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BOOK

VIL

September.

to disobey, or they are deprived of what the first resolution declared to be their inalienable right. 1783. 3. The elective franchise shall extend to those, and those only, who will exercise it for the public good.' The elective franchise, by the old laws of Europe, belonged to the freemen to those who in some practical department of life had proved their competence as masters of their craft. Who, on the principles of the Dungannon delegates, could decide on the fitness of the electors, or the meaning of the words public good?

Yet these propositions appeared to the soldier statesmen at Dungannon to be axioms which could form the basis of a revolution. By the light of them they framed a list of reforms which were required in the representation. Till these reforms were granted, they insisted on a refusal of the supplies by the House of Commons; and to hold the House of Commons to its work they concluded to choose delegates from the Volunteers of every county in Ireland, who should meet and sit in Dublin simultaneously with the Parliament a second legislative assembly-to guide, and if necessary to controul and overawe, the constitutional chambers.

Characteristic as these resolutions were in themselves, they were the more noteworthy from the persons with whom they originated. The leading spirits of the second meeting at Dungannon were Lord Charlemont and Lord Farnham, Sir Capel Molyneux, Colonel Stewart of Down,1 the Bishop of Derry, Tom Conolly, and Colonel Montgomery. Noblemen and gentlemen of high character and station could deli

Afterwards Marquis of Londonderry, and father of Lord Castle

reagh.

I.

1783.

September.

berately recommend the constitution of a military CHAP. convention to meet at the capital, and dictate measures to an unwilling Parliament in the name of the national army. They could even persuade themselves that they were engaged in a sacred service,1 and they closed their proceedings with an appeal to the Supreme Ruler of the Universe, and with special thanks to his minister, the Bishop of Derry, the steady friend of Ireland.

1 They described the convention 'as a solemn act of the Volunteer army of Ireland to demand rights without which the unanimated

forms of a free government would
be a curse, and existence cease to
be a blessing.'

BOOK
VII.

1783.

SECTION III.

SATISFIED With the results of his communications with the patrons of the Irish boroughs, Lord Northington September, at first looked at the proceedings at Dungannon with no serious alarm; but he, too, like Temple, considered that concession of some kind must still be the rule. Annual Parliaments were desired, and, he thought, ought to be allowed. An absentee tax would be again proposed. This he hoped to defeat, but it was important to secure the confidence of Parliament by acquiescence in reasonable demands. The Irish sugar refiners persisted in asking for protection, and to Northington the choice seemed only to lie between moderate duties which would give them a fair profit, and duties so high as to exclude English competition. The silk and woollen manufacturers also asked for protection, and had powerful friends. The Viceroy hoped to be allowed to tell Parliament either that the Irish duties on English silks and woollens would be increased, or that the English duties on Irish silks and woollens would be lowered.2

These questions had been foreseen in England, and ought to have been provided for when the constitution of '82 was conceded. Ireland meant to retaliate for the restrictive duties, and the covenant of peace was

1A Parliamentary reform is the grand subject intended to be proposed by the delegation of the Volunteer corps. There can be little room for apprehension with regard to the fate of this question when

the present constitution of the House of Commons in this country is referred to.-The Earl of Northington to Lord North, September 23, 1783.' S. P. O.

2 Ibid.

I.

1783.

to bear immediate fruits in fresh quarrels. Nor was CHAP. an armed convention so light a thing as it appeared to Lord Northington. Mr. Fox, when he agreed re- November. luctantly to let Grattan have his way, had determined to yield no further, even if the alternative was the abandonment of the island.

In the prolonged existence of an armed force interfering with the Legislature, and owing no obedience to the executive government, he saw an anomaly pregnant with danger.

'The situation,' he said, ' in an elaborate and admirable letter to the Viceroy, 'is most critical. Unless the Volunteers dissolve in a reasonable time, Government, and even the name of it, must be at an end, and on the event of the present session of your Parliament the question will entirely depend. If you show firmness, and that firmness is seconded by the aristocracy and Parliament, their dissolution is a certain and not distant event; otherwise I reckon their government, or rather anarchy, as firmly established as such a thing is capable of being, but your government is certainly annihilated. I mean by firmness the determination not to be swayed in the slightest degree by the Volunteers, nor to attend to any petition that may come from them. The concessions made in the Duke of Portland's time were declared sufficient. The account must be considered as closed, and must never again be opened on any pretence whatever. The firmness of the aristocracy will depend on the degree of it shown in the Castle. Peace is the natural period of Volunteers. If they are encouraged to enlist after this time, all is gone, and our connection with Ireland is worse than none at all. The Volunteers never were, depend upon it, so considerable as they

BOOK

VII.

1783.

November.

were represented. If they are resisted, I am satisfied they will be defeated. If they are suffered to carry their points by timidity or acquiescence, it is as much over with English government in Ireland as if they had carried them by force. Ireland has more to fear from us than we from her. Her linen trade, which is her staple, depends entirely on the protection of this country. We cannot go on acquiescing in something new for the sake of pleasing Ireland. But, situated as you are among Irishmen-who, next to a job for themselves, love nothing so well as a job for their country—and hardly ever seeing anyone who talks to you soundly on our side of the question, it is next to impossible but that you must fall insensibly into Irish ideas.' '

The regular force in Ireland had been quietly restored to its normal complement. As there might be occasion for its service, Fox wrote at the same time to General Burgoyne, who was in command.

'If,' he said, 'either the Parliamentary reform in any shape, however modified, or any other point claimed by the Volunteers be conceded, Ireland is irretrievably lost for ever. The question is whether the constitution which the Irish patriots are so proud of having established shall exist, or whether the Government shall be as purely military as it was under the Prætorian bands. If the Volunteers are baffled they must, in the nature of things, dissolve, or bring it to an immediate crisis, on the event of which, supposing Parliament to be silent, I do not believe you can entertain a serious apprehension. If they petition in the most humble strain it should make no difference.

1 Mr. Fox to Lord Northington, November 1.'-Abridged. Life of Grattan, vol. iii. p. 106.

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