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Archibald Hamilton Rowan

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  1. Mémoire sur l'état actual de l'Irlande translation uncertainty translator
  2. Unknown 61 has translation author

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"Hamilton Rowan's longevity, the fact that he was not involved in the Irish rising of 1798, and his apparent retreat from militant radicalism during the early nineteenth century meant that he did not retain a place in the Irish canon of patriotic dead during the later nineteenth or twentieth centuries. His Autobiography, edited by his friend William Drummond, a Unitarian minister, and published in 1840, downplayed his involvement in radical politics. Drummond suggested that Hamilton Rowan's politics derived from a precipitate and impulsive willingness to become involved in romantic causes. The Autobiography argued that Hamilton Rowan's later life demonstrated a distaste for his earlier politics and that he settled into a relatively quiet life after his pardon, having learned from his previous mistakes. Harold Nicolson's 1943 biography made an even stronger case, characterizing Hamilton Rowan as reckless and driven, as the book's title, The Desire to Please, suggests. In fact Hamilton Rowan's background and career suggest a much stronger political impulse that is borne out by his correspondence with Thomas Muir, Mary Wollstonecraft, and John Jebb. He was on the liberal wing of the United Irishmen and continued to support the organization's original aims throughout his life. Though initially in favour of seeking French assistance for an Irish rising, his support for the militant option was undoubtedly tempered by his experiences in France and America. His like-minded friends, such as Simon Butler and William Drennan, also distanced themselves from militant republicanism from the mid-1790s. His efforts at reform, through both popular and constitutional issues, aimed at significant social and political change, and briefly revolution. The mixture of personal, political, and family pressures that drove him to seek a pardon returned him to his natural liberal principles, which he continued to espouse until his death". Taken from ONDB (online).