dom. Very happily, however, both for protestants and catholics, they merited, on that occasion, the thanks of their rulers, without exposing their courage or loyalty to any trial. Conflans was defeated, by admiral Hawke, near Belleisle; and Thurot's squadron, after various adventures, was first dispersed and damaged in storms, and the remnant, after the adventure of Carrickfergus, captured.

The lenity experienced by Irish catholics during the reign of George the 2d, is erroneously attributed to the interference of the French minister. It has been already observed, that a much more powerful advocate, Lewis the 14th, could obtain nothing in their favour from the ungrateful Charles. It was owing to a more powerful cause, the warm affection and friendship, subsisting between the king and the Austrian ambassador, one of the Irish exiles, Nicholas, lord viscount Taffe. Educated in the same school, in Germany, they contracted an early friendship, of the most lasting kind. This partiality of the English monarch was one motive, if not the principal, for his being employed as ambassador from the court of Vienna. George, being desirous of his company, and the court of Vienna interested that their ambassador should be his favourite. In their conversation and correspondence, the stile was simply, dear George and dear Nicholas, as when school fellows; and when the wrath of the king was raised against his ministers, sometimes to such a degree as to kick the prime minister out of his presence, the surest resource

was, to send for Nicholas, whose presence and conversation operated like a charm, in calming the royal mind. An instance of their strict amity is not quite forgotten in Dublin. One Sunday, as lord Taaffe went to Stephen-street chapel, to his devotion, he found it shut, and was informed that all the chapels in Dublin were in like manner closed. Nicholas forthwith wrote a note to his royal friend, after the following laconic manner. Dear George, it is a hard case, that in your kingdom of Ireland, my own native country, I am not allowed to hear prayers, but the chapel gates are nailed up, which harsh treatment has been extended to all the chapels in Dublin. Yours, Nicholas Taaffe. His majesty was enraged at this insult offered to his friend, and ordered the minister to send peremptory orders to the lord lieutenant to open the chapels, and make an apology to Nicholas.

The reign of George II. was glorious for England; Ireland shared the toils of war by sea and land, but neither the laurels nor the prize of victory. Divided into two hostile parties, the persecuted and the persecutors; while the protestant pale enforced the laws to prevent the further growth of popery, they were obliged to submit to laws, enacted by their masters in England, to prevent the further growth of Ireland's prosperity; laws, interdicting commercial intercourse, trade and manufactures; laws which, to use the language of Pitt and Hawkesbury, deprived Ireland of the bounty of heaven, and the industry of man. Neither the distress of Ireland, nor the suf

ferings of the catholics, are imputable to George the Second. He partook none of the national hatred, or monopolizing spirit, of his subjects. Passionate and blunt, but honest and honorable, he was, like the rest of his family, inclined to principles of impartial justice and toleration.

An. 1760, George III. ascended the throne, with the most auspicious circumstances. England may be said to have reached, at this period, the pinnacle of human greatness. Her commerce and manufactures covered all the seas; there was no end to her riches; her debt was trifling; her taxes moderate; and the nation enjoyed, since the revolution, uncontested rights and privileges, unknown to the rest of Europe, under a political constitution, with all its defects, confessedly the best known; and which, with such amendments as time makes necessary in all human institutions, would combine a corresponding practice with the most beautiful theory in the world. Her power became paramount in the empire of Indostan; and the American colonies were a giant in the cradle. The northern nations supplied naval stores, and other raw materials; the Dutch were her retail merchants; the lords of Potosi supplied the precious metals; and her old rival, France, was her most profitable customer. The war with the house of Bourbon was uncommonly successful, under the able administration of Pitt, senior; and continued so, until it terminated in a treaty of peace, very humiliating to France and Spain. Her unbounded commerce, and extensive fisheries, were protected by fleets, that gave law.

to the ocean; and to whose supercilious pride every flag must strike obeysance!

The peace, that terminated this prosperous war, humbled France and Spain, and enlarged the British dominion in Hindoostan, led to serious consequences. Since the revolution, the ruling powers adhered to its principles; not alone for consistency, but because the expelled family still subsisted, with claims and partizans not well opposed but on revolutionary grounds. Now this check was removed: The pretensions became antiquated; the family was nearly extinct; the partizans were few and contemptible; and the only powers, from whom any considerable aid could be expected, in support of a desperate cause, were dictated to.

In this spring-tide of power and glory, the administration thought it expedient to tax the American colonies; in order to defray, in part, the expences of a war, alleged to be undertaken in their defence. These zealous adherents to constitutional freedom, pleaded the injustice of being taxed by a legislature in which they were not represented; while they offered to contribute, for the benefit of the parent country, in their colonial assemblies, more than the sum proposed to be levied on them in England. They further argued, that the war was waged rather for the aggrandizement of England, and the depression of its European rivals, than for the advantage of the colonies; and that they had already contributed largely, in men, money and provisions. The plea was plausible, and maintained by a strong,

enlightened and active party in the British dominions, the dissenters and whigs, in and out of parliament. It was argued, with some appearance of truth, that legislating for an unrepresented people was deviating from the principles of freedom, sapping the foundation of the British constitution; and that separating legislation from representation was introducing arbitrary power, whether attempted by one, one hundred, or ten hundred. Another method of taxing the colonies was resorted to, namely, by taxing the commodities exclusively purchased from the mother country; for instance, tea.

The second scheme fired the Americans, considering it an insidious and insulting experiment, adding insult to oppression; whereupon the bold Bostonians boarded the English ships in their harbour, and flung their tea into the sea. Both parties continuing obstinate, a war ensued, which converted the colonies into the independent states, rapidly rising to power and opulence.

Until this memorable epoch, a dark cloud, of unequalled calamity, hung over the sacred soil of Innisfail. Swarms of adventurers succeeded each other, thirsting for each other's destruction, as well as for that of the antient proprietors, whose anarchy and feuds made their natural superiority of no avail. The catholic pale was acrimonious and treacherous towards the catholic Milesians, whom they stiled the Irish enemy. They vainly flattered themselves that would always be supported and honoured, as the English garrison, the true guardians of the English inte