n. The sessions, too, had gradually come
to be, not annual as in England, but biennial, the Lord-Lieutenant
spending as a rule only six months in every two years in Ireland. In his
absence all power was vested in the hands of the Lords Justices, of whom
the most conspicuous during this period were the three successive
archbishops of Armagh, namely, Swift's opponent Boulter, Hoadly, and
Stone, all three Englishmen, and devoted to what was known as the
"English interest," who governed the country by the aid of a certain
number of great

Delightful talk! to rear the tender thought,
To teach the young idea how to shoot.
To pour the fresh instruction o'er the mind,
To breathe th' enlivening spirit and to fix
The generous purpose in the glowing breast.

_Thomson_

LORD LIEUTENANT FROM 1745 TO 1754.

Irish borough-owners, or Undertakers, who "undertook" to carry on the
king's business in consideration of receiving the lion's share of the
patronage, which they distributed amongst their own adherents. Of these
borough-owners Lord Shannon was the happy possessor of no less than
sixteen seats, while others had eight, ten, twelve, or more, which were
regularly and openly let out to hire to the Government. Efforts were
from time to time made by the more independent members to curtail these
abuses, and to recover some degree of independence for the Parliament,
but for a long time their efforts were without avail, and owing to the
nature of its constitution, it was all but impossible to bring public
opinion to bear upon its proceedings, so that the only vestige of
independence shown was when a collision occurred between the selfish
interests of those in whose hands all power was thus concentrated.

[Illustration: PHILIP Earl of CHESTERFIELD.]

About 1743 some stir began to be aroused by a succession of statements
published by Charles Lucas, a Dublin apothecary, in the _Freeman's
Journal_, a newspaper started by him, and in which he vehemently
denounced the venality of Parliament, and loudly asserted the inherent
right of Ireland to govern itself, a right of which it had only been
formally deprived by the Declaratory Act of George I[15]. So unequivocal
was his language that the grand jury of Dublin at last gave orders for
his addresses to be burnt, and in 1749 a warrant was issued for his
apprehension, whereupon he fled to England, and did not return until
many years later, when he was at once