Note 61 — PREFACE.

John Ponsonby, Speaker of the House of Commons in 1756, under whom the Irish patriots made a most successful stand on a constitutional question of vital importance. The energy and firmness of the patriotic Speaker, and of a majority of the members of the House of Commons, who then (“Hear this, ye gods, and wonder how ye made them”) attended to the business of their country, forms a brilliant feature in the history of the times.