Mr. Grattan." In respect to the House, I could wish to avoid personality, and return to the question; but I must request liberty to explain some cireumstances alluded to by the Hon. Member; the Hon. Member has alluded to St. Christopher's bill; I will declare the fact he may tell a story-when I received a copy of that bill, it gave me much pain and much offence; I thought I saw the old intention of binding Ireland by English laws; I therefore spoke to that effect in this house; I also shewed the bill to all the most able and virtuous men in this kingdom, who were of opinion that my suggestion was wrong; under this opinion I acquieseed, and the opinion has justified it: as to my coming at midnight to obtain a vote, imposing silence on the people, I deny it; it was misstated in the papers; my resolution was to declare this country free, and that any person who should speak or write to the contrary, was a public enemy. All the House, all the revered and respected characters in the kingdom, heard me, and know what I say is true. But it is not the slander of the bad tongue of a bad character that can defame me; I maintain my reputation in public and in private life; no man, who has not a bad character, can say I ever deceived him; no country has ever called me cheat. I will suppose a public character, a man not now in this House, but who formerly might have been here. I will suppose it was his constant practice to abuse every man who differed from him, and to betray every man who trusted him; I will suppose him active, I will begin from his cradle, and divide his life into three stages; in the first he was intemperate, in the second corrupt, and in the third seditious.

"Suppose him a great egotist, his honour equal to his oath, and I will stop him, and say, "Sir, your talents are not so great as your life is infamous; you were silent for years, and you were silent for money: when affairs of consequence to the nation were debating, you might be seen passing by these doors like a guilty spirit, just waiting for the moment of putting the question, that you might hop in and give your venal vote; or, at times, with a vulgar brogue, apeing the manner, and affecting the infirmities of Lord Chatham; or like a kettle-drummer, lather yourself into popularity to catch the vulgar; or you might be seen hovering over the dome like an ill-omen'd bird of night with sepulchral notes, a cadaverous aspect, and broken beak, ready to stoop and pounce upon your prey-you can be trusted by no man-the people cannot trust you the ministers cannot trust you-you deal out the most impartial treachery to both-you tell the nation it is ruined by other men, while it is sold by you you fled from the embar go, you fled from the mutiny bill-you fled from the sugar billI therefore tell you, in the face of your country, before all the world, and to your beard-you are not an honest man."

Both parties immediately left the House of Commons," but were prevented from terminating the contest in a duel, by being instantly put under arrest.

Mr. GRATTAN, in answer to a Pamphlet of LORD CLARE'S, in 1800, when speaking of those who acted with him on these occasions with a magnanimity, the constant attendant of genius, thus speaks of his illustrious rival:

"Mr. Flood, my rival, as the Pamphlet calls him, and I should be unworthy the character of his rival, if, in his grave, I did not do him justice,—he had his faults; but he had great powers; great public effect: he persuaded the old, he inspired the young; the Castle vanished before him; on a small subject he was miserable; put into his hand a distaff, and, like Hercules, he made sad work of it; but give him the thunderbolt, and he had the arm of Jupiter. -He misjudged, when he transferred himself to the English Parliament; he forgot he was a tree of the forest, too old and too great to be transplanted at 50, and his seat in the British Parliament is a caution to the friends of union to stay at home, and make the country of their birth the seat of their action."

After the celebrated discussion of simple repeal, which divided the two great Orators of the Irish Parliament, Mr. FLOOD and Mr. GRATTAN, we shall find the latter gentleman in a state of comparative inactivity, until the vital question of the commercial propositions roused him from his slumber; on which occasion our countryman resumed his station in Parliament, and resisted this insiduous attempt to arrest from us that independence, which his talents had obtained for his country. The great events which took place at this period-the disarming of the Volunteers, the resistance of reform in Parliament-the corruption of the Castle, and the consequent alienation of the public mind, being so connected with the disastrous circumstances which created the rebellion of 1798, shall be detailed, when the Editor comes to that part of the proceedings of the Irish Parliament, in which Mr. GRATTAN is to be seen tracing the cause and denouncing the Authors of that great national calamity.

ORDE'S

COMMERCIAL PROPOSITIONS.

THE free trade, granted to the Irish nation, had produced none of those advantages, respecting which such sanguine and credulous expectations had been indulged. The manufacturers and lower classes of the people in general were exposed to all the evils arising 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. Its manufactures were in too impoverished a state, and were too long depressed, to spring at once into maturity, and could only be encouraged and matured by the protecting hand of Parliament. This protection was denied

them; for 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 imposed upon the produce and manufactures of Ireland into England, with one very important exception, that of linen. The general voice of the people now loudly called for protecting duties, in order to foster the infant manufactures of their country, and to compel the inhabitants to consume the products of native ingenuity and industry.

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On the second of April, 1784, Mr. Gardiner, member for the county of Dublin, in an able speech depicted the distresses of the kingdom, traced the cause, and pointed out the remedy. Of what use will our free trade be, (said this eloquent member;) will it be any thing but a name, if we do not seize the advantages of it, by promoting it. It is impossible to do so, unless we have an opportunity of supplying our home consumption and exporting the redundancy ;-It is impossible to undersell other nations in foreign markets if England undersells us in our own. Can we expect to cope with her who has the advantage of long established trade, of large capitals, and extensive credit? While our ports are open to the exportation of raw materials and the importation of British manufactures, can we expect

to reap any advantage from the extension of our commerce ?” Mr. Gardiner, having entered into a long and argumentative detail, to prove the advantages England derived from protecting duties, thus proceeded :-" Having, on real matter of fact, shewn the progress and success of the manufactures of the two countries; having shewn how England has risen and Ireland declined; having shewn that her system of policy is the cause of her grandeur, permit me to draw your attention to the difference of situations. In England the poorest peasant is well clothed, feeds well, and is lodged comfortably. The face of the country presents a view of good habitations, and communicates an unspeakable pleasure to every man of humanity. I feel a warmth when ever I see and contemplate its beauty; but when I reflect on the misery of my own unhappy country that I left behind me, I sink on the comparison.-In England, all is joy, ease and content. It may be said, in the scripture-phrase, of that country, "the hills and vallics sing with joy."

"Let us now, for a moment, view the wretched condition of the miserable Irishman.-The Irishman, Sir, feeds the cattle whose flesh he is debarred from tasting: as to cloths, he has scarcely any as to habitation, he has, perhaps,