February 20th, 1789.

In consequence of the Lord Lieutenant's refusal to transmit the address, the commons agreed, this day, on transmitting it by deputation. The Duke of Leinster and the Earl of Charlemont were named by the Peers, and the Right Honourable Thomas Conolly, John O'Neill, and W. B. Ponsonby, with James Stewart, (M. P. for Tyrone), Esq. were named by the Commons on this deputation. On the same day Grattan moved-"That in addressing his Royal Highness the Prince of Wales to take upon himself the government of this country, on the behalf, and in the name of his Majesty, during his Majesty's present indisposition, and no longer, the Lords and Commons of Ireland have exercised an undoubted right, and discharged an indispensable duty, to which, in the present emergency, they alone are competent." Curran supported the Resolution thus:—

I congratulate the other side of the house on having recovered their voices; they have showed the most sympathetic feeling for the infirmity of their beloved sovereign. When the people despaired of his recovery they were dumb; drowned in sorrow they could find no utterance; but now that some hopes are held out to them, their oratory is restored; it does not yet venture on its legs-it is confined to "Hear him"-it is oratory sitting in parliament. The question has been deserted: we are not inquiring whether an address is expedient or legal: all that has been decided before, and it is indecent to argue it over again. A right honourable member has gone over the same arguments that have already been urged in vain. You are now called upon to vindicate your own honour. The Marquis of Buckingham has insulted you-you are bound to answer the insult. He has not been satisfied with simply refusing to transmit your address, but he has insulted you by a lecture equally unreasonable and illfounded. If the king deny his assent, he does it in the modest language of doubt-" he will advise;" but the pride of mock majesty, of burlesque royalty, must show its plumes, its glory, its learning. For my part I would not have regretted the noble lord's refusal, had I been the bearer to the prince of the greeting of the two houses; the latter might possibly have said to himwould they had sent it by a better messenger! But he has added outrage to his refusal. From such a character it would not be worth your while to resent this misconduct; but the insult is upon record, and would remain a stigma upon you, when the

memory of the noble lord will not live to be your justification. I give my hearty assent to the motion.-Debates, vol. ix., p. 151. The Resolution was carried by 130 to 74.

In order to close this subject, we subjoin the following extract from the Journals of the 2nd of March :

The Speaker informed the house that the following letter had been delivered to him in the chair this day, which he read to the house:

"To the Right Honourable the Speaker of the House of Commons, Ireland. "SIR, We have the honour to acquaint you, for the information of the house of commons, that in pursuance to their order we have presented the address of both houses to his Royal Highness the Prince of Wales, who was graciously pleased to give us the enclosed answer, from which it will appear to the house that it is our duty to wait his Royal Highness' further commands.

"We have the honour to be, Sir,

"Your most obedient, humble servants,

"THOMAS CONOLLY, W. B. PONSONBY, JOHN O'NEILL, JAMES STEWART.

"London, February 27th, 1789."

"MY LORDS AND GENTLEMEN,

66

The address from the Lords spiritual and temporal, and Commons of Ireland, which you have presented to me, demands my warmest and earliest thanks.

"If any thing could add to the esteem and affection I have for the people of Ireland, it would be the loyal and affectionate attachment to the person and government of the King, my father, manifested in the address of the two houses. "What they have done, and their manner of doing it, is a new proof of their undiminished duty to his Majesty, of their uniform attachment to the house of Brunswick, and of their constant care and attention to maintain inviolate the concord and connexion between the kingdoms of Great Britain and Ireland, so indispensably necessary to the prosperity, the happiness, and liberties of both. "If, in conveying my grateful sentiments on their conduct in relation to the King, my father, and to the inseparable interests of the two kingdoms, I find it impossible adequately to express my feelings on what relates to myself, I trust you will not be the less disposed to believe that I have an understanding to comprehend the value of what they have done, a heart that must remember, and principles that will not suffer me to abuse their confidence.

"But the fortunate change which has taken place in the circumstances which gave occasion to the address agreed to by the Lords and Commons of Ireland, induces me for a few days to delay giving a final answer, trusting that the joyful event of his Majesty's resuming the personal exercise of his royal authority, may then render it only necessary for me to repeat those sentiments of gratitude and affection for the loyal and generous people of Ireland which I feel indelibly imprinted on my heart."

It was ordered that the letter, and his Royal Highness's answer, be entered in the journals of the house.

On the 20th of March a still more fervid letter, announcing his father's recovery was read.

Thus, for the time, ended the Regency dispute, wherein the Irish maintained the common constitution against the English parliament, which yet was used to deprive Ireland of that constitution; but it may be as well to remind the reader that in 1799, when the Union was contemplated, a bill making the de facto Regent of England, Regent de jure of Ireland, was pressed by the patriots, and rejected by Castlereagh.

DISFRANCHISEMENT OF EXCISE OFFICERS.

April 21st, 1789.

CURRAN supported the bill for this purpose:

ever.

I think such a bill at all times necessary, but now more so than The arguments against it would have convinced me, if my mind had not been decided before. One member objects that the principle goes too far-another that it does not go far enoughthus inconsistent with itself is the opposition to this measureconsistent only in this, that it comes from the avowed servants of the crown, and of every administration. One of those, deservedly of much respect [the Chancellor of the Exchequer], has hazarded the assertion that there is not too much influence in Ireland; that gentleman has distinguished very rightly. I do not complain of the influence of the crown-I complain of that insulated sort of influence not flowing from the body of the people, or of the nobility—not belonging to the crown, but the personal property of every administration. The excess of this is manifest in the history of past times, and in the picture of the present. Observing on the state of Ireland for a century past, we find the succession of its viceroys, as almost to a man uniformly ignorant and rapacious; followed by a train of dependants and servants, insolent, beggarly, and worthless-the government of course oppressive-the parliament weak as venal, and the people undone. If, in that interval of darkness and misery, the wretched people felt that a law existed, they felt it not in protection but in penalty; the religion of the country spoke to them only by the mouth of the tithe-proctor or bailiff. Gentlemen may suppose that Ireland has been weighed down by the great talents or virtues of its successive rulers. No; no such thing. On the contrary, the men sent to grind us are, in general, the refuse of Great Britain: but it is the fashion of Ireland to despise and hate our fellow-subjects, because they are hated and despised in England; it is the fashion to venerate the maxims of which we are the victims, and to admire and respect the contemptible instruments by which we are plundered and disgraced. This silly infatuation was felt as it ought, many

years ago, by Dean Swift; I will read it to you, in his own words:- 66 I knew another person, who was in England the common standard of stupidity, where he was never heard a minute in any assembly, or by any party, with common christian treatment; yet, upon his arrival here, could put on a face of importance and authority, talk more than six, without either gracefulness, propriety, or meaning, and, at the same time, be admired as a pattern of eloquence and wisdom."

What a pity that the picture of such a master should find no resemblance, except in the age in which he lived! Excess of influence was never more legible than in the present administration. The present viceroy came over here, making a parade of economy. Has he reduced a single establishment? Has he abolished a single useless place? You had the faith of government, when you gave them £140,000 a year additional in taxes, in 1784, that your expenses should not exceed your revenue; they have now exceeded it by more than £30,000. Has he adopted any plan for alleviating any of these grievances? No! Where you have been active, has he co-operated? No! No! When the voice of a nation's morality and a nation's want called upon you to correct the shameful abuse of the pension-list-when the odious monster was condemned, and led forth to execution, it found a reprieve from the Marquis of Buckingham. But why should we wonder at it, for what crime has not had the mercy of a pious and religious king wasted upon it in this administration of economy and mercy? Has not rape? Has not murder? Has not forgery? Let it not be supposed that I mention those things, merely to bear hard upon the name of a Lord Lieutenant; if they are reproaches, I cannot change their nature; I mention them as incontrovertible arguments, that no governor, without a most dangerous degree of unconstitutional influence, could pursue such a system. I defend the power of parliament to correct abuses in elections. Every election law is an exercise of that power. England has passed exactly such a law. But, it is said, England has done so upon evidence of an offence committed. This is not the principle. To punish a body of men for the delinquency of a few, would be absurd. England did not so; it was not an ex post facto law of punishment-it was a law of prevention! But do gentlemen look for offence? What do they say of a cavalcade

of upwards of one hundred voters collecting from every corner of the nation, and taking possession of boroughs on the eve of an election. A right honourable member has stated that fact as a necessary retaliation. But the very justification admits the fact; and what a picture may gentlemen anticipate of the marches of those revenue troops, when they shall be put in motion on the next general election! A simpleton will be apt to ask, if these cart-loads of vagrants are on their way to the sea side, to be transported for their offences? No; they are cart-loads of the raw material of members of parliament! I am sorry to find that such a picture can excite a laugh. I cannot laugh when I consider, that it is not at Swords, or Irishtown, or Dungarvan, only, that these strolling companies of constituents will be called on to act; no, there is not a borough nor a county in Ireland where you will not see a temporary stage erected, in which the comedians' fisc shall hold the mirror up to the constitution of the land.

:

At this time the law is peculiarly necessary. You have a governor now, whose conduct towards you has been treated as it merited the stigma you have imprinted is indelible; so is his resentment he never will forgive what he has drawn upon himself. He feels his government deserted by the body of the nobles-by the body of the people. Corrupt influence is his only resource; and you see his confidence in it, in his contempt of the reprobation of both houses; in an open distrust of the proudest of your nobles and gentry, and in their dismissal from office and who succeed them? his countrymen, his creatures. His clerks and runners are preferred to the rank, the virtue, the talents, and the responsibility of this country. Yes; the fairest and the tallest trees in the forest are overshadowed by the luxuriance of exotics-exotics of the worst kind, that would not grow in their native mould: hungry and barren, they drain the soil they bear no blossom, yield no fruit-while you are stunted and shorn, to make room for the fantastic wreathings of their sterile exuberance. I do not make these remarks from any wish to mortify the gentlemen to whom I am supposed to allude. To some of them the nation is bound by the tenderest ties of necessities on one side, and liberality on the other. I cannot regard with partiality any gentleman whom I have been accus