XXXIX. CHAP national congress, a term invidious from its signi cation in America. When their petition, grounded on their previous resolutions, was presented to the viceroy for transmission to the throne, he promised his compliance with their request, but declared his resolution of conveying at the same time his "entire disapprobation of it, as tending to weaken the authority of the laws and parliament of Ireland." Petitions on the same grounds were also elsewhere voted, particularly from Belfast, a town less prudent than zealous in pursuit of its object, whose request was, that his Majesty should dissolve the present parliament, and summon a new parliament, according to the plan which should be digested by the national congress. Pitt, the prime minister, to whom this petition was transmitted for presentation to the throne, made answer, that he still continued a zealous friend of reform, but considered this proposal as tending to produce still greater evils than any of those, which the advocates of a more equal representation of the people were desirous to re medy. Congress. 1784. To prevent the assembling of the intended con gress vigorous exertions were made by the ministry, The sheriffs of Dublin, who had signed a summons for a meeting of the citizens, to choose their delegates, on the twentieth of September, were intimidated from any further interference by a letter from the attorney-general, Fitzgibbon, who threatened them with the vengeance of the law. The meeting took place without the sheriffs, the delegates were chosen, XXXIX. chosen, and a resolution passed, declaring the con- CHAP duct of the attorney-general a violation of Magna Charta. Regardless of such declarations, Fitzgib bon proceeded to file informations in the court of King's Bench against magistrates who had presided at similar meetings, particularly the high sheriff of the county of Dublin, who, for a mitigation of his fine and imprisonment, was obliged to make an apology. The printers also of newspapers, who had published the obnoxious resolutions of such assemblies, were punished in like manner by this court, the legality of whose proceedings in these cases was denied by many. Notwithstanding all impediments, the congress assembled on the twenty-fifth of October; but, finding their number not complete, the members adjourned to the twentieth of the following January, after a session of three days, in which they passed resolutions, importing that their assemblage, and its preparatory steps, were all strictly conformable to the constitution of their country. In its second meeting, on the day appointed, when it was found to consist of above two hundred members, the representatives of twenty-seven counties, and of most of the considerable towns, the proceedings were similar, but the proposed application to parlia ment was resolved to be confined to terms so general, as to leave the mode of redress as open as possible to the legislature. proposi Previously to the prorogation of the parliament Commercial on the fourteenth of May 1784, attempts had been tions. made to procure the imposition of protecting duties, U 4 taxes 1785. XXXIX. CHAP. taxes on manufactured goods imported into Ireland for the protection or encouragement of manufacturers at home; but the attempts had been abortive, and the proposal ridiculed. To assuage, however, the public discontent, an address to the king had been unanimously voted by the commons, praying for the establishment of a more advantageous system of commerce between Great-Britain and Ireland. Eleven propositions for the adjustment of such a system, transmitted from the premier minister of Britain, were laid on the seventh of February 1785, before the Irish parliament, which had met on the twentieth of the preceding month. After some opposition, and even violent invective, they were, not only with approbation but even applause, ratified by both houses; whence they were returned to England for the discussion of the British legislature, whose concurrence would have established a commercial treaty, highly beneficial to Ireland with ultimately still greater advantage to Britain. But here, from the blind and malignant spirit of commercial jealousy, petitions against the system were from several parts of England poured upon the parliament; whence Pitt, who had been honourably anxious for so salutary a measure, was obliged to newmodel the whole plan. From his alterations, and the amendments of the British lords and commons, the commercial propositions, founded originally on the basis of the mutual admission of the merchandize of the two kingdoms, were augmented in number to twenty, and so changed in substance as apparently XXXIX. parently to form quite a new system, when pro- CHAP. pounded to the Irish commous on the twelfth of August. Surprize and indignation pervaded the house on the developement of a scheme calculated to restrict for ever the Irish commerce, and to subject the kingdom to the legislative control of the British parliament. After a vehement contest, which continued till nine in the morning, the motion of the secretary, Orde, for leave to introduce a bill for the establishment of the commercial system contained in the new propositions, passed in the affirmative with a majority of only nineteen in a house consisting of two hundred and thirty-five members. Discouraged by the smallness of the majority in the first stage of the business, the secretary, on the fifteenth day ensuing, having moved the reading and printing of the bill, declared his resolution of proceeding no further with this subject in the present session, and of leaving it to be revived or neglected by the public. By illuminations was attested the popular joy at the failure of this plan, which was never afterwards renewed in the parliament of either kingdom. The experience of a few years, since the removal of the chief restrictions on Irish commerce, might have taught the English traders, that the commercial freedom of Ireland would be, instead of injurious, really advantageous, to the traffic of Britain. But men of this mode of life are seldom individually, never collectively, capable of deducing just conclusions from a comprehensive survey of a great sysė tem. XXXIX. CHAP. tem. Hence erroneous petitions to parliament, supported, sometimes contrary to their private judgement, by the representatives of trading towns. Hence perseverance in the slave trade, which will assuredly draw after it the chastisement of Heaven: for, that national sins are followed by national punishments, is clearly deducible from the whole course of history. Miscellaneous transac Resolutions not to import manufactured goods tions. from England were in general renewed, and attempts of the populace to enforce them occasioned some tumults, and some alarm to administration. Previously to the prorogation of parliament in the September of 1785, the speaker, Perry, resigned from the infirmities of age, and was succeeded in this office by the right honourable John Foster, by the unanimous vote of the house, the last speaker of 1786. the Irish commons, In the next session of parlia ment, which commenced in the January of 1786, the principal of the bills enacted was one for the establishment of a police in the city of Dublin, instead of its former watch, Great, but unavailing, opposition was given by the patriots to this bill, by which a heavy tax was imposed on the citizens for the maintenance of police officers nominable by the crown, whose influence in the corporation of Dublin, diminished by the efforts of Lucas, was thus augmented. In the beginning of the following year, 1787, the parliament, prorogued from the eighth of May to the eighteenth of January, was presented with a new object of discussion.. A species |