lature) applied themselves to relieve the condition of the lower order; that such a people and such a parliament should spontaneously associate, unite, arm, array, defend, illustrate, and free their country, overawe bigotry, suppress riot, prevent invasion, and produce, as the offspring of their own head, armed cap-a-pie, like the goddess of wisdom issuing from the thunderer, commerce and constitution— what shall we say of such a people and such a parliament? Let the author of the pamphlet retire to his closet, and ask pardon of his God for what he has written against his country!

I state these things, because these things have been called clamour; I state these facts, in opposition to slander, as the defence of my country, to restore from calumny the character of her constitution, and to rescue from oblivion the decaying evidences of her glory.

I think I know my country; I think I have a right to know her; she has her weaknesses; were she perfect, one would admire her more, but love her less. The gentlemen of Ireland act on sudden impulse; but that impulse is the result of a warm heart, a strong head, and great personal determination; the errors incidental to such a principle of action must be their errors; but then the virtues belonging to that principle must be their virtues also; such errors may give a pretence to their enemies, but such virtues afford salvation to their country. The minister should therefore say what I say to my country-I, who am no better than one of yourselves, but far superior to your tyrants-I, who probably partake of your defects, and shall be satisfied if I have any portion either of your spirit or of your fire: Come, come to this heart, with all your infirmities and all your religion".

66

We return to the publication: we look for something to build or plant in the immense waste-the huge moral devastation this writing has left of the talents, ability, and credit of the country. Three pamphlets of this author lie open before me, a publication of 1793, another of 1798, and the present of 1800, all in the same name. Here we are to look, I suppose, for whatever is by him suffered to remained unlevelled of profound wisdom, liberal policy, comprenensive system; the true principle of government and of a free constitution. Leaf after leaf, and period after period, have I turned them over; the author will show in what part of these poor things those great maxims are to be discovered; to mere mortal eyes these publications seem to be a system of political, moral, and intellectual levelling; scurrilous in themselves, they betray a native, genuine horror of anything like genius, liberty, or the people; great audacity of assertion; great thrift of argument; a turn to be offensive, without a power to be severe-fury in the temper and famine in the phrase.

I find, and lament to find, in those levelling publications the following sentiments: that Ireland is a British colony, and that to demand a free constitution, was to separate from Britain; that Ireland may prudently submit to legislation without representation; that Ireland had no parliamentary constitution till the time of James the First; that the creation of the dependency of the crown for supply on the Commons, was a pernicious precedent; that the remedy for our present free constitution, and the only security for the connexion, was to put in the place of the British parliament the commanding influence of the British cabinet over the Irish legislature. Couple this with a declaration, that half a million had been resorted to some years back to buy the Commons of Ireland; couple that with the declaration contained in this pamphlet, that, for the last seven years, a noble minister of the crown had perseveringly recommended the abolition of the Irish Parliament, and au union in its place; couple all this together, and the result of the pamphlet will be the most complete and ample justification and panegyric of · that opposition, who for a course of years have, with honest perseverance, reprobated that minister's administration. I will not say it is a justification of rebellion, but it is the best defence I have seen; it amounts to a direct charge, for those last fifty years, on the aristocracy and on the commons, of faction, of plunder, of breaches with England, and of acts of separation; and it particularly condemns the parliament for those very measures on which she must rest her credit and authority with the people; and further, it charges, that before any rebel was in the country, a leading minister in the cabinet was himself, and had been for eight years, a secret adviser against the parliamentary constitution of Ireland, of course against the fundamental laws of the land. To such a work, containing three fabrications, four capital departures from matter of fact, together with disparagement of his country, and of almost every honest public character for the last fifty years, I do not think it necessary to

say more.

I conclude, therefore, by repeating what I have already solemnly declared, that

It is not fact that we excited the Catholics.

It is not fact that we persecuted the Catholics.

It is not fact that we adopted the Catholic measures after po place bill and pension bill had passed, and in quest of new matter of opposition.

It is not fact that I ever declared or wrote that the adjustment of 1782 emanated from Dungannon.

It is not fact that I ever compared the parliament that accomplished that adjustment to the parliament of 1613.

It is not fact that I ever declared that the Catholic would be most powerful if these nations were separated.

It is not fact that I ever abandoned to popularity the draft of a bill for vesting in the Parliament of England a power of imperial legislature.

It is not fact that I ever saw, agreed to, or heard of, any such draft. It is not fact that I ever agreed to an alliance with any English party, to oppose any plan of national concord.

It is not fact that I ever entered into any alliance, offensive and defensive, with them, however I might esteem their persons and prefer their principles.

Here are ten assertions made by the author; he is publicly called upon to establish them.

I have said thus much to defend my country and myself in opposition to this publication, that takes the name of a minister who has the support of the governments of both countries, and with respect to whom I have no advantage, except the cause, my own personal superiority, and another recommendation which I possess in common with almost every honest subject in Ireland, and with the Irish nation herself, the advantage which the calumniated has over the calumniator. I might avail myself of many more vulnerable parts in these publications, and press the supposed author personally, as he has pressed others; but, considering his situation more than he has done himself, I consign him to judges more severe than I could be, and to him the most awful, and, on this side the grave, the most tremendous-HIS COUNTRY AND HIS CONSCIENCE!

*This was singularly prophetic. After the Union, Lord Clare repented of his conduct, and I have heard a near relative of his declare, that in his latter days he bitterly reproached himself for the part he had taken in that measure. Note by the Editor of Grattan's Mis. Works.

THE END.