no sort of controul, and over whom the farmers frequently exercise great tyranny. From what I have said, Sir, I presume you will think that the landlords are not so much to blame as has been continually asserted. I presume also it is your opinion, that giving the Roman Catholics the privileges lately proposed, would not make the Irish richer or more happy. A regulation with respect to tithes is certainly much wanted; but regulate this matter as you will,, it will certainly not wholly remove the discontents of the Irish. The landlords and middlemen would undoubtedly wish to have tithes completely abolished, as in all new lettings they would get so much the more for their land. The present mode of collecting tithes is particuJarly obnoxious to the people of Ireland. 1 think a better mode might be adopted. Suppose, for instance, a jury of persons of respectability was to be appointed to value the tithe of every farm separately in each parish, once in seven years, and that the amount of the value of the tithe was to be paid to the head landlord together with his rent, who should be answerable for it to the clergyman, this would obviate the necessity of employing tithe proctors, a set of people more detested by the lower orders in Ireland than any other, and in many instances deservedly so. After what I have said, it would be natural to ask, what then are the causes of the wretched state of Ireland? To which with submission I answer, that the chief cause of the distressed state of that country arises first, from the former checks given to its trade in general, but more particularly with England whose markets are still completely shut against the Irish for the sale of almost every article of manufacture; this last impolitic measure has prevented Ireland from deriving any benefit from foreign trade; at the time, and since a free trade to foreign countries was granted to the Irish, they have found themselves, and still do, too much in want of capital to be able to establish manufactures, and to give long credit abroad; they required to be permitted to send whatever articles they could manufacture to this country, where only they could procure prompt payment for them; by which means by degrees they would have accumulated sufficient to have enabled them to sell to foreigners upon the same terms as their fellow subjects the English. From the imprudence of the English in withholding this necessary assistance from them, a check has been given, to the collection of people in towns for the purpose of employing themselves in manufacture and trade, and the increase of the population among the middle classes, the

prop of all well regulated states, has been thereby blasted.--Now, Sir, the mischief has been completed by a practice which the want of capital has tended to encourage; namely, the cultivation of potatoes as a food for man. So that in spite of poverty the country has been by this means swarmed with a miserable half naked, half savage population, who from their condition must be ever discontented, and easily induced to disturb the peace of society. Let then Engiand apply a remedy for evils which have arisen possibly from a mistaken policy, let Ireland have the benefit of a perfect union, let all restrictions upon trade be taken off, all unnecessary port charges and delays; make it the interest of the Irish to defend their

country by permitting them to obtain something worth defending. Let government expend a liberal sum in raising coal, of which there is plenty to be found in Ireland, but from the poverty of the people of no benefit to them. Scarce any manufactures can be carried on to profit without this article, and the want of fuel in Ireland prevents many improvements in farming of the most common kind. Trees or fences 'cannot be planted, without the almost absolute certainty of their being stolen to burn. With the exertions of government directed to the encouragement of manufacture in Ireland, that country would soon assume a different aspect, people would collect in towns, and the population increase in the middle class, instead of (as at present) only in the class of potatoe diggers; and land jobbers finding encouragement to employ their means in trade and manufacture, would desist from their present traffic, which is almost the only trade encouraged or worth following in Ireland. I shall now only intrude so far as just to describe the trade of a land jobber. He commences by bidding for a farm, and if bisoffer is accepted and he has made a good, bargain, he probably does not hesitate to sell. his interest immediately, or otherwise he divides the farm and puts a number of miserable wretches upoù it, who frequently pay him whatever the produce of the land will sell for, except the potatoes necessary for their subsistence; in this way he takes farm after farm, till from possessing scarce, any thing in the outset, he often in the end has profit rents amounting to thousands a year. I hope, Sir, the information I have endeavoured to communicate will be of ser-1 vice.I am, &c.- -M. H.- -August

30, 1807.

P. S. Since I finished my letter I took up' a paper in which was Mr. Sheridan's speech. He applies more to the gentlemen of Ireland”

than to the government of this country, and says the point, is to begin at the cottages, (cabbins or mud hovels he should have said, for as to what an Englishman would call a cottage there is not one in Ireland). However, I beg leave to differ with him in beginning with the cabbins; and though I should repeat the plan set forth in my letter, I shall say, begin with putting his Majesty's subjects. in Ireland, whether they profess the Roman Catholic religion, are of the established church or dissenters, as far as regards the encouragement given to man. factures and trade, exactly upon a footing with his Majesty's Weish subjects of the same religious persuasions Let government then advance money for the purpose, or otherwise let a company be formed to work the coal mines in Ireland. Regulate the manner of receiving tithes or totally abolish them. Build churches and parsonage houses in every parish where wanted; oblige the clergy to reside or pay one half of their profits to resident curates. After doing which, I think with a little assistance from the country gentlemen, every thing will take a right course. People as I said before will collect in towns, there will then be a greater demand (than at present) for butchers meat, wool, hides, tallow. Farmers will therefore apply their root crops whether turnips or potatoes to the winter feeding of cattle and sheep as is generally done in England; they will become rich and pay for labour in money instead of in land. The potatoe diggers now inhabiting cabbins, will doubtless have cottages built for them; as all ranks become richer the labourers will have no necessity to thieve for fuel; the connections which will be formed between the English and Irish from trade, will hold the Irish as steady to England in all future wars as the Welsh now are, though the well known word Sasenagh or Saxenick (Saxon) as a term of reproach, may continue to be used in both countries.

vertisements of sales of this kind, I have ne ver before seen any thing quite so plain; it is compleat, or if it wants any thing it is the sale of the inhabitants themselves; though I do not see how that would render their condition worse. This fact should be seen by every man in the country, it needs only to be seen to produce the best possible effect.I beg you will insert it. If you cannot, lay it carefully by, for the day is fast approaching when such facts as these will render the people essential service. In this conviction, I remain, &c. &c.-A. H.--London, August 17, 1807.

ROMAN CATHOLIC PETITION.

A pamphlet has been published at Dublin containing the Petition intended to have been presented to the last Parliament by the Roman Catholics of Ireland, and strictures upon its object. The following is the introduction to the pamphlet:

The following is a correct copy of the petition to Parlament, prepared on behalf of the Catholics of Ireland, which was read and adopted at different public meetings of that body, and actually subscribed by several hundred thousand persons; many, highly respectable in rank, and all, independent in mind, and substantial in property. No document can more strongly evince, or more exactly testify, the state of public feeling on this important subject; it discloses the views and objects of a great portion of the British Empire, who are justly dissatisfied with their condition, but who pur. sue the remedy with moderation and with temper; calmly pointing to the evil, the restriction and diminution of civil liberty, and defining exactly the mode and extent of relief, the full and impartial establishment of the English constitution."-The Petition is as follows:

To the Right Hon. and Hon. the Commons of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, in Parliament assembled-The humble petition of the Roman Catholics of İreland,' whose rames are hereunto subscribed, on behalf of themselves, and of others, his Majesty's subjects professing the Roman Catholic religion,

1

Sheweth, that your petitioners, as is set forth in their humble petition presented to this Honourable House, on the 25th of March, 1805, are, by divers statutes, still of force within this realm, rendered liable to many incapacities and restrictions, not impo-ed upon any other description of his Majesty's subjects.-That your petitioners with confidence assert, that they are sup

ported by the testimony of many of the ablest senators and wisest statesmen which the empire could ever boast, that there is nothing in their conduct as subjects, or tenets as Christians, which ought to disqualify them from enjoying equal privileges with his Majesty's other subjects; and they beg leave to state, that they do not yield to any class of persons, in affectionate attachment to his sacred person and family, in due obedience to the laws, and in jast predilection for the British constitution.-That at the present period. which requires all the energies of the state, and the exertions of an united people, your petitioners conceive that they cannot offer a stronger proof of their loyalty, than by humbly representing to this Honourable House, their earnest wish, to be altogether committed with their country, and reinstated in a full and complete enjoyment of the English government and laws. For your petitioners beg leave respectfully to .submit to this Hon. House, that the constitution of England is the great charter of this land, and the inheritance of the dutiful and faithful subjects of his Majesty: the conditions which the ancestors of some of us accepted, when they submitted to the Crown, and on the faith of which, the ancestors of others passed over and effected their settlement in Ireland-was, that they should participate in the laws and liberties of England; many concessions of his Majesty's royal progenitors, and repeated acts of Parliament, confirmed the invaluable blessing; it has had the sanction of an establishment of six hundred years; whilst the privations, of which we complain, are but the innovation of a century; from that innovation we appeal in this enlighted age, to the wisdom and justice of those august bodies, in whose hands are the fate and fortunes of the empire; we appeal against acts, repugnant to the sense and habits of Englishmen, and to the genius of the English constitution; against precedents, not entitled, from the circumstances in which they were formed, to be immortal. We were excluded from our franchises, when the tumult of civil wars. had scarcely been appeased; whilst the animosities they produced were recent; and at the close of the convulsion incidental to a widely extended revolution of property. We were excluded at a moment, when the settlement was precarious and new, upon which time and habit, the extinction of all other claims, common principles of obedience, and common interests, have now conferred all the solidity of unquestioned and immutable establishment.-Your petitioners further beg leave to recal to the attention of

We

this Honourable House, that we do not pay the penalty, neither is the blame imputed to us, of no innovating or capricious temper. We have not revolted from any institutions which challenged our obedience. We have adhered to the tradition of our fathers, the immemorial usage of the land. profess a religion compatible with the form of government under which we are placed; accommodated to the spirit, and dear to the feelings of the great and growing majority of our country; a religion which the existing incapacities do not seem calculated, and are probably not expected to suppress; for it has been deemed, in a considerable degree, to merit public encouragement and protection.-Your petitioners do then most humbly state, that they are excluded from many of the most important offices of trust, power, and emolument in their country; whereby they are degraded below the condition of their fellow-subjects, even of the meanest class, and stigmatised as aliens and strangers in their native land. - That in the immediate effect of this exclusion, not less than four-fifths of the inhabitants of Ireland are involved, formed into a distinct people, and depressed in all their classes and gradations of rank, of opulence, and industry; in every situation of life does this degrading inferiority exist, and its influence reaching to every profession, to even the peaceable pursuits of industry and commerce.-That the remote, but not less sensible consequences, extend to the remaining population of the land, distracting his Majesty's people with disquietude and jealousy; and substi tuting an insidious system of mo poly on the one hand, and privation on the other, for the tried and established orders of society, and for the salutary practice and sound principles of the English constitution. And your petitioners further humbly submit, that from the prejudice generated and fostered by this discriminating system, the spirit of the laws outstripping the letter, no degree of rank, virtue, or merit, can exempt an Irish Catholic from being considered an object of suspicion; and several of the most estimable privileges and advantages of a free government, to which they ought to consider themselves entitled, are rendered, with respect to them, inoperative.-In calling your attention to their situation, your petitioners beg leave to assure this Honourable House, that they are actuated more as Irishmen than as Catholics; and less influenced by a par tial interest, as a religions description, tha by an interest truly public and national, ir timately connected with the welfare of t country, and the prosperity of the wh

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empire, your petitioners being fully convinced, both from history and experience, that however religious distinctions may have sup

ritatice; and which your petitioners most humbly presume to seek as the brethren of seek Englishmen, and co-heirs of the constitu

has been the actuating principle of civil dissention, and of that unhappy national misunderstanding, which has so long injured the character, and lessened the value of this island. For your petitioners are strongly impressed with the conviction, that the continuance of the disqualifying laws is not only incompatible with the freedom and happiness of the great body of the Irish people, and detrimental to the resources of the state; but, as it is calculated to damp the ardour and divert the attention of the nation to partial interests and party dissentions, from measures of general security, may eventually prove injurious to the strength and stability of the empire.-Your petitioners, with a deep sense of gratitude, acknowledge that they are indebted to the wisdom and liberality of the parliament of Ireland, and to the paternal interposition of his Majesty for the removal of many of the disabilities and incapacities under which they laboured; and they refer, with confidence in the justice of their cause, to the solemn and memorable declaration of the Irish legislature: "That from the uniform and peace"able behaviour of the Roman Catholics of Ireland for a long series of years, it appeared reasonable and expedient to relax "the disabilities and incapacities under "which they labour, and that it must tend "notonly to the cultivation and improvement "of this kingdom, but to the prosperity and "strength of all his Majesty's dominions, "that his Majesty's subjects of all denomi

nations, should enjoy the blessings of a free constitution, and should be bound to "each other by mutual interest and mutual "affection."-And your petitioners most solemnly declare, that they do not seek, or wish in any way to injure or encroach upon the rights, privileges, possessions, or revenues, appertaining to the bishops and clergy of the Protestant religion as by law established, or to the churches committed to their charge, or to any of them; the extent of their humble supplication being, that they may be governed by the same laws, and rendered capable of the same civil offices, franchises, rewards and honours, as their fellow subjects of every other religious denomination. May it therefore please this Honourable House to take into its consideration the statutes, penal and restrictive, now affecting the Catholics of Ireland, and to admit them to the full enjoyment of those privileges, which every, biiton regards as his best inhe

pray, &c.

THE ARMY. PROPOSITIONS SUBMITTED TO PARLIAMENT, BY MR. WINDHAM AND LORD CASTLEREAGH RESPECTING THE STATE OF THE ARMY-August 13, 1807.

Mr. WINDHAM'S PLAN.

No. I. That the effective strength of the army was,

Regular. Militia. Total. On 1st of March 1806 173,600 75,182 248,782 1807 181,856 77,211 259,067 place of a local corps of 3000 men and upA reduction having in the mean time taken wards, in the Island of Ceylon.

2. That the provisions of certain. Acts of Parliament, passed during the year 1806, and having in view the better ordering of the army, and the improvement of the condition of the non-commissioned officers and soldiers took effect from the 24th of June in the said year.

3. That from the 1st of July following, Army (exclusive of those raised for Foreign the number of recruits raised for the Regular or Colonial Corps, and 650 men for a regiment commanded by the hon. Colonel Dillon) was,

than five feet two inches, and of any age between 18 and 45.

8. That in the Regular Army no man could be received but between the ages of 18 and 30, and of a height not less than five feet four inches; the standard for men not entering for General Service, but choosing their own regiments, being five feet five inches, and for the Guards. and Cavalry still higher...

9. That by recruits raised by ordinary recruiting, are meant men raised either at the head-quarters of regiments, or by the Recruiting Districts, late under the superntendance of the Inspector General.

10. That according to the War Office Return of Recruits, for whom bounty has been drawn, ás raised at the head-quarters of Regiments in Great Britain, and the Inspector-General's Return of the numbers raised by the recruiting districts, the produce of the ordinary recruiting was, during the : first six months of

- LORD CASTLEREAGH'S PLAN.

1. That the increase of 8,256 men, as stated, in the Regular Army, between March 1806 and March 1807, has been produced by 2,908 men received from the Irish Militia, and 3,542 under the Additional Force ActTotal 6,450 men-without which aids (deducting our losses in Egypt and South America, viz. 2,185 men, which appear in the effectives of the army on the 1807) the army would have decreased, under the regulations. established in June 1806, in the number of 379 mend

34

Ditto

44

Ditto

1st July 1805 1st Dec. 1805

Number Rate rziséd., per Aun.

4,865

19,460

4.252 17,008

1st Jan. 1806 4,790 - 19,160

1st April 1806 - 6,096 - '24.384 3. B. That the number of men raised as above, between the 1st April 1805 and 1st April 1806, was 20,003; the number between July 1800 and July 1807, 17,089, being 2314 less than in the former year; whereas the number of boys included in the 17,089, exceeded by 1,076, the number included in the 20,003, the preceding year's produce.

3. c. That while the number of men obtained for regular service, including men transferred, from the Militia (and exclusive of foreign and colonial levies) was, between July 1805 and July 1800, 33,693 men, between July 1800 and July 1807, 20,681, being 13,012 men less than in the preceding year, exclusive of the services of the men raised in the latter year being determinable in seven or ten years, according to the terms of their inlistment.

3. D. That whilst the number of men levied in the latter year was less than in the former, as stated in the preceding resolutions, an annual additional charge of £450,000 increased Pay and Pensions to the Army, has been incurred, as an encouragement to induce men to inlist, being at the rate of about 25 pounds per man on the number of men raised within the year; and which expence must be hereafter largely increased, in proportion as the pensions on 14 and 21 year's service come into operation.

3. E. That during the former year the ftecruiting Parties did not exceed in number 405; that in the latter year they have been increased to 1,113, exclusive of above 400 extra Recruiting Officers; and from 8th December 1806, 54 second battalions have been recruiting, under an intimation, that if they did not raise 400 men in six months, the Bat talions would be then reduced, and the Oficers placed on Half Pay; which extraordinary increase of the number of Recruiting