LII. confidence of the Catholics.' The necessity of governing CHAP. Ireland by alternately playing off one party against the other, which kept up animosity and jealousy, was long the curse of this country. in the Irish House of Commons. Question that the Bill be burnt. Meanwhile the Union measure was not passing so Excitement quietly through the House of Commons as its supporters desired. Upon the question being put on June 6, 1800, "That this Bill be engrossed,' a fiery member named O'Donnell moved, that instead of being engrossed it be burnt.' The Government party resented this as an insult. Mr. Tighe seconded Mr. O'Donnell, and several of the Opposition declared they would insist upon the question being put. The Speaker was puzzled, and appealed to the House whether such a question was proper?' Whereupon a discussion ensued, the Government members insisting it was most improper, that the motion was an insult, and if any gentleman indecently persisted in pressing it, he incurred a vote of censure. This added to the excitement, the galleries had to be cleared, and the Speaker then declared his opinion. He stated, the point was novel; Decision there was no precedent. He recollected certain questions of the Speaker. to which amendments could not be made, as, for instance, a question of adjournment, another, that the order of the day be read. He thought the motion might be made at a proper time, and was not censurable as an insult, but it 1 Cornwallis Correspondence, vol. iii. p. 237. between Lord Cornwallis and Henry NOTE.-In Minutes of a conversation between the Marquis Cornwallis and Conversathe late Henry Howard, Esq., of Corby Castle, under date December 11, 1779, tion I find the following: Dined, Park. After dinner sat by Lord Cornwallis. Addressing him on the subject of the state of Ireland between Catholic and Protestant, I said 'that I thought, from what I perceived of the state of men's minds, that the best and most useful part of the Government was to hinder the Howard, people from cutting each others' throats.' He replied, That, unfortunately, Esq. was not what the Government had done here.' I said, 'I thought that justice began to be done on that score, which, when I came first, was by no means the case.' This brought on the subject of Union, which he thought the only remedy and means of doing that, which left to them here, would never be done. I said, 'With respect to the Catholics, as it appeared to be an object to conciliate them, that they should be an object of Union, that without this the Union was nothing.' He repeated, Certainly the Union without it is nothing.'-Vide History of Dundalk, by D'Alton and O'Flanagan, p. 215. CHAP. Bill passes the Lords, and receives the Royal Assent. the Peers. could not supersede the question which had been moved,' which he put accordingly.' This was one of the last notable passages in the history of the Union. As the Lords were more under Government control the question was speedily passed by them in the following manner :— The Bill was brought to the House of Lords on June 11, 1800; committed on the 12th by a majority of 76 to 17, and on August 1 received the Royal Assent. On the following day Lord Cornwallis in a Speech from the Throne terminated the existence of the Irish Parliament. We have no record that the pathetic remark of the old Scotch Peer on the like occasion in Edinburgh was repeated in Ireland-Sae there's an end to the auld sang.' But a protest from a minority of the Peers showed the spirit Protest of of the Upper House. The protest, in eleven sections, dated June 13, 1800, concludes thus, Because the arguments made use of in favour of the Union,-namely, that The Union the sense of the people of Ireland is in its favour—we know to be untrue, and as the Ministers have declared that they would not press the measure against the sense of the people, and as the people have pronounced decidedly, and under all difficulties, their judgment against it, we have, together with the sense of the country, the authority of the Ministers to enter our protest against the project of Union, against the yoke which it imposes, the dishonour which it inflicts, the disqualification passed upon the Peerage, the stigma thereby branded on the realm, the disproportionate principle of expense it introduces, the means employed to effect it, the discontent it has excited and must continue to excite; against all these and the fatal consequences they may produce we carried sense of the Irish people. 'Cornwallis Correspondence, vol. iii. p. 249. A note to this page gives an instance of a Bill containing penalties having been altered in the House of Lords (London), which the Commons regarded as a breach of privilege; their Speaker, Sir Fletcher Norton, declared he would toss the Bill over the table.' The Speaker kept his word, and the members on the floor resolving to do their share, literally kicked the Bill out of the House. Vide also the way in which Pedro, King of Portugal, treated the Methuen Treaty, ante, vol. i. p. 496. have endeavoured to interpose our votes; and failing, we transmit to after times our names in solemn protest in behalf of the Parliamentary constitution of this realm, the liberty which it secured, the trade which it protected, the connection which it preserved, and the Constitution which it supplied and fortified. This we feel ourselves called upon to do, in support of our characters, our honour, and whatever is left to us worthy to be transmitted to our posterity. CHAP. 'LUDLOW. 'MOIRA. 'WILLIAM, BISHOP OF DOWN AND Connor. 'MEATH. 'LISMORE. 'SUNDERLIN.' CHAP. cellor proposes the Courts. CHAPTER LIII. LIFE OF THE EARL OF CLARE-CONCLUDED. THE Chancellor having successfully carried the Union, to the joy of the Government and sorrow of the Irish people, The Chan- applied his vigorous mind to the duties of his Court. He had long been anxious to remove many of the abuses reforms in which custom had sanctioned, but which no usage could justify; and the sale of offices was one glaring evil that required redress. There were several legal changes pending on the passing of the Act of Union, which appeared to the Chancellor a very proper opportunity for carrying out his plans of Law Reform; and, when communicating with the Chief Secretary, Viscount Castlereagh, he thus disclosed his views on the subject: Letter from the cellor to Lord Castlereagh. The Earl of Clare to Viscount Castlereagh. (Private.) 'Ely Place, November 14, 1800. 'My dear Lord,-I have seen Sir Michael Smith, and Lord Chan- communicated to him the offer which you authorised me to make to him of the Lord Lieutenant's recommendation to His Majesty to appoint him Master of the Rolls. He is ready to accept the situation on terms which appear to me to be perfectly reasonable. The tenure of his office of a Baron of the Exchequer is during good behaviour, and the annual profits of it, salary and fees included, are little short of three thousand pounds. By an Act passed in Ireland in the reign of Henry VII., the tenure of the office Master of of Master of the Rolls can be during the King's pleasure Act relating to office of LIII. Court of the office of Master of the Rolls in Ireland to that of only, and from every inquiry which I have been enabled CHAP. to make, the profits of it do not exceed, on the average, eighteen hundred pounds yearly. There has, however, been the Rolls, a shabby perquisite of the office, arising from an open sale temp Hen. 7. of the situations of six clerks and examiners of the Court Sale of of Chancery, which certainly ought to be abolished. Under offices of these circumstances, I feel that if the office of Master of Chancery. the Rolls is to be placed on a respectable foundation in this country, it ought to be assimilated, as nearly as may Proposes to be, to that of the Master of the Rolls in England, and if assimilate the tenure in that country is permanent, it ought to be made permanent here; so the profits of the office here ought to be made up to the possessor of it (fees included) three thousand pounds annually; and if the tenure is not England. to be permanent, the King should be empowered to make a concurrent grant to the Master of the Rolls of an annuity equal to that provided by the Act of the late Session for him in case of removal, to take effect only if he should be removed from his office; and if Sir Michael Smith has an assurance that such a regulation will be made when the Imperial Parliament shall meet, I make no doubt he will immediately accept the office on the faith of it. If Suggesthe Chancellor of Ireland is likely to be called over occasionally to attend Parliament at Westminster, it will be absolutely necessary to the administration of justice here that there should be an efficient Master of the Rolls, which, on the present establishment of the office, no man of Lords in England. who is capable of discharging the duties of it will be found to accept it. On the same principle it might be found necessary to have a standing commission for the custody of the Great Seal, in the absence of the Chancellor (with the King's licence), directed to the twelve Judges, or to one of them, and I shall take the liberty to send you the sketch of such a commission, which you will have the goodness to transmit to England. But if there should arise any difficulty there in directing such a Commission, I shall thank you to request, in my name, of his Excellency the Lord Lieutenant, that he will have the goodness tions in Lord Chan- cellor of called to the House |