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with my fraternity, for a reformation of my profession in the years 1735, and 1741, and since, with my superiors, for the res toration of the rights and liberties of the commons and citizens of this broken and reduced metropolis.

If your excellency will take the trouble of perusing this and the following address to the lords justices, with the dedication to the king, I flatter myself, you will see such causes assigned for the courses, I have taken, to obtain some redress of the heavy grievances of which I complain, that, I must hope, you will not only pardon the presumption of once more addressing, or at tempting to address your excellency in this manner, but allow there is some degree of merit in struggling through the many dangers and difficulties that have been opposed to me, for the bringing or endeavouring to bring such important truths to the royal ear, as, if regarded must tend to the unspeakable honour and advantage of the king and people of these realms, in the security and welfare, of each of which, I look upon myself to be equally interested and concerned.

However, my Lord, as the same necessity which first urged me to lay our complaints before you, still strongly subsists, I should be wanting in the duty of a citizen, and a subject, and fall short 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 those 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 to lay before you 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 rights 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

races of our constitution 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 ag grieved 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 constitution. What unhappy misrepresen tations 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 fellow-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 connstitution by invading the rights 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 wellmeaning 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 unfeignedly loving and loyal subject, as well as,

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THE MEMORIAL OF THE EARL OF KILDARE....PAGE 47.

To his Most Serene and August Majesty King George the Second, of Great Britain, France, and Ireland, King, Defender of the Faith, and so forth.

The most humble Memorial of James Fitzgerald, Earl of Kildare, Baron Offaly, Lord Leinster in England, &c. and one of his Majesty's Most Honorable Privy Council of the Kingdom of Ireland,

MOST HUMBLY REPRESENTETH,

THAT your memorialist is the eldest peer of the realm, by descent, as lineally sprung from the ancient and august blood of the noble Earl of Kildare, who came over under the invincible banner of your august predecessor Henry the Second, when his arms conquered the kingdom of Ireland.

That your memorialist, on this foundation, has the greater presumption to address your august majesty, as his ancestors have ever proved themselves steady adherents to the conquest of that kingdom, and were greatly instrumental in the reduction thereof, by their money, interest, and forces.

That though they were first sent over with letters patent, under Henry the Second's banner, to conquer that kingdom, yet by the inheritance of lands, by intermarriages with princesses of the kingdom, they became powerful, and might have conquered for themselves, notwithstanding which, their allegiance was such, as that, on that sovereign's mandate to stop the progress of war, we obeyed, and relinquished our title of conquest, laid down our arms, and received that monarch with due homage and allegiance, resigning our conquests as became subjects, and

also prevailed with the sovereign princes, bishops, nobles, clergy, and gentry, to acknowledge him right and lawful sovereign of Ireland, and of the seas, sea-ports, and other domains of the kingdom.

That on this presumption, your memorialist has, in the most humble manner, at the request of the natives of Ireland, your majesty's true liege subjects, not only the aborigines thereof, but the English colonies, sent over by Henry the Second, Richard the Second, Elizabeth, Charles, Croinwell the Usurper, William the Third of glorious memory, and other kings, your majesty's predecessors, and the conquerors of Ireland, made bold to lay before your majesty the true state of their several and respective grievances, a burden now become almost too heavy to bear.

And your memorialist was rather induced to lay this memorial at your august majesty's feet, as it was on good presumption surmised, that all access to your royal ear was shut up, and your liege subjects debarred the liberty of complaining, a right ever allowed to your majesty's liege subjects of what degree or condition soever.

That no notice being taken of several remonstrances heretofore made by your majesty's liege subjects, it was humbly presumed, that such remonstrances had been stopped, and debarred in their progress to your royal ear.

That your memorialist, at the request of several thousands of your liege subjects, as well the nobles as the clergy, the gentry, and commonalty of the kingdom, has ventured on this bold step, for which he humbly craves your majesty's pardon, as nothing but the distress of his countrymen, your most loyal subjects, could have drawn him to this presumption.

That in general the face of your loyal kingdom of Ireland wears discontent, a discontent not coloured from caprice or faction, but purely founded on ministerial misapplication.

That though several persons, particularly N. G. was called to account for the public money, which he had drawn out of the treasury, and deposited in the banks, yet this inquisition came to nothing by the mediation of party, and the interposition of power.

That the Duke of Dorset's son Lord George, though in high and lucrative employments already, not satisfied therewith, has restlessly grasped at power, insatiable in his acquisitions.

That the primate, who is now on the pinnacle of honour, connected with the said noble lord, has made use of his influence to invest himself of temporal power, and like a greedy churchman, affects to be a second Wolsey in the senate.

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