CHAMBERS'S INFORMATION FOR THE PEOPLE. 



under the Bourbons. Further overtures were also 

 rejected. 



The events of 1800 were of a very different 

 nature from what had been calculated upon in 

 England. In Egypt, the French overthrew a large 

 Turkish army at Grand Cairo, and made them- 

 selves more effectually than ever the masters of 

 the country ; so that Britain was obliged to send 

 an army next year, under Sir Ralph Abercromby, 

 to accomplish at an immense expense, and a 

 great waste of human life, what the French had 

 formerly agreed to do. In Europe, the presence 

 of Bonaparte was the signal for fresh successes. 

 Defeating the Austrians at Marengo (June 14) 

 and in other engagements, he obliged Austria 

 (1801) to sue for peace, by which France became 

 mistress of all continental Europe west of the 

 Rhine and south of the Adige, 



REBKLLIOK IN IRELAND UNION WITH GREAT 

 BRITAIN. 



The commencement of the revolutionary pro- 

 ceedings in France excited the wildest hopes of 

 the Irish, already ardently desirous of a reform in 

 their parliament. Towards the close of the year 

 1791. they formed an association, under the title 

 of the United Irishmen, comprehending persons 

 of all religions, and designea to obtain ' a com- 

 plete reform of the legislature, founded on the 

 principles of civil, political, and religious liberty.' 

 Acts were passed for putting down the meetings 

 of the association, although, on the other hand, 

 measures were passed enabling Catholics to inter- 

 marry with Protestants, to practise at the bar, and 

 to educate their own children. 



The ministry, however, having been persuaded 

 by the Protestant party to return to their former 

 policy, and the patriotic party having despaired of 

 effecting any improvement by peaceable means, 

 an extensive conspiracy was entered into for 

 delivering up Ireland to the French Republic. 

 The scheme was managed by a directory of five 

 persons, and though half a million of men were 

 concerned in it, the most strict secrecy was 

 preserved. The losses at Camperdown in 1797, 

 however, crippled the naval resources of France, 

 and prevented a renewal of the expedition. 

 Losing all hope of French assistance, the con- 

 spirators resolved to act without it; but their 

 designs were betrayed by one Reynolds ; and 

 three other members of the directory, Emmett, 

 Macnevin, and Bond, were seized. Still the 

 Union persisted in the design of rising on a fixed 

 day. Lord Edward Fitzgerald, another of its 

 leaders, was then arrested, and being wounded in 

 a scuffle with his captors, soon after died in prison. 

 On the 2ist of May 1798, Lord Castlereagh, 

 secretary to the Lord-lieutenant, discovered and 

 exposed the whole plan of insurrection, which had 

 been fixed to commence on the 23d. The con- 

 spirators, although thus thwarted, rose in various 

 parts of the country, and in greatest force in Wex- 

 fbrd. On the 2ist of June, their whole force was 

 collected upon Vinegar Hill, near Enniscorthy, 

 where an army of 13,000 men, with a propor- 

 tionate train of artillery, was brought against 

 them by General Lake. They were completely 

 overthrown and dispersed. From this time the 

 rebellion languished, and in July it had so far 

 ceased to be formidable, that an act of amnesty 



16C 



was passed in favour of all who had been engaged 

 in it, except the leaders. On the 22d of August, 

 when the rebellion had been completely extin- 

 guished, 900 French, under General Humbert, 

 were landed at Killala, in the opposite extremity 

 of the country from that in which the insurgents 

 had shewn the greatest strength. On the 8th of 

 September, they were met at Carrick-on-Shannon 

 by an enormously larger force, to which they 

 yielded themselves prisoners of war. 



During the ensuing two years, the British 

 ministers exerted themselves to bring about an 

 incorporating union of Ireland with Great Britain ; 

 a measure to which the Irish were much opposed, 

 but which, by the use of bribes and government 

 patronage largely employed amongst the members 

 of the Irish legislature, was at length effected. 

 From the ist of January 1801, the kingdom of 

 Ireland formed an essential part of the empire, on 

 which was now conferred the name of the United 

 Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. The act 

 of union secured to the Irish most of the com- 

 mercial privileges which they had so long sought. 

 One hundred commoners were to be sent by ire- 

 land to the British (now called the Imperial) par- 

 liament; namely, two for each county, two for 

 each of the cities of Dublin and Cork, one for the 

 university, and one for each of the thirty-otie most 

 considerable towns. Four lords-spiritual, by rota- 

 tion of sessions, and twenty-eight lords-temporal, 

 elected for life by the peers of Ireland, were to sit 

 in the House of Lords; and the cross of St 

 Patrick, the patron saint of Ireland, was at the 

 same time added to those of St George and St 

 Andrew on- the national flag. 



The union, though, upon the whole, effected in 

 a spirit of fairness towards Ireland, increased the 

 discontent of the people, which broke out in 1 803 

 in a new insurrection, under Robert Emmett and 

 Thomas Russell. It came to nothing more, how- 

 ever, than a disturbance in the streets of Dublin, 

 in the course of which Lord Kilwarden, a judge, 

 and his nephew, Mr Wolfe, were dragged from a 

 carriage and killed. The mob was dispersed by 

 soldiery, and Emmett and Russell, being seized, 

 were tried and executed. 



CHANGE OF MINISTRY, AND PEACE OF AMIENS, 

 1802. 



At the commencement of 1801, Britain had to 

 reckon among her enemies the whole of the 

 northern states of Europe, which had found it 

 necessary to place themselves on a friendly foot- 

 ing with Bonaparte, and though they did not 

 declare war against Britain, yet acted in such a 

 manner as to render hostilities unavoidable. 

 Nelson sailed in March with a large fleet for 

 Copenhagen, and proved so successful against the 

 Danish fleet, as to reduce that country to a state 

 of neutrality. The death of the Russian Emperor 

 Paul, which took place at the same time, and the 

 accession of Alexander, who was friendly to Britain, 

 completely broke up the northern confederacy. 

 Yet the great achievements of France on the con- 

 tinent, joined to the distresses of a famine which 

 at this time bore hard on the British people, pro- 

 duced a desire for peace. With the view, appar- 

 ently, of facilitating the declaration of peace, a 

 new ministry was appointed under Mr Addington, 

 by whom a peace was at length, in March 1802, 



