IRELAND IN 1801. Source.—Diary of Lord Colchester, 1861. Vol. i., p. 286.

Minutes of Proceedings in Ireland from July to Dec. 1801; and Outlines of Irish Business for 1802, reported and read over to Mr. Addington, Feb. 1802.

Irish Affairs, Jan. 1802.

I. Their present state, including a detailed Account of the Government Transactions there during the last Six Months.

II. Outline of the Public Business of Ireland for the Year 1802.

I. THE GOVERNMENT.

1. Lord-Lieutenant.—Unsettled powers; question whether a Lord-Lieutenant from England, administering the protection and patronage of the Crown subordinately to the King’s Ministers—or a Government by Lords Justices setting up for themselves, and tyrannising over their countrymen—or endeavour to govern Ireland entirely by a Secretary of State at Whitehall.

N.B.—No communication has been made to Lord Hardwicke in answer to the paper transmitted by him to Lord Pelham, containing remarks upon Lord Pelham’s proposition.

2. Chief Secretary.—Unsettled emoluments of the Office in Ireland. Unsettled footing of the Irish Office in London.

Query.—Suppress its establishment as an Office accredited with the Secretary of State for the Home Department; and as hitherto employed for soliciting Civil Patents and Military Commissions in the place of the old office of Resident Secretary (Fremantle and Jenkinson). And transfer the agency and fees of the business to the Secretary of State’s Office; leaving no establishment in London for the Chief Secretary to transact his business, except what assistance he may personally obtain for himself from Dublin Castle, etc.

N.B.—The salary and fees of this Office upon Peace Establishments, viz. about 5,000l. British, are not more than adequate to the necessary expenses of the office conducted with economy; having houses and servants in each country; and the removal of a family twice a year across the Channel.

3. Private Secretary.—Unprovided present subsistence, and no certain future provision.

4. Lord Chancellor (Lord Clare).—Hostile to any Government by Lord-Lieutenant. Desirous himself to be Lord-Deputy, or at the head of Lords Justices; and for Mr. Cooke to be Secretary of State under him.

5. Commander of the Forces.—Sir W. Meadows, cordially co-operating with the Lord-Lieutenant.

6. Royal Building, &c.—In the Castle a library for printed books upon Irish affairs. Orders also given for arranging the State Papers, &c., in the Birmingham Tower. Plans and estimate ordered for rebuilding the Castle chapel, and adapting it to choir service.

Parliament House.—A proposal transmitted to the King’s Ministers for selling it to the National Bank of Ireland, or appropriating it to Public Offices.

Phœnix Park.—Walls and roads ordered to be repaired; rights of Park officers ascertained; encroachments defeated.

7. Union Engagements.—Many liquidated. No vacant office has been given away without considering to what promise it could apply.

II. FINANCE.

1. Treasury Statements of Annual Income and Expenditure of Ireland assimilated to the British series of Public Accounts, and adapted to the same annual and quarterly periods.

2. Revenue Boards.—Examination into its past state by personal conference with each of the four senior Examiners; all of them agreeing that it was corrupt and inefficient; proved also by lists of Officers accused and protected; proved also by reports of Mr. Beresford, in 1792; and of the Acting Surveyor-General, Mr. Cooke, in 1800.

Division of the Board into Customs and Excise, as projected in Lord Townsend’s and Lord Buckingham’s Administration, and executed now in the manner prescribed by Mr. Beresford, in a letter written by himself on a former occasion; a copy whereof was delivered to me by Mr. B., with a recommendation of its being adopted for this purpose at this time.

Dublin Quay Regulated.—Tobacco stores, gate notes, &c., under advice of the Board, and upon suggestion and report of Mr. Croker, who was appointed acting Surveyor-General of the port, with joint approbation of Mr. Beresford and Mr. Annesley, and established in the Office of Surveyor-General by Lord Hardwicke.

Regulations enforced prohibiting all Revenue Officers from being traders.

Revision and Amendment of the Distillery Laws considered. Throughout Ireland the Surveyors-General ordered to report quarterly from their actual surveys.

N.B.—Dublin Customs’ duties are one half, and Dublin Excise duties one quarter of all Ireland.

A mode settled for passing Collector’s accounts in Dublin with more expedition, and (as in England) without their personal attendance.

Cruisers called in; inspection of repairs ordered, and a report upon the future complement of men for their Peace Establishment.

Additional officers appointed, not for patronage, but upon special reports of the Board, and upon considerations of personal merit, viz. two Surveyors-General, one Inspector-General, and one Inspector, and two Landwaiters in the Port of Dublin.

General plan for prevention of smuggling and illicit distilleries prepared for consideration.

Commercial regulations between Great Britain and Ireland considered, and reported upon by the Commissioners of Revenue.

3. Auditors of Public Accounts.—Their accounts methodised on the British plan, and brought up to 5th January, 1802, showing the actual amounts of debts due from Public Accountants.

4. Stamps.—After a previous investigation by the Treasury, and personal conference repeatedly with the Commissioners.

Establishment settled on the British model, and report upon the building purchased for the use of this Office before the Rebellion.

Consignments to distributors, and the appropriation of their receipts new modelled.

Debts from deceased and dismissed distributors called in; securities of distributors raised.

Inspectors-General ordered upon survey throughout Ireland, and to make quarterly reports; and two new inspectors added at inferior salaries, with prospect of succession to the higher, if merited.

Revision and amendment of the Stamp Laws prepared.

N.B.—Last summer, in the counties of Wicklow and Wexford, several Justices of Peace refused to convict in penalties for evading the Stamp Duties.

5. Crown Lands.—A report upon their state, extent, and value ordered to be made out in thirty-two books for the thirty-two counties.

6. Board of Works.—Appropriation of issues between May 1801, and August 1801, viz. 20,000l. having been called for, and no account being produced of time or place, of articles supplied, or work done, nor any check appearing; an inquiry directed for settling an efficient system of checks for the future; report made and instructions issued to take effect prospectively from 5th January, 1802.

N.B.—By Comptroller of Accounts (who has controlled the Barrack Accounts), and two Privy Councillors.

All the old accounts ordered to be balanced and closed to 5th January, 1802, where a debt stated in November to be 11,000l., was stated in January to be a debt of 37,000l.; though no new work was ordered or executed in the interval. And it appeared also that no final accounts had been settled with the tradesmen for [1] years. How many years?

N.B.—During the period within which this debt was incurred, there was an annual issue to the Board of from 25,000l. to 32,000l. a year. No new building, except one house, which cost 3,000l., was erected. The Castle or public apartments are worse furnished than any private gentleman’s house in England.

Note.—The First Commissioner of the Board, consisting of seven, is also sole Barrackmaster-General; and has the sole expenditure of nearly 300,000l. a year. And the latest of his accounts delivered in to be audited, viz. March, 1800, did not come down to a later period than 25th March, 1796.

N.B.—Lord Tyrawley, from a very moderate beginning, is reputed to have made a landed property of 10,000l. a year, out of private trusts (viz. law arrears, &c.), and out of public offices, viz. the Board of Works and Barrack Office.

As to the economy of his department, ex uno disce omnes. Ready-made sentry-boxes sent in carts from Dublin to Cork. Extravagant expense of carriage, and destruction of the articles themselves.

GOLF AND FOOTBALL (1801). Source.—Strutt’s Sports and Pastimes of the People of England, 1801. Pp. 93 and 97 of Methuen’s edition, 1903.

There are many games played with the ball that require the assistance of a club or bat, and probably the most ancient among them is the pastime now distinguished by the name of golf. In the northern parts of the kingdom golf is much practised. It requires much room to perform this game with propriety, and therefore I presume it is rarely seen at present in the vicinity of the metropolis. It answers to a rustic pastime of the Romans which they played with a ball of leather stuffed with feathers, called paganica, because it was used by the common people: the golf-ball is composed of the same materials to this day; I have been told it is sometimes, though rarely, stuffed with cotton. In the reign of Edward III. the Latin name cambuca was applied to this pastime, and it derived the denomination, no doubt, from the crooked club or bat with which it was played; the bat was also called a bandy, from its being bent. Golf, according to the present modification of the game, is performed with a bat, not much unlike the bandy: the handle of this instrument is straight, and usually made of ash, about four feet and a half in length: the curvature is affixed to the bottom, faced with horn and backed with lead; the ball is a little one, but exceedingly hard; being made with leather, and, as before observed, stuffed with feathers. There are generally two players, who have each of them his bat and ball. The game consists in driving the ball into certain holes made in the ground; he who achieves it the soonest, or in the fewest number of strokes, obtains the victory.

Football is so called because the ball is driven about with the feet instead of the hands. It was formerly much in vogue among the common people of England, though of late years it seems to have fallen into disrepute, and is but little practised. I cannot pretend to determine at what period the game of football originated: it does not, however, to the best of my recollection, appear among the popular exercises before the reign of Edward III., and then, in 1349, it was prohibited by a public edict; not, perhaps, from any particular objection to the sport in itself, but because it co-operated, with other favourite amusements, to impede the progress of archery. When a match at football is made, two parties, each containing an equal number of competitors, take the field, and stand between two goals, placed at the distance of 80 or 100 yards the one from the other. The goal is usually made with two sticks driven into the ground, about two or three feet apart. The ball, which is commonly made of a blown bladder, and cased with leather, is delivered in the midst of the ground, and the object of each party is to drive it through the goal of their antagonists, which being achieved the game is won. The abilities of the performers are best displayed in attacking and defending the goals; and hence the pastime was more frequently called a goal at football than a game at football. When the exercise becomes exceeding violent, the players kick each other’s shins without the least ceremony, and some of them are overthrown at the hazard of their limbs.

SHERIDAN FOR ADDINGTON, CANNING FOR PITT (1802). Source.—Stanhope’s Life of Pitt, 1862. Vol. iii., p. 415.

The great speech of Sheridan was, however, reserved till the 8th of December, when the Army Estimates came forward. They were moved by Mr. Charles Yorke as Secretary at War. “I was much surprised,” said Mr. Yorke, “when, on another evening, I heard an Hon. gentleman (Mr. Fox) maintain that there was no reason why a larger establishment than usual in former periods of peace should be maintained in Great Britain; and that there were reasons why even a smaller force would suffice everywhere but in the West Indies.” It was no hard matter for Mr. Yorke to argue against this proposition, or to point out the dangers that impended from the Continent of Europe. He could reckon on the support of the House for the proposal which his speech contained—to provide for a regular force of nearly one hundred and thirty thousand men, counting officers, and including the regiments in India. This was an increase on the establishment voted on the first conclusion of the peace.

Then and after some other speeches Sheridan rose. He referred to Fox as to the man whom of all men upon earth he most loved and respected. But these sentiments did not withhold him from some keen animadversions, although in covert terms, upon the course which Fox had latterly been seeking to promote. He approved of the King’s Speech. He approved of the large establishments. He approved of Addington as Minister. What (he asked) had other members really to allege against that Right Hon. gentleman? Theirs was a mere capricious dislike; for no better reason than is given in an epigram of Martial, or in an English parody upon that epigram:

Those who call to mind that Addington already bore the nickname of “the Doctor,” and who know the keen relish of the House of Commons for almost any jest, may easily imagine the roars of laughter with which Sheridan’s allusion was received.

Sheridan proceeded in a strain of blended wit and argument. “What,” he said, “did these gentlemen expect from the present Chancellor of the Exchequer? We treated him when in the Chair of this House with the respect he merited.... But did they expect that when he was a Minister he was to stand up and call Europe to Order? Was he to send Mr. Colman, the Serjeant-at-Arms, to the Baltic and summon the Northern Powers to the Bar of this House? Was he to see the Powers of Germany scrambling like Members over the benches, and say—Gentlemen must take their places? Was he expected to cast his eye to the Tuscan gallery, and exclaim that strangers must withdraw? Was he to stand across the Rhine, and say—The Germans to the right, and the French to the left? If he could have done these things, I for one should always vote that the Speaker of the House should be appointed the Minister of the country. But the Right Hon. gentleman has done all that a reasonable man could expect him to do.”

“Sir,”—so Sheridan continued—“I confess I wish to know what Mr. Pitt himself thinks. I should be glad to hear what his sentiments are of the call made for him; and loudly too, in another place by a vigorous statesman.[2] I well remember, Sir, and so do we all, the character Mr. Pitt gave of the present administration. Does he mean to retract that character? I cannot suppose he does.... Sir, when I see so many persons anxious about that gentleman, I am glad to hear that his health is re-established. But how, I would ask, can we with any consistency turn out the man who made the peace to bring in the man who avowed his approbation of it?... I suspect, therefore, that the political Philidor’s game has been misunderstood; that his friends have displaced a knight and a castle when they should only have taken two pawns; that they have made an attempt to checkmate the King when they had no instructions for doing it. I cannot forget the period when the august Person of the Sovereign was held up as the only man who was against extending privileges to the Catholics in Ireland; and I cannot, therefore, brook the idea of calling that Right Hon. gentleman back to power, and forcing him upon the Crown.... Mr. Pitt the only man to save the country! If a nation depends only upon one man, it cannot, and I will add, it does not deserve to be saved; it can be saved only by the Parliament and people.”

Next after Sheridan rose Canning. In his great speech that evening he displayed not only a luminous eloquence, but the rarer gift (rarer, I mean, in him) of perfect discretion. He desired to express his sentiments, not of satisfaction merely, but of thankfulness, for the part which his Hon. Friend (Mr. Sheridan) had that day done.

“It is by no means the first time,” he said, “that my Hon. Friend, throwing aside all petty distinctions of party feeling, has come forward, often under circumstances of peculiar difficulty, often discouraged, always alone, as the champion of his country’s rights and interests, and has rallied the hearts and spirits of the nation.[3] I trust we shall now hear no more of those miserable systems, the object of which is not to rouse us to ward off our ruin, but to reconcile us to submit to it.... ‘We have nothing to dread from France but a rivalry in commerce,’ says the Hon. gentleman opposite to me (Mr. Fox). Look round, Sir, on the state of the world, and can such an argument even from such a man need farther refutation?”

“And what, Sir”—so Canning went on in another passage—“what is the nature of the times in which we live? Look at France, and see what we have to cope with, and consider what has made her what she is? A man. You will tell me that she was great, and powerful, and formidable before the date of Bonaparte’s Government; that he found in her great physical and moral resources; that he had but to turn them to account. True, and he did so. Compare the situation in which he found France with that to which he has raised her. I am no panegyrist of Bonaparte; but I cannot shut my eyes to the superiority of his talents, to the amazing ascendency of his genius. Tell me not of his measures and his policy—it is his genius, his character, that keeps the world in awe. Sir, to meet, to check, to curb, to stand up against him, we want arms of the same kind. I am far from objecting to the large military establishments which are proposed to you. I vote for them with all my heart. But, for the purpose of coping with Bonaparte, one great commanding spirit is worth them all. This is my undisguised opinion. But when I state this opinion thus undisguisedly, is my Right Hon. Friend (Mr. Pitt) to be implicated in a charge of prompting what I say?...

“Sir, of all the imputations to which that Right Hon. gentleman could be subjected, I confess I did think that of intrigue and cabal the least likely to be preferred against him by any man who has witnessed his public conduct.... No, Sir. Never did young Ambition, just struggling into public notice and aiming at popular favour, labour with half so much earnestness to court reputation and to conciliate adherents, as my Right Hon. Friend has laboured since his retreat from office not to attract, but to repel; not to increase the number of his followers, but to dissolve attachment and to transfer support. And if, whatever has been his endeavour to insulate and individualize himself in political life, he has not been able to succeed wholly, even with those who would sacrifice to his wishes everything but their attachment to him—if with the public he has succeeded not at all, what is the inference? what but that, retreat and withdraw as much as he will, he must not hope to efface the memory of his past services from the gratitude of his country?—he cannot withdraw himself from the following of a nation; he must endure the attachment of a people whom he has saved.”