time when his evidence is required, unless he can find satisfactory sureties for his appearance.

This concludes all the salient points of public interest of the Act of 1870, which was passed on the 4th of April, and was made terminable on the 1st of August, 1871.

The aforesaid Act was renewed by the Act of the 16th of June, 1871, in combination with the Westmeath Act, referred to in a later chapter.

The Peace Preservation Act was further continued by a very short Act which is cited as "The Peace Preservation (Ireland) Acts Continuance Act." It was passed on the 26th of May, 1873, and was made to continue in force until the 1st of June, 1875.

The Acts just before noticed were brought forward and passed by Mr. Gladstone's government of that date. When the Act of 1873 expired in 1875, Mr. Disraeli's government was in office, and three days before the expiration of the last-named Act there was passed "An Act to amend and continue certain Acts for the Preservation of the Peace in Ireland, and to grant an Indemnity in certain cases."

This Act, passed by a Conservative government, is very remarkable as being a relaxation of severity, for it repealed many of the provisions of the Acts of 1870 and 1871. It facilitated the granting of licences of persons to carry arms wherever no good ground of objection could be urged, and especially enacted that "the person appointed to grant licences to have or carry arms in any district shall be bound to grant to any occupier of one or more agricultural holdings a licence to have and carry arms upon any specified lands, or a licence to have and carry arms generally, who shall produce him a certificate, signed by two justices of the peace for the county residing within the same petty sessions district, as the person producing such certificate, that he is a fit and proper person to have such licence respectively. The punishment for having arms without a licence is reduced to imprisonment for one year instead of two.

Very remarkable, also, is section 5, which deprives the Lord Lieutenant of the power of arrest without trial which the Act of 1871 gave him as previously described.

SEVERITY RELAXED.

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By the Act of 1875 everything was also repealed relating to licensing of gunpowder makers and dealers, and the registration of transactions in arms and gunpowder were made void; and the parts relating to arrests of persons by night, and the arrest of strangers, and the closing of public-houses, and the suppression of newspapers, are discontinued. In other respects the Act of 1870 revived from the 28th of May, 1875, until the 1st of June, 1880.

Having thus glanced at leading examples of the huge volumes of special legislation with which Ireland has been afflicted or saved, according to the interpretation different persons may put upon it, the glance will tend to assist in appreciating the circumstances under which arose the history contained in the succeeding pages.

WH

CHAPTER VII.

FIRST EXPERIENCES-ROBERT EMMETT.

HEN the Imperial government took over the government of Ireland for better or for worse, martial law was in operation and habeas corpus was suspended, in pursuance of the legislation of the Irish Parliament before referred to. When it was proposed to renew those enactments in 1801, the Earl of Clare, in the House of Lords, said there was no real security for person or property, and that when he left his house his servant brought him his arms as regularly as his hat. He contended that Acts of indulgence had been mischievous, and the Acts under debate were therefore renewed.

This did not prevent trouble in 1802. The cry throughout the south and west was for the right of the old tenants to retain possession of their holdings, substantially the same thing as the "fixity of tenure" contended for now, and it was considered patriotic to oppose the introduction of strangers to the occupation of farms. In defiance of repressive measures, considerable violence was indulged in to further such views, for the Union threatened to introduce a new order of things which the people vehemently opposed. Limerick, Tipperary and Waterford were the counties then most notorious in such matters. Disorder was put down with a strong force of military; and swift punishments, including a free resort to penal transportation, awed the rebellious into a position of seeming content. Increase of the military forces was assiduously cultivated, and every anticipation of revolt.

precaution was taken in

Robert Emmett now comes upon the scene. He was one of nineteen students who in 1798 were expelled from Trinity College for their

republican principles. He afterwards travelled on the Continent with a brother who took but little part with him. He was the son of Dr. Emmett, and after the death of his father he exercised his instincts for secret operations by making a passage and various other concealed communications within the house, some portions being fitted with pulleys and ropes to facilitate movements that would otherwise have been impossible. Having practised his hand upon such freaks in his father's house, he resumed them in a house where he soon after resided at Harold's Cross.

Subsequently he set about conspiring with all he could find to join him in getting up an insurrection. His adventures were of the most romantic description, and were very widespread. For a time he lived with his followers in a subterranean cave in the deep glen of Ernall, access to the cave being by means of removing a sod of turf placed so as to conceal the entrance. Here they slept by day and emerged at night, and Emmett became the acknowledged chief of a considerable body of men, who were eventually surprised and mostly shot down by a detachment of Highlanders.

On this occasion Emmett escaped. He was an ardent republican, and his avowed object was to separate Ireland from England, and to make the former a republic. He got possession of a house in Patrick Street, Dublin, and there, with his fellows, set about the making of arms and ammunition; but an explosion there gave the authorites a clue to what was going on. This accident and other minor occurrences did not deter Emmett in his rash and hopeless purpose, which culminated on July 23, 1803, when he supposed he and his followers would be able to obtain ascendency over the forces of the government. He drew up the plan of proceedings in great detail, arranging to take the Castle, to make the Lord Lieutenant prisoner, and to carry everything through with a high hand. He also prepared a proclamation to be issued by the provisional government he hoped to establish, in which, among other extravagances, he wrote, "Whosoever refuses to march to any part of the country he is ordered, is guilty of disobedience to the government, which alone is competent to decide in what place

his service is necessary, and which desires him to recollect that, in whatever part of Ireland he is fighting, he is still fighting for freedom." Again he wrote: "Men of Munster and Connaught! you have your instructions; you will execute them." Again: "We war not against property-we war against no religious sect-we war not against party opinion or prejudices-we war against English dominion."

So thoroughly infatuated was Emmett, and so blind to hard facts was his enthusiasm and confidence, that, in addition to the long proclamation from which the above illustrative extracts are taken, he prepared a decree " " which commenced in the following grandiloquent terms: "Conformably to the above proclamation, the provisional government of Ireland decree as follows:-1. From the date and promulgation hereof, tithes are for ever abolished, and church lands are the property of the nation. 2. From the same date, all transfers of landed property are prohibited, each person paying his rent until the national government is established, the national will declared, and the courts of justice organized. 3. From the same date, all transfer of bonds, debentures, and all public securities are in like manner forbidden and declared void for the same time and for the same reason. 4. The Irish generals commanding districts shall seize such of the partisans of England as may serve as hostages, and shall apprise the English commanders opposed to them that a strict retaliation shall take place if any outrages contrary to the laws of war shall be committed by the troops under command of each, or by the partisans of England in the district which he occupies." And so on, to the extent of thirty articles, providing for committing the "sovereign authority to the people,” with an entire redistribution of seats, county government, and other details. Having, by writing these extravagant compositions, worked himself to the requisite pitch of hardihood, he got his proclamation and decree printed in readiness, and at length, on the evening of Saturday, July 23, 1803, took up the position he had assigned to himself in Dublin, where an undisciplined rabble collected in the proportion of a hundred to one or so of those who really sympathised with Emmett. He led the march, in pursuit of his plan; but most of the rabble, finding them