the celebrated cause of Sherlock against Annesley. It is not
necessary for us to go into the story of the case at any length. It
was a question of disputed property. The defendant had obtained a
decree in the Irish Court of Exchequer, which decree was reversed on an
appeal to the Irish House of Lords. The defendant appealed to the
English House of Lords, who confirmed the judgment of the Irish Court
of Exchequer, and ordered him to be put in possession of the disputed
property. The Irish House of Lords stood by their authority, and
actually ordered the Irish Barons of Exchequer to be taken into custody
by Black Rod for having offended against the privileges of the Peers
and the rights and liberties of Ireland. The Act was passed to settle
the question and reduce the Irish House of Lords to submission and
subordinate rank. It was settled merely, of course, by the strength of
a majority in the English Parliament. The Duke of Leeds recorded a
sensible and a manly protest against the vote of the majority of his
brother Peers. One or two of the reasons he gives for his protest are
worth reading even now. The eleventh reason is, "Because it is the
glory of the English laws and the blessing attending Englishmen, that
they have justice administered at their doors, and not to be drawn, as
formerly, to Rome by appeals;" "and by this order the people of Ireland
must be drawn from Ireland hither whensoever they receive any injustice
from the Chancery there, by which means poor men must be trampled on,
as not being able to come over to seek for justice." The thirteenth
reason is still more concise: "Because this taking away the
jurisdiction of the Lords' House in Ireland may be a means to {179}
disquiet the Lords there and disappoint the King's affairs."

[Sidenote: 1718--Death of William Penn]

The protest, it need hardly be said, received little or no attention.
More than sixty years after, when England was perplexed in foreign and
colonial troubles, the spirit of the protest walked abroad and animated
Grattan and the Irish Volunteers. But in 1720 the Parliament at
Westminster was free to do as it pleased with the Parliament in Dublin.
To the vast majority of the Irish people it might have been a matter of
absolute indifference which Parliament reigned supreme; they had as
little to expect from Dublin as from Westminster. The Irish Parliament
was quite as ready to promote legislation for the further persecution
of C