presented a most grateful address to Mr. Pitt, expressive of their admiration of his principles and conduct, and their sincere condolence that his country was deprived of his services.* The

voted. The great ruling principle of the cabal, and that which animated and harmonized all their proceedings, how various soever they may have been, was to signify to the world, that the court would proceed upon its own proper forces only; and that the pretence of bringing any other into its service was an affront to it, and not a support. Therefore, when the chiefs were removed, inorder to go to the root, the whole party was put under a proscription so general and severe, as to take their hard-earned bread from the lowest officers, in a manner which had never been known before, even in general revolutions. But it was thought necessary effectually to destroy all dependencies but one, and to shew an example of the firmness and rigour with which the new system was to be supported.

"I rest a little the longer on this court topic, because it was much insisted upon at the time of the great change, and has been since frequently revived by many of the agents of that party: for, whilst they are terrifying the great and opulent with the horrors of mob-government, they are by other managers attempting (though hitherto with little success) to alarm the people with a phantom of tyranny in the nobles. All this is done upon their favourite principle of disunion, of sowing jealousies amongst the different orders of the state, and of disjoining the natural strength of the kingdom, that it may be rendered incapable of resisting the sinister designs of wicked men, who have engrossed the royal

power.

"It must be remembered, that since the revolution, until the period we are speaking of, the influence of the crown had been always employed in support. ing the ministers of state, and in carrying on the public business according to their opinions. But the party now in question is formed upon a very different idea. It is to intercept the favour, protection, and confidence of the crown in the passage to its ministers; it is to come between them and their importance in parliament; it is to separate them from all their natural and acquired dependancies; it is intended as the control, not the support of administration. The machinery of this system is perplexed in its movements, and false in its principle. It is formed on a supposition that the king is something external to his government, and that he may be honoured and aggrandized, even by its debility and disgrace. The plan proceeds expressly on the idea of enfeebling the regular executory power. It proceeds in the idea of weakening the state in order to strengthen the court. The scheme depending entirely on distrust, on disconnection, on mutability by principle, on systematic weakness in every particular member; it is impossible, that the total result should be substantial strength of any kind.”

Then having given a most pointed sketch of this new court corporation, he says: "The name, by which they chuse to distinguish themselves, is that of king's men, or the king's friends, by invidious exclusion of the rest of his majesty's most loyal and affectionate subjects. The whole system, comprehending the exterior and interior administrations, is commonly called, in the teclinical language of the court, double cabinet. This system has not risen solely from the ambition of Lord Bute, but from the circumstances which favoured it, and from an indifference to the constitution, which had been for sometime growing among our gentry. We should have been tried with it, if the Earl of Bute had never existed; and it will want neither a contriving head nor active members, when the Earl of Bute exists no longer." Thus spoke this great man in the unchecked vigour of his mind, ere he had yet discovered the difference between an Old and a New Whig.

It has often been said, that the late Earl of Chatham was a Tory at heart, notwithstanding his boasted avowals of Whiggism. That in his youth he was a Tory appears more than probable: but it would be too harsh a censure to pass

merchants, traders, and citizens of Dublin at this time being the most opulent and considerable body of men in the kingdom, appear to have taken the lead of all their countrymen in watching and forwarding, according to their rights and abilities, the civil interests of the nation; in which they were encouraged and directed by the famous Dr. Lucas, who (after having triumphed over all his enemies and persecutors) now represented them in parliament.

:

On the very first day of the session of the last parliament (viz. 22 Oct. 1761) the commons ordered, that leave be given to bring in heads of a bill to limit the duration of parliaments: and Dr. Lucas, Mr. Perry, and Mr. Gorges Lowther were ordered to bring in the same. This favourite and constitutional measure had been most strongly recommended by Dr. Lucas, in imitation of the English septennial bill: he accordingly presented according to order, on the 28th of October, heads of a bill for limiting the duration of parliaments, which were received, read, and committed several amendments were proposed and adopted in the committee. On the 9th of December, 1761, Mr. Lowther, according to order, reported from the committee of the whole house, to whom the heads of the bill had been committed, that they had gone through the same, which he read in his place, and afterwards delivered in at the table; and they were accordingly read and agreed to. But when a motion was made, and the question put, that the speaker with the house should attend his excellency the lord lieutenant with the heads of the bill, and desire the same might be transmitted into Great Britain in due form, and that his excellency would be pleased to recommend the same in the most effectual manner to his majesty ; the house divided, 43 for the motion, and 108 against it. This majority of 65 upon a question so reasonable, so necessary, and so constitutional, shews the rapid decline of the patriotic interest in Ireland after the late changes: the reduction of which was very artfully effected by the two first of the lord justices, Primate Stone, the Earl of Shannon, and Mr. John Ponsonby, the speaker. The house however ordered, that Mr. G. Lowther should attend his excellency the lord lieutenant with the said heads of a bill, and desire the same might be transmitted into Great Britain in due form. Thus was Mr. Lucas's first patriotic bill lost, to the no small disappointment and mortification of the people out of doors. It is highly material to observe, that in proportion as patriots fell off in parliament, they sprang up out of it. This ministerial triumph was followed by no popular dison so great a statesman, to conclude that his conversion to Whiggism was the effect of interest, and not of conviction. Vid. the address, App. No. LXIX.

t 7 Com. Journ. p. 14.

turbance, but great discontent: it produced a more alarming effect upon the castle: riot and insurrection they could easily have subdued, and the quelling thereof would have justified the very measures, that had excited them. But the people's cool, considerate, and firm conduct in investigating and peaceably following up their rights and interests, was truly to be dreaded by those, who were attempting to invade and thwart them. After much canvassing the conduct of their popular representatives in parliament on this important occasion, in March 1762 the merchants, traders, and citizens of Dublin having assembled, came to the following resolutions, viz.

"Resolved, That we shall ever retain the most grateful re"membrance of the several lords and commons, who, in their "respective stations, have so eminently distinguished them"selves in support of the Septennial Bill.

"Resolved, That although we rest secure against common "enemies, under the protection daily given us by Great Britain, "our protection against domestic invaders depends wholly on "the limitation of parliaments.

"Resolved, That the clandestine arts which are usually prac"tised (and have been sometimes detected) in obstructing of "bills tending to promote the Protestant interest, ought to make "Protestants the more active in supporting the Septennial Bill; "the rather, as no doubt can remain, that a septennial limitation "of parliaments, would render the generality of landlords assi"duous in procuring Protestant tenants, and that the visible "advantage accruing, would induce others to conform.

"Resolved, That these, our resolutions, be presented to the "representatives of this city in parliament, intreating they will "immediately take into their most serious consideration, the "state of the Septennial Bill, now five months in its progress; "the session of parliament near its end; all aids within the LL ability of this nation given with unanimity and cheerfulness to "the crown; and nothing yet known, with certainty, touching "this act of redress."

These resolutions, and other popular expressions of the general discontent at the failure of the Septennial Bill raised an awful alarm in government: and they most unwisely rivetted the convictions of the people, that the British ministry was against the measure, by a counter-declaration wrapped up in the following resolutions of the House of Commons.*

66 Resolved, That the suggestions confidently propagated, that "the heads of a bill for limiting the duration of parliaments, "and ascertaining the qualifications of members to serve in par"liament, if they had returned from England, would have been

* On the 26th of April 1762. Com. Journ. vol. 7, p. 168.

"rejected by this house, though in nowise materially altered, "are without foundation." Loudly as the public called for such a law, several years past, and imperious circumstances arose, ere Ireland obtained it. The failure in this attempt did not abate the patriotic efforts of Dr. Lucas. He presented heads of a bill for securing the freedom of parliament, by ascertaining the qualifications for knights, citizens, and burgesses of parliament, and also of another bill for better securing the freedom of parliament, by vacating the seat of such members of the House of Commons, as should accept of any lucrative office or employment from the Crown, or any person on the establish. ment of Great Britain or Ireland: neither of which succeeded: such was the ascendancy of the court party over the patriots: It was now no longer called the English interest, for Primáté Stone was too good a politician to keep up that offensive term, after he had so successfully brought over some of the leading patriots to his side, who in supporting all the measures of the British cabinet, affected to do it, still as Irish Patriots.

The Earl of Halifax had been recalled to England to succeed Mr. G. Grenville as secretary of state:* and the Earl of Northumberland came over as lord lieutenant to Ireland to meet the parliament, in October, 1763. His speech to the parliament, on this occasion, was expressive of his majesty's just and gracious regard for a dutiful and loyal people: he congratulated them on the happy effects of so glorious a peace, and the birth of the Prince of Wales, and also of another prince. The remainder of his speech, referred to the disturbances in the province of Ulster, of which mention has been before made. "Not only," said his excellency, "my duty, but my earnest good wishes for "the prosperity of Ireland, oblige me to take this opportunity "of mentioning to you, the only unpleasing circumstance, which "has occurred since my entrance upon this government; the tu"multuous risings of the lower sort of people, in contempt of "all laws and magistracy, and of every constitutional subordi"nation, must, if not early attended to, be productive of the "most fatal consequences; they are a disgrace to a country of liberty; they are ruinous to a country of commerce; and "must be particularly fatal here, where the least check to the rising spirit of industry is so very sensibly felt, and so very "difficult to be relieved; no means can serve more effectually "to prevent these disorders for the future, than the encourage"ment of such institutions, as tend to impress on the minds "of the lower order of the people early habits of industry, and "true principles of religion."

แ

This happened on the 14th of October, 1762, which situation he held till July 12, 1765, when he was succeeded by the Duke of Grafton.

It has been before observed, that the chief of the Munster insurgents, called White Boys, were Catholic labourers: and that the chief of the Ulster insurgents called Steel Boys, Oak Boys, Peep of Day Boys, were chiefly manufacturing Protes ⚫tants in the north: but as religion was no ingredient to these tumultuous insurrections, it was certainly something more than hasty or inconsiderate prejudice in the House of Commons, when in 1762† they appointed a committee to enquire into the causes and progress of the subsisting Popish insurrection in the province of Munster:‡ and when in 1764 they appointed a similar committee to enquire into the causes of the late tumultuous risings in the province of Uslter; so far indeed was the house from calling them Protestant insurrections, which in fact they were, as much as those in Munster were Popish, that when a motion was made and the question proposed, that it should be an instruction to the committee to enquire into the causes of those risings, and into the means used to suppress them, and also to enquire into the causes of the insurrections in the south, and to report the whole matter, as it should appear to them specially, it was negatived in a division upon the previous question of eighty against twenty-six: thus was the door shut against enquiry, probably from apprehension, that the truth should be recorded, and an effectual stop put to the system of converting popular discontents into the engines of state intrigues, to the palpable detriment of the nation: for to know the source of a disorder, is the first step to its cure. When the majority of the house rejected this most necessary motion for enquiry and report, they received from their committee several resolutions, which Mr. Bagwell reported to the house, and these they palmed upon the nation, as an efficient check upon the various tumultuous rioters. They were truisms in form of resolutions, that riots existed, that unless checked they would be attended with fatal consequences, that the laws if properly executed were sufficient to restrain the rioters, that it was the duty of magistrates to enforce the law, that to tender oaths, (not being lawfully authorized) with threats and violence in case of refusal, was a high offence punishable by law, and that it would tend to suppress and prevent the like disorders, if the abhorrence in which government and parliament held these treasonable offences, were made known to the deluded people. Such unmeaning generalities could produce no effect. They gave no information: they furnished no redress: they supplied no means they afforded no security: they effected no restraint.

* On the impartial authority of Arthur Young.

Journ. Com. vol. 7, p. 161.

Ibid. p. 293. Ibid.