This was sufficient: the armament was countermanded
and the sailors discharged.
IRISH AFFAIRS.
The spirit of disaffection was still rife in Ireland. The Earl of
Harcourt having been appointed to the government, was at first received
with great joy, but he soon found that his popularity was not sufficient
to ensure obedience to the dictates of the British cabinet, or to
repress the overflowings of human passion. The White Boys, and the
Hearts of Steel, still exhibited a turbulent spirit, which nothing could
allay or soothe. Nor was it among the populace alone that ill-feeling
was displayed. When the Irish parliament met, the spirit of liberty
was discerned in that assembly likewise. The speaker of the house of
commons, in a speech to his excellency before the lords, expressed the
inability of the country to endure any additional taxation, by reason
of those commercial restrictions, which, he said, had fettered all its
energies. The claim of commercial freedom was, indeed, warmly repeated
in the official addresses of the speaker during the continuance of the
government of this viceroy, and a spirit of jealousy also appeared in
a refusal to admit foreign mercenaries, when the British troops were
withdrawn to America, although the English government offered to defray
all the expenses. A relaxation of the penal code, however, by which
the condition of the Roman Catholics was improved, had the effect
of lowering the angry feelings of the nation, and on the whole the
government of the Earl of Harcourt is looked upon as having produced
beneficial results to the country.
Pages:
280
281
282
283
284
285
286
287
288
289
290
291
292
293
294
295
296
297
298
299
300
301
302
303
304