Townsend succeeded in breaking the Undertakers, but the spirit of patriotism was also invigorated, and it would have to be contended with by his successors, Lord Harcourt (1772-76) and Lord Buckinghamshire (1776-80). Adding to the government's difficulties and inspiring Irish determination were the difficulties that had developed in the American colonies. The issues were much the same. In both places the rights of Englishmen were being asserted: by the Englishmen in the American colonies who resented the restraint on their trade caused by English navigation laws, the imposition of taxes by a parliament in which they had no representatives, and the efforts to govern by executive mandate; and by the Anglo-Irish ascendancy, or English, in Ireland, who resented the absence in Ireland of many of the gains of the Glorious Revolution in England in 1689, the restraint on Irish commerce by English navigation laws, and the inhibitions on their self-government because of Poynings' Law and the Fourth of George I. An added factor that prompted sympathy with the Americans was the considerable numbers of Irish, especially Presbyterians from the northern counties, who had immigrated to America in search of economic opportunities not available because of economic restrictions resulting from English laws. In addition, the civil disabilities that the non-Episcopal Irish Protestants experienced made them sympathetic to the somewhat freer atmosphere of the American colonies. Naturally, in both situations, there was also a massive native and/or unfree population. In the American colonies it was the Native Americans and African slaves. In Ireland it was the Roman Catholics.
The specific question facilitating the Patriot cause was the matter of the defense of Ireland. In 1772 the Irish parliament had approved raising an army of 15,000 men, 12,000 of whom were to stay in Ireland. However, as the American situation developed from an insurrection to an outright war in which France had come to the assistance of the rebels, the Irish parliament acquiesced in sending several thousands of the army in Ireland to America in defense of the empire. But the very entry of France on the American side raised anew the apprehensions of previous centuries that Ireland might be invaded by a continental enemy of England. Adherents of the Patriot party, while sympathetic to the grievances of America, were still members of the Anglo-Irish ascendancy and could look with nothing but dread on a French invasion. Accordingly, they proposed and received government consent to the formation of an Irish Volunteer Corps, to which 80,000 joined and received arms from the government.
The movement captured the public imagination, as the members were adorned with brilliant uniforms and staged numerous marches and drills. The membership was almost exclusively Protestant, although some Catholics had given financial support. Leading Patriot political figures assumed senior rank in the movement, with the duke of Leinster commanding in Leinster and the earl of Charlemont commanding in Ulster. The logical conclusion drawn from the development was that the existence of this large volunteer force, ostensibly formed to inhibit foreign invasion, could as easily be used to pressure the government to make concessions to the Patriot program.
Their opportunity came with the parliamentary session in October 1779. Henry Flood, even though somewhat out of grace with the Patriots because he had accepted a position as vice-treasurer in 1775, had always championed free trade for Ireland and removal of the restrictions imposed by the English parliament. When the Irish Commons voted supplies only for six months, the government had no choice but to grant the free export of Irish wool and manufactured glass and to allow free trade with the colonies. This victory only emboldened the Patriots to ask for more. Henry Grattan, who entered parliament in 1775, had emerged as one of the leaders, along with the earl of Charlemont, in pushing for constitutional change that would entail actual parliamentary independence for Ireland. Together with Flood, they prompted a convention of the Irish Volunteers meeting in Dungannon, County Tyrone, on February 15, 1782, to pass a motion that the constitutional independence of Ireland was a leading Volunteer aspiration.
The next month the government of Lord North stepped down in England following the success of the Americans. The new government of the Marquis of Rockingham was sympathetic to conciliation with both the Americans and the Irish. A new viceroy, the duke of Portland, was instructed to make concessions to the Irish when he arrived in April. Grattan hailed the development with the celebrated words, "Ireland is now a nation. . . . Esto perpetua (be it so forever.)" The following month both parliaments repealed the Sixth of George I, which had asserted the English parliament's right to legislate for Ireland and modified Poynings' Law. However, the Crown of Ireland remained inseparably linked to the Crown of Great Britain.
The Irish parliament voted a sum of ?50,000 to Grattan in gratitude for his leadership in the struggle for parliamentary independence. Such a public gift to a political leader might seem extraordinary today, but it was less outrageous in an era in which members received no salaries and where the quest for pensions, sinecures, and so forth was standard. Furthermore, Grattan was a man of relative impoverishment compared to many of his contemporaries.
The following year Henry Flood, whose role in the cause had been obscured by his earlier acceptance of a position and by the emergence of the articulate Grattan, proposed a measure that would eliminate the need for reliance on English goodwill in the maintenance of parliamentary independence. He sought and received a formal declaration by the British parliament that henceforth the only laws governing Ireland were to be those approved by her own parliament and by the king. He suspected that the same parliament that had modified Poyn-ings' Law and the Sixth of George I could as easily reinvigorate them again.
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