IRELAND. 
province of Ulfter, teemed to be the molt proper for hold¬ 
ing fucli a meeting. 3. That, as many and lairing advan¬ 
tages might attend the holding fucli a meeting before the 
prefent feflion of parliament was much farther advanced, 
the 15th of February next fnould be appointed for it. 
Thefe refoluticns proved highly offenfive to the friends 
of government, and every method was taken to difcou- 
rage it. On the appointed day, however, the reprefenta- 
tives of 143 volunteer corps did attend at Dungannon ; 
and the refults of their deliberations were as follow : 1. 
It having been afferted, that volunteers, as fuch, cannot 
with propriety debate or publilh their opinions on politi¬ 
cal fubjeifs, or on the conduct of parliament or public 
men, it was vefolved unanimoufly, that a citizen, by learn¬ 
ing the ufe of arms, does not abandon any of his civil 
rights. 2. That a claim from any body of men, other 
than the king, lords, and commons, of Ireland, to make 
laws to bind the people, is illegal, unconftitutional, and 
a grievance. 3. Refolved, with one diflenting voice only, 
that the powers exercifed by the privy-council of both 
kingdoms, under colour or pretence of Poyning’s 
law, are unconftitutional, and a grievance. 4. Refolved 
unanimoufly, that the ports of this country are by right 
open to all foreign countries not at war with the king; 
and that any burden thereupon, or obftrudrion thereto, 
excepting only by the parliament of Ireland, are uncon¬ 
ftitutional, and a grievance. 5. Refolved, with one dil- 
fenting voice only, that a mutiny-bill, not limited in point 
of duration from feflion to feflion, is unconftitutional, 
and a grievance. 6. Refolved unanimoufly, that the in¬ 
dependence of judges is equally efiential to the impartial 
adminiftration of juftice in Ireland as in England, And 
that the refufal or delay of this right is in itfelf unconfti- 
tutional, and a grievance. 7. Refolved, with eleven dif- 
fenting voices, that it is the decided and unalterable de¬ 
termination of the volunteer companies to feek a redrefs 
of thefe grievances ; and they pledge themfejves to their 
country, and to each other, as freeholders, fellow-citizens, 
and men of honour, that they will, at every enfuing elec¬ 
tion, fupport only thofe who have fupported them, and 
■will fupport them therein, and that they will ufe all con- 
ftitutional means to make fuch purfuit of redrefs fpeedy 
and effectual. 8. Refolved, with oniy one diflenting voice, 
that the minority in parliament, who had fupported thofe 
conftitutional rights, are intitled to the moft grateful 
thanks of the volunteer companies ; and that an add refs 
to this purpofe be figned by the chairman, and publifhed 
with the refolutions of the prefent meeting. 9. Refolved 
unanimoufly, that four members from each county of the 
province ot Ulfter, eleven to be a quorum, be appointed 
a committee till the next general meeting, to a cl for the 
volunteer corps, and to call general meetings of the pro¬ 
vince as occafion requires. 10. The committee being ap¬ 
pointed, and the time of general meetings, and forne other 
affairs of a iimilar nature, fettled, it was refolved unani¬ 
moufly, that, the court of Portugal having unjultly refuted 
entry to certain Irifli commodities, the delegates would 
not confume any wine of the growth of Portugal, and 
that they would ufe all their influence to prevent the ufe 
ot the faid wine, excepting what was then in the kingdom, 
until fuch time as the Irifh exports fliould be received in 
the kingdom of Portugal. 11. Refolved, with only two 
diflenting voices, that they hold the right of private judg¬ 
ment in matters of religion equally facred in others as in 
themfelves; and that they rejoice in the relaxation of the 
penal laws againft the papifts, as a meafure fraught with 
the happieft contequences to the union and profperity of 
the inhabitants of Ireland. 
While thefe proceedings took place at Dungannon, the 
miniftry carried all before them in parliament. In a de¬ 
bate concerning the exclufive legiflative privileges of Ire¬ 
land, a law-member, fpeaking of the arbitrary a£is of 
England, afferted, that “ power conftituted rightand 
a motion, “that the commons fliould be declared the re- 
prefentatives of the people,” was carried in the negative. 
355 
Thefe fcandalous proceedings could not but haften the 
ruin of their caufe. The refolutions entered into at the 
Dungannon meeting were received throughout the king¬ 
dom with the utmolf appljufe. A few days after, Mr. 
Grattan, whofe patriotifm has been already taken notice 
of, moved in the houfe of commons for a long and fpi- 
rited addrefs to his majefty, declaring the rights of the 
kingdom, and afferting the principle which now began to 
prevail, that Ireland could legally be bound by no power 
but that of the king, lords, and commons, of the country; 
though the Britifn parliament had affumed fuch a power. 
This motion was at prefent rejected by a large majority 5 
but their eyes were foon enlightened by the volunteers. 
Thefe, having now appointed their committees of cor- 
refpondence, were enabled to communicate their fenti- 
ments to one another with the utmoft facility and quick- 
nefs. An aflociation was formed in the name of the no¬ 
bility, reprefentatives, freeholders, and inhabitants, of the 
county of Armagh, wherein they let forth the neceffity of 
declaring their lentiments openly refpecling the funda¬ 
mental and undoubted rights of the nation. They de¬ 
clared, that, in every fltuation in life, and with all the 
means in their power, they would maintain the conftitu¬ 
tional right of the kingdom to be governed only by the 
king and parliament of Ireland; and that they would, in 
every inftance, uniformly and ltrenuoufly oppofe the ex¬ 
ecution of any ftatutes, excepting fucli as derived their 
authority from the parliament juft mentioned ; and they 
pledged themfelves, in the ufual manner, to fupport what 
they now declared with their lives and fortunes. This 
declaration was quickly adopted by all the other counties, 
and Iimilar fentiments became univerfally avowed through¬ 
out the kingdom. The change in the Britifli miniftry in 
the fpring of 1782 facilitated the wiflies of the people. 
The duke of Portland, who came over as lord-lieutenant 
in April that year, fent a mod welcome mellage to parlia¬ 
ment. He informed them, that “his majefty, being con¬ 
cerned to find that difeontents and jealoufies were pre¬ 
vailing among his loyal fubjects in Ireland upon matters, 
of great weight and importance, recommended it to 
parliament to take the fame into their moft ferious confl- 
deration, in order to fuch a Anal adjuftment as might give 
mutual fatisfaftion to his kingdoms of Great Britain 
and Ireland.” 
Mr. Grattan, whofe patriotic efforts had never been 
flackened, now ventured to propole a fecond time in par¬ 
liament the addrefs which had been rejefted before. On 
the 16th of April he began a fpeech to this purpofe with 
a panegyric on the volunteers, and the late conduct of 
the people. The Irifli, he faid, were no longer a divided 
colony, but an united land, manifesting itfelf to the relt 
of the world in fignal inftances of glory. In the reft of 
Europe the ancient Ipirit was expired ; liberty was yielded, 
or empire loft ; nations were living upon the memory of 
pad glory, or under the care of mercenary armies. In 
Ireland, however, the people, by departing from the ex¬ 
ample of other nations, had become an example to them. 
Liberty, in former times, and in other nations, was reco¬ 
vered by the quick feelings and rapid impulfe of the po¬ 
pulace. But in Ireland, at the prelent period, it was re¬ 
covered by an aft of the whole nation, reafoning for three 
years on its fituation, and then refeuing itfelf by a fet¬ 
tled fenfe of right pervading the land. The meeting of 
the delegates at Dungannon was an original meafure; and, 
like all of that kind, continued to be matter of furprife, 
until at laft it became matter of admiration. Great mea- 
fures, fuch as the meeting of the Englifh at Runnymead, 
and of the Irifli at Dungannon,-were not the contequences 
of precedent, but carried in themfelves both precedent 
and principle ; and the public caufe in both inftances 
would infallibly have been loft had it been trufted to par¬ 
liament. The meeting at Dungannon had refolved, that 
the claim of the Britifli parliament was illegal ; and this 
was a conftitutional declaration. The Irifli volunteers 
were affociated for the prefervation of the laws; hut the 
conduct 
