found neceffary once, and England found neceffary also, and without which neither had been free. Resources which should neither be prohibited nor encouraged. Let me suppose, that the perfons who gave their early and almost infant voice against a motion to declare the rights of the Irish parliament, had fucceeded fo far as to prevent the Houfe in the end from adopting that measure; let me fuppofe that the fame perfons who proposed to give back the fubftance of thofe rights, on the queftion of the memor able propofitions, attended as that question was with a fenfelefs petulance of speech, against the character as well as the pretenfions of Ireland; let me suppose, that they at that time had prevailed; let me fuppofe, that those who denied the fubftance of that declaration of right on the queftion of the regency, and maintained that a British convention could make a law for the people of Ireland, and that this country was governed by the great feal of England; let me fuppofe, that they had been able at that time to impofe their empty quibble as law, and their fhameless affertion as conftitution; let me fuppofe, that he who had declared in this houfe, that the Irish parliament had been once bought for half a million, and that it might be made neceffary to buy it again for the fame or a greater fum; let me fuppofe, that he had been able to establish the profligacy of this principle, the violence of fuch measures, or the corruption of such practices, as permanent maxims of government; let me fuppofe, that those who, by the precipitation of their temper, inflamed, misled, and finally expofed the Proteftant intereft, as they have fince endeavoured to alienate the Catholic intereft, by the petulance of their language; let me fuppofe, that they had prevailed in any, and still more in all of their defparate enterprifes against their country; in fuch cafe or cafes might not a convention have been neceffary? It is true, the good fenfe of fome of his Majefty's minifters has checked the arbitrary genius

genius that infpired fuch fentiments, governed his temper, and renounced his bigotry, and by taking reconciling steps, has rendered a convention at prefent unneceffary, improper and improbable. But in a country where fuch prac tices have been reforted to, and fuch avowal of fuch profligacy publicly made, fhall we say that in no time to come there fhall ever be a convention: fuch a practice, and such an unabathed avowal of fuch a practice, is the fubverfion of all government, of English government in Ireland, or of any government, because it is the fubverfion of those principles moral and religious, without which there can be no government. The minifter therefore who proclaimed that it was the custom of the British government to buy the Irish parliament with half millions, proclaimed by neceffary deduction the neceffity of an Irish convention; happily, I fay, that principle is changed, and a convention unneceffary and unwarranted; but in a country where fuch a thing could even have been publicly advanced by adminiftration, will you pafs an act against any convention at any time to come, or any representation of any defcription of the people for any specific public purpofe? Sir, if this bill had been the law of the land, four great events could never have taken place; the independency of the Irish parliament; the emancipation of the Irish Catholics; the revolution in Great Britain, and the great event that flowed from it, the fucceffion of the Hanoverian family. The enacting part is a bill of popular incapacities instead of a conftitution of popular refources; the enacting part is a provifo against future redress in cafes of emergency, as the declaratory part is a declaration against the legality of paft redrefs. In this latter light it must be confidered as a libel on the revolution; on your own meeting at Dungannon; on all the proceedings of your volunteers, and on the Catholic convention. Where is the use of stigma-, tifing the volunteers by act of parliament, if in the cause

of

of liberty they fometimes went too far; if the ardour of youth could not at all times command the precaution of old age: draw a veil over the infirmity; remember the effential fervice; refpect the foldier's memory, and do not now, when he is dead, affemble round his grave with the little enemy of his cause and his fame, to write on his tomb this dirty indictment. Some of the gentlemen who now hear me were of the lawyers corps' memorable committee; do they recollect it? That committee was a deputation of armed men representing armed men, and affuming to represent the knowledge of law as well as its battalion, for the purpose of questioning and investigating a matter touching the ftate, and already decided in parliament: I am not defending fuch a meeting, it ftands on its own ground and diftinct from others; but if I had gone fo very far as to be a member of that committee, I would not now prove falfe to my colours, and pay the minister such a compli ment, at the expence of my corps and my cloath, as to acknowledge that my proceedings and theirs influenced by their leaders, were in the face of the law. The Catholic convention is another object libelled by this bill; where is the use of the reflection? not only they who elected and they who compofed that convention, but his Majefty, who received its deputies, comes in for his fhare of the obloquy; it is very evident that one of the many views of this bill is to attack the Catholics; as to any evil defigns which the Catholics may be said to entertain, I believe they have none; fure I am, that the charges which have been made against the body of the Catholics are false; if there are grounds, ftate them; let that which is to appal us all appear; it has proved nothing but vague affertion; nor can we fuppofe that the Catholics, who, under the penal code, preferved their allegiance, fhould become difaffected on the moment in which they had acquired fuch folid and ineftimable advantages, and through the agency of the govern

ment

ment which they are falfely charged to wish to undermine. The bitterness of expreffion which in fome inftances accompanied that grant, cannot exasperate them against the state, but should be rather a fubject of additional thanks to the wifer part of government, who have forced the angry bigot to vote against his fpeech, with the humiliating privilege of babbling against his vote.

It may be to the Catholics further confolation to find, that if they are calumniated, fo have been the Proteftants; they who acted for the liberties of this country; they who fince 1782 ftruggled for bills, which, in part, government has meritorioufly acceded to, are for that very conduct, by the fame falfe witnefs, vituperated exprefsly as men endeavouring to foment jealoufies and difunion between Great Britain and Ireland. Satisfied with the fuccefs of fome of their great measures, these men have learned to despise that political jury, whofe teftimony against public character. is now exploded as his principles.

Sir, this bill not only reflects on numbers of his Majesty's fubjects as guilty of a misdemeanor, but it involves them in the penalty; it is an ex poft facto law of pains and penalties : if this bill be law, every man who compofed the Catholic convention is now liable to be profecuted for a misdemeanor; it might fo happen that some of the gentlemen who vote for the bill might be their jury or their judges, how would they act; would they on oath or as on the bench pronounce thofe men guilty of a misdemeanor; and which they are now ready to affert as members of parliament? Those gentlemen may not only happen to try fuch offenders, but are liable to be tried themselves, for fuch offences; for they were certainly thofe criminal and illegal deputies defcribed in the act. I do not fuppofe government will ever think of profecuting them, but if she should, the will after the

paffing

paffing this act have against the legality of their conduct the authority of the legislature and their own. I have objected to this bill as an innovation on the constitution; I object to it also as an innovation on the system of criminal jurifprudence it puts the peace officer in the place of the court of justice, in cafes where there is neither tumult nor danger of tumult; it is true the common law makes him the judge of the imminent danger to which the fociety is exposed, from a numerous body armed and proceeding to execute an illegal purpose, or a legal purpose in an illegal tumultuous manner; but it is the force or imminent danger of force, that brings the fubject under the cognisance of the fubordinate magiftrate; the illegality alone would only bring him under the cognifance of the courts of justice. Where there are circumftances of force and horror accompanying an illegal act, then grows the power of the peace officer, for he is not the guardian of the law, but the confervator of the peace. But this bill gives that officer in the instance of a peaceful meeting affembled to do a legal act, as to frame a petition for those who have deputed them fo to do, this bill, I fay, gives the peace officer the power to judge of the fact of the deputation; of the manner of exercifing that trust, and of the public nature of the object of it, with right of entry and a power to call in the military; here is the principle of the act, applied to the peaceful communication of fentiment-and is an innovation of the principles of the criminal law of thefe countries. The objects of this bill is to ftigmatife the Catholic convention, and prevent the reform of parliament; but the pretences for this bill, I think, are three; the Defenders, the United Irishmen, and an imaginary convention at Athlone : the last is not to take place, and on the two first the bill will have no operation. Gentlemen must surely know that either this convention is not at all to take place, or taking place, would be feeble and frivolous. Such a convention