Page:An address to the thinking independent part of the community.djvu/14

( 14 ) cloak their real design under false colours, and that the degrees of criminality in the individuals who compote it are very different, are we not led to infer, that, as the people in general are ardently desirous of those measures, so are they averse to any more violent: And thus we may collect with tolerable certainty the real state of the public sentiment.—Some intemperate men there may be, who look with scorn on conciliatory and moderate measures; but the great majority of the people look to these with eagerness, and look to nothing beyond them.

If then no more be necessary to restore peace to the country, than such a prudent, mild and truly constitutional reform, shall it be withheld on such wretched pretences, as the inconvenience of the time, or the dignity of parliament? If it be—I again ask my independent countrymen, is this quarrel theirs? Is it to preserve any thing dear and valuable to them? Is it for their honour, their interest?—Is it to guard their ancient and sacred rights that the sword is now to be drawn? Or is it indeed to protect, secure from rude innovation, those abuses from which a few among us derive their power and their profit? Has the House of Commons, as it is now constituted, shewn itself so faithful a representative of the Irish nation, that we are to be driven into an odious contest, rather than admit of any alteration in its form or mode of election?