zealous friends to fafe and moderate reform, were with reason startled at the idea of so novel and hazardous an experiment. The notion of abstract rights, founded on a false metaphyfic theory, will never operate powerfully but on the minds of speculatists, who, remote from scenes of action and danger, " dream over books, and leave mankind unknown."

The real practical enquiry with the generality of perfons on this grand question of UNIVERSAL SUFFRAGE, as it undoubtedly ought to be on all occafions of a political nature, was-What will be the EFFECT PRODUCED? And it was obvious that the recognition of this claim would at once throw the entire power of the kingdom into the hands of the catholics; and no credulity could furely reach that degree of infatuation, as to expect a body of men fo ignorant, bigoted and ferocious, as the collective mass of the Irish catholics, to make a wife and temperate use of the power thus preposterously put into their hands.

To reform the government and conftitution upon protestant principles, and still to preserve the protestant afcendancy, was all that, in present circumstances, the state of the kingdom would bear; and all that an enlightened benevolence would consequently aim to accomplish. A liberal and patriotic protestant government would undoubtedly relieve the catholics from all positive penalties, and grant them a participation of all civil rights and privileges consistent with a regard to its own safety. And in consequence of the gradual and certain diffusion of knowledge under a mild and beneficent government, there was good reafon to hope that the time would at no very distant period arrive, when all distinctions might be safely and for ever extinguished. The national convention faw clearly the dilemma to which it was reduced; but they chofe what appeared to them the least of the two evils, and rather than call in the aid of the great body of catholics, without which their strength was unequal to the contest, they submitted VOL. II. quietly

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quietly and tamely to the chastisement of that government whose authority they had insulted, and in a manner defied: incurring by this means the cenfure of the moderate for their violence, and of the violent for their moderation.

The parliament of Ireland adjourned for the Christmas recess, on the 22d of December (1783). Previous to their re-affembling, that memorable ministerial revolution had taken place in England, which advanced Mr. Pitt to the helm of government, and the duke of Rutland had in confequence superfeded the earl of Northington in the viceroyalty of Ireland.

On the 13th of March (1784) Mr. Flood renewed his motion, as it was hoped by the friends of parliamentary reform, under more favourable auspices, the new English minister having distinguished himself as one of its most eloquent and zealous advocates. Mr. Yelverton having been for his recent services promoted to the high station of lord chief baron of the court of exchequer, Mr. Fitzgibbon, who fucceeded him in the office of attorney general, opposed the present motion with equal zeal, though he allowed that as it now came before the house in a regular and constitutional form, supported by numerous petitions from different parts of the kingdom, it was entitled to respect and attention. On the fecond reading it was nevertheless rejected on a division, by 159 to 85 voices.

This final decifion was received with secret satisfaction by those friends of reform who dreaded the emancipation of the catholics, as an evil yet greater than the permanent predominance of the present system of influence and corruption. But the murmurs of the majority were distinctly heard. The Ulster volunteers, who had from the commencement of the business stood confpicuous in the van, presented on a subsequent occafion an address to their general, the earl of Charlemont, expreffing " their fatisfaction at the decay of those prejudices which had fo long involved the nation in feud and difunion-a difunion, which,

by by LIMITING the RIGHTS of SUFFRAGE, and circumfcribing the number of their citizens, had in a great degree created and fostered the aristocratic tyranny, the fource of every grievance, and against which the public voice now unanimously exclaimed." The earl of Charlemont, in reply, coldly professed himself " free from every illiberal prejudice against the catholics, but he could not refrain from the most ardent entreaties to the volunteers, to desist from a pursuit that would fatally clog and impede the profecution of their favorite purpose; and befought them not to indulge any opinion which must and would create disunion." This answer being affiduously circulated throughout the kingdom, effectually caused, or most senfibly heightened that disunion which it professed to deprecate. The object itself seemed now relinquished in defpair, and the triumph of the court was complete.

The other grand object to which the attention of the kingdom of Ireland was at this period directed, related to the actual state of her commerce. The free trade granted to the Irish nation had produced none of those advantages respecting which she had indulged such sanguine and credulous expectations. The manufacturers, and lower claffes of the people in general, were exposed to all the evils arifing from the extremest indigence; and it began to be clearly perceived, that while the present system of commercial intercourse with England subsisted, there was little prospect of a favourable change in the situation of Ireland. While all English manufactures and commodities were imported at a trifling per-centage ad valorem into the Irish ports, duties amounting nearly to a prohibition were impofed upon the produce or manufactures of Ireland, with ONE very important exception, that of LINEN, on the importation into England. The general voice of the people of Ireland now loudly called for PROTECTING DUTIES, in order to foster the infant manufactures of that country, and

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and to compel the inhabitants to confume the produce of native ingenuity and industry.

On the 31 of March Mr. Gardiner, member for the county Dublin, in an able speech depicted the distresses of the kingdom, traced the cause, and pointed out the remedy. He contrasted the condition of the people of Ireland with that of the people of England. He asked, "What was the reason of fo vast a difference? Were Irishmen less capable by nature of earning a livelihood than their neighbors? Was there any disadvantage in the nature of their climate, or was the situation of their country, a fituation adapted to render them the general mart of Europe, such as to prevent their profperity? No people were more laborious, more ingenious, or more active. There was not any branch of manufacture in which they were encouraged, that they had not carried to an high degree of perfection. If then the evil did not arife from any of these causes, to what was it to be attributed, but to the vast importation of foreign articles, by which a home consumption was denied, and their manufactures nipped in the bud? Mr. Gardiner therefore called upon the house to copy the conduct of England, of France, and other commercial countries, by protecting their manufactures at home. From an adherence to the system now recommended, England, notwithstanding the pressure of an immense debt of two hundred and forty millions, had attained to a pitch of greatness truly astonishing."

At the conclusion of his speech, Mr. Gardiner moved for an high duty on woollens imported into the kingdom -This, after a very warm debate, was negatived by a vast majority; and the whole system of protecting duties ridiculed and reprobated as futile, visionary, and pernicious. At the failure of this second grand attempt at relief and reform, the disappointment of the people kindled into rage, and the short-lived popularity of the new viceroy, founded on the extreme unpopularity in Ireland, no less

than in England, of the preceding coalition ministry, was now in the space of a month a little month entirely at an

end.

Such was the state of the metropolis at this period, that it was thought necessary to countermand the embarkation of several regiments destined to the East Indies, and to furnish the garrison of Dublin, confifting of about 4000 regular troops, with thirty rounds of powder and ball per man. Before the end of the feffion an address was unanimoufly voted by the house of commons to the fovereign, representing the distressed state of the kingdom, and praying for the establishment of a more advantageous system of commerce between Ireland and Great Britain; and on the 14th of May 1784 the parliament was prorogued. The last measure adopted by this affembly seemed in some meafure to calm the violence of the people, and to suspend the effervescence of their anger and discontent.

On the 7th of June an extraordinary meeting of the aggregate body of the citizens of Dublin was convened by the sheriffs, in which they came to several important refolutions, declaratory of " the clear, original, and imprescriptible right of the people of Ireland to a frequent election, and an equal representation, They call upon the nation to unite with them in the measures necessary to its introduction, and in presenting petitions to the king for a dissolution of the existing parliament. They affert, that the force of the state consists in the union of the inhabitants-that an equal participation in ALL the rights of a man and a citizen was proper, henceforth, to engage all the members of the state to co-operate efficacioufly for the greatest general good. Finally, that it would be of the happiest consequence to the profperity of the state, and the maintaining of civil liberty, to extend to their brethren, the Roman catholics, the RIGHT of SUFFRAGE as fully as was compatible with the maintenance of the PROTESTANT GOVERNMENT,

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