The British Government seem to have thought it best at this time to
pursue a laissez faire policy in Ireland, in order to convince the
Irish of their weakness, and to show them that, although a bundle
of sticks when loosened allows each stick to be used for beating,
and it may therefore be argued that sticks, being meant for
fighting, should never be bound in a bundle, yet each single stick
may easily get broken. Of course the Government intended to
intervene before it was too late, and to suggest to the Irish that
it was time to think of a union with their stronger neighbours.
On this subject, Maria remarks: 'It is certain that the combinations
of the disaffected at home and the advance of foreign invaders, were
not checked till the peril became imminent, and till the purpose of
creating universal alarm had been fully effected. As soon as the
Commander-in-Chief and the Lord-Lieutenant (at the time joined in
the same person) exerted his full military and civil power, the
invaders were defeated, and the rebellion was extinguished. The
petty magisterial tyrants, who had been worse than vain of their
little brief authority, were put down, or rather, being no longer
upheld, sank to their original and natural insignificance. The laws
returned to their due course; and, with justice, security and
tranquillity, were restored.
'My father honestly, not ostentatiously, used his utmost endeavours
to obliterate all that could tend to perpetuate ill-will in the country.
Among the lower classes in his neighbourhood he endeavoured to
discourage that spirit of recrimination and retaliation which the
lower Irish are too prone to cherish, and of which they are proud.
"Revenge is sweet, and I'll have it" were words which an old
beggar-woman was overheard muttering to herself as she tottered
along the road. . . .
'The lower Irish are such acute observers that there is no deceiving
them as to the state of the real feelings of their superiors. . . .
'It was soon seen by all of those who had any connection with him,
that my father was sincere in his disdain of vengeance--of this they
had convincing proof in his refusing to listen to the tales of
slander, which so many were ready to pour into his ear, against
those who had appeared to be his enemies.
'They saw that he determined to have a public trial of the man who
had instigated the Longford mob, but that, for the sake of justice,
and to record what his own conduct had been, he did not seek this
trial from any petty motives of personal resentment.
'During the course of the trial, it appeared that the sergeant was a
mere ignorant enthusiast, who had been worked up to frenzy by some,
more designing than himself. Having accomplished his own object of
publicly proving every fact that concerned his own honour and
character, my father felt desirous that the poor culprit, who was
now ashamed and penitent, should not be punished. The evidence was
not pressed against him, and he was acquitted. As they were leaving
the courthouse my father saw, and spoke in a playful tone to the
penitent sergeant, who, among his other weaknesses, happened to be
much afraid of ghosts. "Sergeant, I congratulate you," said he,
"upon my being alive here before you--I believe you would rather
meet me than my ghost!" Then cheering up the man with the assurance
of his perfect forgiveness, he passed on.
'The malevolent passions' my father always considered as the
greatest foes to human felicity--they would not stay in his mind--he
was of too good and too happy a nature. He forgot all, but the moral
which he drew for his private use from this Longford business. He
kept ever afterwards the resolution he had made, to mix more with
general society.
'His thoughts were soon called to that most important question, of
the Union between England and Ireland, which it was expected would
be discussed at the meeting of Parliament.
'It was late in life to begin a political career--imprudently so,
had it been with the common views of family advancement or of
personal fame; but his chief hope, in going into Parliament, was to
obtain assistance in forwarding the great object of improving the
education of the people: he wished also to assist in the discussion
of the Union. He was not without a natural desire, which he candidly
avowed, to satisfy himself how far he could succeed as a
parliamentary speaker, and how far his mind would stand the trial of
political competition or the temptations of ambition.
'On the subject of the Union he had not yet been able, in
parliamentary phrase, to make up his mind: and he went to the House
in that state in which so many profess to find themselves, and so
few ever really are--anxious to hear the arguments on both sides,
and open to be decided by whoever could show him that which was best
for his country.
'The debate on the first proposal of the Union was protracted to an
unusual length, and when he rose to speak, it was late at night, or
rather it was early in the morning--two o'clock--the House had been
so wearied that many of the members were asleep. It was an
inauspicious moment. No person present, not even the Speaker, who
was his intimate friend, could tell on which side he would vote.
Curiosity was excited: some of the outstretched members were roused
by their neighbours, whose anxiety to know on which side he would
vote prompted them to encourage him to proceed. This curiosity was
kept alive as he went on; and when people perceived that it was not
a set speech, they became interested. He stated his doubts, just as
they had really occurred, balancing the arguments as he threw them
by turns into each scale, as they had balanced one another in his
judgment; so that the doubtful beam nodded from side to side, while
all watched to see when its vibrations would settle. All the time he
kept both parties in good humour, because each expected to have him
their own at last. After stating many arguments in favour of what
appeared to him to be the advantages of the Union, he gave his vote
against it, because, he said, he had been convinced by what he had
heard in that House this night, that the Union was at this time
decidedly against the wishes of the great majority of men of sense
and property in the nation. He added that if he should be convinced
that the opinion of the country changed at the final discussion of
the question, his vote would be in its favour.
'One of the anti-Unionists, who happened not to know my father
personally, imagined from his accent, style, and manner of speaking,
that he was an Englishman, and accused the Government of having
brought a new member over from England, to impose him upon the
House, as an impartial country gentleman, who was to make a
pretence of liberality by giving a vote against the Union, while, by
arguing in its favour, he was to make converts for the measure. Many
on the Ministerial bench, who had still hopes that, on a future
occasion, Mr. Edgeworth might be convinced and brought to vote with
them, complimented him highly, declaring that they were completely
surprised when they learned how he voted; for that undoubtedly the
best arguments on their side of the question had been produced in
his speech. Lord Castlereagh found the measure so much against the
sense of the House that he pressed it no further at that time.
'This session my father had the satisfaction of turning the
attention of the House to a subject which he considered to be of
greater and more permanent importance than the Union, or than any
merely political measure could prove to his country, the education
of the people. By his exertions a select committee was appointed,
and they adopted the resolutions drawn up by him. When the report of
this committee was brought up to the House, my father spoke at large
upon the subject.
'In his speech he said: It was impossible, when moral principles are
instilled into the human mind, when people are regularly taught
their duty to God and man, that abominable tenets can prevail to the
subversion of subordination and society. He would venture to assert,
though the power of the sword was great, that the force of education
was greater. It was notorious that the writings of one man, Mr.
Burke, had changed the opinions of the whole people of England
against the French Revolution. ... If proper books were circulated
through the country, and if the public mind was prepared for the
reception of their doctrines, it would be impossible to make the
ignorance of the people an instrument of national ruin.
'There is, he contended, a fund of goodness in the Irish as well as
in the English nature. Did God give different minds to different
countries? No, the difference of mind arose from education. It
therefore became the duty of Parliament to improve as much as
possible the public understanding--for the misfortunes of Ireland
were owing not to the heart, but the head: the defect was not from
nature, but from want of culture.
'During this session my father spoke again two or three times, on
some questions of revenue regulations and excise laws: of little
consequence separately considered, but of importance in one respect,
in their effect on the morality of the people. He pointed out that
nothing could with more certainty tend to increase the crime of
perjury than the multiplying custom-house oaths, and what are termed
oaths of office. ... In Ireland the habits of the common people are
already too lax with regard to truth. The difference of religion,
and the facilities of absolution, present difficulties so formidable
to their moral improvement as to require all the counteracting
powers of education, example, public opinion, and law. . . .
Multiplying oaths injures the revenue, by increasing incalculably
the means of evading the very laws and penalties by which it is
attempted to bind the subject. Experience proves that this is a
danger of no small account to the revenue; though trifling when
compared with the importance of the general effect on national
morality, and on the safety and tranquillity of the State, all which
must ultimately rest, at all times and in all countries, upon
religious sanctions. "It was not," my father observed, "by
increasing pains and penalties, or by any severity of punishment,
that the observance of laws can be secured; on the contrary, small
but certain punishments, and few but punctually executed laws, are
most likely to secure obedience, and to effect public prosperity."'
He writes to Darwin in March 1800: 'The fatigue of the session was
enormous. I am a Unionist, but I vote and speak against the union
now proposed to us--as to my reasons, are they not published in the
reports of our debates? It is intended to force this measure down
the throats of the Irish, though five-sixths of the nation are
against it. Now, though I think such union as would identify the
nations, so as that Ireland should be as Yorkshire to Great Britain,
would be an excellent thing: yet I also think that the good people
of Ireland ought to be persuaded of this truth, and not be
dragooned into the submission.
'The Minister avows that seventy-two boroughs are to be compensated
--i.e. bought by the people of Ireland with one million and a half
of their own money; and he makes this legal by a very small
majority, made up chiefly by these very borough members. When
thirty-eight country members out of sixty-four are against the
measure, and twenty-eight counties out of thirty-two have petitioned
against it, this is such abominable corruption that it makes our
parliamentary sanction worse than ridiculous.
'I had the honour of offering, for myself, and for a large number of
other gentlemen, that, if a minister could by any means win the
nation to the measure, and show us even a small preponderance in his
favour, we would vote with him.
'So far for politics. I had a charming opportunity of advancing
myself and my family, but I did not think it wise to quarrel with
myself, and lose my good opinion at my time of life. What did lie in
my way for a vote I will not say, but I stated in my place in the
House, that I had been offered three thousand guineas for my seat
during the few remaining weeks of the session.'
In 1817 he writes:--'The influence of the Crown was never so
strongly exerted as upon this occasion. It is but justice, however,
to Lord Cornwallis and Lord Castlereagh to give it as my opinion,
that they began this measure with sanguine hopes that they could
convince the reasonable part of the community that a cordial union
between the two countries would essentially advance the interests of
both. When, however, the ministry found themselves in a minority,
and that a spirit of general opposition was rising in the country, a
member of the House, who had been long practised in parliamentary
intrigues, had the audacity to tell Lord Castlereagh from his place,
that "if he did not employ the usual means of persuasion on the
members of the House, he would fail in his attempt, and that the
sooner he set about it the better."
'This advice was followed; and it is well known what benches were
filled with the proselytes that had been made by the convincing
arguments which had obtained a majority.
'He went in the spring of 1799 to England, and visited his old
friends, Mr. Keir, Mr. Watt, Dr. Darwin, and Mr. William Strutt of
Derby. In passing through different parts of the country he saw, and
delighted in showing us, everything curious and interesting in art
and nature. Travelling, he used to say, was from time to time
necessary, to change the course of ideas, and to prevent the growth
of local prejudices.
'He went to London, and paid his respects to his friend Sir Joseph
Banks, attended the meetings of the Royal Society, and met various
old acquaintances whom he had formerly known abroad.'
Maria writes:--'In his own account of his earlier life he has never
failed to mark the time and manner of the commencement of valuable
friendships with the same care and vividness of recollection With
which some men mark the date of their obtaining promotion, places,
or titles. I follow the example he has set me.
'My father's and Mrs. Edgeworth's families were both numerous, and
among such numbers, even granting the dispositions to be excellent
and the understandings cultivated, the chances were against their
suiting; but, happily, all the individuals of the two families,
though of various talents, ages, and characters, did, from their
first acquaintance, coalesce. . . . After he had lost such a friend
as Mr. Day . . . who could have dared to hope that he should ever
have found another equally deserving to possess his whole confidence
and affection? Yet such a one it pleased God to give him--and to
give him in the brother of his wife. And never man felt more
strongly grateful for the double blessing. To Captain Beaufort he
became as much attached as he had ever been to Lord Longford or to
Mr. Day.
'His father-in-law, Dr. Beaufort, was also particularly agreeable
to him as a companion, and helpful as a friend.'
Consumption again carried off one of Edgeworth's family: his
daughter Elizabeth died at Clifton in August 1800.
The Continent, which had been practically closed for some years to
travellers, was open in 1802 at the time of the short peace, and
Edgeworth gladly availed himself of the opportunity of mixing in the
literary and scientific society in Paris, and of showing his wife
the treasures of the Louvre--treasures increased by the spoil of
other countries. The tour was arranged for the autumn, and Edgeworth
was looking forward to visiting Dr. Darwin on the way, when he
received a letter begun by the doctor, describing his move from
Derby to the Priory, a few miles out of the town, and sending a
playful message to Maria: 'Pray tell the authoress that the water
nymphs of our valley will be happy to assist her next novel.'
A few lines after, the pen had stopped; another hand added the sad
news that Dr. Darwin had been taken suddenly ill with fainting fits:
he revived and spoke, but died that morning. The sudden death of
such an old and valued friend was a great shock to Edgeworth.
Some months later, his daughter mentions that, 'in passing through
England, we went to Derby, and to the Priory, to which we had been
so kindly invited by him who was now no more. The Priory was all
stillness, melancholy, and mourning. It was a painful visit, yet not
without satisfaction; for my father's affectionate manner seemed to
soothe the widow and daughters of his friend, who were deeply
sensible of the respect and zealous regard he showed for Dr.
Darwin's memory.'