Above : Painting Of Lord Castlereagh 

The Parliament which, from 1782 to the Legislative Union of 1800, sat in Dublin is generally named, from the man to whose exertions the liberties which it enjoyed were chiefly due, ” Grattan’s Parliament.” We have seen that, within itself, it contained the elements which, after a short period of years, were to lead to its destruction, and that to purge itself of these elements it obstinately refused. Besides this, however, the constitution which had been imposed on it was in several respects faulty. Its greatest defect was this, that the Executive was practically completely independent of the Legislature.

Above : Picture Of Gladstone

A great conference in Dublin was arranged. In November 1873, the Rotunda,which had witnessed the meeting of the Volunteer Conference in November 1783, and seen it end in disaster and defeat, was now, after ninety years, the scene of another assembly, which, in different ways and by different means, sought, like the earlier one, a remedy for the ills 0f Ireland, but of an Ireland real and national, not merely of the narrow
community for whom mainly, if not exclusively, the men of 1783 had interested themselves. The outcome of this conference was a decision that all the forces of the League should be employed to contest every possible constituency at the next General Election, and that the Members returned should band themselves together in Parliament in a solid body, independent of British Parties and intent only on obtaining, from Conservatives or from Liberals, the object for which they strove.

Above : Picture Of James Fitzgerald

From what has been said it will be clear that Ireland, so far from desiring a Union, was, on the whole, very decidedly opposed to it, and that, in order to carry the measure, Pitt would be obliged to make use of every means at his disposal, if not to alter the opinion of the country, at least to gain the votes of those who were supposed to represent it! Efforts were made to influence the public by means of the Press’ Merchants were assured that trade would increase, that English capital would flow into the country. To the Catholics it was suggested that since in a Union Parliament they would be always in a minority, the one great objection to their emancipation would vanish of itself • while Protestants ware reminded that England was their only defence against the Catholic majority, and that, therefore, it would be advisable for them to bind Ireland as closely to her as possible.