Yet such has been the misgovernment of the
English that the Irish have seen their paternal acres pass into
the hands of aliens and absentees, their religion made a brand
of shame and outlawry, their Parliament corrupted and done away,
their industries crippled and bound down, and themselves reduced
to wretched poverty.
At the outset of the century the Act of Union went into effect,
abolishing the Irish Parliament and admitting Irish (Protestant)
Lords and Commons to the Parliament at Westminster. Pitt
believed that the change would strengthen the empire and help
Ireland as well, but it was brought to pass by means of lavish
bribery, and sorely against the wish of the Irish patriots.
Furthermore, the determination of Pitt to commend the act to
Ireland by removing the political disabilities which barred
Catholics from membership in Parliament was thwarted by the
stiff-necked George III., who had got it into his head that such
a concession would do violence to the Protestantism of his
coronation oath. Pitt resigned in disgust, and Catholic
emancipation had to await until England had finished Napoleon's
European business and could turn her hand to the troubles nearer
home. It was finally carried, in 1829, by Wellington and Peel,
the reform being fairly forced upon them by the tremendous
agitation in its behalf by the eloquent Daniel O'Connell and his
comrades of the Catholic Association.
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