declared that there was now ‘a revolution of opinion’ in Ireland which he predicted would force the legislature of Britain ‘ere long to perceive the necessity of getting clear of that wonderful paradox’ which ‘disenfranchises the descendants of Englishmen and robs them of their just interest in the legislative power’.16 It was the common people of Ireland who were leading this revolution in public opinion. ‘The lower ranks of the community [now has] an independence and republicanism of spirit which will have much influence on their future conduct; which will serve to remove that servile awe of estated tyrants which is incident in the lower orders of men; and will secure the free and unbiased election of the representative body.’17
Given what we know of Burke’s attitude to the lower ranks of the community, Drennan’s boast of the leading role of the lower orders in the agitation for reform would have horrified the honourable member for Bristol.18 It must also have horrified many of Drennan’s comrades in the Volunteer army who regarded themselves in Henry Grattan’s famous phrase as ‘the armed property of Ireland’. Drennan went on to suggest that Burke was among ‘the men in high places of trust who repeatedly and publicly declare that all interference of the people in matters of legislation is libellous and leads to rebellion’.19
The Irish people would now do one of three things depending on how the Dublin Parliament behaved in this ‘momentous season’. ‘For the people would either guide themselves, or choose new leaders, or repose full confidence in the representative body.’20 However, even if the Dublin Parliament ‘proved sensible to the opinions of the people of Ireland in this crisis they, the people, would not trust all to their senate’.21 No statement could have been more calculated to incense Burke. He never accepted that people had a right to choose new leaders or have any say in how they were governed. For Burke it was for King, Lords and Commons to rule and legislate and for people to obey and do as they were bid by their betters.
Perhaps Drennan was taunting Burke when he told him, ‘The people have been the prime or rather the sole agents of “the revolution of – 80”’22 which he declared was ‘founded on a broad popular base. Necessity had been the stern rugged nurse’ of Irish patriotism amongst the common people. ‘It grew up in the cottage and the hovel amid sickness and sorrow. Its cradle was tended by famine and it listened to the bitter and unremitting cries of human misery.’23
Burke always had a horror of the common people whom he infamously referred to in his Reflections on the Revolution in France as ‘the swinish multitudes’.24 However, Drennan expressed enthusiasm for the revolutionary potential of the lower orders and clearly expressed sympathy for their suffering. In this, he was unique even amongst his fellow radicals. Most radicals and reformers sought political rights for the middle classes and the self-made men of trade and religious freedom for oppressed religious sects or confessions. They rarely, if ever, mentioned the conditions of the common people nor suggested reforms that would extend political rights to the poor. Drennan was to make the need to improve the miserable conditions of the lower ranks of people, and their right to involvement in politics and universal education, a consistent theme of his polemics for the rest of his life.
Burke would have agreed with Drennan’s view of the short-sightedness of England’s traditional approach to Irish trade. ‘It is indeed full time that this great people should relinquish the mean and unenlightened jealousy of a petty shopkeeper and begin to display the amplitude of thought and mercantile sagacity, which can make not only the welfare of friends but even the prosperity of enemies, instruments for promoting its own opulence and grandeur.’25
They both would have accepted the thrust of David Hume’s famous argument ‘the increase of riches and commerce in any one nation, instead of hurting, commonly promotes the riches and commerce of all its neighbours’.26 Burke had followed this contention in a speech he made on Irish trade two years earlier.27
There is some validity in Drennan’s claim that Burke was behaving as a party man. Burke had criticised Lord North for conceding what he knew to be a laudable measure in Ireland. Yet he had consistently attacked North for relying on force and refusing concessions in America. There was, however, a far more deeply held concern behind Burke’s negative reaction to North’s concessions in Ireland.
The trade concessions had been made in the context of thousands of Volunteers in arms, some parading with cannons festooned with the slogan ‘Free Trade or This’. To Burke, the Volunteers constituted an illegal military force.28 He was dismayed by the potential for the Volunteers to provoke a popular insurgency, noting darkly that the troops were electing their own officers.29 Burke believed that the principle of free trade should have been accepted by the British Parliament but that for the Irish to extract national benefits by the threat of military force was illiberal and potentially subversive to the constitution.30
The purpose of Drennan’s letter was not to change Burke’s mind but rather to urge his fellow Volunteers to greater efforts to build on their achievements. He reminded them that they had joined the Volunteers ‘with ardent zeal’ in 1778 when ‘the common danger united all ranks whom the feeling of a common country could not unite before’.31 He hailed what he called ‘that ever memorable institution’ and claimed the Volunteers had ‘Saved the island from invasions, secured domestic tranquillity, advanced civil liberty, laid the foundations of national independence ... taught the administration a lesson ... [and achieved] everything great and good, everything auspicious to the hopes, most connected to the best interests of the country.’32
Drennan next informed Burke that the rise of the Volunteers had led to a change of opinion in Ireland and that political independence was now the aim of the kingdom. There were four different means according to Drennan which the country relied upon for obtaining this great end. These were the benevolence of the sovereign, the policy of the British legislature, the wisdom of parliament and the spirit of the people. Burke was utterly opposed to any extension of independence to Ireland. However, he could have no argument that the first three means for achieving political change were unconstitutional. Drennan’s suggestion that the spirit of the people could be relied upon was an entirely different matter.
What Ireland was demanding was nothing less than ‘the repeal of that odious statute the Sixth of George I relative to Ireland’.33 This was the Declaratory Act of 1720 which established the legislative subordination of Ireland.34 Drennan finished his letter with a flourish, suggesting that ‘Ireland will no longer sit at the gate in wretched apparel but will take her place amongst the mighty of the earth.’35
Burke was appalled when, less than two years later in 1782, Drennan’s prediction came to pass and the Declaratory Act was repealed. Burke believed that the measure threatened to ‘tear asunder the connection between England and Ireland’.36 He had no desire to see the Irish legislative process separated from British parliamentary proceedings.37
An Address to the Volunteers of Ireland
It is not clear what effect the Letter to Burke had on Drennan’s literary reputation. It was printed in Dublin and, presumably, circulated to Volunteer corps around the country. He did not sign his name to the first edition but he had clearly enjoyed seeing his work in print. In early 1781, his next epistle appeared. This was entitled An Address to the Volunteers of Ireland by the Author of the Letter to Edmund Burke Esquire containing Reflections on Patriotism, Party Spirit and the Union of Free Nations. It would appear from this choice of title that his Letter to Burke might have had some impact on the reading public.
The aim of the Address was to focus the Volunteers on the next phase of the struggle. He began by telling them that they ‘deserved well of their country’ but went on to say that ‘the virtue that has done much brings on itself [the obligation] to do more and much more is there to do. The liberty of Ireland is as yet eventual’.38 He continued by asserting that ‘liberty depends on power and that it is union that gives that power’.39 Drennan was aware that there were different attitudes to the American war amongst the Volunteers. While he
