Hartington, afterwards Duke of Devonshire, went over as lord lieutenant upon his return to England in 1756, Lord Chancellor Jocelyn and the Earls of Kildare and Besborough were appointed lords justices. Much of the popular ferment now subsided, and the kingdom once more resumed the appearance of tranquillity.

Loud as was the cry of patriotism, firm as was the stand made by the patriots of 1753 against the encroachments of an English interest, and strengthened as were supposed to be the constitutional principles of civil liberty by the late appointments, yet lamentable is it to reflect, that when the boasted purity of these very patriots was called into action by some of the few sincere supporters of the party, the majority of them became as recreant from the cause of civil freedom and legislative independence as the most venal prostitute to systematic corruption. On the 17th of March, 1756, the House of Commons according to order resolved itself into a committee of the whole house, to take into consideration the heads of a most wholesome bill to secure the freedom of parliament, by vacating the seats of such members of the House of Commons, as should accept of any pension or civil office of profit from the crown and after some time spent therein, upon the report of progress, and motion for leave to sit again on the next day, the house divided, 59 for the bill, and 85 against it. This was a fatal warning to the Irish nation, against the lubricity of their representatives, whenever their private interest could interfere with the national welfare and prosperity. The loss of this truly patriotic question too closely bears upon the general system of governing that kingdom, not to enter more fully into the detail of that transaction in order to illustrate to the Irish nation the advantages, which the Union must necessarily bring with it, by abolishing that power, which had on so many occasions sacrificed the rights, welfare, and happiness of the Irish nation to private lucre or British influence.

The patriots however rallied once more successfully upon a most important question, namely, whether the great representative body of the nation should be deprived of access to the throne by any ministerial influence, through which channel the

* 3 Journ. Com. p. 38. On the day of this debate a list of the pensions granted upon the civil establishment of Ireland was according to order given in to the house: it amounted to 44,3937. 15s. and is to be seen in the Appendix to that volume of the Journals CCXCVI. In this list of pensioners are to be read many of the first names of Ireland, many foreigners, few or no meritorious servants of the public; the Countess of Yarmouth stood upon it for 4000/. Mr. Bellingham Boyle had been added to it within twelve months for 8007. during pleasure, and the Earl of Shannon closed it for 2000. The constitution, by lodging the source of remuneration in the crown, evidently did it for the wise parpose of encouraging zeal and industry for the public service: and the consideration of the royal favour and grace should always form a distinct column in the official schedules of such grants.

petitions and grievances of the nation are most properly laid before the throne? The steadiness and resolution of the majority who attended the business of their country on this occasion, and particularly the firm zeal of Mr. John Ponsonby, the speaker, cannot be over-rated. Like true and sincere patriots, they immoveably supported the just prerogatives of the crown, the dignity and privileges of parliament, and the liberties and known rights of the people.

*Mr. John Bourke reported from the committee (appointed to inspect the public accounts of the nation) the resolutions, which the committee had directed him to report to the house, which he read in his place, and afterwards delivered in at the table, where the same were read, and are as follows:

Resolved, That it is the opinion of this committee, that the several pensions and salaries placed upon the civil establishment of this kingdom since the 23d of March, 1755, amount to the annual sum of twenty-eight thousand one hundred and three pounds.

Resolved, That it is the opinion of this committee, that several of the said pensions are pranted to persons who do not reside in this kingdom.

Resolved, That it is the opinion of this committee, that several of the said pensions are granted for long and unusual

terms.

Resolved, That it is the opinion of this committee, that the list of pensions returned as a charge upon this establishment (exclusive of the military pensions) for two years, from the 25th of March 1755, to the 25th of March 1757, exceed the whole charges of the rest of the civil list twenty-two thousand two hundred and fifty-eight pounds, four shillings and seven pence three farthings.

Resolved, That it is the opinion of this committee, that an improvident disposition of the revenue is an injury to the crown and public.

To which resolutions, the questions being severally put, the house did agree nemine contradicente.

Resolved, nemine contradicente, That the granting of pensions upon the civil establishment of this kingdom to persons who do not reside in it, is a prejudice to it.

Resolved, nemine contradicente, That the increase of civil pensions for many years past, is a grievance to the nation, and demands redress.

Resolved, nemine contradicente, That the granting of pensions for a long term of years, is an alienation for so much of the pubLic revenue, and an injury to the crown and this kingdom.

6 Journ. Com. p. 21.

Resolved, nemine contradicente, That the granting of so much of the public revenue in pensions, is an improvident disposition of the revenue, an injury to the crown, and detrimental to the public.

Resolved, That the house, with its speaker, do attend his grace the lord lieutenant, with the said resolutions, and desire his grace will be pleased to lay the same before his majesty as the sense of this house.

On the 9th, application was made to know when his grace the lord lieutenant would be attended in order to give an answer, when he would transmit the resolutions to be laid before his majesty, pursuant to the desire of the house.

On the 11th, Mr. Secretary acquainted the house, that his grace would be attended the day following, at two of the clock. The 12th, the house with Mr. Speaker attended the lord lieutenant, who was pleased to give them the following answer, viz.

"The matter contained in those resolutions is of so high a nature, that I cannot suddenly determine whether it be proper "for me to transmit them to his majesty." On the speaker's return, the answer being reported, Mr. Secretary moved, that the same should be entered in the journal of the house as explicit and satisfactory; and being debated, and the question put, Mr. Secretary apprehending the majority against the motion, desired leave to withdraw it, which prevented a division at that time.

On the 14th, the house being met, a motion was made, that all orders, not proceeded on, should be adjourned to the next day, the house not having received an answer from the lord lieutenant relative to transmitting the resolutions of the Commons on the 1st of November, in respect to pensioners.

Here the grand debate arose, as those who declared for the adjournment were for supporting the resolutions, to have them laid before his majesty, and those who were for suppressing the resolutions, and preventing national grievances being laid before the throne, were against the adjournment, the fate of which was, in fact, a determination of the main question, which was of no less importance in its consequences, than whether the people of Ireland were to be deprived of the parliamentary means of laying their grievances before the crown? and the question being put, upon a division, those for the adjournment carried it by a majority of twenty-one voices.

In consequence of the foregoing question, on the 15th Mr. Secretary Rigby informed the house, that he was commanded by his grace the lord lieutenant to acquaint the house, that their resolutions of the 1st of November should be forthwith transmitted to his majesty.

Had not this message been delivered to the house, serious indeed might have been the consequences; but the instant it was received the house proceeded to business; and the money bill, granting supplies to his majesty, passed unanimously on the same day. Happy would it have been for Ireland, had these resolutions of the commons been acted up to, with the effect they certainly merited.

The Duke of Bedford was appointed to be lord lieutenant of Ireland in the year 1757: and it is fitting to remark, that he was the first chief governor of Ireland, since the revolution, who ventured to profess a favourable disposition to the body of Catholics:† under his government did the first dawn of toleration break in upon that suffering people: to his administration must be allowed the credit of having restored suspended animation to the members of that paralyzed body, which has since acquired such health, vigour, and strength of constitution under the benign reign of his present majesty. Several Roman Catholic gentle men had about that time devoted their thoughts to the most effectual means of removing from their shoulders some part at least of the oppression, under which they laboured. Heads of a registery bill, prepared under the late administration of Ireland, which, had it passed, would have operated as a new and very severe penal law upon the Catholics, were handed about and created much alarm in that body. Their fears drove them to consultation, and consultation animated them to action: a common sense of the existing and fear of additional severities taught them, that the surest means of preventing fresh laws from being enacted would be to make some vigorous exertion for the repeal of those, by which they were most galled. They held frequent meetings, in which there was much diversity of opinion. It was natural, that long habits of suffering and the exclusion from all public concerns, should disqualify such a body from acting in concert. They formed into two parties: one was headed by Lord Trimbleston, the other by Doctor Fitzsimon. Although neither party could for a considerable time bring themselves to

As matter of historical curiosity a list of the gentlemen who divided upon these resolutions is given in the Appendix, No. LIX.

He was appointed lord lieutenant on the 25th of September, and had so early intimated this humane disposition of government towards the Catholics, that within ten days, viz. on the 2d of October 1757, a form of exhortation was read from the altar by the Catholic clergy of Dublin, which noticed that some very honourable personages had encouraged them to hope for a mitigation of the penal laws. The whole is short, but appropriate to the situation of their congregations, and is to be seen in the Appendix, No. LX.

Mr. Charles O'Connor of Ballenegare, the celebrated Irish scholar and antiquarian, was one of the most active of the Catholics. His letter to Dr. Curry on this occasion, which is to be seen in the Appendix, No. LXI, will let the reader into the spirit of the sense and feeling of the gentlemen of that persuasion at that period of time.

agree to the expediency of addresses or appeals, they were both unanimous in adhering to their ancient principles. Doctor O'Keefe, the titular bishop of Kildare, proposed to Lord Trimbleston's meeting a declaration of the principles of their church, as far as they could bear upon their civil duties, to be signed by the chief of their body, and published as an answer to the misrepresentations and calumnies they had laboured under since the reformation of the national religion: the declaration was unanimously adopted; it was signed by many clergymen and gentlemen of rank and property, and sent to Rome as the act and deed of the Catholics of his diocese. This was the first public act of the Catholics for obtaining some relaxation from the penal laws. In this same year, however, Mr. O'Connor, Dr. Curry, and Mr. Wyse of Waterford first thought of establishing a Roman Catholic committee in Dublin, in order to be able to conduct the political concerns of the body with more order and effect near the seat of government; and their first meeting, at which only seven gentlemen attended, was holden at the Globe Tavern in Essex Street; and there Mr. Wyse delivered in a written plan for their future proceedings. These movements of the Catholics awakened the vigilance of government, and occasioned a more rigorous execution of the penal laws, which

This declaration is to be seen in the Appendix, No. LXI. And it will be hereafter remembered that it was the same as that of the Catholic committee of 1793, which Mr. George Ponsonby so highly commended in his speech upon the Catholic question.

† At this meeting were present Mr. O'Connor, Mr. Wyse, Dr. Jennings, Mr. Anthony Macdermott, Mr. James Reynolds of Ashe street, and one more. This proposal which is still in existence in the hand writing of Mr. Wyse is to be seen in the Appendix, No. LXII. The original is in the possession of Mr. O'Connor's grandson, together with a large collection of letters and papers relating to the affairs of the Roman Catholics of Ireland. The representatives thus appointed adopted the measure proposed to them by Dr. Curry and Mr. O'Connor, of employing the most leading literary men of the day to write in favour of Catholic claims, and among others, the celebrated Dr. Johnson, who, as appears from G. Faulkner's letters, often spoke of the Roman Catholics as an oppressed and degraded people, for whom humanity loudly demanded that something should be done to elevate them to the dignity of human nature..... There is a letter in the same collection from Faulkner to Dr. Jennings engaging him to write pressingly to Mr. O'Connor to collect fifty guineas among his friends to send as a douceur to Dr. Johnson, with an abstract of the penal laws, and Mr. O'Connor's own writings on the subject. "I send the doctor my last javelin, (says Mr. O'Connor, speaking of his maxims in reply to Jen“nings) but I fear I have thrown it in vain; men in power will not be con"vinced, there is an obstinacy yoked with pride in this case, and a phantom of "hatred stalks behind to cement the league between them. I am glad howe"ver that I threw it, as Dr. Johnson will see, that a negative on the plan rela"tive to our waste lands, will render our task-masters inexcusable; it will "shew that they persecute merely for the sake of persecution, and that the "injury they do us in not granting us leases of the red bogs of Ireland falls "ultimately on themselves." Why Doctor Johnson did not undertake the task proposed in favour of the claims of the Irish Catholics, after having spo ken so favourably of them, does not appear.