It is not very easy to determine what influence the "Emancipation," as
it was rather absurdly called,[135] if it had been granted at that time,
might have had in quieting the prevailing discontent. With one large
party it would probably have increased it, for there was quite as great
an inclination to insurrection in Ulster as in Leinster or Munster; and
with the Northern Presbyterians animosity to Popery was at least as
powerful a feeling as sympathy with the French Republicans. A subsequent
chapter, however, will afford a more fitting opportunity for discussing
the arguments in favor of or against Emancipation. What seems certain
is, that a large party among the Roman Catholics of the lower class
valued Emancipation itself principally as a measure to another end--a
separation from England. Pitt, meanwhile, hopeless of reconciling the
leaders of the different parties--the impulsive enthusiasm of Grattan
with the sober, practical wisdom of Fitzgibbon--pursued his own policy
of conciliation united with vigor; and one of the measures which he now
carried subsists, unaltered in its principle, to the present day.
There was no part of the penal laws of which the folly and iniquity were
more intolerable than the restrictions which they imposed on education.
To a certain extent, they defeated themselves.
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