He then adverted to the reversionary patent granted to Mr. Grenville. Of that gentleman's merits in his own country he would say nothing; there could be no reason for granting him a great employment in Ireland, where it was most certain he never would reside; and therefore in condeinning the grant, no one had a right to argue, that it was condemned as a grant to the lord-lieutenant's brother, but as a grant to a person that must necessarily be an absentee; it must be condemned as a slight, and an affront to the native resident nobility and gentry of Ireland. He asked the house, were they ready to submit to such an insult? Were they ready to submit to have the principle, which they had purchased violated? Were they ready to return to that state of degradation and contempt, from which the spirit of the nation had so lately emancipated itself? If they were not, they would not hesitate to come to a resolution, asserting the principles, which they had purchased. He would submit such a resolution, worded in the most guarded manner, not attacking the prerogative of the crown to grant, but condemning the advice, by which the crown was misled to abuse that prerogative. He then moved the following resolution: "Resolved, That recommendations for the purpose of grant"ing the great offices of this kingdom, or the reversion of great "offices to absentees, are improvident and prejudicial, especially "now as great annual charges have been incurred by making "compensation to absentees for resigning their offices, that "those offices might be granted to residents." After a very violent personal altercation between Mr. Parsons and Mr. Grattan,* the latter gentleman resumed his argu * Scarcely had Mr. Grattan concluded his speech, than Mr. Parsons rose to speak; when he was interrupted by Mr. Grattan, who said, that if the honourable gentleman rose to second his motion, he would withdraw it. Upon which Mr. Parsons instantly launched out into a most infuriated Philippic against Mr. Grattan, and his whole political conduct. To this Mr. Grattan made the following reply: 9 Parl. Debates, p. 257.. "Sir, the speech of the honourable member has been so disorderly and extraordinary, that the house will permit me to make an immediate reply. He "talks of simple repeal, he does not understand that question; he does not know whether that measure was right or wrong. He speaks of renuncia“tion; of that he is equally ignorant. The merits or demerits of either ques ❝tion, or of both questions, surpass his capacity. He has arraigned my con"duct, but his observations are as feeble as they are virulent. The member "is a melancholy proof, that a man may be scurrilous, who has not capacity to He speaks of the public grant of 50,0007.; and he says, I got "that for bungling, what the patentee was so fortunate to complete. He says so, but why he should say so, or on what grounds he talks, he is totally unable "to explain; he repeats a sentence which he has heard, but the force or mean"ing, or foundation for the sentence, the member cannot set forth; the jingle of a period touches his ear; and he repeats it, and he knows not why. The calumny urged against me by the member, is not his own. (Dublin Even. Packet. Mr. Higgins has said it better than the honourable gentleman; the be severe. ment and said, that giving away the great offices of this kingdom to absentees, was taking away the property of this country, and "Freeman's Journal has stated it better, and with much more ingenuity than "the honourable gentleman: but Mr. Higgins is a liar; the Freeman's Jour"nal is a liar; it is not unparliamentary to say, that the authority from which "the gentleman draws his argument, is a liar, a public pitiful liar! He said, he did not mean that the honourable gentleman was a liar, but that the paper "from which he had borrowed his authority, was a liar, a positive liar!" Here Mr. Parsons rose and stepped towards Mr. Grattan, made use of some words, which, for the honour of parliament, are not repeated. Mr. Grattan sat down. The house immediately called out, "custody! custody!" and the speaker ordered the galleries to be cleared: it was near two hours before order was completely restored. The character of this Mr. Higgins, who died last year possessed of a for tune of about 40,000/. is highly illustrative of the system, which generated, fostered and pampered this species of reptile more frequently known in Ireland, than elsewhere: ex unô disce plures. was. This man was known by the appellation of the Sham Esquire: he was a singular instance of what may be done in life by strict attention to private ends, without regard to the means, which so often retard the advancement of men of principle. Born of obscure parents, he rose through the successive stations of errand-boy, shoe-black, and waiter in a porter's house, to an attorney's clerk, in which situation his talents were not confined to the desk. His master's pleasures found an attentive minister in him, and he found additional profits in his master's pleasures He soon began to look for money and connections, and fixed his mind on the daughter of a very respectable and opulent citizen in Dublin, who was a Catholic: he procured an introduction to the family through a priest, whom he deceived, in declaring himself the only son of a gentleman of 30001. a year; the nephew of a counsellor, and a member of the Irish parliament, whose presumptive heir, as having no children, he also He feigned a wish to conform to the Catholic religion, in which he had been christened, though educated a Protestant, thinking thereby to ingratiate himself with the family, and was received into the Catholic church. The imposture was soon detected, and Mr. Higgins confined to gaol, where he improved the only real knowledge he ever possessed, which was the lowest art of crown law. He afterwards became an attorney. He then attended gaming tabels and brothels. He drew great advantages by lending money to the unfortunate adventurers, and managing to defend or keep off prosecutions from the infamous supporters of those receptacles of iniquity. In his speculations towards advancement, he considered the command of a newspaper as an essential weapon both offensive and defensive. To attain this very necessary article, he insinuated himself into the acquaintance and confidence of the proprietor of a print, then in some degree of estimation, the Freeman's Journal. This gentleman was in very embarrassed circumstances. Mr. Higgins lent him 50%. and watching his opportunity when he thought his distress at the height, suddenly arrested him for the money: to procure his liberty, he was glad to transfer to his creditors the property of the paper for one fourth of its value. This paper had hitherto been prominently conspicuous on the patriotic side of the question, and was therefore the more saleable a commodity in the hands of this new proprietor. He made his terms with the castle; and from that time forward his paper was the most subservient to, and therefore the most favoured by the minister. This man had the address, by coarse flattery and assumed arrogance, to worm himself into the intimacy of several persons of rank, fortune, and consequence in the country, who demeaned themselves by their obsequiousness to his art, or sold themselves to him for his unqualified enterprise in maligning their enemies, or bearing them out of difficulties or disgrace. This man, ready for every job for which he should be paid, under some natural suspicions that the return of the Marquis of Buckingham to carrying it abroad. He asked, what claim had Mr. Orde for the pension of seventeen hundred pounds a year he had got on this establishment? What claim could any secretary have for either pension or employment? If the principle be admitted, that the giving away offices to absentees is injurious to the kingdom, then his motion could not be resisted. The attorney general said, he should be extremely glad to see the whole patronage of the crown in Ireland bestowed upon the members of both houses of parliament, and he had no doubt if things went on a little longer in the train, in which for some time they had been, that object would be obtained. A very warm debate ensued, in which Mr. Corry and some other gentlemen admitted the principle of the resolution, although they opposed its passing, because it was a censure on the Marquis of Buckingham. To get rid of the question, an adjournment was moved and carried by a majority of 115 against 106. Thus early had the old majority began to fall back into their former ranks. Still the superiority of votes bore no proportion to 200 and upwards, of which the former full majorities consisted. Mr. Grattan accordingly on the following day (4th of March) moved for leave to bring in a bill for the better securing the freedom of election for members to serve in parliament, by disabling certain officers employed in the collection or management of his majesty's revenue from giving their votes at such election. Mr. Beresford gave immediate notice, that he should oppose the bill through every stage, though he would not oppose the motion: and on the second reading of the bill the attorney general spoke thus: "Sir, I say, that at this time "such an act would be peculiarly ungracious: and there is "another reason why I will not enter into a measure which pro assume the vice-regency of Ireland would not be attended by any particular demonstrations of joy, had hired a mob to wait his arrival, and had supplied a proper number of them with silken cords and harness to draw him in his carriage to the Castle, under the fastidious deceit of mercenary popularity and triumph. The opinion of Lord Chief Baron Yelverton upon this notorious character, seals the stamp of it to posterity. In Easter term, upon counsel having reminded his lordship in court, that the printer of the Freeman's Journal awaited the judgment of the court for a libellous paragraph on that court: the chief baron spoke thus to the counsel. "If you had not mentioned the affair, the court would not have condescend. "ed to recollect its insignificance, but would have passed it by as it has done every other paragraph, whether of praise or censure, that has appeared "in that paper with the most supreme contempt. Let the fellow return to his "master's employment; let his master exalt favourite characters; and if "there be any mean enough to take pleasure in his adulation, let him con"tinue to spit his venom against every thing that is praise-worthy, honourable, "or dignified in human nature. Let him not presume to meddle with the "courts of justice, lest, forgetting his baseness and insignificance, they should at some time condescend to inflict a merited gunishment upon him." 9 Gif. Parl. Deb. p. 278. perly modified might be useful at another time; there is, I "am well assured, at this moment, existing, an association under "hand and seal, to oppose the king's government, and to sup66 port the old Irish aristocracy; I would wish therefore to wait "for a cooler moment, when gentlemen shall grow ashamed of "such a measure." A warm debate ensued, which turned much upon the personal character of the lord lieutenant, and the indelicacy of attempting to cramp the royal prerogative in the particular mo ment of his majesty's recovery. At the close of it Mr. George Ponsonby said, that a charge had been brought against an odious and offensive aristocracy. He would only say, that any assertion, stating faction to be at the bottom of the present business, was not founded in truth. For his own part, he released the right honourable secretary from every tie of honourable secrecy, and called upon him to say, if he had ever made a refusal of favour a ground of opposition to government. He called upon the treasury bench one by one, to declare in the same manner. [Here he paused for an answer; none having been given] he said, that after that he hoped he should hear no more random charges of faction and party. On this division there were for the attorney general's motion to postpone the bill to the 1st of May only 98, against it 130. In the progress of the pension bill, it was singular, that the attorney general should oppose it, upon popular and patriotic grounds: the bill, said the attorney general, went to establish by law, first a pension list at the discretion of the minister, amounting to 80,000l. secondly, to leave a discretion with the two houses to address for whatever they might think proper as a further charge; and thirdly, to legalize the appropriation of the surplus of the hereditary duties to the purposes of pensions, which would put into the hands of the crown the immense sum of 260,000% per ann. beyond the control of the commons, and must ultimately destroy the liberties of the country, by throwing into the hands of the minister a power to bias every election. Mr. secretary Fitzherbert, in answer to the attorney general, said there was not a free country on the globe, in which a strong government was more requisite than in Ireland. By the tendency of the right honourable gentleman's arguments it appeared, he had property in that country; he however expressed some surprise at the different ground of argument he then adopted, on the subject of the bill, from what he had used the night before. Then he considered the measure as flying in the face of government; as robbing the crown of its prerogatives; as setting the liberality and curbing the necessary influence of the sovereign: he now held it forward, as placing an extraordinary power and influence in the crown; taking it in this light, he thought the bill was the greatest compliment that parliament could pay to the sovereign. For his part, he could not see that dangerous tendency, which the right honourable gentleman had annexed to the measure of the bill, for in reality, it only gave his majesty a control over a part of that revenue, which was subject to both houses of parliament; and therefore if his majesty abused that power of control, it was in the power of parliament to counteract that abuse, by refusing to provide; this argument cut up by the roots the doctrine of the learned gentleman. He said, the measure did not go to meddle with the king's prerogative, but merely to set bounds to the system of expenditure, and prevent the ruin of the country. He then took a view of the increase of the pension list, from the administration of Lord Essex, in the reign of Charles the Second, when it was only 35007. a year, to the present, when it was rated at 103,000l. and hoped, if such moderation prevailed in such a reign as that of Charles the Second, a measure of limi tation when it was 100,000l. more, would not be rejected in the reign of George the Third. King Charles the Second, at his restoration, availed himself of the unsettled state of that country, by making a bargain with his subjects disgraceful to the monarch, and injurious to the liberties of the people. In exchange for tranquillity and settlement, he stipulated for an hereditary revenue. From this polluted source the disuse of parliaments, and the increase of pensions originally flowed; the latter at first in a small current. In 1669, the amount of those grants was but 3214%. and 10,000/ yearly having been proposed by the king as the limitation of grants, his representative, Lord Essex, objected to the largeness of the amount, and expressed his apprehensions, that their enor mity might be a reason for not granting a supply to his majes ty. He approved of a proposal, that they should be kept in a separate list, to the end, that if there should be any deficiency in the public revenue, it should fall on pensions in the first place; and in 1678, the Duke of Ormond received instructions from the king to that purpose. It appeared then, that the limitation, and the amount of pensions was an idea entertained on the part of the crown, and that the sum of 10,000l. yearly was, in the last century, thought an excessive charge. During this century, those grants had been the perpetual occasion of contests. In 1703, the committee of supply resolved, and the house agreed, that no less than nineteen of them were unnecessary branches of the establishment; and in 1707, several of them were voted to be struck off, and that no pension should be continued, except to a person resident in the kingdom. In the year 1717, the lord lieu |