218 Chapter X
ment, on the advice of the Lord Lieutenant, countenanced them and even supplied
weapons, though with some misgiving, under the fear of invasion.
Thus originated the Irish Volunteers. They were entirely different from the
White boys, Steel boys, Peep- of- Day boys, or Defenders who throughout this
whole period carried on an underground violence among the depressed agricul-
tural masses. It was the difference between Puga chev and Radishchev, as Cathe-
rine II might say; the Irish Volunteers read Benjamin Franklin. They were over-
whelmingly sympathetic to the American rebellion and well informed of its
progress. It was not against John Paul Jones that they meant to defend themselves,
but against the French and agrarian insurrection. Nor indeed was the movement
merely defensive; the Volunteers seized the opportunity of the American rebellion
and the French war to bring pressure on England, to demand for Ireland the “lib-
erty” for which others were fighting in America. There were 40,000 volunteers in
arms by the end of 1779, organized, officially approved, and perfectly in the open.
Their drills and musters brought them together for the exchange of ideas and
adoption of programs. Delegates from the companies, meeting in regional assem-
blies, further spread political consciousness and communication throughout the
island.
The Volunteers represented the Protestant and middle- class “nation in arms,”
but commanded as they were by dukes and earls, with sponsors like Henry Grat-
tan and other reformers in the Irish Parliament, and with no hostility from the
Catholics, they represented also, in 1779 and 1780, before the more cautious
spirits took alarm, a degree of unity in Irish opinion such as had never existed
before and was never to exist again. The awakening of the newspaper press, the
outburst of political pamphlets, the formation of non- importation associations
against England, the resolutions passed by normal civilian bodies, such as grand
juries and county meetings, all added to the agitation. The broadest basis for
agreement was the demand for a relaxing of the trade controls to relieve the
economic crisis. There was a great desire for legislative autonomy for the Irish
Parliament. Many wanted parliamentary reform; and a few dreamers undoubt-
edly, with the American example before them, were already beginning to think of
total separation from England.
The government of Lord North, enmeshed in the American difficulties, trapped
in a war with France for which it had optimistically made no preparation, and be-
deviled by British merchants who wanted no competition from Ireland, especially
after losing American markets, was unable to act speedily or decisively on the Irish
demands. It is not that the British were immovable. The Irish Octennial Act of
1768, described above, has been called the first piece of parliamentary reform in
the history of the two islands; and concessions to the Catholics, allowing them to
take leases on land, had begun in the 1770’s, probably to prevent their lending sup-
port to Protestant malcontents. But the British delayed on the trade concessions.
There was meanwhile no force in the country capable of disarming the Volunteers.
The Irish Parliament, sensing the quasi- military backing of the Volunteers, took
the unprecedented step of refusing to vote money supplies except for a period of
six months. Before pressure of this kind, and the continuing boycott of British
goods, which the Volunteers made the more effective by their organization and