Page:Public School History of England and Canada (1892).djvu/164

, in 1783, the independence of the United States was recognized, France gained nothing, while Spain had to be content with Minorca and Florida. To Britain there remained in America, Canada, Nova Scotia, and Newfoundland.

8. Home Rule in Ireland.—While England had her troubles abroad, she was not without them at home. In 1780, a great riot took place in London, because Parliament removed some of the harsh laws against Roman Catholics. Lord George Gordon was the leader of a mob of 60,000 men, who came to Parliament with a petition against the measure. Not content with presenting their petition, the excited people broke out into acts of violence, burning Roman Catholic chapels, and destroying public and private property. Finally 10,000 troops had to be called out to restore order in the city.

A much more serious trouble was the demand made by the Protestants in Ireland for the right to manage their own affairs by an Irish Parliament. While the war with the colonies was going on, all the troops in Ireland were taken to America, and as France threatened an invasion, a large Protestant volunteer force, 100,000 in number, was raised to defend the country. This was Ireland's opportunity, and the Protestant leaders in the Irish Parliament, of whom the chief was Henry Grattan, demanded that Ireland should have the right to control her own trade and commerce, and that Poyning's law, which gave the English Parliament the right to prevent Bills passed in the Irish Parliament from becoming law, should be repealed. Lord Rockingham had no choice but to submit, and so, in 1782, Ireland got "Home Rule". Nevertheless, only a very small portion of the people of Ireland governed her, as Roman Catholics and Dissenters could not be members of Parliament, and this gave all the power into the hands of a few Protestant families belonging to the English Church in Ireland.

9. Warren Hastings.—Though England had lost ground in America, she was extending her possessions in Asia and Australia. In the latter country a convict settlement was formed in 1788 at Sydney, in New South Wales. For many years none but convicts were sent out, but, as we shall find, these were the pioneers of what promises to be a great Anglo-Saxon nation. In India, Clive did much to bring about a better treatment of the natives, who were