and antiquity, acquire a stability in the habits and affections of meu, far beyond the force of civil obligation:—whereas severe penalties, and arbitrary constructions of laws intended for security, lay the foundations of alienation from every human government, and have been the cause of all the calamities that have come, and are coming upon the earth.

Gentlemen, what we read of in books makes but a faint im pression upon us, compared to what we see passing under our eyes in the living world. I remember the people of another country, in like manner, contending for a renovation of their constitution, sometimes illegally and turbulently, but still devoted to an honest end;—I myself saw the people of Brabant so contending for the ancient constitution of the good Duke of Burgundy ;how was this people dealt by? All, who were only contending for their own rights and privileges, were supposed to be of course disaffected to the emperor :-they were handed over to courts constituted for the emergency, as this is, and the emperor marched his army through the country till all was peace ;-but such peace as there is in Vesuvius, or Etna, the very moment before they vomit forth their lava, and roll their conflagrations over the devoted habitations of mankind :—when the French approached, the fatal effects were suddenly seen of a government of constraint and terror; the well-affected were dispirited, and the disaffected inflamed into fury. At that moment the Archduchess fled from Brussels, and the Duke of Saxe-Teschen was sent express to offer the joyeuse entrée so long petitioned for in vain: but the season of concession was past; the storm blew from every quarter,-and the throne of Brabant departed forever from the House of Burgundy. Gentlemen, I venture to affirm, that, with other councils, this fatal prelude to the last revolution in that country, might have been averted-if the emperor had been advised to make the concessiona of justice and affection to his people, they would have risen in a mass to maintain their prince's authority, interwoven with their own liberties; and the French, the giants of modern times, would, like the giants of antiquity, have been trampled in the mire of their own ambition. In the same manner, a far more splendid and important crown passed away from his majesty's illustrious

brows:-THE IMPERIAL CROWN OF AMERICA. The people of that country too, for a long season, contended as subjects, and often with irregularity and turbulence, for what they felt to be their rights and, O gentlemen! that the inspiring and immortal eloquence of that man, whose name I have so often mentioned, had then been heard with effect!-what was his language to this country when she sought to lay burdens on America,—not to support the dignity of the crown, or for the increase of national revenue, but to raise a fund for the purpose of corruption ;- -a fund for maintaining those tribes of hireling skipjacks, which Mr. Tooke so well contrasted with the hereditary nobility of England! Though America would not bear this imposition, she would have borne any useful or constitutional burden to support the parent state. "For that service, for all service," said Mr. Burke, "whether of revenue, trade, or empire, my trust is in her interest in the British constitution. My hold of the colonies is in the close affection which grows from common names, from kindred blood, from similar privileges, and equal protection. These are ties which, though light as air, are as strong as links of iron. Let the colonies always keep the idea of their civil rights associated with your governments, they will cling and grapple to you, and no force under heaven will be of power to tear them from their allegiance. But let it be once understood, that your government may be one thing, and their privileges another; that these two things may exist without any mutual relation; the cement is gone; the cohesion is loosened; and everything hastens to decay and dissolution. As long as you have the wisdom to keep the sovereign authority of this country as the sanctuary of liberty, the sacred temple consecrated to our common faith, wherever the chosen race and sons of England worship freedom, they will turn their faces toward you. The more they multiply, the more friends you will have; the more ardently they love liberty, the more perfect will be their obedience. Slavery they can have anywhere. It is a weed that grows in every soil. They may have it from Spain, they may have it from Prussia. But until you become lost to all feeling of your true interest and your natural dignity, freedom they can have from none but you. This is the commodity of price, of which you have the monopoly.

This is the true act of navigation, which binds to you the con merce of the colonies, and through them secures to you the wealth of the world. Is it not the same virtue which does everything for us here in England? Do you imagine then, that it is the land-tax which raises your revenue? that it is the annual vote in the committee of supply, which gives you your army? Or that it is the mutiny bill which inspires it with bravery and discipline? No! surely no! It is the love of the people; it is their attachment to their government, from the sense of the deep stake they have in such a glorious institution, which gives you your army and your navy, and infuses into both that liberal obedience, without which your army would be a base rabble, and your navy nothing but rotten timber."

Gentlemen, to conclude-My fervent wish is that we may not conjure up a spirit to destroy ourselves, nor set the example here of what in another country we deplore. Let us cherish the old and venerable laws of our forefathers.-Let our judicial administration be strict and pure; and let the jury of the land preserve the life of a fellow-subject, who only asks it from them upon the same terms under which they hold their own lives, and all that is dear to them and to their posterity forever.-Let me repeat the wish with which I began my address to you, and which proceeds from the very bottom of my heart;—may it please God, who is the Author of all mercies to mankind, whose providence, I am persuaded, guides and superintends the transactions of the world, and whose guardian spirit has forever hovered over this prosperous island, to direct and fortify your judgments. I am aware, I have not acquitted myself to the unfortunate man, who has put his trusɩ in me, in the manner I could have wished; yet I am unable to proceed any further; exhausted in spirit and strength, but confident in the expectation of justice. There is one thing more, however, that (if I can) I must state to you, namely, that I will show, by as many witnesses as it may be found necessary or convenient for you to hear upon the subject, that the views of the societies were what I have alleged them to be;-that whatever rregularities or indiscretions they might have committed, their purposes were honest;-and that Mr. Hardy's, above all other

men, can be established to have been so. I have, indeed, an hon orable gentleman (Mr. Francis) in my eye, at this moment, to be called hereafter as a witness, who being desirous in his place, as a member of parliament, to promote an inquiry into the seditious practices complained of, Mr. Hardy offered himself voluntarily to come forward, proffered a sight of all the papers, which were afterwards seized in his custody, and tendered every possible assistance to give satisfaction to the laws of his country, if found to be offended. I will show likewise his character to be religious, temperate, humane, and moderate, and his uniform conduct all that can belong to a good subject, and an honest man.- -When you have heard this evidence, it will, beyond all doubt, confirm you in coming to the conclusion which, at such great length (for which I entreat your pardon), I have been endeavoring to support.

GRATTAN CONCERNING TITHES.

Ir has been said, in defence of clerical exactions, that though sometimes exorbitant, they have never been illegal. I deny it; and will produce proof at your bar, that exactions in some of the disturbed parts have been not exorbitant only, but illegal likewise. I will prove that, in many instances, tithe has been demanded, and paid for turf, that tithe of turf has been assessed at one of two shillings a house, like hearth-money; and in addition to hearth-money, with this difference, that in case of hearth-money, there is an exemption for the poor of a certain description; but here, it is the poor of the poorest order, that is, the most resistless people, who pay. I will prove to you, that men have been ex communicated by a most illegal sentence, for refusing to pay tithe of turf. I have two decrees in my hand from the Vicarial Court of Clyne; the first excommunicating one man, the second excommunicating four men, most illegally, most arbitrarily, for refusing to pay tithe of turf: nor has the tithe of turf, without pretence of law or custom, been a practice only; but in some part of the South, it has been a formed exaction with its own distinct and

acetious appellation, the familiar denomination of smoak-money A right to tithe of turf has been usurped against law, and a legislative power of commutation has been exercised, I suppose for familiarity of appellation and facility of collection.

The exactions of the tithe-proctor are another instance of illegality he gets, he exacts, he extorts from the parishioners, in some of the disturbed parishes, one, frequently two shillings in the pound. The clergyman's agent is then paid by the parish, and paid extravagantly. The landlord's agent is not paid in this manner; your tenants don't pay your agent ten per cent. or five per cent. or any per centage at all. What right has the clergyman to throw his agent on his parish? As well might he make them pay the wages of his butler, or his footman, or his coachman, or his postillion, or his cook.

This demand, palpably illegal, must have commenced in bribery -an illegal perquisite growing out of the abuse of power—a bribe for mercy; -as if the tithe-proctor was the natural pastoral protector of the property of the peasant, against the possible oppressions of the law, and the exactions of the gospel. He was supposed to take less than his employer would exact, or the law would allow; and was bribed by the sweat of the poor for his perfidy and mercy. This original bribe has now become a stated perquisite; and, instead of being payment for moderation, it is now a per centage on rapacity. The more he extorts for the parson, the more he shall get for himself.

Are there any decent clergymen who will defend such a practice? Will they allow that the men they employ are ruffians, who would cheat the parson, if they did not plunder the poor; and that the clerical remedy against connivance, is to make the poor pay a premium for the increase of that plunder and exaction of which they themselves are the objects?

I excuse the tithe-proctor; the law is in fault, which gives great and summary powers to the indefinite claims of the Church, and suffers both to be vested in the hands, not only of the parson, but of a wretch who follows his own nature, when he converts authority into corruption, and law into peculation.

I have seen a catalogue of some of their charges; so much for