harange against the ministers, by moving the following amendment : "To represent to his majesty, that the most effectual me"thod for strengthening the country and promoting unanimity, "was to take such measures, and to enact such laws, as to en"sure to all his majesty's subjects the blessings and privileges of "the constitution, without any distinction of religion." The amendment was seconded by Mr. W. B. Ponsonby. The debate was carried on till two o'clock in the morning with extreme heat and virulence. Mr. Grattan's amendment was opposed, as unseasonable and violent, by several of those who had been in the habit of voting with him on all occasions; insomuch that the minority on the division consisted only of 12 against 149. To this circumstance Mr. Grattan adverted in his reply. He was told, he said, that he was near the close of his political life: he would however borrow a few moments of that life to repeat the sentiment, and re-assert a claim dear to his heart, however reduced their number, however solitary their phalanx. In the course of this debate lord Castlereagh replied with great warmth to Mr. Grattan; and Mr. Pelham spoke more at length than he usually did: he adopted the observation of his friend Mr. Alexander, that the statement of the British empire made by Mr. Grattan was more likely to have come from a member of the French Assembly than an Irish legislator. He particularly adverted to the two topics, which had formed the principal ground of the debate; namely, the question of Catholic emancipation, and the disturbances of Armagh. As to the first, he thought it very improperly brought forward at that juncture. It was then no time to make distinctions between Catholics and Protestants; no such distinction was made by government. In the offers to arm, the Catholics had been as forward as the Protestants. In some *counties, where gentlemen attached to the Protestant as"your defeat, and depopulation; kindly, very kindly-give them now a share "of your blessings, whatever your ministers have left you. Let us make no "more sacrifices of our liberties: let us now sacrifice our prejudices: they "will ascend in smoke, the best use we can make of them, and be a tiding to your God, that you are become a convert to your country." • Historical justice requires, that we notice, that the minister's assertion rather confirms, than defeats the former observations upon the discouragement given to the Catholics arming. He says, that in some counties, some gentle men attached to the Protestant ascendancy had included many Catholics in their lists. The obvious inference is, that in most cases, the reverse had happened. The very term many Catholics bespeaks a proportionate paucity, when bearing upon a population that consists of more than three Catholics to one Protestant. Neither did his justification of the county of Armagh meet the objections, which had been complained of. The persecution of the Catholics in that county had been complained of for years; and the application of remedy is spoken of, only as since the last session. The reason he gave for not promulgating the insurrection law in that county, could convey little satisfaction to the people aggrieved or to the public at large; because the magistrates Ff VOL. IV. cendancy resided, some of whom had saved their counties from ruin, those very gentlemen had come forward with offers to raise corps, and in their lists had included many Roman Catholics. Some Roman Catholics had, no doubt, been persuaded, that such distinctions were adopted by government, and he found it necessary to state what he then did, lest the high authority of some gentlemen who had that night promoted that opinion, should sanction the report. The Armagh disturbance had been last session a subject of discussion; government had been then exculpated by the gentlemen of that county. Since that time an officer of the highest credit and reputation had been established there, and every effort made to restore that order, which was approaching every day. The noble lord near him had replied to the charge of not promulgating the insurrection law; and he had only to add, that the disturbances there appeared to the magistrates not to require the enforcement of that very severe law. Mr. Archdal justified the magistrates of Armagh, by asking, if assistance had ever been called for, and refused? No. Had means of prevention ever been pointed out and neglected? No. Had any culpable magistrates been particularized, and protected? No. If any magistrate should be thereafter sentenced as culpable, would he not be punished? Yes, and exemplarily. Mr. Corry bore testimony of the exertions of government in suppressing those disturbances. He had been on the grand jury on the two last assizes and though at the spring assizes many rioters of all descriptions had been tried and convicted, such was the good effect of the example then made, that very few came before the grand jury at the summer assizes, in proportion to the number that had been committed in the spring. Mr. George Ponsonby and Mr. Grattan replied in a very animated strain to that part of Mr. Pelham's speech, in which he had asserted, that the exclusion of Catholics from parliament and the state, was necessary for the crown and the connexion: that he was ready then, and at all times, to meet the question, and to support it with his life and fortune.* were always complained of as the immediate and efficient instrument of the evil. Mr. Grattan (17 Par. Deb. p. 50.) thought the audacity of the mob arose from a confidence in the connivance of government; under an administration sent thisher to defeat a Catholic bill, a Protestant mob very naturally conceived itself a part of the state, and exercised the power of life, and death, and transportation, and murder, and rape, with triumph; and with the seeming sympathy with the court religion the magistrates retire from the scene of action, &c. To this Mr. Grattan thus strongly spoke: (17 Par. Deb. p. 48.) "This "dreadful, this deadly, this wild, and this fatal proscription, when he is calling "for volunteers to enrol in the service, what language, what denunciation, "what dictation could France have suggested more opportune in time, more "pregnant in disaffection, or more authoritative in mischief? His practical The second day of the session was ordered for the house to resolve itself into a committee for suspending the Habeas Corpus Act, when Mr. George Ponsonby observed, that were he to stand alone, he should exert his utmost powers to resist the measure. He had every respect for his excellency, who was nominally the author of it, while it really belonged to others. He was aware, that the present members of administration in his country, were men of vindictive spirit, and he did not wish to entrust the whole personal liberty of the subject to lovers of vengeance. After passing that bill into a law, they might apprehend any person obnoxious to them, without even giving reasons for such arbitrary conduct, and leave them to languish in gaol as long as they thought proper. He wished the house to make a material distinction with regard to words. Ministers confounded the words administration and government; they wished to hold forth all who opposed their measures as inimical to the king and constitution. He was convinced there was a great portion of disaffection to the present administration, but he could not think the quantum of disaffection to the constitution was much; he did not mean to say, there were none disaffected to the constitution, but he was aware, that no quantity of sedition or treason existed so great or prevalent as to justify the passing of such an arbitrary law. The end proposed was not meant as a greaterprotection to the king and constitution. It was designed as an instrument of terror and vengeance in the hands of ministers. In that idea he would always oppose it, and therefore he moved, that the chairman do leave the chair. Mr. Prime serjeant said, if the honourable gentleman disbelieved the existence of treasonable conspiracies in the country, he must have rejected the evidence of his eyes and ears; he himself knew, both as a private gentleman and a professional " logic has been, that in times of apprehended invasion, it is perilous to hold "the language of reconciliation, and discreet to hold the language of proscrip"tion. Eternal and indefeasible proscription! denounced by a minister of the crown, speaking to three-fourths of his majesty's subjects, France knew "perfectly well, that she had gained Brabant, but she did not know till now, "that she had gained in the councils of the king of England, that fatal parti "zan, who, with the best intention in the world, could thus in his majesty's "dominions, and from his seat in parliament recruit for the French republic. "The member may rely on it, the Catholic-the Irish will not long submit to "such an interdiet; they will not suffer a stranger (amiable as the right hon"ourable member may be, he is but a stranger) to tell us on what proud terms "English government will consent to rule in Ireland, still less to pronounce “ and dictate the incapacity of the natives, as the terms of her dominion, and "the base condition of our connection and allegiance. We love the monarchy, " and we love the connection, as compatible with, and instrumental to the pre-, "servation of Irish liberties, preferring our own liberties and our own people "of all religions, to all things, and to all other countries. Rely on it, the mi "nistry must retract that denunciation.” Numberless concurring man, that such treasons did exist. instances were notoriously in proof of that fact, from the trial and conviction of Jackson to that of Weldon and his accomplices; that of Traynor and other traitors, who were convicted on the clearest evidence, proved the fact beyond all rational doubt. Mr. Duquery called the attention of the house to a question of the greatest moment. A great portion of the liberty of the subject was to be sacrificed without any evidence to justify such a measure. In England, when such a law had been resorted to, the British minister had given sufficient previous notice, and collected a mass of evidence; and he must wonder, and it must pierce the feelings of an Irishman, to perceive all the shelter of the subject to be removed, without the smallest proof that a conspiracy existed; or, if it existed without allowing time for discussing the expediency of the suspension. Why was not a secret committee appointed to inquire whether or not such a conspiracy had existed? Surely the house was not to rely on a short speech from an attorney general as sufficient evidence to repeal the Habeas Corpus. He wished ministers to consider the tendency of their measures; they ought rather to inspire amongst the people a love of their king and government, than to goad them to resistance. The fleet being sent abroad to Newfoundland, and elsewhere, shewed that no invasion was apprehended. Mr. Duquery concluded a very strong and able speech, by saying, that last sessions the trial by jury had been voted away, and that was to be made memorable by repealing the Habeas Corpus. The attorney general insisted on the precedents which had been resorted to, as a justification of the bill. Fifteen persons had been lately committed by a warrant from the King's Bench, not insignificant, but persons of property and some influence, who joined to sow sedition and create disaffection against the king and constitution. Beside, the former trials shewed, that there did exist a rooted conspiracy in the country, which called aloud for coercion and prevention. It was notorious, that there had been emissaries from France, to open the way to an invasion; and the members of the convention in their speeches talked of preparations for an invasion. Mr. Fletcher felt himself called upon to animadvert, as he did with some asperity, upon the indecent speed, with which such a bill was sought to be hurried through the house. Mr. Curran conjured the house to reflect seriously upon the moment that had been chosen by administration for the bringing in of the bill; he thought it a melancholy proof of their want of temper and judgment. In the debates upon that motion, the rights of the Roman Catholics had been strongly urged, and as strongly opposed; the disposition of the administration towards them was fully manifested, and the motion was rejected; of the propriety of that rejection he would not speak, he could not but lament it; he lamented still more the effect, that he was sure the making of the present bill the immediate sequel to that rejection would have on the public mind. At two in the morning the house was moved for leave to bring in a bill to repeal the Habeas Corpus Act; at five minutes past two in the morning the bill was read a first time, and after a grave and mature deliberation, the bill was ordered to be read, and was accordingly read a second time at ten minutes after two in the morning it was laid before a committee of the whole house. Some gentlemen on both sides held very inflammatory language, and the question being called for at a late hour by the house upon Mr. G. Ponsonby's motion, 7 only voted for it, and 137 opposed it. Mr. Grattan on the 17th of February, 1797, introduced the question of Catholic emancipation. He travelled over every old argument, upon which he threw new light: he discussed all our continental alliances lost, gained, or retained: ridiculed the idea of Popish tenets entering into the grounds of their formation or abandonment. He minutely investigated the principles, pretext, and method of raising the Irish brigade of 6000 Catholics, under Catholic and French officers. He calculated the numerical and physical advantages, which the British navy and army received from Ireland. He concluded a very long, animated, and elaborate speech, by the following resolution: "That the admissibility of 17 Par. Deb. p. 80. Towards the conclusion of the speech, Mr. Grattan thus broke out against the persons whom he considered as possessing and monopolizing the whole power of the state: "These men prescribe for these "things as the old natural jobbers of the country, they demand all power and "all place, in consideration of the superior purity and disinterestedness of "their religion; Give us all the good things on earth, in the name of God; "and in God's mercy give nothing to the rest of our fellow subjects!' Thus "this pure and pious passion for church and state, turns out to be a sort of "political gluttony-an ascendancy hunger-a state voracity-an inordinate "appetite for temporal gratifications; in consideration of spiritual perfection; "and in consequence of this vile and mean, selfish and beastly monopoly, your "state becomes an oligarchy, the worst species of oligarchy, a plebeian oli"garchy. I love the Protestants, I love the Presbyterians, and I love the "Catholics, that is, I love the Irish; if ever my affection abates, it is when "they hate one another." He said he approved of the British ministry, when they liberalized towards the Catholic, and condemned the ministry in 1795, when it renounced its liberality and its honour, and returned to its barbarity, and employed Christian sects, like hell-hounds, to hunt down one another. That in consequence of this, they have set up in Ireland a proscriptive statea proscriptive parliament-a proscriptive monarchy-a proscriptive connexion; they have done so, when the condition of the empire is in a great degree feeble, and that of the constitution in the last degree corrupt. Thus they make the empire feeble, and the constituted authorities profligate, and after purpose to |