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HELVIDIUS PRISCUS

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Originally appearing in Volume V13, Page 256 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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HELVIDIUS See also:

PRISCUS , Stoic philosopher and statesman, lived during the reigns of See also:Nero, See also:Galba, See also:Otho, See also:Vitellius and See also:Vespasian. Like his See also:father-in-See also:law, Thrasea Paetus, he was distinguished for his ardent and courageous republicanism. Although he repeatedly offended his rulers, be held several high offices. During Nero's reign he was See also:quaestor of See also:Achaea and See also:tribune of the See also:plebs (A.D. 56); he restored See also:peace and See also:order in See also:Armenia, and gained the respect and confidence of the provincials. His declared sympathy with See also:Brutus and See also:Cassius occasioned his banishment in 66. Having been recalled to See also:Rome by Galba in 68, he at once impeached Eprius See also:Marcellus, the accuser of Thrasea Paetus, but dropped the See also:charge, as the condemnation of Marcellus would have involved a number of senators. As See also:praetor elect he ventured to oppose Vitellius in the See also:senate (See also:Tacitus, Hist. ii. 91), and as praetor (70) he maintained, in opposition to Vespasian, that the management of the finances ought to be See also:left to the discretion of the senate; he proposed that the capitol, which had been destroyed in the Neronian conflagration, should be restored at the public expense; he saluted Vespasian by his private name, and did not recognize him as See also:emperor in his praetorian edicts. At length he was banished a second See also:time, and shortly afterwards was executed by Vespasian's order. His See also:life, in the See also:form of a warm See also:panegyric, written at his widow's See also:request by Herennius Senecio, caused its author's See also:death in the reign of See also:Domitian. Tacitus, Hist. iv.

5, Dialogus, g; Dio Cassius lxvi. 12, Ixvii. 13; Suetonius, Vespasian, 15; See also:

Pliny, Epp. vii. 19. HELY-See also:HUTCHINSON, See also:JOHN (1724—179.1), Irish lawyer, states-See also:man, and See also:provost of Trinity See also:College, See also:Dublin, son of See also:Francis Hely, a See also:gentleman of See also:County See also:Cork, was educated at Trinity College, Dublin, and was called to the Irish See also:bar in 1748. He took the additional name of Hutchinson on his See also:marriage in 1751 with Christiana See also:Nixon, heiress of her See also:uncle, See also:Richard Hutchinson. He was elected member of the Irish See also:House of See also:Commons for the See also:borough of Lanesborough in 1759, but after 1761 he represented the See also:city of Cork. He at first attached himself to the " patriotic " party in opposition to the See also:government, and although he after-wards joined the See also:administration he never abandoned his advocacy of popular See also:measures. He was a man of brilliant and versatile ability, whom See also:Lord See also:Townshend, the lord See also:lieutenant, described as " by far the most powerful man in See also:parliament." See also:William See also:Gerard See also:Hamilton said of him that " See also:Ireland never bred a more able, nor any See also:country a more honest man." Hely-Hutchinson was, however, an inveterate See also:place-See also:hunter, and there was point in Lord See also:North's witticism that "if you were to give him the whole of See also:Great See also:Britain and Ireland for an See also:estate, he wo. ld ask the Isle of Man for a See also:potato See also:garden." After a session or two in parliament he was made a privy councillor and See also:prime See also:serjeant-at-law; and from this time he gave a See also:general, though by no means invariable, support to the government. In 1767 the See also:ministry contemplated an increase of the See also:army See also:establishment in Ireland from 12,000 to 15,000 men, but the See also:Augmentation See also:Bill met with strenuous opposition, not only from See also:Flood, See also:Ponsonby and the habitual opponents of the government, but from the Undertakers, or proprietors of boroughs, on whom the government had hitherto relied to secure them a See also:majority in the House of Commons. Ittherefore became necessary for Lord Townshend to turn to other methods for procuring support. See also:Early in 1768 an See also:English See also:act was passed for the increase of the army, and a See also:message from the See also:king setting forth the See also:necessity for the measure was laid before the House of Commons in Dublin.

An address favourable to the government policy was, however, rejected; and Hely-Hutchinson, together with the See also:

speaker and the See also:attorney-general, did their utmost both in public and private to obstruct the bill. Parliament was dissolved in May 1768, and the lord lieutenant set about the task of purchasing or otherwise securing a majority in the new parliament. Peerages, See also:pensions and places were bestowed lavishly on those whose support could be thus secured; Hely-Hutchinson was won over by the concession that the Irish army should be established by the authority of an Irish act of parliament instead of an English one. The Augmentation Bill was carried in the session of 1769 by a large majority. Hely-Hutchinson's support had been so valuable that he received as See also:reward an addition of £f000 a See also:year to the See also:salary of his See also:sinecure of Alnagar, a See also:major's See also:commission in a See also:cavalry See also:regiment, and a promise of the secretaryship of See also:state. He was at this time one of the most brilliant debaters in the Irish parliament, and he was enjoying an exceedingly lucrative practice at the bar. This in-come, however, together with his well-salaried sinecure, and his place as prime serjeant, he surrendered in 1774, to become provost of Trinity College, although the See also:statute requiring the provost to be in See also:holy orders had to be dispensed with in his favour. For this great See also:academic position Hely-Hutchinson was in no way qualified, and his See also:appointment to it for purely See also:political service to the government was justly criticized with much asperity. His conduct in using his position as provost to secure the See also:parliamentary See also:representation of the university for his eldest son brought him into conflict with See also:Duigenan, who attacked him in Lacrymae academicae, and involved him in a See also:duel with a Mr See also:Doyle; while a similar See also:attempt on behalf of his second son in 1790 led to his being accused before a select See also:committee of the House of Commons of impropriety as returning officer. But although without scholarship Hely-Hutchinson was an efficient provost, during whose See also:rule material benefits were conferred on Trinity College. He continued to occupy a prominent place in parliament, where he advocated See also:free See also:trade, the See also:relief of the Catholics from penal legislation, and the reform of parliament. He was one of the very earliest politicians to recognize the soundness of See also:Adam See also:Smith's views on trade; and he quoted from the See also:Wealth of Nations, adopting some of its principles, in his Commercial Restraints of Ireland, published in 1779, which See also:Lecky pronounces " one of the best specimens of political literature produced in Ireland in the latter See also:half of the 18th See also:century." In the same year, the economic See also:condition of Ireland being the cause of great anxiety, the government solicited from several leading politicians their See also:opinion on the state of the country with suggestions for a remedy.

Hely-Hutchinson's response was a remark-ably able state See also:

paper(MS. in the See also:Record See also:Office), which also showed clear traces of the See also:influence of Adam Smith. The Commercial Restraints, condemned by the authorities as seditious, went far to restore Hely-Hutchinson's popularity which had been damaged by his greed of office. Not less enlightened were his views on the See also:Catholic question. In a speech in parliament on Catholic See also:education in 1782 the provost declared that Catholic students were in fact to be found at Trinity College, but that he desired their presence there to be legalized on the largest See also:scale. "My opinion," he said, " is strongly against sending See also:Roman Catholics abroad for education, nor would I establish Popish colleges at See also:home. The See also:advantage of being admitted into the university of Dublin will be very great to Catholics; they need not be obliged to attend the divinity See also:professor, they may have one of their own; and I would have a See also:part of the public See also:money applied to their use, to the support of a number of poor lads as sizars, and to provide premiums for persons of merit, for I would have them go into See also:examinations and make no distinction between them and the Protestants but such as merit might claim." And after sketching a See also:scheme for increasing the number of diocesan See also:schools where Roman Catholics might receive free education, he went on to urge that " it is certainly a See also:matter of importance that the education of their priests should be as perfect as possible, and that if they have any prejudices they should be prejudices in favour of their own country. The Roman Catholics should receive the best education in the established university at the public expense; but by no means should Popish colleges be allowed, for by them we should again have the See also:press groaning with themes of controversy, and subjects of religious disputation that have See also:long slept in oblivion would again awake, and awaken with them all the worst passions of the human mind."' In 1777 Hely-Hutchinson became secretary of state. When See also:Grattan in 1782 moved an address to the king containing a See also:declaration of Irish legislative See also:independence, Hely-Hutchinson supported the attorney-general's See also:motion postponing the question; but on the 16th of See also:April, after the See also:Easter See also:recess, he read a message from the lord lieutenant, the See also:duke of See also:Portland, giving the king's permission for the House to take the matter into See also:consideration, and he expressed his See also:personal sympathy with the popular cause which Grattan on the same See also:day brought to a triumphant issue (see GRATTAN, See also:HENRY). Hely-Hutchinson supported the opposition on the regency question in 1788, and one of his last votes in the House was in favour of parliamentary reform. In 1790 he exchanged the See also:constituency of Cork for that of Taghmon in County See also:Wexford, for which borough he remained member till his death at See also:Buxton on the 4th of See also:September 1794. In 1785 his wife had been created Baroness Donoughmore and on her death in 1788, his eldest son Richard (1756-1825) succeeded to the See also:title. Lord Donoughmore was an ardent See also:advocate of Catholic emancipation.

In 1797 he was created See also:

Viscount Donoughmore,2 and in 1800 (having voted for the See also:Union, hoping to secure Catholic emancipation from the See also:united parliament) he was further created See also:earl of Donoughmore of Knocklofty, being succeeded first by his See also:brother 'John Hely-Hutchinson (1757-1832) and then by his See also:nephew John, 3rd earl (1787-1851), from whom the title descended. See W. E. H. Lecky, Hist. of Ireland in the Eighteenth Century (5 vols., See also:London, 1892) ; J. A. See also:Froude, The English in Ireland in the Eighteenth Century (3 vols., London, 187a-1874); H. Grattan, See also:Memoirs of the Life and Times of Henry Grattan (8 vols., London, 1839-1846); Baratariana, by various writers (Dublin, 1773). (R. J.

End of Article: HELVIDIUS PRISCUS

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HELYOT, PIERRE (1660-1716)

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