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euthusiasra. Petitions poured in from the Catholics; and the majority of the Pro- testants were unquestionably then in favour of a large measure of relief. In Parliament this feeling was fully reflected ; extraordinary supplies were voted, and Grattan, though without official position, became virtually the leader of the Govern- ment. The French party almost entirely disappeared. Leave was given, with but three dissentient voices, to bring in an Emancipation Bill ; it was believed that a Eeform Bill would follow ; the whole Catho- lic population were eager with excitement ; the Protestants were for the most part en- thusiastically loyal. One of the leaders of the United Irishmen afterwards declared that if these reforms had passed, their quar- rel with England was at an end. Such was the state of public feeling, when Fitzwilliam was peremptorily recalled on 19th March. Government, moved by the remonstrances of the Beresfords and several of its old supporters in the country, determined to revert to its accustomed policy. There- upon addresses of condolence poured in upon Grattan, and at Fitzwilliam's de- parture the shutters of the Dublin shops were put up, and crowds followed him to the wharf. Lord Fitzwilliam vigorously protested against the Government thus going back on its contemplated liberal policy towards the Catholics, at a period " when the jealousy and alarm which cer- tainly at the first period pervaded the minds of the Protestant body exist no longer — when not one Protestant corpora- tion, scarcely an individual, has come forward to deprecate and oppose the in- dulgence claimed by the higher order of Catholics — when even some of those who were most alarmed in 1793, and were then the most violent opposers, declare the indulgences now asked to be only the necessary consequences of those granted at that ti_ie, and positively essential to secure the well-being of the two coun- tries." At the swearing in of the new Lord-Lieutenant, Lord Clarendon, a se- rious riot occurred, which had to be quelled by the military. Denouncing in Parliament the conduct of Ministers, Grat- tan remarked : " It is a matter of melan- choly reflection to consider how little that cabinet knows anything relating to Ireland. Ireland is a subject it considers with a lazy contumely, and picks up here and there by accident or design interested and erroneous intelligence. . . I reprobate that pernicious and profligate system and its abettors, which disgraced this country, and with them I deprecate its return." Such was the influence of Government that 228
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his motion for Catholic relief was now re- jected by 158 to 48, and the only impor- tant measure of the session was the estab- lishment of Maynooth College, with a grant of £8,000 a year. The feelings between the Protestants and Catholics were embittered by a contest known as the " Battle of the Diamond," between the rival factions in the north, and by the clearance of a num- ber of Catholics out of Antrim and Down by their Protestant neighbours. In the session of 1796, against the vehement pro- tests of Grattan and Curran, a stringent Insurrection Act was passed. A report of the Whig Club at this period gives a melancholy picture of the state of the poor and the condition of the country generally. In October 1796 Parliament reassembled in consequence of the appre- hension of French invasion. The suspen- sion of the Habeas Corpus Act was enacted, and all measures of relief and reform were persistently opposed. Grattan wound up his speech in opposition to this policy with the words: " I know not where you are leading me — from one strong Bill to another — until I see a gulf before me, at whose abyss I recoil. In it I see no safety — nothing but the absence of our dearest rights, the absence of the Habeas Corpus Act, the absence of civil liberty. Govern- ment have made it a question of passion as well as of power. Do you imagine there is any man who would prefer the wild schemes of republicanism to the sober blessings of the British Constitution, if he enjoyed them ? What is the tree of liberty ? It is sprinkled with the blood of kings and of nobles — some of the best blood of Europe; but if you force your fellow- subjects from under the hospitable roof of the constitution, you will leave them, like the weary traveller, at length to repose under the dreadful tree of liberty. Give them, therefore, a safe dwelling — the good old fabric of the constitution, with its doors open to the community." He made several similar protests in the session of 1797. Matters went from bad to worse. Addressing the ministers in Parliament, Grattan said : " ' You must subdue before you reform ! ' Indeed, alas ! you think so ; but you forget you subdue by reforming : it is the best conquest you can obtain over your own people. But let me suppose you succeed — what is your success? — a military government — a perfect despotism — a hap- less victory over the principles of a mild government and a mild constitution — a union — but what may be the ultimate con- sequences of such a victory? — a separation." On account of the manner in which the yeomen were encouraged, and their con-
