Above : Portrait Of Prime Minister Pitt

The year 1793 opened under conditions full of menace. The new French Republic, in the first flush of her democratic power, had declared (November 1792) that she would aid all enslaved peoples who desired to rid themselves of their tyrants. War had begun on the Continent; it was certain that soon other nations would be involved in it; England could scarcely hope to remain neutral. It behoved her, as well as the rest of the older governments, to set their own houses in order, and to endeavour to gain the good will of their subjects, lest worse should befall them. The British Ministers, finding the Irish Government and Parliament still blind to the necessities of the situation, absolutely insisted on concession, and when the Houses met (January, 1793), Westmoreland was reluctantly obliged to insert in the speech from the Throne with which Parliament formally opened, a clause in favour of the Catholic claims. In February the Catholic Relief Bill was introduced. It proposed to give to Catholics the Parliamentary and Municipal franchise, the right of sitting on grand juries and becoming magistrates, of holding commissions in the army and navy, and of obtaining University degrees. An amendment permitting them to sit in Parliament was defeated by a large majority, and also they were not to be eligible for the posts of Privy Councillors, Staff Generals, Sheriffs, Fellows of Universities or King’s Councillors. Their exclusion from these, and especially from Membership of Parliament, was a grave mistake. The franchise had been conferred on masses of often uneducated and uncultured voters who were, for the most part, owing to their dependence on their landlords, unable to use it freely, even when qualified to do so intelligently. At the same time the Catholic landowner, the Catholic barrister, the Catholic scholar found himself shut out, owing to his creed, from honours and emoluments freely accorded often to his intellectual inferiors.

Above : Painting Of Fitzwilliam

Contemptible, indeed, the House proved itself. Parson’s motion to mark its resentment by a short Supply Bill found but twenty-four supporters. On March 25th (1795) Lord Fitzwilliam left. Many Dublin traders closed their shops as his carriage moved through the streets of the mourning city, drawn by a number of citizens of good position, who thus marked, not alone their gratitude for the efforts which he made to promote the good of Ireland, but their approval of the policy which his appointment had been taken to represent.