1806. So thorough a change had not been made throughout the several departments of the govern ment since the year 1784. But all the secondaries in the different offices, through whom, in fact, most of the public business is transacted, were permit ted to retain their situations. They having been trained to their situations, little alteration was per Earl Moira, Master General of the Ordnance. Sir Samuel Romilly, Solicitor General. Earl of Derby, Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster. John Hiley Addington, Esq. Joint Paymaster of the Forces. Lord Buckinghamshire Lord Holland } } Joint Postmaster General Lord Robert Spencer, Surv. Gen. of Crown Lands and Forests. Lord Charles Spencer, Master of the Mint. Earl of Albemarle, Master of the Stag Hounds. Mr. Sheridan, Treasurer of the Navy. FOR IRELAND. Duke of Bedford, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland. Sir John Newport Right Hon. William Elliott Maurice Fitzgerald, Esq. Sir Laurence Parsons William Burton, Esq. Henry Parnell, Esq, Lords of the Treasury. George Cavendish, Esq. Secretary to the Commissioners. W. C. Plunkett, Esq. Attorney General. Charles Kendal Bushe, Esq. Solicitor General. ceived in the manner, spirit or substance of going through the old routine of national business. Nothing short of dire necessity brought Mr. Fox into his Majesty's councils. He had not changed a single principle from the commencement of his political career. Every objection, consequently, that had been put into his Majesty's mouth against him (some were coarse, all unfounded) had then as much force, as at any period during his long proscription from the favour and confidence of his Sovereign. He came in, therefore, triumphantly upon his own terms. On no occasion did his patriotism shine with more splendid purity, than on this. No man was ever more warmly attached to his friends than Mr. Fox: and he had several, who had faithfully stuck by him through the dreary struggle of 22 years opposition. Yet so intensely was he bent upon procur, ing peace for his country, which was the necessaprelude to internal reform, that he sacrificed the place of First Lord of the Treasury, with all its patronage, to that of Foreign Secretary, which he conceived would afford him more immediate facilities of bringing it about. 1806. Mr. O'Hara funeral ho Lord Corn Amongst the earliest parliamentary proceedings. on the change of the ministry, which in any way objects to related to Ireland, must be noticed, Mr. O'Hara's nours to spirited objection to Lord Castlereagh's vote for monumental honours to Marquis Cornwallis, who died in India. He opposed the motion, because he' could not with consistency vote funeral honours to a man, who had brought about the Union between account of the Union. 1805. Repeal of the Union, Great Britain and Ireland; with regard to which he trusted, that some time or other it would come under the consideration of that House; and if it were not, as he hoped it would be utterly rescinded; it would at all events be considerably modified, and, if possible, ameliorated. Upon this interesting subject Mr. Fox declared, that he concurred with the motion; for that the words, in which it was expressed, did not, in imitation of a late precedent, assert, that the object of it was an excellent statesman. Althongh, however he supported the motion, yet he agreed with Mr. O'Hara in characterizing the Union as one of the most disgraceful transactions, in which the government of any country had been involved. In consonance with this marked reprobation of that fatal measure of Union by the most enlightened and irreproachable member of the new administration, several of the corporations of Dublin formed meetings to prepare petitions to the legislature for the repeal of the Union. Of these the company of stationers at their hall in Capelstreet gave the example, by appointing a respectable committee of nine to draw up a petition to repeal the act. At a future meeting, however, they came to a resolution, that not to einbarrass his Majesty's administration with a matter of so much importance, as the consideration of a repeal of the Union, they then declined framing a petition to Parliament for that. purpose. Within some few days, Mr. Alexander called upon Mr. Fox for an explanation of what he was reported to have lately said concerning the Union. Such an opinion publicly delivered by a person in his official situation had given rise to many conjectures, and had produced considerable agitation in Ireland: and it was highly important, that the public mind should be set at rest upon the point. Mr. Fox conceived he had spoken very intelligibly 1805. of the coun but he never refused explanation. He adhered to every syllable he had uttered relative to the Union, upon the motion for funeral honours to Lord Cornwallis. But when he had reprobated a thing done, he said nothing prospectively. However bad the measure had been, an attempt to repeal it without the most urgent solicitation from the parties interested should not be made, and hitherto none such had come within his knowledge. Dr. Duigenan moved to bring in a bill for en- Population forcing the residence of the established clergy, try. and Mr. J. Fitzgerald for ascertaining the population of the country. He judiciously observed that to be a grand desideratum in political economy, whether considered as to its physical force, its agricultural produce, or its financial relations." This has ever been a sore point with government. Whatever the cause may be, the effect is observable to every one, who throws an impartial eye over the population of Ireland, with a reflexion of what it amounts to, and a comparative reference to it in the short space of the last 25 years. During this time the most moderate statistical observers admit the population to have been encreas 1806. Lord Hardwicke and board. ed by above one third, and that will give an aggregate of about 7,000,000. In Dublin the Term: Grand Jury presented au the paving address to Lord Hardwicke, expressing their regret at his departure from the country. Addresses did not flow in from other public bodies: which was a disappointment to the Castle, and particularly to Mr. A. Marsden, the projector, adviser, and aetive instrument of most of the atchievements of that hollow government. The citizens of Dublin had long complained of the insufferable abuses of the commissioners of the paving board, who had permitted the streets and passages in the city to run into such a state of filth and decay, as to render the intercourse of the inhabitants not merely a service of labour, but of absolute danger. The act of Parliament, which gave to the Lord Lieutenant authority to suspend the directors and commissioners of the paving corporation, received the Royal Assent on the 10th of the preceding July.. For above seven months, and that throughout the Winter, the whole body of delinquency was continued at their post: and the public received no benefit from the act of the legislature. When however Lord Hardwicke's successor had been appointed, and he was in 'daily expectation of quitting his government, viz. on Saturday the 22d of February 1806, Mr. A. Marsden in an official letter by command of his Excellency suspended the whole of the old directors and commissioners, Five gentlemen were appointed to act in the room of |