This law was repealed by the English House of Commons without a negative, and only one Bishop opposed its repeal in the House of Lords.

Having won this victory, the Irish patriots continued their campaign, and now sought to win general emancipation from the legislative and commercial restrictions of England.  It was in 1781 that the first convention of volunteer delegates met, and some months after Mr. Grattan moved an address to the throne asserting the legislative independence of Ireland.  ’The address passed; the repeal of a certain act, empowering England to legislate for Ireland, followed; and the legislative independence of this country was acknowledged.’

Edgeworth sympathised with the enthusiasm which prevailed throughout Ireland at this time; but he was shrewd enough to see that what was further required for the real benefit of the country was ’an effectual reformation of the Irish House of Commons.’

The counties were insufficiently represented, and the boroughs were venal.  The Irish parliament was, in fact, an Oligarchy, and Edgeworth realised this danger.  He, however, wished the reform to be carried on ‘through the intervention of parliament,’ while the more extreme party insisted on sending delegates from the volunteers to a convention in Dublin.  This military convention ’met at the Royal Exchange in Dublin, November the 9th, 1783—­Parliament was then sitting.  An armed convention assembled in the capital, and sitting at the same time with the Houses of Lords and Commons, deliberating on a legislative question, was a new and unprecedented spectacle.

’In this convention, as in all public assemblies, there was a violent and a moderate party.  Lord Charlemont, the president of the assembly, was at the head of the moderate men.  Though not convinced of the strict legality of the meeting, he thought a reform in parliament so important and desirable an object, that to the probability or chance of obtaining this great advantage it was the wisdom of a true patriot to sacrifice punctilio, and to hazard all, but, what he was too wise and good to endanger, the peace of the country.  Lord Charlemont accepted the office of president, specially with the hope that he and his friends might be able to influence the convention in favour of proceedings at once temperate and firm.  The very sincerity of his desire to attain a reform rendered him clear-sighted as to the means to be pursued; and while he wished that the people should be allowed every degree of liberty consistent with safety, no man was less inclined to democracy, or could feel more horror at the idea of involving his country in a state of civil anarchy.