break of energy and courage from the degraded, helot Catholic people, who had never before been a people. The publication of this plan of delegation was the signal for such an agitation and counter-agitation as Ireland had not yet seen. In the counties, the Protestant grand juriesin the towns, the Protestant corporations-met, and talked, and resolved, furiously and frantically, in that life-and-fortune style which must be so familiar to the ears of our senior readers.* Sedition, conspiracy, rebellion, treason-wicked and daring attempt-popish congress, popish democracyour present valuable constitution in church and state-our present invaluable constitution in church and state; these and the like were the flowers of rhetoric with which the men of the ascendency, aided by such high government functionaries as the Speaker of the House of Commons and the Lord Chancellor, lavishly decorated their conservative Protestant oratory. The Castle, too, was busy the while intriguing with the Catholic bishops and clergy, and doing its best, by speaking the poor creatures fair, to induce them to oppose the terrible measures of the " primary and secondary electoral assemblies." But it was all in vain; the Catholic body had got a new soul, and they were not to be soon frightened :—

"At first," says Tone, "we were like young soldiers, a little stunned with the noise, but after a few rounds we begin to look about us, and, seeing nobody drop with all this furious cannonade, we took courage and determined to return the fire. In consequence, wherever there was a meeting of the 'Protestant Ascendancy,' which was the title assumed by that party (and a very impudent one it was), we took care it should be followed by a meeting of the Catholics, who spoke as loud and louder than their adversaries; and as we had the right clearly on our side, we found no great difficulty in silencing the enemy on this quarter. The Catholics, likewise, took care, at the same time that they branded their enemies, to mark their gratitude to their friends, who were daily increasing, and especially to the people of Belfast, between whom and themselves the union was now completely established."+

On the 2nd of December, 1792 (the elections being all completed), the CATHOLIC CONVENTION commenced its sittings in Taylor's Hall, Back Lane, Dublin (in the same room in which King James's Parliament had sat at the time of the revolution), under the cognomen, derisively applied by the ascendency people, of the Back Lane Parliament.

*Plowden has preserved some specimens of this grand jury and corporation eloquence in his "Historical Review," vol. ii., pp. 374-376. The Corporation of Dublin unanimously resolved, That they would support the Protestant ascendancy with their "lives and fortunes;" and that the said Protestant ascendency consisted in "a Protestant king of Ireland-a Protestant parliament-Protestant electors and government-Protestant magistrates-Protestant army and revenue; "they omitted Protestant taxation. The whole to be kept together by "connexion with the Protestant realm of Great Britain.” †The Catholic prelates and clergy of that day were very timid and somewhat slippery politicians, open both to cajolery and menace. The programme of their policy seems to have been-anything for a quiet life. Tone repeatedly expresses his abomination of the whole clerical genus in both of its species of Popish and Protestant. (See his Journals, passim.) This zealous pacificator appears to have had as much trouble with the Catholic priesthood as with those semi-liberal theologians of the north who "agreed in the principle, but doubted as to the expediency." On the 15th of August, this year, he journalises the following note of a conversation with a liberal dissenting minister of the name of Birch :

"He thinks what I fear is true, that the Catholic clergymen are bad friends to liberty. The priest of Saintfield preached against United Irishmen, and exhorted his people not to join such clubs, on which he was immediately rebuked in the chapel by one of his congregation."-" Memoirs," vol. ii., p. 398.

"Memoirs," vol. i., p. 88.

Of this Back Lane Parliament we shall have more to say in the next chapter. Meanwhile, events were going forward elsewhere, of considerably more consequence to the fate of the Irish Catholics than any debates and resolutions, either of Protestant grand juries or of Catholic General Committees. While the elections were in progress, Theobald Wolfe Tone, we observe, jots in his diary

"Hear that the Duke of Brunswick has defeated the French under Dumourier, and cut the whole army in pieces. Hope it is a lie."

If it had not turned out to be a lie, the sittings of the new Catholic Convention would have been of brief duration and small result.

CHAPTER VI.

PROGRESS OF THE UNITED IRISH AGITATION-JAMES NAPPER TANDY AND THE HOUSE OF COMMONS-PEEP-OF-DAY BOYS AND DEFENDERS -THEOBALD WOLFE TONE, HEAD-PACIFICATOR-THE FOURTEENTH OF JULY, 1792, at belfast—THE BACK-LANE PARLIAMENT AGAIN— IRISH PAPISTS AT ST. JAMES'S.

It did turn out to be a "lie," about the Duke of Brunswick having defeated Dumourier and the French. Before the Catholic elections were

over, our zealous Secretary jots again

"OCTOBER 11.-The story of Dumourier a great lie! Huzza! huzza!! Brunswick and his army dying of the flux and running out of France, with Dumourier pursuing him— Huzza! If the French had been beaten, it was all over with us. All safe now for this campaign-Huzza!"

That the Catholics and their secretary had good reason for huzzaing_at the successes of republican France, we shall see better as we proceed. For the present we must go back a few months, and examine what was doing among the new Societies of United Irishmen-how they addressed, and resolved, and agitated, and with what result; and especially how they prospered in the good work of forwarding "a brotherhood of affection, an identity of interests, a communion of rights, and a union of power, among Irishmen of all religious persuasions.”

66

The United Irish Societies were not three months in existence without giving signs of a zeal and courage which showed that a new power was at work in the politics of Ireland. Their first conflict with the duly-constituted authorities was a clear success. In the month of February, 1792, the Solicitor-General (Toler) having, in his place in the House of Commons, spoken with exceeding disrespect of the new conspiracy of demagogues and agitators, JAMES NAPPER TANDY-formerly of the Liberty Brigade of Volunteer Artillery, now secretary to the Dublin Society of United Irishmen— conceived himself called upon to vindicate the honour and loyalty of the patriots, by challenging the Solicitor-General. Thereupon, the SolicitorGeneral complained to the House of a breach of privilege, and Tandy was ordered to be taken into custody by the serjeant-at-arms, and brought to

the bar of the House. The arrest was accordingly made forthwith, at Tandy's house, by three of the Commons' messengers; but the United Irish secretary, who seems to have had a most happy genius for escaping, invaluable in such troubled times (it brought him safe at last, through a thousand hair-breadth perils, to a quiet death in his bed), twice eluded the vigilance of his captors, and defeated the wrath of the House. The escape was adjudged to be an aggravation of the first offence, and the irritated legislators followed up strong resolutions against the contumacious United Irishman with an address to the Lord Lieutenant, praying that his Excellency would issue a proclamation, backed with a reward, for a third and final capture of Mr. Tandy. The proclamation was issued accordingly, and the whole revenue and police force of Ireland were enjoined to be on the alert, that no man answering to the government description of his person should leave the kingdom. Still, Mr. Tandy was nowhere to be found. The United Irish Society, being thus committed, through their officer and representative, with the House of Commons and the Castle, on a question of privilege and prerogative, had now a good opportunity for making a character with the public and trying their strength with the government. The further progress of the affair, which, as the first of its kind, has an interest that we shall not find it necessary to attach to every similar collision of . "sedition" with authority, is thus related by Tone :

"Under these circumstances, I cast my eyes on ARCHIBALD HAMILTON ROWAN, a distinguished member of the Society, whose many virtues, public and private, had set his name above the reach of even the malevolence of party; whose situation in life was of the most respectable rank, if rank be indeed respectable; and, above all, whose personal courage was not to be shaken,- —a circumstance, in the actual situation of affairs, of the last importance. To Rowan, therefore, I applied; I showed him that the current of public opinion was rather setting against us in this business, and that it was necessary some of us should step forward and expose ourselves, at all risks, to show the House of Commons and the nation at large that we were not to be intimidated, or put down so easily. I offered, if he would take the chair, that I would, with the Society's permission, act as secretary, and that we would give our signatures to such publications as circumstances might render necessary. Rowan instantly agreed; and accordingly, on the next night of meeting, he was chosen chairman, and I pro-secretary in the absence of Tandy; and the Society having agreed to the resolutions proposed (which were worded in a manner very offensive to the dignity of the House of Commons, and in fact amounted to a challenge of their authority,) we inserted them in all the newspapers, and printed 5,000 copies with our names affixed.

"The least that Rowan and I expected in consequence of this step, which, under the cir cumstances, was, I must say, rather a bold one, was to be committed to Newgate for breach of privilege, and perhaps exposed to personal discussions with some of the members of the House of Commons; for he proposed, and I agreed, that, if any disrespectful language was applied to either of us, in any debate which might arise on the business, we would attack the person, whoever he might be, immediately, and oblige him either to recant his words, or give battle. All our determination, however, came to nothing. The House of Commons, either content with their victory over Tandy, who was obliged to conceal himself for some time, or not thinking Rowan and myself objects sufficiently important to attract their notice; or perhaps, which I rather believe, not wishing just then to embroil themselves with a man of Rowan's firmness and courage, (not to speak of his great and justly-merited popularity,) took no notice whatsoever of our resolutions, and, in this manner, he and I had the good fortune, and, I may say, the merit, to rescue the Society from a situation of considerable difficulty, without any actual suffering, though certainly with some personal hazard on our part. We had likewise the satisfaction to see the Society, instead of losing ground, rise rapidly in public opinion, by its firmness on the occasion. Shortly after, on the last day of the session, Tandy appeared in public, and was taken into custody, the whole Society attending him in a body to the House of Commons; he was ordered by the Speaker to be committed to

Newgate, whither he was conveyed, the Society attending him as before; and the Parliament being prorogued in half an hour after, he was liberated immediately, and escorted in triumph to his own house."

A further triumph awaited the dexterous and dauntless secretary, and raised still higher the spirit and influence of the Association. Tandy was prosecuted by order of the House of Commons, for the alleged breach of privilege, and acquitted by a Dublin jury.

66

What thoughts were now astir in Irishmen's minds, appeared in a curious legal case raised by this eccentric and daring agitator (whose original portrait"* gives all the features of what the Scotch call a dour chiel), in consequence of this business with the House of Commons. Tandy brought a series of actions-at-law against the Lord Lieutenant, the Lord Chancellor, and every member of the Privy Council who had signed the proclamation for his arrest, on the ground that they had NO LEGAL AUTHORITY for that or any other act of government whatever; their appointments being under the great seal, not of the kingdom of Ireland, but of Great Britain. This point he managed to keep before the public, by one suit after another, for some six months; during which period the position was pertinaciously maintained (quite justly, we conceive, according to the then existing constitution of the kingdom of Ireland, as settled in 1782) by his counsel, Simon Butler and Thomas Addis Emmet, that, as Ireland was an independent kingdom, the great seal of England could not be recognised in an Irish court of law. The court was horrified at the scandal; threatened the attorney who had dared to sign the pleadings with attachment for contempt; struck the words, again and again, out of the record, as impertinent and scandalous; refused, again and again, to suffer the case to be argued; and it was not until the public mind had been thoroughly saturated with the "poison" of a doctrine which disowned the legality of the whole government of Ireland for the ten preceding years, that the point was allowed to be discussed, and set at rest (26th November,) by a short and angry judicial dictum. Tandy failed in form, but he succeeded in effect; reviving in the popular mind the old feeling of 1783, against the encroachments of Great Britain on the independence of Ireland.†

While the United Irishmen were thus establishing themselves in public estimation, by successful collision with the House of Commons and the government, they were not idle in their great work of establishing union and brotherhood between the two religious sections of the people. They addressed themselves, with an excellent judgment and abundant zeal, to the task of healing those sectarian and party animosities which had broken the strength and ruined the prospects of Ireland in 1783, and uniting the whole moral and physical force of the Irish people in one dense mass of opposition to British influence. During the summer of 1792, their chairman, Simon Butler, by order of the Dublin Society, drew up and published a "Digest of the Penal Code," enumerating, in all their revolting details, the barbarisms of that abominable system of legislative iniquity and religious rancour, in a way to arouse among the Catholics an indignation

*See Dr. Madden's "United Irishmen," Second Series, vol. ii.

See a full account of this extraordinary business in the "Proceedings of the Society of United Irishmen of Dublin," Philadelphia, 1795, pp. 71-127.

which, till then, they had been too thoroughly enslaved and broken-spirited to be capable of feeling-and to gain over to the cause of emancipation all that was just, generous, and rational in the mind of Protestant Ireland. No single thing contributed more powerfully to cement the union of Irishmen than this publication, which emboldened the Catholics to raise their tone of demand, by assuring them of an adequate amount of Protestant sympathy and co-operation, and did much to shame down bigotry (wherever it was capable of shame) by holding up the mirror to its base and wicked nature. It was this "Digest of the Penal Code," and the assurance of Protestant support of which it was a pledge, that carried the Catholics through that storm of the grand-jury life-and-fortune resolutions which we spoke of in the last chapter, and nerved them for the exertions which we shall presently record in this.*

The business of uniting Irishmen of all parties and persuasions was attended, however, with difficulties of a kind which legal digests were altogether insufficient to cope with. Union of Irishmen there could not be, to any effectual purpose of lasting political good, while the physical and moral strength of large masses of the people was wasting itself in an aimless partisan warfare. Already were Irish agitators beginning to learn that lesson, the full theory and practice of which have only been acquired in our own day, under the tuition of the man whose historical cognomen will probably be THE AGITATOR-that local outrage must cease, before efficient general agitation can begin. While the war of the Peep-of-Day Boys and Defenders went on, Societies of United Irishmen might address and resolve to all eternity, without bending or breaking the will of the government. It was a matter, therefore, of the first necessity to the agitators, to heal the Peep-of-Day Boy and Defender feuds. Ever since the year 1785, these two factions had been increasing in numbers, in ferocity, and in organisation. In its commencement, an agrarian quarrel—a feud of rival peasants and farmers, under-selling and over-bidding one another in the labour and land market; in its progress, a religious quarrel-the one party happening to be Protestant, and the other happening to be Catholic-this bu siness of the Peep-of-Day Boys and Defenders had grown, by this time, to be a little civil war, of inveterate malignity and formidable extent. It had spread beyond the county of Armagh, its original seat, into Down, Louth,

As we have more than once alluded to certain modifications of the Penal Code which had taken place in previous years, we may here put before the reader the condition in which—all modifications notwithstanding-the Irish Catholic stood before the law, so late as the close of the year 1792. We give the following summary from Simon Butler's "Digest," quoted by Plowden :

:

"Such is the situation of three millions of good and faithful subjects in their native land. Excluded from every trust, honour, or emolument of the state, civil or military; excluded from all the benefits of the constitution in all its parts; excluded from all cor porate rights and immunities; expelled from grand juries, restrained in petit juries; excluded from every direction, from every trust, from every incorporated society, from every establishment, occasional or fixed, instituted for public defence, public police, pub. lic morals, or public convenience-from the Bench, from the Bank, from the Exchange, from the University, from the College of Physicians-from what are they not excluded? There is no institution which the wit of man has invented, or the progress of society produced, which private charity or public munificence has founded for the advancement of education, learning, and good arts, for the permanent relief of age, infirmity, or misfortune, from the superintendence of which, and, in all cases where common charity would permit, from the enjoyment of which, the legislature has not taken care to exclude the Catholics of Ireland."

F