The association of United Irishmen now came into existence, with aims avowedly revolutionary.

They joined the party which was striving for the relief of the Catholics from certain disabilities, and for their admission to the franchise.

Burke had watched all movements in his native country, from the Whiteboy insurrection of 1761 downwards, with steady vigilance, and he watched the new movement of 1792 with the keenest eyes.

It made him profoundly uneasy.

He could not endure the thought of ever so momentary and indirect an association with a revolutionary party, either in Ireland or any other quarter of the globe, yet he was eager for a policy which should reconcile the Irish.