minifter could crufh them in the name of Great Britain. He could crush their imports, he could crufh their exports; he could do this in a manner peculiarly mortifying, by the immediate intervention of their own parliament, which would then be an active cypher, a counterfeited feal in the hands of Great Britain, to forge and falfify the name and authority of the people of Ireland. Nor would they become more dependent upon the parliament of Great Britain, than they would upon the crown. The propofitions granted a perpetual money bill, a money bill to continue as long as Great Britain fhould pleafe, with a covenant to increase it as often as fhe hould require. If after this the merchant should petition them to lower their duties on the articles of trade, their answer was our trade is in covenant. If their conftituents fhould inftru&t them to pafs a fhort money bill, their anfwer was the purfe of the nation like her trade is in covenant. No more fix months money bilis; no more inftructions from their conflituents! That connection was broken by the prefent bill: Pafs it, and they had no conftituent; they were not the reprefentatives of the people of Ireland, but the register of the British parliament, and the equalizer of British duties.

But if the mifchief of the propofitions was thus notorious, their faftety was not lefs problematical. Had gentlemen confidered the fubject? Had they traced the map of the countries the right of trading with which they were to furrender for ever? Had they traced the map of Afia, Africa and America? Did they know the French, Dutch, Portugueze and Spanish fettlements in thofe parts of the world? Did they know the neutral powers by which they were inhabited, their

produce, aptitudes and difpofitions? Had they confidered the state of North America, its prefent fitu ation, its future growth, and every incident in the endlefs fucceffion of time, that might attend that nurse of commerce and afylum of mankind? Were they now competent to declare on the part of themielves and all their profperity, that a free trade to thofe regions would never in the efflux of time be of any fer vice to the kingdom of Ireland? If they poffeffed information upon this fubject, it must be by a communication with God, for they had none with man; it must be infpiration, for it could not be knowledge. The great points for the nation had already been carried, and the adjustment was not indifpenfible. They had a growing profperity and as yet an exemption from intolerable taxes. They could from time to time regulate their commerce, cherish their manufactures, keep down their taxes, and brood over the growing profperity of young Ireland. In the mean time let them guard their free trade and their free conftitution as their only real refources. They were the ftruggles of great virtue, the refult of much perfeverance, and the fource to that houfe of immortal honour. Let them make their third great effort. Let them preferve them, and with them preferve the dignity of parliament, the majefty of the people, and the powers of the ifland. Let them keep them unfullied, uncovenanted, uncircumfcribed, and unftipendiary. So fhould the profperity of their country, though without a tongue to thank them, yet, laden with the bleffings of conftitution and commerce, bear atteftation to their fervices, and wait on their progrefs with volua. tary praife.

The imputation of finifter views

fo strongly charged upon the oppofition in the English parliament, were replied to by Mr. Forbes, Mr. Grattan, Mr. Arthur Browne and Mr. Francis Hardy. Mr. Forbes particularly inftanced in the hiftory of the fourth propofition. That propofition, he faid, originated with Mr. Pitt, and not in the fuggeftion or urgency of the Englifh oppofition; and had been first introduced without any kind of mitigation or softening. The palliating words "by laws to be paffed by the Irish parliament," were inferted at the fuggeftion of oppofition, who had further moved an amendment to expunge the exceptionable parts of the propofition, which had been refifted with fuccefs by the English administration. This circumftance fully proved the falfhood of the affertion, that they had in this tranfaction facrificed every thing to party. If that had been their only object, they would not have moved this amendment, or endeavoured to render the fyftem more palatable to Ireland; they would have fuffered the refolution to be fent over in its native deformity, and thus have infured the rejection of the fyftem and the defeat of the minifter. But with this minister at the head of a cabinet, of which one member was the author of the perpetual mutiny bill, and another, a nobleman (the duke of Richmond) who encouraged conventions and congreffes, and exhorted the volunteers not to lay down their arms till a reform had been obtained, and yet had thought proper to acquiefce under all the ministerial perfecutions of the laft winter, they were told that the exifting members of that cabinet were the only friends of Ireland. Mr. Forbes farther made an advantageous contrast between the pre

fent lord lieutenant and the duke of Portland. In the addrefs of 1782, no ministerial influence was used by the latter to carry any favourite fyftem. He left the parliament and the people to declare their wifhes without referve. He faid, if he did not approve of them, he would refign; but having approved them, he tranfmitted them to England, declaring at the fame time, that he would not hold the government of that country, unless they were complied with in every inftance.

Befides the speakers whofe arguments we have abstracted, a great number of other perfons delivered their fentiments on this memorable occafion. Mr. Gardiner, Mr. Ogle and fir Lucius O'Brien distinguished themfelves in favour of the propofitions. On the other fide the principal fpeakers were Mr. Flood, Mr. Rowley, Mr. O'Neil, fir Edward Newenham, Mr. Hartley, Mr. Ogilvie, fir Henry Hartstonge, Mr. Corry, Mr. Brownlow, and major Doyle. The house divided at nine o'clock in the morning; for bringing in the bill 127. against it 108; and a fecond divifion taking place on a queftion of adjournment, the majority in favour of adminiftration who defired the adjournment was no more than fixteen.

On the Monday following, Mr. Orde made two feveral motions to the houfe, one for the first reading of the propofed bilk, and another that the bill be ordered to be printed. At the fame time he obferved, that, having done this, he did not intend to make any further progress in the business during the present feffion. He fhould wait till the people had leisure to examine and understand it; and from what had paffed in the house in the preceding

debate,

debate, he was induced to fuppofe that a confiderable time would be neceffary for that purpose. At the fame time he entertained no doubt, that the more it was understood, the more it would be found to be for the benefit and advantage of the country, and the lefs reafon would be difcovered to impute any thing to it hoftile to the conftitution. For himfelf he had completed his duty refpecting it; its further progrefs must be by a motion from the public, who at the commencement of the enfuing feffion might take fuch further steps refpecting it as they thought proper. Mr. Orde however afterwards explained, and declared that he did not intend to retrain himself from reviving the attention of the houfe to this meafure on a future occafion. Having carried his propofed motions, he moved farther that the house adjourn to that day three weeks.

The object of this laft propofal was to preclude a question being put upon the refolution, which Mr. Flood had withdrawn at the request of Mr. Orde on the day preceding the principal debate, and which he was now again defirous to offer to the decifion of the house. This refolution was fupported by Mr. Grattan, Mr. Conolly, and fir Henry Cavendish. It was oppofed, under the idea of its conveying an infult upon the parliament of Great Britain, by Mr. Rowley, many of the country gentlemen, and the friends of administration in general. In the courfe of the debate Mr. Molyneux took occafion to defend his vote of the preceding day, which had been in favour of the fyftem. He declared, that he felt for the conftitution of his country as much as any man; and that no confideration on earth hould have induced him to give

his vote upon a question of the magnitude and importance of that which had been under difcuffion, without the most rooted conviction of the rectitude of the decision he was about to make. Mr. Fitzgibbon, in the course of his fpeech upon this fubject, drew upon himfelf the indignation of the oppofition fide of the house, by a comparifon by which he attempted to illuftrate the relative fituation of the two countries. Ireland he said was a whelp, easily to be roused, and then easily to be appealed; but it was not fo with Great Britain. If they roufed the British lion they might find it a difficult matter to lull him again to rest. Ireland therefore, he faid, was a befotted nation if he fought to quarrel with England.

On this day Mr. Curran, young member from the Irifh bar, who had been brought in at the last general election, and who had never before fpoken but upon inferior queflions, delivered himself in a manner full of imagination and eloquence. He vindicated the refolution. He faid the existence of British liberty was due, to the unremitting vigilance with which it had been guarded from encroachment. Every invasion with which it was threatened, by the folly of minifters or the ufurpation of kings, had been conftantly checked by a conflitutional affertion of liberty. Such was Magna Charta, fuch were various itatutes that had been made under the house of Lancaster, fuch the Petition of Rights, the Bill of Rights, the Act of Settlement, and the recent repeal of the fixth of George the First. No man could think that British liberty derived any authority from thofe ftatutes, or that acts of parliament could create conftitutional rights. They

were not free becaufe Magna Charta had been enacted, but Magna Charta had been enacted because they were free.

Mr. Curran paid fome complments to Mr. Fox, who, though an Englishman on fubjects of commerce, he believed was a member of the British empire on points of conftitution. It was to this principle he attributed his indignation when the rights of juries were invaded, as well as the oppofition which he gave to a bill, that muft have endangered the conftitution in England by endangering it in Ire land. Thefe fympathies were implanted in the heart of man for the prefervation of liberty. It was the general and vigorous influx of them that had atchieved every thing glorious in the theatre of the world. It was this that adorned the defeat at Thermopylae, and the triumph of Marathon. It was this in America that combated with fleets and armies, and waded to freedom through flaughter and defolation. It was this that wafted the fhouts of an emancipated empire across the waftes of the Atlantic, and roufed Ireland from her lethargy; that fent her armies into the field, and crowned their illuftrious leader with fame and victory. Thank heaven, not a victory ftain ed with blood, not a victory bathed in the tears of a mother, a fifter, or a wife, not a victory hanging over the grave of a Warren or a Montgomery, and uncertain whether most to triumph in what she had gained, or to mourn over what fhe had loft!

Mr. Curran recommended the refolution to the late majority, as the only mode left for their vindication, the only step by which they could prove that they would never have affented to the fourth propo

fition. The opportunity could ne ver arrive again; the bill was at an end. The fiege that was drawn round the conftition was raised, and the enemy was gone. Juvat ire et Dorica caftra; and they might now go abroad without fear, and trace the dangers they had escaped. Here was drawn the line of circumvallation that cut them off for ever from the eastern world; and there the correfponding one that inclofed them from the weft. He proceeded to pay feveral compliments to the individuals that had diftinguished themfelves on the popular fide on this occafion. But he felt that he was leaving the queftion, and the bounds of moderation. There was an ebullition in great exceffes of joy, that almost bordered upon infanity. He befought the other fide of the houfe not to throw a cloud on the general festivity by a fullen refufal to join with them in the prefent refolution. Their adherence to the minifter was useless now, and would expofe them to the humiliating imputation of an attachment to men, rather than a difcrimination of meafures. The meafure was gone down, the man only was floating. Perhaps they thought it decent to pay him a funeral compliment at his departure; he warned them however how they preffed too eagerly forward, fince an inordinate delire upon the prefent occafion of the fcarf or the cyprefs, might poflibly make them rather late at the coronation.

Mr. Flood at length confented to give up his refolution, maintaining at the fame time that it had been decent, moderate and proper. He fhould have conceived that perfons on the other fide, who after what had paffed were reduced perhaps to hide their heads, would have thought themfelves obliged to him for afford