heard of an intention to erect a statue*.

I believe my intimate acquaintance know how little that idea was encouraged by me; and I was sincerely glad, that it never took effect. Such honours belong exclusively to the tomb-the natural and only period of human inconstancy, with regard either to desert or to opinion for they are the very same hands, which erect, that very frequently (and sometimes with reason enough) pluck down the statue. Had such an unmerited and unlooked-for compliment been paid to me two years ago, the fragments of the piece might, at this hour, have the advantage of seeing actual service, while they were moving, according to the law of projectiles, to the windows of the Attorney General, or of my old friend Monk Mason.

To speak seriously,-let me assure you, my dear Sir, that though I am not permitted to rejoice at all its effects, there is not one man on your side of the water more pleased to see the situation of Ireland so prosperous, as that she can afford to throw away her friends. She has obtained, solely by her own efforts, the fruits of a great victory; which I am very ready to allow that the best efforts of her best well-wishers here could not have done for her so effectually in a great number of years; and,

This intention was communicated to Mr. Burke, in a Letter from Mr. Perry, the Speaker of the House of Commons in Ireland.

perhaps,

perhaps, could not have done at all. I could wish, however, merely for the sake of her own dignity, that in turning her poor relations and antiquated friends out of doors (though one of the most common effects of new prosperity) she had thought proper to dismiss us with fewer tokens of unkindness. It is true, that there is no sort of danger in affronting men, who are not of importance enough to have any trust of ministerial, of royal, or of national honour to surrender. The unforced and unbought services of humble men, who have no medium of influence in great assemblies, but through the precarious force of reason, must be looked upon with contempt by those, who by their wisdom and spirit have improved the critical moment of their fortune, and have debated with authority against pusillanimous dissent and ungracious compliance, at the head of 40,000 men.

Such feeble auxiliaries (as I talk of) to such a force, employed against such resistance, I must own, in the present moment, very little worthy of your attention. Yet, if one were to look forward, it scarcely seems altogether politick to bestow so much liberality of invective on the Whigs of this kingdom, as I find has been the fashion to do both in and out of Parliament. That you should pay compliments, in some tone or other, whether ironical or serious, to the Minister, from whose imbecility you have extorted, what you could never obtain

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obtain from his bounty, is not unnatural. In the first effusions of Parliamentary gratitude to that Minister for the early and voluntary benefits he has conferred upon Ireland, it might appear, that you were wanting to the triumph of his surrender, if you did not lead some of his enemies captive before him. Neither could you feast him with decorum, if his particular taste were not consulted. A Minister, who has never defended his measures in any other way than by railing at his adversaries, cannot have his palate made all at once to the relish of positive commendation. I cannot deny, but that on this occasion there was displayed a great deal of the good breeding, which consists in the accommodation of the entertainment to the relish of the guest.

But that ceremony being past, it would not be unworthy of the wisdom of Ireland to consider, what consequences the extinguishing every spark of freedom in this country may have upon your own liberties. You are at this instant flushed with victory, and full of the confidence natural to recent and untried power. We are in a temper equally natural, though very different. We feel as men do, who, having placed an unbounded reliance on their force, have found it totally to fail on trial. We feel faint and heartless, and without the smallest degree of self opinion. In plain words, we are cowed. When men give up their violence and

injustice

injustice without a struggle, their condition is next to desperate. When no art, no management, no argument, is necessary to abate their pride and overcome their prejudices, and their uneasiness only excites an obscure and feeble rattling in their throat, their final dissolution seems not far off. In this miserable state we are still further depressed by the overbearing influence of the Crown. It acts with the officious cruelty of a mercenary nurse, who, under pretence of tenderness, stifles us with our clothes, and plucks the pillow from our heads. Injectu multæ vestis opprimi senem jubet. Under this influence we have so little will of our own, that, even in any apparent activity we may be got to assume, I may say, without any violence to sense, and with very little to language, we are merely passive. We have yielded to your demands this Session. In the last Session we refused to prevent them. In both cases, the passive and the active, our principle was the same. Had the Crown pleased to retain the spirit, with regard to Ireland, which seems to be now all directed to America, we should have neglected our own immediate defence, and sent over the last man of our Militia, to fight with the last man of your Volunteers.

To this influence, the principle of action, the principle of policy, and the principle of union of the present minority are opposed. These principles of the Opposition are the only thing, which preserves a single

Q4

a single symptom of life in the nation. That Opposition is composed of the far greater part of the independent property and independent rank of the kingdom; of whatever is most untainted in character, and of whatever ability remains unextinguished in the people, and of all, which tends to draw the attention of foreign countries upon this. It is now in its final and conclusive struggle. It has to struggle against a force, to which, I am afraid, it is not equal. The whole kingdom of Scotland ranges with the venal, the unprincipled, and the wrong-principled of this; and if the kingdom of Ireland thinks proper to pass into the same camp, we shall certainly be obliged to quit the field. In that case, if I know any thing of this country, another constitutional Opposition can never be formed in it; and if this be impossible, it will be at least as much so (if there can be degrees in impossibility) to have a constitutional Administration at any future time. The possibility of the former is the only security for the existence of the latter. Whether the present Administration be in the least like one, I must venture to doubt, even in the honey-moon of the Irish fondness to Lord North, which has succeeded to all their slappings and scratchings.

If liberty cannot maintain its ground in this kingdom, I am sure that it cannot have any long continuance in yours, Our liberty might now and