A reconciliation was effected; and all former differences of opinion, it was agreed, should be buried in oblivion on both sides. The necessary unanimity being attained, it was determined, that delegates should be chosen in such a manner as that it should be evident they were nominated by the people. For this purpose, meetings were directed to be held in each parish throughout Ireland, for the appointment of one or two of the most respectable persons in each as electors. These electors, so appointed, were to choose from one to four of their own residents, as delegates to the general committee from each county. In addition to these, associate delegates for each county, residents of Dublin, were to be chosen, in order to keep up a regular correspondence with their colleagues in the country, and to inform the county through them, of all proceedings in the general committee, at such times as the county delegates should be absent.

The first great business, which was to engage their attention, the general committee declared to be, "An humble application to our gracious sovereign, submitting to him their loyalty and attachment, their obedience to the laws, a true statement of their situation, and of the laws which operated against them; and humbly beseeching that they may be restored to the elective franchise, and an equal participation in the benefits of the trial by jury. "We have the FIRST AUTHORITY for asserting, (they also stated,) that this application will have infinite weight with our gracious sovereign and with parliament, if our friends are

qualified to declare, that it is the universal wish of every Catholic in the nation."

The agitation which the appearance of this plan immediately produced, was most extraordinary. Wherever their adversaries were sufficiently strong, corporate or county meetings were held to reprobate the plan, and to resist the so-stiled exorbitant pretensions of the Catholics; but if defeat, or even formidable resistance was dreaded, similar resolutions were entered into by the grand juries. These breathed no common opposition. In general, they charged the committee with the intention of overawing the legislature; they drew a line of circumvallation round the protestant ascendancy, and pledged those who adopted them, as solemnly as could be done by words, to resist with their lives and fortunes every attempt to regain a right within its limits. The grand jury of the county of Louth, with the Speaker of the House of Commons at their head, declared, that "the allowing Roman Catholics the right of voting for members to serve in parliament, or admitting them to any participation in the government of the kingdom, was incompatible with the safety of the Protestant establishment, the continuance of the succession to the crown in the illustrious House of Hanover, and finally tended to shake, if not destroy, their connexion with Great Britain, on the continuance and inseparability of which depended the happiness and prosperity of the kingdom; that they would oppose every attempt towards such a dangerous innovation, and that they would support with their lives and for

tunes the present constitution, and the settlement of the throne on his Majesty's Protestant House," The freeholders of the county of Limerick, stimulated by the lord chancellor, charged the Catholics with intending to intimidate the legislature, to force a repeal of the penal laws, and to create a popish democracy for their government and direction in pursuit of whatever objects might be holden out to them by turbulent and seditious men. The grand jury of the county of Cork denominated the plan "an unconstitutional proceeding, of the most alarming, dangerous and seditious tendency; an attempt to overawe parliament," &c. The corporation of Dublin went still further; for, alluding to the possibility of government's finally acceding to the Catholic claims, it expressly said, that "the Protestants of Ireland would not be compelled, by any authority whatever, to abandon that political situation, which their forefathers won with their swords, and which is therefore their birthright:" and to this threatened resistance against the constituted authorities, it solemnly pledged the lives and fortunes of its members. That no doubt might be entertained as to the extent of what it was determined at all hazards to maintain, it gave a definition of protestant ascendancy in these words: "A protestant king of Ireland, a protestant parliament, a protestant hierarchy, protestant electors and government, the benches of justice, the army and the revenue, through all their branches and details, protestant; and this system supported by a connexion with the pro

testant realm of England." What gave to those resolutions a still more important appearance was, that they seemed to be made with the immediate sanction of government; as the most confidential servants of the crown, and even its ministers, stepped forward to give them countenance and support in their respective counties. This authoritative interference on the part of persons high in the administration of the country, against a plan, calculated to ascertain an universal wish, formed a very striking and suspicious contrast with the assertion of the committee, that it had the first authority to declare an application would have infinite weight, if it appeared to be the wish of every Catholic in the nation. An assurance possibly given under the idea, that compliance with the requisite would be impracticable.

The charge of illegality, repeated from various quarters, determined the committee to submit the plan itself to the opinion of two eminent lawyers, the Hon. Simon Butler and Beresford Burston, Esq., whose answers, being entirely favourable, were printed, and universally dispersed throughout the country. The legality of the measure was no longer expressly questioned; the elections tranquilly proceeded, and the Catholic Convention assembled on the 2d of December, 1792.

Meanwhile the Catholics of the city of Dublin, convened by public notice, replied in a very dignified stile to the different corporations, county and grand jury resolutions. Eight gentlemen, Messrs. Randall M'Donald, John Keogh, Hugh Hamill, Edward Byrne, Thomas Ryan, Thomas

Warren, Charles Ryan, and John Ball, executed this important task.

We the Catholics of the city of Dublin, have read with extreme concern, the resolutions of different bodies of our Protestant fellow subjects, in which they express their disapprobation of the conduct of our committee, and their aversion to our claims of the elective franchise, and an equal par ticipation of the trial by jury. But the address of the corporation of this city to the Protestants of Ireland, has filled us most peculiarly with mortification and surprise; as Irishmen, we are astonished and grieved, that the first corporation of this kingdom should have put forth a publication, teeming with false principles of government, and false statements of historic facts; as Catholics, we lament, that the same body should have misconceived and mis-stated our conduct and our objects.

We have read of what is called the right of conquest; it has also been called the right of robbery: but we do not imagine, that a doctrine, so subversive of the peace and settlement of society, and of the immutable rules of justice, that a doctrine, which in its consequences so completely warrants, and in its language so wantonly provokes resistance, would be made the foundation of the Protestant claims to the govern. ment of this country. We did not expect, that a doctrine, exploded in this island by the revolution of 1782, would be revived to our oppression. If conquest and the right of the sword could justify the stronger in retaining dominion, why did Great Britain abdicate her legislative supremacy over Ireland? or why were we all, Protestants and Catholics, actuated as one man to resist so legitimate an authority? Is that monstrous and exploded principle still to be retained for our peculiar subjection, which was felt to be false by every honest man, when applied to the subjection of his native land?

We are desired in that address to "rest contented with the most perfect toleration of our religion, the fullest security of our property, and the most complete personal liberty." They are great and important blessings, but they are not secure to any man who is a slave. They are held but by sufferance, by those who are tried without their consent, and legislated for without being represented.