y wore an orange ribbon as their badge, to distinguish them from
the Catholic party, who wore green badges.

562. Union of Great Britain and Ireland, 1800; Emmet.

Matters now came to a crisis. William Pitt, son of the late Earl of
Chatham (S550), was Prime Minister. He believed that the best
interests of both Ireland and England demanded their political union.
He devoted all his energies to accomplishing the work. The result was
that in the last year of the eighteenth century the English Government
succeeded, by the most unscrupulous use of money, in gaining the
desired end. Lord Cornwallis, acting as Pitt's agent, confessed with
shame that he bought up a sufficient number of members of the Irish
Parliament to secure a vote in favor of union with Great Britain. In
1800 the two countries were joined--in name at least--under the title
of the "United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland."[3]

[3] The first Parliament of the United Kingdom met in 1801.

Pitt used all his powerful influence to obtain for Ireland a full and
fair representation in the united Parliament (1801). He urged that
Catholics as well as Protestants should be eligible for election to
that body. But the King positively refused to listen to his Prime
Minister. He even declared that it would be a violation of his
coronation oath for him to grant such a request. The consequence was
that not a single Catholic was admitted to the Imperial Parliament
until nearly thirty years later (S573).

Two years after the first Imperial Parliament met in London the Irish
patriot, Robert Emmet, made a desperate effort to free his country
(1803). To his mind the union of England with Ireland was simply "the
union of the shark with its prey." He staked his life on the cause of
independence; he lost, and paid the forfeit on the scaffold.

But notwithstanding Emmet's hatred of the union, it resulted
advantageously to Ireland in at least two respects. First, more
permanent peace was secured to that distracted and long-suffering
country. Secondly, the Irish people made decided gains commercially.
The duties on their farm products were removed, at least in large
degree, and the English ports hitherto closed against them were thrown
open. The duties on their manufactured goods seem to have been taken
off at that time only in part.[1] Later, absolute freedom of trade was
secured.

[1] See May's "Constitutional History of England," Lecky's "England in
the Eight