The public mind was much agitated by these proceedings, and many undue means were used to exaggerate the evil, and convert it into a Popish plot to overturn the government, to massacre the Protestants, and to favour our enemies in their dreaded invasion. Acts of popular outrage are committed generally by the lower order of the people; and as that order principally consists in this kingdom of Roman Catholics, it was in some respect a natural consequence to attribute the misdemeanours of the Southern insurgents, indiscriminately, to persons of that per suasion. The House of Commons therefore appointed a committee "to enquire into the causes and progress of (what was termed) the Popish insurrection in the province of Munster."

*On the 23d of January, 1762, Mr. Hamilton, secretary to Lord Halifax, communicated to the House of Commons the message from the lord lieutenent, by which he informed them, that he had it in command from his majesty, that after the most conciliatory efforts which his majesty's moderation could dictate, or his royal dignity permit, affairs had been brought to an unhappy, though on his side inevitable, rupture with the court of Spain: that in consequence his majesty had directed an immediate augmentation of five battalions to the establishment, which would render some further supplies unavoidably necessary beyond those which they had already so liberally granted. And although in this address to parliament there be an exclusive and particular application to his majesty's Protestant subjects of Ireland, it was not as before had been the usual style of the castle, to call upon them to make head against, to resist, or punish the common enemy; but as none but Protestants were members of the house which he was then addressing, and none but they could affect the revenue, his majesty having in all exigencies the most full and firm reliance on the experienced affection and loyalty of his faithful Protestant subjects of Ireland, entertained no doubt that they would concur with their usual cheerfulness and unanimity in raising the additional supplies. The commons immediately resolved on an address of thanks to the lord lieutenant, "the world, except a sworn person belonging to the society called White Boys, "or otherwise....Sive Ultagh's Children.

"Furthermore I swear, that I will be ready at an hour's warning, if possible, “being properly summoned by any of the officers, serjeants, or corporals be "longing to my company.

"Furthermore I swear, that I will not wrong any of the company I belong "to, of the value of one shilling; nor suffer it to be done by others, without acquainting them thereof.

"Futhermore I swear, I will not make known, in any shape whatever, to any person that does not belong to us, the name or names of any of our fraternity, "but particularly the names of our respective officers.

"Lastly I swear, that I will not drink of any liquor whatsoever, whilst on duty, without the consent of one or other of the officers, serjeants, or corporals; and that we will be loyal to one another as far as in our power lies." 8 Journ. Com. p, 136.

to return thanks for the very important communications he had been pleased to make them; and to assure his excellency of the entire satisfaction which they had received from his prudent and just administration, during the course of which he had fully maintained the dignity of the crown, and at the same time gained the affection and esteem of the whole kingdom. In consequence of this message, the augmentation was accordingly ordered, and another vote of credit passed for the raising of 500,000l. at five per cent. The House of Commons also shortly after resolved, that an address should be presented to the lord lieutenant, requesting that he would represent to his majesty the sense of that house, that the entertainments and appointments of the lord lieutenant of Ireland had become inadequate to the dignity of that high station, and that it was the humble desire of that house that his majesty would be pleased to grant such an augmentation to the entertainments of the lord lieutenant for the time being, as, with the then allowances, should in the whole amount to the annual sum of 16,000l. which measure was also effected.

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At the close of the session of 1762, Lord Halifax, in his speech to the parliament, thus alluded to the insurrections of the White Boys:† "I must with concern observe, that not"withstanding the exemplary behaviour of all ranks of people "in this metropolis, and throughout the greatest part of this king"dom, some distant quarters of the country have been unhappily disturbed with tumults and riots of the lower sort of people. I have on this occasion been reluctantly obliged to call out "the military power, which is sometimes the necessary, but ought always to be the last resource of government. The "officers ordered on that service have executed their duty with "activity and discretion. These tumults are, I hope, wholly suppressed. Many of the persons concerned in them are in custody, and await the punishment of their offences. Others are fled from justice, and seem to want only an occasion "of returning to their respective habitations with impunity." Amongst the various duties of the historian, it is not the last or least, to point out the sources of disorders, as the best and most efficient antidotes and remedies against their repetition. Although the White Boys were generally suppressed, yet the spirit of insurrection was not eradicated: the roots of the evil had spread wider than the province of Munster; for elsewhere also the lower orders were wretched, oppressed, and impover ished.

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As one insurrection has frequently proved to be an encouragement or prelude to another, so Ireland was soon after disturbed

This would not have been the language of the commons, had there then in reality existed a Popish conspiracy against the government of the country, as the malevolent party was endeavouring to make the public believe.

7 Journ. Com. p. 173.

by risings in other parts, but grounded on different principles; Oak Boys and Hearts of Steel Boys made their appearance successively, in the northern countries.

The highways in Ireland were formerly made and repaired by the labour of housekeepers. He who had a horse, was obliged to work six days in the year; himself and horse: he who had none, was to give six days labour. It had been long complained, that the poor alone were compelled to work; that the rich had been exempt; that instead of mending the public roads, the sweat of their brows was wasted on private roads, useful only to overseers. At length in the years 1763 and 1764, they shewed their resentment. In the most populous, manufacturing, and consequently civilized part of the province of Ulster, the inhabitants of one parish refused to make more of what they called jobroads. They rose almost to a man, and from the oaken branches, which they wore in their hats, were denominated Oak Boys.

The discontent being as general as the grievance, the contagion seized the neighbouring parishes: from parishes it flew to baronies, and from baronies to counties, till at length the greater part of the province was engaged. The many-headed monster (as Dr. Campbell observes) being now roused, did not know where to stop, but began a general redress of grievances, whether real or imaginary. Their first object was the overseers of roads; the second the clergy, whom they resolved to curtail of their tithes; the third was the landlords, the price of whose lands (particularly the turf bogs) they set about regulating. They had several inferior objects, which only discovered the phrensy of insurrection.

The army was hereupon collected from the other provinces ; for till then the province of Ulster was deemed so peaceful, that scarcely any troops were quartered in it. The rabble was soon dispersed, with the loss of a few lives; and the tumult was to appearance quelled in a few weeks. In the ensuing session of parliament, the matter was taken into consideration; the old act was repealed, and provision made for the future repairs of the roads, by levying a tax on both rich and poor. The cause of the discontent being thus happily removed, peace and quiet returned to their former channels. The rising of the Steel Boys was not so general, but it was more violent, as proceeding from a more particularly interesting cause ;....the source of it was this: An absentee nobleman, possessed of one of the largest estates in the kingdom, instead of letting it when out of lease, for the highest rent, adopted a novel mode, of taking large fines and small rents. The occupier of the ground, though willing to give the highest rent, was unable to pay the fines; and therefore

dispossessed by the wealthy undertaker, who not contented with a moderate interest for his money, racked the rents to a pitch above the reach of the old tenant.

Upon this the people rose against forestallers, destroying their houses, and maiming their cattle, which now occupied their former farms. When thus driven to acts of desperation, they knew not how to confine themselves to their original object, but became like the Oak Boys, general reformers. The army however soon subdued them, and some who were made prisoners, having suffered by the hands of the executioner, the country was restored to its pristine tranquillity. Both these insurrections being in the north, the most opulent, populous, and civilized part of the kingdom, we may observe have no similitude to that of the White Boys in the south, either in their causes or in their effects, except in the general idea of oppression. The cause which generated the one being removed, and that of the other being only temporary, the duration of neither was long: the rise and fall of each was like that of a mountain river, which swelled by a broken cloud, at once overwhelms all around, and then shrinks down as suddenly into its accustomed bed.

The government of Lord Halifax ended with the session of 1762: this year was an eventful æra to the British empire. Mr. Pitt*, and afterwards the Duke of Newcastle, retired from his majesty's councils to make room for Lord Bute's administration, who is now generally admitted to have brought with him the highest sublimation of Tory principles (with the exception of Jacobitism), and to have commanded more personal influence over his sovereign, than a Buckingham or a Clarendon. This change in his majesty's councils was the first check given to the Whig interest, by a prince of the house of Brunswick.

No part of the British empire was more sincerely and deeply affected by the success of his majesty's arms and the security of his government than Ireland. Upon the resignation of Mr. Pitt, and the consequent decline of the Whig interest,† to let

* Mr. Pitt, whose vigorous and successful administration had much endeared him to the people, having in October 1761 proposed in the cabinet an immediate declaration against Spain, which he knew had recently entered into an alliance with France against Great Britain, and being only supported by his brother-in law, Earl Temple, he immediately resigned, in order, to use his own words, not to remain responsible for measures, which he was no longer allowed to guide. The king granted him a pension of 3000/. which with some difficulty and risk of his popularity he accepted: though he then refused the peerage, which he afterwards accepted. But his lady was created Baroness of Chatham, with remainder to her heirs male.

The truly masterly strokes of Mr. Burke upon this subject cannot fail to instruct and delight the reader. In his Thoughts on the present Discontents, written in 1770, whilst the nation was sensibly alive to the consequences of this new system, he analizes it from its source; and although it operated only by rebound, and perhaps imperfectly upon Ireland, yet in the uncontrolled dependance of the Irish administration on the British cabinet, his observations

in the Earl of Bute with new and opposite, but worse than the old Tory principles, the merchants and traders of Dublin in a

cannot be irrelevant to Ireland. "The power of the crown," says he, " almost dead and rotten, as prerogative, has grown up anew with much more strength, and far less odium, under the name of influence. At the Revolution the crown, deprived, for the ends of the revolution itself, of many prerogatives, was found too weak to struggle against all the difficulties, which pressed so new and unsettled a government. The court was obliged therefore to delegate part of its powers to men of such interest, as could support, and of such fidelity, as would adhere to its establishment. Such men were able to draw in a great number to a concurrence in the common defence. This connection, necessary at first, continued long after convenient, and properly conducted, might indeed in all situations be an useful instrument of government. The powerful managers for government were not sufficiently submissive to the pleasure of the pos sessors of the immediate and personal favour; sometimes from a confidence in their own strength, natural and acquired: sometimes from a fear of offending their friends, and weakening that lead in the country, which gave them a consideration independent of the court. Men acted as if the court could receive, as well as confer an obligation. This method of governing by men of great national interest or great acquired consideration was viewed in a very invidious light by the true lovers of absolute monarchy. It is the nature of despotism to abhor power held by any means but its own momentary pleasure; and to annihilate all intermediate situations between boundless strength on its own part, and total debility on the part of the people. To get rid of all this intermediate and independent importance, and to secure to the court the unlimited and uncontrolled use of its own vast influence, under the sole direction of its own private favour, has for some years past been the great object of policy. If this were compassed, the influence of the crown must of course produce all the effects, which the most sanguine partisans of the court could possibly desire. Government might then be carried on without any concurrence on the part of the people; without any attention to the dignity of the greater, or to the affections of the lower sorts. A new project was therefore devised, by a certain set of intriguing men, totally different from the system of adminis tration, which had prevailed since the accession of the house of Brunswick. This project I have heard was first conceived by some persons in the court of Frederick Prince of Wales. The earliest attempt in the excecution of this design was to set up for minister, a person in rank indeed respectable, and very ample in fortune; but who, to the moment of this vast and sudden eleva. tion, was little known or considered in the kingdom: to him the whole nation was to yield an immediate and implicit submission. But whether it was for want of firmness to bear up against the first opposition, or that things were not yet fully ripened, or that this method was not found the most eligible, that idea was soon abandoned. The instrumental part of the project was a little altered to accommodate it to the time, and to bring things more gradually and more surely to the one great end proposed. The first part of the reformed plan was to draw a line which should separate the court from the ministry. Hitherto these names had been looked upon as synonimous, but for the future, court and administration were to be considered as things totally distinct. By this operation, two systems of administration were to be formed; one, which should be in the real secret and confidence; the other merely ostensible, to perform the official and executory duties of government. The latter were alone to be responsible, whilst the real advisers, who enjoyed all the power were effectually removed from all the danger. Secondly, a party under these leaders was to be formed in favour of the court against the ministry: this party was to have a large share in the emoluments of government, and to hold it totally separate from, and independent of ostensible administration. The third point, and that, on which the success of the whole scheme ultimately depended, was to bring parliament to an acquiescence in this project. Parliament was therefore to be taught by degrees a total indifference to the persons, rank, influence, abili