254 



IRELAND. 



History, was the Duke of Leinster ; and, on the <)th of June 

 v Y""'' 1780, with him in the chair, they resolved, " That the 

 king, lords, and commons, of Ireland, only are compe- 

 tent to make laws binding the subjects of this realm; 

 and that they would not obey or give operation to any 

 laws, save only those enacted by the king, lords, and 

 convnons. of Ireland, whose rights and privileges, 

 jointly and separately, they were determined to sup- 

 port with their lives and fortunes." 



The House of Commons, which had hitherto gone 

 along with the sense of the nation at large, seems now 

 to have been replaced under ministerial influence, or at 

 least to have been of opinion that the nation were pro- 

 ceeding too rapidly and too far ; for a motion made by 

 Mr Grattan, that no power on earth, save the king, 

 lords, and commons, of Ireland, had a right to make 

 laws for Ireland, was withdrawn ; and the Irish parlia- 

 ment, acting in the spirit which caVised this motion to 

 be withdrawn, passed into lavfs two bills which had 

 been altered by the British cabinet. Hence the par- 

 liament became very unpopular. 



In the year 1781, the force of the volunteers had 

 been augmented to 50,000 men, regularly divided into 

 regiments, and in high discipline ; and in order to give 

 full effect to the object they had in view, the Ulster 

 volunteers resplved to send delegates to Dungannon, 

 to deliberate on the state of public affairs. This mea- 

 sure, however, was by no means approved of by some 

 of the most judicious and sincere friends of the volun- 

 teers. The meeting took place, and some very strong 

 resolutions were passed, in which most of the grievan- 

 ces under which Ireland had so long laboured, were 

 dwelt upon in a bold and indignant spirit ; it was fur- 

 ther resolved, " that four delegates should be nominat- 

 ed for each county in Ulster, to act as representatives 

 of the volunteers in that province, and that of these, 

 eleven should form a quorum ; and that this committee 

 should appoint nine of their members for a committee 

 in Dublin, to communicate with other volunteer asso- 

 ciations. The parliament, however, were still adverse 

 to the measures which the volunteers had in view, 

 and refused to interfere in. favour, either of the com- 

 mercial or the political amelioration of Ireland. With 

 respect to the Catholics, however, they were more li- 

 beral, and scarcely a session passed, in which some of 

 their disabilities were not removed. 



The voiun- The volunteers, having formed committees of corres- 

 r-"!" pondence and a national committee, had thus given to 



1782 CCl their system a s ngle animating spirit, by which their 

 power was wonderfully increased ; and if the British 

 government still refused to comply with their requests, 

 a crisis must necessarily take place, which would pro- 

 bably end in warfare At this period, full of alarm to 

 the best friends of their country, that administration 

 which had lost Britain her American colonies, resign- 

 ed ; and they were succeeded, in March 1782, by a 

 Whig administration, at the head of which was the 

 4<I;irquis of Rockingham. The Duke of Portland was 

 Immediately appointed Lord Lieutenant. Mr. Grattan 

 moved an address to the king, in the House of Com- 

 mons, which was unanimously carried in both houses, 

 In which it was declared, that " the crown of Ireland 

 was an imperial crown, inseparably annexed to the 

 crown of Great Britain ; but that the kingdom of Ire- 

 land was a distinct kingdom, with a parliament of her 

 own, the sole legislature thereof; that in this right 

 they conceived the very essence of their liberty to ex- 

 ist; that in behalf of all the people in Ireland, they 

 claimed this as theiv birth right, and could not reliu-. 



3 



A. D. 1785 



quish it but with their lives; that they had a high ve- 

 neration for the British character ; and that their de- "" 

 termination was in sharing" the freedom of England, to 

 share also her fate, and to stand or faH with the British 

 nation.'* The Lord Lieutenant assured parliament that 

 the British legislature had concurred in a resolution to 

 remove the causes of their discontents, and that his ma- 

 jesty was graciously disposed to give his royal assent 

 to acts calculated to fulfil their wishes. As an earnest 

 of the sincerity of this declaration, a law was passed, by 

 which all interference of the British privy council to 

 alter Irish bills was abolished, and the parliament of 

 Ireland thus placed on the same footing as that of Bri- 

 tain. Acts were also passed for the limitation of the 

 law against mutiny to two years ; for the right of 

 habeas corpus, and for the independence of the judges; 

 and the act by which the Irish House of Peers had been 

 deprived of their supreme judicial power in their own 

 country, was repealed. These concessions, however, 

 were not deemed sufficient by some patriots, particular- 

 ly by Mr. Flood, who brought in a bill, declaring the 

 sole and exclusive right of the Irish parliament to make 

 laws in all cases whatsoever, both internal and exter- 

 nal, for the kingdom ot Ireland : only six members vo- 

 ted for this motion. Mr. Grattan opposed it ; and the 

 volunteers of Leinster, Ulster, and Connaught, were, 

 likewise inimical to it. 



The volunteers having accomplished the objects Aim at pa: 

 which they originally had in view, did not disband hamentary 

 themselves, but directed their views and exertions to a 

 reform in parliament. In order to act with vigour and 

 effect, they followed their former plan of a national 

 convention, which they appointed to be held in Dublin 

 on the 10th of November, 1783. On the 29th of the 

 same month, a motion was made in the House of Com- 

 mons by Mr. Flood, founded on the resolutions of this 

 convention, which, after a long and warm debate, was 

 rejected by a very large majority. This termination, 

 instead of rousing the volunteers to perseverence, as it 

 would have done, when they had their original object 

 in view, seems to have disconcerted and alarmed them ; 

 for the convention adjourned to an indefinite period, in vain, 

 after having passed a resolution to carry on individually, 

 their efforts for parliamentary reform ; and having 

 agreed to address the king, expressing their loyalty, 

 and beseeching him not to ascribe their efforts to re- 

 store the constitution to its pure and pristine form, to 

 any love of innovation, or want of attachment to his 

 government or power. Soon after this the volunteer 

 system declined, ministers hastening its decline by 

 raising fencible regiments, into which they drew the 

 officers of the volunteers by pecuniary inducements. 



The cause of parliamentary reform, though no long- 

 er supported by the volunteers in their associate cha- 

 racter, was not deserted by the people, or by its 

 advocates in parliament; and their hopes were, raised 

 by the circumstance, that Mr. Pitt, who had been 

 its most strenuous supporter, was now prime mini- 

 ster. It was soon found, however, that Mr. Pitt 

 was no longer of the same opinion ; and Mr. Flood's 

 motion for leave to bring in a bill to reform the Irish 

 House of Commons, was negatived, though not till af- 

 ter a long debate. The advocates for this measure, out 

 of doors, were not cast down ; the citizens of Dublin, 

 legally convened by the sheriffs, voted a series of reso- 

 lutions in favour of this measure, and also appointed a 

 committee to prepare an address to the people at large, National 

 and a petition to the king. The people were invited Congress, 

 to form a national congress, composed of five persons A.D. 1T8-1. 



