had both been qualified on this side of the water to bring on the trial; and now another formal attack having been made upon passed; a law to which the poverty, calamity, and discontent of Ireland, have generally been attributed by the patriots. It enacts as follows, that "no par"liament be holden hereafter in the said land, but at such season as the king's "lieutenant and counsaile their first do certifie the king, under the great seal "of that land, the causes and considerations, and all such acts as them seem"eth should pass in the same parliament, and such causes, considerations, and "acts affirmed by the king and his counsail to be good and expedient for that "land, and his licence thereupon, as well in affirmation of the said causes and acts, as to summon the said parliament under his great seal of England had "and obtained; that done, a parliament to be had and holden after the form "and effect afore rehearsed; and if any parliament be holden in that land here"after, contrary to the form and provision aforesaid, it be deemed void and of "none effect in law.”

As this statute precluded any law from being proposed, but such as were preconceived before the parliament was in being, which occasioned many inconveniences, and made frequent dissolutions necessary, it was provided by statute the 3d and 4th of Philip and Mary, chap. 4. that any new propositions might be certified to England in the usual forms even after the summons and during the sessions of parliament. To remedy in some measure the inconvenience arising from these laws, the Irish lords and commons had adopted a mode of originating laws in their own houses. A lord or commoner applied to the house, of which he was a member, for leave to bring in heads of a bill, which leave being granted by the majority of the house, the heads of the bill were proposed, received after regular discussion, alteration, and amendment, and having passed through all the forms of parliamentary order, paragraph by paragraph, and being perfected to the satisfaction of the house, where they originated, they were sent to the Irish privy council, in order to be transmitted to the King of England. If these heads of bills were transmitted to England by the Irish privy council (which was not always the case), and were assented to by the king, they were then re-transmitted to Ireland, and if not negatived by one of the houses of parliament, they received a formal royal assent from the viceroy. This statutable authority of the Irish privy council was often complained of by the people of Ireland as an unwholesome medium between the king and his Irish subjects, and under its baneful influence, laws of the most salutary nature often perished. When heads of bills prepared by the Irish lords and commons, militated against the sentiments of the council, or the wishes of the viceroy, such bills were arrested in their course to the throne, and in the technical language of the council, they were "put under the cushion," from whence they never reached the ear of majesty. By Poyning's law, all bills must originate in the Irish privy council, and receive the assent of the king and council in England, previous to their being presented to the legislative bodies of the Irish parliament; in consequence of which process, all bills that came certified from the Irish council to the king in England, were immediately on their arrival delivered to the attorney general of England, to be perused, and settled by himself or the solicitor general, but which in fact was generally done by some chamber council, who had leisure to attend to it. The inconveniency of this was illustrated by a bill returned to Ireland altered in 74 places, which had been successively revised by Lord Thurlow, when attorney general, Lord Roselyne, when solicitor general, and the late Mr. Macnamara, a chamber council. The bill so metamorphosed was rejected by the commons of Ireland. These various corrections by an English, Scotch, and Irish lawyer, were of serious consequence to government. The temporary duties of Ireland expired in a few days after the rejection of the bill. Several weeks elapsed before a money bill could be perfected, sent over to England, returned, and approved by the Irish commons and lords....and in the interim the merchants im. ported duty free. The commissioners of the revenue, though no law existed,

VOL. II.

the legislative powers of Ireland for the same purpose by the origination of a money bill in the privy council, the commons resolved fairly to meet the question: accordingly it was moved in the House of Commons, that a bill, intituled, “An Act for granting to his Majesty the several Duties, Rates, Impositions, "and Taxes, therein particularly expressed, to be applied to the "Payment of the Interest of the Sums therein provided for, "and towards the Discharge of the said principal Sums," should be then read a second time on the day following. This motion was negatived; and it was resolved, that such bill was rejected, because it did not take its rise in that house.

The lord lieutenant, though he thought proper to allow the Irish parliament to grant their own money in their own way, protested against the right claimed by the House of Commons, and endeavoured, but in vain, to enter his protest upon their Journals. The house would not submit to this encroachment upon their privileges: the lords were less inflexible, and after much opposition and debate, his excellency's protest was solemnly recorded on the Journals of the House of Peers. But before that was done, it having been generally suspected, that such was his intention, the following motion was made in the House of Peers, "That the speaker of this, house be desired "that no protest of any person whomsoever, who is not a lord of "parliament, and a member of this house, and which doth not respect a matter, which had been previously in question "before this house, and wherein the lord protesting had taken "part with the minority, either in person or by proxy, be enter"ed on the Journals of the house." After a warm debate upon this motion, the question was negatived upon a division of 30 against 5.*

Although only two bills passed in this singular and short session of parliament, it did not go over without incident: besides what we have already remarked, the patriot party, not having been satisfied, that the papers delivered in from the treasury, were sufficient to bring the whole appropriation of the public money since the last parliament under their examination, moved for an address to the lord lieutenant, apprizing him of what papers had been actually delivered in, and requesting, that by which they could levy the duties, seized the goods, and lodged them in the king's stores. The merchants replevied, the commissioners opposed the sheriffs of Dublin, raised the posse comitatus, broke open the stores, and the goods were conveyed to the merchants houses in triumph. Certain it is, that the British constitution knows not any law, that gives power to any person or set of persons, distinct from the great council of the nation, to frame, propose, originate, or suppress bills intended to be statutes; which must be injurious to the legislative power of the state, and subversive of the constitution thereof. * Vid. App. No. LX. the protest of the five dissentient lords, and also the protest of the lord lieutenant, and the whole proceeding thereupon from the Lords Journals.

his excellency would be pleased to inform the house, if those were the only estimates and accounts intended by his excellency's most gracious speech: and a motion was made and the question put, that an amendment be made to the said address, by inserting the following words, *" being the only papers usually laid before this house at the beginning of a session, in consequence of the chief governor's speech and in pursuance "of the address of this house." Upon which a division took place of forty-seven for, and sixty-five against the motion. This was the first trial of the strength of the lord lieutenant's newly marshalled phalanx. It was not upon any of the excepted questions, and he was far from being satisfied with his victory.

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The 21st of November, 1769, was the day appointed for the grand experiment of the new artillery, which his excellency found only to be defective, from the scantiness of the priming: accordingly after this failure he deferred any further experiment, till he had more fully ascertained the calibre of each piece of ordnance, and he took care to have it charged accordingly.

"A motion being made, and the question put, that a bill "entitled, an act for granting to his majesty the several duties, "rates, impositions, and taxes therein particularly expressed, to "be applied to the payment of the interest of the sums therein "provided for and towards the discharge of the said principal sums, in such manner as is therein directed, be now read the "first time," it was carried in the affirmative: and the bill being accordingly read, a motion was made and the question put, that the bill be read a second time to-morrow morning: the house divided: ayes sixty-eight, noes eighty-seven. Then the motion, that the bill be rejected was put and carried by ninetyfour against seventy-one: and it was resolved that the said bill was rejected because it did not take its rise in that house. The lord lieutenant took this defeat in the commons so much to heart, that he resolved to bring no more government questions before them during that session: or until he could, as the castle phrase then was, make more sure of the king's business. The representations, which were made of this transaction in England, soon found their way into the newspapers, and the light in which Mr. Woodfall placed the majority of the Irish House of Commons on that important division in the Public Advertiser, fully proved the general sentiments entertained at that time in England upon the whole system of the Irish government. On the 18th day of December, 1769, a motion was made and carried without opposition, that a paper entitled the Public Advertiser, by H. S. Woodfall, London, December the 9th, 1769, might be read. It contained the following words: "Hibernian Ibid. p. 344.

8 Journ. Com. p. 295. † Journ. Com. vol. 8, p. 323.

"patriotism is a transcript of that filthy idol worshipped at the "London Tavern; insolence, assumed from an opinion of im"punity, usurps the place which boldness against real injuries ought to hold. The refusal of the late bill, because it was not brought in contrary to the practice of ages, in violation of "the constitution, and to the certain ruin of the dependance of "Ireland upon Great Britain, is a behaviour more suiting an 66 army of White Boys than the grave representatives of a nation. This is the most daring insult, that has been offered to government. It must be counteracted with firmness, or else "the state is ruined. Let the refractory house be dissolved; "should the next copy their example, let it also be dissolved; "and if the same spirit of seditious obstinacy should continue, "I know no remedy but one, and it is extremely obvious. The "parliament of Great Britain is supreme over its conquests, as "well as colonies, and the service of the nation must not be left "undone, on account of the factious obstinacy of a provincial "assembly. Let our legislature, for they have an undoubt"ed right, vote the Irish supplies; and so save a nation, that "their own obstinate representatives endeavour to ruin." These paragraphs having been read, it was resolved, that they were a false and infamous libel upon the proceedings of that house, a daring invasion of the parliament, and calculated to create groundless jealousies between his majesty's faithful subjects of Great Britain and Ireland: it was therefore ordered, that the said paper should be burnt by the hands of the common hangman. And on the Wednesday following, viz. the 20th of December, the said paper was burned before the gate of the House of Commons by the hands of the common hangman, in the presence of the sheriffs of Dublin, amidst the indignant shouts of an immense croud of spectators, who loudly, though without outrage, resented the insult offered to their representatives.

*On the same day (viz. 18th of December, 1769) Sir Charles Bingham, according to order, reported from the committee, to whom it had been referred, to enquire into the state of pensions, the matter, as it appeared to them, with the resolutions of the committee thereupon. The ministerial party well knowing, that it was then his excellency's intention to prorogue the parliament within the week, and being sensible, that the subject of pensions was too green a wound to be then probed in that temper of the house, moved, that the further consideration of the said report should be adjourned until the first Monday after the Christmas holidays: on this tender subject many of the ministerialists, who had quitted their ranks on the former questions, rallied according to their engagements, and outvoted the patriots: ninety

* Journ. Com. vol. 8, p. 345.

eight being against the agitation of the pension list at that time, and eighty-nine only for it. So trifling a majority did not encourage the lord lieutenant to hazard any more questions before the prorogation: although no hint or suggestion had been thrown out by the ministry, that it was the intention of government to prorogue the parliament, yet so fully convinced of it were the patriots, that on the 20th of that month (of December) the commons resolved, that it was their undoubted privilege to address the chief governor, to know whether he had any instructions or entertained any intentions to prorogue the parliament at an unusual season: an address was therefore agreed upon, whereby it was requested, his excellency would inform the house, whether he had any instructions or had any intention to prorogue the parliament sooner than usual. Here again the lord lieutenant found his deficiency in doing the king's business : for upon a division on the main question the minister was left once more in a greater minority than ever: there being 106 for his excellency's making the declaration, and 73 only against it.* On the very next day, however, Sir George Macartney, the secretary, reported to the house, that his excellency had returned the following answer.

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GENTLEMEN,

"I shall always be desirous of complying with "your request when I can do it with propriety. I do not think "myself authorized to disclose his majesty's instructions to me upon any subject, without having received his majesty's com"mands for so doing. With regard to my intentions, they will "be regulated by his majesty's instructions and future events." This answer was neither ambiguous, nor gracious: past events had provoked it and the lord lieutenant awaited only his justification from England of the measure, which his own judg ment and disposition had predetermined him to adopt. On the day after Christmas day his excellency put an end to the ses

sion.

A message was sent by the gentleman usher of the black rod to the commons to attend his excellency in the House of Peers, where after the royal assent was given to two money bills, the speaker Mr. John Ponsonby made the following speech at the bar of the House of Peers.t.

* Journ. Com. vol. 8, p. 353.

It is remarkable that the Journals of the Lords take no notice of the speaker's speech to the lord lieutenant; that appears only in the Journals of the Commons (8 vol. p. 354) and the Journals of the Commons make no mention of the lord lieutenant's speech to the commons: that appears in the vol. 4 of the Lords Journals, p. 538, the whole of which, with the proceedings and protest are to be seen in the Appendix, No. LXI.