333 I R E L 
voted an addrefs to the king, praying for the eftabiiffi- 
ment of a more advantageous fyltem of commerce be¬ 
tween Great Britain and Ireland. Eleven propofitions 
for the arrangement of fuch a fyltem, tranfmitted by the 
minifter, were in February 1785 fubmitted to the Irifh 
parliament, and, having.been ratified by both houles, not 
merely with approbation, but even with applaufe, they 
were returned to England for the difcuffion of the Bri- 
tifli legiflature. Here, however, petitions diftated by the 
narrow fpirit of commercial jealoufy poured in from all 
quarters ; and Mr. Pitt was obliged to new-model the 
whole plan. By his alterations and the amendments of 
the lords and commons, the commercial propofitions were 
augmented in number to twenty, and lo changed as to 
form quite a new lyftem, when fubmitted to the Irilh 
commons. The motion of the fecretary Orde, for leave 
to intioduce a bill for their adoption, was carried by fo 
fmall a majority, that he foo.n afterwards declared his re- 
folution of relinquilhing the fubjeft for that leffion, and 
leaving it to be revived or neglefted by the public. Il¬ 
luminations attefted the popular joy at the failure of this 
plan, which was never afterwards renewed in the parlia¬ 
ment of either kingdom. Refolutions againft the impor¬ 
tation of Englilh manufactures w'ere generally entered 
into; and the tumults occalioned by the attempts of the 
populace to enforce them, gave fome alarm to adminif- 
tration. 
In the beginning of 1787 the parliament was prefented 
with a new lubjeft of difcullion. A kind of infurreftion, 
commencing in the county of Kerry, extended, in 1786, 
through that of Cork and other parts of Munfter, and was 
fo fyftematically conducted as to demonftrate the advice of 
perfons of legal information, though the pooreft clals of 
peafants alone appeared as aftors. They alfembled un¬ 
armed in bodies of fome hundreds, and even thoufands, 
quietly permitting a fmgle magiftrate to feize any of their 
number charged with a crime; but adminiftering oaths 
to the people, wherever they went, to obey the commands 
' of an imaginary leader, whom they ftyled Captain Right,, 
whence they were denominated Right Boys , to pay no 
more than a certain fum per acre for tythes, not to luffer 
the minifter to draw them in kind, and not to permit the 
interference of proctors. As long as they confined them- 
felves to this objeft, they met with little oppolition, 
though they had perpetrated on fome obnoxious perfons 
the lame atrocious cruelties as the White Boys; but, 
when they began to limit the rent of land, to raife the 
price of labour, and to oppofe the collection of hearth- 
money, the alarm of infurreftion became general. An aft 
was palled, early in 1787, for the prevention of tumul¬ 
tuous affemblies and illegal combination. On this occa¬ 
fion Fitzgibbon, the attorney-general, declared, that, 
“according to the bell information, the clergy were fo far 
from the praftice of extortion, that, inftead of the tenth, 
their legal demand, fcarcely one of them received the 
twentieth; that the peafants, ground to powder by enor¬ 
mous rents, were fo far from being able to pay the clergy 
their dues, that they pofleffed neither food nor raiment 
for themfelves; that fome landlords had inftigated their 
tenants to rob the clergy of their tithes, not for the alle¬ 
viation of their own diltrelfes, but with a view of adding 
the amount of them to the mercilefs rack-rents already 
impofed; and that the peafantry of Munfter, bound to 
pay fix pounds an acre in rent, and to work with their 
landlords for five-pence a-day, could no longer exift in 
the extreme wretchednefs to which they were reduced.” 
In Oftober 1787 died the duke of Rutland, a viceroy 
beloved by the Irilh for his opennefs, liberality, and con¬ 
vivial dilpofition, to the indulgence of which he fell a 
viftim at the early age of thirty-one. Earl Temple, now 
created marquis of Buckingham, his fuccelfor, commenced 
fo rigid a fcrutiny into the various official departments, 
in which the molt fcancTalous peculation was almoft open¬ 
ly praftifed, that fome of the defaulters, dreading the in- 
vcitigadon of their accounts, fl^d the kingdom, while 
A N D. 
others fought in fuicide a refuge from impending dif- 
grace. But to have profecuted this falutary plan of re- 
lorm on a grand national fcale, though it could not but 
have been infinitely beneficial to the country, would have 
been totally inconfiftent with the plan of government 
adopted, perhaps neceflarily, for Ireland, by the Britilh 
cabinet—a plan which required an enormous expenditure 
ol the public money to fupport the influence of the vice¬ 
roy, or rather of the court, in parliament. 
Notwithftanding thefe means of fecuring a majority, 
that influence was overpowered, when, on occafion of 
the malady which rendered his rnajefty incapable of per¬ 
forming the royal funftior.s, the Britilh parliament re- 
folved to confer the office of regent, under certain reftric- 
tions, on the heir-apparent. It was the plan of the Bri- 
tilh cabinet that the prince Ihould be recognized as re¬ 
gent of Ireland with the fame limitations; but, in fpite of 
all the exertions of the viceroy and the fervants of the 
crown, the Irifh commons, on the nth of February, 1789, 
voted an addrefs to the prince of Wales, “ requeuing his 
royal highnefs to take upon him the government of this 
kingdom during his majefty’s indifpofition, under the title 
of Prince-regent of Ireland, with all the regal prerogatives 
belonging to the crown thereof.” As the viceroy refufed 
to tranfmit this addrefs to the prince, the two houfes ap¬ 
pointed five commiffioners to wait upon him with their 
application. The unexpected recovery of the king fu- 
perfeded the objeft of their million ; but the prince in his 
reply allured the deputies of “his gratitude and affeftion 
to the loyal people of Ireland, which he felt indelibly im¬ 
printed on his '■heart.” Some of the officers of govern¬ 
ment were removed from their places for having joined 
the party that feetned to be riling into power, and others 
were promoted for their fervices on this occafion. Among 
the latter was Fitzgibbon, the attorney-general, created 
earl of Clare, and invefted with the dignity of lord chan¬ 
cellor, the firft Irilhman entrufted by the Englilh cabinet 
with that high office. 
The viceroy, whofe ad mini fixation commenced with 
favourable expeftations, neverthelefs purfued the plan of 
governing by pecuniary influence, for which purpofe he 
not only created new places, but added 13,000k a-year to 
the lift of penfions. A moll vigorous but unavailing op- 
pofition was maintained by the popular party; who, in 
order to conduft their parliamentary warfare the more 
fyftematically, formed a Whig-club fimilar to that efta- 
bliftied in London. By their publications alfo in the 
newfpapers, they kept alive in the nation a fpirit of dif- 
content againft the meafures of government. At length, 
in June 1789, the marquis of Buckingham, difgufted with 
his unpopular fituation, returned to England, leaving the 
government in the hands of two lords jultices till the ar¬ 
rival of his fuccelfor, the earl of Weftmorelarid, in Janu¬ 
ary 1790. 
About this time, the principles diffeminated and encou¬ 
raged by the French revolution began to be extenfively dif- 
ful'ed, and ferioufly adopted, in Ireland ; where the influ¬ 
ence of that event was felt with much greater violence than 
in Britain. The lyftem of coercion confequently purfued 
.by government led to feverities which exceeded the due 
limits of the law, and tended to increafe the popular dif- 
contents. But the two great queftions, by which the pub¬ 
lic mind was agitated, and the alarm of adminiftration 
excited in a Itill greater degree, were parliamentary re¬ 
form and catholic emancipation. For the attainment of 
thefe ends, an aftociation, under the name of United Irijh- 
mcriy was formed in Dublin in November 1791, with the 
immediate view of combining into one phalanx as many 
natives of Ireland as poffible, for accompliffiing a change 
in the government of that country; or, in the words of their 
own declaration, “for the purpofe of forwarding a bro¬ 
therhood of affeftion, a communion of rights, and a union 
of power, among Iriffimen of every religious perfuafion, 
and thereby to obtain a complete reform in the legifla¬ 
ture, founded on the principles of civil, political, and re¬ 
ligious, 
