840 
IRE1 
c!pally directed to the diminution of tythes. A body of 
about 2000 attacked Wexford, with th,e avowed defign of 
liberating fame prifoners ; but were rep.ulled by thirty-five 
Soldiers, with the lofs of about one hundred of their 
11 umber. 
The difcontents of the lower claffes of the people were 
much augmented throughout the whole kingdom, by an 
act of parliament for railing a militia on the Englifh plan, 
for internal defence. The public mind was likewife agi¬ 
tated, about the beginning of 179s, by the arrelt, trial, or 
flight, of fome of the leading men of the fociety of United 
Irish. Their fecretary, Archibald Hamilton Rowan, was 
Sentenced to be fined and impril'oned for the publication 
of a feditious libel in a manlfelto of that alfociation. 
William Jackfon, an English clergyman of the established 
church, condemned on a charge of treafonable correfpon- 
dence with agents of the French government, avoided the 
ignominy of a public execution by taking poifon, of which 
he expired at the bar of the court. James Napper Tandy, 
and Theobald Wolfe Tone, the principal framerand agent 
of the fociety of United Irilh, dreading the weight of evi¬ 
dence to be produced againft them, efcaped to France. 
The appointment of earl Fitzwilliam to the lord-lieu- 
tenancy of Ireland, was hailed by the people as a molt 
nuS'picious event; but the want of a good underftanJing 
between this nobleman and the Britifti cabinet caufed his 
government to be of very (hort duration. Arriving in 
Ireland on the 4th of JantTaiy, he commenced the exer- 
cife of his authority by difplacing certain perfons whom 
he confidered unfit for co-operating in his plan for re¬ 
storing tranquillity to the country. The parliament af- 
fembled on the 2ad, and granted an extraordinary fupply 
of 1,700,000]. On the 12th of the following month, leave 
vvas given, on the motion of Mr. Grattan, to introduce a 
bill for removing all the disqualifications under which the 
catholics ftill laboured; but, before the affair could be 
brought to a decilion, the marquis was recalled, and earl 
Camden appointed his rucceflor. Such was the popula¬ 
rity of the former, that the 25th of March, the day of 
Sis departure, was obferved at Dublin as a day of general 
mourning. He complained of having been deceived by 
ministers ; and, in a letter published in vindication of him- 
felf, he affirmed that no reftriftions had been impofed 
upon him; but that he had been left at full liberty to 
take meafures for tranquillizing the kingdom, and attach¬ 
ing the tnafs of its inhabitants to the Britifii government; 
and that miniflry had determined on catholic emancipation. 
The minifters denied the charge, but would not permit -a 
parliamentary investigation. 
Earl Camden arrived in Dublin at the end of March ; 
and on the 5th of May, the bill in favour of the catholics 
Wa», on its fecond reading, rejefted. An a6t however 
pafTed for the establishment of a catholic college, for the 
education for the Rom iff prieffhood of young men of 
Ireland, who had before been obliged to refort for that 
purpofe to foreign universities. A feminary, exclufively 
appropriated to catholics, was accordingly founded at 
Maynooth, and liberally endowed by government; and 
permission was alfo given to perfons of that perfuaiion to 
Study in the protefiant univerfity of Dublin. 
This indulgence was far from S'atisfaftory to the catho¬ 
lics. The public difcontent was manifested in various 
ways; and about this time the fociety of United Irilhmen 
began to aft upon a new fyftem, dark and deeply plan¬ 
ned, for combining the malcontents of every religion in 
a grand confpiracy for the overthrow of the government, 
and the eftablilhment of a democratic republic in Ireland. 
To accomplilh this purpofe, they hefitated not to folicit 
the affifiance of the government of France. Various cir- 
cumftances rendered the catholics difpofed to concur in 
fuch a meafure, or at lead: to alienate them from the ex¬ 
isting government. In the weftern counties, where lord 
■Carhampton commanded, the magiftrates, in order to check 
the wide-fpreading evil of defenderilin, had feized and 
lent to Serve in the royal navy Such men as were couli- 
A N D. 
dered dangerous to the public peace. To Screen the aftors 
in thele illegal proceedings, a bill of indemnity was palled 
in parliament■; and, by the infurreft ion-aft, the viceroy 
was authorized, on the requifition of feven magiftrates, 
to proclaim any county or district in a ftate of insurrection, 
and to invelt its magiftrates with that power which lord 
Carhampton’s affiftants had already illegally exerted. In 
October 1796, the habeas-corpns aft was fufpended ; and 
the government was thus enabled to impriion fufpefted 
or obnoxious perfons without a (Signing any caufe, or 
bringing them to trial. 
This difaffeftion of the catholics was increafed by the 
violent proceedings of fome of their protefiant feilow- 
lubjecls. To oppofe the religious confederacy of the 
Defenders, the lower dalles of proteftants of the eftablilh- 
ed church in the county of Armagh, uniting with the 
prefbyterian Peep-of-day Boys, formed affociations under 
the name of Orange-men, an appellation alfumed from 
king William III. prince of Orange. Notwithstanding 
their inferior number, they werefoon decidedly victorious; 
but, like the Defenders therrtfelves, they fhametully abufed 
their victory, and forcibly expelled fourteen hundred ca¬ 
tholic families, mod of whom took refuge in Connaught. 
To be the better enabled to .reprefs the increasing force 
of the Irilh union., and to repel a threatened French inva- 
fion, government began, in Oftober 1796, to embody an 
armed yeomanry, confilting chiefly of cavalry, in addition 
to the troops of the line and militia. The force of the 
royal army, thus Strengthened, narrowly efcaped being 
put to the tell at the end of the fame year. In conl'e- 
quence of the reprefentation of the ftate of affairs in Ire¬ 
land, given by the agCnts of the United Irishmen to the 
French government, the latter propoled to fend an arma¬ 
ment to allift them in Shaking off the dependence of this 
i/land upon Britain. This offer was accepted, on condi¬ 
tion that the invading army Ihould aft as auxiliaries un¬ 
der the direction of the fociety, which, on the accomplish¬ 
ment of its object, engaged to reimburfe the expences of 
the expedition. A formidable fleet, confilting ,of feven- 
teen Ships of the line, thirteen frigates, and twelve Hoops,- 
with tranlports, the whole defigned to carry an army of 
25,000 men, under the command of general Hoche, one 
of the ableft officers in the French fervice, fet fail from 
Breft on the 16th of December. Owing to a fog, two 
Ihips of the line were disabled, and another deftroyed by 
Striking againft the rocks at the mouth of the harbour, 
and the following day the armament was difperfed by a 
tempelt. On the 24th, admiral Bouvet, with Seventeen 
veffels, ten of which were of the line, anchored in Bantry- 
bay, and fc*nt a boat to the Shore with a reconnoitring 
party, who were immediately made prifoners by the coun¬ 
try people. The French officers were eager to land with 
fuch troops as had-arrived ; "but tlve admiral, deterred by 
the hoftile afpeft of the Irifn, rel'olved to wait for the ge¬ 
neral, who had been Separated in the gale from this por¬ 
tion of the fleet. Having waited in vain for fome days, 
during which he had to encounter very tempeftuons wea¬ 
ther, the admiral returned to Breft, where the other divi¬ 
sions of the Scattered fleet alS'o arrived, with the loS's of 
two Ships of the line and three frigates, one of which was- 
taken by the British, 
In the north, where difaffeftion increafed with the ri¬ 
gour of the meafures adopted by government, the ftate of 
the country was very unquiet. Terror was employed to 
fruftrate the operations of the law ; magiftrates who had 
rendered themielves obnoxious by their exertions to en¬ 
force it were aflaffinated ; while Subscriptions were raifed 
for the relief and defence of imprifoned perfons. Such 
proceedings were not witnefled with indifference by the 
agents of government. Martial law was proclaimed in 
many districts ; numbers of the lower claffes were fent on¬ 
board the royal navy ; and general Lake, who commanded 
in the north, w'as authorised to take fuch Steps as he 
thought expedient for the prevention of disturbance. He, 
in confequen.ee, issued, on the 13 th of March, 1797, a pro'- 
claniation s 
