the West also-I find, indeed, that on Monday you pledged yourselves to inquire into the state of property in those islands, and very properly too but when you thus pledge yourselves to inquire as to the property of the West-India planters, is it too much for me to propose a pledge that you will take into your consideration, not the property of the Irish, but their allegiance, liberty, and rights?When I look at America, but, in mentioning that country, I should be sorry if understood at all to speak in terms calculated to encourage a disposition to surrender that privilege which we cannot surrender with out abandoning our maritime power and importance ;-when I have thus reviewed the state of our colonies, connections, and allies, and find the appearance so gloomy; is it unreasonable that I should ask you to look at your statute book, and to study the means of conciliating the alliance of your own subjects? While such menacing danger hangs over us, I cannot, without serious pain, reflect upon the manner in which you employ your selves one party charging the other, and vice versa "You did that job"--"No, but you did worse" -"My plan raised more recruits than yours"-"No, but it did not.”—As if men were recruiting for a wager, and the only object of debate was to criminate each other. I cannot patiently think of such petty squabbles, while Bonaparte is grasping the nationswhile he is surrounding France, not with that iron frontier, for which the wild and childish ambition of Louis the fourteenth was so eager, but with kingdoms of his own creation,-securing the grati tude of higher minds as the hostage, and the fears of others as pledges for his safety. His are no ordinary fortifications. His Martello towers are his allies, crowns and sceptres are the palisadoes of his entrenchments, and kings are his sentinels. In such a state of the world, then, and with such an enemy, viewing this country as the only remaining subject of his ambition to destroy-surely the policy of looking to all the means of strengthening yourselves is too obvious to require comment! Let me then exhort you to consider the means of rendering that country really serviceable to you. I have heard of subsidies. Your subsidies to Prussia were considerable in amount, and yet quite unproductive in effect. Why don't you subsidize Ireland? And all the subsidy I ask for her is your confidence, affection and justice to her people. These I call on you to grant, before it be too late. If you refuse to see the danger that menaces, and will not consider in due time about the means which I propose to you for providing against it, it is a bad symptom. The first character of courage is to look at danger with a dauntless eye, and the next to combat it with a dauntless heart. If with this resolution we front our dangers, history will do justice to our feelings and character, whatever may be the exertions or the success of the formidable tyrant who would destroy us, or of those who succeed to his power and views. The honest historian will not fail to yield a just tribute to our reputation. If faithful to yourselves, if united, we shall in these two little islands, to which, as to an altar, Freedom has flown for refuge, be able to fight with all the valorous 1 a violated sanctuary. The right honourable gentleman concluded with moving "That the house will, immediately on the meeting of the ensuing session of parliament, proceed to take into their most serious and solemn consideration the state and condition of Ireland, in the anxious hope that such measures and remedies may be safely adopted, in regard to the discontents alleged to exist in that country, as may render unnecessary the continuance of those provisions which the legislature of the united kingdom has deemed it expedient reluctantly to adopt at the close of the present session, and the permanence of which would be a violation of the rights of the people of Ireland, and a subversion of the spirit and practice of our constitution." valorous fury of men defending man's firmness, and a patriot's love. He heartily coincided with him in his sentiment; it was in the application of that sentiment that he had the misfortune to differ from him. He could not agree with his right honourable friend that there were no just grounds for the passing of the Irish arms bill and the Irish insurrection bill. He had voted for the insurrection bill, because he did not think that the evil apprehended could be sufficiently counteracted by the tardy operation of the common law. Mr. Grattan here went into a review of the question of the necessity for those bills. Speaking of the catholic question, he expressed his assent to Mr. Sheridan's reasoning on that subject. The parliament have no right to impose their religion on a people who obey faithfully, and fight ardently in behalf of, the laws that it enacts. No one set of men can justly dictate to another the creed of their own orthodoxyno government has a right to obtrude into the sanctuary of the human mind, to decide between its God and its responsibility. But if (continued Mr. C.) the people of Ireland see their situation with a mind truly great,-if with a dig. nified compassion they pity and forgive the pitiable virulence of party animosity,-if they forget every thing but themselves and what they have been, and what they have done, in 1779, when they got a trade, and in 1802, when they got a constitution;-if Ireland but remember this, and look to the present momentous crisis with the eye of a gallant general, and a high-minded nation, then will she best refute the calumnies of ignorance; she will not turn aside from the cause of Great Mr. Perceval said, that notwithstanding the large drafts of troops which had been made from Ireland, there was still a sufficient number left for its defence. He could not approve of the allusion made to those acts, as requiring, in submission to them, that the people of Ireland should surrender their liberties for ever; nor could he suppose that the house, after adopting them on the most mature deliberation, would commit the inconsistency of passing a resolution conveying the strongest disapprobation of what it had so recently done. He, therefore, moved the previous question. Mr. Grattan complimented his right honourable friend (Mr. Sheridan), who had upon that night reasserted his claim to the due applause of past times, and the disinterested admiration of impartial posterity. He had evinced a states Britain, Britain, of Europe, and the globe, to listen to the moody mutterings of any shabby mutineer. French politics are their own remedy. Ireland need not look to Holland, where commerce invited plunder, but could not glut it. Ireland need not look to Genoa, where prostration was the result of an illplaced and hasty confidence. She need not look to Italy, where all that was made sacred by time, by habit, by national prejudice, by religion, served only, by the richness of the spoils, to heighten the splendour of the conflagration that consumed them. Let her remember that she has qualified herself, in pursuit of the rights she has obtained, by the freedom that sought and the allegiance that acknowledged them. Ireland has fought boldly and faithfully to secure to England the constitution Ireland so naturally wishes to share the blessings of; but she will continue in the pursuit of them, as she has done in the pursuit of a legitimate object, by legitimate means. Let it be for you to answer her accordingly, and let no narrow policy prevent you from making the Irish protestants a people, by 1807. CHAPTER VIII. Abolition of the Slave Trade-Attempt to render Freehold Property liable for Simple Contract Debts-Consideration of the Poor Laws-Proposed Measures of Reform-System of Finance-dvantageous Negotiation of the Loan-Suspension of the Practice of granting Offices in ReversionSituation of Ireland-Importance of conciliating it-The Catholic Bill Its wise Provisions -Its Impediments and Abandonment-Conduct of Ministers on this Subject-Their Resignation--Question of PledgesGeneral Remarks on the Proceedings of Ministers-Dissolution of Parliament-Outery against it-Alarm for the Church Establishment-Cry of No Popery-Its Effect at Bristol-at Liverpool-Lord Grenville's Letter to Dr. Gaskin- Contest for Yorkshire-for Westminster-Indiscretion of Mr. Paull-Duel between Mr. Paull and Sir Francis Burdett -Letters of Mr. Tooke-Unsolicited Choice of Sir Francis Burdett for Westminster-Conduct of Lord Cochrane-Sudden Advance upon the Poll, of Mr. Sheridan-Return of Sir Francis and Lord Cochrane-Singular Address of Sir Francis to the Electors-Trial of Strength between the old and new Ministers. Ο NE of the first efforts of the ministry in the present year, was directed to the redemption of their pledge on the subject of the abolition of the slave-trade. The discussions of the last twenty years have exhibited this interesting topic in every possible point of view, of justice, humanity, and policy. The efforts of the virtuous and the wise, during this period, were in almost incessant conflict with the struggles of the prejudiced and interested. Some of the advocates for the continuance of this loathsome and disgraceful trafic, even borrowed their arguments in its support from religion, and considered those who were engaged in it as the authorized executors of divine vengeance. Many endea voured to prove that the trade, with whatever evils it might occasionally or even necessarily be connected, was, in fact, to be regarded as advantageous to the subjects of it, who, being generally prisoners of war, but for this mode of dis posing of them, would have had to sustain from their conquerors the infliction of the most horrid tortures; and who would, therefore, invariably prefer a life of slavery to a certain and cruel death, and consider themselves as extricated by their purchasers from the fangs of relentless enemies. Others, and by far the greater number, who admitted its injus tice, and deplored its inhumanity, insisted on its political expediency. Without the importation of fresh slaves it was stated to be impossible to keep up the negro population of the West-India colonies, and those dependencies now so admirably productive, and so important and indispensable a source of national strength, would be totally incapable of cultivation. population Hourishes in the labori ous classes of every community, when they are not overworked, and their food is nourishing and sufficient, more than in any other; and if the slaves in the British But colonies tolonies require annual importations to preserve their number, this must inevitably be occasioned by the scanty nourishment and extreme hardships to which they are exposed, and which alone could counteract the universal tendencies of nature under favourable circumstances. These were in fact the circumstances which required new drafts to be perpetually made on Africa, and contributed to keep that devoted quarter of the world in a state of barbarism and desolation. According to the degree in which the management of slaves in the West Indies has been attended with less rigour and injustice, the proportion of the births to the deaths among them has invariably advanced. Considerations of humanity, and meliorated regulations, have in the few last years brought these very early to an equality, and it is impossible to doubt, that, when the African market is completely closed, the interest of the slave-holder will lead him to adopt that treatment which will secure to him from his own premises a supply equal to every possible demand. Thus the abolition of the trade will not only effect its original object, but will prove the most beneficial of all regulations that could be devised for the mitigation of negro bondage in the colonies. Men deaf to the claims of justice will listen to the call of interest. Those who have no sentiments of humanity will be controlled by the calculations of arithmetic. The restrictions on the personal liberty of these degraded men must, to a certain degree, be related. The rights of property will be gradually and increasingly extended to them. These and other encouragements, requisite to the maintenance of families, will inspire gratitude and patriotism. From the extreme humiliation of personal slavery, and by such gradations as will preclude all danger of those convulsions which have occurred in some of the West India islands, and are irrelevantly held up as a warning against all innovation, the negroes will at length attain that improved situation in which the clashing interests of tyrants and slaves will no longer exist; and they will contribute, with the most ardent loyalty, to the defence of their country, enjoying the protection and blessings of its government, and even sharing in the formation of its laws. These prospects will satisfy the judicious friends of humanity, and may well supersede the claims of youthful politicians on behalf of absolute and immediate emancipation; to which undoubtedly the abstract principles of justice, so much insisted upon by many throughout the discussions on this subject, directly lead. But actual circumstances will always operate upon the mind of the enlightened and experienced statesman, more strongly than theories, and prac tical results be more steadily contemplated by him than moral or metaphysical abstractions. By the annihilation of this trade, the country has at length expunged the most disgraceful stain upon its character. It will at some future period be scarcely conceiv able, that such a mass of wisdom and effort, and for so long a period, should have been required to be kept in motion for terminating a traffic so exceptionable even in policy, and so odious for its inhumanity :-that a nation, perhaps the most enlightened and most vir tuous on the globe, should, in the Q2 pine |