in my time, in which such a declaration could be made with any chance of success, and without an aggravation of oppression.

Sir, it must appear to every person, that, notwithstanding the import of sugar, and export of woollens, the people of this country are not satisfied; something remains-the greater work is behind-the public heart is not well at ease. To promulgate our satisfaction, to stop the throats of millions with the Votes of Parliament, to preach homilies to the volunteers, to utter invectives against the people under pretence of affectionate advice, is an attempt, weak, suspicious and inflammatory.

You cannot dictate to those whose sense you are instructed to represent.

Your ancestors who sat within these walls, lost to Ireland trade and liberty; you, by the assistance of the people, have recovered trade. You owe the kingdom a constitution; she calls upon you to restore it.

The ground of public discontent seems to be, "We have gotten commerce, but not freedom."

The same power which took away the export of woollen, the export of glass, may take them away again. The repeal is partial; and the ground of repeal, is a principle of expediency.

Sir, expedient is a word of appropriated and tyrannical import-expedient is a word selected to express the reservation of authority, while the exer

eise is mitigated-expedient is the ill-omened expression of the repeal of the American Stamp Act.

England thought it expedient to repeal that law : happy had it been for mankind, if, when she withdrew the exercise, she had not reserved the right: to that reservation she owes the loss of her American empire, at the expense of millions; and America the seeking of liberty through a scene of bloodshed. The repeal of the Woollen Act, similarly circumstanced, pointed against the principle of our liberty, may be a subject for illumination to a populace, or a pretence for apostacy to a courtier, but cannot be a subject of settled satisfaction to a free born, an intelligent, and an injured community.

It is, therefore, they consider the free trade as a trade de facto, not de jure—a licence to trade under the Parliament of England, not a free trade under the charter of Ireland-a tribute to her strength, to maintain which, she must continue in a state of armed preparation, dreading the approach of a general peace, and attributing all she holds dear, to the calamitous condition of the British interest in every quarter of the globe. This dissatisfaction, founded upon a consideration of the liberty we have lost, is increased, when they consider the opportunity they are losing; for if this nation, after the death-wound given to her freedom, had fallen on her knees in anguish, and besought the Almighty to frame an occasion in which a weak and injured

people might recover their rights, prayer could not have asked, nor God have formed, a moment more opportune for the restoration of liberty, than this in which I have the honour to address you.

: England now smarts under the lesson of the American war. The doctrine of imperial legislature she feels to be pernicious-the revenues and monopolies annexed to it, she found to be untenable. Her enemies are a host pouring upon her from all quarters of the earth-her armies are dispersed-the sea is not her's-she has no minister, no ally, no admiral, none in whom she long confides, and no general whom she has not disgraced. The balance of her fate is in the hands of Ireland. You are not only her last connexion-you are the only nation in Europe, that is not her enemy; besides, there does, of late, a certain damp and supineness overcast her arms and councils, miraculous as that vigor which has lately inspirited yours. With you every thing is the reverse. Never was there a parliament in Ireland so possessed of the confidence of the people. You are now the greatest political assembly in the world-you are at the head of an immense army; nor do we only possess an unconquerable force, but a certain unquenchable fire, which has touched all ranks of men like a visitation. Turn to the growth and spring of your country, and behold and admire it!

Where do you find a nation who, upon whatever

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concerns the rights of mankind, expresses herself with more truth or force, perspicuity or justice-not the set phrases of the scholiast, not the tame unreality of the courtier, not the vulgar raving of the rabble, but the genuine speech of liberty, and the unsophisticated oratory of a free nation. See her military ardour expressed, not in 40,000 men conducted by instinct as they were raised by inspiration, but manifested in the zeal and promptitude of every young member of the growing community. Let corruption tremble! let the enemy, foreign or domestic, tremble! but let the friends of liberty rejoice at these means of safety, and this hour of redemption, an enlightened sense of public right, a young appetite for freedom, a solid strength, and a rapid fire, which not only put a declaration of right within your power, but put it out of your power to decline one! Eighteen counties are at your bar; there they stand, with the compact of Henry, with the charter of John, and with all the passions of the people! Our lives are at your service; but our liberties, we received them from God: we will not resign them to man! Speaking to you thus, if you repulse these petitioners, you abdicate the office of Parliament, you forfeit the rights of the kingdom, you repudiate the instruction of your constituent, you belie the sense of your country, you palsy the enthusiasm of the people, and you reject that good which not a Minister, no a Lord North, not a Lord Bucking

hamshire, not a Lord Hillsborough, but a certain, providential conjuncture, or rather the hand of God, seems to extend to you.

I read Lord North's propositions, and I wish to be satisfied; but I am controlled by a paper (for I will not call it a law); it is the 6th George First, [The paper was read].

.. I will ask the gentlemen of the long robe, is this the law? I ask them whether it is not the practice? I appeal to the judges of the land, whether they are not in a course of declaring, that the Parliament of England naming Ireland, binds her? I appeal to the magistrates of Ireland, whether they do not, from time to time, execute certain acts of the British Parliament? I appeal to the officers of the army, whether they do not confine and execute their fellowsubjects by virtue of the Mutiny Act of England? And I appeal to this House whether a country so circumstanced, is free? Where is the freedom of trade? where is the security of property? where the liberty of the people? I here, in this Declaratory Act, see my country proclaimed a slave! I see every man in this House enrolled a bondman! I see the judges of the realm, the oracles of the law, borne down by an unauthorized power! I see the magistrates prostrate; and I see Parliament witness to these infringements, and silent! I therefore say, with the voice of 3,000,000 of people, that notwithstanding the import of sugar, and export of woollen and