Seventy thousand seamen
were voted, and it was agreed to maintain 67,676 effective men, beside
the militia of England, two regiments of fencibles in Scotland, the
provincial troops in America, and 67,167 German auxiliaries. Some new
taxes, also, were imposed, including an additional one on windows, and
an increased duty on spirituous liquors, in order to pay the interest
of L12,000,000, which it was found necessary to borrow, to make good
the deficiences of last session. In the whole the supplies for the year
1762, voted by the parliament, amounted to more than L18,000,000: two
millions of which were required for the defence of Portugal.
{GEORGE III. 1760-1765}
DISTURBANCES IN IRELAND.
In the month of October, Lord Halifax, the new Lord-lieutenant of
Ireland met his Majesty's first parliament in that country. The Irish
parliament responded to the sentiments of the English parliament
respecting the accession of the young monarch. Addresses replete with
loyalty were voted by both houses; and the greatest confidence was
expressed in the rule of Lord Halifax, auguring the happiest results
from his administration, and promising cordial co-operation. That
ill-fated country, however, was restless as the waves of the ocean.
During the viceroyalty of the Duke of Bedford, it had been totally
under the dominion of the lord's justices, and they had recently made
an attempt to gain popularity, by expressing doubts in the privy
council concerning the propriety of sending over a money bill, lest the
rejection of it should occasion the dissolution of the new parliament,
and thereby endanger the peace of the country.
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