3

vote. It was plain that corrupt interests could only be overcome by corruption. Nomination boroughs must be bought and their members indemnified, county interests conciliated, officers and expectant lawyers compensated, opponents bribed. Lord Castlereagh estimated the cost of these expedients at a million and a half; and the price was forthcoming.2 The purchase of boroughs was no new scheme, having been proposed by Mr. Pitt himself, as the basis of his measure of Parliamentary reform in 1785 ; and now it was systematically carried out in Ireland. The patrons of boroughs received 7,500l. for each seat; and eighty-four boroughs were disfranchised. Lord Downshire was paid 52,500l. for seven seats; Lord Ely, 45,000l. for six.5 The total compensation amounted to 1,260,000%.* Peers were further compensated for the loss of their privileges in the national council, by profuse promises of English peerages, or promotion in the peerage of Ireland; commoners were conciliated by new honors, and by the 1 Jan. 22d, 1799. Ayes, 106; Noes, 105. - Cornwallis Corr., iii. 40–51. 2 Castlereagh Corr., ii. 151. His lordship divided the cost as follows: Boroughs, 756,000l.; county interests, 224,000l.; barristers, 200,000l.; purchasers of seats, 75,000l.; Dublin, 200,000l.; total, 1,433,000l. — Cornwallis Corr., iii. 81; Stanhope's Life of Pitt, iii. 180. Lord Cornwallis wrote, July 1st, 1799:-"There cannot be a stronger argument for the measure than the overgrown Parliamentary power of five or six of our pampered borough-mongers, who are become most formidable to government, by their long possession of the entire patronage of the crown, in their respective districts."- Corr., iii. 110.

8 Supra, Vol. I., p. 317.

4 Of the thirty-four boroughs retained, nine only were open. Cornwallis Corr., iii. 234, 324. See list of boroughs disfranchised and sums paid to proprietors. Ibid., 321-324. The Ponsonbys exercised influence over twenty-two seats; Lord Downshire and the Beresfords, respectively, over nearly as many. Twenty-three of the thirty-four boroughs remained close until the Reform Act of 1832. — Ibid., 324. Many of the counties also continued in the hands of the great families. Ibid.; and see supra, Vol. I., 288.

5 Plowden's Hist., ii. 1018, 1067; Castlereagh Corr., iii. 56-67; Cornwallis Corr., iii. 324; Stanhope's Life of Pitt, iii. 227.

6 Cornwallis Corr., iii. 323.

7 Castlereagh Corr., iii. 330; Cornwallis Corr., iii. 244, 252, 257, 262. Twenty-nine Irish peerages were created, of which seven were unconnected

largesses of the British government. Places were given or promised, pensions multiplied, secret-service money exhausted.1 In vain Lord Cornwallis complained of the "political jobbing" and "dirty business" in which he was "involved beyond all bearing," and "longed to kick those whom his public duty obliged him to court." In vain he "despised and hated himself," while "negotiating and jobbing with the most corrupt people under heaven.” 2 British gold was sent for, and distributed ; and, at length, in defiance of threats of armed resistance, in spite of insidious promises of relief to Catholics,5 and corrupt defection among the supporters of government, the cause was won. A great end was compassed by means the most base and shameless. Grattan, Lord Charlemont, Ponsonby, Plunket, with the Union; twenty Irish Peers were promoted, and six English peerages granted for Irish services. — Ibid., 318. See also Lord Stanhope's Life of Pitt, iii. 180.

6

1 Cornwallis Corr., iii. 278, 340; Grattan's Life, v. iii.

2 Cornwallis Corr., iii. 102. The luckless viceroy applied to himself the appropriate lines of Swift:

"So to effect his monarch's ends,
From hell a viceroy devil ascends:
His budget with corruption cramm'd-
The contributions of the damn'd—
Which with unsparing hand he strows
Through courts and senates, as he goes;
And then, at Beelzebub's black hall,
Complains his budget is too small."

8 Cornwallis's Corr., iii. 151, 156, 201, 202, 226, 309; Cotte's Hist. of the Union.

4 Ibid., 167, 180.

5 Ibid., 51, 55, 63, 149; Castlereagh Corr., ii. 45, et supra, p. 335.

6" Sir R. Butler, Mahon, and Fetherstone were taken off by county cabals during the recess, and Whaley absolutely bought by the Opposition stock purse. He received, I understand, 20007. down, and is to receive as much more after the service is performed. We have undoubted proofs, though not such as we can disclose, that they are enabled to offer as high as 5000l. for an individual vote, and I lament to state that there are individuals remaining amongst us that are likely to yield to this temptation." -Lord Castlereagh to Duke of Portland, Feb. 7th, 1800; Cornwallis Corr., iii. 182. The enemy, to my certain knowledge, offer 5000l. ready money for a vote." - Lord Cornwallis to Bishop of Lichfield; Ibid., 184.

and a few patriots continued to protest against the sale of the liberties and free constitution of Ireland. Their eloquence and public virtue command the respect of posterity; but the wretched history of their country denies them its sympathy.1

The terms of the union were now speedily adjusted, and

Terms of the union.

ratified by the Parliaments of both countries.2 Ireland was to be represented, in the Parliament of the United Kingdom, by four spiritual lords, sitting by rotation of sessions; by twenty-eight temporal peers, elected for life by the Irish peerage; and by a hundred members of the House of Commons. Her commerce was at length admitted to a freedom which, under other conditions, could not have been attained.3

Results of

Such was the incorporation of the two countries; and henceforth the history of Ireland became the histhe union. tory of England. Had Mr. Pitt's liberal and enlightened policy been carried out, the Catholics of Ireland would have been at once admitted to a participation in the privileges of the constitution; provision would have been made for their clergy; and the grievances of the tithe system Iwould have been redressed. But we have seen how his statesmanship was overborne by the scruples of the king;5 and how long and arduous was the struggle by which religious liberty was won. The Irish were denied those rights which English statesmen had designed for them. Nor was this the worst evil which followed the fall of Mr. Pitt, and the reversal of his policy. So long as narrow Tory principles prevailed in the councils of England, the government of Ireland was confided to the kindred party at the castle. Protestant ascendency was maintained as rigorously as ever: Catholics

1 Grattan's Life, v. 17, et seq., 75–180.

2 39 & 40 Geo. III. c. 67; 40 Geo. III. c. 38. (Ireland.)

8 39 & 40 Geo. III. c. 67.

4 Letter of Mr. Pitt, Nov. 17th, 1798; Cornwallis Corr., ii. 440; Lord Stanhope's Life of Pitt, iii. 160.

Vol. I. 85; and supra, p. 336.

were governed by Orangemen; the close oligarchy which had ruled Ireland before the union was still absolute. Repression and coercion continued to be the principles of its harsh domination. The representation of Ireland, in the united Parliament, continued in the hands of the same party, who supported Tory ministers, and encouraged them to resist every concession which more liberal statesmen proposed. Political liberties and equality were withheld; yet the superior moderation and enlightenment of British statesmen secured a more equitable administration of the laws, and much remedial legislation, designed for the improvement of the social and material condition of the people. These men earnestly strove to govern Ireland well, within the range of their narrow principles. The few restrictions which the union had still left upon her commerce were removed; 2 her laws were reviewed, and their administration amended; her taxation was lightened; the education of her people encouraged; her prosperity stimulated by public works. Despite of insufficient capital and social disturbance, her trade, shipping, and manufactures expanded with her freedom.8

1 Lord Cornwallis had foreseen this evil. He wrote, May 1st, 1800:"If a successor were to be appointed who should, as almost all former lords-lieutenants have done, throw himself into the hands of this party, no advantage would be derived from the Union." - Corr., iii. 237. Again, Dec. 1st, 1800:-"They assert that the Catholics of Ireland (seven tenths of the population of the country) never can be good subjects to a Protestant government. What then have we done, if this position be true? We have united ourselves to a people whom we ought, in policy, to have destroyed." Ibid., 307. Again, Feb. 15th, 1801:-"No consideration could induce me to take a responsible part with any administration who can be so blind to the interest, and indeed to the immediate security, of their country, as to persevere in the old system of proscription and exclusion in Ireland." — Ibid., 337.

2 Corn trade, 46 Geo. III. c. 97; Countervailing Duties, 4 Geo. IV. c. 72; Butter trade, 8 Geo. IV. c. 61; 9 Geo. IV. c. 88.

8 See debate on Repeal of the Union, April 1834, and especially Mr. Spring Rice's able and elaborate speech. - Hans. Deb., 3d Ser., xxii. 1092; et seq. Martin's Ireland before and after the Union, 3d ed., pref., and chap. ii. iii., &c.

secured by Relief Act and reform.

At length, after thirty years, the people of Ireland were Irish liberties admitted to the rights of citizens. The Catholic Relief Act was speedily followed by an amendment of the representation; and from that time, the spirit of freedom and equality has animated the administration of Irish affairs. The party of Protestant ascendency was finally overthrown; and rulers pledged to a more liberal policy, guided the councils of the state. Ireland shared with England every extension of popular rights. The full development of her liberties, however, was retarded by the factious violence of parties, by the divisions of Orangemen and repealers, by old religious hatreds, by social feuds and agrarian outrages, and by the wretchedness of a population constantly in excess of the means of employment. The frightful visitation of famine in 1846, succeeded by an unparalleled emigration, swept from the Irish soil more than a fourth of its people.1 Their sufferings were generously relieved by England; and, grievous as they were, the hand of God wrought greater blessings for the survivors, than any legislation of man could have accomplished.

The Irish famine.

Freedom

and equality tions,

of Ireland.

In the midst of all discouragements, in spite of clamors and misrepresentation, in defiance of hostilé facthe executive and the legislature have nobly striven to effect the political and social regeneration of Ireland. The great English parties have honorably vied with one another in carrying out this policy. Remedial legislation for Ireland, and the administration of her affairs, have, at some periods, engrossed more attention than the whole British empire. Ancient feuds have yet to be extinguished, and religious divisions healed; but nothing has been wanting that the wisdom and beneficence of

1 In the ten years, from 1841 to 1851, it had decreased from 8,175,124 to 6,552,385, or 19.85 per cent. The total loss, however, was computed at 2,466,414. The decrease amounted to forty-nine persons to every square mile. Census Report, 1851.