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whereas the parliament of Great Britain had imposed limitations; but he had assigned a general principle why limitations were omitted, and would add, that whatever reasons might have been supposed to exist in England for those limitations, they. were not so much as pretended in Ireland. He had therefore thought it unnecessary and improper to enfeeble a government, which they professed to restore, as he thought it also improper to defend a constitution, which they acknowledged to be uninvaded. As the substance of their proceedings was different, the mode was different also, and it was impossible, even though they wished it, that the mode should be the same. The mode proposed by the Castle differed from Great Britain more, than that which he had submitted; that which he had submitted, departed from the model of England, but did not commit them with England, nor cast the least reflection on the wisdom of her measures. They concurred in the great object, the regent in the proceedings necessary to form the regency, the deliberation of the two countries were governed by their respective circumstances. In the proceedings, which he had submitted, it was sufficient to affirm, that all the great objects, which could attract the care of a nation, were punctiliously attended to; first, as to their constitution in every stage of the business, they exercised the power of a free and an independent house of parliament; the incapacity of the king to the personal exercise of the regal power, they discussed and decided: the deficiency thereby declared, they supplied, and having supplied that deficiency, they proceeded to legislate, and give their own work the clothing and stamp of law. As to their government, they restored it, and restored it to all its energies, that the concern of the people for the indisposition of the king, might not be aggravated by a tottering and impotent administration of public affairs. They also manifested attachment to the royal family, not only by renewing the government in the person of the heir apparent, but by renewing it in a manner honourable both to Prince and people.

In that great measure he had not relied on his own judgment. He had had recourse to history, he had looked for the highest land mark in the British annals, and had found it in the period of the Revolution.

The address which would be moved, in part of its phraseology, was copied from an address voted by the convention parliament to the Prince of Orange, desiring him to take upon himself the conduct of public affairs. The idea of proceeding by address was taken also from those addresses, which declared the Prince and Princess of Orange King and Queen of Ireland; and the idea of an act was also taken from the same period; in the second session of the convention parliament an act passed,

containing the substance of the addresses last mentioned, and giving the whole the clothing and form of the law.

There were points, in which the Revolution bore a near resemblance to the existing period, as there were other points, in which it was not only different but opposite. The throne being full, and the political capacity of the king's existing, the power of the two houses could not be applied to that part of the monarchical condition; but the personal capacity of the king, or rather the personal exercise of the royal power being deficient, and the laws of the land not having, in the ordinary course of law, made provision for that deficiency, and one of the estates being incapable, it remained with the other two to administer the remedy by their own authority: the principle of their interference was established by the Revolution, the operation of that principle limited by the contingency, the power of the houses of parliament in the one case extended to remedy a defect in the personal and political capacities of the monarch; in this case it extended only to remedy a defect in the personal capacity, but in both cases it was the power of the houses of parliament called upon to interfere by their own authority when the ordinary course of law had made no provision, and where the three estates could not supply the defect. He had, therefore, had recourse to the precedent of the Revolution in the mode of supplying the existing deficiency.

Gentlemen had called that an important day; he would add to the expression: he would call it a proud day for Ireland; she had deserved it, she had struggled hard for her independency, and she was then disposed to make a most judicious use of it: it was not a cold, deliberate act, supplying a deficiency in the regal function; it was not a judicious, but languid nomination of a substitute for the exercise of monarchical power; that country annexed a passion to her proceeding, and kindled in love and affection to the house of Brunswick, and the effect of her exertions, and the great labour of years, in restoring her constitutional rights and privileges, she now gathered in a harvest, which she shared with her princes.

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He should therefore move the following resolutions:

"Resolved, That it is the opinion of this committee, that the personal exercise of the royal authority, is, by his majesty's indisposition, for the present interrupted."

The question having been put on the resolution, it passed without a division.

Mr. Conolly then rose and said, that on that melancholy occasion, which every gentleman in and out of office lamented, and none more sincerely than he did, it had fallen to the lot of the two houses to put into the kingly office a substitute for their beloved sovereign; and there seemed to be but one mind, which

was to make that substitute the illustrious person who had, of all others, the greatest interest in preserving the prerogative of the crown, and the constitution of the realm.

He entirely coincided in the plan Mr. Grattan had proposed, because he was convinced it was consonant to the constitution, and such as his royal highness, to whom he should then move an address, must necessarily approve. He hoped they would be unanimous on the occasion. He therefore moved the fol lowing resolution :

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"Resolved, That it is the opinion of this committee, that an "humble address be presented to his royal highness to take upon himself the government of this realm, during the con "tinuation of his majesty's present indisposition, and no longer, "and under the style and title of Prince Regent of Ireland, in the "name of his majesty to exercise and administer, according to "the laws and constitution of this kingdom, all regal powers, "jurisdiction, and prerogatives to the crown and government "thereof belonging."

The motion was seconded by Mr. George Ponsonby.

Several of the former friends of government supported the address, when the Attorney General desired the clerk to read the act of the 4th of William and Mary, chap. 1. sect. 1. which having been done, he requested gentlemen to recollect they were not debating, whether they were to lay restrictions on the Prince of Wales, or not; but to consider, whether the address moved for were an instrument sufficient to convey to his royal highness the regal authority, and whether it were such an address as they ought to present.

Before he proceeded he would observe, that he was perfectly convinced what he should say would have no manner of effect on gentlemen, who formed the government on the other side of the house; for let them propose whatever address they might take into their heads, it would certainly be voted: and therefore he would not have risen to trouble the committee at all, if he had not been convinced, that the measures proposed were equally contrary to the common statute law of the realm, and criminal in the extreme.

He maintained, that the crown of Ireland and the crown of England were inseparably and indissolubly united; and that the Irish parliament was perfectly and totally independent of the British parliament.

The first position was their security; the second was their freedom; and when gentlemen talked any other language than that, they either tended to the separation of the crowns, or to the subjugation of their parliament; they invaded either their security or their liberty; in fact, the only security of their liberty was their connection with Great Britain, and gentlemen

who risked breaking the connection, must make up their minds to an union. God forbid he should ever see that day; but if ever the day on which a separation should be attempted, should come, he should not hesitate to embrace an union rather than a separation.

Under the Duke of Portland's government the grievances of Ireland were stated to be

The alarming usurpation of the British parliament.
A perpetual mutiny bill.

And the powers assumed by the privy council.

These grievances were redressed, and in redressing them they passed a law repealing part of Poynings'. By their new law they enacted, that all bills, which should pass the two houses in Ireland, should be certified into England, and returned under the great seal of England, without any addition, diminution, or alteration whatsoever, should pass into law, and no other. By this they made the great seal of England essentially and indispensably necessary on the passing of laws in Ireland: they could pass no act without first certifying it into England, and having it returned under the great seal in that kingdom insomuch that were the King of England and Ireland to come in person, and to reside in Ireland, he could not pass a bill without its being first certified to his regent in England, who must return it under the seal of that kingdom before his majesty could even in person assent to it. That if the house should by force of an address, upon the instant, and without any communication with England, invest a regent with powers undefined, he said, that when the moment of reflection came, it would startle the boldest adventurers in England; and then he reminded gentlemen of the language they held with England in the day they asserted their freedom: "Perpetual connection; common fortune; we will "rise or fall with England; we will share her liberty, and we "will share her fate." They then applauded the manly policy of England, but would not now condescend to receive informa tion from her. Did gentlemen recollect the arguments used in England to justify the fourth proposition of the commercial treaty? Ireland, said they, having a parliament of her own, may think fit to carry on a commerce, and regulate her trade by laws different from, perhaps contradictory to, the laws of Great Britain. How well founded that observation was, they would prove, if they seized the first opportunity that offered of differing from Great Britain in a great imperial question; certainly if it be the scheme to differ in all imperial questions, and if that be abetted by men of great authority, they meant to drive them to an union, and the method they took was certainly more effectual to sweep away opposition, than if all the sluices of corruption were opened together, and deluged the country's representa

tives; for it was certain nothing less than the alternative of separation that could ever force an union.

He would not yield to any man in personal respect and attachment to the Prince of Wales. No man could think of him more highly than he did; but he would manifest his respect and attachment to the Prince of Wales, by endeavouring to preserve entire the imperial crown, which in the course of nature would descend to him, and which they then were, by an act of criminal rashness, about to deprive of its best appendage. He would not insult the Prince of Wales by an address, which could not confer on him the shadow of royal power; he wished to invest him with substantial royal powers, which he might execute consistently with the laws, by which he was to govern. Would any man say, that they were now in full parliament? Was not his majesty, George the Third, to whom they had all sworn allegiance, living and he hoped God in his mercy would soon restore him. Was not his lord lieutenant there in full authority? What had they then to do? As soon as it should be certified, that the Prince of Wales was invested with the authority of regent in England, but to pass an act to invest him with that authority in Ireland. Send that act to the prince regent in England; he would then have the command of the great seal of England, and return the act authenticated according to law.

His lord lieutenant might then, by his command, give the royal assent to it; and who would say that it would not be a law of the land? But suppose the Prince did not accept the regency in England; suppose their address should reach him before he was actually invested with royal powers in England, in what situation would you put him? They would call on him, in defiance of two acts of parliament, which made the crowns inseparable, to dethrone the king his father. They would call upon him to do an act now, at which hereafter his nature would revolt. They were false friends of the Prince of Wales, who should advise him to receive an address, that might give him cause to curse the hand, which presented it. He knew, that liberties indecent in the extreme had been taken with the name of that august personage. He knew it had been whispered, that every man, who should vote against the address, would be considered as voting against him, and treating him with disrespect; but if any man had had the guilt and folly to poison the mind with such an insinuation, he trusted to his good sense to distinguish his friends; he would trust to his good sense to determine, whether they were his friends, who wished to guard the imperial rights of the British crown, or they who would stake them upon the momentary and impotent triumph of an F f

VOL. III.

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