A. D. 1782. 71J 



of the members of the Irifh legiflature {hewing, however, lefs ardour for 

 their emancipation from the controul of the Britifh parliament, than 

 the people at large thought they ought to do, the volunteer affociations 

 determined, that the people of Ireland fhould not be trifled with by 

 thofe ' who pretended to be their rcprefentatives ;' and at a meeting 

 held at Dungannon (February 15''' 1782) the rcprefentatives, delegated 

 from 143 corps of the volunteers, refolved, ' that a claim of any body 



* of men, other than the king, lords, and commons, of Ireland, to make 

 ' laws to bind that kingdom, is unconftitutional, illegal, and a gricv- 

 ' ance ; that the powers exercifed by the privy council of both king- 



* doms, under colour or pretence of the law of Poynings, are uncon- 

 ' ftitutional and a grievance ; that a mutiny bill, not limited in point 



* of duration from feflion to feflion, is unconftitutional and a griev- 

 ' ance ; and that the ports of Ireland are, by right, open to all foreign" 

 ' countries, not at war with the king, and any burthen thereon, or ob- 

 ' firucftion thereto, fave only by the parliament of Ireland, is uncon- 

 ' flitutional, illegal, and a grievance.' They further declared, in anfwcr 

 to thofe who had aflerted, that volunteers, as fuch, had no right to give 

 their opinions on political fubjeds, ' that a citizen by learning the ufc 

 ' of arms does not abandon any of his civil rights :' and they made 

 known their determination to ufe all conflitutional means to obtain a 

 fpeedy and effedlual redrefs of their public grievances. 



On this fide of the water the bufmcfs was alfo taken up with fincere 

 intentions of giving all pofliblc fatisfadion to Ireland, which, ' being a 

 ' part of the Britifli empire, is entitled to the full and equal participa- 

 ' tion of all the benefits and all the immunities enjoyed in England, and 



* which are confonant to the principles of the Britifh conftitution.' 

 An ad was accordingly paffed (June 21'), whereby the ad of the 

 fixth year of King George I, for fecuring the dependence of the king- 

 dom of Ireland upon the crown of Great Britain, with the feveral 

 matters and things therein contained, was totally, and immediately, 

 repealed. [22 Geo. Ill, c. 53.] 



The parliament of Ireland, as a tcfiimony of gratitude to the Icgif- 

 lature of Great Britain, immediately voted twenty ihoufand men for 

 the Britifh navy : and in their addrefs to tlie king they declared their 

 confidence, that the independence of the legillature of Ireland, both as 

 to internal and external objeds, would be inviolably maintained. 



July A petition having been prefented to p:irliamcnt by the calico- 

 printers, wherein they fct forth, that the Eafi-India company had i.akcu 

 advantage of tlie improvements, introduced into their bufincfs fome 

 years ago, in printing upon engraved plates of copper and other metals, 

 by fending out plates and workmen to ihcir fcitleiueuis in India, where 

 the low price of labour enabled them to print iheir calicoes much 

 cheaper than the petitioners were able to du j and th.u great quantities 



Vol. III. 4 X 



