PONSONBY. 483 felt that they held those advantages merely by sufferance, de anno in annum; and that they were still liable to the operation of a test act, only suspended from session to session. A bill was brought in every year for allowing dissenters, holding offices under the crown, further time to qualify by receiving the sacrament in the established church, and taking certain oaths, wholly repugnant to their religious scruples; and if any session should elapse without renewing this bill, a l l dissenters would b e imme diately disqualified from retaining their old, o r obtaining new, appointments, whether civil o r military; and would thus b e included i n the same proscription with the Ca tholics.
These two great sects, comprising above four-fifths o f the whole population, and, for near a century, entertain ing a spirit o f rancorous hostility against each other, which was cherished b y the predominant church, o n the good old maxim, o f divide and rule, now saw that their only hope o f gaining their respective objects, was b y Parlia mentary reform; for the propriety o f this measure they had the sanction o f Mr. Pitt and Lord Castlereagh, (both o f whom commenced their political career a s i t s strenuous advocates, the former continuing t o avow his attachment t o i t long after his possession o f office,) and for the attainment o f this end, they formed a solemn coalition o f mutual support. This was the principle which gave birth t o the Society o f United Irishmen; and propagandists were zealously employed throughout the country t o fan the flame. A variety o f combustibles were already stored i n the popular mind, which only required ignition t o blaze out i n a dangerous conflagration. The heated discussions and democratic principles pro mulgated b y the revolutionists i n France, and the animat ing details o f the victorious successes o f the French arms, were republished i n a l l the British and Irish newspapers. The manifestoes o f the British Corresponding Societies;- the publication o f Paine's Rights o f Man, b y subscription, and i t s distribution, gratis, b y hundreds o f thousands
