the calling of whofe Family to the Throne, your national Conftitution was vindicated, revived and refcued from the vane, yet fatal, Notion of indefeafible hereditary Tyranny, Jure Divino; in the Government of a King, who has given every poffible Proof of his Love for his People, and his' Refpect to their SACRED and INVIOLABLE FREEDOM; fince, even his Enemies muft confefs, his having ever fquared his political Conduct, by the ftrictest Rules of the estabilshed Laws, and his having, in all Points, governed his Subjects by and with the Advice and Confent of Parlements, not otherwife. Under this wife and happy Syftem of Government, while, by a juft Senfe of Virtue and Liberty, it is kept up in Effence, as well as Form; every loyal Subject muft enjoy his Inheritance, and the Fruit of his Labor, free and unmolefted; and You, in particular, muft ever be able to preferve your LEGAL LIBERTIES, and with them, to extend your Trade and Commerce, which muft enable You to cherish and support, as well as occasionally to protect, the remoteft Limbs of the Community, of which, You are, by GOD'S PROVIDENCE, the chief Member.

Now, MY LORD and GENTLEMEN, let me beg Leave to recommend it to You, to recollect how many and what Nations, of the fame free Form of Government with yours, confifting of King, Lords and Commons, making one great Body Corporate, Representative of the States of the Realm, as eur Parlements are conftituted, are now reduced, from abfo lute legal Freedom, to abject and irretrievable Slavery; then, ta caft an Eye upon the feveral Limbs of this Community, to look but around You, and fee whether or no there be a Peo ple, under the Protection of the fame Crown with You, who derive their civil and religious Rights and Liberties, from the fame common Spring, and have them eftablished by the like, or equal Authority, with thofe of Britain; in Thort, a People, united, not onely in Blood and Affinity, but in the fame common Principles and Intereft with You; if there be fuch a People, and it fhould appear, that they had, at any Time, and by any Means, been deprived, of the SACRED and INVIOLABLE ESSENTIALS of their Policy; yet, ftill under the fpacious Form and Color of British Liberties; if the first Eftate in the Government of fuch a People, fhould appear to have been, in any former Time, rendered not only contemptible, but hateful to the Subjects, through the repeted evil Administration of it's Subftitutes; if the fecond fhould, at any Time, have been made defpicable by first robbing it of its principal Authority and Power, and

then',

then, by filling it with the moft ignorant and illiterate, the moft weak, impious and irreligious Tools of the one Clafs, and the moft lewd, wicked and abandoned Profligates of the other; if Comeliness of Perfon, or Elegance of Drefs, a goodBreed of Cattle, or the Beauty of a Wife, the being defcended from fome illuftrious, minifterial Thief or Robber, common, or political Prostitution, or the fashionable French Motive, Car telle eft notre Plaifir, had ever been made, or hereafter fhould become, a fufficient Recommendation, or Caufe, to grant and multiply Peerage, at Pleasure; if instead of a FREE PARLEMENT, frequently called and elected, agreeable to the FUNDAMENTAL LAW, there fhould appear to have been, in former Times, but one Parlement called, in a Reign of ever fo great a Length, and that the firft and all fubfequent Vacancies fhould have been filled by the Force and Direction of a Faction, under the abfolute Command and Management of the Vicegerent, or Minifter, or his Vicegerents, regardless of the Senfe and Intereft of the PEOPLE, and their SACRED and TRULY INDEFEASABLE RIGHT of free and frequent Electi ons; if there could have been a Parlement, so unjustly and illegally conftituted, and that it hould, as may well be ex-. pected, have fo abfolutely forgot, neglected, or fruftrated the ENDS of the Inftitution, as moft haughtily and arrogantly to have domineered over, and inflaved, inftead of having ferved and protected their LEGAL CONSTITUENTS, and to have cringed and fawned upon every Tool of Power, that might have been fent to rule, or fcourge, them; if fuch Sham-Reprefentatives thould, as they probably would, have fervily complied with every Scheme of fuch a Governor, though it fhould have been to fap the Foundation of the Civil Conflitution, or to have involved the Nation irretrievably in Debt, and that to have ferved no better visible Purposes, than to gratify fuch a mercenary Ruler's fordid Avarice, or to enable him to pay his private or political Proffitutes, the Wages of their Iniquity, out of the Spoils of an inflaved and plundered Peoples if, in fuch a Country, all Traces of Civil Government, except a Sort of Shadow of the Form, thould, at any Time, appear to have been almost entirely effaced, and a Military Force thould be univerfally exercifed, inftead of that Law, to which all Ranks and Degrees of Men fhould pay frist and pofitive Obedience; if, when it may be deemed expedient for effening the Expences of the Eftablishment, or for the better Prefervation of the Liberties of a Nation, fo often endangered, or actually overturned by Military Power, to reduce the Land Forces; an other Country, contrary to exprefs Laws, fhould

appear,

appear to have been made a Place of Arms, by privately increafing the Military Establishment, and that in Times of univerfal Peace, to almoft double the Force or Expence; I fay, suppofe, that any neighbouring Nation, in League with Britain, or even France, or Spain, for Inftance, were reduced to these deplorable Circumftances; for, they were once as free, as You can now boaft; or, fuppofe the Cafe but imaginary, and that it were properly reprefented upon the Stage; how would it affect the Hearts of a British Audience? But, to make the Scene yet more affecting; fuppofe then, for Argument's Sake, it had been layed in Ireland; that the loyal People of that Country should have been governed by Laws made without that, which alone can give Sanction and Force to human Laws, the free Affent and Confent of the PEOPLE, and fhould, in other Refpects, have been reduced to the flavish Condition above recited,- from which calamitous Circumftances, PROPITIOUS HEAVEN and the KING defend them! Were this, I fay, the Cafe of your Brethren and Fellow Subjects of Ireland, what Briton could be fo flothful, fo indolent and vane, as to imagine his Country out of Danger? - Might You not reasonably apprehend, that Britain, like Rome, from her more remote Colonies, may, fome Time or other, catch the fatal Infection of Slavery, and be fooner or later involved in the fame common Calamity! Whilf that Kingdom is governed, as it is to be hoped You will find it at prefent, upon the fame Principles with Britain; whilft the Subjects are protected in the full and free Enjoyment of the fame natural and legal Rights and Liberties, to which, they undeniably have an equal Titule; they can have but one common Intereft to ferve, and must therefore prove a strong Barrier, an IMPREGNABLE BULWARK to the CONSTITUTION of Britain, should that, in future Time, be threatened or invaded. But, fhould the LOYAL PEOPLE of Ireland, be once difpoffeffed of their legal and juft Privileges; fhould they, through external or internal Force, through foregne or home-bred Corruption, by any Means, be reduced to Slavery, ruled at the arbitrary Will and Pleasure of principal or deputy Slaves or Mercenaries, is it poffible they fhould be perfect Friends to your Establishment?

-Rather, is there not the ftrongest Reason to apprehend, that they must become, from being useful, a Nuisance; inftead of true Friends and natural, invariable Allies, defperate and irreconcileable Enemies, to Britain?

I can not, however, prefume to affert, that this is the prefent Cafe of Ireland. But, of its having been, fome

I

Time,

Time, in fuch difmal Circumstances, there yet remane fome pregnant Proofs, as true, as they are melancholy. I am not yet paffed the Meridian of Life, and notwithstanding, I believe my much-impaired Memory could furnifh fome Teftimony to the Cafe in Point, in due Time, and upon a proper Occafion. But, if the Cafe of this People were really analogous to that I have above reprefented; yet, under a certain late Management of that Kingdom, there would be no Poffibility of bringing a true State of her Cafe before the Crown, fo as to procure a Redrefs of Grievances. That Kingdom has, more than once, been infested with fuch Governors, as would fuffer none Addrefs or Remonftrance from any private Subject or Body Politic, even from either Houfe of Parlement, to be prefented to the King, unless it had been dictated or approved by them; whilft the wickedeft and worst of these impious Rulers have always taken Care to fupprefs the Complaints of the Injured, or even to punish them for complaining; at the fame Time, that they have got their own weak or iniquitous Administration celebrated for its Wisdom and Justice, and the flourishing, the happy State of the Kingdom pompously fet forth, and published in Gazettes, &c. under the Titule of dutiful and loyal Addrefes, &c. as the Senfe of a wife and free People, delivered in the unerring Vaice of a conflitutional, or a legitimate Parlement; when fuch were, in Fact, no better, than falfe and fcandalous Libels, framed and calculated by a bafe, fervile Faction, to impofe on the fupreme Governor, the eafier and better to dupe and inflave his People.

What has been, may be. Therefore, give me Leave to fay, that this makes it incumbent on every TRUE LOVER of this Country, to hold as watchful an Eye on the Adminiftration in that Kingdom, as in this; with the pure, patriot Intent, if it should, at any Time, be found in fuch calamitous Circumstances, to help it to Reftoration, by all lawfull and juft Means. And thus, by preferving the LIBER TIES of your Neighbours and Fellow-Subjects, You bid fair to fecure YOUR OWN. —— But to come to a Point, with which I am more converfant, and in which I can therefore be more pofitive.

By the following Papers, particularly, the feventeeth Addrefs, YOUR LORDSHIP and HONORS may obferve, the Analogy between the Conftitutions. of London and Dublin, And here, give me Leave to add, that fuch a friendly, fuch a brotherly Intercourfe and Correfpondence has always fubfifted between the two Cities, that the CITIZENS of London,

as

as well as thofe of our MOTHER CITY, Bristol, are exempted from all Customs or Duties of the Port, as much as the Citizens of Dublin; than which, there could not be a ftronger Proof of our intimate Connection with, and firm Regard for, You.--But, alas! how little does the Friendfhip of poor Dublin now avail! She, that was to Ireland, what London has always been to Britain, can now hardly be fayed to fubfift herself, more than in Name! She, whofe Loyalty and Fidelity to the Crown, was never shaken or varied, but on the contrary, has always been powerfully exerted, at the Expence of her Blood and Treafure, for it's Defence and the Support of it's Interefts, has of late become so much the Object of the Averfion and Contempt of the Rulers and Judges of that Kingdom, that he is openly, avowedly ripped of the most valuable of her RIGHTS and PRIVILEGES; yet denied all Means of Redress, in the Courts! Her Charters and Laws fet at nought! Her Citi

zens but nominal Free-men, in Fact, Slaves! Her Ma giftrates, Officers and Council, neither elected by the Citizens, nor Inhabitants. — In this Refpect, We are not a Bit better circumftanced, than You were under the memorable Que Warranto! It is true, We have a Lord Mayor, Sherifs, Aldermen, and a Common Council, fuch as they are; but, they are not to be looked upon, as the Agents or Reprefentatives of the PEOPLE; being, in Effect, the Creatures of the Government; that is, the Aldermen, who are not, by Charter, a conflituent Part of the Body Corporate, but were originally created, and until lately, always elected, by the ASSEMBLY of the City, now take upon them, not onely to eleƐ one an other in Succeffion, quite regardless of the Camons and Citizens, but to fill all the confiderable Offices of the City, under the Influence or Approbation of the Government; which has often heretofore been known to disapprove the mot worthy, when chofen without their public or private Direction; and, not onely to give a Congè d' elire, but a fpecial Command, to choose or appoint Lord-Mayors, Sherifs, Recorders, Aldermen, and Juftices, at Pleafure; as alfo, to make, inrol or record, as well as to annul, obliterate or erafe, Acts of AsSEMBLY! But, what makes her Cafe very fingular, most fuperlatively grievous and deplorable, is, that fhe is not now allowed to choose her own Members of Parlement; but has the additional Mortification to fee Members impofed upon her, quite obnoxious to the Citizens; whilft the beft of the Citizens are treated with the utmost Contempt and Indignity, by the Commons and Rulers; the prevaling Faction of which, has

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formed