and fenfible that the means of fupporting the English interest would not bear the light, his Grace effected, by a coup de main, a bold measure, which would probably have failed, had it been previously canvaffed and openly debated in the then prevailing temper of the public mind. However grievous were the penal laws impofed upon the Catholics during the reigns of Elizabeth and Ann, it is but juftice to allow, that none of them had deprived them of the elective franchife, that effential and firm armour of a free conftitution. By the 24th section of the most vexatious and oppreffive of all thofe acts, 2 Ann, c. 6. An Act to prevent the further Growth of Popery, it was indeed enacted, "that from and after the 24th day of March, "1703, no freeholder, burgefs, freeman, or inhabitant of that kingdom being a Papist, or profeffing the Popish religion, should at any time thereafter "be capable of giving his or their vote for electing of knights of any fhires "or counties within that kingdom, or citizens or burgeffes to ferve in any "fucceeding parliament, without first repairing to the general quarter feffion "of the peace to be holden for the counties, cities or boroughs wherein fuch "Papifts did inhabit and dwell, and there voluntarily taking the oath of "allegiance, and alfo the oath of abjuration, and obtaining a certificate "thereof from the clerk of the peace." Now as it was well known from the tried loyalty and attachment of the Catholics to the family on the throne, that they were generally ready to take these oaths, the harsh plan was formed to fhut them out of this only participation of the conftitution. The attention, which the nation now began to pay to their civil rights, and the part which the Catholics took in the elections, being the only occafion on which they could exercise any civil right that had weight in the state, awakened the primate's jealousy and alarm, and drove him to the defperate refolution of upholding the English intereft* in Ireland by disfranchizing above four fifths *As much of Primate Boulter's letters as the editor has favoured us with, openly avows this prelate's principles upon the subject. Within three weeks after the death of the king, he writes to the Duke of Newcastle, (1 vol. p. 177) "every thing here is very quiet :" and on the fame day he informs Lord Townsend (p. 176), we have no other bustle amongst us than what arifes "from the warm canvass going on in all parts about the election of members for the ensuing parliament." He had three days before apprized Lord Carteret, then lord lieutenant, (p. 173,) "that the whole kingdom was in the utmost ferment about the coming elections. I can safely "appeal (faid his grace) to your excellency for my having to the best of my power ferved his late majefty, and supported the English interest here: and I fhall always ferve his prefent majefty as faithfully? 1 1 fifths of its population. The great oppofition to the English intereft, which it was the pride and boaft of this prelate to fupport, was dreaded from those 66 : who faithfully but to be able to do it with the good effect I defire, I hope I fhall be as well fup"ported as I have been. Your excellency knows I have nothing to afk: and I believe princes "have feldom over many, that are disposed to serve them as faithfully on fo easy terms. It would put a good spirit into the king's friends here, and particularly the English, if they knew, by your excellency's means, what they had to depend upon. There is another thing I cannot but fuggeft to your excellency, though I am under no fear of the experiment being made, that any thing "which looks like bringing the Tories into power here, must cause the utmost uneafiness in this kingdom, by raising the spirits of the Papifts of this country, and exasperating the Whigs, who your lordship knows are vaftly superior amongst gentlemen of estates here." + "To an enquirer after the truth, hiftory, fince the year 1699, furnishes very imperfect and "often partial views of the affairs of Great Britain and Ireland. The latter has no profeffed hif"torian of its own fince that æra, and it is fo flightingly mentioned in the histories of the former "kingdom, that it feems to be introduced rather to fhew the accuracy of the accountant, than as "an article to be read and examined. (The Commercial Refraints of Ireland confidered, 1780, p. 37, written by the Right Hon. Hely Hutchinfon, late Provost of Trinity College, Dublin.) Pamphlets (continues he) are often written to serve occafional purposes, and with an intention to mifrepresent, and party writers are not worth any regard. We must then endeavour to find "fome other guide, and look into the best materials for history, by confidering the facts as recorded "in the journals of parliament." The dearth of historical documents for the last century has driven the author to make researches into all the fpeeches, that have been published upon the fubject, to which those historical facts have reference. In general such speeches must rank with the party writers that are not worth any regard. It is painful to be under the neceffity of guarding the reader against the mifreprefentions (one hopes not wilful, ftill lefs malevolent,) of men of talent, information, and personal respectability. The Right Honorable John Foster, the speaker of the late Irish Houfe of Commons, in his fpeech in the committee of the Roman Catholic bill, on the 27th of February, 1793, in his zeal for keeping the Catholics fhut out of this conftitutional right to the elective franchize, not only maintains the juftice and equity of not admitting them to this participation of the conftitution, but attempts to prove, that they had been excluded from it by law before the paffing of the 1 George II. and ever fince the Revolution. The right honorable gentleman fays, "the preamble of the 2d of Ann fhews clearly the intent of the legislature was to ex"clude them, and for preventing Papists having it in their power to breed diffentions, by voting at "elections of members of parliament, &c. Even the act of George the Second, which they say "was the first that excluded them, fays in its preamble,—and for the better preventing Papists from " voting, &c—as if it were a known fact, that they were before excluded, &c." (p. 11 and 12.) The first preamble, upon which he grounds his argument was to the particular fection and not to the statute; and it is impoffible to suppose that right honorable gentleman fo ignorant of the general conftruction of ftatutes, as not to know that odiofa funt reftringenda; that the evil and remedy are to be commenfurate: that the oath and abjuration were but a test of fubmiflion to the reigning families, who affuming the title of patriots, now folemnly protested against any foreign afcendancy over the native rights and interefts of their country. It was not natural, that the body of the Irish people fhould be forward in fupporting fuch foreign afcendancy, whether English or Proteftant. The Catholics having long been the unceafing object of calumny and perfecution to both parties, as it ferved their feveral views, were palled with apathy, and had hitherto found neither in Whig or Tory any principle of relief to their degraded and fuffering condition. In point of fact they had fuffered lefs from the family of Brunfwick than that of Stuart. Hence arofe a dawn of hope that their miferies were on the wain, and they came forward to address their new fovereign. This ftep was not carried without a confiderable divifion of the Catholic body;* of which the primate fo dexterously availed himself in the then pending elections, that on the 24th of Auguft, 1727, he affured the lord lieutenant, that the elections would generally go well.† Multifarious families, and that none refused them but Jacobites, from whofe attempts alone to breed diffentions among Protestants the intent of the act was to provide: that if as Papists they were before disabled to vote, it would have been nugatory to call upon them to give this test of their loyalty, which was not incompatible with their religion: that if it had been the intent of the legiflature to exclude them from voting at elections, they would have required a fubfcription to the declaration or the oath of fupremacy: he must well have known that the resolutions of one committee on a controverted election, was not even a precedent for another committee, much lefs the law of the land. * On the 20th of July, 1727, the primate wrote to Lord Carteret: "I hear this day, that the "address yesterday presented by fome Roman Catholics, occafions great heats and divifions among those of that religion here." (1 vol. p. 188.) It long has been, and probably long will be a complaint, that the caufe of the king and conftitution are frequently identified with the corrupt measures of the king's fervants. At this time the real intereft of his majesty, was the welfare and prosperity of Ireland; not the maintenance of an English afcendancy there, which had in view to keep down the native influence of Ireland. “I *" shall leave it to your excellency, what change you will think proper to make in the lift of privy "councellors here. Your excellency knows as well as any body, who of the prefent list are ene"mies to England, and oppose the king's bufinefs on all occafions. I fhall fubmit it to your "excellency, whether it may be proper for the ftrengthening of the English intereft here, to have "the present archbishop of Cafhell inferted in the new lift." The whole tenor of this prelate's correspondence proves the fame; and his editor affures us, that these letters will ever remain the moft authentic hiftory of Ireland, for the space of time in which they were written; viz. between 1724 and 1742, during which his grace was thirteen times one of the lords juftices. It is at length fitting to unmask our prejudices, and pay the just tribute to truth: we can no longer diffemble, that the fyftem of maintaining a foreign afcendancy in Ireland, was a system in no fhape conducive Multifarious and extenfive were the grounds of national difcontent at: this time in Ireland. The nation laboured under grievances that restrained commerce, damped agriculture, and checked every incitement to industry. The public mind ftill rankled at the attempt of government to father Wood's base copper upon them: the odium of that measure long furvived its failure: the wretchednefs of the poor, (that infallible teft of bad government) which the Duke of Grafton had in 1723 recommended to parliament to relieve, had been daily encreasing: in the fame year 1723 a petition was prefented from the woollen-drapers, weavers and clothiers of Dublin on behalf of themselves and the other drapers, weavers and clothiers of that kingdom, praying relief in relation to the great decay of trade in the woollen manufacture,* fince which time no relief had been afforded: frequent fpeeches from the throne and refolutions of the Houfe of Commons had noticed the encreasing poverty of the nation by the accumulation of the national debt: and Lord Carteret in his speech from the throne in 1727 virtually acknowleged the melancholy and difaftrous fituation of the nation by recommending to the confideration of the parliament fuch laws as might be necessary for the encouragement of manufactures, the employment of the poor and the general good of the country.† Already that fcarcity began to be felt to the prosperity and welfare of that kingdom. We cannot doubt of the existence of such a system, when we find this prelate acknowledging his obligations to Lord Carteret for the early care he took of the English in Ireland (1 vol. p. 186), and giving him a folemn pledge of his past and future fidelity in this honourable fervice. "I am fenfible of your goodness in acquainting his present ma"jefty, that the fupporting of me here will be for his intereft, and I defire the continuance of your good offices with the king." (Ibid.) And "while the fame measures are pursued as in the laft reign, we shall be all eafy here: and it must be left to his majesty to judge what persons are most proper to be employed in his service." And "I must request of your grace (i. e. Newcastle), " I have of his lordship (i. e. Carteret), that you would both use your interest to have none but Englishmen put into the great places here for the future." (1 vol. p. 23.) as * Their petition contains these words, "The woolen manufacture of this kingdom, which is con"fined to our confumption, has of late been fo confiderably leffened, that several thousand families "have been forced to beg alms and charity of good Chriftians, and a collection lately made through" out the whole city to relieve them from ftarving." 3 Journ. Commons, p. 34y. 13 Journ. Commons, p. 464. "Since On the 7th of March 1727, Primate Boulter wrote to his Grace of Newcastle (p. 226). "I came here in the year 1725, there was almost a famine among the poor: laft year the dearness * of corn was such, that thousands of families quitted their habitations to seek bread elsewhere, and many felt, which in the years 1728 and 1729 nearly amounted to a famine.* Indicative of the national embarraffments of Ireland at this period were the indecifive refolutions of the commons, and the inftitution of a commiffion under the great feal for receiving voluntary fubfcriptions in order to establish a national bank for throwing into circulation a quantity of paper, without money, trade or manufactures to fupport it: and in the fame feffion of parliament, the further refolutions of the fame commoners and their addrefs to the throne, that fuch an establishment would be greatly prejudicial to his majesty's fervice and of moft dangerous and pernicious confequence to the welfare and profperity of the nation. Under the like impreffion of remedilefs calamity did the commons refolve, though they never acted up to their refolution, that public granaries would greatly contribute to the encreasing of tillage and providing against fuch wants, as had frequently befallen the people of that kingdom, unless proper precautions should be taken against fo great a calamity. In Lord Carteret's administration lafted from 1725 to 1731, and fome have extolled his leniency to the indigent Catholics during this period, in difcountenancing the rigorous execution of the penal laws against them. that excess of national calamity, he may have had the policy not publicly to aggravate their evils by religious perfecution. A real friend to Ireland could not have coalefced with Primate Boulter in that fyftematic fupport of the English intereft; for that was a system of dividing Ireland within itself.‡ Fearful of an effectual oppofition to a measure of fuch unjust severity, though of the highest political import, not a fyllable in the speech from the many hundreds perished. This year the poor had confumed their potatoes, which is their Winter "subsistence, near two months fooner than ordinary, and are already through the dearness of corn "in that want, that in fome places they begin to quit their habitations." * In the space of fix months, ending on the 29th of September, 1729, it appears from the report of the House of Commons, that the import of corn amounted to 274,000l. an enormous fum when referred to the fiscal powers of the kingdom at that time. † 3 Com. Journ. p. 289. This is verified by the primate's words in his letter to the Duke of Newcastle on the 19th of January 1724: "I find by my own and others' enquiries, that the people of every religion, country, and party here are alike set against Wood's halfpence, and that their agreement in this has had a very unhappy influence on the state of this nation by bringing ón intimacies being Papifts and Jacobites " and the Whigs, who before had no correfpondence with them: fo that 'tis queftioned whether (if "there were occafion) juftices of the peace could be found, who would be ftrict in difarming Papists." throne LL 2 |