attention and refpect. Nothing can afford me truer fatisfaction than that which i now feel, upon find ing that my conduct, fince I have been amongst you, has been fuch as meets with your approbation. To bis Excellency George Lord Vifcount Town/hend, Lord LieutenantGeneral, and General-Governor of Ireland. The humble Addrefs of the Knights, Citizens. and Burgeles, in parliament affembled. WE May it please your Excellency, E his majefty's most dutiful and loyal fubje&s, the Commons of Ireland in parliament affembled, return your excellency our fincereft thanks for your molt gracious fpeech from the throne: we beg leave to exprefs our most entire fatisfaction, in being again affembled under your juft and prudent government, and to affure your excellency, that we fhall most heartily co-operate with your excellency in every thing that may tend to promote the welfare and happiness of this kingdom. We have obferved with pleasure the reduction of the staff, in confequence of his majesty's gracious declaration, fignified to us by your excellency; and we have no doubt of your excellency's conftant regard to public economy. We shall give our utmost attention to the important objects recommended to us by your excellency, and chearfully grant fuch fupplies as fhall be neceffary for the fupport of his majefty's go. vernment, the maintenance of public credit, and the fecurity and welfare of this kingdom, as far as Thall be confiftent with the ability and the effential interest of this country: we are fenfibie that the great fums of money, granted of late years, for premiums, bounties, and public works, are a fubject of the highest importance, and require our most serious confideration. The illegal affociations entered into, and audacious outrages committed in different counties of this kingdom, and particularly in fome utmoft concern; and nothing fhall places in the North, give us the be wanting on our parts, to prevent for the future, those atrocious violations of the public peace and tranquillity. Animated as we are, with the ftrongeft fenfe of loyalty to the best of kings; poffeffed with the fullest confidence in your future, from our happy experience of your paft conduct; and fully convinced of your excellency's affectionate regards to this kingdom, by the many proofs of your attachment to our interefts, during your refidence amongst us; we fhall not fail to contribute every thing in our power to make your administration as eafy and honourable to your excellency, as we are affured it will prove happy and advantageous to the public. His Excellency's Answer. most faithfully to represent to his majefty, the unfhaken loyalty and affection of the Commons of Ire Jand. The Speech of the Right Honourable the Speaker of the Houfe of Commons in Ireland, to his Excellency Lord Town/hend, Lord-Lieutenant and Governor-General of Ireland, on January 1, 1772. unto his majesty, an additional duty on the feveral commodities, goods, and merchandizes therein mentioned; and for prohibiting the importation of all gold and filver lace, and of all eambricks and lawns, except of the manu facture of Great-Britain." His Excellency George Lord Viscount Townshend, Lord Lieutenant-General, and General-Governor of Ireland, bis Speech to both Haufes of Parliament, at Dublin, on Tuesday, the 2d day of June, 1772. My Lords, and Gentlemen, of parliament, without returning you my particular thanks for your long and close attention to the public bufinefs. May it pleafe your Excellency, IN obedience to the commands of the Houfe of Commons, I prefent to your excellency, for the royal affent, a bill of fupply; by which, and the bill I had the honour of prefenting to your excel-Cannot put an end to this feffion lency this feffion, ample provifion is made for the honourable fupport of his majefty's government, and the fecurity of the kingdom. The conftant attention of the commons to these two great objects, at all times, and under all circumstances, affords the most convincing proofs of their inviolable attachment to his majefty's facred perfonand royal family, and of their zeal for his fervice; and they humbly prefume to hope, that your excellency's juft and favourable reprefentation of their conduct, their duty, and their affection, on which they rely with the fullest affurance, will entitle them not only to the continuance of his majesty's countenance and protection, but to an extenfion of their commerce, by which alone they can entertain any reasonable expectation of being able, much longer, to fupport the expence of the present establishment. The bill I have now the honour of prefenting to your excellency, is entitled, "An act for granting I congratulate you on the many excellent laws which have received the royal affent this feffion. The act for preventing the delays of juftice, by reafon of privilege of parliament, muft be received as a very ftrong mark of your difinterefted regard for the rights and welfare of your fellow-fubjects. The act to prevent frauds committed by bankrupts, and that for rendering fecurities by mortgage more effectual, cannot fail to produce the most falutary effects, by restoring that credit and confidence amongst the people, which have been much wanted, and are effentially neceffary, in this commercial country; and it was with particular fatisfaction thathis majesty gave his royal confent to thefe laws, which do honour to you deliberations, and are fo wifely calculated for the public good. Gentlemen Gentlemen of the House of Commons, I thank you in his majefty's name, for the fupplies which you granted at the beginning of this Teffion; they shall be faithfully applied to the fupport of his majesty's eftablishments, and to the advancement of the public fervice: But, although I have expectations, that the act for amending and explaining a claufe in the act of tonnage and poundage, will be productive of fome addition to his majefty's revenue, I think it my duty to inform you, that the arrears which had been incurred upon his majefty's establishments civil and military, before the time of your meeting, made it necessary to borrow one hundred thousand pounds, immediately after the act was paffed which gave authority for that purpofe; and, that fum not proving fufficient, I have, fome time fince,. been obliged to order the further fum of one hundred thousand pounds to be raised, being the remainder of the credit entrusted to me by that act. So early a demand for the whole loan, gives me reafon to apprehend that, unless there fhould be a confiderable increase in his majesty's revenue, a ftill greater arrear will accrue, before the ufual time of your meeting in another feffion. I do therefore moft earnestly recommend it to you, to take it into your serious confideration (between this and the next feffion of parliament) what will be the best method of making provifion for fuch deficiencies as arife upon the prefent duties, fo as to guard against any farther increase of the national debt. The additional duties given for My Lords, and Gentlemen, His majefty gave it in exprefs command to me, to make your intereft and profperity the great objects of my adminiftration; and my own inclinations incited me to a ftrict and zealous performance of that duty. I have, upon every occafion, endeavoured, to the utmoft of my power, to promote the public fervice; and I feel the most perfect fatisfaction in now repeating to you my acknowledgments for the very honourable manner in which (after a refidence of near five years amongst you) you have declared your entire approbation of my conduct. Be affured, that I fhall always entertain the moft ardent wishes for your welfare and fhall make a faithful representation to his majefty, of your loyalty and attachment to his royal perfon and government. : ift, Because we think the declaratory principle in the preamble of the bill, to be without foundation in law (in the extent there stated), to be unnecellary for the avowed purposes of the bill, and likely to be attended with very dangerous confequences, as that preamble does affert," that we are fenfible "that marriages in the royal fa "mily are of the higheft impor 66 tance to the ftate, and that there"fore the kings of this realm have "ever been entrusted with the caro "and approbation thereof." The maxim here laid down, "that because marriages of the royal family are of the highest importance to the state, they are there fore entrusted to the kings of this realm;" is founded on a doctrine abfurd and unconftitutional; but which hereafter will have the force of a parliamentary declaration of law, the immediate tendency of which is to create as many prero gatives in the crown, as there are matters of importance in the ftate, and indeed to extend them in a manner as vague and exceptionable as had ever been done in the worst and moft defpotic periods in the hiftory of this nation; and we apprehend that fome future, and even more more dangerous ufe may be made of this preamble, as it is much more extenfive than is neceffary for any purpole avowed in the bill. 2dly, Because this declaratory preamble feems to justify the words which his majesty has been advised (we think very improperly) to ufe in his meffage to his parliament, whereby a prerogative is affumed in an extent for which nine of his judges in their unanimous opinion, delivered to this house, do not find any authority. 3dly Because the term Royal Family being general, and not qua lified by the exception of "the iffue of princeffes married into foreign families," feems to carry (very idly as we apprehend) the royal prerogative beyond the jurif diction of the crown of Great Britain; can therefore, as applied in the preamble, be warranted by no law, and is indeed contrary to common fenfe. 4thly, Because, if this parliamentary declaration of law can operate in any degree, as a retrospect (an operation against which we have no fecurity by any thing contained in the bill), it is pernicious and unjust; if it can have no fuch retrospect (as was afferted in argument by the friends of the bill), it is then at beft frivolous and unneceffary. 5thly, Because the enacting part of the bill has an inconvenient and impolitic extent, namely, to all defcendants of George the Second. In courfe of time that defcription may become very general, and comprehend a great number of people; and we conceive it would be an intolerable grievance, that the marriages of fo many fubjects, perhaps difperfed among the various ranks of civil life, fhould be fubject to the reftrictions of this act, especially as it has been afferted in argument, and endeavoured to be maintained by the authority of the grand opinion given by the judges in the year 1717, that the care and approbation of the marriage includes the education and cuftody of the perfon. We fear that this extensive power would come in time to make many of the first families in the kingdom totally dependant on the crown, and we therefore lament that the endeavours so earnestly ufed in the committee, in fome degree to limit the generality of that defcription, were not fuffered to take effect. 6thly, Because, as the line is too large, with regard to the de fcription of the royal family, fo we think that the time of nonage for that family is also improperly extended. We conceive that the age of twenty-one years is that limit, which the laws of this country, and the fpirit of the conftitution, have with great wifdom given to minority. It feems indecent to the royal family to fuppofe they will not be arrived at the age of discretion as foon as the lowest subject of the realm; and we cannot conceive but they may be as capable of chufing a wife at the age of twenty-one, as of being entrusted with the regency of the kingdom, of which by law they are at that age capable. We alfo conceive that the deferring their age of majority as to marriage till twenty-fix, is impolitic and dangerous, as it may tend to drive them into a diforderly courfe of life, which ought the more to be guarded against in men of high rank, as the influence of their ex ample |