could be effected by contribution, to relieve the starving poor, but in vain; employment alone could remedy the evil. He appealed to the noble lord at the head of the treasury for the truth of another observation; that the revenue of Ireland is so diminished, that it now yields little more than the expences of its civil establishment. These facts pointed out the necessity, as we had lost our trade with our American colonies, of taking care we did not lose Ireland next, by a separation or invasion. If our impolitic restraints were not removed from the trade of that country, we should lose our best customers for many articles of merchandise. He said, good estates in Ireland were offered to sale at sixteen and fourteen years purchase, yet no buyers appeared even at that low price.

He expected to be opposed by those, who had particular interests to support against the national welfare intended by his bill; but he remembered many similar oppositions to bills, which had, after they had passed, and the good effects had been experienced, been highly applauded; for instance, the bill for importing bar iron from America, was strongly opposed by the parties concerned in mines and iron-works at home; yet it was found that Great Britain did not produce a tenth part of the iron wanted for consumption. He declared himself as warm a friend to England as any man in the house; and if he did not think it was promoting the interest of this country to grant Ireland relief to her trade, he would not move it ; neither did he ever choose to move any thing in that house which he was not sure of carrying. He concluded with a kind of prophecy, that if Ireland were not assisted in her commerce, it might become a question there to vote a sum for the support of that country, from the insufficiency of its own revenue.

The establishment of a cotton manufactory, and leave to export the manufacture to Great Britain; with leave to export and import to and from America, the West-Indies, and Africa, were the points he had in contemplation; and he concluded with saying, if all he wished could not be obtained, he must be satisfied with a part.

Colonel Stanley desired Lord Nugent would give as long notice as possible of the day he should bring in his bill, that his constituents might be early apprized of it; as not only the town of Manchester, but all the manufacturing towns in the country, concerned in the cotton branches, were alarmed.

He

Sir George Yonge intreated the noble earl not to hurry on a bill of such consequence, but wait for better information. could not consider the state of Ireland in the melancholy light it had been described; but if the people really were famishing, it was not owing to the trade laws of this country, but to mismanagement in their own internal police, and desired that might be enquired into.

Mr. T. Townshend reminded the house, that by a narrow policy America had been lost, and bid them beware of losing Ireland. He declared himself impartial, not having any proper

ty in Ireland; yet he considered his property in England as dependant in a great measure on the prosperity of Ireland; and, as a member of the community, he wished to remove those partial restraints on her trade, which certainly were the cause of her distresses.

*Again on the 10th of March, 1779, did the distressed situation of Ireland come before the British House of Commons, when Lord Newhaven hoped, as a spirit of toleration and liberality had gone forth in the house, that the relief he had proposed for Ireland, would not want for success. His lordship stated, that on an average of the last ten years, the exports from England to Ireland were decreased about six hundred thousand pounds; and in the two last years they had decreased seven hundred and sixteen thousand pounds: that the exports from Ireland in the two last years had decreased one hundred and fifty-five thousand pounds; on which decrease seventy-five thousand pounds were on the staple of linen; that the exports from England into Ireland, on an average of ten years, were two millions fifty-seven thousand pounds; that the imports from Ireland into England were but thirteen hundred and fifty-three thousand pounds; so that the balance in favour of England, on an average of ten years, was seven hundred and four thousand pounds sterling per annum, which, multiplied by the ten years, plainly shewed that England gained by the trade of Ireland alone seven millions and forty thousand pounds in that time.

He moved that the house should, on the 19th, resolve itself into a committee, to take into consideration the acts of parlia ment relating to the allowing the importation of sugars from the West-Indies into Ireland.

Governor Pownall said, he was not against the motion for relieving Ireland; he did not object to it on that ground; but said, the motion would raise alarms here, and do no good to Ireland; therefore he wished to see the motion extended to something that would give a real and substantial relief to Ireland, and that too upon the ground and principle of system.

may

Sir George Yonge, Sir Philip Jennings Clerke, Mr. Cruger, &c. were against the proposition, on the ground, that though Ireland have suffered in her trade since the American war, yet this nation had suffered infinitely more; if she had lost five thousand pounds a year, England had lost almost as many mil lions; and, that upon the whole, to give Ireland any further indulgences, than those she at present enjoyed, might very possi bly endanger this kingdom or the sovereignty she held over her.

Mr. T. Townshend, Lord Nugent, Lord Beauchamp, General Conway, Mr. Welbore Ellis, &c. contended for the propriety, the expediency, and the policy of the motion, maintaining that it was a specific simple proposition, and could not be of any one disadvantage to Great Britain; besides, that the prosperity of Ireland was too essential to this country, not to give her every encouragement that could possibly be given.

11 Parl. Debates, p. 108.

The question was then put: for it, 47....against it, 42.

In melancholy confirmation of the representations of Ireland, so frequently and so warmly made by the Earl of Nugent, and others, on the 18th of March, 1779, Lord North communicated to the commons the following message from his majesty.* ("GEORGE R.)

"HIS majesty having received information from "the Earl of Buckinghamshire, his lieutenant-general, and "general governor of his kingdom of Ireland, that the revenues "of that kingdom have of late proved greatly deficient and inadequate to the purposes for which they were granted; and his 66 majesty, moved with concern and compassion for the distresses "of his loyal and faithful subjects of that kingdom; and being anxious, that some immediate and effectual relief should be "afforded to them, thinks it necessary to recommend to the "consideration of this house, whether it may not be proper, in "the present circumstances of Ireland, that the whole charge of "the regiments on the Irish establishment, now serving out "of that kingdom, should be paid by Great Britain. G. R."

Lord North moved, that his majesty's message be referred to the consideration of the committee of supply, which was agreed to: then, upon the order of the day for going into a committee on the importation of sugars into Ireland.

Sir George Yonge objected to the speaker's leaving the chair, because the bill would produce consequences no less fatal to this country, than the total loss of the colony trade. There were annually, he said, imported into Great Britain, 150,000 hogsheads of sugar, valued at 3,759,000!. annually. The whole imports from the West-Indies, were 4,500,000l. annually; and that the trade employed 500 ships, of 100,000 tons burthen, and 10,000 seamen. The duties arising from the trade were upwards of 400,000l. a year; and that this great sum, he said, we were dashing away by the present bill: he objected to it, and therefore would vote against the speaker's leaving the chair.

Mr. Sawbridge was against all the monopolies of trade, and commercial interdictions; he declared there was trade enough for every nation on earth, if all impolitic restrictions were. repealed; and asserted, that no nation, nor corporate body, nor individual, had a right to deprive another of the benefit of manufactures, trade, and commerce.

Mr. Burke declared, that if the mover of the bill meant to modify it any degree, he would give his vote against going into a committee, for he would not enter into any composition; it was for the interest of Great Britain to throw open even the woollen trade to Ireland; and if it were not done now voluntarily, the French would soon oblige us to do it.

General Conway and Sir Cecil Wray wished for a full enquiry into the distresses of Ireland, and a mature deliberation on the means of applying general relief.

On the 26th of May Lord Beauchamp moved, that an humble 11 Parl. Debates, p. 177. вь

VOL. II.

address be presented to his majesty, praying that he would be graciously pleased to order accounts to be laid before parliament of the state of the trade and commerce of Ireland.

His lordship prefaced his motion with a very sensible speech on the wretched state of Ireland, and the necessity of hoiding out a promise to the Irish, that the commercial laws, of which they complained, should be revised by parliament, and such redress granted to them as Great Britain was able to bestow.

Lord North declared he would promote every possible enquiry, and obtain all the information in his power; but as to producing a plan for settling matters in a commercial line to the satisfaction of both countries, it was too bold an undertaking for him, since it was hard to say what would satisfy Ireland, and that England could grant, consistent with her own interest. He thought the complaints of Ireland rather ill timed, as more had been done for that kingdom within these three or four years than for thirty years before.

Mr. Conolly was of a different opinion; he attributed the present distresses of Ireland to the wretched system of government carried on by the present ministry, by whose means the debts of that kingdom had been increased from about 600,000. to near a million and a half.

Mr. James Luttrell did not disapprove of the motion, as it had first been made in the other house by his noble friend the Marquis of Rockingham ;* but in that house he could not but consider it as a kind of ministerial compromise, a lame apology for doing nothing for the relief of Ireland that session. He asked why the parliament of Ireland had not been called together in time, to deliberate, and send over their state of the nation to the British parliament earlier in the session? Why had not the noble lord moved that address months ago? It was then too late, and the loss of Ireland might probably follow that of America.

Sir George Yonge desired not to be thought inconsistent in voting for the address, as the most likely method of getting at the true state of the matter; but he thought the state of the Irish revenue should have been added: that was incumbent on the noble lord at the head of the treasury; but he doubted if the Irish would have much hopes of a ministry, who had reduced landed estates in England from 33 to 25 years purchase, and funded property from 89 to 60. The address was agreed to.

The warm part and interest, which the British senate took in the concerns of Ireland did credit to her liberal sympathy for her sister kingdom, and justified the claims, which Ireland urged. The opinions of the illustrious characters, which then stood most prominently forward in favour of that kingdom will be handed down to the latest posterity as testimonies of the exem

The motion of the Marquis of Rockingham, to which Mr. James Luttrell alluded, was made in the British House of Peers on the 11th of May, 1779, and occasioned the 'most interesting debates upon the affairs of Ireland till then ever known in that house. It exhibits a most melancholy view of the situation of that country, and is given in the Appendix, No. LXV.

plary loyalty of the Irish nation under the severest trials and provocations. On the 2d of June, 1779, Lord Shelburne (now, Marquis of Lansdowne) stated to the British House of Peers the following proposition relative to the state of Ireland:* That an humble address should be presented to his majesty, requesting that his majesty would be graciously pleased to order to be laid before that house, an account of such steps as had been taken in consequence of the address of that house of the 11th of May, and of his majesty's most gracious answer thereto; and humbly to recommend to his majesty, if his royal prerogative, as vested in his majesty by the constitution, be not adequate to the relief of the acknowledged distressed and impoverished state of his majesty's loyal and well-deserving subjects of Ireland, that he would be pleased to continue the parliament of that kingdom, as theh assembled, and give immediate orders for calling forthwith his parliament of Ireland, that their just complaints might be fully considered and remedied without delay, that the wanted union of affection might be preserved between both kingdoms, always desirable, but in the present situation of public affairs, absolutely essential and indispensable to the preservation and welfare of both, and that the united strength of Great Britain and Ireland might in due time, and with due effect, be exercised under the blessing of God against the com

mon enemy.

This proposition the noble earl prefaced with a speech of great political information and unusual energy and brilliancy. He was severe upon the ministers, to whose account he laid the .distressed situation of his country, and on that ground avowedly was the first part of the proposition opposed; Lord Weymouth "disapproving of the proposition, because it contained an "implied censure on government, which they by no means "deserved." Amongst a great variety of political topics, which the noble earl's speech embraced, not immediately relevant to the state of Ireland, we gather from the mouth of that great statesman several most valuable documents illustrative of the history of that critical period. His financial view of that kingdom was, that in the year 1750 the public debt of Ireland was under half a million, that since that she had contracted 1,000,000%. funded, and 600,000. unfunded, besides the 300,000l. borrowed upon public faith, for which no taxes had been yet appropriated; so that the whole debt amounted to full three millions in twenty years; fifteen of which contained a period of a peace establishment, and, of course, a peace expenditure: but contrary to every idea of good government, and national economy, by much the greater part of the debt was contracted during the latter period, till at length the new taxes were unequal to the annual outgoings, and at that time the receipts at the Irish treasury were short to the amount of 300,000 per annum.

The internal critical state of the country at that moment next drew his attention, which he urged, had been grossly overlooked by the king's ministers, and he expressed his astonishment at 13 Parl. Deb. p. 390..

* 13 Parl. Deb. p. 387.