THE IRISH VOLUNTEERS.

The revolt of the English Colonies in America, although it evoked no disloyalty, had a strong and unforeseen influence upon the equally English colony in Ireland.  It would have been strange had it not done so.  The circumstances of the two colonies—­looking at Ireland merely in that light—­were in many respects all but identical.  If England could tax America without the consent of its representatives, then, equally it could tax Ireland, in which case the long struggles lately waged by Flood, Grattan, and others in the Irish Parliament over Money Bills would be definitely decided against it.  Compared to Ireland, America indeed had little to complain of.  The restrictions which held back Irish commerce still existed in almost all their pristine force.  The woollen trade, save for some very trifling home consumption, was practically dead; even the linen trade, which had been promised encouragement, had hitherto hardly received any.  Bounties had been offered, on the contrary, to English woollen manufacturers, and duties levied on Irish sail-cloth, which had effectually put a stop to that important branch of the trade.  Another cause had also affected commerce seriously.  The manufacturers of the north, were almost to a man Presbyterian, and the laws against Presbyterians had been pressed with almost as much severity as against Catholics.  Under the rule of Archbishops Boulter, Hoadly, and Stone, who had in succession governed the country, the Test Act had been employed with a suicidal severity, which had driven thousands of industrious men to join their brethren in America, where they could worship in peace, and where their presence was before long destined to produce a formidable effect upon the impending struggle.

The whole condition of the country was miserable in the extreme.  Agriculture was at the lowest possible ebb.  The Irish farmers, excluded from the English and all foreign markets, were reduced to destitution.  Land was offered at fourteen and twelve years’ purchase, and even at those prices found no buyers.  Many of the principal landowners were absentees, and though the rents themselves do not seem as a rule to have been high, the middlemen, by whom the land was commonly taken, ground the wretched peasants under them to powder with their exactions.  While everything else was thus steadily shrinking, the pension list was swelling until it stood not far short of L100,000.  The additional troops recently raised in Ireland had been sent to America, and their absence had left the country all but defenceless.  In 1779, an attempt was made to carry out a levy of militia, in which Prostestants only were to be enrolled, and an Act passed for the purpose.  It failed utterly, for so miserably bankrupt was the condition of the Irish Government, that it was found impossible to collect money to pay the men, and the scheme in consequence had to be given up.