on the 15th of June, the anniversary of the signature of Magna Charta. The aristocratic composition of that body was unsatisfactory to the ardent reformers. Its sentiments were considered timid and hesitating. Liberal public opinion nevertheless must have been far gone, even in those circles, when a society which contained Charlemont, Moira, Lord Clifford, Robert Stewart,1 and Sir Hercules Rowley could accept as toasts, and drink with wild enthusiasm, "the Revolution," "the National Assembly of France," "the Majesty of the People," "Tom Paine," and "the Rights of Man." 2 In the fête which followed on the 14th, Belfast rivalled Paris in extravagance. The event of the day was described as the grandest in human history. The heart that could not sympathize with it was declared depraved. The ceremonial commenced with a procession. The Volunteer companies, refilled to their old numbers, marched first, with banners and music. battery of cannon followed, and behind the cannon a portrait of Mirabeau. Then a gigantic triumphal car, bearing a broad sheet of canvas, on which was painted the opening of the Bastile dungeons. In the 1 Afterwards Lord Castlereagh. 2 History of Belfast, pp. 347, 348. A foreground was the wasted figure of the prisoner who had been confined there thirty years, melting all eyes to tears; in the near distance the doors of the cells flung back, disclosing the skeletons of dead victims or living wretches writhing in chains and torture. On the reverse of the canvas Hibernia was seen reclining, one hand and one foot in shackles, and a volunteer artilleryman holding before her radiant eyes the image of Liberty. The Whig Club brought up the rear, walking twoand-two, in green cockades, the entire Society except Charlemont being present to do honor to the occasion, and among them, therefore, Lord O'Neil, Moira, and Castlereagh. In the evening three hundred and fifty patriots sat down to dinner in the Linen Hall. They drank to the King of Ireland. They drank to Washington the ornament of mankind. They drank to Grattan, Molyneux, Franklin, and Mirabeau - these last two amidst applause that threatened to shake the building to the ground. Belfast evidently was in fine revolutionary condition, and was therefore well selected by Tone as the scene of his first operations. In his diary he informs the world" that he was determined to subvert the tyranny of an execrable government, and make Ireland free." He was sure of the Catholics. "He knew that there existed, however it might be concealed, in the breast of every Irish Catholic an inextinguishable abhorrence of the English name and power." He was sure, too, of sympathy from the Presbyterian Liberals of the Ulster towns. He hoped to gain all the Presbyterians, seeing how long they had suffered from the proud Establishment. But the Catholic question was a difficulty, both in town and country. There were unpleasant rumors of the Peep-of-Day Boys, of farmers in the Down and Antrim hills so far behind their age as to think more of the defence of Derry than the taking of the Bastile, to hate Popery worse than they hated England. To them he addressed himself in a pamphlet which his friends in the North printed and circulated. In October he went down to Belfast with his friend Russell, to inaugurate there the first lodge of the society which he had succeeded at last in founding, and to contend against anti-Catholic prejudice. In his diary he has drawn the portraits of the two bold youths who were setting forth to measure swords with the British Empire, and of the dreams which inspired them. "October. Belfast. Secret Committee. Dined with Sinclair.1 Politics and wine. Paine's book. P. P.2 very drunk. "October 16 (Sunday).- Vile sermon against smuggling and about loyalty, and all that. Put the question to D. relative to Ireland's existence independent of England. D.'s opinion decidedly for independence. France would help, and Ireland without debt would spring up like an air-balloon and leave England far behind. "October 21.- Dinner with D. Battle on the Catholic question. They agree to the justice of emancipation, but boggle at expediency-damned nonsense. Russell eloquent. Ready to fight. Argu ments over a bottle foolish. "October 23. - Dinner at A. Stewart's, with a Persuaded myself and parcel of squires from Down. 1 A leading Belfast Republican. 2 His friend Russell. Russell afterwards that we were hungry. Went to natured to Russell. "October 25. Dinner at Couldn't eat. Furious battle on the Catholic question. Neither party convinced. Damned stuff. Home early. Russell well on, but not quite gone,” etc., etc. Under such auspices, and by such men, the Society of United Irishmen was launched at Belfast; and a start thus made, the two apostles of liberty returned to Dublin, to found a sister lodge in the metropolis. Simon Butler, younger brother of Lord Mountgarret, was the first chairman. Napper Tandy, "with the frenzy-rolling eye," volunteered as secretary. On the 9th of November the first meeting was held, at the Eagle, in Eustace Street, when the three resolutions already accepted in the North were adopted as principles of action: to emancipate Ireland from English influence, to reform the Parliament, and to unite the people of Ireland of all creeds and races in common bond. The third resolution was essential to the first and second, yet to obtain its acceptance proved a harder task than Tone anticipated. He was assured of the hatred of the Catholics to England. The hatred was rather to Protestants, Presbyterian as well as Anglican, and a signal illustration of it had just shown itself in Ulster. Mr. Jackson, of Armagh, who died in 1787, had left an estate to maintain schools where there was to be no distinction of religion. These schools were condemned by the priests. The trustees were repeatedly fired at. In the spring of 1791 the house of one of the masters, Alex. Barclay, was broken open. Three men rushed |