The Movement for Legislative Independence

Above : Picture Of Lord Caslisle

After the first burst of triumph and rejoicing over their victory with regard to the trade restrictions had passed, the Irish Parliamentary leaders began to consider that neither the liberties which they had won nor any others could be regarded as really secure as long as the Irish Houses remained in their present state of subordination to the English Privy Council, which had power to alter or suppress their decrees, or as the Lords and Commons of England considered themselves entitled to legislate for Ireland.

In April (1780), Grattan brought the subject of Legislative Independence before the Commons in a splendid speech. The consideration of the question was, however, postponed.

As a sort of test case an Irish Mutiny Bill was introduced by one of the Opposition. Hitherto the troops in Ireland had been kept under discipline by the English Act, and the passing of a special enactment by the Irish Parliament amounted, of course, to a denial of the right of the London assembly to legislate for Ireland at all. Government opposed the Bill, but was utterly defeated. The Bill, as drafted, was on the model of the English one, to be renewed by Parliament each Session, and failing such renewal to lapse ; the object being to keep the army under the control of the civil power. When, however, it was returned from England it was found to have been changed to a Perpetual Mutiny Bill. The alteration had quite evidently been made in order to induce the Irish Houses to reject the entire measure. They, however, passed it by a fair majority. In September (1780), Parliament was prorogued.

Before the end of the year Buckinghamshire was replaced in the Viceroyalty by Lord Carlisle. The directions given him indicated some desire to conciliate Irish public opinion, but the determination of the British Ministers to oppose any pretensions made by the Dublin Parliament to legislative independence was as strong as ever

Parliament opened in October (1781), and the beginning of the Session was tranquil. The long-desired Habeas Corpus Act was passed returned from England, and became law. In December the news of Lord Cornwall surrender at Yorktown, an event which practically ended the American war, was made known in Ireland. The two Irish Houses received the intelligence with expressions of deep concern and voted an Address to the King assuring him of their loyalty. For the time the attention of almost all the members of the Opposition seemed to be diverted from the grievances of their own country, and a motion made by Flood for the appointment of a Commission to inquire into the powers claimed by the Irish Privy Council under Poynings’ Law was rejected by a large majority.

When the Houses met after the Christmas vacation, a Second Catholic Relief Bill was introduced by Luke Gardiner, who some four years previously had been the sponsor of the first, and was passed without much difficulty (February, 1782).