The Earl of Liverpoolrose with peculiar pleasure to present to the House on the part of the crown, an act of grace to restore two unfortunate individuals to their full rights as British subjects. It was to reverse the attainder of lord Edward Fitzgerald, by which the blood of his two children, Edward Fox Fitzgerald and Louisa Maria Fitzgerald, had become corrupted. The preamble of the present bill contained three reasons why the former bill should be reversed. The first was, that the individual in question had never been brought to trial, owing to circumstances to which he should do nothing more than allude at present; the second was, that the act of attainder had not passed the Irish parliament till some months after his decease: and the third, which arose out of the two first, was, that as he had not had the benefit of a trial, the attainder could not have been issued against him upon a regular conviction. He thought that these were sufficient reasons for the House to accede to the bill; but, even if they were not, he implored their lordships to recollect that he stood before them as the advocate of unoffending and innocent individuals. One of them had served his country in the field, and had distinguished himself by his gallant behaviour on several occasions: to him, therefore, as well as to his sister, the boon now proposed would be peculiarly gratifying. The Crown, in proposing this 1424 act of grace, was performing an act which was delightful to the feelings of the Prince Regent; and he had no doubt but that it would be quite as grateful to the feelings of their lordships to mitigate the severity of a measure which had been passed in unhappy and unfortunate times.
§ The Duke of Wellingtonsaid, he could not let the present opportunity pass by without bearing testimony to the brave and honourable and excellent conduct of the young man in question, during the time that he had been acquainted with him.
Lord Hollandconfessed his inability to restrain the feelings by which he was then agitated. He must, therefore, express his gratitude to his Royal Highness for the act of grace which he had just caused to be proposed to the House; he must express his acknowledgments to the noble earl, for the honourable and manly manner in which he had proposed it; and he must return his most heartful thanks to the gallant duke, for the flattering testimony which he had borne to the merits of one of the individuals who were to be benefited by it. He felt great satisfaction at the manner in which the preamble was worded, both on private and public accounts. With the private reasons it would be improper to trouble their lordships; and with the public reasons, it would be both injudicious and ungrateful to interfere, on an occasion where unanimity was of so much importance. However, he might have differed in the course of his public life from the noble earl opposite, he was happy to state that that difference had never destroyed or diminished the private attachment which subsisted between them; and in the present instance, he must say, that the dearest friend whom he had in existence, could not have conferred an essential favour upon him in a manner more congenial to his fiord Holland's) feelings, than that which the noble earl had just adopted. He must, therefore, beg leave, both as a public and a private man, to return him his most sincere thanks for the generous and kind-hearted attention which he had exhibited towards the individuals whose interests this bill was calculated to advance.
§ The bill was read a first time.