§ The following protest was entered on their lordships' Journals;
§ DISSENTIENT—First, because the arbitrary powers conferrred by this Bill, however cautiously administered by the government of Ireland have an obvious tendency to shake the respect due to the laws of a free country, and thereby to perpetuate the evils which have so long distracted a large portion of the kingdom of Ireland. The frequent recourse to harsh and un-constitutional expedients teaches the gentry and magistracy of the country to seek for authority as well as security in the suspension, rather than the preservation of law; and it countenances among the people an opinion fatal to all subordination, tranquillity, and happiness, viz. that they enjoy their privileges at the discretion and mercy of those who, by the operation of other laws, are in a great measure possessed of a monopoly of political power. Secondly, because the facility with which Parliament has hitherto granted such unconstitutional powers, has, in our judgment mainly contributed to the postponement of those healing measures, which can alone reconcile the people of Ireland to the connection and union with Great Britain, by extending to the great body of the community, in substance as well as in name, the full benefits of the English constitution. After repeated and unsuccessful experiments of coercive laws in Ireland—after the constant recurrence of alarms, disturbances, and outrages in that 1455 part of the empire; and after the almost annual enactment of penal statutes, abhorrent to the genius of our constitution, and to the humanity of our age and country, we could not reconcile it to our consciences to consent to the renewal of this law, unaccompanied with any measure for the removal of those permanent causes to which the disturbances of Ireland are to be traced.
§ (Signed) "LEINSTER.
§ "VASSALL HOLLAND."