known she had refused to suffer Ireland to participate of, in violation of the spirit and meaning of that treaty, and which treaty on the part of Portugal, although it had been five years in negotiation, no redress had been obtained for Ireland. Mr. Flood stated his conviction, that the commercial treaty was neither likely to be a benefit to Great Britain or Ireland, and he thought a stronger proof of its objectionable invalidity could not be stated to the friends of Ireland, (and every honest Briton must be the friend of Ireland, because her interests were so deeply involved and interwoven with the interests of Great Britain, that they were inseparable considerations,) than the extraordinary position, in which the commercial treaty would place the two countries of France and Ireland, by entitling France to commercial privileges and advantages in Great Britain, to which Ireland was not entitled; and by entitling Ireland to greater privileges and advantages in France, than she could obtain in Great Britain.

Mr. Grenville declared, that Great Britain had two years ago made a liberal offer to Ireland, which the parliament of that misled and infatuated people had been persuaded to refuse. He never would admit the doctrine, that therefore Great Britain had no right to treat and conclude a commercial treaty with France, adapted to her own commercial circumstances, without considering herself as a dependant on Ireland, and consulting her previously upon the subject. Mr. Grenville went into a recapitulation of the parliamentary transactions of the year 1785, respecting the commercial arrangements then agitated in favour of Ireland, and consulting her previously upon the subject. He said, that the offer of Great Britain had been more liberal than it perhaps ever might prove again; and that it ill became those, who had principally stood forward in the parlia ment of Ireland to persuade that assembly to reject the offer, to be afterwards among the foremost to endeavour to prevent this country from carrying into execution a treaty with France, which was concluded with a view to the benefit of Great Britain. Ireland had been favoured with an early option of solid and substantial advantage: and Ireland had rejected the offer under circumstances of great delusion, and under artful misrepresentations of the real nature of that offer, he was ready to admit; but having rejected it, till she saw her fatal delusion, and was, from conviction of the value of what she had been so unhappily persuaded to refuse, induced to ask Great Britain to give her a second option, she had not the smallest pretensions to complain of neglect of her interests on the part of Great Britain; and the more especially, as the present commercial treaty with France had been concluded with an eye to her interests equally with

the interests of this country, as it lay with the parliament of Ireland to decide for themselves, and if they thought the treaty advantageous to that country, they had it in their power to make it so, by passing laws adapted to the stipulations in the tariff.

Mr Flood answered, that he could not have conceived it possible for three or four natural expressions to have drawn down upon him an animadversion, delivered in so high and imperative a tone. Being a native of Ireland, and having the honour to possess a seat in the parliament of that kingdom, he had thought it his indispensable duty not to sit silent, when so much had been said on the subject of Ireland, and its commercial interests; but he plainly saw, that if any man professed himself to be the real friend of Ireland, he was to be reprehended and stigmatized as the enemy of Great Britain. He had before declared, that he was a friend to both countries, and had said that every honest Briton must be the same. The right honourable gentleman had contended, that Great Britain was not the dependant of Ireland, it was undoubtedly true; but was Great Britain not bounden to take care of the interests of every part of the empire? The parliament of Great Britain was the imperial parliament: was it not then the indispensable duty of that parliament, in every great national measure, to look to the general interests of the empire, and to see that no injurious consequences followed to the peculiar interests of any part of it. If this were admitted, would any man say, that Ireland was not to be considered on the present important occasion? And why, because the parliament of Ireland had rejected, and rejected with disdain, the commercial treaty of 1785. The right honourable gentleman had told them, that in 1785, Great Britain made a liberal offer to Ireland. This was the first time that it had been owned, that the treaty of 1785 was the offer of Great Britain, at the time the right honourable gentleman (he believed) had called the measure the Irisk propositions, and stated them as coming from Ireland. He had now confessed the fact, and acknowledged (more, perhaps, than he meant to admit) that the propositions were English propositions, sent originally from hence to Ireland, then sent back, and ultimately returned from England in a shape widely altered from their original appearThe right honourable gentleman had talked of delusion, and hinted, that those who endeavoured to open the eyes of the parliament of Ireland, were ashamed to avow their conduct. The right honourable gentleman was in error. He gloried in the share, which he had taken in that transaction. The offer had been insidious, and under colour of commercial advantage, the constitution of Ireland was endeavoured to be bartered away. Mr. Flood next took notice of what he termed the right

ance.

honourable gentleman's declaration, that till Ireland asked to have the propositions revived, she was to expect no favour from Great Britain. He said, that it reminded him of the declaration of the right honourable gentleman (a member of that house) in an eminent situation in Ireland, who had obtained an address as a sanction of the measure, and who triumphantly told the House of Commons of Ireland, that in less than three months, when the people were undeceived, and the delusion in which they had been involved, cleared up, they would come in numbers to the house, execrate those members who had been most active in opposing that mass of propositions, some parts of which they had been told, were English, some part Irish, some commercial, and some political, and earnestly implore their revival. To ensure this triumph, some thousand copies, accompanied with the address to the lord lieutenant, had been printed and disseminated throughout the kingdom of Ireland, but to that day, no man had ventured to mention the revival of the propositions in parliament, nor was it at all likely that they should. Mr. Flood said, that he hoped it would not be thought that he had obtruded the subject of Ireland upon the house. It had been agitated for a considerable time before he interfered; nor should he have said thus much, had he not thought that his silence would have been deemed a dereliction on his part of a cause, which it would ever be his pride to assist in maintaining and supporting. There was something so high in the tone of the right honourable gentleman, that it struck his ear as extraordinary; he could not imagine that the right honourable gentleman meant any thing personal; but he begged leave to say, that no man living should brow-beat him, or awe him into an unbecoming silence.*

Mr. W. Grenville said, that in the first place, he hoped that no man would believe that he meant to brow-beat the right honourable gentleman; and far less could he have intended to have stood up as professing to entertain any sentiment inimical to the interests of Ireland. To the contrary, he professed and

I have given this speech of Mr. Flood's in the British House of Commons, as largely as found it reported, not only to prove what were the opinion and feelings of that part of the Irish nation and senate, which adopted his reasoning, and moved by his influence (and they were not few), but more particularly to draw the reader's attention to the avowals of Mr. Flood, the most violent and impassioned asserter of Irish independence, that there existed a political necessity for a controlling superiority in the British, which was the imperial parliament, whose indispensable duty it was, in every great national measure, to look to the general interests of the empire, and to see that no injurious consequences followed to the peculiar interests of any part of it. Now, as Ireland did not claim any such controlling right over Great Britain, the independence claimed could not be real, for all independence must be reciprocal. The admission of these principles demonstrates the political necessity of an incorporate union for the advantage of the empire at large.

felt a warm affection and sincere regard, grounded on principles of personal gratitude for past kindnesses and attentions to himself, and on a variety of dear and interesting considerations. In the progress of the Irish propositions through that house, he had been actuated by those principles, and had stood up as the friend of Ireland to stem the torrent of prejudice, to resist and oppose the objections of interested individuals, and to reason into silence and conviction, the groundless alarms and apprehensions of those manufacturers, who, misled by factious men, were taught to be terrified at imaginary evils, and to expect dangers never likely to happen. Mr. Grenville stated the object and end of the Irish propositions, to have been for Great Britain to grant to Ireland as full a participation of her commercial advantages as could be permitted consistently with her own safety, and to secure a suitable return. The idea of its

being intended to assume the power of legislating for Ireland, he contended, was nothing more than an empty phantom, raised by the machinations of sophistry, to frighten the parliament of Ireland from accepting one of the greatest boons ever offered to one country by the impulse of the liberal and affectionate feelings of another.

Mr. Fox reprobated the idea, that nothing beneficial to Ireland was to be thought of, because she had refused the propositions of 1785. He entered into a detail of the nature of those propositions; stated his own conduct respecting them; and concluded with moving, by way of amendment, that the words, "this day se'nnight," be inserted in the motion, instead of the word "now."

Mr. Pelham seconded the motion, declaring, that he should have moved it, had not his right honourable friend made such amendment.

When the commercial treaty was under debate in the British House of Lords, the Marquis of Lansdowne, ever attentive to the interest of Ireland, observed, that this matter gave him the highest concern as well as astonishment. When he lately heard in the country, that a body of the Irish privy counsellors had been collected in England, to consult with ministry, he had no conception, that the conference was on the subject of

* In the beginning of his speech on this occasion the noble Marquis had, in defending himself against an imputation from Lord Carlisle, of having spoken both for and against the treaty, said, that he had approved the principles and tendency of the measure, though he objected to some of the articles in the detail. The fact was, that he did then stand, as through his life he always had stood, aloof from parties. He was of no party It was his pride and principle to be of no faction, but to embrace every measure on its own ground, free from all connection. Such had been his political creed: as such he stood before the people, and as such he coveted to be judged by them. 22 Parl, Deb. Lords, p. 98.

a French treaty with Ireland, while England and Ireland still remained in the same distracted state as before. Nothing could be more extraordinary than this; for the time was favourable; Ireland was a nation of good humour; the Duke of Rutland and Mr. Orde were men, who would make her good humoured, if she were the contrary: the conduct of the English manufacturers, in the present case of the French treaty, must crush all their former objections to the system of the Irish propositions. The present then was the moment for ministers to revive the idea of a beneficial connection. Why was it not done? He did not mean the vague, ill-natured, and inadequate Irish propositions, as they were called; but a plain, simple, goodintentioned scheme of reciprocal intercourse, taking off the shackles that lay on our trading laws, which was all the union he desired. It was monstrous to think, that their privy counsellors should be assembled, and nothing done; at a time too when the Right Boys exhibited such a scene, to whom, for aught he knew, every consul from the court of France may prove a minister.

The Duke of Rutland died in October, 1787. This nobleman was calculated to command the affections of the Irish nation he was open, free, liberal, and convivial: he committed. the management of the public business to those about him and unfortunately for that nation, the expences of driving the state equipage through the beaten track necessarily increased in an alarming degree. In this very year the pension list was increased by additional grants to the amount of 8730%* Sir Henry Hartsonge, Mr. Conolly, and many who had most strenuously opposed his administration, rendered willing tribute to his amiable qualities, to the uprightness of his heart, and the honourable views and intentions with which he acted on all occasions. The errors of his administration they attributed to his advisers, and the majority of that house, who had constantly supported them. To an aggrieved people it is however immaterial, whether the noxious system proceed immediately from a depraved or austere governor, or immediately through those ministers, who abuse the frankness and ease of a benevolent one. The melancholy necessity of a corrupt majority in parliament to support a permanent and commanding influence of the English executive, or rather of the English cabinet in the councils of Ireland, has been faithfully delineated by the late Earl of Clare, who for nearly the last twenty years of his life was one of the most powerful directors and supporters of that very influence. "Such a connection," said he, "is formed "not for mutual strength and security, but for mutual debility; † Speech of the Earl of Clare, p. 45.

8 Parl. Deb. p. 8.