CHAPTER XIV

1797

Effects of the French Failure-United Irishmen and Parliamentary Opposition-Attitude of Grattan-Lord Castlereagh-Government Brutality-Lord Moira's Denunciation-Lord Edward and his Family-Charge against him -Meets a French Envoy in London-Insurrectionary Projects.

TH

'HE disastrous failure of the French expedition took effect in various ways upon public opinion in Ireland, and in more quarters than one the whole affair gave cause for reflection.

Even to some of the more ardent Republican spirits, as well as to those by whom the invocation of foreign aid had always been looked upon as an unwelcome though necessary expedient, the unexpected strength of the French armament may have suggested a doubt whether the aims and intentions of those by whom it had been despatched had been so wholly disinterested as they had been represented. A suspicion of the possible existence of other objects on the part of their allies besides those for which the expedition had been ostensibly equipped may reasonably have been aroused.

However that might be, it was clear that the collapse of the enterprise had incalculably lessened, or at least delayed, the chances of a successful appeal to force as a means of putting an end to the system of oppression of which the unhappy people were the victims. Under these circumstances the United Irishmen, with whom Lord Edward must be for the future identified, intimated their desire, in the spring of 1797, to confer with the leaders of the Parliamentary Opposition, together with their readiness to arrive at an understanding pledging themselves and those with whom they acted to accept a moderate measure of reform.

It was an opportunity which, had the temper of the Government been other than it was, might have changed the face of Irish politics, and disappointment and hope might have joined hands to effect a genuine reconciliation. There can be no doubt that the more moderate men amongst the party were sincere in their desire to make conditional peace with the Government. Emmet afterwards declared that, had their overtures been accepted, the Executive Directory of the United Irish Association would have sent to inform the French authorities that the difference between the people and the Government was adjusted, and to decline a second invasion.

On Grattan rests the responsibility of having, so far as the Parliamentary Opposition was concerned, declined to accept the advances made, and of having thrown the weight of his influence into the scales

against the proposed step. Always adverse to the extreme section of the National party, he now declined to meet them, arguing that, while such a proceeding would probably be productive of no good result, he and his friends would be placed in an embarrassing situation.

He may have been right in both positions; yet it should never be forgotten that from the United Irishmen, hot-headed and violent as was the character they bore, came the rejected overtures of conciliation.

In order to understand the refusal of such a man as Grattan, in the desperate condition of the country, to make so much as an attempt at co-operation, it is necessary to bear in mind not only his conviction of the absolute hopelessness of any endeavour to move the Government from the course they were pursuing, but also his rooted distrust of the leaders with whom it was a question of forming an alliance.

There is something tragic, which leaves no room for reproach, even if it is impossible not to see in it cause for regret, in the attitude of the men of whom Grattan was the most distinguished representative. Loyal, true, and upright, they had given their lives, and had given them in vain, to further what they conceived to be the best interests of their country. Now, defeated on all hands, they were forced to look on, an isolated and helpless group, and to watch the people they had done their best to serve led, as they believed, to destruction by other and less experienced guides.

"Alas! all the world is mad," wrote Lord Charlemont about this very time, "and unfortunately strait-waistcoats are not yet in fashion." And again: "My advice has been lavished on both parties with equally ill Would to Heaven it had been otherwise; but, spurred on by destiny, we seem on all hands to run a rapid course towards a frightful precipice. But it is criminal to despair of one's country; I will endeavour yet to hope."

success.

It is but a feeble hope which is kept alive by the consciousness that despair is a crime.

The view he imagined would have been taken by his father of the United Irishmen is summarised, a little brutally, by Grattan's son-namely, that they were "a pack of blockheads who would surely get themselves hanged, and should be all put in the pillory for their mischief and nonsense." Grattan knew but little of the individuals who composed the party, and of some of them a more intimate knowledge might have modified the rough-and-ready judgment attributed to him. "He did not associate with them," says the same authority; "they kept clear of himthey feared him, and certainly did not like him. He considered their proceedings not only mischievous but ridiculous."

And yet, holding this opinion of the men who were rebels, it is curious to study some significant sentences which occur in an explanation given, twenty years later, by the great Irish leader of the reasons for the course he pursued in withdrawing from Parliament

-a course pressed upon him, as well as upon George Ponsonby, by a deputation of which Lord Edward was one.

"The reason why we seceded," he explained, in the year 1817,"was that we did not approve of the conduct of the United men, and we could not approve of the conduct of the Government," and feared to encourage the former by making speeches against the latter. . "It was not necessary," he went on, speaking of the Government of the day, "for me to apologise for not having joined them. It might be necessary, perhaps, to offer some reason to posterity why I had not joined the rebels. I would do neither. The one was a rebel to his king, the other to his country. In the conscientious sense of the word rebel there should have been a gallows for the rebel, and there should have been a gallows for the minister. Men will be more blamed in history for having joined the Government than they would if they had joined the rebels." "The question men should have asked," he once said, speaking of those unfortunate brothers, the two Sheares, who walked hand in hand to the scaffold and so died-" the question men should have asked was not, 'Why was Mr. Sheares on the gallows?' but, Why was not Lord Clare along with him?""

Others besides Grattan, looking back with the melancholy wisdom time and experience had taught, were not disposed to view those who had resorted to physical force altogether in the same light