was suffered to lie in an Irish haven without the smallest molestation. The British empire escaped dismemberment-because the wind blew hard, and the ship Fraternité was not a good sailer. If any British statesmen or politicians, in these days of steam navigation, dream of permanently holding Ireland in connection with Great Britain by other ties than those of just and good government, we pray them to read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest the "Memoirs of Theobald Wolfe Tone." CHAPTER XII. IRELAND IN 1797-THE LAST OF CONCILIATION AND REFORM-SECES- 11 - THE failure of Hoche's expedition opened one last chance for the conciliation of Ireland. The circumstances of that attempt at invasion were every way fitted to act both on the prudence and the generosity of any government possessing a particle of either quality. Abortive as the attempt proved, its failure was fortuitous-the work mainly of the elements; and accident could scarcely be relied on to defend the British empire twice. At all events, French invasion was now demonstrated to be not impossible. The boasted guardianship of the wooden walls had turned out not to be infallible; the British Isles were not absolutely inaccessible to hostile fleets. For one entire fortnight the coasts of Ireland had lain at the mercy of an invading enemy; and what had been once might be again. The noble behaviour of the Munster peasanty, too, during the five days that the French were hourly expected to land, invited concession and conciliation. It showed that the assumption on which the whole fabric of coercive and penal legislation rested was a fallacy; the millions were loyal at heart, after all. With a people in such a temper, concession would have conciliated; it would have come with a good grace-not the French marine, and left the coast of Ireland at the mercy of the enemy during a whole fortnight. The evidence given by the United Irish leaders before the Secret Committee of 1798 shows that the counsels of the Union, like those of the government, were deranged by false and contradictory intelligence. When Emmet was asked by the committee, "How do you account for the people being so loyal and well-disposed while the French were in Bantry Bay?" he replied, "About November, 1796, a messenger arrived here from France, who stated that a descent would immediately be made with 15,000 men. In a very few days after this messenger had quitted Ireland on his return, a letter arrived which was considered as authentic by the Irish Executive, stating that the expedition was deferred till spring. This contradiction threw the Executive off their guard, in consequence of which no measures were taken to prepare the people for the reception of the French army." as a reluctant surrender of weakness and fear to popular turbulence, but as the free-will acknowledgment of popular loyalty. For the Popish peasants, that shared their potatoes with the king's troops, and harnessed themselves in droves to drag the king's guns through mountain passes (snow-drifts notwithstanding), something surely might be done by the king's government, without any compromise either of dignity or of Protestantism. The event of the Bantry Bay expedition had its lessons for the United Irishmen likewise, and was well suited to dispose the most eager and sanguine of them to moderation and compromise. The northern middleclass republicans now discovered, much to their surprise, that they were not so strong as they had imagined; that the national unanimity on which they had fondly calculated did not exist; that the millions would, when it came to a practical question, be not with them (as they had too easily taken for granted), but against them; that the instinct of loyalty was still rooted in the heart of the peasant population, all penal codes, potatotithe, Whiteboy and Insurrection Acts notwithstanding. Nor were they altogether clear what would have been the result of the success of an invasion of foreign sympathisers. Separation from Great Britain, certainly : an Hibernian republic, probably ;-but national independence, possibly not. The expedition was on a scale far beyond the expectations of the most sanguine among them, and the wishes of the more considerate. Their demand was, not fewer than five thousand men, nor more than ten thousand. With fifteen thousand of the best soldiers of France, and a general like Hoche, they might have found themselves too strong. The republic was not always scrupulously tender of the liberties of the nations whom she liberated. Those who came as deliverers, might have staid as conquerors; and at any rate, demands would have been made on Irish gratitude inconsistent with Irish pride and independence. Considerations of this kind disposed many of the patriot leaders at this period to recede from the extreme of their previous political aspirations, and try once more for that legal and constitutional reform which, however defective in theory, would have been practically a large and substantial instalment of justice to Ireland. On the 2nd of January, 1797, a public meeting was held at Belfast, in which O'Connor, Sampson, and others of the northern leaders took part, when it was resolved,— "That the imperfect state of the representation in the House of Commons is the primary cause of the discontent at present existing in the country: "That the public mind would be restored to tranquillity, and every impending danger effectually averted, by such a reform in parliament as would secure to population and property their due weight in the scale of government, without distinction on account of religious opinion: "That a determination, firmly manifested on the part of government, to comply with the just desires of the people, would have the happiest effect in conciliating the affections of the people, whose object is reform alone; and thereby constitute the only rampart of defence that can bid complete defiance to the efforts of foreign and domestic enemies: "That we can conceive a government by King, Lords, and Commons (the Commons being thus reformed), when wisely and honestly administered, capable of affording every happiness a nation can enjoy." A similar meeting was held in Dublin by Emmet and his friends, and amicable communications were opened with some of the members of the Whig Opposition in parliament. There can scarcely be a doubt but that at this time the pacification of Ireland might have been effected, had the government honestly desired it. The United Irish leaders were in a mood for compromise and equitable adjustment. In their overtures to the Whigs they had abstained from pressing the obnoxious points of annual parliaments and universal suffrage, and any considerable and substantial concession would have tranquillised, if not contented, a large proportion of the agitators. O'Connor, Emmet, and Macneven say, in their “ Memoir on the Origin and Progress of the Union" "If in the course of that effort for reform it had not become evident that success was hopeless, it was the wish of many among the United Irishmen, and the Executive would have gladly embraced the occasion of declining to hold any further intercourse with France, except sending a messenger there to tell them that the difference between the government and the people had been adjusted, and that they would have no business a second time to attempt a landing." 66 For a while, it seemed as if an adjustment were likely to be effected. Reports were circulated and believed that the British cabinet had determined on conciliatory measures. Catholic emancipation and " temperate reform" were again talked of. The resignation of Lord Camden was rumoured; and, what was best of all, it became known that the popular and liberal Prince of Wales had besought his royal father to send him to Ireland as Lord Lieutenant, with Earl Moira as Commander-in-Chief, and had expressed a most decided opinion to Mr. Pitt in favour of a system of conciliation. But the pleasing prospect-like all other pleasing prospects which our history has opened-was destined to be of but brief continuance. Conciliation was not desired by the cabinet of either country. The government of Ireland was in the hands of a faction that wished the people would rebel, that ministers might see the rebellion and crush it;"* and the offer of the heir apparent to the crown, to tranquillise by justice and mercy a third part of the empire, was rejected. "First subdue, and then reform," was the ministerial answer to the Whig minority in parliament when, in the course of the ensuing session, the question of reform was re-opened. It was the last time of asking. A majority of four to one responded AYE to this programme of coercive and cruel policy: and Grattan and the Whigs, disgusted and despairing, seceded from the House of Commons. The prospect of returning tranquillity with which the year commenced was too slight and transient to have any practical effect on the general state of the country. It did not produce even a suspension or mitigation of the disorders which then rent the entire north of Ireland. The government went on pouring troops into the country from England and Scotland, arming and disciplining the Orange yeomanry, arresting the people on suspicion, imprisoning without bail, and transporting without trial, and sanctioning by connivance every description of magisterial oppression and military insolence. The misdoings were not all on one side. Terror was met by terror, and outrage answered to outrage. The United Irish *Speech of Mr. John Claudius Beresford, March 20, 1797. Early in the year, a party of musqueteers attacked the office of the Northern Star (Samuel Neilson's paper), at Belfast. They broke into the house, destroyed the presses, threw the types into the street, and lodged the printers in gaol. Redress or compensation was, of course, not a thing to be thought of. men continued their military exercisings and drillings, till, in April, they had (on paper at least) an organised force of a hundred thousand men. They, too, intimidated, plundered, and murdered, after the example of their rulers, and for a while with equal or superior efficiency. The Report of the Secret Committee of 1798 says, with reference to this period "To deter the well-affected from joining the yeomanry corps, and to render the administration of justice altogether ineffectual, the most active system of terror was put in operation. Persons enrolled in the yeomanry, magistrates, witnesses, jurors-in a word, every class and description of people who ventured to support the laws-became objects of the most cruel persecution in their persons, property, and even in the line of their business; and multitudes were compelled to take illegal oaths, and profess an adherence to the party, as a means of security. "In the latter end of 1796 and beginning of 1797, the loyal inhabitants of Ulster suffered most severely from the depredations of the United Irishmen. Throughout the province they were stripped of their arms. The most horrid murders were perpetrated by large bodies of men in open day; and it became nearly impossible to bring the offenders to justice, from the inevitable destruction that awaited the witnesses or jurors who dared to perform their duty." The above statement is founded on fact, though the facts have lost nothing in the hands of the Secret Committee. The truth is, the "loyal inhabitants of Ulster" were now in the minority. The Report omits to state that the loyal inhabitants had begun the "active system of terror," of which these United Irish outrages were but the natural reaction; and is altogether silent on the subject of the "depredations and horrid murders of the Orange exterminators, offenders whom it had been found quite impossible to bring to justice. The active system of terror met, for a time, with considerable success. During the spring assizes of this year the crown prosecutions very generally failed. Witnesses would not swear up to hanging point, juries would not convict, and the confidence and zeal of the Unionists were greater than Intimidation seems to have been reinforced by bribery. The Report already quoted states that— ever. "Entries of money appear in their proceedings, as paid to procure, as well as to buy off, witnesses; in many cases to gaolers, for being guilty of breaches of trust; and even to under-sheriffs, for returning partial panels. Handbills to intimidate jurors were circulated, and every species of indecent management was practised in the courts to exclude from the jury-box persons unconnected with their party."* * As reports of secret committes are not always trustworthy historical documents, it may be well to add that the papers of the United Irishmen actually do contain some suspicious entries, corroborative, so far as they go, of the above charge. In one memorandum of their proceedings (dated "County of Down Committee, June 8th, 1797"), we find the following items of "costs of the law :" "Gaoler Two Assistants. 10 guineas. And in another (April 14th, 1797), an entry of £498. 4s. old. "to counsel and witnesses is prefaced with the significant notice-"We have had a great deal of trouble at the last assizes; the expense was immense; they have ended with honour to the people. See Appendix xiv. to the Report of 1798. The information given in this Appendix is stated to have been furnished by " Nicholas Maguan, of Saintfield, in the county of Down, who was himself a member of the provincial and county committees, and also a colonel in the military system of the United Irishmen. He was present at each of the meetings of which an account is here given, and from time to time, immediately after each meeting, communicated what passed thereat to the Rev. John Altogether, the spring of 1797 appears to have been the period-as regards Ulster, the most important of the four provinces-when the United Irish system had attained its highest point of vigour. The organisation, civil and military, was extensive and efficient; the zeal and confidence of the people were unbounded: their leaders had the utmost difficulty in persuading them to wait for the arrival of the French, before hazarding a general insurrection; and the temper of a large proportion of the native militia regiments was such, that their co-operation, in the event of a rising, was confidently reckoned on by the patriots.* The government was frightened, and felt the necessity of stronger measures. That fatal and wicked policy which, interrupted only by the brief administration of Earl Fitzwilliam, had now been recklessly pursued for four years, was at length producing its natural results; it had brought the whole machinery of society and government into difficulties for which the only visible solution was martial law. All the ordinary and extraordinary powers of coercive legislation had been tried and found wanting: parliament had done its best, or its worst, and could do no more. A Convention Act had not prevented the organisation of a host of secret affiliated societies, with republicanism and separation for their end, and French alliance for their means; nor had a Gunpowder Act hindered the Ulster Union from enrolling and drilling its hundred thousand citizen-soldiers. The transportation, without judge or jury, of thousands of the peasantry, had not secured the loyalty of the millions that remained; the Insurrection Act had failed of quelling the insurrectionary spirit; the Habeas Corpus Suspension had crowded the gaols, the barracks, and the tenders with seditious and treasonable individuals, yet sedition and treason were more plentiful in the land than ever. The system of coercive and penal legislation had been worked out to its full length, and had failed. Coercive law would not do-law in any shape would not do there was nothing left for it but to draw the sword. On the 3rd of March, Mr. Secretary Pelham wrote to General Lake, the commander of the forces in Ulster, directing him to disarm the province, to suppress all outrage, to disperse all assemblies having a tendency to outrage, without waiting for the civil authority-and generally, to act as a scrt of Committee of Public Safety. In consequence of these instructions, General Lake issued, on the 13th of that month, a proclamation, which was in fact a sentence of outlawry and attainder on the whole north of Ireland : "Belfast, March 13, 1797. "WHEREAS the daring and horrid outrages in many parts of this province, evidently perpetrated with a view to supersede the laws and the administration of justice by an organised system of murder and robbery, have increased to such an alarming degree, as from their atrocity and extent to bid defiance to the civil power, and to endanger the lives and properties of his Majesty's faithful subjects; and whereas, the better to effect their traitorous purposes, several persons who have been enrolled under the authority of his Majesty's commission, and others, have been forcibly and traitorously deprived of their arms; it is therefore become indispensably necessary for the safety and protection of the well-disposed, to interpose the king's troops under my command: and I do hereby give notice that I have received authority and directions to act in such manner as the public Cleland, a magistrate of the said county." This Rev. John Cleland had been private tutor to Lord Castlereagh. The disclosures made to government through this channel range over a period of nearly fourteen months, from April, 1797, to May, 1798. * See Teeling's " Personal Narrative," pp. 23-25. |