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The leaders of this rebellion were Protestants. The Catholic gentry and priesthood recoiled from any contact with French atheists and Jacobins: they were without republican sympathies; but could not fail to deplore the sufferings and oppression of the wretched peasantry who professed their faith. The Protestant party, however,—frantic with fear, bigotry, and party spirit,—denounced the whole Catholic body as rebels and public enemies. The hideous scenes of this rebellion are only to be paralleled by the enormities of the French Revolution. The rebels were unloosed savages,—mad with hatred and revenge, burning, destroying and slaying: the loyalists and military were ferocious and cruel beyond belief. [326] Not only were armed peasants hunted down like wild beasts: but the disturbed districts were abandoned to the license of a brutal soldiery. The wretched 'croppies' were scourged, pitch-capped, picketed, half-hung, tortured, mutilated, and shot: their homes rifled and burned: their wives and daughters violated with revolting barbarity.(1) Before the outbreak of the rebellion, the soldiers had been utterly demoralised by license and cruelty, unchecked by the civil power.(2) Sir Ralph Abercromby, in a general order, had declared 'the army to be in a state of licentiousness, which must render it formidable to every one but the enemy.' In vain had that humane and enlightened soldier attempted to restrain military excesses. Thwarted by the weakness of Lord Camden, and the bigotry and fierce party zeal of his cabinet, he retired in disgust from the command of an army, which had been degraded into bands of ruffians and bandits. The troops, hounded on to renewed license, were fit instruments of the infuriated vengeance of the ruling faction.
In the midst of these frightful scenes, Lord Cornwallis assumed the civil and military government of Ireland. Temperate, sensible, and humane, he was horrified not less by the [327] atrocities of the rebels, than by the revolting cruelty and lawlessness of the troops, and the vindictive passions of all concerned in the administration of affairs.(3) Moderation and humanity were to be found in none but English regiments.(4) With native officers, rapine and murder were no crimes.(5)
The rebellion was crushed: but how was a country so convulsed with evil passions to be governed? Lord Cornwallis found his council, or junto, at the Castle, by whom it had long been ruled, 'blinded by their passions and prejudices.' Persuaded that the policy of this party had aggravated the political evils of their wretched country, he endeavoured to save the Irish from [328]themselves, by that scheme of union which a greater statesman than himself had long since conceived. Under the old system of government, concessions, conciliation, and justice were impracticable. The only hope of toleration and equity was to be found in the mild and impartial rule of British statesmen, and an united Parliament. In this spirit was the union sought by Mr. Pitt, who 'resented and spurned the bigoted fury of Irish Protestants:' in this spirit was it promoted by Lord Cornwallis. Self-government had become impossible. 'If ever there was a country,' said Lord Hutchinson, 'unfit to govern itself, it is Ireland; a corrupt aristocracy, a ferocious commonalty, a distracted government, a divided people.' Imperial considerations, no less paramount, also pointed to the union. Not only had the divisions of the Irish people rendered the difficulties of internal administration insuperable: but they had proved a source of weakness and danger from without. Ireland could no longer be suffered to continue a separate realm: but must he fused and welded into one state, with Great Britain.
But the difficulties of this great scheme were not easily to be overcome. However desirable, and even necessary, for the interests of Ireland herself, an invitation to surrender her independence,—so recently acquired,—deeply affected her national sensibilities. To be merged [329] in the greater and more powerful kingdom, was to lose her distinct nationality. And how could she be assured against neglect and oppression, when wholly at the mercy of the Parliament of Great Britain, whose sovereignty she had lately renounced? The liberties she had won in 1782, were all to be forfeited and abandoned. At any other time, these national feelings alone would have made an union impossible. But the country, desolated by a war of classes and religions, had not yet recovered the united sentiments of a nation.
But other difficulties, no less formidable, were to be encountered. The Irish party were invited to yield up the power and patronage of the Castle: the peers to surrender their proud position as hereditary councillors, in Parliament: the great families to abandon their boroughs. The compact confederacy of interests and corruption was to be broken up.(6) But the government, convinced of the necessity of the Union, was prepared to overcome every obstacle.
The Parliament of Great Britain recognised the [330]Union as a necessary measure of state policy; and the masterly arguments of Mr. Pitt admitted of little resistance.(7) But the first proposal to the Irish Parliament miscarried; an amendment in favour of maintaining an independent legislature being lost by a single vote.(8) It was plain that corrupt interests could only be overcome by corruption. Nomination boroughs must be bought, and their members indemnified,—county interests conciliated,—officers and expectant lawyers compensated,—opponents bribed. Lord Castlereagh estimated the cost of these expedients at a million and a half; and the price was forthcoming.(9) The purchase of boroughs was no new scheme, having been proposed by Mr. Pitt himself, as the basis of his measure of Parliamentary reform in 1785;(10) and now it was systematically carried out in Ireland. The patrons of boroughs received £7,500 for each seat; and eighty-four boroughs were disfranchised.(11) Lord [331] Downshire was paid £52,500 for seven seats; Lord Ely, £45,000 for six. The total compensation amounted to £1,260,000. Peers were further compensated for the loss of their privileges in the national council, by profuse promises of English peerages, or promotion in the peerage of Ireland: commoners were conciliated by new honours,(12) and by the largesses of the British government. Places were given or promised,—pensions multiplied,—secret-service money exhausted. In vain Lord Cornwallis complained of the 'political jobbing' and 'dirty business' in which he was 'involved beyond all bearing,' and 'longed to kick those whom his public duty obliged him to court.' In vain he 'despised and hated himself,' while 'negotiating and jobbing with the most corrupt people under heaven.'(13) British gold was sent for and [332] distributed; and, at length,—in defiance of threats of armed resistance,—in spite of insidious promises of relief to Catholics,(14)—and corrupt defection among the supporters of government,(15)—the cause was won. A great end was compassed by means the most base and shameless. Grattan, Lord Charlemont, Ponsonby, Plunket, and a few patriots continued to protest against the sale of the liberties and free constitution of Ireland. Their eloquence and public virtue command the respect of posterity: but the wretched history of their country denies them its sympathy.
The terms of the Union were now speedily adjusted and ratified by the Parliaments of both countries.(16) Ireland was to be represented, in the Parliament of the United Kingdom, by four spiritual lords, sitting by rotation of sessions; by twenty-eight temporal peers, elected for life by the Irish peerage; and by a hundred members of the House of Commons. Her commerce was at [333] length admitted to a freedom which, under other conditions, could not have been attained.
Such was the incorporation of the two countries: and henceforth the history of Ireland became the history of England. Had Mr. Pitt's liberal and enlightened policy been carried out, the Catholics of Ireland would have been at once admitted to a participation in the privileges of the constitution: provision would have been made for their clergy; and the grievances of the tithe system would have been redressed. But we have seen how his statesmanship was overborne by the scruples of the king;(17) and how long and arduous was the struggle by which religious liberty was won. The Irish were denied those rights which English statesmen had designed for them. Nor was this the worst evil which followed the fall of Mr. Pitt, and the reversal of his policy. So long as narrow Tory principles prevailed in the councils of England, the government of Ireland was confided to the kindred party at the Castle. Protestant ascendency was maintained as rigorously as ever: Catholics were governed by Orangemen: the close oligarchy which had ruled Ireland before the Union was still absolute. Repression and coercion continued to be the principles of its harsh domination.(18) The [334] representation of Ireland, in the United Parliament, continued in the hands of the same party, who supported Tory ministers, and encouraged them to resist every concession which more liberal statesmen proposed. Political liberties and equality were withheld; yet the superior moderation and enlightenment of British statesmen secured a more equitable administration of the laws, and much remedial legislation, designed for the improvement of the social and material condition of the people. These men earnestly strove to govern Ireland well, within the range of their narrow principles. The few restrictions which the Union had still left upon her commerce were removed;(19) her laws were reviewed, and their administration amended; her taxation was lightened; the education of her people encouraged; her prosperity stimulated by public works. Despite of insufficient capital and social disturbance, her trade, shipping, and manufactures expanded with her freedom.
At length, after thirty years, the people of Ireland [335] were admitted to the rights of citizens. The Catholic Relief Act was speedily followed by an amendment of the representation; and from that time, the spirit of freedom and equality has animated the administration of Irish affairs. The party of Protestant ascendency was finally overthrown; and rulers pledged to a more liberal policy, guided the councils of the state. Ireland shared with England every extension of popular rights. The full development of her liberties, however, was retarded by the factious violence of parties,—by the divisions of Orangemen and repealers,—by old religious hatreds,—by social feuds and agrarian outrages; and by the wretchedness of a population constantly in excess of the means of employment. The frightful visitation of famine in 1846, succeeded by an unparalleled emigration, swept from the Irish soil more than a fourth of its people.(20) Their sufferings were generously relieved by England; and, grievous as they were, the hand of God wrought greater blessings for the survivors, than any legislation of man could have accomplished.
In the midst of all discouragements,—in spite of clamours and misrepresentation,—in defiance of hostile factions,—the executive and the legislature have nobly striven to effect the political and social regeneration of Ireland. The great English parties have honourably vied with one [336] another, in carrying out this policy. Remedial legislation for Ireland, and the administration of her affairs, have, at some periods, engrossed more attention than the whole British Empire. Ancient feuds have yet to be extinguished, and religious divisions healed: but nothing has been wanting that the wisdom and beneficence of the state could devise for insuring freedom, equal justice, and the privileges of the constitution, to every class of the Irish people. Good laws have been well administered: franchises have been recognised as rights, not admitted as pretences. Equality has been not a legal theory, but an unquestioned fact. We have seen how Catholics were excluded from all the rights of citizens. What is now their position? In 1860, of the twelve judges on the Irish bench, eight were Catholics.(21) In the southern counties of Ireland, Catholic gentlemen have been selected, in preference to Protestants, to serve the office of sheriff, in order to insure confidence in the administration of justice. England has also freely opened to the sons of Ireland the glittering ambition of arms, of statesmanship, of diplomacy, of forensic honour. The names of Wellington, Castlereagh, and Palmerston attest that the highest places in the state may be won by Irish genius.
The number of distinguished Irishmen who have been added to the roll of British peers, proves with what welcome the incorporation of the sister kingdom has been accepted. Nor have other dignities [337] been less freely dispensed to the honourable ambition of their countrymen. One illustration will suffice. In 1860, of the fifteen judges on the English bench, no less than four were Irishmen.(22) Freedom, equality, and honour have been the fruits of the Union; and Ireland has exchanged an enslaved nationality, for a glorious incorporation with the first empire of the world.
'So to effect his monarch's ends,
From hell a viceroy devil ascends:
His budget with corruption cramm'd—
The contributions of the damn'd—
Which with unsparing hand he strows
Through courts and senates, as he goes;
And then, at Beelzebub's black hall,
Complains his budget is too small.'
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