were there made, which were subsequently adopted by
the commons; and on the 29th of July an address was presented to the
king by both houses, acquainting his majesty with the steps which had
been taken in this affair: adding, that "it remained for the parliament
of Ireland to judge of the conditions, according to their wisdom and
discretion, as well as of all other parts of the settlement proposed to
be established by mutual consent." Parliament now adjourned to a
distant period; and on the 30th of September it was prorogued by royal
proclamation.

In Ireland, Pitt's bill was doomed to meet with a more powerful
opposition than it had met with in England. This opposition arose from
the restrictive clauses which the minister had been compelled, by the
clamour of the merchants and manufacturers, to introduce. Thus the
provision respecting the navigation laws was considered an infringement
on the legislative independence of Ireland; while the appropriation of
the surplus hereditary revenue, and the prohibition of trade to the East
Indies, were represented as reducing the country to a state of slavery.
All the alterations and additions were, indeed, denounced by the Irish
people; and numerous petitions were presented against the bill. The
strong feeling which existed against it was exhibited in the Irish
parliament, when, on the 12th of August, Mr. Orde, the secretary of the
lord-lieutenant, moved for leave to bring in a corresponding bill. This
motion was carried; but it was only by am majority of nineteen,
which was equivalent to a defeat; and a few days afterwards, when the
secretary moved the first reading and printing of the bill, he declared
that he should proceed no further with it during the present session.
The failure of this plan was a severe mortification to Pitt, who
had laboured for nearly twelve months in perfecting it as far as
its complicated nature would allow; but he looked forward with great
confidence to a change of sentiment, which he anticipated would take
place at no very distant period. Had Ireland accepted it, she might have
avoided many of those evils which she was subsequently called upon to
endure; for it would have prepared the way for the great measure of the
union, which, when it took place, was attended with much corruption and
violence. But it was the tendency which the bill had to effect or bring
about this consummation, that chiefly gave rise to the long and loud
outcry against it. Gratta