he held up the Bill for a moment in silence; he looked steadily around him on the last agony of the expiring Parliament.  He at length repeated, in an emphatic tone, ’As many as are of opinion that this Bill do pass, say aye.’  The affirmative was languid but indisputable; another momentary pause ensued; again his lips seemed to decline their office; at length, with an eye averted from the object which he hated, he proclaimed, with a subdued voice, ‘The Ayes have it.’  The fatal sentence was now pronounced; for an instant he stood statue-like; then indignantly, and with disgust, flung the Bill upon the table, and sunk into his chair with an exhausted spirit.

     “An independent country was thus degraded into a province—­Ireland,
     as a nation, was extinguished.”

[Illustration:  LYNCH’S HOUSE, GALWAY.]

[Illustration:  SWORDS’ CASTLE, COUNTY DUBLIN.]

FOOTNOTES: 

[571] Clergy.—­Barrington says, in his Rise and Fall of the Irish Nation, p. 67, the Catholic clergy had every inclination to restrain their flocks within proper limits, and found no difficulty in effecting that object.  The first statement is unquestionably true; the second statement is unfortunately disproved by many painful facts.

[572] Them.—­Vol. ii. p. 93.

[573] Oath.—­I give authority for these details.  In the spring of 1796, three Orangemen swore before a magistrate of Down and Armagh, that the Orangemen frequently met in committees, amongst whom were some members of Parliament, who gave them money, and promised that they should not suffer for any act they might commit, and pledged themselves that they should be provided for by Government.  The magistrate informed the Secretary of State, and asked how he should act; but he never received any answer, for further details on this head, see Plowden’s History of the Insurrection.

[574] Sermons.—­On the 1st of July, 1795, the Rev. Mr. Monsell, a Protestant clergyman of Portadown, invited his flock to celebrate the anniversary of the battle of the Boyne by attending church, and preached such a sermon against the Papists that his congregation fell on every Catholic they met going home, beat them cruelly, and finished the day by murdering two farmer’s sons, who were quietly at work in a bog.—­Mooney’s History of Ireland, p. 876.

[575] Indemnity.—­Lord Carhampton sent 1,300 men on board the fleet, on mere suspicion.  They demanded a trial in vain.  An Act of Indemnity was at once passed, to free his Lordship from any unpleasant consequences.

[576] Remember Orr.—­Lives and Times of the United Irishmen, second series, vol. ii. p. 380.