perfons freely returned, the others, the offspring of venality? Under this very flattering defcription of the affembly which I have the honour now to addrefs, he writes to a number of per fons in England; whether he got anfwers from them all I will not fay, but that he did get anfwers from feveral doctors, and from feveral majors is pretty notorious; and it is equally notorious, that with thefe answers, garbled and mutilated to his purpofe, Mr. Henry Joy, jun. of Belfaft, printer and fecretary, proceeded to Dungannon; there they enter into fundry refolutions, and vote that a grand national convention fhall fit in Dublin, in November, to carry thefe refolutions into effect. Thefe determinations they published, and tranfmitted to every county in Ireland; the convention is now affembled in confequence of thefe determinations, they have fat three weeks, they have had their committees, and their fub-committees; they have printed their refolutions, every man has read them, and Í have heard they are the most moderate that ever were entered into by fifty thousand men in arms, with fifty thousand more ready to join them; and will gentlemen tell me that the conftitution is not invaded, when any man fhall dare to make a propofition from fifty thousand armed men, with fifty thousand more ready to join them? Gentlemen fay it is dangerous to commit the parliament and the volunteers; I know it is dangerous, I know the man that does it should answer the crime with his head; but I know the force of the laws is fufficient to crush them to atoms, and for one, I fay, that I do not think life worth holding at the will of an armed demagogue. If ever there was an occafion that called upon every man poffeffing one fentiment of liberty, to exert it in the defence of the conftitution, it is this, it is the prefent occafion which demands to fpurn this bill away.

The bill of laft feffion has been quoted; the motion for that bill was brought forward with due regard to the constitution, and proper parliamentary order; and what I would readily concede to an individual approaching our bar with proper refpect, I would fcorn to concede to men who prefume to demand, and let not therefore the Hon. Member fuppofe I fear to meet the bill upon its own merits, though fupported by the united wisdom of Mr. Henry Joy, jun. and all his learned and unlearned correfpondents. There is another circumftance of idle babble gone forth, which only could have iffued from the cells of Bedlam, that if this bill be rejected, fome wretched fools will refufe to pay taxes; this cannot be the language of men of fense, I only mention it to let it be defpifed. I have also heard that a Houfe of Parliament is to be built at Dungannon, and that we are to have annual feffions of convention to regulate the bufinefs of the nation in church and ftate. Gentlemen may call this liberty if they pleafe; but I call it the worst kind of tyran

ny. To put an end to it at once, I am for rejecting this motion -for leave to introduce a bill, and then the men with whom it originates will return to their homes, afhamed of having been fo much misled.

Sir Edward Nervenkam faid the county of Dublin was not a military congrefs, and yet it had inftructed him on the subject of a parliamentary reform.

Prime Serjeant Kelly-I will rife up for the conftitution of my country as I would for an old friend-I will admit he has faults and imperfections, but I will fay, he has a thoufand virtues and good qualities; and I will fay, let his faults and his imperfections be forgotten-they are fmall, and what fall to the lot of every thing human, but let his virtues and good qualities be remembered, for they are tranfcendent, and have never been equalled upon earth. I will fay, he has fuch virtues, and fuch perfections, that if you difcard him once,

You ne'er will look upon his like again!

Our conftitution has been thought the perfection of human wifdom, it has been the envy and admiration of all the world, and now when it is renovated with additional strength, it is a foolish thing to hazard a change.

We had no original conftitution, nothing like a parliament in this country before our connection with England-we had indeed a Brehon lawFrom that kingdom we received it by charter and by adoption; and if in England, where a reform is much more practicable, it has been rejected as dangerous and unconftitutional, how much stronger are the reafons for rejecting it here?

I have looked at this plan, and to me it appears only calculated to increase the ariftocratical power of a few leading men in each country-it profeffes indeed to throw open the boroughs, but it would, in fact, turn counties into boroughs. Were it neceffary to go into the bill itfelf, I could fhew that it would produce every evil it pretends to rectify; but I am of opinion it fhould be rejected in the first inftance, because it proposes to overturn the conftitution, under which we have long enjoyed every bleffing, and which has lately received fo much additional ftrength.

I would oppose this scheme of innovation let it originate where it might, but my oppofition to it is much strengthened when I know that it originates with the faction in England, who want to play off the volunteers as an engine against those whose places they wish to obtain, and who should afterwards govern this country by keeping up that variance and confufion which they now attempt to excite; but I hope the vote of this evening will deftroy their machinations.

Ás to the volunteers, I love and admire them; they armed in the moment of danger, and terrified the enemy from our coaft,

they have fupported Parliament in recovering the rights of our free conftitution-fo far I fay, their conduct is glorious; but when they interfere with the legislature, when they attempt to innovate upon the conftitution, when they affume to direct the deliberations of this Houfe, then I fay they fall into a dangerous error, and must be refifted.

It is certain, that there is no inftance where a large body of men in arms, and independent of the state, have affumed a controul that is not powerfully refifted, they have not overturned the state. I did hope that the volunteers would have been an exception to this rule-their conduct was fo moderate, I thought when they had acquired a free conftitution they would preferve it inviolable. But what right have the volunteers, or what right has the ftanding army to interfere with the deliberations of parliament? I can fee no difference between this act and the mandate of the board of officers in the time of Cromwell.

I who have lived long, and who have seen the miseries of this country, can hardly believe the changes that have been made, or think the bleffings we now enjoy real. I would have compounded that my fon or my grandfon fhould live to poffefs them, but I thank God, I live to fee them with my own eyes-I live fee my country great and happy, and no vote, or act, of this, the evening of my days, fhall tend to disturb that happiness.

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I will never regifter the edict of a military affociation; and will any man fay, that this is lefs the edict of a military affociation, because a member of parliament hands it to us by their order? Let us not then be a mock parliament, to fit here and register edicts, while another affembly poffeffes the power of iffuing them; let us rather diffolve ourselves at once than tamely fubmit to be fo degraded. I am not long a member of parliament, but while I fit in this Houfe, it will ever be a capital objection with me against any bill, that it comes from an armed body. What does this bill import? that the laft and the prefent parliaments were corrupt; the acts of this parliament can speak for themselves; they have been directed to the improvement of the advantages which the virtue of the laft acquired, and therefore this is the moft improper time that fuch a bill could be introduced, while the prefent parliament are making advantages of those rights which the laft recovered.

Mr. Brown faid that he strongly approved of the bill which was now produced, and he knew that the county of Limerick approved of the measure.

Mr. Brooke faid his conftituents had inftructed him, and he should therefore support the measure.

Mr. Montgomery (of Cavan) had received inftructions; there were parts of the bill he did not approve, but these parts might be amended in its progress, he should therefore fupport it.

Lord Kingborough-I am aftonished at the words that I have heard from the other fide of the Houfe; for my part, I know of no violence or attempt to overawe, I have feen or heard of none, except with the gentlemen on the other fide; their language indeed feems intended to raise a tumult, to promote confufion, and to fet people together by the ears. I hope this House will not reject the bill in the contemptuous manner proposed-let it be received and examined-if any part of it be wrong, reject that part, but retain what is right. I am inftructed to support it by the largest county in the kingdom, the county of Cork, a county which has fuffered feverely by borough influence. This is to me a fufficient reafon for fupporting it, and I hope it will not be finuggled out of the Houfe-it is neither decent nor parliamentary-nor will minifters, I can affure them, by fuch actions, gain the confidence of the people.

The Solicitor General spoke against the bill, but in fo low a voice, that we are unable to give our readers a proper idea of his fpeech.

Mr. Bube faid, that before he did an act which would leffen our prefent conftitution in the public efteem, he must see at least a plan of a better one. It was needlefs for the Honourable Mover to declare from whence he brought the present one; he had a newspaper in his pocket where it was printed-It came from an armed meeting which had the fword for their writ, and a mutilated correfpondence for their documents; he was too much a friend to volunteers to approve of a convention-that convention would be the ruin of the volunteer institution-He would affert as warmly as the Honourable Gentleman, that the people had a right to carry arms, but he denied that they derived from thofe arms any right to be a propofing power in the ftate. They reprefented men who were not freeholders, and they represented those who were fo, not as being electors, but as being foldiers. The implication was, that they would act, not in their conftitutional but in their military capacity: an implication which frightened commerce, and prevented men of capitals from fettling in Ireland. The English papers, every information we have from England, tell us, that they are at prefent fpeculating upon the iffue of this great argument: Whether the volunteers fhall overcome the parliament, or whether they themselves fhall be dashed to pieces against the rock of the conftitution. We know that the volunteers have no ill intentions, but other men will never believe it, unless we convince the world of that truth, by daring to reject the bill which comes from them. This bill is not the measure of the people, it is but a few days old; it is contrary to every idea of reform they have ever adopted. It is the most compleat dereliction of every principle of juftice and equality that ever was offered to the public aftonishment. It takes away

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the rights of men who ought to vote, and increases the very evil we complain of. He ufed feveral arguments to fhew, that plan was fo defective that it could not laft two years. individuals, he respected the propofers of it; but he should have respected them more, if they had waited to try for one feffion that conftitution, which two years ago they would have died to preferve. It admitted leafehold voters who were new in our conftitution. What would be the expoftulation of the Roman Catholics, if we refufed them the rights which they affluently poffeffed? We had no reasonable excufe to offer them; we should make four fifths of our fellow fubjects our mafters, if we accepted, or our enemies, if we refufed them.

Mr. Hartley-I have the honour to represent the metropolis of the kingdom, and am inftructed to fupport a parliamentary reform-an inftruction the more pleafing, as it perfectly coincides with my opinion: I therefore contend for its difcuffion.

Mr. Stewart teftified his aftonifhment at the objections made to the reception of the bill-If (faid he) the voice of the volunteers is not to be attended to, attend to the voice of the county of Tyrone, who, through me, demand from you a difcuffion of this important bill.

Mr. Marcus Beresford-The zealous affertor of public liberty, and reformer of the conftitution, has introduced the example of the Duke of Portland, who he fays fent volunteer ambaffadors to the throne. He will allow, I am fure, that example is a very bad argument, becaufe in human affairs, two fituations exactly fimilar, hardly ever occur. There was not then an armed body, fitting, attempting to over-awe parliament; neither were the volunteers endeavouring to alter the conftitution. Is the Honourable Gentleman, and the Right Honourable Gentleman who fupports him, fo foon tired of the conftitution which they have been so inftrumental in recovering; or do they with to transfer to the convention, that power which their efforts have affitted to wreft from the privy council?-The Right Honourable Member fays, that the bill was only talked over by a fet of gentlemen, fitting and converfing like any other fet of gentlemen. But will he deny that it originated with an armed affembly, and that no man who was not clad in military array, was permitted to speak in that affembly? Will he deny that he fupports it in obedience to the vote of that affembly, and that the Honourable Mover has their fpecial order for bringing it? however, that gentleman may with great truth fay, they are his own fentiments, for in the converfation mentioned, his fentiments were irrefiftable and unrefifted.The committee of correfpondence has been mentioned; let me fay one word of them. I think it a little unfair of that committee, that they should mutilate and garble the letters which they have received; for I have reafon to think, that the oracles in