I believe, no Doubt of this Truth can remane with YOUR LORDSHIP and HONORS, when You fee the Son of one of the worst and most infamous Tools of the Adminiftration of the Years 1711, 1712, 1713, 1714; the Son of a Man, who, upon the fairest Trial, was disfranchised and expelled the Board of Aldermen of Dublin, and afterwards, ftigmatifed by Parlement, in the fucceding Reign, for the most perfidious, illegal and inflaving Practices, in his Mayoralty; when You fee the Son of fuch a Man, without any vifible or pretended Merit, but the paternal, promoted and raised by the Government to the Place of an Alderman of that City, to the Office of Lord Mayor, twice, to the Titules and Ranks, firft of a Knight, then of a Baronet, and afterwards, impofed upon the City, as one of her Members of Parlement; when You fee an other, the Son, indeed, of an Alderman, of a different and quite oppofite Caft, by the fame Power, made an Alderman, forced into Parlement for that wretched City, dubbed a Knight, and promised a Place, or a Penfion, on the, almoft bankrupt, Public, for none other Confideration or Pretenfion, than runing into the Court-approved Measures of his Compeer; when You find, that a third, the undoubted Defcendent of one of the moft iniquitous and corrupt Judges of the above-recited confufed Times, who, for his moft glaring Iniquity, was stripped of his Place and Employment, and indelibly figmatifed by the enfuing Parlement; when the worthy Son of fuch a Father, for onely writing and fpeaking against the ence-approved Principles of our Policy, particularly to fhew, that Ireland has no Conftitution, but the Will of the Minifter, and that that Kingdom, as well as Scotland, for onely complaining of Grievances, were both actually inflaved by the late King William; for this, I fay, and being the chief Agent in perfecuting me, for the following Papers, written to affert and vindicate the legal Conftitution of Great-Britain, as well as Ireland, is this Man, by an exprefs Contract made between a certain late Governor and him, rewarded with an Employment of great Profit and Truft, by turning out the late, though a moft worthy, Incumbent, upon a Penfion*. And,

K

How confiftent this Oppofition to, and the Commons of Ireland's Condemnation of, the Principles of the Author in the Year 1749, are to their inferting the previous Confent of the Crown, for the Disposal of the Redundance of public Money in the Treafury in the Year 1751; to their oppofing and rejecting a Bill with that Confent, in the Year 1753, and tamely putting up with the Difpofal of that Money, without Regard to their Au

thority,

And, if further Proofs to this Purpose be neceffary, YOUR LORDSHIP and HONORS are defired to obferve, that, though You can hardly point out a Crime fo heinous, of which, a Subject may be guilty, Robbery, Murder, Parricide, Traifon or Rebellion not excepted, for which Pardon might not be, or has not fome Time been, actually obtained; yet, have We lived to fee it become fo unpardonably criminal, so unmercifully penal, in Ireland, to affert the undoubted Rights and Liberties of British Subjects, under the Sanction of ROYAL CHARTERS, MUNICIPAL and STATUTE Laws, agreeable to the Spirit and Effence of the Constitution, and to the Revolution, to which We acknowlege, We owe so many boafted Bleffings; that he, who can be charged with none other Offence, than fuch, as immortalifed an HAMPDEN; a SIDNEY, a RUSSEL, a MOLESWORTH, or a MOLYNEUX, is perfecuted in that his Country, to Expulfion or Profcriptions and that, when the Majority of his Fellow-Subjects, by infinite Odds, were on his Side; forced to abandon his helplefs Orphans, though in Dread and Danger of one Day feeing them fall under the merciless Fury of the fame Faction, that robbed them of a Father; obliged to quit and forfake his faithful Friends; neceffitated to roam a wretched Fugitive in ftrange Countries, under a broken State of Health, and in the Decline of Life, without any Means or Profpect of Re demption, of Pardon, or Mercy!

But, MY LORD and GENTLEMEN, I must truft to your extenfive Humanity, to pity and pardon my Weaknefs; if too acute a Senfe of my private Sufferings, has hurried me unawares from the Point in View, which was no more, than to excite the neceffary Caution in You, by laying before You, the manifold and great Calamities of your Neighbours and Brethren.

As no Man has had the Misfortune to have his Meaning and Intention more trained and perverted than I; it is. poffible, fome may be found malevolent enough to infinuate, that I mean to fuggeft, that the injured Part of this People, or I, who' am, by fome Odds, the greateft Sufferer, may be abfolved from our Allegiance, by the lawless Treatment offered Us, and that I would, by this Means, endeavor to fow Sedition and Difcord among his MAJESTY's good Subjects. There is Nothing, I think of greater Confequence to my Reputation, than to be rightly underflood in this Particular

and

thority, together with an injurious Prorogation and other violent Acts of Power fince; let any confiderate Perfon judge.-Let it not be wondered at: Have they not seen Pharfalia ?

and therefore, I humbly beg, You will patiently indulge me in an Explanation.

There is not a Principle in our Policy, which I would more readily affert, or fooner maintain at the Expence of my Blood, than, that PROTECTION and ALLEGIANCE are legal Obligations, which can not exist separately, but do, and eternally muft, fubfift, mutually and reciprocally, between the Prince and the People of thefe FREE KINGDOMS; yet, notwithstanding, I hold nothing more unjust and detestable, than to impute the Violence offered me, or any other Subject, by any fubordinate Officer, or Minifter, to the SOVEREIGN; until it firft fairly and fully appears, that fuch Violence was authorised or countenanced by HIM, or refused to be legally redreffed, upon its being duly layed before HIM; which is fo extremely far from the Cafe in Point, that I challenge the Enemies of our prefent Establishment, to fhew, under the Sanction of the CROWN, any Thing like fuch evil Government.

Hence, I take the Liberty to obferve, that, had this Principle been properly confidered, this Kingdom would have been lefs reproachable than I find it has, of late, with unbecoming Licentioufnefs, ill-founded Difaffection and Disloyalty. For my Part, I am not of Importance enough to intitule me to receive, or even to hope to receive any Favor from the FAMILY on the Throne, but what they daily confer promifcuously on the Multitude. And if I had been layed under perfonal Obligations to them, mean as I may be thought, I fhould think it beneath me, as well as the worst Infult to them, to make base Returns in Servility, or Adulation. But, at the fame Time, I muft declare, that I moft heartily defpife and deteft fuch Men, as want due Mediocrity and proper Steadiness in their political Deportment. We have lived to fee many Men running wildly, precipitately, into all the moft abfurd Extremes in thefe Matters: Some would extend the Prerogative of the Prince, to the most boundless Extravagance; others would abridge and curtail it, fo as to render it' a mere infignificant Cypher; whilft a third Clafs through the Redundance of Perverfenefs, or Folly, would caft an Odium upon the Prince, for every unjuft or difpleafing Step, taken by his Officers, or Minifters, though quite unknown to him, or perhaps, in the moft remote Parts of his Dominions; and fo, because he may not be more than a GOD, would make him less than a Man!--It requires fome Confideration to enable one to determine which of thefe is the worst Enemy to the King and Conftitution of his Country. But, it is K 2

moft

moft evident, that he, who wishes to fee both florifh, muft fteer a different Course from each.

The peculiar Happiness of the British Conftitution, fhines forth in no Inftance more confpicuous, than in this, that Government is adminiftred by three joint Eftates of the greatest Excellency, Dignity, Eminence and Power. Neither of thefe Eftates, was raised or inftituted for its own fole Emolument; but, each was created, founded and established, as the three were afterwards conjoined, by the PEOPLE; who framed this incomparable Syftem of Civil Society, for the future Eafe, Health, Peace and good Government of the COMMUNITY. Hence, all the Prerogatives, Pre-eminence, Power, Privilege, or Authority, legally inherent to the firft, fecond, or third Eftates, jointly or feverally, are derived from, and held in Truft for, the PEOPLE: These are the expreffed or tacit Terms, upon which all the Offices in our States are taken and held. These THREE ESTATES, and all the Officers and Minifters to them fubordinate, are by every legal and moral Obligation, bound to cooperate and coincide in fulfilling the Ends of the Inftitution of their respective Offices, or Places.

If then, it fhould be the Fate of Britain, to be, in any future Time, as fhe has often heretofore been, curfed with a King, who fhould forget or difregard the ORIGINAL COMPACT between him and his People, and take upon him to rule arbitrarily, independent of the two other Eftates, regardless of the established Laws, or the Good of the People; We may find, that our great Ancestors did not delegate their Power fo inconfiderately, as to leave the Lives, Liberties and Properties of their Pofterity, dependent on the abfolute Will of any one Man. No; fuch was their Wisdom and Virtue, that they have left Us, in more Inftances than one, a Precedent, to teach Us, in fuch Circumftances, how to redress ourselves.

The PUBLIC is not less guarded against the Incroachments of the fecond Estate, than it is against those of the firft: Nor can the People be at a Lofs to get corrupt Counsellors, falfe and unworthy Favorites or Minions of the Crown, of any Clafs, cut off, fhould fuch, at any Time, infeft the Court.

And for the third Eftate, the Security of the Public against Invasions from that Quarter is ftill ftronger: This depends entirely on the Senfe and Virtue of the People them felves: For, whilft they have the Senfe to difcern, and the Virtue to regard, the true and neceffary Qualifications of Members to ferve in Parlement, and to discharge the great Truft in them

repofed,

repofed, they muft then ever procede upon pure Principles, and act from the moft difinterefted Motives; they will elect fuch and fuch onely, as appear to them beft qualified to fulfil the great and arduous Task of the REPRESENTATIVE of a GREAT and FREE PEOPLE; that is, fuch as have the honefteft Hearts, the CLEAREST HEADS, the moft ELOQUENT TONGUES, and the most perfect Knowlege of the national Confiitution, of the Extent and Limits of the Power, Authority and Privileges of the Governors, and of the Rights and Liberties of the Governed, and have no Regard or Intereft to ferve, but that of their Conftituents. In Commons thus chofen, there can never be a Majority against the popular Interest. And fuch must ever prove an happy Balance in the Scales of Government, against either, or both the other Eftates, fhould it be poffible they fhould fet up an oppofite Intereft to that of the Community. But, if Commons, thus wifely and virtuously elected and appointed, could poffibly break the Trust repofed in them, fhould they, at any Time, forget, neglect, or difregard the Obligations they lye under, the Duty, the Service, they owe thofe, from whom they derive all their Power and Privilege; fhould they perfidiously defpife and reject the Senfe, Intention and true Intereft of their virtuous and loyal Conflituents, and upon any Pretence, abridge or endanger the legal Liberties, or invade the Properties of their Ward, the PEOPLE, by an anticonflitutional, or a wanton and unnecessary Increafe and Multiplication of penal Laws, or Refolutions, of military Force, of Debts and Taxes; should the Commons, in any Refpect, biafs, obftruct or difpenfe with the necessary, free and equal Progrefs and Diftribution of Laws; or, as that great, upright Judge, HOLT, emphatically expreffes it, fhould they fwallow the Liberties of their Conftituents in the bottomlefs Gulph of the Privileges of the Houfe; I fay, if Commons, duly appointed, fhould poffibly degenerate fo far, as to run counter to the Ends, or even to recede from the unalterable Principle, of the Inftitution; which are and can be none other, than good Government in general, the Prefervation and Support of the Health, Peace, Liberty and Property of their WARD and PRINCIPALS, the PEOPLE in particular; can it be fuppofed, that the PUBLIC is left without a Remedy?—No; it is impoffible, You fhould fufpect fuch a grofs Defect in the most perfect political Conftitution on Earth, which is that of Britain; whilft OUR KING is provided, and perhaps, principally for this Purpose, with Power to diffolve the Parlement; which, it can not be doubted, he would exert, in fuch a preffing Emergency, upon proper Remon