the connection thus early existing between the bishops and the borough of irishtown continued to the last; for at the union dr hugh hamilton, then bishop of ossory, claimed as his individual property the fifteen thousand pounds which were to be paid as compensation for the disfranchisement of the borough, and in his statement of claim laid stress on the fact "that for a long series of years all elections of members of parliament have been held in the bishop's palace-yard, and the other corporate meetings in his hall."