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that particular charge from 1800l. per annum to 4800%. The revenue cruizers, which government employed for convoying troops, had in the last year stood in 32,000l. which was charged as a revenue expence. Nay, the very expresses, which government sent to different places on government affairs, were paid by the revenue board. Those things together made a prodigious sum, and it was all charged to the prodigality of the commissioners of revenue, who were blamed for expences, in which they had no manner of concern. The revenue incidents had many improper charges upon them; and salaries, which if they ought to appear any where, ought to appear upon the establishment.

Mr. Grattan said, he thought the Right Hon. gentleman had very candidly explained to the house the condition of that department. As to the incidents, which increased the expence of collecting, not by industry but by idleness, they should be curtailed at present, and guarded from abuse in future, for if people who had salaries on that list, were placed on the pension list, parliament would see them, and strike them off. But as at present circumstanced, the revenue incidents might be called a concealed pension list.

Sir John Parnel admitted there were many abuses in the revenue department; that department was under a particular control, but he rejoiced that that control was under the control of parliament. He recommended to the country gentlemen to teach their tenants obedience to the revenue laws, as there was amongst all ranks of people a disposition to oppose them.

So unwearied was the present opposition in pressing military retrenchments upon the house, that they omitted no opportunity during the session of bringing it forward, but always with the like failure of success. Their party consisted of about one sixth of the house, and as usual, few or none were moved from their ranks by eloquence, argument or reason. When on the 13th of November Mr. Foster had reported the different resolutions from the committee of supply, which the house unanimously agreed to, Sir Edward Newnham again attempted to urge the granting of the supplies for six months, when Mr. Grattan observed, that the question had been already debated and decided, and nothing new was then offered; on which Sir Edward Newnham remarked, that there was a time, when the Right Hon. gentleman and he coincided in opinion, and he was sorry to find, that they then differed so widely. Mr. Grattan replied, that their differences were less, than apprehended: let but parliamentary reform be tacked to the money bill, and he would agree to it.

When the protecting duties were brought before the house, they were not supported by government in the way, which the

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half-starved unemployed manufacturers expected they had been taught to consider them essentially necessary for the support of trade; they flocked round the parliament house in anxious expectation of the protecting duties being established in their favour. Government took great offence at the concourse of people crowding the avenues to the house, and considered that assemblage brought thither by opposition to intimidate. It was however observed from the opposition bench, that the people came thither as supplicants, not as rioters, and they ought to meet the protection of every man in that house: but apprehensions were conceived, that the disposition to postpone the business foreboded no good: if it went over the recess, it would be heard of no more. When Mr. Gardiner, on account of whose illness the committee of ways and means had been kept open for the purpose of receiving his proposition for the protecting duties, appeared in the house on the 20th of November, he ob served, that he was convinced, that the business must gain ground by delay, for every enquiry would add strength to the reasons for its expediency. He therefore requested his Right Hon. friend (Mr. Foster) would adjourn the committee until Monday. In what he proposed he was far from having any idea of prohibitory duties, he only wanted restrictive duties, and those only on such articles as could be manufactured in Ireland,

He took that occasion to advert to the conduct of people out of doors, who had filled the avenues of the house, as if to intimidate its members: he had sent to them, and declared what he then did, that if such improper conduct were persisted in, he had done with the business; and he had the pleasure to find, that the master manufacturers had entered into very strong resolutions for preventing a repetition of such unwarrantable beha

viour.

Mr. Hartley informed the house, that a great number of weavers had waited on him, and assured him the violence com

The popular spirit and wishes appear at this time to have been strongly with the opposition, as appears from the fate of a petition from the chamber of commerce respecting the importation of tobacco, presented by Mr. Hartley to the House of Commons on the 24th of November, 1783, when the government side of the house, and particularly Mr. Fitzgibbon, urged that the house could take no cognizance of the petition of a body of men, styling themselves, A Council of a Chamber of Commerce, a title utterly unknown to the house, either as a chartered or a corporate body. Most of the leaders of the opposition were for receiving the petition (2 P. D. p. 207, and 11 Com. Journ. p. 136.) At length Prime Serjeant Kelly rose and said, “ I feel myself extremely hurt "by some gentlemen making any distinction between one side of the bouse "and the other; I say place ought to make no difference, and I trust there "are honourable men on both sides. I am also hurt at hearing a minister's "majority mentioned, no man who has not the merits of the question with "him can have a majority: I hope it will never be presumed, that a majorit

plained of did not proceed from them, but gave him to understand, that they were set on by persons enemies to the measure in question.

The great outcry of the opposition against Lord Northington's administration was, for acts instead of professions of œconomy. Mr. Flood was their leader, and they were joined by many persons of great personal talent, influence, and property. They differed also from the generality of the ministerialists upon the subject of the volunteers: government considered the armed associations of the volunteers to have performed their mission, and that they then ought to disarm and disband. Opposition looked to the attainment of further rights or liberties, and considered the influence of the volunteers as necessary to procure the future, as they had been instrumental in acquiring the former. The next popular question, which they urged "can be obtained in any other way. For my part, though I hold an office "under government, I never will object to this petition for the style; there " is no fault in the style; here is a select body of men, called the chamber of "commerce; the use of names is to know, who the persons petitioning are, "in case of any impropriety we may call them before us. To this petition we "have the name of an honourable member of this house, he is answerable for "it; it is acknowledged to be a matter of importance, and shall we for mere "matter of form reject an important petition so well authenticated? No, "though I am on this side of the house, and will support government in every "honourable measure, and in none but honourable measures, I will receive "this petition; no power on earth shall prevent me." (Here a loud clapping of hands taking place, the gallery was ordered to be cleared. As soon as that order was complied with, and the house was cleared,)

Mr. Fitzgibbon warmly censured the indecent conduct of the gallery, and moved, that the house should enter into a resolution, "That a gross and inde. "cent outrage, by clapping of hands, having been committed this night by the "strangers admitted to the gallery, resolved that the serjeant at arms do "from time to time take into his custody any stranger or strangers, that he "shall see or be informed of to be in the house, while any committee of the "whole house, or the committee of privileges is sitting, and that this order "should be strictly enforced." The motion was supported by a great number of the treasury side, and opposed by the other part of the house as strenuously.

Mr. Flood, who came in late, was an able advocate for the admission of constituents to hear their debates, and declared, that if gentlemen were not ashamed of their conduct, they had nothing to fear from its being known, and that it was unreasonable and unjust to preclude all from the galleries for the intemperate conduct of a few.

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• The opposition stuck fast to the retrenchment of the military, disdaining the petty savings that were to be made in the civil establishment. Mr. Mo lyneux had indeed on the 22d of November (as he said himself upon his own free motion) moved for and carried a vote of the House of Commons for an additional salary of 4000!. per ann. to the lord lieutenant: there were 77 for and 54 against it. Mr. Grattan found himself called upon by the principles of economy, which he had ever maintained, to take some active step towards for warding that necessary system, especially after he had opposed Mr. Flood and his friends frequent motions for military retrenchment. On the 26th of the

was a reform in the representation of the people. In consequence of the resolutions of the Dungannon meeting, on the 8th of September, 1783, delegates were appointed to form a grand national convention, which assembled at Dublin on the 10th of November, when the Earl of Charlemont was nominated their chairman. They proceeded to enquire into the most eligible system of parliamentary reform, and having entered into a variety of resolutions expressive of their sentiments on that subject, they requested, that Mr. Flood would introduce a bill for that purpose into the House of Commons. It has been said, that the government was at first seriously alarmed at this meeting of the national convention, and that a privy council was summoned to determine on the propriety of arresting both the chairman and secretary of the meeting; but the measure having been considered as hazardous, another expedient was adopted: It was artfully contrived to divide the opinion of the assembly respecting the extension of certain privileges to Roman Catholics; and the common interest and sentiment of the people in general being thus disunited, the efforts of the convention became less formidable, and all means were devised to oppose and decry them in parliament.

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*On the 29th of November, 1783, Mr. Flood moved for leave to bring in a bill for the more equal representation of the people in parliament. This was immediately opposed by the attorney general. "I do not mean (said he) to go into the discussion "of the bill, but I would wish the honourable member would "now state the necessity there is for bringing it in at all, and "also, who those persons are, who are discontented with the present constitution, and with whom it originates: for I will say, if it originate with an armed body, it is inconsistent with "the freedom of debate for this house to receive it. We sit "not here to register the edicts of another assembly, or to re"ceive propositions at the point of the bayonet; I admire the "volunteers, so long as they confine themselves to their first "line of conduct; it was their glory to preserve the domestic peace of their country, and to render it formidable to foreign "enemies: it was their glory to aid the civil magistrate, and "to support their parliament; but when they turn aside from "this honourable conduct; when they form themselves into a debating society, and with that rude instrument the bayonet, "probe and explore a constitution, which requires the nicest "hand to touch, I own my respect and veneration for them is month, when Mr. Grattan moved to take into consideration all practical retrenchments in the collecting of the revenue, he said he should strenuously have opposed Mr. Molyneux's motion had he been in the house. It is to be observed, that Lord Northington declined accepting of the addition.

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2 Parl. Deb. p. 225.

66

"destroyed. If it shall be avowed, that this bill originated with "them, I will reject it at once, because I consider that it decides "the question, whether this house, or the convention, are the "representatives of the people, and whether parliament, or the "volunteers, be to be obeyed. I consider it as a question in"volving the existence of the constitution; and it is in vain, "whatever may be avowed or pretended, to shut our ears and แ eyes, to what every one has seen and heard, armed men walk"ing bareheaded through the streets under a military escort, courting the smiles and applauses of the multitude, and meet"ing in the pantheon of divinities, the rotunda, for we are told "it is blasphemy to utter a word against them; forming com"mittees and sub-committees; receiving reports and petitions, "and going through all the mockery of parliament. It is in "vain then to pretend, that this bill is not their mandate; and "can any man, who has the least regard for that constitution, "which our ancestors purchased with their blood, bear to see government forced from its centre by these reformers? I "think the time is now arrived, things are come to such a crisis, "that even our self-preservation, as a parliament, depends on "the vote we shall now give. This is the spot to make our “stand, here we must draw our line; for we have retired step "by step, as they have advanced: we are now on a precipice; " and to recede one step more, plunges us into inevitable ruin.

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"Sir, I lament, for the honour of my countrymen, that they "should have chosen this period for introducing innovation, or exciting discontent. What is the occasion, that calls forth "their displeasure against the constitution, and what is our pre"sent situation? Blessed with a free trade and a free constitu❝tion, our peers restored to their rights and to their lawful au"thority, our judges rendered independent, the manacles fallen "from our commons, all foreign control abolished, we take our "rank among nations, as a free state; and is this a time to alter "that constitution, which has endured so many storms, and "risen superior to all oppressions? Will the armed associations, "wise as they may be, be able to form a better, though they reject this? Before they have for a single session entered into "the enjoyment of it, like children, they throw away the bauble, "for which with all the eagerness of an infantine caprice, they "have struggled; or like spendthrifts, they would make away "with their inheritance, before they enter into possession of it. "But I will say to the volunteers, you shall not throw from you "the blessings you may possess under your happy constitution, “cultivate your own prosperity, and enjoy the fruits of your "virtue, beat your swords into ploughshares, return to your "different occupations, leave the business of legislation in those "hands, where the laws have placed it, and where you have

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