hiding its head to avert the danger,-the order of the day was carried by a majority of 146 voices-the numbers being 66 to 212. Mr. Fox, who attended in his place upon this great occafion, then moved the following propofition: "That this house, understanding it to be a matter of notoriety that the fyftem of coercion had been enforced in Ireland with a rigor fhocking to humanity,--and, particularly, that scourges and other tortures had been employed to extort confeffions,--is of opinion, that an immediate stop should be put to practices fo difgraceful to the British name; and that our hopes of restoring tranquillity to Ireland must arise from a change of system as far as relates to the executive government, together with a removal from their stations of those persons by whofe advice thofe atrocities have been perpetrated, and towards whom the people of Ireland can feel no fentiments but of refentment and terror."---This, after a second debate, was negatived by nearly the fame majority, the numbers being 62 to 204 voices. On the 19th of June a meffage from the king was delivered, acquainting the house, that various regiments of the militia of this kingdom had made a voluntary tender of their fervices to be employed for the fuppreffion of the rebellion in Ireland. An addrefs of thanks being moved by Mr. Dundas, preparatory to the introduction of a bill empowering his majesty to accept the offers of fuch regiments, a vehement debate arofe. Mr. Nichols faid, "that if the address were adopted, the principle of the Militia Bill, as originally established, would be completely abandoned. The measure befides would be unjust to thofe who, wholly unfufpicious of any fuch intention, had entered, bond fide, into the militia fervice. The house, moreover," he added, "ought to be fully acquainted with the merits of the queftion before they proceeded to give their fupport to the executive government, and fully to afcertain the causes of the difcontent which had driven that unfortunate country into the present unnatural contest." Mr. Mr. Lawrence Palk and Mr. Pierrepont, gentlemen not ufually found in the ranks of oppofition, contended against the measure as a moft grofs and flagrant violation of the conftitution. Mr. Banks expreffed his apprehenfion "that if the principle of fending the militia to Ireland, or to any place out of the realm, were once admitted, there was no fpecies of warfare in which they might not be employed:" and he moved an amendment to the addrefs, importing, "that the house confidered the propofition suggested in his majesty's speech as of the utmost confequence, and fuch as required fome further deliberation." Mr. Tierney declared, "that the minifter ought to come down to the houfe clothed in fackcloth and afhes when he had fuch a propofition to make as the prefent. There was no official communication to that houfe even of the exiftence of a rebellion in Ireland, but in the meffage calling upon them to take this important and unconftitutional step in order to fupprefs it. The militia was a part of the conftitution where was a fubftitute to be found for this body? The tenor of the oath was to ferve faithfully in Great Britain." Sir William Pulteney faid, he was afraid that fending the militia was now unavoidable; but this was no excufe for thofe who brought us into the embarraffment." The house then divided in favor of the amendment 47, against it 118. The bill finally paffed, after much angry contention and oppofition in both houfes. The kingdom being thus left deftitute of its natural and conflitutional defence, under the impending and imminent apprehenfion of an invafion, the fpirit of military ardor seemed at once to feize and pervade the whole kingdom; and all ranks and orders of men, whether friendly or adverse to the measures of the existing adminiftration, cagerly formed themfelves into volunteer corps, commanded by officers of their own choice acting under temporary commiflions from from the king, till England presented to her fierce and formidable foe the glorious picture of an armed nation inspired with the magnanimous refolution of facrificing their lives in defence of their country. From this grand fpectacle France, which had hitherto cherished the delufive idea that she had numerous partizans and adherents in Great Britain, fhrunk back astonished and appalled; and the British ministry themselves at length were compelled reluctantly to acknowledge, that there were perfons of whom it might, be truly faid, that they were at the same time enemies to them and friends to their country.* And indeed, in a too obvious fenfe, he who was not an enemy to them, and to their rath, defperate, and execrable measures, could not be a true friend either to himself, to his country, or to his fovereign. The feffion of parliament clofed (June 29, 1798); and the king in his speech took especial and handsome notice of the heroic fpirit by which the nation was now universally animated. "The example of your firmness and conftancy," faid the monarch to the two houfes of parliament, "has been applauded and followed by my fubjects in every rank and condition in life. A fpirit of voluntary and ardent exertion, diffufed through every part of the kingdom, has ftrengthened and confirmed our internal fecurity; the fame fentiments have continued By that extremely-insignificant and criminal faction, of Jacobinical and Painite republicans, who maintained a traitorous correspondence with France, there can be no doubt that the French government was moft grofsly duped and impofed upon, in respect to the general state of parties and opinions in Great Britain." Counfels grounded upon foreign advice,”—says a certain, now almoft-forgotten, writer of the last century, who was a fagacious obferver of men and things" or any thing but a visible experience, do rarely fucceed. For intereft, in fuch as defire a change, doth not feldom make them apprehend more advantages than really there are, and cover doubts and dangers they are privy to, out of a fear to difhearten the prince they endeavour to embark in their defence. As it fell out here, where not one man appeared in favor of the Spaniards-the very Papists themselves being no less unwilling than the reft to see their native country in fubjection to the ordinary cruelties found in ftrangers." OSBORNE'S Euys. continued to animate my troops of every description, and my fleets have met the menaces of invafion by blocking up all our enemies in their principal ports." It is now highly requifite to take a general view of that ftate of affairs in Ireland which excited fuch great and juft alarm in the parliament and ministry of Great Britain. Certain it is, that from the æra of the firft acquifition of Ireland by the English, in the reign of Henry II. to the prefent time, the Irish nation, if by the nation is meant the bulk of the people, were never reconciled to the English government. They were indeed confidered by England, and they confidered themselves, as a conquered people: they regarded the English government as a yoke, which it was not only lawful but meritorious to throw off, whenever they had the power and the opportunity. The general and obftinate refiftance made by the Irish nation in the reign of Elizabeth, to go no further back, of Charles I. and of king William, to the whole power of England, affords irrefragable demonftration of this grand truth. In confequence of the immenfe confifcations which fucceeded the fuppreffion of these three rebellions, almost the whole landed property of the kingdom was transferred to the English fettlers and their defcendants, who formed as it were a diftinct colony in Ireland, a nation within a nation, differing in manners, customs, language, and religion; and in whom, as the Irish catholics were deprived of the privileges of the conflitution, and under a legal profcription, not only the whole property, but the whole political power and influence of the country, was for a long fucceffion of years exclufively vested. "At Clonnell, near Castlereagh," fays a well known modern writer, "lives O'Connor, the direct defcendant of Roderic O'Connor, king of Connaught 700 years ago. His monument, with the enfigns of royalty, is in Rofcommon church. This family has fuffered more in the revolution of ages than the O'Neils and O'Bryens. The common people, however, pay him him great respect, and confider him as the prince of a people involved in one common ruin." * The English colony in Ireland, or, adopting the phrase formerly in use, "the English fettlers within the pale," bearing no proportion in numbers to the genuine native Irish, were compelled to depend entirely upon the government of England for support. The Irish legislature therefore readily, if not willingly, fubmitted to the fupreme authority affumed by the parliament of England as the price of their fecurity. Or if they ever fhewed a difpofition to contest this legislative fuperiority, as in the reigns of king William and king George I. the refiftance was neither very serious or permanent. From the acceffion of the Houfe of Hanover, although the laws against popery, till a recent period, fuffered no relaxation, the government of the country was administered in the fpirit of mildness. The civilization of the inhabitants and the commercial industry of the community increased; improvements of all kinds made great and rapid advances; and the Catholics participated, however unequally, in the general profperity-lofing gradually their attachment to the banished. houfe of Stuart, and acquiring with the increasing liberality of the times additional degrees of light and knowledge. After centuries of animofity, the Catholics and Proteftants feemed at length to begin to confider themselves as having a common and national interest distinct from that of England. The loyalty discovered by the Irish Catholics during the unfortunate difputes with America, and the defire of preserving and increafing that attachment, combined with a fenfe doubtless of the injustice of the laws under which they fuffered, induced the government here from time to time to exert its influence in the Irish legiflature, to grant them such relief as they were deemed entitled or qualified to receive : and every new acquifition of liberty, or exemption from oppreffion, confirmed and ftrengthened the impreffion of a VOL. III. 2 I *Vide ARTHUR YOUNG'S Tour to Ireland." common |