IRELAND. 



HMtary. England, expressly because it had not originated with 

 *"" ""*' them. This parliament was Uierefore dissolved, in the 

 hopes that the next would be less sturdy in the main- 

 tenance of their privileges. 



rYnccedinp In 1695, a new parliament was astembled, which, 

 -ih among other things, explained and confirmed the act 

 wiainent o f settlement, and confirmed the articles of Limeric, 

 1 but not without such modifications and alterations us 

 were by no means consonant to their spirit, and there- 

 fore wtre not- justifiable: this parliament also passed 

 some penal statutes against the Catholics. The great 

 majority of iu members were by no means disposed to 

 '.ion the authority of the English parliament ; but 

 some of the members of the commons stood resolutely 

 up, not merely for the independence of the Irish upon 

 the English parliament, but even for the independence 

 of the kingdom of Ireland upon the kingdom of Eng- 

 land. These doctrines were maintained with great 

 spirit, acuteness, and reason, in a work published by 

 :?eux, one of the members from the uim 



-o incensed the English House of 

 Commons, that it was burnt by the common hangman. 

 So jealous and sensitively alive did the English go- 

 vernment appear to be to the rivalxhip of Ireland in ma- 

 nufactures, that whenever, by being rendered tranquil, 

 Jthe was in a state to carry them on, it immediately in- 

 terfered to injure such kinds of manufacture, as could 

 in the smallest decree compete with those of England. 

 Against the woollen manufacture their decrees were 

 most violent and frequent ; and the linen manufacture, 

 which the English government professed to encourage, 

 was suffered to iangui h, till formidable rivals to it 

 arose both in England and Scotland The climate of 

 Ireland, and the richness of her pastures, especially 



'*' : ! 



" 



Mai 



near the Shannon, pointed out the rearing and fattetv 

 ing of cattle, as her most proper and profitable species 

 of agricult vet embargoes were laid on the ex- 



portation of Iri.h provisions. In short, Ireland was 

 treated not only as a conquered country, but as a coun- 

 try, o formed by nature, tint if left to itself, it mutt 



ly get the Stan of England ; and tin--' 

 considerations, in the opinion of the English govern- 

 went, appear*' . iln conduct towards her. 



am. m hi* conduct towards Ireland, does not 

 deserve so much censure as the English parliament, 

 which rurced these measure* upon him ; they were jra- 

 lou* of aloMMt every thing he did ; sometimes because 

 they thought the liberties of the people might be m- 

 jurrd. bat more frequently, from regard to their own 

 iir* In order to reward some f his favourites, 

 the km* had made several grants of the forfeited rstatss 

 his displeased the English parliament, 





'i passed a bill to 



u they ought to 

 that the money they 



these 



on the 

 of them, end 

 to have gone to 



produced 



the public ; and the king most reluctantly was obliged 

 to this hill, and thus annul his own 



to give his assent 



cu, ih 



The reign of Queen Anne, 

 taod. 



so fir as it regard* Ire- 



land, was distinguished principally by the severe penal 

 statutes which were nasaed in the Irish parimment 

 against the Catholics It never stems to have occurred, 



evenly only tended to increase the bi- 

 gotry and ignorance against which it was directed, and 

 that mild measures, aided by nils ours to enlighten 

 the Catholics and adopted in the spirit of chanty, 

 without a constant reference to the state of Ireland as 

 fWerr-d country, would much more effectually have 

 the. object which the British innrsi !. 



and, under their influence, the Irish parliament, pro- ' 

 fessed to have in view. But, besides the irritation w hich '"^"Y'"'' 

 was thus produced among the Iri-h Catholics, the Irish 

 nation in generd were constantly reminded, in the 

 most galling and unnecessary manner, of the depen- 

 <U nee of their parliament u|wn that of England; and 

 tlie violence of party always great in Ireland, was 

 augmented by the KnglUh government, to serve the 

 paltry purposes of political intrigue. 



In tlie year 1719, a circumstance occurred which Deputes 

 pointed out tlie pertinacity with which the British parlia- w ' ll > Kng- 

 ment were resolved to crush every symptom of an in- lal1 ^: ..,, 

 dependent spirit in the parliament of Ireland. It was 

 necessary to take the judges' opinion, whether, by the 

 laws of the land, an appeal could be made from the 

 Court <.t 1. xclu t|iier in Ireland to the King in Parlia- 

 ment in Great Britain. The answer was in the nega- 

 tive. This point afterwards came before the British 

 House of Peers, who were highly indignant at the de- 

 termination of the question, mid at the conduct of the 

 Irish Peers, in resolving to support the independence 

 of tlieir country ; they even brought in a bill, which 

 passed into a law, entitled an Act for the Better Securing 

 the Dependency of Ireland on the Crown of Great Bri- 

 tain, in which the Briti.-h Parliament was declared to 

 have full power and authority to make laws and sta- 

 it force and validity to bind the people 

 of the kingdom of Ireland. 



In 17-'!, >. li distinguished himself by the Dra- Drapier'.. 

 pier'* letters, the object of which was to point out the '". 

 consequences that would r.^ult from a patent granted - v D 1T ** 

 to a man of the name of Wood, for supplying Ireland 

 with a copper coinage. Such was the ferment occa- 

 sioned by these letters, that the patent was revoked next 

 year it is now pretty well ascertained that Swift was 

 not the patriot he was then considered, and that Wood's 

 coinage (though the granting him a monopoly was im- 

 proper and unjust) would by no means have been the 

 source of profit to himself, or so prejudicial to the peo- 

 ple, as was represented in the Drapier's letters. But 

 Ireland, at this period, was admirably adapted to be 

 the scene of every kind of political imposture and in- 

 trigue. She was miserably governed ; her interest* 

 ware never consulted, but always sacrificed either to 

 the interests of England, or, what was worse, and more 

 i:.-. to the interests of such individuals as the 

 British ministry wished to oblige. The viceroy only 

 came over once in two years : Th* effective power was 

 with the lords justices, and their time and thought.' 

 were occupied in forwarding the plans of tlie British 

 cabinet, and promoting their own private inti > 



The privileges of the Catholics, already greatly cur- 

 tailed, were still further encroached upon, by an act 

 passed in 1797, by which they were totally deprived of 

 the elective franchise. Such, however, was their at- 

 tachment to their native soil, that, though a scarcity, 

 reaching almost to famine, drove thousands of Pro- 

 testant* to America, scarcely any Catholics emigrated. 



The grand political parties at this time consisted of British and 

 who. on all occasions, endeavoured to promote MCII inter- 

 the English interests, even at the expense ot the inte- csU - 

 rests of their own country, and those who called them- A ' D " 1731- 

 selves patriot*, and who professed to look only to the 

 advantage of Ireland, and to regard that advantage as 

 too often sarriti views of the British parlia- 



ment. In the Duke of Dorset's first administration, 

 which begun in 1731, there was a grand struggle be- 

 tween these two parties in the parliament : Those in 

 the British interest were desirous of granting the sup- 



