DEBATE ON IRISH AFFAIRS. money voted, the Lord Lieutenant severely reprimanded the Parliament for the violation of the law in rejecting the bill sent down by the Privy Council; and, having ordered his protest to that effect to be entered on the journals, he immediately prorogued them. 463 Ch. 11. 1770 Irish affairs. This arbitrary measure, although in accordance Debate on with precedent, caused much excitement in Ireland and was the subject of a party motion in the English House of Commons. The debate was remarkable for the absence of sympathy with the real grievance of the Irish legislature. Not a word appears to have been said with respect to the denial of that first and essential privilege of a representative body, the entire and exclusive right, namely, of taxation. But the government was denounced by the Opposition for having prorogued, when they ought to have dissolved, a Parliament which had a great amount of important business before it. They were, no doubt, censurable for having taken a course which postponed the whole legislation of the country; but this consideration was insignificant, in comparison with the paramount importance of the principle at issue between the Irish Parliament and the Crown. The House of Commons at Westminster, however, regarded the House of Commons at Dublin in the same light as the House of Burgesses at Virginia, or the Assembly at Boston. The provincial character was common to all; nor could they be permitted to advance pretensions 464 Ch. 11. 1770 REJECTION OF WALSINGHAM'S MOTION. inconsistent with due subordination to the Imperial Parliament. Walsingham's motion, though supported by Grenville and Burke excited little interest; and was negatived by a large majority in a thin House. ADDENDA TO CHAP. XI. ministry. (A. p. 430.) 'I was in town on Wednesday last; saw Policy of Rockingham's Lord Rockingham, and learned nothing more than what I knew before; namely, that the marquis is an honest and honourable man, but that moderation, moderation' is the burden of the song among the body. For myself, I am resolved to be in earnest for the public, and shall be a scarecrow of violence to the gentle warblers of the grove, the moderate Whigs and temperate statesmen.'-Chatham to Calcraft.— Correspondence, vol. iii. p. 469. 'They are well acquainted with the difference between the Bill of Rights and your lordship's friends, and they are very insolently rejoiced at it. They respect and fear that wretched knot beyond anything you can readily imagine, and far more than any part, or all the other parts of the Opposition.'-Burke to Rockingham.-BURKE's Correspondence, vol. i. p. 237. (B. p. 447.) Let it be sufficient, when I tell you that I Beckford's have been menaced with impeachment, sequestration of my livery. speech to the estates and banishment; but I was supported by a worthy colleague, one of your representatives, and your two worthy sheriffs; and I verily believe that without such support, something very hostile and disagreeable to me, your Lord Mayor, would have been the consequence.'-BECKFORD'S Speech to the Livery on announcing the King's Answer to the Address and Remonstrance.-Gentleman's Magazine, vol. xl. p. 166. send's resist (C. p. 448.) Upon this view, that the House of Com- Sheriff Townmons, by their vote on the Middlesex election, had ceased to ance to the become a legal assembly, Sheriff Townsend refused to pay land-tax. the land-tax; and being distrained upon, brought an action of trespass against the bailiff. Lord Mansfield, who tried the cause, told the jury that the only question was, whether 466 The Bill of Rights' society. Col. Mackay's statement of Boston. ADDENDA TO CHAP. XI. there was any government in the country? The verdict was for the defendant. (D. p. 453.) I may be reminded that the assembly of North Carolina sent £1500 to the Society for the support of the Bill of Rights. But the democratic doctrines of that Society met with little support. (E. p. 456.) Colonel Mackay, who spoke from personal the acceptance knowledge, derived from recent military service in the colony, of soldiers in stated in the House of Commons, that the clamour against the troops was confined to a few individuals of no great importance. And as a proof that they were not unpopular, he mentioned that £60,000 had been spent in the town in consequence of their being quartered in town. The farmers and tradesmen could now get a good price and ready money for their produce and goods; therefore, so far from being discontented at the presence of the military, they were delighted to have them. There always are an abundance of 'respectable' people, as the gallant colonel termed them, ready, under any circumstances, to welcome soldiers or any other class of persons who circulate money. The English farmer, for example, is generally an advocate for war, because it brings high prices. Practice of the House of Commons. (F. p. 461.) The practice of the House of Commons, of which the earliest record is the 22nd of March 1603, to commence the business of the session by reading a bill, is supposed by Hatsell to be a claim of right on the part of the Commons to proceed in the first place upon any matter which they think material, without being limited to give a preference to the subjects contained in the King's Speech.HATSELL, Precedents, vol. ii. p. 58.-' Before Her Majesty's Speech is reported, some bill is read a first time pro forma.' —Rules, Orders and Proceedings of the House of Commons, rule 34-1854. CHAPTER XII. DISUNION OF THE OPPOSITION-ANOTHER CITY AD- 1770 sions of the THE session of Parliament closed on the 19th of Ch. 12. May, leaving the government uninjured by the vigorous efforts of the opposition in both Houses, Mutual dissenas well as out of doors. Nor is this result by any Opposition. means unaccountable. There was no frank or cordial intercourse between the leaders of the parties in alliance against the Court. Rockingham, proud of his position as chief of the Whigs, and bigoted to the tradition of government by the great Revolution-families, was jealous of the predominance of Chatham. Himself a rigid Whig, he probably regarded Chatham as unsound in doctrine, and in some measure as an upstart who ought not to take too great a lead in affairs which appertained to hereditary statesmen. Rockingham was certainly much scandalised by the irregular connection which |