BOOK V. 1771. SECTION IV. THE public departments had been reorganized. The dependents of the Boyles and the Ponsonbies had vanished with their chiefs. The Customs and Excise boards had been re-filled by new members, who could be relied on to refuse to countenance dishonesty, and whose votes could be depended on in a parliamentary division. The great Loftus interest had been brought into obedience, and the support of the independent members, who had held aloof in the last session, had been secured by the only means which were capable of attaching them. It was said afterwards by Lord Clare, that half a million in all was the price which they had placed upon their services. At length, in the spring of 1771, the Viceroy found himself once more prepared to meet the Parliament, without fear of the renewal of the scenes of the late session. The lowest calculation of the numbers at the disposition of Government anticipated a majority of at least twenty in the same House and among the same men who, eighteen months before, were half prepared to declare the independence of Ireland. Lord Townshend's instructions were not to re-open old sores, or to require a recall of the hostile resolution. His protest had sufficed. He was now to conciliate, to hold out hopes that the King would co-operate' in relieving Irish distress; and to show that it would be owing solely to the rashness and folly of the Opposition if they and their fellow-subjects were deprived of those advantages.'1 Once more, on the 24th of February, the Viceroy encountered the lords and gentlemen who had sworn to drive him from Ireland. Without referring to past differences, he told them that he had the truest satisfaction in obeying his majesty's commands to meet them again. Knowing something, perhaps, of what had happened in the interval, but ignorant how far the methods employed had been successful, the Opposition declared war upon the instant, and an address was moved by the younger Ponsonby, in which the usual compliments to the Lord-Lieutenant were pointedly omitted. An amendment was proposed to replace the customary words.2 A debate followed, which lasted till midnight, and the fatal truth was then revealed in the division, that the power of the Ponsonbies had passed from them. They were defeated by 132 to 107. Their own arms had been turned against them. By the control of the public purse they had hitherto secured a monopoly of power. Place, pension, promotion, all pleasant things which Irish politicians entered Parliament to gain, were thenceforward to be the reward of the faithful servants of the Castle, and of no others. Though recovered by the most questionable means, the authority of the Crown was restored to its visible representative. The defeated families had been adroit enough to represent their cause as the cause of Ireland. In return for the support of the patriots against the Viceroy they had themselves adopted the patriot 1 Lord Rochford to Townshend, February 9, 1771.' 2. To return our most humble thanks to his majesty for continu- CHAP. II. 1771. V. 1771. BOOK cries; and when it was plain that Parliament had deserted them, they were taken up as martyrs by the people. A furious mob assembled the next day at College Green. Loftus was pelted and insulted ; suspected members of the Lower House were caught, and oaths of fidelity to Ireland were thrust into their mouths. The troops were called out to disperse the rioters, and remained on guard at the gates when the business of the morning commenced. Flood started to his feet with a complaint that freedom was in danger from the presence of an armed force. He moved a resolution that the House was being overawed. Out of a hundred and fifty members, fiftyone only supported him. Still unable to realize what had happened, he returned to the subject on which before he had achieved so splendid a triumph. He moved that it was necessary to declare the undoubted privilege of the Commons to originate the Money Bills. Here, too, his strength had vanished. He forced a division, and Townshend's new allies were true to their engagements. Flood's motion was lost by 128 to 105. But humiliation so direct was naturally painful. The Viceroy had desired to spare his new supporters, and was willing to allow them to soothe their selfrespect by a show of consistency. Sexton Pery moved, as a paragraph in the address, that while the Commons were incapable of attempting anything against the rights of the Crown, they were tenacious of the honour of being the first movers in granting supplies; and they besought his majesty not to construe their zeal into an invasion of his authority." To Townshend, Pery represented his motion as an apology and admission of fault. Townshend saw that it was an indirect assertion of the disputed right. He did not himself quarrel with the words; but the King, at his advice, made a marked allusion to them in his reply; and the Commons, by inserting the reply in the Journals, without comment or objection, accepted and submitted to the implied reproof.1 The address to the Crown being agreed upon, there followed next the address to the Lord-Lieutenant, the double ceremony being invariably observed. The Opposition saw that it would be hopeless to resist. The address to Townshend was passed, and the duty of presenting it fell to Ponsonby as Speaker. It was too much for him. Driven off the field, utterly and finally defeated, he could not be the person to place the laurel-wreath on the brows of his conqueror. 'He had desired,' he said, in conveying to the House his resignation of the chair, 'to preserve and transmit to his successor the rights and privileges of the Commons of Ireland. In the last session it had pleased the Lord-Lieutenant to accuse the Commons of a great crime. In the present session it had pleased the Commons to take the first opportunity of testifying their approbation of his excellency by voting him an address of thanks. Respect for their privileges prevented him from being the instrument of delivering such address, and he must request them to elect another Speaker.' 2 He, perhaps, hoped his resignation would not be accepted. The Government, in fact, narrowly escaped defeat upon it. Sir George Macartney proposed Sexton 1 His majesty is well pleased with the assurance given by the House of Commons of their regard for his rights, and those of the Crown of Great Britain, which it is his indispensable duty to assert, and 2 Commons' Journals, March 4, CHAP. II. 1771. V. 1771. BOOK Pery. The elder Fitzgibbon seconded him. Pery's election in a full House was carried only by a majority of four. Ponsonby had a vote of thanks for his past services, and the House, its interests being no longer absorbed in quarrelling with the Viceroy, addressed itself to practical business. Heads of bills were drawn for the encouragement of agriculture, for the repression of trade combinations, for the determination of wages and hours of work. Drunkenness was increasing annually. A bill was devised to prevent corn from being wasted on whisky-making. While Townshend, eager on his side to encourage the Irish in any useful exertion, again pressed on the Home Government the unfairness of giving bounties to the Manchester manufacturers, in the teeth of the linen compact, and pleaded either that the bounty should be withdrawn, or Ireland be allowed to share it.2 It might have been expected by the least sanguine of Ireland's real friends, that when the Parliament had at last addressed itself to real business, England would have given it some encouragement. England had made herself responsible for Ireland by forcibly annexing it to the empire. She had just completely, if scandalously, recovered her constitutional authority. We find, with a feeling approaching indignation, that she at once dismissed the wretched country 1 Lord Tyrone wanted his brother, Mr. John Beresford, to be chosen. Beresford had been already nominated chief of the new commissioners of the Revenue. The envy,' said the Viceroy, 'which would have followed a young man so likely soon to be at the head of the Revenue, holding the chair at the same time, the effect it would have had on the first families and friends to Government, and the revival of an idea that English Government would again fall into the hands of contractors, was so strong that I was obliged to urge Lord Tyrone to withdraw his brother. He did so in the handsomest marner, and supported Mr. Pery.'-Townshend to Rochford, March 11. 2 To Rochford, March 24.' |