sole right

sole right, shorthand for the claim that parliament had ‘the sole and undoubted right’ to initiate financial legislation, asserted when the House of Commons in October 1692 rejected a money bill drawn up by the Irish privy council. This unexpected self‐assertion reflected the expectations created by the revolution of 1688, and is recognized as beginning a new stage in the history of the Irish parliament. But parliament's revolt also reflected hostility towards the administration of Viscount Sydney, lord lieutenant 1692–3, particularly over the leniency allegedly shown towards Catholics since the treaty of Limerick. Sydney's successor Henry Capel, lord justice 1693–5, lord deputy 1695–6, sponsored the first penal laws in 1695 and appointed Alan Brodrick and other leading advocates of sole right to office. This smoothed the way for a compromise settlement whereby at its next meeting, in 1695, the Commons accepted a token money bill from the privy council, but brought forward its own heads of bills to raise most of the revenue required. Thereafter financial legislation was introduced through the Commons, although amendments to such bills by the English or Irish privy council caused occasional resentment. In 1761 the British cabinet insisted, against the fears of the Irish executive, on initiating a money bill, which duly passed. But in 1769, during the campaign against Townshend's viceroyalty, a second such bill was rejected. The same underlying issue of parliamentary control of finance, similarly exploited for political purposes, lay behind the money bill dispute of 1753–6.