As indicated earlier, the advances in parliamentary power gained by the Glorious Revolution did not apply in Ireland. The parliament, now exclusively Protestant and soon exclusively Church of Ireland, was still subordinate to English interests. Since the hereditary revenues received by the monarch in Ireland were insufficient to meet public expenses, part of which were for the maintenance of an army almost twice the size of the army in England, the parliament had to be summoned into session biennially to appropriate additional revenues. The agenda of that parliament was governed by Poynings' Law, which meant that legislation had first to be approved by the English Privy Council before receiving consideration by the Irish parliament. In addition, the administration of Ireland was in the hands of English appointees who were automatically members of the cabinet form of government that was beginning
To congeal in 18th-century England. That cabinet, while not yet the product of a majority in parliament, had to at least be responsive to that majority. The English government named the Irish lord lieutenant, who usually would reside in Ireland only for the biennial parliamentary session, and his secretary. They approached their work as members of that government rather than as the governors of Ireland. Appointments within Ireland and the management of political developments, particularly the securing of consent by the Irish parliament to legislation and revenue measures, were primarily influenced by English political considerations.
The structure of the Irish parliament itself was unlikely to trouble the system, as there was no element of democracy present. As in England, suffrage was very limited in the countywide constituencies, and even more so in the many borough or town constituencies. Some of the latter were "rotten," that is, purely nominal corporations in which only a handful of votes existed. None of the acts governing the duration of a parliament, whether the earlier Triennial Act passed in the post-Glorious Revolution zeal, or the more conservative Septennial Act passed in 1719 to perpetuate Whig and pro-Hanoverian dominance, applied to Ireland. There, a new parliament need be elected only if the monarch died. The main consideration of the government was to manage the various private interests of individual members or of groups of members, who usually could be satisfied or "bought off" with favors or positions.
In 1715 James III, the son of James II, tried unsuccessfully to oust his Protestant cousin, George I, who had succeeded Anne thanks to the 1707 Succession Act, which had specifically excluded Roman Catholics from inheriting the crown. George was aware that many Tories in England retained a degree of sympathy for the Jacobite cause. Accordingly, he gave greater preference to the Whigs, who in turn took advantage of the king's foreignness, extensive absences in his native Hanover, and general unfamiliarity with the intricacies of English politics, to make him increasingly dependent on them. Out of this would gradually emerge the concept of a prime minister, who would be the leader of the majority in parliament. He would chair the cabinet that would control the regular management of government. However, the first minister and the cabinet remained dependent, first, on the approval of the king and, second, on their ability to command a majority in parliament.
The Whigs were more sympathetic to the dissenters in England and Ireland, possibly because many of them were closet Dissenters themselves. In such an atmosphere the appointment of bishops for both England and Ireland was prompted more by political than religious considerations, and, accordingly, the hierarchy consisted of men less filled with religious enthusiasm and more ready to accommodate an increased tolerance for dissenters and, ultimately, Catholics. The same "political" bishops could be counted on to generally support the government as members of the House of Lords in both kingdoms. There was also an increasing disposition to mitigate the burdens on Catholics because many Irish Catholics had not identified with the Jacobite cause in 1715 nor again in 1745, when James II's grandson, Prince Charles Edward, staged an unsuccessful rising in Scotland that penetrated even into England until brutally repressed at the Battle of Culloden.
Significantly, to guarantee the maintenance of Whig dominance of the parliament, a Septennial Act was passed in 1719 to replace the Triennial Act. This act lessened the number of elections and worked to discourage the formation of an opposition or the challenging of incumbents in most constituencies. In the same year, the parliament passed the famous "Sixth of George I" in which the Westminster Parliament formally asserted the power, which it had in fact been exercising, to legislate when it saw fit for Ireland. It also abolished the judicial appellate power of the Irish House of Lords, insisting that such power resided only in the Westminster Lords.
World History
