Page:Chronicle of the law officers of Ireland.djvu/308

Rh the case, he would not for the trifling service of one parliament create forty new boroughs, and enable families, as by hereditary succession, to usurp representative situations, and thus form an interested phalanx equally dangerous to the crown as the nation. Selfish courtiers alone received a real benefit and fixed inheritance, whilst the Royal character was disgraced by employing legal forms to subvert the constitution. A corrupt domestic government exercised correspondent malpractice, and permitted or encouraged returning officers to violate their trust in the most barefaced manner. It is unnecessary minutely to inquire how far the several returns were legal, but as there appear many authenticated complaints of arbitrary acts and courtly practices, a concise and general review or commentary cannot be entirely useless or ill-suited to an account of the Irish legal body; besides, it may contribute to the main object of my design, which is to exalt and strengthen the character of existing monarchy, parliamentary representation, and judicial practice, by the contrast which each exhibits to the enormous abuses committed in former periods, or even under the peaceful and inglorious reign of James. Members elected by pretended corporations—retiring officers exercising similar partiality in favour of themselves, or dispensing injustice at their election courts, formed a mass of complaint highly entitled to parlimentary inquiry. Such discussion was, however, counteracted by courtly influence, and referred by James to a motley commission, composed of the Deputy, an Irish Chief Judge, and three English courtiers. The business was conducted and concluded, as may be expected, from this preparatory step. Numbers for the new corporations were confirmed in their seats, not merely from an error in judgment, but in direct opposition to the resolution of English judges, as reported by Coke in the Dungannon case, for James promptly consulted that sage body to sanctify Cabinet measures, and yet deviated from their decision at the suggestion of prejudice or self-interest. This temporary turn succeeded, and illegal representatives profaned the temple of legislation.