26  THE  UNITED  IRISHMEN

In  the  beginning,  at  all  events,  the  Defenders  were  not  the
aggressors,  and  the  obvious  duty  of  the  Government  was  to
restrain  the  Peep-of-Day  Boys,  while  at  the  same  time  carrying
out  the  law  as  to  the  use  of  arms  among  their  opponents.  But
this  duty  was  not  discharged.  The  Defenders  became  an
organized  and  oath-bound  society,  and  being  almost  wholly
illiterate,  they  were  without  intelligent  leaders  who  might  keep
them  under  control.  Ceasing  to  be  on  the  defensive,  they
sometimes  became  the  aggressors,  and  when  two  troops  of
soldiers  were  sent  to  Armagh,  in  1790,  to  put  them  down,
they  offered  armed  resistance,  and  fifty  of  the  soldiers  were
killed.^  The  fact  was  that  the  Irish  Government  did  not  want
these  disturbances  ended.  If  Catholics  and  Dissenters  were
united  the  demand  for  reform  might  become  urgent,  and  the
demand  of  a  united  people  could  not  easily  be  denied.  But
while  factions  continued,  a  corrupt  Parliament  and  a  corrupt
Government  went  on  their  way  unchecked.  As  for  the  efforts
at  reform  of  the  Whig  Club,  and  of  its  more  liberal  successor
the  Friends  of  the  Constitution,  they  were  treated  by  Fitzgibbon
and  his  friends  with  disdain.'^

But  in  1 79 1  a  Society  was  founded  in  Belfast  which
filled  the  Government  with  greater  alarm.  In  that  city
democratic  principles  had  long  been  fostered.  Presbj'terian
in  religion,  republican  in  spirit,  its  sympathies  had  been  with
the  revolted  American  colonies,  and  not  a  few  from  Belfast
had  fought  for  American  freedom.  In  that  city  the  first
Volunteer  Association  was  formed  to  protect  the  country
against  invasion,  these  associations  being  subsequently  used
to  win  commercial  and  legislative  independence.  Belfast  had
been  urgent  for  Parliamentary  reform,  and  at  the  Volunteer
Convention  of  1783  the  Belfast  delegates  demanded  Catholic
Emancipation  as  well  as  Parliamentary  reform.^  Nowhere  else
had  events  in  France  been  followed  with  keener  satisfaction  ;
and  in  1791  Belfast  celebrated  the  fall  of  the  Bastilc  with
enthusiasm,  with  speeches  and  addresses  and  resolutions  with


1   Plowden's  Historical  Review,  ii.  275-7.
