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vived by Mr. Crew and fir Philip Jennings Clerke, for dif abling revenue-officers from voting at elections, and ex oluding contractors from the house of commons. These now paffed with approbation and applause; Mr. fecretary Fox declaring, that not an hour should be loft in giving the public the strongest proofs that his majesty's ministers were fincerely determined to make such reforms as should be neceffary, and to enforce that system of government which they had repeatedly called for when not in place. He said, "his worst suspicions of the negligence and scandalous mifmanagement of the late ministers were now matured into knowledge; that, bad as things had been described, the representation was by no means fo bad as the reality. And he should not think that the present minifters acted fairly or honestly by that house, or by the people at large, if they did not institute enquiries which might give the country a true and correct idea of the present situation of affairs."

These bills were vehemently though ineffectually oppof ed in the house of peers by the lord chancellor, who feemed to hang as a dead weight on the measures of the present administration, whose sentiments could never afsimilate with those of men of liberal and comprehenfive views, and who now appeared as the avowed and determined enemy of every species of civil or political reform. The attenti on of parliament was however foon occupied by affairs of much higher moment.

In the month of November laft, Mr. Grattan, a distinguished member of the Irish parliament, had moved for a limitation of the perpetual mutiny bill. This was rejected by a great majority, extremely to the dissatisfaction of the people of that kingdom.

At a fubfequent meeting of the representatives of one hundred and forty-three corps of volunteers afsembled at Dungannon, RESOLUTIONS paffed, DECLARATORY of the RIGHTS OF IRELAND, and in express terms afserting, "that

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the claim of any body of men, other than the KING, LORDS, and COMMONS OF IRELAND, to make laws to bind that kingdom, was unconstitutional and illegal, and a grievance of which it was their decided and unalterable determination to feek the speedy and effectual redress. They knew," they said, " their duty to their fovereign, and were disposed to be loyal; but they knew also what they owed to themselves, and were RESOLVED TO BE FREE.

In a very short time after these resolves paffed, Mr. Grattan moved the house for an address to his majesty, confonant with, and founded upon, the fame principles. This motion, after a long and warm debate, was also rejected. But, on the 16th of April 1782, he again moved " a declaration of rights, under the form of an address to the throne." In his speech on this occafion, he pronounced an animated panegyric on the volunteers, and the late conduct of the Irish nation-" He beheld," he said, " with joy and admiration, her progrefs from injuries to arms, from arms to liberty. The Irish volunteers had fupported the rights of the Irish parliament against those temporizing trustees, who would have relinquished them. Allied by liberty still more than by allegiance, Great Britain and Ireland formed a constitutional confederacy. The perpetual annexation of the two crowns was a powerful bond of union, but magna charta was more efficacious still. It would be easy anywhere to find a king, but to England only can we look for a constitution. Ireland was planted by Britons, and was entitled to British privileges. It was by charter, and not by conquest, as had been falfely afferted, that the mutual connection of the two countries was originally established. Every true Irishman, would fay, liberty with England, if England is fo difpofed: but at all events LIBERTY. The Irish nation were too high in pride, character, and power, to fuffer any other nation to claim a right to make their laws. Was England ready to acknowledge the independenty of Ame

rica, and would she refuse liberty to Ireland? If she was capable, after enabling his majesty to repeal the declaratory act against America, of wishing to retain that againft Ireland, the Irish nation was not capable of fubmitting to it." Such was the spirit which now pervaded the kingdom, and fuch the resistless enthusiasm excited by the eloquence of Mr. Grattan, that the address was voted without a dissentient voice; and being unanimously acceded to by the peers, was immediately tranfmitted to the king. In this famous address the two houses affirm, " That the crown of Ireland is an imperial crown, inseparably annexed to the crown of Great Britain, on which connection the interest and happiness of both countries essentially depend: but that the kingdom of Ireland was a distinct kingdom, with a parliament of her own, the fole legislature thereof. In this right they conceived the very effence of their liberty to exist. It was a right which they, in behalf of all the people of Ireland, claimed as their birth-right, and which they could not yield but with their lives." They declared, " that they confidered the claims of the parliament of Great Britain, in the act passed for better fecuring the dependency of Ireland, to be irreconcileable to the fundamental rights of that nation." They added, " that they had a high veneration for the British character, and the people of Ireland did not defire to share the freedom of England without likewife sharing her fate;-and it was their determination to stand or fall with the British nation."

Happy indeed was it that a radical change of counsels had taken place in Britain before these high and peremptory, though just and equitable, claims were preferred on the part of Ireland; for the folly, obstinacy, and pride of the late ministers would scarcely have fcrupled to involve the empire in a second civil war, rather than have conceded in points which militated so strongly against what they would undoubtedly have styled "the honor and dignity of the crown and the essential interests of the people."

Some

Some days previous to the motion of Mr. Grattan, a royal message was delivered to the house of commons by the secretary of state, "recommending to their most serious confideration the state of affairs in Ireland, in order to fuch a final adjustment as may give a mutual fatisfaction to both kingdoms." And on the 18th of May, Mr. Fox, at the close of a long and able speech, moved for the repeal of the obnoxious act for fecuring the dependency of Ireland; which he called " a measure of necessity, resulting, however unpleasant it might be to some, from the conduct of the late ministry, who had awakened the present spirit in Ireland, by refusing their most modest and reasonable requests. With that generosity and openness of sentiment by which this eminent statesman has been so long and fo remarkably diftinguished, Mr. Fox observed nevertheless, " that his own decided opinion had always been, that Ireland, being a part of the British empire, was entitled to the full and equal participation of all the benefits and immunities enjoyed in England, and which were confonant to the principles of the British constitution. His ideas of Ireland corresponded," he said, " exactly with his ideas relative to America. He thought it absurd and unjust for any country to pretend to legislate for another without, much less against, their consent and concurrence; -nor could it at any time so legislate to any good purpose. As to Ireland, he made no fcruple in the most express and unequivocal terms to declare, that he confidered her present claims to be substantially just, and that he felt himself inclined to move the resolution which he was about to propose, in favor of Ireland, as much on the ground of justice as prudence." This repeal, which passed both houses without opposition, was confidered in both countries as a virtual renunciation of the claim of legislating for Ireland. And fo highly gratified were the Irish parliament and nation with the liberality of these conceffions, that a vote of the house of commons in that kingdom paffed unanimoufly

for

for raising twenty thousand seamen for the service of the British navy.

On the 15th of April another message was delivered to the house by Mr. Fox form the king, stating, "That his majesty, taking into confideration the supplies which have been given with so much liberality, and supported by fuch uncommon firmness and fortitude by his people in the prefent extensive war, recommended to his faithful commons the confideration of an effectual plan of economy throughout all the branches of the public expenditure." An address of thanks was then moved for, and immediately agreed to by the house; at the close of which it was faid, "That a king of Great Britain cannot have so perfect or fo honorable a security for every thing which can make a king truly great or truly happy, as in the genuine and natural support of an uninfluenced and independent house of commons." This was language novel and highly pleasing to the refpectable part of the public, who had been fo long naufeated by the fulsome adulation of the addresses presented of late years to the throne, so contrary to the spirit of freedom, which requires the representatives of the people to respect the majesty of the people, and to use language confonant to the high and dignified fituation in which they themselves are placed.

In confequence of this message, Mr. Burke's reform bill was a third time brought forward, under far more favorable auspices than before. By this bill, which now paffed the house with little difficulty, the board of trade, and the board of works, with the great wardrobe, were abolished; together with the office of American secretary of state, now rendered useless by the lofs of the American colonies; the offices of treasurer of the chamber, cofferer of the household, the lords of police in Scotland, the paymaster of the penfions, the master of the harriers, the master of the stag-hounds, and fix clerks of the board of green cloth. Provision also was made to ena

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