1799 - 1800 AD
1799 AD William Pitt - the Younger the British Conservative Tory Prime Minister in England dismissed Parnell the Anglo - Irish Chancellor of the Exchequer, together with their previous "Placemen" in the Ascendancy Anglo - Irish Parliament who were now against his intention of bringing about the Immoral Union of Ireland with England. and included among these was the son of John Foster the Speaker in the House of Commons, who they could not dismiss while the anti - Catholic Lords, Charlemont, Enniskillen and Downshire, together with the "Orange Society / Order" were also at this time, against the Immoral Union and Daniel O Connell "The Liberator" who was now a barrister, together with a group of his colleagues also came out publicly against the Immoral Union. Just as had occurred in Scotland, were only 220 persons in high office were allowed to vote to bring about the Immoral Union there, ordinary citizens of Ireland had no real interest and also certainly had no say in the matter anyway of the proposed Immoral Union as their 3 main immediate worries at this time were their ""Rents, Enforced Tithes to the Ascendancy Church of England / Ireland, and their Religious Freedom." After all of this time and ongoing tribulations under the Ascendancy it mattered little to them whether they were to be repressed directly from the Ascendancy in England or indirectly by the Ascendancy in the Dublin Castle. (The Devil's 1/2 Acre).
January
22nd:
The
Ascendancy Anglo
- Irish
Parliament was re - assembled, and General Cornwallis the
British Imperial Lord Lieutenant in Ireland
who
was acting for the British
Conservative Tory
Government moved a motion in the parliament that they should consider the
Immoral
Union of Ireland with England, while
George Ponsonby moved an
amendment for the Anglo -
Irish Parliament
to remain independent
January 23rd:
George Ponsonby's amendment for Ireland to remain independent was
narrowly defeated by only 1 vote 106 - 105, which
was just too close for comfort for William Pitt - the Younger the British Conservative
Tory Prime
Minister
January 24th: The
motion to
consider the
Immoral Union was then
to be
defeated once again by 5 votes, 111
votes to
106 and
Robert Stewart / Lord Castlereagh
then promised the
Ascendancy Anglo - Irish House of Commons that he
would not bring it forward again, until it was the wish of the
Ascendancy Anglo - Irish Parliament and the
Country itself, it seemed that it was now time for him to begin in earnest a
truly immoral campaign of
outright
British Imperial Government bribery and intimidation to ensure that he
would be able to bring it in over the next year, and he confided this fact personally to his
uncle,
Lord Camden who had been the previous
anti - Catholic hard - line British Lord Lieutenant, that this
was William Pitt - the Younger and his intention. It was now a matter of an even
stronger line of persusion being implemented on all parties in
Ireland.
February:
British Martial Law Act was
bought into Ireland, which meant that ongoing trials by
"Court Martial" were now to occur
throughout the population in Ireland creating
further turmoil until 1805 AD,
and this meant that the British Imperial Tory Conservative Government now also had
made an added excuse to send extra British
Military forces into
Ireland, due to the
"possibility" of a further chance of invasion by the
French,
allowing
them to bring further pressure on the population in
Ireland
to achieve their own intended agenda. Added to all of this was also
the unrest among the
general rural
population
throughout the agricultural areas caused by the bad harvests that were now occurring. William Pitt
-
the Younger the British Prime Conservative Tory Minister in England now told
General Cornwallis
and
Robert Stewart
/ Lord
Castlereagh to advise the
Catholic Irish Bishops that he
definitely intended to bring in
Catholic Emancipation if
the
Immoral Union of Ireland
with
England was to come about and
Robert Stewart also offered the
Presbyterian
population an increase in their
Regium Donium payments for their
religious ministers, in a further effort to also gain their support to bring
about
the Immoral Union.
Thomas Addis Emmet the secretary of the United Irishmen Society, was now exiled from out of Ireland and he went off to New York were he became the State Attorney - General there, and many of the other United Irishmen exaspirated of it all now also left for America, as the ships from America were bringing flaxseed to Ireland and then returning home.
As the Bill
for
the Immoral Union with England had only
previously just been narrowly defeated the
British Imperial
Tory
Government began their new
campaign to allocate
further "Jobs, Places
and
Peerages," or whatever was required to buy
the extra votes they needed to bring it about, and also paid out another
15,000
pounds for the
Parliamentary Borough
of
Gowran in
Co. Kilkenny
in the south - west
of
Southern Leinster to obtain another 2
votes there among many others also purchased including
William Tighe at
Hillsborough
in
Co. Down
in the south - east of the Ulster Province who also received the same amount for his
2 votes at
Inistioge
in
Co. Kilkenny in the south - west of
Leinster also, and so it went. Finally
William Pitt - the Younger the British Conservative Tory Prime Minister was to also give out
further titles of
28 Life Peerages,
7 Earldoms, 7 Viscounts,
3 Marquis and
2 Ascendancy Church of England Bishops,
Richard Lovell Edgeworth
who was a non - Catholic M.P.
proposed equal access to primary
schools for the
Catholic Irish, and also for their religious beliefs to be
respected along with their
Catholic clergy, and although he
also wanted to give
them a separate religious education, this was
rejected \ and the
Catholic Bishops at
Maynooth
in Co. Kildare
in Central Southern Leinster also had to agree to
subject
themselves to British
Imperial Government interference by way of scrutiny
into their own religious appointments.
1800 The Irish population had increased substantially, and was nearly up to 5,000,000, while the cost of government in Ireland was running at 4,500,000 pounds per year, which was sure to greatly increase after the introduction of the Immoral Union and the unjust expenses that would then also be heaped on Ireland.
To add to the misery the
the
Potato crop
was to fail once again.
Anyone at all suspected of being a United Irishman were to be arrested and sent on to Australia in 6 vessels, to get them out of Ireland, and among these was General Joseph Holt who was previously an Anglo - Irish farmer from Wicklow in Co. Wicklow in the south - east of Southern Leinster, who was to also be accompanied by his wife and children as he had been the commander - in - chief of the remaining United Irishmen force at Glenmalure in the mountains to the south of Dublin where he was still to have 3 - 4,000 men, when he was to take over the command of the contingent previously under Michael Dwyer the Heremonian Cu Corb Wicklow Chieftain who was also to be transported. Michael Dwyer was also to be sent to Sydney in Australia on the Tellicherry with his wife and four of his children also and he was to remain in Australia until he was to die in 1826 AD, when he was to be interred in the Devonshire Street Cemetery in Sydney Town. In 1898 his remains were to be removed from there to Waverley Cemetery, to allow for the Central Railway Station to be built In 1900 AD, and a Dwyer monument of white marble, bronze and mosaic was to be erected under the patronage of Dr. Charles Mac Carthy by the Irish population in Australia to his memory and also to those Irish who had given their all in the struggle against British Imperialism in Ireland.
By now only 1/50th of Ireland was still under forest, which was made up of Oak, Arbutus and Birch and only 5% of the whole of Ireland now remained in Catholic Irish hands.
January 13th: Daniel O Connell - the Liberator made his first public speech at the Royal Exchange in Dublin against the imposition of the Immoral Union with England, but the "Trap" was well and truly set by now!!
January
15th:
The
Ascendancy Anglo - Irish Parliament met in a new session in
Dublin once again, and the
British Imperial Tory Government had by now ensured that all
were aware that any of their "Placemen"
who voted against the
Immoral
Union
this time,
would be out with them forever and already one fifth of the
Ascendancy Anglo - Irish House of
Commons had been changed to suite their
Immoral Union agenda, by the granting of
the Peerages,
Places, pensions, Promises
and also Threats,
together with Cash payments.
All of these had all
been given out during the last year to ensure a successful
vote for the Immoral Union in the Ascendancy Anglo - Irish Parliament
to make it official, while the majority of the population in
Ireland had no representation at all while during this session
of the Parliament another
amendment was moved to maintain an independent
Irish
Parliament, but it was
now easily defeated by 138 - 96 votes.
On the other hand the Catholic Irish were now supporting the Immoral Union, because of William Pitt - the Younger the British Tory Prime Minister's promise of Catholic Emancipation if they did, and this now actually put them on the same side as John "Black Jack" Fitzgibbon the hard - line anti - Catholic who was for it also, but to him it meant something quite different, as William Pitt - the Younger, had also offered him the continued maintenance of the Ascendancy in Ireland forever, due to no Catholic representation being allowed in the new combined Westminster Parliament in England. Those in Ireland who were against the Immoral Union were to also eventually split into 2 separate bodies until 1866 AD, those who supported the rights of the Catholic Irish, and those who did not.
February:
Although the
Ascendancy
in Ireland was now in a quandary,
Robert Stewart
/ Lord
Castlereagh
the British
Chief Secretary
in Ireland
told
William
"Bottomless"
Pitt - the
Younger the British Conservative Tory Prime Minister
February 6th:
The
Ascendancy Anglo -
Irish Parliament accepted the motion to consider the
Immoral
Union of Ireland with
England, on the basis of the
British Tory Government's new
debauched majority of
43.
August 1st:
The
Immoral Union
of
Ireland with
England was
given Royal Assent by
German George 111 the Hanoverian King of
Britain,
and
William Pitt - the Younger and the British
Conservative Tory Government, with
the assistance of his Chief Secretary
in
Ireland,
Robert Stewart /
Castlereagh
brought in their
Act of Union to officially unite
Ireland
with England and all up it had cost them 1,260,000
pounds in
cash payments
alone, and the granting of
48
further English Titles, with
both Countries to retain their own
Exchequer.
Ireland was to be
responsible for
2 / 17ths of
the total expenditure, with each to be responsible for their
own debt until it
reached similar proportions, when they would then unite the
Exchequer.
Ireland was to
be represented in the
British Westminster Parliament in
England
by twice the number of
representatives that
Scotland
had in the Ascendancy House of Lords, and
more then twice the number in the British
Ascendancy House of Commons
and it was always anticipated that
any pressure they may bring on behalf
of the population in Ireland would always be
lost in the numbers, but
John Foster the Speaker in the AScendancy Anglo - Irish Parliament received the largest pay out as an official, although he was against the Immoral Union, while the Marquis of Downshire received the largest payout for the Boroughs although he was also against it.
Henry Grattan
as the
Irish
Patriot Party leader
in the Opposition made a farewell address stating,"
Yet I do
not give up my Country, I see her in a swoon, but she is not dead, though in her
tomb she lies helpless and motionless, still on her lips is the spirit of life
and on her cheeks the glow of beauty."
August 2nd:
The
Ascendancy Anglo -
Irish Parliament
held it's last assembly when it was abolished by
William Pitt - the Younger, the
British
Conservative Tory Prime Minister after
500 years
of only continuous representation by a
"minority" of the population in
Ireland, and
Dublin settled down to
becoming just another city, and the
Irish Parliament building in
Dublin
was sold off to the
Bank of Ireland.
Daniel
O Connell
an Irish
Catholic barrister, who would also become the first
Catholic
M.P. in the future, had strongly protested and agitated
against
the Immoral Union, while
John "Black Jack" Fitzgibbon the
hard - line anti - Catholic, who was
now the
English Earl of Clare had been for it,
determined to ensure that Catholics received
no
rights at all in the Immoral
Union, and this
continued backward looking attitude as always was to force those affected by the repression even
closer
together in a common cause. (Once again the lesson is, if you want to make any thing stronger then
repress it.) Those in authority in England had always shown the
Irish that if they wanted any
"reform"
they would have to physically fight for it, and with their supporters they would once again be forced to increase
their activity beneath the surface, to right the unending wrongs,
and this repressed
momentum would only keep up the pressure for further Irish Uprising plans in
Ireland to be continued.
With the introduction of the
Immoral
Union nothing actually changed for the
population in Ireland, and the
British Conservative Ascendancy
Imperial Government
as usual continued to maintain their control over
Ireland
the only way they knew how by
British Military oppression and violence,
sending their usual message to the
Irish
that was always the same, that the
Irish
or any other Colonial people under British Imperialism control
must always be forced to use
violence
themselves,
if they were to receive any reforms or
rights.
(The British Imperial Government
by this time controlled a
Military Regiment in
Ireland of
60,000 troops.
Leases to tenants on the Land Lords' Estates in Ireland during this period were for a lifetime 21 to 40 years @ 5/- to 10/- shillings an Irish acre, while any repairs and improvements were to be carried out by the tenant farmers themselves, with only the pasture being exempt from the Ascendancy Church of England / Ireland enforced Tithes, which had been a change only made to suite the Land Lords putting the burden of all the expenses on the poorer tenant classes in Ireland with their staple diet of potatoes having a higher tax rate and at this time one acre of potatoes could support a family of 6 people allowing 10 lb. per person per day while the peelings were given to the pigs, and to own a cow was their ultimate reward, which was often to be confiscated for the Tithes payable to the Ascendancy Church of England.
As a pointer to their actual interest in
Irish Affairs the
British Conservative Government
over the next 12
years were to appoint
9
separate
Chief
Secretaries to run
Ireland
for them, which did nothing for
stability or
improvement in the life of anyone in Ireland, while the
Ascendancy Church of
England / Ireland
was now to be united formally with the
English
Church of England.
John Hogan
who was to become one of Ireland's most
notable sculptors was born
at
Tallow
in
Co. Waterford in the south - east of the
Munster Province this year, and he would die in
1858 AD.
John Butler the previous Catholic Bishop of Cork, died at 83 years of age, and he had since been received back into the Catholic Church, and he left his Estate to Maynooth College in Co. Kildare in Central Southern Leinster, which upset his heirs no end, who tried to get the property under the Catholic Irish Penal Laws, which were still on the books, but not enforced, and a compromise was reached with Maynooth who received 10,000 pounds from the Estate.