STATE OF IRELAND IN 1783 107 State and general commerce' ought to be acknowledged, and Ireland ought to bind herself to pay a fixed proportion towards the expense of protecting and defending the Empire. Fox himself, while recognising the completeness and finality of the surrender of all British legislative and judicial supremacy over Ireland that had been made in 1782 and 1783, acknowledged that it was only with extreme reluctance and through irresistible necessity that he had consented to the surrender of the right of external and commercial legislation which left the Empire without one general superintending authority to embrace and comprehend the whole system of its navigation. It was his hope, and it was the hope of other serious politicians, that, while the constitutional questions between the two countries were regarded as finally settled, a treaty might be made which would strengthen the bond of connection by assimilating and defining their commercial arrangements and adjusting other matters that might arise for their reciprocal advantage and their common defence. In December 1783, Pitt's ministry began, and the state of Ireland was one of the first subjects to which his attention was directed. It was in some respects very critical. Two bad harvests and a period of severe commercial depression had caused great distress, with the natural accompaniment of considerable discontent. The Irish Parliament adopted the policy which it usually adopted in time of famine, of imposing an embargo on the export of corn, flour, and potatoes, and at the same time encouraging by a bounty the importation of foreign food. The finances of the country, though not very seriously affected, were by no means good, for the public charges now exceeded the revenue by about 150,000l. a year. The prices of the first necessaries of life were unusually high, and in the commercial centres there was much distress. All this strengthened the force of the protectionist party, which was supported by Flood, and which insisted that Ireland could never resist the overwhelming competition of English manufactures unless her own manufactures obtained by protective duties a decided preference, at least in the home market. Trade outrages of a serious kind had become frequent in Dublin. A violent and seditious press had grown up, and an alarming change had taken place in the volunteer movement. The Volunteer Convention, presided over by Charlemont in November 1783, had for a time seemed likely to become a kind of second Parliament; but it was at least a highly respectable body which was thoroughly loyal to the connection, and it probably represented more truly than the Parliament of College Green the sentiments of the Protestant gentry of Ireland. On its dissolution most of the better class of the volunteers retired into private life. The organisation, however, had not come to an end, and there were alarming signs in 1784 that dangerous demagogues or outlaws were availing themselves of the title of volunteers to obtain arms, and were drilling for their own purposes many of the lower class of the people who were chiefly Roman Catholics. Some political movement was mixing with this. The cry of Catholic franchise was again raised. Parliamentary reform of a democratic type was held up as an ideal to be obtained by the menace, if not by the exercise, of force, and it was believed that there were men who, under the pretext of parliamentary reform, were really aiming at the separation of the two countries. Pitt was an earnest parliamentary reformer. He inherited from his father the belief that unless the British Parliament was fundamentally reformed British liberty could not long survive, and he could not fail to perceive that the Irish Parliament needed reform much more than the English one. Till the French Revolution, and its close PARLIAMENTARY REFORM 109 connection with the doctrine of the natural right of every citizen to political power, threw him, like the majority of his fellow-countrymen, into opposition to all constitutional change, his sincerity, at least as an English parliamentary reformer, is beyond dispute; and those who read his confidential correspondence with the Irish Government in 1784 can as little doubt his earnest desire to carry out some measure of parliamenary reform in Ireland. Though much more liberal towards Catholics than most of his contemporaries, he admitted that at this period it must be on a purely Protestant basis, and he was well aware of the special difficulties to be encountered in Ireland. The Irish Government was strongly opposed to it. Rutland, who was then Lord Lieutenant, wrote that it would be a measure ‘of extreme danger,' though he frankly acknowledged that the existing system of government did not bear the smallest resemblance to representation. If Pitt persisted in his desire to reform the Parliament, Rutland agreed with him that the least dangerous course would be an addition to the number of county members; but he declared himself unable to see how quiet and good government could exist in Ireland under a popular form of government, and he feared that any substantial change of parliamentary influence would seriously strengthen the dangerous elements in the nation-the Dissenters, who were deeply imbued with republican principles-the Catholics, who might easily attain a predominance in a democratic Parliament. Orde, the Chief Secretary, held very similar views. He was persuaded that there was a party in Ireland who had a settled resolution to attempt a perfect separation between the two countries' and with whom parliamentary reform was merely a pretext, or a step towards attaining their object. Fitzgibbon had recently become Attorney-General, and his first principle of Irish government was that the English Cabinet must by all means secure and maintain a complete command over the Irish Parliament. Pitt, however, was not convinced by these representations. He was willing to adjourn the question of reform till the commercial arrangements had been carried, but he was convinced that some reform must be carried in both countries; that if it were carried in England it would be impossible to resist it in Ireland; and that, as soon as a commercial treaty had taken away from Ireland all pretext for considering her interests as separate from those of England, a prudent and temperate reform in that country would strengthen both the connection and the Protestant interest. He naturally looked on the recent proceedings of the volunteers with great alarm. He said very reasonably that he did not in the least object to meetings outside Parliament for petitioning for parliamentary reform, or for communicating political sentiments or for organising lawful measures. But all this was wholly different from what had recently taken place in Ireland; and he fully agreed with Fox that the position the Volunteer Convention had assumed of an armed and rival Parliament was absolutely incompatible with parliamentary government, and that it was of the utmost importance that no concession should be made to it. From this point of view he naturally welcomed the division which had taken place on the subject of the Catholic claims. Too much pains,' he wrote, 'cannot be taken to encourage the salutary jealousy of the designs of the Catholics which begins to show itself. That capital line of division will rend asunder the whole fabric which has been rearing. Finally, too, in my opinion, the Protestant interest must be the bond of union between Ireland and this country.' His own conclusion was that parliamentary GRATTAN'S POLICY 1782-4 111 reform must be carried, and ought to be carried, in both countries, but the Cabinet determined to postpone an Irish Reform Bill till after commercial relations between the two countries had been established on a treaty basis, and if possible till after a Reform Bill had been carried in England. In by far the greater part of this policy Grattan was prepared to support him. At the time, it is true, of the declaration of Irish independence, he had refused to permit any delay for the purpose of entering into a negotiation about the exact limits of the Constitution and the commercial relations, declaring that the constitutional question of the independence of the Irish Parliament must be first and decisively settled; but when this was conceded he was willing and eager to enter into any negotiations that might tend to strengthen the bond between the two countries. In all his policy at this period he steadily acted on his avowed principle of discouraging everything that might tend to alienate Ireland from Great Britain. He moved the address declaring that no further constitutional question existed to disturb the harmony of the two countries. He opposed not only the revival of the constitutional question by Flood, but also the continuation of the Volunteer Convention after the attainment of the independence of the Parliament had been acknowledged. Though an ardent parliamentary reformer, he refused to place the question in the forefront as long as it emanated from an armed body. After the Convention had dissolved itself, he opposed in the strongest terms the continuation of the volunteers, and especially the growing habit of enlisting men of the lowest orders, governed by irresponsible demagogues; and, as we have seen, he strenuously opposed the proposals of Flood for diminishing the Irish army. He was no less firm in opposing the policy of protective duties. |