at hour of
her weakness, and a disgust which only slowly grew fainter at her
overthrow of every social and political institution that Englishmen held
dear. On the dogged temper of the nation at large the failure of the
coalition produced little effect. It had no fear of fighting France
single-handed, nor could it understand Pitt's suggestion that a time
had come for opening negotiations with a view to peace. Public opinion
indeed went hotly with Burke in his denunciation of all purpose of
relaxing England's hostility against the revolution, a denunciation
which was embodied in his "Letters on a Regicide Peace," the last outcry
of that fanaticism which had done so much to plunge the world in blood.

[Sidenote: The Irish danger.]

But though Pitt stood all but alone, he was firm in his purpose to bring
the war, if he could, to a close. What specially moved him was not the
danger on the Continent, whether that danger sprang from French
victories or from aggression in the east. It was a danger in the west.
Vain as the expectations of the French revolutionists had proved in the
case of England, they had better ground for their hopes elsewhere. Even
before the outbreak of the war Pitt had shown how keen was his sense of
a possible danger from Ireland. In that wretched country the terrible
fruits of a century of oppression and wrong were still to reap. From the
close of the American war, when her armed Volunteers had wrung
legislative independence from the Rockingham ministry, Ireland had
continued to be England's difficulty. She was now "independent"; but her
independence was a mere name for the uncontrolled rule of a few noble
families. The victory of the Volunteers had been won simply to the
profit of "undertakers," who returned a majority of members in the
Irish House of Commons, while they themselves formed the Irish House of
Lords. The suspension of any effective control or interference from
England left Ireland at these men's mercy, and they soon showed that
they meant to keep it for themselves. When the Catholics claimed
admission to the franchise or to equal civil rights as a reward for
their aid in the late struggle, their claim was rejected. A similar
demand of the Presbyterians, who had formed a good half of the
Volunteers, for the removal of their disabilities was equally set aside.
Even Grattan, when he pleaded for a reform which would make the
Parliament at least a fair representative of the Protestant Englishr