WILLIAM AND MAEY.

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mentary refonn, and to use even revolutionary means for thepurpose of obtaining that reform. But neither he, nor those-who looked up to him as their chief, and who went close to theverge of treason at his bidding, would consent to admit thesubject class to the smallest share of political power. Thevirtuous and accomplished Charlemont, a Whig of the Whigs,passed a long life in contending for what he called the freedomof his country. But he voted against the law which gave theelective franchise to Roman Catholic freeholders; and he diedfixed in the opinion that the Parliament House ought to be keptpure from Roman Catholic members. Indeed, during thecentury which followed the Revolution, the inclination of anEnglish Protestant to trample on the Irishry w r as generally pro-portioned to the zeal which he professed for political liberty inthe abstract. If he uttered any expression of compassion forthe majority oppressed by the minority, he might be safely setdown as a bigoted Tory and High Churchman.*

All this time hatred, kept dowm by fear, festered in thehearts of the children of the soil. They were still the samepeople that had sprung to arms in 1641 at the call of O’Neill,and in 1689 at the call of Tyrconnel. To them every festivalinstituted by the State was a day of mourning, and every publictrophy set up by the State was a memorial of shame. We havenever known, and can but faintly conceive, the feelings of anation doomed to see constantly in all its public places themonuments of its subjugation. Such monuments every wheremet the eye of the Irish Roman Catholics. In front of the

* On this subject Johnson was the most liberal politician of his time.“The Irish,” he said with great warmth, “are in a most unnatural state:for we see there the minority prevailing over the majority.” I suspect thatAlderman Beckford and Alderman Sawbridge would have been far fromsympathizing with him. Charles O’Connor, whose unfavourable opinionof the Whig Lucas I have quoted, pays, in the Preface to the Disserta-tions on Irish History, a high compliment to the liberality of the ToryJohnson.

CHAP.

XVII.

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