The motion for this resolution was lost, by putting the previous question, without a division.* The British cabinet was little satisfied with the administration of Lord Harcourt: the easy and delicate turn of his mind ill qualified him to support, much less to improve upon the system of his predecessor: but by which alone, to the infamy and misfortune of Ireland, the legislators of that kingdom were to be kept steady in their ranks to the fiat of the castle. Although government upon the whole still retained a considerable majority, yet several of their adherents had occasionally, during the last session, proved recreant from their instructions; some had deserted their ranks, many amongst them wavered, menaced, and complained of the terms of their engagements. It was therefore resolved to invigorate the new system by the election of a new parliament. For this purpose an unusual, and till that time unprecedented, number of promotions in the peerage took place in one day.† Many other engines were in the mean time put in motion for the same purpose. Shortly before this general promotion took place, Mr. Sawbridge, then lord mayor of London, moved in the British House of Commons, that his majesty's colonies in America be continued upon the same footing of giving and granting their money, as his majesty's subjects in Ireland were, by their own representatives: on which occasion, the Honourable Temple Luttrell◊ observed, that such esteem had he for the right honourable magistrate's disposition and talents, that if he were to form a constitution for the colonies to satisfy his own mind, he would have their interests and happiness better provided for, than by giving them a constitution on the model of that of Ireland. A people so wretched, so oppressed were scarcely to be found in any civilized part of the globe. Too many and too crying were the proofs of the national * The violence of party spirit will often render it difficult for the historian to extract the impartial spirit of a debate: to avoid therefore any imputation of partiality or bias, the candid reader is referred to the whole debate on this subject in the Appendix, No. LXIV. It far exceeded the famous promotion of twelve in the days of Queen Anne. Five viscounts were advanced to Earldoms, seven barons to be viscounts, and eighteen new barons were created in the same day. The usual terms of such modern peerages are well understood to be an engagement to support the cause of their promoters by their individual votes in the House of Peers, and by those of their substitutes in the House of Commons, whose seats are usually settled and arranged before they vacate them upon their promotions. Viz. on the 10th of May, 1776. §3 Parliamentary Debates, p. 392. Then with allusion to the intended creation of Baron Macdonald he observed: "Nor could a more substantial injury, or a more humiliating insult be "offered by a paramount nation to one of its dependences, than what Ireland "would experience at the hands of a British ministry within forty-eight hours, "if his information proved authentic. An English minister had abused the confidence of his royal master so far, as to prevail with him, in his character calamity and distress of the Irish, to place this saying of Mr. Temple Luttrell to the account of declamation or the heat of party. The English ministers became daily more embarrassed and perplexed by the encreasing difficulties of carrying on the American war, which hourly became more unpopular at home, and less successful abroad. The analogy of the cases of America and Ireland necessarily drew their attention to this latter country, and forced them to smooth the way for a new viceroy, implicitly devoted to their whole system. Lord Buckinghamshire went over the sworn servant of the British cabinet; and lest there should be a knot in the thread of subserviency, he took over his attorney, Mr. Heron, for his secretary. The critical, alarming, and embarrassed situation of Ireland at that juncture certainly called for a larger share of political knowledge, experience, and address, than either that lord lieutenant or his secretary carried over. And we must not dissemble, that a modest consciousness of his own inadequacy to fill the arduous situation appeared in his speech to the new parliament in October, 1777.* "His majesty," said he, " has been graciously pleased to honour me with a most distinguished mark of his "confidence in appointing me to the government of Ireland; "of king of Ireland, to create hereditary legislators for that island from the "clans of the mountains of Scotland. Men, who in their private characters, "he believed to be not only irreproachable but amiable and praise-worthy, "of authority and high descent amidst their own thaneships, yet whose public "pretensions in the year 1715 and 1745 (for he never heard of any other) now "construed loyalty, were still in the eye of our constitution, acts of infamy and "rebellion. He should be told, perhaps, that this power was a part of the " rightful prerogative of the crown; an idea, to which he could never subscribe, "while he remembered the wise and sterling definition of prerogative given "us by Mr. Locke, who says, " 'tis a discretionary power of acting for the "public good, where the positive laws are silent; if that discretionary power "be abused to the public detriment, such prerogative is exerted in an uncon"stitutional manner." Was this acting for the public good? To bestow those "privileges and pre-eminences, which are attached to a peerage of a kingdom, on persons whose names and families are utterly unknown to the natives of "such kingdom, and without any ties of property, of local services or affec"tion? Barons whose blood has been tainted by an open violation of the laws " of their own country, are, in preference to the best gentlemen of Ireland, "sent over to possess the most honourable seats in the senate, to enact public "statutes, and judge upon personal inheritances in the dernier resort." Mr. Rigby, who had advised the right honourable magistrate to define the constitution of Ireland, before he proposed it to be adopted by the colonists: remarked, that with respect to the Scotch peers, the mountaineer lords, as they were called, he believed the creation would do no harm, if it did no good: what good it would do them, was best known to themselves: but he must observe, that the case was not without more precedents than one. It must be admitted, that the defence of Mr. Rigby, as the organ of government, against the charge of depreciating the Irish peerage, by lavishing it on persons no way connected with or interested in the welfare of that kingdom, was not very satisfactory at least to the Irish. 9 Com. Journ. p. 309. 66 "with ease he might have found an abler minister, with difficulty one more anxiously solicitous to justify his choice in meriting your approbation. Influenced by that benevolent spirit, which may justly command the affections of all his "subjects, his instructions to me are to co-operate with his par"liament in every measure, which can promote the improve“ment, insure the happiness, and cherish the true interests of "this kingdom. I decline making any professions relative to "my future conduct; it is by the tenor of my actions, that the "character of my administration must be determined." When the commons addressed to his excellency their thanks for his speech, they very significantly assured him, that they founded their hopes of his administration upon better omens, than those of mere assurances, and they were happy in having a chief governor, who chose rather to rest his character upon his conduct than his professions. Certain it is, that when Lord Buckinghamshire assumed the reins of government, he found the country in a most deplorable state of calamity and distress. In Dublin, numbers of wretched manufacturers had * Stronger proofs cannot be adduced of national distress than the petitions of certain bodies of men, who were fallen from opulence and prosperity into the common calamity. Thus a petition was presented to the House of Commons, from the merchants and traders of Cork, setting forth that about the month of November, 1770, an embargo was laid on all ships laden with provisions, and bound from that kingdom to foreign countries, which was still continued by government, and had been very strictly enforced: that in consequence of that long embargo, an extensive beneficial trade, carried on for several years by that kingdom to France, Spain, Portugal, and Holland, for the supply of provisions, had been not only interrupted, but was in danger of being entirely lost; the petitioners being informed, that the merchants of these countries were respectively stocked and provided from Russia, Sweden, Denmark, and Hamburgh, whereby the usual returns to that kingdom were discontinued, new enemies to our commerce were raised, and our commodities rendered useless and unprofitable. That great quantities of salt beef, not fit for the use of government or the sugar colonies, being made up in that city, and also great quantities of beef and butter being annually brought to that market, these commodities of a perishable nature were there decaying for want of a free export, to the great injury of the proprietors in particular, and of the kingdom in general. That in support of these assertions, there then remained on hand, since the preceding year, a very considerable quantity of provisions, the property of several merchants in that city, not wanted by govern ment, and therefore without opportunity of sale; and although a considerable part of the season, in which those articles were made up and exported, had already elapsed, no demand whatsoever then existed for them, except for such quantities as were required by government alone. That his majesty's revenue, which before had received large and constant supplies from the Customs of the city of Cork, had decreased in proportion to the decay of their trade. That the embargo, therefore, at that time not being warranted by any great substantial necessity, but on the contrary, restraining and preventing the diffusion of trade, was pregnant with the most ruinous consequences, not only to the commercial, but also to the landed interests of that nation; and therefore the petitioners prayed redress. The manufacturers in Dublin also petitioned parliament that session, stating, that being made acquainted with the extreme distress of the working manufac been reduced to extreme indigence, and would have absolutely perished, had they not been supported by public charity: nor was government able to make grants, either to promote industry or to relieve the national calamities. Every branch of the revenue failed, and such was the poverty of the nation, that the militia law could not be carried into effect. Ireland could not pay her forces abroad, and was obliged to borrow money from England to pay those at home. The parliament was necessitated to raise money at an exorbitant interest; the expences in 1777 having amounted to above 80,000l. more than the revenue: 166,000l. were therefore borrowed, and attempted to be raised in the old manner upon debentures at 47. per cent. So truly desperate was the financial state of Ireland, that like desponding bankrupts, the commons undertook to grant, what turers and their families, consequent to the want of employment, had for some time past associated themselves, in order to advise and administer the most effectual relief in their power; that, aided by the liberal benefactions of many others, they had daily supplied the craving necessities of above twenty thousand persons, numbers of whom must else have actually perished for want of food. That the petitioners, well aware how much more desirable it was in every respect, to enable the poor to earn their own livelihood, than to support them in idleness, early directed their attention to that important object, and resolved to apply as much of the fund, which the public liberality had supplied, as could be spared from the immediate relief of present urgent necessity, to the purpose of bounties on manufactures purchased by wholesale buyers within a short time, hoping that measure might have created a useful demand; but they presently found the cause of the distress to be of too great a magnitude to be affected by their feeble efforts. From the best information that had been obtained, and the most probable calculations that could be formed, the petitioners had reason to believe that there were manufactures in Dublin of wool, worsted, silk, linen, and cotton, to the amount of at least 300,000. lying on the hands of makers, for which there was not any demand, the shopkeepers and retailers being already loaded with very heavy stocks; whereas at that season of the year the usual demand for most of these manufactures had been so great as entirely to take off the goods from the makers. The petitioners, therefore, begged leave to observe, that such unhappy circumstances utterly incapacitated the manufacturers from proceeding in their respective branches of business, and giving employment to the poor. That it would be an indignity to the wisdom and humanity of the house, for the petitioners to attempt to expatiate on the importance and necessity of furnishing employment to the lower orders of the people, or on the present affecting miseries of the poor of the city of Dublin; and it would as ill become them to presume to point out modes of relief. That it was only for the petitioners to bring that great subject to the view of the house, to state the facts, which had come to their knowledge, and when required to support them by evidence; having a most perfect confidence, that such relief as should appear necessary and adequate, would not be less freely granted than it was earnestly wished and prayed for by the petioners. Another petition was also presented from the manufacturers of silk, wool, linen, and cotton, in the city of Dublin and liberties adjoining; setting forth, that the petitioners from want of trade, were overloaded with goods for which there was no demand, amounting to upwards of 300,000. That having worked up their capitals and credit, and finding no sale for their goods, they had been under the painful necessity of discontinuing employment to the working people, whereby they and their families, to the number of many thousands, were reduced to extreme poverty. VOL. II. they knew they had not the means of paying. Even the ministerial party could not be blind to their situation. They would not however permit any question to be brought forward upon the state of the country in the commons, lest too strong resolutions upon it should be carried, or their opposition to them should appear even too rank for their own system. They accordingly had again recourse to the half measure of conveying their imperfect sense of the distressful state of the country through their speaker, who in presenting the first four money bills passed in that sessions addressed himself to the lord lieutenant in the following manner : 66 "MAY IT PLEASE YOUR EXCELLENCY, "The same principle of duty, which directed "the proceedings of the last parliament, has eminently distinguished the present in this their first session of business, a "certain proof, that it is not confined to any class of men, but "actuates the whole mass of the people in this kingdom. The commons, however disappointed in their hopes, that the large sums, which had been raised to discharge debts successively “incurred, and the great addition of taxes, which had been imposed to prevent any future deficiency, would have proved "effectual for those purposes, have now made provision for a new arrear of 166,000l. which they could not accomplish with66 out a new loan; to pay the interest of which, they have been "obliged to engage the scanty remnant of the former loan duties, the only fund now left; in this they have consulted more "the honour of his majesty's government than the ability of "the nation. But, however discouraging the present state of "affairs may be to them, it will afford your excellency a favour"able occasion, which they doubt not you will improve, of do"ing a signal service to this country, by laying before his ma"jesty the difficulty, under which it labours, and by explaining "the necessity either of limiting the expence, or of extending "the trade of this kingdom. They place unbounded confidence "in his majesty's wisdom, justice, and paternal care of all his "subjects, and they rely on your excellency's candour and hu"manity to make a faithful representation to his majesty of "their unshaken loyalty, duty, and affection." Although the House of Commons had through the organ of their speaker conveyed these sentiments to the lord lieutenant, which it should seem ought to have committed them to follow up the spirit of them with effect; yet in the division, which took place on the 6th of February, 1778, of 143 against 66, we read the melancholy perversity of a system, which binds the members to vote against, what on any other occasion than that of a division of their house, they individually and collectively admit and |