XXXV. CHAP. fecurity of the church and nation depended, under God, wholely on the fucceffion of the protestant line as fettled by law; and that if any clergyman of their order should utter any opinion of a contrary nature, he should be regarded as an enemy to the conftitution. Whatever might have been the fentiments of the main body of the clergy, thofe of the university were so attached to the principles of the revolution, that, for afperfions on the memory of king William, they degraded and expelled Edward Forbes, one of their members. In confequence of their loyalty, an application in their favour for five thousand pounds for the erection of a library, made by the parliament in 1709, through the viceroy, was favourably received by the queen. This viceroy was the earl of Wharton, fucceffor to the earl of Pembroke, a whig in profeffion, but deiftical in opinion, and profligate in manners, deputed for the repairing of a fhattered fortune to Ireland, where he was faid by Dean Swift to have gained in two years forty-five thousand pounds, half in the regular way and half in the prudential. The heat of faction encreased in the latter part of the reign of Anne, and the clergy openly adopted the part of the tories, which was doubtless strengthened by the imprudent violence of the whigs. Browne, bishop of Cork published a pamphlet to prove the drinking of toafts impious, as the glorious memory of king William was perpetually given, frequently to annoyance in mixed company. When, in 1713, an addrefs to her Majefty was voted by the commons XXXV. commons for the removal of Sir Conftantine Phipps, CHAP. lord chancellor, an active tory; and contrary resolutions were voted by the lords, among whom toryism had gained the afcendancy; the clergy feconded strenuously the latter, and waited on the duke of Shrewsbury, the chief governor, at the caftle, with their representation. Here Sir Robert Molefworth was heard to fay, "they who have turned the world upfide down are come hither also." The clergy made complaint to the lords, who in confequence requested a conference with the commons. The latter treated the matter lightly; but the English miniftry, compofed now of tories, ordered his removal from the privy council. Previoufly to this the city of Dublin had been thrown into a ferment by difputes about the choice of a lord mayor, and by a riot which had happened in the election of members for the house of commons. An enquiry concerning the latter at the meeting of parliament occafioned the addrefs of the commons against Phipps the chancellor. The lord mayor in office had been empowered by late regulations to nominate three aldermen, one of whom fhould be elected his fucceffor, unless reasonable objections could be made to them all. In violation of this rule, in the abfence of Sir Samuel Cook, the man then holding this authority, a violent tory, the aldermen chose for his fucceffor a whig, named Pleasant. The privy council annulled the election. Of the aldermen, when fummoned to make a new choice, twenty objected to one of the three nominat ed XXXV. CHAP. ed by Cook; and, before the affair could be brought to a termination, the court was difmiffed. Interfe- The violence of party added one to the many inEnglishpar- ftances of unconftitutional interference of the Engliament. lish parliament in the affairs of Ireland. Some of rence of the thefe, which were frequent from the complete ef tablishment of William's authority in this kingdom, have been already incidentally hinted or mentioned; and to notice two or three more may be here fufficient. The forfeiture, decreed in the reign of Charles the firft, against the London fociety, of their lands in the county of Derry, had been reversed, and the proprietors repoffeffed, by the acts of fettlement and explanation. In confequence of an act of the Irish parliament for a falvo in this cafe to the rights of the clergy, the bishop of Derry, claimed the lands of his fee, and obtained judgment in his favour on a trial before the Irish peers; but the society appealed to the English houfe of lords, in the January of 1708, who gave a contrary judgment. The difpute of property was terminated by the removal of the bishop, and a compofition made by his fucceffor with the fociety. Afterwards, in the recess of the Irish parliament, the earl and countefs of Meath were, by an appeal to the English peers, difpoffeffed of fome lands, which had been decreed to be their property by an Irish court of judicature. In February 1703, the Irish lords entered into refolutions, declaring the judgement of their houfe to be final, not reverfable by any court whatsoever : and that if any fubject within this kingdom fhould afterward appeal from their jurisdiction, or execute an XXXV. an order from any other court contrary to their de- CHAP. termination, he should be deemed a betrayer of her Majefty's prerogative, of the privileges of their house, and of the rights of the fubjects of Ireland. The commons were alfo folicitous to maintain their privileges. A money bill, transmitted to England in 1709, and returned to them with alterations, was rejected in its present form by a large majority. But the privileges of both houses were indefenfibly violated by an act of the English parliament, in 1714, to prevent the growth of Schism, an act levelled by the queen's miniftry against the prefbyterians, as whigs, both in England and Ireland. This law was made to include Ireland as fully as any part of England, as the miniftry knew that a bill to this purpofe could not pafs in the Irifh house of commons, where the whigs had a small majority. CHAP. XXXVI. XXXVI. English affairs. English affairs Union of England and Scotland Acceffion of George the first-An Irish parliament- Tythe agiftment-Devonshire's government-Great CHAP WILLIAM the third, vested by parliament with the English monarchy, had crufhed his opponents among the Scots, had finally reduced Ireland, and had seen in 1692 the last attempt for the restoration of his rival, James the fecond, frustrated by the naval battle of La Hogue, where the French fleet of fixty-three fhips of the line, under admiral Tourville, ready to convey a French army into England, was totally defeated by a confiderably fuperior force of English and Dutch veffels under admiral Ruffel. Acting as the head of a great confederacy against France, |