mercilessly, often mutilated, and sometimes killed. Another class, who were mostly blameless, the Protestant curates, always present to bear the odium, and striving to live on poor incomes of £40 or £50 a-year, often suffered grievous ill-treatment. The Rightboys were denounced by the Catholic clergy, especially by Dr. Butler, archbishop of Cashel, and Dr. Troy, bishop of Ossory; but they still continued their evil courses. In the north-in Armagh, Tyrone, and Down— another secret society had grown up among Protestants and Presbyterians, called "Peep-o'-day boys," and afterwards known as 66 Protestant boys" and "Wreckers." These directed their hostilities against Catholics, who again in self-defence formed themselves into bands called "Defenders." These two parties, who belonged generally to the lowest class of the peasantry, did immense damage-fought, maimed and killed each other, and otherwise caused great disorder.

The authorities were very much alarmed at the state of the country; and there were long and anxious discussions as to the best means of restoring quiet. So far as Dublin was concerned-for the city was as much troubled as the north and south-a plan was adopted, though after some opposition, which ultimately turned out an excellent and successful one :-the government had a bill passed for the appointment of a A.D. 1786 number of constables to aid the city watchThis small body of men originated the present splendid force of the Dublin metropolitan police.

men.

Fitzgibbon, who was now the leading influence against remedial measures of every kind, attempted to put down the disturbances by causing the government to pass a crushing Crimes bill, that is, a bill to give

more power to the authorities to apprehend and punish the disturbers. Grattan was convinced of the necessity of some bill of the kind; but he wished for one much less severe; and he succeeded in having struck out some very violent and dangerous clauses inserted by Fitzgibbon, and in limiting the duration of the bill to three years. He endeavoured also to have a parliamentary inquiry to ascertain the causes of the discontent and disorders, with a view to their removal; but here he was overruled; and this "Engine of Redress," as he called it, was rejected.

The Popular Party in parliament continued as vigilant and active as ever, and gave the government great trouble. The usual means were employed to break down their influence: but though the country had long been accustomed to this, probably at no previous period was there so much gross political corruption as during the lord lieutenancy of the Marquess of Buckingham from 1787 to 1790. He bribed openly and unsparingly, wherever he thought it would purchase supporters for the Court Party; and he dismissed all holders of government offices who showed any disposition to oppose him. Numbers of persons were made peers and baronets, and many peers were promoted; and he added £13,000 a-year to the pension list, which before his time had grown to the yearly sum of £100,000. He became at last so intensely unpopular, that when A.D. 1790 he retired he had to steal away from Dublin by night.

During the year 1790 the north was far more disturbed than the south; and the Peep-o'-day boys and the Defenders increased and multiplied, continued their outrages, and fought their battles. Among the better educated classes, who saw no hope of reform by

parliamentary and constitutional means, the doctrines of the French Revolution found many supporters. Committees were formed, partly to stem the tide of political corruption, and partly to discuss the best methods of government. The members of the Popular Party, who had been the leading men in the old Volunteers, formed themselves into clubs which greatly influenced public opinion; of which the Whig Club in Dublin, and the Northern Whig Club in Belfast, were specially prominent. Both of them included among their members many historic personages:-Lord Charlemont, Lord Moira, the Duke of Leinster, Grattan, Napper Tandy, John Philpot Curran, Wolfe Tone, and others. These clubs unsparingly exposed the evil system of the government; but the government, safe in its pensioned and corrupt majority, continued its course unchanged.

The Ulster Presbyterians were specially active and earnest in these movements. The anniversary of the taking of the Bastille, the great government prison in Paris, by the Revolutionists two years before, was

celebrated in Belfast in July by the A.D. 1791 Northern Whig Club, joined by all the Volunteers of the neighbourhood, in a great procession, with drums, banners, and flags, on which were depicted various scenes enacted at the Revolution. The celebration ended with a banquet, where such toasts were drunk as "The National Assembly of France," "The Rights of Man," &c., and where proper representation in parliament, and the complete emancipation of the Catholics were demanded. There was nothing illegal in these proceedings, but they gave great uneasiness to the government, who, with the example of France before them, looked on all such movements with apprehension.

Theobald Wolfe Tone, a man of great determination, quite unselfish, and of remarkable persuasive power, was one of the most prominent leaders of public opinion in those times. Though a Protestant, he was appointed Secretary to the Catholic Committee in Dublin, which brought the Catholics into closer connexion with the Presbyterians. In the same year (1791) he visited Belfast, and thinking the Northern Whig Club not sufficiently advanced, he founded, in October, the society of United Irishmen, the members of which were chiefly Presbyterians. The objects of this society, which were quite legal, were :-to unite people of all classes and religions in one great organisation, this main idea being indicated in the very name-United Irishmen; to reform parliament so as to break down the corrupting influence of the government; and to remove the grievances of all Irishmen of every religious persuasion. This last chiefly aimed at the repeal of the penal laws against Catholics: for the leaders believed that if all the people of the country were united, their demand for reform could not be resisted. Tone next formed a branch of the society in Dublin under the auspices of the Catholic Committee: James Napper Tandy, a Protestant shopkeeper in Dublin, was its secretary.

Yet with all this unrest and disturbance, business of every kind was extending, and the country was rapidly advancing in prosperity. This was due to several causes, of which the principal were: the removal of the most ruinous of the restrictions on trade; the relief of Roman Catholics from their worst disabilities, which enabled them to take a part, and invest their capital, in industries; and the restoration of the freedom of Parliament, which gave the authorities a free hand to develop the resources of the country.

Let us now interrupt the purely political history, in order to trace the advances made, and the checks suffered, by the Catholics, in their efforts to free themselves from their remaining hardships.

CHAPTER LXIII.

CATHOLIC PROGRESS TOWARDS EMANCIPATION.

A.D. 1792-1793.-George III.

ORE than thirty years had elapsed since the Catholic Committee had been founded. Its original purpose, as we have seen, was to look after Catholic interests in general, and especially to obtain a relaxation or repeal of the Penal Laws. The members felt that this business gave them quite enough to do, and as a body they did not mix themselves up much in other political movements. They had no wish to come in conflict with the government, and they were not much influenced by the revolutionary ideas so prevalent at this time among the Presbyterians. Indeed it was only among the prosperous business Catholics of the towns that there appeared much political life of any kind. The great body of Catholics through the country had been, during the whole of the century, so depressed, and had been reduced to such a state of ignorance, that they had hardly a thought or an opinion on anything beyond the necessaries of life, with a vague consciousness that they were suffering under wrongs which ought to be removed.

There were two parties in the Catholic Committee,