HISTORY OF EUROPE. 
which it were impracticable to 
conduct the affairs of the nation 
with any regularity or success ; and 
yet they might differ without. any 
diminution of reciprocal friendship 
or esteem. He deprecated the dis- 
cussion of subjects now before the 
Irish parliament, as a manifest vio- 
lation of its independence; and 
warmly exhorted the house to leave 
the settlement of affairs in that na- 
_ tion to its representatives, who cer- 
tainly were best qualified for that 
purpose. 
_ Mr. Pitt was seconded by other 
members. The principal answer 
to ministry was made by Mr. Gray : 
hecontended, in forcible terms, for 
the propriety of an inquiry, in a 
case wherein the highest interests of 
the British and Irish nations were 
equally involved; the question be- 
fore the house was incontrovertibly 
of this description. The people of 
both countries were sensible of its 
importance, and it ill became mi- 
nisters to endeavour at the conceal- 
ment of matters that ought to be 
held out to the fullest consideration 
of all parties concerned. Both the 
English and the Irish had a right to 
know, whether the restrictions, of 
which the Irish Catholics com- 
plained, were to be taken off, or to 
remain; and to be made acquaint- 
ed, at the same time, with the real 
Causes why they should either con- 
tinue or subsist no longer. The 
private interest of a very minor part 
of the community should not, upon 
any pretence, be suffered to super- 
cede the natural rights of the whole 
community at large, when every 
argument, founded upon equity, mi- 
litated for them. Induced ty the 
proofs which the Irish had given 
of an unfeigned attachment to Eng- 
land, so conspicuously displayed, at 
5 bi 
[299 
a time when the difficulties we were 
contending’ with afforded them a 
fair opportunity of throwing off their 
connection with us, we had come 
to a determination to break those 
fetters that were evidently no lon- 
ger wanted to secure them. We 
had excited the liveliest hopes of 
a total emancipation from all those 
restraints; which the inimical.dis- 
position of the Roman Catholics to 
the Protestants had formerly ren- 
dered necessary; and now, when 
on the point of extinguishing all 
religious feuds, and terminating 
happily all differences, a sudden 
check was given to all these pleasing 
expectations: the man selected to 
put the finishing hand to those ar- 
rangements that were to constitute 
the basis of everlasting concord, 
between the sister nations, was re= 
called, in the midst of his exertions 
to bring them to a final issue, and 
censured, as if he had been com- 
mitting an act of disloyalty to his 
own country. Was this behaviour 
of the Liritish ministry to be borne 
with patience by the Irish? Was i¢ 
to be submitted to by the English, 
whose honour was, ina manner, 
solemnly pledged, and whose in- 
terest ought forcibly to lead them 
to gratify the people of Ireland in 
the reasonable demands they now 
were making, and had certainly a 
right to insist upon ? Whence, there- 
fore, could this unexpected denial 
proceed, but from private motives, 
too personal to interest the public, 
and too base to be brought to light ? 
A pretence was set up, that the in- 
dependence of the Irish parliament 
would be violated by this country’s 
interference in the settlement of the 
affairs of Ireland: but who did not 
see the futility of this pretence? 
Who did not know that the deli- 
berations 
