THE CHURCH QUARTERLY REVIEW. NO XXVII. APRIL 1832. ART. I.-IRELAND BEFORE AND AFTER 1. The Life, Times, and Correspondence of the Right Rev. Dr. Doyle, Bishop of Kildare and Leighlin. By W. J. FITZPATRICK, LL.D. Two Volumes. New Edition. (Dublin, 1880.) 2. Letters on the State of Ireland. Addressed by J. K. L. to a Friend in England. (Dublin, 1825.) 3. A Vindication of the Religious and Civil Principles of the Roman Catholics. In a Letter addressed to his Excellency the Marquis Wellesley, K.G. By J. K. L. (Dublin, 1823.) 4. Pieces of Irish History, illustrative of the Condition of the Catholics of Ireland, of the Origin and Progress of the Political System of the United Irishmen, and of their transactions with the Anglo-Irish Government. (New York, 1807.) 5. The Speeches of the Right Hon. Henry Grattan. (Dublin, 1853.) 6. The Life and Speeches of Daniel O'Connell, M.P. Edited by his son, JOHN O'CONNELL, M.P. (Dublin, 1846.) 7. The Condition and Prospects of Ireland, and the Evils arising from the Present Distribution of Landed Property; with Suggestions for a Remedy. By JONATHAN PIM. (Dublin, 1848.) GREAT empires have frequently a thorn in the side, and perhaps generally by some fault of their own. Russia has long held Poland down with difficulty and by the strong arm; France holds its solitary colony of Algeria upon the same terms; the new empire of Germany has already a malcontent province in Alsace-Lorraine; and even free and constitutional England has its thorn in Ireland. Normally in a state of sulk, and breaking out periodically into paroxysms of violence; impervious to conciliation, and hardly obeying even the very plainest dictates of self-interest, Ireland and the Irish people make about the most uncomfortable partners possible for the steady-going, peaceable, law-abiding Englishman. Whether the force of honest purpose on the part of England, and persistent endeavour to make amends for centuries of misrule and misunderstanding between the races, will at last overcome the sullen reluctance and aversion which still holds England and Ireland apart, it is too soon as yet to say. To a generation which has seen the entente cordiale between England and France, or, more striking still, which has looked on while Austria made its peace with Hungary, and united with it in peaceful constitutional union, hardly anything can be incredible; and experience seems to teach that a policy of conciliation fairly and perseveringly pursued must at length break down the strongest animosities, whether between races or individuals. But as yet there are few signs of that much-to-be-wished-for result. The student on this side of the Irish Channel can but continue to view with an attention needful, though it can hardly be called agreeable, the successive phases of Irish discontent, as they are evolved in due order before his eyes. Perhaps he may surprise the secret of bringing about a permanent order out of disorder; perhaps, and more probably, there will be little or no result of all his watchfulness. His labour may have to be, like virtue, its own reward. He is not on that account, however, to consider himself absolved from that careful study of the facts of the case which may qualify him, at least, to make the attempt. We shall begin our retrospect with 1782, the year of a great political triumph for the Irish party; viz. the repeal of the 6th George I., known as Poynings' Act, by which the Irish Parliament had previously been controlled in its legislative acts by the English Privy Council: an Act which dated originally from 1494. This was, it must be remembered, the period of the penal laws, of a chronic state of hostilities with the Continental Powers, particularly with France, and of an almost prohibitory commercial policy on the part of the British Government, which pressed heavily upon Irish trade and manufactures. The British army, at all times small, was required in America, on the Continent, in half a dozen parts of the world at once. Ireland was denuded of troops. An hostile expedition might at any time have been landed on its shores by some Continental Power at war with England, and there were no means of defence in existence. Application was made to Government to station more soldiers in Ireland, to secure it from a sudden attack. The reply from the Secretary of State, Sir Richard Heron, was that none were at their disposal. In such a condition of affairs, the population had only themselves to depend on; and with a brave and combative race like the Irish, the understanding of this fact instantly occasioned measures for self-defence. A Volunteer movement was commenced, and spread with remarkable quickness. All classes were seized with a military enthusiasm, and (we seem to be writing rather of England than of Ireland) gentry, farmers, tradesmen served in the ranks side by side. Lord Charlemont organized the first regiment, which chose Armagh as its head-quarters, and he himself took the command of it. This was in 1777. County after county took up the movement, and with a totally unexpected alacrity raised and equipped one or more regiments of Volunteers, of which the men, when enrolled, elected their own officers. In a brief time nearly a hundred thousand volunteers had been mustered, and officered by men of the first rank and consideration. To all intents and purposes a national militia, if we do not call them a standing army, they performed many duties of police, escorted the Judges of Assize on their circuits, guarded prisoners to and from the gaols, assisted in the maintenance of public order, and were constantly en évidence and before the eyes of their countrymen. But, strangest of all, this force was not under the control of the Crown; and it was at once evident, although no disloyalty was alleged against any corps at first, that a force had been created that could as easily be turned against the Government as for it. It is inconceivable how any responsible Government could have supinely permitted so formidable a force to be created among a population more or less disaffected to their rule. But when it was once brought into existence, the opportunity for interfering with effect had passed; and it become impossible to suppress or even to control the Volunteers, except (as it was too soon shown) through the bloody and costly process of crushing a rebellion. The leaders of the popular party saw their opportunity, and used it. What Government, they argued, would venture to oppose a party with a hundred thousand armed men at its back? And their expectation seemed about to be realized. Accordingly, the English Government endeavoured to conciliate. Some relaxation of the penal laws against Roman Catholics was made in 1778, and the laws restricting Irish trade were repealed in the following year. Growing bolder with this success, the Irish Houses of Lords and Commons concurred in 1782 in an address to the King, claiming that the Crown of England is an Imperial Crown, but that Ireland is a distinct Kingdom, with a Parliament of her own, the sole Legislature thereof.' The English Parliament assented to this claim with a strange facility; Charles James Fox, who was the ruling spirit in the then Administration-the short-lived one of Lord Rockinghamremarking that 'he would rather see Ireland wholly separated from the Crown of England than kept in subjection by force; and he added that 'unwilling subjects were little. better than enemies.' The curb, therefore, was by common consent taken off the Irish Parliament. The control had doubtless been less weighty in practice than it would appear to be in theory; and it might seem the less dangerous formally to dispense with it, that the Houses were composed of adherents and warm partisans of the English connexion. No serious consequences in fact followed this step. great Irish leaders, Flood and Grattan, quarrelled with each other; the Young Ireland party was divided therefore into two camps, and the public attention was drawn away by the savage attacks of the rival champions upon each other. Thus their next movement, in favour of a Reform of the (Irish) House of Commons,1 so as to withdraw it from the influence of the English Government, altogether failed. A Convention of the Volunteers was called to support the movement. At Belfast met five hundred delegates from two hundred and seventy two corps, and passed resolutions urging the Volunteers of Leinster, Munster, and Connaught to seek for themselves those electoral franchises necessary to their participating in the management of their own affairs, and without which the forms of a free government would be a curse, and existence cease to be a blessing.' A still more imposing demonstration, in which many members of both The 1 It can hardly be said to have been without justification. Unless the Parliament of that day was very much calumniated, the state of things was quite as bad as the 'rotten boroughs' of England. Twothirds of the three hundred members of the Irish House of Commons are asserted to have been the nominees of not more than a hundred persons. As a consequence it was 'notoriously venal.' |