Meanwhile these were troublous days for Ireland. In the course of the American War the country had been so far stripped of troops that, in the alarm of French invasion in 1779, corps of volunteers, to the nominal strength of 50,000 men, had been raised for purposes of defence. [Sidenote: 1784.] Unfortunately, however, these volunteers did not confine themselves to military matters. They were, in Mr. Froude’s words, armed politicians not under military law. As such they twice received the thanks of the Irish House of Commons for political services, and finally extorted the independence of the Irish Parliament in 1782. They then attempted to establish a Legislative Assembly side by side with the House of Commons, and virtually to dictate to it the government of the country, and this although the peace of 1783 had rendered their existence as a defending force wholly unnecessary. They were suppressed by a little firmness, and therewith their character changed. Hitherto, though supported in part by Catholic subscriptions, the volunteers had consisted of Protestants only--men of position and good character. These men now retired, and their arms fell into the hands of ruffians and bad characters of every description. At last in 1787 these volunteers, once the idol of Ireland, appeared to have ceased their existence, but it was only for a time. The outbreak of the French Revolution in 1789, with its cant words of liberty, equality, and fraternity, turned many heads all the world over, and nowhere more than in Ireland. The most significant symptom thereof was the foundation of the Society of United Irishmen by the rebel Wolfe Tone; whereof the main object was the propagation and adoption of revolutionary principles, and ultimately rebellion. [Sidenote: 1792.] In 1792 some of Tone’s associates formed two battalions of “National Guards,” which were to hold a great review on the 9th December, but having been informed that they would muster at their peril, very sensibly took care, after all, not to put in an appearance. This happened in Dublin. But at Belfast and in the North there was not less sympathy with the Jacobins and the extreme revolutionists of France, and in Ulster too there were “National Guards” of the same stamp. [Sidenote: 1793.]