CHAPTER VII. THE CONCESSION OF HOME RULE. A.D. 1780-1782. THOUGH many of the Patriot party were inclined to rest and be thankful, it was not long before Grattan began to follow up his victory. What one English Parliament had conceded another might take back again; it was necessary to go a step further to obtain security. The legislative independence of Ireland had been the great goal at which earnest Irishmen had aimed from the time of Molyneux onwards. The early questionings of Poynings' Law had been met by the declaratory Act of George I.;* and from the days of Lucas's arguments in the Freeman's Journal, the principal efforts of the Opposition had been directed at some of the minor and more pressing evils. Now that the way was clear, and argument was backed up by upwards of one hundred thousand disciplined troops with two hundred pieces of cannon, the great issue again came to the front. In April, 1780, Grattan moved that "the king with the consent of the Lords and Commons of Ireland, * English Statutes, 6 Geo. I., c. 5. are the only power competent to enact laws to bind Ireland," and that "Great Britain and Ireland are inseparably united under one sovereign." But both the Government and the Opposition were afraid of testing their strength, and the motion was eventually withdrawn. The House, in its first enthusiasm upon the repeal of the restrictive Acts, granted the supplies for the next eighteen months, and authorized the lordlieutenant to raise a loan of £260,000. Thereupon the English ministry, presuming on their majority in the Irish Commons, went out of their way to rouse their susceptibilities by deliberately altering, to a most material extent, two Irish bills which had been transmitted in the usual way. They sought to make the triennial Mutiny Bill one of perpetual duration; and a clause was struck out of the Supply Bill which had been inserted in order to prevent the English sugar manufacturers from underselling the Irish manufacturers, by giving the latter the same bounties as the former enjoyed at the expense of the taxpayer. The Mutiny Bill was extremely distasteful to the Irish. The mayor of Clonmell refused to find billets for a party of troops passing through the town, though the inhabitants, to show there was no hostility to the soldiers personally, entertained them all as guests. Still the Government were determined to force it on the country, contrary even to the opinion of the lord-lieutenant. The popular excitement grew apace: crowds of petitions were presented against the alterations in the bills; the merchants' volunteer corps held a threatening meeting at Dublin; and Fox attacked the Government in the English House of Commons. But Lord North was obstinate. The Castle party in the Irish Commons was unbroken; and the bill passed by 114 to 62.* In October of the following year, when Lord Carlisle, the new viceroy, met Parliament, the condition of the national debt, swollen by the annual deficits, and now amounting to over two millions and a half, was exposed by Grattan; and the attack on Poynings' Act was renewed by Flood, who, after his desertion of the Government on the free-trade question, had resigned his office and been dismissed from the Privy Council. The returned prodigal was, however, at first but coldly received. The Patriots refused to follow him, and the Government majority stood steadily at two to one. The volunteers had chosen Lord Charlemont to be their commander. Their esprit de corps had been kept up by frequent reviews in various parts of the country; and feeling strongly that the corrupt House of Commons in no sense represented the opinion of the colony, determined to secure the full expression of the popular will. On February 15, 1782, at the instigation of Lord Charlemont 242 delegates, representing 143 corps in Ulster, assembled in the church at Dungannon, and passed thirteen resolutions in favour of legislative independence; and no sooner were these doings known in the other provinces than similar meetings were held in every quarter of Ireland, which declared the adherence of the other volunteer regiments to the resolutions of Dungannon. And now Lord North's administration had come to the end of its tether. Holland had joined the league against England. The disastrous news had arrived that Cornwallis and his army had been compelled to lay down their arms at Yorktown. Lord North, suffering defeat or virtual defeat in division after division, had no other course open to him but to resign. The king in disgust at the failure of his most cherished designs, had half determined to retire to Hanover, but unhappily had thought better of it; and a Whig ministry had come in under Lord Rockingham, with Shelburne and Fox as secretaries of State. The expectations of the Irish were high, for the late Opposition had steadily supported their interests; nor were they disappointed. The Duke of Portland came over to supersede Lord Carlisle with a message of hope and promise. When he met Parliament, Grattan moved as an amendment to the address a declaration of rights and grievances, which was unanimously carried. On May 17th, Shelburne in the Lords, and Fox in the Commons, moved resolutions for the repeal of the 6 Geo. I. No opposition was offered to the motion, and a bill embodying its substance was introduced and became law on June 21, 1782.* The English Parliament had done all that it was in its power to do. Poynings' Act was an Irish Act. passed by the Irish Parliament, sitting at Drogheda. The repeal of this statute was the first act of the emancipated Houses.† Thenceforth, bills were brought * English Statutes, 22 Geo. III., c. 53. † 21, 22 Geo. III., c. 47, in, read, committed and passed by the Irish Parliament without the interference of the Privy Council, English or Irish, and then required only the assent of the king to become valid statutes. Other Acts followed for which Ireland had waited in vain. A national bank was established.* The appointments of the judges were, as in England, to be during good behaviour, instead of during the pleasure of the Crown.† The Mutiny Act was again to be biennial. The marriages of the Presbyterians were to be valid in the eye of the law,§ and Ireland was to have the benefit of a Habeas Corpus Act, a statute which England had extracted from the Crown one hundred years before. The free concession made on the part of England was received with the warmest gratitude by the Irish. The Commons promptly voted £100,000 for the raising of twenty thousand seamen for the British navy, and then turned to pay a tribute of thanks to Grattan, whose unflagging courage, high endowments, and incorruptible honesty had so materially contributed to his country's emancipation. A proposal was made that the nation. should grant him the sum of £100,000. He refused to receive it, but subsequently was persuaded to accept half the amount. He was the first of the Patriots who received his retainer from the people and not from the Crown; and he was one of the few who never betrayed his client. * 21, 22 Geo. III., c. 16. 21, 22 Geo. III., c. 43. † 21, 22 Geo. III., c. 50. || 21, 22 Geo. III., c. II. |