"Resolved unanimously, That four members from each county of the province of Ulster (eleven to be a quorum) be, and are hereby appointed, a committee till next general meeting, to act for the volunteer corps here represented, and, as occasion shall require, to call general meetings of that province.

"Resolved unanimously, That said committee do appoint nine of their members to be a committee in Dublin, in order to communicate with such other volunteer associations in the other provinces as may think proper to come to similar resolutions, and to deliberate with them on the most constitutional means of carrying them into effect.

Resolved unanimously, That' the committee be, and are hereby instructed to call a general meeting of the province, within twelve months from this day, or in fourteen days after the dissolution of the present parliament, should such an event sooner take place.

"Resolved unanimously, That the court of Portugal have acted towards this kingdom (being a part of the British empire) in such a manner as to call upon us to declare, and pledge ourselves to each other, that we will not consume any wine of the growth of Portugal, and that we will, to the utmost extent of our influence, prevent the use of said wine, save and except the wine at present in this kingdom, until such time as our export shall be received in the kingdom of Por

tugal, as the manufactures of part of the British empire.

"Resolved, (with two dissenting voices only to. this and the following resolutions,) That we hold the right of private judgment in religion to be equally sacred in others as in ourselves..

"Resolved therefore, That as men and as Irishmen, as Christians and as protestants, we rejoice in the relaxation of the penal laws against our Roman Catholic fellow-subjects, and that we conceive the measure to be fraught with the happiest consequences to the union and prosperity of the inhabitants of Ireland."

"To the Right Honourable and Honourable the Minority in both Houses of Parliament.

MY LORDS, AND GENTLEMEN,

"We thank you for your noble and spirited, though hitherto ineffectual efforts in defence of the great constitutional and commercial rightst of your country. Go on:-the almost unanimous voice of the people is with you, and in a free country the voice of the people must prevail. We know our duty to our sovereign, and are loyal. We know our duty to ourselves, and are resolved to be free. We seek for our rights, and no more

than our rights; and in so just a pursuit, we should doubt the being of a Providence if we doubted of success.

66

Signed, by order,

WILLIAM IRVINE, Chairman."

Thus ended the business of this memorable day. The meeting was held in the church. Its moderation and patriotic character equally rejoiced the friends and disappointed the enemies of the volunteers. The latter hoped to have found some rash or unconstitutional proceeding which might have been made a pretext for destroying the union altogether.

Passing from the field to the senate, we find Mr. Grattan, the untired labourer in his country's cause, the oracle and idol of his armed countrymen, still urging the claims of Ireland for independence and liberty. On the 22d Feb. only seven days after the Dungannon meeting, he moved in the house of commons for an address to the king, "to assure his majesty with unfeigned attachment to his person and government, that the people of Ireland were a free people; the crown of Ireland a distinct kingdom, with a parliament of her own; and that with one voice they protested against the interposition of any other

parliament in its legislation. That the claim of the British parliament to legislate for Ireland was useless to England, cruel to Ireland, and without any foundation in law; that, impressed with a high sense of the justice of the British character, and in reliance on his majesty's paternal care, they had set forth their right and sentiments without prescribing any mode to his majesty, and threw themselves on his royal wisdom." This motion he supported with a variety of arguments, urged in a manner that may make us wonder how they were resisted. It was seconded by Mr. Brownlow; but the attorney-general opposed it, and moved, that it should be put off till the 1st Aug. which was carried by 137 against 68.

The heads of the Roman Catholic bills occasioned much debating in their progress. One was entitled, un act for the further relief of his majesty's subjects of this kingdom professing the Roman Catholic religion; by the operation of which, catholics were enabled to take, hold, and dispose of, lands and hereditaments in the same manner as protestants, (except advowsons and manors, and boroughs returning members to parliament.) It removed also several penalties from such of the clergy as should have taken the oath of allegiance and been registered; and repealed several of the most obnoxious parts of the acts passed in the reigns of Anne, Geo. I. and Geo. II. Among these obnoxious restraints thus repealed were the following, which may serve to convey some idea

of the cruel and rigourous nature of these anti-. catholic enactments. It repealed the power given to a magistrate to fine and imprison every papist refusing to appear, and declare upon oath when and where he had last heard mass, who celebrated and assisted at it, and the residence of any popish ecclesiastic; also that part which prohibited a papist to have a horse of the value of 51. under certain penalties, and which enabled the chief governor to seize all their horses upon any invasion or intestine war likely to happen; that which enabled the grand jury to present the reimbursing of all robberies and depredations of privateers, in time of war, upon the real and personal estates of the catholics within the county; that which subjected every catholic to certain penalties who did not provide a protestant watchman to watch in his turn; and that which subjected to certain penalties every catholic who should take or pur chase a house in Limerick or Galway, or the suburbs thereof. Such were a few of the ignominious restrictions which the enlightened government of England thought it necessary to impose, and which, even towards the close of the 18th century, found some defenders! The second bill of Mr. Gardiner was an act to allow persons pro-. fessing the popish religion to teach schools in this kingdom, and for the regulating the education ofpapists; and also to repeal parts of certain laws relative to the guardianship of their children. Mr. Gardiner had a third bill, which was for