-if its effect be to defeat the purposes of civil process, whether by skulking with the dagger of the assassin in its hand, or by assuming the parade, the pomp, and the circumstance of, I will not say glorious, war, it is still rebellion. Whether flagitious, bold, and open, or sly, insinuating, and crafty-whether with much or with little bloodshed, may be points that may constitute a difference in the degree; but which is most detestable, is a thing not worth debating. What then is the question before us? now take a qualified, restraïned, limited, governed martial law, and preserve the great mass of the civil rights of the subjects in Ireland; or will hazard an opinion in which the whole may be thrown under the unqualified, unrestrained, unlimited, and ungovernable spirit and uncontroulable practice of martial law ?—I say, that on such a question no honest intelligent man can possibly he

sitate.

Whether you will

The honourable gentleman has alluded to the character of the noble Marquis, who is at the head of the exccutive power. Upon the merits of that great and illustrious personage, I feel more than I am able to express; but I have the satisfaction of knowing that my sentiments are in unison with those of every friend to real virtue and enlightened patriotism, in admiration of the noble Marquis. My noble friend has produced the authority of that high and respected character, as evidence of the necessity of martial law, in the situation of Ireland. Lord Cornwallis, since the rebellion, has issued many warrants for holding such courts; even these courts have tried and condemned persons for various offences. They have tried and convicted men, not merely of offences constructively amounting to what is called furtherance of rebellion, but of the crimes of murder and rebellion. But the honourable gentleman says, a court martial may judge ill; and he gives you a solitary instance as a proof of this. Why, Sir, so he may of the conduct of a jury: but what would be said to me, if, after giving an instance in which a jury had convicted where they ought to have acquitted, or had acquitted where they ought to have convicted, I were from thence to conclude that the trial by jury is an evil, and that you ought to have no more of it? I believe I

should not have many supporters in this house, or in this country; and yet the honourable gentleman's instance of the mistake made. by one court-martial, amounts to no more than that which I have stated.

But it is said that the courts of law are open! True; the courts of law have been open; the judges have been enabled to hold their assizes, because the wise and benevolent measures that have been pursued, because the very measure now in discussion, afforded that protection and security which justice could not otherwise have obtained. It is owing to their salutary precautions that civil process has been preserved to the peaceable. If, amidst such perilous circumstances, the laws have maintained their course as in time of peace; if individuals have been protected, and the constitution of the state defended, it is by a continuance of the same vigorous, but tempered system, that Ireland can be maintained in the enjoyment of tranquillity, and secured from a recurrence of those disastrous scenes, of which the calamities must be fresh in every man's recollection.

The motion of adjournment was negatived, and Lord Castlereagh's motion passed without a division.*

March 25, 1801.

ON a motion by Mr. Grey, for the House to resolve itself into a Committes of the whole House, to inquire into the State of the Nation,

MR. PITT said,

That after what the house had heard from his right honourable friendt, and much as he was interested in the question,

On the 14th of March Mr. Pitt resigned the offices of First Lord of the Treasury and Chancellor of the Exchequer; and other changes in the minis terial departments at the same time took place. The new Administration consisted of,

Right Hon. Henry Addington - - }

First Lord of the Treasury and Chancellor of the Exchequer.

† Mr. Dundas.

and in some of the topics which were opened by the honourable gentleman whose motion was now before the house, he should have felt that he had but little excuse for troubling the house much at large upon the present subject, if the debate had not, from a few words which fell from another honourable gentleman, taken a turn totally different from that which was introduced by the honourable mover. The principal part of the time which he employed in the discussion was consumed in endeavouring to

satisfy the house, that, as he now suspected some gentleman had improperly resigned their situations under government, that was sufficient to induce the house to go into an inquiry into the state of the nation. If it had not been for some observations that were made upon those resignations, and he had been aware that no gentleman would give his vote this night upon any but a consideration of this simple question:-" Do the arguments this night alter the principles on which you yourselves have acted for nearly nine years?"-if, he said, it had not been for some observations which were independent of that question, simply so stated, he should have felt it hardly necessary for him to have troubled the house at all, but to pass by in silence, and refer to the judgment of the house, every thing which related to his own personal conduct. He hoped that this language would not be mistaken for indifference in him as to the opinion of the house, or of the country; for a contempt for either he had no wish to express. He pretended to no such philosophy as that which led to the species of indifference as to the opinion of others, which some persons chose to affect; nor was he indifferent to the circumstances of this country, nor to the opinion which the public might entertain of the share, the too large share, he had taken in them: on the contrary, he confessed, that these topics occupied his atten tion much, for events had happened which disappointed his warmest wishes, and frustrated the most favourite hopes of his heart; and he could have desired to have continued to pursue the objects of such hopes and wishes to the end of that struggle, which he had worked for with anxiety and care. There never was a period in his life, in which these topics were indifferent to him. Much less could he be indifferent to the good opinion of those who had been induced, on so many occasions, to shew so much confidence in him-a confidence, however, which had always been constitutionally given, and to which he begged leave to say, every servant of the crown was entitled, until forfeited by his conduct. Neither was he indifferent to the many marked instances he had observed of the personal confidence in him, upon

various occasions, and which he could not flatter himself with having merited.

Much, however, as he felt these sentiments, there were others which he felt still more strongly; and therefore he was under the necessity of submitting some ideas upon the subject before the house. This was not a question solely applicable to himself or to his colleagues; for if it were, however dear the topics of such a case might be to him, he should have been induced to give the house but little trouble on that account. No, this was a question which involved the honour of that house, and the character of the nation; the honour of the one, and the constitutional freedom of the other. This motion taken in that view of the subject, he would put to the house this question:-Whether it was prepared to retract all that it had declared and done for the last nine most eventful years, and had changed its mind on the nature of that struggle in which we had for that period been engaged, and in which, not only so large a majority of that house had been so firm, but, as he had on a former occasion taken the liberty of expressing it, a greater majority of the people had supported uniformly and steadily, and which they had considered as nothing less than a contest for independence with the enemy abroad, and for a constitutional safety with the enemy at home? He believed, therefore, that the house would conceive its honour to be implicated in the question now before it, as well as the honour, and, in a considerable degree, the safety of the country. On these points, the decision of the house, and the judgment of the public, had been uniform and steady. If ever the moment should arrive, in which, under whatever mask, the attempt should be made to induce the house to forget the principles by which it had been so long guided-if ever the moment should arrive, in which the principles of those should prevail who had, by their arguments, supported the enemy, the counsels of those who had so often embarrassed our proceedings, and checked our efforts counsels, which led to the surrender of our independence and constitutional freedom, instead of the counsels which tended to the preservation of both-if ever the moment should arrive, when the house,