the Army were easily got rid of with the help of the new allies of the Government,[1] and the Earl of Carrick gave notice that he would move in the House of Lords "that this House will not read a second time any Bill of Aid or Supply to which any clause is added which is foreign to and different from the matter of the said Bill of Aid or Supply." The object of the motion was to restrain the grants attached to Money Bills so graphically described by Lord Clare, and to show the House of Commons that there were other sources of economy besides the pensions granted by King's letters.[2]
Of the measures which besides the Septennial Bill had been sent over in the previous autumn to the Privy Council in England, the Habeas Corpus Bill was not returned, owing to the disturbed condition of the country which rendered it inapplicable at the moment.[3] The absentee tax was returned, though Shelburne could not refrain from incidentally pointing out the injustice of treating the pensions of men like "Prince Ferdinand of Brunswick and of Sir Edward Hawke, whose intrepidity and good conduct had so very lately saved Ireland from the dreadful consequences of invasion"[3] in the same manner as those of the courtiers and disreputable characters with which the first two Georges had crowded the list. The Judges' Tenure Bill was also returned, but with an important alteration. The heads of the Bill as sent over to England made the Judges removable on the address of the Privy Council and the two Houses of Parliament in Ireland. Shelburne, though himself averse to the principle of the alteration he recommended,[4] had wished that a clause should be inserted giving the same weight to the Houses of Parliament in England, because if such a clause were not transmitted to the Privy Council in England, it would probably be inserted there.[5] The Privy Council in Ireland, however, asked Shelburne not
- ↑ Townshend to Shelburne, February 9th and 16th, 1768.
- ↑ Townshend to Shelburne, March 17th, 1768.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Shelburne to Townshend, April 23rd, 1768.
- ↑ See his opinions on the Government of Ireland in Vol. II., Ch. III., and Shelburne to Chatham, January 8th, 1774.
- ↑ Chatham Correspondence, iv. 317.
