The Catholic Convention For Concessions Refused
Above : Picture Of Lord Chancellor
The Irish authorities, office-holders and corporations were, as a rule, far more opposed to concession than were the British Ministers. These indeed, inclined to the belief that, considering the dangerous state of affairs on the Continent, where the progress of the French Revolution had become a serious menace to all the neighbouring states, it was absolutely necessary to endeavour, by a conciliatory policy, to secure the tranquillity of Ireland. The Irish Ascendancy Party, further removed from the scene of disturbance and little concerned with foreign politics, clung with considerable obstinacy to its privileges.
Still, the general mass of the middle and lower class Protestants in Ireland were not, as far as they were interested in the question at all, particularly hostile to the granting of the concessions asked for, although the programme of the Catholic Committee included the abolition of practically all political disabilities.
The Lord Lieutenant (Westmoreland), however, was entirely opposed to the allowing of any political power to the Catholics. When it was conveyed to him in a semi-official letter that the English Government was inclined to favour the idea of granting to them the Parliamentary franchise, he wrote in the strongest terms, declaring that both he and the members of the Privy Council, whom he had consulted, considered that such a step would have the most disastrous results, and would be resisted with determination by both the Parliament and the whole Protestant community in Ireland.
Pitt, the English Prime Minister, could not be expected to know that what Was confidently stated to be the opinion of the Irish Protestants in general was really the view of a few prominent but bigoted officials, such as John Fitzgibbon the Lord Chancellor; John Claudius Beresford and Sir John Parnell. Alarmed at the prospect of a serious misunderstanding with the community which hitherto had been regarded as the main support of the English power in Ireland, he modified his policy, and the result was Langrishe’s Relief Bill, introduced in February, 1792, which removed certain grievances, but left the political restrictions of the Catholics unaltered. The Bill passed with little difficulty, although not entirely without opposition. Catholics were now to be permuted to practically use either barristers or solicitors ; they could marry Protestants ; could open a school without demanding permission of the Protestant bishop of the diocese, and could send their children abroad for education.
These concessions fell so far short of what had been hoped for and expected that they excited little gratitude, and scarcely brought about any lull in the agitation for political rights.
A Catholic Convention was summoned to meet in Dublin in December (1792). The very project of its assembling caused the greatest indignation and alarm amongst a certain section of the Protestant community ; that section namely to which, so far, the honours and emoluments of office had gone as a matter of course. Petitions to Parliament protesting against further concessions poured in upon grand juries and other public bodies. The address of the Dublin Corporation was remarkable for the extreme bigotry of its tone. The Corporators declared that they desired ” a Protestant King, a Protestant Parliament, a Protestant hierarchy, Protestant electors and Government, the benches of justice, the army and the revenue through all their branches and details Protestant.”
When the Catholic Convention met it decided on a direct appeal to the King, thereby marking its sense of the hostility of the Irish Parliament. Its address was conveyed to London to be delivered personally. The British Ministers and the King himself received the delegates most politely, and they returned impressed by the graciousness of his Majesty.
