the deep, and exposing it to merited derision, even at the hazard of the character of his own sanity. It was yet in the power of the minister to decide, whether a blasphemy of this kind should pass for the mere ravings of frenzy, or for the solemn and mischievous lunacy of a minister: he called therefore again, to rouse that minister from his trance, and in the hearing of the two countries, to put that question to him, which must be heard by a third, Whether at no period, upon no event, at no extremity, we were to hope for any connexion with Britain, except that of the master and the slave; and this even without the assertion of any fact that could support such a proscription?

It was necessary, he found, to state the terms and the nature of the connexion; it had been grossly misrepresented; it was a great federal contract between perfectly equal nations, pledging themselves to equal fate, upon the terms of equal liberty, upon perfectly equal liberty. The motive to that contract was the mutual benefit to each, the object of it, their mutual and common benefit; the condition of the compact was, the honest and fair performance of it, and from that only, arose the obligation of it. If England showed a decided purpose of invading our liberty, the compact by such an act of foulness and perfidy was broken, and the connexion utterly at an end: but, he said the resolution moved for by his right honourable friend to the test of this connexion, to invade our liberty, was a dissolution of it.

But what is liberty as known to our constitution? It is a portion of political power necessary to its conservation; as, for instance, the liberty of the commons of those kingdoms is that right, accompanied with a portion of political power to preserve it against the crown and against the aristocracy. It is by invading the power that the right is attacked in any of its constituent parts; hence it is, that if the crown shows a deliberate design of so destroying it, it is an abdication; and let it be remembered that by our compact we have given up no constitutional right. He said, therefore, that he was warranted, as a constitutional lawyer, in stating, that if the crown or its ministers, by force or by fraud, destroyed that fair representation of the people, by which alone they could be protected in their liberty, it was a direct breach of the contract of connexion; and he could not scruple to say, that if a house of commons could be so debauched as to deny the right stated in the resolution, it was out of their

own mouths conclusive evidence of the fact. He insisted that the claim of the catholics to that right, was directly within the spirit of the compact; and what have been the arguments advanced against the claim? One was an argument which, if founded in fact, would have some weight; it was that the catholics did not make the claim at all. Another argument was used which he thought had as little foundation in fact, and was very easy to be reconciled to the other; it was, that the catholics made their claim with insolence, and attempted to carry their object by intimidation. Let gentlemen take this fact if they please, in opposition to their own denial of it. The catholics then do make the demand; is their demand just? Is it just that they should be free? Is it just that they should have franchise? The justice is expressly admitted; why not give it then? The answer is, they demand it with insolence. Suppose that assertion, false as it is in fact, to be true, is it any argument with a public assembly, that any incivility of demand can cover the injustice of refusal. How low must that assembly be fallen, which can suggest as an apology for the refusal of an incontestible right the answer which a bankrupt buck might give to the demand of his tailor; he will not pay the bill, because, "the rascal had dared to threaten his honour." As another argument against their claims, their principles had been maligned; the experience of a century was the refutation of the aspersion. The articles of their faith had been opposed by the learned doctor to the validity of their claims. Can their religion, said he, be an objec tion, where a total absence of all religion, where atheism itself is none? The learned doctor, no doubt, thought he was praising the mercy with which they had been governed, when he dilated upon their poverty; but can poverty be an objection in an assembly, whose humble and christian condescension shut not its doors even against the common beggar? He had traduced some of them by name; "Mr. Byrne and Mr. Keogh, and four or five ruffians from the Liberty:" but, said Mr. Curran, this is something better than frenzy; this is something better than the want of mere feeling and decorum; there could not, perhaps, be a better way of evincing a further and more important want of the Irish nation, the want of a reformed representation of the people in parliament. For what can impress the necessity of it more strongly upon the justice, upon the humanity, the indigna

tion, and the shame of an assembly of Irish gentlemen, than to find the people so stripped of all share in the representation, as that the most respectable class of our fellow-citizens, men who had acquired wealth upon the noblest principle, the practice of commercial industry and integrity, could be made the butts of such idle and unavailing, such shameful abuse, without the possibility of having an opportunity to vindicate themselves; when men of that class can be exposed to the degradation of unanswered calumny, or the more bitter degradation of eleemosynary defence?

Mr. Curran touched upon a variety of other topics, and concluded with the most forcible appeal to the minister, to the house, and to the country, upon the state of public affairs at home and abroad. He insisted that the measure was not, as it had been stated to be, a measure of mere internal policy; it was a measure that involved the question of right and wrong, of just and unjust but it was more, it was a measure of the most absolute necessity, which could not be denied, and which could not safely be delayed. He could not, he said, foresee future events; he could not be appalled by the future, for he could not see it; but the present he could see, and he could not but see that it was big with danger; it might be the crisis of political life, or political extinction; it was a time fairly to state to the country, whether they had any thing, and what to fight for; whether they are to struggle for a connexion of tyranny, or of privilege; whether the administration of England will let us condescend to forgive the insolence of her happier days; or whether, as the beams of her prosperity have wasted and consumed us, so even the frosts of her adversity shall perform the deleterious effects of fire, and burn upon our privileges and our hopes for ever.

SPEECH OF MR. CURRAN,

IN BEHALF OF ARCHIBALD HAMILTON ROWAN, Esq. FOR A LIBEL* IN THE COURT OF KING'S BENCH, IRELAND.

ON THE 29TH of January, 1794.

The Society of United Irishmen at Dublin, to the Volunteers of Ireland. William Drennan, Chairman; Archibald Hamilton Rowan, Secretary.

Be it remembered, that the right honourable Arthur Wolfe, attorney-general of our present sovereign lord the king, gives the court here to understand and be informed, that Archibald Hamilton Rowan, of the city of Dublin, Esq. being a person of a wicked and turbulent disposition, did on the sixteenth day of December, in the thirty-third year of the reign of our present sovereign lord George the third, publish a certain false, wicked, malicious, scandalous, and seditious libel, that is to say:

"CITIZEN SOLDIERS,-You first took up arms to protect your country from foreign enemies and from domestic disturbance; for the same purpose it now becomes necessary that you should resume them; a proclamation has been issued in England for embodying the militia, and a proclamation has been issued by the lord lieutenant and council in Ireland, for repressing all seditious associations. In consequence of both these proclamations it is reasonable to apprehend danger from abroad and danger at home; from whence but from apprehended dan

That the reader may better understand several passages of the following speech, an abstract of the information filed by the attorney-general against Mr. Rowan is prefixed.

ger are these menacing preparations for war drawn through the streets of this capital? for whence, if not to create that internal commotion which was not found, to shake that credit which was not affected, to blast that volunteer honour which was hitherto inviolate, are those terrible suggestions and rumours and whispers that meet us at every corner, and agitate at least our old men, our women, and our children: whatever be the motive, or from whatever quarter it arises, alarm has arisen ; and you, volunteers of Ireland, are therefore summoned to arms at the instance of government, as well as by the responsibility attached to your character, and the permanent obligations of your institution. We will not at this day condescend to quote authorities for the right of having and of using arms, but we will cry aloud, even amidst the storm raised by the witchcraft of a proclamation, that to your formation was owing the peace and protection of this island, to your relaxation has been owing its relapse into impotence and insignificance, to your renovation must be owing its future freedom and its present tranquillity: you are therefore summoned to arms, in order to preserve your country in that guarded quiet which may secure it from external hostility, and to maintain that internal regimen throughout the land, which, superseding a notorious police or a suspected militia, may preserve the blessings of peace by a vigilant preparation for war.-Citizen soldiers, to arms! Take up the shield of freedom and the pledges of peace -peace, the motive and end of your virtuous institution—war, an occasional duty, ought never to be made an occupation; every man should become a soldier in the defence of his rights; no man ought to continue a soldier for offending the rights of others: the sacrifice of life in the service of our country is a duty much too honourable to be intrusted to mercenaries; and at this time, when your country has, by public authority, been declared in danger, we conjure you by your interest, your duty, and your glory, to stand to your arms, and in spite of a police, in spite of a fencible militia, in virtue of two proclamations, to maintain good order in your vicinage, and tranquillity in Ireland: it is only by the military array of men in whom they confide, whom they have been accustomed to revere as the guardians of domestic peace, the protectors of their liberties and lives, that the present agitation of the people can be stilled, that tumult and licentiousness can be repressed, obedience secured to