renewal of disasters. It was consequently to the immediate restoration of the naval and military resources of the country that the first efforts of the new Ministers were turned. A circular letter was issued by Shelburne to the principal towns, containing suggestions for the immediate levy of corps of volunteers for the national defence.[1] Keppel was equally active, "and the low state of the fleet at home, lower by much than the retiring Ministry had told their successors that they would find it, was raised through zeal and alertness to a pitch which ordinary exertions could never have effected."[2]
It was however above all things necessary to pacify Ireland, in order to be able to negotiate successfully abroad. The concessions made by Lord North on the matter of commerce had come too late. "We have gotten commerce," said Grattan, "but not freedom," when, on the 19th of April 1780, he moved a resolution declaratory of the legislative independence of Ireland. The motion was then lost, and for a short time after, in Ireland as in England, the liberal movement lulled, only to gather new strength, as the inevitable termination of the war with America and the fall of North were foreseen. The repeal of the 6th of George I. and of Poynings' law, with the abolition of the superiority exercised by the English courts of law over those of Ireland, were openly demanded in addition to the former claim of a quam diu se bene gesserint tenure for the judges and an annual Mutiny Bill. In these demands the whole of Ireland was united, and Grattan outstepping his more timid Protestant coadjutors, declared that he would refuse to give freedom to but 600,000 of his countrymen, when he could extend it to two millions more, thereby sounding the death-knell of Catholic disabilities. At the back of these formidable demands was the equally formidable force of the Volunteers. Lord Carlisle, who in 1781 had been sent over, with Mr. Eden as his Secretary, to replace Lord Buckinghamshire, did not conceal from his official chiefs in England, that matters had arrived at that
