HISTORY OF EUROPE. 



14' 



C 11 A P. X. 



Uite of Ireland- — AHminist ration of Lord Hardxvicke. — Discontents and 

 Meetings of the Catholics. — Difficulties in the Currency. — The City of 

 Dublin deprived of the Supply of fresh JVater. — Great Popularity of the 

 Lord Lieutenant. ^ 



IN reTiewing the state and cir- 

 ciimstaiiCL's of Ireland, we la- 

 ment to have still before our eyes a 

 disgusting pifturc of besotted bigo- 

 try and fa6tion. 



The history of the present year is 

 the cofltinued tale of these follies, 

 which, exploded and expelled from 

 every other quarter of the civilized 

 world, seem to have found a sort 

 of permanent asylum in that unfor- 

 tunate island : its government, state 

 of society, and condition, exhibit 

 the foulest, perhaps the only re- 

 proach, which has ever stigmatised 

 the name of Britain ; for it were 

 idle trilling to impute the distrac- 

 tions and general backwardness of 

 that country, toany other cause, than 

 the circumstances in which she has 

 been placed ; and the example or 

 wish of those, to whose management 

 she has been entrusted. 



In our former volume, we had 

 occasion to mention the wild scheme 

 of the enthusiast Emmctt ; Avho, with 

 an exchequer of not more than 30001. 

 and an undisciplined, perhaps re- 

 luctant band of about eighty adven- 

 turers, conceived himself equal to 

 the enterprise of giving a new form 

 and constitution to the Irish nation. 

 The attempt was of course crushed 

 by its own impotence; but it was 



Vol.. XLVl. 



fertile in consequences, which it be- 

 comes our duty to record under the 

 year which the present volume un- 

 dertakes to lay before the public. 

 In itself, tlie matter deserved no 

 further notice, than almost any- 

 other trivial riot ; but it became, 

 in the event, a very serious dis- 

 aster to the British empire, and an 

 incident peculiarly fortunate to the 

 enemy ; it, in a moment, rendered 

 ineffectual the prudent measures hy 

 which lord Hardwicke, the viceroy 

 of Ireland, had advanced in the de- 

 sirable work of conciliating and 

 harmonising the people, and of di- 

 recting a general eit'ort of zeal to the 

 service of the empire. 



The union which took effect in 

 1801, tended essentially to im- 

 pair the consequence, and manifestly 

 exasperated the feelings of that de- 

 scription of the Irish, who cherish- 

 ed protestantism as a political de- 

 signation, and a claim to pre-emi- 

 nence ; it considered itself to have 

 been over-reached ; or, in the ea- 

 gerness of party spirit, to have been 

 self-betrayed to its ruin. Many 

 relinquished that principle altoge- 

 ther ; and the fervour, with whicii it 

 had been pursued, abated very consi- 

 derably since lord Hardwicke assura- 

 cdthe reins of government. Withoi>t 



L offending 



