stantly, with the bridle and saddle, which you shall have into the bargain. But, friend, say you, are you sure that you are authorized to make this bargain? What, sir, cries the foreman, would you doubt my honour? Sir, I can find three hundred gentlemen who never saw me before, and yet have gone bail for me at the first view of my face. Besides, sir, you have a greater pledge; my honour, sir, my renown is at stake. Well, sir, you agree, the note is passed; the foreman leaves you, and returns without the horse. What, sir! where is the horse? Why, in truth, sir, answers he, I am sorry for this little disappointment, but my mistress has taken a fancy to the horse; so your friend cannot have him. But we have a nice little mare that will match him better; as to the saddle he must do without that, for little master insists on keeping it; however, your friend has been so poor a fellow that he must have too thick a skin to be much fretted by riding bare-backed; besides, the mare is so low that his feet will reach the ground when he rides her; and still further to accommodate him, my master insists on having a chain locked to her feet, of which lock my master is to have a key to lock or unlock as he pleases, and your friend shall also have a key so formed that he cannot unlock the chain, but with which he may double lock it if he thinks fit.

What, sirrah, do you think I'll betray my old friend to such a fraud? Why really, sir, you are impertinent, and your friend is too peevish; 'twas only the other day that he charged my master with having stolen his cloak, and grew angry, and got a ferrule and spike to his staff. Why, sir, you see how good-humouredly my master gave back the cloak. Sir, my master scorns to break his word, and so do I; sir, my character is your security. Now, as to the mare, you are too hasty in objecting to her, for I am not sure that you can get her; all I ask of you now is to wait a few hours in the street, that I may try if something may not be done; but let me say one word to you in confidence:

I am to get two guineas if I can bring your friend to be satisfied with what we can do for him; now if you assist me in this, you shall have half the money; for to tell you the truth, if I fail in my undertaking I shall either be discharged entirely, or degraded to my former place of helper in the stable.

Now, Mr. Speaker, as I do not presume to judge of your feelings by my own, I cannot be sure that you would beat the fore

man, or abuse him as an impudent lying impostor: I rather think you would for a moment be lost in reflecting, and not without a pang, how the rectitude of your heart, and the tenderness of your head, had exposed you to be the dupe of improbity and folly. But, sir, I know you would leave the wretch who had deceived you, or the fool who was deceived by his master, and you would return to your friend. And methinks you would say to him, we have been deceived in the course we have adopted; for, my good friend, you must look to the exertions of your own strength for the establishment of your health. You have great stamina still remaining, rely upon them, and they will support you. Let no man persuade you to take the ferrule or spike from your staff. It will guard your cloak. Neither quarrel with the jockey, for he cannot recover the contents of the note, as you have not the horse; and he may yet see the policy of using you honestly, and deserving to be your friend. If so, embrace him, and let your staff be lifted in defence of your common safety, and until that shall happen, let it be always in readiness to defend yourself.

Such, sir, is the advice you would offer to your friend, and which I would now offer to this house. There is no ground for despairing; let us not therefore alarm the people. If a closer connexion with Great Britain is not now practicable, it may become practicable hereafter. But we shall ruin every hope of that kind by precipitation. I do therefore conjure gentlemen not to run the risk of forcing us on a week's notice to enter on a subject, on which every man in the nation ought to be allowed the most unlimited time for deliberation. I do conjure them not to assent to a measure that can serve nobody but the proposer of it; that must expose this house to the distrust of their constituents, and which may in its consequences endanger the harmony of two kingdoms, whose interests and fortunes ought never to be separated.

SPEECH OF MR. CURRAN,

ON THE "

BILL FOR REGULATING THE COMMERCIAL INTERCOURSE BETWEEN GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND.

HOUSE OF COMMONS, FRIDAY, AUGUST 12th, 1785.

MR. ORDE moved for leave to bring in the bill.

Mr. CURRAN said, he was too much exhausted to say much at that hour (six o'clock) on the subject. His zeal had survived his strength. He wished his present state of mind and body might not be ominous of the condition to which Ireland would be reduced, if this bill should become a law. He could not therefore yield even to his weakness. It was a subject which might animate the dead. He then took a view of the progress of the arrangement, and arraigned the insidious conduct of the administration. In Ireland it was proposed by the minister; in England it was reprobated by the same minister. He had known children to learn to play cards, by playing the right hand against the left: he had never before heard of negociation being learned in that way. He said a bill was not a mode of negociating; our law spoke only to ourselves-bound only ourselves;-it was absurd therefore to let a bill proceed. But the commercial part was out of the question; for this bill portended a surrender of the constitution and liberty of Ireland. If, said he, we should attempt so base an act, it would be void, as to the people. We may abdicate our representation, but the right remains with the people, and can be surrendered only by them. We may ratify our own infamy; we cannot ratify their slavery. He feared the British minister was mistaken in the temper of Ireland, and judged of it by former times. Formerly the business here was

carried on by purchased majorities; there was a time when the most infamous measure was sure of being supported by as infamous a majority. But things were changed; the people were enlightened and strong; they would not bear a surrender of their rights, which he said would be the consequence if they submitted to this bill. It contained a covenant to enact such laws as England should think proper, they would annihilate the parliament of Ireland. The people here must go to the bar of the English house of commons for relief; and for a circuitous trade to England, we were accepting, he said, a circuitous constitution.

He said it was different totally from the cases to which it had been compared, the settlement of 1779, or the Methuen treaty; there all was specific and defined; here all was fustian and uncertain. A power to bind externally would involve a power also of binding internally. This law gave the power to Great Britain of judging what would be a breach of the compact, of construing it, in fact of taxing us as she pleased, and gave her new strength to enforce our obedience. In such an event, he said, we must either sink into utter slavery, or the people must either wade to a re-assumption of their rights through civil blood, or be obliged to take refuge in an union, which, he said, would be the annihilation of Ireland, and what he suspected the minister was driving at. Even the Irish minister, he said, no longer pretended to use his former language on this subject; formerly we were lost in a foolish admiration at the long impedimented mark of oratoric pomp with which the secretary displayed the magnanimity of Great Britain. That kind of eloquence, he supposed, was formed upon some model; but he suspected that the light of political wisdom was more easily repeated than the heat of eloquence: yet we were in raptures even with the oratory of the honourable gentleman. However he now had descended to an humble style. He talked no more of reciprocity, no more of emporium. He then went into general observations to show that this treaty would give no solid advantages to Ireland, but was a revocation of the grant of 1779. He said he loved the liberty of Ireland; he would therefore vote against the bill, as subversive of that liberty; he would also vote against it as leading to a schism between the two nations, that must terminate in a civil war, or an union at best. He was sorry, he said, that he troubled them so long; but he feared it might be the last time he should ever have an

opportunity of addressing a free parliament; and if, said he, the period is approaching when the boasted constitution of Ireland be no more, I own I feel a melancholy ambition in deserving that my name may be enrolled with those who endeavored to save it in its last moment. Posterity would be grateful for the last effort, though it should have failed of success.

HOUSE OF COMMONS, MONDAY, AUGUST 15th, 1785.

THE RIGHT HON. THOMAS ORDE having intimated that he would not press the further consideration of the commercial regulation bill during the sessions, which was in fact giving up the bill, and Mr. Flood having moved the following resolution:

"Resolved, That we hold ourselves bound not to enter into any engagement to give up the sole and exclusive right of the parlia ment of Ireland to legislate for Ireland in all cases whatsoever, as well externally as commercially and internally."

Mr. Curran expressed the effusion of his joy upon the victory this country had obtained. He said he would support the resolution proposed by the honourable member, because he thought it necessary to declare to the people, that their rights had not been solely supported by 110 independent gentlemen, but that if eight or ten of them had been absent, that those who had countenanced the measure would have abandoned every idea of prosecuting it further. It had ever been the custom of our ancestors, when the constitution had been attacked, to enter into some spirited step for its support. Why was Magna Charta passed? It was passed, not to give freedom to the people, but because the people were already free. Why was the repeal of the 6th of Geo. I.? Not to give independence to the men of Ireland, but because Ireland was in itself an independent nation. This resolution did not go to give rights, but to declare that we will preserve our rights. We were told to be cautious how we commit ourselves with the parliament of Great Britain: whether this treat carried with it more of prudence or timidity, he should leave gentlemen to determine. He rejoiced that the cloud which had lowered over them had passed away, and he declared he had no intention to wound the feelings of the minister, by triumphing in his defeat: on the contrary, he might be said to