tive their places of worship were destroyed, their dwellings were sacked, and every kind of outrage was heaped upon them. Rebels, and persons who were only suspected of being rebels, were tried and shot by drum-head courts-martial, which were now invested with paramount authority. But this conduct of the Executive, bad as it was, was as nothing compared with the vindictive cruelty of the conquering factions. To this day the Roman Catholic peasant in three parts of Ireland shudders at the recollection of the merciless wrongs committed by the yeomen and militia of the northern Protestants. These atrocities soon terrified the Government itself, and it discovered too late that it had let elements loose which it could no longer control. During the spring and summer of 1798 Parliament sat, and the Council at the Castle gave its orders; but Ireland, in fact, was under the rule of the sword, which waved fiercely over a desolated land abandoned to a reckless and fanatical soldiery. The consequence was, that the Government was virtually suspended, and that Ireland struggled in the throes of a fearful anarchy. Mr. Pitt resolved to put an end to this state of things, and to make the chaos caused by the rebellion and its terrors the occasion of accomplishing the Union. Lord Cornwallis was chosen to carry out these objects; and although his efforts in the interest of Ireland were circumscribed and checked in many particulars, his Irish policy was marked by singular equity and wisdom. He arrived in Dublin in June, 1798, and found the Government in the hands of the military authorities, and their followers. The victorious army was an undisciplined mob, abandoned to crime and pillage, and living at free quarters up and down the country.+ All law was superseded by martial law; and scores of victims were weekly shot down, bayoneted, and plundered, on the pretence that they had been concerned in the rebellion, or were infected with popery. The gaols and bridewells of the country were thronged with prisoners, whose alleged offences were reserved for trial by the civil jurisdiction, whenever it should be re-established;§ and a vile tribe of informers was earning wages by inventing or exaggerating charges against them. The rebellion had virtually ceased; but a set of desperate banditti haunted the hills of Wicklow and Wexford, and, here and there, the excesses of the victors occasioned a prompt and bloody re * Lord Cornwallis to the Duke of Portland, July 8, 1798. Vol. ii. 358. + Same to General Ross, July 24, 1798, vol. ii. 369; and see General Order of Lord Cornwallis, vol. ii. 395; and vol. iii. 145, Lord Cornwallis to General Ross. Lord Cornwallis to the Duke of Portland, July 28, 1798. Vol. ii. 355. § Vol. iii. 90. Lord Cornwallis to General Ross, Nov. 16, 1799. Vol. iii. 145. Conciliatory Administration of Lord Cornwallis. 39 taliation. Lord Cornwallis, notwithstanding the protests of the loyalists at the Castle, who still raised the cry for vengeance, immediately put an end to this reign of terror by measures of humanity and conciliation. He checked the ferocity and rapine of the yeomanry and militia; and by punishing severely all offences against discipline, he brought them back into something like obedience. He proclaimed an amnesty to the vanquished rebels, which, as he had anticipated, caused a general surrender of arms, and really extinguished the insurrection. He restored the operation of the ordinary courts of justice, discountenanced as much as possible the practice of bribing spies and informers, and gave freedom to several of the leaders of the insurrection, on the condition of their leaving the country. By these means the horrors of civil war were quickly dissipated, and the Executive Government was restored; and in a few months the destructive elements which were ruining Ireland had been reduced to comparative inactivity. As early as August, 1798,§ Lord Cornwallis was able to state that the country, for the most part, was quiet, and that the inhabitants had returned to their ordinary occupations; and before the close of the next year, the pacification of Ireland was complete. For this humane and liberal policy, however, Lord Cornwallis incurred much censure even in England. In November, 1798, the Duke of Portland wrote to him: I should certainly not have gone to the extent of the concessions you judged expedient; and in Ireland he was assailed by a violent outcry from the loyalists, who had been balked in their vindictive demand for vengeance. It is no small honour to Lord Cornwallis that he should have stood alone among his colleagues in insisting upon this conciliatory policy towards Ireland; and at length even those who differed most from him were forced to admit that it had been completely successful.** The suppression of the rebellion of 1798 was scarcely interrupted by Humbert's invasion, which Lord Cornwallis repelled in person. Even at the commencement of 1799 order was comparatively restored; and Lord Cornwallis had leisure to initiate the great measure of the Union, which he had been sent over to accomplish. In England, the opinions of the King and Parliament, which had been adverse or lukewarm, were now alto * Vol. ii. 369; ii. 358. + Memorandum of Lord Cornwallis, Aug. 20, 1798, vol. ii. 385; and see General Order, Aug. 31, 1798, vol. ii. 395. Lord Cornwallis to Duke of Portland, April 13, 1798. Vol. ii. 403. § Vol. ii, 385. || Duke of Portland to Lord Cornwallis, Nov. 4, 1798. Vol. ii. 430. Vol, iii. 90. gether in favour of it; and opposition to it in Ireland had become much lessened. The danger of a divided Legislature in the midst of a tremendous war had occurred to the mass of thinking persons; and it was felt that the events of 1798 were a condemnation of the existing system of Irish government. The worthlessness of the Irish Parliament was also made evident by the occurrences of the past year; and in the summer of 1799 Lord Cornwallis was able to write to England,* that no popular commotion against the Union could possibly be excited. In fact, so far as regarded Ireland, the nation throughout its various sections was dissatisfied with the actual state of things, and believed that any change would be for the better. The victorious Protestant party were indignant that their triumph had been comparatively fruitless; and many of them wished for a closer approximation to England. The Roman Catholics, -suffering from the effects of the rebellion, were generally indifferent to anything but peace and security; but, on the whole, they welcomed the prospect of an Union, as they conceived that ultimately it would lead to their emancipation. The commercial towns of Ireland, which had been sacrificed to Dublin by the false economic principles of the Parliament, were decidedly in favour of a measure which it was believed would reduce the special privileges of Dublin, and would secure to them a free trade with England. On the other hand, the Irish Parliament, though weak in national sympathy, was supported by the interests which it had created or fostered, and to some extent by patriotic pride and jealousy. It was in great part the property of the Irish nobility and squirearchy, and these classes naturally felt an aversion to the destruction of a considerable source of authority and profit. It was crowded with placemen of the Government the Tadpoles and Tapers of an age and scene of corruption-who, of course, dreaded the Union as the end of their official existence; and it had a really upright and honest party, composed of such men as Grattan, Plunket, and Curran, who, having sat, as they exclaimed, at the cradle of Ireland's independence, did not desire to follow its hearse. But, on the whole, the Irish Parliament in 1799 was not upheld by the great body of the nation; and outside its own particular sphere it had few supporters except the Irish Bar,** who saw that C * Lord Cornwallis to General Ross, July 2, 1799. Vol. iii. 3. Lord Cornwallis to Mr. Dundas, July 1, 1799. Vol. iii. 110. ** Lord Cornwallis to the Duke of Portland, Dec. 15, 1798, vol. iii. 18; and see vol. iii. 48. He initiates the Unions 41 the Union would reduce the distinctions open to their profession,* and the trading and manufacturing citizens of Dublin, who inclined in favour of a senate that had invariably protected them.txt, t During the whole period of his Irish government Lord Cornwallis was anxious to carry out the original scheme of Mr. Pitt, and to identify the Union with Catholic Emancipation.‡ and with a provision for the Roman Catholic clergy.§-He was also desirous of settling the tithe question, which, in the actual state of that impost, was felt to be a national grievance. But, whether on account of the known opinions of George III., or of remonstrances from the Protestant party in Ireland, Mr. Pitt, at the close of 1798, had begun to abandon the idea of connecting the Union with Catholic Emancipation; and, in the end, he allowed the two measures to be dissociated.** In the beginning of 1799 the Union, without any of its intended accompaniments, was proposed by the Crown to the two Parliaments at Westminster and in College Green. In the former there was at once a large majority in favour of a measure which was felt to be necessary to the safety of the empire. But in Ireland the Parliament at first resisted; and although the House of Lords voted for the address recommending the Union, the numbers in the House of Commons were one hundred and six to one hundred and five, being a majority of one only for the Government. Practically this was a defeat; and, accordingly, Lord Cornwallis was compelled to pause and consider by what means the measure could be accomplished. It was fortunate for its success that, at this juncture, he had the assistance of the clear-headed and able, if somewhat unscrupulous, Lord Castlereagh: The Chief Secretary saw that the absence of any immediate provision for Catholic Emancipation would make the Irish Roman Catholics less favourable to the Union than they had been, and would deprive it of a main source of national support, He saw that if the real opinion of Ireland was on the side of the measure, that opinion was not reflected in its Parliament; and that, with its actual constitution, that Parliament was never likely to reflect it. In order therefore to get rid of an opposition which he felt proceeded chiefly from interested motives, and to secure for Ireland a national advantage, Lord Castlereagh, in 1799, advised that the Irish Parliament should be 'influenced into compliance with the Union, and should This has taken place. Only three peerages, we believe, have been conferred on members of the Irisli Bar since the Union. + Vol. iii. 18. Lord Cornwallis to Mr. Pitt, Oct. 8, 1798. Vol. ii. 416; and see vol. ii. 419. § Ibid. #Jbid. ** Ibid. Mr. Pitt to Lord Cornwallis, Nov. 17, 1798. Vol. ii. 440. thus extinguish itself in its own corruption. At the same time he received an assurance from Mr. Pitt that Catholic Emancipation should be made a Government measure in the Imperial Parliament as soon as the Union had become law.* Lord Cornwallis, though reluctantly, concurred in this policy, which, if not altogether excusable, does not certainly deserve the obloquy it has received. The Irish Parliament had always been governed by corruption, and therefore the project of Lord Castlereagh was not setting any evil precedent-it was merely purchasing the feesimple by accelerating its profits by anticipation.' Besides, the Irish Parliament, upon the question of the Union, was in opposition to the real wishes of the nation; and yet so peculiar was its formation, it was not to be converted by any other method than that which Lord Castlereagh had suggested. A large price was to be paid down to abate a nuisance which annually cost a considerable sum,-such, in plain words, is the truth as regards this question. We need not say, however, that Lord Cornwallis felt much repugnance at being made the instrument of winning over the Irish Parliament by corruption.+ My occupation,' he wrote to General Ross, is now of the most unpleasant nature'negotiating and jobbing with the most corrupt people under 'heaven. I despise and hate myself every hour for engaging in 'such dirty work, and am supported only by the reflection that without an Union the British empire must be dissolved.” ́ During the summer and autumn of 1799 the Government and the Opposition made their preparations for the final struggle. Lord Cornwallis was authorized by the Cabinet to offer a compensation of fifteen thousand pounds a-piece to the owners of the Irish boroughs, and was given a large latitude of discretion as regards promises of peerages and pensions. He had also been informed that Catholic Emancipation would be brought forward: by Mr. Pitt in the Imperial Parliament, and he had been directed‡ 'not to hesitate in calling forth Catholic support' in favour of the Union. No direct pledge was given to the Roman Catholics that their emancipation would necessarily follow the Union, but, in the actual state of affairs, they naturally believed that this would be the case; and in the year 1790 they were, upon the whole, on the side of the Government. As regards several of the patrons of boroughs and other persons, the proposals of Lord Cornwallis had the desired effect-they consented to forego opposition to the Union; and as the measure was really not unpopular, * Castlereagh Correspondence. Lord Cornwallis to General Ross, June 8, 1799. Vol. iii. 102. |