tinguished their conftitutional provifions and barriers against tyranny.

To pass over the leffer States, not only Marius, and Sylla, and Cæfar, but Auguftus and Tiberius, thofe able tyrants, who fyftematically ruined the Roman Empire and her liberties, atchieved it by troops raised to maintain the Roman Sovereignty over their provinces. They did, indeed, fubdue thofe provinces; and their project reached ftill farther than they expected; for it stopped not till the Military Power, established by them for that end, overturned the Imperial Power itself.In less than fifty years from the death of Auguftus, those armies raifed to keep the provinces in awe, had no lefs than three Emperors on foot at the fame time; and thenceforward the Military Power difpofe of the Empire, and gave to whom it pleased the throne of the Cafars. Whoever will calmly examine those precedents, it is impoffible but they must be convinced, that the like caufes must have fimilar effects. Oppreffed by an overgrown army, the Liberty of America, and Ireland, (for that stands next in the minifterial plan) and afterwards that of Great-Britain, will follow of course ;-the Monster of Defpotifm will only grant even to the latter the favour intended for Ulysses, that of being last devoured.

Lord Irnham, Feb. 6, 1775.

THE cruel and perfecuting means devised for enforcing our meafures against America, exactly refemble the mode adopted by Marshal Rozen, King James the Second's French General in Ireland, in order to reduce the rebellious citizens, and other defenders of Londonderry. They, brave men, as the Americans are now, were ftyled traitors and rebels; and they, as well as our rebellious fubjects in America, were to be starved into compliance; that is, the means employed were to be jus tified by the goodness of the caufe. An order was fent by Rozen, obliging the garrifon of Derry to fubmit; which was to collect the wives, children, and aged parents of the garrifon,

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rifon, to drive them under the walls of the town, there to perish in the presence of their parents, husbands, and other relations; and if they offered to return, to fire on them, and masacre them. But weak, infatuated, and bigoted as that Prince was, his heart revolted at fuch a horrid expedient of fubduing his enemies; for as foon as it reached his knowledge, he immediately countermanded the barbarous order, and left the innocent and unoffending to their liberty.

Marquis of Rockingham, March 16, 1775.

Or thirty-three Sovereigns of England, fince William the Conqueror, thirteen only have afcended the Throne by divine hereditary Right; the reft owe their Royalty to the zeal and vigour of the People of England, in the maintenance of Conftitutional Freedom.

The Will of the People, fuperfeding an hereditary Claim to Succeffion, at the commencement of the twelfth century, placed Henry the Ift on the Throne of this Kingdom, with condition that he would abrogate the vigorous laws made fince the Norman Invafion, reftore the Government as in the days of Edward the Confeffor, and abolish all unjust and arbitrary Taxes.

King Stephen obtained the Crown, and Henry the IId kept it, on the fame exprefs terms: yet, Sir, in the days of King John, it was judged expedient, no longer to truft to mere oral declarations, which State chicane and fophiftry had of late years occasionally explained away, but to compel that Prince folemnly to register an affirmance of the antient Rights of the People in a formal manner; and this necessary work was accomplished by the Congress at Runnemede, in the year 1115: an Affembly which ought never to be spoken of by the Representatives of the Commons of England, but with the profoundest veneration.

An honourable and learned Member over the way mentioned, a few evenings ago, the introduction of foreign troops.

into this Island in the Reign of Henry the IIId, as a precedent to warrant the prefent ftretch of Regal Prerogative in the cafe of the Hanoverian Mercenaries; as that Member is not now in the House, I fhall be more concise in treating of the events he alluded to, than I otherwife intended. Sir, in the Reign of Henry the IIId, (about the year 1233) the Barons, Clergy, and Freeholders, refufed two diftinct Summonses to Parliament; and understanding that the King, as Earl of Poitou, had landed fome of his Continental Troops in the western ports of England, with a design to strengthen a most odious and arbitrary set of Ministers, they affembled in a Convention, or Congress, from whence they dispatched Deputies to King Henry; declaring, that if he did not immediately fend back thofe Poitouvians, and remove from his Perfon and Councils evil advifers, they would place on the Throne a Prince who fhould better obferve the Laws of the Land.-Sir, the King not only hearkened to that Congress, but shortly af ter complied with every article of their demands, and publickly notified his reformation. Now, Sir, what are we to call that Affembly which dethroned Edward the IId, when the Archbishop of Canterbury preached a fermon on this text, The voice of the People is the voice of God. And when a learned Judge, in the character of Procurator for the mass of the Freemen, furrendered the homage and fealty of the People of England, alledging that the original compact, through which they were bound to Allegiance, was diffolved, by the use and aggrandizement of ill Counsellors; by the Administration of Government, which agreed not with the ancient Laws of the Land, and by a total difregard to the advice and fupplications of his Majefty's faithful but afflicted fubjects. Richard the IId (like the unhappy Edward) fell a victim to defpotic obftinacy and favouritism: and to this King, in the fame manner, was furrendered, by Commiffioners (or Proctors) the allegiance of his fubjects; and a Prince of the Houfe of Lancafter (founder of our prefent Moft Gracious Majefty's royal

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line)

line) was invited over from banishment, and elected by the People to the Throne. But, Sir, before I dismiss this Reign, it may be proper to obferve, that Richard entirely fubverted the Constitution of the Upper Houfe of Parliament; for he made it an appendage to the Crown, introducing Peers by Creation in prejudice to the territorial Baronies: and with refpect to the other Houfe, he fent orders to the Sheriffs of the feveral Counties throughout England, to return only fuch Representatives to Parliament, as should, on every occafion, implicitly obey the royal mandate. Nay, Sir, both Houfes conjointly went at laft fo far, as to commit their whole parliamentary power into the hands of a Cabinet Junto of Minifters, having, however, firft obtained the Pope's leave for fo doing. I wish Gentlemen, who contend for fupreme Sovereignty in the Crown and Parliament, denying any Rights of the People in pre-eminence to their joint authority, would apply fuch argument to the State of King, Lords, and Commons at that æra. I fhall next proceed to the general Convention and Congress, which, in 1461, enthroned the Earl of March in Westminster-Hall, by the name of Edward the IVth, the Primate of all England collecting the Suffrages of the People; and at that period, even the Lancastrian Historians date the commencement of his Reign.

But to come to modern occurrences: in 1659, a Convention, or Congress, restored legal Monarchy in the perfon of King Charles the IId, who was then no farther diftant, from this Ifland than the town of Breda; and being pressed by many of the Royal Partizans to iffue his Writs for a lawful Parliament, he made answer, that he would rather be indebted for his Reftoration to the uninfluenced fenfe of the People of England, taken in a free Affembly.

On the 26th of December, 1688, was held a Convention, or Congress, at St. James's, where the Prince of Orange prefided; and there were prefent moft of the furviving Members who had ferved in any one of the Parliaments of King Charles

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the Second, the Lord Mayor, the Aldermen, and about fifty of the Common-Council, &c. and on the 22d of January follow ing, by virtue of notices iffued on the aforefaid 26th of December, at St. James's, the memorable Convention Parliament affembled in this House, and perfected the glorious work of the Revolution.

I mean, Sir, from these examples and arguments, to deduce for an uncontrovertible truth, that all the fubjects of the British empire have a right to be governed according to the fpirit of our ancient constitution, by which no freeman could be taxed without his confent, either in perfon, or by his fubftitute: and notwithstanding the infringement of this right under fome of our Norman Kings and their fucceffors, yet we find William the Conqueror himself confirming it in his code of laws, the year before his decease. And the fame explicit declaration in its favour from our English Juftinian, King Edward the First, in the charter of the 25th, and ftatutes of the 34th of his reign, admitted to be among the earlieft authentic records of Parliament extant, according to the prefent mode of fummons.

I have, I think, fhewn, that our Kings, in former days, have not scrupled to treat with a Congrefs; that many of the best of them owe their Crowns to fuch national meetings; and that this nation has, on the one hand, been faved from defpotism, and, on the other hand, from anarchy, by a Convention or Congress; which furely poffeffes fome advantages over a Parliament: for being free from minifterial management, having neither placemen, penfioners, nor dependent retainers on their lift, are more likely to hear the fincere dictates of conscience, and the unpolluted fenfe of those they reprefent. But, Sir, however inad miffible the voice of a Congress might be deemed as acts of legislation, yet I conceive that their plea, in the character of Advocates for the conftituent body by whom they are commif. fioned, ought in justice, as well as found policy, to be listened to. A punctilious delicacy now in fashion, which we ftyle the dignity of the Crown and Parliament, will, if madly perfifted in,

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