BOOK
VIII.

1792.

January.

considered it might be prudent to give way in trifles till' the Reform frenzy ' had burnt itself out in France. The conclusion at last arrived at was, follow the English model, open the professions, and repeal the Intermarriage Act. The object of Napper Tandy and the Committee was to prevent moderate concessions, to keep up the ferment. Some effort, it was thought, must be made by the Government to prevent the better-disposed Catholics from falling under their

control.

The Council, nevertheless, though admitting the necessity, were still strongly opposed to the mention of the subject from the Throne. Dundas had insisted that the matter should be so handled 'that the grace of the suggestion should belong to Government.' But it was felt that the announcement of concessions in the Speech would confirm the misgivings which had been excited by Burke's language, 'that Ministers had resolved to abandon the Protestant cause.' The Address would commit Parliament before the subject had been discussed.

'Instead of the relaxation of the penal laws having tended to unite Protestants and Catholics,' wrote Westmoreland, as if it was something to be surprised at, it has increased the apprehension and hatred.'

It was decided that a Relief Bill should be entrusted to Edmund Burke's friend, Sir Hercules Langrishe, and that Major Hobart should speak in its favour. At the last moment, before the opening of Parliament, the Viceroy called a meeting of the supporters of Government; and to quiet their alarms assured them that neither the suffrage nor the right to arms would be conceded, however violently the Catholics might demand them. Finally, Lord Westmoreland

wrote for leave to contradict officially the pretensions
to authority which young Burke had advanced. If
the Cabinet would 'play fair,' he undertook for the
quiet of the country. The only dangers to be appre-
hended would arise from a belief that the Home
Government was irresolute, and that Burke and not
the Viceroy was the true exponent of their sentiments.
Dundas's answer was the strongest condemnation
of his past precipitancy, for it showed that neither
he nor Pitt had formed any real policy for Ireland,
although he had gone so far as to threaten that Eng-
land might be a passive spectator of a civil war. He
deprecated and resented the supposition that the
Cabinet intended to play what was called a Catho-
lic game.' 'The Cabinet,' he said, 'urged nothing
which the Irish Council might think unsafe.' 'They
had no bias.' 6
They had no interest separate from
that of Ireland.' On second thoughts, they consi-
dered after all that it was 'inexpedient' to license the
Catholics to possess arms; and as for the franchise,
they wished only 'that the Protestants should decide
for themselves how far a slight concession might
safely be made.' 1

1 'Dundas to Westmoreland, January 29, 1792.' S. P. O.

In a most private,' separate, and autograph letter of the same date, Dundas adds:

'I have nothing further to say, except that I and all his Majesty's Ministers have some reason to complain of the spirit and temper which have manifested themselves among our friends in Ireland on this business. If they had made no advances to us on the matter, we should have left it to their own judgment. But all through the

summer and autumn they were ex-
pressing their fears to us of a union
between the Catholics and the Dis-
senters. They asked for our opinion,
and we gave it. What motive
could we have except an anxious
concern for the security of the Irish
Establishment? Whether we are
right or wrong time will show; but
there is no imaginable reason why
this opinion should have been re-
ceived with jealousy.

'Mr. Pitt concurs in every thing
I have said. He and I have not had
a shade of difference in our opinion.'

CHAP.

I.

1792. January.

BOOK
VIII.

1792.

January.

SECTION VI.

On the 19th of January the session began which at Pitt's bidding was to open the sluices and make rebellion eventually inevitable. The Speech was silent, as the Council advised, on the great subject. Mr. Grattan, had he dared, would have at once challenged the omission and have entered notice of a Bill to give the Catholics the franchise. But his constituents of Dublin, though their politics were revolutionary, had not divested themselves of Protestant prejudice. The Corporation had insisted that he should take no part in assailing the ascendency. He could not afford to quarrel with them, and when he rose, as usual, to attack the Address, he confined himself to general invective. In an oration which was considered one of his most splendid efforts he demanded Parliamentary Reform, taking as the ground of his argument the events of the past ten years.

'There was a time,' he said, 'when the vault of liberty could hardly contain the flight of your pinions. Some of you went forth like a giant rejoicing in his strength. You now stand like elves at the door of your own Pandemonium. The armed youth of this country like a thousand streams thundered from a thousand hills and filled the plain with congregated waters, in whose mirror was seen for a moment the image of the British Constitution. The waters subside, the torrents cease, the rill ripples within its own bed, and the boys and children of the village paddle in the brook. By the traffic of Parliament the King

is absolute. These Houses are as much an instrument in his hand as a bayonet in the hands of a regiment. Like a regiment, we have an adjutant who sends to the infirmary for the old and to the brothel for the young, and men thus carted to their places to vote for the Minister are called the representatives of the people.'

ever.

The oratory flowed for several hours. When the trick of rhetoric is once mastered it may stream for The Irish Parliament was growing weary of it. Sir Hercules Langrishe gave notice, when Grattan sate down, of his intended Catholic Relief Bill. The vexation of the Viceroy was hourly increasing at the gratuitous embarrassment which had been forced upon him. 'I am sure,' wrote Edward Cooke, the Army Secretary, that in point of real dignified policy nothing at all ought to be done for the Catholics this session. There is but one mind in the House of Commons. The Administration is obliged to canvass for measures which must weaken Government and lay the groundwork of perpetual discord.'1 'Mr. Burke's stories,' wrote Major Hobart, 'are hourly gaining ground. The effect of them already has produced a determination against all concession however trifling, so I fear we shall carry nothing.'" The knot might well have proved insuperable but

СНАР.

I.

1792.

January.

BOOK

VIII.

1792.

for the fervid enthusiasm of the English agent of the Catholic Committee. So long as he was supJanuary. posed to be in the confidence of Pitt, the Irish Radicals had endured Richard Burke for the sake of the advantages which they looked to gain through him. A character less congenial with the Hibernian temperament could not easily have been found. Though sometimes ridiculous themselves, the Irish have the most acute perception of absurdity in others. Richard Burke supposed himself a person of extraordinary genius. His letters and essays show nothing but impassioned commonplace and unbounded vanity. He was brought in contact with men in Dublin who were as much his intellectual superiors as he conceived himself to be theirs. He tried their patience severely, and at times overstrained it. Receiving no reply to the ultimatum which he had addressed to Hobart, he had prepared a petition in the name of the Committee for a full measure of enfranchisement. He was looking for a member of the House of Commons to whom he could entrust it, to be levelled as a thunderbolt at the expected imperfect Bill which was to be introduced by Langrishe. The Opposition members met at Leinster House to hear it read. They liked neither the petition nor its author. He said, as if he was conferring a favour, that he was willing to entrust it to any one of them, excepting only to Mr. Egan, who had before objected to expressions in it. Egan, a big coarse man, with a red face, whose wit was as sharp as Curran's, rose amidst general laughter, walked across the room to where Burke was sitting, looked him in the face and bowed deeply. Sir,' he said, with the highest reverence for your derivation, I entertain none whatever for the modesty

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