hment should be longer regulated by a
British mutiny-law, transmitted a bill of similar import. The
minister, as if eager to indemnify himself for commercial concession by
constitutional spoliation, introduced an alteration by which the lav/
was to be rendered perpetual; and the Irish parliament, though it passed
the bill thus altered, was taught to look to freedom of constitution
as the necessary safeguard to freedom of trade; to assert its own
independence, while it unfettered the commerce of the country. When
the minister had first, by the altered money-bills, alarmed the
constitutional jealousy of the guardians of the public purse, he then,
by another alteration, rendering the mutiny-law perpetual, manifested
a desire of securing to government the uncontrolled direction of the
military power. Language could not more forcibly exhort the people to
be satisfied with no concessions merely commercial; but to insist that
their country should be acknowledged as an independent, though not a
separate state."

{GEORGE III. 1779-1780}

DEBATES ON ECONOMICAL REFORM.

While Lord North was endeavouring to allay the bad passions of the Irish
people, a spirit of disaffection arose in England. The cause of this
was the expenses of government: expenses which were for the most
part unavoidable, but which in some cases may have arisen from lavish
expenditure. But whatever was the cause, there was a long, loud, and
universal cry in the country for economical reform, and it soon became
the subject of debate in both houses of parliament. On the 7th of
December the Duke of Richmond moved in the lords for an address
to beseech his majesty to reflect on the manifold distresses and
difficulties of the country; to represent that the waste of the public
treasure required instant remedy, and that it was necessary to adopt
that economy, which, by reforming all useless expenses, creates
confidence in government, gives energy to its exertions, and provides
the means for their continuance; to submit to his majesty that a
reduction in the civil list would be an example worthy of his paternal
affection for his people and his own dignity, and calculated to diffuse
its influence through every department of the state; and to assure his
majesty that the lords would readily concur in promoting so desirable
a purpose, and that every one of its members would cheerfully submit
to such reductions of emoluments as he might think proper to make. In
sup