-Parliament had, as Mr. Grattan justly stated, not bullied, but backed by them, overthrown the jurisdiction of another parliament; and, however well intentioned the volunteer army in general undoubtedly was, it is but too certain, that many that belonged to it wished not to modify, not to meliorate; but at once overset the popular branch of their own legislature, without whose regular, though slow co-operation, they could have obtained nothing; for all the respectability, rank, property and sound intellect of the country would have opposed them, and England, though crippled at that time by the war, was not laid prostrate.

So writes Mr. Hardy: but to his reasoning, or the dictum of Mr. Grattan we cannot agree. We can see no just reason why the Volunteers of 33 should not have as influential a voice as the Volunteers of 82. They were the same men; with the same views and the same principles; differing only from parliament in the conviction of the absolute necessity of a Parliamentary Reform to secure the conquest they had made. Did Mr. Grattan or Mr. Hardy imagine the Volunteers of Ireland wanted more than a pure and perfect representation of the People in Parliament, and did the latter not feel that without such a representation all the efforts of Mr. Grattan, his Free Constitution and his Free Trade, were mere phantoms, brilliant and dazzling indeed, but transient and momentary? Events demonstrated this truth.

But what is the best vindication of the Volunteers of Ireland, who, with arms in their hands, and in solemn convention, pressed the necessity and the justice of parliamentary reform? Their station and their character in the country are the best evidence of the integrity and purity of their views. But at this period the English Cabinet seemed to have repented of the concessions it had made to Ireland, and employed every artifice which the most ingenious sophistry could sug

gest, to defeat the grand and honest object of the nation-the accomplishment of parliamentary reform.

A more equal Representation of the People in the Parliament of Ireland.

AT a meeting of delegates from forty-five companies of the Province of Ulster, assembled at Lisburn the 1st of July, 1783, in pursuance of a public requisition of the Ulster regiment, viz. southern battalion of 1st Ulster regiment; first independent county Down regiment; the Union regiment; Ulster regiment; Belfast first volunteer company; and Belfast volunteer company.

LIEUT. COL. SHARMAN IN THE CHAIR.

Resolved unanimously, That a general meeting of the volunteer delegates of the province of Ulster, on the subject of

A MORE EQUAL REPRESENTATION OF THE PEOPLE IN PARLIA

MENT, is hereby earnestly entreated; to be held at Dungannon, on Monday, 8th Sept. next.

Resolved unanimously, That the following gentlemen (seven to be a quorum) be appointed a committee of Correspondence for communicating with the other corps of the province, for taking preparatory steps to forward the intentions of this meeting, and for collecting the best authorities and information on the subject of a parliamentary reform, viz.

TO THE VOLUNTEER ARMY OF THE PROVINCE
OF ULSTER.

FELLOW-CITIZENS,

IN common with every class of Irishmen, you are sensible that this kingdom for many centuries, might have continued to bear its chains in ignoble and indigent obscurity, had not an army of its citizens, by a great effort, dared to cast them off.

That the dignified conduct of that army lately restored to the imperial crown of Ireland its original splendor, to nobility its ancient privileges, and to the nation at large its inherent rights as a sovereign independent state; that by inculcating the glorious spirit of toleration, it has united the once distracted inhabitants of this country into an indissoluble masą and promoted the most exalted reverence for the laws,-are facts that will exhibit a splendid and interesting figure in the annals of the age.

From a military institution, so singular in its nature as to comprehend the several gradations of nobles, commoners, mer chants, yeomen and mechanics, every substantial good will be expected by wise and virtuous men.

They will with honest pride, behold in the state an unparalleled combination of the military with the civil character, existing only for the general interests of the community; and prepared, on the purest principles of the constitution, to give efficacy to the wishes of three millions of people.

The idea of a well digested parliamentary reform, has ever experienced a favorable reception in the uncorrupted breasts of Irishmen and of Britons. It has been uniformly looked up to as the true source of public virtue and of political salvation, by the first characters these kingdoms have produced. In this age, we have seen it warmly supported by that consummate statesman the late Earl of Chatham; and revived

by the heir to his abilities and name, the present William Pitt. It has received the sanction of the most eminent and honest men in both houses of the British parliament; of a great number of the most respectable shires in England; of the volunteer delegates of the province of Munster; and, within these few days, of the unanimous vote of thirty-eight corps, reviewed at Belfast.

Among the many glorious effects of which a more equal representation of the people in parliament would be productive, the following are obvious: The destruction of that party-spirit whose baneful influence has at all times been injurious to the public weal;-a revival of the native dignity of the crown, by imparting to each branch of the legislature its distinct and proportional weight;-and the abolition of that train of courtly mercenaries who must ever continue to prey on the vitals of public virtue, till, the balance of the constitution being restored, the necessity for governing by regular systems of seduction, shall no longer exist.

Then, would the constituent body regain its constitutional control over its trustees,—and venal majorities would not be found to support the most dishonorable and pernicious measures, in opposition to the sense of the unpolluted part of the legislature, as well as contrary to the universal wishes of the public; and to the true intent of the institution of parlia

ments.

With due deference for the august body which we have presumed to address, we therefore beg leave to express our wishes that the volunteer delegates of Ulster would assemble with the same spirit of loyalty, patriotism, and firmness, which aetuated them on the memorable 15th of February, 1782:-to deliberate on the most constitutional means of procuring a more equal representation of the people in the parliament of Ireland as the only measure which can give permanency to the late renovation of our constitution, or restore that virtue

to the representative body, without which, though the mere forms of a free government may be preserved, its spirit must inevitably perish.

Signed by order of the meeting,

WILLIAM SHARMAN,' CHAIRMAN.

Lieut. Col. Sharman having left the chair, and Lieut. Col. Sir Walter Synnot taken it,

Resolved, that the thanks of this meeting be given to our worthy chairman, for his very proper conduct in the chair. HENRY JOY, JUN. SECRETARY.

TO THE DUNGANNON DELEGATES.

The report of a Committee of Correspondence, appointed by forty-five corps assembled by public advertisement at Lisburn on the 1st July last, for the purpose of obtaining information on the important subject of a more equal representation of the people, in the parliament of Ireland.

THE Committee in discharge of the trust invested in them, immediately opened a correspondence with a number of the most eminent and well-informed characters in Great-Britain and Ireland; and received answers fraught with most valuable information on the subject.

Such of them as enter minutely into the business, will be submitted to the provincial assembly, if thought eligible, considering the length of their detail, and the great delay which their disclosure will unavoidably occasion. If it be more a greeable to the meeting, for the general diffusal of a body of knowledge on so great a political subject, the principal letters will be published by the committee's secretary ;-by which means the despatch necessary to so great an assembly will be promoted.