for which we exerted every nerve in 1779; that free constitution for which we pledged life and fortune in 1782! Our lives arc at the service of the empire; but our liberties! No; we received them from our Father which is in Heaven, and we will hand them down to our children! But if gentlemen can entertain a doubt of the mischief of these propositions, are they convinced of their safety? the safety of giving up the government of your trade? No! the mischief is prominent, but the advantage is of a most enigmatical nature. Have gentlemen considered the subject? have they traced even the map of the countries, the power or freedom of trading with whom they are to surrender for ever? Have they traced the map of Asia, Africa, and America? Do they know the French, Dutch, Portuguese, and Spanish settlements. Do they know the neutral powers of those countries, their produce, aptitudes, and dispositions? Have they considered the state of North America? its present state, future growth, and every opportunity in the endless succession of time attending that nurse of commerce and asylum of mankind? Are they now competent to declare on the part of themselves and all their posterity, that a free-trade to those regions will never, in the efflux of time, be of any service to the kingdom of Ireland? If they have information on this subject, it must be by a communication with God, for they have none with man : it must be inspiration, for it cannot be knowledge. In such circumstances, to subscribe this agreement, without knowledge, without even the affectation of knowledge, when Great Britain, with all her experience, and every means of information from East Indies, West Indies, America, and with the official knowledge of Ireland at her feet, has taken six months to deliberate, and has now produced twenty resolutions, with an history to each, amounting to a code of empire, not a system of commerce: I say, in such circumstances, for Ireland to subscribe this agreement, would be infatuation an infatuation to which the nation could not be a party, but would appear to be concluded, or indeed huddled, with all her posterity, into a fallacious arrangement, by the influence of the Crown, without the deliberation of Parliament, or the consent of the people! This would appear the more inexcusable, because we are not driven to it; adjustment is not indispensable; the great points have been carried! inferior question about the home-market has been started, and a commercial fever artificially raised; but while the great points remain undisturbed, the nations cannot be committed; the manufacturers applied for protecting duties, and have failed; the minister offered a system of reciprocity, and

An

succeeded in Ireland, but has failed in England: he makes you another offer, inconsistent with the former, which offer the English do not support, and the Irish deprecate.

We can go on; we have a growing prosperity, and as yet an exemption from intolerable taxes; we can from time to time regulate our own commerce, cherish our manufactures, keep down our taxes, and bring on our people, and brood over the growing prosperity of young Ireland. In the mean time we will guard our free trade and free constitution, as our only real resources: they were the struggles of great virtue, the result of much perseverance, and our broad base of public action! We should recollect that this House may now, with peculiar propriety, interpose, because you did, with great zeal and success, on this very subject of trade, bring on the people; and you did, with great prudence and moderation, on another occasion, check a certain description of the people, and you are now called upon by consistency to defend the people. Thus mediating between extremes, you will preserve this island long, and preserve her with a certain degree of renown. Thus faithful to the constitution of the country, you will command and insure her tranquillity; for our best authority with the people is, protection afforded against the ministers of the Crown. It is not public clamour but public injury that should alarm you; your high ground of expostulation with your fellow-subjects has been your services; the free trade you have given the merchant, and the free constitution you have given the island! Make your third great effort;-preserve them, and with them preserve unaltered your own calm sense of public right, the dignity of the parliament, the majesty of the people, and the powers of the island! Keep them unsullied, uncovenanted, uncircumscribed, and unstipendiary! These paths are the paths to glory; and let me add, these ways are the ways of peace: so shall the prosperity of your country, though without a tongue to thank you, yet laden with the blessings of constitution and of commerce, bear attestation to your services, and wait on your progress with involuntary praise!

The House divided on Mr. Orde's motion; Ayes 127, Noes 108; Majority in favour of bringing in the bill 19.

Tellers for the Ayes, Right Honourable Mr. Gardiner and Mr. Moore.

* 4

Tellers for the Noes, Right Honourable Thomas Conolly and Mr. O'Neill.

At nine o'clock in the morning Sir Hercules Langrishe proposed the question of adjournment; several members pressed the gentleman at the government side to relinquish the measure in

consequence of such a strong division against it. The question of adjournment was, however, put and carried: Ayes 120, Noes 104; Majority for the adjournment 16.

The following were the twenty resolutions passed by the British House of Commons, to which Mr. Grattan so strongly objected: "1. That it is highly important to the interests of both countries, that the commerce between Great Britain and Ireland should be finally regulated on permanent and equitable principles, for the mutual benefit of both countries.

"2. That a full participation of commercial advantages should be permanently secured to Ireland, whenever a provision, equally permanent and secure, shall be made by the Parliament of that kingdom towards defraying, in proportion to its growing prosperity, the necessary expences, in time of peace, of protecting the trade and general interests of the empire.

"3. That towards carrying into full effect so desirable a settlement, it is fit and proper, that all articles, not the growth or manufacture of Great Britain or Ireland, except those of the growth, produce, or manufacture of any of the countries beyond the Cape of Good Hope to the Streights of Magellan, should be imported into each kingdom from the other reciprocally, under the same regulations, and at the same duties, (if subject to duties,) to which they would be liable when imported directly from the country or place from whence the same may have been imported into Great Britain or Ireland respectively, as the case may be; and that all duties originally paid on importation into either country respectively, except on arrack and foreign brandy, and on rum, and all other sorts of strong waters not imported from the British colonies in the West Indies, shall be fully drawn back on exportation to the other. But, nevertheless, that the duties shall continue to be protected and guarded, as at present, by withholding the drawback, untill a certificate from the proper officers of the revenue in the kingdom to which the export may be made, shall be returned and compared with the entry outwards.

"4. That it is highly important to the general interests of the British empire, that the laws for regulating trade and navigation should be the same in Great Britain and Ireland; and, therefore, that it is essential towards carrying into effect the present settlement, that all laws which have been made, or shall be made in Great Britain, for securing exclusive privileges to the ships and mariners of Great Britain, Ireland, and the British colonies and plantations, and for regulating and restraining the trade of the British colonies and plantations, such laws imposing the same restraints, and conferring the same benefits on the subjects of both kingdoms, should be in force in Ireland, by laws to be passed by the Parliament of that kingdom for the same time, and in the same manner as in Great Britain.

"5. That it is farther essential to this settlement, that all goods and commodities of the growth, produce, or manufacture, of British or foreign colonies in America, or the West Indies, and

the British or foreign settlements on the coast of Africa, imported into Ireland, should, on importation, be subject to the same duties and regulations, as the like goods are, or from time to time shall be subject to, upon importation into Great Britain; or, if prohibited from being imported into Great Britain, shall in like manner be prohibited from being imported into Ireland.

"6. That in order to prevent illicit practices, injurious to the revenue and commerce of both kingdoms, it is expedient, that all goods, whether of the growth, produce, or manufacture of Great Britain or Ireland, or of any foreign country, which shall hereafter be imported into Great Britain from Ireland, or into Ireland from Great Britain, should be put, by laws to be passed in the parliament of the two kingdoms, under the same regulations with respect to bonds, cockets, and other instruments, to which the like goods are now subject in passing from one port of Great Britain to another.

"7. That for the like purpose, it is also expedient, that when any goods, the growth, produce, or manufacture of the British West India islands, or any other of the British colonies or plantations, shall be shipped from Ireland for Great Britain, they should be accompanied with such original certificates of the revenue officers of the said colonies as shall be required by the law on importation into Great Britain; and that when the whole quality included in one certificate shall not be shipped at any one time, the original certificate, properly indorsed as to quantity, should be sent with the first parcel; to identify the remainder, if shipped at any future period, new certificates should be granted by the principal officers of the ports in Ireland, extracted from a register of the original documents, specifying the quantities before shipped from thence, by what vessels, and to what ports.

"8. That it is essential for carrying into effect the present settlement, that all goods exported from Ireland to the British colonies in the West Indies, or in America, or to the British settlements on the coast of Africa, should from time to time be made liable to such duties and drawbacks, and put under such regulations as may be necessary, in order that the same may not be exported with less incumbrance of duties or impositions than the like goods shall be burthened with when exported from Great Britain.

9. That it is essential to the general commercial interests of the empire, that so long as the Parliament of this kingdom shall think it advisable that the commerce to the countries beyond the Cape of Good Hope shall be carried on solely by an exclusive company, having liberty to import into the port of London only, no goods of the growth, produce, or manufacture of any countries beyond the Cape of Good Hope should be importable into Ireland from any foreign country, or from any settlement in the East Indies belonging to any such foreign country; and that no goods of the growth, produce, or manufacture of the said countries should be allowed to be imported into Ireland but through Great Britain; and it shall be lawful to export such goods of the growth, produce, or manufacture of any of the countries beyond the Cape of Good

Hope to the Streights of Magellan from Great Britain to Ireland, with the same duties retained thereon as are now retained on their being exported to that kingdom; but that an account shall be kept of the duties retained, and the net drawback on the said goods imported to Ireland; and that the amount thereof shall be remitted by the receiver-general of His Majesty's customs in Great Britain to the proper officer of the revenue in Ireland, to be placed to the account of His Majesty's revenue there, subject to the disposal of the Parliament of that kingdom; and that whenever the commerce to the said countries shall cease to be carried on by an exclusive company in the goods of the produce of countries beyond the Cape of Good Hope to the Streights of Magellan, the goods should be importable into Ireland from countries from which they may be importable to Great Britain, and no other; and that no vessel should be cleared out from Ireland for any part of the countries from the Cape of Good Hope to the Streights of Magellan, but such as shall be freighted in Ireland by the said exclusive company, and shall have sailed from the port of London; and that the ships going from Great Britain to any of the said countries beyond the Cape of Good Hope should not be restrained from touching at any of the ports in Ireland, and taking on board there any of the goods of the growth, produce, or manufacture of Great Britain.

10. That no prohibition should exist in either country, against the importation, use, or sale of any article, the growth or manufacture of the other; except such as either kingdom may judge expedient, from time to time, upon corn, meal, malt, flour, and biscuits; and except such qualified prohibitions, at present contained in any act of the British or Irish Parliaments, as do not absolutely prevent the importation of goods or manufactures, or materials of manufactures, but only regulate the weight, the size, the packages, or other particular circumstances, or prescribe the built or country, and dimensions of the ships importing the same; and also, except on ammunition, arms, gunpowder, and other utensils of war, importable only by virtue of His Majesty's license; and that the duty on the importation of every such article (if subject to duty in either country) should be precisely the same in the one country as in the other, except where an addition may be necessary in either country, in consequence of an internal duty on any such article of its own consumption, or in consequence of internal bounties, in the country where such article is grown, produced, or manufactured, and except such duties as either kingdom may judge expedient, from time to time, upon corn, meal, malt, flour, and biscuits.

"11. That in all cases where the duties on articles of the growth, produce, or manufacture of either country are different on the importation into the other, it is expedient that they should be reduced, in the kingdom where they are the highest, to an amount not exceeding the amount payable in the other; so that the same shall not be less than ten and a half per cent. upon any article which was charged with a duty, on importation into Ire