if there be any fuch in Ireland, the members taken from the disfranchised boroughs; and alfo by adding to them as many new members as might be neceffary clearly to turn the balance of legiflative power in favour of the counties, principal cities, and towns, which form the body of the nation, and in which the ftrength of the Irish democracy refides.

3. To fuggeft the utility of extending the right of fuffrage to all perfons paying taxes to counties, cities, and boroughs; to all copyholders and leafeholders for life, or a term exceeding thirty years, the yearly value of whofe eftates fhall be at least forty fhillings; and alfo the propriety of admitting Chriftians of every denomination to the equal exercife of that most important right of a citizen.

4. To advife a fhorter duration of parliaments, preferring annual parliaments to triennial, if equally attainable.

5. And, for fecuring the advantages of thofe measures in their full extent, to recommend the ftrictest prohibition of bribery and expence at elections, and regulations facilitating to the refpective voters the exercife of their franchise.

Such are the improvements which appear to my mind moft practicable, fafe, and efficacious, in the prefent ftate of Ireland, TO RESTORE TO THE PEOPLE UNARMED THEIR JUST AND NECESSARY CONTROUL OVER THE REPRESENTATIVE ASSEMBLY.

To fome of the delegates at Dungannon these propofitions might appear not extenfive enough. To many more perhaps they might appear too extenfive to be at once adopted with prudence.

Having therefore offered thefe propofitions to the meeting, I should think it ill became me to adhere to them with pertinacity. On the contrary, it would be more fuitable to my very limited experience, and imperfect knowledge of Irish affairs, and alfo more conducive to the fuccefs of the great caufe, to fubmit my opinion with deference to better informed judgements, and to accede to a lefs extenfive plan for a fubftantial reformation of parliament, in favour of which a more general concurrence of the volunteers might be probable. For that is the beft plan of reformation, which is the most effectual that is like to be attained.

The means for obtaining thofe regulations, or other improvements which may be deemed more falutary, are fufficiently obvious; to restore a declining conftitution is the duty, the intereft, and the peculiar office of the collective body. Self-reformation is as odious a talk to corrupt affemblies of men as it is to profligate individuals. A degenerate parliament will never feriously engage in that bufinefs, but from the impulfe of the people. By their active zeal the work of reformation muit be begun; by their firmnefs and perfeverance it mult be finished. In a more tolerable condition of parliament, it would be fufficient to itate an abufe; and of its own accord an honest Houfe of Commons would immediately apply the proper correction. But when the mifchief lies in the frame and difpofition of parliament itfelf, it behoves the people not only to ipecify their grievance, but to point out on what principle, and to what ex

tent they expect redrefs. For, if ther complaint be well founded, parliament can qualified to judge for the people with d partiality; nor difpofed fpontaneously to that mode of reformation which may beft adapted to promote their happiness. 1 proceeds the principal difficulty of this gr terprize. When the claim of independen the object of purfuit, there was but one propofition every Irishman was agreed. volunteer affemblies fhould deliberate a the general queftion only, Whether a tion of parliament be expedient? ther: reafon to apprehend any material ver opinion would arife. But if the questio confidered fhould be, What specific plan formation is moft fit to be propofed to ment? the difcuffion of that propofition in diftinct affemblies might unhappily div volunteers. The reformation of parlia an ample field of fpeculation, in which t timents of wife and good men may be different. It is a fubject of the highett cal importance, on which thofe various ments may be maintained with warm eagerness. In the progrefs of those difp provincial meetings might form differe nions; they might be heated; might be ated; the ill offices of artful and interefte might increase the difguft; till the form a general opinion in favour of any speci would become exceedingly difficult, if not impracticable. In order to guard aga fatal a difunion, it feems advifeable, fpecific plan ought to originate from the that a GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF D GATES from every part of Ireland should and determine what that fpecific plan fho By fuch a meeting the union of the voi might be completely preferved; and the cation from that meeting for an effectual of parliamentary abufes would be prefe parliament with the weight and authority whole collective body. It is needlefs to ad their requifition must be complied with.

Such is the judgement which I have i on the most impartial confideration of th ries tranfmitted for my opinion by the Co tee of Belfaft. I feel myself much honou the gentlemen who have called forth my ments on this momentous occafion. E pofing that honourable talk upon me, tl. committed to my hands an importa: which I am bound to execute with fr fidelity, with confcientious fincerity. I too well convinced, that what I have bee to fuggeft deferves not much of their atom But the opinion now given has been E and delivered under a fenfe of duty. this communication offer nothing elfe may be fortunate enough to meet ther bation, yet I am confident the delegates fter will approve the freedom and integrity

anfwer.

As a man I fincerely with the enjoy re liberty, in its molt ample extent, tor every climate and country; but as fellow jetts I am deeply and more peculiarly int in the welfare and happiness of Irithmen. the volunteers of Ireland fuccefsfully atler

and independence of their country, I at its emancipation from an injurious When they abolithed perfecution, and pest and fecurity to millions of their opbrethren, my heart concurred, and apthe ceed. When they checked the corndon of the public money, I joined Tartuous man in applauding this preare important reformation. To refaking conftitution is their laft and labour. It is a talk whofe difficulty can seded by the immenfe advantages ream the performance. Nothing cile can teat fecurity to the freedom and proftrand. When the zeal and ipirit the volunteers gained thofe benefits try thall be relaxed, unless a radical of parliament fhall have been hit withes, the benefits themselves will not beg duration: they will be loit again, or be left under circumstances of public which the enjoyment will be imThe mischief of a factious and corrupt will be felt once more: minifterial

profufion will again feduce the fenate, and impoverith the community. In this itate of things, liberty will be precarious, and commerce and induftry will be undone. And then, when the poor Catholic is starving for want of employment, toleration itfelt will be to him a comfort of little avail. Even the joy excited in the public mind by the acquifition of independence will foon fink, and be left in th luperior fenfe of domettic mifery. But I tratt a dinerent, and far happier fene is just ready to open upon Ireland. From the vigour and vittue of Lith people, conducted by the doin of their delegates, a fubitantial reformation of parliament, with every national blefling in its train, may foon be expected. Let them but perfevere in the fame ipirited, temperate, and legal conduct which hitherto has marked their character with honour-let them be firm-let them be unanimous; and in this just and nece tary undertaking, as in all the rett, THE VOLUNTEERS OF IRELAND will command that fuccefs which they fo well deferve.

C. WYVILL.

JOHN PRINGLE was born at hel-houfe, in the county of gh, North Britain, on the 10th , 1707. His father was Sir Pringle, of Stichel, Bart. and his whofe name was Magdalen was fifter to Sir Gilbert Eliott, Rocs, Bart. Both the families which he defcended were very and honourable ones in the of Scotland, and were in great for their attachment to the reand liberties of their country, for their piety and virtue in prife. He was the youngest of l fons, three of whom, befides elf, arrived to years of maturity. grammatical education he received ne, under a private tutor; and Laving made fuch a progrefs as ted him for acadernical fludies, removed to the univerfity of Andrews, where he was put under immediate care of Mr. Francis , profeffor of Greek in the coland a near relation of his father. LOND. MAG. April 1784.

Having continued there fome years, he went to Edinburgh in October, 1727, for the purpofe of ftudying phyfic, that being the profeffion which he now determined to follow. At Edinburgh, however, he stayed only one year, the reafon of which was, that he was defirous of going to Leyden, at that time the most celebrated fchool of medicine in Europe. Dr. Boerhaave, who had brought that univerfity into reputation, was confiderably advanced in years, and Mr. Pringle was unwil ling, by delay, to expofe himself to the danger of lofing the benefit of that great man's lectures. For Boerhaave he had a high and juft refpect: but it was not his difpofition and character to become the implicit and fyftematic follower of any man, however able and diftinguished. Whilft he studied at Leyden, he contracted an intimate friendship with Van Swieten, who afterwards became fo famous at Vienna, both by his practice and writings. Van Swieten was not only Mr. Pringle's acquaintance

Call the Strand.

Lat December, Vol. I. p. 535.

though Dr. Pringle was thus ed of the immediate protection nobleman who knew and esteemed orth, his conduct in the duties flation procured him effectual He attended the army in , through the campaign of and fo powerfully recommended to the Duke of Cumberland, the fpring following, on the of March, he had a commiffion Royal Highnefs, appointing yician general to his Majefty's the Low Countries, and parts the feas: and on the next day ved a fecond commiffion from te, by which he was conftituted n to the royal hofpitals in the contries. On March 5, he rehis profefforfhip, in confequence promotions.

74, he was with the army in es, but was recalled from that in the latter end of the year, nd the forces which were to be ift the rebels in Scotland. At me he had the honour of being a Fellow of the Royal Society. rection was on the 30th of Ocand the Society had reafon to fed with the addition of fuch

ter.

Pringle, at the beginning of 1746, accompanied, in his capacity, the Duke of Cumberhis expedition againft the reand remained with the forces, the battle of Culloden, till their to England, in the middle of We do not find that he was anders during any part of that In 1747 and 1748, he again ded the army abroad; and in the of 1748, he embarked with forces for England, upon the conof the treaty of Aix-la-ChaFrom that time he principally ed in London, where, from his kill and experience, and the tation he had acquired, he might ly expect to fucceed as a phy

It the month of April, 1749, Dr. ak was appointed phyfician in ory to his Koyal Highnefs the Duke

of Cumberland*. In 1750, he publifhed, in a letter to Dr. Mead, “Obfervations on the Jail or Hofpital Fever." This piece, which paffed through two editions, and was occafioned by the jail-diftemper that broke out at that time in the city of London, was well received by the medical world, though he himself afterwards confidered it as having been haftily written. After fupplying fome things that were omitted, and rectifying a few mistakes that were made in it, he included it in his grand work on the difeafes of the army, where it conftitutes the feventh chapter of the third part of that treatise.

It was in the fame year that Dr. Pringle began to communicate to the Royal Society his famous "Experiments upon Septic and Antifeptic Subftances, with Remarks relating to their Ufe in the Theory of Medicine." Thefe experiments, which comprehended several papers, were read at different meetings of the Society; the first in June, and the two next in the November following: three more in the courfe of the year 1751; and the lait, in February, 1752. Only the three firft numbers were printed in the Philofophical Tranfactions, as Dr. Pringle had fubjoined the whole, by way of appendix, to his "Obfervations on the Difeafes of the Army."

The experiments upon Septic and Antifeptic Subftances, which have accompanied every fubfequent edition of the treatife juft mentioned, procured for our ingenious phyfician the honour of Sir Godfrey Copley's gold medal. Befides this, they gained him a high and juft reputation, as an experimental philofopher.

In February, 1753, he prefented to the Royal Society an "Account of feveral Perfons feifed with the Gaol Fever by working in Newgate, and of the Manner by which the Infection was communicated to one entire Family." This is a very curious paper; and it was deemed of fuch importance by the excellent Dr. Stephen Hales, that he requested the author's permiffion to have it published, for the

common

common good of the kingdom, in the Gentleman's Magazine; where it was accordingly printed, previoufly to its appearance in the Tranfactions*. Dr. Pringle's next communication was, "A remarkable Cafe of Fragility, Flexibility, and Diffolution of the Bonest." In the forty-ninth volume of the Tranfactions, we meet with accounts which he had given of an earthquake felt at Bruffels; of another at Glasgow and Dunbarton‡; and of the agitation of the waters, on the 1ft of November, 1756, in Scotland and at Hamburgh. The fiftieth volume contains Obfervations, by him, on the Cafe of Lord Walpole, of Woolterton; and a Relation of the Virtues of Soap, in diffolving the Stone, as experienced by the Reverend Mr. Matthew Simfon. The next volume is enriched with two of the Doctor's articles, of confiderable length, as well as value. In the firit, he hath collected, digefted, and related the different accounts that had been given of a very extraordinary fiery meteor, which appeared on Sunday the 26th of November, 1758, between eight and nine at night; and, in the icond, he hath made a variety of remarks upon the whole, wherein is difplayed no fmall degree of philofophical fagacity 1. It would be tedious to mention the various papers, which, both before and after he became, Prefident of the Royal Society, were tranfmitted through his hands.

Befides his communications in the Philofophical Tranfactions, he wrote, in the Edinburgh Medical Effay's, volume the fifth, an Account of the Succefs of the Vitrum ceratum Antimonii. On the 14th of April, 1752, Dr. Pringle married Charlotte, the fecond daughter of Dr. Oliver, an eminent physician at Bath, and who had long been at the head of his profefion in that city. This connexion did not laft long; the lady dying in the space of a few years.

Nearly about the time of his marriage, Dr. Pringle gave to the public

"

the first edition of his "Obferva on the Diseases of the Army." I reprinted, in the year following, fome additions. To the third edi which was greatly improved from further experience the author had ed by attending the camps, for feafons, in England, an Appendi annexed, in aufwer to fome re that Profeffor De Haen, of V and M. Gaber, of Turin, had on the work. The like attentic paid to the improvement of th tife, in every fubfequent edition

The work is divided into thre the first of which, being prin hiftorical, may be read with pi by every gentleman. The latte lie more within the province of cians. They alone are the best, of the merit of the performanci to its merit the moft decifive at ple teftimonies have been give hath gone through feven cditi home; and, abroad, it has be flated into the French, the G and the Italian languages. St any medical writer hath mention without fome tribute of app Ludwig, in the fecond volume "Commentarii de Rebus in Scienti turali et Medicina geftis," speaks highly; and gives an account which comprehends fixteen pages. celebrated and eminent Baron Haller, in his Bibliotheca An ca**, with a particular reference treatife we are fpeaking of, it author "Vir illuftris - de omuita artibus bene meritus.”

It is allowed to be a claffical in the phyfical line; and that it placed the writer of it in a rar the famous Sydenham. Like ham, too, he hath become er not by the quantity, but the his productions; and hath affor happy inftance of the great and ferved fame which may fom arife from a fingle performance.

The reputation that Dr. F gained by his "Obfervations