the security of the one island; it was a first step in
the regeneration of the other. The legislative connexion of the two
countries was only part of the plan which he had conceived for the
conciliation of Ireland. With the conclusion of the Union indeed, his
projects of free trade between the two countries, projects which had
been defeated a few years back by the folly of the Irish Parliament,
came quietly into play; and in spite of insufficient capital and social
disturbance the growth of the trade, shipping, and manufactures of
Ireland has gone on without a check from that time to this. The change
which brought Ireland directly under the common Parliament was followed
too by a gradual revision of its oppressive laws and an amendment in
their administration; while taxation was lightened, and a faint
beginning made of public instruction. But in Pitt's mind the great means
of conciliation was the concession of religious equality. In proposing
to the English Parliament the union of the two countries he pointed out
that when thus joined to a Protestant country like England all danger of
a Catholic supremacy in Ireland, even should Catholic disabilities be
removed, would be practically at an end. In such a case, he suggested
that "an effectual and adequate provision for the Catholic clergy" would
be a security for their loyalty. His words gave strength to the hopes of
"Catholic emancipation," as the removal of what remained of the civil
disabilities of Catholics was called, which were held out by his agent,
Lord Castlereagh, in Ireland itself as a means of hindering any
opposition to the project of Union on the part of the Catholics. It was
agreed on all sides that their opposition would have secured its defeat;
and the absence of such a Catholic opposition showed the new trust in
Pitt which was awakened by the hints of Lord Castlereagh. The trust had
good grounds to go on. After the passing of the bill Pitt prepared to
lay before his Cabinet a measure which would have raised not only the
Irish Catholic but the Irish Dissenter to a perfect equality of civil
rights. He proposed to remove all religious tests which limited the
exercise of the franchise, or which were required for admission to
Parliament, the magistracy, the bar, municipal offices, or posts in the
army or the service of the State. An oath of allegiance and of fidelity
to the Constitution was substituted for the Sacramental test; while the
loyalty of the Catholi