THE AFFAIRS OF IRELAND.
From the time that Pitt first became prime minister, the state of Ireland had occupied his anxious attention. In 1784 the Duke of Rutland had been appointed lord-lieutenant of that country, and no important step was taken by him in his government without Pitt’s advice and direction. Under the guidance of the youthful premier, the duke had been enabled to check the formidable spirit of turbulence and innovation which had recently exhibited itself, and the Irish people were apparently satisfied with his government. It was manifest, however, that there was still an under-current of disaffection, and that nothing but a complete change in the commercial relations of the country could afford effectual relief to the people, and render them permanently tranquil. Under these circumstances, therefore, Pitt spent a considerable time in deliberation with influential and intelligent persons respecting a new plan of commercial intercourse between the two kingdoms; and notice of his intention was given to the large trading or manufacturing towns, and a committee of privy-counsellors was appointed to receive their information or suggestions relative to such an object. The resolutions which Mr. Orde moved in the Irish parliament, as noticed in a previous page, were the result of these conferences, and these resolutions being transmitted to the king, accompanied with an address, Pitt brought them before the British parliament. In doing so, he observed, that from the revolution up to a recent period, the system of commerce established between the two countries, had been to make Ireland subservient to the interests and opulence of England. Ireland, he said, had not been suffered to profit either by the bounties of nature or the skill of her own inhabitants. Some relaxation of this system, he admitted, had taken place at an early period of the present century; more had been done in the reign of George the Second; and within a few years, Ireland had been permitted to export her produce and manufactures, and to have a share of the colonial trade. At this moment, however, he remarked, the intercourse between England and Ireland remained on the old footing, except on trivial points; no material alteration having been made in the exportation of British manufactures to Ireland, or the importation of Irish manufactures into Great Britain. To this he attributed the dissatisfaction which existed in Ireland; suggestions having been made for subjecting our produce and manufactures to what were termed “protecting duties,” for the purpose of preventing their introduction into the country. He continued, that having abandoned the old system of commercial domination, and having wisely and justly put the Irish people into a position of profiting by the gifts of nature and the productions of skill, no one could wish or expect that the commerce between the two kingdoms should remain in its original condition. There were, indeed, he argued, but two possible systems for countries situated in relation to each other, like England and Ireland: one of these was to render the smaller completely subordinate and subservient to the greater; and the other was to allow to each a just participation of advantages. This system of equality, however, in which there was to be a community of benefits, he said, demanded likewise a community of burdens. Hitherto there had been gratuitous surrenders of advantages, without looking to the slightest compensation; in which respect his system differed from those of his predecessors, his being founded on a plan of reciprocal benefits. Pitt then proceeded to explain his system, as contained in the resolutions transmitted from Ireland, and which consisted of these three general heads; first, he proposed that all foreign articles imported directly into Great Britain, should hereafter be importable under suitable provisions through the medium of Ireland; secondly, that the produce or manufacture of either country should be importable into the other, under a proper regulation of countervailing duties, drawbacks, and bounties; and thirdly, that Ireland, in return for these bounties, should contribute to the expense of maintaining the colonies, and protecting the commerce of the empire; her contribution being of such a nature as to keep pace with the gain derived from the new system. Having thus stated the nature of his plan, Pitt moved a preliminary resolution “for finally adjusting the commercial intercourse between the two kingdoms; admitting Ireland to a participation in the commercial advantages of England, and securing in return a permanent aid from that country, in the protection of the commercial interests of the empire.” The consideration of this subject was deferred for a week, in order to give time for the reception of accounts and estimates; and it was intimated that a further delay would be acceded to if there should be a sufficient reason for its proposal.
At first, the vastness of this plan seemed to keep the public mind in a state of suspense. For nearly a month, indeed, after its introduction, no indications of serious or determined opposition were discernible, although Fox, when the subject was first started, pointed out many objections to its provisions. Endeavours, however, were soon made by the opponents of Pitt’s administration to convince the public that the mercantile and manufacturing interests of England were intended to be sacrificed to those of Ireland; and at length great apprehensions and jealousies were created in the commercial world. Petition after petition was presented against it; every one being led into the belief that Pitt’s bill would ruin his own particular branch of trade. So great was the outcry raised against it, that the house resolved to examine the merchants and manufacturers at their own bar; and two months were occupied in hearing evidence on the subject. In the end, the anti-liberal feeling which prevailed compelled Pitt to subjoin a variety of restrictive clauses, binding Ireland to adopt whatever navigation laws might be hereafter enacted by the British parliament; prohibiting the importation of any West Indian commodities, not the produce of our own colonies, into Ireland, or thence into Great Britain; and forbidding Ireland to trade to any country beyond the Cape of Good Hope and the Straits of Magellen, so long as the charter of the East India Company should be in existence. The bill, with even these restrictions, did not pass without great opposition and warm discussions; some members maintaining that Pitt was giving too little, and others too much to the sister kingdom. It was carried up to the lords on the 30th of May, and various amendments were there made, which were subsequently adopted by the commons; and on the 29th of July an address was presented to the king by both houses, acquainting his majesty with the steps which had been taken in this affair: adding, that “it remained for the parliament of Ireland to judge of the conditions, according to their wisdom and discretion, as well as of all other parts of the settlement proposed to be established by mutual consent.” Parliament now adjourned to a distant period; and on the 30th of September it was prorogued by royal proclamation.
In Ireland, Pitt’s bill was doomed to meet with a more powerful opposition than it had met with in England. This opposition arose from the restrictive clauses which the minister had been compelled, by the clamour of the merchants and manufacturers, to introduce. Thus the provision respecting the navigation laws was considered an infringement on the legislative independence of Ireland; while the appropriation of the surplus hereditary revenue, and the prohibition of trade to the East Indies, were represented as reducing the country to a state of slavery. All the alterations and additions were, indeed, denounced by the Irish people; and numerous petitions were presented against the bill. The strong feeling which existed against it was exhibited in the Irish parliament, when, on the 12th of August, Mr. Orde, the secretary of the lord-lieutenant, moved for leave to bring in a corresponding bill. This motion was carried; but it was only by am majority of nineteen, which was equivalent to a defeat; and a few days afterwards, when the secretary moved the first reading and printing of the bill, he declared that he should proceed no further with it during the present session. The failure of this plan was a severe mortification to Pitt, who had laboured for nearly twelve months in perfecting it as far as its complicated nature would allow; but he looked forward with great confidence to a change of sentiment, which he anticipated would take place at no very distant period. Had Ireland accepted it, she might have avoided many of those evils which she was subsequently called upon to endure; for it would have prepared the way for the great measure of the union, which, when it took place, was attended with much corruption and violence. But it was the tendency which the bill had to effect or bring about this consummation, that chiefly gave rise to the long and loud outcry against it. Grattan denominated it “an incipient and creeping union,” in which light it was looked upon, and hence abhorred, by the Irish people. On its abandonment great joy was exhibited in Ireland; public illuminations were held in all the populous towns, as though the people had obtained some great victory. Thus this bill, which was originally intended to communicate solid and lasting advantages to both countries, had the effect of rousing commercial jealousies, awakening national prejudices, and of greatly disturbing the public tranquillity; a singular fate, and one which shows the folly and the madness of the bad passions of human nature.
GEORGE III. 1784-1786