imposed on Irish commerce, but the outcry raised by English manufacturers was too loud to allow North to concede to Ireland as much as he would willingly have done.

28. The Irish Volunteers. 1778 — 1781. — Irish Protestants were, for every reason, warm supporters of the connection with England, but they were hostile to the existing system, because it impoverished them by stopping their trade. They asked for liberty to export what they pleased and to import what they pleased. To gain this they needed legislative independence, their own Parliament being not only prohibited, by Poynings' law (see p. 350), from passing any act which had not been first approved by the English Privy Council, but being bound by a further act of George I. which declared Ireland to be subject to laws made in the British Parliament. The war with France gave to the Irish Protestants the opportunity which they sought. England, bent upon the reconquest of America, had no troops to spare for the defence of Ireland, and the Irish Protestants came forward as volunteers in defence of their own country. At the end of 1781 they had 80,000 men in arms, and with this force behind their backs they now asked for legislative independence.

29. Irish Legislative Independence. 1782.-In 1782, with recent experience gained in America, Rockingham's Government shrank from opposing a movement so formidably supported. At Fox's motion the British Parliament passed an act, by which the act of George I. binding Ireland to obey laws made in Great Britain was repealed, and Poynings' law was so modified as to put an end to the control of the British Privy Council over the making of laws in Ireland. However, the independent Parliament at Dublin-Grattan's Parliament, as it is sometimes called— had two sources of weakness. In the first place the House of Commons was chosen by Protestants alone; in the second place it had no control over the executive government, which was exercised not, as in England, by ministers responsible to Parliament, but by the Lord Lieutenant, who was appointed by, and was responsible to, the Government in England. Nor were there any constitutional means by which either the two Parliaments in conjunction, or any third body with powers either derived from them or superior to them, could decide upon questions in which both peoples were interested.

30. The Shelburne Ministry and the Peace of Paris. 17821783.—On July 1, 1782, Rockingham died, and the king at once appointed Shelburne Prime Minister, who, as he thought, would

be more likely than any of the other ministers to help him to keep down the Whig aristocracy. Fox, who detested Shelburne, and had for some time been engaged in a bitter dispute with him on the subject of the negotiations for peace, resigned together with others of Rockingham's followers. When Shelburne became Prime Minister the negotiations were far advanced. France and Spain were, however, anxious, before they signed a peace, to regain Gibraltar, which their fleets and armies had been besieging for more than three years. On September 13 a tremendous attack was made on the fortress with floating batteries which were thought to be indestructible, The British, on the other side, fired red-hot shot at the batteries till they were all burnt. After this failure, France and Spain were ready to come to terms with Great Britain. The preliminaries of peace with the United States of America were signed at Paris, on November 30, 1782, and with France and Spain on January 20, 1783. The preliminaries were converted into definitive treaties on September 3, 1783. The Dutch held out longer, but were obliged to yield to a peace a few months later.

31. Terms of the Treaty of Paris. 1783.-The treaties with France and Spain restored to France the right of fortifying Dunkirk, which had been taken from her by the Treaty of Utrecht (see p. 696), and to Spain the possession of Minorca, whilst certain exchanges were effected in the West Indies, Africa, and India. In America, Florida went back to Spain. By the treaty with the United States their independence was acknowledged, and their western border was fixed on the Mississippi, beyond which was Louisiana, ceded by France to Spain at the end of the Sevcn Years' War. (See p. 766.)

I. The Younger Pitt. William Pitt, had entered Parliament in 1780, at the age of twentyone. He had supported Burke's Economical Reform and denounced the American War. "Pitt," said some one to Fox, "will be one of the first men in the House of Commons." "He is so already," replied Fox. "He is not a chip of the old block," said Burke, "he is the old block itself." Burke's saying was not strictly accurate. The qualities of the younger Pitt were different from those of his father. He had none of the fire of the impetuous Chatham, but he had what Chatham did not possess, unerring tact in the management of men and high sagacity in discriminating between things possible to be done and things which were not possible. When the second

1782-1783.-Chatham's second son,

Rockingham Ministry was formed, he was offered a post which did not carry with it a seat in the Cabinet, but which brought a salary of 5,000l. a year. Pitt, who was a young barrister making a bare 300l. a year, refused the offer, and astonished the House by asserting that he never would accept a subordinate situation.' He soon asked for a committee to inquire into the need for Parliamentary reform, adopting the views of his father on this subject, in opposition to those of the Rockingham Whigs. When Shelburne became Prime Minister, he made Pitt Chancellor of the Exchequer, with the leadership of the House of Commons.

2. Resignation of Shelburne. 1783.—Shelburne's Ministry did not last long. Shelburne never continued for any length of time

on good terms with other men. He was unreasonably suspicious, and his profuse employment of complimentary expressions gave rise to doubts of his sincerity. In the beginning of 1783 most of his colleagues had ceased to attend his Cabinet meetings. It was obvious that Shelburne, with all his ability, was not a ruler of men, and it is almost certain that if Fox had had a little patience, Shelburne must have resigned, and the way have been opened for a strong and reforming Ministry, in which Fox and Pitt would have played the leading part. Unfortunately, Fox had neither patience nor tact. He formed a coalition with North, and as the two together had a large majority in the House of Commons at their disposal, Shelburne resigned on February 24. 3. The Coalition Ministry. 1783.-The king was furious, but for the time, helpless. He regarded North as an ungrateful deserter, and he had more than one reason for disliking Fox. Not only was Fox the most Parliamentary connection,

brilliant supporter of the system of which George III. had set himself to break down, but he was personally intimate with the Prince of Wales, afterwards King George IV. The Prince was now living a dissipated life, and the king attributed the mischief to the evil influence of Fox, though the low character of the Prince himself, and the repulsiveness of the very moral, but exceedingly dull, domestic life of the royal family, had, no doubt, some part in the unfortunate result. The people at large were scandalised at a coalition formed appa