appointment of a negociator ad hoc, who probably would be less qualified with respect to personal influence, to reap the credit which I had with so much pains laid the foundation of. I am persuaded that your Lordship will enter into my feelings on this subject. My situation in life puts me beyond the want or wish of pecuniary advantages to be derived from such an occupation; yet I feel a great satisfaction in concluding, under the auspices of Government, those arrangements which in substance few question but are called for by the exigency of the subject and the times. At all times, I shall be happy to be honoured with your Lordship's commands, and consider me highly fortunate if any communication within my information can in the least tend to assist your Lordship in this black letter part of the great work you have already carried to so desirable a length, and which must ever fix your Lordship's character as a statesman, and justly entitle you to the best thanks of the United Kingdoms. Indeed, my Lord, you may truly exclaim, in a better sense than the poet, Exegi monumentum, &c. Your Lordship will observe some doubts with respect to the operation of the English Statute, 13 Elizabeth, ch. 2, upon which so much turns agreeably to Lord Coke's construction, 4 Inst., 351, Ireland appears to be bound by this Statute, as generally included agreeably to the distinction of Poyning's Law." I do not know whether the operation of those general words are done away by any subsequent Statute, or in the least invalidated.1 I have the honour to be, &c., J. C. HIPPISLEY. This place must abound with your Lordship's acquaintance and friends. I trust it may tempt you to a visit. 1 I presume this must depend on the enumeration of Acts containing the Act of the 23rd of the King, which your Lordship must be familiar with, as I have no present access to it. (Note by Sir J. C. Hippisley.) Mr. Marsden to Lord Castlereagh. Dublin, September 10, 1800. My Lord, I have still to give your Lordship a favourable report of how we are going on here. There is, I am aware, much need of vigilance and apprehension on the part of Government; but, most certainly, very little appears at present to excite immediate alarm. Dublin is tranquil, and the accounts from all parts of the country (except the nonsense of Limerick) are favourable. Since your Lordship left this, I have looked more particularly to the County of Down, and I do not think that the mischief there has increased. Mr. Hall, the Sheriff, has been in town, and I have seen him and some others several times. His object was to have a member of his corps of Yeomanry, an officer, apprehended for offences committed in the year 1797. I have sent the informations to General Drummond, and desired that he should detain by his warrant the persons whom Mr. Hall should find it necessary to apprehend. The Lord-Lieutenant is at Mount Shannon, and will be in town on Saturday. The two new Boards are going on with business. The Navigation Commissioners will give great satisfaction. Captain Bligh and Sir Thomas Page are both at work. But six claims have been presented to the other Board, and of these, they tell me, only one merits serious attention. Your Lordship's, &c., A. MARSDEN. Sir J. C. Hippisley to Lord Castlereagh. Brighton, September 11, 1800. My dear Lord-Since I had the honour of transmitting to your Lordship by yesterday's post the copy of the Summary of Correspondence which I prepared at the order of the Duke of Portland, I have been endeavouring to recollect the circumstances attending the declaratory Statute of 23 George III., c. 28, which English Statute, I conceive, (though I have no means to resort to it here) liberated Ireland from being bound by any Acts of the British Parliament. The enumeration to which I have alluded in the marginal note to the Appendix was, I apprehend, enacted in some contemporary Irish Statute. This must be familiar to your Lordship; but I cannot ascertain whether the 13th of Elizabeth, c. 2, was one of the English Statutes enumerated as binding upon Ireland. If it be, it strengthens my argument in favour of the repeal or modification; but, at any rate, the absurdity of such a Statute which, if a wholesome law, should be binding on England, and not on Scotland, or Ireland, is sufficiently apparent. I will thank your Lordship to correct the note agreeably to the law as it now stands. As there have appeared some productions of late highly injurious to the real tenets of the Catholics, and as none of their adversaries as I have yet seen (and I read almost every thing upon the subject) appear to have entered into the controversy with any candour, I will beg to recommend to your Lordship Mr. Milner's Letters to a Prebendary, Dr. Sturges, lately published. It is a thin quarto, and has a just title to become a library book. In many respects, Mr. Milner is the advocate of the Church of England against some of her fashionable Reformers, and the argument is supported by a depth of reasoning and a knowledge that I am persuaded will afford great entertainment to your Lordship. In no work has the Catholic subject been so ably treated. I have the honour to be, &c. J. C. HIPPISLEY. Mr. Marsden to Lord Castlereagh. Dublin Castle, September 17, 1800. My Lord-I have latterly not been very regular in writing to your Lordship; but nothing material has occurred to require it. By the steps which his Excellency took while in Limerick, there is a prospect of quiet being restored in that quarter. The gentlemen have assembled, and are determined to exert themselves, and the Courts-martial are to be made more efficacious. The high price of bread, though it does not occasion mobs, produces great grumbling here. Grain has fallen considerably, but flour still keeps up, and will do so till we have rain. I keep the Lord Mayor and some of the merchants busy in holding meetings and publishing what may help to keep the people in good humour. The abundance of the corn harvest is everywhere admitted; and, though the potatoes are deficient, the accounts respecting them are more favourable than they were, particularly from the South. His Excellency is still persuaded of the necessity of procuring a supply of Indian corn. The merchants who were employed to import corn have given notice that 5,000 tierces of rice are on their way from America, while 2,000 remain here unsold, as it has gone off heavily in the greatest scarcity. They recommend that it should be sent to England to be sold; but his Excellency has decided that this should not be done, until it be well considered how it could be disposed of here. I send your Lordship a copy of the paper given in by the merchants. The bounty in England makes the price to the seller thirty-five shillings; the market price is only about twentytwo. If it be sent to England, the Government there should first be informed of it. We still continue quiet here, and no appearance of a change. I do not find that the most suspicious have alarms. Your Lordship's very faithful, &c., Private. A. MARSDEN. Sir J. C. Hippisley to Lord Castlereagh. Brighton, September 23, 1800. My dear Lord-Your Lordship will probably recollect that, in the correspondence with Lord Hobart, Dr. Troy is repre sented as expressing a desire to be informed "whether the English Roman Catholic Clergy were friendly to the idea of a Government provision," and that certain persons affected, on the authority of Rome, to assert that the Pope certainly would disapprove such provision, as making the clergy of the Roman Catholic communion dependent upon our Government. To this point I beg to transmit to your Lordship a copy of a letter from the Pro-Prefect of the Congregation of Propaganda Fide, written in the name of the Pope (who reads all letters from the Congregation) and of the Congregation itself, consisting of twenty-one Cardinals. Though dated in July, it arrived only by the last mail, and your Lordship will observe that the sentiments expressed in this official document are strongly in favour of such provision-" un onesta provisione." Monsignore Consalvi (I perceive by the papers) is raised to the Cardinalate and appointed Secretary of State. He is a very gentlemanly, liberal man, and I have been on intimate habits with him for many years. I have the honour to be, &c., J. C. HIPPISLEY. I enclose also a copy of a letter from the Cardinal of York, the original of which I sent to the Chancellor at Weymouth, who may probably communicate it to his Majesty. Roma, 26 Juglio, 1800. Illustrissimo Signore Da Monsignore Moylan Vescovo di Cork in Irlanda, il quale hà costi goduto l'onore di trattare con V. S. Illmà e con i degni Ministri di sua Maestà Brittannica sopra gli affari dei nostri Cattolici, sono stato ragguagliato di quanto Ella siasi impegnata a proteggerli, e come scali ben anche riuscito di ottenere un'onesta provisione per i Vicari Apostolici, e Clero Cattolico di Scozia: opera tutta del suo grande Animo e zelo senza pari, degno perciò dei piu vivi ringraziamenti. Il Santo Padre, questa Sacra Congregazione, ed Io che vi presiedo in qualità di Pro-Prefetto ce ne mostriamo tutti sensibilissimi: ondè che pregandola in comun |