actuated by any fuch unworthy motive, as a wish to keep men in confinement: he confidered the meafure not as an act of feverity, but of mercy. The trials at Maidstone, and the confinement of thofe now in prifon, arose from the fufpenfion of the habeas-corpus-act having been fuffered to expire. Mr. Combe thought that twenty-five men, the number now in prifon, under the act, could not, if let loose on fociety, do any harm, in the prefent ftate of the public mind." Mr. Western faid, as no grounds had been stated to the houfe to fhew the neceffity of the measure, he could not fupport it. Mr. Pitt expreffed the warmest fatisfaction at hearing it ftated from all quarters, that the fituation of this country, both with refpect to its foreign and domeftic affairs, had been fo greatly improved. But he reminded the house, that this change, now fo univerfally acknowledged, had been obtained by the adoption of those measures, by a perfeverance on the part of government in that fyftem, which fome of thofe gentlemen, who now exulted in our fafety, had reprefented as calculated to produce difafter abroad, and to deftroy the conftitution at home. Did the honourable gentlemen think that becaufe, through the wife and vigorous meafures adopted by his majefty's minifters, they had to fortunately efcaped the perils with which they were menaced, they might now, with fafety, abandon their efforts and relax their precaution? The people of England had learnt enough of the nature of jacobinifm, not to know, that while the principles of it exifted, the moft unremitting vigilance and the greatest firmnefs were neceffary to oppofe it. This was the answer he thould give to thofe gentlemen, who thought prefent fecurity a ground for future negli gence. He trufted that the fuccefs, which had hitherto attended vigorous meafures, would be an argument for their continuance. Mr. Tierney faid, "the right honourable gentleman has now let the houfe into his intentions: it now appears, that this fufpenfion is to be made into a fyftem.". The house then divided. For the bill 96, against it 6. The fufpenfion of the habeas. corpus-act was moved in the house of lords, on the fourth of January, by lord Grenville, It was oppofed by lord Suffolk, who faid, it was highly neceflary that minifters fhould affign fome reafon for the renewal of this bill before it was propofed by the house. His lordfhip complained much of the cruel treatment of colonel Defpard, rigoroufly confined, under great feverities, in the Cold-bath-prifon, for fix months, without any fpecific charge against him. Lord Grenville thought the reafons formerly given for paffing this bill, and which remained in full force, fufficient to induce their lordships to continue it. Asto the harfhnefs with which colonel Defpard had been faid to be treated, he did not know any thing of the matter. Something of the kind had been complained of, but it had been immediately discountenanced by government. Lord Holland, after a reprefentation of the important tendency and effects of the habeascorpus-act, faid, that the most imperious neceffity, only, ought to induce the houfe to abandon fo firong a bulwark to the liberty of the fubject. The habeas-corpus act was fo excellent a law, that nothing less than the detection of a confpiracy to overturn the government could overturn this measure. Befides, before fo much of the liberty of the fubject was taken away, we fhould be very careful to whom it was intrufted. But, it was alerted, that there had exifted confpiracies of a deep and infidious kind. Several perfons, his lordfhip obferved, had been brought to trial on charges of high-treafon; and the crown had exerted all its ftrength for their conviction; but what was the refult? Why, that the accufed were honourably acquitted, by a jury of their countrymen; and that the treafons and feditions, of which minifters had fpoken fo much, difappeared in a moment. There was but one cafe, he faid, in which the measure propofed could be neceffary: which was, if there actually exifted those confpiracies, and fome of the perfons concerned in them were in cuftody, but could not be brought to trial without the rifk of giving the alarm to the reft. Lord H. after a fummary review of the state of Ireland, denied that the rebellion in that country juftified new rigours in this. Had the government of Ireland ameliorated the condition of the people, by removing their grievances, rebellion would never have broken out. The fyftem of minifters was to keep the attention of the public upon its own danger, inftead of the incapacity or corruption of minifiers. When he confidered the failure of the objects of minifters in public affairs, the zeal and loyalty manifefted by the people, the treatment they had experienced, and the conduct they had obferved, he was aftonished that their rulers should fo calumniate them, as to affirm that the bill was neceflary. Lord Grenville defpaired of convincing the noble lord of the propriety of the meafures of any of the king's minifters. But, although they had not been favoured with his approbation, they had repeatedly received the approbation of the houfe. As to the trials of perfons acquitted at the Old Bailey, were we now to learn, that the acquittal was not a proof of innocence? So far from this, it tended to confirm the existence of the confpiracy, by proving the exiftence of the correfponding fociety! Was the existence of a confpiracy, and the neceffity of the meature propofed, difproved by the perfon fo honourably acquitted at Maidftone? Had not that traitor, O'Connor, fince his honourable acquittal, thrown himself on the mercy of that gracious fovereign, whom he had bafely attempted to dethrone? O'Coigly, one of his confederates, had allo been convicted of treafon; and it appeared beyond a doubt, that a communication was to be made to the directory, not from any fociety in Ireland, but in England. All thefe things proved the existence of a confpiracy in both countries. A defign, alfo, had been long conceived, for feparating the kingdoms from each other. On the whole, Mr. Pitt was perfuaded, that the public would confider the bill not as intended for the deftruction of their liberties, but its protection. Lord Holland was of opinion, that the tranquillity and fafety of the country would be beft confulted by the removal of grievances and colourable pretexts for rebellion. СНАР CHAP. XII. Union with Ireland. — Mofage from his Majęły, relative to that Subje&t. Refolutions preparatory to an Union. Debates thereon, in both Houses of Parliament. -Conferrences between the Lords and Commons.―Joint Addrefs, from both Houses, to his Majeftu.-New Arrangements refpecting the Militia Volunteer, and Provifional Cavalry,-Slave-Trade. Ireland had, for many centuries, formed one dominion with England: and, allowing to this country a fuperiority in the nomination of her king, he claimed and enjoyed, in every other refpect, an equality of rights with Englishmen. As the rights of fubjects in both kingdoms were the fame, the king's prerogatives were alfo the fame. The king had his courts of wards in Ireland as well as England: and, at his command, the poffeffors of landed property, in both kingdoms, then military tenants of the crown, were bound to take arms in the national defence. This martial fyfiem, corrupted in all its branches, through the lapfe of time, and retaining fcarcely any thing but the name, was finally fwept away by the act, in the twelfth of Charles II. for the abolition of tenures. Among the king's ancient prerogatives, the right of regulating com merce appears to have been one, and of impofing duties on merchandize, exclufively, júre Corane: but this, like the other feudal rights inherent in the crown, gradually fuffered alteration. The parliament gradually interfered in that power: and, one precedent of their interference juftifying another, they at length wrefted from Charles I. his confent to an act which placed that right in the fupreme legifiature. What the English parliaments were doing in England, the Irish parliaments imitated in Ireland; and thus, unobfervedly, a wall of feparation was raifed between the two kingdoms, to the prejudice of both. Commercial concerns, which, in the beginning, were directed by a law of uniformity, came thus to be directed by a law of diverfity. As different interefts, and different views, predominated in the parliament of each kingdom, different commercial regulations followed of courfe, and the oppofite fhores of the Irish channel became, by degrees, mutually inimical. different interers, and different views, were fortified in each kingdom by the predilection of drawing a public revenue from port-duties: and on this principle, together with Thele that that of the unity of dominion, the 5 preffed a wifh, almoft unanimous, that the two iflands might ftill continue to be connected by fuch poli tical principles as fhould make their interefts, their conftitutional privi leges, and their power one, in a more complete manner than they had ever been before. The motion, which paffed into a law, for the abolition of the old conftitution, was followed by another motion, de claring the abfolute necefiity of forming a new conftitution. The formation of this new conftitution, though acknowledged by both houfes of parliament to be of indifpenfable neceflity, was neverthele's put off, by what has been called the coalition miniftry, fine die. Yet, lord North, on the occafion of propofing, in 1783, a new act relative to the poftage of letters, acknowledged it to " be very certain that Great Britain and Ireland had become to each other, in point of political power, as foreign nations." The relative fituátion of the two iflands was thus both new and alarming. The two countries were liable to be feparated by a thousand accidents, which no human forefight or wifdom could prevent. The three great objects to be accomplished, for the formation of a conftitutional connection between two nations are an equality of interefts, an equality of privileges, and a unity of power. The two firft of thefe objects were already in a great measure provided for, and very little remained indeed that could be urged by any peaceable and well-difpofed Irifhmen, as a fubject of complaint against the British government. But the unity of power, or unity of defence between Great Britain and Ireland, remained remained unfettled in 1799; when of the two countries fought to on the twenty-fecond of January, a meflage on that fubject was received from his majefty by both houfes of parliament. His majesty, after adverting to the unremitting induftry with which our enemies perfevered in their avowed defign of effecting the feparation of Ireland from this kingkingdom, recommended it to the lords and commons to confider of the most effectual means of finally defeating that defign, by difpofing the parliaments of both kingdoms to provide, in the manner which they fhould judge the moft expedient, for fettling fuch a complete and final adjustment, as might beft tend to improve and perpetuate a connection essential for their common fecurity, and confolidate the ftrength, power, and refources, of the British empire-on the following day, when this meflage was taken into confideration, Mr. fecretary Dundas, having laid on the table feveral papers relative to the proceedings of certain focieties in Ireland, and the rebellion in that country, moved an addrefs to his majefty, the fubftance of which was, "That the house would proceed with all due difpatch to the confideration of the feveral interefts, recommended in his majefty'sgracious meflage, to their ferious attention." Mr. Sheridan faid, that before minifters recommended to the houfe of commons to take measures that led inevitably to the difcuffion of fome plan of union, it was incumbent on them to have fhewn, that the laft pledge of the English parlament, to the people of Ireland, by which their independence was recognized, and their rights acknowledged, had not produced that unanimity, which the parliaments 6 cherish. The parliament of Ireland was an independent parliament.— There was no power whatever competent to make laws for that country. He was perfuaded that fuch of his countrymen as really loved national liberty, and who recollected that aufpicious period when independence came upon them, as it were by furprize, when the genius of freedom refted on their illand, the whole of the Irish, in fhort, would come to this fecond adjuftment, with a temper that would not augur tranquillity, but difquietude; not the fuppreflion of treason, but the extenfion and increafe of plots, to multiply and enfanguine its horrors! He admitted that there was fomething informal in this way of treating the question immediately before the houfe. But his dear country, Ireland, had claims upon him, which he was not more proud to acknowledge than ready, to the full measure of his ability,' to liquidate. He could fee the poflible danger of adding to the dif contents of the people of Ireland. But thefe dangers were to be apprehended only as innovations and encroachments on the rights of the Irish people, as forming an independent nation. He did not know how to admit, that to reject the measure of an union were to invite the feparation of the two countries by a French force. His opinion was directly the reverfe of this. Situated as Ireland was, without having in one instance manifested a wish to unite, but, on the contrary, having unequivocally declared herfelf hoftile to the propofition of an union he thought that, if it fhould be effected, it would be an union accomplished by furprize, fraud, corruption, |