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.

Neither the recall of Fitzwilliam nor the change in the policy of the British Minister, if change there indeed was, nor the connection, supposing such a connection to exist, between these two events, has ever been satisfactorily explained. The recall was certainly disastrous, since its great influence in causing the Irish Rebellion of 1798 can scarcely be doubted.

Not only were the hopes which the Catholics had cherished of obtaining by constitutional means the object which they had in view completely shattered, and their minds, therefore, turned to methods of violence, but all belief in the good faith of the British Government was absolutely destroyed. Those who considered that Pitt had been guilty of deliberate treachery were well prepared to listen to men who urged that a bold attempt should now be made to shake off entirely the English power, and to establish in Ireland an independent republic, with the assistance and on the model of the Republican Government of France