realise dimly the wisdom of what Burke saw to be the
wisest British fighting policy--the policy of rallying Catholic
Ireland against revolutionary France. There was, for instance, the
mission of Lord Fitzwilliam in 1795--a Whig mission extorted from Pitt
against his will, due to a Parliamentary complication, and backed from
London with but half-hearted support. That famous mission which sent
through Ireland such a strange, sad thrill of hope, soon closed in mist
and darkness. Lord Fitzwilliam went to Ireland, as many Englishmen have
gone since, with the intention of doing justice. He was thwarted, like
most others, by the resistance of the local Ascendancy Party, fighting
doggedly for the remnants of its power. It was the place-holders of
Ireland who, intriguing with the Ministry in London, led to the recall
of Lord Fitzwilliam.[66]

For that party was then playing the same part as it is attempting to
play to-day. They were playing then, as ever since, on the nerves of
Protestant England. They were conjuring up the dread of Catholic power,
and the terror of Irish disloyalty. Unhappily, in the confusions of the
moment--the confusions of the French wars--they succeeded. By
compelling the recall of Lord Fitzwilliam they wrecked the hopes of the
Grattan Parliament.

For after 1795 that Parliament was practically doomed, and events moved
rapidly to their climax. Grattan, thwarted in his policy, and unwilling
to be responsible for a body over which he had no control, withdrew
into retirement. The Irish Catholics, feeling themselves again betrayed
and deserted, relapsed all over Ireland into sullen indifference and
detachment. The Protestant Parliament, deprived of their leader, swung
more and more towards the Ascendancy Party. Even so, indeed, the virtue
of self-government continued to work. No Parliament has left a better
record of good local work for the prosperity of its country than
Grattan's Parliament. From end to end of Ireland new industries had
sprung up, and new life had been put into old industries. Ireland then
was prosperous. Her exports had doubled. Her wealth was increasing. Her
towns overflowed with life, and Dublin for the moment almost rivalled
London in its brilliancy and its wit.[67]

THE GREAT REBELLION

This prosperity might have saved Grattan's Parliament but for a new
movement which had crossed the two channels from France. It is doubtful
whether the Catholics alone could have wrecked Grattan's P