the patriots, or Irifh intereft, was Henry Boyle, CHAP. speaker of the commons, afterwards created earl of XXXVI. Shannon. This party received alfo confiderable aid from an individual originally obfcure, whofe activity, talents, and intrepid perfeverence, raifed him to eminence in the efteem of his country

men.

From innovations made in the charters of corporate towns in the reign of Charles the fecond, the power of choofing their own magiftrates had been taken from the commons of the city of Dublin, and placed in the board of aldermen, subject in its exercise on each election to the approbation of the chief governor and privy-council. Charles Lucas, an apothecary, anxious for the rights of the citizens, into whofe common-council he had been admitted, but unable to oppose a pofitive law, difcovered, by a laborious investigation of charters and other records, that encroachments, without legal fanction, had been made on their privileges in other respects. By publishing his difcoveries in 1741, with fuitable obfervations, he raifed a furious conteft, purfued with acrimony, between the commons and aldermen, which, though unavailing to the former, tended to excite in the nation a fpirit of inquiry and oppofition to the invafion of political rights. His publications in favour of the claims of the people, and of Ireland as a feparate kingdom, among which was a memorial to the earl of Harrington, the lord lieutenant, gave at length fuch an alarm to the partizans of adminiftration, that a refolution was taken

to

Lucas.

XXXVI.

CHAP. to crush him at once by the hand of power. For this purpose the intereft of the court was exerted with fuch fuccefs, that in the October of 1749, the house of common in parliament voted Lucas an enemy to his country, and, by humble addreffes to the viceroy, requested the profecution of the offender by the attorney-general, and the iffuing of a proclamation for the feizure of his perfon. Unable to withftand fo formidable a force, he retired into exile, whence he was deftined to return, fome years after, with augmented honour, to be elected a reprefentative in parliament for the city of Dublin, in his pursuit of which office he had at this time been fruftrated by ministerial influence.

Notwithstanding this partial defeat, the popular party was gaining ftrength. Under the viceroyalty of the earl of Harrington, who fucceeded Chefterfield in, 1746, a question was started concerning the difpofal of national revenue in a particular cafe, which remained undetermined till the fecond adminiftration of the duke of Dorset, who returned to Nevll. Ireland as the fucceffor of Harrington in 1751. Pre

viously to this determination an important point was gained in the punishment of one of thofe delinquents of state, who had hitherto been protected from juftice by the parliamentary influence of the cabinet. Arthur Jones-Nevil, a member for the county of Wexford, furveyor and engineer-general, was, in the March of 1752, on an examination by a committee of the house of commons, found guilty of fcandalous embezzlement of the public money

XXXVI

in a contract for the building and repairing of CHAP. barracks; was ordered by a refolution of the commons to fulfil his contract without any additional charge to the public; and in the November of the following year, was expelled the house, on the report of a committee that he had not complied with this refolution,

VOL. IL

CHAP.

CHAP. XXXVII.

CHAP.

National debt of Ireland--Difpute about previous confent-Difcontents--Kildare's memorial-Change of adminiftration-Parliamentary tranfactions-National poverty and partial remedies-Violence of a mob-Threats of a French invafion-Thurot's defcent-Whiteboys-Hearts of Oak-Parliamentary tranfactions-Octennial bill-New Syftem of adminiftration-News-papers--A parliamentRejection of a money-bill-Second feffion of the Octennial parliament, &c.--Death of LucasHearts of Steel-Emigration to America.

XXXVII THE national debt of Ireland, which had been National principally occafioned by an unlimited vote of credit,

debt,

given to government by the house of commons in 1715, as an aid against the rebellion then excited in North-Britain, had, by the poverty of the nation, encreased, in eighteen years, from fixteen thousand to three hundred and feventy-one thoufand pounds. In the application of public money for the discharge of this debt, when, in fome years afterwards, from the augmentation of the linen manufacture and fome

other

XXXVII

other favourable circumftances, the national poverty CHAP. had become in fome degree diminished, an occafion was taken for a trial of parliamentary ftrength between the two factions of patriots and courtiers.

about pre

fent.

By an act amounting to a perpetual money-bill, in the reign of Charles the second, a hereditary revenue vious conwas fettled on the crown, which proved more than 1753. fufficient for the fupport of government till after the revolution, when an additional supply was granted by the commons. When, in 1749, of a furplus of two hundred and twenty thoufand pounds, remaining in the treasury, after the discharge of all the expenses of government, an act was paffed for the application of a hundred and twenty-eight thoufand five hundred pounds toward the payment of the national debt, a question arose, whether in the king or the commons refided the right of difpofing of this furplus? If the redundancy had arifen from the hereditary revenue alone, the right of its difpofal would have indisputably rested in the king; but it was of a compound nature, partly derived from the hereditary, partly from the additional duties.

The king was, however, affured by his judges and counsellors that his previous confent was neceffary for the application of this money. Therefore 175, when heads of a bill were certified into England for the difcharge of a hundred and twenty thousand pounds of the national debt from a surplus of two hundred and forty-eight thoufand in the treafury, the duke of Dorfet, the lord lieutenant, informed the commons, in his fpeech from the