open to all any exemption to particular men, or particular ranks of men, is, in a free and commercial country, a solecism of the grossest nature.

I come now to speak upon what indeed I would have gladly avoided, had I not been particularly pointed at for the part I have taken in this bill. It has been said by a noble Lord on my left hand, that I likewise am running the race of popularity. If the noble Lord means, by popularity, that applause bestowed by after ages on good and virtuous actions, I have long been struggling in that race; to what purpose, all-trying Time can alone determine; but if the noble Lord means that mushroom popularity that is raised without merit, and lost without crime, he is much mistaken in his opinion. I defy the noble Lord to point out a single action of my life, where the popularity of the times ever had the smallest influence on my determinations. I thank God I have a more permanent and steady rule for my conduct-the dictates of my own breast. Those that have foregone that pleasing adviser, and given up their mind to be the slave of every popular impulse, I sincerely pity; I pity them still more, if their vanity leads them to mistake the shouts of a mob for the trumpet of fame. Experience might inform them, that many who have been saluted with the huzzas of a crowd one day, have received their execrations the next; and many who, by the popularity of their times, have been held up as spotless patriots, have, nevertheless, appeared upon the historian's page, when truth has triumphed over delusion, the assassins of liberty.

True liberty, in my opinion, can only exist when justice is equally administered to all-to the king and to the beggar. Where is the justice, then, or where is the law that protects a member of Parliament more than any other

man, from the punishment due to his crimes? The laws of this country allow of no place, nor no employment, to be a sanctuary for crimes; and where I have the honour to sit as judge, neither royal favour, nor popular applause, shall ever protect the guilty. LORD MANSFIELD.

FROM THE ADDRESS TO HIS MAJESTY-1782.

MR SPEAKER, I have thrown the declaration of rights into the form of an humble address to the Throne; and have added other matter that calls for redress. I have done this in a manner which I conceive respectful to the King, reconciling to the pride of England, and with all due tenacity of the rights and majesty of the Irish nation; and if I sink under this great argument, let my infirmity be attributed to any cause, rather than a want of zeal in your service. I have troubled you so often on the subject of your rights, that I have nothing to add; but have rather to admire by what miraculous means and steady virtue the people of Ireland have proceeded, until the faculty of the nation is now bound up to the great act of her own redemption. I am not very old, and yet I remember Ireland a child; I have followed her growth with anxious wishes, and beheld with astonishment the rapidity of her progress, from injuries to arms-from arms to liberty. I have seen her mind enlarge, her maxims open, and a new order of days burst in upon her. You are not now afraid of the French, nor afraid of the English, nor afraid of one another. You are no longer an insolvent gentry, without privilege except to tread upon a crest-fallen constituency, nor a constituency without privilege, except to

tread upon the Catholic body; you are now a united people, a nation manifesting itself to Europe in signal instances of glory. Liberty, in former times, was recovered by the quick feelings and rapid impulse of the populace, excited by some strong object presented to the senses. Such an object was the daughter of Virginius, sacrificed to virtue; such the seven bishops, whose meagre and haggard looks expressed the rigour of their sufferings; but no history can produce an instance of men like you, musing for years upon oppression, and then, upon a determination of right, rescuing the land.

Fortunately for us, England did not take the lead; her minister did not take the lead in the restoration of our rights; had England in the first instance ceded, you would have sunk under the weight of the obligation, and given back the acquisition with a sheepish gratitude; but the virtue, the pride of the people was our resource, and it is right that people should have a lofty conception of themselves. It was necessary that Ireland should be her own redeemer, to form her mind as well as her constitution, and erect in her soul a vast image of herself, and a lofty sense of her own exaltation; other nations have trophies and records to elevate the human mind; those outward and visible signs of glory, those monuments of their heroic ancestors, such as were wont to animate the ancient Greeks and Romans, and rouse them in their country's cause: but you had nothing to call forth the greatness of the land, except injuries, and therefore it is astonishing that you should have preserved your pride; but more astonishing that you should proceed with a temper seldom found among the injured, and a success never but with the virtuous. You have no trophies; but the liberty you transmit to your posterity is more than a trophy. I dwell

the more on this part of the subject, because I hold it necessary to pour into the public mind a considerable portion of pride, acting up to a good national character, founded on a great transaction. What sets one nation above another, but the soul that dwells therein, that ethereal fire ?—for it is of no avail that the arm be strong, if the soul be not great. Nor was this act of your redemption confined to any body of men; all have had a share in it; there is not a man that washes his firelock this night-there is not a grand jury-there is not an association-there is not a corps of volunteers-there is not a meeting of their delegates, that is not a party to this acquisition, and pledged to support it to the last drop of his blood. It seems as if the subjects of Ireland had met at the altar, and communicated a national sacrament. Juries, cities, counties, commoners, nobles, volunteers, gradations, religions,—a solid league, a rapid fire.

WILLIAM COLLEY GRATTAN.

FROM SPEECH ON THE NATIONAL

GRIEVANCES.

THE apostles were meek and inspired men-they went forth in humble guise, with naked feet, and brought to every man's door, in his own tongue, the true belief; their word prevailed against the potentates of the earth; and on the ruin of the barbaric pride, and pontific luxury, they placed the naked majesty of the Christian religion. This light was soon put down by its own ministers, and on its extinction, a beastly and pompous priesthood ascended. Political potentates, not Christian pastors-full of false zeal, full of worldly pride, and full of gluttony-empty

of the true religion. To their flock oppressive-to their inferior clergy brutal-to their king abject, and to their God impudent and familiar; they stood on the altar, as a stepping stool to the throne, glozing in the ear of princes, whom they poisoned with crooked principles and heated advice, and were a faction against their king when they were not his slaves; ever the dirt under his feet, or a poniard in his heart. Their power went down, it burst of its own plethory, when a poor reformer, with the gospel in his hand, and in the inspired spirit of poverty, restored the Christian religion.--The same principle which introduced Christianity, guided reformation. The priesthood of Europe is not now what it once was; their religion has increased, as their power has diminished. In these countries, particularly, for the most part, they are a mild order of men, with less dominion, and more piety, therefore their character may be described in a few words :morality, enlightened by letters, and exalted by religion. Parliament is not a bigot-you are no sectary, no polemic; it is your duty to unite all men, to manifest brotherly love and confidence to all men. The parental sentiment is the true principle of government. Men are ever finally disposed to be governed by the instrument of their happiness. The mystery of government, would you learn it? Look on the gospel, and make the source of your Redemption the rule of your authority; and, like the hen in the Scripture, expand your wings, and take in all your people.

IBID.

HYDER ALI'S INVASION OF THE CARNATIC. WHEN at length Hyder Ali found that he had to do with men who either would sign no convention, or whom no