of the character I have endeavoured to establish in life, if I should slacken in my just application to obtain a restoration of our rights and liberties; and therefore, regardless of the manifold disadvantages of station, birth and education, under which I labour, and of the numberless misrepresentations made of me, by designing men, I presume to make one effort more to bring the complaints of Dublin before my royal sovereign; of the greatness and integrity of whose soul I am so fully convinced, that I am firmly persuaded he wants but due information to redress the grievances of his subjects.

I am well aware, my lord, that some of these great men, who have thought fit to represent me to your excellency, heretofore, as a madman, will now set me forth in more hateful colours. It is become much the fashion, of late, to vilify me, to represent me as a riotous, tumultuous incendiary, a disaffected person, a condemner of government, of magistracy, even of majesty.

To acquit myself of these foul imputations, I must beg your excellency will permit me lay before your a short review of the course I have taken to obtain justice and law, the common benefits of the constitution of this my country,

When I first discovered the invasions made on the rights and privileges of the commons and citizens of this city, I tried all just and moderate means to set things to right within the city; and though the invaders gave me all manner of unjust, forcible, and cruel opposition, and have now scarce left so much of the traces of our constitu

tion as might demonstrate we had any, I still preserve the respect due to the magistracy of the city, though I can look upon it only as de facto, not de jure.

Failing of redress within the city courts, I had recourse, with my fellows, to the courts of law, and though we were attended with no better success there, I can defy mine enemies to shew the instance in which I failed to pay due respect to the judges of our courts.

I have, it is true, my lord, taken the benefits our constitution admits, of appealing against, or complaining of the proceedings of some of these judges, to an higher power, to your excellency, as the representative of his majesty; whether or no the terms in which I did so were wrong or injurious, I humbly submit to your excellency's recollection.

One of the most sensible happinesses of our system of government is, that every person, who does but think himself aggrieved by any branch of the subordinate administration, has the privilege of appealing or complaining to a superior, in a regular gradation from one to another, even to the supreme magistrate. This is a privilege too sacred for any loyal subject to give up, for any good governor to suppress.

When I first claimed the benefits of this privilege, and layed before your excellency the complaints of Dublin, it must be confessed, you heard me with patience, with humanity, with a tender feeling of the sufferings of the king's subjects, and some pain for the shocks given our consti

tution. What unhappy misrepresentations of facts, or person, or what unauthorised arrogance or insolence of servants, prevented your excellency's taking the steps in this affair, that your wisdom and justice promised, or afterwards excluded me the access to your excellency's presence, I cannot take upon me to point out; but, as the same principles of justice and law bind alike the small and the great; when I judged it expedient, and my bounden duty, to appeal to our sovereign, I thought it necessary to let him see, that I had recourse to the highest power here, before I presumed to trouble his majesty, which then, not before, gave me the subject's right to apply for relief to the throne.

I addressed the lords justices of this kingdom, in your excellency's absence. I presented them with the charter and dedication, which I now lay before your excellency, and prayed to have it transmitted to his majesty; but their excellencies thought fit to decline granting my petition.

Thus your excellency may see, the same necessity still subsists, the same principles prompt, and the same motives that before prevailed, still strongly induce me, with all respect and humility, to address your excellency, and to supplicate you on behalf of myself, and the rest of my suffering fellow-subjects and citizens, to forward the summary state of our case in the following charter and dedication, to the royal presence.

There is another reason, to me, no less cogent, for begging this favour with greater earnestness of your excellency; my reputation is dearer to

me than life; that is rigorously, severely struck at: the most violent, the most lawless, the most inhuman threats are daily uttered against me; for none other crime, that I know of, than that of complaining of public injuries, dangerous and destructive to the king and to his people. I have appealed to Cæsar. Shall Cæsar's servants obstruct the laying my complaints before the throne? and even punish me for complaining? Shall this be done under the administration of a Stanhope? God forbid!

My lord, to sum up all my desires and intentions in a few words; I only wish to discharge the end of my creation, in fulfilling the duty of a subject, in every station, to which it shall please all-wise, all ruling Providence to call me, with due submission and subjection to every loyal and good governor and subordinate magistrate, and an equal right to oppose, by law, and to complain of the misconduct of all those, who endanger our constitution by endangering the right of the subject, or neglecting to discharge the duties of their

stations.

If in all that I have hitherto attempted, with this intent, I have done wrong to any man, I am open to conviction, and ready to make the fullest atonement. Therefore, if I have advanced any thing repugnant to the principles of our government, or inconsistent with the rights and privileges of the subject, I humbly conceive my intentions ought to be considered, and I should be properly examined, before the threatened weight and fury of power be let loose upon me. It is

not to be deemed beneath the dignity of good governors to inform active and well-meaning subjects of errors in their conduct; if such can be made to appear in my transactions, I shall from the same principle, that I mean to advance truths, in my judgment conducive to the happiness of this city, and these kingdoms, as readily, as publicly, retract errors, or mistakes.

My lord, I must beg your excellency's indulgence to make one declaration more. At a time, when ministerial influence of court dependence is rather sought than avoided, by men of independent fortunes, it may be suspected, that one of my low sphere may have some private or selfish views in thus attending upon your excellency. To obviate such an imputation, I thus solemnly declare, that though I wish to be always well understood, and, upon occasion, well heard, by the government; yet, even that, is only for the public good; because, that for myself, I have nothing to ask, nor any thing to fear from the highest powers; my sole ambition is to discharge the duties of my station. And, in so doing, I shall ever take care to approve myself, his majesty's most unfeigned loving and loyal subject, as well as, may it please your excellency, your excellency's most dutiful and most faithful humble servant, C. Lucas. October, 1749.

To his most serene and august majesty king George II. The humble memorial of J. Fitzgerald, earl of Kildare, &c. most humbly sheweth, that your memorialist is the eldest peer of the realm, by descent, as lineally sprung from the