Resolved, That an humble Address be presented to His Majesty, to return His Majesty the thanks of this House for his most gracious message to this House, signified by his Grace the Lord Lieutenant. To assure His Majesty of our unshaken attachment to His Majesty’s Person and Government, and of our lively sense of his Paternal Care, in thus taking the lead to administer content to His Majesty’s subjects of Ireland; that thus encouraged by his royal interposition, we shall beg leave, with all duty and affection, to lay before His Majesty the causes of our discontents and jealousies: To assure His Majesty, that his subjects of Ireland are a free People; that the Crown of Ireland is an Imperial Crown, inseparably annexed to the Crown of Great Britain, on which Connection the interests and happiness of both Nations essentially depend; but that the kingdom of Ireland is a distinct Kingdom, with a Parliament of her own, the sole Legislature thereof; that there is no body of men competent to make Laws to bind this nation, except the King, Lords, and Commons of Ireland, nor any other Parliament which hath any authority or power of any sort whatsoever in this country, save only the Parliament of Ireland: To assure His Majesty, that we humbly conceive, that in this Right the very Essence of our Liberties exist; a Right which we, on the part of all the People of Ireland, do claim as their birth-right, and which we cannot yield but with our lives: To assure His Majesty, that we have seen with concern certain Claims advanced by the Parliament of Great Britain, in an act, intituled, “An Act for the better securing the Dependency of Ireland;” an act containing matter entirely irreconcileable to the fundamental Rights of this Nation; that we consider this act, and the claims it advances, to be the great and principle cause of the discontents and jealousies in this Kingdom: To assure His Majesty, that His Majesty’s Commons of Ireland do most sincerely wish, that all Bills which become Law in Ireland should receive the approbation of His Majesty, under the Seal of Great Britain; but that yet we do consider the Practice of suppressing our Bills in the Council of Ireland, or altering the same any where, to be another just cause of discontent and jealousy: To assure His Majesty, that an Act, intituled, “An Act for the better Accommodation of His Majesty’s Forces,” being unlimited in duration, and defective in other instances (but passed in that shape from the particular circumstances of the times) is another just cause of discontent and jealousy in this Kingdom: That we have submitted these, the principal causes of the present discontent and jealousy in Ireland, and remain in humble expectation of redress; that we have the greatest reliance on His Majesty’s wisdom, the most sanguine expectations from his virtuous choice of a Chief Governor, and great confidence in the wise, auspicious, and constitutional councils which we see with satisfaction His Majesty has adopted; that we have moreover a high sense and veneration for the British character, and do therefore conceive, that the proceedings of this country, founded as they are in right, and tempered by duty, must have excited the approbation and esteem, instead of wounding the pride, of the British Nation; and we beg leave to assure His Majesty, that we are the more confirmed in this hope, in as much as the people of this Kingdom have never expressed a desire to share the freedom of England, without declaring a determination to share her fate likewise, standing and falling with the British nation.
Tho. Ellis, Cler. Parl. Dom. Com.
Ordered, That the said Copies do lie upon the Table, to be perused by the Members of the House.
17th May, 1782.
Resolved, That this House will, immediately, resolve itself into a Committee of the whole House, to take into consideration His Majesty’s most gracious Message, of the 9th Day of April last, relative to the State of Ireland.
Ordered, That the several Papers which were presented to the House, by Mr. Secretary Fox, upon the 1st Day of this instant May, be referred to the said Committee.
Then the House resolved itself into the said Committee.
Mr. Speaker left the Chair.
Mr. Powys took the Chair of the Committee.