XL. CHAP. report made by the fecret committee of the lords appeared calculated to give countenance. In defense gainst such afperfions, a committee of fix was appointed to examine the accounts, and to publish a report of the receipts and disbursements of this money. The fum of five thousand two hundred pounds was acknowledged to have been received, and nearly five thousand five hundred disbursed, of which above two thousand three hundred had been paid for his agency to a fon of Edmund Burke. By another committee of twenty-two, appointed to examine into the honourable engagements of the catholic body to individuals, report was made that fifteen hundred pounds, with a gold medal of thirty guineas value, fhould be prefented to Theobald Wolfe Tone, agent of the catholic committee; five hundred pounds to the honourable Simon Butler; five hundred to William Todd Jones, befide a fum of the fame amount already paid to him, and five hundred more unless the funds fhould prove infufficient; and that two thoufand pounds fhould be expended in the erection of a ftatue to the king. The fum acknowledged to have been collected from the catholic body appeared extremely fmall to those who had obferved the collections in fome parts of the country. Tone declared to fome gentlemen who are still in Dublin that he never received more than five hundred pounds, yet the affertion is pofitively made that the whole fum of fifteen hundred was given him. CHAP. CHAP. XLI. Bill for the raifing of a militia-Attempts for parliamentary reform-Profecutions and flightsFitzwilliam's viceroyalty-Camden's adminiftration -Disturbances-New fyftem of United IrishmenCoercive acts-Disorders of foldiery--Violences of Orangemen- Armed yeomanry-French expedition to Bantry Violence of United Irish-Severities of adminiftration-Organization of United Irifhmen -Their military organization-Extenfion of the Union Declaration of Orangemen-Huffey's · paftoral epiftle-Parliamentary tranfactionsAnti-minifterial attempt. XLI. THE discontents of the lower claffes in Ireland CHAP. were much augmented by an act of parliament for the raifing of a militia on the English plan, an army Militia bill, of fixteen thoufand for internal defense, enlisted only for four years. This mode of recruiting, the compulfion of every man of the military age, on whom the lot fell, of whatsoever circumstances, to enlift, to find a fubftitute at great expenfe, or to pay a heavy fine, was not only very unjuft, but also quite unnecessary, in a country which abounds in a VOL. II. clafs CHAP. clafs of men fit for voluntary enlistment, without XLI. lofs to the national industry. Some individuals, parliamen 1794. unable to pay, fuftained the feizure and fale of their goods; and fome for expreffions of discontent were committed to prifon. To alleviate, by dividing the burthen, fubfcriptions of money for the raifing of foldiers were generally adopted, which were for a time a heavy tax on peafants, citizens, and men with large families. The recruiting for this defenfive army would have been far easier if the common people had relied on the faith of government. A regiment, nick-named the Green-linnets, enlifted, in the American war, under a promise that they should not be fent on any service out of Ire, land, had been in breach of compact forcibly trans ported to America; and now apprehenfions were entertained of a like difhonourable treatment of the militia. By the grievance of the act, rendered more grievous by mifconception, and in fome places by abuses in its execution, fome riots were occafioned,` particularly at Athboy in the county of Meath, where fome lives were loft, both of the foldiers who who attacked, and of the infurgents, who difperfed without having been defeated. Schemes of In the parliamentary feffion of 1794 an attempt, tary reform, which had been made in the preceding year, to procure a more equal reprefentation of the people in the houfe of commons, was renewed on the fourth of March. The bill, prefented to the house by William Brabazon Ponsonby, and ably fupported by Grattan and Sir Lawrence Parfons, was rejected by a great XLI. great majority. The efforts lately made by the CHAP. minority in parliament, for the promotion of this plan, had not been feconded by the nation, in petitions or addreffes, as formerly. Of this change of the public fentiment, from ardour to indifference, on the subject of reform, three principal caufes feem affignable. The admiffion of the catholics to the elective franchise had alarmed the adherents of proteftant afcendancy, who regarded the boroughs as a barrier against the encroachment of these religionists. The dread of revolutionary principles, emanating from France, had damped the zeal of many for political innovation, and excited others to refist, as dangerous, all attempts of this nature. The scheme of national reprefentation, formed by the fociety of united Irifhmen, evidently on principles of democratic revolution, rendered the idea of reform unpalatable to many friends of genuine liberty. Grattan pronounced in parliament a juft invective againit this plan, a plan of annual difolution of the houfe of commons, and extenfion of the privilege of voting in the election of its members to all males of the legal age without the least regard to property. tions. Arrefts and trials caufed at this time fome agita- Profecu tion in the public mind. Archibald Hamilton 1794. Rowan was in 1794, on the twenty-ninth of January, brought to trial, in confequence of an information filed against him in the preceding June by the attorney general, on a charge of a feditious libel, a manifefto of the united fociety of Irifhmen mentioned Z 2 XLI. CHAP. tioned in the foregoing chapter. He was condemned to a fine of five hundred pounds, imprisonment for two years, and the giving of fecurity in four thou fand pounds for his good behaviour during feven years after his enlargement. Though his trial feems not to have been fair or ftrictly legal, he afterward gave a proof of felf-condeinnation. On the arrest of an English clergyman of the established church, named William Jackson, for a treasonable correfpondence with agents of the French government, Rowan, who appears to have been implicated in this bufinefs, efcaped from prifon on the first of May, and fled to the continent. Thither alfo had retired from profecution James Napper Tandy, a citizen of Dublin, a violent agitator of democracy, forfeiting his recognizance for his appearance at Dundalk, when informed of the weight of evidence against him. A third fugitive in like manner was Theobald Wolfe Tone, a lawyer of uncommon abilities, the principal framer and agent of the united Irish fociety. Jackfon, brought to trial on the twenty-third of April in the following year, and condemned on evidence not unexceptionable, yet probably true, expired in the bar of the court by a dofe of poifon, which he had swallowed to avoid the ignominy of a public execution. viceroy. 1795. Fitzwilliam Previously to Jackson's trial a measure had been adopted by the British cabinet, from which a general conciliation of the people of Ireland, particularly the catholics, was expected by many. In the furious war, into which the British kingdoms had been drawn |