Ireland in '98: sketches of the principal men of the time, based upon the published volumes and some unpublished MSS. of the late Dr. R. R. Madden ... Edited by J. B. Daly

Front matter

IRELAND IN '98 LORD EDWARD FITZGERALD. IRELAND IN '98 Sh*te{res of % principal Uteri us % dDim* BASED UPON THE PUBLISHED VOLUMES AND SOME UNPUBLISHED MSS OF THE LATE DR RICHARD ROBERT MADDEN WITH ENGRAVED PORTRAITS AND CONTEMPORARY ILLUSTRATIONS EDITED BY J. BOWLES DALY, LL.D. AUTHOR OT 'BROKEN IDEALS' 'RADICAL PIONEERS IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY* 'IRELAND IN THE DAYS OF DEAN SWIFT' 'STORM HEROES' LONDON SWAN SONNENSCHEIN, LOWEEY, & CO. PATERNOSTEB SQUAEE ' By the laws of God, of Nature, of Nations, and of your Country, you are, and ought to be, as Free a people as your brethren in England ' — Swift PKEFACE. Ireland is now under the magnifying glass of public opinion ; her past, present, and future, the subjects of anxious and thoughtful deliberation to faithful English friends. There can be no doubt, therefore, that a short history, based upon the most trust worthy documents, and dealing with a memorable period of English legislation — that of '98 — will be of service.

The present volume supplies information which no other work of the day can possibly furnish. Much credit is due to Messrs. Swan Sonnenschein & Co., for their enterprise in purchasing the valuable manuscripts of the late Dr. Madden, as well as in supplying portraits of the leading men of the time and some rare old prints of the period. Dr. Madden was a voluminous writer, a great traveller, and a philanthropist, whose services were recognised by the country, and who gave powerful assistance in the abolition of the slave trade. As Colonial Secre tary, his services were recognised by the Colonies and the English Government. His son, Thomas More '98. VI Madden, M.D., cherishes a sincere regard for his revered father, and possesses valuable documents relating to his life, which he Intends publishing.

Dr. Madden's greatest energies were devoted to his country, and, with the view of vindicating the aspersed memory of Ireland's noblest sons, he col lected every shred of information connected with the men of '98; crossed the Atlantic, and interviewed relatives, friends, enemies, and followers, to accom plish his object. As might be expected, this infor mation accumulated into a large mass of materials ; halting old age, in the meantime, crept in, and pre vented him from giving to the world the results of his indefatigable toil in the shape and form it deserved. Some of those manuscripts were placed in my hands, and I have sifted, selected, and arranged them in a cohesive form. I thought first of giving Dr. Madden's words as closely as I could, but wider knowledge of the subject induced me to abandon this plan, owing to the mass of extraneous matter, repe titions, and what appeared to me unnecessary details.

Chapter I. Robert Emmett

Parentage — Thomas Addis Emmett — Anecdote — Education of Robert Emmett — Expelled from Trinity College— Leaves Ireland — Napoleon Buonaparte — Emmett arrives in Dublin — His leadership — Penal laws — Peace of Amiens — Plan to seize depots and arsenals — Treachery — Attack on Dublin Castle — Want of discipline — Lord Kilwarden — Flight of Emmett — Sarah Curran — Arrest and imprisonment of Emmett — Anne Devlin — Anecdote — The trial — Lord Norbury — Emmett's defence — Execution — Causes of failure — Secret-service money — Spies — Grief of Sarah Curran — Major Sturgeon — Sarah Curran's fate — Moore's lines in memory of her . . . 1

Chapter II. Secret Societies

Whiteboys — Religious persecution — Nicholas Sheehy — Accusations against him — His fate — Oakboys — Hearts-of-steelboys — Religious war — Peep-of-day boys — Orangemen — Their excesses — First Orange lodge — Address of Lord Gosford — Orange toast — Conspiracies of Orangemen — Joseph Hume — Puritan resolutions — Outrages committed by Orangemen — Lord Castlereagh — Contagion of American and French revolutions — Use of torture — Mr. Beresford's ' Mangling ' establishment — 'Beresford's Bloodhounds' — His failure and ruin '98. X PAGE 41 75 113 119 — Colonel Luttrell — Junius, on his degradation — Lady Elizabeth Luttrell— Her degradation and fate— Barbarities of Hepenstall— ' The Walking Gallows '—Lord Norbury— Anecdotes — Absentee bishops— Pension list — The Duke of Rutland — Anecdote ........

Chapter III. Lord Edward Fitzgerald

Parentage — Education — Military profession — Arrives in America — Anecdote — Returns to Ireland — Enters Parliament — ' The faithful Tony' — Visits Gibraltar — Henry Charles Sirr — Cobbett — First love — Member for Athy — Noble character — Voting with the Opposition — Promotion — Quarrel with Duke of Richmond — Opinion of Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland — Conduct in the House — Thomas Paine — Cashiered — Madame de Genlis — Pamela — Romantic history — Fatal beauty — Lord Edward in love — Marriage and departure for England . CHAPTER rV. LORD EDWARD FITZGERALD (continued). Arthur O'Connor — Adventure — Negotiations with France — Connection with United L-ishmen — Arrests at Bond's — Concealment — The traitor Reynolds — Narrow escape — Capture of Lord Edward — Imprisonment in Newgate — Death — Bill of Attainder — Efforts to reverse it — The Prince Regent CHAPTER .V. ARCHIBALD HAMILTON ROWAN.

Parentage— Education — Tour in Holland — Visit to America — Lasting impressions— Travels on the Continent— Marriage and return to Ireland— The Whig Club— Joins United Irishmen — Tone's account of the Society — Duel — Arrest Trial— Imprisonment— A packed jury— Romantic escape- Reward of l.OOOJ. —Peasant loyalty — Arrival in France Fresh adventures — The Reign of Terror — A letter from Castlereagh — Pardon — Retirement — A good citizen Contents. XI PAGE 191 275 297

CHAPTER VI. THEOBALD WOLFE TONE.

Parentage — Education — Marriage — Contributor to magazines — Called to the bar — Founds the Society of United Irishmen — Republican principles — Catholic convention — Rejection of petition — Thomas Russell — French proposals — Jackson's mission — Tone arrives in Philadelphia — Mission to France — Interview with Carnot — General Hoche — Narrow escape

CHAPTER VII. THEOBALD

wolfe tone (continued). French Expedition for Ireland's liberation — Nearing Bantry Bay — Strange fatalities — Hurricane — Return of the Expedition — Extracts from letters — Dutch preparations — The Fleet at the Texel — General Daendel's instructions — A foul wind — Bad news from Ireland — Delays — New plans —Failure — Buonaparte — Matthew Tone's fate — Fatal expedition — Tone's recognition — Imprisonment and trial — Last words — Death

CHAPTER VIII. THOMAS RUSSELL.

Malicious accounts — Parentage — Education — Five years' service in India — 'Beautiful Bess Goddard' — Second love — Friendship with Tone — They establish Society of United Irishmen in Belfast and Dublin — Thomas Digges — Russell's embarrassments — Fresh career — Remarkable pamphlet — Extracts — Arrest — Correspondence — Verses — Arrival in Paris — Disastrous mission — Government reward — Trial — Affecting speech — ' The Grave of Russell ' — His character and motives .

CHAPTER IX. WILLIAM JAMES M'NEVEN.

Descent — Education in Germany — Return to Ireland — Catholic Committee — Represents Navan — Joins United Irishmen — Dangerous mission — ' Protestant ascendency ' — Secret Com- '98. XII PAGE mitteeof House of Lords — Examination of M'Neven — Second Examination — Arrest and imprisonment — Fort George — Visits to the Continent — Commission in French Army — Resignation — Arrival in New York — Successful career — Marriage — Devo tion to Ireland — Public ordeal — Domestic affliction — Severe illness — Death — Tribute to his memory .... 341

CHAPTER X. BARTHOLOMEW TEELING.

Descent — Luke Teeling — Unjust persecution — Bartholomew's childhood — Education — Mrs. Teeling — Military associates — Joins United Irishmen — Enters the Army of the Republic — Friendship of Lord Edward Fitzgerald — ' Erin go Bragh ! ' — Accompanies Humbert's expedition — Firing on the flag of truce — Battle of Ballinamuck — Teeling made prisoner — Humbert's Remonstrance — Trial — The defence — Humbert's letter — Sentence .......... 375 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS lord Edward Fitzgerald ...... Frontispiece ROBERT EMMETT. ....... To face p. 1 L1MBERLIP, THE PRIEST KILLER ..... 44 PEEF-OF-DAY BOYS ... 50 MR. BERESFORD'S RIDING HOUSE ... 62 LORD CARHAMPTON'S BLOODHOUNDS .... 65 PAMELA ....... 75 ARCHIBALD HAMILTON ROWAN . . . 149 THEOBALD WOLFE TONE ..... 101 THOMAS RUSSELL oq7 BARTHOLOMEW TEELING . 01- -

Introduction

. The day has at last dawned and the great clock of Time has chimed the quarter previous to the hour when the large heart of the English nation wdl be roused to concede rights long claimed by the Irish people, but hitherto denied by profligate and in terested rulers. The banner long trailed in the mire, trampled upon, despised and denounced, has been picked up and borne to the front by W. E. Gladstone, the greatest statesman of the century, supported by the sympathy of the people of England, Scotland, and Wales. Much credit is due to the chieftain who has had the courage to break with old companionship in carrying his plan into operation, and consecrating the last days of his busy and glorious political life to an act of reparation for the misdeeds of his predecessors. And further credit is due to the Irish contingent who closed their ranks and, for the first time in their stormy career, presented an unbroken phalanx, de mandinoa domestic Parliament to administer to the wants of their country.

We write a report of the men of '98 to meet a practical want of the day and hour, as the great mass '98. XIV of Englishmen are ignorant of the history of Ireland. They do not know the hundredth part of the crimes that have been perpetrated against that country in their name and by their authority. Educated English men know more of the Peloponnesian wars than of the wars of Ireland, native and Saxon ; are more at home in the siege of Troy than the siege of Limerick ; are better read in the laws of Solon and Lycurgus than in the Penal Code against Irish Catholics. The time is come when this must be changed. The English people must inform themselves of the facts of Irish history, and the state of things which has grown out of these facts. For some time past the Irish question has absorbed the mind of the day, pushed every other topic aside, and has at last obtained pre eminence.

Nothing is more conducive to the final settlement of the difficulty than a close acquaintance with those events out of which the present perplexi ties have mainly arisen. To understand the motive which caused the rebellion of 1798 it is necessary to look backward to the seventy or eighty years preceding that period. No people ever rebelled without adequate cause ; and to detail the sieges and battles of a civd war without a previous understanding of the exciting causes would be futde. The outbreak of '98 did not begin with that year ; the evil which led to it had been ferment ing generations before ; it was not a sudden whim of popular passion, but the culmination of years of mis rule, the crisis of the fever. Here we must ask what Introduction. XV was the previous condition of Ireland, the spirit of her laws, the character of her Government ?

During the eighteenth century there existed in Ireland two classes, one servile and the other tyran nical, living on the same soil, but without moral or social community, severed by a gulf of religious hatred as wide and as impassable as that described by Lazarus. Five-sixths of the Irish people stood to the remaining one-sixth as slaves and enemies, as slaves despised, as enemies hated, degraded, and proscribed. A small bigoted oligarchy ruled the island, wielding the powers of Government in the spirit of a garrison in an enemy's country. Five sixths of the Irish people were excluded from every privilege, office, emolument, corporate right, and political franchise. The diabolical character of the administration cannot be adequately understood in our day, its cold-blooded atrocity can only be dimly imagined, and yet this pernicious system continued for three-quarters of a century without let or hindrance.

The infamous enactments of the Penal Code grew by what they fed on ; we spare the reader its odious and disgusting details. But it must be distinctly borne in mind that the Irish Catholic Penal Code was not constructed in a hurry, not in stituted to meet a sudden emergency like recent Coercion Acts ; it was deliberately planned, slowly perfected, calmly executed, and carefully spread out over ninety years of the national existence. This science of persecution — for it admits of no other name '98. XVI — was protracted and amended, not by an ignorant fanatic or a brutal bigot, but by the pink and pattern of gentlemanly decorum — Lord Castlereagh, whose latest refinement was a law enacting that a marriage celebrated between Protestant and Papist should be annulled, and that the priest who solemnised such a marriage should be hanged by the neck like a dog.

During all those ninety years the Irish Cathodes never once showed a disposition to rebel. In the revolt of 1715, in that of 1745, they were quiet and loyal. In 1759, when a French invasion was expected in the South, the Catholics came forward with a tender of their allegiance and an offer of money to aid the Government. They were all along patient and quiet from brokenspiritedness, submis sive under every fresh infliction, grateful for the smallest relaxation in the execution of the Code of Intolerance. Still the system went on ; every session added some new act of pains and penalties. Burke, in his letter to Sir Hercules Langrish, states with truth, they were ' manifestly the effects of national hatred and scorn towards a conquered people, whom the victors delighted to trample upon, and were not afraid to provoke.' The whole Code ex pressed the insolence of a tyrannical faction, fond of monopoly, proud of its superiority of race, and confident in the irresistible might of England to back all its misdoings.

As Arthur Young says : ' The domineering aristocracy of 500,000 Protestants feel the sweets of having two million slaves.' This Introduction. XVII domineering spirit we meet everywhere in the Ireland of the eighteenth century. Legislators ignored the existence of five-sixths of their own people ; landlords ground the poor with every imaginable in solence and oppression. Add to this the constant grating and rasping nuisance of the Church, alien and intrusive, with tithe-proctors for its apostles, armed constabulary for its evangelists, and its divine service of writs and bailiffs. What could come of such a combination but insurrection, outrage, and murder — the stern savage sense of justice, which will take a wild revenge on its oppressors ? In 1762 the Whiteboys sprang into force ; they were the first of those combinations of misery against oppression which continued through the Oakboys, Rightboys, Defenders, Ribboninen, Fenians, down to the men who support the Plan of Campaign.

The first of these waged a savage war of outraged nature against a yet more savage so ial state, which, in practice as in theory, refused to recognise the existence of the people. And what had the Protestant landlord Parliament to say to Whiteboyism ? Why, it appointed a select committee ' to inquire into the causes and progress of the Popish insurrection in the province of Munster,' as if a man could not rise against unnatural oppression without believing in Transub stantiation and the Seven Sacraments. Irish White boyism was simply a barbarous Insurgency of nature against oppressive law — the Jacobinism of poverty taking wdd revenge on the Jacobinism of wealth. a '98. XVIII These indiscriminate riots and insurrections— by whatever name they were called — were not the offspring of the Popish persuasion, but of continuous and malignant laws.

No specific reference to these abominations is needed. Witnesses drawn from the stews and gallows, bribed with the people's money, clothed and fed at the people's cost, driUed in Dublin Castle and marshalled by the Castle officials into a battalion of Testimony; these still continue in a modified form, and it is to their door the wretched ness, misery, and degradation of Ireland is to be laid. Such was the social and political condition of Ireland during the eighteenth century. The rebellion of 1798 was not a Catholic but an Irish rebellion, which began, not with the Catholics of the South but with the Protestants of the North, and its ultimate aim was not Catholic ascendency but Irish independence. It had Protestants for its directing head, Catholics for its executive members, and Irish national independence for its object.

The rebellion of '98 was the confluence of two streams of political discontent, meeting in the organisation of the Society of United Irishmen. This united action was not a movement of Catholics against Protestants, nor of Protestants against Catholics, but of Irishmen against Great Britain. The first Society of United Irishmen grew out of the ashes of the Volunteers and the disappointed hopes of the legislative revolution of 1782 ; the Volunteers grew out of the parliamentary and popular opposition to British government Introduction. XIX which had shown itself at intervals almost from the beginning of the century, and had gone on steadily widening and deepening from the accession of George III. to the American war. The grievances which arose during the eighteenth century between Protestant Ireland and Protestant England, and which gradually created the spirit of Anglo-Irish nationality, effected a legal revolution in 1782, and attempted a military one in 1798.

The revolution of 1688 placed the Protestant Anglo-Irish colony in a condition of servitude and vassalage to Great Britain. Ireland had then a domestic Parliament, but it was a slave as well as a tyrant, impotent for all purposes but those' of domestic corruption and oppression. This Parlia ment did not possess the power to legislate for the country it nominally governed. It acted under the influence of an Attorney- General whose office dated back to the days of Henry VII. ; it could only frame heads of bills, which heads had to be submitted to the Lord-Lieutenant and his Privy Council, who might, or might not, at their discretion, transmit them to England for the approval of the English Crown and Privy Councd, whence they might, or might not, return altered or unaltered at their discretion ; and it was only after this double process of filtration that any residuum of legislation could be realised.

The Irish House of Commons had liberty to debate and vote what had been debated and voted twice over already hi the Irish and English Councils. a2 '98. XX This tame-cat legislation had not even a veto on Irish legislation. The British Parliament claimed and exercised the right of legislating at pleasure over the heads of the despised and powerless assembly in College Green — cramping Irish trade, governing the Irish Church, ordering the sale of forfeited estates, and in all matters directing the affairs of Ireland according to their own liking, as if Ireland had no Parliament of her own. On this right being feebly contested by the Irish peers in the days of George I., all doubts were quickly cleared away by a Declaratory Act, extin guishing the appellate jurisdiction assumed by the Irish House of Lords, and establishing the right of the British legislature to make laws for and levy taxes on Ireland, in the same manner as the colonial dependencies of the British crown.

It was only a just and fair retribution, and it becomes a positive pleasure to record that, as this Irish Par liament ignored the existence of the Irish people, the English Government ignored the existence of the Irish Parliament. The usurped right of Great Britain to legislate for Ireland was full of consequences. It systematically aimed at the degradation and impoverishment of all that part of the Irish people whose degradation was not already effected by their own domestic legisla tion. In 1698 the English House of Lords besought Introduction. XXI King William to crush the growing manufacture of cloth in Ireland. The Dutchman promptly answered that ' he would take care to do what their lordships desired,' and he kept his word. The Irish House of Commons complained bitterly of this act, but in vain.

The tyranny of the mother country was not borne patiently. The men of the Protestant ascendency had English blood in their veins. More than half of them were Presbyterians, descendants of Cromwell's soldiers, ' the spawn of the old Covenant,' opposed to the prelacy, leavened with Puritanism and Republicanism ; not even loyal to either Church or King, and riotously opposed to the notion of a union with Great Britain. This republican temper of a large portion of the Protestant population of Ireland was the germ, first, of a growing parliamentary opposition to the measures of the English Government, and ultimately of the Volunteer Association and the revolution of 1782. The new spark of Irish independent nationality was not found among the debilitated, pauperised Catholics of the South, but among the Protestants of the North.

This feeling of Irish nationality gave early in dications of its existence. It was declared by Molyneaux in his celebrated treatise in 1698, and listened to by willing ears, both in Parliament and out of it. His book was formally condemned by a vote of the English Commons, and ordered to be burned by the hangman. Yet not the less did this first '98. XXII assertion, by a Protestant of Irish nationality and in dependence, sink into the heart of his country. It aided the great national struggle of 1782, when the English Interest in Ireland openly proclaimed itself an Irish interest, and refused, sword in hand, to be bound by Acts of Parliament in England. The first political occurrence which developed an anti-English feeling; in Ireland was the business of ' Wood's halfpence.' About the middle of the reign of George I., a man named Wood got a patent from the English Government for coining copper halfpence for Irish circulation, to the amount of 108,000?., which coinage he made up of such base material that the whole mass together was not worth the odd 8,000/.

All Ireland rose against the Insulting cheat. Dean Swift's Drapier's letters were cried about the streets for a penny each, and pasted up all over the country ; and the matter ended In rescinding the patent, cading in the halfpence, and the triumph of the Irish people over the British Government. Small as the affair seemed to be, it was no trifle in the eyes of the English Cabinet. This was seen in the letters of Primate Boulter, the dexterous manager of the then English interest in Ireland. Altogether, this affair of Wood's halfpence, trivial as it appears at this distance of time, is not without its significance for us, and is well worth notice in the history of the men of '98. Never had Ireland stronsrer cause to flingoff the incubus of English interest and rise from her political torpor.

The Anglo- Irish Government at this Introduction. XXIII time was corrupt, anti-national, and utterly sordid and contemptible. The country was nominally ruled by a Viceroy, but in reality by Lords Justices. The legislature was, like the executive, corrupt ; the Irish Parliament represented nothing but monied and aristocratic power ; but the specific character of its rottenness lay in the fact that two or three grandees held the whole country, its honours and emoluments, in the palms of their hands. These entered into stipu lations with the Lord- Lieutenant to carry the King's business through the House, and were known by the doubtful title of ' undertakers,' of whom Lord Charle mont said, ' they were well fitted to preside over the funeral of this commonwealth.' Eventually the system was found unmanageable.

A public national spirit continued to grow and work hi the Protestant population, and every day it beg;an to assume a more formidable dimension. The merit of organising this opposition belonged to Lucas, who for thirty years led the opposition to the English interest. What was more remarkable, this same Lucas was of obscure origin, badly educated and of unsteady temper, but a patriot, honest and true to the core. Lucas began his political career by a well-merited attack on certain civil abuses in the corporation of Dublin, and ultimately on the Bri tish Government. The Castle was frightened, and determined to crush him ; he had to fly the country ; but on the accession of George III., when he returned to Dublin, he was sent to agitate in Parlia- '98. XXIV ment as a member for the city. No man did better service.

From this time forth, Irish politics assumed a higher tone and a greater importance. The appro priation question in the reign of George II. was more than a dispute of parliamentary form and privilege. It aided and quickened the growth of a spirit of nationality and independence. It showed the rising power of the Opposition, for in a short time it forced the Government to overhaul the pension list. The new Parliament summoned on the death of George II. gave fresh strength to the Opposition. The first years of his reign were spent on the ques tion of limiting the duration of parliaments. Hitherto the Irish House of Commons had continued undis turbed during the King's lifetime, unless dissolved by prorogation. The Parliament of George II. had sat through the entire reign of that king — a period of thirty-three years.

The members outlived all recollection of their constituents, and refused to acknowledge any re sponsibility to the country. The Irish member's tenure of his seat was practically a life estate. The jobbery, venality, rapacity, and corruption resulting from such a state of things made this life tenancy a glaring evil. For the first eight years of George III.'s reign, the grand measure of the patriots was to correct this, and procure a septennial parliament. A measure for abridging their own tenure of power could not be acceptable to the majority of the new Introduction. XXV House of Commons, yet the pressure from without, and the pertinacity of the minority within, made it not safe to reject the measure. A middle course was devised. The embarrassed legislature had re course to this old, clumsy device of passing the heads of this Septennial Bill and trusting to the Lord- Lieutenant and his Council to stop further progress of a measure which would curtail their power.

Two successive sessions were wasted by the delay. But this game could not continue. Metropolitan and county meetings and petitions disclosed a fast-growing popular determination to be no longer trifled with by ' undertakers ' or ministerial obstruction. To the great consternation of the Dublin officials, the Bill was returned, the Privy Council having altered the proposed term of seven years to eight. The people, however, profited very little by this change, for the Octennial Bill only enhanced the value of borough property by bringing it oftener into the market. Distress, crime, and political corruption continued as much as ever. In the meantime the Government, by undertaking to secure this progress of the King's business, or rather to promote the convenience of the King's friends, was found to be troublesome and expensive.

A new system was proposed by the English Cabinet, and Lord Townshend, as Viceroy, was appointed to conduct it. The new method was worse than the former : a greater bungle could not be contrived ; it was a system of casting out devils by Beelzebub, the '98. XXVI prince of the devils. The plan briefly consisted in breaking down the political monopoly of aristocracy by throwing open the trade in bribes, pensions, and places to a more general competition. The inter vention of the undertaker between the dispensers of patronage and the recipients was abolished ; the resources of the Castle treasury were brought to bear on every separate vote. Townshend put all his faith in the efficacy of well-directed bribery. His lordship's zeal for the Protestant faith was exhibited by offering a bribe of 30/. to 40/. a year pension to priests who conformed to the Protestant faith.

The wits of the day caded them Townshend's golden drops. The new system continued from 1767 to 1771, the whole period of Townshend's viceroyalty. This measure of corruption thoroughly demoralised the country ; for the stream of favours Increased till the source of remuneration was well-nigh exhausted. A new factor was added which increased the difficulty : the re bellion of the American subjects broke out, and the war which followed found Ireland with a bankrupt exchequer, an imbecile Government, and an impo verished and disaffected people. The Irish manufacturers were ruined by the stoppage of the American trade, prevented from emigrating, and compelled to stay crowded up at home ; the provision trade was crushed by embargoes, plundering Ireland to enrich three or four London contractors.

Dublin Castle began to feel the bottom of an exhausted treasury ; every branch Introduction. XXVII of the revenue was failing ; a militia force could not be raised for want of funds ; everywhere reigned sullen despondency, relieved by a malicious satisfaction at seeing England in a difficulty, for Ireland sympathised with America, knowing that her cause was theirs. National insolvency at home and abroad paralysed the right arm of ' English interest.' The old system of Catholic vassalage to British ascendency was worn out, the whole machinery out of gear. It was in the year 1777, when driven like a rat in a corner, that the British minister began to make up his mind to grant a modicum of com mercial and Catholic emancipation as the only way of saving Ireland's allegiance. The war went on; matters became critical.