In 1775, Lord Lieutenant Harcourt asked for 4,000 men for the king out of the Irish establishment to be despatched to America, and he offered to supply their place by German Protestant troops. Anthony Malone was chairman of the Parliamentary Committee which, after a warm debate, granted the contingent as “armed negotiators,” but rejected the Hessians. Grattan afterwards fiercely, and not unfairly, assailed Flood for carrying this discreditable measure. The troops were in time for the surrenders at Saratoga and Yorktown. Lord Edward Fitzgerald, one regrets to read, served on this expedition as aide-de-camp to Lord Moira. Lord Effingham, on the other hand, resigned his regiment rather than serve against those who were struggling for freedom, and he was twice publicly thanked by the people of Dublin.—[Plowden and Mitchell.]
In 1782, the king was allowed to draw 5,000 men out of the kingdom. In 1793, the Irish force was raised to 20,232. Most of these acts were for one year.
(a) “Life of Shelbourne,” vol. ii., p. 12.
[78] In the debate (1772) on the Altered Money Bill, Hutchinson seems to have recovered his prudence.
[79] Another page shows how he was compensated for this “trifling profit” of the Prime Serjeancy.
[80] Baratariana says:—
“The Prime Serjeant, then, with a shuffling preamble
Like a nag that before he can canter must amble,
Betwixt right and wrong made a whimsical shamble,
Which nobody can deny.
’Twas important, he said, and availed not a groat;
But whether ’twas right or whether ’twas naught,
Or whether he’d vote for it, or whether he’d not
He’d neither assert nor deny.”
[81] One of the rewards that Hutchinson demanded from the Government as the price of his support was, that his wife should be made a baroness. [Lord Lieutenant Townshend’s letter, quoted by Froude, vol. ii., p. 67, and by Lord Fitzmaurice, vol. ii., p. 102.]
[83] Froude, vol. ii., p. 50.