A Brighter Outlook—Some Popular Measures—Trouble in
the North—The Gunpowder Bill and the Convention Act—Irish Interest in
the French Revolution—The New Administration—Earl Fitzwilliam's
Viceroyalty—His Dismissal of John Claudius Beresford—Fitzwilliam
recalled, is succeeded by Lord Camden —Robert Stewart, Viscount
Castlereagh, becomes an Active Member of the Irish Executive—Lord
Carhampton's Vigorous Measures as Commander-in-Chief—General Lake
proclaims the Major Portion of Ulster—Grattan's Indignation—Suppression
of the Northern Star Newspaper—Trial and Execution of William
Orr.
The outlook in Ireland now assumed a brighter aspect.
The Emancipation Act of 1793, which was the outcome of the royal
command, ensured His Majesty's Catholic subjects in Ireland the
electoral franchise; the right of voting for civic magistrates; the
privilege of becoming grand jurors; that, sitting as petty jurors, they
should no longer be challenged for faith when a Protestant and Catholic
were in litigation; the power to endow a college and schools; the right
to carry arms, when possessed of certain property; the right to sit as
magistrates, and to hold civil and military offices and places of trust
under certain qualifications. They were also enabled to take degrees in
the University.
Such measures as this caused a friendly feeling to
arise between Ireland and England, even the Dissenters wished that their
Catholic fellow-countrymen should be granted their desires. The death of
Prince Charles Edward removed a bone of contention, and several Bills
were passed which gave universal satisfaction, such as the
Responsibility Bill, the Pension Bill, and the Place Bill, the last of
which excluded revenue officers, and vacated the seats of members of
Parliament who should henceforth accept Government situations. With
these was enacted Grattan's Bill to encourage the reclamation of waste
lands by exemption from tithes for seven years. In spite, however, of
these measures, dregs of the bitter spirit of religious animosity
remained. A Proclamation issued on the 13th of February stated that
outrages had been committed in the counties of Louth, Meath, Cavan,
Monaghan, the county of the town of Drogheda, and even in the county of
Dublin. Horrible outrages were committed in the county of Donegal, such
as burning houses, destroying corn, and houghing cattle. A marauding
party entered the house of Mark Cassidy, of Derry, in the county of
Monaghan, and plundered the premises, carrying away arms and valuables.
A large party of men, well armed, attacked and fired on a body of the
King's troops near Ardee, who killed seven of them and wounded many. For
some time after this incident the inhabitants of Ardee, headed by the
magistrates, kept guard all night, so great was their fear of being
massacred. A body of men calling themselves "Green-cockade Men"
assembled in great numbers at Moneymore, in the county of Derry. They
paraded in arms, and exercised in a public manner, and at last became so
formidable that it was found necessary to send General White and a body
of troops to suppress them.
Had these disturbances been confined to Ulster,
Pitt's policy of reform might have been continued; but, unfortunately
for the country's welfare, similar displays of lawlessness were made in
the other provinces, and strong measures had perforce to be taken for
their suppression. As a preliminary step, the Irish House of Lords
appointed a Secret Committee to enquire into the causes of the disorders
and disturbances which prevailed in several parts of the kingdom. From
the Report furnished by this Secret Committee we learn that "an unusual
ferment had for some months disturbed several parts of
the north, particularly the town of Belfast and the county of Antrim".
It also stated that "stands of arms and gunpowder to a very large
amount, much above the common consumption, have been sent within these
few months to Belfast and Newry, and orders given for a much greater
quantity, which it appears could be wanted only for military operations.
At Belfast, bodies of men in arms are drilled and exercised for several
hours almost every night by candle-light, and attempts have been made to
seduce the soldiery; which, much to the honour of the King's forces,
have proved ineffectual."
To remedy this state of things the Government carried
through, in the session of 1793, a Gunpowder Bill and the Convention
Act. The former is entitled " An Act to prevent the importation of Arms,
Gunpowder, and Ammunition into this Kingdom, and the removing and
keeping of Gunpowder, Arms, and Ammunition without Licence". The
Convention Bill was introduced into the House of Lords by Lord Clare. It
purported to be an Act against Conventions, but Grattan declared it to
be a false declaration of law, and said it deprived the subject of his
constitutional right of petitioning effectually against grievances, by
rendering the previous measure of consultation and deliberation
criminal. He was particularly indignant because, by implication, it
condemned all previous Conventions, including his own Volunteer
Convention.
But, indignant as Grattan might be, there was some
reason in the move made by the Government; for although the United
Irishmen professed the same loyalty as the Catholic Convention, the
statements of many of their leaders at a later period prove that much of
the Report of the Secret Committee was based on truth, and that the
United Irishmen were secretly training the peasantry to arms in support
of French revolutionary principles, and were indeed looking forward to
receiving assistance from France to carry their designs into effect.
Several such societies corresponded with kindred societies in France,
and some of the Irish leaders visited France with the object of
strengthening the bond of union formed by the correspondence. Among
those who thus visited Paris was Lord Edward FitzGerald, who, while in
the French capital, lodged with Tom Paine, and at a public gathering
renounced his title, proposing, as Citizen Edward FitzGerald, a toast to
the "speedy abolition of hereditary titles and feudal distinctions". In
the spring of 1793 Napper Tandy, who was to have been tried at Dundalk
assizes on a charge of distributing a seditious publication in the
county Louth, on learning that bills had been found against him on
another and more serious charge—that of holding communication with
Defenders at Castle-Bellingham—fled to America. In England the admirers
of the French Revolution, becoming bolder, joined in the cry for
Parliamentary reform. The Government became alarmed, and, in May, 1794,
suspended the Habeas Corpus Act, besides passing an Act against
seditious assemblies.
Affairs in France now assuming a very serious aspect,
a large part of the old Rockingham party decided to join Pitt's
administration, among them being the Duke of Portland and Earls
Fitzwilliam and Spencer in the Lords, and Burke, Wyndham, and others in
the Commons. Lord Fitzwilliam became President of the Council; Lord
Spencer, Privy Seal; the Duke of Portland, Secretary of State; and
Wyndham, Secretary for War. Grattan was informed that Pitt was
favourable to reform and to the Catholics, and was pressed to accept the
Chancellorship of the Exchequer. This he declined, preferring to see Sir
John Parnell continue in office, but he subsequently acted as Leader.
Ponsonby and Grattan were summoned to England, and held consultations
with the Duke of Portland and Pitt, with the result that it was
generally understood that the entire emancipation of the Catholics was a
condition of Earl Fitzwilliam's accepting the Position of Viceroy of
Ireland.
On the 14th of January, 1795, Earl Fitzwilliam landed
in Ireland, where his coming was the cause of general rejoicing. On the
22nd the opening of Parliament took place, and the Lord-Lieutenant
delivered a vigorous speech. Grattan, in reply, made an eloquent speech
for war with France and cordial co-operation with England. He inveighed
against the attitude of France, her mistaken views of liberty, the
menace such views were to Europe, the danger to Ireland. "As formerly",
said Grattan, "you struggled for the British constitution in opposition
to the claim of the British Parliament, so now you contend in
conjunction with Great Britain for that constitution against France, and
for that constitution with everything beside included, you fight for
your island."
Fitzwilliam, confident in the power of which he
believed himself to be possessed, dismissed, amongst others, John
Claudius Beresford from the Revenue Board, where "he was filling", said
the Viceroy, "a situation greater than that of the Lord-Lieutenant . . .
and subjecting my government to all the opprobrium and unpopularity
attendant upon his mal-administration". Beresford flew to the King with
his grievance; he was received, and it is believed that the result was
the recall of Fitzwilliam, in whom the hopes of Ireland had been
centred. On the 24th of March he resigned the government of the country
into the hands of the Archbishop of Armagh and Lord Fitzgibbon as Lords
Justices.
In spite of the change of government, Grattan brought
in a Catholic Relief Bill, the second reading being fixed for the 4th of
May. The opposition to the Bill was led by the Solicitor-General, who
described it as a plan to overthrow entirely the constitution
established by the Revolution of 1688. His motion that the Bill should
be rejected was seconded by Lord Kingsborough, who said: "This Bill is
to take the power from the Protestants to give it to the Catholics. ...
I have been a steady friend to the Catholics; but I never would give up
the Protestant interest, or take any step to destroy the Church of
Ireland." The connection between the Catholics and the United Irishmen
was the chief feature of a long speech against the Bill made by the
Member for Hillsborough (R. Johnson), in which he referred to Hamilton
Rowan, Wolfe Tone, and other leaders of the United Irishmen as
"clamorous harbingers of blood and death". After a long debate, the Bill
was rejected by 155 to 84.
Fitzwilliam was succeeded by Lord Camden; Robert
Stewart, Viscount Castlereagh, became an active member of the Irish
executive; and Lord Carhampton, grandson of Henry Luttrell, was given
command of the army. Early in 1796 an Insurrection Act was passed,
making the administration of an oath like that of the United Irishmen
punishable with death; and a discretionary power was given to
magistrates to proclaim counties. "Lord Carhampton," says Sir Richard
Musgrave, "finding that the laws were silent and inoperative in the
counties which he visited, and that they did not afford protection to
the loyal and peaceable subjects, who in most places were obliged to fly
from their habitations, resolved to restore them to their usual energy
by the following salutary system of severity. In each county he
assembled the most respectable gentlemen and landowners in it, and
having, in concert with them, examined the charges against the leaders
of these banditti, who were in prison, but defied justice, he, with the
concurrence of these gentlemen, sent the most nefarious of them on board
a tender, to serve in His Majesty's navy."
The leaders of the United Irishmen now commenced to
graft a military organization on their civil organization. This was
commenced in Ulster about the end of 1796, and in Leinster in the
beginning of the year following. The secretary of a society of twelve
became a petty officer; the delegates to the lower baronial committees
became captains; the delegate from the lower to the upper baronial
committee was, in most cases, a colonel, but every commission higher
than that of colonel was in the appointment of the executive directory.
The society spread rapidly among the humbler classes, especially in
localities where Orange lodges were established.
On the 13th of March, 1797, General Lake, commanding
the northern district, issued a proclamation at Belfast virtually
placing a great part of Ulster under martial law, and ordering all
persons to surrender their arms and ammunition. On March the 17th,
attention was called in Parliament to Lake's proclamation. The attention
of the Lord-Lieutenant being drawn to this, he sent a message to the
House stating that he had proclaimed the counties of Antrim, Derry,
Donegal, Down, and Tyrone in a state of disturbance, owing to their
insurrectionary spirit, and had ordered Lake to act. Grattan revolted
against "attainting one entire province of Ireland of high treason".
Ulster should recover her liberty; military tyranny must fail, though
"many of their enemies do not scruple to express a wish for a rebellion
in the north". He moved that the Viceroy be asked to recall his
proclamation. This was defeated by 127 to 16.
At this time there were in the County Antrim over
22,000 men enrolled in the ranks of the United Irishmen, who, in
addition, according to papers seized in Belfast on the 10th of May,
1797, possessed nearly 3000 guns, 1200 bayonets, 300 pistols, 250
swords, nearly 3500 pikes, 20,000 ball cartridges, more than 50,000
balls, 900 pounds of powder, 8 cannons, and 1 mortar.
After his proclamation in March, General Lake
increased the rigour of military government in the north, and the people
were further exasperated by numerous outrages, sometimes unprovoked and
unnecessary, committed by the soldiery. Houses were plundered and
demolished on the mere suspicion that the inhabitants were United
Irishmen. A newspaper called the Morning Star, edited by Samuel
Neilson and printed at Belfast by Robert and William Simms, was seized,
and the brothers Simms were arrested and sent to Newgate. The paper was
still carried on, and the editor was required by military authority to
insert a paragraph reflecting on the loyalty of the people of Belfast.
This he refused to do, with the result that the offices of the paper
were attacked by the military, and the machinery and plant destroyed. A
regiment of cavalry called the Ancient Britons, under the command of Sir
Watkin Williams Wynne, was particularly notorious for the part it took
in outrages of all kinds. On one occasion, information having been
lodged that a house near Newry contained concealed arms, a party of the
Ancient Britons was sent to it, but found they had been wrongly
informed, and, annoyed at their fruitless search, they set fire to the
premises. This happened to be the first dwelling set on fire by the
military, and the peasantry, ignorant of the fact, hastened to
extinguish the flames, whereupon they were attacked and cut down by the
soldiers, and thirty of them were killed, including a woman and two
children. A man of seventy fled from the scene, but he was overtaken,
and, while on his knees imploring for mercy, his head was deliberately
struck from his shoulders with one sweep of an enraged cavalryman's
sabre.
In the autumn of 1797 William Orr of Antrim was tried
at Carrickfergus, before Lord Yelverton and Mr. Justice Chamberlain,
charged with administering the United Irishman's oath to a soldier named
Whately, who was the only witness against him. The jury retired at six
o'clock in the evening, and remained locked up all night. The court was
opened by Lord Yelverton at six o'clock on the morning following, when
the jury desired to know if they might not find a qualified verdict,
which would not affect the life of the prisoner. This being
inadmissible, they retired, and after much deliberation brought in a
verdict of guilty, at the same time recommending the prisoner to mercy.
On the day following Orr was brought up to receive sentence, when his
counsel made a motion in arrest of judgment. This was overruled by the
court. The counsel then stated that a most extraordinary event had just
come to their knowledge, of which it was their duty to apprise the
court. "Two of the jurors had made an affidavit, stating that on the
night of the trial a considerable quantity of spirituous liquor had been
conveyed into the jury-room, and drunk by the jury, many of whom were
greatly intoxicated. The two jurors who made the affidavit admitted
themselves also to have been in a state of intoxication; and one of them
was threatened to be prosecuted as a United Irishman if he did not
concur in a verdict of [guilty; until, at length, worn out by fatigue
and drink, he did, contrary to his judgment, concur in that verdict."
The affidavits having been produced, counsel was
interrupted by Mr. Justice Chamberlain, who declared that such a
statement ought not to be permitted; that it was evidently calculated to
throw discredit upon the verdict, and could not be the foundation of any
motion to the court. The unhappy Orr was then remanded, and on the day
following was again brought up, when Lord Yelverton, in a solemn and
pathetic manner, pronounced sentence of death upon him, bursting as he
did so into tears. Orr protested his innocence. "The jury", he cried,
"has convicted me of being a felon; my own heart tells me that their
conviction is a falsehood. I am not a felon. If they have found me so
improperly, it is worse for them than for me, for I can forgive them. I
will say but one word more, and that is to declare, in the awful
presence of. God, that the evidence against me was grossly perjured—
grossly and wickedly perjured."
Every exertion was made by Orr's family, his friends,
and the country at large to procure a suspension of the sentence. The
affidavit of the two jurors was followed up by a solemn declaration of
other jurors to the same effect. The only witness, the soldier to whom
Orr was stated to have administered the oath, came voluntarily forward,
and deposed before a magistrate, on oath, that his testimony against Orr
was false. Petitions to the Lord-Lieutenant, praying that the prisoner's
life might be spared, poured in from all parts of the country, but in
vain. Three times a respite was granted, but notwithstanding all the
evidence in favour of Orr, who was a man of high character and
respectability, Lord Camden refused to interfere, and Orr was executed
at Carrickfergus on the 14th of October, 1797, protesting his innocence
to the last.
This judicial murder destroyed any residue of
confidence which the people had in the law or the Government, and
"Remember Orr" became a watchword with United Irishmen.
