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tion. I have been a delegate of that refpectable convention, whofe name has been fo frequently introduced by gentlemen on the other fide of the Houfe; I glory in the name, and hold myfelf more honoured by being appointed a delegate, by the unanimous voice of every corps in my county, than if fent into this Houfe by the means of any rotten and venal borough. The members of the convention were gentlemen of extenfive landed property, and poffeffed of the first abilities ; whose every with was for the welfare of their country.-The name of volunteer has been this night undefervedly reprobated in this Houfe; but in every uninfluenced part of the kingdom, they are adored as the restorers of our long with-held rights. Gentlemen have faid, that they will not be intimidated into a measure; neither shall any kind of intimidation prevent me from declaring, that it is not to an Irish House of Commons, nor to a British miniftry, that we are indebted for our newly acquired immunities; for long had the distresses of Ireland, lain proftrate at the foot of the British throne; too long had our groans echoed within the walls of a British court, nor did it once deign to liften to our complaints, 'till thofe, now reprobated men, the volunteers of Ireland, bravely demanded those rights, which could no longer be with-held. The volunteers little require my feeble tribute of praise; their own good conduct forms their beft and nobleft panegyric.-Notwithstanding, Sir, I have been a member of that illuftrious convention, yet I confider myfelf as free, and unprejudiced as any member in this Houfe, to vote on the queftion when it fhall come before you; and however warm a friend I acknowledge myself to be to the principles of the bill, yet I by no means pledge myself to fupport it in every ftage; but the unwillingnets of gentlemen on one fide of this Houfe, to give this meafure an impartial hearing, without attempting to advance any arguments againft it, is to me, if poffible, a ftronger inducement to vote for its reception.-If there be any impropriety in it, let it be amended. The bill is open to fair reafoning and unbiaffed argument, for which the feveral readings will give ample opportunity. It is therefore almoft fuperfluous to fay, I thall vote for receiving the bill.

Mr. Coote faid, that as every member was called upon to declare his fentiments, he would exprefs his, though unprepared, and with a mind very unfit for fpeaking, from the impreffion of a recent melancholy event. That he did not confider this merely as a queftion, whether the Right Honourable Mover for the bill fhould have leave to bring it forward or not; if he confidered it in that light, the refpect and the regard which he had for the Honourable Mover would fecure his decided concurrence. That he confidered this question, of all others at this moment, the most important. It was no lefs, than whether the Houfe of Commons, the conftitutional reprefentatives of the people, shall give

energy and efficacy to the refolutions of another affembly, unknown to the conftitution. It has been faid, that we can have no knowledge of the refolutions of the convention.-He asked whe ther there was an individual in this Houfe, or out of it, unless he keeping in darkness, or wandering in the light for three weeks, who does not know that the convention has been fitting in order to reform the conftitution. That however expedient and adviseable it would be in fome refpects to make new regulations, a total alteration of the conftitution he never would consent to. In our every change of it every man muft paufe, and recollect that conftitution was dearly purchafed by the blood of our ancestors; that he had the honour to be defcended from one who shed his blood in defence of the conftitution, and inheriting the fame principles, he would refift what he thought an innovation of the conftitution; he recollected a fentiment of an excellent author, of Livy, the purport of which was this, that by pushing our ideas of political reformation too far, we forfeit the merit of patriotifm, we inflic on others the injuftice we complain of ourfelves. Servitutem nobis repulfam aliis injungimus, tanquam aut facere aut pati injuriam fit neceffe.

Mr. Grattan declared himfelf decidedly the friend of a parliamentary reform. It has always been, faid he, my favourite object to increase by this means the power of the people. I am glad to investigate this fubject, let it come from what quarter it may; nor does its coming as it does, feem to me a queftionable fhape; neither do I fee any thing to juftify an oppofition to my favourite fcheme. I love to blend the idea of parliament and volunteers; they have hitherto concurred in establishing our conftitution in the last parliament, and I hope they will do it in the prefent. I recommend, therefore, an union between parlia ment and the illuftrions body of volunteers, which union it fhall be the ftudy of my life to preferve.

The Provost faid, that he reprefented a great and independent city, in which there were 10,000 inhabitants, and that he therefore thought his fentiments deferved attention on a fubject of this nature; that he was not interested to take a part against the prefent queftion, having no influence in any borough in the kingdom, nor any connection with any man who had; that if boroughs were opened, his influence muft increase from the na→ tural weight of the property which he poffeffed. He defired to remove out of the debate, a matter totally foreign from it, which had been improperly introduced, he meant the additional appointments proposed to be given to the Lord Lieutenant and his principal Secretary, that the propofition had not originated with adminiftration, and had not been fupported by it; that his Excellency had given the moft decided and explicit negative, and that it was well known, that he had not attended the Houfe

when the fubject was difcuffed, and had difdained to take any part in it either in public or private.

He then adverted to the queftion, and faid that no man had a higher refpect for the volunteers than himself. That they had been justly called the faviours of their country. That he was very fenfible that in the convention there were many gentlemen of the highest honour, the pureft principles, and actuated by the most ardent wishes for the liberties of their country. He was ready to fuppofe that all the delegates had acted with the best intentions; but the queftion of this night was whether their ardour had not, on the prefent fubject, carried them fo far as to infringe the privileges of that Houfe. That leave had been given in the last feffion, to bring in fuch a bill as was now defired. He had concurred in that measure, but the convention had taken this out of the hands of the House of Commons, had appointed a committee of their own to `confider the fubject, had prepared a bill; and had ordered three members of that House to bring it in; and that leave was now defired to bring in that identical bill, that this fact had been affirmed on one fide of the Houfe, and not having being denied on the other, muft now be taken for granted. He faid, the parliamentary mode of proceeding on great fubjects, was to appoint a committee to enquire into them, and to report their opinions to the House, and on their report, to direct a bill to be prepared. That this was the mode adopted in a neighbouring kingdom on this very subject, where the Right Hon. Mover propofed two refolutions; the firft importing, that a reform in the reprefentation of the people was neceffary, the fecond, containing his plan of reform. He was told that it was not candid to prepare the first, until the fecond was agreed to, nor wife to make the people diffatisfied with their prefent conftitution, till he was fure of giving them a better in its place. His candor yielded to this reafoning. He failed in his fecond propofition, which he has fince abandoned, and never brought forward his firft. But in this kingdom, another body of men, refpectable indeed, but unknown to the conftitution, have ordered the committee, framed the bill, and directed three of our members to bring it in. If this is allowed, other men are to exercise our functions, to deliberate, and to prepare measures for us; and it will be only left to us to carry their purposes into execution. That this conduct ought to be more closely inveftigated, because it came from an armed body of men, who had fat for the laft three weeks in our capital, and had proceeded with all the forms of parliament, and here called the grand convention, while the great convention of the nation was now fitting. That if fuch proceedings had been ever before attempted in any age or country, he called upon the gentlemen on the other fide to produce the inftance; and if they did, would undertake to fhew

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that fuch proceedings had overturned the liberties of the country, where they had been allowed. He faid, conventions had been held in England, but that it never was done, but in inftances where a parliament could not be convened. He faid, wherever men in arms had interfered with the proceedings of parliament, the certain confequence was, the fubverfion of liberty. He mentioned, as one proof of a thousand, that the parliamentary army in the time of Charles I. which had delivered their country from tyranny, did afterwards, by interfering with the businefs of the House, destroy the liberties which they had established, and after turning the House of Commons out of doors, introduced anarchy, and afterwards the inftrument in reftoring the old government, without fimulation or reftraint, and by their wild conduct the liberties of England would have been loft, if they had not been reftored by the Revolution. He requested that gentlemen would weigh every part of this great historical fact, and compare it with their late and prefent fituation, and reflect on the confequences of allowing armed men to interfere in their bufinefs. He defired them to remember that excellent law among. the Romans, which forbid any citizen to enter Rome in arms, and that the tranfgreffion of that law had overturned the liberties of Rome. He acknowledged that the armed fpirit of the people had given fuch vigour and efficacy to the laft parliament, as to enable it to reftore the liberties of Ireland; but the distinction lay here, where the rights of a nation had been invaded, affociations of armed men were neceffary to restore them; but these rights were now declared, acknowledged and fecured, and if armed affociations interfered with parliament in fettling the fpeculative points of the conftitution, there was an end of liberty. For thefe reafons, he faid, he fhould give his vote against bringing in the bill, though hereafter he fhould be for entering into the fubject of more equal reprefentation, and going to the bottom. of it. He faid, this was not a mere queftion of adminiitration; that the nation called upon government to fupport the constitution, and the privileges of parliament as an effential part of it.

He then adverted to the bill itself, and faid, that as the gentlemen who defired to bring it in, had mentioned the import as reafons for having leave to bring it in, he should take notice of the different parts, to fhew that leave ought to be refufed. He faid, as to a general registry of freeholders, he agreed in opinion; but that a bill had been already brought in for that purpose. That as to triennial parliaments, he was decidedly again't them, because the feptennial bill in England had established the Hanover family on the throne, because the octennial bill had reftored the liberties of Ireland, and because a fhorter limitation would ruin the trade and manufactures, and deftroy the morals of our people. He was against giving votes to leffees for years, because it would

be a departure from a material part of the conftitution; and that he was against the extending the franchifes of fmall towns to leafeholders, because it would infringe on the rights of men who acquired their titles by birth and fervitude, by being themselves merchants and manufacturers, or by being defcended from thofe who are fo, and becaufe extending thofe franchises to freeholders would increase the aristocratic weight. But to fhew gentlemen that he was a real friend to the reform, he would tell them what he was ready to agree to: That all 40. freeholders fhould be abolished, and all freeholders should be registered; that the infamous mode of buckancering fhould be prevented, and every candidate for any contefted place to be worn at the huftings, that he would not fuffer it; that he would not bribe, &c. and that he fhould fwear at taking his feat, that he had not done fo; that all bye-laws limiting the franchifes of freemen, or giving the power of admillion to one part of a corporation fhould be abolished, and that a committee of election should, on every trial, be required by law to have the charters laid before them, and to determine according to the fpirit and intention of thofe charters, any bye-law, act of parliament, custom, ufage, or length of time, to the contrary notwithstanding; that by thefe means, in making only alteration in the fyftem of election-laws, which he affirmed to be a very bad fyftem, you will emancipate most of the boroughs in the kingdom.

He then returned to the queflion, and recommended it to gentlemen to be cautious in taking any part to difunite the people of the kingdom. By difunion we had been oppreffed. He fpoke from knowledge, that fome of the bills for the relief of our Roman Catholic brethren, had not been returned from England on the policy of divide impera-that he laboured to overturn the popery-laws, because they had overturned the public liberty; that he had been, in every place, one of the foremost advocates for the diffenters, because they were at all times the firm affertors of liberty. By the union of men of all defcriptions, Ireland is free. By difunion, fhe may ceafe to be fo.

He was happy to find that every man, on both fides of the Houfe, had fpoken of the volunteers with the highest refpect, and that fome of the warmeft advocates for the bill declared, that they would not confider the bill as proceeding from the convention, as it is called, and the movers would not acknowledge that it had proceeded from that body. He therefore thought it should be confidered as the unanimous refolution of the Houfe, that their interpofition was improper. He hoped thefe gentlemen, after having conferred with their friends, and communicated their fentiments, would return to their habitations, and leave this great meafure in the hands of the reprefentatives of the people with