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conduct-to restore the peace and liberty of the city, and to guard against any abuse of power in those to whom the guardianship of that peace and liberty should be committed. This bill had, in the last session, been stated as necessary, but had been resisted by Lord Buckingham's Government; but it shall now be soon intro. duced.

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Another principle much desired, was to restrain the abuse of pensions by a bill similar to that of Great Britain. This principle Lord Buckingham has resisted, and his resistance to it is one great cause of my opposing his Govern

ment.

"To these I will add another principle-The restraining revenue officers from voting at elections; this was a principle of the British Parliament, and it was certainly more necessary here, from what had lately taken place, where, by a certain union of family interests, counties had become boroughs; and those boroughs had become private property.

6. But the principle to which I beg to call' the immediate attention of the House is, that of preventing the great offices of the State from being given to absentees. This is a principle adə mitted by all to be founded in national right, purchased by liberal compensation; and every

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departure from it must be considered as a slight te the nobility and gentry of Ireland, who certainly were better entitled to the places of honor and trust in their own country, than any absentee could possibly be; but besides the slight shewn to the nobility and gentry of Ireland, by bestowing places of honor, of profit, and of trust on absentees, the draft of money from this country, the institution of depu'ties, (a second establishment unnecessary, were the principals to reside) the double influence arising from this, raised the abuse into an enormous grievance.

After the nation had recovered its liberty, one of the first objects was to bring home the great offices of the State; these had been taken away in an unjust manner, and in violation of native right, when the country was under oppression. I do not mean to enter into a question, whether too much was paid for bringing home great employments; I would not dispute the price, as it was the purchase of a principle; but the principle being once established, that it was wise and honorable in the nation to purchase home the great offices of the State, and this having been actually reduced to practice in the instances of the Chancellorship of the Exchequer, the Vice Treasurership, the Clerk of the Crown and Ha

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naper, &c. it followed, as a necessary consequence, that the granting away again great places to absentees must be highly improper, and a gross violation of the principle purchased by the nation.

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"With regard to the pension granted to Mr. Grenville, I shall say a few words. Of that gentleman's merits, in his own country, I will say nothing; they could be no reason for granting him a great employment in this, where it was most certain he never would reside; and therefore, in condemning the grant, no one had a right to argue that it was condemned as a grant to the Lord Lieutenant's brother, but as a grant to a person that must necessarily be an absentee; it must be condemned as a slight, and an affront to the native resident nobility and gentry of Ireland.

Is this House ready to submit to such an insult? is it ready to submit to have the principle which it had purchased, violated? is it ready to return to that state of degradation and contempt from which the spirit of the nation had so lately emancipated itself? If you be not, you will not hesitate to come to a resolution, asserting the principle which you have purchased. I will submit such a resolution, worded in the most guarded manner, not attacking the prero

gative of the Crown to grant, but condemning the advice by which the Crown was misled to abuse that prerogative."

Pursuant to the principles laid down by Mr. Grattan in the foregoing statement to be the rule by which the conduct of the Opposition was to be regulated, he proceeded, on the 15th of April, to present a "Bill for the better securing the freedom of election of Members to serve in Parliament, by disabling certain officers employed in the collection or management of his Majesty's Revenue from giving their Votes at Irish Elections."

A motion being made, on the 21st of April, that the Bill should be committed, the Government collected all their real friends to oppose a measure which struck at the root of one of the greatest abuses with which power was then afflicting the country -The Revenue Officers presented their petition complaining, in the language of Freemen, of the threatened violation of their franchises; and their advocates in Parliament exhausted the resources of sophistry in their efforts to discover any thing like plausible reasoning against the honest and legislative recommendation of Mr. Grattan in the following Speech, which formed the happiest and fairest reply

to the futile arguments by which he was opposed.

He states the objections to the Bill, and gives to those objections a triumphant refutation.

"MR. SPEAKer,

"I hope that if any thing falls from the right honorable gentleman, the first Commissioner, that deserves attention, I may be indulged with a reply. That right honorable gentleman, much connected with, much interested on this subject, promises to speak to it at large: when he does, and speaks to it argumentatively, I hope I, like him, may be heard a second time.

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"I beg to remind this House, that the Bill now under your consideration did, nearly in the same words, pass this House with the entire consent of most of those gentlemen who are now; taught to exclaim against it, as an attack on the rights of the people. They themselves then made that attack: they were guilty of the crime they charged, and they and this House, and the Ministers of the Crown, were involved in this enormity. Such a Bill did pass the Commons-such a Bill did

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