The French land in Bantry - Ballinamuck.

Chapter XIX.

1795-1798.

Viceroyalty of Marquis Camden and Marquis Cornwallis - Lord Camden Viceroy in March 1795 - Triumph of the Protestant Ascendancy Party - The Beresfords - Gloomy Prospects - Conflict at the Diamond - The Irish Rebel - The French in Bantry Bay in 1796 - Change of Viceroy - Expedition failed - The landing in Killala in 1798 - Withdrawal of Nationalist Members from Parliament - Encounter at Castlebar - Defeat of the British Troops - The Viceroy marches against the French - The Surrender at Ballinamuck - The Tour of the Viceroy to procure Addresses in favour of the Union - Mr. Plunket’s Statement of how the Addresses were procured.

On the 31st March 1795, the Earl, subsequently Marquis Camden, succeeded the popular viceroy, Lord FitzWilliam. His position soon gave confidence to the Ascendancy party, and again the Beresfords were in the possession of power to oppress and harass the Catholics. This sudden recall of the only viceroy who, for centuries, had gained the confidence and won the affections of the Irish people, and who, during his three months’ brief tenure of office, had done a great deal to make British rule submitted to throughout Ireland, was attended with sad results. Gloom fell like a pall upon the nation, and hopes, which rose bright during the tenure of office of Lord FitzWilliam, were soon to be quenched in blood.

On the 21st September 1795, the Protestants of Ulster, under the name of Peep-o’-Day-Boys, came into collision with a party of Catholics calling themselves Defenders, and had a pitched battle at a place named the Diamond, in which the Protestant party were victorious, and henceforward are known as Orangemen. [*Catechism of Irish History, *p. 487. Surely history repeats itself. The hopes of Ireland for Home Rule were high during the viceroyalty of the Earl of Aberdeen in 1886. By the advent of Lord Salisbury to power Lord Aberdeen is replaced by the Marquis of Londonderry, and again the Orangemen of Ulster commenced destroying Catholic life and property.]

The elements tended to defeat the Armada; so the same power prevented the lauding of the French troops procured by the offices of Theobold Wolfe Tone, who, on the 24th December 1796, arrived in Bantry Bay. Had this formidable expedition landed on Irish soil, the country would certainly have secured freedom at last from British rule. The fleet consisted of no less than 17 line-of-battle ships, 13 frigates, and 13 sloops. They Lad on board an army of 14,000 men, 45,000 stand of arms, with artillery and military stores. The land troops were commanded by Generals Hoche and Grouchy; the fleet by Admiral Bouvet The weather was so stormy no effort was made to land the troops, and thus the British rule was preserved in Ireland.

On landing in Bantry Bay the French intended proceeding to Cork. The Protestants and Catholics of that city, who seldom agree on any point, are both alive to the great commercial benefits they would derive from it. [Gibson’s *History of Cork, *vol. ii. p.259.]

The mayor of Cork at this time was Philip Allan. It is related of the mayor in 1796, that when it was reported the French ships of war were in Bantry Bay, he so lost his senses, that when writing, to the then viceroy, praying for troops to defend the city, he said: “To give your Excellency some idea of the way all loyal men are prepared to resist invasion, while I write I hold *a pistol in each hand and a sword in the other.” *

The Roman Catholic bishop, the tight ‘Rev. Dr. Moylan, who was under the impression that the emancipation of the Catholics was part of the Union, strongly supported the measure. His experience of the intolerant spirit of bigotry and hostility of the Irish House of Commons, as shown in the divisions, or by other moderate measures of relief, to the intolerable grievances under which the Catholics of Great Britain and Ireland then laboured, when the measure had only 14 for, to 143 against even the smallest concession, induced the respected Bishop Moylan to write the letter in the Castlereagh Correspondence, approving of the Union as the only chance of obtaining Catholic Emancipation.

Some able statesmen approved of the Union. Montesquie, the eminent French statesman and writer, strongly recommended the Union. Writing to Lord Charlemont, he thus expressed his opinion: “Were I an Irishman I would certainly wish for a union between England and Ireland, and as a great lover of liberty I sincerely desire it, and for this plain reason, that an inferior country connected with one much more superior in force, can never be certain of constitutional freedom unless she has by her representatives a proportional share in the legislature of the superior country.” [Hardy’s *Life of Charlemont, i. *p. 70.]

As we have seen, a very important difference arose on the illness of King George III. Mr. Pitt and the ministry of that time prepared to appoint the Prince of Wales regent, with limited powers, while the Irish Parliament considered the prince regent should have the same power as the king; and there being no mode of reconciling the two Parliaments, the difference would have gone on had not the king recovered, and for the time the controversy ended.

When the Belfast united Irish traitors were pressing on the French Government, the sending a force to Ireland had effect, and it is hard to say what might have been the result had not the same Divine Providence which defeated the Spanish Armada protected the Irish loyalists in 1797. The rebellion of 1798 decided Pitt, and accordingly he resolved to consolidate the empire by binding Ireland with Great Britain. The fact that Ireland was threatened by invasion from without, and actual rebellion within, must tend to excuse Mr. Pitt from his resolution to effect the union. No doubt the means he adopted, bribery and corruption, showed the venality of the class who then were the members of the Irish Parliament - the Protestant aristocracy. The desire to share in the plunder was not wholly confined to the parliamentary supporters of the Government. [*Hist. Review *by Ball, p.170.]

There appears to have been some promise held out that the British minister would not press the Union contrary to the wishes of the Irish people. It was therefore Mr. Pitt’s instructions to the viceroy, Lord Cornwallis, to use his best exertions to show that the principal portion of the inhabitants were favourable; and I now proceed to show how indefatigable his Excellency was in attempting to fulfil the desires of Mr. Pitt.

No place was too obscure to be visited, no result too low to be counted, no threat too vile to be refrained from; the counties were legally convened by the high sheriffs; every attempt was made to procure the suffrages of the independent portion of the community; public addresses were sought for from petty villages.

Thinkel stated: - “After employing your military commanders, the concentrated activity of life and death, to hunt the rebels against the constituted authorities; after squeezing the lowest dregs of a population of near five millions, you obtained about 5,000 signatures, three-fourths of whom affixed their names in surprise, terror, or total ignorance of the subject; and after all this canvass of the people, and after all this corruption wasted on the Parliament, and after all your boasting, after abusing the names of the dead, and forging the signatures of the living; after polling the inhabitants of the gaol, and calling out against Parliament the suffrages of those who dare not come in to sign until they got their protection in their pockets; after employing the revenue officers to threaten the publican that he should be marked as a victim, and the agent to terrify the shivering tenant with the prospect of his turf-bog being withheld if be did not sign the address, and private signatures smuggled from public counters, - and how procured? By the influence of absentee landlords - not over the affections, but over the terrors of their tenantry; by grasping agents and revenue officers. And after all this mummery bad been exhausted; after the lustre of royalty had been tarnished by this vulgar intercourse with the lowest rank; after every spot had been selected where a paltry address could be secured, and every place avoided where a manly courage would have refused to aid the efforts of the viceroy:’ Ireland then had numerous members ever ready to sell their comrades who blindly trusted them.

Every man of influence who supported the Union was gratified, either by elevation in rank if a peer, by a peerage if a commoner, or by money if he preferred. The compensation money paid for disfranchising and decreasing the opposition in the boroughs amounted to one million two hundred thousand pounds - “Paid by the people,” said Grattan, “for getting themselves turned out of Parliament.” The price paid to patrons of boroughs was £15,000 for each. The Earl of Shannon had the patronage of four boroughs in County Cork, which were worth £60,000.

Lord Castlereagh, the chief secretary, who spent a large amount of money in bribing and distributing places and pensions to secure a majority in the Houses of Lords and Commons, brought forward Mr. Pitt’s measure, for there was an idea, and perhaps a well-grounded one, that some violent demonstration, such as I have previously narrated, might arise.

The position of Foster, the Speaker, who to the last was hostile to the Union, but now constrained by his duty, was a painful one. when the House met the sad aspect of almost every one denoted that a dissolution was at hand. The galleries were full, but no longer thronged; but no longer were they to be charmed with the eloquence and talent that so long resounded in the chamber. After some routine business, the order of the day for the third reading of the Bill for the legislative Union was carried.

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