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give. Every thing of value which you possess you obtained under a free constitution: if you resign this, you must not only be slaves but idiots. His propositions are built upon nothing but your dishonor. He tells you-it is his main argument-that you are unfit to exercise a free constitution; and he affects to prove it by the experiment. Jacobinism grows, he says, out of the very state and condition of Ireland. I have heard of parliament impeaching ministers; but here is a minister impeaching parliament. He does more; he impeaches the parliamentary constitution itself. The abuses in that constitution he has protected; it is only its existence that he destroys-on what ground? Your exports since your emancipation, under that constitution, and in a great measure by it, have been nearly doubled; commercially therefore it has worked well. Your concord with England since the emancipation, as far as it relates to parliament, on the subject of war, has been not only approved, but has been productive; imperially, therefore, it has worked well. To what then does the minister in fact object?-that you have supported him, that you have concurred in his system therefore he proposes to the people to abolish the parliament and to continue the minister. He does more; he proposes to you to substitute the British parliament in your place, to destroy the body that restored your liberties, and restore that body which destroyed them. Against such a proposition, were I expiring on the floor, I should beg to utter my last breath, and to record my dying testimony.'

Mr. CORRY could not avoid taking notice of Mr. Grattan's extraordinary speech.' He intimated to him, that the history of his own exploits, which chiefly composed his account of the constitution of 1782, was

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totally unnecessary, as that settlement had not been impugned by any member of the house, being universally deemed final and conclusive with regard to its particular object, viz. the assertion of the right of the Irish nation to refuse obedience to the acts of the British legislature, in which the former community was not represented. The extension of its finality, however, to a perpetual preclusion of all power of the parliament of Ireland to apply the circumstances arising from new situations to the future advantage of the country, was extremely absurd.-In answer to the observations of the last speaker on the regency and other alleged points of parliamentary difference, he maintained the risque of a variance which might lead to separation. He even supported his side of the question by referring to what Mr. Grattan had admitted in speaking of the principle of party—namely, that the two legislatures might practically differ from each other. Hence it was evident, said the chancellor of the exchequer, that the boasted compact was not a sufficient bond of connexion. In the case of war or of peace, the inadequacy of the constitution also appeared; for the power of refusal in the Irish to concur with the British parliament was sufficient at any time to destroy the co-operation, and consequently to loosen the connexion and impair or subvert the security of the empire. The inferiority of the Irish constitution, he thought, must be obvious tò Mr. Grattan, in the want of that power of controlling the exercise of the royal prerogative in questions of peace and war, which the British lords and commons possessed. Where, he might ask, was the control of the Hibernian parliament over the British minister advising the king to declare war, when even with respect to the minister in Ireland the power of that body was

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totally inoperative over what the honorable gentleman himself had so often expressively termed the fugacious responsibility of those who could elude the grasp of parliament, and scoff at its authority by stepping on board of the packet?"

Mr. Grattan's assertion, that the liberties of Ireland were those which were settled at the convention of Dungannon, ratified at the provincial meetings, and finally registered by parliament, drew from Mr. Corry such censures as might have been expected from a minister of the crown, replying to an advocate of the sovereignty of the people. The strictures on the treatment of the catholics, on the bribes offered to various descriptions of men, and on the fallacy of the hopes thus excited, were likewise productive of strong ani ́madversion from this courtly speaker, by whom French principles in their worst sense were freely imputed to the warm opposer of the ministry.

The idea that the parliament of Ireland would be annihilated by an union was also reprobated by Mr. Corry, as absurd and delusive. The three estates, he said, would continue to legislate for that countrynamely, the king, the lords of Ireland, by a number elected by and from themselves, and the commons representing the people, chosen by themselves.' Whatever might be the proportion of numbers, the Hibernian parliament would merely be blended with another set of men constituting the British parliament.

A division followed this long course of debate, about ten o'clock in the morning. The votes for the amendment did not exceed 96, while 138 appeared for the unaltered address. This superiority of number was highly pleasing to the court; and the viceroy hoped to increase it by allowing an interval of some weeks to

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pass before he sent to either house a copy of the resolutions of the parliament of Great-Britain.

On the 5th of February, a message from the lordlieutenant was delivered to each assembly, intimating the king's desire that the resolutions should be submitted to the attentive consideration of the Hibernian legislature, and expressing his hope that the great object to which they related might be matured and completed by the wisdom of the two parliaments and the loyal concurrence of the people. Lord CASTLEREAGH then rose, and, before he entered into a detail of the scheme, made some remarks on the unfavorable reception which attended it in the preceding year, and on the change of sentiment which had taken place in the minds of many who were then hostile to the measure. The resistance to it, he said, had been principally occasioned by ignorance of its nature and misrepresentation of its effects. In proportion as it was more deliberately and fully investigated, the opposition to it became less general, and the clamors less violent. The great body of the landed property in Ireland became friendly to the principle; for the property of those who had declared in favor of it in the two houses of parliament, was, in comparison with the estates of its opponents, nearly in the proportion of three to one. Nineteen counties, whose superficial contents form five-sevenths of the island, had come forward in its support. He did not mean to assert, that these counties were unanimous in approving the measure. Complete and perfect unanimity was not to be expected upon any great political question: but he would venture to assert, that a very great proportion of the property in those counties decidedly favored it, and most of the great commercial towns in the

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kingdom had also declared in its favor. When hẹ spoke of Dublin, he begged to be understood as speaking of it with that high respect, which the zeal and loyalty of its inhabitants, conspicuously displayed in the trying circumstances of the late rebellion, so fully demanded; but he could not refrain from observing, that they seemed at present to be affected with the same unreasonable apprehensions and alarms which were felt by the citizens of Edinburgh at the time of the union with Scotland. Those apprehensions, those alarms, had been proved to be ideal and unfounded; and he trusted that the citizens of Dublin would live to change their fears into satisfaction, and, like the citizens of Edinburgh, would have cause to be thankful to Providence for the accomplishment of an union with Great-Britain, and grateful to those who should assist in its completion.

He then animadverted on the proceedings of the chief adversaries of the union. I acknowlege, (he said) that some counties have manifested a disposition adverse, to this measure; but this circumstance does not affect me with surprise, as it is known, that their sentiments have been greatly influenced by the exertions and the connexions of the gentlemen on the other side of the house; nor is it to be wondered at, that much opposition should have recently broken forth in some parts of the country, when we advert to the new political phænomenon which has appeared in this metropolis since the last debate. We have seen a part of the minority not satisfied with exercising their deliberative powers within these walls, but organising themselves in another place, empowering certain persons to send their letters missive through the coun

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