The alterations were indeed small; but the alteration even of a letter was tantamount to a declaration of independence.

Several addresses were voted without a division.

The King was entreated to discourage all encroachments of subordinate powers on the supreme authority of the English legislature, to bring to justice the pamphleteer who had dared to question that authority, to enforce the Acts which had been passed for the protection of the woollen manufactures of England, and to direct the industry and capital of Ireland into the channel of the linen trade, a trade which might grow and flourish in Leinster and Ulster without exciting the smallest jealousy at Norwich or at Halifax.
The King promised to do what the Commons asked; but in truth there was little to be done.

The Irish, conscious of their impotence, submitted without a murmur.

The Irish woollen manufacture languished and disappeared, as it would, in all probability, have languished and disappeared if it had been left to itself.