Notwithstanding the great conceffions made by the par liament of Great Britain to the people of Ireland, that country, finding its own ftrength, remained in a state far fhort of fatisfaction; for it had ftill much to afk, or rather to demand. The army on the Irish establishment had been hitherto invariably governed and directed by the fole prerogative of the monarch; but as the spirit of liberty and independence increafed, a mutiny bill, on the model of the English, had been recently introduced into the Irith parliament, and paffed into a perpetual law. But a measure originally highly popular was now the fubject of loud complaint; and it was affirmed, not without reafon, that liberty could never be fecured on juft and constitutional grounds, fo long as the monarch was irrevocably invefted with the unlimited power of the fword; that in England the mutiny bill was paffed only from year to year, and in the very preamble of it, ftanding armies withoutconfent of parliament are declared illegal; the troops themselves, the law that regulated, and the power that commands them, are by this bill limited to one year. Thus was the army of England rendered a parliamentary army, and the conftitutional afcendency of the fubject over the foldier preferved.

In numerous county and provincial meetings the fupremacy of the British parliament was in formal refolves pofitively denied, and the abfolute independence of Ireland on the British legiflature boldly afferted. The unconftitutional powers of the Irish privý council, where, agreeably to the famous law of Poyning, all laws muft originate, were reprobated, a habeas corpus act loudly called for, the aboli tion of all fuperfluous places and penfions infifted upon. The zeal and activity of the military affociations fufficiently evinced their determination to enforce their claims by a mode of application which was in no danger of being difregarded.

SUCH

SUCH was the state of things when the fecond feffion of the prefent parliament commenced at Westminster, on the 27th of November 1781. In the speech from the throne his majesty obferved, "that the war was fill unhappily prolonged, and that, to his great concern, the events of it had been very unfortunate to his army in Virginia, having ended in the total lofs of his forces in that province. But he could not confent to facrifice, either to his own defire of peace or to the temporary ease and relief of his fubjects, thofe effential rights and permanent interests upon which the strength and fecurity of this country must ever principally depend." His majesty declared, "that he retained a firm confidence in the protection of divine providence, and A PERFECT CONVICTION of the JUSTICE of his CAUSE ;" and he concluded by calling "for the concurrence and fupport of parliament, and a VIGOROUS, ANIMATED, and UNITED EXERTION of the FACULTIES and RESOURCES of his PEOPLE." Upon the whole, this fpeech was plainly indicatory of a fixed and refolute determination to profecute a war, of which it might well be fuppofed, that fools as grofs as ignorance made drunk" might by this time have feen the hopeleffnefs and the abfurdity.

The monarch had now fwayed the fceptre of these kingdoms more than twenty years, and, in the courfe of a long and variegated series of events, his character both perfonal and political was completely matured and developed. *

to reverse the medal, a view of the private life and domeftic habits of the king will indeed discover a life paffed without any remarkable deviation from the rules of propriety and decorum, and much lefs any direct violation of the higher and more ferious obligations of morality and religion. But the virtues of the man, were they fuch as to entitle him to the honors of papal canonization, unfortunately afford to the public a moft inadequate and wretched compenfation for the errors and imperfections of the monarch.

The fpeech from the throne underwent, as may well be imagined, the fevereft animadverfion.-Mr. Fox faid he had expected, and he knew it had been expected by many others, to hear on this occafion his majesty declare from the throne, that he had been deceived and impofed upon by misinformation and mifrepresentation; that, in confequence of his delufion, the parliament had been deluded, but that now the deception was at an end; and requesting of his parliament to devise the most speedy and efficacious means of putting an end to the public calamities: inftead of which, they had heard a speech breathing little elfe than vengeance, mifery, and blood. Those who were ignorant of the personal character of the fovereign, and who imagined this fpeech to originate with him, might be led to fuppofe that he was an unfeeling defpot, rejoicing in the horrid facrifice of the liberty and lives of his fubjects, who, when all hope of victory was vanifhed, ftill thirfted for revenge. The ministers who advised this fpeech he affirmed to be a CURSE to the country, over the affairs of which they had too long been fuffered to prefide. From that unrivalled pre-eminence which we fo lately poffeffed, they had made us the object of ridicule and fcorn to the furrounding nations. "But," faid he," the time will furely come when an oppreffed and irritated people will firmly call for SIGNAL PUNISHMENT on those whofe counfels have brought the nation fo near to the brink of destruction. An indignant nation will furely

furely in the end compel them to make fome faint atonement, for the magnitude of their offences, on a PUBLIC SCAFFOLD." He concluded with moving, "That of the address propofed the whole be omitted excepting the first paragraph, and the following words inferted :-" And we will without delay apply ourfelves with united hearts to propofe and digeft fuch counfels as may in this crifis excite the efforts, point the arms, and, by a total change of fyftem, command the confidence of all his majefty's fubjects."

This amendment was vigorously fupported by Mr. Pitt, who declared," that the duty he owed his fovereign and his country compelled him to exert every effort to prevent the houfe from precipitately voting an addrefs, which pledged them to the fupport of that fatal system which had led this country, ftep by step, to the molt calamitous and difgraceful fituation to which a once flourifhing and glorious empire could be reduced.-Was it becoming the parliament of a free people to echo back the words which a minifter, long practifed in the arts of delufion, had dared to put into the royal mouth? He implored the houfe not to vote for an addrefs fraught with treachery and falfehood, which could not have been framed by any who felt for the honor of the king, the dignity of parliament, or the intereft of the nation." An amendment of the fame import was moved in the upper house by the carl of Shelburne, and fupported by the duke of Richmond, who declared "the misfortunes. of this country to be owing to that wretched fyftem of government which had been early adopted in the reign of his prefent majefty, and to the influence of that INTERIOR CABINET which (he faid) had been the ruin of this country;" and he recalled to the recollection of the house the memorable declaration of the late earl of Chatham, "that he was duped and deceived, and that he had not been ten days in the cabinet before he felt the ground rotten under his feet."

VOL. II.

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In both houses, however, the addreffes were carried by great majorities, and a moft melancholy and alarming profpect prefented itself to the nation, of a fatal perfeverance in a war which, from an involuntary and irresistible conviction univerfally impreffed, was now regarded as defperate, and paffionately deprecated as tending to certain and remedilefs ruin.

In a very few days, a motion being made by Sir Grey Cooper for the house to refolve itself into a committee of fupply, a vehement debate arofe. Mr. Fox in the course of a most animated fpeech, afked "if ministers would give any fatisfactory affurance to the house, that the military forces which fhould hereafter be fent across the Atlantic, would be employed more fuccessfully or honorably than those which had already been fent thither? Did the American fecretary wish to dispatch a third army to America, that general Washington might a third time receive them as prisoners of war? Did he wish that more British troops fhould be devoted to flaughter, captivity and difgrace? Notwithstanding the defeat and dishonor which had attended the measures of administration, they had yet difcovered no figns of humiliation or penitence. Instead of acknowledging that they turned their eyes with inquietude and fhame upon the criminal expenditure of fruitless millions, they did not blush to move for an increase of grants, that they might profecute, till ruin should have stopped their infamous career, hoftilities which were the refult of barbarous ambition, of implacable malevolence, of a deteftation of liberty, of a contempt for every principle of justice, equity, and honor."

The minifters were fo vigorously pushed in this debate, and seemed fo utterly incapable of defending themselves or their measures, that it was probably a welcome furprife to them, to find in their favor, on the division, 172 voices to 77.

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