Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Second Session Of The Eighteenth Parliament.
upon the occasion , and accerdingly went into a speech of some length , highly approving the conduct of hi' Majesty ' s Ministers . The Address was then agreed to nem dis . and communicated to the Commons ' in conference , and unanimously approved of . It was presented to his . Majesty ' by both Houses on the 15 th iivst . when his Majesty returned the following answer . < Nothing could be more satisfactory to me than this unanimous declaration of the sentiments of my two Houses of Parliament . They are such as the
conduct and declared intention of the enemy could not fail to produce . We are engaged in a cause which is common to us ail ; and contending for every interest which a free and independent nation can have to maintain . Under the blessing of Providence I look with confidence to the issue of . this great contest ; but in every event my resolution is taken . It is such as 1 owe to God , \ o my country , and to myself ' ; and it is confirmed by the sentiments which you have this day declared to me . I will not be wanting 10 my people , but will stand or . fall with them , in the defence of our religion , and in the maintenance of the independence , laws , and liberties of these kingdoms . '
STATE OF IRELAND . Wednesday , 22 . Lord Moira rose and said , that he could not refrain from making a last effort in favour of Ireland . If it were true , as officially stated , that the late negociations had been broken off from inveterate enmity , ai : d a design on Ihe pari of the enemy to overturn our government , it became necessary 10 call forth the energy of every man in the empire , and to make ham feel the blesungs of that constitution which he was born to protect . Such a war , he asserted , we could not carry on , though Ministers boasted of our resources , at the very time it
was supposed they would resort for supplies to means hitherto unknown in regular governments . They talked also of our flourishing commerce . It might be so in in England ; but in Ireland it was sadly the reverse . At Dublin 27 , 000 manufacturers , with their families , were in the greatest distress ; and though daily succours were procured for ' , 000 , many in the summer months had died for want . After slating several olher particulars of the decav of trade , and the diminution of the customs in several places to a fifteenth of their former amount , Lord Moira proceeded to animadvert on the system of coercion that is now ' pursued in the sister
kingdom . What he had read of the curfew in his early days had impressed upon his mind an idea of tyranny , which still remained . Something like it was practised in Ireland , where no man was allowed a light after nine o ' clock . One night a light happening still to glimmer in a house upon the road , a military patrole knocked at the . door . The master auolosized , and prayed for a little longer
indulgence , his child being in strong convulsions , and ihe mother weeping over it ; but no-r-the light must be extinguished ; and the wretched parent was lorced to obey . A noble Lord opposite , said his Lordship , smiles—I envy him not his feelings . In that House he had heard the Inquisi'ion reprobated because it cast a man in jail , without knowledge of any crime or accuser , and without communication with his friends . Well , such was now the practice in Ireland . Even the very tortures of inquisition were in use— -not the rack indeed , but the piquet , a punishment laid aside in the as too severe . He had seen a man piquetted
army till he fainted—piquetted again till he fainted ; and piquetted a third time till his _ senses were a third time surmounted by pain . This was not a solitary instance , nor done iu private—it was practised daily , and in the face of day ; nay , Tie would even prove at their Lordships bar , that there were instances of men being hung up til ! half dead , and then forced , from the fear of being hung up again , to confess crimes of which they were entirely innocent—Nor was this all . A proclamation , confessedly illegal , was issued , commanding all fire-arms to bedelivered his life to for his defence
up . Now , surely a man accustomed all keep arms , might not think himself bound to obey this order—What was the consequence ? Nothing less than the burning down of his house . Even the fact of disobedience was not necessary . If adistrict did not produce the number of arms at which an , officer thought proper to assess it , burning parties were sent out , who did not confine themselves to the destruction of t . 'n , twenty , no nor fifty houses at a time . Such , in short , was the system of terror , that no newspaper dared to record these
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Second Session Of The Eighteenth Parliament.
upon the occasion , and accerdingly went into a speech of some length , highly approving the conduct of hi' Majesty ' s Ministers . The Address was then agreed to nem dis . and communicated to the Commons ' in conference , and unanimously approved of . It was presented to his . Majesty ' by both Houses on the 15 th iivst . when his Majesty returned the following answer . < Nothing could be more satisfactory to me than this unanimous declaration of the sentiments of my two Houses of Parliament . They are such as the
conduct and declared intention of the enemy could not fail to produce . We are engaged in a cause which is common to us ail ; and contending for every interest which a free and independent nation can have to maintain . Under the blessing of Providence I look with confidence to the issue of . this great contest ; but in every event my resolution is taken . It is such as 1 owe to God , \ o my country , and to myself ' ; and it is confirmed by the sentiments which you have this day declared to me . I will not be wanting 10 my people , but will stand or . fall with them , in the defence of our religion , and in the maintenance of the independence , laws , and liberties of these kingdoms . '
STATE OF IRELAND . Wednesday , 22 . Lord Moira rose and said , that he could not refrain from making a last effort in favour of Ireland . If it were true , as officially stated , that the late negociations had been broken off from inveterate enmity , ai : d a design on Ihe pari of the enemy to overturn our government , it became necessary 10 call forth the energy of every man in the empire , and to make ham feel the blesungs of that constitution which he was born to protect . Such a war , he asserted , we could not carry on , though Ministers boasted of our resources , at the very time it
was supposed they would resort for supplies to means hitherto unknown in regular governments . They talked also of our flourishing commerce . It might be so in in England ; but in Ireland it was sadly the reverse . At Dublin 27 , 000 manufacturers , with their families , were in the greatest distress ; and though daily succours were procured for ' , 000 , many in the summer months had died for want . After slating several olher particulars of the decav of trade , and the diminution of the customs in several places to a fifteenth of their former amount , Lord Moira proceeded to animadvert on the system of coercion that is now ' pursued in the sister
kingdom . What he had read of the curfew in his early days had impressed upon his mind an idea of tyranny , which still remained . Something like it was practised in Ireland , where no man was allowed a light after nine o ' clock . One night a light happening still to glimmer in a house upon the road , a military patrole knocked at the . door . The master auolosized , and prayed for a little longer
indulgence , his child being in strong convulsions , and ihe mother weeping over it ; but no-r-the light must be extinguished ; and the wretched parent was lorced to obey . A noble Lord opposite , said his Lordship , smiles—I envy him not his feelings . In that House he had heard the Inquisi'ion reprobated because it cast a man in jail , without knowledge of any crime or accuser , and without communication with his friends . Well , such was now the practice in Ireland . Even the very tortures of inquisition were in use— -not the rack indeed , but the piquet , a punishment laid aside in the as too severe . He had seen a man piquetted
army till he fainted—piquetted again till he fainted ; and piquetted a third time till his _ senses were a third time surmounted by pain . This was not a solitary instance , nor done iu private—it was practised daily , and in the face of day ; nay , Tie would even prove at their Lordships bar , that there were instances of men being hung up til ! half dead , and then forced , from the fear of being hung up again , to confess crimes of which they were entirely innocent—Nor was this all . A proclamation , confessedly illegal , was issued , commanding all fire-arms to bedelivered his life to for his defence
up . Now , surely a man accustomed all keep arms , might not think himself bound to obey this order—What was the consequence ? Nothing less than the burning down of his house . Even the fact of disobedience was not necessary . If adistrict did not produce the number of arms at which an , officer thought proper to assess it , burning parties were sent out , who did not confine themselves to the destruction of t . 'n , twenty , no nor fifty houses at a time . Such , in short , was the system of terror , that no newspaper dared to record these