ROMAN
127
ROMAN
without the necessity of obtaining the permission
of a Protestant bishop.
Such grudging concessions irritated rather than appeased in the existing temper of the Catholic body. To consider their position and take measures for the future the Catholic Committee had delegates ap- pointed by the different parishes in Ireland, and in December, 1792, a Catholic convention commenced its sittings in Dublin. By the Protestant bigots it was derisively called the Back Lane Parliament, and every effort was made to discredit its proceedings and identify it with sedition. Fitzgibbon excited the fears of the Protestant landlords by declaring that the repeal of the penal code would involve the repeal of the Act of Settlement, and invalidate the titles by which they held their lands. The Catholic con- vention, however, went on unheeding, and turning with contempt from the Dublin Parliament sent dele- gates with a petition to London. The relations be- tween Catholics and Dissenters were then so friendly that Keogh became a United Irishman, and a Prot- estant barrister named Theobald Wolfe Tone, the ablest of the United Irishmen, became secretary to the Catholic Committee. And when the Catholic delegates on their way to London passed through Belfast, their carriage was drawn through the streets by Presbyterians amid thunders of applause. Had the Prime Minister, Pitt, advised the king to receive the Catholics coldly, he would certainly have earned the goodwill of a small clique in Ireland, to whom their own interests were everything and the interests of England little. But he would have intensified disaffection among nine-tenths of the Irish people, and this at a time when the French had beheaded their king, hurled back the Prussian attack at Valmy, conquered Belgium, and, maddened with enthusiasm for liberty and with hatred of monarchy, were about to declare war on England. The king graciously re- ceived the Catholics, and Pitt and Dundus, tlic Ilome Secretary, warned the Irish junta that the time for concessions had come, and that if rebellion broke out in Ireland, Protestant ascendency would not be sup- ported by British arms. And then these Protestants, whom Fitzgibbon anfl the viceroy j^ainted as ready to die rather than yield (juietly, gave way; and in 1793 a bill was pa.ssed giving the Catholics the par- liamentary and municipal franchise, and admitting them to the university and to office. They were still excluded from Parliament and from the higher offices, and from being king's counsel, but in all other respects they were placed on a level with Protestants. In the Commons Foster spoke and voted against the Bill. In the Lords, though not opposing it, Fitzgibbon spoiled the effect of the concession by a bitter speech, and by having an Act passed declaring the Catholic convention illegal, ancl prohibiting all such conventions, Catholic or otherwise, in the future. Relief from so many disabilities left the Catholics almost free. Few of them were affected by exclusion from the higher offices, fewer still by exclusion from the inner Bar; and Liberal Protestants would always be found ready to voice Catholic interests in Parlia- ment if they owed their seats to Catholic votes. Be- sides, in the better temper of the times, it was certain that these last relics of the penal code would soon disappear. Meantime what was needed was a sym- pathetic and impartial administration of the law. But with Fitzgibbon the guiding spirit of Irish govern- ment this was impo.ssible. The grandson of a Cath- olic pea.sant, he hated Catholics and seized upon every occasion to cover them and their religion with insults. Autocratic and overbearing, he commanded rather than persuaded, and since he became attorney- general in 1783, his influence in Irish government was immense. His action on the regency question in 1789 procured him the special favour of the king and of Pitt, and he became a peer and Lord Chancellor. It
was one of the anomalies of the Irish constitution that
a change of measures did not involve a change of
men, and hence the viceroy and the chief secretary,
who had opposed all concessions to Catholics, were
retained in office, and Fitzgibbon was still left as if
to prevent further concessions and to nullify what
had been done.
For a brief period, however, it seemed as if men as well as measures were to be changed. At the end of 1794 a section of the English Whigs joined Pitt's administration. The Duke of Portland became Home Secretary, with Irish affairs in his department, and Earl Fitzwilliam became Lord Lieutenant. He came to Ireland early in 1795. His sympathy with the Catholics was well known; he was the friend of Grat- tan and the Ponsonbys, the champions of Emancipa- tion, and in coming to Ireland he believed he had the full sanction of Pitt to popularize Irish Government and finally settle the Catholic question. At once he dismissed Cooke, the Under Secretary, a determined foe of concession and reform, and also John Beresford who, with his relatives filled so many offices that he was called the "King" of Ireland. Fitzgibbon and Foster he seldom consulted. Further, when Grattan at the opening of Parliament introduced an Eman- cipation Bill, Fitzwilliam determined to support it. Of all that he ditl or intended to do he informed the English Ministry, and got no word of i)r()test in reply, and then when the hopes of the Catholics ran high, Pitt turned back and Fitzwilliam was recalled. Why he was thus repudiated, after being allowed to go so far, has never been satisfactorily explahied. It may be because Pitt changed his mind, and meditating a union wished to leave the Catholic question open. It may be because of the dismissal of Beresford, who had powerful friends. It may be that Fitzwilliam, misunderstanding Pitt, went further than he wished him to go; and it seems evident that he managed the question badly and irritated interests he ought to have appeased. Lastly, it is certain that Fitzgibbon poisoned the king's mind by pointing out that to ad- mit Catholics to Parliament would be to violate hia coronation oath.
However the change be explained, it was certainly complete. The new viceroy was instructed to con- ciliate the Catholic clergy by establishing a seminary for the education of Irish priests, and he established Maynooth College. But all further concessions to Catholics and every attempt to reform Parliament he was firmly to oppose. He was to encourage the enemies of the people and frown upon their friends, and he was to rekindle the dying fires of sectarian hate. And all this he did. Beresford and Cooke were restored to office, Foster favoured more than ever, Fitzgibbon made Earl of Clare, Grattan and Ponsonby regarded with suspicion, and the corrupt majority in Parliament petted and caressed. The religious factions of the "Defenders" and the "Peep o' Day Boys" in Ulster became embittered with a change of names. The Defenders became United Irishmen, and these, despairing of Parliament, became republicans and revolutionists, and after Fitzwilliam's recall were largely recruited by Catholics. Their opponents became identified with the Orange society recently formed in Ulster, with William of Orange as its patron saint, and intolerance of Catholicism as the chief article in its creed. These rival societies spread to the other provinces, and while every outrage done by Catholics was punished by Government, those done by Orangemen were condoned. In rapid succes- sion Parliament passed an Arms Act, an Insurrection Act, an Indemnity Act, and a suspension of the Habeas Corpus Act, and these placed the Catholics beyond the protection of law. An undisciplined soldiery recruited from the Orangemen were let loose among them; destruction of Catholic property, free quarters, flogging, picketing, half-hanging, outrages
