Ireland? Were his majesty, said Mr. Conolly, thoroughly and honestly informed of the situation of our poor countrymen, he would willingly stand their friend. They were sufficiently taxed by their situation in life; they procured bread for the communi- . ty, and fought the battles of their country. If they could not pay the tax out of their honest earnings, as an account of their expences in living would prove, he hoped the tax upon them would be abolished.* So warmly did Mr. Conolly press this matter upon the opposite side of the house, that he said, conscious that he was right, he pledged himself to persevere to the last hour of his life, as long as he should have a seat in that house, when he could no longer speak standing, he would throw out his feeble voice from his seat to emancipate his poor fellow-creatures and countrymen from a tax so oppressive to them, and so disgraceful to the government that continued to enforce it. Such, however, was the influence against the motion, that it was negatived without a division. On the 20th of March, the speaker, on presenting the money bills, made the following speech to the lord-lieutenant: Mr. Conolly then submitted to the house the following statement of a poor man's necessary subsistence through the year. Labourers means of subsistence. Labourers at 7d. and 8d. per day, the average 1. 8. d. 16 93-4 L. 10 6 21-4 He said, one kish of turf per week will scarcely allow of the necessary saving towards supplying a fire to boil the potatoes, and bake the griddle bread, during the twelve weeks in summer left out of this calculation. Neither beer or meat are allowed the poor man in the above account, because he cannot purchase them, "MAY IT PLEASE YOUR EXCELLENCY, "THE Commons of Ireland, in the year 1785, "made a great and spirited effort, by a large increase of taxes, "to form a steady system for the annual supply of the public 66 expence. "Such a system, desirable in all countries, and at all times, is "particularly necessary to a commercial state, where the prospect of new loans must induce fluctuations in the price of money injurious to the steady course of trade. "It was happily adopted here; and this is the third succes“sive session in which the national debt has not been increased by any new loan, nor has any new tax been imposed. "Thus the system has answered; it seems settled, and the "people confide in it. Under its influence, public credit has "risen high; and private credit, unawed by any fear of inter"ference from the nation's borrowing, extends itself with safety "to encourage industry, promote enterprize, and enlarge the "commercial capital: manufactures have in consequence been "extended, our exports increased, and the kingdom feels a "prosperity unknown in any former time. "Such are the happy effects of liberal supplies wisely admi"nistered; and the commons, sensible of those effects, do now, "with the most dutiful zeal for his majesty's service, and with "the fullest confidence in your excellency's experienced wisdom "and affectionate attachment to this kingdom, grant the same supplies in the bills I have the honour to present to your "excellency, in their name, for the royal assent." On the 14th of April, Mr. Grattan, with that undaunted perseverance so peculiar to himself, returned once more to the subject of tithes, and submitted to the house a string of resolutions, which he meant to move regularly in the course of the ensuing session. In doing this, his wish was to have the great principles of redress thoroughly considered; and particularly that these propositions should be submitted to, and maturely weighed by the church, as the foundation of future bills to stand the sentiments of the commons, and to be (if these sentiments should be resisted by a right reverend bench) their acquittal and justification to the public. He followed up each resolution with a most impressive comment.* Nothing else of an interesting 8 Parl. Debates, p. 445, &c. The resolutions were so far opposed by the secretary of state, as to keep them out of the journals, though he, and the other gentlemen on the Treasury bench, who spoke on the occasion, did not pretend to controvert the principles. The resolutions were as follows: "I. Resolved, That it would greatly encourage the improvement of barren "lands in Ireland, if said lands, for a certain time after being reclaimed, were "exempt from the payment of tithes. "II. Resolved, That a domestic supply of flax is an object, to which all his "majesty's subjects of Ireland should contribute. nature came before parliament during that session: it was prorogued on the 14th of April, 1788, to the astonishment of the nation. The natural quickness of their sensations was accelerated by disappointment, when they found, that all that was done relative to tithes was, to provide for the clergy what some of them had lost by retention of the tithes in the two preceding years, and to secure to them for ever a tithe of hemp of 5s. per acre. The failure in every popular attempt of the patriots, went but a little way to sooth the ruffled minds of the distressed peasantry in the provinces, or of the middling and higher orders in the metropolis and large towns. Notwithstanding the increase of peace officers under the police bill, it was sarcastically observed, that his excellency had the peace and tranquillity of the country deeply at heart, for that, upon the slightest appearance of interruption, he was sure to call in the aid of the military. It is incident to human nature, to see the various events of the day through the medium of that disposition, with which the spectator is at the time affected; and as the public mind had not as yet debarrassed itself of all the prejudices, prepossessions, and resentment, which the successive influence, triumph, and degradation of the volunteers, had produced; and as the police, and other late measures of government, were directly calculated to extinguish that spirit in the people, out of which the volunteer army, and all the consequent benefits had arisen to the nation, it was impossible, that the army should not have been considered useless for internal regulation, or viewed with an eye of jealousy or disgust by those, who, in their absence, had preserved the peace, and worked the happiness and welfare of their country. Great jealousy, soreness, and irritation, manifested themselves throughout the kingdom, on the report of "III. That this house greatly contributed to said object by various bounties, "but that the linen manufacture had only flourished in those parts of the king"dom, where a total exemption from, or a small composition for the tithe of "flax has existed. "IV. Resolved, That in order to extend the linen manufacture, said exemp"tion or composition should be made general. "V. Resolved, That potatoes are the principal subsistence of the poor in "Ireland, and are, in a great part of the kingdom, most fortunately exempt "from tithe. "VI. Resolved, That it would much contribute to relieve the poor of the "south of this kingdom, if the benefit of 'said exemption were extended to them; and that if it should be made to appear that the owners of tithe "should suffer thereby, that house would make them just compensation. "VII. Resolved, That that house would be ready to relieve the owners of "tithes from the necessity of drawing the same; and to give said owners a power of recovering the value of the same, in all cases, by civil bill, or other"wise, provided said owners of tithe should conform to certain rateages to be ascertained by act of parliament. "VIII. Resolved, That the better to secure the residence of the clergy, a "moderate tax on non-residents would be expedient." a plan for multiplying barracks, and surrounding the island with a military cordon for the preventing of smuggling: buildings, in the nature of guard-houses, were to be erected on the coast, at the distance of ten miles from each other, with a guard of twelve men and a serjeant to each. The present system of government could not be successfully carried on without extraordinary countenance to the army on one side, and stronger checks, than what were perhaps prudent, upon the constitutional rights of the people, on the other. The feelings of the people without were in strict unison with the sentiments of the patriots within the walls of parliament; and the lord lieutenant finding himself pressed by the weight of talent, influence, and popula rity of those, who had ranged themselves in opposition to his measures, got rid of them by an early prorogation, that he might busy himself without interruption, in his favourite subaltern system of economical reform. Animated with a laudable indignation against the rapacious and bare-faced practices of the clerks, and other subaltern officers in the different fiscal departments of government, he seized all* their keys, examined himself their papers and accounts, and subjected them to the most rigorous scrutiny, and demanded instant payment of outstanding balances. An universal panic seized the whole; many defaulters fled the country, others cut their throats, and some few, relying on the sympathies and countenance of their immediate superiors in office, stood the brunt of the enquiry, and either eluded by dexterity, or softened by false promises the anger of their indignant governor. Some few were ultimately dismissed with disgrace. In these secondary departments nothing was so minute, which the scrutinizing eye of his excellency would not descend to inspect. The profligacy of official profusion was truly incredible: peculation reigned in every department where public money was handled, or public property disposable: the public accounts were wound up yearly with formidable items for balances in the hands of collectors, treasurers, and pay-masters, or arrears due by former great officers who had received their employments without security, or had been discarded for misconduct, or were dead, or had fled, or become bankrupt. Such was the inveteracy of this disease, that each succeeding viceroy, on close inspection, was afraid to touch it; until the Marquis of Buckingham, with more courage or more temerity than his predecessors, ventured to upset the hornets' hive, and develop the wicked workings of these official peculators. In the ordnance and treasury, the grossest frauds pervaded almost every department. The public When Mr. Corry was made surveyor of the ordnance, his first act was to lock up and seal the desks of the several clerks, who were dismissed instantly. stores were plundered with impunity in the open day. The arms, ammunition, and military accoutrements, condemned as useless, were stolen out at one gate, and brought in at the other, as purchased, and charged anew to the public account. Journeymen armourers, who worked in the arsenal, seldom went home to their meals without conveying away a musket, sword, or brace of pistols, as lawful perquisites, and sanctioned by the connivance of their superiors. Clerks in subordinate departments, with salaries of 100%. per annum, or less, kept handsome houses in town and country, with splendid establishments; some of them became purchasers of loans and lotteries: all exhibited signs of redundant opulence. In the course of the year 1788, the county of Armagh was disturbed by the increased animosity and outrages of the Peep of Day Boys, and Defenders. These two sets had been advancing in numbers, system, and ferocity, ever since the year 1785: they arose, like many other considerable and tumultuary sets or denominations of men, from mere accident. An altercation took place between two peasants, who happened to be Presbyte rians amongst the spectators of the affray, was a Roman Catholic, who took a part with one of the combatants: at which the other swore perpetual vengeance: this spirit of difference was kept up, and the neighbours began to take a part with the original combatants, according to their intimacies of friendship: the spirit of discord spread from families to villages: they embodied and called themselves fleets, and went out to meet and fight each other: hitherto they knew no other difference or distinction, than that of their villages or townships; which, from their names, they called the Nappack fleet and the Bawn fleet: a third set, living about Bunker's-hill between Newry and Armagh, associated to defend themselves against the Nappack fleet, and calling themselves defenders joined the Bawn fleet. Many on both sides were armed: and as far back as 1785, near a thousand men on both sides met for a regular engagement, which was fortunately prevented by some gentlemen of property, who had been apprized of their intentions. When once associations of this sort have formed themselves into bodies, it is impossible that the spirit of discord, or revenge, or even frolic, should not carry them beyond their original intentions and lead them into new mischief, arising out of the fortuitous circumstances of their unguarded warmth. In this part of the country, the religious division of the population was different from most other districts in Ireland: the Protestants were the more numerous, and of these the greater part were Presbyte rians. As the discord and animosity increased, some acciden tal differences about religion blew up a religious dissension |