434 CAULFIELD. exhorting the nation to use every constitutional effort to effect that reform so manifestly necessary. An address to his majesty was then voted, declaring their loyalty to their sovereign, and their attachment to Great Britain was thonght the most dignified reply to asperities cast on the assembly by some members in par- liament. The address was couched in the most dutiful terms, and concluded with imploring his majesty that their humble wish to have certain manifest perversions of parliamentary representation in the kingdom, remedied by the legislature in some reasonable degree, might not be imputed to any spirit of innovation in them; but to a sober and laudable desire to uphold the constitution, to confirm the satisfaction of their fellow-subjects, and to perpetuate the cordial union of both kingdoms. Lord Charlemont, fully aware of the evil consequence to which the longer continuance of such an assembly in the metropolis, might be liable, wisely insisted that no other business should be proceeded on, and the conven- tion finally adjourned. Thus terminated this memorable meeting; and happy was it for Ireland, and the empire, that Lord Charlemont and other noblemen and gentlemen of his wise and mode- rate principles, had sway enough to prevent the seeds of anarchy so plentifully sown by indiscreet and impetuous partisans, from coming to maturity. The dissolution of the convention excited little or no public sensation. To above three-fourths of the population, namely, the catho- lic body, their proceedings were viewed with jealousy, if not with disappointment and disgust; for while their plan of reform talked of extending the right of sufrage to the possession of property in every shape, and at the same time, to perpetuate exclusion from that suffrage to their catholic countrymen, was a strage contradiction: and thus, while they professed to erect a temple of general freedom for the people, three-fourths of that people were to be precluded from entering even the vestibule. The
