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The History of England in Three Volumes, Vol.III. / From the Accession of George III. to the Twenty-Third Year of the Reign of Queen Victoria cover

The History of England in Three Volumes, Vol.III. / From the Accession of George III. to the Twenty-Third Year of the Reign of Queen Victoria

Chapter 1441: IRELAND.
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About This Book

The volume traces British political, parliamentary, and military developments from the accession of George III through the early nineteenth century, chronicling changes of ministry and cabinet, debates over colonial taxation and the American conflict, parliamentary controversies involving figures such as Wilkes and Warren Hastings, questions of Catholic relief and slave-trade abolition, and responses to the French Revolution and Napoleonic wars, including major naval and continental campaigns, the union with Ireland, and domestic legislation on finance, civil liberties, and parliamentary reform.

IRELAND.

There were few events connected with Ireland which possessed any peculiar general interest. The alacrity with which recruits entered service for the war, and the terrible proceedings of the disloyal Ribbon Societies, were remarkable. Thus Ireland at once exhibited a generous loyalty and a sanguinary sedition. The newspapers were literally filled, during the closing winter months, with recitals of murders or attempts at murder. The character of the assassinations was even more than usually brutal and vindictive; and although some of the criminals were arrested and punished, government was even more than usually remiss in applying remedies to a condition of society so deplorable. Among the events in Ireland which excited most horror and astonishment in Great Britain, were those connected with burning the Bible. There was much excitement among the Roman Catholic religious orders, and efforts were made by them to create a species of revival in various parts of the country. On some of these occasions the Bible was burned during the fervour of fanaticism excited.