CHAP. I.]

BEFORE THE PRIVY COUNCIL.

5

result of an enlightened understanding, and an elevated integrity, commanding a respect that he laboured not to inspire, and attracting a confidence which it was impossible he could betray. It is but eight years, my lords, since we have seen such a man amongst us, raising a degraded country from the condition of a province, to the rank and consequence of a people worthy to be the ally of a mighty empire, forming the league that bound her to Great Britain, on the firm and honourable basis of equal liberty and a common fate, standing and falling with the British Empire;' and thus stipulating for that freedom which alone contains the principle of her political life in the covenant of her federal connexion.

-

"But how short is the continuance of these auspicious gleams of public sunshine! - how soon are they passed, and perhaps for ever! In what rapid and fatal revolution has Ireland seen the talents and the virtues of such men give place to a succession of sordid parade and empty pretension, of bloated promise and lank performance, of austere hypocrisy and peculating economy. Hence it is, my lords, that the administration of Ireland so often presents to the reader of her history, not the view of a legitimate government, but rather of an encampment in the country of a barbarous enemy; where the object of the invader is not government, but conquest; where he is of course obliged to resort to the corrupting of clans, or of single individuals pointed out to his notice by public abhorrence, and recommended to his confidence only by a treachery so rank and consummate, as precludes all possibility of their return to private virtue or to public reliance, and therefore only put into authority over a wretched country, condemned to the torture of all that petulant, unfeeling asperity with which a narrow and malignant mind will bristle in unmerited elevation,-condemned to be betrayed, and disgraced, and exhausted by the little traitors that have been suffered to nestle and to grow within it, making it at once the source of their grandeur and the victim of their vices, reducing it to the melancholy necessity of supporting their consequence, and of sinking under their crimes, like the lion perishing by the poison of a reptile that finds shelter in the mane of the noble animal while it is stinging him to death.

"But to what end offer argument to such men? A little and a peevish mind may be exasperated, but how shall it

6

MR. CURRAN'S SPEECH

[CHAP. I.

be corrected by refutation? How fruitless would it have been to represent to that wretched Chancellor that he was betraying those rights which he was sworn to maintain,* and that he was involving a Government in disgrace and a kingdom in panic and consternation; that he was violating every sacred duty and every solemn engagement that bound him to himself, his country, his sovereign, and his God! Alas! my lords, by what argument could any man hope to reclaim or to dissuade a mean, illiberal, and unprincipled minion of authority, induced by his profligacy to undertake, and bound by his avarice and vanity to persevere. He would probably have replied to the most unanswerable arguments by some curt, contumelious, and unmeaning apothegm, delivered with the fretful smile of irritated self-sufficiency and disconcerted arrogance; or even if he could be dragged by his fears to a consideration of the question, by what miracle could the pigmy capacity of a stunted pedant be enlarged to a reception of the subject? The endeavour to approach it would have only removed him to a greater distance than he was before: as a little hand that strives to grasp a mighty globe is thrown back by the reaction of its own effort to comprehend. It may be given to an Hale or an Hardwick to discover and retract a mistake; the errors of such men are only specks that arise for a moment upon the surface of a splendid luminary ; consumed by its heat, or irradiated by its light, they soon purge and disappear. But the perverseness of a mean and narrow intellect are like the excrescences that grow upon a body naturally cold and dark: no fire to waste them, and no ray to enlighten, they assimilate and coalesce with those qualities so congenial to their nature, and acquire an incorrigible permanency in the Union with kindred frost and kindred opacity. Nor indeed, my lords, except where the interest of millions can be affected by the folly or the vice of an individual, need it be much regretted that to things not worthy of being made better it hath not pleased Providence to afford the privilege of improvement.'

Lord Chancellor.-"Surely, Mr. Curran, a gentleman of your eminence in your profession must see that the conduct of former privy councils has nothing to do with the question before us. The question lies in the narrowest compass; it is merely whether the Commons have a right of * Sir Constantine Phipps, whose conduct became the subject of much complaint.

CHAP. I.] BEFORE THE PRIVY COUNCIL.

7

arbitrary and capricious rejection, or are obliged to assign a reasonable cause for their disapprobation. To that point you have a right to be heard; but I hope you do not mean to lecture the council."

Mr. Curran. "I mean, my lords, to speak to the case of my clients, and to avail myself of every topic of defence which I conceive applicable to the case. I am not speaking to a dry point of law, to a single judge, and on a mere forensic subject; I am addressing a very large auditory, consisting of co-ordinate members, of whom the far greater number are not versed in law. Were I to address such an audience on the interests and rights of a great city, and address them in the hackneyed style of a pleader, I should make a very idle display of profession, with very little information to those I address, or benefit to those on whose behalf I have the honour to be heard. I am aware, my lords, that truth is to be sought only by slow and painful progress; I know also that error is in its nature flippant and compendious; it hops with airy and fastidious levity over proofs and arguments, and perches upon assertion, which it calls conclusion.”*

The Chancellor, notwithstanding the able arguments of counsel, decided in favour of Alderman James, declaring "that the case must come before the King's Bench, and by the time that the Commons had amused themselves there for three or four years, it was probable they would be tired of it, and wish themselves out of the dispute." Such was the solemnity of his judicial decisions.

The conduct of the Chancellor and Privy Council met with general disapprobation. Several of the minor corporations, the volunteer corps, and public meetings of the inhabitants upheld the rights of their fellow citizens, and condemned the decision of the Privy Council. The sheriffs and commons of the corporation assembled, and resolved that the Privy Council were wrong in their decision; that Alderman James was not legally elected Lord Mayor; and they adopted * A just representation of the Chancellor.

8

LORD CLARE ATTACKS

[CHAP. I. the sovereign remedy in all such cases-that of stopping the supplies, and voted that they would not pay the Government Lord Mayor any money, or allow any in his accounts; and that he must deliver up to them the Mansion-house and the corporation property.

An address was then voted to his Majesty, complaining of Lord Westmoreland and Lord Clare; and thanks were returned to Mr. Curran and Mr. Ponsonby for their exertions in the Privy Council in favour of the rights of the people. The Whig Club also proceeded to pass the following resolution :

Dublin, July 19th, 1790. At a meeting of the Whig Club, held this day, his Grace the Duke of Leinster in the chair, the following resolution was proposed by the Right Hon. the Earl of Charlemont, and seconded by the Right Hon. the Earl of Moira, viz. :

"That the Whig Club cannot possibly have witnessed what has lately passed respecting the election of a Lord Mayor, without expressing the deepest concern, and declaring that they will, both individually, and as a body, co-operate with their fellow citizens in every legal and constitutional measure, which may tend to vindicate the laws, and to support the rights of this metropolis."

Which resolution being put, the same was passed unanimously, and ordered to be entered on their books, and published.

(Signed)

HENRY GRATTAN, Pro. Sec. This resolution roused the ire of the Chancellor, and on the 24th of July, 1790, before the Lord Lieutenant came to the House to prorogue the Parliament, he attacked the Whig Club in very severe terms; and said that he was ready to justify his conduct on that occasion. He was replied to by Lord Moira and Lord Charlemont, who avowed the resolutions, which they said. they were ready to support.

The speech of the Chancellor which contained

CHAP. 1.]

THE WHIG CLUB.

9

the attack having been published, the Whig Club found it necessary to defend their principles. The vindication is strong and able, perhaps too personal; but it was not on that account the less liked. The party had been hardly treated and greatly abused, and being attacked, it was not possible for the Club to yield; it was absolutely necessary they should defend themselves, otherwise they would have sunk in the country. This reply enabled them to rise and triumph. It was printed in pamphlets, and had a rapid circulation. Undoubtedly the Whig Club went very far. It was a political assembly openly watching and superintending the measures of Government, a very formidable body to be permitted in any state. The manner, however, in which the Chancellor chose to attack it was neither Parliamentary nor Constitutional. The following was their reply:

Monday, 2nd Aug. 1790. At a meeting held this day the Whig Club resolved itself into the following committee:

Duke of Leinster,

Earl of Moira,

Earl of Charlemont,

Earl of Arran,

Mr. Ponsonby,

Mr. Grattan,

Mr. Curran,

Sir Edward Newenham,
Mr. Egan,

Mr. Hamilton Rowan.

The Duke of Leinster reported the resolution of the committee, which was accordingly read and unanimously agreed to, and is as follows:

That we have seen a publication containing various and extraordinary charges against the members of this society, comparing them to those of "porter clubs, and such like low and riotous meetings;" and further alleging "that they are persons of the grossest ignorance; that they have shown that ignorance particularly in their late resolution on behalf of the rights of the subject, and that they have discovered, on this occasion, as great a perversion of sense as ever distracted the human brain."*

That we should have passed by such a publication as * The Chancellor's speech.