continue, until the utmost amount of the sums which might be wanted for the increase of the army and perhaps for a national militia was known. The Parliament was also of opinion that a short Money Bill was the only certain method of obtaining the popular Bills which had been so often demanded and so constantly refused. Lord Shannon, and the Speaker later in the day, waited on the Lord-Lieutenant and confirmed the statements of their agent, Tisdal. A Council was immediately summoned at the Castle, but the result of their deliberations was only to confirm the already gloomy forebodings of Townshend. Mr. Justice Hewett, one of the Judges of the Court of King's Bench, "a man of known attachment to Revolution principles, great knowledge and unspotted integrity,"[1] had already been appointed Chancellor, and was on his way to Ireland, as Shelburne now informed Townshend, and he reiterated the intention of Government not to recede from their resolution with regard to places and pensions and reversions, the evident object of the attacks of the Junto. "As to the design," he continued, "of a short Money Bill, it is impossible for me to express to your Excellency the astonishment with which the account of such a measure having been even entertained in idea, was received by everybody here; a measure which strikes not only at the dignity of the King, but at the very being of Government. Could it be possible to suppose for a moment that it was to meet with success, great confusion in Ireland would not only be the inevitable consequence; but it would be the just occasion of rejecting the very Bills that were the pretended object of such an unprecedented conduct; in which case the contrivers of such a measure must have stood condemned in the sight both of God and men, and experienced the certain indignation of the public, who must soon see through the flimsy pretext of founding their unjustifiable jealousy upon a comparison of what happened in the administration of the late Lord-Lieutenant with the communication now made by your Excel-
- ↑ Shelburne to Townshend, November 1767.
