After a dispassionate consideration of the subject, he was of opinion, that greater advantages were now offered to Ireland than had ever been afforded by any single measure to any country; that the Union would greatly augment the national resources, and place upon a rock which would be impregnable, as far as that term could be applied to any human establishment, the strength and security of the British empire. His ideas and hopes even extended farther, as he was fully persuaded, that whatever tended to consolidate and maintain the independence of these kingdoms was of signal importance to the best and most valuable interests of mankind.

power

and the

The five first resolutions were then read by the chairman, and agreed to without objection. The sixth, which went to grant equal free trade to Ireland, called up Mr. Wilberforce Bird, who considered it as requiring particular deliberation, from the effect, which it might have on some important branches of manufacture carried on in this kingdom, and requested that it might not be precipitately sanctioned. Mr. Pitt thought it a matter of indifference to the general welfare, in what part of the empire a particular manufacture should be carried on, provided it were in a place, where it was most likely to flourish.

The remaining resolutions were carried: and, on the 14th, upon the question for bringing up the report,

measure.

Mr. Hobhouse stated his reasons very fully for opposing the First it was obnoxious to a great majority of the people of Ireland. Next, he doubted the competency of the Irish parliament to its adoption. Then he urged, that a resi dent legislature, would be better qualified than a remote parliaAnd lastly, ment to remove the internal evils of the country. the Irish members of the imperial parliament, sensible of their inferiority in point of number and interest, would servilely court the favour of the minister, and that accession would tend to destroy the fair balance of the English constitution.

Lord Granville Leveson Gower declared himself a cordial friend to an union, which he considered as necessary for the safety and welfare of both countries.

Mr. Robert Peel, who, in the year 1785, had appeared at the bar as a petitioner against the commercial propositions, declared that the support which he now gave to the scheme of incorporation arose from a change of circumstances rather than of sentiments, as the former plan, in offering extraordinary advantages to an inferior state, which had in some measure a diversity of interest, was much less expedient than one, which would promote a community of interest by a completeness of union.

Affirming that both kingdoms would derive additional strength and security from union, he attributed the greater share of benefit to Ireland. He stated the case of two commercial houses; one being of the first respectability, having an immense capital, and extending its concerns to every part of the globe; the other in a comparatively low situation, with little property, limited credit, and confined connections. A proposal being made by the former to take the latter into partnership on equal terms, it might be supposed that the offer would be eagerly accepted; and, each party losing its distinct firm, the two houses would then become

one.

Lord Temple regarded an union as pregnant with various advantages, one of which gave him particular gratification: which was, its anti-jacobin tendency.

By union Ireland would exchange her nominal independence, under which she had suffered the most calamitous misfortunes, for substantial benefits and permanent security.

Mr. Jones opposed the Union, and warned the minister of the danger of introducing 100 Irish members into the British House of Commons, to add to his muzzled majority. The day of their appearance might be rued as fatal to the independence and happiness of both countries.

Lord Morpeth bestowed high praise on the measure, both in point of policy and of benevolence; and considering it as the only scheme, which could correct the vices and supply the defects of the Irish government, he gave it his most strenuous support.

Sir John Mitford (Lord Redesdale) made several pointed allusions to the doctrines of Thomas Paine, who asserted that parliament could not reform itself, or correct its abuses, without having recourse to the advice and authority of a convention of the people. The full competency of parliament for the enactment of an union could not be denied; the propriety of the measure was obvious. The present government of the British empire was, in one point of view, a solecism in politics. Two independent parliaments formed the organ, by which the sovereign will of the state was expressed. Such an establishment resembled a monster with two bodies and one head, the power of the head being, checked and limited by that of each body.

Colonel Wood agreed with Mr. Addington that the disorders of Ireland were to be attributed to radical defects in the government of the country. In the late rebellion Catholics and Protestants seemed to have buried all religious differences, conspiring against the connection between the kingdoms on true jacobinical principles. The return therefore of

such a rebellion would most effectually be prevented by an

union.

Mr. Bankes, Lord Belgrave, General Fitzpatrick, Mr. Pitt, and some others spoke again to the subject on their former grounds. On a division for bringing up the report, the ayes were 120, the noes 16.

When the first resolution had been agreed to by the house, Mr. Tierney, alleging that this would sufficiently indicate the disposition of that house towards an union, moved that the further consideration of the resolutions should be postponed for three months; the motion was not seconded, and all the resolutions were agreed to.

The next procedure in this business was a communication of the votes of the commons to the lords, at a conference which took place on the 18th. The peers ordered the resolutions to be printed, and some illustrative papers to be produced. And in order to avoid precipitancy on so important a subject, they allowed a month's interval for consideration before they entered upon the discussion.

From the minister's exertions in the British senate to carry the great question of Union, we must proceed to watch its progress in Ireland. In Dublin the defeat of the minister in the House of Commons was considered as the death blow of the Unionists, and was celebrated in every quarter of the city with bonfires and other demonstrations of joy. The violent opposition, which Mr. Foster gave to the measure, had suddenly translated him from very general dislike and odium, to the pinnacle of frantic popularity. Some short time afterwards the lord mayor, aldermen, and common council went in state to Molesworth Street, where Mr. Foster resided, amidst the acclamations of thousands of spectators, the band playing " Long live the king," to deliver an address to him as an honest man and lover of his country, for not voting away the liberty and independence of Ireland. And on the same day a numerous body of the merchants and traders of the city of Dublin went in procession from the Royal Exchange to his house, and also presented him a most respectful address to the like purport.

On the 28th of January Lord Castlereagh in the Irish House of Commons moved for an adjournment to the 7th of February, in order to engraft his further parliamentary proceedings upon the issue and result of the debates in the British House of Commons. Sir John Parnell opposed the motion, as there never was a moment, in which it was more necessary for the parliament of Ireland to remain vigilant at its post. For if he

The public proceedings of the county of Louth on the 14th, and of the city of Dublin on the 18th of January, 1799, which are to be seen in the Appendix, No. CXVII. shew in what estimation Mr. Foster then was.

were to credit report that the British minister had declared, "that he would unceasingly persevere in a measure respecting the internal situation of that country," to which the parliament of Ireland had so recently and so decidedly given its negative, he trusted the house would see the necessity of resisting the measure of adjournment, at least until they should know what were the sentiments of the British minister and the British parliament, when they should come to learn the sentiments expressed, and the decision which took place in the parliament, of Ireland on that subject; for it was impossible the British minister or parliament could have known the sentiments of the parliament of Ireland, when they had discussed the measure on the very same day it was rejected there. The British minister, whom he knew to be a man of great talents and great wisdom, he was convinced so soon as he should come to know the decision, which had taken place in that house upon the subject, could not be either so impolitic or so rash as to persevere. That house and the people of Ireland had learnt, since the decision of Thursday last, to consider the question as at rest, but the declaration of the British minister could not fail now to excite new alarms, nor could these alarms ever be quiet in that country, so long as the people could consider the measure as still hanging over them; and if the British minister were to persist in the declaration after the sense of the Irish parliament and Irish people were known to him, it was impossible for any friend to his country, or British connection, to contemplate the consequences without the most serious alarm.

Lord Castlereagh rose and said, the right honourable baronet himself furnished by his arguments the strongest reasons for the necessity of the adjournment. That house would but ill support its own dignity, if it were to be ruled in its proceedings by the unathenticated reports of newspapers; it should wait for authentic documents, whereon to govern its conduct. But what. was the language attributed to the British minister in discussing this topic in the British parliament? Nothing more than what had already been used by himself (Lord C.) in that house, merely recommending the measure of Union to the consideration of parliament, and declaring it to be a measure, in his conception, so essentially indispensable to perpetuate the connection between both kingdoms, to consolidate their mutual strength, and promote their mutual prosperity, that he should never lose sight of it; certainly not meaning that he would, or could press it against the Irish parliament and the Irish people. Little would he deserve to be a minister, who, though such a measure might for the present be contrary to the sense of parliament and of the nation, would bind himself by any declaration that might for ever hereafter preclude him from propounding that or any

other measure for the consideration of parliament, which as a minister bounden to promote the good of the country, he should conceive would tend to that desirable end.

Mr. Barrington opposed the adjournment, and inveighed against the speech of the British minister on the subject. There was not a man within either nation more zealously attached in loyalty to his king and government than himself, nor who would sacrifice more cheerfully to the maintenance of both; but if the honour and the dignity of the Irish parliament were to be again outraged, by an attempt to press upon them the odious measure of an Union, against which that house had already contended with so much spirit, virtue, and honest indignation, he declared, that he for one would go every length to oppose it in every shape and in all its ramifications. The people of Ireland should be told, in the strongest manner, of this daring attack on the independence of their parliament and the liberties of their country; and that house ought to come forthwith to some strong declaration in assertion of its own authority and independence.

Sir Henry Cavendish supported the adjournment. The sense of the country, he was convinced, was not generally against the measure; he had conversed that day with a gentleman of great respectability from the county of Cork, who assured him, all that province were decidedly in favour of the mea

sure.

Honourable Mr. Trench was for the adjournment, as the best mode of preventing the agitation of the public mind, so long anxious upon this question that it required time to repose.

Sir John Freke rose in consequence of what had fallen from (Sir H. Cavendish) touching the sentiments of the people of Munster. He had not that day conversed with many gentlemen from that country, but he had received letters from some of the most respectable and best informed gentlemen in that province, which so far from declaring the people there unanimous in favour of an Union, positively assured him of the strongest persuasion, that had the vote of Thursday night passed in favour of that measure, the whole province would have been the next day in open rebellion; and added, that it would not be very safe for the members, who voted for the measure to return to that part of the country.

Colonel Bagwell had received several letters from some of the best informed gentlemen in Tipperary, and so had his colleague, declaring the whole county to a man decidedly adverse to the measure of an Union.

Mr. Plunket condemned the declaration of the British minister, which was made under the influence of ignorance and delu