sembling, Mr. Pitt had taken the helm of govern, ment, and the Duke of Rutland had superseded the Earl of Nottingham in the viceroyalty of Ireland. On the 13th of March following, Mr. Flood renewed his motion for parliamentary reform, which was rejected by 159 against 85 voices. This decision gave secret satisfaction to those friends of reform who dreaded the emancipation of the Catholics still more than the present system. The Ulster volunteers pre, sented, on a subsequent occasion, an address to their general, the Earl of Charlemont, expressing their satisfaction at the decay of those prejudices which, by limiting the right of suffrage, and circumscribing the number of their citizens, had, in a great degree, created and fostered aristocratic tyranny, the sourceof every grievance, and against which the public voice now unanimously exclaimed. The Earl of Charlemont, in answer, professed himself free from every illiberal prejudice against the Catholics, but entreated the volunteers to desist from a pursuit that would fatally clog and impede the prosecution of their favourite purpose, and besought them not to indulge any opinion that must and would create disunion. This answer being circulated throughout the kingdom heightened that disunion which it professed to deprecate, and the object itself seemed relinquished in despair.

The people of Ireland now loudly called for protecting duties, to foster the infant manufactures of that country, and to compel the inhabitants to consume the produce of native ingenuity and industry. On the 31st of March Mr. Gardiner, member for the county of Dublin, in an able speech, depicted the distresses of the kingdom; called upon the House to copy the conduct of England, of France, and other

per man.

commercial countries, by protecting their manufactures at home; and moved for a high duty on woollens imported into the kingdom. This motion was negatived by a large majority; the whole system of protecting duties being ridiculed as visionary and pernicious. The disappointment of the people now kindled into rage, and the short-lived popularity of the new viceroy was, in the course of a month, entirely at an end. So critical was the state of the Irish metropolis at this period, that it was thought necessary to countermand the embarkation of several regiments destined to the East Indies, and to furnish the garrison of Dublin, consisting of about 4000 regular troops, with thirty rounds of powder and bak Before the end of the session an address was unanimously voted by the House of Coinmons to the Sovereign, representing the distressed state of the kingdom, and praying for the establishment of a more advantageous system of commerce between Ireland and Great Britain; and on the 14th of May the Parliament was prorogued. The last measure of the Parliament seemed, in some measure, to calm the violence of the people. On the 7th of June an extraordinary meeting of the aggregate body of the citizens of Dublin was convened by the sheriffs, in which they came to resolutions declaratory of the right of the people of Ireland to a frequent election, and an equal representation. They called upon the nation to unite with them in the measures necessary to its introduction, and in presenting petitions to the King for a dissolution of the existing Parliament. They asserted that the force of the state consisted in the union of the inhabitants-that an equal participation in all the rights of a man and a citizen was proper, henceforth, to engage all the members of the

state to co-operate efficaciously for the greatest general good. Finally, that it would be of the happiest consequence to the prosperity of the state, and the maintaining of civil liberty, to extend to their brethren, the Roman Catholics, the right of suffrage, as fully as was compatible with the maintenance of the Protestant government. In an address to the people of Ireland they proposed the election of five delegates from each county, city, and considerable town, to meet in Dublin, October the 25th next ensuing, in national congress. On the 9th of August resolutions nearly similar were agreed to at the general meeting of the freeholders of the county of Dublin; and a petition was also voted by them to the King, for a dissolution of the Parliament. The lord-lieutenant, on being requested to transmit these petitions to England, declared it to be his duty to do so; but that he should not fail to accompany them with his entire disapprobation, as they included unjust and indecent reflections upon the laws and parliament of Ireland, and as they tended to foment fatal dissensions among the people. Conscious of its strength, the government of Ireland did not long content itself with a cold expression of disapprobation. The 20th of September having been fixed upon as the day for electing five delegates to represent the city of Dublin in national congress, a short time previously to the intended meeting Mr. Fitzgibbon, the attorney-general, wrote a letter to the sheriffs, expressing his astonishment at having read a public summons signed by them for this purpose, and threatening them with a prosecution if they should proceed. The sheriffs, alarmed at this menace, refused to take any part in the business. Five delegates were, however, chosen, and a resolution passed, declaring the conduct of the

attorney-general to be a violation of Magna Charta. The attorney-general, holding this resolution in contempt, filed informations against the high sheriffs of various counties for convening and presiding at similar meetings. The national congress, however, met on the 25th of October. After a session of three days only, finding their numbers on the return very incomplete, they adjourned to the 20th of January, 1785, having previously passed several resolutions, import→ ing, that the appointment of that assembly, and the steps that had been taken, were in entire conformity with the constitution of Ireland. On the same day commenced the second session of the Parliament of Ireland; and in a short time Mr. Orde, secretary to the lord-lieutenant, laid before the House a series of commercial regulations, digested, during the recess, into a regular system. There were two plans, on which a permanent arrangement might be formed on the basis of equality: 1. A system of mutual prohi bition, and, 2. A system of mutual admission. The propositions, eleven in number, moved by Mr. Orde, were framed in conformity to the latter, and, unques tionably, the wiser of these opposite systems. Much violent discussion ensued; but, ultimately, the pro positions were joyfully received, and ratified by a decisive majority of the House.

CHAPTER XV.

DURING the interval between the prorogation of Parliament and its re-assembling, the nation enjoyed a period of profound tranquillity, the people of England seeming to repose with unbounded confidence in the

wisdom and integrity of the new administration. On the 25th of January, 1785, the second session was opened by a speech from the throne, in which the King recommended the two Houses to apply their utmost attention to the adjustment of such points in the commercial intercourse between this country and Ireland, as were not yet finally arranged. The address of thanks being carried unanimously, the first business which engaged the attention of the House of Commons was the state of the Westminster scrutiny, as it had now continued for eight months, at a vast expense, and only two parishes out of seven had been gone through. The imbecility of the court of scrutiny, as it was pompously called, was exposed in the most sarcastic terms, the high bailiff having no power to summon witnesses, to impose an oath, or to commit for contumacy. Mr. Pitt, however, to the astonishment of the public, vindicated the proceedings, on which Mr. Fox, with indignant warmth, remarked, that he well remembered the day when he congrat ulated the House on the acquisition of Mr. Pitt's splendid abilities: it had been his pride to fight in conjunction with him the battles of the constitution :' he had been ever ready to recognise in the right honourable gentleman a formidable rival, who would leave him far behind in the pursuit of glory; but he had never expected that this rival would become his persecutor. He considered the present measure with regard to Westminster to be instituted instead of an expulsion. The case of the Middlesex election, so much reprobated, had at least the merit of being more manly; for the procedure now adopted accomplished the same end of expulsion, without daring to exhibit any charge against the person expelled. On the 9th of February, Mr. Welbore Ellis moved, that