448 CAULFIELD. of opposition, brought forward his bill for the total eman- cipation of the catholics. It was indignantly and de- cidedly resisted by Mr. Pelham, who declared that con- cession to the catholics, which had already gone to the utmost length, consistent with safety to a protestant state, must stop somewhere; and here he would plant his foot, and resist its further progress. An arduous debate ensued which was continued till six o'clock in the morning, and ended in the loss of the bill. This event was a decisive specimen of total departure from the conciliatory system of which Lord Fitzwilliam came as the harbinger; it confirmed, at once, the influence of the United Irishmen over the great mass of the popu- lation; it gave new force to the machinations of the sedi- tious; and accelerated the revolutionary burst, long ap- prehended from the combustibles for years in preparation. From that day forth, all the machinery of sedition was set in motion on the one hand; opposed on the other, by severe laws and arbitrary measures of coercion, which, instead of suppressing, served but to feed the flame. The government could not be blind to the volcanie symptoms perceivable on ali sides; but could never come to a full discovery of the whole plot, until, by mere accident, on the very eve of explosion, a chief conspirator was induced to betray his associates. In consequence of which they were seized in full council, in the very heart of the metro- polis, within a day or two of the intended general insur- rection throughout the whole country; but although this seizure of the chiefs defeated the plan of an immediate and general explosion, it accelerated a partial rebellion, which instantly broke out, and raged for nearly three months with incessant and sanguinary fury. A few of the chief conspirators in custody were executed; and the rest, seeing their grand scheme utterly defeated, purchased their lives by a full discovery of their whole plan, force, and preparations, to a secret committee of parliament, which, in point of extent, surpassed all previous conception, and astonished both the government and senate. The rebellion
