BOOK IV. 1723 crated. Parliament met immediately after. Hawkers were screaming the pamphlet about the streets, as the Viceroy went from the Castle to the opening. His instructions being unsuited to the condition of feeling, he evaded the subject in the speech from the throne; but the first act of the Commons was to appoint a committee to go into it, and, after 'three weeks' reasoning and enquiry,' the Duke declared himself unable to find a single member who would support the Government. Alan Brodrick, the son of the Chancellor, hinted at an impeachment of Walpole in England.1 A series of resolutions were passed, condemning the patent, and an address to the Crown was drawn up, insisting that it had been obtained by notorious misrepresentations; that if the terms were complied with there would be a loss to Ireland of 1507. on every 100l. worth of copper issued;" and that to grant patents of coining to private individuals was highly injurious.' The terms themselves, however, it was said, were not observed, bad as they were. Chemists appointed to analyse specimen pieces reported that the metal used was below the standard which the patent required. The corporation of Dublin sent in a petition that Wood should be required to exchange his halfpence on demand for gold and silver at the market price of copper. Lord Midleton wrote privately to Walpole, that in the humour of Ireland the project could not be carried out, and I. 1723 that the readiest way out of the difficulty would be CHAP. to grant the corporation's request;' while the Duke reported that young Brodrick had sworn to expose the mystery before the Parliament of England, and did not doubt but that he should there discover other guise persons than this villanous projector Wood, who had been obscure but for this infamy." The first emotion of the two men who at this time governed England was of passionate surprise. Lord Townshend wrote a letter to the Duke of Grafton so violent that Walpole threw it in the fire, and composed another, making the question a personal one between himself and the Viceroy. Conscious of a bad cause, and exasperated at an opposition which he knew not in what way honourably to meet, he flung himself on the first object on which he could safely vent his indignation. 'I will not enter into the merits of the question,' he said; I write merely as a friend. Parliament, under your administration, is attacking a patent already passed in favour of whom and for whose sake you know very well. Will it be for the service to suffer an indignity in this vein? The patent was passed by those that you have hitherto looked upon as pretty nearly engaged with you in your public capacity. Are they no longer worth your care or trouble? It was passed under the particular care and direction of one upon whom the first reflection must fall, that never yet was indifferent when you were concerned. That consideration, I daresay you BOOK IV. 1723 will be told, is not worth the hazarding the quiet of the session; for all attempts of this kind have always secret springs and supports; as this, I believe, has from both sides of the water. Do think the prin you cipal actors on that side aim at your friends here only, and have no eye to the Lord Lieutenant? or do you think those on this side, who chiefly point at your humble servant, are incapable in a proper place to turn it upon you, and impute the whole either to your want of credit and capacity, or to indifference, when you think yourself not immediately concerned? And do you think it impossible that such representations should have any effect in a certain place? In short, does your Grace think you will be thought to make a glorious campaign if, by compounding for this, you should be able to carry all the other businesses through without difficulty? "The objections to the patent now come over, I venture to pronounce, are frivolous, and such as a very common understanding with a willing mind may easily refute. I never knew more care taken than in passing this patent. I am still satisfied it is very well to be supported. What remedy the wisdom of Ireland will find out for this supposed grievance I am at a loss to guess, and upon whom the consequence of this Irish storm will fall most heavily, I will not say. I shall have my share, but, if I am not mistaken. there are others that will not escape. I hope your Grace is not mistaken when you are persuaded thus to be indifferent. There are some people that think they are ever to fatten on the expense of other men's labours and character and be themselves the most righteous fine gentlemen. It is a species of mankind I own I detest. But I'll say no more; and if your Grace thinks I have said too much I am sorry for it; but mark the end. I am, &c. 'R. WALPOLE.'1 This singular letter must have crossed on its road the despatch, which informed Walpole of the threatened impeachment and the violent proceedings of the Irish Parliament. The news was not calculated to improve the humour of the imperious minister. He was specially irritated at the Duke's taking credit to himself for having prevented the Irish Houses from passing a direct censure on the advisers of the Crown. 'What is all this?' He wrote again on the 3rd of October: I know what these things mean in an English Parliament. I suppose you talk another language in Ireland. I have weathered great storms before now, and I hope I shall not be lost now in an Irish hurricane. If I am capable of thinking at all right upon this subject, I would willingly consider what is now to be done. You seem to think we must give in. Where then is Mr. Brodrick's crime if we, by withdrawing the grant, acknowledge that we were wrong? Consider what answer we are to make, and pray, don't do in this as you have done in every other step, stay till all is over and then speak.'" Lord Townshend followed ten days later in the same strain; and from the letter which he was allowed to send may be inferred the character of that which Walpole burnt. 'The Irish,' Townshend said, 'are so absurdly wrong that I can only laugh at them. Can any one in his right judgment think the King will part with his CHAP. 1723 IV. 1723 unquestionable prerogative for such weak objections? It is so tender a point, that it is the highest folly in any one to attack it, unless there is manifest evidence of misapplication. Nor is the prerogative all. The King is touched more nearly, and feels his honour highly concerned in the affair.'1 The honour, of kings, it seemed, was composed of material unlike that of common men. Unsoiled by the doing of wrong things, it was only tarnished by the exposure of them. Grafton had an ordinary conscience. He saw that the patent was iniquitous. He disliked being made the instrument by which it was forced down the Irish throats, and he resented the reproaches which had been flung on himself. 'Twas impossible to stop the torrent,' he replied calmly to Walpole. You ask what is to be done? Let the grant be declared void, as having been obtained on a misrepresentation. Do not irritate a country where there is such a visible coolness of affection, and so much ill blood stirring as may prove very hurtful to his majesty's interest. I must not conceal from you, that the article of pensions has a great share in keeping on foot these murmurings.' Unable to resolve what to do, perhaps secretly endeavouring to compromise the matter with Wood, or induce the Duchess to forego her expected plunder, Walpole wrote no more letters. The Irish Parliament had forwarded their petition. Weeks passed, and it remained unanswered. They supposed that the English Minister was waiting for the Money Bill, and, when it was passed, meant to close the session. |