the claim which the bishop of ossory made for personal compensation at the union contains a statement which is of value in the representative history of ireland. it puts beyond question the reasons which induced the bishops to trouble themselves with borough management. after advancing five statements in support of his case that the borough of irishtown had long been under the individual control of successive bishops of ossory, dr hamilton affirmed that the control so exercised by himself and his predecessors had "given the bishops of ossory so much additional consequence, and obtained for them so much attention from government, that the bishops of that see, with the exception of only two bishops, who died soon after their appointment, for above a century past have been all translated to much more eligible bishoprics." dr hamilton further urged that by the union he was to be deprived of "that influence and consequence which his predecessors always enjoyed, and from which they derived great advantage"; and therefore he considered himself entitled to claim any allowance which might be awarded for the extinction of irishtown as a parliamentary borough.