power to give of their gratitude, affection, and reverence. He was succeeded by the Earl of Northington, son of Lord Chancellor Northington, a nobleman extremely well known and much talked of in his day. His grandfather was Anthony Henley, a member of some of King William and Queen Anne's parliaments; and particularly distinguished as the intimate companion of Swift for several years, especially during Swift's connexion with the Whigs. Garth also dedicated his Dispensary to him.

Soon after the arrival of Lord Northington the nation was alarmed with the rumours of an intended dissolution of parliament; nor was it merely rumour, for the event actually took place on the 15th of July, 1783. The volunteers now began to act a part which detached from them all those respectable and eminent individuals who had hitherto acted with them from a conviction that their object was legitimate and their means constitutional. Assuming to themselves the merit of having done all that had been accomplished, and denying any participation to their represen→ tatives, they began to talk freely of the impolicy of laying down their arms while there remained any thing yet to obtain; and that something yet to be obtained they now found out to be a reform in parliament; a favourite theme for declamation, and a convenient pretext for accomplishing objects of a very different character.

In the pursuit of this new duty they were

invigorated by the example of England. Several counties had petitioned parliament, and Mr. Pitt, rising into notice, with all the weight of his father's fame attached to him, appeared, with other popular members, as the champion of the people in this favourite project. How he apostatised from it afterwards need not be told; nor will we stop to inquire whether his dereliction arose from inconsistency or from the deliberate conviction of a mind somewhat more matured, that the evil was partly visionary, and remediable only by incurring the risk of much greater ones.

The Irish volunteers acted with the usual precipitancy of men who engage in undertakings beyond their strength. Unable to measure the difficulty or to devise rational means for overcoming it, they strove, by impetuous force or insidious fraud, to approach their point. On the 1st of July, 1783, a meeting of delegates from forty-five companies of the province of Ulster assembled at Lisburne, in pursuance of a public requisition, when it was resolved unanimously,

That a general meeting of the volunteer delegates of the province of Ulster, on the subject of a more equal representation of the people in parliament, should be held at Dungannon on the 8th day of September." A great number of addresses, resolutions, letters, and protests were issued, connected with the general question of parliamentary reform.

The representation in Ireland, it must be ad

mitted, was in a state which rendered some amelioration of it almost essential to the welfare of the country. The commons consisted of 300 members. Of these, 64 were sent by the counties, and the remainder by cities and boroughs. Admitting that the 64 from the counties were, to a certain degree, under the controul of the people, and supposing that as many more might, by extraordinary exertions, be sent from the cities and boroughs, these would make only 128 that were fairly, freely and fully chosen by the people. The remaining 172 were sent by close boroughs, which were the property of a few wealthy lords and commoners; so that the majority of the house of commons might be regarded as aristocratic rather than as popular representatives. As a slight drawback to this estimate, we may suppose that a few patriotic proprietors of boroughs (such as Lord Charlemont, for example, who first introduced Mr. Grattan into parliament,) employed their privilege for the benefit of their country by sending such men to parliament as would watch over its interests and defend its rights *.

Meanwhile the 8th of September arrived, and the delegates of 272 companies assembled at Dungannon. They published resolutions concerning the representation of the people in par

Of the present 100 members returned to the imperial parliament it deserves to be recorded, that 13 are individuals. who never visited Ireland. They must be excellently adapted to represent her interests.

liament, and elected five persons to represent each county in a national convention, which they appointed to be held in Dublin on the 10th of the following November, to which they entreated the volunteers of the other provinces to send likewise their delegates. The defects of which they complained in the national representation were, that of 300 members, composing the house of commons, only 72 were returned by the free election of the people, since 53 peers nominated 123 members, and influenced the choosing of 10; and 52 commoners nominated 91, and influenced the choice of 3.

*

The committee of correspondence applied to Lord Charlemont for his sentiments in general upon the question of parliamentary reform, and requesting him to point out such specific mode of reform, and the most eligible steps leading to it, as came up to his lordship's ideas. Lord Charlemont wrote a temperate reply to this application, in which he advised, that at the Dungannon meeting the measure alone should be recommended without specifying any mode whatsoever, which last consideration ought, according to his judgment, to be left entirely to the mature deliberation of parliament, and particularly of those representatives whom they were about to choose.

The government, meanwhile, beheld with anxi

The reader will find, in Hardy's Life of this nobleman, a mass of curious and authentic information respecting this most important period of Irish history.

ous fears the proceedings of these military re-formers. It was difficult to determine how they' should be repressed or how guided. The 10th of November was approaching, and it was necessary they should at least decide upon some certain course of conduct according to what might probably be anticipated of the proceedings of that day. Nothing, however, was determined on. The new parliament met on the 14th October, and Edmund Sexton Pery was unanimously elected speaker of the house of commons. It was judiciously contrived by government that the thanks of the legislature to the volunteers should be moved immediately for their spirited endeavours to provide for the protection of their country, and for their ready and frequent assistance to the civil magistrate in enforcing the due execution of the laws. This prevented any other motion, of a more questionable tendency, being made. On the second day of the session Mr. Gardiner moved a vote of thanks to their late viceroy, Lord Temple. This vote of thanks was opposed only by three individuals, and when it is remembered what were Lord Temple's exertions to correct public abuses, the reader will not be surprized to learn that each of them had been charged as public defaulters or as debtors to the king.

On the 28th October, 1783, Sir Henry Cavendish moved, "That the condition of this country required every practicable retrenchment consistent with the safety thereof, and with the honourable