by them.

The last sentence refers to a curious incident. Downshire, the most
influential opponent of the Union, had opened a fund for influencing
members of Parliament. It reached a large amount, probably L100,000.
Beresford in a letter to Auckland states that L4,000 was paid to win
over a supporter of Government. Pitt, as we have seen, believed that
Downshire's fund necessitated the extensive use of bribery by
Government. But it is on the whole more likely that Dublin Castle opened
the game by its request early in 1799, for L5,000 immediately from
London. Further sums were forwarded, for on 5th April, Cooke, after
interviews with Pitt and Portland, assured Castlereagh that Portland
would send "the needful" to Dublin. He adds: "Pitt will contrive to let
you have from L8,000 to L10,000 for five years," though this was less
than Castlereagh required. After this, it is absurd to deny that Pitt
used corrupt means to carry the Union. He used them because only so
could he carry through that corrupt Parliament a measure entailing
pecuniary loss on most of its members. Probably he disliked the work as
much as Cornwallis, who longed to kick the men whom he had to
conciliate.--"I despise and hate myself every hour," so Cornwallis wrote
to Ross, "for engaging in such dirty work, and am supported only by the
reflection that without an Union, the British Empire must be
dissolved."[567]

The winter of 1799-1800 was marked by fierce discontent; and again,
after the rise of Bonaparte to power, there were rumours of invasion
which excited the peasants of South Ireland. The men of Dublin on some
occasions assaulted Unionist Members of Parliament. Cornwallis, however,
believed that the country as a whole favoured the cause; and Castlereagh
received favourable assurances as to the attitude of the great majority
of Catholics except in County Dublin.[568] Some leading Episcopalians
were appeased by the insertion of a clause uniting the Protestant
Churches of England and Ireland in one body. This concession did not
satisfy the Orangemen, who, despite the prohibition of their Grand
Lodge, clamoured against the Union, and threatened to oppose it by
force.

So doubtful were the omens when Cornwallis opened the Irish Parliament
on 5th February 1800, in a speech commending the present plan of
unification. Castlereagh then defended the proposals and declared them
to have the support of three fourths of the property there represented.
After sho