Union "the downfall of one of
the most corrupt assemblies I believe ever existed." The proprietors of
the pocket-boroughs were needy and grasping, some of them living by the
sale of presentation of seats. Government generally managed to control
them, but only on condition of dispensing favours proportionate to the
importance of the suitor and the corruptness of the occasion. As
Beresford remarked with unconscious humour, the borough-mongers "cannot
be expected to give up their interest for nothing; and those who bought
their seats cannot be expected to give up their term for nothing." Here
he expressed the general conviction of that age, which Pitt recognized
in his Reform Bill of 1785 by seeking to indemnify the borough-holders
of Great Britain.

A typical specimen of the borough-owner was that "ill-tempered, violent
fellow," Lord Downshire, who controlled the Crown patronage in the North
by virtue of his seven borough seats. Lord Ely had six seats; and the
Duke of Devonshire, and Lords Abercorn, Belmore, Clifden, Granard, and
Shannon, four apiece. In the counties, Downshire, the Ponsonbys, and the
Beresfords controlled about twenty seats. Camden, writing to Pitt on
11th August 1799, thus described Downshire: "He is not personally
corrupt; but the larger the compensation for the boroughs is to be, the
more readily will he listen to you or Lord Castlereagh."[545] Lord
Longueville, a borough-owner of great influence in County Cork, wrote as
follows to Pitt on 3rd December, 1798:

... Long attached to you, and confirmed in that attachment for
life by the direction and advice of Lord Westmorland, I have now
no object to look up to, to prevent my falling a sacrifice to my
political enemies, but to you. When Lord Shannon opposed your
measures, I spent L30,000 of my own money to frustrate his
intentions and support your measures. I shall now act by your
advice and opinion on this great business of a Union with Great
Britain. My friends are numerous and firm; they look up to you
for decision on every occasion. My interest in Ireland is
extensive. I wish to be a British peer before the measure of a
Union takes place, or after. I wish the city of Cork to have two
members, Bantry one and Mallow one.

Longueville gained his desire and the patronage of the Revenue offices
in Cork City.[546] From Pitt's letter to Cornwallis it is clear that he
believed that the promise of Government