Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Illustrations
- List of Contributors
- Acknowledgements
- List of Abbreviations
- Introduction
- Part One Family, Piety, and Finance
- Part Two Politics
- 5 Shelburne: A Chathamite in Opposition and in Government 1760–82?
- 6 Shelburne and Ireland: Politician, Patriot, Absentee
- 7 Lord Shelburne's Ministry, 1782–3: ‘A Very Good List’
- 8 Shelburne, the European Powers, and the Peace of 1783
- Part Three The Bowood Circle Revisited
- Index
- STUDIES IN EARLY MODERN CULTURAL, POLITICAL AND SOCIAL HISTORY
6 - Shelburne and Ireland: Politician, Patriot, Absentee
from Part Two - Politics
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 September 2013
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Illustrations
- List of Contributors
- Acknowledgements
- List of Abbreviations
- Introduction
- Part One Family, Piety, and Finance
- Part Two Politics
- 5 Shelburne: A Chathamite in Opposition and in Government 1760–82?
- 6 Shelburne and Ireland: Politician, Patriot, Absentee
- 7 Lord Shelburne's Ministry, 1782–3: ‘A Very Good List’
- 8 Shelburne, the European Powers, and the Peace of 1783
- Part Three The Bowood Circle Revisited
- Index
- STUDIES IN EARLY MODERN CULTURAL, POLITICAL AND SOCIAL HISTORY
Summary
In April 1784 the Hibernian Journal announced to its patriotic readership:
we are now unequivocally convinced, that whether the arch-corrupter, North; the insinuating insidious Pitt; the profligate gambling Fox, or the apostate Renegade Shelburne, rules the Helm, the systematic Government of Ireland is Tyranny, Oppression, and an Iron Rod!
Such hyperbole was unwarranted, but the core of the newspaper's comment was correct. Few British politicians – including those of the longstanding opposition to Lord North during the American War – would put Irish interests before those of the empire. That said, there were subtle – and some not-so subtle – differences between the Irish policies adopted by Britain's political groupings and their leaders. I have written elsewhere of Fox's determination to balance the interests of the British parliament and empire with the interests of the Irish subject. But in many ways, despite his blasted political reputation – and it is difficult to talk up the achievement of a politician who makes so many enemies that his career is over, despite persistent rumours of a comeback, at the age of forty-six – Shelburne is a much more credible figure than Fox as an advocate of Irish interests within the British empire.
During the course of this chapter I intend to argue that in his approach to Irish issues – including policy-making – Shelburne adopted a stance that was influenced by two dominant considerations. The first is his commitment to a broadly Chathamite political world-view, and the second, his first-hand experience of Ireland through his landholdings.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- An Enlightenment Statesman in Whig BritainLord Shelburne in Context, 1737–1805, pp. 141 - 160Publisher: Boydell & BrewerPrint publication year: 2011