"The principle," he said, "is generally acceded to; the catholic reli. gion is acquitted; it is allowed that there is nothing either in the composition of the Irish, or of their religion, that bars their capacitation; the only thing required is precaution against dangerous influence in the nomination of the clergy, and that precaution the resolutions of their bishops bespeak. They declare they are ready to give you every security which is consistent with the integrity of their church and their religion. What then becomes of the argument which says the parties cannot agree? The minister, however, having supposed domestic nomination impossible, corrects the danger. How? by disqualifying the laity; but as long as you disqualify the laity, you separate them from England. What then is to be our situation, according to the doctrine of the right honourable gentleman? A clergy connected with France, and a laity separated from England. You think it better to have French bishops in Ireland, than Irish catholics in parliament; this is a situation defended on account of its safety; a situation, in fact, of the greatest peril, where the cure aggra vates the disorder, where you correct an eventual communication with France, by a separation from England. To shew the better the nature of such a situation, I shall propose to the gentlemen opposing the motion to lay before them the map of Europe, and let them be the arbiters of their own argument. There is Ire land, here England, and there France; the object must be to connect the catholics of Ireland with England, and keep them separate from France. To accomplish this, I shall present to those gentlemen two lines, one of communication, and the other of se

paration. How will they apply them? will they draw the line of communication between France and Ireland, and of separation between Ireland and Great Britain ;-ecclesiastical communication between the Irish catholics and France, and political separation between the Irish catholics and Great Britain? If they draw the lines in that manner, they give up the em pire; and if they do not, they re nounce their argument."

After this protracted discussion, the question was put to the vote; 109 voted with Mr Grattan, 218 against him. The situation of those members who represent the catholic part of Ireland is worthy of remark. They must vote for all catholic claims, or else they lose their seats; and if they should succeed in carrying those claims, then they are sure to be dis placed, to make room for catholic representatives; so that they are protected in their seats by those who vote against them,-a whimsical consequence of granting catholic freeholders a right to vote. In the Upper House the Earl of Donoughmore presented the June 6. petition; the same ground was gone over, and the same decision adopted, by a majority of 154 to 68.

It is one of the evils produced by agitating this most mischievous ques tion, that it distracts the attention of both nations from the real grievances under which Ireland suffers, and that it prevents the Irish from feeling and ac knowledging the benefits which they have received, and perceiving that it is as much the wish as the interest of the government, by every practi cable means, to improve the state of Ireland. The grievances which are redressed, the benefits which are con ferred, the disposition to confidence which is shown by the government,

are passed over as silently as the known and avowed intentions of the disaffected part of the Irish people. During this very session the prison laws of Ireland were repealed and others enacted, for the sake of remedying evils which, Mr W. Pole said, were shocking to humanity. Mr W. Pole moved also for the repeal of the Irish insurrection act, which had never been enforced during May 30. the governments of the Dukes of Bedford and Richmond; "Instances had occurred," he said, "during that time, in which applications had been made by several gentlemen to put the act in force, and proclaim it in different parts of the country in which disturb. ances had existed; but government had always resisted those applications; they had caused investigation to be made, and had found that they could restore and maintain public tranquillity without having recourse to this act. And now it was with the most sincere pleasure they felt themselves justified in declaring, that the continuance of the act was no longer necessary. Many representa tions had certainly been made to the Irish government upon this subject from loyal and well-disposed persons, who thought it was running a great risk to repeal this act; but such was the improvement in civilization which had taken place, that they felt they could proceed without it; and no lover of the constitution could wish to see such a law upon the statutebook, unless the circumstances of the times rendered it indispensable. It would, however, be advisable to render permanent those provisions of the act which punished the taking and the administering of unlawful oaths, and those also for protecting witnesses and magistrates, which ought,

perhaps, to have formed a separate act. According to these provisions, if any person gave information and should be murdered before the trial came on, the information should be received as evidence on the trial; or if a person so giving information was secreted before the trial and kept out of the way, and it should appear upon inquiry that he was secreted by the person accused, then his infor mation might be used in the same way. Powers were also given to the grand juries to levy a sum of money to be paid to the representative of any witness or magistrate murdered under such circumstances. These provisions it was proposed to re-enact.

"There was another act also," Mr W. Pole said, "which was brought in at the same time, and to which he must call the attention of the house. He believed every person would admit, that the provisions for registering arms, and the power of searching for them, should exist somewhere. By the act, as it now stood, any two magistrates might, upon suspicion, search the house of any indivi dual for arms at any hour; and one magistrate might, upon information, search in the same manner, or delegate power to another person to make the search. Such powers, which might become the source of much vexation and individual hardship, ought not to exist, if the object for which they were enacted could be attained without resorting to such means. He proposed that no magistrate should have the power to search except upon information on oath, or in case they had such ground of suspicion as might make it desirable to search a district for arms, and in that case they should send their information to government; and then, if the search were deemed necessary.

the lord-lieutenant should send a warrant authorizing and directing it. There was, indeed, to this regulation the obvious objection, that, by the delay which it must occasion, the opportunity of preventing the mischief might be lost. But he was convinced the advantages which would result from showing the people that government was determined to give them as much liberty as possible, consistent with those precautions, which were necessary for the general safety, would more than counterbalance any evil that might result. There was another part of the insurrection act which he proposed likewise to alter. By that act, if any person, conceiving himself injured by the act of a magistrate, should apply to the law for redress, and the jury should give a verdict in his favour, the judge had the power of declaring, (if the facts of the case appeared to him to warrant him in so doing,) that the magistrate had a justifiable cause for what he had done; and in that case the person suing, although the jury had found in his favour, was only entitled to sixpence damages and no costs. But if the jury should find in favour of the magistrate, he was entitled to treble costs. This clause was, he had no doubt, very necessary when it was enacted; but as the necessity of it did not appear to him any longer to exist, he should propose to repeal it, and in future to place both parties on an equal foot

ing.

In the present improved state of the country, he did not think it required such strong measures for the protection of magistrates."

The only other business of the ses sion respecting Ireland, was a vote for adding 10,0001. to the salary of the lord-lieutenant; the 20,0001., at which it was fixed in 1788, being found altogether inadequate to support the dignity of that important station. It was objected to by Sir J. Newport, Mr Martin, Mr Littleton, Mr Parnell, and Mr Bankes. Mr Tighe said, he saw no reason why the civil government of Ireland should cost ten times more than that of Scotland, nor why the farce of a vice-regal court should be kept up in Dublin. Mr Grattan did not think the pro posed increase was too much, but he thought the bare assertion of the minister ought not to induce parliament to burden Ireland with the additional charge. Mr Whitbread objected to it upon the same ground. Mr Tier ney went farther, and declared he saw no necessity why a person serving the public in a high office should be enabled to live entirely independent of his private fortune. If the Duke of Richmond had spent 20,0001. ayear in Ireland of his own fortune, it was an expence which that fortune could well afford. His belief was, that the increase was not intended for the duke, but that his liberality and private virtues were mentioned to induce the house to vote this increased income, which was designed as a temptation to some other lord, with whom ministers were bargain. ing, to go over to Ireland as his suc

cessor. Such an insinuation was not worthy of being contradicted, and the vote passed by a majority of 95

to 51.

ONE of the first proceedings of the economical reformers during the session, was to renew their attack upon the practice of granting ofJan. 31. fices in reversion. Mr Bankes moved, that the act for suspending it should be made perpetual; and the sense of the house was so decidedly with him, that though Mr Perceval would rather have extended the duration of the act than have perpetuated it, it was carried unanimous ly. When the bill reached the Upper House it was again thrown out. Mr Bankes, therefore, finding, March 6. he said, that there was a determined principle to resist the measure, and that it had no chance of passing the lords, moved, as the only constitutional course which remained, an address to his majesty, as had been done on a former occasion, praying him not to make any such grant till six weeks after the next session. Mr Ryder, observing that the house should be cautious how it legislated for the country at large, except in cases of absolute necessity, proposed that they should pass a limited bill, which they had every reason to believe would meet with the concur

rence of the peers. To this Mr Bankes assented; but this second bill was in like manner rejected by the lords, with a

Feb. 12.

pertinacity, on the part of its opponents, not less injudicious in itself, than offensive to the public feeling. A kindred business was brought before the house by Mr Fuller, who moved for "leave to bring in a bill to abolish all sinecure places, and to reduce the exorbitant emoluments arising out of others to a standard equal to the service performed, after the lives of the present possessors;-and shame,” he said, "upon England, if such a bill should be rejected! It would not, he hoped, be imagined, that he meant this as an attack upon the power and influence of the crown. No; he was glad to see the influence of the crown increa sing in proportion as the national wealth of the country increased, when of course its morals got worse; but this was sufficiently done by the immense collection of our revenue. His attack was upon those avaricious members of the aristocracy, who think it their duty to lay hold of these sinecure places, in order to save them the expence of providing for their young

er children, by paying them large sums out of the pockets and the sufferings of individuals, a thing neither done nor thought of, he believed, by any other class of his majesty's subjects whatever. The sum total of these places, if he were not wrong in his calculation, amounted to 355,6121. 2s. 7d.; so that if 55,0001., speaking in round numbers, were to be allotted to the payment of those places which there is a necessity of preserving, the public would, after the lives of the present possessors, be a gainer of 300,000l. He thought this measure would, instead of lessening the influence of the crown, give it still more strength, as it would enable it to reward those who really deserved rewards, instead of paying those who are idle. It was to the manly virtues of our gracious sove reign, to the courage and skill of Lord Nelson, and to the divine mind of Mr Pitt, that, in his opinion, we owed our present exalted character as a nation; and he should be sorry to see his benevolent sovereign, perhaps, compelled in his old age to do what Sir Robert Walpole was said in his last moments to have desired his physician to do for him; that is, to turn his head to the wall, that he might no longer look at the villainies, or the base political ingratitude of those he had formerly served, and that he might hide from his view the iniquity that prevailed."

Mr Fuller, however, withdrew his motion at the suggestion of Mr Bankes, who undertook, as a member of the finance committee, to bring the matter forward. Accordingly, when the report of that committee was under consideration, Mr Bankes moved a resolution, that it was expedient to abolish sinecures, except such as were connected with the personal

service of his majesty or the royal fa mily; and to reduce the salaries of such as were executed by deputy to the sum for which the service was performed, with an allowance for the additional responsibility;-all to be done after the present interest in these offices had expired. "It would be better," he said, "that services should be rewarded by direct pensions, instead of having what, in fact, were direct pensions, lurking under the name of offices. The granting of pensions would be notorious and unequivocal, and this very notoriety would prevent their being conferred in a profuse or glaringly improper manner; but there was no such secu rity with regard to sinecure offices. Therefore, he thought the proper measure would be to abolish these offices altogether, and give his majes ty the power of granting pensions to a limited amount, in lieu of the offices abolished; the power of giving the additional pension always commen cing with the fall of the sinecure. This was necessary, in order to prevent the crown from having for a time double power; and without this caution it would not be a measure of economy in the first instance, but a measure of extravagance. The substitution would take away all objec tions to the abolition, while it would be more agreeable, not only to the country, but to such meritorious officers as were entitled to reward; for sinecures had fallen so much into disgrace, that a brand was fixed upon those who accepted them, and instead of conferring honours they attached a stigma, so much did the people revolt against them. He did not ex pect, that by any measure of this na ture the clamour of certain persont could be satisfied; they were not to be satisfied by any thing which that