of Trinity College, Dublin and Mr. Flood. The benefits propofed to be conferred were unfubftantial andimaginary, not real and valuable. The return in the mean time that was to be made was fraught with the most important confequences to the future profperity of Ireland. She was to appropriate the hereditary reve nue, and that for ever. And what was the gratitude fo confidently claimed from her? Had England ever entered into a war on her account? Had England ever fupported a fingle fhip for her defence, more than fhe would have done if Ireland had been funk to the bottom of the fea? But the perfon who was most pointed in his cenfure of the general outline of the 'yftein was Mr. Molyneux. He wifhed to do justice to Mr. Orde's abilities in bringing forward the refolutions. Confidering his fituation and his connections with England, they were fuch as by no means disgraced him, But he would with confidence declare that every Irifhman who fup. ported the meafure was guilty of facrificing the trade and the most important interefts of the kingdom. They had heard much of the gratitude and the obligations in which they were held to Great Britain. This was a language he fhould ever reprobate in that houfe. Mr. Molyneux was ready to put the merits of the whole queftion upon one fingle truth, which, if it could be contradicted, he would allow his objections to be ill founded. Suppofe Ireland was entirely independent of England: would not the minifter who fhould form a treaty of commerce with Great Britain on the foundation of these refolutions, deserve to be impeached for having facrificed the interests of Ireland, and to lofe his head? It was advantage on one fide, it was lofs on the other. He could not enough condemn the folly and the ruin of a treaty of equality. Confidering the different fituations of each country, the wealth, the capital of the one, the poverty, the wretchednefs of the other, this was to fign the death-warrant of some of their best fources of their profperity. With refpect to the laft refolution, he confidered it as op pr five, derogating from the inde pendence of parliament, at the fame time that it fwelled the prerogative and the defpotifm of the crown. It was fufpecting the loyalty of that country and is interest in the fifety of the empire; it was declaring that though the hereditary revenue fold be more productive, the additional taxes might be increased, but should never be repealed. In fine, he regarded the first part of the arrangement as facrificing the trade of that country, the last its honour and independence: he fhould therefore give to the whole his hearty negative. But the voice of general cenfure was fcarcely heard amidst the applaufe that was bestowed upon the outline of the plan from every fide of the house. Those who were most particularly explicit in their commendations were Mr. Dennis Daly, Mr. George Ogle, Mr. George Ponfonby, fir Lucius O'Brien, Mr. Huffey, Mr. Brooke, Mr. Forbes, and Mr. Griffith. All of thefe either acknowledged their entire acquiefcence in the whole fyftem, or exprefly declared that in a general view its benefits appeared to them greatly to outweigh the defects that might be imputed to it. It was remarked by Mr. Dennis Browne, that the best eulogium he could make upon the propofitions would be to read them. But now that mihifters had brought forward with great trouble trouble and difficulty a beneficial and well digested fyftem, a fine ftory was told the people, that this was a fyftem of which they were not to approve; though the most fanguine of them all, fo lately as the lait year, never could have ex juftify to both nations. It gave to England what he had a right to expect, and perhaps it could not give her more. pected fuch liberal conceffion. What The propofitions paffed the committee of the whole houfe on Friday, the eleventh of February; and on Saturday they were reported and followed up by an address to the fovereign, expreffive of their fervent gratitude, and the fanguine hope with which they looked forward to the complete execution of fo liberal an arrangement. On the divifion upon this addrefs the only persons who appeared against it were Mr. Parfons of the college, and Mr. Montgomery, member for the county of Donegal. It was carried with equal unanimity though the houfe of lo ds, and on the Wednesday following a meffage was fent from the lords to the commons expreffing their agreement to the refolutions and their concurrence in the addrefs. Through the whole courfe of the, bufinefs it had been intimated by Mr. Orde, that the commerce of the Eaft Indies was to be brought before the houfe as a feparate confideration; and it was even underflood, that a fyftem relative to this matter had been digefted into twelve difiinct propositions. Thefe propofitions were either withheld in confequence of fome revolution in the fentiments of minifters, or delayed, and of consequence permitted to be fuperfeded, by the alterations that it was found neceffary to make in the fyftem during its progrefs through the English parliament. In the mean time the taxes, which were requifite in the execution of the arrangement, in order immediately to raife the hereditary revenue to a level with the demands, were not precraftinated. The efti mates mate of the neceffity was taken at the annual fum of 140,000l. and the taxes by which this fum was to be raised were a duty upon malt, tobacco, licences, wheel carriages, newspapers, and certain other articles. Very early in the Irish houfe of commons, the leaders of oppofition declared their difcontent with the flow, and, as they deemed it, equivocal procedure of the English parliament; and they endeavoured to obtain from adminiftration the fufpenfion of the bills impofing thefe duties, till they fhould learn that fome peremptory and decifive measure was adopted on the part of England. This demand created a fpecies of debate in which the members took oppofite fides according to their preconceived ideas. Mr. Grattan and many others, including all the friends of administration, declared their opinion that the taxes were the only means that could be employed by that kingdom for fupporting the expences of government without running into debt. They therefore declared their peculiar favour to that part of the fyftem that related to thefe taxes, and profeffed their carnet with that if all the reft were loft, this part of the fyftem might be preferved. By feveral on the other hand it was flated in the ftrict light of a compenfation to England for the benefits held out in the preceding articles of the fyftem. If the fyftem were not given, Ireland could take care of her finances in a better and more oeconomical manner, not by raifing her revenues to the level of her expenditure, but by finking her expenditure to the level of her revenues. Thefe debates were farther diftinguished by a declaration from Sir John Parnel, one of the commiffioners of the Irish revenues, that he thought every part of the propofitions fair and advantageous to that kingdom. That accordingly no change in minifterial politics fhould have any influence upon him; but that he was determined to fupport the whole in the manner in which it had been agreed to, regardless of the confequence. Some advantage was afterwards taken of this declaration by the members of oppofition. The tax bills received the royl affent on the twenty-fourth of March. On this occafion fome difficulty had been made on the part of the house of lords, in complying with the ufual mode of fending back money bills to the houfe of commons, instead of retaining them in their own poffeffion, as was ufual in other cafes, till they received the last formalities neceffary to their paffing into a law. The point however was fpeedily compromifed, and mat ters returned into their old channel. One of the queftions which had been warmly debated by the oppofite fides of the houfe of commons during the pendency of the propofitions, was relative to the conftruction of the laws of navigation of Great Britain. A principal branch of the benefit refulting from the propofed fyftem confifted, according to adminiftration, in the extenfion of thefe laws to the kingdom of Ireland, and the permitting the circuitous as well as the direct importation into England of the produce of the colonics by Irish merchants. Oppofition on the contrary, including the country gentlemen and many of the lawyers, maintained that the acts of navigation did neceffarily and irrefiftibly include Ireland as a part of the empire, and that of confequence nothing was given under this branch of the fyftem to which Ireland was net not already entitled, To bring this queftion to an iffue, a refolution was propofed to the houfe on the eleventh of April, by Mr. Corry, declaratory of their conftruction of the contested laws, The motion was oppofed as premature by Mr, Forbes, Mr. Griffith, and Mr. Hartley; and Mr. Corry at length confented to withdraw it. While the measures that related to the commercial fyftem engaged the attention of parliament, the affairs of the projected reform were not entirely neglected by its friends. The last efforts were now expended of that glorious flame, which had once fpread over every part of the ifland, and which had feemed to promife a very different and diftinguished fuccefs. The congrefs of the nation of Ireland met purfuant to its adjournment on the twentieth of April. The proceedings that were held, fo far as it was thought proper to give them to the public, feen to have tended chiefly to put the plan of a more equal reprefentation into as general terms as it was conceived to admit, and to leave as much as poffible to the wifdom and direction of parliament. The congrefs now declared their meeting to be final, and in a very brief addrefs to the people of Ireland, obferved, that, if the abufes of former parliaments did not infpire a distrust of those which were to come; if the venerable opinion of thofe illuftrious men who were now no more, and the affiftance of those whofe prefent labours cooperated with them in the fame purfuit, had no influence to awake their fears, to animate their efforts, and to invigorate their hopes, this and every other endeavour muft fink into oblivion; and they would fhortly repofe in indolent acquiefcence under fuch a reprefentation as would gall themselves and their pofterity with increafing taxation and oppreffion." It was not till the twelfth of May, that Mr. Flood prefented to the house of commons a bill for effecting the purpose of the national congrefs. To give to the business a greater appearance of deliberation and folemnity, he had fo early as the second of March moved for leave to bring in a measure of this kind, which was accordingly grant ed him. In the mean time he added, that, as the prime minister of England had pledged himself to bring forward refolutions of a fimilar nature, in a grand and decitive ef fort before the British parliament, he did not mean to bring in his own bill till he had feen the fate of that undertaking. The dif cuffion of Mr. Pitt's propofal took place in Great Britain on the eighteenth of April. On the twenty eighth of the fame month Mr. Flood moved, "that the house refolve itfelf into a committee to confider of an inftruction to the perfons who had been ordered to bring in his bill, that the better to promote population in contracted or decayed boroughs, no borough in the province of Connaught having less than forty, or in the other provinces having less than feventy electors, fhould be permitted to return more than one member to parliament". The motion was op pofed by major Doyle and fir Boyle Roche, both of whom had fupported the measure in the last feffion, Mr. Dennis Daly, Mr. Fitzgibbon, and, in a fpeech of fome length, by fir Hercules Langrishe. It was fupported by Mr. Grattan, who however did not appear to approve of the particular mode in which the bufinefs, was brought forward in parliament. The mo tion was negatived without a divifion. The bill itfelf, which was at length introduced to the house, was fupported with confiderable car neftnefs by Mr. Brownlow and Mr. O'Neil. By the former it was obferved that he greatly doubted indeed, whether there was virtue enough in that houfe to pafs the bill; but that he was bold to fay, that fooner or later the house would give a reform to the people. The latter, in reply to Mr. Monk Mafon, who had endeavoured to prove that the measure originated in partial clamour, maintained that the whole fenfe of the kingdom was for a parliamentary reform, and that nothing but the most extreme blindnefs and abfurdity could cherish a doubt of it. The arguments in favour of the measure were inforced by Mr. Rowley, Mr. Forbes, Mr. Corry, fir Henry Hartftonge, and Mr. Travers Hartley. It was remarked by Mr. Flood, that though this bill differed materially from the one brought in last year, fome there were who faid it was the fame, and for that reafon would justify their oppofition. But if it were the fame bill word for word, was that a reafon? Had the houfe never rejected a measure in one feffion and adopted it in another? Did they never vary in their opinion? When firft a bill of reform was offered to parliament, the objection was that it was delivered upon the point of an ideal bayonet. It was the air-drawn dagger of Macbeth that appeared to every man who oppofed the bill on that day. And why did it appear to him, but that his confcience fmote him? Mr. Flood would not fpeak to the provisions of the bill; but he called upon the house to let it be printed, and then come back with the approbation of the people, and not like mutes in a feraglio to ftrangle it on that day. If they proceeded to its difcuffion, he dared any man to meet him on its principles: he challenged the moit informed and the mightiest of them all to enter the lifts. The queftion was put, and the house divided, ayes 60, noes 112. A bill was introduced, immedi ately upon the defeat of the bill of reform, by Mr. Forbes, member for the county of Drogheda, to prevent perfons holding places, or receiving penfions from government from having a feat in parliament. But this bill encountered the fame fate, and like that of Mr. Flood was rejected upon the fecond reading. In the mean time a motion had been brought forward by Mr. Brownlow, on the twenty-fifth of February, declaring, "that it was the opinion of that houfe, that the proceedings of the court of king's bench, in the affair of the highfheriff of Dublin, were highly reprehenfible in adopting a mode of punishment, arbitrary in its nature, contrary to the principles of the conflitution, and deftructive of the trial by jury." This motion was rejected at the instigation of Mr. Fitzgibbon. Another question moved by the popular party was introduced by Mr. O'Hara, member for the county of Sligo, the object of which was the abolition of the office of vice-treasurer of Ireland. This motion had the fame fate with that of Mr. Brownlow. The first notice that was taken of the propofitions as they were amcnded by the British parliament, and increased to the number of twenty, was on the 13th of June. On this occafion, Mr. Orde having moved an adjournment for three weeks, Mr. Rowley fuggefted an |