Councils. The Irish Privy Council, in which the English interest of course largely predominated, prepared measures for Parliament in the form of heads of Bills, which were laid before the Irish House of Commons, debated, and, if approved of, sent to the Lords. If the latter agreed to them, the Draft Bill was sent to the English Privy Council, who might amend it, or "cushion" it-that is to say, not return it, at its will. On the return of a Bill, the Irish Parliament might pass or reject it as it stood, but could not amend it. The Irish Privy Council, however, might cushion the heads of a Bill, even after they had been approved by both Irish Houses of Parliament. Private members, too, might originate the heads of a Bill; but the Irish House of Commons claimed the sole right of originating money Bills-a right obstinately contested by the English Ministry. By 1761 the Irish Parliament had gradually obtained the privilege of originating heads of Bills, except in the case of the summoning of a new Parliament, when the Irish Privy Council resumed the right, two or more Bills being then sent over to England as a cause for the summoning, and it being customary for one of these Bills to be a Bill of Supply. On the accession of George III the Irish Lords-Justices attempted to secure the privilege of originating money Bills, and a Bill of that description coming down as usual from the Executive Government was rejected on the ground of privilege; but they failed in their endeavour, as might have been expected, and Walsingham's motion in favour of the innovation, although supported by Grenville and Burke, was defeated by a large majority in the English House of Commons.

In 1767 the Irish made an attempt to secure a Septennial Act for the purpose of abridging the duration of their Parliaments and the power consequently of any administration who might get the reins of government into its hands and be loath to part with them. Dr. Lucas, who had failed in a former attempt in 1761, succeeded in passing a Septennial Bill through both Houses, but it was rejected by the English Privy Council. A second and similar Bill was passed the same year, and with the view of throwing the responsibility of rejecting it upon the Irish Parliament was changed by the English Privy Council into an Octennial Bill. The Irish Parliament, however, accepted the amended measure, and passed it in 1768. It was also in 1767 that the Judges Bill was introduced in the Irish Parliament. Townshend had just been appointed Lord-Lieutenant, and as he was in favour of the irremovability of the judges, à Bill was brought into the Irish Parliament to that effect. It passed through the preliminary stages there, and was sent over to

1 George Townshend, fourth Viscount and first Marquis Townshend.

England, but was so altered by the English Privy Council that on its return the Irish Parliament rejected it, and the reform was not effected till 1782. In 1768 an Army Augmentation Bill was introduced, but rejected. It was a very unpopular proposal in Ireland, as a large increase of expenditure would necessarily have been entailed, and the "Undertakers," who were the great borough owners, and had been originally so nick-named because they "undertook" to carry the King's business through the Irish Parliament, opposed it.

In 1769 a money Bill, which had been originated by the Irish Privy Council, was through the influence of the "Undertakers rejected by the first Octennial Parliament by a majority of twenty-three on the ground that it did not take its rise in that House, whilst at the same time the latter, to prove its loyalty, voted large supplies to the Crown. Upon this Townshend prorogued the Parliament, and with a profound knowledge of human nature began to bribe. In 1770 he purchased a majority at a price which Fitzgibbon1 twenty years later admitted to have been upwards of half-a-million sterling, in order to counteract the power of the "Undertakers," but in vain, for, when another altered money Bill was introduced in 1771, it was rejected on the motion of Flood without a division. Townshend then tried to augment his Parliamentary influence by increasing the Commissioners of Revenue, who had seats in the Irish Commons, from seven to twelve, and by other methods of Court persuasion not unknown in the history of Dublin Castle.2 But the scandal created by this unvarnished jobbery was too gross even for the Irish Parliament, and brought down a vote of censure upon his head, which necessitated his recall in 1772. The next year, however, a proposed absentee tax was defeated in the Irish Parliament by the same corrupt means, eighteen peerages being created in a single day; which proved that the political market, in spite of the previous outcry, had never been closed in reality. While Townshend was bribing placemen, and corrupt placemen were bargaining for bribes, there appeared in Dublin a series of political squibs under the title of " Baratariana." "Baratariana" consisted of a history of "Barataria," which was in reality a sketch of the Viceroy's administration, and contained a number of letters which mercilessly probed the vulnerable parts of Townshend's Government, together with three or four poetical satires. The history and poems were written by Sir Hercules Langrishe,3 the friend of Burke, the dedication and the letters signed

1 John Fitzgibbon, Earl of Clare, Lord Chancellor of Ireland.

2 In the letter to the Duke of Grafton on the 27th of November, 1771, Junius wrote “I beg you will convey to our gracious master my humble congratulations upon the glorious success of peerages and pensions, so lavishly distributed as the rewards of Irish virtue." 3 Sir Hercules Langrishe (1738-1811).

"Posthumous" and "Pertinax" by Grattan, and those signed "Syndercombe" by Flood. These writings created an immense sensation, and lit up the sharp practices of the Castle with a fierce and damaging light.

Not until the rulers of Ireland had been coerced at Saratoga into the generosity of fear, did Irish trade experience a slight measure of relief; a relaxation which it deserved, for it had had, as we have seen, a chequered and obstructed career. In 1705 the Irish had been allowed, as a sort of compensation for the annihilation of their woollen trade, to export their white and brown linens, and these only to the English Colonies, but not to bring back any colonial produce in return. This unwonted charity, however, was intended for the Protestants; for the linen trade had been practically founded by the French Protestant refugees, and was chiefly carried on in the Protestant portion of the island. In fact, the preamble of the Act of 1705 runs-" Forasmuch as the Protestant interest of Ireland ought to be supported by giving the utmost encouragement to the linen manufacturers of that kingdom, with due regard to Her Majesty's Protestant subjects of her said kingdom, be it enacted, etc." With these restrictions it was not likely that Ireland would become very rich. Wherever she turned, up rose the obstacle of commercial consternation on the part of Ireland's rulers. It would have been ludicrous, had it not been revolting in its mean and shameless avarice, the monotonous wail of these money-scrapers, whenever a little Irish industry showed its head. But Jonathan Swift1 had now seized his pen, and continued for many years to fight with unrivalled genius in the cause of Irish reform. In 1720 he published his "Proposal for the universal use of Irish manufacture," in which he urged the Irish people to abstain from importation, and to use Irish products, until the restrictions upon Irish trade had been removed.2

Four years later Wood's Half-pence appeared, followed by the celebrated Drapier's Letters, and never was fraud more successfully gibbeted in the pages of a great writer. He roused Ireland to a sense of her own strength, and tore from the face of humbug

Swift was born in Dublin in 1667, and died in 1747, being buried in his own cathedral.

Who shall take the measure of his genius, who has not himself felt sometime the inward gnawings of that savage spirit? He stands alone in English literature; indeed there is nothing resembling his style in all the domain of letters. Gall was his ink, and wormwood his paper, and the exceeding bitterness of his own soul guided the hand that held the pen. His terrible wit fell like a blight upon the abuses of his age. They were so strong and green in the early morning, so luxuriant and unabashed and comely, and in the evening they were black and rotten, such a heap of stenching refuse that no man could stand the wind of them. Is not this power?-and this was the power of Swift. His sava indignatis died with him. The world had never seen

the like of it before, and will probably never witness it again.

2

Appendix XID, quotation from Jonathan Swift.

its thin veil of plausible respectability. The violators of the Treaty of Limerick winced, but had to pocket the affront, and no more contracts were sold by King's drabs to corrupt patentees to coin base money for the people of Ireland.1

The Drapier Letters and those less known that we have quoted from in the Appendices, demolished Wood, disconcerted the impudence of his patrons, and kindled a flame in Ireland that all the buckets at the Castle failed to put out. But many years passed before Ireland obtained a really effective reform. There were a number of ardent spirits who worked for her, but the strength of the nation was unorganized; her energies were debilitated from want of use, and the power of monopoly was too strong for any isolated breath to thaw the ice and frost of indifference, and worse than indifference, that bound the Parliament and its rulers. At length on October 11, 1775, Lord North moved in the English Parliament for a Committee of the whole House to consider what encouragement might be afforded to the fisheries of Great Britain and Ireland, and several bounties were granted, as a result of the deliberations which followed, to the ships of Great Britain and Ireland for the encouragement of their Newfoundland fishery. Moreover, Ireland was to be permitted to export clothes and accoutrements for such regiments on the Irish establishment as were employed abroad, and a bounty of five shillings per barrel was allowed on all flax seeds imported into that country. The Irish also were to be allowed to export provisions, hooks, lines, nets and tools for the purpose of their fishery, and bounties were given for the encouragement of the whale fishery in those seas which were southward of the Greenland and Davis Straits fisheries. The duties payable upon the importation of oil, blubber, and bone from Newfoundland were also taken off as well as that upon the importation of seal-skins. But the meagre Act was of little use, and this the Government knew. It was not their policy to go out of their way to remove restrictions, except when the fear of foreign complications drove them to it. From 1743 bounties had been granted for the encouragement of the linen trade, but until 1777 all dyed or chequered Irish linens were excluded from the Colonies, and were subject to a duty amounting to prohibition, if imported into England. All efforts to obtain a relaxation of these regulations for a long time failed of success. The English manufacturers were too powerful, and no minister dared face the outcry with which he would have been greeted, had he listened to the arguments of Irish reason. Thus Lord Nugent had introduced a Bill in the English House of Commons which provided for the removal of certain prohibitory duties upon some of the staple articles of Irish manufacture. When its contents, however, became known throughout the country, all 1 Appendix XII, quotation from Jonathan Swift.

the respectable manufacturers girded up their loins and loaded the table of the House with petitions against this invasion of their vested rights, and, as North yielded to their clamour, the chief parts of the Bill were lost.1

In 1775 the English Government demanded the services of 4,000 Irish troops for the war which had just broken out in America—a war that never would have occurred if the Government had listened to the wisdom of Burke-and offered to supply their place in Ireland with Hessians. The Irish Parliament granted the former request, but, as may be imagined, refused the offer of the Hessians, assuring Harcourt, the LordLieutenant, that they would exert themselves in the matter of recruiting, and make the importation of foreign troops unnecessary, a promise which they faithfully carried out to the great discomfiture of the Government in the shape of the Volunteers. In 1777 the Irish Parliament was dissolved, and on the meeting of the new one an unparalleled number of peerages was created by the Government to bolster up the influence of the Castle. Five viscounts were advanced to earldoms, seven barons to viscountcies, and eighteen new barons created in the same day, a piece of manoeuvring the Government were much pleased with. But whilst enjoying the after-flavour of the trick, the disgrace of Saratoga was being drunk to the dregs across the water, which when the news of it arrived considerably cooled the ardour of official intolerance.

The same year witnessed the movement that had already germinated in favour of the creation of an Irish Volunteer force. Originally an exclusively Protestant movement, and due to the apprehension of a French invasion that had appeared imminent in 1778, it was organized by the accomplished James Caulfield, Earl of Charlemont, the friend of Horace Walpole, Johnson, Goldsmith, Burke, and Reynolds; and a Militia Bill having been passed for the emergency, the Irish flew to arms to be ready to defend their shores. Before the close of the summer of 1779 a force of about 42,000 men had been armed and drilled into discipline, and soon became a political factor to be reckoned with Charlemont, who had at first refused, finally accepted the command of the Armagh Volunteers, and under their ægis the abuses of the Secret Service and Pension List were attacked in the Irish Parliament, whilst Grattan carried an amendment to the Address demanding free trade as the natural birthright of the people. As the Volunteers said "They knew their duty to their Sovereign and they were loyal; they knew their duty to themselves and they were resolved to be free." Many

1 Appendix XIIA, quotations from W. N. Massey and Thomas Newenham. 2 Simon Harcourt, first Earl Harcourt (1714-1777), appointed to succeed Townshend as Lord-Lieutenant in 1772. Resigned January 25, 1777.