ΤΟ ΤΗ Ε HIBERNIAN MAGAZINE: O R, Compendium of Entertaining Knowledge, For the YEAR 1775. Explanation of the FRONTISPIECE. Three Cupids bear a Shield, infcribed "WALKER'S HIBERNIAN MAGAZINE," configning it to Fame. Minerva (the Goddess of Wifdom) prefents the fine Arts, Poetry, Mufic and Defign, to Hibernia, as Affiftants in the Compilation of the Work; the Genius of which Smiles on Hibernia, and points up to the Shield, as the proper Sphere of Action for the Sifter Arts. An Appeal to the Understanding of the Electors of Ireland. T is the remark of an ingenious fo Ireigner, after an attentive confideration of our government and conftitution, that the people of England are free once in feven years. It is plain that, in this obfervation, he confines his view merely to that time, when the public truft, committed to the care of our reprefentatives, is annihilated; and that he is of opinion, as foon as it becomes again vefted, the conftituents have transferred to the elected, fo long as they continue their delegates, all that fhare of liberty, which, however they flatter themfelves, as Englifhmen, with the idea of poffeffing, is, from that moment, yielded up, without poffibility of recal, to thofe perfons in whom they think proper to confide. If this political opinion be well founded, as I have little doubt that in theory it is, how much does it behove every member of the community to look well to thefe his dearest interests, which must be configned to the difpofal of such perfons as he fhall depute his political executors and adminiftrators! For, however the doctrine of tefts and inftructions may lead men to imagine that the constitutional exiftence of the people should be prolonged during the whole continuance of a parliament, yet the moft zealous advocates of thefe popular tenets muft confefs, that it is equally impracticable and inconfiftent with the idea of a well-goAppendix, 1775 verned commonwealth to engage the majority of its members in public difquifitions, which require the full vigour of a well informed mind, unincumbered with the cares of thofe innumerable occupations that engross the heads and employ the hands of the bulk of its inhabitants. It has, therefore, been at all times an object of the very firft magnitude, to imprefs upon the people at large, flow by nature to reflect on the remote confequence of public measures, an adequate idea, as well of their own importance, as of their intimate concern in the choice of those perfons, who are to decide upon their future welfare or profperity. That it is at prefent more than doubly incumbent on every friend of this country to lend his aflifiance for the attainment of this great end, every one must admit, who reflects but a moment on the infinite powers with which parliament is invefted on the one hand, and the immeasurable diftrefs into which this kingdom may be plunged by the abufe of thofe powers, on the other. In treating this fubject I fhall preferve, I truft, that moderation which thould ever mark an addrefs of an individual to the public, and without which, in truth, political effays are nothing more than the rhapfodies of an enthufiaft, if not the interested productions of party zeak Hhhhh calculat calculated to ferve purposes as bafe as they are difgraceful to a freeman. The country in which we live is placed in circumftances entirely peculiar to itself, and not to be found in fearching all the hiftories of former times: Subordinate to another, yet free within ourfelves, fo far as freedom confifts in the power of taxation; and of regulating our own internal commerce and police, under the government of a prince invefted with the rights of fovereignty, diftinct and feparate from thofe which he exercifes over the branches of a wide extended territory, yet fubject to the controul of councils and a legiflature, wholly independent on us, and whofe interefts, in many refpects are almoft incompatible with ours. Thus fituated, amidft fo many political inconfiftencies, at least in theory, how will common fenfe, how will that regard for our own happiness, implanted by nature in the breafts of all, direct us to act in order to afford this nation the means of withstanding that formidable array of power, which, from the nature of our fubordinate state, and the interefts of the fuperior one, appears ready to cruth us, whenever it fhall be judged neceffary to put that power in motion? It will immediately occur, that the only fence against fuch a ftorm of danger must be an honest and virtuous houfe of Commons: To it we must look for the fhield to cover us in the day of battle, and from them alone expect that fafeguard and protection, which national integrity only can afford us. If with a liftleffuefs and fupine neglect of any thing more than prefent advantage, too much the characteristic of modern men, we commit the care of our safety to the hands of weak or corrupt guardians, we may lament our folly when it is too late, but we cannot wonder at an event which is the natural confequence of it. What will it then avail us to wring our hands in despair, or to pour forth the tears of contrition and remorfe, as a libation to the tutelar deity of this deluded country? Each drop we fhed will cry out to him for judgment against us, to whom he entrufted the power of averting, and who, in the ftupefaction of nur fenfes, turned it to the very means of bringing down the impending evil on our heads. Let us not amufe ourselves with a notion, propagated by thofe who hide their real thoughts beneath a cloak of feeming incredulity, that fchemes deftructive of our liberties are formed by the heated imagination of modern patriotifin alone; y are contradicted by every symptom that can be fuppofed to threaten the approach of fuch a dreadful crifis. Has not the claim of taxation, enforced at the point of the bayonet in America, written a leffon to us in letters of blood, which if we are not loft to all fenfe of reafon and experience, we must read with apprehenfion and diftruft? Did not the very parent of the American stamp act declare, at the inftant of its birth, that he hoped to make the haughty Irish bend their necks, when that fyftem fhould have ripened into maturity? Does not the minifter of this day in Great-Britain, though not, perhaps, in his own voice, yet by the mouths of men who are in his confidence, and owe their importance chiefly to his favour, proclaim openly that Ireland, as well as America, is fubject to the taxative authority of the Britifh parliament, and that it can and ought to exercife that right, whenever it fhall be deemed beneficial to the empire? that is, in other words, whenever the profufion of English minifters fhall conftrain them to have recourse to it. When we add to thefe, the frequent, the wanton, and the formidable attacks made upon the conftitution of this country, by the late repeated alterations of our money bills, more especially of the laft, can we fuppofe that defigns upon our liberties exift in the dreams of fufpicion only? No; we cannot, we ought not to treat a fubject of fuch immenfe confequence to ourselves and our pofterity with so unpardonable a remiffness as to think fo. We fhould play the wiler part, and act as if we were convinced of its probability, by raising such a fortrels within the feat of war, as muft baffle all the attempts of open enemies, or false and traitorous friends. If we confider this object in its proper view, we fhall find that the parliament, now about to be clected, will be by much the most important of any that ever met in this kingdom. It will be our own egregious folly that muft deftroy us,fhould fuch defigns be attempted. For on our heads muft defcend the infamy of configning all that is dear to men, at this critical juncture, into the hands of perfons who, from want, from profesion, or from wickednefs, are likely to grafp at emoluments, which they regard as an ample equivalent for the rights and freedom of their conftituents. Fears, that have fo much probable foundation in reality as thefe, are indeed fufficient to awaken the caution of every, even the meanest elector within this kingdom, at a time when he is to deter minc mine fo far as his influence extends, on the fafety or deftruction of his country. But, when we turn our eyes on domeftic occurrences, we shall then difcover facts uncontroverted and uncontrovertible, that must, exclusive of any open attack upon our liberty as a people, ring an alarm in the ears of all who are not deaf to the calls of public or even private interest. Let us take but a cursory view of the difpofal of our money, and the state of our finances; we fhall find during the prefent parliament's existence, arrears provided for, amounting to hundreds of thoufands in every feflion, the revenue on the decline, impofitions perpetually increafing, new penfions, new employ ments, new loans have fwelled the national burden to fuch an immoderate fize, that it has become fo much too heavy for the backs which are to bear it, as to puzzle the most expert money jobbers, who could be found on this, or imported from the other fide of the water, to hunt out taxes, even to pay the intereft of fuch an accumulating debt. Taxation, formerly the object of men in trade, who paid a duty on their goods, for the fupport of a moderate establishment, has now become the concern of every private perfon in the nation. Not a luxury, fcarce a neceffary of life that does not bear the mark of a tax-gatherer's heavy hand; whilft even the juftice of the realm, to be difpenfed between man and man, is forced to crouch beneath the iron-rod of the financeering inquifitors, who torture ways and means until they have drawn from them the very life and foul of their exiffence. In what I have faid upon this part of the fubject, I mean not to reflect on this or any former administration; I am not engaged either to criminate or to defend the conduct of government; what is tranfacted behind the curtain of state, I have neither an opportunity nor a defire to know; it is fufficient that matters are as I have represented them, to bring the ferious confideration of our circumftances home to every man, and he will find, upon an examination of them, that, unlefs a fpeedy ftop be put to this confuming evil, it must, ere it be very long, devour all the other refources of this ill fated country, and that a tax upon lands, with all its pernicious confequences, and unattended by any of its beneficial ones (fince in this cafe it will not refult from an union with Great Britain, and of courfe cannot purchase any extenfion of trade for us) must be reforted to, as the laft effort of expiring generofity. Let us now, for an inftant, caft a thought upon the effects fuch a meafure wili naturally produce to us, who poffefs the landed property, and have the privilege of returning members to parliament. Whenever this tax fhall be impofed, they who fupport and forward it, in order to raise money, will find it neceffary (from the circumstances of the lands in this country, and perhaps for the more effectually reconciling it to an affembly, compofed for the most part of landlord) to comprehend not only landlords, but fome particular fpecies of tenantry within its reach; indeed, to confine the payment of it merely to either, might plaufibly enough be objected to, because it would be unreafonable to throw the burden indifcriminately upon all the former, when, in many inftances, the tenants have tenfold a better intereft in the lands, than the original proprietors; and it is needlefs to fay how inequitable and impoffible it must be to exact it from vaft numbers of the latter, who already make out of their grounds but a fcanty fubfistence for their families; it is eafy then to fee how diftreffing fuch a measure muft prove to a nation already exhaufted by numberless impofts on her trade, and the produce of her foil. I thought it neceffary to enlarge thus far upon this important topic, fince an opinion, however il founded, has gone abroad, that this dreaded tax muft fall entirely upon the eitated intereft, than which nothing can be more abfurd: But let it fall where it may, our lands will groan under its full weight: they must pay according to their real income, and not as in England according to one generally fictitious. But it is not alone, on account of the fituation of this country, with relation to another, nor of the ftate of our finances, with respect to our internal conomy, that we ought to confider the parliament, now to be chofen, as likely to determine whether we shall be a great and flourishing, or a weak and divided peo ple: The outrages of the lower claffes, in feveral parts of this country, have proceeded to fuch an unparalleled height of infolence, and even of barbarity, as to threaten the fafety as well as the peace of the community, and to alarmevery one who has at heart the fmallett regard for the public welfare, or who feels within his breaft the natural dictates of huthanity; for the immediate flop and preven tion of thefe enormities, fanguinar laws have been reforted to, but that they hav Hhhhh 2 prov proved ineffectual hitherto, the miferable fufferings of the numerous victims to popular fury, fince the paffing of those laws, abundantly declare. It is in vain to hang a few wretches, who, driven firft by ftern neceffity, and afterwards hurried on by the arts of perhaps a profligate leader, have dared to commit fuch atrocious crimes; whilst rags and mifery are the fole portion of the common people, they will exchange them, without fcruple, for any other, even death itself; it will therefore require the aid of the best heads and the foundeft hearts among us to difcufs this fubject with an impartiality, free from local or interested prejudices, or elfe we can never expect to find, in the refult of parliamentary deliberation, a remedy better calculated for the redrefs of this formidable evil, than that which we have too fatally experienced to be infufficient and abortive. It is furely enough to have barely reprefented these few principal circumftances, in which we are peculiarly and deeply involved; they muft flrike the understanding, and touch the hearts of all, for all are or will be infimately affected by their confequences, if they are not moit carefully guarded against. It is not now a time, amidst public dangers and national diftreffes, to indulge private affections or trifling interested views,in the choice of our reprefentatives; the aweful voice of public juftice com. mands us, the purfuafive found of our fiift and greateft intereft exhorts us, and the fupplicating cries of ages to come, methinks, implore us to reject, in this great and critical moment, fuch mean and paltry confiderations. If we poffefs the will, we have undoubtedly the power to fend into parliament fuch a body of men, as may be able to turn the scale, at length, in favour of public virtue. There are in this kingdom thirty two counties, and, I compute, at least twelve corporations that return members by the voice of the people; and when to these are added the boroughs under the countroul of perfons, whofe independence, as well of fpirit as of.property, have always ranked them with the foremost in fupport of our real interefts and our deareft rights, we fhall foon perceive that fuch a reprefentation, united by the defire of attaining one common object, muft overpower even the corruption of modern times. It is by fuch an union folely that this furious tide can be itemmed; and we, who are to appoint thefe important pilots, fhould look well to their honefly and fkill, or our little bark can never hope to weather out another eight years storm. It appears fomewhat extraordinary, that the first limited parliament ever seen in this kingdom should have granted more of the people's money, and that too in a time of profound peace, than any other before them within the fame term of their continuance. One might be apt to conclude from this, that the octennial act was a bad one; but I think the conclufion may be falfe, because the prefent is the first parliament ever fummoned under that law, and it remains to be proved, whether, in the fecond, due regard will be had by the conftituents to the conduct of their reprefentatives; for to gain an opportunity of canvaffing, and of approving or cenfuring that, was the great object which Ireland propofed to itself, by this favourite alteration in its political fyftem. This precious opportunity now offers itself, and we are now folemnly appealed to for our judgment,in a trial of greater moment than any ever yet presented to the public view. We are about to førutinize minutely and diftinctly, the merits of those perfons in whom we have hitherto confided. Have you, Sir, attended your duty in parliament with that care and circumfpection, fo effentially requifite in a man, who accepts a truft of the moft important nature from his fellow citizens? Have you watched over our interefts with the fidelity of an honeft steward, who knows he is to be accountable, even in this world, for the goods committed to his charge? Whence comes it then, that, after eight years management of these, we are fo much more in debt, without any equivalent attained, than when we placed this valuable office in your hands? Have you deferted the honourable fervice of your country, and betrayed the dignity as well as the interests of the public, by hiring yourfelf to administration, and reaping the wages of proftitution? Or have you fupported one set of minifters, because you were, and oppofed another, because you were not paid? In those momentous queftions, fo frequently agitated, and as often carried by government, within these four latt fethions, how have you voted? Is your name to be found among the oppofers or the friends of newly created employments, increase of falaries to old ones, ufelefs and burthenfome penfions, and that long lift of minifterial jobs, by which the perfdy of agents ཝཱ agents is rewarded at the expence of their employers? But, above all, have you openly favoured that fcandalous and dangerous infringement of our liberties and conftitution, an altered money-bill, or have you fecretly rendered that attack, in reality, effectual, by tranfmitting, in return for this degrading affront to our understandings, as well as to the freedom of this country, the fame mutilated act, which had been fent over to you by English privy council, or perhaps by an English attorney general, thereby entrenching yourself behind the fubtleties of parliamentary forms, when you fhould have entered the field in the well grounded confidence of being fupported by the full power, and the univerfal refentment of this nation ? In the answer to thofe plain and neceffary queries we cannot admit the rhetorical apologies of elaborate gloffes, which even the molt abandoned tools of corruption have learned the ufe of, to difguile or vindicate their conduct. Facts alone, in this eloquent and felf interefted age, fhould be the tefts to which that conduct ought to be referred, and by them only fhould be adjudged the merits or the guilt of public meafures and of public men. It would reflect indelible fhame upon our common fenfe, that men, who now folicit a continuance of our favour, fhould be fuffered to refufe or to neglect the rendering an exact account of the manner in which they have hitherto ufed it, whilft, in all applications to government by the very fame perfons for its bounty, it is indifpenfibly requifite to boatt of fervices done, or promife fupport equivalent to the grant. If we are fenfible, upon the foregoing confiderations, of the peculiar moment, by which this fubject is diftinguifhed from any other public one, that ever hitherto appeared in this country; and if we are alfo convinced of our ability, by a proper and fpirited exertion of which we may fave that country from impending, and fhould we neglect it, irrevocable ruin, it becomes our moft ferious duty, and our immediate concern, to fearch for and adopt the neceifary means of rendering the interpofition of the people, at this critical feason, of proper efficacy and weight: Thofe means confift in the making a judicious choice of the popular members, who are to compofe the fucceeding houfe of Commons; and as on this choice will depend the glory or debasement of the Irish nation, we fhould enter minutely, as well into the circumftances of the feveral counties and cor. porations, in which we poffefs freeholds, as into the difpofitions and characters of the candidates for the honour of reprefenting them. Ever fince a feat in parliament has been regarded as a tiep to honours or fo lucrative promotion, the arts of elsetioneering, and of fecuring a powerful intereit in a county, have been cultivated with the most attentive care, until ripening by degrees into a perfect fyftem of corruption, they have almoft fapped the foundation of the latt trong hold remaining to our constitution, the popular appointment of our reprefentatives. Until the people at large thall dare to think and act for themfelves, these muft ftamp a blot upon our reputation, and infinuate a canker that will confume the very vitals of our freedom, In general, the perfons moft to be dreaded, with refpect to the exercife of an overgrown and pernicious influence, are the nobility. No expedient, hitherto difcovered by the houfe of Commons, has been fuiticient to prevent their interference in elections, and in truth, nothing but the univerfal oppofition of the people to their attempts, can ever, with effect, counteract this dangerous encroachment. If it were once experienced, that the interpolition of a lord did, of it!elf, condemn the pretenfions of any candidate, whom he fupported, to certain difappointment, that interpofition would be as much avoided as it is now courted and eagerly embraced: We fhould bear no more of those fhameful monopolies of county feats, by which fome elections have been branded with infamy, nor of that fcandalous barter, by which a knight of the thire,heretofore the honourable delegate of the people, dwindles into the petit representative of a mean borough, and iteps into parliament the hackled agent of a peer; examples have not been unfrequent of fuch a traffic in both these ways and even now preparatory to the approaching diffolution of parliament, inftances are not wanting of preliminary contracts. that would difgrace even the office of an election broker. How then fhould the generous refentment of a free people treat fuch grofs attempts to impofe upon their credulity, and to difpofe of their fuffrages, by way of bargain and fale, with the fame compofure, and as much fkill in vending, as a drove of oxen is fold to a butcher in Smithfield? Shall we not spurn at this indignity? Shall we not manifeft to the world, that we are not unworthy of poffeffing the glorious privilege of deputing the |