was adduced from the practice of New-England. Government itself lately thought fit to establish the Roman catholic religion in Canada; but they would not suffer an argument of analogy to be used for its establishment any where else. These things were governed, as all things of that nature are governed, not by general maxims, but their own local and peculiar circumstances. Finding, however, that, though he was very cool and patient, made no great way in the business of the dissenters, I turned myself to try whether, falling in with his maxims, some modification might not be found, the hint of which I received from your letter relative to the Irish militia bill, and the point I laboured, was so to alter the clause as to repeal the test quoad military and revenue officers. For these being only subservient parts in the œconomy and execution, rather than the administration of affairs, the politic, civil, and judicial parts would still continue in the hands of the conformists to religious establishments: without giving any hopes, he how ever said, that this distinction deserved to be considered.

After this, I strongly pressed the mischief of rejecting the whole bill:-that a notion went abroad, that government was not at this moment very well pleased with the dissenters, as not very well affected to the monarchy:-that, in general, I conceived this to be a mistake,but if it were not, the rejection of a bill in favour of others, because something in favour of them, was inserted, instead of humbling and mortifying, would infinitely exalt them. For if the legislature had no means of favouring those whom they meant to favour, as long as the dissenters could find means to get themselves included, this would make them, instead of their only being subject to restraint themselves, the arbitrators of the fate of others, and that, not so much by their own strength (which could not be prevented in its operation) as by the co-operation of those whom they opposed. In the conclusion, I recommended, that if they wished well to the measure, which was the main object of the bill, they must explicity make it their own, and stake themselves upon it; that hitherto all their difficulties had arisen from their indecision and their wrong measures; and, to make Lord North sensible of the necessity of giving a firm support to some part of the bill, and to add weighty authority to my reasons, I read him your letter of the 10th of July. It seemed, in some measure, to answer the purpose which I intended. I pressed the necessity of the management of the affair, both

as to conduct and as to gaining of men; and I renewed my former advice, that the lord lieutenant should be instructed to consult and cooperate with you in the whole affair. All this was apparently very fairly taken.

In the evening of that day I saw the lord chancellor. With him, too, I had much discourse. You know that he is intelligent, sagacious, systematic, and determined. At first he seemed of opinion, that the relief contained in the bill was so inadequate to the mass of oppression it was intended to remove, that it would be better to let it stand over, until a more perfect and better digested plan could be settled. This seemed to possess him very strongly. In order to combat this notion, and to show that the bill, all things considered, was a very great acquisition, and that it was rather a preliminary than an obstruction to relief, I ventured to show him your letter. It had its effect. He declared himself roundly against giving any thing to a confederacy, real or apparent, to distress government: that if any thing was done for catholics or dissenters, it should be done on its own separate merits, and not by way of bargain and compromise: that they should be each of them obliged to government, not each to the other: that this would be a perpetual nursery of faction. In a word, he seemed so determined on not uniting these plans, that all I could say, and I said every thing I could think of, was to no purpose. But when I insisted on the disgrace to government, which must arise from their rejecting a proposition recommended by themselves, because their opposers had made a mixture, separable too by themselves, I was better heard. On the whole, I found him well disposed.

As soon as I had returned to the country, this affair lay so much on my mind, and the absolute necessity of government's making a serious business of it, agreeable to the seriousness they profussed, and the object required, that I wrote to Sir G. Cooper, to remind him of the principles upon which we went in our conversation, and to press the plan, which was suggested for carrying them into execution. He wrote to me on the 20th, and assured me, "that Lord North had given all due attention and respect to what you said to him on Friday, and will pay the same respect to the sentiments conveyed in your letter; every thing you say or write on the subject undoubtedly demands it." Whether this was mere civility, or showed any thing effectual in their intentions, time and the success of this measure will

show. It is wholly with them; and if it should fail, you are a witness, that nothing on our

(and sometimes with reason enough) pluck down the statue. Had such an unmerited and unlooked-for compliment been paid me two years ago, the fragments of the piece might, at this hour, have the advantage of seeing actual service, while they were moving, according to the law of projectiles, to the windows of the attorney general, or of my old friend Monk Mason.

To speak seriously-let me assure you, my dear sir, that though I am not permitted to rejoice at all its effects, there is not one man on your side of the water more pleased to see the situation of Ireland so prosperous, as that she can afford to throw away her friends. She has obtained, solely by her own efforts, the fruits of a great victory; which, I am very ready to allow, that the best efforts of her best wellwishers here could not have done for her so effectually in a great number of years; and, perhaps, could not have done at all. I could wish, however, merely for the sake of her own dignity, that in turning her poor relations and antiquated friends out of doors (though one of the most common effects of new prosperity) she had thought proper to dismiss us with fewer tokens of unkindness. It is true, that there is no sort of danger in affronting men who are not of importance enough to have any trust of ministerial, of royal, or of national honour to surrender. The unforced and unbought services of humble men, who have no medium of influence in great assemblies, but through the precarious force of reason, must be looked upon with contempt by those who, by their wisdom and spirit, have improved the critical moment of their fortune, and have debated with authority, against pusillanimous dissent and ungracious compliance, at the head of 40,000

men.

Such feeble auxiliaries (as I talk of) to such a force, employed against such resistance, I must own, in the present moment, very little worthy of your attention. Yet, if one were to look forward, it scarcely seems altogether politic to bestow so much liberality of invective on the whigs of this kingdom, as I find has been the fashion to do, both in and out of parliament. That you should pay compliments, in some tone or other, whether ironical or serious, to the minister, from whose imbecility you have extorted what you could never obtain from his bounty, is not unnatural. In the first effusions of parliamentary gratitude to that minister, for the early and voluntary benefits he has confer red upon Ireland, it might appear that you were wanting to the triumph of his surrender, if you did not lead some of his enemies captive before

him. Neither could you feast him with deco. rum, if his particular taste were not consulted. A minister, who has never defended his measures, in any other way than by railing at his adversaries, cannot have his palate made all at once to the relish of positive commendation. I cannot deny, but that on this occasion there was displayed a great deal of the good breeding which consists in the accommodation of the entertainment to the relish of the guest.

But that ceremony being past, it would not be unworthy of the wisdom of Ireland, to consider what consequences the extinguishing every spark of freedom in this country may have upon your own liberties. You are at this instant flushed with victory, and full of the confidence natural to recent and untried power. We are in a temper equally natural, though very different. We feel as men do, who, having placed an unbounded reliance on their force, have found it totally to fail on trial. We feel faint and heartless, and without the smallest degree of self opinion. In plain words, we are cowed. When men give up their violence and injustice without a struggle, their condition is next to desperate. When no art, no management, no argument is necessary to abate their pride and overcome their prejudices, and their uneasiness only excites an obscure and feeble rattling in their throat, their final dissolution seems not far off. In this miserable state we are still further depressed by the overbearing influence of the crown. It acts with the offici ous cruelty of a mercenary nurse, who, under pretence of tenderness, stifles us with our clothes, and plucks the pillow from our heads. Injectu multæ vestis opprimi senem jubet. Under this influence, we have so little will of our own, that, even in any apparent activity we may be got to assume, I may say, without any violence to sense, and with very little to language, we are merely passive. We have yielded to your demands this session. In the last session we refused to prevent them. In both cases, the passive and the active, our principle was the same. Had the crown pleased to retain the spirit with regard to Ireland, which seems to be now all directed to America, we should have neglected our own immediate defence, and sent over the last man of our militia, to fight with the last man of your volunteers,

To this influence, the principle of action, the principle of policy, and the principle of union of the present minority are opposed. These principles of the opposition are the only thing which preserves a single symptom of life in the nat That opposition is composed of the far part of the independent pro

perty and independent rank of the kingdom; of whatever is most untainted in character, and of whatever ability remains unextinguished in the people, and of all which tends to draw the attention of foreign countries upon this. It is now in its final and conclusive struggle. It has to struggle against a force, to which,I am afraid, it is not equal. The whole kingdom of Scotland ranges with the venal, the unprincipled, and the wrong-principled of this; and if the kingdom of Ireland thinks proper to pass into the same camp, we shall certainly be obliged to quit the field. In that case, if I know any thing of this country, another constitutional opposition can never be formed in it; and if this be impossible, it will be at least as much so (if there can be degrees in impossibility) to have a constitutional administration at any future time. The possibility of the former is the only security for the existence of the latter. Whether the present administration be in the least like one, I must venture to doubt, even in the honey-moon of the Irish fondness to Lord North, which has succeeded to all their slappings and scratchings.

If liberty cannot maintain its ground in this kingdom, I am sure that it cannot have any long continuance in yours. Our liberty might now and then jar, and strike a discord with that of Ireland. The thing is possible, but still the instruments might play in concert. But if ours be unstrung, yours will be hung up on a peg; and both will be mute for ever. Your new military force may give you confidence, and it serves well for a turn; but you and I know that it has not root. It is not perennial, and would prove but a poor shelter for your liberty, when this nation, having no interest in its own, could look upon yours with the eye of envy and disgust. I cannot, therefore, help thinking, and telling you what, with great submission, I think, that if the parliament of Ireland be so jealous of the spirit of our common constitution, as she seems to be, it was not so discreet to mix with the pane gyric on the minister so large a portion of acrimony to the independent part of this nation. You never received any sort of injury from them, and you are grown to that degree of importance, that the discourses in your parliament will have a much greater effect on our immediate fortune, than our conversation can have upon yours. In the end they will seriously affect both.

I have looked back upon our conduct and our public conversations, in order to discover, what it is that can have given you offence. I have done so, because I am ready to admit that to

offend you without any cause, would be as con trary to true policy, as I am sure it must be to the inclinations of almost every one of us. About two years ago Lord Nugent moved six propositions in favour of Ireland, in the house of commons. At the time of the motions, and during the debate, Lord North was either wholly out of the house, or engaged in other matters, of business or pleasantry, in the remotest recesses of the West Saxon corner. He took no part whatsoever in the affair; but it was supposed his neutrality was more inclined towards the side of favour. The mover being a person in office, was, however, the only indication that was given of such a leaning. We, who supported the propositions, finding them better relished than at first we looked for, pursued our advantage, and began to open a way for more essential benefits to Ireland. On the other hand, those, who had hitherto opposed them in vain, redoubled their efforts, and became exceedingly clamorous. Then it was, that Lord North found it necessary to come out of his fastness, and to interpose between the contending parties. In this character of mediator, he declared, that, if any thing beyond the first six resolutions should be attempted, he would oppose the whole; but that, if we rested there, the original motions should have his support. On this, a sort of convention took place between him and the managers of the Irish business, in which the six resolutions were to be considered as an uti possidetis, and to be held sacred.

By this time other parties began to appear. A good many of the trading towns, and manufactures of various kinds, took the alarm. Petitions crowded in upon one another; and the bar was occupied by a formidable body of council. Lord N. was staggered by this new battery. He is not of a constitution to encounter such an opposition as had then risen, when there were no other objects in view than those that were then before the house. In order not to lose him, we were obliged to abandon, bit by bit, the most considerable part of the original agreement.

In several parts, however, he continued fair and firm. For my own part, I acted, as I trust I commonly do, with decision. I saw very well that the things we had got were of no great consideration; but they were, even in their defects, somewhat leading. I was in hopes, that we might obtain gradually, and by parts, what we might attempt at once and in the whole without success; that one concession would lead to another; and that the people of England, discovering, by a progressive experience