336 CURRAN himself in wind for an attack on the French by a massac of the papists. The opinion I mean is, that catholie fra chise is inconsistent with British connections. Stron indeed, must the minister be in so wild and desperate prejudice, if he can venture, in the present fallen state this empire, under the disasters of war, and with an enem at our gates, if he can dare to state to the great body the Irish nation, that their slavery is the condition of o connection with England:-that she is more afraid of yiel ing Irish liberty, than of losing Irish connection; an though the denunciation is not yet upon record, yet it ma be left with the learned Doctor, who, I hope, has embrace it only to make it odious; has hugged in his arms onl with the generous purpose of plunging with it into th deep, and exposing it to merited derision, by hazare ing the character of his own sanity. It is yet in th power of the minister to decide, whether a blasphem of this kind shall pass for the mere ravings of polemic phrenzy, or for the solemn and mischievous lunacy of chief secretary: I call therefore again on that minister, t rouse him from his trance, and in the hearing of bot countries, to put the question to him, which must l heard by a third, whether, at no period, upon no even at no extremity, are we to hope for any connection wit Great Britain, except that of the master and the slave and this, even without the assertion of any fact that ca 2 support such a proscription." During the administration of Lord Rockingham, Ea Fitzwilliam was sent viceroy to Ireland, and hailed by th whole country as the harbinger of conciliation and peace and it was expected as a matter of course, that all th leading members who had most strenuously advocate those measures in Ireland, which Lord Rockingham an Mr. Fox had supported in England, would be called int office, under Earl Fitzwilliam. This expectation, how ever, was not fulilled; for although Mr. Grattan an Mr. Ponsonby were called to high and confidential situa tions, as were some others of their friends, Mr. Curra
