In order to atone to Ireland for this gratification to Manchester, he
graciously permitted, or rather forwarded, two bills,--that for
encouraging the growth of tobacco, and that for giving a bounty on
exportation of hemp from Ireland. They were brought in by two very
worthy members, and on good principles; but I was sorry to see them,
and, after expressing my doubts of their propriety, left the House.
Little also [else?] was said upon them. My objections were two: the
first, that the cultivation of those weeds (if one of them could be at
all cultivated to profit) was adverse to the introduction of a good
course of agriculture; the other, that the encouragement given to them
tended to establish that mischievous policy of considering Ireland as a
country of staple, and a producer of raw materials.
When the rejection of the first propositions and the acceptance of the
last had jointly, as it was natural, raised a very strong discontent in
Ireland, Lord Rockingham, who frequently said that there never seemed a
more opportune time for the relief of Ireland than that moment when Lord
North had rejected all rational propositions for its relief, without
consulting, I believe, any one living, did what he is not often very
willing to do; but he thought this an occasion of magnitude enough to
justify an extraordinary step.
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