CHAPTER I. IRISH PARTIES IN THE REIGN OF GEORGE II." THE PATRIOTS." THE city of Dublin became the actual capital of Ireland after the treaty of Limerick. Gradually, by the strong arm of military power, or the silken cords of patronage, the country was drawn to it as to a centre. Once the fortress of invasion, it now bourgeoned into the citadel of a kingdom. Once the seat of a partial representation, (more a parley than a Parliament,) it now began to consider itself a seat of laws and of authority for the whole island, and to assume the tone and leading becoming its position. Two constitutional parties were the first signs that real power had settled there. The government party was composed of all who either had offices or expectations from the viceroy or from England, and of that numerous body who always like to stand well with a government, of whatever sort. Dublin Castle was their club, and from the reign of William till the middle of the century, the successive Protestant primates were their most active chiefs. The Irish House of Lords, created by England, was almost entirely made up of their partisans. The opposition party took the name of "the patriots." Molyneux, member for Trinity College, in William's first Irish Parliament, was its precursor, and after his early death, Swift, Dean of St. Patrick's, became its director and champion through part of Anne's and the entire of George I.'s reign. The policy of this party was to maintain the local independence of the Parliament, to revive Irish commerce and manufactures, to create a public spirit in the boroughs and through the country by their writings, to prevent arable land being laid down in pasture, and the depopulation included in that design. The landlords, who had their titles by conquests still recent, felt no obligation to the tenantry — quite the reverse: as cattle became more profitable than cultivators, they adopted a system of extermination, which left whole estates without other occupants than herds and herdsmen. The selfishness of the class was equal to their inhumanity. The "tithe of agistment," (or tithe of cattle,) an important source of revenue to the establishment, was every where resisted by them. They formed an association for united opposition, and in 1735, they succeeded in having it abolished. The entire tithe charge then fell upon the leaseholders or tenants at will, already burdened with rent, and haunted by the fear of an increased rent, or sudden ejectment to make way for cattle. The policy advocated by the "patriot party" was favorable to the interests of Catholics. If manufactures increased, wages must increase; if depopulation was stayed, the tenants would have leave and room to live. If high culture succeeded grazing, some better tenure than mere occupancy should be conceded to the farmers. If the Parliament became independent, there was reason to expect it would try to strengthen itself at home by extending the constituency. No wise act of native legislation, however interpreted, could be unfavorable to the body of the native population. Indirectly or directly, mediately or immediately, they should be the gainers. So did Providence dispose events, that the intended instruments of provincial oppression became the means of gradual amelioration. But during the reigns of Anne and the two first Georges, the patriots, as a minority, could do but little in College Green. Until 1767, Irish Parliaments sat during the lifetime of the king, unless specially dissolved. The government party had the elections of 1730 their own way; the Parliament then elected lasted thirty years! Upon a body so irresponsible to the nation, and so likely to fall into the harness and the pension list of the castle, the ablest reasoning and the highest eloquence might be spent in vain. The prose and verse of Swift, Sheridan, (the first,) Dobbs, Delaney, Madden, and Malone were, in most cases, thrown away. In 1723, on the question of debasing the Irish currency, for which William Wood had a patent from England, there were some symptoms of public spirit shown in the Commons. But it was with the people the appeals of Swift took most. "I find" (Primate Boulter writes to the English prime minister, the Duke of Newcastle) "the people of every religion, country, and party here are alike set against Wood's halfpence, and that their agreement in this has had a most unhappy influence on the state of this nation, by bringing on intimacies between Papists and the whigs, who before had no correspondence with them."* From this dispute about the currency we may date the return of public spirit, beaten down and exiled in the late war. The patriots, henceforward, entitled themselves, by degrees, to be called the national party. - The series of steps by which the Dublin Parliament advanced towards legislative independence were, at first, altogether financial. In 1723, the Commons addressed the king to consent to a reduction of the supplies, but no notice was taken of their modest request; by 1729, Ireland "owed the government" two hundred and seventyfour thousand pounds a vast sum for that period: in 1731, another petition for reduction went out, with the like result. Every session in future was occupied with a money bill" debate, the supplies being voted annually. Even after the revenues began to yield a surplus, the discussion was kept up, for the principle had taken root. In 1753, a severe struggle for the surplus fund took place, and the politics of Swift triumphed. Several of the leaders in debates at this time were children of the old Catholics. In 1753, Anthony Malone, son of Sir Toby Butler's old colleague, a native of Westmeath, stood at the head of the Irish bar. He was "prime sergeant," and took precedence of the at *Boulter's Letters. torney general among the crown officers. For voting against the castle, on the supplies of 1753, he was ousted, and in 1768, for similar independence, he was removed from his office as chancellor of the exchequer. He was considered by such judges as Grattan the equal of Lord Chatham in parliamentary eloquence.* On the castle side was a very unscrupulous, but very able man, John Healy, who at his marriage assumed the name of Hutchinson. The son of humble Catholic parents in the south, he had resolved to fight his way to rank, and began by disencumbering himself of his proscribed religion. He rose to eminence at the bar and in Parliament; became provost of Trinity College, Earl of Donoughmore, a privy councillor, and one of the richest of the Irish peerage. He gained the whole world of his ambition; but what did it profit him at the hour of death? Sir Lucius O'Brien, and Mr., afterwards Lord O'Neil, members for Antrim and Clare, distinguished themselves on the patriot side. The Dalys, Brownes, Floods, and Fitzgeralds, also of Catholic ancestors, were well-known members of Parliament. The castle was defeated on the money bills, and the surplus revenue was, in future, expended in paying off the national debt, and in forwarding internal improvements. The Viceroys Wharton, Carteret, Grafton, and Chesterfield had seen the rise of the patriot party. Boulter had tried in vain to strangle it. His successor in place and politics, Primate Stone, who is related to him in our history, on a small scale, as Mazarin is to Richelieu in that of France, grappled it in vain. The Duke of Bedford, viceroy from 1750 to 1760, assisted Stone with all the appliances of patronage and power. But it was labor lost; a great party had been created, and it advanced from aggression to aggression. The elder Pitt, who then ruled England, writes to the duke, in 1757, that the parties being "on a near equality in strength," "all softening and healing arts of * Mr. Cornelius O'Callaghan, Jr., a son of Butler's old protégé, was also an active member of these Parliaments. |