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abandonment of which they would have been gainers. It was a fatal right, by grasping which they lost every thing. It was an inconsistent right, for they stood as much in need of being protected from themselves as of being protected from the nobility. Why does any man put his affairs into the hands of another, but because he cannot manage them so well himself? If he cannot manage them so well himself, why should he interfere with the person to whose conduct he intrusts them? Because he has a right! I know he has; but it is an unfortunate right, for it leaves it in his power to ruin himself, in spite of good counsel and friendship!

Gentlemen talk of what are called the people, as if they were the most enlightened part of the community! Are they the guardians of learning? or of the arts? or of the sciences? Do we select councillors from them? or judges? or legislators? Do we inquire among them for rhetoricians? logicians? philosophers? or, rather, do we not consider them as little cultivated in mind? little regulated by judgment? much inflamed by prejudice? greatly subject to caprice? chiefly governed by passion? Of course, sir, I speak of what are generally called the people, the crowd, the mass of the community. But you ask me for a proof of the bad effects that resulted to the Roman people, from the liberty they possessed, of legislating directly for themselves. Look, sir, to the proceedings of the forum! What they did they undid; what they erected they threw down; they enacted laws, and they repealed them; they elected patriots, and they betrayed them; they humbled tyrants, and they exalted them! You will find, that the great converted the undue power, which the people possessed,

into the means of subjugating the people. If they feared a popular leader, it was only neces sary to spread by their emissaries a suspicion of his integrity, or set the engine of corruption to work upon that frailest of all fortifications, popular stability-and thus, sir, they carried their point, humbled their honest adversaries, and laughed in the face of the wisest and most salutary laws.

Mr Chairman, I think that the times in which Cæsar lived, called for, and even sanctioned his usurpation. I think his object was, to extinguish the jealousies of party; to put a stop to the miseries that resulted from them; and unite his countrymen. I think the divided state of the Roman people exposed them to the danger of a foreign yoke; from which they could be preserved only by receiving a domestic one. I think that Cæsar was a great man; and I conclude my trial of your patience, with the reply made to Brutus by Statilius, who had once determined to die in Utica with Cato; and by Favonius, an esteemed philosopher of those times. Those men were sounded by Brutus, after he had entered into the conspiracy for murdering Cæsar. The former said, he "would rather patiently suffer the oppressions of an arbitrary master, than the cruelties and disorders which generally attend civil dissensions." The latter declared, that, in his opinion, "a civil war was worse than the most unjust tyranny."

JAMES GIBSON.-Mr Chairman, as the opener of this debate, I am entitled to reply; but it is a privilege by which I shall not profit. I leave our cause to the fate it merits. But allow me to remark that, how much soever we may disagree

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in our opinion of Cæsar's character, there is a subject upon which we cannot have the slightest difference of sentiments; namely, that your patience, indulgence and impartiality have been great, and claim-our gratitude.

II.

On the Measure of the Irish Union.-PLUNKETT. SIR, I in the most express terms deny the competency of parliament to do this act. I warn you do not dare to lay your hand on the constitution. I tell you, that if circumstanced as you are, you pass this act, it will be a nullity, and that no man in Ireland will be bound to obey it. I make the assertion deliberately; 1 repeat it, and call on any man who hears me, to take down my words. You have not been elected for this purpose; you are appointed to make laws, not legislatures; you are appointed to exercise the functions of legislators, and not to transfer them; and if you do so, your act is a dissolution of the government; you resolve society into its original elements, and no man in the land is bound to obey you.

Sir, I state doctrines which are not merely founded in the immutable laws of justice and of truth; I state not merely the opinions of the ablest men who have written on the science of government; but I state the practice of our constitution as settled at the era of the revolution; I state the doctrine under which the house of Hanover derives its title to the throne. Has the king a right to transfer his throne? Is he competent to annex it to the crown of Spain, or of

any other country? No, but he may abdicate it; and every man who knows the constitution, knows the consequence, the right reverts to the next in succession; if they all abdicate, it reverts to the people. The man who questions this doctrine, in the same breath must arraign the sovereign on the throne as a usurper. Are you competent to transfer your legislative rights to the French council of five hundred? Are you competent to transfer them to the British parliament? I answer, No. When you transfer you abdicate, and the great original trust reverts to the people from whom it issued. Yourselves you may extinguish, but parliament you cannot extinguish it is enthroned in the hearts of the people; it is enshrined in the sanctuary of the constitution; it is immortal as the island which it protects; as well might the frantic suicide hope that the act which destroys his miserable body, should extinguish his eternal soul.

Again I therefore warn you, do not dare to lay your hands on the constitution; it is above your power. Sir, I do not say that the parliament and the people, by mutual consent and cooperation, may not change the form of the constitution. Whenever such a case arises, it must be decided on its own merits: but that is not this case. If government considers this a season peculiarly fitted for experiments on the constitution, they may call on the people. I ask you, Are you ready to do so? Are you ready to abide the event of such an appeal? What is it you must in that event submit to the people? Not this particular project, for if you dissolve the present form of government, they become free to choose any other; you fling them to the fury of the tempest; you must call on them to

unhouse themselves of the established constitution, and to fashion to themselves another. I ask again, is this the time for an experiment of that nature? Thank God, the people have manifested no such wish; so far as they have spoken, their voice is decidedly against this daring innovation. You know that no voice has been uttered in its favour, and you cannot be infatuated enough to take confidence from the silence which prevails in some parts of the kingdom; if you know how to appreciate that silence, it is more formidable than the most clamorous opposition; you may be rived and shivered by the lightning before you hear the peal of the thunder! But, sir, we are told that we should discuss this question with calmness and composure! I am called on to surrender my birthright and my honour, and I am told I should be calm, composed! National pride! Independence of our country! These, we are told by the minister, are only vulgar topics fitted for the meridian of the mob, but unworthy to be mentioned to such an enlightened assembly as this. They are trinkets and gewgaws, fit to catch the fancy of childish and unthinking people like you, sir, or like your predecessor in that chair, but utterly unworthy the consideration of this house, or of the matured understanding of the noble lord who condescends to instruct it! Gracious God! we see a Perry reascending from the tomb, and raising his awful voice to warn us against the surrender of our freedom, and we see that the proud and virtuous feelings which warmed the breast of that aged and venerable man, are only calculated to excite the contempt of this young philosopher, who has been transplanted from the nursery to

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