since the rejection of the Catholic Bill in 1795, they were of no importance or use in the crisis. Camden implored Pitt to send more troops, or Ireland would be lost for ever. The English statesman replied that there were eighty thousand men in the country already, and gave him Sir Ralph Abercromby to command them. [Illustration: Marquis Camden] Abercromby resigned in disgust, and General Lake was sent to replace him, and to this officer fell the task of dealing with the straggling bodies of rebels who were maintaining a 'sort of rebellion.' Shortly after the arrest of the rebel leaders Camden had made way for Lord Cornwallis, and returned home. The ex-viceroy was consulted by Portland, who had disapproved of his policy, and Camden declared that the only solution of the problem was the union of the two Parliaments. {205} While Ireland had a Parliament of its own--however unrepresentative--it would crave for its natural corollary, a native Government. But even a Camden could learn by experience, and in 1829 he voted in favour of Catholic Emancipation. [Sidenote: The Marquis Cornwallis] It was admitted in London that the rebellion of '98 was at an end, so far as its effectiveness was concerned, before Camden resigned, and the appointment of Lord Cornwallis was inspired by Pitt's dread that the shortly-to-be-introduced Act of Union would lead to further trouble. Cornwallis was a soldier and a statesman. He was sixty years of age, and had led a very full life in India, America, and England. One of the few far-seeing persons who had declaimed against the unjust taxation which lost the States of America, he nevertheless obeyed the call of duty, and fought in the War of Independence. His surrender at Yorktown marked the beginning of the independence of the American Colonies. His greatest and most prosperous years were spent in India, and it was as the successful Indian administrator and soldier that he was despatched to Ireland to prepare the country for Pitt's proposals. He found that there was plenty of work left over from the Camden era, and his first six months consisted of hangings and murders. With a courage worthy of a better cause the peasantry were fighting the Imperial troops, but there could be only one end to such an unequal contest, and the soldiery enjoyed themselves after their kind. The Dublin executive was busily employed reaping the {206} first-fruits of Camden's bribery; Lord Edward Fitzgerald was captured, the last of the '98 leaders.