CHAP. Since, from the final submission of the Irish to XXXV. William the third in 1691, this island remained Reflexions. above a century free from other than external war, the historian of this period has happily little else to record than parliamentary transactions; but unhappily these were sometimes of such a nature as, more permanently than war, to sink the nation in poverty and barbarism. The baleful neglect and impolicy of the English government, since the first plantation here of the Anglo-Norman colony, rendered this island, which with a different conduct might have become an exuberant source of wealth and power, such a drain of English blood and treasure, as led many, not without reason, into an opinion, that the nonexistence of Ireland, or its total submersion under the waves of the Atlantic, would have been a considerable advantage to England. In the peaceful period, since the surrendry of Limerick, this country has been of important service to her sister kingdom, but of vastly less than she would have been, if the English parliament had acted towards her with a policy guided by common sense or common justice. The glorious revolution of 1688, which established in England an unparalleled system of civil freedom, was far from extending the benignity of its influence in the same degree to Ireland, where it only secured the administration of internal government exclusively to the protestant inhabitants, while these same protestants, the conquerors, or the offspring of the conquerors, of this country for the English crown, were, in common with the catholics, treated as a conquered people XXXV. people by the English legislature, whose laws, with CHAP. equal cruelty and impolicy, precluded them from. availing themselves of the fruits of their own industry. The more democratical the government of a nation becomes, the more is it inclined to domineer over dependant nations; and, if its councils be swayed by the influence of mere mercantile persons, it ruins, by aiming at a monopoly, the commerce of its dependencies by restrictive laws, and thus, by natural consequence, injures essentially its own. Immediately on the restoration of tranquillity in Ireland, in 1691; the English parliament proceeded to legislate for this country, at a period when its interference might seem least blameable, and yet was in appearance unnecessary, since the acts of the executive might have sufficed for temporary purposes till an Irish parliament could be assembled. Among the laws made for Ireland on this occasion was one for the abrogation of the oath of supremacy, and the substitution of other oaths, by which the catholics were virtually excluded from both houses of the legislature. At length, for the granting of money A parlia to the crown, a parliament was convened in Ireland, in 1692, by lord Sydney, the lord lieutenant, after twenty-six years intermission of such assemblies, with exception only of the parliamentary convention held by king James. The commons voted a sum not exceeding seventy thousand pounds; but soon quarrelled with the chief governor in defence of their privileges. Of the certified bills returned from England, on the principles of Poyning's law, two were bills ment. of XXXV. CHAP. of supply, one of which was rejected, and the reason of rejection entered on the journals, "that it had not originated in the house of commons." The other, on account of the great urgency of the case, was passed, but with a recorded reservation of their privileges in a declaratory vote, " that it was and is the sole and undoubted right of the commons to prepare heads of bills for raising money." Sydney, in a few days after, on the third of November, prorogued the parliament, and, in his speech to the commons, accused them of having undutifully and ungratefully invaded the royal prerogative. When they requested permission to send commissioners to their Majesties, William and Mary, for the stating of their case, they were told in reply that " they might go to England to beg their Majesty's pardon for their seditious and riotous assemblies." He entered his protest against their claim of right with respect to the originating of money bills, and procured in his favour the opinion of the judges, who pronounced the conduct of the commons in this case a breach of Poyning's law. After farther prorogations the parliament was dissolved, to the great disappointment of the public, as bills of importance were thus frustrated, and grievances unredressed. ices. 1693. Lord's jus- Three lords justices, appointed chief governors, on the recall of Sydney, Lord Capel, Sir Cyril Wyche, and Mr. Duncomb, disagreed in the administration; the two latter maintaining the observance, the former the evasion, of the articles of Limerick. As these XXXV. these articles had been always regarded as grievousc H A P. ment. In a parliament convened by this governor in A parlia1695, were annulled by a formal act, the parlia- 1695. mentary proceedings under the authority of James, which had been before annulled by the English legislature: the act of settlement was explained and confirmed: the articles of Limerick were also confirmed, but so modified as to lessen the security to the persons concerned; and a few penal statutes were added to those which had been already enacted against catholics. Sir Charles Porter, the chancel ་ lor, CHAP. lor, a strenuous advocate for the strict execution of XXXV. Molyneux.. the capitulation with the Romanists, was assailed by a party, supposed to have been incited by the chief governor, who charged him with designs hostile to government, and made a motion in the house of commons for his impeachment; but he was honourably acquitted, when he was heard in his defence. The proceedings of this parliament, which was more obsequious than the former to the sovereign, or rather to the ruling party in England, were for some time of little importance; but its privileges were asserted in such a manner by one of its members, William Molyneux, a representative of the university, as to cause a violent clamour in the English houses of legislature. This gentleman published a book in 1698, styled, 1698. The case of Ireland's being bound by acts of parliament in England stated, for the purpose of proving, from the course of historical facts, that the kingdom of Ireland was as independent of the kingdom of England as the latter was of the former. Incensed at such pretensions, the English house of commons appointed a committee to examine the book, and the proceedings of Irish parliaments which might have countenanced such assertions. On the report of this committee, on the twenty-second of June, the commons resolved unanimously," that the book published by Mr. Molyneux was of dangerous tendency to the crown and people of England, by denying the authority of the king and parliament of England to bind the kingdom and people of Ireland, and the |