Page:Life of William Shelburne (vol 2).djvu/260

224 renouncing the claim of England to legislate for Ireland and confirming the independence of the Irish Courts of Justice.

The course of economy, of which Burke's Civil List Act was the first instalment, had been vigorously pushed on by Shelburne, and the reforms which he had already begun in the Treasury, he intended to carry into the other Departments. The task was not easy. "The Reform of 1782," says Lord Shelburne in an unfinished memorandum on the subject, "stood under every possible disadvantage, so that it is next to incredible that anything material could have been effected within the time, considering, 1. That the Court was averse to it from a variety of motives, and no one man in Administration or Opposition was in earnest in the support of any reform, except the Duke of Richmond, who confined himself to the Ordnance, and there proceeded upon principles entirely of his own. 2. The state of the Ministry, their inexperience, and the unwillingness of every office and every servant of Government, conscious of abuses which if reformed, however liberally, would not only change their whole existence, but in the course of the examination might prove their criminality; as their profits in many instances were such as could not be stated by them, and no indemnity could compensate: besides the insincerity of the new servants, who, now they were in, could not brook the idea of foregoing the fortunes which their predecessors had made, and were suffered to enjoy with impunity; and the general opinion which went through the offices, that it was a storm which would blow over, and that if the summer could be got over, winter would bring forward another change, or at least other questions to divert the attention of Ministry and of