this impaired state of English liberty, and that which was so nobly demanded, and fo honourably coneeded, at the auspicious æra of our happy and glorious revolution. It is in vain that, by the rapidity with which this bill has proceeded, the petitions, complaints, remonftrances, and other addresses of an irritated people, have been evaded, It is in vain to hope, that the length of time for which it is to endure will lay the public anxiety to fleep. The people cannot ceafe to regard this invasion of their rights with grief and dismay. They feel with us, that even indifference would extinguith this fundamental franchife, this safeguard of all our liber IT is with unfeigned pleasure that I meet you this day in parliament, both because your conftitution, on which the future happinefs of Corfica depends, is hereby confummated, and because the full energy of your wisdom and authority is required at a period rendered doubly interesting by the establishment of a new government, and by the continuance of the war. You are charged not only with important, but arduous duties, fince you must on the one hand fecure your freedom as an independent nation, by a vigorous and courageous exertion in the war, and on the other, you must make provihon for internal happiness and liberty, by deliberations which are better fuited to times of tranquillity and peace. For the discharge of this great trust, I rely with perfect confidence on the wisdom and public fpirit of parliament, supported by the zealous and hearty union of all good Corficans, whether in public or private stations; for you will, no doubt, participate with me in the pleasing reflection, that the present period affords the happy opportunity of compofing past animofities, and obliterating divifions no longer fupported by any fubfifting motive; and which, being always at variance with the general good, are peculiarly prejudicial to it in moments like the present. His majesty, on his part, ever juft and ever firm to his engagements, has already taken those steps which the conftitution pointed out, for completing the new system of your government. He has been pleased to ratify in person the conftitutional act which he had previoufly authorized me to accept in his name. I have ordered the gracious answer made by his majesty to the address of the late general council, presented to him by deputies from that assembly, to be laid before you. I have alfo ordered to be laid before you a copy of the commiffion by which his majesty has been pleased to confer on me the exalted honour of representing him in this kingdom under the title of viceroy, agreeable to the provifions of the conftitutional act. By the choice of a person whose best qualification for that diftinguished station is a warm and steady affection for Corfica, you will perceive that the fame fentiment prevailed on that occafion on his majefty's mind. have also the benefit of a great naval force, without any expence; you have no public debt, and confequently no interest to pay on that account I am enabled with equal fatisfaction to acquaint you, that his majesty is not less attentive to your protection against the hoftile designs of the enemy: and you may depend on his powerful and vigorous support during the war. He confides at the fame time in the zeal and courage of his Corfican subjects for repelling the enemy, and defending, in the independence expences of the public service; of their country, and the security of their lives, fortunes, and honour, all that can be dear to men. In these views a confiderable body of Corfican infantry has been raised, and an immediate augmentation to that national corps is intended. Measures have been taken for enabling his majesty to affemble the militia, and employ them against the common enemy in case of need. It will be for the parllament in its wisdom to frame adequate regulations for the perfection of such a system as may give to Corsica, in moments of danger, the full benefit of the courage and patriotism of of all her subjects: for it must not be forgotten, that the independence and liberty of your country must not depend on the protection of regular troops alone, however formidable the force employed may be; but, under the providence of GOD, must still rest principally on the hearts and arms of a people who love their country and their freedom. Many important objects will require your immediate attention. The most urgent of these, is to provide sufficient funds for the public service. In the present circumstances of Corfica, his majesty is pleased to take upon himself the whole charges of the military establishment; you Reflecting on these peculiar advantages, enjoyed, perhaps, exclufively by this nation, I am perfuaded that you will cheerfully furnish the remaining and unavoidable and it is with much comfort that I confider the impoffibility of an ample and adequate provifica for the civil charges of government being burthenfome to the people of Corfica, even in the present flate of her refources. A fettlement of your religious establishment has been referved for the chamber of parliament, in concert with his holiness the pope. To this important point you will naturally direct your early and serious attention; and I have no doubt, that the wisdom and piety which will preside in your councils, will lead you to the means of reconciling the civil interests and temporal prosperity of your constituents, with the holy duties of religion, the reverence due to its minifters, and the sacred rights of property. A The definition aad limits of the several powers and jurisdictions to be exercised by the different tribunals in the administration of juftice, as well as a declaration of the law itself, are other points of serious and urgent importance, faithful and judicious adminiftration of the national property, par. ticularly of the woods and forefts, the improvement of agriculture, manufactures and commerce, the encouragement of industry in all its branches, the government and difcipline of the military, the encouragement couragement of navigation, and regulations which may bring forth the naval resources of the ifland, whether in mariners or stores, in its own defence, and in the general service of the empire; the repair of highways, and improvement of internal communication; inftitutions for public instruction; eftablishments of health, both for the fecurity of the inhabitants, and the convenience of their commerce; all these are objects worthy of your early deliberations, and for which your wisdom and diligence will not fail to provide. I have the greatest fatisfaction in announcing to you the conclufion of a treaty for the marriage of Lis royal highness the prince of Wales with the princess Caroline, daughter of the duke of Brunf wick. I am perfuaded that your affection for the perfon and family * of his majesty will make you participate in the general joy diffused through every part of his dominions, by an event so interesting to the happiness of his majesty and that illuftrious prince. Gentlemen, Impressed with the momentous nature of the present period, and of the duties which it imposes on us, I am nevertheless confident in Four patriotifm, talents, and application; and I pray God fo to bless and enlighten our councils, and fo to endue us with wisdom and virtue, as to render this first parliament of Corfica an example to all fucceeding ones, as well as to your conftituents of the present day, of difinterested, zealous, and, above all, united exertion for the public good. It is by these means, and by the bleiling of God, that I trust your Earl Fitzwilliam's Speech to both Houses of the Irish Parliament, on opening the Seffion 22d Jan. 1795. My lords and gentlemen, IN obedience to his majesty's command, I refort to your councils, at a period which, in a peculiar manner, calls for the wisdom and energy of parliament. His majesty's determination is fixed; as long as he is supported by his faithful fubjects, he never will be wanting to them or to himself; his majesty has no interest but that of his people; no views but for their happiness; no object but their general fafety. The uniform tenor of your conduct has demonftrated, that you will not only be defirous, but zealous, to second and emulate the magnanimity of a fovereign, formed to lead a nation that has ever been as firm to affert its liberties, as affectionately devoted to a government which maintains its own authority, for the fole purpose of fùpporting those liberties. As you are thus cordially attached to that fovereign, and to the conftitution which it is his glory to protect, I have to announce to you, with true fatisfaction, that you will hear with equal pleasure, the intended marriage of his royal highness the prince of Wales, with the princess Carolina Amelia Elizabeth, daughter of his most illustrious highness the duke of Brunswick and Lunenburgh; a princess of that illuf 1 trious house, to whose mild and conftitutional sway these kingdoms are highly indebted for the bleifings they enjoy; this marriage promises the perpetuation of the fame bleffings under the fame house. I have it alfo in command to inform you, that his majetty has concluded a treaty of amity, commerce, and navigation, with the United States of America, in which it has been his majesty's object to remove, as far as poffible, all grounds of jealousy and misunderstanding, and to improve an intercourse beneficial to both states. As foon as the ratification of this treaty shall have been exchanged, and I shall have received a copy of it, I will direct it to be laid before you, in order that you may confider if it will be necessary to make any provifions for carrying into effect a treaty, in which the commerce of this kingdom is so materially and extenfively interested. Gentlemen of the house of commons, I have directed the estimates for the public service, and the state of the public accounts, to be laid before you. His majesty has that affured confidence, grounded on a long and uniform experience of your loyalty, and your zeal for his service, and the good of your country, that I think it unnecessary to press you, in any particular manner, to make a provifion adequate to the present awful fituation of affairs. It is with pleasure I acquaint you, that the provision will, in fome degree, be facilitated by the circumftance, that, during the exiftence of fuch a war as the prefent, the public revenue, together with the commerce of the king dom, has kept up, and has even been augmented: advantages which are due to the care and vigilance of our sovereign, in the general protection provided by him for all his fubjects. My lords and gentlemen, Your I earnestly recommend to you a continuance of the laudable pains you have constantly taken to cultivate all your domeftic advantages in commerce, in manufacture, and in fuch public works, as have ap-. peared directed to promote those important objects. These are the true foundations of all public revenue and public strength. endeavours have had their fruit. The great staple manufacture of this kingdom has increased beyond : the most sanguine expectation-an advantage principally owing to the conftant fuperintendance and wife provifions of the parliament of Ireland; and next to those, to the affured, liberal, and most merited encouragement, which it receives in the rich and extenfive market of Great Britain-a circumstance tending to cement the union, and to perfect the harmony, which happily fubfifts, and I truft will fubfift for ever, between the two kingdoms. Attached as you are to the general cause of religion, learning, and civilization, I have to recommend to your confideration the state of education in this kingdom, which in fome parts will admit of improvement, in others may require some new arrangement. Confiderable advantages have been already derived under the wife regulations of parliament, from the protestant charter schools, and these will, as usual, claim your attention: but as these advantages have been been but partial, and as circumftances have made other confiderations, connected with this important subject, highly neceffary, it is hoped that your wisdom will order every thing relating to it, in the manner most beneficial, and the best adapted to the occafions of the feveral descriptions of men, which compose his majesty's faithful subjects of Ireland. We are engaged in an arduous conteft. The time calls not only for great fortitude, and an unusual share of public spirit, but for much conftancy and perfeverance. You are engaged with a power which, under the ancient forms of its internal arrangement, was always highly formidable to the neighbouring nations. Lately this power has affumed a new shape; but with the fame ambition, with much more extensive and systematic defigns, far more effective, and without comparison, more dreadful in the certain consequences of its eventual success, it threatens nothing less than the entire fubverfion of the liberty and independence of every state in Europe, An enemy to them all, it is actuated with a peculiar animosity against these kingdoms, not only as the natural protection of the ba lance of power in Europe, but alfo, becaufe, by the profeffion of a legal, humane, and rational freedom, we feem to reproach that false and spurious liberty, which, in reality, is an ignominious fervitude, tending to extinguish all good arts, to generate nothing but impiety, crime, diforder, and ferocious manners, and to end in wretchedness, and general defolation. To guard his people from the enterprises of this dangerous and malignant power, and for the protection of all civilized fociety against the inroad of anarchy, his majesty has availed himself of every rational aid, foreign and domestic: he has called upon the skill, courage, and experience of all his subjects, wheresoever difperfed, and you must be duly fensible, in such a crisis as the prefent, which rarely occurs in the course of human affairs, of the advantage of his majesty's thus endeavouring to profit of the united strength and zeal of every description of his subjects. I have to affure you of his majesty's most cheerful concurrence in every measure, which your wisdom and comprehenfive patriotism shall point out for this falutary purpose. On my part, you shall find me, from principle and from inclination, thoroughly difpofed to concur with his majesty's paternal withes, and with the wife measures of his parliament. On a cordial affection to the whole of Ireland, and on a conduct fuitable to that sentiment, I wish to found my own personal estimation, and my reputation in the execution of the great trust committed, by the most beneficent of fovereigns, to my care. Earl Camden's Speech on proroguing the Irish Parliament 5'b June. My lords and gentlemen, I AM directed by his majesty to convey to you his full approbation of your servicies in the present feffion, and to relieve you from fur |