Tuesday, May 20th, 2008
Above : Picture of John Foster
The day had now come (June 7th) when the final step was to be taken ; when the Bill for the Legislative Union was to be read a third time, and the Parliament of Ireland was to vote its own extinction. Before the report stage was witness the anti’Unionist members, unwilling to actually the rum of the cause, withdrew in a body. Thus, though the galleries were crowded, there were many empty benches on the floor of the House itself, when Lord Castlereagh moved the third reading of the Bill. Amidst a dead silence, John Foster, the Speaker, rose and asked the will of the House in the usual form : “As many as are of opinion that this Bill should pass say aye” The answer was given without enthusiasm, but there could be no doubt as to its nature. ” The ayes have it,” Foster announced. Such was the end of the Irish Parliament.
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Tuesday, May 20th, 2008
Above : Painting Of Lord Grey
After this digression we may return to follow to the end the fortunes of the Act of Union in its passage through Parliament. The debate which followed Castlereagh’s speech ended, as it was bound to end, in a Government victory. At the Division the ayes were 158, the noes 115, giving a majority of 43. In the Lords the Opposition was much less strong. Lord Clare made, in favour of the Government Scheme, a long speech in which he contrived to insult with impartiality the Catholics and the Protestant opposers of the Union, styling the latter ” a puny and rapacious oligarchy,” and the former ” deluded barbarians.” It is scarcely likely that it influenced a single vote of the seventy-five given on the Government side, as against twenty-five only secured by their opponents. In the Commons there was another debate towards the end of February. Grattan, on this as on previous occasions, exerted all the powers of his eloquence in defence of a hopeless cause. A proposal by the Opposition for a General Election was defeated ; there could now be little doubt as to the final result.
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Wednesday, May 14th, 2008
Above : Painting Of Sir Francis Burdett
There can be no doubt that, amongst the Irish Catholics, it was the almost universal belief that the passing of the Act of Union would practically at once be followed by the removal of their remaining disabilities and their establishment on a footing of all around equality with their fellow-subjects. It is equally certain that it was mainly this belief which prevented them from offering a steady and united opposition to a measure which very few of them really liked.
This is a preview of
General Expectations Of The Catholics & Their Emancipation
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Saturday, May 10th, 2008
Above : Maynooth College, Founded In This Period
The population of Ireland at the time of the passing of the Act of Union is estimated as something between 40 and 45 millions. In spite of the wave of relative prosperity which marked the closing decades of the eighteenth century, there was much poverty, both in the urban and in the rural districts. The land laws, in many of their worst features, remained still unreformed, but long leases or freeholds could now be given to Catholics. A freehold of 40s. in annual value conferred the franchise on its possessor, and as Catholics were now (since 1793) voters, astute landlords considered it their interest to increase their own political weight by the multiplication of such tenures.
Posted in General State Of Ireland In Early 19th Century | No Comments »