BOOK

V.

1771.

Government, that Ponsonby came again to the front.
The new Revenue Board was naturally the object of
his attack. He felt so confident of success, that he bet
500 to 3 that he would destroy it. He swore that
he would never quit the office of door-keeper in the
House of Commons till he had driven Lord Towns-
hend out of the country.'1 Lord Townshend re-
quired no driving; he would have been heartily glad
to be
gone; for the Cabinet left nothing undone to
aggravate his difficulties. Of justice to Ireland'
he could obtain nothing, and for his real reform only a
lukewarm support.2 Of wrong, and wrong inflicted in
the most insulting form, there was as much as Ireland's
worst enemy could desire. Notwithstanding their
ill-humour, the Parliament had voted the supplies.
They had introduced a clause among the additional
duties, protecting Irish linen from the importation of
cotton manufacture from the Continent. It was a
protection to which Ireland was strictly entitled.
The Cabinet, free-traders when only Ireland's in-
terests were at stake, struck the paragraph out, and
returned the Money Bill without it. There is no folly
like that of giving an unreasonable antagonist a moral
advantage. The Commons flung the Bill out in a
rage; they said distinctly they would never pass a
Money Bill which had been altered in England.
Heads of a new bill were drawn in which the clause was
replaced, and were sent back without a moment's
delay. The Cabinet swallowed the affront and
yielded. The new bill was returned, compared care-

1 Townshend to Rochford, De- opposition, it was prudent to carry cember 12.' out the new Revenue Board."Rochford to Townshend, December

2The Cabinet had begun to doubt "whether, in the face of the

20.

เ

II.

1772.

fully with the transmiss, and being found unchanged CHAP. was passed. But the Revenue question had been re-opened. Flood's resolution had been sent to the King for consideration, and Townshend had but small confidence in Lord North's resolution. Nothing had been allowed which ought to have been allowed. His hands were soiled with work which he detested, and which, after all, was turning out useless. He longed to be clear of it. He had been fighting hard for four years,' he said, and he had now a right to ask for repose.' He thought the Cabinet unwise in every way; unwise in altering the Money Bill; unwise in submitting when submission wore the complexion of cowardice. Concessions to popular opinion,' he said (and the history of Ireland is one long illustration of his words), are seldom repaid with gratitude. They have been interpreted hitherto as foundations only for further claims. It is only by a determined resolution of adhering to system, and by constant perseverance, that the authority of the English Government can be maintained in this kingdom.'

Lord North proved firmer than Townshend expected. On the 5th of February the answer came, that notwithstanding the objections of the House of Commons, his majesty regarded it as his duty to maintain the changes which had been made in the Revenue department. The patriots, of course, pursued the quarrel. Sir Charles Bingham, when the King's reply was delivered in the House, rose and moved that the resolution of the 16th of November should be read. He then declared that the maintenance of the new commissioners was an indignity to the Parliament. Ponsonby following him, proposed that the House should choose a committee to go to London

V.

1772.

BOOK and lay the sentiments of the Irish Commons before the King. The Cabinet, provoked into resolution, declined to be visited by Irish Parliamentary Ambassadors.' They bade Townshend prevent the accomplishment of such a piece of foolery at all hazards. If nothing else would do, he must prorogue.1 It seemed as if once more the Viceroy would be driven to this alternative. One angry motion followed upon another. Flood carried a vote that the House should record its dissent, and followed it with a proposal that members of the House who had accepted seats at the new Board were guilty of contempt, and should neither sit nor vote till they had resigned. This was too violent, and was rejected. On the 19th of February, however, the patent for the new commissioners was read aloud. A resolution less extreme was moved, that whoever had advised the increase in the number of commissioners had advised a measure contrary to the sense of the Irish legislature. The numbers on a division were equal-106 in favour, 106 against. Again a question in which the Government was directly assailed turned on the casting vote of the Speaker, and Sexton Pery, who was perfectly well acquainted with the real reasons for the alterations of the Board, and was without the excuse of delusion, did as Ponsonby had done before him, and divided against the Government.

Prorogation or dissolution! To one of these two the Viceroy's choice appeared to be limited, when suddenly the ranks of the Opposition wavered; a combination which had threatened to be irresistible dissolved like a mist. Neither the Commons' Journals

1 Rochford to Townshend, February 12, 1772.'

So much

nor the Irish Histories explain the change.
only is visible, that from this time forward the Viceroy
was worried with no more adverse resolutions. The
new Board went quietly about its work, and for the
present no further effort was made to reduce its num-
bers or drive its members from the House. Once
more an address was carried to the Viceroy, in which
the Commons declared their entire satisfaction with his
Excellency's administration, and an amendment con-
veying in every sentence the indignation of a baffled
faction conscious of defeat was rejected without a
division.1

The interpretation implied in the language of the amendment is the increase in the army of placemen whose votes were at the Viceroy's disposition. But though the Viceroy had not again appointed to offices of trust men who had divided against him at the most critical moment, the Deus ex machinâ who rescued him from his difficulties was a penitent friend of the

1 Proposed amendment to the Address, May 27:-'And we cannot sufficiently congratulate your excellency on your prudent disposition of lucrative offices among the members of this House, whereby your excellency has been enabled to excite gratitude sufficient to induce this House to bear an honourable testimony to an administration which, were it not that it has been found so beneficial to individuals, must necessarily have been represented to his majesty as the most exceptionable and destructive to this kingdom of any that has ever been carried on in it. The carrying into execution the division of the Revenue Board, contrary to the sense of this House, we should have considered and represented as

a high contempt of Parliament.
But, from the distribution of the
multiplied seats at the two boards
now instituted among members of
this House, we entertain a very
different sense of that measure, and
conceive that it was carried into
execution, not from contempt, but
the highest veneration of Parlia-
ment, the indignation of which
you dreaded, and therefore thus
averted. And we assure your ex-
cellency we are very much obliged
to you for the offices which you
have bestowed upon us. We also
return you thanks for instituting
offices for us at a new Board of Ac-
counts, which, however unnecessary
for the public service, we find very
serviceable to ourselves.'-Com-
mons' Journals.

CHAP.

II.

1772.

V.

1772.

BOOK people, no less a person than Lord Shannon. When the storm was beginning there had come from that unlooked for quarter a partial gleam of hope. The earl, after recovering from his dismissal, had reflected that the English interest might in the long run prove the strongest. He had made private advances to Townshend. Townshend had placed him in communication with Lord North, and had been anxiously expecting the result. expecting the result. A few days after the Speaker's desertion he was able to write to Lord Rochford that Lord Shannon had come to Dublin, and though still appearing to keep aloof from the Castle, 'would by-and-bye support the Government upon any terms which his majesty should be pleased to approve.'

'I need not caution your lordship,' he continued, 'how extremely essential it is to the King's service here that this transaction with Lord Shannon, so critical to Government at this period, should not transpire, as its enemies would not fail to take every advantage of it, and to revolt. Lord Shannon appears to wish to return as early as possible to the service of the Crown with the utmost propriety and effect. At the same time, in justice to the use we derive from his conduct, I must request your lordship to lay the circumstances before his majesty, that it may have its due weight. It will account in great measure for the inaction of one desperate faction, and the disappointment of a shameful flying squadron, who have the greatest obligations to the Crown.'1

1 'Townshend to the Earl of Rochford, Feb. 29.' Secret.