Although the government had been able, in 1783, to procure a
dissolution of the volunteer corps, the bulk of the Irish people
continued to express the most anxious desire for such a reform in
their Parliament as might render it a more just representation of the
popular voice. Unable to yield to them on this point, Mr. Pitt
endeavored to appease them by extending their commercial privileges;
but his wishes were frustrated, chiefly by the jealousy of the British
merchants. A strong feeling of discontent, not only with the
government, but with the British connection, was thus engendered in
Ireland.
The commencement of the revolutionary proceedings in France excited
the wildest hopes of the Irish. Towards the close of the year 1791,
they formed an association, under the title of the United Irishmen,
comprehending persons of all religions, and designed to obtain ‘a
complete reform of the legislature, founded on the principles of
civil, political, and religious liberty.’ The government from the
first suspected this association of meditating an overturn of the
state, and took strong measures for keeping it in check. Acts were
passed for putting down its meetings, and the secretary, Mr. Hamilton
Rowan, was tried and sentenced to a fine and two years’ imprisonment
for what was termed a seditious libel. At the same time, some
concessions to the popular spirit were deemed indispensable, and the
Irish Parliament accordingly passed acts enabling Catholics to
intermarry with Protestants, to practice at the bar, and to educate
their own children.
On discovering that a treasonable correspondence had been carried on
with France by some leading persons in the society of United Irishmen,
the government was so much alarmed as to send (1794) a Whig
lord-lieutenant (Earl Fitzwilliam) to grant further concessions; but
ere anything had been done, the ministers were persuaded by the
Protestant party to return to their former policy. The patriotic party
now despaired of effecting any improvement by peaceable means, and an
extensive conspiracy was entered into for delivering up Ireland to the
French republic. The scheme was managed by a directory of five
persons, and though half a million of men were concerned in it, the
most strict secrecy was preserved. In December 1796, a portion of the
fleet which had been fitted out by the French to coöperate with the
Irish patriots, landed at Bantry Bay; but measures for a rising of the
people not being yet ripe, it was obliged to return. Next year, the
losses at Camperdown crippled the naval resources of France, and
prevented a renewal of the expedition. Losing all hope of French
assistance, the conspirators resolved to act without it; but their
designs were betrayed by one Reynolds; and three other members of the
directory, Emmett, Macnevin, and Bond, were seized. Notwithstanding
the precautionary measures which the government was thus enabled to
take, the Union persisted in the design of rising on a fixed day. Lord
Edward Fitzgerald, another of its leaders, was then arrested, and
being wounded in a scuffle with his captors, soon after died in
prison. On the 21st of May 1798, Lord Castlereagh, secretary to the
lord-lieutenant, disclosed the whole plan of insurrection, which had
been fixed to commence on the 23d.
Though thus thwarted in their designs, and deprived of their best
leaders, the conspirators appeared in arms in various parts of the
country. Parties attacked Naas and Carlow, but were repulsed with
loss. A large party, under a priest named Murphy, appeared in the
county of Wexford, and took the city of that name. Slight
insurrections about the same time broke out in the northern counties
of Antrim and Down, but were easily suppressed. In Wexford alone did
the insurgents appear in formidable strength. Under a priest named
Roche, a large party of them met and defeated a portion of the
government troops; but on a second occasion, though they fought with
resolution for four hours, they were compelled to retreat. Another
defeat at New Ross exasperated them greatly, and some monstrous
cruelties were consequently practised upon their prisoners. On the
20th of June, their whole force was collected upon Vinegar Hill, near
Enniscorthy, where an army of 13,000 men, with a proportionate train
of artillery, was brought against them by General Lake. They were
completely overthrown and dispersed. From this time the rebellion
languished, and in July it had so far ceased to be formidable, that an
act of amnesty was passed in favor of all who had been engaged in it,
except the leaders.
On the 22d of August, when the rebellion had been completely
extinguished, 900 French, under General Humbert, were landed at
Killala, in the opposite extremity of the country from that in which
the insurgents had shown the greatest strength. Though too late to be
of any decisive effect, they gave some trouble to the government. A
much larger body of British troops, under General Lake, met them at
Castlebar, but retreated in a panic. They then advanced to the centre
of the country, while the lord-lieutenant confessed the formidable
reputation which their countrymen had acquired, by concentrating an
immensely disproportioned force against them. On the 8th of September,
they were met at Carrick-on-Shannon by this large army, to which they
yielded themselves prisoners of, war.
During the ensuing two years, the British ministers exerted themselves
to bring about an incorporating union of Ireland with Great Britain; a
measure to which the Irish were almost universally opposed, but which,
by the use of bribes and government patronage liberally employed
amongst the members of the Irish legislature, was at length effected.
From the 1st of January 1801, the kingdom of Ireland formed an
essential part of the empire, on which was now conferred the name of
the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. The act of Union
secured to the Irish most of the commercial privileges which they had
so long sought. Upon a comparison of the aggregate exports and imports
of the two countries, Ireland was to raise two parts of revenue for
every fifteen raised by Great Britain, during the first twenty years
of the Union, after which new regulations were to be made by
Parliament. One hundred commoners were to be sent by Ireland to the
British (now called the Imperial) Parliament; namely, two for each
county, two for each of the cities of Dublin and Cork, one for the
university, and one for each of the thirty-one most considerable
towns. Four lord spiritual, by rotation of sessions, and twenty-eight
lords temporal, elected for life by the Peers of Ireland, were to sit
in the House of Lords.
The Union, though, upon the whole, effected in a spirit of fairness
towards Ireland, increased the discontent of the people, which broke
out in 1803 in a new insurrection. Under Robert Emmet and Thomas
Russell, a conspiracy was formed for seizing the seat of the
vice-government, and for this purpose a great multitude of peasantry
from the county of Kildare assembled (July 23) in Dublin. Disappointed
in their attempt upon the castle, they could only raise a tumult in
the streets, in the course of which Lord Kilwarden, a judge, and his
nephew, Mr. Wolfe, were dragged from a carriage and killed. The mob
was dispersed by soldiery, and Emmett and Russell, being seized, were
tried and executed.