and if, said his grace, we knew how to stop them, as most of them could neither get victuals or work at home, it would be cruel to do it. The dissenting ministers at this time presented a memorial of the grievances their brethren had assigned, as the causes in their apprehensions of the great desertion in the North, which were chiefly the oppression of the ecclesiastical courts about tithes, the whole of which his grace denied or justified in a special letter to the Bishop of London.* Another matter of complaint was of the sacramental test; in relation to which his grace told them: the laws were the same in England. The other grievances they mentioned were the raising of the rents unreasonably, the oppression of the justices of the peace, senechals and other offices in the country. We learn also, that the Primate was sensible of more discontent from another cause, which has not hitherto been touched upon. "I very much "fear, (said his grace on the 10th of June, 1729) that notwith"standing all precautions, we are in danger of having a troublesome session, as the debts of the nation are very much encreased "within a few years."

Nothing can convey a more adequate idea of the financial state of the nation, than to consider the progress of the national debt, and trace the effects, which it gradually produced on the nation. The poverty of Ireland appeared in the year 1716 by the unanimous address of the House of Commons to George I. This address was to congratulate his majesty on his success in extinguishing the rebellion; an occasion most joyful to them, and on which no disagreeable circumstances would have been stated, had not truth and the necessities of their country extorted it from them. A small debt of 16,106/. 118. Od. due at Michaelmas 1715, was by their exertions to strengthen the hands of government in that year, increased at Midsummer 1717, to a sum of 91,537. 17s. 1ğd. which was considered as such an augmentation of the national debt, that the lord lieutenant, the Duke of Bolton, thought it necessary to take notice in his speech from the throne, that the debt was considerably augmented, and to declare at the same time, that his majesty had ordered reductions in the military, and had thought proper to lessen the civil list.

There cannot be a stronger proof of the want of resources in any country, than that a debt of so small an amount should alarm the persons entrusted with the government of it. That those apprehensions were well founded, will appear from the repeated

Vide the letter in the Appendix, No. LVI.

† 1 Vol. p. 313.

Com. Restr. p. 38.

Com. Restr. p. 38.

distresses of Ireland, from time to time, for many years afterwards. In 1721, the speech from the throne, and the addresses to the king and to the lord lieutenant, state in the strongest terms, the great decay of her trade, and the very low and impoverished state, to which she was reduced; that though the debt of the nation were no more than 66,3187. 8s. 31d. and were in fact less than in the last session, yet the commons thought it necessary to present an address to the king, to give such direc tions as he, in his great goodness should think proper, to prevent the increase of the debt of the nation.

The debt of the nation in the ensuing session of 1725 was nearly doubled. In the speeches from the throne in 1727, Lord Carteret takes notice of our success in the linen trade, and yet observes in 1729, that the revenue had fallen short, and that thereby a considerable arrear was due to the establishment. In the year 1731, there was a great deficiency in the public revenue, and the national debt had considerably increased. The exhausted kingdom lay under great difficulties by the decay of trade, the scarcity of money and the universal poverty of the country, which the speaker represented in very affecting terms, in offering the money bills for the royal assent. For above forty years, after making several restrictive laws upon the trade of Ireland, she was always poor and often in great want, distress and misery; though the linen manufactures had made great progress during that time. In the war which terminated in the treaty of Aix la Chappelle, she was not able to give any assistance. The Duke of Devonshire, in the year 1741, takes notice from the throne, that during a war for the protection of the trade of all his majesty's dominions, there had been no increase of the charge of the establishment; and in the year 1745 the country was so little able to bear expence, that Lord Chesterfield discouraged and prevented any augmentation of the army, though much desired by many gentlemen of the House of Commons, from a sense of the great danger that then impended. An influx of money after the peace, and the further success of the linen trade, increased the national wealth, and enabled Ireland to reduce by degrees, and afterwards to discharge the national debt. This was not effected until the 1st of March, 1754. This debt was occasioned principally by the expences incurred by the rebellion in Great Britain in the year 1715: an unlimited vote of credit was then given. From the lowness of the revenue, and the want of resources, not from any farther exertions on the part of the kingdom in point of expence, the debt of 16,1067. 11s. Od. due in 1715, was increased at Lady-day 1733, to 371,312/. 13s. 21d. That government and the House of Commons should, for such a length of time, have considered the reduction and discharge

of this debt as an object of so great importance, and that near forty years should have passed, before the constant attention and strictest economy of both could have accomplished that purpose, is a very strong proof of the weakness and poverty of Ireland during that period.

Lord Carteret was succeeded in the lieutenancy by the Duke of Dorset: a man of amiable private character: his government however was too closely managed by the primate, not to have created enmity in Ireland on account of his zealous and systematic support of the English interest in contravention to the native interest of Ireland. Under this system of government the patriot party acquired so much strength, as to command a majority in the commons on a most important question. During the late administration the court party had moved in the commons, that the fund, which had been provided for the payment of the principal and interest, should be granted to his majesty, his heirs, and successors for ever; redeemable by parliament. The patriots insisted successfully, that it was unconstitutional and inconsistent with the public safety to grant it for a longer term, than from session to session. An attempt was afterwards made to vest it in the crown by continuing the supplies for twenty-one years. When the affair came to be agitated, the strength of the ministerialists or court party, and the patriots or country party, was so nearly equal, that the former lost the question by a single vote.*

This patriotic question was carried by the voice of Colonel Tottenham, member for New Ross, who had ridden post to town to be present at the debate, and arrived immediately before the house divided. The great supporter of the patriots at this time in Ireland, was Mr. Henry Boyle. Mr. Conolly the speaker of the House of Commons died in 1730: he had very unexpectedly risen to this exalted station and at first was under a sort of necessity to temporize with the men in power, to whose influence he owed his rise: and he frequently so far complimented his patrons, as to concur in things he did not approve of, in order to keep up his interest with the court: however when once the patriot interest, to which he naturally inclined, had been established in parliament on a fiim and respectable footing, he added to it his support, and ever after acted up to it even in direct opposition to the court or English interest. On Mr. Conolly's death, the patriots generally looked up to Mr. Boyle as the person most worthy of filling this important office: he in the sincere fervour of his primitive patriotism, regarding preferment only as a more efficient mean of serving his country, reminding the house of Mr. Conolly's frequent declarations, that Sir Ralph Gore was a proper person to succeed him in the chair, proposed Sir Ralph Gore, whose personal merits eminently qualified him for that station: and he was elected speaker: but he did not fill the chair two years. Upon his death in 1732, Mr. Boyle was elected to the honourable situation, which he filled with dignity and uprightness for many years. Sir Robert Walpole was so convinced of the powerful interest Mr. Boyle commanded in the Irish House of Commons, that he had previously to his election to the chair, declared, that he was a man of as much penetration as interest, and that whatever scheme he was adverse to, it was no easy matter to carry in the House of Commons of Ireland: and although that minister ever looked upon Mr. Boyle with an envious eye, yet he generally spoke of him in his facetious Lumour as the King of the Irish Commons.

The Duke of Dorset, who was naturally humane, and very sensible of the extreme hardships, which the Catholics of Ireland then suffered from the existing laws, relaxed so far from the usual style of addressing the parliament on this subject, that he no longer recommended it from the throne to provide for further severities upon the Catholics; but, as if the crown satiated with rigour, benignly wished to put a stop to this unceasing system of galling its faithful subjects, though still leaving them to the merciless disposition of those, whose ascendency depended upon their depression, told them that he should leave it to their consideration, whether any further laws might be necessary to prevent the growth of Popery, and to secure them against all dangers from the great number of Papists in that kingdom. The commons in addressing his majesty did no more on this occasion, than to keep alive the general alarm which the number of Papists must at all times give to his loyal Protestant subjects, and ensuring to his majesty their best endeavours to prevent all dangers, which might arise from the Papists to the government or peace of the kingdom. At the opening of the parliament in 1733, his Grace of Dorset again relapsed into the ancient style, by calling upon the parliament of Ireland to secure af firm union amongst all Protestants, who have one common interest and the same common enemy. This however appears to have been preparatory to a measure, which had met with the consent of the British cabinet, though it had not been so strongly recommended to the Irish government, as to ensure the cordial cooperation of the supporters of the English interest in carrying it. It appears also, that the patriots were not then disposed to that measure of toleration, in favour of the Protestant Dissenters, which the Duke of Dorset had it in his instructions to propose : and which from the decisive opposition, that was prepared against the measure, the government thought proper to drop. It may however be strongly surmised, that Primate Boulter's disinclination to the repeal of the test in favour of the Dissenters may have magnified the opposition to it in his own eyes, and exaggerated it to the British minister, in order to ensure the dropping of the measure in the first instance or its failure in the last. The

* 4 Journ. Com. p. 9.

†4 Journ. Com. p. 70.

In order that the candid reader may judge of the archbishop's earnestness to second these instructions from England, I lay before him his grace's account of the transaction to the Duke of Newcastle.

MY LORD,

Dublin, Dec. 18, 1733.

"AS an affair of great consequence is just over with us, "I mean the push for repealing the test in favour of the Dissenters, I thought "it my duty to acquaint your grace how that affair stands.

"When my lord lieutenant first came hither this time, he let the Dissenters " and others know, that he had instructions, if it could be done, to get the test

honourable testimony which the Duke of Dorset rendered in the next year, when he was about to quit the government of

"

"repealed, and he has since spoke to all any ways dependant on the govern"ment as well as to others, whom he could hope to influence, to dispose them "to concur with the design, and so have others done that have the honour to "be in his majesty's service. But it was unanimously agreed, that it was not proper to bring that affair into either house of parliament till the supply was "secured. However as the design'could not be kept secret, and as the Dis"senters sent up agents from the north, to solicit the affair among the mem"bers of parliament, it soon occasioned a great ferment both in the two houses "and out of them, and brought a greater number of members to town than is "usual. There came likewise many of the clergy from the several parts of "the kingdom to oppose the design, and a pamphlet war was carried on for "and against repealing the test, in which those who wrote for it shewed the greatest temper. And thus the persons who came to town to oppose it, by "degrees heated one another, and visibly gained ground, and the members of "the House of Commons were by adjourned calls of the house kept in town. "There were daily reports spread, that the bill would be brought in such or "such a day; and some in the opposition gave out, they would move for it, "that the point might be decided one way or another; till at length after "much impatience shewn on the occasion, on this day se'nnight a very un. "usual, and I think unparliamentary, motion was made, that after the next Friday, the house would neither receive bills nor heads of bills for repealing any parts of the acts to prevent the growth of Popery, in one of which the sacramental oath is enacted. There was some opposition made to the shortness of the time, and the next Monday moved for, but the warmth of the "house, which was a very full one, against any further delay, and indeed "against any repeal of the test, appeared so great and so general, that it was "thought most prudent not to divide about that resolution. And upon consi"dering what then appeared to be the sense of much the greater part of the "house, and what was found to be the disposition of the members by talking "with them, it was concluded at a meeting at the castle on Wednesday morning, and another on Thursday morning, where some of the agents for the "Dissenters were present, to be most for the credit of the government and peace of the kingdom, not to push for a thing which plainly appeared impracticable: and it was thought a very dangerous step to unite a majority of "the house in opposition to the intentions of the government, since it was not "so certain when such an union might be dissolved. And at a meeting of se"veral members of the House of Commons, who were disposed to repeal the "test, it was agreed, that in the present state of affairs, it would be wrong to push for a thing that would certainly miscarry. Whilst this affair has been depending, there have been great heats in the House of Commons, and a more than usual obstruction of public business, and the House of Lords has "had their share in their coming to some resolutions though not on this sub"ject, which would scarce have been carried or moved at another tin.e And "I am fully of opinion, that though the repeal had passed in the commons, it "would have miscarried among the lords: but I hope now this uneasiness " and handle of discontent is over, things will gradually cool and return to "their former course. I find some of the Dissenters now say, the thing ought "to have been tried sooner in the session, but as I mentioned before, it was "the opinion of his majesty's servants, that the supplies ought to be secured "before any danger was run of raising heats in the house: and besides in the "method of our parliament, no bill can be carried by surprise, because though "the heads of a bill may be carried on a sudden, yet there is time for a party "to be gathered against it, by that time a bill can pass the council here and "be returned from England, when it is again to pass through both houses for "their approbation before what has happened here will probably the less sur"prise your grace, because the archbishop of Dublin in London acquainted "the ministry, that such a repeal could not pass here, which has been my

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