ration, it was fwelled to an enormous size by inordinate grants from the crown, fuch as a faithful fervant and honeft patriot would not have been forward to accept, and would have advifed his royal mafter not to beflow. Had this hero of the prefent eulogium been what Lord M. reprefents him,—a mirror of patriotism and loyalty,-poffibly, perhaps probably, he might have preferved his unfortunate fovereign from the block:-but, in ferving his king, he must have taken into the protection of the law a vast body of men, who had immenfe property to lofe, and which, in cafe of a cordial treaty, must have been fecured from confifcation. The unfortunate Charles was extremely willing to confent to meafures, which would have. quieted the minds of mer in Ireland, restored tranquillity to that distracted kingdom, and procured a military reinforcement which might have given him a chance of preventing his own ignominious execution, and the extinction of royalty in England, by enabling him to conclude a treaty with his parliament, which fhould clearly afcertain the true bounds of the conftitution, and fecure to the crown and to the people their respective rights and privileges:-but the Duke of Ormond thwarted him in the bufinefs; and he, who for fuch a length of time refufed to treat with, or trifled with, the king's friends, found no difficulty in treating with the avowed enemies of his fovereign, and furrendering to them the government of Ireland; as if it were fafer in the hands of the parliamentarians, than in thofe of the avowed fupporters of the royal caufe and of a conftitutional monarchy. This furrender, he could not but know, would blaft his mafter's hopes, and deluge his country with blood yet he made it! Who will not, after this, be furprised to find that Lord M. fhould have fingled out this excellent nobleman as a mirror of patriotiim and loyalty? We think that his Lordship was uncommonly unlucky in bringing within the fame point of view the Duke of Ormond's adminiftration in Ireland, and that of his illuftrious defcendant, the prefent Marquis Cornwallis, in Hindoftan; for furely no two adminiftrations form more complete contrafts to each other. One maintained a bloody war, carried on in the face of justice; a war into which the great bulk of the land owners of the country were driven for the prefervation of their eftates, which they faw the minifters of government tearing from them after ages of poffeffion, on a pretence that the titles were defective: thofe titles the king was willing to confirm, and the parliament of Ireland was as willing to concur with him in the act: but the Lords Juftices fruftrated the royal intention, and the people, driven to defpair, broke out into exceffes which the good difpofition of the king, bad it been fuffered to operate, would

have prevented. Proclamations of pardon indeed were iffued by the Lords Juftices, then in the intereft of the long parlia ment: but the pardon was limited to fuch as were not freeholders; for, had it not been thus limited, it might have deftroyed the harveft of confifcations to which thefe iniquitous governors were looking. The confequences were fuch as might have been and no doubt were foreseen the word was drawn, and the fcabbard thrown away. It was under fuch rulers that Ormond began his career; it was under fuch au fpices that he first ferved; and thus did he contribute to let loose the horrors of war in a devoted country, which might with a word, with one act of justice, have been soothed into peace. Not fuch was the conduct of his defcendant, the illuftrious Cornwallis. He drew the fword in India to prevent the invasion of property; to maintain the Rajah of Tra vancore in the poffeffion of his eftates, of part of which, at leaft, Tippoo wanted to difpoffefs him. It was not the wellbeing of merely a part of the people under his government, of this or that favoured caft of men, that the Marquis ftudied to promote he viewed all with the eye of a father, and to all he extended a father's care: inftead of founding the hopes of revenue on infecure or defective titles, he laboured to cut up. fuch hopes by the root; and he ceafed not till he procured the adoption of a fyftem, which has confirmed to the landholders. of British-India the quiet and undisturbed poffeffion of their lands, as long as they fulfil the covenants fpecified in the deed by which they hold them. Ormond left Ireland amid the execrations of the loyalifts; and when he again returned to it, he contrived to make himself perhaps the most opulent fubject in the king's dominions. Lord Cornwallis left India loaded with the bleffings of every defcription of men, and came back to England richer than when he left it, only in reputation. His principles refpecting the country under his government were noble, juft, and humane; they were his own; or if they were hereditary, it certainly was not from the Duke of Ormond that they defcended. From that duke he indeed derived a noble and royal defcent: but he has reflected on him infinitely more honour than he ever could have inherited from him.

In his introduction to the work, Lord M. fays that

Though the apparent defign of this compilation is to trace the origin, fufpenfion, and revival of the jurifdiction of the Irish Parliament; a fubject however interefting it might have been in 1782, now of lefs moment, because it is no longer a queftion of novelty: yet, it will be found to lead to a differtation of the greatest importance, that naturally fprings from the fources of information, of which the

author

author has been poffeffed; viz. the legislative incorporation of Great Britain and Ireland.'

An union between England and Ireland is a measure of immenfe importance to both, and ought to occupy the thoughts of the best informed men in the two kingdoms. Should it ever be a fubject of difcuffion in the two legislatures, we fear it will not be debated coolly and rationally, but that paffion and prejudice will have too much influence on the decifion. If Lord M. really entertains hopes that an union may be effected, he is more fanguine than we are. The period, we think, is gone by, the occafion has been loft, and we apprehend that it will never occur again, until an event fhall have taken place, which on various accounts every man ought to deplore and deprecate, a bloody war in Ireland, fuccefsfully terminated by British arms, and ending in the complete conqueft of that kingdom.

Chap. 1ft of this work treats of the jurifdiction of the Irish parliament, and gives an account of the origin, progrefs, fufpenfion, and renewal of the Appellant Jurifdiction of the Houfe of Lords of Ireland. There being now no difpute about the jurifdiction of the Irish parliament, and the fupreme judicial authority of its Houfe of Peers, this chapter can be interesting only to Antiquaries, whom the noble Lord improperly calls Antiquarians. It may not be amifs, however, to correct fome hiftorical mistakes, and to point out fome errors which might not have been expected in an author of Lord Mountmorres's accuracy and reading. He takes for his guides Sir Edward Coke, Sir John Davis, and the Lord Chancellor Euftace; men who poffeffed great knowlege of law, but, with fubmiffion be it faid, they are not recognized as authorities in matters of hiftory. Coke knew little of Ireland; Davis knew more, but he was a novus homo there, and moft certainly was not acquainted with many important tranfactions which had taken. place in that country above 400 years berore his time. Lord M. ftates that Sir John Davis, in his fpeech as fpeaker of the Irish parliament in 1313 (this date is by an error of the prefs, we prefume, given for 1613,) afferts that the first parliament, regularly convened in Ireland, was in the declining years of Edward II. Might not a man, who was unacquainted with the hiftory of that monarch, be led by the expreffion "declining years" to think that he died in an advanced age? when in reality he was cut off in the very vigour of manhood, in his 43d year.

The noble Lord farther makes Sir John Davis affert, as a general propofition, that, before that period, Ireland was reprefented in the English parliament.' The speaker displayed,

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on this head, remarkable ignorance of his fubject; and we are really furprised that a writer of Lord M.'s information should beftow fuch an encomium on Sir John's fpeech, as to call it the most comprehenfive, perhaps, that ever was delivered.' It is well known, not to build on the authority of those who maintain that Henry II. tranfmitted to Ireland an inftrument, the purport of which is fufficiently explained by the name given to it," Modus tenendi Parliamentum," that he conveyed to his fon John, if not the abfolute, at leaft the qualified fovereignty over Ireland, certainly in a more ample manner than Hugh Lupus was made fovereign of Chefhire, or the Stanleys were made kings of Man: it is alfo well known that John refided in Ireland a confiderable time, exercifing fovereign power in confe. quence of his father's grant; that he divided fuch parts of the country as were under the English jurifdiction, into counties; that he appointed fheriffs, and gave charters of incorporation to various towns. It is clear, by fair inference, that the qualified fovereignty, which he enjoyed, precluded the idea of fending members from Ireland to reprefent that kingdom in the parlia ment of England; and as John must have been an absolute king, which he was not, and which the English fettlers in Ireland would never allow him to be, had he ruled Ireland without the affiftance of parliament, it is reafonable to prefume that it was in conjunction with fuch an affembly fitting in Ire land, that he legiflated for that kingdom. Not to reft the matter on mere inference, we find that Sir John Davis did not understand the fenfe of the parliament roll 10th Edward II. on which he founded his affertion that parliaments were first regularly convened there in the reign of that prince. On the words of it, viz. "de Parliamentis fingulis annis in Hiberniâ tenendis, et de legibus et confuetudinibus ibidem emendandis,' Lord Coke (whom Lord M. to be confiftent, muft admit as authority, for he quotes him,) makes thefe obfervations:

Hereby it appeareth, that there were parliaments holden in Ireland before this time, and order taken at this parliament, that they should be holden every year; and the like acts were made in England in 4th Edw. III. and 36th Edw. III. for parliaments to be holden in England."-Hence alfo it appears that regular annual parliaments, or at least annual meetings of parlia meat, were established in Ireland before they were in England. It may be urged, perhaps, that Lord Coke's differing from Sir John Davis about the meaning of a ftatute is no convincing proof that the latter is wrong; we will therefore put it beyond a doubt that Sir John Davis was not mafter of his fubject, and that he advanced an hiftorical falfehood, when he afferted as a general propofition that before the reign of Edward II. Ireland

was

was reprefented in the English parliament. Lord M. will not pretend that, fhould the prefent parliament of Ireland be defired by the king to meet him in England, or in Germany, and fhould agree to obey his fummons, it could with any propriety of fpeech be called either an English or a German parliament, merely on account of the place of its fitting. This being premifed, we will affett that, before the reign of Edward II. an Irish parliament reprefenting the eftates of Ireland was reguJarly affembled in England; where it fat without meeting or joining with the English parliament, and by its own separate authority (under the word parliament we include the three eftates,) enacted laws for the people of Ireland. Mr. Molyneux, whom we confider as a refpectable authority, quoting an authority still more refpectable than his own, tells us that in the white book of the Exchequer in Dublin is recorded a writ of the 9th of Edw. 1. fent to his chancery of Ireland, wherein that monarch mentions, Quædam flatuta per nos de affenfu prelatorum, comitum, baronum et communitatum regni noftri Hibernia, nuper apud Lincoln, et quedam alia ftatuta poftmodum apud Eborum falta. Herein no mention whatever is made of the English parliament: but the ufual conftituent parts of a parliament, prelates, earls, barons, and commons,-in a word, all the ufual branches of the legislature, are mentioned, not as a new aflemblage, but as a regulár and established body well known to the Irish conftitu. tion. We do not mean to fay that the Irish parliament did not occafionally fit together with that of England, which certainly was the cafe, but to fhew that, before the reign of Edward II. Ireland had a diftinct and regularly conftituted parliament, which fometimes affembled out of the kingdom as well as in it.

In the 1ft chapter of this publication, which called from us these remarks, our readers will find fome interefting and curious details of the measures which led to the paffing of the celebrated act of the 6th Geo. I. by which the authority of the British legislature was declared to extend to Ireland, and by which the judicature of the Irish Houfe of Lords as a court of appeal was abolished. This famous act, our readers well know, has fince been repealed, and the Irish parliament reinftated in its fupreme dominion over that country.

Chapter 2d treats of the reprefentation of the House of Lords of Ireland in 1719 to King George I.; it gives the late Earl of Egmont's account of that tranfaction, together with his Lordfhip's opinion of the legislative incorporation of Great Britain and Ireland. A perufal of this chapter has produced on us a very different effe&t from that which Lord M., no doubt, wifhed it to have on his readers in general. We had hitherto confidered the members of the Irish Houfe of Lords, of that day, as

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genuine