and could not deny the truth of its principles, without shaking the basis of their own liberty, which must have upset the whole superstructure of that government they had just raised. This conduct in the Commons of England raised jealousy and suspicions in the Commons of Ireland. They saw that the very principles of liberty, which Englishmen admired and revered in Locke as the foundations of the freedom of England, were reprobated in Molyneux, and condemned as seditious, when brought to bear upon Ireland. In that moment they most sensibly felt the galling situation of an arbitrary subordination. This execution instead of degrading, increased the character of the book. It had suffered political martyrdom; and, as in all other cases of martyrs, its disciples increased by persecution. The people of Ireland sought after and read Molyneux with avidity. The book has ever since been in the widest circulation, and its doctrines have been deeply engraven on the hearts of all true Irishmen. The politics of Molyneux are not less revered by the Irish, than the morality of Confucius by the Chinese. The writings of Dean Swift went still further in opening the minds of the Irish, and preparing them to nurture the seeds of freedom, and to vindicate those rights, which Heaven has bestowed upon the human race. He wrote to be understood by the common people, and made use of the cheapest mediums for distributing advice. The Draper's letters were cried about the streets of Dublin, and sold for a penny each. Every man who could read, read the Draper's letters. They were dispersed through the kingdom, pasted up in alehouses and cottages all over the country, and their influence was very suddenly perceived. Swift was the first person, who pointed out to the Irish the necessity of associating against wearing foreign manufac tures and to that non-importation association must be attributed the successful advances, which the nation was then making towards civil liberty. A prosecution was instituted against the printer of Swift's Essays, which terminated in the imprisonment of the printer (Alderman Faulkener), who peremptorily refused to give up the writer. This prosecution, like the burning of Molyneux's book, increased the popularity of the Essays and the author. It stimulated the satiric genius of the Dean, who literally wrote some of his enemies out of the world. It brought the doctrine of libels into discussion in the courts of Ireland; and the arguments of the council for the defendants convinced the people that the liberty of speaking, thinking, and writing, was one of the great principles of the constitution.

The universal estimation, in which Mr. Molyneux's book, as well as the Draper's letters have been since holden by all that is respectable throughout the British empire, most irrefragably condemns the impolicy and injustice of the conduct of the Bri

tish cabinet towards Ireland in both these instances. So proper, so beneficial to the country, so constitutional in their tendency did Lord Chesterfield consider the Draper's letters, that in order to reconcile the minds of the public to a desirable measure during his administration, he himself framed a letter in the exact style of Swift, then in his melancholy state of dotage, and had it published under the signature of the Draper, and circulated in the same way, in which those letters formerly had been. No nation on earth naturally takes a more lively and active interest in the political events of the day than the Irish: none holds the efforts of wit, humour, and talent in higher estimation: none more justly appreciates the benefits and advantages of civil liberty. Upon principles arising out of these facts very soon after the accession of his majesty had the Freeman's Fournal been set up in Dublin.

This paper was soon followed by another public print, called the Hibernian Journal. The gentlemen of the university of Dublin supplied these papers with ample matter for entertainment and information. Dr. Lucas was the director of the Freeman's Journal; and from the elegance of composition and strength of political argument, which marked several of the essays, it was known that they had also support from Mr. Flood, Mr. Burgh, Mr. Yelverton, Mr. Grattan, and other gentlemen, then generally esteemed. In the administration of Lord Viscount Townshend, another public paper appeared, called the Dublin Mercury,* avowedly patronized by government. It was the business of this paper to turn every serious argument of the adversary into ridicule. Men of extensive learning and attic genius sported their wit in print; among whom were Mr. Courteney, Captain Jephson, and Dean Marlay. The press transplanted those shoots of liberty to all parts of the country. Newspapers appeared in every town, and tended to sow the seeds of that ardour for civil freedom, that ended in the establishment of Irish independence in the year 1782.

Very early in the session, the attention of parliament was drawn to the consideration of the army upon the Irish establishment. This was a subject, upon which the nation was most justly sore and it it the more material to touch upon it, as out of the misconduct of the British cabinet, with reference to the military establishment of Ireland, arose that important and wonderful Revolution in the political system of Ireland, which will hereafter be noticed in its appropriate time and order. The following message was sent to the House of Commons from his excellency by the hands of the Right Hon. Sir George Macartney, who delivered it to the speaker, and he read it to the House.

In these different papers appeared the several letters and essays, that we have before remarked made up the collection of Baratariana.

(TOWNSHEND.)

"GENTLEMEN,

"I am commanded by his majesty to inform you, that his majesty, upon the most mature consideration of the state and circumstances of his kingdom of Ireland, judges that a number of troops not less than twelve thousand men, commission and non-commission officers included, should be constantly kept therein, for the better defence of the same; and that his majesty finding, that, consistently with the general public service, the number before mentioned cannot always be continued in Ireland, unless his army upon the Irish establishment be augmented to 15,235 men in the whole, commission and non-commission officers included, his majesty is of opinion, that such augmentation should be immediately made, and earnestly recommends it to his faithful Commons to concur in providing for a measure, which his majesty has extremely at heart, as necessary not only for the honour of his crown, but for the peace and security of his kingdom; and I have his majesty's special commands to assure you expressly, in his name, that it is his determined resolution, that upon such augmentation, a number of effective troops, not less than 12,000 men, commission and non-commission officers included, shall at all times, except in the cases of invasion or rebellion in Great Britain, be kept within this kingdom, for the better defence thereof. I have ordered a plan and estimate of the immediate charge, and of the annual expence, which will be incurred by this measure, to be laid be fore you; and if, by the strictest economy and the non-effective funds, any savings can be made, you may be assured, that, of the sums which shall be granted, no greater part shall be used than shall be indispensably necessary for this service. And I have it further in command from his majesty to acquaint you, that his majesty has been pleased to determine, that as the several general officers who now compose the staff upon the military establishment of this kingdom, shall happen to die, or be provided for, the number shall be reduced, and consist of no more than a commander in chief, and five general officers." It was ordered to be entered on the journals, and at the same time a committee was appointed to enquire into the state of the military establishment, and also into the application of the money granted for its support from 25th March, 1751. The result of this enquiry shewed manifest misconduct, as appears from the report at large, and the returns thereunto annexed: part of the report is to the following effect:

"Your committee beg leave to take notice, that the entire reduction of the army, after the conclusion of the peace, did not take place till the latter end of the year 1764; and that it appears

from the return of the quarter-master-general, that there were great deficiencies in the several regiments then upon the establishment, at the several quarterly musters comprised in the said paper, which precede the month of January, 1765; the full pay of such vacancies must amount to a very large sum, and ought, as your committee apprehends, to have been returned as a saving to the public, especially as it appeared to your committee, that orders were issued by government, not to recruit the regiments intended to be reduced." Upon the whole, it was resolved that an address should be presented to his majesty, to lay before him the report of the said committee, to acknowledge his constant attention to the welfare of the people, to express the utmost confidence in his majesty's wisdom, that if upon such representation any reformation in the said establishment should appear necessary to his majesty, such alteration would be made therein as would better provide for the security of the kingdom, and at the same time reduce the expence of the establishment, in such a manner as might be more suitable to the circumstance of the nation. Whatever be or have been the unsound policy to suppress or misrepresent the actual state of facts, when we look to Ireland with impartiality, from what has been stated, we have melancholy but indisputable proof of the impoverished state of the kingdom at this juncture. She was oppressed by a rapidly increasing debt, burthensome taxes, unnecessary expences, places and pensions, and evident misapplication of the public money; and under these circumstances the representatives of the people made some ineffectual efforts for the relief of their country; but the majority was secured, and vainly did the efforts of patriotism encounter the exertions of the new system, to keep individuals steady to their post on the treasury bench.

The unusual interval of 16 months between the dissolution of the old and the meeting of the new parliament was carefully employed by the lord lieutenant in forming the particular ar rangements with the new members for carrying on the work of government upon the new system of the immediate influence of the chief governor: and considering the length of possession, the nature of the power, the struggle of the former holders to retain it, and their personal weight and influence upon their dependants, his efforts were uncommonly successful for a first essay. On the 17th of October, 1769, the lord lieutenant met

• Painful and discouraging as it is to contemplate the frequency and facility, with which the Irish (like too many other) patriots were drawn over, yet if their patriotism, whilst it lasted, whether affected or sincere, were founded in reason and truth, we must honour, revere, and commend the virtue, although we lament the profligate recreancy of those, who abuse and desert its cause. The number of the wicked but enhances the merit of the good. It is an humiliating conclusion, which has been often, perhaps not without reason, drawn by

the new parliament. Mr. John Ponsonby was unanimously elected speaker of the House of Commons. The lord lieute nant's speech pointed only at three things, namely, the encou ragement of the charter school, the linen manufacture, and the prevention of running contraband goods, by which the revenue was much injured. His lordship however did the nation the justice so to mention the late popular act for limiting the duration of parliaments, as to justify the exertions of the patriots, who had so eagerly urged, and condemned the opposition of the court party, who had so obstinately resisted the passing of that bill. "It is," said his lordship," with particular satisfaction that I meet "the first parliament limited in duration, that ever assembled in "this kingdom. I am confident, that you are come together "with the justest sentiments of duty and affection to our excel"lent sovereign, who has gratified the earnest wishes of his "faithful subjects of Ireland with that great improvement of "their constitution."

66

This first session of the first octennial parliament of Ireland, under all the peculiarity of its circumstances, stands unprecedented in the Irish annals. Lord Townshend, whose special mission was to renovate the court system of government in that kingdom, after having ceded to the Irish party, with ungracious reluctance, the octennial bill, and laboured with unabated industry and contrivance through the long interval of 16 months to create a new junto in support of the English interest, independent of their former leaders, had not so matured his plan as to have ensured the whole game. He had not altered the nature, but only raised the price of accommodation: and lavish as the Irish have generally been of their voices in parliament to the highest bidder, there ever appear to have been some cases reserved out of the bargain. Such had been the reservation of right to vote for limited parliaments, in some of the most obsequious devotees to the measures of the castle: and such now was a similar exception in some of his pensioned supporters to resist the right of the English council to make money bills originate with them, and not with the commons of Ireland. On this point the British cabinet and the Irish house of commons came fairly to issue.* The judges bill and the octennial bill real well wishers to their country, in support of the union, that Ireland is better without any parliament at all, than to be cursed with a corrupt and venal one. * It had long been the avowed and boasted maxim of all Irish patriots to decry Poyning's Law as a most unconstitutional national grievance. The union having now rendered its observance impossible, it behoves us, notwithstanding, to consider the effect, which its execution and resistance have heretofore respectively produced upon the Irish nation. It was an act passed in the 10th Hen. VII. c. 4. This statute is called Poyning's Law, from Sir Edward Poyning, the viceroy, who is generally considered to have obtained it by a manœuvre. The major part of the lords and commons were drawn from their attendance in parliament by stratagem, and in their absence this law was