Above: Installment of Emancipation

During the year 1790 the north was far more disturbed than the south; and the Peep-o’-day boys and the Defenders increased and multiplied and con- tinued their outrages. Among a higher class the French revolution, now in full progress, stirred people’s minds profoundly. Clubs and committees were formed, partly to stem the tide of political corruption, partly to discuss theories of government. Grattan, Curran, and others of the patriotic party openly exposed the evil system of the government: but the government was inexorable and continued its courses.

The members of the party of progress, the leading men of the volunteers, formed themselves into clubs winch greatly influenced public opinion:-the Whig club in Dublin and the Northern Whig club in Belfast. Of both clubs, tlie lists included many historic names-lord Charlemont, lord Moira, Napper Tandy, Hamilton Rowan, Wolfe Tone, etc.

In July, 1791, the anniversary of the taking of the Bastille was celebrated in Belfast by the Northern Whig club in a great procession, with drums, banners, and flags on which were depicted various scenes enacted at the Revolution ; ending with a banquet where such toasts were drunk as “The national assembly of France,” ” The rights of man,” etc. There was nothing illegal in all this, but it gave great uneasiness to the government, who, with the example of France before them, looked on all such proceedings with an unfriendly eye.

Theobald Wolfe Tone was born in Dublin in 1763, and became a barrister in 1789. In the year 1791 he was appointed paid secretary to the Catholic Committee in Dublin. In the same year he visited Belfast, and thinking the Northern Whig club not sufficiently bold or advanced, he founded the society of United Irishmen in October, 1791. The fundamental objects of this society, which were quite legal, were:- to include all classes and religions in its body; to reform parliament so as to break down the unconstitu- tional influence of the government; and to remove the grievances of all Irishmen of every religious persuasion. This last mainly aimed at the repeal of the penal law against Catholics.