the restrictive laws on the trade of Ireland; and would do every thing in his power to forward the interefts of that country, where they did not immediately interfere with thofe of England. He further declared, that he had no objection to admit of Ireland's participating equally with us in the benefits of a free trade, provided the bore an equal fhare of our national burthens; but that was not the cafe, nor was any thing tending towards it propofed by the bills. Ireland was fuppofed to contain above two millions of fouls, and they were taxed at one million in money; which was about ten fhillings, on an average to each head. But Great-Britain, with fix millions of fouls, was taxed at twelve millions of money; by which each inhabitant paid forty fhillings towards the fupport of government. So aftonishing a difference between the circumftances of both countries, carried with it fuch intuitive conviction, as to fuperfede all argument upon the fubject, and to fhew, at the first view, the impolicy, the unreafonablenefs, and even the injuftice to our own people, (who had undertaken this heavy burthen on the faith of our navigation laws, and the fuppofed fecurity and stability of our commerce) of paffing the bills now depending. He was likewife of opinion, that the prefent meafure was brought in at a very improper time, when the minds of men were taken up with matters of the most fingular importance; the bufinefs was, befides, of too ferious and complicated a nature to be hurried through at the latter end of a fcffion. A matter of fuch magnitude, as that of overthrowing the whole fyftem of our trade-laws, was not to be lightly undertaken, nor haftily determined. Such a measure demanded the moft mature deliberation, the ftri&teft investigation of facts and circumftances, along with the fulleft confideration of future effects and contingencies. Be As to any danger of a rebellion in Ireland, from a failure of expected relief founded on thefe propofitions, he could not think that there was the fmalleft foundation for any fuch apprehenfion. fdes that rebellion was not in the character of that nation, the people at large were not at all interested in the event of these bills; their operation would be confined to the metropolis and a few of the principal fea-ports, where it could only affect the capital merchants and traders. Opulence does not pro. duce the men for rebellion, and happily, the indigent in that country have no concern in the queftion; had America been rich, the would never have rebelled; they are the rich, who in all countries are calculated for flavery. 1 He obferved, that the petitions on their table deferved the particular attention of parliament; the petitioners were men of a defcription entitled to refpect, and to a patient hearing; their evidence were still to be examined, and their counsel heard; and he appealed to the candour of gentlemen on all fides of the Houfe, whether the month of May was the proper feafon to enter into fo laborious and important an inveftigation. And faid, that although he was not apprehenfive of a rebellion in Ireland, that was more than he would venture to answer for with respect to England, if the prefent bills paffed, confidering the confequently increased want of employment which would then be fuperadded to the present diftreffes of our manufacturers. He concluded, by ftrongly, urging the Houfe to lay the bills afides to refer the general bufinefs of Ireland to a cominittee; whofe report would lay the foundation for their future mature deliberation; and enable them to afford fuch redress to Ireland, as the fituation of both countries would admit of without prejudice to this. Mr. Burke, was the great and powerful fupporter of the bills in point of debate. His fituation was rather fingular, and undoubtedly embaraffing. For he received his fear in parliament, without expence, from the free votes and predilection of the citizens of Briftol in his favour. And his conftituents now thought their interefts materially affected by the bills in question. As this fubject was, perhaps, never before fo ably difcuffed, we fhali ftate fome of the arguments that appeared in fuch abstracts as we have feen of that gentleman's fpeech. He faid, that the bills before them were no more than restorations of what the wisdom of a British Parliament had, on a former occafion, thought proper to invest Ireland with. The navigation bills paffed in the 12th of Charles the Second, extended to Ireland as well as to England. A kind of left-handed policy had, however, deprived her of the freedom fhe had enjoyed under that law, and she had ever fince remained under the most cruel, oppreffive, and unnatural restriction. Deprived of every incentive to induftry, and fhut out from every paffage to wealth, fhe had inwardly lamented, but he had never complained of her condition. She had gone the moft forward lengths in ferving the interefts, and in defending the rights of Great-Britain. She had affifted in conquefts, from which fhe was to gain no advantage, and emptied her treafury, and defolated her land, to prove her attachment and loyalty to the government of this country. Such had been her conduct, and her reward had been reftriction and commercial bondage of the most cruel nature. He did not mean, he said, by defcribing her fituation, to engage the humanity of the Houfe in her favour; he knew very well that alms are but poor refources: juftice, and not pity, was to be the measure of our conduct. The Irish requested Britain to be wife, not to be generous; to provide for her own good, and to fecure her own intereft; fenfible that wisdom and prudence would dictate; that, to accomplish thefe, a different conduct towards them was neceffary. The annual revenue of the two kingdoms, he faid, had been exultingly, but most inequitably, drawn into comparifon, to prove that Ireland paid no proportion of tax. It was not the number of inhabitants that conftituted the fpecific difference in the article of taxation between two countries; but the diftinction of internal opulence and external advantage. Compare the two countries by that line, and it will be found that Ireland is taxed in a quadruple proportion more than England. The internal wealth, and the external advantage of trade and commerce, [*M] 4 are are forty times greater in England than in Ireland. There is, therefore, no ratio of proportion in the mode of taxing the latter. She is taxed without enjoying the means of payment. There are feveral excifes which England is fubject to, and which she is not. Suppofe them laid they must be laid for the fake of oppreffion, not production; and for the benefit of the officers, not of the revenue. Lea, ther is taxed in England - but what would be the product of fuch a tax, where fuch innumerable multitudes of the people never wear fhoes? You tax candles in England. But there are two hundred thousand houfes in Ireland, in which probably a candle, fuch as you tax, was never lighted. The taxes muft follow wealth, and not precede it. If any attempt against this rule is made, there will neither be wealth nor taxes. This, he faid, was the order of nature; which must be followed. And as to the judgment of the proportion, it must be left to themfelves, or they are not free; and furely the fault of the parliament of Ireland, has never been illiberality in its grants. Restricted from trading, The enjoys no opportunity of acquiring wealth to defray and difcharge the taxes impofed upon her. Enlarge her means of payment, and, in proportion to her ability, The will enlarge her taxes. An equality of commercial advantage rould not be established between the two countries. The opulence of the one is a great obftacle to the other. The great difproportion of capital effectually deftroys the poffibility of an equality. And as the ability of proceeding will increase in the fame proportion, in the pro grefs of the one and of the other, the fame proportion of advantage will ftill remain. The Irish will be able to follow the English at an equal diftance in every ftage, both in the outfet and in the continuance; but they will never be able to accelerate their motion fo as to overtake them. He faid, the fuppofed operation of the cheapness of labour with refpect to manufactures was totally unfounded, and the arguments founded thereon nugatory; and that until the inftant that the price of labour was equal in both countries, the fuperiority of manufacture would remain with the Englifh. That the price of labour rifes with the growth of manufacture, and is higheft when the manufacture is beft. And that the experience of every day tells us, that where the price of labour is higheft, the manufacturer is able to fell his commodity at the lowest price. He observed, that the difference of duty on fome of the enumerated imported articles, was fo abundantly overbalanced by the other advantages enjoyed by this country, that without it, there could not be the fmalleft degree of competition in manufacture on the fide of Ireland; nor could that in any degree hurt England. They had, he faid, a ftrange opinion of the extent of the world, who believed that there was not room enough in it for the trade of two fuch islands as these. He obferved, that moft, if not all of the petitions on the table, tended to exprefs the utmost fears of the confequences that would arife, from granting a free exportation of fail-cloth and iron to the Irish. At the fame time the real matter of fact is, that the Irish have long poffeffed poffeffed, without being able to turn it to any advantage worth mention, the free exportation of manufactured iron and fteel, as well as of fail-cloth. From hence it is evident, that the petitioners have not felt from the reality, what they dreaded in the idea; and it is fairly to be inferred, that the other matters of apprehenfion contained in the petitions, are as groundless as thefe; and are only founded, like them, upon mere conjecture. It also appears evidently, that the advantages poffeffed by the English are so far fuperior in thefe refpects, that the Irish were not able to profecute these manufactures to any purpose, nor confequently to turn their liberty of exportation to account. And this, he said, was fo truly the fact, that every species of iron manufacture, in particular, was actually exported in incredible quantities to Ireland. He fhewed from other inftances, as well as the prefent, how haftily and erroneously manufacturers are liable to form their opinions upon fubjects of this nature; and upon what flight grounds, alarms are raifed, and apprehenfions propagated amongst them. Particularly, when, fome years ago, a bill was brought in for the free importation of woollen yarn from Ireland, an univerfal alarm was excited, and petitions were fent in from every quarter, ftating and complaining of the ruinous confequences which it would produce; the bill, how ever, paffed into a law, and now, upon a full experience of its effects, they both feel and acknowledge its beneficial tendency. But, it was abfurd, he faid, to think, that a participation of manufacture would be detrimental to this country. Had we not feen the woollen manufactory planted in different parts of this country; and had we not also seen that it throve by the competition ? He concluded with lamenting, that it could happen in any one inftance, that his confcience should direct him to take a part contrary to the opinion of his constituents. It had been his invariable aim to protect their rights and interefts, and to act at all times as became the fenator and reprefentative of the people. In this inftance he had dared to act contrary to the wishes, though he was fenfible, not to the interefts, of his constituents. And if, from his conduct in this bufinefs, he fhould be deprived of his feat in that Houfe, as he apprehended he might, his conduct being difapproved by many of his chief friends and fupporters, as well as by all who had oppofed him at his election; he had the fatisfaction of being perfectly af fured, that he fhould fuffer in the very caufe of those who had inflicted the punishment. He should not blame them if they did reject him; the event would afford a very ufeful example; on the one hand, of a fenator inflexibly adhering to his opinion against intereft and against popularity; and, on the other, of conftituents exercifing their undoubted right of rejection; not on corrupt motives, but from their perfuafion, that he whom they had chofen, had acted against the judgment and intereft of those he reprefented. Other gentlemen, on the fame fide, confidered the propofition of going into a committee, as little better than a direct negative. It held out no fecurity, but a vague promife promife to move a committee, which committee fhould appoint another committee. They faid They faid it would carry too unbecoming án appearance of trifling with the fifter kingdom; and they knew the temper of the people of Ireland too well, to hold any doubt of their not being fatisfied with fuch treat ment. The minifter coincided in this opinion. He faid, that as the expectations of the Irish were raised from what had been already done, it would be unwife to protract the bufinefs for another feflion. The gentlemen who oppofed the bills feemed all to agree, that fomething ought to be done for the relief of Ireland, though they differed about the nature and extent of what aught to be done. He could fee no reafon, however, why the prefent bills fhould not pafs, whatever other meafures they might take hereafter. The Houle might, notwithfanding, appoint a committee to enquire into the general fate of the trade, and upon their report in another lion, a more extenfive plan might be framed and adopted. He concluded by faying, that he held it as a duty of obligation upon Britain, to give Ireland a degree, at least, of recompence for the exertions fhe had made, fuppoling even we were not inclined, in policy, to give her relief from the reftrictions the laboured under; and he hoped the house would agree to the prefent bills, as a teft of their intention and inclination to befriend her more fubftantially in future. The motion was rejected upon a divifion, and the bills accordingly committed, The death of the Earl of Chatham, called forth the ftrongest marks and expreffions of grief, with the greateft eulogiums on his public virtues, from one fide of the Houfe, and was attended with the molt exalted and lafting teftimonials of public esteem and gratitude, with which departed merit can be honoured, from the whole. This celebrated nobleman, (but once more celebrated commoner) who had for feveral years been a victim to a moft excruciating diforder, which reduced him to a state of extreme feebleness with respect to his bodily powers, ftill retained all that vigour of mind by which in better days he was fo much diftinguished; and was feized with a fainting fit, the forerunner of his death, fome days before in the Houfe of Lords, in the midst of an eager fpeech which he was making upon American affairs. Thus, he may be faid to have died as he lived, in the fervice of his country. The Earl of Chatham expired, at his feat at Hayes, in Kent, on the morning of May the 11th, 1778. The high pitch of power and glory to which this country had rifen under his adminiftration, have placed his public character in fo confpicuous a point of view, that any attempt towards a further difplay of it, would appear, at leaft, fuperfluous. It may well be feared, that the fatal confequences of his removal from power, will not be lefs remembered. Some errors and inconfiftencies in his public conduct, may well be overlooked among fuch a cloud of public virtues and fervices. He acknowledged himfelf, in the first affembly of the nation, that |