just even to allow to depend on court precedent. No etiquette should, for a moment, be tolerated in the decision of a question which ought to have been felt to involve the real relation between the king and his Irish peerage. Lord Charlemont, after encountering the pain and the disgust of this recreant exhibition, at last found an ally in the lord Middleton.* With this nobleman he visited lord Halifax at his seat in Bushy-park, and stated the matter to his lordship. This nobleman, whose proper duty it should have been to interfere as lordlieutenant of Ireland, gave a courteous reception to their statement, and immediately waited on the king, to whom he submitted the claim of the Irish ladies. The king could only have met such a statement in one way, and entered at once with the natural grace and kindness of his disposition into their feelings. It was answered, in consequence, to lord Charlemont, that a privy council was to sit on the next day, which should consider the claim which he advanced, and he was desired to have precedents in readiness for their consideration. Here again rose a most serious embarrassment; about precedents he knew nothing, and had no more than a few hours to make the necessary inquiries; the remainder of the day was spent in vain deliberation, but late at night (as we conjecture from Mr Hardy's statement) he fortunately recollected lord Egmont, then well known for his intimacy with heraldic lore. It may be presumed that it was after a restless night that he knocked early next morning at that lord's door, and was introduced into his chamber before he had as yet risen from his bed. Happily, lord Egmont was full and satisfactory upon the subject of his inquiries, and undertook to furnish the required precedents in writing, which he did on the spot. These were instantly forwarded to lord Halifax, by whom they were submitted to the council, and excited an angry opposition, which may help to show the contempt which at that time lay upon Ireland. It is not easy to say with certainty what might have been the decision of a cabinet council, in which so pertinacious an opposition was exerted, but king George acted with the equitable decision for which the occasion evidently called, and cut short the paltry conflict of the lowest display which human pride admits of, by ordering that the Irish nobility should walk according to their ranks at the ceremonial. To complete the

service thus rendered to his countrywomen, and, through them, to Ireland, and, as it must easily appear, to the two kingdoms, lord Charlemont exerted himself to prevail on many of the Irish nobility to take the places thus confirmed to them, and then took due care to have their names inserted in the ceremonial.

During the administration of lord Halifax, commenced those popular factions, the Whiteboys, Hearts of Oak, &c., with which the progress of Ireland has, until very recent times, been so fatally encumbered. In the previous course of history for several hundred years, the political disturbances of Ireland had assumed the pretext of religion. But at this time the main causes of popular discontent were

* George Brodrick, 3d viscount Middleton of Middleton, in the county of Cork. † Lord Egmont had written a book on the rights of the Irish Peerage.

of a kind far more adapted to come home to the peasant's bosom; the tyranny and selfishness of the landlords appeared in the most shameful extortion. The origin of the Whiteboys is thus explained:-In Munster, several of the landlords having set their lands at an exorbitant rent, endeavoured to conciliate the tenants by allowing them the commonage of certain waste lands. They afterwards enclosed these lands. The people had recourse to violence. As the nature of such violence is to accumulate force and fury, extensive outrages were committed. The gentry, unable to suppress the spirit they had raised, had the dexterity to give it a safe direction. When the rabble were once organized, and a system of outrage began, the sectarian zeal, which is never far behind when mobs are congregated from any cause, was easily turned upon the protestant clergy. The landlords themselves, as ready to oppress the clergy as the people, gladly seized on the pretext, which helped both to raise a prejudice against the ministers of a religion which they professed to follow, and which helped to conceal the real causes. The Whiteboys were suppressed; but neither was the cause removed, nor the angry spirit calmed. Other disturbances arose in the north. The roads were made and kept in repair by the housekeepers-the labour of six days in the year was exacted from man and horse-and a general complaint, mainly excited by the severity of overseers, at last broke out in violence. The peasantry had been additionally exasperated by the common feeling that those roads were not generally for the public convenience, but more generally for the convenience of the landlords: they were called job roads. One parish openly refused to make any more; the contagion spread, and soon extended over the province. Having commenced in real grievances, with the ordinary rapidity of popular passion they soon went on to imaginary complaints, and the general redress of wrongs. The tithes next, and then, in due course, the rents, became the object of their wisdom. A little bloodshed suppressed the north, as it had done the south. The northern discontents had, nevertheless, arisen on grounds less obnoxious to landlords, and they were taken into consideration in the ensuing session of parliament. The old act was repealed, and, by a more equal burthen, a new provision made for the roads.

In the course of the next few years, other similar risings took place. Those which we have here more especially noticed, are now chiefly important to impress the consideration so apt to be overlooked in the two opposite aspects of Irish party feeling; first, that the general tendency to popular insubordination, manifested on various occasions, from the time of which we speak to far more recent periods, were essentially unconnected with religious feeling; while, at the same time, they generally assumed that character to a sufficient extent to justify the prejudices, which, connecting present and past events, assigned them the character they took upon themselves. The wisdom of party is not responsible for nice distinctions. When a popular faction, or its advocates, assume a character for their purposes, they lose the right of coming into court and pleading that such was not their char

acter.

These statements may help to set in a clear light the opinions which were then unfavourable to the Roman church in this country. It may

be understood why a class, looking with an indiscriminate eye on the past, saw only the dangerous organization under the influence of a foreign cabinet, so often ostentatiously pretended, and so often effectively manifested in former days. And also, why even the utmost extent of liberality went no further than the wish to ease the upper ranks of that church from the pressure of a law at once insulting, inconvenient, and ineffective for any of its intended purposes. It may thus be understood how it was that the well-known liberality of lord Charlemont went no further than this limited view, while he considered it impolitic in any way to relax the laws which excluded the same classes from those professions which were the only resources for the younger sons of the gentry. The general consequence was, that the only resource left for them was foreign service; and of this the evil consequences had, in the previous century, been made very apparent by the rebellion of Sir Phelim O'Neale, which, as we have already related, was mainly organized abroad, and, in the first instance, carried into effect by Irishmen trained in the Spanish service. These considerations were now taken by the wrong end. The remedy of such an evil, supposing it still to have existence, would appear to be most effectively sought in the redress of the grievance of which it was the necessary result; but a different view seems to have presented itself to the government. An application was made by the Portuguese government for aid from England. The plan was formed to allow six Irish regiments to be raised and taken into the Portuguese service. It was proposed by secretary Hamilton, in that celebrated speech which has acquired for its speaker the title of "single-speeched," and thus carried down to posterity the impression that he never spoke but once. The measure was strongly opposed, on the ground of the danger which, it was alleged, must arise from the arming and training so large a number of the members of the papal church. The motion failed. It may help to elucidate the position which we are anxious to place in the fullest force, that there was a weight of old prepossession still adding its effective weight to other causes, which have been too hastily, and somewhat invidiously, placed alone in the discussion of ancient grievances. Condemning with our whole force all intolerance and political exclusiveness, on every abstract ground, we shall, at every stage of our history, not fail to mark out the distinctions which are confused by party, for purposes which cannot be justified. Up to a certain point, (now easy to fix with some accuracy,) the exclusion from political power of a large class, can be demonstrated as absolutely essential, on every ground, which is available for the proof of any political right. That the general prepossession which grew out of such a state of things will necessarily long survive the necessity from which it originated, is a proposition as deeply founded in human nature, as the former in sound political theory, need not be proved. The sentiment existing at that period in favour of protestant ascendancy, so far from being liable to the ignorant aspersion of modern partisans, was then as fixed in the

walls."

*

Never," says Mr Hardy, "had such an oration been uttered within those

reason of the age as any law of nature. It was sternly held by the most liberal politicians who had any pretension to honesty or moderation, and was even admitted by the more informed and better ranks of that class, upon whom it fell with such apparent severity. We have lingered a little in our narrative at this point, that we may express our views freely on the subject of liberty and toleration, without being supposed by any reader to have adopted the fallacies or extreme notions of that liberalist faction, with whose language and sentiments we must often for the future be found partially coincident. And we must entreat to have it kept in view, that in such cases the only resource we have against the appearance of inconsistency, is in those comprehensive distinctions which vindicate the fact, that we are endeavouring to steer as free as we can between both of the great public parties who have engaged on the same field. We shall here quote a sentence written by lord Charlemont-not that we agree with its whole purport, but because it exhibits the real opinion of his age, free from every stain of private interest or factious tendency-" The situation of the catholic gentry of Ireland was at this time truly deplorable. The hostile statutes enacted against them, however their necessity may have ceased, were still unrepealed, and respecting devise and inheritance, they laboured under the greatest hardships. In time, however, it might be hoped that these difficulties would be palliated, or perhaps removed; but they were subject to one inconvenience, which seemed to be so interwoven with the existence of a protestant interest and government, that sound policy, and, indeed, necessity, must for ever prevent its being remedied." Here, then, is the whole liberal creed of that day, in its length and breadth, and in its most respectable form.

The immediate interval of Irish history, on which we have hitherto been led to dwell, is that which historians have generally seen reason to pass with slight notice, as deficient in interest, and not marked by important events. From such an estimate we see no great reason to dissent; we have, nevertheless, selected some details, with a view to convey some distinct notion of the calm, or perhaps torpor, which preceded a period unparalleled for the interest and rapid succession of the passions by which it was agitated, and the events it brought forth. Within the stagnant interval thus described, one event occurred, which may be regarded as the beginning of another order of things, and as the first step of a revolution, the greatest which happened in the fortunes of Ireland from the invasion of Strongbow. To this we shall at once pass.

From time to time, as has appeared, ineffectual efforts were made to remedy the main defects in the legal constitution of Ireland. They were always defeated with uniform facility by the vigilance of the Irish administration. The enormous pension-list was a standing subject of complaint-the independence of the judges was another primary object of vain contest-and, in 1765, this latter subject was introduced with increased spirit, but with the old result. It was felt that the opposition was rather gaining, than losing ground in the contest for objects to which, after every disappointment, they still more pertinaciously returned. It was also probably regarded as no

unimportant advantage, that at this period two of their most formidable antagonists were removed from the scene. The Irish administration was deprived of the ability of two consummate managers of party-primate Stone and lord Shannon-who both died in December, 1764.

Till this time the Irish commons held their seats for the life of the king—an extreme from which the unconstitutional influence of the crown was an immediate and evident consequence. It amounted virtually to an entire separation of interest between the representation and the people. In proportion as the constituency began to obtain a real existence, such an evil would also grow into increased effect, and begin to be more and more felt: and such an indication of political vitality at this time was beginning to grow very apparent and very troublesome to the government. Of all measures that could well be conceived, the limitation of parliaments would strike most directly and closely at the root of corrupt power. In 1765, under the administration of lord Hertford, there was much activity displayed by county meetings through the kingdom, in which numerous resolutions and addresses to this effect were carried. In Dublin, a meeting of the citizens published a declaration, and instructed the city members to unite in this paramount and fundamental effort.

Pro

The history of this important and influential measure is curious, as related in some detail by the earl of Charlemont. Some doubts have been expressed as to these details, but we do not participate in these doubts, and shall notice here some incidents of a preliminary nature, which may have contributed much to the events which followed; so much, indeed, that they might well seem (what we would not absolutely affirm) to be the consistent parts of the same manœuvre. vidence worked favourably for Ireland. In the previous year the Irish commons had shown a very unusual degree of jealousy on the right of altering their bills, assumed by the British council; they had entered into a resolution that no bill should pass in their house until a committee appointed for that purpose should first have compared the bill returned with the original heads, and report if there were any, and what alterations. Again, acting on this resolution, with a pertinacity which did not spare even their own most anxious wishes, in 1767, after they had prepared and transmitted the heads of a most important bill to secure the independence of the judges, when it was returned they rejected it after such a comparison. It is therefore, on viewing these premises, very strongly apparent that their conduct, under almost any circumstances, would be counted on with some confidence by the British privy council; and, farther, it is also apparent that, if the British cabinet really desired to pass any measure through the Irish commons, that they would have taken due care not to raise so visible an obstacle to their success. Respecting the particular measure here under consideration, it was generally understood that a majority of the Irish members themselves had no great desire for a measure, which, being in a very high degree popular, was in a manner forced upon them from without. With these unfavourable dispositions on both sides, we shall now state the account given in Mr Hardy's narration.