cellor, who had diftinguished himself in the Tory party by his intimacy with the famous Dr. Sacheverell, whofe trial had afforded a notable triumph to the Whigs in England. The queen's anfwer to another addrefs of the commons, dated from Windfor on the 13th of December, 1713, fhewed how little congenial with the difpofitions of the court thefe efforts of the commons were. She told them, that the best way of preferving their religious and civil rights, and fecuring the Proteftant fucceffion, as well as the best proof they could give of their real concern for them, was to proceed with unanimity and temper in fupplying the neceffary occafions of the government, and in establishing peace at home, by difcountenancing the restless endeavours of thofe factious fpirits who attempted to fow jealoufies, and raise groundlefs fears in the minds of her people. Thefe facts, which appear upon the face of the parliamentary records of Ireland, inconteftibly prove, that none of the complaints or charges of dif affection, fedition, turbulence, difloyalty, or civil and political licentioufness of any species during this queen's reign fell upon the great body of the Irish people, but arofe from the conduct of that Proteftant part of the nation, which retained the leaven of the interregnum, and which was too powerful and too determined to be awed or openly oppofed by the British cabinet. Hence the disgraceful fubterfuge, which Bishop Burnet affures us, the ministry : pitality he received the congratulations and thanks of the clergy as the patron of their order, and the champion of the rights of the church. Under the aufpices of fuch a judge, every legal check upon the licentiousness of the party which he patronifed was fufpended. The most malignant attacks upon the Diffenters daily iffued from the prefs, and even thofe publications, which had been condemned in England for their feditious tendency, were reprinted and difperfed without any reprehenfion from the Irish minifters. Mr. Higgins, a clergyman, who had been put out of the commiffion of the peace by the late Chancellor Coxe, on account of his indecent and turbulent behaviour, was now reftored to his feat by Sir Conftantine Phipps. On the very day of resuming his authority, he gave fuch offence to his colleagues by his infolent and unguarded expreffions, that he was presented by the grand jury of the county of Dublin, as a fower of fedition and groundless jealoufies among her majetty's Proteftant fubjects; but he was acquitted by the lord lieutenant and privy council, to the great joy of the high church party. (Annals Anu, p. 192–3.) Mr. Higgins had been a co-adjutor of Dr. Sacheverell in England; and rivalled him in the vehemence with which he declaimed upon the danger of the church, and the treachery of the minifters. (Cunningham, vol. ii. p. 275.) He was the author of feveral fevere tracts against the Diffenters, and was fuppofed to have drawn up a narrative concerning the confpiracy of the Proteftants in Weftmeath, which contained reflections injurious to all the Whig gentlemen in Ireland. 2 Journ. Comm. p. 771. * was was driven to, in order to caufe the mifcarriage of the Popery bill, by sharpening its severity against the promoters of it, fearing to offend that party by oppofing the cruelties, which they were impofing on the Catholics, although confcious that the measure was neither wife, politic, nor juft. In fo much diffidence and contempt did the British parliament hold that of Ireland during this queen's reign, that in every matter, which was confidered to be of importance to the British empire, they exprefsly legislated for Ireland, as if Ireland had no parliament of her own. Thus did the British legislature direct the fale of the eftates of Irish rebels, and difqualify Catholics from purchasing them; thus did it avoid leafes made to Papists; thus augment fmall vicarages, and confirm grants made to the archbishop of Dublin: it permitted Ireland to export linen to the plantations; prohibited the importation of that commodity from Scotland; and appointed the town of New Rofs, in the county of Wexford, as the port for exporting wool from Ireland to England. In the Schifm Act, which Sir William Wyndham brought into the Houfe of Commons in England, in the year 1714, the interference of the British legislature with Ireland was the most remarkable. This bill, which was aimed by the Tory party at the total fuppreffion of the Diffenters, was warmly oppofed by the Whigs in both houses. Into that bill the following claufe was introduced: that "where "law is the fame, the remedy and means for enforcing the execution of the "law fhould be the fame; be it therefore enacted, by the authority aforefaid, that all and every the remedies, provifions, and claufes, in and by "this act given, made, and enacted, fhall extend, and be deemed, conftrued, "and adjudged to extend to Ireland, in as full and effectual manner as if "Ireland had been exprefsly named and mentioned in all and every the "clauses of this act." Confidering the intolerant quality of the Act, it was the policy of the Tory adminiftration to introduce it with as few objectionable claufes as poffible, expecting naturally a warm oppofition to it. It was chiefly opposed on the third reading, in which oppofition Sir Jofeph Jekill was prominently forward; he infifted, that it tended to raise as great a perfecution against their Proteftant brethren, as the primitive Chriftians ever fuffered from the Heathen emperors, particularly Julian the apoftate.* It paffed the commons by a majority of 237 voices against 126, without the * Chand. Deb. 5 vol, p. 135. claufe 1 . claufe affecting Ireland: this was propofed by the Earl of Anglefea, when the bill was in the committee of the lords, which, after fome debate, was carried in the affirmative by the majority of one voice only. *Several fevere fpeeches were made in the Houfe of Lords against the claufe extending the bill to Ireland; particularly by the Duke of Shrewsbury, who had returned on the very day of the debate from Ireland. The claufe was, however, carried by 57 votes against 51; and on the next day the bill was carried by a majority of 5 votes, viz. of 77 against 72. A very strong protest was entered by thirty-four of the leading Whig party, the last part of which relates to Ireland: "The miferies (faid they) we apprehend here, are greatly enhanced by extending this bill to Ireland, where the consequences of it may be fatal: for fince the number of Papists in that kingdom far exceeds the Proteftants of all denominations together, and "that the Diffenters are to be treated as enemies, or at least as perfons dangerous to that church and state, who have always in all times joined "and still would join with the members of that church against their common enemy of their religion; and fince the army there is very much reduced, "the Proteftants thus unneceffarily divided feem to us to be exposed to "the danger of another maffacre, and the Proteftant religion in danger of being extirpated." It must be prefumed, that the minifters of that day 66 66 Deb. Lords, 2 vol. p. 428. †The minifter commanded a much larger majority in the commons than in the lords. It was for this reason that the queen was advised to call twelve lords up to the House of Peers, who were in derifion called by the oppofite party the college of the twelve apoftles. "It was upon these "motives (faid Swift, Hift. p. 44,) that the treafurer advised her majesty to create twelve new lords, and thereby difable the fting of faction for the rest of her life time: this promotion was "so ordered, that a third part were of those on whom, or their pofterity, the peerage would natu"rally devolve; and the rest were fuch whose merit, birth, and fortune could admit of no excep"tion." In the reafons pro and con given by Swift, we clearly see the opposite spirits of the politicians of that day: the Whigs complained of the ill example set to wicked princes, who might as well create one hundred as twelve peers, which would enfure the command of the House of Lords, and thus endanger our liberties. The Tories infifted, that in our conftitution the prince holding the balance of power between the nobility and people, ought to be able to remove from one scale into the other, fo as to bring both to an equilibrium: and that the Whigs had been for above twenty years corrupting the nobility with republican principles, which nothing but the royal prerogative could hinder from overfpreading us. Deb. Lords, 3 vol. p. 430. The whole proteft containing ftrong reasons against intolerancy is given in the Appendix, No. LIII. were were as anxious, that this bill against the Diffenters fhould be extended to Ireland, as they were certain, that a fimilar bill would not have paffed the Irish parliament. Such were the forced means reforted to by the miniftry of that day, to effectuate their intentions upon Ireland refpecting the Dif fenters. What the opinion and disposition of the court then were as to the Irish Diffenters, is manifeft from the language of Mr. Bromley, principal fecretary of ftate, on the third reading of the Schifm Bill: he faid, "the "Diffenters were equally dangerous both to church and ftate; and if the "members who spoke in their behalf would have this bill drop, he would "readily confent to it, provided another bill were brought in to incapacitate "them either to fit in that houfe, or to vote in elections of members of parliament."* The collifion of the oppofite parties in parliament was at that time extremely violent. The Whigs charged the Tories and the whole court party with an intent to break through the order of the Proteftant fucceffion, in favor of the Pretender; to these views they attributed every measure as to the grand object of all their wishes, and all their intrigues. On the other hand the Tories complained of the factious oppofition of the Whigs; and the most fenfible of their advocates† has declared, that "the "defigns of that afpiring party at that time were not otherwife to be com"paffed, than by undertaking any thing that would humble and mortify "the church." Some time previous to the paffing of the Schifm Bill, the minifter had acquired in the commons a very large acceffion of ftrength from a fet of members, who, under the stile of the October Club, had formed themselves into a body with a view to revive a new country party in parliament, which might, as in former times, oppofe the court in any proceedings they should diflike. The whole body confifted of about 200, and they unexceptionably profeffed what are commonly called high church principles, upon which account they were irreconcileable enemies to the late miniftry, and all its adherents; and the grand object of their meetings, was to devise * Chand. Deb. 5 vol. p. 135. + Swift's Hiftory of the Four laft Years of the Queen, p. 250. This was faid on the occafion of the lords having paffed the bill for continuing The Act to enable Quakers to make Affirmation in lieu of Oaths (furely a reasonable one, and the law now is fo), which the commons would not permit to be read even a firft time. About this time, Swift fhewed a zeal against the Whigs, by publishing The Public Spirit of the Whigs, and his Preface to the Introduction of Dr. Burnet to the Hiftory of the Reformation, methods 1 methods to fpur on thofe in power to make quicker difpatch in removing all the Whig leaven from the employments they ftill poffeffed. In Ireland, the number of those, who took an active interest in the political events of the day, was incomparably finaller, than in England, but their violence was proportionably greater. All the efforts of the British cabinet were unable to reduce the afcendancy of the old Proteftant interest in the commons: it became a trial of ftrength between the two houses. The influence of the crown preponderated in the lords of Ireland, as it did in the commons of England. The commons prefented an address to her majefty, humbly befeeching her to remove the chancellor, Sir Conftantine Phipps,* from his place, for the peace and fafety of her Proteftant fubjects: the lords on the other hand, made a warm reprefentation to the queen in favour of the chancellor: they entered minutely into the charges preferred against him, and affured her majefty, that they were ftrengthened in their opinion of his having acquitted himself with honour and integrity, from the further enquiries they had fince made, and they concluded with * More of the true fpirit of the times is often to be collected from pamphlets and fugitive pieces of the day, than from the best histories written at a period distant from the events which they record. A book called State Anatomy, was published in Dublin foon after the acceffion, which thus speaks of Sir Conftantine Phipps (p. 51): "No fooner did he appear in that kingdom, but his levee was "crouded with Papifts and difpenfation converts, whofe cloven foot was feen by the venom they "used to spit against Whigs and Diffenters: but every one who made his court to Phipps, would "previously fhew his zeal by treating the Whigs as ignominioufly, as formerly under Talbot: nor "would Sir Conftantine employ a man of them, no not in ordinary work: accordingly he brought "those new converts into all business, places, and preferments, receiving the moft fecret infor"mations from priests and friars, who were likely to do wondrous fervice to the English interest. By the affiftance of that trufty bull beef prieft Higgins, he laboured to divide the Proteftants: introducing the diftin&tion of high and low church unknown there before: and it must be owned, that they made fome progrefs in this villainous defign, which with the Earl of Rochester's "introducing the Sacramental Teft confiderably weakened our prefent king's intereft. He ftifled " and difcouraged all informations against the infolent practice of Papifts, whom he was ever "backward to difarm, though ftraitly required to do it after the queen's death. He granted Noli profequis for writers on behalf of the pretender, and favoured all he could, thofe, who treasonably "lifted foldiers for him. The Archbishop of Armagh (Lindfay who was primate from 1713 to "1724) promoted for this very purpose to that fee, was his chief abettor. This prelate not very "nice in other matters, and much better acquainted with the mothers than the fathers, would not "be concerned in blood forfooth, refufing to fign the order for the execution of the listed and "enlifters for the pretender. This behaviour of Churchmen gave rife to another toast: To the "profperity of the Church in spite of the Clergy." |