It was in the midst of this enthusiasm for events in France that William Drennan proposed to his friends "a benevolent conspiracy—a plot for the people", the "Rights of Man and the phrase coined by Hutcheson the Greatest Happiness of the Greater Number its end—its general end Real Independence to Ireland, and Republicanism its particular purpose." When Drennan's friends gathered, they resolved:--that the weight of English influence in the government of this country is so great as to require a cordial union among all the people of Ireland;