This amiable Prince found refuge from the English Faction that surrounded the Throne, and tore the feather from the Royal plumage, in the generous and dignified pride of the Irish Na tion to him they looked as the legal and constitutional trustee of the powers of Royaltya trustee who, mature in intellect-in years-and in experience, should be vested with the full prerogatives of his Royal parent.-That in the hands of the Regent, mercy should not be limited nor the power of conferring honors and dignities on those of his subjects who merited both, be narrowed and circumscribed.-That the gratitude of the Prince to his subjects is as sincere as the language in which he conveyed it is affecting and impressive, we have no doubt; we can never doubt of the sincerity of the Prince, who listened with attention and admiration to the counsels and opinions of Charles Fox.-And though we deplore, in common with our Countrymen, the great and calamitous visitation by which our old and revered Monarch is afflicted, we feel some consolation in the reflection, that his admired Son will inherit the virtue of his Father, and communicate to Ireland the blessings of that Constitution, of which the Prince himself is the most zealous admirer.

In order the more satisfactorily to exhibit the force of the reasoning of Mr. Grattan, we shall give insertion to the best speech made on the opposite side, by Mr. Fitzgibbon, (Attorney-General) with Mr. Grattan's reply:-we shall also introduce, what we conceive a very able and convincing argument, at once once profound and brilliantpronounced at this period by Mr. Curran. Such a production should not be suffered to moulder in the newspapers which first published them, nor be mutilated by parliamentary compilers who have thought proper to record them.

On the 11th of February, 1789,

Mr. George Ponsonby moved for the order of the day, "That the House do resolve itself into a Committee of the whole House, on the State of the Nation.".

Mr. Fitzherbert, (Secretary to the Lord Licutenant) said, he did not think the House perfectly prepared, on the present day, to come to any decision. He expected to receive further

documents, by which, when the House should be perfectly informed of the manner of proceeding in England, they would be better able to form their determination, and to preserve entire the unity of the executive Government.

To this delay, Mr. Grattan, Mr. Ponsonby, and Mr. Connolly objected, as degrading to the Irish? Parliament, and to the free constitution of their country.

The Clerk having read the examination of the Physicians, relative to the state of the King's health

Mr. GRATTAN rose, and spoke to the following purport:

2

The Right Honorable Secretary has stated. the plan of the Castle, which it seems is limi tation and a bill. He proposes to name, for the Regency of this realm, his Royal Highness the Prince of Wales ;-in this we are perfectly! agreed; but I must in this add, that he only

follows the most decided wishes of the people of Ireland. We are clear, we have been so from the first, that His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales ought, and must be the Regent ;→→→ but we are also clear, that he should be in! vested with the full regal power-plenitude of royal power.

"The limitations which the Member purposes to impose, are suggested with a view to preserve a servile imitation of the proceedings of another country-not in the choice of a Regent, which is a common concern, but in the particular provisions and limitations, which are not a common concern, and which ought to be, and must be, governed by the particular circumstances of the different countries. The bill, or instrument which he calls a bill, is suggested on an opinion that an Irish act of Parliament might pass with out a King, in a situation to give the Royal assent, and without a Regent appointed by the Irish Houses of Parliament to supply his place. The idea of limitation, I conceive to be an attack on the necessary power of Government; the idea of his bill is an attack on the King of Ireland. We have heard the Castle dissenting, as we must, from their suggestion. It remains for us to take the business out of their hands, and confide the custody of this

great and important matter to men more constitutional and respectable. The Lords and Commons of Ireland, and not the Castle, should take the leading part in this great duty. The country gent tlemen, who procured the Constitution, should nominate the Regent. I shall submit the proceed. ings we intend in the discharge of this great and necessary duty.

"We propose to begin by a resolution declaring the incapacity of the King, for the present, to dis charge the personal functions of the regal power. It is a most melancholy truth, but a truth notwithstanding so fully proved and so generally admitted, that no man who does not proceed on the principle of affected stupidity, can entertain a doubt of it; the recovery of the Sovereign, however the object of every man's wishes, is that uncertain event on which no man will presume to despair or to decide. Having then by the first resolution ascertained the deficiency in the personal exercise of the regal power, the next step which I shall submit is, the supply of that deficiency: This melancholy duty falls on the two Houses of the Irish Parliament; whether you consider them as the only surviving estates capable of doing an act, or as the highest formed description of his Majesty's people of Ireland. The method whereby I propose