290

MR. GRATTAN'S SPEECH ON [CHAP. IX.

that all your other plans have failed; you tried them-you tried your revenue, and you failed-you tried your public credit-it has failed; you tried armed force-it has failed; you have attempted to combat democracy by armies, and you failed; you sent armies against your enemies to combat that principle, and you failed; you sent armies against your people, and you failed. You conquered your laws indeed-you conquered the person of the subject-but you could not subdue his mind-you could not conquer the passion or the principle; on the contrary, you enflamed both; what then remains? Try this plan-Reform the Parliament; let the King identify with his people; there is his strength-let him share with them, or rather let them share with him, the blessings of the Constitution; as they have given him the powers of government, let him restore to them the rights of self-legislation-without that they have no liberty, and without a full and free representation in the Commons, they have not that they have the name indeed, but they have not the substance.

"There are in our Constitution three great Presidencies, or chairs-the Throne; the chair of the Nobles; and the chair of the Commons, that is, the chair, or what should be the chair, of the people. If his Majesty is satisfied with being seated in the first, and will leave the two others to the Peers and the people-he will reign long and securely, because the Peers and the people in securing to him the -possession of his seat, secure to themselves the possession of theirs; but if he shall be advised to take possession of the three chairs, and endeavour to set himself in all of them, his situation is precarious and unnatural, and the situation of his people is the condition of bondsmen. Such a people have no political pride nor political interest to defend, and therefore such a people will not be enthusiasts to defend the Throne against its enemies, foreign or domestic. The privileges of the Constitution were the protection of the people against the King, they are now the armour of of the King against democracy. In this opinion we have submitted our plan, and we have deprecated yours. What is your plan? There are but two measures in the countryReform, or force. We have offered you the former, you seem inclined to the latter. Let us consider it-"to subdue, to coerce, to establish unqualified submission." An arduous, a precarious undertaking-have you well weighed all its consequences? Is there not much of passion in your

CHAP. IX. REFORM AND EMANCIPATION.

291

judgment?-have you not lost your temper a little in the contest? I am sure you have shewn this night symptoms of irritation-a certain impatience of the complaints of the people. So it was in the American business. Nothing less in that contest than their unconditional submissionalas! what was the consequence? As far as you have tried your experiment here it has failed-the report shews you it has failed. It has increased the evil it would restrain-it has propagated the principles it would punish, but if repeated and invigorated, you think it will have more success-I apprehend not. Don't you perceive that instead of strengthening monarchy by constitutional principles, you are attempting to give it force by despotic ones? that you are giving the new principle the advantage of success abroad, and of suffering at home-and that you are losing the people, while you think you are strengthening the Throne-that you have made a false alliance with unnatural principles, and instead of identifying with the people, you identify with abuses. Before they are to be reformed, rebellion, you tell us, must be subdued. You tried that experiment in America-America required self-legislation-you attempted to subdue America by force of angry laws, and by force of arms-you exacted of America unconditional submission-the Stamp Act and the tea tax were only pretexts-so you said; the object, you said, was separation-so here the Reform of Parliament, you say, and Catholic emancipation, are only pretexts-the object you say is separation-and here you exact unconditional submission" You MUST SUBDUE BEFORE YOU REFORM;"-Indeed!-Alas! you think so; but you forget you subdue by reforming;-it is the best conquest you can obtain over your own people. But let me suppose you succeed-what is your success?—a military government a perfect despotism—a hapless victory over the principles of a mild Government and a mild Constitution a Union! but what may be the ultimate consequence of such a victory?—a separation. Let us suppose that the war continues, and that your conquest over your own people is interrupted by a French invasion-what would be your situation then? I do not wish to think of it; but I wish you to think of it, and to make a better preparation against such an event than such conquests and such victories. When you consider the state of your

292

PUBLIC FEELING AS TO

[CHAP. IX. arms abroad, and the ill-assured state of your government at home, precipitating on such a system, surely you should pause a little-even on the event of a peace you are ill secured against a future war, which the state of Ireland under such a system would be too apt to invite; but on the event of the continuation of the war-your system is perilous indeed I speak without asperity-I speak without resentment-I speak, perhaps, my delusion; but it is my heartfelt conviction-I speak my apprehension for the immediate state of our liberty, and for the ultimate state of the empire; I see, or I imagine I see, in this system, every thing which is dangerous to both; I hope I am mistaken; at least I hope I exaggerate-possibly I may-if so, I shall acknowledge my error with more satisfaction than is usual in the acknowledgment of error. I cannot, however, banish from my memory the lesson of the American war, and yet at that time English Government was at the head of Europe, and was possessed of resources comparatively unbroken. If that lesson has no effect on Ministers, surely I can suggest nothing that will. We have offered you our measure-you will reject it; we deprecate yours-you will persevere; having no hopes left to persuade or to dissuade, and having discharged our duty, we shall trouble you no more, and AFTER THIS DAY SHALL NOT ATTEND THE HOUSE OF COMMONS!"

Mr. Pitt was becoming unpopular in England.* The enthusiasm excited in his favour by the French revolution had nearly died away. His attempt to hang his early friends, Horne Tooke, Hardy, and other reformers, in which he was foiled by the virtue of British juries, had injured his reputation. The bad success that attended his military expeditions, and his negotiations with France; the stoppage of cash payments; the neglect of Ireland; and now the mutiny of the seamen at the Nore, had increased national discontent, as well as ministerial embarrassment; while in Ireland, his handing over the people to

* Upwards of thirty counties and cities in England assembled, and passed addresses, praying the King to remove Mr. Pitt from the royal councils for ever.

CHAP. IX.] MR. PITT'S MEASURES.

293

military law, his peremptory refusal to entertain Mr. Fox's motion in favour of lenient measures towards Ireland, had rendered him and his government not only unpopular, but odious to all except the high ascendancy party, who seemed bent on giving him a desperate but steady support. It is, however, due to the character of Ireland, to say, that her people did not silently behold the spoliation of their dearest rights, the introduction of unconstitutional measures, or the enforcement of military execution; and suffer, without remonstrance, the deprivation of law and liberty. The counties of Antrim, Armagh, Kildare, and King's County; the cities of Dublin and Cork; the members of the Bar and the Whig Club, protested against the conduct of the Government. Some of them addressed the King, and complained of his Minister, that he had introduced the most corrupt practices into Parliament for the purpose of buying the members; that he had suspended the law of the land; had imprisoned and transported the people without trial; and, finally, had imposed on the country military law and military government.

The following are extracts from the address of the people of Dublin to the King, 8th April,

1797

"Your Ministers have been publicly charged with the sale of peerages, for the purpose of procuring seats in Parliament, and when evidence was offered to convict them of the same, they shrunk from the enquiry. Places have been created, for the professed purpose of procuring majorities in Parliament, and these attacks upon the constitution have been accompanied by a doctrine which pleaded for the necessity of corrupting the Legislature, in a memorable declaration, equally public and audacious.

"Your Ministers have endeavoured to support their system of corruption by terror and violence, and accordingly have applied to Parliament for the enaction of cer

294

DUBLIN ADDRESS.

[CHAP. IX. tain statutes, namely, the Gunpowder Bill, Convention Bill, Insurrection Bill, and a bill for the suspension of the Habeas Corpus Act, whereby your subjects have been deprived of their personal liberty, their dearest rights, and of all those inestimable privileges, for the defence of which your Majesty's family was chosen to the sovereignty of these kingdoms.

"That in addition to all this, your Ministers have of late issued an order for putting the North under military government and military execution an order which amounts to an exercise of a dispensing power, lawless, unprecedented, and outrageous. That here we beg leave to submit to your Majesty how dangerous such a measure, if persisted in, may be to the connexion of the two countries, and how rash these Ministers must be who persevere in a war with France, and at the same time commence hostilities against the North of Ireland.

"That the conduct of your Ministers towards the Catholics of Ireland has been equally impolitic and illiberal; and notwithstanding your gracious recommendation from the Throne in favour of your Catholic subjects, they caused several innocent members of the Catholic communion to be tried for their lives, and endeavoured by influence to exclude Catholics from those offices and franchises to which by law they were admissible, exercised against their characters the most unqualified abuse; and your English Ministers having authorized your representative Earl Fitzwilliam to hold out the hopes of full emancipation, they recalled him for supporting the same; and when your people petitioned your Majesty in expressions of concern and disappointment, they received no answer, save only troops poured into this country by those Ministers."

Address from the county of Armagh, convened by the High Sheriff, 19th April:

"We complain, Sire, that the British constitution is enjoyed by us in name only. The English Cabinet is the real efficient power which guides, directs, and actuates the Irish Government. Through its influence, laws are capriciously enacted and repealed; under its guidance, a system of organized corruption has established itself—and measures are carried into effect, not by arguments drawn from reason and policy, but by the efforts of venality, frontless