Page:Life of William Shelburne (vol 1).djvu/484

458 to commit your Lordship's opinion as little as possible without your particular desire."

The memorial to the King having failed, the friends of Rockingham, true to their theory of the relation between England and her dependencies, whether Irish or American, determined to have recourse to the paramount authority claimed by the Parliament sitting at Westminster over the Parliament sitting at Dublin.

"I propose returning to London to-morrow evening," writes Shelburne to Chatham, "where I expect to find the same feebleness and uncertainty in the political world which for some time past has been the characteristic of it. Some of Lord Rockingham's friends alone are capable of thinking things advancing; and it is, I understand, his Lordship's and their intention to have a question offered to both Houses upon the Irish business. If I had the least influence, I should certainly deprecate such a measure, because I do not conceive that either Ireland or America can ever gain by the interposition of Parliament here; and it can answer no good purpose to the public, or individuals, to call upon every acting man for a creed regarding Ireland. However, if it does come on, my opinion will naturally lead me to condemn the justice and the policy of such a tax as was proposed, as inconsistent with any degree of connection, much more of dependence, of Ireland on Great Britain. I shall, at the same time, acknowledge the great principle of the constitution your Lordship dwells upon; that of the competency of the House of Commons to judge of all matters of supply, in every part of the King's dominions, and the inadvisedness of any interference, by the King or otherwise, with this their exclusive privilege, reserving the negative of the King, as well as the controlling power of the British Parliament, to be exercised in matters of commercial regulation.

"I am particular in stating this, because I apprehend that I may be the only person in either House of Parliament who will go so far without descending to manage-