Addington and Pitt
(March 1801 to
January 1806)
Summary. The policies and problems of
Addington's administration differed little from that of Pitt, with the exception
that no further measure for the relief for Catholics would be proposed. A
short-lived peace was signed with France but when the war was resumed the
limitations of the mild Henry Addington were exposed. Pitt returned as prime
minister and constructed another coalition against Napoleon. After a few years,
the Catholics began to prepare another petition to Parliament for relief. The
chapter ends with the death of Pitt.
***********************************************************************
The Policies of the New Ministry
Relations with France
Policies in Ireland
Financial Policy
Return of Pitt and the Catholic Petition of 1805
Social and Economic
Measures
******************************************************************************
The
Policies of the New Ministry
[March 1801] Except on
the question of Emancipation i.e. the admission of Catholics to Parliament and
the higher public offices, the policies of Addington differed little from those
of Pitt. Addington (later Viscount Sidmouth) had been a life-long supporter and
friend of Pitt, and a man of mild and affable character. He had been until this
date Speaker of the House of Commons, and Pitt persuaded him that he must do as
the king wished, since he himself was no longer acceptable. Philip Yorke, 3rd
Earl of Hardwicke, a Portland Whig (those Whigs who followed the Duke of
Portland in joining Pitt in a coalition), replaced Lord Cornwallis as Lord
Lieutenant. His instructions were to try to calm the country without promising
Emancipation. The new Irish Secretary was Charles Abbot, a Tory. (It seems that
this was now technically a new office funded by Westminster. Acceptance of this office, like that of
Secretary to the Navy, did not require resignation from Parliament and
re-election - DNB 'Abbot', SNL 9 Dec l809). John Fitzgibbon, Lord
Clare, a strong pro-Unionist and anti-Catholic, was retained as Lord
Chancellor. (Note: at this period 'anti-Catholic' meant only opposition to the
political claims of the Catholics; it almost never meant opposition to the
Catholic religion as such. William Saurin, a leading Dublin barrister, was perhaps an exception to this
rule.) Lord Clare died shortly and was replaced by an able and energetic
English barrister, Sir John Mitford, who was raised to the peerage as Baron
Redesdale. (At the request of Charles Butler, Mitford had introduced one of the
earliest Catholic Relief Bills in 1788.)
Isaac Corry of Newry was retained as Chancellor of the Irish Exchequer.
Those Irishmen who accepted
office in the various ministries at this time were all more-or-less Tories.
That included men from a broad spectrum in the political centre. Irishmen with
extreme views, especially extreme anti-Catholic views, were rarely appointed to
important Government offices. Lord Castlereagh and William Conyngham Plunket
were typical moderate Irish Tories. They often favoured the Catholic claims,
but unlike the Whigs, they did not make Emancipation a condition for accepting
office.
For
over a hundred years the Whigs and Tories were the two groupings in British and
Irish politics. Political party in the modern sense is too strong a word. It
was remarked of them that they resembled not the opposite ends of a hayfork but
the two prongs on the same side of the hayfork. As noted in the last chapter
the differences between them were often only marginal. At this period the
Tories favoured the rights of the crown; Whigs those of Parliament.
Consequently Tories favoured a strong army and strong foreign policy abroad
with law and order at home (royal concerns), while Whigs favoured
non-intervention abroad, and a tiny standing army, liberty for the individual,
and no police. Tories favoured the Established Church while Whigs preferred
toleration for Dissenters and Roman Catholics (but not Jews, Turks, or
atheists). Tories were inclined to be conservative while Whigs favoured reform, especially parliamentary reform provided it was not
excessive. These were just tendencies, and Robert Peel, for example, a Tory,
was a much greater reformer in many ways than Lord Grenville, a Whig.
Individuals, or whole groups, could move from one party to another, depending
on whom was Prime Minister. All Whigs supported
Catholic Emancipation, but many Tories did so too. (The odd expression was
derived from the contemporary campaign to secure emancipation for Negro
slaves.)
Though Emancipation was
temporarily excluded, some politicians like Castlereagh and Lord Grenville
thought the Government should proceed with the payment of the Catholic clergy.
Though the Government was at the time supporting the French émigré clergy it
was not in favour of this. Neither the Irish Catholic bishops nor the Holy See
favoured the measure. In a letter to the Irish bishops on 7 Aug l801
Rome expressed its disapproval. The matter was
dropped.
Men of all parties assumed
that the turn of the Catholics would shortly come when the Prince of Wales
became permanent Regent. In 1804 the king's malady returned and it was believed
that the Prince would ask the Irish peer Lord Moira to form an administration
and bring in an Emancipation Bill. The king however soon recovered.
Hardwicke
disapproved of the wearing of Orange favours or badges by any members of the armed
forces. About this time, the wearing of the orange colour, and parading at the
statue of William III in Dublin,
were becoming the marks of the anti-Catholic faction,
and the Lords Lieutenant began to dissociate themselves from practices
associated with a single faction. Numerous Orangemen joined the yeomanry. With
1798 in mind, the calling out of the yeomanry in a county was reserved by an
Act of 1802 to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland. One should not exaggerate the anti-Catholic
spirit of the Orange Order at this time. A brother of Lord Edward Fitzgerald,
the United Irish leader, was a county Grand Master in the Orange Order. The Order itself was a
variation of Freemasonry. Individual yeomanry officers could and did exclude
Catholics from their units, though this practice was far from universal. But
this explains why the Government was anxious to prevent county sheriffs or
county governors from calling out the yeomanry to deal with a local
disturbance.
[Top]
Relations
with France
[1802] On the
Continent, France, which had been close to collapse a few years earlier, was
now pulling itself together under Napoleon's firm direction as Consul and First
Consul. Austria withdrew from the Second Coalition and made peace
with France. Addington's ministry did likewise, and the Peace
of Amiens (1802) was signed. The Government remained suspicious, and kept a
close eye on Napoleon's activities. The disbandment of the militia in Ireland proceeded slowly, as the Irish militia was
obliged to remain embodied for some time after a peace was signed. Suspicions
concerning Napoleon's good faith did not disappear. By November of the same
year Hardwicke was again building up the strength of the militia, and by March
of 1803 it was entirely re-embodied. In March also Hardwicke by proclamation
allowed the Navy to recruit by pressgang or other methods. In April, the
British Ambassador, Charles Whitworth (later Lord Lieutenant of Ireland), withdrew from Paris and war recommenced.
[1803]
Between April l803 and October 1805 the overwhelming concern of everyone in the
British Isles was how to prepare to meet the expected French
invasion. Richard Lowell Edgeworth got Government assistance to erect a system
of semaphore telegraphs, which was eventually to join Dublin with the remotest parts of the West. An enormous
programme of construction of fortifications was begun which lasted more than
ten years. Military barracks and stores, depots, forts, Martello towers, gun
emplacements, and beacons were constructed around the coasts and along the Shannon. Cork was developed as a naval base. Many units of the
Irish militia volunteered to serve in England. In India the two Irish brothers, the Marquis Wellesley and
Sir Arthur Wellesley, defeated Napoleon's plan to take over that country for France. With the battle of Trafalgar, 21 October l805,
the immediate danger of invasion receded. The construction of the
fortifications was continued, but the telegraph system was allowed to fall into
decay. One can assume it had proved ineffective, as the signals could only be
seen when it was not raining.
As the character of Napoleon's
regime in France and its occupied territories became clearer
sympathy for the French among the Irish who had supported the United Irishmen
several years earlier largely evaporated. On the surface at least the whole
country was united against a French invader. The United Irish leader, Robert
Emmet, made it clear that he would resist a French invasion. (This is the most
obvious meaning of his speech as printed at the time, and of his remarks to the
clergyman who visited him in prison. When the speech was edited half a century
later the words 'were the French to come “as enemies” were inserted. This made
nonsense of the passage. By 1803 nobody envisaged Napoleon coming as a friend.)
Years later, Daniel O’Connell
who was active in the Lawyers’ Corps against the rebellion disabused American
visitors of any romantic ideas they had about it.
‘The scheme of rebellion (in
1798) was in itself an ill-digested foolish scheme entered on without the means
or the organization necessary to ensure success. And as to the leaders, no
doubt there were among them some pure well-intentioned men but the great mass
of them were trafficking speculators who cared not whom they victimized in
their prosecution of their schemes of self-aggrandisment’ (Luby).
Luby in his turn notes that O’Connell was himself
no better served by his own followers. He speaks of ‘the falseness,
self-seeking, mean trickery, petty dodging, and political depravity of the
sordid crew that so often hung on the skirts of the O’Connellite agitations’.
(Americans have no need to be reminded of the activities of the Irish Catholics
connected with Tammany Hall.) Every generation in Ireland saw young but ineffective idealists starting
movements which were quickly hi-jacked by more effective and more ruthless
self-seekers hiding under the banner of idealism. As Dr Johnson once remarked
in an English context ‘Patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel’ meaning
that when a man a man says he motivated by love of his country it is time to
beware.
On
the Continent, Napoleon formed an 'Irish Legion' to aid, he said, his liberation
of Ireland. Several hundred men joined him, but they were
used all over Europe just as an ordinary French battalion. In 1802 an
unsuccessful attempt was made by Thomas Russell to reorganize the United
Irishmen in Ulster. In Dublin, Robert Emmet, imagining his support was much
greater than it actually was, attempted an uprising. Only about seventy men
joined him in his assault on Dublin Castle. They promptly murdered an elderly judge in cold blood, and Emmet
went home in disgust. (As in 1798 it seems likely that it was the more
desperate of the agrarian terrorists who joined the uprising.) Emmet's
importance in Irish history lay not in what he did but in the use made of an
edited version of his speech by Irish nationalists later in the century.
[Top]
Policies
in Ireland
The Government hastily renewed
the emergency powers. Habeas Corpus
was suspended, and men suspected of belonging to the United Irishmen were
interned in gaol. (The young gentlemen interned incidentally hastened penal
reform by complaining about conditions in the gaol.) The Insurrection Act was
again renewed, and the counties of Meath and Kildare were proclaimed under it.
These were the counties where the most difficulty was experienced in 1798 in
putting down the rising. (The Act gave special powers to the local magistrates
such as the right to search houses for arms at night and to impose a curfew.)
The country at large remained quiet.
The
administration of Ireland and the policies of the Government were scarcely
affected by the Union whose advantages were expected to be found
elsewhere. The Administration now had to secure a majority for its views only among the hundred Irish M.P.'s at Westminster instead of among three hundred in
Dublin. But as there was a Tory majority both in Britain and Ireland this was no problem. Lord Redesdale began
overhauling the civil administration insofar as it came under the direction of
the Lord Chancellor, but this was a personal initiative. The Lord Chancellor
presided in the Court of Chancery, supervised the administration of the county
sheriffs, and appointed magistrates. The Irish Secretary supervised the other
departments of the civil service and the administration of such units as
boroughs with charters, which were not under the Lord Chancellor. The Lord
Lieutenant, and not the Lord Chancellor, exercised patronage in the Established
Church and appointed the bishops. Clergymen with excessively Protestant views
were not appointed bishops.
Up
until the so-called ‘Tithe War’ in the 1830s there was a spirit of mutual
courtesy between members of the clergy of different denominations, and also
between the clergy and the Government. The Catholic bishops had publicly
supported the Government in 1798 though a handful of the junior clergy joined
the rebels. The Catholic archbishop of
Dublin, Archbishop Troy, could ask the Lord Lieutenant
for positions for his relatives. It was agreed on all sides that the Catholic
Relief Act of 1793 should be implemented fully and fairly, and also that
Catholics should be free to seek further reliefs. It was the invariable
practice of the Government to seek clarification from the Catholic bishops with
regard to any proposed measure with might affect the Catholic religion. Towards
the middle of the century the attitude of the Catholic bishops and clergy
changed. They became much more suspicious and surly in their relations with the
Government and the other Churches. This was partly the result of a growing
nationalist spirit that blamed the British Government and the Established
Church for everything. When George IV visited Dublin all the Catholic bishops assembled to meet him;
when Queen Victoria came several bishops absented themselves. But
this bitter sectarian spirit was not yet visible.
With regard to ordinary
domestic policies Hardwicke continued those of his predecessors before the Union. There were seven Irish Secretaries in just over six years, and none
of them remained long enough to make a mark. Work recommenced on the Grand and
Royal Canals out of Dublin, the former reaching the Shannon in October 1804. As the canals progressed westward they opened up
central Ireland to commercial tillage. The Board of Inland
Navigation assisted with the improvement of the
Newry Canal. The disbursement of the half a million pounds for inland
navigation, voted by the last Irish Parliament, was placed in its care. It did
not construct canals itself, but was responsible for approving applications for
Government grants. The directors of the
Lagan Navigation connected their canal from Belfast on to Lough Neagh. The lands surrounding this
great body of water in mid-Ulster were now connected with the sea by two
canals. Lighthouses were constructed around the coast by the Commissioners for
the Port of Dublin (The Ballast Office) to improve sea-navigation, and it was decided
to build a packet station at Howth outside Dublin to speed the delivery of mails.
The
Irish economy in many ways benefited from the war economy. A large part of the
programme of fortification was paid for by loans raised in England. This produced a net inflow of capital, which
could then be used for other developments. Contracts for provisions for the
army and navy were placed in Ireland, resulting in great agricultural prosperity,
though Napoleon’s Berlin Decrees (1806) were temporarily to affect the linen
industry. The provisions largely consisted of salted beef and salted pork in
barrels. The Irish provisions firms, especially those around Cork, were the largest in the United Kingdom, and won their contracts on price and quality
alone. When the war in the Iberian
Peninsula started
Cork harbour was found to be little affected by the
westerly winds blowing up the English
Channel, and so was
selected as the principal port for sending out supplies.
At
the request of John Foster and the Irish Farming Society tariffs were removed
from imports of new farm machinery and improved varieties of seed. The Royal
Dublin Society was formed in Ireland early in the eighteenth century particularly to
improve agriculture. It was not an official body. The Linen Board of
Commissioners, an official body, was also founded early in the eighteenth
century to promote the cultivation of flax and the weaving of linen. For many
years before and after 1800 John Foster directed it. In 1790 the lectureship in
botany in Trinity College was raised to a professorship, and soon afterwards a 'botanic
garden' was procured at Glasnevin, just outside Dublin, for the scientific study of crops and weeds. In
1800, several improving landlords, including John Foster of Collon, and the
Marquis of Sligo, formed a Farming Society to promote good agricultural
practice, to improve seeds, to acquire better farm machinery and tools, and to
improve Irish livestock. The Farming Society began holding two annual shows of
agricultural produce, one in Dublin and one at Ballinasloe, in
county Galway, for the exhibition of improved livestock and seeds. The show at
Ballinasloe was held in the grounds of Lord Clancarty, a model farmer. Those
who came to that show could therefore see examples of the most up-to-date
farming practice. When the Farming Society came to an end about 1830, the Royal
Dublin Society was persuaded to undertake its ancient duty again, and hold the
annual Spring Show in Dublin.
[Top]
Financial
Policy
Taxation of the new United Kingdom worked out as follows. In February 1801, William
Pitt, still acting Prime Minister, introduced his budget in the parliament in
Westminster, and noted that Ireland was to raise just over four million pounds
sterling for joint expenses and about two and a half millions for separate
expenses such as its Sinking Fund (SNL).
He was followed by the Chancellor of the Irish Exchequer (Corry) who presented
the Irish Budget and said how he proposed to raise the money. It was soon to
become clear that Ireland had reached the limit of her taxable capability,
and raising some taxes reduced revenues by killing off particular industries.
Both Britain and Ireland raised much of the revenues needed to finance the
War by borrowing. (In l805, at the start of the Third Coalition, Pitt promised
the Russians and Austrians a subsidy of 12 pounds 10 shillings each year for
every soldier they recruited.) From 1804 onwards the Irish Chancellors were
resigned to raising enough revenue from taxes to pay the interest on the loans,
and to borrowing to meet current expenditures. This would have the effect of
raising Ireland's Debt to equal two seventeenths of the British
debt. This then would lead to an amalgamation of the Exchequers, after which Ireland would be taxed exactly in proportion to her
income.
The use of gold coins had been prohibited in England in order to obtain a supply of bullion for use as
subsidies to the Allies. The prohibition was not extended to Ireland immediately after the Act of Union, but was
brought in eventually. There occurred a great increase in the issue of paper
currency. Inflation set in and most people attributed this to the unwarranted
increase in the paper issue. At the same time genuine silver and bronze coinage
disappeared from the streets, and forgery became
common. More importantly, the increase in excises on the products of
distillation led to an enormous increase in illicit distillation. This was to
be a major social problem in Ireland for decades despite all the efforts of the
Government and the Churches to stamp it out.
[1804] Isaac Corry was
regarded as ineffective and in February 1804, John Foster of Collon, the last
Speaker in the Irish House of Commons (known to history as Speaker Foster) and
a staunch opponent of the Union, was persuaded to take his seat in the House of
Commons. He had formerly been an effective Chancellor of the Irish Exchequer
before the Union, and was one of Ireland's principal improving landlords. Even before he
became Chancellor of the Irish Exchequer in Westminster, Foster drew up the Irish budget.
Though the views of Adam Smith on the effects
of freeing trade were well known, and were accepted by William Pitt, Foster
always remained a Mercantilist. Mercantilists advocated protecting home
industry by means of tariffs and encouraging exports by means of bounties. But
as every country would do the same the nett effect was to discourage trade, and
each country would be worse off than it could be in the absence of tariffs and
bounties. Many who accepted this argument with regard to manufactured goods
still felt that agriculture should always be protected. Irish and British
agriculture remained protected until the repeal of the Corn Laws in 1846.
Foster
soon became the Government's chief economic adviser on Irish affairs, and when
Pitt replaced Addington in May 1804, Foster became the Chancellor of the Irish
Exchequer. (He did not resign and seek re-election until August when he was
returned unopposed in Louth.) Foster dealt ably with the problems in hand and
gradually brought most of them under control. He rooted out corruption among
the Revenue Officials, and tightened up accountancy procedures. Inflation was
controlled and an incorrupt metal coinage was issued and accepted. Though he
threatened local magistrates with a property tax if they did not stamp out
illicit distillation, he found no solution to this problem.
[Top]
Return
of Pitt and the Catholic Petition of 1805
Addington had little idea how
to prosecute the War so Pitt decided to replace him and he became Prime
Minister again in May 1804. Napoleon was concentrating his 'Army of England' at
Boulogne on the French shore of the English Channel. Pitt was
not content with preparing a mere passive defence, so he sought out allies. He
succeeded in constructing the Third Coalition with Russia and Austria. Prussia joined later. Spain allied herself with France, but when Nelson totally destroyed the combined
French and Spanish navies at Trafalgar in October l805, the immediate danger of
an invasion of the British
Isles disappeared. The
citizens of Dublin opened a subscription for a public monument to
the admiral, and for a hundred and fifty years 'Nelson's Pillar' was
Dublin's most famous landmark and rendezvous. Napoleon
decided to attack the allies on the Continent instead.
In Pitt's Irish Government
Hardwicke remained as Lord Lieutenant. (Pitt had intended appointing the Earl
of Powys but he died before taking office.) Foster, as already noted became Chancellor
of the Irish Exchequer. William
Conyngham Plunket remained Solicitor General until October l805 when he became
Attorney General. A moderate barrister named Kendal Bushe became Solicitor
General and retained that position until 1822 when Lord Wellesley made him
Chief Justice. About this time Wellesley was recalled from India and his brother Arthur returned as well.
Castlereagh became Minister for War and, having a high regard for Arthur
Wellesley's capabilities, ensured that he was given military commands whenever
possible. (Both men were aged thirty five in 1804, but Castlereagh’s
life had been spent in the United Kingdom while Wellesley had been in India. Furthermore, Castlereagh as the eldest son of an
earl had the courtesy title of Viscount. Wellesley was the fourth son of an earl, and had no title
of nobility until made Viscount Wellington until 1809.)
Pitt was again faced with the
question of Emancipation. He had made up his mind that there was no possibility
of changing the old king's mind on this point, and so refused to bring in any
measure. Some English Whigs thought the matter should be raised, though how
they proposed to change the king's mind is not clear. They persuaded the
prominent Irish Whig, Henry Grattan, to return to parliamentary life, and found
a seat for him in a borough in England. It was considered necessary that the Irish
Catholics should themselves first petition Parliament for further relief from
their civil disabilities. The various Acts reimposed at the time of Emmet's Rebellion
were still in force so many Catholics were reluctant to meet even for the
purpose of petitioning Parliament. Such meetings were specifically declared to
be legal under the Convention Act (1793).
A young Dublin merchant named James Ryan consulted with the Earl
of Fingall, the highest-ranking Catholic in Ireland, and undertook, with Fingall's backing, to
organise the meetings. A petition was drawn up and signed. Signatures were
secured from interested parties. No attempt was made to make this petition
representative in character, but for parliamentary purposes this was
inessential. For organizing the meetings he earned for himself the undying
hostility of an older Catholic leader named John Keogh. The disputes among the
Catholics which were to last eighteen years thus started at the same time as
the campaign for Emancipation. Keogh also distrusted the Irish Catholic
aristocracy and never ceased to sow the seeds of this distrust among others.
The Government, knowing that the meetings were chaired by a man of
unimpeachable loyalty like the Earl of Fingall, raised no objection to them.
[1805] In February 1805
the petition was brought to London
by a Catholic delegation. This consisted of the Irish Catholic peers, the Earls
of Fingall, Kenmare, and Shrewsbury (who had a secondary Irish title), Baron Trimleston, Viscount
Southwell, the baronet Sir Edward Bellew, the barrister Denys Scully, and the
merchant James Ryan. In general, in the early nineteenth century, the rank of
the petitioners was more important than the numbers they represented. Pitt
expressed sympathy with their aims but reminded them that the king would in no
way change his mind. The Whig Lord Grenville presented the petition in the
House of Lords, while Charles James Fox presented it in the Commons. When the
latter House rejected the petition 83 Irish members voted of whom 25 supported
Fox and 58 opposed him. A prominent member of the Dublin Corporation named Jack
Giffard tried to organise a Protestant counter-petition so Hardwicke promptly
removed him from a minor Government post he held.
Meanwhile in England a rather strange figure was taking an active part
in affairs. This was the English Catholic bishop, John Milner, vicar apostolic
of the Midland District. (Vicars Apostolic were bishops by papal delegation, or
papal vicars. Apostolic was short for Apostolic or papal see. There were four
vicars in four districts in England and Wales.) Milner
was perpetually at war with his fellow vicars apostolic in England and with the majority of the Catholic laity whom
he suspected of schism or heresy. He wrote a book on controversies with the
Protestants and always suspected the worst of them. He preferred to deal with
the Irish where his anti-Protestant views found a more ready welcome. He
undertook to clarify the Catholic position with regard to a proposed royal veto
on the appointment of Catholic bishops in his majesty's dominions, and some
time after expressing his views publicly seems to have changed his mind. The result was that he thoroughly confused
the Whig leaders in Parliament who were actively supporting the Catholic
campaign. He was to campaign to the end of his life against the veto and
against supporters of the veto, though Rome at least twice bade him not to speak or write on
political matters (Ward passim). By
l820 he was being ignored by all parties. But he left a bitter legacy behind
him. Early in the nineteenth century relations between the Churches in the British Isles were friendly. The atmosphere of suspicion and
hatred, which grew up, owed much to Milner's efforts.
In 1805, Milner wrote to Dr
Concanen, OP, the agent in Rome of the Irish bishops, to get a statement from the
Holy See on the questions involved. Rome replied to Dr. Concanen that it could not
tolerate payment of the clergy, that positive nomination of Catholic bishops
could not be granted to heretical monarchs, but a negative veto could be
tolerated, and that the right of inspection of Roman documents could not be
allowed. About the same time the Irish bishops expressed to Rome their objections to the payment of the clergy (SNL 13 May 1814; Vatican Archives, Scritture Referite 1805).
[Top]
Social
and Economic Measures
Apart from the questions of
Emancipation and the defence of the realm already mentioned, the Irish
Government passed several pieces of legislation through Parliament. One allowed
British court warrants to be served in Ireland; another allowed the authorities in the counties
to establish medical dispensaries for the benefit of the poor. There was an
Irish Post Roads Act to improve the post roads, a Partition of Common Lands Act
to enable any remaining lands held in common to be divided up among their
users, and a Dublin Paving and Lighting Act. These Acts were typical of the
kind of Acts passed for Ireland for the next fifty years, but which are too
numerous to catalogue. Tithes and the reform of the
Irish Protestant
Church were matters, which were raised in Parliament, as
also was the question of Government money spent on supporting education in Ireland. Work was commenced by the Revenue Commissioners
and the Commissioners for the Port of Dublin (the Ballast Office) on clearing the old riverside quays, rebuilding
the riverside walls, and constructing continuous quays and streets on either
side of the Liffey.
The
mailcoach or stage coach era began in Ireland in 1790 (several years after it began in England) when the Government persuaded a Scottish
contractor named John Anderson to contract for the carriage of mails on new
terms to Limerick. Anderson was to make up the road to a standard fit for
(relatively) fast coaches, to procure such coaches, and to carry the mails
every day within the time limit specified by the Post Office. This, at the
start, allowed twenty four or thirty hours to reach cities like Limerick from Dublin. The coaches gradually speeded up and the
Government passed several acts to improve the roads for the mail coaches, and
to regulate the carriage of persons and goods. A cottage industry, not peculiar
to Ireland, of robbing the Post Office coaches or postmen of
the money they were carrying grew up. The change from postboys on pony-back to
mailcoaches was largely the result of the presence of numerous highwaymen on
the post roads.
Various
attempts had been made in the eighteenth century to provide Irish towns and
counties with an efficient police force. The old Dublin city watch had been disbanded and replaced by a
Dublin city police. Then Henry Grattan got the police
abolished and replaced by a reformed watch. Grattan was one of those Irishmen
who had no experience of administration and no taste for it. He preferred
sniping at the Government of the day from the safety of the Opposition benches.
The Dublin watch remained unsatisfactory and successive
Irish Secretaries tried to devise an efficient form of policing which would
still satisfy objectors. Most of the objections during this period were coming
from the Tory members of Dublin Corporation who felt that the prestige of the
aldermen was lessened if they had no direction of the police.
In July 1805 Napoleon marched his army
eastwards to deal with the new coalition. In October the Austrian Army was
heavily defeated at Ulm. News of the Royal Navy’s victory at Trafalgar
over the combined French and Spanish fleets and the defeat at Ulm reached the British Isles about the same time. In December Napoleon
decisively defeated Austria at Austerlitz, and she withdrew from the Coalition.
[1806]
Shortly after the news of Austerlitz reached England William Pitt died in January
1806.
