matters, because he thought it his duty to cherish the harmony that fubfifted. But now fince conftitutional questions were revived, he fhould not be wanting. Whenever the time came for that purpose, he fhould give them battle, and Ireland fhould be the judge. Mr. Forbes's amendment was rejected, ayes 35, noes 8. When the house met again, purfuant to the adjournment, Mr. Rowley moved, in conformity to the hint he had thrown out, that the houfe adjourn to the firft of Ja nuary next. This mot on however he withdrew at the request of Mr. Grattan. Mr. Grattan did not with the country gentlemen to put any question as yet, or to divide their ftrength. It was better in fo eventful a moment, to wait till the advance fhould be made upon them; it was better to keep themselves firm and compact. idea he had formed of moving an addrefs to the lord lieutenant, requeting him to put an end to the fetion of parliament. Mr. Rowley was followed by Mr. Forbes, who was explicit in his condemnation of the amended fyttem, and propofed as a fupplement to the motion of adjournment, that the speaker should write circular letters to the members requiring their attendance as they regarded the conftitutional and commercial right, of Ireland. An unequivocal di approbation of the fyitem was at the fame time declared by Mr. Corry, Mr. Griffith, Mr. Arthur Browne, fir Henry Cavendish and Mr. Grattan. By fir Henry Cavendish it was afferted that there could be but one fentiment upon the fubject. Unless the twenty refolutions came to Ireland materially altered from the state in which he had feen them, it was im poffible for the prefent adminiftration, it was impoffible for any adminittration, to bring them forward in parliament. There was not an Englishman nor an Irishman that would dare to do it; and if there were, he would not find another bafe enough to fecond him. The house would rife indignant: the conteft would be, who should first move a queftion of expulfion, on the man who aimed a vital ftab at the legiflative independence of Ireland. To this it was added by Mr. Grattan, that if the refolutions of the English house of commons were ever laid upon their table, he would oppose them with the last nerve of his ftrength, and with the last breath of his life. When the fettlement of 1782 took place, he conceived that no constitutional question could afterwards arise between the two nations. Upon that ground he had impofed à filence upon himself refpecting commercial 1785. During the whole of thefe prelufory debates a fingular degree of ambiguity was maintained by adminiftration, relative to the question whether or not the fourth amended propofition, concerning which the greatest appehenfions were entertained, would make a part of the fyftem they fhould bring forward in Ireland. This fucceeded fo far, that fir Henry Cavendish rofe on the twenty-firft of July to affure the houfe, that he understood that nothing injurious to the commercial or conftitutional rights of the nation would be introduced under the prefent administration. So late as the fecond of Auguft it was obferved by Mr. Orde with fome warmth, that the delay he demanded was but of fhort duration; and if he then brought forward any thing injurious to the conftitution or commerce of Ireland, let him be cenfured with the feveret marks of indigna B tion; tion; let him be marked with reproach, and dafhed with difhonour! At present he hoped the houfe would give him credit for the rectitude of his intentions. Mr. Orde's avowed intention, as it appeared on the former of these days, was to bring parliament to an ultimate decifion upon the fyftem, previoufly to the clofe of its prefent fellion. The fytem was opened by the British minider on the twelfth of Auguft. On the preceding day a question was moved by Mr. Flood, that the houfe fhould come to a refolution" that it would retain undiminished the free and full exercife of the fole and exclufive authority at all times to legiflate for Ireland internally, externally, and commerally." This motion was withdrawn for the prefent, at the equeft of Mr. Cide, Mr. Grattan declared his preference to the proceeding by addrefs to the throne rather than by refolution; if however Mr. Flood brought forward his refolution, he fhould concur in its fupport. But the fpirit of oppofition to the propofitions in their amended form was not confined to the houfe of commons of Ireland. On the contrary, it had been widely diffufed through all ranks of men, and the most valuable and important interests of the country, conftitution. al and commercial, were conceived ́to be involved in the fate of the fyftem. Every other confideration was now loft in the univerfal alarm. The once favourite ideas of parliamentary reform were forgotten. Petitions were prefented from every part of the kingdom, the object of which was to exprefs their jealoufy of the plan of commercial intercourfe; and to entreat that its difcuffion might not take place in the prefent fellion of parliament. The earliest petitions were those the town of Waterford and Galway, which were prefented on the twenty-first of July. They were followed, among others, by the merchants of Dublin, the freeholders of Antrim and Armagh, and the citizens of Cork, whofe petition was prefented by Mr. Hutchinton, the fecretary of state. On the day appointed to move for leave to bring in a bill for effectuating the propofed intercourse, Mr. Orde explained the business to the houfe in a speech of confiderable length. He was glad that the time was come, to put an end to doubts and mifreprefentations, and to prove the confiftency of his conduct in doing nothing contrary to the declaration he had fo often made, never to bring forward any meafure that fhould infringe upon the conftitution of Ireland. He apologized for faying any thing refpecting himfelf in a difcuffion of fo great magnitude; but the charges of contradiction that had been advanced against him made it neceffary; and he now avowed his real refponfibility for the meafure he fhould propofe. He stood there the afferter of the fairness and justice of the propofition he was to offer; and he begged to be understood not merely as acting officially, but that his heart was in it. In confidering it, he faid, every man ought to dif mifs from his mind what he had already heard, to divest himself of prejudice, and to come to the dif cuffion uninfluenced by bias of any kind. For his part, he would not attempt a parade of words; plaufi bility was neceffary where there was a doubt of the truth; but in the prefent butines there was no reasonable ground for hesitation. Mr. Orde defended the variations that appeared in the fyftem, by the confideration confideration of the natural progrefs of a measure of this for. What had gone from that houfe early in the feffion was to be confidered in the nature of the founda. tion of a tresty, a fketch on the part of the people of Ireland of the agreement they were willing to form. It was next requifite that Britain fhould contider what it was that she could concede; and fhould flate those restraints and exceptions which he might regard as effential to her welfare. For himself, he could have wifhed that ftill more liberal terms of adjustment could have been confonant to the feelings and fuppofed interests of both countries. His ideas and his hopes had gone to open ports, and a total dereliction of duties between the two kingdoms; but, as the different circumitances of each, and the different maturity of their trade render ed such an adjustment impraticable, it had been neceffary to look out ter fomething near it. The diff. culties and obftacles, that had fuggeted themselves in its progrefs, had been innumerable. Particular interefts were naturally alarmed, and it had been neceflary to attend to them in fome inftances, not lefs to refist them in others. The conduct of the oppofition in both houfes of the British parliament had been artful, infidious, and indefatigable. They had fuggefted a variety of amendments hoftile to the constitutional and commercial rights of Ireland; and it had been their boat, that by their alterations and additions they had effected their grand purpofe of perplexing the bufinefs, and creating difcontents in Ireland, without allaying thofe of Great Britain. The manner, in which the minifter there had extricated himself from thefe embarrafliments, did him the highest honour; the inftances in which he had refitted the demands of importunate complaint grea ly outnumbered thofe in which he had yielded. He had been actuated by the moft liberal principles, and had uniformly ftood up as the advocate and reconciler of both kingdoms. Mr. Orde averred with the ut molt confidence, that the amendments that had been made to the propofitions in England, though calculated to gratify the cautious and circumfpect fpirit of her revenue laws, did not in reality interfere with the profpe ity of Ireland. Notwithstanding all the modifications and alterations that had been adopted, the fytem was fill as advantageous to that country as it had ever been. The natural fituation of Great Britain and Ireland in commercial affairs, was a fituation of rivalfhip; but it was their mutual interest not to continue rivals. They could not long remain as they were, and foreign nations only could rejoice at the defeat of the meafure. Mr. Orde added, that after bringing in the bill, and printing it, it was his intention to pause, in order to learn the fentiments of the country relpecting it. The original outline had been only the overture of a treaty, and there had been no impropriety in coming to a decifion upon it at once. in the prefent ftage he wifhed to follow the example of mature deliberation that had been given them by the English parliament. It was his defire, that the house should decide upon the best information they could procure. Let them hear every perfon who wifhed to be heard: let them receive every pe tition that could be brought; and let them liften to all the evidence that could be offered. But The fpeech of Mr. Mafon, who B 2 ftood flood forward in defence of the fyftem, was particularly directed to the vindication of the fourth propofition. He fhould not have been furprifed, if the commercial regulations of the bill were found to occafion a great diverfity of opinion. If in a treaty of this nature every article were in favour of one of the parties, there would be an end of that equality, which must neceffarily be the bafis of a permanent agreement. It was therefore natural that fome of the provifions, when confidered fingly, and not as compofing part of a fyftem, fhould appear exceptionable. But that men on this occafion fhould have talked of peril to the conftitution, was an objection equally fraught with abfurdity and mischief. It was to fpread a falfe alarm through all parts of the kingdom, to irritate the public without juft caufe against the British parliament, and to perfuade the people, that the independence of their country was in danger at the very moment when it was most secure; at the very moment, that all the branches of the legiflature in both kingdoms were vying with each other, which of them fhould affert the independence of Ireland in the strongest terms; when the minister of Ireland had moved for a bill by the claufes of which, this point was exprefsly declared; when the minister of Great Britain had actually prefented fuch a bill in that country; and when both houses of the British parlia ment had concurred in prefenting an address to the throne, declaring that the parliament of Ireland alone was competent to make laws to bind that kingdom in any cafe whatever. Mr. Mason went farther in afferting the unimpeachable integrity of the fyftem in this point. He affirmed, that the contested ftipulation re. quired by Great Britain was the ftrongeft acknowledgment of the independence of Ireland. Why had the departed upon that occafion from her established practice, of regulating the commerce of every part of the empire by her own parliament only? Why had the then relinquifhed a power, which fhe had exercifed without controul for one hundred and twenty years? Because the acknowledged the independence of Ireland; because fhe well knew that no act of her parliament would be confidered as valid by the people of Ireland, if it were not confirmed by the Irish legiflature. Mr. Mafon was of opinion, that, if there were any one claufe more abfolutely neceflary than the reft, it was the very claufe which had been fo loudly and mistakenly reprobated. He contrated the fpirit of the advocates of liberty in the prefent inftance, with that which they had manifefted when Mr. Yelverton's bill for adopting all fuch commercial laws of Great Britain, as conferred equal benefits and impofed equal burthens on the fubjects of both kingdoms, was received with fo general applause. The fpirit of both measures was the fame. But he contended that the bill of 1780 was the more offenfive ftipulation of the two, fince by it they adopted the duties as well as the regulations of Great Britain. If ever a country was to be jealous of the interference of a foreign legiflature, fhe ought furely to be moft fo in matters that related to the impofition of taxes. No man, he faid, could be fo ignorant, as to imagine they were required to pafs a law, rendering it compulfory on future parliaments to register the commercial edicts of Great Britain. Common fenfe was fufficient to fhow that that this was impoffible; that it was not in the power of a parliament by any act of theirs to bind fucceeding parliaments, or even to bind themselves in a subsequent fef. fion The fingle engagement into which they entered by accepting there conditions, was to adopt fuch laws as had been paffed by Great Britain fince Mr. Yelverton's bill, and then to recommend it to fucceeding parliaments to follow their example, and to adopt from time to time fuch farther regulations, as fhould be founded upon the fame principles of juftice and equality. But notwithstanding their recommendation and example, every future parliament would neceffarily have its option. How then could this ftipulation affect the fupremacy of the Irish legiflature ? Mr. Fofter, without going very largely into the constitutional queftion, expatiated with great warmth upon the advantages that would refult from this fyftem to the commerce of Ireland. The moft glorious and inestimable profpect was opened to her manufactures. Were a man to look for a country moft advantageous in which to fettle a manufacture, what would be his choice? One where labour and provifions were cheap; that is reland. And what would he next look for? Why to have a rich, extended and fteady market near him; fuch as England, which would be the genial foil to ripen their productions, and the affectionate mother to bring them forward to the height of wealth, profperity and glory. Éut the member of adminiftration that entered moit largely into the defence of the measure was Mr. Fitzgibbon. As to the liberty of fending the Irish manufactures to the British markets, he did not build upon it any very fanguine expectations of advantage. But the advantages of a relaxation in her navigation laws he highly prized. He thought tha, without fuch a relaxation, they had very little prof pect indeed of any foreign trade. If the Irish merchant had not the certain iffue of the English market for foreign commodities, he had no fpur to enterprize and fpeculation. But, if England relaxed her navigation laws in favour of Ireland, fhe had a right to expect to be followed by her in a code of laws, which had been the fource of her commercial opulence, and the prime origin of her maritime itrength. It had been infinuated, that they could trade to more advantage with the colonies of foreign tates. But what foreign states would allow them to trade with their colonies? Who was to protect them if foreign states fhould refufe to do them justice? or who was to affert their rights, fuppofing them to be violated? With respect to the East Indies, it appeared to Mr. Fitzgibbon to be a question of no doubt or difficulty, fince by a law of Ireland they bad confirmed the monopoly of the East India company, and therefore fo long as the charter lafted, by that charter they were bound. And were the charter expired, and were it the intereft of that country to interfere with Great Britain, he believ ed their profpect of a trade to India to be very remote indeed. It was not however true, as had been fuggeted, that Ireland was reftricted by the tenor of the prefent bill, beyond the period of the charter. When therefore fo advantageous an arrangement was prof-ried to Ireland, for what reafon was it, that fle was bid to hesitate and demur? Why, the fyftem it seemed was an B 3 infult |