with truth, be stated to be a fund wherein the general commerce of England would assuredly find its compensation. Thus might Ireland be addressed under her present circumstances; but let the settlement now proposed be once established, what would be the answer? Would not the Irish merchant and manufacturer reply" What you advise us to, is unreasonable and preposterous; we have bound ourselves for ever to the monopolies of Great Britain in the East and in the West; we receive the commodities of both at her will, at her prices, and at her duties; we are crippled in our intercourse with America, holding a precarious and restrained trade with those sovereign states as if they were still British colonies; our dreams of being the depôt and emporium for the foreign countries of Europe are, of consequence, become visionary and ridiculous; we have violated the principles of our constitution by giving a perpetual aid to a military force at the will of the executive magistrate; we have for ever surrendered our right of external legislation into the hands of the British parliament; for all this, the British market is our compensation; upon that we are compelled to fasten our minds; to that we must cling; that we must obtain by every possible exertion of every kind; and if Great Britain suffers by it, the mischief is of her own seeking, and the restrictions which force us to this contest is of her own imposing." These would be the happy fruits of a plan whose boasted object was to cement the union of the two countries, and connect them by bonds of eternal amity and reciprocal affection !

After enlarging on this, Mr. Sheridan concluded with pressing on the attention of the house the propositions as they then stood, completely changed in spirit, principle, and regulation; and begging them to consider them in their true light, as new proposals from the British parliament,-those made by the Irish parliament being in fact rejected; and to decide, whether they were such as human reason could suppose the Irish parliament, weighing what they are to renounce, and what they are to acquire, could accept, if fair time was given them to argue and deliberate; or if, by surprise and management, they were hurried through that parliament at a season of thin attendance and relaxed attention, whether the most fatal misunderstandings might not be apprehended, from the country's afterwards discovering the delusion which had been practised upon them, and

the arts and fallacies which had obtained the irrevocable surrender of their dearest rights. The resolution in debate, was declared to be the essence of this new system; negative that, and the plan fell to the ground; if it passed that day, a deep wound would instantly be given to the confidence of Ireland in Great Britain; if adopted rashly by the Irish parliament, the decisive blow would be struck, and affection and good faith between the two countries be banished for ever.

Mr. Pitt, in reply, observed—“ If a chain of recent events, and the whole tenor of the conduct that had been adopted by persons of a certain description, had not exhausted and anticipated his surprise at any thing that could come from them, he could scarcely believe his senses, when he beheld a gentleman (Mr. Sheridan) who for many weeks had concealed his intentions so effectually, as to leave it a doubt whether he was friendly or hostile to the arrangement now depending, stand forth the avowed enemy of a part of the system which was necessarily connected with the whole, and take up a ground of opposition the most dangerous and inflammatory that could possibly suggest itself. But it was not to be wondered at, that the conduct of the honourable gentleman should be so inconsistent, when it was remembered how inconsistent all the measures of the party, of which he was the mouth-piece, were; and how inconsistent the persons who composed that party were with one another."-Lord North, Mr. Fox, and Mr. Sheridan, rose together instantly as Mr. Pitt sat down; the two former gave way, as Mr. Sheridan had been so particularly pointed at in Mr. Pitt's speech.

Mr. Sheridan said, he was confident that the candour and liberality of the house would indulge him with a few minutes' attention (though he had just taken up so large a portion of their time) to enable him to repel the grossest perversion, not of words merely, but of conduct and motives, which the most presumptuous adept at misrepresentation had ever attempted to maintain, in defiance of truth and decency. The right honourable gentleman had charged him in the most acrimonious language of reproof, with inconsistency of conduct. He was accused of not having appeared to hold one uniform opinion upon the subject of the Irish propositions-a curious charge, and curiously supported; for the very words of the right honourable gentleman's accusation accounted for, and justified the contradictions he complained of.-It was, because every day had brought forth new opinions-it was, because every time the committee met, the tone had been changed, and the ground had been shifted-that it had become utterly impossible for any person either to support or oppose his system upon the same

principle, or with the same arguments, for two days together. But it was not very surprising that the right honourable gentleman, who had forgotten every ground which, at the commencement, he professed to act upon, should not very accurately remember the line of conduct pursued by others—nothing but this complete oblivion of himself, and what he had done in this business, could have betrayed him into the rashness of accusing gentlemen on that side of the house of acting a double game? Did he complain of a double game ?-he, through whose whole conduct in this business had not observed one direct proceeding,-not one straightforward step. The whole negotiation, from the first hour, had been curved, twisted, and circuitous-a plan, opened with duplicity, and explained with equivocation. The gross and glaring contradictions between the right honourable gentleman's first statement and reasoning upon this business in England, and Mr. Orde's in Ireland, undoubtedly had no resemblance to a double game; there had been no double game in the committee of privy council, carrying on a mock investigation for His Majesty's information, after His Majesty had received an address of thanks for having adopted the measure; and, above all, no double game had been practised with the manufacturers; but all their misapprehensions had been owing to accident, or their own dulness! Whilst such things were in the recollection of the house, the right honourable gentleman must not expect to have his loose and unfounded charges pass unreplied to, however boldly urged with lofty tones and clamorous declamation. For his part, he defied the right honourable gentleman to tax him with any one inconsistency upon this subject. He was the mouth-piece of no party, as the right honourable gentleman had been pleased to style him, nor was he the tool of any party. He had as strong party feelings as any man; but he had those feelings, because those he was attached to, neither expected from him servility of judgment, nor pliancy of principle. The right honourable gentleman himself, perhaps, knew too well what it was to be only the channel of conveying other people's sentiments and decrees to be the eloquent mouth employed to promulgate schemes, not bred in his own judgment, nor approved by his own heart. This, he solemnly believed, was the right honourable gentleman's case at present. He was convinced, in his

own mind, that that part of the plan which was to entrap Ireland into a surrender of her constitution, was no original wish of that right honourable gentleman's, but had been put upon him since, by those who will some day make still harder conditions with him, for the continuance of their countenance and support.

Mr. Sheridan then recapitulated his own conduct throughout the discussion; stating, that soon after the opening of the proposed arrangement, he had said in debate in that house, that he should differ upon this subject, he feared, with those whom he had always acted with; that he had solicited no petition, nor knew even of that from Stafford till the day he had presented it ; but that on the day Mr. Pitt brought forward his sixteen new propositions, so far from appearing to approve of them, he had called to the right honourable gentleman to read a second time this particular proposition, and had declared, in speaking to an amendment he moved before the house rose that night, that the fourth resolution struck him as an absolute resumption of the right of external legislation over Ireland. The right honourable gentleman brought an amendment to this resolution the next time the committee sat, and quoted what he called his (Mr. Sheridan's) misconception as a reason. Mr. Sheridan had then replied, that the amendment had removed no part of his objection. He had since spoken and divided against this resolution in the committee.

With regard to other particulars in this arrangement, he had voted, in many instances, with the minister, and against his right honourable friend and the noble lord; and he had suggested some amendments which had been adopted, and which certainly tended to smooth the reception of the propositions in Ireland. He left the house to judge, whether there was any thing either inflammatory or inconsistent in this conduct. But his opinion upon the whole of the plan, as it was completed, he had delivered that day, and that opinion he would maintain.

The house proceeded at one o'clock, and continued till past four, to make amendments, several of which were offered by Mr. Eden; and being admitted to be necessary, accepted. Mr. Fox moved afterwards to equalize the duties on the import of raw materials into the two kingdoms; and also on the export of manufactures to foreign ports; and also to adopt mutually all prohibitions on foreign manufactures. This clause was negatived. The house, at the conclusion, resolved, "That the resolutions be communicated to the lords, and their concurrence desired thereto."

JULY 8.

MR. SHERIDAN desired to know from ministers, whether the bill for preventing the exportation of manufactures, and materials for the manufacture of iron beyond seas, extended to Ireland? And not receiving a satisfactory answer, he moved that the bill be printed. After some debate he withdrew his motion.

FEBRUARY 8, 1786.

ARMY ESTIMATES.

The order of the day was read, for the house "to resolve itself into a committee of ways and means;" and, after agreeing to certain resolutions proposed, a long and uninterrupted pause ensued.

MR. SHERIDAN remarked, that he concluded the house were now waiting, in silent suspense, for the appearance of the Secretary-at-War, with his proposal of a vote in favour of the army estimates. But surely the house would act with more propriety if, instead of listening at so early a period to the discussion of this important subject, they were to adjourn immediately, and thus allow themselves more time for the investigation.

The Secretary-at-War now entered, and moved, "That the house should resolve itself into a committee of supply, for the purpose of taking the army estimates into consideration." Mr. Minchin moved, "that the house should now adjourn."

Mr. Sheridan said, that he also must resist the motion for the Speaker's leaving the chair; yet, upon an important principle, in some measure dissimilar from that of his honourable friend; and for the sake of preserving a strict and invariable adherence to the established rules and forms of proceeding in that house, on the present occasion, he felt it right to urge the necessity of preserving such an adherence; and, therefore, must beg leave to remind the right honourable gentleman in the chair, that he rested on his authority for the validity and justness of his argument as applicable to the present instance. It had been the well-known and established rule of proceeding with the army estimates, to have them laid upon the table eight days prior to any motions being made for referring them to the consideration of a committee. This rule had, he believed, been invariably adhered to in every former instance; but in the present the