Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume IX.djvu/373

 IRELAND 359 the viceroy Lord Camden proclaimed all Ire- land under martial law, March 30, 1798. This led to great excesses on the part of those in power, and localities in which the united Irish organizers had little hold, like Wexford conn- ty, were goaded into revolt. The active civil war lasted less than five months, during which many notable battles occurred, as at New Boss, Enniscorthy, and Vinegar Hill. England em- ployed 137,000 men. Its cost is variously estimated at 30,000,000 and 50,000,000. The English lost 20,000 men, the Irish 50,000. Many of the leaders were executed, Lord Ed- ward Fitzgerald died of his wounds in prison, and Tone, who was captured on board the Hoche, the admiral's ship accompanying the third expedition which he had projected from France and Hamburg, committed suicide in pris- on. Of the leaders of the United Irishmen fully two thirds were Protestants and Presbyterians. Lord Oornwallis was appointed lord lieutenant, with instructions to pursue a pacific policy. A bill of amnesty was passed in 1799, and the country settled into the appearance of quiet. Government took advantage of the rebellion to hasten the legislative union of the two coun- tries, which, despite the eloquent opposition of Grattan and his party, went into effect Jan. 1, 1801. The articles of the act of union were : 1, that the two islands be called the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland ; 2, the succession to the throne to continue as exist- ing, limited ; 3, the kingdom to be represented by one parliament; 4, that Ireland be repre- sented in the house of lords by 28 temporal peers elected for life from the Irish nobility, and in the house of commons by 100 represen- tatives ; 5, that the state churches of the two islands be united, their doctrines and discipline being one ; 6, that the population of the two countries be on the same footing as regarded manufacturing, trading, and commercial privi- leges; 7, that the expenditure be in the pro- portion of Britain 15 to Ireland 2 for 20 years, afterward to be regulated by parliament; 8, that the existing laws and courts be continued, excepting that appeals from the Irish chancery be to the British house of lords. The extremes of both parties were dissatisfied. An insur- rection broke out in Dublin, July 23, 1803, but was speedily suppressed. Robert Emmet, the young enthusiast who led it, died on the scaf- fold. The outbreak had little other result than to cause the revival of harsh measures and of agitation. For several years the question of Catholic emancipation was a standard subject of excitement; it was periodically mooted in parliament, and as regularly thrown out, for i nearly 20 years. In 1821 George IV. paid a state visit to Ireland, where he was received with demonstrations of loyalty. In 1822 Ire- land suffered from a famine, produced, says Alison, " by the contraction of the currency and consequent fall of the prices of agricultural produce 50 per cent." Cobbett says there was food enough, but no money to purchase it. In 1823 the question of Catholic emancipation as- sumed larger proportions. Daniel O'Connell was the most prominent public man from this period till his death in 1847. Various associa- tions were organized in aid of the ends for which the Catholics, supported by the liberal of all parties, were striving. The chief of these was "the Catholic Association," of which the ostensible object was, in brief, the removal of all political and civil disabilities. Its ramifications extended throughout the country, and it de- rived from voluntary contributions a large rev- enue, known in the records of the time as " the rent." This organization exercised an impor- tant influence on the domestic political policy of the country, and may indeed be said to have effected its object, for, on April 13, 1829, the long-sought act of "Catholic emancipation" received the royal assent. Sir Robert Peel, in addressing parliament on the bill, made the admission that scarcely for one year since the union had Ireland been governed by the ordi- nary course of law, without the intervention of insurrection acts, suspension of the habeas corpus, or martial rule. O'Connell took his seat as member for Clare, and immediately pro- claimed an agitation for repeal of the legislative union. The tactics that had carried the measure of emancipation were revived. The repeal association followed the Catholic. Combined with this primary object were complicated less- er issues, such as a movement against the pay- ment of tithes. Of the 8,000,000 inhabitants of Ireland, only one tenth were members of the established Protestant church, yet tithes for its support were exacted indiscriminately from all. The " tithe war " was distinguished by many disgraceful and heart-rending transactions, no- tably the massacre at Newtownbarry and Car- rickshock in 1831, and at Rathcormack in 1834. At length, in 1838, the obnoxious features of the tax were concealed by the substitution of a fixed rent charge payable by the land own- ers. The parliamentary reform bill, in 1832, gave to Ireland five more members in the house of commons; and the municipal reform act, in 1840, removed many minor administrative grievances. In 1831 the national system of ed- ucation was established by act of parliament. In 1833 the expenditure of the grants for pub- lic education was intrusted to the viceroy un- der the superintendence of " commissioners of national education;" and in 1835 these com- missioners were incorporated, with power to hold lands. In 1838 the English poor-law sys- tem was introduced, and during the succeeding ten years received extension and adaptations as circumstances required. The organization of the police force kept pace with these ameli- orations. In 1836 it was consolidated into the semi-military arm it now is. During the pro- gress of these events the repeal agitation was increasing, until it culminated in " the repeal year," 1843. Monster meetings were held at va- rious places. A final one, on a yet more gigantic scale, was proposed to be held at Clontarf, but