of Strabane. Of the signatories, three were of Irish birth; five more the sons of Irishmen. In the war itself, the colonial ranks were so filled with men of the Irish race that one authority considers that they amounted to almost a half of the total number. John Barry of Wexford was "the Father of the American Navy." Two Irish generals, Moylan and Knox, commanded Washington's cavalry and artillery respectively. At the battle of Saratoga (1777), which first turned the tide in favour of the Americans, five Irish generals took part in the fighting. Perhaps most important of all in influencing the final result of the war was the action of thirty Irishmen of Philadelphia, who, when Washington's army was almost starved at Valley Forge, raised amongst them a subscription of half-a-million dollars, and relieved the wants of the troops (1778). Of the Irish-Americans of that period the greater number were Ulster Presbyterians, who had been obliged to leave their homes owing to the iniquitous laws by which Irish trade was ruined, and of which we shall speak in the next chapter. In Latin America, too, the Irish exiles made their mark. Ambrose O'Higgins, born in Co. Meath about 1720, became Viceroy of Chili and afterwards of Peru (1789-1794). When Chili revolted and threw off the power of Spain, O'Higgins' son, Bernard, headed the revolutionists. Bernard was named "the Liberator of Chili," and was for several years President of the Republican Congress (1818-1823). His equestrian statue stands to-day in the chief square of Santiago. In his political labours he was ably seconded by John Macnamara, a Tyrone man, himself of distinguished ability. CHAPTER IV THE RUIN OF IRISH TRADE We have seen how, by the enactment of the Penal Laws, the Catholics who constituted the bulk of the inhabitants of Ireland were deprived of their religious, political and social rights, and placed in a position of inferiority to the Protestant minority. But the English Government, while allowing the Protestants, and especially those of the State Church, thus to trample on their fellow-countrymen, was itself quite prepared to trample on them in turn, whenever any real or fancied advantage for England was to be gained by so doing. Ruin of the Wool Trade.-We have told (Chap XII, Book V) how, when her cattle trade was ruined by the Act of 1667, Ireland turned to the promotion of her woollen manufactures. In this she made good progress and developed a considerable foreign trade. After the termination of the Williamite Wars, the industries which they had interrupted were resumed, and the Irish cloth exports continued to increase. The English traders grew alarmed, and began to send petitions to the King, declaring their fears lest the Irish, owing to the lowness of taxation and the cheapness of labour in Ireland, might be able to undersell them, and so to ruin not only their foreign, but even their home market; and praying that they might be "restrained." William promised to consider their request, and on receiving a report from the Commissioners of Trade to the effect that the alarm expressed was well grounded, and further an address in the same sense from both English Houses, he proceeded to do as they asked. In September, 1698, the Lord Justices put before the Irish Houses, at his Majesty's command, a Bill entitled " An Act for laying an additional Duty upon Woollen Manufactures exported out of this Kingdom." The servile Parliament passed the Bill, though the majority in its favour was very narrow in the Lords, and not large even in the Commons. The duties imposed on fine cloths were so heavy as almost to ruin the trade; but friezes were, for the present, exempt. In 1699, however, an English Act was passed, prohibiting absolutely the export of Irish woollen or mixed woollen goods to any country whatever, except England, and there the high duties were retained. At the same time, English woollen stuffs coming to Ireland paid only a very small tax. 66 Terrible distress resulted in Ireland from these regulations. Thousands of families, for the most part Protestants, had subsisted by the woollen trade. Then a great tide of emigration flowed, especially from Ulster. The traders who remained behind were reduced to the utmost distress. The cry of the people was loud for bread," we hear. After all, England profited little by the cruel and short-sighted legislation which harmed Ireland so much. She did not capture new Continental markets, nor even retain her old ones. The European countries began, often with the help of the expatriated Irish weavers, to set up manufactures of woollen cloth for themselves, or to improve those which they already possessed. Louis XIV accorded special religious toleration to skilled Protestant woollen workers from Ireland. A colony of them developed the cloth industry of Rouen. Another went to Germany and established woollen manufactures in Saxony. Catholics settled in Spain and Portugal. Soon Spain was able to produce stuff for her own troops, instead of, as she had hitherto done, purchasing the cloth for their uniforms abroad, and frequently in England. Other Trades Destroyed. The woollen trade was by no means the only Irish industry which was ruined by the selfish commercial jealousy of England. An infant cotton industry was crushed by the imposition of heavy duties in the reigns of William and of Anne. Irish silk and Irish gloves were excluded entirely from Great Britain, so too was Irish salt. After the Williamite wars, Ireland had started the manufacture of glass, for which the good quality of her kelp gave her special facilities. An Act of 1737 forbade Ireland to import glass from any country but Great Britain; one of 1746 prohibited her from exporting her own glass at all. The glass industry languished till the trade relaxations of 1780 for a while revived it. Fisheries: The Provision Trade: The Linen Trade.-The only branches of Irish industry not attacked by legislation were fisheries, linen, and, during the greater part of the century, the provision trade. The fisheries were simply let alone, except in so far as the restrictions on the salt trade adversely affected them, the import of salt being heavily taxed. In 1698, the fishermen of Folkestone and Aldborough petitioned the British Parliament to prevent the Irish from catching herrings at Waterford and Wexford, as this "forestalled and ruined their market," but they received no satisfaction for the injury. After 1778, the Irish Parliament made successful efforts to develop the Irish fisheries by a series of bounties. Irish herrings, in particular, gained a great reputation abroad. The provision trade was wholly with foreign countries, Ireland not being permitted to send her provisions to England. It increased very rapidly, and huge quantities of beef, pork and butter, as well as such "by-products" as tallow and hides were exported, a great deal going to the British plantations. A series of embargoes on the export of provisions from Ireland abroad, imposed from 1770 to 1780, was ruinous to the trade and caused great distress. After 1780 it revived. When the woollen industry was destroyed by statute, special encouragement for the linen manufacture had been promised as a compensation. In point of fact, however, nothing was done for a considerable time by the Parliament. King William made some efforts himself to promote the Irish linen manufactures, and induced Louis Crommelin, a Huguenot refugee, who had been head of a linen factory in France, to settle in Lisburn, giving him an annual salary (1698). Crommelin's efforts were crowned with success, and Lisburn became the centre of a thriving industry. Irish linens were admitted freely to England, but the colonial market was closed to her till 1705, when permission was given her to send plain coarse linens to the British colonies. This permission was renewed in 1730, but only on condition that British linens should be allowed into Ireland without duty. At the same time, so high a duty was imposed at British ports on dyed and fancy linens from Ireland that these were practically shut out. In 1743, 1746 and 1770, the British Parliament passed Acts by which bounties were given for the export to foreign countries of all classes of British linens, and of plain Irish linens, coarse and fine. Thus, in her foreign markets, Ireland had to contend in regard to her fancy linens with the bounty-fed products of Great Britain, for she was not permitted by England to give bounties on her own. Great efforts were made by the Irish Parliament to promote the linen industry. Acts for its encouragement were frequently passed, and grants, amounting in some years to as much as £33,000, were made to the Linen Board established in 1711. At first the trade developed slowly, but as the century advanced the progress grew more rapid. The linen manufacture had become the staple industry of Ireland, and fortunately the fears often expressed that the jealousy of manufacturers across the Channel would cause this too to be destroyed, as the rest had been, were not realised. CHAPTER V THE IRISH PARLIAMENT THE public life of eighteenth-century Ireland-that is to say of that minority of its population which was permitted to have any public life at all-centred round the Parliament. It was now held always in Dublin, occupying, from 1739 on, the stately building which still stands in College Green. From 1715 till 1783 there was, as a rule, but one session of six months every two years. In the Lower House there were 300 members, of whom 64 sat for the 32 counties of Ireland; the rest for cities and boroughs. All were, or were supposed to be, members of the Established Church. The Franchise: Corruption of the Parliament.-The Franchise on which the members were elected was uniform for the counties-all males over twenty-one years of age, not excluded by religious disabilities and owning leasehold property of the annual value of £10, or freehold property of the annual value of forty shillings, were entitled to vote. In the boroughs there was great variety; some were open," all burgesses and freemen voting; others were "close," the franchise being confined to a very few. 66 The voting was in all cases open, so that the vote, of the smaller tenant especially, usually expressed rather his landlord's than his own political convictions. Any attempt at independence was generally punished by some of the many ways by which the despotic lord of the soil could show his displeasure. The whole electorate of a borough, which was often very small, might be thus in the power of one man. An individual might even own a number of these boroughs. George Ponsonby is noted as controlling twenty-two in the Parliament of 1775. Such seat or seats were regarded generally as the absolute property of the patron, who disposed of them by gift or sale as he pleased. The price paid varied. Grattan, in the closing decade of the century, puts it at £3,000. The person named by the patron was at once elected without a contest. Besides the holders of these nomination boroughs, there were also in the Irish Parliament a great number of placemen and pensioners |