recent times. The whole story is thus told by Mr. Hardy :

"On the 22d of October, 1761, (the first day of the meeting of the new parliament) leave was given to bring in heads of a bill to limit the duration of parliament; but when, on the 9th of December following, it was moved that the lord lieutenant would be pleased to recommend the same in the most effectual manner to his majesty, the motion was negatived by a large majority. This proceeding very justly awakened the suspicions of the people as to the sincerity of their representatives; and the house, perfectly conscious that such suspicions were by no means vague or idle, thought proper to adopt the following very undignified, disingenuous, resolution: "Resolved, that the suggestions confidently propagated, that the heads of a bill for limiting the duration of parliament, if returned from England, would have been rejected by this house, are without foundation;" 26th of April, 1762. The progress of the bill through the house, in the subsequent session of 1763, was still more languid, and more calculated to awaken, and keep alive, every doubt and suspicion of the people. Leave was given to bring it in on the 13th of October, and it was not presented till the 14th of December following, nor reported till the middle of February. Nothing can more evidently mark the real disposition of the house, towards this very constitutional bill: the people became more importunate than before, and

the house of commons once more passed the bill; having according to the usage of those days, sent it to the privy council, where the aristocratical leaders were certain it would be thrown into a corner; nor were they mistaken. If they could have so long combated this measure in an assembly that had, at least, the name and semblance of a popular one, with what facility could they overthrow it in a select body, issuing directly from the crown, and where some members, not of one, but both houses of parliament, would, like confluent streams, direct their united force against it, with a more silent, indeed, and therefore more fatal current. The bill being thus soon overwhelmed, nothing could be done till another session. Once more the people petitioned, and once more the house of commons sent the bill to their good friends the privy council, enjoying, in public, the applause of the nation for having passed it, and, in secret, the notable triumph that it would be so soon destroyed. But here matters assumed a different aspect; the privy council began to feel that this scene of deception had been long enough played by the commons, and being, with some reason, very much out of humour, that the plaudits of the nation should be bestowed on its representatives, whilst his majesty's privy council, by the artifice of some leaders, was rendered odious to the country, resolved to drop the curtain at once, and certified the bill to the English privy council, satisfied that it would encounter a much

more chilling reception there, than it had met with even from themselves. The aspect of affairs was again changed. The Irish privy council had disappointed the commons; and the English cabinet now resolved to disappoint and punish both. Enraged with the house of commons for its dissimulation, with the aristocracy for not crushing the bill at once; and, amid all this confusion and resentment, not a little elated, to have it at length in their power completely to humiliate that aristocracy, which, in the true spirit of useful obsequious servitude, not only galled the people, but sometimes mortified, and controlled the English cabinet itself; afraid of popular commotions in Ireland; feeling as English gentlemen, that the Irish public was in the right; as statesmen, that it would be wise to relinquish at once what, in fact, could be but little longer tenable,—they sacrificed political leaders, privy councillors, and parliament, to their fears, their hatred, their adoption of a new policy, and though last, not the least motive, it is to be hoped, their just sense of the English constitution. They returned the bill, and gave orders for the calling of a new parliament; which was dissolved the day after the lord lieutenant put an end to the session of 1768.

"It is impossible not to mention, in this place, an anecdote which I heard from lord Charlemont, as well as others. He happened, at this time to dine with one of the great parliamentary leaders,-a large company, and, as Bubb Dodington says of

some of his dinners with the Pelhams, much drink, and much good humour. In the midst of this festivity, the papers and letters of the last English packet, which had just come in, were brought into the room, and given to the master of the house. Scarcely had he read one or two of them, when it appeared that he was extremely agitated. The company was alarmed. "What's the matter?-nothing, we hope, has happened that"-" Happened! (exclaimed their kind host, and swearing most piteously,) Happened! The Octennial Bill is returned." A burst of joy from lord Charlemont, and the very few real friends of the bill, who happened to be present! The majority of the company, confused, and, indeed almost astounded, began, after the first involuntary dejection of their features, to recollect that they had, session after session, openly voted for this bill, with many an internal curse, heaven knows! But still they had been its loudest advocates; and that, therefore, it would be somewhat decorous, not to appear too much cast down at their own unexpected triumph. In consequence of these politic reflections they endeavoured to adjust their looks to the joyous occasion as well as they could. But they were soon spared the awkwardness of assumed felicity. "The bill is not only returned," continued their chieftain, "but the parliament is dissolved!" "Dissolved! dissolved! Why dissolved ?" "My good friends, I can't tell you why, or wherefore; but dissolved it is, or will be directly."

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Hypocrisy, far more disciplined than their's, could lend its aid no further. If the first intelligence which they heard was tolerably doleful, this was complete discomfiture. They sunk into taciturnity, and the leaders began to look, in fact, what they had so often been politically called-a company of undertakers. They had assisted at the parliamentary funeral of some opponents, and now like Charles the Fifth, though without his satiety of worldly vanities, they were to assist at their own. In the return of this fatal bill was their political existence completely inurned. Lord Charlemont took advantage of their silent mood, and quietly withdrew from this group of statesmen, than whom a more ridiculous, rueful set of personages, in his life, he said, he never beheld." a

If the passing of the Octennial Bill was calculated to reduce, ultimately, the power of the aris

a If we read "house of lords" for "privy council" in this curious passage, we have a lively picture of some recent scenes, the more entertaining to the principal actors, as the catastrophe appears to be postponed indefinitely. A seat in a certain great assembly is, for many good reasons, valuable to several, at present, highly privileged gentlemen, who can acquire and retain places on comparatively easy terms, while the philanthropy of one quarter is neutralized by the convenient prejudices of another. But were this happy equilibrium in danger of being disturbed, many "sudden conversions" would take place among the prudent. Justly ambitious of popularity as long as it can be had at a reasonable rate, it cannot yet be supposed that they would fulfil the sanguine expectations of men who already consider them as holding places provisionally. They know that if the attainment of eligibility be an object worthy of spiritual interference, the actual achievement of election would call forth much greater exertions; and they have learned, by their own observations as well as the mortifying experience of their predecessors, not to trust too far to the good offices of their opponents.