We saw in a previous chapter (p.

33) what the political condition of Ireland was when Burke went there with Hamilton in 1763.

The American war had brought about a great change.

The king had shrewdly predicted that if America became free Ireland would soon follow the same plan and be a separate state.
In fact, along with the American war we had to encounter an Irish war also; but the latter was, as an Irish politician called it at the time, a smothered war.

Like the Americans, the Anglo-Irish entered into non-importation compacts, and they interdicted commerce.