than the members of both houses of par- | Northumberland, and was some years ago liament, acting justices of the peace, and fitted up by him at his own expence, hath certain other officers and persons, should been of great benefit in the holding the be made liable to serve as constables, or sessions for the said city and liberty, and pay a penalty for refusing to serve the for doing other essential public business said office; and that a new mode of ap- regarding the same, and is absolutely nepointing and discharging them should be cessary for those purposes. adopted. 3. "That the number of watchmen in the said places should be increased, more able persons appointed, their pay augmented, another method adopted for appointing them; that their beats, or districts, should be less extensive; their duty be made general; and that they should be put under one general direction. 4. "That the beadles in many parishes are not at present of sufficient service; that they should, for the future, be employed under another name, and under some general direction, as regulators of the watchmen, and to take up vagrants and other disorderly persons, in their respective wards; and that their number should be increased. 5. "That the duty of constables and watchmen, and of beadles under another name, should be regulated, with proper encouragements for doing their duty, and penalties for their neglect of it. 6. "That the receiving stolen goods, particularly gold and silver plate and jewels, should be made more penal, and the receivers of them, particularly of those taken by burglary or highway robbery, be made principals. 7. "That provision should be made for transporting criminals, which now are transported to America, to the coast of Africa, and to the East Indies. 8. "That common Ballad Singers, by collecting great numbers of people about them, give opportunities for picking pockets, and are a great nuisance; and that some effectual provision should be made for suppressing them. 9. "That the present unrestrained method of granting licences to sell wine, in and about the city and liberty of Westminster, gives an opportunity to persons of the most abandoned characters, to open houses for the retailing of wine to be drank in the said houses as taverns, which are frequented by every species of disorderly persons, and is a great cause of robberies and other disorders; and that the said method should be restrained. 10. "That the house in King-street, Westminster, called Guildhall, which is now the property of his grace the duke of 11. "That the prison, called the Gatehouse, in the city of Westminster, to which a great number of criminals and debtors are committed, is too small, and totally unfit for the purposes of a common gaol in the present increased state of the said city, and the liberty thereof; and that there is no certain allowance for the maintenance of the prisoners committed thereto. 12. That a strong and capacious gaol for the city and liberty of Westminster, should be built in another place, and some provision be made for the maintenance of the prisoners which are or shall be committed to the Gate-house, and to the said new gaol, when built. 13. "That larger and more convenient round houses should be provided in the said city and liberty of Westminster, and in Saint Martin's le Grand, and that part of the duchy of Lancaster, which is within the said liberty; and that no liquor should be sold therein." Several gentlemen spoke against this increasing our capital penal laws, already much too bloody. The receiver was indeed as bad, or perhaps worse than the thief, yet it should be considered, whether the present laws were not too cruel on the latter; and whether it would not be first better to determine, Whether it would not be a better step to reduce this punishment, than to increase that of the receivers ? However, on the division, it was agreed to by 47 to 19. Sir G. Saville spoke well upon the subject, he wished for a committee upon this head, who should revise all the penal statutes, and reduce them into a regular system, in which the punishments should be more adequate to the crimes. To the Resolution that the transported convicts should be sent to Africa or the East Indies, instead of North America, several objections were made; first, that sending them to these climates was, in other words, ordering them to death: 2dly, that, unless the African and East India companies were ordered to take them, and pay for their passage, it would be impossible to get them there, as, at present, the expence of sending them was paid by empire, to keep a watchful eye on the proceedings of government even in the most distant provinces under our dominion, it cannot be improper in the present deplorable situation of Ireland, to animadvert upon the conduct of the ministry, to examine the sources of the universal discontent which now unhappily prevails throughout our sister kingdom, and renders administration as detestable to the people of that country, as they are despicable to the inhabitants of this. It is notoriously known, Sir, however Ireland may be ridiculed by the inconsiderate, or misrepresented by the malevo the convicts themselves; and in case the convict could not pay it, the master of the ship who carried them, had a right, by the laws of the plantations, to sell them for the time the law condemned them. Whereas it was not worth the while of the India company to purchase them at so high arate, unless for soldiers, and in that case they were at present permitted to take them: 3rdly, if sent to Africa, it was to be feared, that by filling those forts with inhabitants of this nature, great danger might accrue to those settlements, as the neighbouring negroes, always ready to destroy those forts, and being joined by these desperadoes, might seize them, and which at pre-lent, that there is no part of the British sent they were with difficulty restrained from. For these reasons, this resolution was postponed. The Resolution, that ballad-singers were a great cause of the increase of robbers, by drawing crowds about them of idle people, to the encouragement of pickpockets, &c. was so ridiculous, that the Clerk could not read it for laughing; indeed the whole House joined him, and after some droll defence of them, as itinerant Muses, &c. the Resolution was postponed. +"Some late transactions in Ireland having thrown that country into a state of general disorder and discontent, occasioned a proposal on this side for a parliamentary enquiry into the causes and nature of them. The persons who held power for many years there thought the constant and unusual residence of the Lord Lieutenant was intended solely for the destruction of their power and influence. A strong opposition was prepared; but nothing appeared on the meeting of the new parliament (Oct. 17, 1769) but what promised harmony and good humour. The Houses seemed to vie with each other in their expressions of duty and gratitude to the throne, and of respect and regard to the Lord Lieutenant. This season of sunshine was judged to be the proper time for the making of another experiment to carry into execution the Bill for the Augmentation of the forces, which had failed of success at the breaking up of the last parliament. "A message was accordingly sent, recommending this measure in the strongest terms from the throne. This message likewise contained a promise from the throne, that, if the territories more eminent for its loyalty, or more conspicuous for its affection to the crown of these realms; injustice after injustice, tyranny after tyranny has she peaceably put up with from sentiments of attachment to the people of Great Britain, and suffered, even in the dawnings of prosperity, her little treasures to be torn from her, contrary to every idea of constitutional law, because she imagined the violence might be beneficial to England. The merit of the Irish nation, Sir, was not however confined to the toleration of oppression in the ministers of this country, but to a cheerful acquiescence under it; it was not from a want of spirit, or a want of understanding, from a want of courage to resent, or of intelligence to perceive the injuries offered them, that augmentation took place, a number of effective troops, not less than 12,000 men, officers included, should at all times, except in cases of invasion or rebellion in Great Britain, be kept within the kingdom for its better defence. "The proposed Augmentation was from 12,000, the former establishment, to 15,245 men, officers included: the strictest œconomy was promised to be observed in this service. Such was the favourable disposition of the majority at this time to government, or such their sense of the necessity of the measure towards the common defence, that notwithstanding a strong opposition within, and its being rather unpopular without doors, the Augmentation Bill was carried through, and passed in a very few days. "This apparent union of sentiments, good humour, and harmony, between the governor and governed was soon interrupted. A Money Bill, which had originated and been framed in the privy-council, was brought to the House of Commons; a measure, which, though in strictness legal, had been always a matter of violent altercation at the beginning of every pariiament, at which time only it was used, in order to keep up a right claimed by the council the inhabitants of that kingdom quietly endured the despotism of an English administration. No, Sir, their intrepidity is universally known, their perception is universally acknowledged; and while we behold them with pity, we cannot but consider them with admiration. To justify the truth of what I have now advanced, suffer me to remark, Sir, that if the Irish were not naturally attached to this country, they have had of late sufficient encouragement to oppose the inroads of British ministers upon their property, and to contend at least for a concurrence in the distribution of their money. They have seen the Americans, a people much younger, and much more obliged, do this with the greatest success; they have seen British acts of parliament instituted for the express purpose of raising a revenue in the colonies, not only disobeyed, but they under an act of Henry 7, called Poyning's Law, by which no bills are to pass in Ireland which have not been first certified from the privy-council there. The Bill was accordingly rejected; and in the vote for the rejection, the reason assigned was, its not having originated in the House of Commons. This objection did not impede the national supply; another Money Bill was passed in the usual form, in the most liberal manner, and with the greatest unanimity. "The cordiality and unanimity shewn upon this occasion, by which they trusted solely to the honour of government, and provided fully for all its necessities, before they proceeded to any part of the national business, greatly, as they said, enhanced the merit of the act. The rejected Bill provided only for the expenditure of three months, the present for the expences of two years, and the supply granted amounted to 2,168,681/. These two great points of government being obtained, in the augmentation of the army and the grant of the supplies, it was then thought the proper time to shew a resentment of the rejection of the Money Bill; an affront which had been (prudently, as was said by one side; meanly and fraudulently by the other) dissembled, until government was got on solid ground. "The Lord Lieutenant, in a speech which he made to both Houses, after the greatest acknowledgments for the liberality with which they had so effectually supported government, suddenly changed his style, and condemned, in the strongest terms, the rejection of the privy-council Money Bill in the House of Commons, which he represented to be intrenching upon the rights of the crown, and entered a formal protest in the House of Lords against that act of the House of Commons; and to preclude all debate upon the subject, or the possibility of passing resolutions against [VOL. XVI.] | have seen our statesmen tremblingly solicitous for a repeal of these acts, and be held them entering into the most dastardly concessions, to purchase a pardon from America. Yet though they have seen all this, they have neither denied our authority, nor opposed the execution of our ordinances; they have even without an act of parliament submitted to the annual payment of almost 100,000l. in pensions, and the moment government condescended to apply for any new grants, they have considered upon the properest mode of compliance, and manifested a pleasure in assisting even the notorious prodigality of government. Having constantly acted in this affectionate manner to Great Britain, it might be naturally expected, that their generosity would have shamed our ministers into some little degree of kindness and consideration. But kindness and consideration this measure, as suddenly prorogued the parliament to a long day. "Some notice of this design having been received before it was put in execution, a motion had been made in the House of Lords a few days before, that directions should be given to the Speaker not to suffer any protest of any persons whatsoever to be entered in the Journals, who was not a lord of parliament, and a member of that House, and which was not relative to some business that had been previously before the House, and wherein the protesting lord had taken part with the minority, either in person or by proxy. This question being over-ruled by a great majority, a strong protest was entered by the minority, which attempted to shew that the only two cases in point, which were those of the earl of Strafford and lord Sidney, were either transacted in such times, or attended with such circumstances, as totally voided their being drawn into precedent, and that every such act was contrary to the rights and derogatory to the dignity of the Peers. The House of Commons, before their breaking up, forbid the Lord Lieutenant's speech from being entered on their Journals. "In this manner were the sanguine hopes blasted which had been formed upon the first meeting of the first limited parliament. No business had passed but a compliance with the requisitions of government; all the national business was undone; the temporary laws which are renewed or altered at every sessions, whether relative to agriculture, to trade, to the supplying of the capital with provisions, to the preservation of the public security, or the support of the public charities, were all expired. The consternation, distress, and discontent that followed, were great, and the whole kingdom was in a state of universal confusion and disorder." Annual Register. [3 P] this generous principle, it now becomes do not seem the characteristics of our present ministers. For, Sir, though they lately received a large supply from the Irish parliament for the purposes of a military augmentation in that kingdomthough they requested this supply in a time of profound peace, and thought it perfectly constitutional to receive it from the representatives of the people; the money was no sooner received, than they denied the right of the Commons to grant it, and insisted that power of originating Money Bills belonged entirely to the privy council. However, Sir, to argue with them on their own principles, the government surely had not a right to take the money from parliament, if parliament had not a right to give it; and they should either refuse the supply, or acquiesce in the legality of the grant. The more we consider the conduct of administration in this respect, the more we shall find it perplexed, inconsistent, and tyrannical. The lord lieutenant having obtained the money, returns thanks to the two Houses for their" That an humble Address be presented liberality, and after he has politely complimented their munificence, he enters a protest upon the Journals of the Lords, and sensibly informs the whole world that they were not authorized to exert it. What is this, Sir, but adding insult to oppression, but laughing at the idea of all order, and smiling while they stab the essence of all liberty to the heart? The Hon. Constantine Phipps seconded the motion. Mr. George Grenville: to his Majesty, that he will be graciously pleased to give directions, that there be laid before this House, a copy of all Instructions given to the Lord Lieutenant of the kingdom of Ireland, relative to the late sudden prorogation of the Irish parliament, at a time when affairs of the greatest. national importance to that kingdom were depending in the said parliament; toge Sir, the consequences of this proceed-ther with the Papers on which the said InIng were such as might be expected; a structions were founded, and his Answers generous, a spirited people could not bear thereto." to be reproached with their very virtues, they therefore prepared to make a vigorous effort in defence of their constitutional rights, but the chief governor took speedy care to prevent the possibility of parlia- Sir; I am so perfectly satisfied mentary expostulation, by proroguing with the expediency of the motion at preboth Houses to a distant day, and brand- sent before the Chair, that I shall even exing them with a public stigma for comply-ceed it, by moving likewise for " A Copy ing with the wishes of government. In- of a Message of the 16th of November deed, a compliance with the wishes of such a government might in the eyes of reasonable men seem to merit some mark of the grossest obloquy. The Irish, however, are more sinned against than sinning; the concessions they made to administration were in fact so many proofs of their regard for this kingdom, and they would have long since shewn a just resentment against the ministry, had they not been apprehensive that such a measure might be conceived a diminution in their attachment to the people of England. What the Irish have declined doing from last, from the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland to the House of Commons of that kingdom, relative to the Augmentation of the Forces there." The affairs of that kingdom are not only in the utmost disorder, but the laws of Great Britain have, in my opinion, been violated to deceive our fellow-subjects of the neighbouring nation out of their property. I will not now, Sir, dwell upon the absurdity of a system, which, in times of profound peace, can think of encreasing military expences, nor will I dwell upon the patriotism of ministers, who are studious to encrease the remember in some measure the nature of its laws; but it is still more surprising, that the very measures which are taken for maintaining the authority of this kingdom, are pointed out as a degradation of its honour, and a sacrifice of the royal prerogative. number of our forces at a period in which every dispassionate mind must see the propriety of a reduction. What I shall chiefly adhere to, Sir, is the manner, in which the augmentation was gained from the Irish parliament; the inducement which led the people of, that kingdom to comply with this preposterous requisition of government; and if in the course of the little I may offer, any thing should appear to furnish a just ground for believing that the dignity of this nation has been sacrificed to plunder the inhabitants of Ireland, I hope our love of justice, as well as the regard which we should ever entertain for our own honour, will lead us into some spirited enquiries, and make a proper example of the sacrificer however dignified by office, and supported by connection. If, Sir, the message as printed in all the public papers, and said to be the Lord Lieutenant's message to the Irish parliament, is not a scandalous forgery, and if the promise asserted to be the King's promise to that parliament also, be not a daring imposition, both the message and the promise are repugnant to the spirit of two English laws, the Act of the last session having repealed the 10th of king William, and the 13th of Charles 2, particularly vesting the disposition of all the land and sea-forces in the crown. Now, Sir, if a promise has been given to the people of Ireland, that 12,000 men shall be constantly stationed among them, I apprehend that the prerogative of the crown is given up; I apprehend that the obvious meaning of the two laws I have alluded to is defeated, and that the disposal of the 12,000 troops is not virtually in the sovereign, but actually in the Irish parliament. This, Sir, is to me a matter of much importance; I would not have the royal prerogative diminished for the purpose of artifice; nor would I have an English act of parliament defeated in its design, for the shameful end of deluding the Irish fellow-subject into a supply. For these reasons I move, that the papers relative to the Augmentation Bill may also be laid before us; and I trust the hon. gentleman, who made the last motion, will rather think I assist, than counteract his benevolent intention. Sir, though I shall never contend for giving Great Britain a wanton, an arbitrary power over any part of her dominions, and though I shall always contend for an English subject's possessing the privileges of an Englishman, in whatever part of our empire he may happen to be placed; still I must argue for the propriety, the necessity of placing a controuling power in some place; the vast body of the British territories must have a head; and surely such a superiority for the common good of all, cannot be more safely allowed than in our hands. We are the most immediately affected by any general misfortune, and consequently must be most solicitous for the general happiness; in point of antiquity, numbers, and opulence, we have a just title to pre-eminence, and as the parent state, it is more natural for the various dependencies which we have protected for so long a series of years, to obey our laws than to think of dictating to their protectors. On this account, Sir, I am bold enough to stand forth an advocate for the prorogation of the Irish parliament. I am bold enough to say, that the prorogation was unavoidable, and that the minister would highly merit an impeachment, if he had not urged the expediency of such a measure. Gentlemen may declaim in general terms very pompously, and draw pathetic pictures of national calamities. They are supported by the temper of the times, and people without doors consider every man as a patriot, who tells them they are on the brink of destruction. However, Sir, give me leave to say, that what may be mighty fine in oratory, may be utterly false in fact; and give me also leave to say, that a single truth in a parliamentary debate, is a matter of more real importance, than the thunders of a Demosthenes, or the mellifluence of a Cicero. The distresses of the Irish nation, Sir, have been painted in most melancholy colours, by the hon. gentleman who made the first motion, and they would really deserve our serious consideration, if it were not for one unfortunate circumstance, which is, that his picture is totally a child of the imagination. To prove this, let us |