acting in direct contradiction to all the principles of the Whigs of 1688), only tends to demonftrate the truth of a common obfervation, that modern Whigs are the greatest of tyrants. The orator proceeded, amidst the cheers of his accomplices, thus-" Who has been brought to trial and acquitted;" -after conviction, be it obferved;" but fo acquitted, that not one of his powerful friends in that Houfe had ever yet ventured to move the refcinding of the refolutions which stood against him;"-(if the Minifters had had any fenfe of decency, or any notion of juftice, they would have themfelves proposed to refcind the refolutions, which can only difgrace the perfons who fupported, and the Houfe which adopted, them)" who could not come into the other Houfe of Parliament without reading in the looks of men around him the fentence paffed upon him, and who muft fiill have refounding in his ears the words, Guilty, upon my Honour.'" A more fcurrilous and indecent attack never iffued from the lips of a popular declaimer at Copenhagen House. What, thall a lawyer have the effrontéry to tell the world, that accufation is tantamount to conviction; and that condemnation and acquittal are fynonymous terms! Is this the language of a Britth fenator? Are fuch falfe infinuations, fuch cowardly attacks, as thefe to be tolerated in the difcuffion of a great conftitutional queftion? It is here infinuated, too plainly to be mistaken, that the acquittal of Lord MELVILLE was unjuft; and, hence it is evident that, if his Lordship's friends had been in power, his acquittal would immediately have been afcribed to party fpirit and political intrigue. Fortunately, however, for his Lordship, not only his enemies but his accufers, his perfecutors, were in power; and the only party spirit and political intrigue that were exerted respecting his trial (and a great deal of both was exerted) were employed for the purpofe of producing a fentence of condemnation. Juftice, however, prevailed over malice; and the whole world was convinced, that his Lordship was an injured and perfecuted man, whom a defperate and unprincipled party had laboured to facrifice to their own ambitious hopes and fears. The laft Houfe of Commons, then, were highly culpable in fuffering reflections to be thrown out, alike repugnant to decency and to juftice. We will not ftop to enquire how far fuch fentiments are becoming in a man, who is a Lawyer, and who may be a Judge. Mr. Grattan, in this debate, libelled the two Univerfities, and, as ufual, betrayed his own ignorance of the fubject of difcuffion. In the refolute fand, made by the SOVEREIGN, and his friends, against the dangers which threatened the church, he defcried, with his accuftomed fagacity, the ruin of all parts of the Empire. Had his intellects been no clearer in 1798, his advice would have been of little fervice to his friends Neilson and Hughes, and his name would not have figured fo confpicuously in the Report of the Secret Committee of the Irish House of Lords. But, to return from this digreffive excurfion, it is a fact that the KING, in refifting the claims of his Ministers, in changing his councils, and in defending the Established Church against measures which he juftly deemed decidedly hoftile to it, acted from the fole influence of his own enlightened and confcientious mind. And all the clamours which have been raised about fecret influence, and attempts to poifon the royal mind, are the last expiring ftruggles of a defeated party, which feeks, in falfehood, a refuge from difgrace. The King, when refolved to change his Minifters, fent for two noblemen, whofe fervices he had formerly experienced, and whofe principles principles and conduct he highly approved. To them he iffued his commands, declaring that he could no longer bear with his present servants. In this he acted in ftrict conformity with the principles of the conftitution, and only exercifed an acknowledged and undifputed prerogative of the crown. When fuch an expreffion could be extorted from the lips of the SOVEREIGN, it may eafily be conceived with what disrespect and infolence he had been treated. The truth is, that a moft formidable ariftocratic faction had been formed, which, confident in its own ftrength, prefumed to dictate to the KING and to tyrannize over the people. And had they not been checked in their career, by the fortitude of their mafter, on an occafion which their own folly and prefumption fupplied, the KING would fpeedily have been reduced to a mere cypher in the State, and an aristocratical government erected on the ruins of the Throne, though exercising its odious power under the name and femblance of a Monarchy. As to the propofed conceffions to the Romanifts, though they were highly dangerous to the established religion, and though the attempt to carry them into effect would have produced confufion, and perhaps mutiny, in our navy; they would neither have fulfilled the exaggerated expectations, nor have increased the actual comforts, of the great body of the Romanifts. They were, indeed, only calculated to gratify the ambition of a few of the nobility and gentry; and the subsequent conduct of the Romanifts, who have congratulated the King on the change of his Minifters, fufficiently testify their fenfe of the measure. But in order to convey to our readers a more comprehenfive idea of the ftate of the queftion, as it affects Ireland, and of the relative fituation of the Romanists and the Protestants, in that country, of which Englishmen in general are woefully ignorant, we shall lay before our readers the fpeech of Mr. GIFFARD, in the Common Council of Dublin, on the 18th of March laft, which contains much curious matter, as well as many juft reflections, on the inflammatory oration of Mr. Keogh, "We are called upon once more to perform the painful task of defending ourfelves against our own Countrymen, whofe violence we muft endeavour to oppofe with temperance and moderation, though we may look with more apprehenfion at any profpect of their fuccefs, than even at the attacks of the Corfican affaffin, with whofe auxiliary power they would now intimidate us. "For fome weeks paft the Newfpapers have been thronged with Speeches faid to have been delivered at Meetings of the Roman Catholics of Ireland, at which Meetings were faid to be difcuffed a negociation with Government respecting their demands, and the pretenfions on which these demands are founded. "Far be it from the Affembly which I addrefs to interfere between any fubject and his right of petitioning the Parliament or the Throne; it is his moft valuable privilege-a privilege which, though violated in the perfon of one of your Members, fhould never be relinquifhed by the fubjects of Great Britain, or infringed by any Statefman who regarded his duty. "Great part of the Speeches which I have mentioned, are compofed of allufions to the former conduct of thefe Noblemen and Gentlemen, who compofe the prefent Government, mixed with charges of inconfiftency and upbraidings for bad faith. I defire to be diftin&tly understood, as not en tering into this part of the difpute.-I have read of Conjurors, who having raifed an evil fpirit were unable to lay him, and fell the victims of their own indifcretion. If any man has raised the spirit of Popery, let him now lay bis devil as he can. I ftand here on behalf of the Proteftants of Ireland, who have been vilified, traduced, and belied, by those who should fpeak of them with gratitude and veneration. "It would be in the higheft degree ridiculous in this place, and within the very short space of time which is allowed for our debates, to enter into polemical difputation on religious fubjects; I fhall, therefore, only fay of the Proteftants of Ireland, that, fatisfied with the purity of their own doctrine, they perfecute no man, condemn no man to the stake, make no folemn proceffions to immolate unhappy victims-pray not for the deftruction, but for the converfion and falvation of their enemies; condemn no man to everlasting perdition; but forgive, and if the continuance of Popish demands did not prevent them, would forget the atrocities recorded in that book of inviolate truth, Sir R. Mufgrave's Account of the Rebellions of Ireland. This book is, no doubt, exceedingly galling to the Romanifts, as it paints them in their true colours. Never was man better fitted for the task than Sir Richard; a Gentleman of rank and fortune, higly educated and endowed, the very votary of truth, and living chiefly amongst them. He has not fet forth a fyllable without annexing the record or other document on which it is founded: how much more becoming would it be of the Romanifts to fay, we have finned; we repent, and will hereafter be loyal, than to abuse the recorder of their atrocities, and to threaten us with their future vengeance. I rejoice, however, that they have spoken out-their meeting was unanimous, and I have therefore a right to affume that those speeches contain their general fentiment. "The Agitators of Ireland, obferving how much the world has been taken with cant words and nick-names, have appropriated to themselves the title Catholic, to the exclufion of the whole Chriftian Church.-Every one knows that Catholic means univerfal, and for more than feven hundred years after our Bleffed Lord, the Chriftian Church was Catholicthat is, her faith and her doctrines were univerfally the fame in the Eaft and in the Weft. We know that this was fo, and we hope that in God's good time it will be fo again.-But in the eighth century the Bishop of Rome fet up for himself, and feparating from the Eastern or Greek Church -purfued doctrines and practices of his own invention, till, by the wonderful fuccefs of Prieftcraft, he raised himself to be Arbiter of the Western world, the Setter-up and the Puller-down of Kings and Princes— until the cup of his abomination being full, Chriftians could no longer endure it. Pious and learned men made refearch into the early times, and into the pure and original doctrines of primitive Chriftianity, with the aid of fome wife and virtuous Sovereigns, particularly our glorious Elizabeththey restored Chriftianity to its original purity. But thefe reformers and this reformation were perfecuted with fire and fword by the Pope and his adherents, nor has their wrath and malignity abated one jot from the reign of the bloody infatuated bigot, Mary, to the prefent hour. 66 Thus, then, it appears that the Church of Rome is neither Catholic nor Primitive, neither the old nor the univerfal Church-but a dangerous fect, injurious wherever it has power to all who differ from it. "The Orator is, therefore, a little aftray in his history, when he asserts that that Ireland received the doctrine of Rome in the fifth century. Saint Patrick, if ever there was such a Saint, or any other Miffionary, who might have preached here, could not preach Popery before there was a Pope: if he preached in the fifth century, he preached three hundred years before the feparation of Rome from the Greek Church, which happened in the eighth century: he therefore preached true Chriftianity, and that he did is manifeft from the oppofition made by the Irish Bishops and Clergy, on the invafion of this Country by Henry II. when Pope Adrian prefumed to grant away this ifland, as a fief of the Church of Rome. The Irish Bifhops and Clergy, to their everlafting honour, boldly refifted the impious affumption, declaring that the Church of Ireland was perfectly independent on that of Rome. "Of the religion of Alfred, who lived about the time of the feparation of the Churches, I am not enabled to speak; but of this I am certain, that he was an excellent politician; and if such speeches as we have lately feen reported had been made in his time and in his dominion, he would have feverely punished the Hundred which allowed them. "They fay that their Religion is that of our Henrys and of our Edwards, the Conquerors of Poitiers, Agincourt, and Creffy: doubtless they fay the truth; for they speak of a time when not only they But all the Kings of Christendom Were led most grossly by that meddling Priest, Who in that fale fold pardon from his foul. "Accordingly we fee this very Henry, to whom Pope Adrian granted Ireland, fubmitting to be whipped before the altar of a feditious Prieft; John refigning his crown to the Pope, and even the great Henry V. committing the most abominable cruelties from religious zeal. "Much is it to be lamented that the fpirit which infpired the Irish Prelates and Clergy of the twelfth century, when they afferted their rights as a Church totally independent of Rome, has not fallen upon their fucceffors. Had their mitres, like Elijah's mantle, conveyed a portion of their fpirit, how many miferies would this Country have avoided; for, to the bufy interference of a foreign Prieft, whofe views and interefts were always hoftile to the Sovereign power, even when in communion with him, may all our misfortunes be traced: it is not yet too late; we meddle not with the Romanists in matters purely of Faith; it is their politics which bar their entrance on what they fo much defire; it is their having made thofe dangerous politics an article of Religion which excludes them; it is their looking beyond the authority of their Sovereign to the imaginary power of a Foreigner, the abominable purposes which that Foreigner and thofe acting by his authority have made of this fuperftition, and which they again may make, and keeps us in alarm.-Let the Romanifts again, as their predeceffors in Henry the IId's time did, affert their independence on Rome: let them fwear, as we have fworn, that no foreign Prince, State, or Potentate, has or ought to have any jurifdiction, authority, fupremacy or fuperiority, temporal or fpiritual, within this Realm; and, for one, I am ready tering into this part of the difpute.-I have read of Conjurors, who having raised an evil spirit were unable to lay him, and fell the victims of their own indifcretion. If any man has raised the spirit of Popery, let him now lay his devil as he can. I ftand here on behalf of the Proteftants of Ireland, who have been vilified, traduced, and belied, by thofe who fhould fpeak of them with gratitude and veneration. 46 It would be in the higheft degree ridiculous in this place, and within the very fhort space of time which is allowed for our debates, to enter into polemical difputation on religious fubjects; I fhall, therefore, only fay of the Proteftants of Ireland, that, fatisfied with the purity of their own doctrine, they perfecute no man, condemn no man to the ftake, make no folemn proceffions to immolate unhappy victims-pray not for the deftruction, but for the converfion and falvation of their enemies; condemn no man to everlasting perdition; but forgive, and if the continuance of Popish demands did not prevent them, would forget the atrocities recorded in that book of inviolate truth, Sir R. Mufgrave's Account of the Rebellions of Ireland. This book is, no doubt, exceedingly galling to the Romanifts, as it paints them in their true colours. Never was man better fitted for the task than Sir Richard; a Gentleman of rank and fortune, higly educated and endowed, the very votary of truth, and living chiefly amongst them. He has not fet forth a fyllable without annexing the record or other document on which it is founded: how much more becoming would it be of the Romanifts to fay, we have finned; we repent, and will hereafter be loyal, than to abuse the recorder of their atrocities, and to threaten us with their future vengeance. I rejoice, however, that they have spoken out-their meeting was unanimous, and I have therefore a right to affume that those speeches contain their general fentiment. "The Agitators of Ireland, obferving how much the world has been taken with cant words and nick-names, have appropriated to themfelvés the title Catholic, to the exclufion of the whole Chriftian Church.-Every one knows that Catholic means univerfal, and for more than feven hundred years after our Bleffed Lord, the Chriftian Church was Catholicthat is, her faith and her doctrines were univerfally the fame in the Eaft and in the Weft. We know that this was fo, and we hope that in God's good time it will be fo again.-But in the eighth century the Bishop of Rome fet up for himself, and separating from the Eastern or Greek Church -purfued doctrines and practices of his own invention, till, by the wonderful fuccefs of Prieftcraft, he raised himself to be Arbiter of the Western world, the Setter-up and the Puller-down of Kings and Princesuntil the cup of his abomination being full, Chriftians could no longer endure it. Pious and learned men made refearch into the early times, and into the pure and original doctrines of primitive Chriftianity, with the aid of fome wife and virtuous Sovereigns, particularly our glorious Elizabeththey restored Christianity to its original purity. But thefe reformers and this reformation were perfecuted with fire and fword by the Pope and his adherents, nor has their wrath and malignity abated one jot from the reign of the bloody infatuated bigot, Mary, to the prefent hour. "Thus, then, it appears that the Church of Rome is neither Catholic nor Primitive, neither the old nor the univerfal Church-but a dangerous fect, injurious wherever it has power to all who differ from it. "The Orator is, therefore, a little aftray in his hiftory, when he afferts that |