lay or soothe. Nor was it among the populace alone that ill-feeling
was displayed. When the Irish parliament met, the spirit of liberty
was discerned in that assembly likewise. The speaker of the house of
commons, in a speech to his excellency before the lords, expressed the
inability of the country to endure any additional taxation, by reason
of those commercial restrictions, which, he said, had fettered all its
energies. The claim of commercial freedom was, indeed, warmly repeated
in the official addresses of the speaker during the continuance of the
government of this viceroy, and a spirit of jealousy also appeared in
a refusal to admit foreign mercenaries, when the British troops were
withdrawn to America, although the English government offered to defray
all the expenses. A relaxation of the penal code, however, by which
the condition of the Roman Catholics was improved, had the effect
of lowering the angry feelings of the nation, and on the whole the
government of the Earl of Harcourt is looked upon as having produced
beneficial results to the country. Dr. Miller says, "The government of
Lord Townshend had termininated the oligarchical administration: that of
Lord Harcourt unfolded those germs of political energy, which were soon
to expand themselves into national prosperity and importance."

DISPUTES WITH THE AMERICAN COLONIES.

The storm which had long been gathering in the horizon, was now
gathering thick over our American colonies, and threatened ere long
to pour out its fury throughout the whole length and breadth of the
conn-try. It was now increased by the attempt of Lord North at taking
the payment of the colonial judges and governors out of the hands of the
houses of assembly. This the Americans declared was an attempt of the
British government to impose its own arbitrary instruments upon them; to
destroy the very essence of their charters and liberties, by making the
judges and governors wholly independent of the people, and dependent on
the crown. Resistance was therefore resolved upon. A series of protests
were issued from the assembly of Boston, and the example was followed
by all the assemblies throughout the colonies. For the purpose of
making the opposition more effectual, a corresponding committee was
established, with branches and ramifications, which reached nearly to
every town and village throughout the colonies, and the effect of this
great lever of the revolution was soon seen in a gen