rnate years. But, though these arrangements
suited the patrons and the members of the House of Commons, it was not
strange that the constituencies, whose power over their representatives
was almost extinguished by them, regarded them with less complacency,
and, at the general election which was the consequence of the accession
of George III., pledges were very generally exacted from the candidates
that, if elected, they would endeavor to procure the passing of a
septennial act like that which had been the law in England ever since
the early years of George I. A bill with that object was introduced in
1761, and reported on not unfavorably as to its principle by the English
law advisers to whom the Privy Council referred it. But, as if it had
been designed to exemplify in the strongest possible manner the national
propensity for making blunders, it contained one clause which rendered
it not only impracticable but ridiculous. The clause provided that no
member should take his seat or vote till his qualification had been
proved before the Speaker in a full house. But the Speaker could not be
chosen till the members had established their right of voting, so that
the whole was brought to a dead-lock, and the bill, if passed, could
never have been carried out.

In the ministry of 1767, however--that of the Duke of Grafton and Lord
Chatham--Lord Halifax was replaced at Dublin Castle by Lord Townsend,
who, among his other good qualities, deserves specially honorable
mention as the first Lord-lieutenant who made residence in Dublin his
rule on principle; for till very lately non-residence had been the rule
and residence the exception, a fact which is of itself a melancholy but
all-sufficient proof of the absolute indifference to Irish interests
shown by all classes of English statesmen. And under his government a
bill for shortening Parliaments was passed, though it fixed the possible
duration of each Parliament at eight years instead of seven, the
variation being made to prevent a general election from being held at
the same time in both countries, but, according to common belief, solely
in order to keep up a mark of difference between the Irish and English
Parliaments. And those who entertained this suspicion fancied they saw a
confirmation of it in the retention of the regulation that the Irish
Parliament should only sit in alternate years, a practice wholly
inconsistent with any proper idea of the duties and privileges of a
P