allies, and to prosecute the war with increased activity and vigour. Your determined perseverance in a system of liberal aid to the brave and loyal nations of the Pe ninsula has progressively augmented their means and spirit of resistance; while the humane attention which you have paid to the sufferings of the inhabitants of Portugal, under the unexampled cruelty of the enemy, has confirmed the alliance by new ties of affection, and cannot fail to inspire additional zeal and animation in the maintenance of the common

cause.

His Royal Highness especially commands us to declare his cordial concurrence in the measure which you have adopted for improving the internal security and military resources of the United Kingdom.

For these important purposes you have wisely provided, by establishing a system for the annual supply of the regular army, and for the interchange of the militias of Great Britain and Ireland; and His Royal Highness has the satis faction of informing you, that the voluntary zeal which has already been manifested upon this occasion has enabled him to give immediate operation to an arrangement by which the union and mutual interests of Great Britain and Ireland may be more effectually cemented and improved.

Gentlemen of the House of

Commons,

His Royal Highness commands us to thank you, in the name and on behalf of His Majesty, for the liberal supplies which you have furnished for every branch of the public service.

His Royal Highness has seen with pleasure the readiness with

which you have applied the sepa rate means of Great Britain to the financial relief of Ireland at the present moment, and derives much satisfaction from perceiving that you have been able to accomplish this object with so little additional burthen upon the resources of this part of the United Kingdom. The manner in which you have taken into consideration the condition of the Irish revenue has met with his Royal Highness's approbation; and his Royal Highness commands us to add, that he looks with confidence to the advantage which may be derived from the attention of parliament having been given to this important subject.

My Lords and Gentlemen, His Royal Highness commands us to congratulate you upon the reduction of the island of Mauritius. This last and most important colony of France has been obtained with inconsiderable loss, and its acquisition must materially contribute to the security of the British commerce and possessions in that quarter of the world.

The successes which have crowned his Majesty's arms during the present campaign, under the distinguished command of Lieutenant General Lord Viscount Wellington, are most important to the interests, and glorious to the character, of the country. His Royal Highness warmly participates in all the sentiments which have been excited by those successes, and concurs in the just applause which you have bestowed upon the skill, prudence, and intrepidity so conspicuously displayed in obtaining them.

It affords the greatest satisfac tion to his Royal Highness to reflect, that, should it please Divine

Providence to restore his Majesty to the ardent prayers and wishes of his Royal Highness and of his Majesty's people, his Royal Highness will be enabled to lay before his Majesty, in the history of these great achievements of the British arms throughout a series of systematic operations, so satisfactory a proof that the national interests and the glory of the British name have been successfully maintained, while his Royal Highness has conducted the government of the United Kingdom.

Then a Commission for proroguing the Parliament was read. After which the Lord-Chancellor said,

My Lords and Gentlemen, By virtue of the Commission under the Great Seal, to us and other Lords directed, and now read, we do, in obedience to the commands of his Royal Highness the Prince Regent, in the name and on behalf of his Majesty, prorogue this Parliament to Thursday the 22nd day of August next, to be then here holden; and this Parliament is accordingly prorogued to Thursday the 22nd day of August next.

addresses to his Majesty or the parliament," it is enacted, That all assemblies, committees, or other bodies of persons elected or in any other manner constituted or appointed to represent, or assuming or exercising a right or authority to represent, the people of this realm, or any number or description of the people of the same, or the people of any province, county, city, town, or other district within the same, under pretence of petitioning for, or in any other manner procuring an alteration of matters established by law, in church or state, save and except the knights, citizens, and burgesses elected to serve in the parliament thereof, and save and except the houses of convocation duly summoned by the King's will, are unlawful assemblies; and that it shall and may be lawful for any mayor, sheriff, justice of the peace, or other peace officer, and they are thereby respectively authorized and required within his and their respective jurisdictions, to disperse all such unlawful assemblies, and if resisted, to enter into the same, and to apprehend all persons offending in that behalf.' And it is further enacted, That if any person shall give or publish, or cause or procure to be given or published, any written or other notice of election to be holden, or of any manner of appointment of any person or persons, to be the representative or representatives, delegate or delegates, or to act by any other name or description whatever, as representative or representatives, delegate or delegates, of the inhabitants, or of any description of the inhabitants, of any province, county, city, town, or other district within this kingdom, at any such

assembly; or if any person shall attend and vote at such election or appointment of such representatives or delegates, or other persons to act as such, every person who shall be guilty of any of the said offences, respectively being thereof convicted by due course of law, shall be deemed guilty of an high misdemeanor.

And whereas at a meeting or assembly of persons held in the city of Dublin on the 9th day of July instant,and styling themselves "A Meeting of the Catholics of Ireland," certain resolutions, amongst others were entered into and have since been published, of the tenor following:

"Resolved,-That a committee of Catholics be therefore appointed, and requested to cause proper petitions to be forthwith framed for the repeal of the penal laws, and to procure signatures thereto in all parts of Ireland, and to take measures for bringing such petitions under the serious consideration of the legislature within the first month of the ensuing sessions of parliament.

"Resolved, That said committee do consist of the Catholic peers and their eldest sons, the Catholic baronets, the prelates of the Catholic church in Ireland, and also ten persons to be appointed by the Catholics in each county of Ireland, the survivors of the delegates of 1793 to constitute an integral part of that number, and also of five persons to be appointed by the Catholic inhabitants of each parish in Dublin.

"Resolved, That the appointment of the said persons be made forthwith.

"Resolved, That it be recom. mended to such committee to re

sort to all legal and constitutional means of maintaining a cordial communication of sentiment and co-operation of conduct amongst the Catholics of Ireland, and generally of promoting the favour able reception of their petition.

"Resolved, That until the new committee shall be appointed, the management of Catholic affairs shall be confided to the Catholic peers, baronets, and survivors of the delegates of 1793."

And whereas there is reason to apprehend, that some of his Majesty's subjects may have already acted, and that others may be misled to act in furtherance of those resolutions, by taking a part in the election or appointment of delegates or representatives for such proposed assembly or committee; and that the persons so elected or delegated, or to be so elected or delegated, may be disposed to meet and form such assembly or committee as aforesaid.

And whereas such an assembly as is by these resolutions proposed to be convened, is not only in direct violation of the provisions of the statute aforesaid, and an unlawful assembly, but tends directly to endanger the peace and tranquillity of the state.

Now we, the Lord-lieutenant, by and with the advice of the privy-council of Ireland, being determined, as far as in us lies, to enforce the due observance of the laws of this realm, and being anxious to prevent the mischiefs which the violation of those laws, and particularly of the statute herein-before mentioned, must occasion, do, by this our proclamation, command all his Majesty's loving subjects of this part of the

United Kingdom, that they do abstain from all acts and proceedings whatsoever contrary to the provisions of the aforesaid statute. “And we do further hereby call upon and require all justices of the peace, mayors, sheriffs, bailiffs, and other peace officers in this part of the United Kingdom, that they do proceed in due course of law to apprehend and hold to bail all persons against whom information on oath shall have been obtained of having given or published, or cause to be given or published, any written or other notice of elections to be holden, or of any manner of appointment of any representative or delegates for any such assembly as is herein-before mentioned, or of having voted, or in any other manner acted, or who shall be found actually voting, or in any other manner acting, in the election or ap pointment of such delegates or representatives, that the person or persons so offending may be prosecuted according to law; and in case an assembly of such delegates or representatives, shall hereafter attempt to meet in defiance of the law, and notwithstanding this our proclamation, that they shall proceed to disperse the same as an unlawful assembly, pursuant to the directions of the aforesaid statute."

Given at the Council Chamber in Dublin, the 30th day of July,

1811.

Petition to Parliament of the Ro

man Catholics of Ireland, Sheweth,-"That, for a long series of years, the petitioners and their ancestors suffered under the most cruel system of legalised persecution that ever afflicted a Christian people: and that, although they do with gratitude acknowledge that several of the enactments of that oppressive code have been repealed since the accession of his present Majesty to the throne of these realms, nevertheless the petitioners still continue objects of a most degrading exclusion, not less injurious to the interests of the empire than offensive to the feelings of the petitioners; and that, for the last seventeen years, no relief whatsoever has been extended to the petitioners, though they have three several times within that period submitted their grievances and their claims to the consideration

of the united parliament; on the contrary, their humble representations were disregarded,-their just statements were contradicted, without affording an opportunity of supporting them,-every prayer for investigation was rejected,and men distinguished from their fellow citizens only by their inveterate and offensive opposition to the claims of the petitioners, were raised to situations in the state of trust, dignity, and emolu ment, a course of policy which the petitioners cannot help considering at the least extremely questionable at all times, but more particularly so when the very independance of the united kingdom becomes the subject of national contest; and that they deem it

unnecessary to enter into any refutation of the several calumnies and misrepresentations which have been circulated respecting the doctrine of their holy religion; the solemn pledges they have given, the revenue they have contributed, the blood they have shed, and the lives they have sacrificed, in support of British policy and British connection, supply abundant contradiction to the malignant assertions and insinuations of their misguided enemies. The religion they profess is maintained by every one of his Majesty's European allies; it was the religion of every man in England, when that colossal pillar of British liberty, so justly entitled her Great Charter, was raised by her trusty sons; and they beg leave most humbly to remind the House, that the Catholics of Ireland contribute very largely to the supply and reinforcement of his Majesty's forces on sea and land; and that they cannot disguise the feelings of disappointment and dissatisfaction with which they are impressed, on finding such attachment and support on their part met by a cold and jealous reserve, which excludes the Irish Catholic from rank in military command; and those feelings are raised to a spirit of indignation when they observe that confidence which is refused to the petitioners in this their native land, reposed in foreign mercenaries, strangers alike to

their soil and their constitution, and not naturally interested in the defence or prosperity of either; and that fully impressed with the conviction that the extent and degrees of their grievances are already known to the House, they deem it unnecessary to resort to a minute detail or recital of them, as such a particular recapitulation could only tend to impress more forcibly, and if possible, more painfully, on the minds of the petitioners, the degrading consequences resulting from their present wretched state of exclusion and humiliation; and praying the House to comply with the prayers of so many millions of their fellow subjects, and not to suffer their claims any longer to remain disregarded; the extent of their supplication is, that the House will secure and consolidate the real strength of the nation, and excite a spirit of enthusiastic loyalty in so large a portion of his Majesty's subjects at a time when every arm and sinew is valuable in the defence of this insulated empire; the petitioners ask for no favour, which it is not in the power of parliament to bestow, or which they are not entitled to enjoy ; restore then, they most humbly pray the House, the Catholics of Ireland to a full participation of all the blessings of that constitution, to the support and defence of which they have so essentially contributed."