taken will, a fpecies of the very worst cowardice and treason, and the will of the people no excufe for the compliance of a government in any difaftrous, or difhonourable, or dangerous measure. But while I applaud the conduct of the Irish House of Commons under the impreffion which governed them, I entertain very confiderable doubts whether those impreffions were natural and juft; and I think it very important to ascertain that point, because it is from that alone, that it is poffible to combine or foresee the fate of the propofal. If these impreffions were founded in right reason, there is no doubt but that that Affembly will persevere in the course they have taken; but if they were the momentary effects of warmth and national irritability, we may expect from their good sense and their virtue, fuch a temperament, as will at least admit the ers and Connexion! But we deserve no better for we began the folly, and are the first deceivers. Foreigners and Connexion! Are we not their parent? Are they not our own blood? Are they not governed by our laws? Are they not defended by our sword? Are they not maintained in their power, in their religion, in their conftitution, in their lands, by the protecting arm and parental vigilance of England. To such an extent of prejudice does this fatal ambiguity or perverfion of terms prevail in whatever regards this deluded colony, that it is become impoffible (unless we are merely speaking geographically) to know what is meant by the word Ireland itself. We have occafion for explanation or definitions at every Sometimes it is the great majority of the people, fometimes it is the settler; now it is the great population of the natives in arms, and now the independent colony trembling at its disparity; here it is the reprefentative of a turn. handful handful of proteftants; there the directory, and the catholic republic. Out of this confufion it is indifpenfable to collect fome order, and to be able to convey and express our meaning in distinct and pofitive language. I am unwilling to give offence any where, and am far from intending it; but I do not expect to probe these long and ulcerous fores without giving pain; if I could, the gangrene has taken place, and there is no remedy but amputation. It is painful, no doubt, to withdraw the eye from these ambitious dreams of federal crowns and independent fenates, to send back through the ivory portal thefe flattering images of power and greatness, and present the bloody and disgusting mirror of realities. But is it my fault if the British colony in Ireland cannot read its ftate, or recolle& its origin, or perceive its dangers? Am I to blame, if it fleeps on the brink of ruin, or for awakening it? Would God we lived in times when we might flumber on in delightful or tranquil vifions, when we might rock ourselves to reft with innocent flatteries and delufions. We have been roufed with a mighty peal, and have armed by the flashes of contiguous conflagrations. But if we cannot see the avenging power that overturns our gates, and the trident that fhakes our foundations, we fhall neither fave our religion, nor our pa rents, nor our children; and exchange at best our destiny for an unprofitable and inglorious revenge!! The history of the Irish nation begins with the conquest of Ireland. All that precede is falfe or doubtful, obfcure or utterly unknown, a proverbial fable, forged to infult the fenfe and outrage the credulity of mankind. All useful knowledge of it is coeval with English " connexion." It is true this connexion was parentage with the colony and conqueft with the natives. Hence followed a double a double duty, of which it is to be for ever lamented that we have not acquitted ourselves with equal justice; for conqueft brings duties with it as well as colonization. We owed protection and encouragement to our fettler, but inftruction and the gradual amelioration of his condition to the native. Such in the beginning, after Henry the fecond accepted the perjurable fealty of Ireland, and received the whole island into homage as a fief of his crown, was the pious policy of the time. The converfion of her barbarous hordes to christianity, the restriction and fubordination of her savage aristocracy of Sheiks and Beys, were the benefits that great prince conferred upon the Irish. If in fucceffive periods the progrefs of civilisation has not kept peace with the advancement of the parent country, I think it more especially to be attributed to the great impolicy of Henry the Eighth at the reformation, when the feuds of religious difference became fuperadded to |