me the
influence of the volunteers procured the assent of government to a bill
releasing Irish dissenters from the sacramental test. Great as these
gains were, Irish aspirations reached further. On April 19, 1780,
Grattan proposed a declaration of legislative independence. For that the
Irish parliament was not ready. Lord Buckinghamshire, the viceroy,
secured support by lavish promises of recommendations for peerages and
other good things, and parliament deserted the popular cause. In
December, Buckinghamshire was succeeded by Lord Carlisle.

[Sidenote: _AGITATION FOR ECONOMICAL REFORM._]

During 1779 North's government lost ground; the ministers were known to
be divided in opinion, and various parliamentary inquiries into the
conduct of the war revealed much maladministration. Even the king said
that Germain was "of no use in his department," and Fox's vote of
censure on the admiralty was supported by a minority of 170. Some
changes in the ministry failed to strengthen it. In 1778 Jenkinson
succeeded Barrington as secretary at war; he lived to prove himself a
man of ability, but in his new office he, like his predecessor, had
merely to carry out the orders of others. Gower, a strong advocate of
American coercion in 1775, changed his opinions, resigned the
presidentship of the council in November, 1779, and made a violent
attack on the government. He was succeeded by Lord Bathurst the
ex-chancellor. Suffolk died and was succeeded as southern secretary by
Lord Stormont, and Weymouth, the northern secretary, by Hillsborough.
North still urged the king to accept his resignation. George, conscious
of the shortcomings of the ministry, gave Thurlow authority to treat
with Shelburne, as head of the Chatham party, with a view to the
formation of a strong administration, composed of men of different
parties, to be formed without North, and independently of the existing
ministry. Grafton persuaded Shelburne not to act apart from the
Rockingham whigs. The united opposition would have insisted on a
complete change of measures as well as of men, which would have implied
the surrender of America. To this George would not consent, and North
was again persuaded to remain in office. On the meeting of parliament in
November, 1779, the ministers carried the address by 233 to 134, a
majority which bore out the assertion of the king's speech that
parliament was with him, and the speech added "my people at large".

Yet though the declarat