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expending his private revenue, not only in a splendidc H A P. style of living, but even in works of public utility, as the building of a wharf in the port of Dublin, which bears the name of his title. Among the few occurrencies of his long administration, which passed with unusual tranquility, was the alarm given to the possessors of confiscated lands, by an application of the earl of Clancarty to the king for the restoration of his estates, which had been forfeited by the rebellion of 1688, and were supposed to be worth sixty thousand pounds annually at the time when he applied. The earl had obtained the consent of the British cabinet, that a bill should be brought into the Irish parliament for the reversal of his attainder; but the measure was relinquished in consequence of the vigorous resolutions of the Irish commons, who had addressed his Majesty to that purpose 1728 and 1735, and now, in the session of 1739, voted that any attempts to disturb the protestant purchasers of estates forfeited by rebellion would be of dangerous consequence to his Majesty's person and government. Among the bills confirmed by royal sanction in this period was one in 1737, commanding, in conformity with a prior act of the British parliament, that all proceedings in the courts of justice should in future be in the English language, instead of the Latin; a bill so clearly expedient, that the lateness of its introduction may seem extraordinary. In the winter at the end of 1739, and the succeeding summer, this island was afflicted with a natural calamity. A frost of extraordinary

in

violence,

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CHAP. violence, felt in general in the north of Europe, and recorded in Ireland under the name of the great frost, was followed by such a scarcity of provisions, that the mortality, caused by scanty and improper food, very sensibly thinned the population.

Chester- The short administration of Philip Stanhope, earl ministration. of Chesterfield, was a kind of a phenomenon in Irish

field's Ad

1745.

history. This highly accomplished, liberal, and judicious nobleman, to whose character such injustice accrues from the posthumous publication of his letters, intended for a peculiar purpose, by no means for general advice, was, with sound policy, contrary to the real inclination of the monarch, whose favourite errors in politics he had opposed, appointed lord lieutenant at a dangerous juncture, when in the midst of an unsuccessful war against France and Spain, an alarming rebellion had been raised in Scotland, in favour of Charles Edward Stuart, son of the pretender. Vested with ample powers, this viceroy acted from his own judgment, uninfluenced by the counsels of those who to prevent an imaginary, might have excited a real rebellion, by violent measures against catholics, the bulk of the nation. He discountenanced all party distinctions: he extended the full protection of the laws to catholics : he encouraged publications to convince this people of the absurdity of good expectations from a revolution in the pretender's favour, particularly a letter under the drapier's signature, in the style of Swift, who had fallen into a mental debility previously to his dissolution: he displayed a full confidence of

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their peaceable behaviour, and treated with ridicule CHA P. all attempts to alarm him; as, for instance, when the vice-treasurer, Mr. Gardner, came one morning in a fright to assure him, that the people of Connaught were actually rising, he replied with perfect composure, looking on his watch, "it is nine o'clock, and certainly time for them to rise; I therefore believe your news to be true." Instead of raising new regiments, or demanding troops from Britain, he sent four battalions to reinforce the royal army in Scotland, supplying their place with additional companies to the regiments already on the establishment, and encouraging volunteer associations for defence, without augmenting the public expenditure, the influence of the crown, his own patronage, or his private emolument. Resting the support of his administration on its rectitude, he abstained from the pernicious custom of gaining partizans by reversionary grants. The supply asked by him was very moderate, collected with ease, and managed with such economy, that a part remained from the intended uses, and this was applied to the improvement of Cork harbour. From his excellent conduct a profound tranquillity reigned in Ireland, where not a man espoused the pretender's cause, while in Scotland thousands were in arms under his banners, and seemed to threaten the restoration of a Romish line of kings to the British throne. The boon to Ireland of such a governor, as it had been extorted from the British cabinet by the necessity of circumstances, was recalled as soon as that necessity ceased. Nine

days

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CHAP. days after the total rout of the rebels in the battle of Culloden, which was fought on the sixteenth of April 1746, the amiable Stanhope departed from this kingdom, deeply regretted by the nation, who, as a mark of gratitude, placed his bust, at the public expence, in the castle of Dublin.

Primate Stone.

Under Chesterfield's government the contest between the English and Irish interest lay dormant ; but, after those halcyon days it revived in full force. The chief management of the former devolved from primate Boulter to primate Hoadley, and from him in 1747 to his successor, George Stone, promoted from the see of Derry. Haughty, determined, and devoted to his party, this prelate scrupled at no means for the accomplishment of his purpose. Regardless of his pastoral duties, and solely intent on politics, he sacrificed religion and morality to the confirming and gaining of adherents, to whom, in the extreme of hospitality, he is said to have furnished gratifications, not only for the palate, but also for another appetite, the love of the most familiar intercourse with females. To depreciate the protestant religion in a country of catholics, by placing such a man at the head of the church, and employing him as the engine of intrigue, was not consistent with sound policy. By the virulence of party his vices were exposed, and he was even accused of an abominable indulgence, in allusion to which his enemies gave as a toast, may the importation of Ganymedes be discontibued in Ireland." His chief opponent, as leader of

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the

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the patriots, or Irish interest, was Henry Boyle, CHAP. speaker of the commons, afterwards created earl of Shannon. This party received also considerable aid from an individual originally obscure, whose activity, talents, and intrepid perseverance, raised him to eminence in the esteem of his country

men.

From innovations made in the charters of corpo-Lucas. rate towns in the reign of Charles the second, the power of choosing their own magistrates had been taken from the commons of the city of Dublin, and placed in the board of aldermen, subject in its exereise on each election to the approbation of the chief governor and privy-council. Charles Lucas, an apothecary, anxious for the rights of the citizens, into whose common-council he had been admitted, but unable to oppose a positive law, discovered, by a laborious investigation of charters and other records, that encroachments, without legal sanction had been made on their privileges in other respects. By publishing his discoveries in 1741, with suitable observations, he raised a furious contest, pursued with acrimony, between the commons and aldermen, which, though unavailing to the former, tended to excite in the nation a spirit of inquiry and opposition to the invasion of political rights. His publications in favour of the claims of the people, and of Ireland as a separate kingdom, among which was a memorial to the earl of Harrington, the lord lieutenant, gave at length such an alarm to the parfizans of administration, that a resolution was taken

to

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