tween them, which means any thing. It was, therefore, fair for him to conclude, that the proposition which met so hearty an approbation from the learned gentleman had no meaning at all, and was in fact a purum nihil. The reasons assigned by him for rejecting the amendment, were no less extraordinary than his motives for adopting the address.

The learned gentleman voted for one, because it had no meaning in it; and against the other, because he was totally ignorant of what it meant. After the very unreserved avowal which the learned gentleman had made relative to the measures of administration, and which unbounded ignorance was the only apology he had to offer for not voting for the amendment, it must certainly be admitted by every man, who had enjoyed the pleasure of hearing his extraordinary mode of ministerial defence, that he was well qualified and a most able defender of such an administration. It was certainly an unquestionable proof of his courage, that he ventured to appear in the House, when an endangered ministry, encompassed with so many perils, with such unanswerable arguments as those of total ignorance, and on that dreadful and perilous day too, the first day of the session, which he had sagaciously remarked, though he could not pretend to say whence he drew his information, was likely to prove so fatal to the minister. Such an advocate was worthy of such a cause, and afforded a very striking instance of the blind leading the blind!

Ignorance, instead of a proper ground of defe

the crime of administration, and its still, if por
ignorant defenders and retainers. The I
debating upon the propriety of demandi
as a matter of necessity, the remov:
majesty's counsellors; he therefor
disability could furnish a bett
in the blue ribbon himself h.

after the long notice the noble
House, and the alarming motives
enquiry into the state and condition

considering of a proper and adequate relief for those wants,
the noble lord came into the House that morning, and in
the course of the evening, openly confessed that he was
equally ignorant of the disorder and the cure. Coist
there be a better reason urged by the most inve
enemy, for the dismission of a minister, than such a zra
fession? a confession, indeed, which required no commen
and carried conviction on the very face of it. Cou
House, after such a confession, hesitate a moren e ve
an address for his immediate removal.

of

la

sion, which

nt fairly ion which ishment and ights of both al benefit, and ent scene was,

His honourable friend (Mr. Fox) had exp so copiously and so much to the purpose, duct of ministry in every respect, and in ese es — of government, and he was so little ahia, Faz z ness, to enter diffusively into a consider the same subjects, that he would posame tions to another day; but he could na ma his honourable friend, that however t head of the treasury might pretend u Sr of the American war, from the and the temper and dispositive a: noble lord would find the ma American war, written in every single cause, circ Contributed to call for resolution of the I existence, or ir mischief,

its de

n.

and if

might to the face

dly and justly assert, essive and cruel con nt here; that they had gross ignorance of those › amendment pointed to; the same counsellors were of the crown, against almost

head of the treasury had been ne impropriety of proroguing the cal a moment; but the warning was me advice that accompanied it rejected under the plausible pretence, that it fourteen days, if the exigency of affairs y circumstance should arise, during the

liament was not assembled; the noble lord, therefore, had taken upon himself all the eventual consequences of that omission, for had that House continued to sit, except in the intervals of short adjournments, till some time anterior to the meeting of the Irish parliament, the discontents and disputes between the two kingdoms, on the subject of trade and commerce, would never have risen to the pitch they had done, nor would such difficulties have taken place as those which now stood in the way of an easy and friendly accommodation. He therefore gave his hearty concurrence to the amendment moved by his noble friend.

The question being put on the amendment, the House divided: Yeas 134: Noes 233. So it passed in the negative; after which the original address was agreed to.

H

1

THE EARL OF UPPER OSSORY'S MOTION ON THE DISCON-
TENTS IN Ireland. *

December 6.

THIS day the Earl of Upper Ossory moved, "That it is highly criminal in his majesty's ministers, to have neglected taking effectual measures for the relief of the kingdom of

"The parliament of Ireland met on the 12th of October, and soon shewed that they had received a portion of the general spirit of the nation. They declared in their addresses to the throne, that nothing less than a free and unlimited trade could save that country from ruin. The addresses were carried up with great parade amidst the acclamations of the people. The Duke of Leinster, who commanded the -Dublin volunteers, escorted the Speaker in person upon that occasion; whilst the streets were lined on both sides, from the parliament-house to the castle, by that corps, drawn up in their arms and uniforms. That nobleman had also moved for the thanks of the lords to the

449 Ireland, and to have suffered the discontents in that kingdom to rise to such a height, as evidently to endanger a dissolution of the constitutional connection between the two kingdoms, and to create new embarrassments to the public councils, by division and diffidence, in a moment, when real unanimity, grounded on mutual confidence and affection, is confessedly essential to the preservation of what is left of the British empire." The motion was seconded by Lord Midleton, and supported by Mr. Burke, Mr. Thomas Townshend, Mr. Fox, Colonel Barré, and Mr. Dunning. It was opposed by Sir John Wrottesley, Lord Beauchamp, Earl Nugent, Mr. Dundas, Mr. Macdonald, Lord North, Mr. Welbore Ellis, Lord George Germain, and the Attorney-General.

volunteer corps throughout the kingdom, which was carried with only one dissenting voice.

"The associations and people at large, full of anger and jealousy, manifested strong apprehensions of political duplicity on this side of the water; and, perhaps, did not place a perfect confidence in the steadiness or perseverance of their own parliament. They were afraid that they would be amused by fair and empty promises, until they had resigned their power, along with the national purse, by granting the supplies for the two following years, according to the customary mode in that country; when being no longer necessary to government, a sudden prorogation would put an end to all hope of, at least, amicable redress, for the present. Under this apprehension, a short money bill, for six months only, by which means Parliament would still continue indispensably necessary to government, became the general cry of the

nation.

"As this innovation upon established form and method was strongly opposed, particularly by the court party, the Dublin mob thought it necessary to shew their zeal in the public cause; they were accordingly guilty of great and violent outrages, as well in their endeavours to enforce the measure, as in their punishment of the refractory. Although the Irish parliament used proper measures to express their resentment and to maintain their dignity upon this occasion; yet many of themselves being inclined to a vigorous proceeding, and the rest borne down by a cry almost universal in the nation, the representatives found it at length necessary to comply, and the short money bill was accordingly passed on that side: a necessity equally convincing, secured the passage of that humiliating and mortifying act in England." Annual Register.

Mr. BURKE rose in reply to Lord Beauchamp, and indulged himself with opening a vein of the most delicate and pointed ridicule, directed to the apparent embarrassment in which his lordship was involved, that of being an advocate by choice or compulsion on both sides of the question. He recalled fresh to his memory a similar situation of a very facetious gentleman, eminent for his skill and abilities, at the Irish bar, a Mr. Harwood, who being employed by a lady in a suit in the spiritual court against her husband, for cruelty and ill-treatment, in order to obtain a divorce from bed and board, was also retained in a court of common law by the husband, as counsel in a suit instituted by the lady to obtain a separate maintenance. The counsel said in another place, he would prove that the lady had good grounds to insist that she was intitled to a decree in her favour, but now he must contend, that she had given just cause for the treatment she had received from her husband, and therefore he hoped the court would consider properly of the provocation which had been given to his client. The noble lord who spoke last, had, like the facetious barrister, on one day taken up the cause of his Irish clients, and on the other proved himself an able and ingenious advocate in behalf of his ministerial friends. Thus the noble lord had endeavoured to prove in the same breath, that Ireland had been extremely ill-treated by England; for that if half what she now asked had towards the conclusion of the last session been granted her, she would have been content, though the whole of her demands, if now granted, would only be accepted as a right, for which neither thanks nor gratitude would be due or acknowledged. After presenting this argument in a variety of shapes, in each of which he attempted to shew, that it involved the utmost absurdity and contradiction, he begged

* See "Letter to Thomas Burgh, Esq. dated New Year's Day 1780; in vindication of the author's parliamentary conduct, relative to the affairs of Ireland." Burke's Works, vol. ix. p. 226.