page_title: Cornwallis in Ireland
section_title: Early setback
hierarchical_section_title: Cornwallis in Ireland / Union / Early setback
caption_attribution_description: English: Portrait of John FitzGibbon, 1st Earl of Clare (c.1749-1802)
context_page_description: British General Charles Cornwallis, the 1st Marquess Cornwallis was appointed in June 1798 to serve as both Lord Lieutenant of Ireland and Commander-in-Chief of Ireland, the highest civil and military posts in the Kingdom of Ireland. He held these offices until 1801.
  Cornwallis had specific instructions and authority to deal with the Irish Rebellion of 1798, which had broken out in May 1798. He took steps to ensure that justice was consistently applied to captured rebels, personally reviewing a significant number of court cases. He directed military operations when a French Revolutionary force landed at Killala Bay in August 1798.
  In the aftermath of the rebellion, the political climate with regard to Ireland became dominated by the idea that the union of the Irish and British kingdoms was necessary to improve conditions in Ireland. Cornwallis favoured union, but believed that it would also require Catholic emancipation to create a lasting peace. While Cornwallis was instrumental in achieving the passage of the Act of Union in 1800 by the Irish Parliament, he and Prime Minister William Pitt were unable to convince the king of the merits of Catholic emancipation.
context_section_description: Cornwallis believed that the terms of union should include Catholic emancipation.  While some rights had been restored in the early 1790s, Catholics were still denied elective offices and other rights.  Almost everyone in the establishments of Dublin and London, including the king and much of Pitt's cabinet, opposed this, leading Cornwallis to write that "some mode must be adopted to soften the hatred of the Catholics to our government". In a letter to the Home Secretary he wrote, "I trust that your grace and His Majesty's other ministers will on no account consent to the insertion of any clause which shall unalterably bind the United Parliament to persevere in the exclusion of Catholics." Protestants, including the Lord Chancellor, Lord Clare, who favoured union, opposed Catholic emancipation.  "I trust, and I hope I am not deceived, that they are fairly inclined to give them up, and to bring [union] forward unencumbered with the doctrine of emancipation." King George, after Cornwallis' appointment, wrote to Pitt that "Cornwallis must clearly understand that no indulgence can be granted to the Catholics farther than has been". Cornwallis' efforts to include support for emancipation clearly had negative repercussions.  One Protestant wrote, "his silly conduct, his total incapacity, and self conceit and mulishness have alone lost the question [of union]", while another wrote to Castlereagh that Cornwallis had been rendered "not only an object of disgust, but of abhorrence."
  None of this prevented Cornwallis, with the assistance of Castlereagh, from forging ahead with the raising of support for union in November 1798, after the rebellion had died down.  Their politicking included firing government officials opposed to union and giving the jobs to supporters, and the offering of a small number of peerages.  However, they could not overcome the rumours generated by early drafts of the details of union that appeared to conspire against the Protestant interests.  In December 1798, trade groups representing lawyers, merchants, and bankers all came out against the idea. The principal objection was that there would be fewer seats available for Irish representation in the united parliament, resulting in a loss of power for those whose seats would not be retained. Cornwallis saw the trouble ahead, warning Portland that it was unlikely to pass.
  On 22 January 1799, both the Irish and British parliaments met, and each heard a substantially similar address in favour of union delivered in London by the king, and in Dublin by the Lord Lieutenant.  The Irish House of Commons, in a clear signal, agreed with the sentiments of the speech by only two votes. Castlereagh, who had been optimistic about the prospects of passage, informed Portland, "I should despair of the success of the measure at any future period, so weighty is the opposition ..., were I not convinced that their repugnance turns more upon points of personal interest, than a fixed aversion to the principle of union."
caption: Lord Clare supported union, but opposed Catholic emancipation
exif: {"Image DateTime": "2010:09:25 20:56:45", "Image ExifOffset": "58", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "106", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "4706"}