III. 1662. The entry in the journals upon this CHAP. grant, the 27th of June one thousand fix hundred and fixty-two, paints, in the most eloquent and lively manner, their feelings upon this occafion; his diftreffed and forlorn condition during the rebellion; his loyalty and his fufferings; his poverty and perfonal wants; the invitations he received from neighbouring princes to take refuge among them, which he had declined from a zeal for religion, and an attachment to his country*. The name of Ufher will ever live in the records of Fame and the annals of Literature; nor was there ever a donation more merited: to him and to his uncle Ireland owes the original establishment of the university †; and hence alone he must be confidered as an * After the primate had been deprived of his rents, `and reduced to the greateft diftrefs by the rebellion, the univerfity of Leyden offered him the place of profeffor of divinity, and cardinal Richelieu a large pension, and an asylum in France. PARR's Life of Primate USHER, P. 47. + See above, p. 52. and p. 59, eternal III. 1662. CHAP. eternal benefactor. Such was the conduct of the Athenian people to the daughters of Ariftides, who were provided for at the public expence; of whom the Grecian orator has related, that their father bequeathed them no other portions than the grateful recollection of his virtues. On the 4th of July, in an afternoon fitting, an account was given of twenty thoufand pounds, and its distribution among the commiffioners; and on the 8th fir John Ponsonby, member for the county of Kilkenny, reported the precedents of wages for members fince one thousand fix hundred and thirty-four; by which it appeared that there was a confiderable abatement in the rate of thofe allowances. This was the laft Irish parliament in which wages were allowed ; for in the next feffion, the 12th of March one thousand fix hundred and fixty-five, I find an order, that many inconveniencies arofe from their collection that no warrants fhould iffue for any due fince the 27th of September one thousand ; III. 1662. fix hundred and fixty-two, or that fhall be CHA P. due hereafter during this feffion of parliament. This was therefore the last time that they were allowed in Ireland; what time they terminated in England is uncertain; but it is faid, that the celebrated Andrew Marvell, member at this period for Hull, was the laft member who received wages from his constituents. On the 9th of July a very extraordinary question arose about preventing the publication of their debates in an English newspaper, called the Intelligencer; and a letter was written from the speaker to fir Edward Nicholas, the English secretary of state, to prevent these publications, and, as they term them, misrepresentations. These publications in thofe diurnals (as they call them) fhew how much the attention of the public was engaged in the proceedings of the Irish parliament about the act of settlement. The London Gazette commenced the 7th of November one thousand fix hundred and CHAP. fixty-five; it was called firft the Oxford GaIII. zette, from its being printed there, during 1662. the feffion of parliament in the time of the laft plague in London *. Antecedent to this period fir Roger l'Eftrange published the first daily newspaper in England, called the Intelligencer; in which it appears from hence that the Irish debates were inferted. The English parliament always punished publications of this fort in former times; in the Poft Boy, and even in Boyer's Political State, &c.; but upon an attempt to revive those restrictions in one thousand seven hundred and feventy-three, the printers gained a complete victory over administration in both kingdoms. The tranfaction was rendered more remarkable by a political event. popular orator, it is faid, oppofed admi A * A collection of the Gazettes, from the firft number of November the 7th, 1655, which I have seen, was bought by the earl of Befborough at lord Oxford's fale. This paper was always published by authority; but common articles of intelligence are more abundant in the early numbers than at prefent, and it had originally more the appearance of an ordinary newfpaper. niftra III. 1662. niftration for the first time on this occafion; CHAP. and though he had been a warm friend to the ministry till that period in all the unpopular measures of the Middlesex election, &c. &c., he now appeared in the oppofition, and remained a violent adversary to lord North till the famous coalition in one thousand seven hundred and eighty-three. On the 19th of July fir Paul Davies reported an answer from the lords justices to a remonftrance about foldiers levying quit rents and other taxes; and that they had iffued a proclamation to put a stop to this practice. At the close of this answer they allege the smallness of the king's revenue, the obstruction of members pleading privilege, and granting protections against the collection of the taxes. This feems to have given much offence. The fecretary was defired to request of them to specify the inftances of such irregularities; and the debate upon thefe queftions was adjourned till Monday. It does not feem to have been a rule then, as it was after |