And it cannot be denied that the tendency
to political jobbery had not been diminished by the concessions of 1782,
if, indeed, it may not be said that the increased importance which those
concessions had given to the Irish Parliament had led the members of
both Houses to place an increased value on their services. Certainly no
previous Lord-lieutenant had given such descriptions of the universality
of the demands made on him as were forwarded to the English government
by those who held that office in the sixteen years preceding the
outbreak of the Rebellion.
It is remarkable that the transaction which, as has been said before,
may be conceived to have first forced on Pitt's mind the conviction of
the absolute necessity of the Union--namely, the course pursued by the
Irish Parliament on the Regency Bill--bore a close resemblance to that
which, above all other considerations, had made the Scotch Union
indispensable, namely, the Act of Security passed by the Scottish
Estates in 1703, which actually provided that, on the decease of Queen
Anne without issue, the Estates "should name her successor, but should
be debarred from choosing the admitted successor to the crown of
England, unless such forms of government were settled as should fully
secure the religion, freedom, and trade of the Scottish nation.
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