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BOOK depressed, probably to be restored again in a few months, as in 1755,1 with double powers and weight, it will only add fuel to the fire, and at last bring the King's authority in Ireland, low as it is, into still greater contempt. If the plan which I have proposed shall be adopted, and the King and his servants have that confidence in me as to think I am a fit person to carry it into execution, his majesty will, I hope, allow me by degrees and on proper occasions to submit to him such changes as shall appear to me necessary."

SECTION II.

NOTWITHSTANDING the dissoluteness of the Dublin workmen, the factiousness of the patriots, and the social disorders which had assumed so menacing an appearance, the material prosperity of Ireland had for twenty years been slowly increasing. The Peace of Aix la Chapelle was the turning point at which, in parts at least of the island, the people began to lay aside their dreams and turn to industry. Even the Whiteboy movement, caused as it had been by the increase of cattle and the rise of rents, was a result and symptom of the upward tendency. The linen manufacture was growing in Ulster. Intelligent country gentlemen were building houses, planting, draining, and raising green crops. Arthur Young, who travelled through the country in 1771, found universally the term of twenty years defined as that at which the upward movement had commenced which was still in progress. The year which followed the dissolution of 1768 was the most productive which had been known for a century; and had the state of public opinion permitted England to recognise that a Parliament was at all times a curse to Ireland and not a blessing; could she have perceived at the same time, without waiting to be taught by calamity, the folly and iniquity of her trade laws, the permanent regeneration of Ireland might have dated from that period.

It was not to be. A new Parliament was elected, but it was not called together before the usual period,

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in the autumn of the following year. The Viceroy used the interval to impress the lesson which he desired Irish politicians to lay to heart. He hoped, though he was far from sanguine, that by straightforward open measures, by the suppression of jobs, by honest administration on the principles which had been laid down by the King, he might find sufficient backing when the legislature reassembled to carry on the business of the state without reverting to the old methods. For a vigorous policy, however, he required the assistance of the Home Government, and the Home Government, as usual, wavered. You are to have all the support,' Lord Weymouth wrote to him in the summer of 1769, that known zeal entitles you to, and your own ideas shall be adopted as to the mode of that support, if there is a moral certainty that you will be successful in procuring a majority. Your sketches of the principal characters in this country are drawn with too much coolness and impartiality, and with too genuine an air of truth, to permit us to doubt their correctness. His majesty arms you with full powers to act as you shall think desirable.

1

your

The Viceroy's 'ideas' had been to make a clean sweep of the dishonest members of the Council, and to fill their places with others of whose conscientiousness he had better expectations. To certainty of success he admitted frankly that he could not pretend. He could not confer confidentially with individual members; he could not canvass for support; he could only repeat his opinion, that if the disastrous habit of buying off opposition was fairly abandoned, and if

Weymouth to Townshend, June 9, 1769. Most secret.'

II.

Government was firm in showing that it would sup- CHAP. port honest men and honest measures, the Shannon and Ponsonby faction would be broken up.

The false servants

Had Chatham continued at the head of affairs, the bold course might have been adopted. But Chatham was gone, and without Chatham the Cabinet who were unwisely brave towards the American colonies, had no army to spare to encounter Irish faction. They advised half measures. of the Crown' were, for the present at least, to remain in their places. They were worthless and unprincipled; they were fishing in troubled waters for their own interest; but they might oppose the supplies if they were removed, and the Viceroy was directed to make one more experiment of temporizing. Very unwillingly he submitted, pleading only to be allowed to show open countenance and favour to the eminent gentlemen who had supported him in his last trial,' if only to show his majesty's determination that though he was pleased to suffer his servants to remain, the power of the kingdom was not to return to its late channel.

There had been, was, and ever would be, but one way of governing Ireland-by putting authority exclusively into the hands of men of personal probity and tried loyalty to the British connection. Untaught by unvarying experience, England has persisted from the beginning in the opposite method. She has sought to rule with the support of men by whom it has been a disgrace to be supported, to sacrifice the known and obvious interests of the Irish people to the intrigues of demagogues for whom the horsewhip would have been a fitter reward. From the days of the Earls of Kildare to the days of the modern Upas

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1769.

Tree she has walked in the same footsteps and always to the same goal. She has encouraged the hostility which she hoped to disarm. She has taught those whom she has wished to conciliate that they may defy and insult her with impunity.

Townshend did not dispute his orders, but as the session approached he continued to repeat his opinion that bolder measures would answer better. I know from the surest sources,' he wrote to Weymouth in August, that there are many gentlemen connected with the Speaker who are waiting only to see whether the English Government will or will not resume its authority.'1 Late in the month he went on progress in Munster, and paid Lord Shannon a visit at Castlemartyr. Ponsonby was staying there also. They were coldly polite, and evidently intended mischief.

'I assure you,' the Viceroy said, there is nothing popular or formidable in these persons or their party. It is the power they derive from the Crown and exercise so fully and largely over this kingdom which subjects the minds of people to them. Neither Lord Shannon nor Mr. Ponsonby could preserve even their common provincial influence without their offices. The Octennial Bill gave the first blow to the dominion of aristocracy in this kingdom. It rests with Government to second the good effects of it, and to re-establish its own authority by disarming those who have turned their arms against it. Only let us be firm and resolute, and all right-minded people will come over to us.'

12

It was not only to reduce the power of the aristocracy in Parliament that the Viceroy was anxious for vigo

1 Townshend to Weymouth, August 18.'

2 To Weymouth, September 13. Most secret and separate.'