as upon this half yearly examination appeared to have made no advances in the fcience, were fure to undergo a certain punishment, known in thofe days by the name of "dif

trefs," and when by this procefs they had been deprived of all the implements of their trade, the country prefenting no other requifition for their labour, either by manufactory or cultivation; they were fent a drift, however,

The world was wide before them where to chufe,
A place of reft, and Providence their guide.

But when in fhoals, their raggedness, and their famine, offended the eye of delicacy or of luxury, the fenate was made to ring with invective declamations upon the natural and unconquerable indolence of the Irish cha racter.

At length our prefent gracious fovereignt came to the throne, a Briton and a patriotthe agitation that fucceeded the revolution, and the establishment of the house of Hanover in Great Britain down to the death of George the fecond, together with the wars of that period, kept the administration too busy to

turn their thoughts to the profperous government of this country. Until then, this country was governed with little or no interference from England by its own ariftocracy, who governed the Lord Lieutenant of the day, or in the absence of the Lord Lieutenant, by lords juftices, members of that ariftocracy. If the voice of the people fometimes could reach the humanity and wisdom of the nobleman who prefided, it was only by touching his fenfibility to fhew him the incapacity of his fituation. The parliament was in the hands of the ariftocracy, and that engine had made that ariftocracy as much too ftrong for the Lord Lieutenant, as for the people.

Representations to this effect by Lords Lieutenant upon their return, who during their continuance here, felt themselves mere pageants in the hands of the aristocracy, alarmed the fovereign and councils of Great Britain the ftrides which that body had taken to render themselves independent of Great Britain wanted nothing, fave that they had not as yet arrayed an army to support their pretenfions and their power.

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To break that ariftocracy therefore by dividing them, was the moderate and ineffectual policy of the day, and for that purpose, the British Government fent over Lord Townfend, a foldier and a ftatefman; who had dif played the laurels of his country in different quarters of the globe, and whofe character was as much above the effects of faction, as of perfonal intimidation.

And here let me be fuffered to lament the fituation of a Viceroy or Minifter who is fent, or who at the exprefs defire of his fovereign comes over to adminifter this kingdom; he comes over to govern a country avowedly overwhelmed with calamities,-if he be a just, an upright, and a firm man, he knows and he feels that it is in vain to crop the weed unless he plucks out the root; but here is the dif ficulty; where the root lies muft depend upon a moral and political knowledge of the country, and from whom is he to acquire that knowledge in a country where local interests bias, and where prejudice depraves the heart and weakens the understanding? if he comes in the heat of conflict, he meets not a fingle individual

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individual who is not a partizan, and from a partizan he cannot expect much impartial information. There is under heaven' but one course for him to adopt, and that is, to depend upon the ftrength of his own judgment-he may rely upon it, that time will develope the caufes by fhewing the effects,-let him fee whether the profecutions, and above all, the punishments breathe the fpirit of juftice or of malignity, let him fee whether the acquittals breathe the fpirit of mercy or of party, and finally, let him fee whether the probability was ftronger, that one party were enflamed with the profpect of obtaining, or the other maddened with the apprehenfion of lofing po- . litical power, if he fhould fee that it was a conteft of parties, in which the unfortunate peafantry having been firft agitated by one party and frightened into rebellion by the other, ultimately became the victims of both,

-he will feel that fome modification of the fyftem is neceffary and he will adopt that, which while it is the leaft violent, is likely to be the fafeft for the imperial connection.

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The leading measure of Lord Townfend's. government was the bill for Octennial parliaments, which evidently was intended as a blow at the ariftocracy, but an ineffectual one. It is of little confequence to the ftate whether the term of a borough parliament be for eight years or for life of the king, or for ever, in England the fame effects never can be felt as here from that fort of aristocracy which may be arrayed by a confederacy of borough interefts; there the counties, the free cities, and the free boroughs completely overpower that part of the representation which is conftituted by private property,but here a coalition between five or fix great borough interefts, may for ever form a barrier between the people and the beft intentions of their fovereign. The other feature of that. noblemans adminiftration was to put down that part of the aristocracy which was predominant before his arrival, and which had theretofore utterly taken the fceptre out of the hands of their fovereign. But in order to put down this portion of the aristocracy, he was obliged to set up another, differing in nothing (fo far as related to the people or the fovereign)