ayo, Waterford, and
Wexford. It was hostile in Carlow, Cavan, Dublin, Fermanagh, Kildare,
and Louth. In the other counties it was divided on the subject. Among
the towns, Cork, Galway, Lisburne, Londonderry, Waterford, and Wexford
supported Union. Clonmell, Drogheda, and Dublin opposed it; while
Belfast, Kilkenny, and Limerick were doubtful. Most of the Grand Juries
petitioned for Union, only those of Dublin, Louth, Queen's County, and
Wicklow pronouncing against it.[558] In view of the expected attempt of
the Brest fleet, the Grand Jury of Cork burst into a patriotic rhapsody
which must be placed on record:

_March 26, 1799._[559]

... At the present awful moment whilst we await the threatened
attempt of the enemies of religion and of man to crush us in
their sacrilegious embrace; whilst their diabolical influence
cherishes rebellion and promotes assassination in the land, we
look back with gratitude to the timely interposition of Great
Britain, which has more than once rescued us from that infidel
yoke under which so great a portion of distracted Europe at this
moment groans. We have still to acknowledge how necessary that
interposition is to protect us from the further attempts of an
unprincipled foe, ... and to her assistance we are ... indebted
for keeping down an unnatural but wide extended rebellion
within the bosom of this country. To become a constituent part
of that Empire to whose protection we owe our political
existence and whose constitution is the admiration of the
civilized world; to participate in those resources which are
inexhaustible; to become joint proprietors of that navy which is
irresistible; and to share in that commerce which knows no
bounds, are objects beyond which our most sanguine wishes for
the wealth and prosperity of Ireland cannot possibly extend,
whilst the prospect which they hold forth of terminating the
jarring interests of party and reconciling the jealous
distinctions of religion, promises a restoration of that
tranquillity to which the country has too long been a stranger.

This exuberant loyalty may have been heightened by the hope that Cork
would reap from the Union a commercial harvest equal to that which
raised Glasgow from a city of 12,700 souls before the Anglo-Scottish
Union, to one of nearly 70,000 in the year 1800. But the men of Cork