ftood to be left at perfect liberty, and moft of the fervants of the crown voted against the question. Confidering the powerful intereft, that was made against the tax by the moft confiderable land owners on this and the other fide of the water, the fmall majority, by which it was rejected, is rather to be wondered at, there being 102 for and 122 against the measure.* One * The following letters to and from Lord North will fully and fairly difplay the grounds of the failure of this defirable measure for Ireland. "MY LORD, It is publicly reported, that a project has been communicated to the king's mini"sters, for propofing in the parliament of Ireland, a tax of regulation, which is particularly and "exclufively to affect the property of thofe of his majesty's fubjects, who poffefs lands in that king"dom, but whofe ordinary refidence is in this. It is in the fame manner publicly understood, "that this extraordinary defign has been encouraged by an affurance from adminiftration, that if "the heads of a bill propofing fuch a tax, should be tranfinitted from Ireland, they would be re"turned with the fanction of his majefty's privy council here, under the great feal of England. My lord, we find ourselves under the description of thofe, who are to be the object of this un"precedented impofition. We poffefs confiderable landed property in both kingdoms; our ordinary refidence is in England. We have not hitherto confidered fuch refidence as an act of "delinquency to be punished; or, as a political evil, to be corrected by the penal operation of e partial tax. We have had, many of us, our birth, and our earliest habits in this kingdom; fome "of us have an indifpenfable public duty, and all of us (where fuch duty does not require fuch "reftriction) have the right of free fubjects, of choofing our habitation in whatever part of his "majefty's dominions we fhall efteem moft convenient. We cannot hear, without aftonishment, "of a scheme, by which we are to be ftigmatized, by what is in effect, a fine for our abode in this "country, the principal member of our British empire, and the refidence of our common fovereign. "We have ever fhewn the utmost readiness in contributing with the reft of our fellow-fubjects, in "any legal and equal method, to the exigencies of the public fervice, and to the fupport of his majefty's government. We have ever borne a cordial, though not an exclufive regard, to the true "intereft of Ireland, and to all its rights and liberties: to none of which we think our refidence in "Great Britain to be in the least prejudicial, but rather the means, in very many cafes, of affording "them a timely and effectual support. We cannot avoid confidering this fcheme as in the highest "degree injurious to the welfare of that kingdom as well as of this; its manifest tendency is to "leffen the value of all landed property there, to put restrictions upon it unknown in any part of "the British dominions; and as far as we can find, without parallel in any civilized country. It "leads directly to a feparation of these kingdoms in interest and affection, contrary to the standing policy of our ancestors, which has been, at every period, particularly at the glorious revolution, infeparably to connect them by every tie both of affection and intereft. We apply to your lord"ship in particular. This is intended as a mode of public fupply; and as we conceive the trea"fury of Ireland, as well as that of England, is in a great measure within your lordship's depart 16 "ment, One of the next fchemes of finance was to raise the fum of 265,000l. by tontine annuities with benefit of furvivorship at fix pounds per cent. and the fecond reading of the bill for this purpose produced a divifion of a majority of 103 against 49.* The plan of the tontine was this. The fum of 650,000l. was divided into fhares of 100l. each, and for every fhare one life was allowed to be nominated; the lives were divided into three claffes. No dividend of the interest arifing from the fhares of thofe, who died in each clafs was to be "ment, we flatter ourselves we shall not be refused authentic information concerning a matter in "which we are so nearly concerned; that if the scheme, which we state to your lordship doth exist, we may be enabled to pursue every legal method of opposition to a project in every light unjust "and impolitic. We have the honor to be, 65 "Your grace, and the Lords Rockingham, Besborough, Milton and Upper "Offory, having in your letter of the 16th defired authentic information concerning a project of "propofing to the parliament of Ireland, a tax upon the landed property of such persons, whose ordinary refidence is out of that kingdom, I will endeavour to state in a few words, what has paffed upon the fubject. In the course of the summer, the lord lieutenant of Ireland sent over "several propofitions for reftoring the credit, providing for the debts, and putting upon a proper "footing the finances of that kingdom; at the fame time he informed his majesty's fervants here, "that he had reason to believe, that among other modes of supply, there would probably be a tax "of the nature mentioned in your grace's letter. The answer, which was returned to his excellency, "by those of his majesty's servants, to whom this communication was made, was to the following "effect: that if the Irish parliament should send over to England fuch a plan, as should appear to "be well calculated to give effectual relief to Ireland, in its prefent diftrefs, their opinion would be, "that it ought to be carried into execution, although the tax upon absentees should be a part of it. "I beg leave to trouble your grace to communicate this information to the other lords, and have the "honor to be, with great respect, &c. &c. &c. North." On account of this anfwer, circular letters were written by Lord Rockingham, to the several gentlemen who might be affected by this measure, propofing a general meeting for the purpose of adopting the most eligible and effectual means of defeating it. But as it was rejected by the parliament, any further oppofition became unneceffary. A melancholy inftance of the prevalence of felf-intereft over that of the country in fome of the most plausible patriots. * Journ. Com. vol. 9. p. 109. made; made; until it yielded a clear one half per cent. among the furvivors; and the increased intereft never was to be more, than the principal originally advanced by each fubfcriber. The remainder of the interest as it occurred, to be applied to the credit of the nation. This scheme was holden forth by the fecretary of the day, as a master-piece in finance, as being little less than an actual gain of fo much, without adding in the least to the debt, as the principal was never to be refunded. The revenue being this year confiderably fhort of the expences of government, ftamp duties were granted upon all parchment, vellum or paper, on which any legal proceeding or private instrument, of almost any nature, fhould be written or engroffed, according to the nature of the article ftamped; the duties were at firft granted for one year and nine months from the 25th of March, 1774; at the expiration of which period they were continued, and have been to this day, from time to time, raised very confiderably. The ftamp duties have been found by experience one of the most efficient refources of the financier. It was confidently promifed, that thefe duties would fo far increafe the revenue, as to be equal to the expences, when they had undergone the economical reduction thus intended, fo that the pernicious practice of running in debt would be no longer purfued. The public accounts of the next feffion, however, clearly difplayed the fallacy of those promises. As to the national debt, it amounted at LadyDay, 1773, to 994,890l. 10s. 10d. and the total of penfions to 172,464/. 14s. 3d. for the two years then ending. A bill for the improvement of the agriculture of that kingdom having paffed, and being duly returned, the commons voted an addrefs of thanks thereupon to his majefty, confidering it as a fignal inftance of his paternal regard for his people of Ireland. To the further credit of Lord Harcourt's adminiftration muft be laid the meritorious account of opening the door of that civil liberty, through which the great body of Irith Catholics were afterwards admitted to the rights of fubjects. True it is, that the British miniftry began about this time to be alarmed at the too well grounded difcontents of the king's American fubjects: the conftitutional maxim, no reprefentation, no taxation, was fully confidered and carried into action on the other fide of the Atlantic; the fatal and ill-advised resistance ended in the avulfion of that bright weftern gem from the imperial diadem. It was impoffible, that a man of Lord North's penetration fhould not foresee the inverfion of many conftitutional maxims, when brought practically to bear upon the bulk of the Irish nation: he wifely therefore, though filently, inftructed the lord lieutenant to endeavour by all means to footh and engage the affections of the Catholics by gradual relaxations of the rigorous code of penalties, pains, and difabilities, under which they had fo long and fo patiently fuffered. As early therefore in the feffion as the 10th of November, 1773, *leave was given to bring in the heads of a bill to fecure the repayment of money, that should be really lent and advanced by Papifts or perfons profeffing the Popish religion to Proteftants on mortgages of lands, tenements, and hereditaments; and that it might be understood to be a government meafure of grace, Mr. Mafon, Sir Lucius O'Bryen, and Mr. Langrithe, great and determined fupporters of government, were ordered to bring it in. On the preceding day leave had been given to bring in heads of a bill to enable Papifts upon the terms and subject to the provifoes therein mentioned to take leafes of lives, of lands, tenements, and hereditaments. But neither one or the other of thefe bills at that time proceeded. The Irish antipathies to Popery, and the reluctance of most men in place or power in Ireland to do juftice to the Catholics deterred the eafy mind of Lord Harcourt from puthing forward, what they perfuaded him would create difficulties and difturbances in parliament, and interrupt that cafy and quiet majority which government then enjoyed, and which he had it ftrongly in command to keep up by all poffible and prudent means. though the managers of the English intereft in Ireland (this lord lieutenant was but their paffive tool) had blafted thefe two feyons of indulgence in their firft fhoot, yet the British miniftry fent over pofitive and uncontroulable orders, that fome act of the legiflature fhould pofitively be paffed in that feffion of a foothing and conciliatory tendency to the Catholics: well imagining, that the breadth of the Atlantic would not prevent the infection Al Thus Mr. Burke expreffed himself upon this fubject in a letter to a peer of Ireland in 1785, (p. 28): "From what I have obferved, it is pride, arrogance, a spirit of domination, and not a bigotted spirit of religion, that has caused and kept up those oppreflive ftatutes. I am fure I have "known thofe, who have oppretted Papifts in their civil rights, exceedingly indulgent to them in their religious ceremonies; and who wished them to continue in order to furnish pretences for oppreffion; and who never faw a man by conforming escape out of their power, but with grudg"ing and regret. I have known men, to whom I am not uncharitable in faying, though they are dead, that they would become Papifts in order to opprefs Proteftants; if being Proteftants it was "not in their power to opprefs Papifts. It is injuftice, and not a mistaken confcience, that has "been the principle of perfecution, at least as far as it has fallen under my obfervation." of of political discontent in perfons equally fuffering a deprivation of that nutriment and support, which their conftitution required for the preservation of their existence. On the 5th, therefore, of March, 1774, leave was given to bring in a bill to enable his majesty's fubjects of whatever persuasion to teftify their allegiance to him;* and as the bill remitted no part of the then exifting code of feverity, but purported merely a permiffion to the Catholics of expreffing their allegiance to their fovereign, which before they had not, it paffed both houfes without obftruction or oppofition. It gratified the Catholics, inafinuch, as it was a formal recognition, that they were subjects; and to this recognition they looked up as to the corner ftone of their future emancipation. To this act and the well known and long tried allegiance of the Catholics, the lord lieutenant in his speech to the parliament at the clofe of the feffion thus alluded: "This reciprocal intercourfe of duty and protec"tion, which has for fo many years happily prevailed, and from which fo many falutary confequences have been derived during his majesty's aufpici"ous reign, holds out to every part of his majefty's empire, an example reflecting the highest honor upon the virtues of a most amiable and ex"cellent fovereign, and the wifdom and good conduct of affectionate and loyal fubjects. In the high station, in which his majefty has placed me, I "claim no merit, but a faithful execution of his majefty's gracious purpofes "for the happinefs of his people of Ireland, and the moft juft, and therefore "the moft favourable reprefentations of their loyal, dutiful, and affectionate "conduct, which cannot fail to entitle them to the continuance of his "royal favor and protection." 66 66 At the commencement of the next feffion in October, 1775, the lord lieutenant observed, that, since the last meeting of parliament, his majesty's tender concern for the welfare of that kingdom had induced him to pafs feveral laws in the British parliament highly beneficial to the commerce, manufactures, and agriculture of Ireland. By the act, which extends the great advantage "of British fisheries to Ireland, a fource of induftry and wealth (faid he) is opened to you, which has made other nations great and flourishing. That 66 * 9 Com. Journ. p. 114. Mr. Robert French, and Sir Lucius O'Bryen, two minifterial members, were ordered to bring it in. † 9 Journ. Com. p. 160. Appendix, No. LXIII, 9 Journ. Com. p. 160. |