science of its government, to know all the local and relative interests of the country, and to be thoroughly conversant and experienced in its powers and resources, its revenue, its commerce, and its police. From such valuable and intelligent friends, the active and inquiring mind of Mr. Eden derived all the information that he sought for, and to these connections, honourable equally to himself and to all who formed them, we are to ascribe the essential services he was found qualified to render the British empire, when he was called upon to contribute all that his abilities and knowledge could furnish, towards settling and adjusting the principles of that important transaction-the UNION which has recently taken place between Great Britain and Ireland, and which promises to add so much to the stability and permanence of the British empire.

Towards the end of March 1782 the ministry was changed, and Lord North with his friends went out of office, in deference to the sense of the House of Commons, expressed by its vote on a popular question decided adverse to the existing administration. In April Mr. Eden came from Ireland, and appeared on Monday the 8th of that month in his place in the House of Commons; whence, having been called upon, as the minister of Ireland, to give some account of the state of affairs in that country, he rose and detailed the history of them for some years past, describing their existing situation, the feelings of the Irish respecting the question of legislating for themselves, and the expectations from the liberality

of Great Britain on that head. He concluded with moving for leave to bring in a bill "to repeal so much of the 6th of George the 1st as affected the legislative independency of Ireland," solemnly declaring that he believed the house's compliance with such a motion would give perfect quiet to Ireland. This occasioned a warm and animated debate of some hours, at the end of which Mr. Eden said, "that as he saw there was a fair and anxious disposition to comply with the wishes of Ireland, he would at least infer that his motion would not be excluded as a part of the proposed plan." [Mr. Fox, then Secretary of State, indicating his assent,] Mr. Eden, after a few more observations as to his solemn belief "that the motion before the house would be satisfactory," concluded with saying, "that he must give way to the sense of the house, for his withdrawing the motion; but he begged to have it remembered, that it was a deference to their wish, and not the sentiment of his own mind, that induced him to do so."*

* In order to explain to the reader the cause and nature of this transaction, it is necessary that he should be apprized that the Earl of Carlisle was appointed Lord-lieutenant of Ireland in a very critical and arduous period. The first session of parliament while the Earl was Viceroy presented many and daily difficulties to be surmounted; the administration of that kingdom had nevertheless the good fortune, by an equal share of candour and firmness, to conduct it smoothly and safely as far as they remained in power. A system of wise and constitutional changes was projected, countenanced by the government at home, acknowledged to be highly satisfactory by fuch of the leading persons in Ireland, to whom

ther

[On the 17th of May following, Mr. Fox moved, "That it is the opinion of this house, that the act of the 6th of George the 1st, intituled, An act for the 'better securing the dependency of the kingdom of Ireland upon the crown of Great Britain,' ought to be repealed;" which motion was unanimously agreed to.]

In April 1783 Mr. Eden was sworn of his Majesty's privy council in England, and was appointed Vice

they were communicated, and intended to be gradually produced. The recall of the Viceroy, however, was so sudden and unqualified, that it looked like a plan to deprive him of all the credit due to him for his good intentions, and to transfer the popularity that belonged to them to others. Hence, perhaps, the sudden appearance, the arguments and motion made and urged by Mr. Eden in the British House of Commons, on the 8th of April. Certain it is, that the House of Commons of Ireland were highly satisfied with the administration of the Earl of Carlisle, as appears by the following vote of thanks, which passed in that house without a division soon after the arrival of the Duke of Portland, and on the very day that the new Lord-lieutenant sent a message to the house by the Right Hon. John Hely Hutchinson, Secretary of State in Ireland, "that his Grace had it in command to inform the house, that his Majesty being concerned to find that discontents and jealousies are prevailing among his loyal subjects of this country, upon matters of great weight and importance, recommends it to this house to take the same into their most serious consideration, in order to such a final adjustment as may give general satisfaction to his kingdoms of Great Britain and Ireland.”

"Monday, April 15, 1782.

"That the thanks of this house be presented to the Right Hon. Frederick Earl of Carlisle, for the wisdom and prudence of his administration, and for his uniform and unremitted attention to promote the welfare of this kingdom."

treasurer

treasurer of Ireland, which office he resigned in the month of December following.

In the session of 1784 he was chosen chairman of the committee appointed to inquire into the illicit practices used in defrauding the revenue: he was also in the same session chairman of the select committee appointed to examine the Reports of the Directors of the East-India Company. The Reports presented to the house by those committees were made the foundation of several parliamentary measures.

In the next session he took an active part in opposing the Irish propositions; and by his suggestions, and the suggestions of those gentlemen who acted with him, the propositions, before they received the ultimate sanction, were rendered infinitely more practicable, by various salutary modifications, alterations, and amendments: an incontrovertible proof that the presence of an opposition, composed of wise and able men, is at all times highly useful, and that a secession from parliament is not only a breach of a high constitutional trust, but as absurd and ridiculous as the quarrels of children who say they'll play no more,' because the dressing and management of a doll is not to be surrendered to them, while the supreme control of it is officially vested in others.

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In December 1785 Mr. Eden was appointed one of the Lords of the Committee of Council for Trade and Plantations, and was named Envoy Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to the court of Versailles, for the purpose of concluding a treaty of commerce between Great Britain and France. That treaty was accom

plished

plished and signed September 26, 1786. On the 15th of January 1787 he signed with the Comte de Vergennes a farther commercial convention.

On the 31st of August, in the same year, he signed with the late Comte de Montmorin a convention between his Britannic Majesty and the most Christian King, for the prevention of disputes between their respective subjects in the East Indies.

In these truly important treaties, the consummate abilities of Mr. Eden as a man of business, his intimate knowledge of British commerce and British manufacture, and the true interests of both, shone forth with distinguished lustre. The mildness of our negotiator's manners, his accommodating temper, and his unassuming tone, aided by his adroit management of the various interests and concerns entrusted to his care, produced the most complete success. The commercial connection between the two countries was placed on a footing certainly not in itself disadvantageous to France, but in so superior a degree beneficial to Great Britain, to that upon which any former commercial treaty had rested, that the country was contented to reap the fruits of it in silence for nearly three years, before France discovered, or was pleased to acknowledge, that it was possible for her negotiators to be over-matched by an Englishman.

The convention signed by the late Comte de Montmorin was of still higher consideration than the commercial treaties, important as they were. It in