Above : Portrait Of George III, King At That Time

During the first years of the Independent Parliament many useful legislative reforms, some of which had been long desired in vain, were effected. The Irish judges were no longer to hold their offices merely during the King’s pleasure, as they had done since Henry VI’s Act (1495), but ” during good behaviour.” Like the English judges, they could now only be removed by a petition from both Houses of Parliament. The Perpetual Mutiny Bill was changed to one which required renewal every two years. During the last decade of the century two important Acts dealing with finance were passed. By one (1793) the Crown was interdicted from meddling with the Irish revenue, as it had done in 1753, and this was entrusted to the care of Commissioners. By the other, a fixed income or Civil List, amounting to £145,000 a year, was assigned to the King, instead of the various duties which he had hitherto received.

The amount of actual commercial distress in Ireland in the years -1782-1783 is not easy to estimate. Ireland had certainly increased her West Indian trade, and the exports of cloth goods were rising. There was unquestionably great discontent amongst the industrial classes, both employers and employed. Increased discontent, however, whether in communities or in individuals, does not of necessity indicate that their sufferings or grievances are worse than before. Often the contrary is the case, and the removal of one disability or restriction causes those which are left to be more keenly resented.

Undoubtedly many serious grievances in regard to trade still remained unredressed, and the arrangement of 1780, although so great an improvement on the state of things which had preceded it, told in several respects against the interests of Ireland. The English Navigation Act of 165 was so applied that Ireland was forbidden to re-export the products of the British Colonies to Great Britain on her own ships even when she had received only the raw materials from abroad and had worked them up at home. High duties were levied on most Irish goods at the British ports, while the amount charged on English products imported into Ireland was very small. The Irish Parliament did not dare to raise its duties, fearing that England might retort by crushing the linen trade. Acute agricultural distress aggravated matters, and in 1784 the export of oats and barley from Ireland was actually prohibited by Parliament, in order that sufficient for home consumption might be available.