CAULFIELD. 453 proscription, disfranchisement, degradation, and vassalage; while the other fourth secured to themselves the extensive monopoly of parliamentary power, office, and emolument in church and state, for their valorous attachment to the house of Brunswick.By the instrumentality of another scion of the noble, though not royal house of Stewart, after the lapse of a century, the Irish parliament itself was extinguished, for its presumptuous loyalty and attachment to an illustrious descendant of the same house of Branswick, heir-apparent to these realms; and its memory only pre- served by a remnant of one third of its number trans- ported, like a condemned regiment, to represent the repre- sentation of Ireland in another country. We now return to Lord Charlemont, whose mind was long tortured with sorrow for the unhappy conlicts of his country, and whose years and ill bealth obliged him to continue little more than a silent spectator of the mis- chief he had so long and so zealously struggled to avert. Lord O'Neill, Lord Mountjoy, and many of his most valued friends, had fallen in the defence of the government and constitution of their country. Parliament had been pub- licly thanked by the viceroy for its vigilant and successful aid in putting down the rebellion; and, what was now to be the remuneration to that parliament, and of the brave loyalists, who had shed their blood and suffered so many calamities in defence of the state ?-why, extinction to the one; and to the other, abrogation of their rights, privileges, and independence. On the first rumour of this measure, his lordship waited on Lord Cornwallis, and feeling it his duty, as an hereditary counsellor of the crown, stated his reasons at length for deprecating most earnestly a project, which, so far from consolidating the strength, affections, re- sources, and interests of both kingdoms, would directly contribute more than any other to a separation of two countries, the perpetual connection of which was one of the most ardent wishes of his heart. The viceroy politely received his counsel, and expressed bis confidence that it
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