be injured by the lofs of their prefcriptive privileges. By the new arrangements, he added, the queftion of parliamentary reform would be fuperfeded, as the prefent plan was a reform of the most popular kind. With regard to the church, another important and a delicate topic, and what had been frequently a fubject of acrimonious conteft, he expreffed his conviction of the infecurity of that of Ireland, if it fhould continue feparate from the English establishment; but, in event of an union, he had no doubt that the prefent ecclefiaftical establishment, founded on the proteftant afcendancy, would be ftable and permanent. The catholics, who, trufting to their great fuperiority of numbers, were continually nrging claims against the minority, would be checked in their confidence and forwardnefs, and exhibit fewer marks of jealoufy and miftruft; and their pretenfions would be temperately difcuffed by an imperial parliament, at a time when local circumstances would ceafe to irritate and inflame.

On the fubject of trade, lord Caftlereagh obferved, that the circumftances of the two countries did not admit a complete incorporation of commercial interefts, because fome of the Irish manufactures were not fufficiently advanced to profper, without protecting duties; and the difparity of the burthens borne by the British manufactures, in confequence of a greater fhare of taxation, rendered it impracticable to adjust this part of the fyftem, on any other principle than that of a full freedom of export between the countries.

The noble fecretary of state proeceded next to maintain the pro

priety of the financial fyftem of the plan propofed for an union. This part of the arrangement, he said, was more beneficial to Ireland than to Great Britain: but he entered a ftrong caveat against any idea that this pecuniary advantage was intended as a compenfation to the former realm, for the lofs of honour, or of other interests. The offer was made on the wide bafis of a fair and mutual agreement. It were greatly to be wifhed, he said, that the two kingdoms fhould be fo completely incorporated, as not to have diftinct revenues; but, in the prefent circumftances of both realms, this point could not be fatisfactorily adjusted. It was therefore expedient to felect a criterion of relative ability, by which the feparate contributions could be regulated. Lord Caftlereagh, having compared the exports and imports of Ireland with thofe of Great Britain, and the excifed articles of confumption in one kingdom with thofe of another, for the last three years, eftimated the ratio of ability in the different kingdoms, as one to feven and a half. And to fhew the operation of this proportion, he ftated the refpective expenditures of the two countries in the last year, and compared that of Ireland with what it would have been, according to the alleged ratio, fo às to prove that nearly a million fterling would have been faved by the weftern realm. Ireland would gain another advantage in a participation of a proprietary right in the territorial revenue of Britain, whence fhe would derive two-fifteenths of the fum annually paid to government by the Eaft-India company.

This project, or plan for an union, was oppofed by various [12]

speakers,

fpeakers, from, no doubt, various motives; fome of them private, fome of them public. Mr. Grattan, a penfioned tribune of the Irish nation, and a true orator as well as acute reafoner, was, as might be expected, one of the warmest and the most impreffive oppofers of the union, in the house of commons.— The vehemence of his zeal and oratory exposed him to an attack from Mr. Corry, the chancellor of the Irish exchequer, whofe recommendations of the union he anfwered in terms fo bitter and offenfive, that a challenge enfued. Mr. Corry was wounded in a duel; but Mr. Grattan efcaped unhurt.

In the Irish houfe of peers, the man who fignalized his zeal against the union, above that of all the peers, in oppofition to the union, was the marquis of Downfhire. He oppofed it with indefatigable induftry and perfeverance, with moderate eloquence, but with the weight of a fair and unblemished character, and the reputation of being fincerely and faithfully attached to his native country. Neither his exertions nor thofe of other lords were of any avail. The measure of the union was agreed to, in the Irish houfe of lords, by a great majority. Yet a proteft against a legislative union with Great Britain was entered on the journals of the Irish houfe of lords, by twenty peers; for an account of whom, and of the grounds of their proteft, as well as for a more particular account of the articles of the union, we must refer our readers to the State Papers in this volume. The most interesting debates on the union took place, as was to be expected, in the Irifh houfe of commons. On the thirteenth of

March, fir John Parnell, wifhing to have the fenfe of the nation more decifively afcertained than it could be in the prefent parliament, moved that the king fhould be requested to diffolve it, and convoke another, and a kind of convention parliament. Mr. Saurin, a barrister, diftinguished himself greatly, by his eloquence and fpirit in fupport of the motion, and ftrongly urged an appeal to the people. The folicitor-general accufed Mr. Saurin of "unfurling the bloody flag of rebellion;" Mr. Egan infinuated that the folicitor and other members of adminiftration," had unfurled the flag of proftitution and corruption." The motion was negatived, after a long and animated debate, by a great majority. After fome alterations of the articles, the plan of the union, as was foreseen by the Bri tifh government, was approved by the fame parliament, which the year before had rejected it. And an addrefs was voted by the two houfes, on the twenty-feventh of March, informing his majefty of the refult of their deliberations. In that addrefs, "they confidered the refolutions of the two houfes of the British parliament as wifely calcu lated to form the bafis of an incorporation of Great Britain and Ireland into one kingdom, under his majesty's aufpicious government, by a complete and entire union of their legiflature. They had adopted them as their guide in the measures they had purfued, and they now felt it their duty to lay before his majesty the refolutions to which they had agreed, and which, if they fhould be approved by the two houfes of the parliament of Great Britain, they were ready to confirm and ratify, in order that the fame might

be

be established for ever by mutual confent of both parliaments." This address, with the refolutions of the lords and commcns of Ireland, containing the terms propofed by them for an entire union between the two kingdoms, was communicated by his majefty to the British parliament, on the fecond of April, and became the chief fubject of their deleberations from the twenty-firft of that month to the twelfth of May. The great measure of the union, its principle, conditions, and tendency, having been amply difcuffed in the parliamentary proceedings of 1799, fully ftated in our laft volume, it would be unneceflary, and might appear tedious to give an account of all the queftions, arguments, oblervations, and adjourn ments that arofe in the various difcuffions it underwent, in the different ftages through which it was again carried, after it was remitted, fightly altered, and approved by the Irish parliament. The measure of the union, in the houfe of peers, was oppofed by lord Holland, who, among other arguments against it, urged its probably unhappy effects on the British conftitution. The introduction of one hundred Irish members into the houfe of commons, and thirty-two into that of their lordships, muft add, he thought, confiderably to the influence of the crown. This innovation in the frame of the houfe of commons naturally involved the queftion of parliamentary reform. The great ground on which this was objected to, heretofore, was innovation. That place being now done away, he knew not with what confiftency they could refufe reform. Though the parliament of Ireland was to be abolished, yet all the

engines of corruption in that country, the laft of places, were still to remain, and their influence brought to bear; not on three hundred legiflators as formerly, but on one hundred, which obviously must add to the influence of the crown.Lord Grenville expreffed his furprize at being called on, this day, to fupport the general principle of a queftion which had been repeatedly, recently, and almost unimoufly recognized by both houses of parliament. He defended the measure, as beneficial to the two kingdoms, and as being carried on, not as lord Holland had contended, by corrupt, or intimidating, but by fair and conftitutional means. With regard to the argument of the noble lord, that the introduction of one hundred members into the house of commons, and thirty-two into that of peers, would endanger the Britifh conftitution, by increafing the influence of the crown; he observed that the mode chalked out for the election of members was fuch, under the genuine principles of the British conftitution, as would render · them as free from any imputation as that fuggefted, as could poffibly be done; as was allo the mode of electing the peers, by rendering their feats as fecure and independent as that of any individual peer in that houfe, namely, for their lives. Ireland, he contended, would be beft governed through the medium of a joint legislature, to which Ireland fhould fend her full and fair proportion of reprefentatives. The measure of the union was formed on principles fimilar to thofe furnished chiefly by the precedent of the Scotch union. The effect of the whole fyftem was such as to infure a permanent and confiderable in[13] creafe

crease of wealth and profperity to Ireland, but on principles of reciprocal benefit to both countries; which muft ultimately tend to confolidate the connection, and augment the strength and refources of the empire. With regard to the idea that parliamentary reform could not, after an union with Ireland, be refifted, on the ground of innovation, Lord Grenville faid, that parliamentary reform fhould always be refifted by him, as it ever had been, on account of its general dangerous tendency, and its hoftility to the genuine and vital principles of the British conftitution; which, as experience had proved, was fully adequate to all its purposes.

The marquis of Townshend approved of an union with Ireland, as the most effectual means of educating and civilizing the natives of fome part of that country Even in certain parts in England they were not a little deficient in education and civilization, but in none fo ignorant and barbarous as in fome parts of Ireland. The marquis himfelf' knew a place there, where an attorney and a publican, the ftewards of the landlord, raifed what contributions they could, with out returning a fourth part to the proprietors, and oppreffed the poor people who had no magiftrate to interfere for them.

The earl of Weftmoreland took a general view of the diftractions, religious and political, which, for fome years part, had agitated Ireland. Thele, he thought, were almost unavoidable, under the exifting form of government in that country, and, of courfe, to be removed only by the expedient of a legiflative union with this country,

He admitted that a respectable party in Ireland, and a number of well-intentioned perfons, were hoftile to the union but the greater part of this hoftility, he faid, proceeded from prejudice, want of information, or the influence and exertions of the evil-minded and defigning: but all the traiterous, and difaffected in that country were, to a man, opposed to the union, and for an obvious reafon-that it would annihilate their fyftem, and render all things abortive.

Lord King confidered the meafure in queftion, carried as it had been, rather as a fpecies of conqueft in Ireland, where not only the means of corruption had been ufed, but intimidation alfo. The introduction of the thirty-two peers and one hundred commoners into the united parliament would, he thought, materially increase the influence of the minifter, which would be much strengthened by the circumftance of the Irish exchequer and establishments being k pt leparate from those of this country.

Lord Darnley answered, in a very able manner, the principal objections to the union. With regard to the great objection of its being likely to fhake the-British conftitution, he faid, that no poffible plan, of fome parliamentary reprefentation for Ireland, could have been deviled to confonant to popular principles, or that before the houfe, which felected from the prefent Irish houfe of commonsall the members for counties, with a few only for the principal cities and towns, and made the election of peers for life.

In the houfe of commons, Mr. Pitt, in the courle of a long speech, in defence and commendation of

the

the union, on the twenty-firft of April, admitted, that if any thing could, in his mind, throw a doubt on the quection of union, it would be the neceffity of difturbing the reprefentation of England. But that neceflity, fortunately did not exist. He had once, indeed, entertained a different opinion. But times and circumftances had changed. And he thought it right to declare farther his moft decided opinion, that even if the times were proper for experiments, any, even the fighteft change in fuch a conftitution, must be confidered as an evil. While Mr. Pitt was thus illuftrating the confiftency of his own conduct, on the point of parliamentary reform, a commotion and clamour of hear! hear! arofe on the oppofition benches, which was carried beyond the ufual pitch of fuch vociferation, and bore fome refemblance to the debates in the convention affembly of France, and afterwards, in the council of fivehundred. Some muttered cenfure, fome laughed aloud, all cried hear! hear! while, on the minifterial fide of the houfe, there was as loud a cry of order! order! Mr. Pitt, after a long and involuntary paufe, faid, calmly "I with gentlemen would hear me and then anfwer me. When I fee that the conftitution has fupported itfelf againft the open attacks of its enemies, and against the more dangerous reforms of its profeffed friends; that it has defeated the unwearied machinations of France, and the no lets perfevering efforts of jacobins in England, and that, during the whole of the conteft, it has uniformly maintained the confidence of the people of England when I confider all thele circumftances, I fhould be

afhamed of myfelf, if any former. opinions of mine could now induce me to think that the form of reprefentation, which, in fuch times as the prefent, has been found amply fufficient for the purpofe of protect-. ing the interefts, and fecuring the happinefs of the people, fhould be idly and wantonly disturbed, from any love of experiment, or any predilection from theory. Mr. Pitt had been led farther, he faid, by the unufual interruption he had met with, into the fubject of reform, than he intended. But he did not mean to have paffed by the fubject of the Irish members, without accompanying it with fome obfer vations on British reprefentation. However thefe members might be chofen, there was one confideration which could not fail to prefs itself on their minds, namely, that, by the. laws of England, care had been taken to prevent the influence of the crown from becoming too great, by too many offices being held by members of parliament. In Ireland there were laws of a fimilar nature, but not quite to the fame extent; fo that it might happen that, in the hundred members to be chofen, there might be a great number holding places, impoftible to provide against this contingency by an article of union to be binding on the united parliament, because it was found, from experience, that the number of offices, to be held by members, must always remain in the difcretion of parliament, to be regulated from time to time, as circunftances might require. On the other, if no regulation on this fubject fhould at prefent, be made, it might happen. that, in the firft hundred members chofen, there might be a great [14]

It was

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