member of the superior committee, and soon attained by his imposing talents a marked ascendency. The Bishop of Derry strenuously supported the resolution for extending the elective franchise to the catholics; but Mr. Flood as strenuously, but more successfully, opposed it. Lord Charlemont and his friends, thinking the measure at that time premature, opposed it also, and it was finally rejected. Various other plans for the reform itself met a similar fate; and, finally, Mr. Flood produced one of his own, which, upon full discussion, was not deemed better than others which had been rejected.

We shall not here attempt to detail the proceedings of the convention more at length. The assembly, however, at length tired out by the multiplicity of visionary projects, all turned towards Lord Charlemont for his opinion. Averse alike to ostentation and public speaking, he had hitherto remained silent; but now declared his readiness to sacrifice the only borough he possessed to the wishes of that country, in trust for which he had always held it. In a conversation, which his lordship held apart with the Bishop of Derry, that noble and reverend prelate, in allusion to the catholic question, took the liberty of telling his lordship" that his conduct was by no means generally approved, and that he was considered as rather lukewarm in the cause of reform." An unpleasant conversation followed, which closed with the following decla ration of his lordship :

"The difference I make between the former and present objects of our exertions is this,-Whilst Ireland was in effect subject to a foreign legislature, there were no lengths to which I would not have gone to rescue her from a state which I considered as positive slavery. To that point I had pledged my life and fortune; and towards the attainment of it I would willingly and cheerfully have hazarded not only them, but what was still more dear to me, and far more important, the peace of my country. Our present object I esteem great, and of high importance; and to attain it, will do every thing not inconsistent with

the public peace, but I will go no farther. Make what use of this you please."

The convention had now sat three weeks, and a new parliament having met at the end of October, was sitting the while. Lord Charlemont, who sedulously attended in the duties of his presidency, had suffered much from close confinement. Mr. Flood, having carried the resolution for adopting his plan of reform, to the astonishment of Lord Charlemont and the other friends of moderation, he rose in the assembly on the afternoon of Saturday, November 29th, and proposed that he himself, accompanied by such members of parliament as were then present, should go down to the house of commons, and move leave for a bill for parliamentary reform, precisely corresponding with the plan he had submitted-" and that the convention should not adjourn till the fate of his motion was ascertained." Here was a complete avowal of a deliberative assembly, co-existing with the parliament, and almost assuming co-extensive authority. The motion, however, was carried:-Lord Charlemont and his friends saw the rashness and impropriety of such a step; but Mr. Flood's ascendency at that time bore down all opposition. He hurried to the house of commons, and proposed his motion for adopting his plan. The aspect of the house was truly awful. Several of the minority, and all the delegates who came with Mr. Flood from the convention, were in military uniform.-A most tumultuous debate ensued, which before morning became almost a tempest; but Mr. Flood's motion was lost upon the division, one hundred and fiftynine against one hundred and seventy-seven, and this was followed by a declaratory determination of the house to maintain its just rights and privileges against any encroachment whatever. A vote for an address to the throne was afterwards carried, as the joint address of both houses, expressive of perfect satisfaction in his majesty's government, and a determination to support it with their lives and fortunes.

In the mean time, the convention having sat above two

hours without any intelligence from Mr. Flood, Lord Charlemont, suspecting what would be the fate of that gentleman's motion, and anxious to prevent any new error, prevailed on them to adjourn till the following Monday. There was a numerous meeting on the intermediate Sunday, at Charlemont House, whereat it was agreed, that the public peace should be the first object of attention; his lordship received numerous messages from delegates of whom he had scarce any personal knowledge, that they were ready to follow him in any measure he should propose. On the Monday morning he took the chair at an early hour. A delegate rose and began to inveigh against the house of commons. His lordship instantly called the delegate to order, observing, that one of the wisest rules of parliamentary proceedings was never to take notice in one house of what was said in another. This had the desired effect, and promoted order and harmony through the day.

Lord Charlemont's own plan at the original meeting of the convention, was to prevent all intercourse between parliament and that assembly; and that the delegates having once agreed to a plan of reform, the convention should be dissolved, and that the delegates should then lay before their respective county meetings, regularly convened, the plan agreed on, in order that the subject should be submitted through their representatives in dutiful petitions to parliament. This was certainly the most unexceptionable mode of proceeding, but Mr. Flood's genius prevailed against it. It was thought advisable, however, that the delegates should not separate without some plan of parliamentary reform still to be kept in view. Two resolutions were therefore passed unanimously, declaring the sense of the convention, that the delegates of counties, cities, and towns, in conjunction with the other freeholders, should forward the plan of reform agreed to by the assembly, by convening county meetings and instructing their representatives in parliament to support it; and

exhorting the nation to use every constitutional effort to effect that reform so manifestly necessary.

An address to his majesty was then voted, declaring their loyalty to their sovereign, and their attachment to Great Britain was thought the most dignified reply to asperities cast on the assembly by some members in parliament. The address was couched in the most dutiful terms, and concluded with imploring his majesty that their humble wish to have certain manifest perversions of parliamentary representation in the kingdom, remedied by the legislature in some reasonable degree, might not be imputed to any spirit of innovation in them; but to a sober and laudable desire to uphold the constitution, to confirm the satisfaction of their fellow-subjects, and to perpetuate the cordial union of both kingdoms.

Lord Charlemont, fully aware of the evil consequence to which the longer continuance of such an assembly in the metropolis, might be liable, wisely insisted that no other business should be proceeded on, and the convention finally adjourned.

Thus terminated this memorable meeting; and happy was it for Ireland, and the empire, that Lord Charlemont and other noblemen and gentlemen of his wise and moderate principles, had sway enough to prevent the seeds of anarchy so plentifully sown by indiscreet and impetuous partisans, from coming to maturity. The dissolution of the convention excited little or no public sensation. To above three-fourths of the population, namely, the catholic body, their proceedings were viewed with jealousy, if not with disappointment and disgust; for while their plan of reform talked of extending the right of suffrage to the possession of property in every shape, and at the same time, to perpetuate exclusion from that suffrage to their catholic countrymen, was a strage contradiction: and thus, while they professed to erect a temple of general freedom for the people, three-fourths of that people were to be precluded from entering even the vestibule. The

cordiality which had for some time subsisted between Lord Charlemont and Lord Northington, had considerably cooled. The introduction of John Scott (afterwards Earl of Clonmell), and John Fitzgibbon (afterwards Earl of Clare) to power, had alienated his lordship from the viceroy, whom, on the other hand, the convention had alienated from Lord Charlemont, who had continued his attendances at the viceroy's levee, after the convention was dissolved; but his visits were received with such cold civility, that he now declined them entirely. He had done the state important services in that very convention, and gratitude, rather than frowns and coldness, was the due meed of himself and many of his friends, who acted with him, and now shared in the same unworthy treat

ment.

The coalition ministry of Mr. Fox and Lord North were soon removed from their places, and Lord Northington of course from the government of Ireland, and was succeeded by the Duke of Rutland.

Early in 1786, Lord Charlemont was elected president of the Royal Irish Academy, incorporated under the auspices of his majesty, and to which such a president was both an honour and an ornament, as well as an able and active promoter of its laudable purposes, which embraced the three compartments of science, polite literature, and antiquities. The volunteer army-the great objects of its formation being now accomplished, began rapidly to diminish in its numbers. This circumstance was observed by Lord Charlemont; but his solicitude and attention to them, suffered no abatement; and in this and the following year their reviews were continued, for he was aware that if he relinquished the command of those bands, there were not wanting some who might seize on that command, for purposes not so patriotic as his own; besides that, it was more wise to suffer those corps to fade away tacitly under his calm and auspicious rule, than that they should receive an angry and ill-timed mandate from the castle, for dispersion; which, instead of obedience, might have produced