Page:Biographia Hibernica volume 2.djvu/478

 474 PONSONBY. nations struggled for influence and spoil; where the minister of the day, who commanded one side, and ma noeuvred to strengthen his ranks from the other, had no object at heart but to raise revenue and maintain subju gation; to keep down the people, and remunerate their oppressors. The time of the House, instead of being devoted to improve the natural resources of the nation for general advantage, was wasted in declamatory contests, or in discussing motions started for the purpose of dis playing popular eloquence on one side, or carrying some measure of oppression or rapacity on the other. The assembly then, as was eloquently said by Mr. Curran, “brooded, like a midnight incubus, upon the bosom of the country, and pressed her vital energies almost to death.” Such was the state of things when the Marquis of Buck ingham arrived, professedly to reform a l l abuses, and redress a l l grievances; but, i n opposition t o these profes sions, the noble marquis increased and aggravated the causes o f complaint. And s o difficult did h e find i t t o gratify the rapacity o f his supporters, that, like another Acteon, h e was almost devoured b y his own hounds. Not only was h e obliged t o overload the pension list, already intolerable, and t o fill u p every pigeon-hole o f office with new claimants, but even t o sub-divide places and salaries between two o r more candidates, and t o create many new places for members o f parliament, b y increasing the num ber o f commissioners a t public boards, already much too numerous for the business they had t o transact. Against such a n order o f things, Mr. Ponsonby commenced his ardent and powerful attacks; and the viceroy soon found, that h e had roused a most formidable enemy i n the man h e had deplumed t o decorate a rival with his spoils. Ably supported b y Mr. Grattan, Mr. Curran, Mr. Forbes, and several others, the ablest orators i n the senate o f that day, h e thundered against the prevalent system o f corruption. He forcibly displayed a l l the real o r imputed crimes and errors o f administration; h e aggravated the public com"