to be shocked at the execution of her own orders; adverting to the exact
measure of wickedness and injustice necessary to their execution, and,
complaining only of the excess as the immorality, considering her authority
as a dispensation for breaking the commands of God, and the breach of them
as only punishable when contrary to the ordinances of man? Such a
proceeding, gentlemen, begets serious reflection. It would be better,
perhaps, for the masters and the servants of all such governments to join
in supplication, that the great Author of violated humanity may not
confound them together in one common judgment.
Lord Erskine.


CLV.

DECLARATION OF RIGHT.

I might as a constituent, come to your bar and demand my liberty. I do call
upon you by the laws of the land, and their violation; by the instructions
of eighteen counties; by the arms, inspiration, and providence of the
present moment--tell us the rule by which we shall go; assert the law of
Ireland; declare the liberty of the land! I will not be answered by a
public lie, in the shape of an amendment; nor, speaking for the subjects'
freedom, am I to hear of faction. I wish for nothing but to breathe in this
our island, in common with my fellow-subjects, the air of liberty. I have
no ambition, unless it be to break your chain and contemplate your glory. I
never will be satisfied so long as the meanest cottager in Ireland has a
link of the British chain clanking to his rags. He may be naked,--he shall
not be in irons. And I do see the time at hand; the spirit is gone forth;
the Declaration of Right is planted; and though great men should fall off,
yet the cause shall live; and though he who utters this should die, yet