To the utmost of my power, but with what hopes of speedy success I know not, I shall labour for the improvements you recommend,-for the emancipation of our Catholic brethren, and for the blessings of a mild government, that loves the people of Ireland, whose object shall be their liberty, and whose reward shall be their approbation. I have the honour to be, with the greatest regard, HENRY GRATTAN. ON Tuesday, 27th April, 1795, the following Address was presented to the Right Hon. HENRY GRATTAN, by the Gentlemen delegated for that purpose, by the Catholics of the Queen's County. SIR, To the Right Honourable Henry Grattan. WE, the Catholics of the Queen's County, in common with our brethren throughout the kingdom, join to approach you, with the most sincere and unfeigned expressions of gratitude, as well for those benefits which you were so instrumental in procuring for us, as for those which you had given us the best founded reason to expect, from the commencement of that administration, of which you formed so distinguished a part, and whose premature termination we most sincerely deplore. But when we thus express our feelings as Catholics, suffer us to add, that we consider ourselves still more bound to you by esteem and gratitude, as Irishmen. We respect and honour that consistent patriotism, which carried into office, the sentiments and the principles of opposition-the measures proposed by you and your illustrious colleagues-the investigation of ancient abuses-the detection of unbounded peculation-the restoration of a whole people to their just rights-the general spirit of reform which actuated your councils, though they could not but render you obnoxious to a British cabinet, have established you firmly and completely in the hearts of your grateful countrymen. A removal from power, produced by such conduct, reflects no dishonour, it is those who succeed you that merit condolence. The dungeon of Kosciusko has more true splendour than the palaces of his oppressors. For us, as Catholics, as Irishmen, as connected with you, from our local situation in this country, by more immediate ties, we again beg leave, in our own name and in that of our country, to return you our most sincere thanks, and to assure you of our most ardent gratitude and firm support; and to request that you continue your honourable career, may until shall restore your you countrymen to the constitution, as you have already restored a constitution to your country. Signed by order, On behalf of the Catholics of the Queen's County, GENTLEMEN, Mr. Grattan's Answer. YOUR Address coming from a county with which I am connected, deserves, on my part, particular attention. Whatever advantages you have hitherto obtained, they are short of my wishes -what you are likely, for the present, to obtain, will prove, perhaps, short of my hopes; if so, the disappointment you will attribute to other causes than the want of sincerity and zeal in your advocates. In common with others, I have contended for your emancipation, -for that, for other objects of public good, I shall persist to contend to the utmost of my power, and to the end of my life. To correct the abuses that have taken place in the government of this kingdom, and to change the old system by which she was disgraced, was on those, who were consulted by the last chief government, a necessary duty; on those who now sway the councils of this country, the same duty devolves. I hope they will discharge it with fidelity, and by so doing, prevent the degradation both of the country and of themselves. I am happy to see your body unite with us, under the general description of Irishmen, of that honour no civil incapacities can deprive you. To the name of Irishmen, I should wish to add the full privileges of free subjects; and thus increase the honour, by enlarging the interest. I am, Gentlemen, with the greatest respect, Your very humble Servant, HENRY GRATTAN. GENERAL ELECTION. Saturday, 29th July, 1797. Ar a numerous Meeting of the Freemen and Freeholders of the City of Dublin, held this day at the Royal Exchange, pursuant to public notice. Hon. V. B. LAWLESS in the Chair. THE following Resolutions were unanimously agreed to. RESOLVED, That by right and the principles of the constitution, the people are entitled exclusively to appoint the third estate of the legislature, and that the security of their civil and political liberty, depends upon the uninterrupted enjoyment of that indefeasible right. RESOLVED, That as the Commons House is at present constituted, the return of more than two-thirds thereof is usurped by a few individuals as private property, and that as to the remainder, any attempt to exercise the popular right is rendered fruitless, through the corrupt and enormous influence of the crown, and hazardous through the recent introduction and violent exercise of a military power, by which great numbers of our unfortunate countrymen, on the slightest suspicions of their entertaining political opinions different from those of the present administration, have had their houses burned, or been themselves transported or put to death, without even the form of accusation or trial! Resolved, therefore, That not wishing to have any exercise of the elective suffrage that is not free, nor any representation of the people that is not full, fair, and adequate-we will abstain from any interference whatever at the ensuing election, and, as far as in us lies, leave to the King's ministers the appointment of the King's Parliament. Resolved, That we do heartily approve of the principles and sentiments contained in the Address of our late excellent representative, the Right Hon. HENRY GRATTAN *; and that we are sensible he has not retired from that post, which he so eminently filled, as long as any hope remained that the parliamentary exercise of his virtues and talents could be of advantage to his country. But we trust he will recollect, that his public duty does not cease with his representative situation. V. B. LAWLESS, Chairman. Hon. V. B. Lawless having left the chair, and James Hartley, Esq. having been called thereto, RESOLVED, That the thanks of this Meeting be given to the Hon. V. B. LAWLESS, for his spirited and proper conduct in the chair; and that these Resolutions be published. Mr. Grattan's Answer. MY FELLOW CITIZENS, JAMES HARTLEY. A SLIGHT indisposition has prevented me from giving your resolution an immediate answer. When the country is put down, the press destroyed, and public meetings, for the purpose of exercising the right of petition to remove ministers, are threatened and dispersed by the military, I agree with you, that a general election is no more than an opportunity to exercise, by permission of the army, the solitary privilege to return a few representatives of the people, to a house occupied by the representatives of boroughs. When the Irish Parliament was perpetual or provincial, it was of little moment how that Parliament was constituted; but becoming independent, it became essential that it should become constitutional; and in order to be constitutional, it was necessary that the commons should form an integral part thereof. Fourteen years you gave to the experiment, and having failed, withdraw. You * Address to the citizens of Dublin, on his declining to stand for the representation of the City; vide ante. refuse to take a small portion of that representation, the whole of which belongs to you- you will not confirm an unjust distribution of your property, by becoming a poor rent-charger on a poor portion of your inheritance-you refuse to give your sanction to your exclusion, and will not attend a ceremony which has proved the trade of the individual, and the ruin of the country. While I entertain such an opinion, I beg to express my profound respect for some enlightened and valuable individuals who differ from me; opposed to their opinion I should suspect my own, if it was not fortified by yours. I think the people of this country are perfectly right, when they insist to be nothing less than the whole of the third estate- -the people are, in contemplation of the constitution, only a part of the legislature; but they are the whole of the Commons. Is that too much they gave to the crown? They ask the representation - they ask the representation of that prince to whom they gave the crown, without derogating from any of those rights which exist, independent of any artificial formation the people claim, under the general constitution of the land, and under their own particular declaration of right, to be an integral part of the legislature. The constitution tells them, that their liberty exists in their exemption from any laws, save those to which, by representation, they consent-their declaration of rights tells them, that the King, the Lords, and the Commons of Ireland, are the only body competent to make her laws; by which it is not only asserted that the Irish Parliament is exclusively the Irish legislature, but that the people are an integral part thereof. If, then, the people are not suffered to form that integral part, the constitution of the realm, and the claim of right, are evaded and defeated; the minister stands in the place of Parliament, he becomes the arbiter of your lives and fortunes, and transfers that dominion to the British cabinet, on whom he depends, and thus reimposes on this realm the legislative power of another country. When your ministers tell you, that a reform in Parliament was only a popular pretence, I cannot believe them to be in earnest. I wish they had made the experiment-happy had it been for the country, happy had it been for themselves-they would then, indeed, have possessed but one-third of the constitution, but they would not have lost the whole of the empire. Foreign disgrace leads naturally, and of course, to the subject of domestic oppression. I cannot here omit that part of your resolution, which adverts to the barbarities committed on the habitations, property, and persons of the people; and I beg to join with yours my testimony against such repeated wanton, savage, abominable, and permitted outrages, barbarities, and murders, such as no printer will now dare to publish, lest he, too, should be plundered or murdered, for the ordinary exercise of his trade. I beg to take this opportunity of returning my thanks to the Aldermen of Skinner's Alley, who have expressed their approbation of my conduct-I do believe our measures were agreeable. to the sense of the nation-I lament they were not seconded by the majority of Parliament. If that majority, whose motives I do not discuss, whose infatuation I lament; if that majority, instead of at taching itself to the court, had considered itself as a part and parcel of the people, they had consulted their dignity better. Why am I superior to ministers or viceroys? Because I do not assume to be superior to my fellow citizens. Had that majority taken a proud post, and identified with the people; had they seized the opportunity of doing justice to Ireland, and, instead of voting millions, without getting any thing for the country, supported us on our motion to ameliorate the condition of the peasantry, in our motion in an equal trade, in our attempts to emancipate the Catholics and to reform the Parliament, their country would now have liberty and peace, instead of distraction at home, and negociation abroad, where the British negociator remains with 110 Irish boroughs about his neck, to pay for every felony the minister has committed on the Irish, so many Erics in empire. You express a wish that my public duty should not cease with my representative capacity; in that idea I entirely concur-my seat in Parliament was but a part of my situation, my relationship to my country was higher and more permanent-the duty of a citizen is commensurate with the powers of body and mind. I have the honour to be, with the greatest respect, Your most humble Servant, UNION. HENRY GRATTAN. AGGREGATE MEETING. 16th January, 1800. Ar a most numerous and respectable Meeting of the Freemen and Freeholders of the City of Dublin, assembled this day, by requisition, at the Sessions House. The High Sheriffs in the Chair. THE following Gentlemen were constituted a Committee, who reported the following Resolution and Address, which were unanimously agreed to by the Meeting: Mr. Hartley, Mr. Dease, Mr. Kawlins, Mr. R. Macdonnell, Mr. Moore, and Mr. Alderman Howison. THAT the constitution of Ireland, as established at the memorable period of 1782, is the indefeasible and unalienable right of ourselves and our posterity. That we do most solemnly and firmly protest against any acts which in destroying that constitution, exceeds the powers with which, our representatives in Parliament have been invested, and we do assert, that they have no right to adopt the disgraceful proposal of this our extinction for ever. Their powers are limited in time and extent, but the rights of the people are unprescriptable and immortal. That the reproposal of the measure of a legislative union with Great Britain, to the same Parliament, which, not a year since, rejected then its discussion with indignation, is as insulting as its consequences may be dreadful. |