VI. 1778. BOOK Viceroy's 50,000l. meanwhile melted away, yet no coast guard was established and no militia. From piracy at sea the step would be a short one to pillage on shore, and the country gentlemen began in earnest to arm their tenants and combine in corps for mutual protection. The state of the Channel was creating in England serious inconvenience, and English attention already roused on the Irish problem began to direct itself upon it in earnest. Lord Nugent again brought up the subject in Parliament. He was an absentee; and it did not occur to him that his own duty was at once to return to his post. His patriotic perceptions had been quickened by the cessation of remittances. For two years he told the House of Commons that he had received no rents. The war had ruined the linen trade. The embargo had ruined the farmers. Artisan and peasant were starving. Land was offered at fourteen years' purchase and found no buyers. By every ground of obligation, by duty, by prudence, by common human feeling for the misery of their fellow subjects, the English legislature was bound to interfere, and to remove at least the artificial hindrances which were shackling Irish enterprise. The Northern millowners clamoured that the Irish were idle, and were starving by their own indolence. These interested coteries began to be listened to with less patience as the progress of the rebellion in America created an evidence so palpable of the possible consequences of misgovernment. The King recommended that, in consequence of the undoubted distress in Ireland, the English Treasury should undertake the cost of the Irish regiments which were serving in America. The message brought on debates in which both Houses agreed to demand an account of the entire condition of Irish trade. Lord Shelburne ventured The Irish counties supported by petition the arguments of their English friends. The grand juries represented that the fields and highways were filled with crowds of wretched beings half naked and starving. Foreign markets were closed to them. The home market was destroyed by internal distress, and CHAP. I. 1778. BOOK VI. 1779. the poor artisans who had supported themselves by weaving were without work and without food. They had bought English goods as long as they had means to buy them. Now in their time of dire distress they had hoped the English Parliament would have been their friend. They learnt with pain and surprise that the only boon which would give them relief was still withheld. They besought the King to interpose in their favour, and procure them leave to export and sell at least the coarse frieze blankets and flannels which the peasants' wives and children produced in their cabins.1 Eloquence and entreaty were alike in vain. The English Parliament, though compelled at last to listen to the truth, could not yet bend itself to act upon it. The House of Commons still refused to open the woollen trade, in whole or in part; and Ireland, now desperate and determined, and treading ominously in the steps of America, adopted the measures which Townshend had suggested, which ✔long before had been recommended by Swift; and resolved to exclude from the Irish market every article of British manufacture which could be produced at home.2 1'Humble petition of the High Sheriff and Grand Jury of Wicklow, April 6, 1779.' S. P. O. 2Resolution taken at the Tholsel, in Dublin, April 26, 1779:"That at this time of universal calamity and distress, when, through a total stagnation of our trade, poverty and wretchedness are now become the portion of those to whom hitherto labour and industry afforded a competency; when the emigration of thousands of our most useful manufacturers renders them acceptable and material acquisitions to other countries, and threatens ruin to our own; when, notwithstanding the most pathetic representations of our addresses, and our late humble petition to the throne, our sister country not only partially and unjustly still prevents us from benefiting by those advantages which the bountiful hand of Providence has bestowed on us, but even tantalizes us with imaginary schemes of improvement, and insults us with permission to cultivate our own soil; when the unjust, illiberal, and impolitic opposition of many self-interested people of Great Britain to the proposed encourage I. 1779. The Viceroy, incapable of thought, and with a CHAP. mind saturated with vulgar English prejudice, could see nothing in this movement but the secret action of French and American emissaries, and was rash enough to dream of prosecution. The law officers, wiser than he, forbade a folly which might have caused immediate insurrection. Weymouth allowed the dangers of the merchants' resolution, but advised Buckinghamshire to be quiet and conciliatory. He bade him tell the popular leaders that his majesty was deeply concerned for his Irish subjects, and was occupied in devising means to relieve their distress.1 Meanwhile he desired the Viceroy to send him his own thoughts on the cause of the distress, and to collect the private sentiments of such of the servants of the Crown and other gentlemen as he could best depend on. The Viceroy complied. He collected the opinions of Lord Lifford (the Chancellor), of Mr. Flood, of Sir Lucius O'Brien, Lord Annaly, Mr. Pery (the Speaker), of Hussey Burgh, and last and most important, of Hely Hutchinson; and the papers drawn by these gentlemen, for the most part calm and wellreasoned, form the best exposition which exists of the poisonous forces which had so long been working in the country. ment of the trade and commerce of this kingdom originates in avarice and ingratitude. . . We will not directly or indirectly import or use any wares, the produce or manufacture of Great Britain, which can be produced or manufactured in this kingdom, until an enlightened policy, founded on principles of justice, shall appear to actuate the inhabitants of certain manufactur- 1 'Lord Weymouth to the Earl BOOK VI. 1779. rents. For himself Lord Buckinghamshire admitted that his own view could be but superficial. In his opinion 'the great leading mischief' had been the rise of The absentees were most to blame, but the resident gentry were in fault almost as much. They lived beyond their incomes. They had heavily encumbered their estates. Between absentee rents, the interest on mortgages, the interest on the now fast accumulating State debt, the profits of pensions and of the many lucrative offices held as sinecures by Englishmen, the aggregate sum sent annually out of the kingdom was out of all proportion to its resources. The soil could not be cultivated, the mines and fisheries could not be developed without capital, and the drain prevented capital from accumulating. Here, so far as the Viceroy could see, was the chief seat of the disease; of the manufacturing grievances others were fitter judges than himself.1 Mr. Flood was hesitating and diffident, as became a patriot in bondage, who was unable to speak his real convictions. Sir Lucius O'Brien demanded free trade, pure and simple. Lord Annaly," an old-experienced lawyer, selected three special influences as working for evil in Ireland-the trade laws, absenteeism, and lastly, the idleness and licentiousness of the lower class of people, which had been greatly increased by the Octennial Bill'-a remark as pregnant as it was unexpected. The patent remedy for Irish evils then and since has been the extension of what is popularly called liberty and self-government. The Octennial Bill was the first move in 16 'Buckinghamshire to Wey- naly in 1776, Chief Justice of the mouth, May 28, 1779.' Court of King's Bench. 2 John Gore, created Baron An |