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.

Above : Picture Of Lord Mountjoy

The first Catholic Relief Bill of general importance was that introduced into the Commons by Luke Gardiner (afterwards Lord Mountjoy), 1778. The Catholics, since the foundation of the Catholic Committee in 1757, had begun to show more spirit. The Government appears to have realised that concession was necessary, and the introduction of Gardiner’s Bill was not seriously opposed. This Bill proposed the removal of several crying injustices under which the Catholics suffered in regard to the holding of land and to inheritance. It permitted a Catholic to take a lease of 999 years, released him from the necessity of ” gavelling,” or dividing his estate amongst his sons, and withdrew the advantages hitherto conceded to a wife or child who embraced the Reformed faith. The Irish Houses passed the measure by fair majorities, both in Lords and Commons (July, 1778). Less than two years after (March, 1780) the Irish Parliament, mainly in consequence of pressure brought by the Volunteers, abolished the Test, by which all officials were obliged to take the Sacrament according to the rites of the Established Church, thereby admitting the Protestant Dissenters freely to offices. The policy of the Relief Bill of 1778 appears to have been generally approved of in Ireland by both members of the Establishmed Church and Dissenters.