CHAPTER III. SECOND CATHOLIC COMMITTEE FORMED. — CONCESSIONS IN 1774 AND 1778. SECESSION OF "LORD KENMARE AND THE SIXTY-EIGHT.”— JOHN KEOGH, LEADER OF THE CATHOLICS. — MANAGEMENT OF THE COMMITTEE. COÖPERATION OF EDMUND BURKE. - - GENERAL DISCUSSION OF CATHOLIC PRINCIPLES IN IRELAND AND ENGLAND. ARTHUR O'LEARY.- BURKE AND TONE. - LONDON RIOTS OF 1780. IRISH CATHOLIC CONVENTION ELECTED. THEIR DELEGATES PRESENTED TO GEORGE III., AND DEMAND TOTAL EMANCIPATION. - RELIEF BILL OF 1793.- POLITICAL REACTION. THOUGH the intentions of the Irish Parliament towards the Catholics in 1762 were defeated by the king in council, the party in favor of justice and toleration was steadily on the increase. The judicious conduct of the bishops, the influence of the Dublin press, and the growing nationality of the patriot party, were so much gained. Every day new reasons for relief were discovered. When Canada was ceded by the treaty of Paris, it was well said to the rulers who accepted it, "You tolerate Catholics in Canada; why not in Ireland?" When trade reports represented the drain of specie by excess of imports and the insolvency of the banks, it was well said again, "Why do you condemn four fifths of the people to a condition in which they become a load and a burden rather than a strength to the nation?" When rumors of hostile intentions on the part of France and Spain were repeated, the cry was, "Liberate the Catholics, and they will be your best allies in a defensive war." This idea had advanced from a secondary to a first consequence in the minds of a large number of thinking men, and no question of the day arose but they, in one way or other, made it a text for discussing the claims of the Catholics. At this favorable juncture, an attempt, in 1773, of the corporation of Dublin and other cities, to impose a local tax exclusively on Catholics, under the name of quarterage, stimulated the formation of the society known as the general committee of the Irish Catholics. Lords Kenmare, Fingal, and some other country gentlemen were the most important of the movers in this body; but another class of great intelligence and activity was formed by the Catholic merchants. A voluntary fund was subscribed, in which the merchants were not behind the gentry; a treasurer (Mr. Dermot) was appointed, and an honorary secretary, (Mr. Richard McCormick,) both from among the merchants. By this committee Lord Kenmare was sent over to London to communicate with the friends of the Catholics there, and to ascertain the sentiments of the king and ministers. His lordship established a good understanding with Mr. Burke, Sir George Saville, Lord Mansfield, and other friends of tol. eration in Parliament, as well as with the chiefs of the English Catholics, clerical and lay, who, at that very time, were bestirring themselves to recover their civil rights. The expenses of Lord Kenmare on this mission, amounting to £1500, were disbursed by the committee at Dublin.* One immediate result was, to raise the consideration of the Irish Catholics at home. The "act to enable all classes of his majesty's subjects to testify their allegiance to him"-in other words, modifying the oath of allegiance so that Catholics might freely take it -was passed in the spring of 1774. A little later Lord Buckinghamshire permitted a deputation to present him with a truly humble petition to be forwarded to the king, and so the wedge was entered. "There it goes," cried Anthony Malone, as the first relief bill passed, "and I am heartily glad of it, for now the whole system must come down."+ The right of petition, being implied in that of “testifying allegiance," was at once acted upon by those concerned. A painfully-affecting document was that which the viceroy condescended to receive from the hands of Lord Fingal, the Hon. Mr. Preston, and Mr. Dermot. Its prayer was strictly confined to the removal of disabilities affecting real property. The petitioners state, *Tone's Memoirs, vol. i. p. 483. "We are, may it please your majesty, a numerous "and very industrious part of your majesty's subjects; "and yet by no industry, by no honest endeavors on our "part, is it in our power to acquire or to hold almost 66 any secure or permanent property whatsoever; we "are not only disqualified to purchase, but are disabled "from occupying, any land, even in farm, except on a "tenure extremely scanted both in profit and in time; "and if we should venture to expend any thing on the "melioration of land thus held, by building, by enclosure, "by draining, or by any other species of improvement, so very necessary in this country, so far would our services "be from bettering our fortunes, that these are precisely "the very circumstances which, as the law now stands, "must necessarily disqualify us from continuing those "farms for any time in our possession. 66 "Whilst the endeavors of our industry are thus dis"couraged, (no less, we humbly apprehend, to the detri"ment of the national prosperity and the diminution of your majesty's revenue than to our particular ruin,) "there are a set of men, who, instead of exercising any "honest occupation in the commonwealth, make it their " employment to pry into our miserable property, to drag us into the courts, and to compel us to confess on our "oaths, and under the penalties of perjury, whether we "have in any instance acquired a property in the small"est degree exceeding what the rigor of the law has ad"mitted; and in such case the informers, without any "other merit than that of their discovery, are invested "(to the daily ruin of several innocent, industrious fam"ilies) not only with the surplus in which the law is ex"ceeded, but in the whole body of the estate and interest "so discovered; and it is our grief that this evil is likely "to continue and increase, as informers have, in this "country, almost worn off the infamy which in all ages "and in all other countries has attended their character, " and have grown into some repute by the frequency and "success of their practices. "And this, most gracious sovereign, though extremely "grievous, is far from being the only or most oppressive “particular in which our distress is connected with the "breach of the rules of honor and morality. By the "laws now in force in this kingdom, a son, however un"dutiful or profligate, shall, merely by the merit of con❝forming to the established religion, deprive the Roman "Catholic father of that free and full possession of his 46 estate, that power to mortgage or otherwise dispose of "it, as the exigencies of his affairs may require; but shall "himself have full liberty immediately to mortgage or "otherwise alienate the reversion of that estate from his "family forever-a regulation by which a father, contrary to the order of nature, is put under the power of "his son, and through which an early dissoluteness is not "only suffered, but encouraged, by giving a pernicious privilege, the frequent use of which has broken the "hearts of many deserving parents, and entailed poverty "and despair on some of the most ancient and opulent "families in this kingdom. 66 66 66 66 "Even when the parent has the good fortune to "escape this calamity in his lifetime, yet he has at his "death the melancholy and almost certain prospect of leaving neither peace nor fortune to his children; for by that law which bestows the whole fortune on the "first conformist, or, on nonconformity, disperses it among the children, incurable jealousies and animos"ities have arisen, a total extinction of principle and of "natural benevolence has ensued, whilst we are obliged "to consider our own offspring and the brothers of our own blood as our most dangerous enemies; the blessing of Providence on our families, in a numerous issue, "is converted into the most certain means of their ruin "and depravation: we are, most gracious sovereign, "neither permitted to enjoy the few broken remains of "our patrimonial inheritance, nor by our industry to acquire any secure establishment to our families."* 66 66 66 To this petition (it was written by Edmund Burke) no answer was at that time returned. Almost the whole body of Catholics had taken the new oath of allegiance * Parnell's History of the Penal Laws, pp. 111-113. prescribed by the act of that year; the Munster bishops held a special synod in 1775, to explain and enforce it, and with Archbishop Butler at their head, set an example of publicly taking it. Father O'Leary and other Catholics preached and wrote in its maintenance, and by dint of a great display of loyalty, succeeded, at length, in attracting the further attention of the legislature. In this effort the American war helped them materially; it was remarked that, as the cause of the colonies progressed, so did that of the Catholics. A bill granting concessions in relation to the holding of real estate was drawn, and had been much discussed by letter between Burke and the Catholic leaders and Mr. Perry, speaker of the Irish Commons House, who favored it. After much negotiation to and fro, and much sounding of the castle and the king, the bill passed in 1778,* another rumored French invasion and Burgoyne's surrender being principals to its passage; indeed, they might be called the proposer and seconder. By this law, Catholics were allowed to lend money on real estate mortgage, to lease land for a term of years not exceeding one thousand, (there was a majority of three against their holding in fee,) to hold lands devised to them, and to make demises as other owners of estates did. The principle of property-the fundamental rule of all fixed society -was thus restored. This was a great matter. Property is the first lesson which barbarism learns from civilization; it is the constitutional conservator of order and justice, the standard and the reward of industry and conduct. After two centuries of confiscation, the heirs of the reformers had to humble their crests, and restore that social principle of the right to acquire property which Elizabeth, Cecil, and Cromwell, Ormond, and William III. had so laboriously endeavored to strike out of the hearts of the Irish Catholics. Many of this class, at home and abroad, had amassed large sums of money, and after the law of 1778, stepped eagerly into the markets, *In 1774 passed what, in strict construction, might be called the first relief bill the "act to enable all classes of his majesty's subjects to testify their allegiance to him." - |