XXXVII. ments under government, were mostly displaced, and CHAP the primate was urgent with the lord-lieutenant to carry this plan to more extensive execution. The patriots or oppositionists were studiously represented to the king and British ministry as a Jacobite and popish party, aiming at the expulsion of his Majesty from the throne. To counteract such proceedings, James Fitzgerald, earl of Kildare, as the eldest peer of the realm, presented from his own hand a memorial to his sovereign, stating, among other particulars, that remonstrances, formerly made, were suspected, since they had remained unnoticed, to have been stopped in their progress to the royal ear: thať he had come forward at the request of several thousands of his Majesty's loyal subjects: that the face of the loyal kingdom of Ireland wore discontent, "not coloured from caprice or faction, but purely founded on ministerial misapplication:" that the sad effects were felt of power monopolized by the primate and lord George Sackville, son of the chief governor; and that this duumvirate was as much dreaded by Ireland as that of Strafford and Laud had been by England. This procedure, which gave the highest offence to ministers, which they affected to consider as an act of extreme folly and rashness, appears to have had ultimately some influence on the king. The mob of Dublin, terrific in its tumults, alarmed the viceroy for his personal safety; and he retired from the kingdom, as if he were making his escape, under the protection of his guards, and of a mob hired, and cajoled with drink, CHAP. for the purpose, by a man who was rewarded with a XXXVII. pension for this service. Change of administra tion. 1755. 2 In the administration of the marquis of Hartington, afterwards created duke of Devonshire, who succeeded as lord-lieutenant in 1755, a revolution had place in the system of Irish government. Primate Stone was removed from the privy-council by order of the king: Boyle, the great leader of opposition, was created earl of Shannon, with a pension of two thousand pounds a year; and John Ponsonby, son of the earl of Besborough, was appointed speaker in his room: several others of the patriot faction were advanced to lucrative employments: most of those, who had been displaced for favouring the popular cause, were with honour reinstated: and when, in 1756, the viceroy returned to England, the earls of Kildare and Besborough were constituted lords-justices in conjunction with 'lord-chancellor Jocelyn. The men of influence in the house of commons, having found that they could not avail themselves of a surplus in the treasury, took care to prevent in future the existence of such, depressing the hereditary revenue, and making various grants of the national money, ostensibly for public, but in reality for private uses; insomuch that the persons delegated for the disposition of these grants were nicknamed in common conversation the scrambling committee. In the perpetual struggle of the patriótic party, or rather of the aristocracy, against the court, independent men sometimes appeared, who, at least in their first essays, drew the sight by degrees, to the path > דד XXXVII. path of national interest; and the great owners of CHAP. boroughs became sometimes unintentionally the instruments of diminishing the influence which they were at the same time labouring to monopolize; for, when any of those was discontented, he commonly brought an able speaker into parliament to support an opposition. The government of the kingdom was principally managed by domestic interest. As no viceroy was resident except one winter in two years, the reins of administration were committed for the remaining time to three lords justices, of whom one was always an Englishman, either the primate or lord-chancellor, and the other two were selected out of those great proprietors of boroughs, who bargained for the procuring of a majority in the house in favour of measures required by government. Stipulations were made by these grandees, who might be denominated undertakers, that certain proportions of regal favours should be left to their disposal, for the retaining of their followers in absolute dependance on themselves, by which means the influence of the crown was virtually in thei hands. ary transac 1756. Their unwillingness, to suffer any diminution of Parliament this influence appeared in 1756, when heads of ations. bill, to secure the freedom of parliament, by vacating the seats of such members of the house of commons as should accept any pensions or places of profit from the crown, were taken into consideration by a committee of the whole house. After some progress, all further proceeding in the business was rejected by Q 4 a majority XXXVII. CHAP. a majority of eighty-five against fifty-nine. A spirit more patriotic appeared in another question. On the report of a committee appointed to inspect the public accounts, in 1757, resolutions were voted in disapprobation of pensions improperly granted on 1757. the civil establishment, the amount of which exceeded forty-four thousand pounds annually, and of which a considerable part was given to persons not residing in Ireland. According to another vote, the commons with their speaker waited on the lord-lieutenant, the duke of Bedford, with a request that he would lay their resolutions before the king, and received for answer, that "the matter contained in these resolutions was of so high a nature, that he could not suddenly determine whether the transmitting of them to his Majesty would be proper." An adjournment, and consequent suspension of public business, till a satisfactory answer should be given by the viceroy, was demanded by the popular party, who, after a warm debate, out-voted the courtiers by twenty-one voices. On this determination of the controversy, which was virtually a question whether the people of Ireland should be deprived of parliamentary means of transmitting complaints of grievances to the throne, the lord-lieutenant sent a message to the house that its resolutions should be immediately forwarded to the king. Pleased with this concession, the commons unanimously voted a bill of supplies, and proceeded in other business; but, unfortunately for the kingdom, the resolutions concerning pensions were not effectually pursued. The . XXXVII. National The augmentation of the revenue, which left CHAP. a surplus to extinguish the public debt, had not been more occasioned by the increase of national poverty. riches than by national extravagance, which drew 1755-1760. an undue importation of luxuries from abroad, and a consequent rise in the aggregate of customs. This extravagance was carried to a still higher pitch in 1754, insomuch that the revenue exceeded by two hundred and eight thousand pounds that of 1748, when it had first began to rise in a considerable degree. The real poverty of the kingdom increased with this deceitful show of wealth. Even when the treasury was full, public credit was low. Three principal banks failed, and much trouble was taken by parliament to enquire into their affairs, and to relieve their creditors. The revenue decreased from 1754 through the three succeeding years; and in 1757, from the want of due encouragement to tillage, the kingdom was afflicted with famine, especially in Ulster. One of the first acts of the duke of Bedford's administration was the obtaining of a king's letter for twenty thousand pounds to be expended, according to his judgment, for the relief of the poorer classes. The grants of money by parliament for canals, harbours, and other public works, were necessary in a country where funds were wanting for the projects of individuals, and even of companies, and where profits could not be expected to arise from such projects sufficient to reimburse the expences of the undertakings. If the works, for |