XXXVII. A CHAP. early checked in the county of Derry by captain Rankin, a veteran officer and magistrate, who took post with a small body of troops at Castledawson, and, by extraordinary courage and conduct, stopped the insurgents in that quarter without the effusion of blood. In a few weeks the insurrection totally subsided with the loss of only three or four lives, and without any destruction of property; and, in the following session of parliament, the original cause was removed by the repeal of the old act concerning roads, and the enaction of a new, which provided an equal cess on land, instead of personal labour, for the necessary purpose. Parliamentary trans 1761-1768. By the death of George the second in 1760, the actions. parliament had been dissolved, and a new one sum→ moned in 1761, under the auspices of George the third, by the earl of Halifax, successor in the lord lieutenancy to the duke of Bedford. To give some assistance from their small ability in the war, in which Spain had combined her forces with those of France against Great-Britain, the commons, in the beginning of 1762, gave a vote of credit for five hundred thousand pounds at an interest of five per cent, and granted a supply for an addition to the troops. They also voted an address requesting his Majesty to augment the salary of the lord lieutenant to sixteen thousand pounds a year. The war against France and Spain terminated at the end of 1762, yet, from the system adopted of securing a majority in parliament by places and pensions, the expences of Irish government increased, so that the pensions in a few years XXXVII. years amounted to eighty thousand pounds annually. CHAP. Such an expenditure for an ascendancy, which was not exerted for national benefit, was to the patriots a ground of declamation, and a handle for their endeavours to effectuate a change in the political constitution. The most active agent in this transaction was Doctor Lucas, who, by the interest of his friends, had returned from exile, and been elected a representative of the capital in the new parliament. An obstacle to the attempts of the patriots was removed by the death of primate Stone in 1764, who maintained to the last a superiority of English interest in the parliament of Ireland, at the expence, and to the prejudice, of the kingdom, bill. Irish parliaments, originally annual, or of no octennial longer than a year's existence, had become of such 1768. duration as to terminate only with the monarch's life, unless dissolved by royal prerogative. To place the parliament of Ireland on the same situation with that of Britain, which from triennial had, since an act passed in 1716, been of septennial continuance, was a primary object with the patriots. Immediately on the meeting of the legislative assembly, in October of 1761, heads of a bill for this purpose had been prepared by Lucas and others, the transmission of which to his Majesty, in such manner as might promise success, was, after a seeming approbation of the commons, rejected by a majority of a hundred and eight against forty-three. The public discon tents, without the indecency of tumults, were loudly expressed, particularly in resolutions published by XXXVII. . CHAP. the citizens of Dublin; and the patriots, notwithstanding the great majorities against them in every question of importance, persisted, with a pertinacity annoying to the courtiers, to introduce motions for bills and addresses, which, though otherwise unsuccessful for the present, served to keep alive the popular attention. To Halifax in 1763 succeeded the earl of Northumberland; to him the earl of Hert ford in 1765, after the nominal viceroyalty of lord Weymouth, who visited not the kingdom; and to Hertford in 1767, lord viscount Townshend, in whose administration commenced a new system of government, popular at first by the enaction of the favourite law. Heads of a bill for the limitation of parliaments to seven years were, in 1768, certified by the chief governor and privy-council, on the supposition that it would be suppressed in England. It was returned by the British privycouncil with an alteration made in it of eight, instead of seven years, on supposition that, on account of this alteration, it would be rejected by the Irish commons: but the objection was overlooked in this instance; the tide of popularity carried the bill through both houses; the viceroy's coach was drawn by the populace from the castle to the parliament house, when he went to pronounce the royal assent; and great joy was expressed in all parts of the kingdom. of adminis New system Super-eminently endowed with convivial talents, which are highly appreciated by the Irish, and possessed besides of much vigour and activity of mind, tration. lord XXXVII. lord Townshend had been chosen as the introducer C H A P. of a new system of administration. Instead of making a visit to Ireland once in two years, and leaving the government for the rest of the time in the hands of lords justices, to the viceroy was now prescribed perpetual residence, with exertions to break the force of the Irish aristrocracy. Previously to this epoch a majority in parliament could at any time be commanded by a coalition of three or four grandees, who, in return for their services, were allowed to dispose of the favours, and consequently to possess the influence of government, To be the immediate dispenser of places, pensions, and preferments, and thus to deprive the grandees of their power, was the great object of the chief-governor. The success was considerable, but far from complete, and attended with ruinous expence; since to draw the subalterns to the prime fountain of court favour a much more copious flow of munificence through a multitude of channels was necessary. The loss of influence was resented by the immediate sufferers, who artfully taught the people to regard it as à national grievance, More general became daily the discussion of political questions, agitated warmly in the newspapers, among which was the Freeman's Journal, instituted a few years before, and directed by Doctor Lucas; the Hibernian Journal of somewhat later commencement; and the Dublin Mercury patronized by government. Unfortunately political argumentation was accompanied with licenti ousness, which rose to an intolerable pitch, and rendered R 4 XXXVII. CHAP. dered necessary the interference of the legislature; whence the press has since been subjected to salutary restrictions. A parlia ment. In the first session of the new parliament, on the 1769. octennial plan, which met on the seventeenth of October 1769, sixteen months after the dissolution of the old, a warm dispute arose between the viceroy and the commons. A money-bill, planned by the British cabinet, certified into England by the lord lieutenant and Irish privy-council, and returned under the king's great seal, was by the commons rejected after the first reading, because it had not originated in their house. On this occasion the patriots were aided by some placemen and pensioners, who had reserved to themselves a right of opposing the court in questions of great importance. The viceroy was incensed at this defeat, and a protest, which he in vain attempted to enter on the journals of the commons, was by him with difficulty entered on those of the lords, five of whom protested against his claim of protesting. Resolving still further to display a resolution of supporting their privileges, the commons caused an English newspaper, Woodfall's Advertiser, in which reflections were thrown against their conduct with respect to the money-bill, to be publicly burned by the hands of the common hangman, before the gate of the house. In another question concerning their privileges, a majority appeared against the court in the house of commons, and the parliament was prorogued on the twentysixth |