scrupling to be married according to the form of matrimony prescribed by the said Church, do therefore frequently enter into matrimonial contracts in their own congregations, before their ministers or teachers, and thereupon live together as husband and wife, be it enacted that they shall not be prosecuted. There was also an act (29 Geo. II. c. 24) to make it lawful for his majesty's Protestant dissenting subjects to hold commissions in the militia without penalties.

Events of an historical nature in the reign of George II. were not numerous. In 1728-29, a scarcity almost amounting to a famine prevailed in Ulster. It arose from three bad harvests in succession: subscriptions were set on foot in Dublin to purchase corn from Munster; but tumults broke out at Limerick, Cork, Waterford, Clonmel, and other places, to prevent the corn from going to the north. Primate Boulter, who took a large share in the government, as one of the lords justices, complains to the duke of Newcastle that the humour had set in of going to the West Indies, and that seven ships were ready at Belfast to carry away a thousand persons.

The alarms of 1745 induced George II. to consent to the appointment of lord Chesterfield as lord lieutenant, a man he personally hated, and who had commenced an action at law against the monarch for his wife's fortune. His administration has obtained the approbation of all who mention it. He showed no jealousy of the Irish, and demanded no troops from England; on the contrary, he sent four battalions to the assistance of the duke of Cumberland, and replaced them by additional companies to the existing regiments. The Roman Catholics found in him a ruler willing, where law permitted, to tolerate their worship, and remained perfectly quiet during the whole course of the Pretender's warfare.

After the end (1748) of the war of Austrian succession, trade had so much increased that the hereditary

revenue was amply sufficient for every public service, and a surplus remained in the exchequer: this surplus gave rise to a trial of strength between the crown party, headed by Primate Stone, and the commons, headed by the speaker. In the first instance, the crown proved successful, and disposed of the surplus ; but afterwards the commons took care that there should never be a surplus. From this time, a new system of parliamentary management sprung up, of a kind most mischievous and corrupt. What the government had attempted was of course unpopular: patriotism, a new element in Ireland, sprung up, and the ministers found it necessary to come to terms: Boyle, the speaker, received a pension of two thousand a year with an earldom, several others accepted of lucrative employments, and Primate Stone's name was struck out of the list of privy councillors. Soon afterwards the patriots came to a vote of censure upon the pension list, and the lord lieutenant hesitating to transmit their resolutions to the king, a short contest ensued, which terminated in the due transmission.

commons.

On the breaking out of the Seven Years' War, and on appearance of a French invasion, the Roman Catholics sent in an address of loyalty (Dec. 1759), which was graciously accepted by the lord lieutenant and the This was the first glimmering of reconciliation between the Protestants and the common enemy." The main body of the intended invasion was broken by Hawke's victory at Quiberon, but a squadron under Thurot sailed from Dunkirk, and was driven by stress of weather into Lough Foyle; here part of the squadron separated; three ships sailed for Carrickfergus (21st Feb., 1760), and landed 600 men two miles from the town, which, after some loss, they took, and plundered. On re-embarking (26th), they fell in with Captain Elliot off the Isle of Man, and, after an action of an hour and a half, struck. Thurot lost his life in the engagement.

H

In 1759, some idea of a contemplated union with Great Britain got abroad among the people. The populace broke into the House of Lords, insulted the peers, seated an old woman on the throne, and searched for the journals to commit them to the flames. They compelled the members of both houses whom they met in the streets to take an oath never to consent to such a union, nor give any vote contrary to the true interest of Ireland. Some coaches belonging to obnoxious persons were destroyed, and the horses killed. At night the multitude dispersed of itself.

The reign of George III. opened inauspiciously for the Roman Catholics of Ireland. In consequence of some doubts raised by acute lawyers as to the power of Papists to lend on mortgage (1763), heads of a bill, to ascertain what securities may be taken by persons professing the Popish religion for money lent, were introduced and rejected by 138 to 53. Leave also to bring in heads of a bill, to enable Papists to take securities on lands, was refused. This term, heads of a bill, was introduced to evade Poyning's law, which gave the initiative to the crown. It became the common practice of parliament to debate the heads and send them to the lord lieutenant, who was not, however, obliged to transmit them; nor was the king's council compelled to accept or refuse them, but often amended or altered them, and thus sent them back as a bill to Ireland, in which state it was called a transmiss. The next step in legislation regarding the Roman Catholics (11 and 12 Geo. III. c. 27), gave £40 a-year to a priest converted from Popery.

CHAPTER XI.

CONCESSIONS.

THE first step towards concession seems at this day almost too small for notice; it permitted Roman Catholics to testify their allegiance on oath (1773), and confessing them citizens it condemned by implication the language which described them as the common enemy. The true source of further concessions may be found in their having been granted during the war of American Independence, when it would have been clearly impossible for Great Britain, half ruined in the miserable contest, to sustain a new rebellion at home. In 1778, a little more relaxation is discovered; some very minute rights regarding the holding leases were conceded to the Roman Catholics (17 and 18 Geo. III. c. 49.) The political events of 1782 gave a different colour to the temper of the times, and the Protestant barriers were broken down by a Protestant parliament. The Roman Catholics were allowed to buy lands, were no longer compelled to declare where they last heard mass, were allowed to possess a horse worth five pounds, were not obliged to make good losses by privateers in time of war, were permitted to keep a school, and to be guardians to children, and might occupy houses in Limerick or Galway (21 and 22 Geo. III. c. 24 and 62.) These seemed then munificent concessions; they were important as abatements of the tone of victory and hostility. A fuller measure of recognition came in 1793. Roman Catholics (for now the laws begin to know this title) were admitted to practise as barristers, solicitors, and attorneys; marriages between Protestant and Papist became legal, the act to restrain foreign education was repealed; Roman

Catholics might vote at elections, might hold civil and military offices, might be professors, and members of bodies corporate, nor were they compelled to pay a penalty for absenting themselves from Church on Sunday (32 Geo. III. c. 21, and 33 Geo. III. c. 21.)

Now that the virtual independence of Irish chieftains had been abolished, and that sheriffs, constables, and writs ran their course over the accessible portions of the country, what had been rebellion sank into insurrection or outrage. In the beginning of the reign of George III. (1761,) White Boys, so called from wearing their shirts over their clothes, made their appearance in Munster: one of their first exploits was digging up in a night twelve acres of rich meadow land. Poverty was their curse: tithes, cess, and rent, their grievances. It was officially reported, that the authors of these riots consisted indiscriminately of persons of different persuasions, and that no manner of disaffection to his majesty's person or government appeared in any of these people.' They waged war chiefly upon tithes. Soon afterwards similar bands rose up to molest the peaceable in the northern districts; the grievance of the Heart of Oak Boys was compulsory labour for the repair of highways. Ulster produced these reformers: but the troops, and a transfer of the assessment from the persons to the lands, suppressed them. The Hearts of Steel Boys complained of tenure. A large landowner had adopted a method new to Ireland; he took large fines and small rents; so that the old Occupier who could not pay down a round sum lost his holding. In Ireland, where agriculture is the livelihood of the people, the possession of a bit of farming ground becomes necessary to their subsistence. Troops, however, were sent into the disturbed districts, and the malefactors brought to order by executions.

The

causes of insurrection were to be looked for in the pressure of war, (for England was then engaged in the Seven Years' War,) and in an epidemic disorder among