assembly too degraded to appreciate their motives,
or to be influenced by their example; and whatever remained of
independence in the House of Commons ministers still laboured to bring
under their control. Scarcely thirty votes appeared in opposition
on the most important divisions, while Government could at any time
readily whip a majority of 100.'

According to a Government return made in 1784, by Pitt's direction,
116 nomination seats were divided between some 25 proprietors. Lord
Shannon returned no less than 16 members, and the great family of
Ponsonby returned 14; Lord Hillsborough, 9, the Duke of Leinster,
7, and the Castle itself 12. Eighty-six seats were _let out_ by the
owners, in consideration of titles, offices, and pensions. No less
than 44 seats were occupied by placemen, 32 by gentlemen who had
promises of pensions, 12 by gentlemen who stood out for higher prices
from Government. The regular opposition appears to have been limited
to 82 votes, of which 30 belonged to Whig nominees, and the rest to
the popular party.

It is, then, easy to account for the state of public feeling which Mr.
Plunket, with these facts and figures before him, so well describes.
He says truly that if it were possible to appeal to the country under
these circumstances, the people would not have responded. 'Gloomy
and desperate, they had lost all confidence in their parliament,
and looked to other quarters for deliverance from the _intolerable
tyranny_ under which they suffered. There can be no doubt that
this anarchy and disgrace were in a great degree the result of a
misgovernment, ancient and recent, _which seems to have been always
adopted with a view to bring out strongly the worst elements of the
Irish character_; but it was at that time said, and no doubt believed
by the Opposition, that the ministry of the day had deliberately
planned and accomplished the disorganisation of the Irish people and
their parliament, in order to enable them to carry out their favourite
project of the Union.'

Mr. Plunket, after describing the classes of 'representatives' that
his grandfather had to deal with in the Irish House of Commons,
further says: 'It is true that this corrupt assembly cannot fairly be
looked upon as the mirror of national character and national honour.
The members of the majority who voted for the Union _were not_
the representatives of the people, _but the hired servants of the
Minister, for the Parliament had been p