"...three hundred brutes
All involved in wild disputes,
Roaring till their lungs are spent
Privilege of Parliament'!"
And if only the Devil were some day to come "with poker fiery red,"
and--
"When the den of thieves is full,
Quite destroy the harpies' nest,
How might then our Isle be blest!"
Capable observers, from Swift to Arthur Young, bear continuous testimony
to the systematic and habitual corruption of the Irish Parliament.
Offices were multiplied and were distributed among clamorous applicants
on the ground of family or personal influence, or political
support--never by any chance on the ground of merit or capacity. Public
money was squandered for private purposes. Sir George Macartney, himself
an Irishman and a Member of Parliament, in his "Account of Ireland,"
speaking of the year 1745, says--[8]
"The House of Commons now began to appropriate a considerable part
of the additional duties to their own use. This was done under
pretence of encouraging public works such as inland navigation,
collieries, and manufactories of different kinds; but the truth is
that most of these public works were private jobs carried on under
the direction and for the advantage of some considerable gentlemen
in the House of Commons."
Arthur Young, whose careful and impartial study of the state of affairs
in Ireland under the Dublin Parliament has become a classic, speaks of
the same class of transaction,[9]
"The members of the House of Commons at the conclusion of the
sessions met for the purpose of voting the uses to which this money
should be applied: the greater part of it was amongst themselves,
their friends or dependants, and though some work of apparent use
to the public was always the plea, yet under the sanction there
were a great number of very scandalous jobs."
Young admits that some useful public work was done, but that most of the
money was misappropriated was matter of common report. After a
reference to the construction of a certain canal he adds--
"Some gentlemen I have talked with on this subject have replied,
'It is a job: 'twas meant as a job: you are not to consider it as a
canal of trade, but as a canal for public money!' ... Sorry I am to
say that a history of public works in Ireland would be a history of
jobs."