the English government. Jarnes was therefore reduced to the necessity of treating the old inhabitants as a conquered people, and governing their country as an English province, or of fortifying his protestant colony by investing it with the artificial power of a separate government, which, on every principle of selfinterest and self-preservation, it was bound to administer in concert with England. The executive departments being placed under the immediate control of the ordinary royal prerogative, he also deemed it expedient to secure a majority of the parliament, by the grant of new elective franchises: but, though he succeeded in this respect, the sessions were marked by the bitterness of animosity, which, however, was allayed in the following reign by the steady government of Strafford. On the removal of that nobleman, the old inhabitants, taking advantage of the weakness and distraction of the government, broke out into open rebellion, in which they were joined by a great number of the colonists. The insurgents being at length subdued by Cromwell, he transplanted the descendants of the original natives into the province of Connaught, and gave their lands, as well as the possessions of those colonists who had opposed the English parliament, to his soldiers and other partisans, who formed a colony of dissenters of every description. Of these men (said the chancellor) I speak with great personal respect, when I state that a very considerable portion of the opulence and power of Ireland centres at this day in the descendants of this motley collection of English adventurers.' The interests of these suppressors of a dangerous rebellion were not overlooked by Charles II., with whom Monk probably adjusted terms in their behalf; but, though their success redounded 2 C dounded essentially to the advantage of the British em→ pire, they were too highly favored by the act of settlement, by which 7,800,000 acres of land were assigned to some of them, or confirmed to others, with a very small reserve to the catholic claimants. The latter not meeting with success in their efforts for the restoration of James II., the slender reliques of their property became the subject of renewed confiscation, which introduced into Ireland a new set of adventurers. It is a very curious and important speculation (the earl added) to look back to the forfeitures of Ireland incurred in the last century. The superficial contents of the island are calculated at 11,042,682 acres. us now examine the state of forfeitures. Let 'In the reign of James I. the whole of the province of Ulster was confiscated, containing 2,836,837 acres. Set out by the court of claims at the Restoration Forfeitures of 1688 1,060,792 Total 11,697,629 So that the whole of your island has been confiscated, with the exception of the estates of five or six old families of English blood; and no inconsiderable portion has been confiscated twice, or perhaps thrice, in the course of a century.' Thus, he continued, three sets of English adventurers, who poured into Ireland at the termination of three rebellions, had engrossed the power and acquired nearly the whole property of the country. Confiscation was their common title; and from their first settlement they were 'hemmed in on every side by the old inhabitants of the island, brooding over their discon tents tents in sullen indignation.' The only security, therefore, for their physical existence, was the powerful and commanding protection of Great-Britain. The necessity of this connexion, however, did not prevent the parliament from entering into occasional disputes with the legislature by which it was protected; but the colonial leaders were too prudent to risque a total rupture; and, in the year 1707, both houses became so sensible of the expediency of union, as to recommend to queen Anne an incorporation of the realms. Her ministers, satisfied with the Scotish union, did not adopt the proposal of another; and successive governors found means, in her reign and under the sway of the two first princes of the house of Hanover, to retain Ireland in subjection without attempting to carry the scheme into effect. In those reigns considerable improvements were made by the inhabitants of that kingdom in the useful arts, and the commerce of the country was gradually extended. At the same time the political consequence of the parliament increased; and, in the present reign, the leaders resolved to take the first opportunity of demanding a free trade and an independent constitution. During the American war, a volunteer army was arrayed; and, in the hour of danger and calamity, Great-Britain was constrained to acquiesce in the claims of Ireland. While the chancellor complimented the volunteers for their forbearance of outrage, and for their exertions in maintaining the internal peace of the country, he said that he should never cease to consider, as dangerous and illjudged in the extreme, the appeals made to that army by the angry politicians of the day, or to think that they established a precedent for rebellion, which has since been followed up with full success.' 6 The opinion, that what passed at that period was acknowledged in both countries to be a final adjustment of all political claims and controversies between them, and a full security for their constitutional connexion,' was combated by his lordship with force and effect. If it were, he said, such an adjustment and security, it was achieved with a rapidity unexampled, and by the most extraordinary means that had ever attended an adjustment of any kind between two independent countries. The history of this adjustment lately given in the name of the gentleman who is styled the father of it, is that it emanated from the armed convention assembled at Dungannon, was approved at county meetings of the people armed and unarmed, and was sanctioned and registered by the Irish parliament.” If this history of our boasted constitution be well founded, I have no scruple to declare, that we cannot too soon get rid of it. We may very probably, if this be true, have a new armed convention, assembled at Wexford or at Naas, and a new constitutional emanation from it, of a government composed of a directory and two councils, or of a consulate and tribunate and conservative senate; which, I doubt not, some future house of commons may sanction and register in either form.' The earl then stated the true history of this adjustment. On the 16th of April, 1782, in answer to a royal message relative to the state of Ireland, an address was proposed in the house of commons, promising an inquiry into the causes of the prevailing discontent; but, from the ardor of those who could not brook delay, an amendment was quickly voted, containing 'the whole of this final adjustment on the part of Ireland.' On the 6th of May, the duke of Portland, land, then viceroy, advised the British ministry to make the desired concessions, and mentioned the readiness of the Irish parliament to settle by negotiation the precise limits of the independence required, the consideration which should be given for the protection expected, and the proportion which it would be proper to contribute towards the general support of the empire.' On the faith of this representation, the British parliament voted, on the 17th of May, that the obnoxious act of the 6th year of George I. should be repealed; and, not considering this as a final adjustment, declared that it was indispensably necessary for the interest and happiness of both kingdoms to establish the connexion on a solid and permanent basis. For this purpose, a regular treaty was proposed; and the duke of Portland and his associates considered it as being in a fair train of settlement. But this bright prospect of peace and happiness was soon clouded;' for, before the end of June, the lord-lieutenant complained, in an official letter, of an unexpected change' in those dispositions which had authorised him to entertain the hope of a solid connexion, and declared it to be his opinion, that any attempt to conciliate the minds of the Irish nation to the measure of which he had intimated the hope, would at that moment be delusive and impossible. For this change the earl thus accounts. • Mr. Flood had started his political curiosity of simple repeal. In the interval between the time of promised support of a treaty for final imperial adjustment, and this sudden change of disposition of which the duke of Portland had so much reason to complain, he had contrived to turn the tide of popular clamor against his political rivals; and they were alarmed, lest, in the discussion of the treaty, he might play the game against them, 2c3 |