man could have wished for possessed of immense dominions and the warmest affections of his people, his accession to the crown was completely flattering both to himself and his subjects. How sadly was the scene reversed his empire dismembered, his councils distracted, his people falling off in their fondness for his person! He said he only spoke within doors the language that was held without the people were beginning to murmur, and their patience was not unlimited: they would at last do themselves justice there certainly would be insurrections; and though it was impossible that the calamities that would attend them could be justified, or compensated by any good that could be obtained by them, yet they certainly would take place.

"It was not a secret to that House, that the present Sovereign's claim to the throne of this country was founded only upon the delinquency of the Stuart family; a circumstance which should never be one moment out of his Majesty's recollection. It was true, indeed, that the unfortunate race of that name was universally detested in this country; and therefore his Majesty had little to fear from their pretensions: but he should ever remember that it was the conduct of wicked and ignorant ministers that excited that detestation for them. If there was at this day one of that unfortunate House remaining, what a scope for upbraidings and remonstrance could he not find in the present reign! Could he not say, 'You have banished my ancestor from the throne, and barred the sceptre from all his progeny for the misconduct of his ministers, and yet the Ministers of the present reign are ten times more wicked and more ignorant than those were; and whilst you all agree in giving to your present Sovereign the title of the best of princes, his Ministers have rendered his reign, beyond any degree of comparison, the most infamous that ever disgraced. this nation?' The Minister, though with such a load of national censure and national calamity on his head, has the hardiness to boast of his innocence; but it was not a conscious rectitude of mind that could excuse a minister from criminality. What he called innocence might be another name for ignorance; and ignorance in a minister was a crime of the first magnitude. But the wide ruin that the counsels of Administration had spread through this great empire, and the miserable state to which they had reduced it in the short space in which the present Parliament had been sitting, was so far beyond the natural effects of mere ignorance, that he could not help adopting the opinion of his honourable friend (Mr. T. Townshend) that there was treachery at the bottom of the national counsels. The noble lord might flatter himself as much as he pleased in the protection of a majority, or in the security of the law: but when a nation was reduced to such a state of wretchedness and distraction that the laws could afford the people no relief, they would afford a minister who had caused the evil but little protection. What the law of the land could not do, the law of nature would accomplish; the people would inevitably take up arms, and the first characters in the kingdom would be seen in their ranks."

After drawing a picture of the narrow and impolitic system of the present reign, and contrasting it with the freedom and glory of this country in the reign of our great deliverer, the immortal William the Third, he turned his observations to the state of Ireland, which he said at present afforded one of the most critical situations in which the two kingdoms ever stood with respect to each other. Every evil that threatened us from that quarter he imputed directly to the bad policy of Administration last session. He did not mean, then, to offer any opinion upon what steps were proper to be taken in such a crisis. Circumstances were arrived at that nice point, that even the power of deliberation was almost taken away from that House. The situation of affairs was so very delicate, that it was not easy for members to treat the subject in a becoming manner. They were almost as effectually barred from giving a free opinion on the case, as the members of the Irish House, who had the bayonet at their breast, and were sworn by compulsion to vote as the people dictated. But though he would not deliver his opinion in that House, neither should any man know from him then what he thought ought to be done; he would venture to point out three lines of conduct, one of which he was certain must be adopted. England must resist altogether the demands of Ireland, or she must grant them in part or in the whole. If Administration intended to resist their demands, he counselled them for the sake of mercy to do it instantly, and with every possible effort of their force: if they meant to grant the whole of their demands, he as earnestly advised them to do it without hesitation; although he could not but say, that even their readiest compliance would not now be considered as a concession; the refusal of their more reasonable requests in the late session, and the loud voice now raised in that country, would sufficiently mark it with the stamp of necessity.

"If they should deem it proper to grant their demands only in part, he asked if they thought Ireland would now be content with what she asked last session, and which was then fatally denied to her * As he believed every man in that House would answer the question in the negative, he desired Administration would draw from it this lesson-not to adopt the same little line of conduct that they had pursued with respect to America, and not deny in one session what they offer with additions the year following, yet still continuing to make little bargains until they had nothing left to bargain for." He then appealed to the House upon the propriety of their voting an address of thanks to his Majesty for his "attention to the state of his loyal and faithful kingdom of Ireland," and challenged Ministry to point out a single instance in which that attention had been manifested. "The noble lord at the head of the Treasury could not surely be in earnest when he declared that the American war had nothing to do with the affairs of Ireland. Did not that ill-fated project appear most conspicuous in every circumstance of the present condition of that kingdom? What stripped Ireland of her

* See "Adolph. Hist. of the Reign of Geo. III.," vol. iii., pp. 28 and 29.

troops? Was it not the American war? What brought on the hostilities of France, and put Ireland in fear of an invasion? Was it not the American war? What gave Ireland the opportunity of establishing a powerful and illegal army?* Certainly the American war. When he called the associated forces an illegal army, he did not mean to cast any odium upon the associations. He was equally ready to acknowledge the necessity and the merit of the plan but it was the accursed American war that made that measure necessary, and rendered illegality meritorious.

:

"If he might be allowed to hazard a conjecture upon the determinations of Government with respect to Ireland, he thought it might be fair to believe, that they were disposed to make large concessions. The appointment announced that day, of the Earl of Hillsborough to be one of his Majesty's secretaries of state, was the ground of this opinion. It was but lately that his lordship had communicated the thanks of the Irish Parliament to their associated companies; and it was generally said, that he had accepted the office upon the royal promise, that Ireland should have an equal trade. How a certain learned membert (the Attorney-general) could bring himself to support the man whom he had once menaced with an impeachment, he could not easily divine. He was equally at a loss to assign any reason for the supernumerary appointment of another noble earl (of Carlisle) to the Board of Trade. There appeared no reason for increasing the number of commissioners at that board, at a time when the object of its business was not only decreased, but almost totally lost, except the most prodigal waste of the public money. At the same time, he thought it his duty to say, that he entertained a very great respect for that young nobleman's private character, though he considered his public abilities much too highly rated for his years and experience. He remarked how depraved, indeed, that administration must be, when those who had supported them through so many dirty measures, were ashamed to associate with them any longer, and made room for the changes which had happened that day. But it was not by such changes that the nation could be relieved, and its constitution restored. Such changes were but palliatives, and nothing but an implicit compliance with the amendment then under consideration could save us from ruin, restore the empire to prosperity, and add lustre to the Prince on the throne, by making him the happy sovereign of a free and affectionate people."

The question being put on the amendment, the House divided: Yeas, 134; Noes, 233. So it passed in the negative. The original address was then agreed to.

Armed corps of volunteers had been established throughout Ireland.

"A rumour

of French invasion, and the diminution of the national forces by drafts for American service, furnished a motive for these associations.”—“ Adolph. Hist. of the Reign of Geo. III.," vol. iii., p. 29.

+ Alexander Wedderburn, Esq., afterwards Lord Loughborough, and Lord Chancellor of England.

THE Earl of Upper Ossory's motion on the discontents in Ireland.* December 6. This day the Earl of Upper Ossory moved, "That it is highly criminal in his Majesty's Ministers to have neglected taking effectual measures for the relief of the kingdom of Ireland, and to have suffered the discontents in that kingdom to rise to such a height, as evidently to endanger a dissolution of the constitutional connexion between the two kingdoms, and to create new embarrassments to the public councils, by division and diffidence, in a moment when real unanimity, grounded on mutual confidence and affection, is confessedly essential to the preservation of what is left of the British empire." The motion was seconded by Lord Middleton, and supported by Mr. Burke, Mr. Thomas Townshend, Mr. Fox, Colonel Barré, and Mr. Dunning. It was opposed by Sir John Wrottesley, Lord Beauchamp, Earl Nugent, Mr. Dundas, Mr. Macdonald, Lord North, Mr. Welbore Ellis, Lord George Germain, and the Attorney-general.

Mr. Fox rose immediately after Mr. Dundas. It would be a vain attempt to endeavour to follow the honourable gentleman through a speech which took an hour and a half in the delivery, and which was delivered with a rapidity of utterance, a flow of language, and in a strain of oratory rarely

"The parliament of Ireland met on the 12th of October, and soon showed that they had received a portion of the general spirit of the nation. They declared, in their addresses to the throne, that nothing less than a free and unlimited trade could save that country from ruin. The addresses were carried up with great parade amidst the acclamations of the people. The Duke of Leinster, who commanded the Dublin volunteers, escorted the Speaker in person upon that occasion; whilst the streets were lined on both sides, from the Parliament House to the castle, by that corps, drawn up in their arms and uniforms. That nobleman had also moved for the thanks of the Lords to the volunteer corps throughout the kingdom, which was carried with only one dissenting voice.

"The associations and people at large, full of anger and jealousy, manifested strong apprehensions of political duplicity on this side of the water; and, perhaps, did not place a perfect confidence in the steadiness or perseverance of their own parliament. They were afraid that they would be amused by fair and empty promises, until they had resigned their power along with the national purse, by granting the supplies for the two following years, according to the customary mode in that country; when being no longer necessary to government, a sudden prorogation would put an end to all hope of, at least, amicable redress, for the present. Under this apprehension, a short money bill, for six months only, by which means Parliament would still continue indispensably necessary to government, became the general cry of the nation.

"As this innovation upon established form and method was strongly opposed, particularly by the court party, the Dublin mob thought it necessary to show their zeal in the public cause; they were accordingly guilty of great and violent outrages, as well in their endeavours to enforce the measure, as in their punishment of the refractory. Although the Irish Parliament used proper measures to express their resentment, and to maintain their dignity upon this occasion; yet many of themselves being inclined to a vigorous proceeding, and the rest borne down by a cry almost universal in the nation, the representatives found it at length necessary to comply, and the Short Money Bill was accordingly passed on that side: a necessity equally convincing, secured the passage of that humiliating and mortifying act in England.”—Annual Register.

equalled. He felt, he said, the utmost indignation at a passage in the speech of the learned member who dared to arraign gentlemen on that side of the House, with causing, by their inflammatory speeches, the misfortunes. that this devoted country had felt; and the much greater that threatened them :-he, of all men, whose inflammatory harangues had concurred in bringing Parliament and the nation into those calamities, which he had the confidence to attribute to persons who had all along done everything in their power to prevent the predicted consequences: he, whose inflammatory harangues had led the nation, step by step, from violence to violence, in that inhuman, unfeeling system of blood and massacre, which every honest man must detest, which every good man must abhor, and every wise man condemn he, who had dealt in nothing but in exaggeration, in the most inflammatory expressions, in incitements to revenge, and the horrid catalogue of monsters which follow in its train;-that such a man dared to impute the guilt of such measures to those who had all along, in each successive step of its progress, foretold the consequences; had prayed, intreated, and supplicated, not only for America, but for the credit of the nation and its eventual welfare; to arrest the hand of power, meditating slaughter and directed by injustice; to reflect a single moment, and, after counting the possible gain, compare it with the certain loss; a loss of national reputation, of national humanity, of national justice, and, in fine, if nothing but interest was to sway the authors of this diabolical scheme, of national interest and national safety. What was the consequence of the sanguinary measures recommended in those bloody, inflammatory speeches? Though Boston was to be starved; though Hancock and Adams were proscribed ;* yet at the fee of these very men, the Parliament of Great Britain was obliged to kneel, flatter, and cringe; and as they had the cruelty at one time to denounce vengeance against those men, so they had the meanness afterwards to prostrate themselves before them and implore their forgiveness.

"Was he who called the Americans Hancock and his crew,' to reprehend any set of men for inflammatory speeches? Or had sad experience, though not a real reformation, so far altered his sentiments, that he found it necessary to express himself in more favourable terms of Perry and his crew [The Speaker of the Irish House of Commons]? The softened, guarded language adopted by the learned gentleman, might be easily accounted for. Perry and his crew had used arguments particularly conciliating, convincing, and persuasive, and they were no less powerful. The arguments of Perry and his crew consisted of 42,000 bayonets.

"He would repeat, that this mode of defending administration, by libelling those who differed in opinion from them, was, to the last degree, infamous and contemptible, and, in the particular instance, remarkably so. The

* In consequence of their resistance to the measures of the British Government, John Hancock and Samuel Adams were excepted out of the offer of pardon, which was made in General Gage's proclamation, to all persons who should lay down their arms and return to the duties of peaceable subjects.

VOL. II.

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