arming also. Three weeks before the meeting Lord Westmoreland made another effort to open Pitt's eyes, or at least to obtain from him some definite directions. 'However opposed to these measures,' he wrote, 'the threats of the democratic leaders have forced the clergy into co-operation and the gentry into acquiescence. The elective franchise is accepted by them all. They mean to press it as a prelude to the abolition of all distinctions. The attainment of the franchise they consider decisive of their future power in the State. They have coalesced with the United Irishmen and with every turbulent spirit in the country. . . . The Committee already exercise the functions of Government, levy contributions, issue orders for the preservation of the peace--a circumstance perhaps more dangerous than if they could direct the breach of it. Their mandates are taken by the lower class of people as laws. Their communications are rapid, and are carried on, not by the post, but by secret channels and agents. The lower Catholics connect the franchise with the non-payment of rents, tithe, and taxes. 'As universal as is the Catholic demand for it so is the determination of the Protestants to resist the claim. There is no risk they will not run rather than submit to it! In Down a thousand Protestants are in arms, but to preserve the peace, and their object is to keep the Catholics down. They are arming in Monaghan on the same principle, and Volunteering will become general if Government will not act. I have consulted the Chancellor and the other confidential friends of Government. All are unanimous not to yield anything at present, and all agree that the British Government must speak out plainly, to quiet the suspicions of the Protestants. I asked if they were prepared for the consequences of their language, and what means they could employ for resistance. On this head I found in no one the smallest apprehension, provided Government spoke with firmness. They apprehend no immediate convulsion, nor any convulsion, if Great Britain is firm. F 2 CHAP. I. 1732. November. BOOK 1792. November. 'If the hour is not come it may not be distant when you must decide whether you will incline to the Protestants or the Catholics; and if such necessity should arise it cannot be doubted for a moment you must take part with the Protestants. If the Protestants, after being forced into submission, should, contrary to their expectations, find themselves secure of their possessions without British protection, they will run into the present State-making mania abroad in the world. You must expect resentment from the Protestants, and gratitude from the Catholics is not to be relied on. Concession of the franchise will make no difference in the conduct of the Catholics, nor will the question come before you in that shape. The question will be, whether England will permit the existing Government to be forced in Ireland. Suppose the Ministry to propose a relaxation of the Popery laws, and be defeated in Parliament. If the Catholics resort to violence the force of the empire must necessarily be exerted in support of Parliament.'1 The reply of the Cabinet to this important letter was to inform Westmoreland curtly that 'England required all the force she possessed at home to protect herself from her foreign and domestic enemies.' 'He must therefore act on his own responsibility.' The 'comfortless communication' was unattended with so much as a hint of what the Ministers really desired, or why the Viceroy was left so completely independent.' To leave him thus, however, was perhaps better than to have hampered him with ambiguous utterances. Flung on his own resources, Lord Westmoreland turned to the Chancellor, who knew better than Pitt what Dublin sedition was made of. The danger was for the Convention to meet, and to find an armed force at its disposition. The National Guard was rapidly organising; other battalions were expected 1 The Earl of Westmoreland to Dundas, November 17, 1792. Secret.' S. P. O. from Belfast, and notice had been given of a review which was to be held on the 9th of December.1 Fitzgibbon issued a proclamation against unauthorised bodies assembling in arms. The National Guards would meet at their peril. It was an anxious moment. Rowan, Keogh, and Tandy roared their loudest; hired bands of vagabonds roamed about the streets at night, crying 'Liberty, Equality, and no King!' 'What they are to attempt,' Major Hobart wrote to the ministers on the 5th, when the Marseillais arrive from Belfast a short time must develope. You have more at stake in Ireland than you are aware of. You think it is a mere question between Catholic and Protestant. I wish it was. It is of deeper concern to us all, and goes to the complete overturning of the Constitution.' The result proved how well Fitzgibbon knew his countrymen. When the day came for the force to show itself which was to overthrow the Constitution, there appeared on the parade-ground Napper Tandy, Hamilton Rowan, and Carey, the printer. These three were present in their green uniforms, their buttons, and their cap of liberty, and no more. The National Guards, like Falstaff, showed their valour in its better part. The Convention, having its teeth drawn, was then allowed to meet without interference. That such an assembly should exist at all was a menace to the peace of the country. The ambiguous language of the Cabinet forbade the Castle to proceed to a direct inhibition of it. The easy 1 Belfast was going fast and far. There, too, there was an illumination for Valmy. One of the transparencies was a gallows, with an inverted crown, and the words, CHAP. I. 1792. December. VIII. 1792. December. BOOK suppression of the National Guards taught the delegates that the time was not come to carry the Constitution by escalade. Thus the Back Lane Parliament, as the new body was called, came together; the first Catholic elective assembly which had existed in Ireland since the Parliament of King James. The occasion was celebrated with the usual high-flown language. Edward Byrne took the chair, the spirit of liberty running like an electric fire through every link of the Catholic chain.' The immediate business was to prepare a petition to the Crown, or rather to revise and sanction it, for the petition itself had been already composed by Tone. It was a document like all which came from the same hand, with the same gaudy diction and the same regardlessness of truth. It professed the most burning loyalty. It asked for the franchise on the ground that the Catholics had merited confidence, and that confidence would make their attachment to the throne more secure; while Tone's own admitted object was separation from England, and his central conviction was that every Catholic in his heart hated England.1 Such as it was, the Catholic representatives adopted it as their own. It was signed by Dr. Troy the Catholic Archbishop of Dublin, and by Dr. Moylan the Bishop of Cork, on behalf of the Catholic prelates and clergy of Ireland. The delegates signed for themselves and the laity. The Catholic community had now unmistakeably declared their wishes, and the immediate business was concluded. Five of the body were selected to lay the petition before the throne— Edward Byrne himself, Keogh, Christopher Bellew, 95. 1 'Petition of the Catholic Convention.'-Plowden, vol. iv. Appendix I. 1793. John Devereux, and Sir Thomas French. The thanks CHAP. of the Convention were given to Tone for his services, and they then separated, with the significant reso- January. lution that they would meet again when summoned, if it was on the other side of the Atlantic.' The five gentlemen set off for England, taking Tone along with them. To give éclat to their mission, they went by Belfast, where the people took their horses from the carriage and drew them through the streets to the quay where they embarked. In London they were received by Lord Moira, who entertained them in his house, and promised that if the Ministers refused to present them to the King, he would claim his privilege as a peer and introduce them himself. Hobart wrote an ineffectual warning, especially against Keogh, who, he said truly, was connected with the worst men and the worst intentions in the country, but 'so plausible and subtle that there was danger in communicating with him.' The Cabinet had, unfortunately, made up their minds, in the face of proof to the contrary, that Catholics could not be revolutionists; that they were rather the necessary and natural enemies of revolution; and that the delegates therefore ought to be received. Dundas presented them; they delivered their petition, and it was graciously accepted. They informed Dundas afterwards, in a private interview, that the peace of Ireland depended on concession, and Dundas believed them. They assured him that although their actual demand stopped at the franchise, yet that nothing would really satisfy them short of total emancipation. He did not discourage them. He told them that their present claims should be recommended to Parliament from the throne; that he looked to them, in return, to |