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 iii. 197). Grattan entered parliament under his auspices as member for Charlemont; and in the steps taken towards securing Ireland's political independence they worked hand in hand as the leaders of the Irish nation. The embodiment of the volunteers, a necessity which England could not avoid, supplied them with an armed political convention, through which the wishes of the nation could not only be accurately represented, but, if need be, enforced; and of this convention they made use with equal courage and prudence. ‘To that institution,’ Charlemont said, ‘my country owes its liberty, prosperity, and safety; and if after her obligations I can mention my own, I owe the principal and dearest honours of my life’ (Memoirs of the Earl of Charlemont, 2nd ed. i. 378). At first commander of the body of men raised by the town of Armagh, he was in July 1780 chosen commander-in-chief of the whole force, a position which he continued to hold during the remainder of their embodiment. When the House of Commons in October 1779 went to present to the lord-lieutenant their famous resolution that ‘nothing but a free trade could save the country from ruin,’ the volunteers significantly lined the streets as they passed, and for their conduct they received the unanimous thanks of the commons. It was in concert with Charlemont that Grattan drew up the famous resolution regarding the rights of Ireland which he moved with such effect on 19 April 1780. As the English government were slow in recognising the importance of the motion, Flood, Grattan, and Charlemont met privately at Charlemont's in the beginning of 1782, and drew up resolutions on independence, which on being submitted to a great meeting of volunteer delegates were adopted unanimously. The attitude of the volunteers decided the question; for, on account of the disasters to the English arms in America, the government had in reality no choice but submission to the armed demands of the Irish nation. Grattan exactly described the situation when on 16 April he uttered the famous sentence, ‘I am now addressing a free people.’ The concessions which he had thus by anticipation appropriated were granted on 17 May. These were—first, the repeal of the declaratory act of George I, thus restoring the appellate jurisdiction of the House of Lords; secondly, the repeal of the provision in Poynings' Act that Irish legislation should receive the sanction of the privy council of Ireland and England; and thirdly, the alteration of the perpetual Irish Mutiny Act into a temporary act. The concessions amounted in spirit to home rule, but their effect was greatly modified by the fact that the constitution of the parliament remained unchanged. Shortly after the appointment in April 1783 of Lord Northington as lord-lieutenant, Charlemont was nominated a privy councillor, having consented to the nomination on condition that the name of Grattan should be submitted at the same time as his own. Although Charlemont did not approve of the general action of the volunteer convention which met at Dublin in November 1783, he consented to act as president, and by the influence of his personal character succeeded in preventing the disputes between them and the parliament from resulting in violence. Charlemont was at this time adverse to catholic emancipation, and by no means zealous for the constitutional reform of the commons. Unable to resist directly the influence of Flood's oratory over the convention, he therefore adopted the expedient of advising a dissolution of the convention, in order that their scheme of reform might be laid before country meetings regularly convened to consider it. No convention was again summoned, and from this time the influence of the volunteers on Irish legislation ceased almost as suddenly as it had come into existence. Charlemont in 1789 sided with Grattan in regard to the regency question, and moved in the upper house the address to the Prince of Wales, requesting him ‘to take upon himself the government of Ireland, with the style and title of prince regent, and in the name and behalf of his majesty to exercise all regal powers, during his majesty's indisposition and no longer.’ The motion was carried by 45 to 26, but the lord-lieutenant regarded it as inconsistent with his oath to transmit it. This independent action on the part of the Irish parliament was undoubtedly the chief cause of its abolition by the legislative union with Great Britain. In the same year Charlemont took an active part in founding the Whig Club, composed of the leading members of the opposition in both houses of parliament, at which the general policy of the party was discussed and decided on. He strongly opposed the proposals for union; but the excitement connected with the discussions had serious effects on his health, and he did not live to experience the pain of witnessing its completion. His death took place on 4 Aug. 1799. He was buried in the family vault in Armagh Cathedral. Among his papers he left the following epitaph: ‘Here lies the body of James, earl of Charlemont, a sincere, zealous, and active friend to his country. Let his posterity imitate him in that alone, and forget his manifold errors.’ He was