Page:Life of William Shelburne (vol 2).djvu/67

Rh of the country, conveyed through its proper constitutional organs, both Houses of Parliament, to his Majesty, against which there was but one dissenting voice in the Houses, and not a second, he believed, in the whole Kingdom. Church of England men and Roman Catholics, dissenters and sectaries of all denominations; Whigs and Tories; placemen, pensioners, and country gentlemen; Englishmen by birth; in short, every man in and out of the House, except the single instance mentioned, had all united in a single opinion, that nothing would relieve the country short of a free trade." He however pointed out that free trade would not cure all the wrongs of Ireland. The country suffered under many other grievances besides commercial restraint; amongst these he especially mentioned the Crown being invested with the disposal of the hereditary revenue, which became an endless source of corruption, and he dwelt on the deplorable condition of the Established Church. The motion was again rejected by a large majority.

The Irish House of Commons now carried by a majority of 170 to 47 a resolution to grant no new taxes. They then passed a money Bill for six months only by 138 to 100. Lord North at length understood that he could no longer throw the responsibility of action off his own shoulders on to those of Parliament. On the 12th of December he proposed and subsequently carried three Bills for the relief of the commerce of Ireland, giving her a free export of her wool, woollens, and wool flocks; a free exportation of glass and glass manufacture; and a freedom of intercourse with the British plantations on the basis of an equality of taxes and customs upon an unrestrained trade. These great concessions were received with unbounded joy; but the Irish question was not thereby solved, either commercially or politically, as Shelburne had already warned the English Parliament.

The next triumph of the Opposition was their carrying, and almost without resistance, the same measure