other than calicoes and muflins; glafs; haberdashery; hats; tin plates, wrought iron, and hardware; gold and filver lace, gold and filver thread, bullion for lace, pearl, and fpangles; millinery; paper, ftained; pottery; fadlery and other manufactured leather; filk manufacture; ftockings -ten per cent. on the true value. Refolved, that it be the feventh article of union, that the charge arifing from the payment of the intereft, and the finking fund for the reduction of the principal of the debt incurred in either kingdom before the union, fhall continue to be feparately defrayed by Great Britain and Ireland refpectively, except as hereinafter provided: that, for the space of twenty years after the union fhall take place, the contribution of Great Britain and Ireland refpectively, towards the expenditure of the united kingdom in each year, fhall be defrayed in the proportion of fifteen parts for Great Britain, and two parts for Ireland: that, at the expiration of the faid twenty years, the future expenditure of the united kingdom (other than the intereft and charges of the debt to which either country fhall be feparately liable,) fhall be defrayed in fuch proportion as the parliament of the united kingdom fhall deem juft and reafonable, upon a comparison of the real value of the exports and imports of the an averrefpective countries upon age of the three years next preced ing the period of revifion, or on a comparifon of the value of the quantities of the following articles confumed within the refpective countries on a fimilar average, viz. beer, fpirits, fugar, wine, tea, tobacco, and malt, or according to the aggregate proportion refulting from both thefe confiderations com- a which peace, or which the whole amount of duty payable thereon would exceed the amount which will be thereafter payable in England on the like article: that if, at the end of any year, any furplus fhall accrue from the revenues of Ireland, after defraying the intereft, finking fund, and proportional contribution and feparate charges to which the faid country fhall then be liable, taxes fhall be taken off to the amount of fuch fur plus, or the furplus thall be applied by the parliament of the united Kingdoin to local purpofes in Ireland, or to make good any defici ency which may arife in the revemes of Ireland in time of he invented, by commiflioners of the rational debt of Ireland, in the finds, to accumulate for the benefit of Ireland, at compound intereft, in eale of the contribution of Ireland in time of war; provided that the furplus fo to accumulate fall at no future period be fuffered to exceed the fum of five millions: that, all monies to be railed after the union by loan in peace or war for the fervice of the united kingdom by the parliament thereof, thall be confidered to be a joint debt, and the charges thereof shall be borne by the refpective countries in the proportion of their refpective contributions; provided that if at any time, in railing their refpective contributions hereby fixed for cach country, the parliament of the united kingdom thall judge it fit to raife a greater proportion of fuch refpective contributions in one country within the year than in the other, or to fet apart a greater proportion of finking fund for the liquidation of the whole or any part of the loan raifed on account of the one country than of that raifed on account of the other country, then fuch part of the faid loan, for the liquidation of which different provifions fhall have been made for the refpective coun tries, fhall be kept diftinct, and shall be borne by each feparately, and only that part of the faid loan be deemed joint and common, for the reduction of which the refpective countries fhall have made provision in the proportion of their respective contributions: that, if at any future day the feparate debt of each country refpectively hall have been liquidated, or if the values of their refpective debts (estimated according to the amount of the intereft and annuities attending the fame, and of the finking fund applicable to the reduction thereof, and to the period within which the whole capital of fuch debt fhall appear to be redeemable by fuch finking fund) fhall be to each other in the fame proportion with the respective contributions of each country relpectively, or if the amount by which the value of the larger of luch debts fhall vary from fuch proportion thall not exceed one hundredth part of the faid value; and if it hall appear to the parliament of the united kingdom, that the respective circumftances of the two countries will thenceforth admit of their contributing indifcriminately, by equal taxes impofed on the fame articies in cach, to the future expenditure of the united kingdom, it fhall be competent to the parliament of the united kingdom to declare, that all future expenfe thenceforth to be incurred, together with the intereft and charges of all joint debts contracted previous to fuch declaration, fhall be fo defrayed indifcriminately by equal taxes imposed on the fame articles in each country, and and thenceforth from time to time, as circumstances may require, to impole and apply fuch taxes accordingly, fubject only to fuch particular exemptions or abatements in Ireland, and in that part of Great Britain called Scotland, as circumftances may appear from time to time to demand: that, from the period of fuch declaration, it shall no longer be neceffary to regulate the contribution of the two countries towards the future expenditure of the united kingdom, according to any specific proportion, or according to any of the rules hereinbefore prefcribed; provided, nevertheless, that the intereft or charges which may remain on account of any part of the feparate debt with which either country fhall be chargeable, and which fhall not be liquidated or confolidated proportionably as above, fhall, until extinguished, continue to be defrayed by feparate taxes in each country: that a fum, not less than the fum which has been granted by the parliament of Ireland, on the average of fix years immediately preceeding the 1ft day of January, in the year 1800, in premiums for the internal encouragement of agriculture or manufactures, or for the maintaining inftitutions for pious and charitable purposes, fhall be applied, for the period of twenty years after the union, to fuch local purposes in Ireland, in fuch manner as the parliament of the united kingdom fhall direct: that, from and after the lft day of January, 1801, all public revenue arifing to the united kingdom, from the territorial dependencies thereof, and applied to the general expenditure of the united kingdom, thall be fo applied in the YO. XLII. proportions of the refpective contributions of the two countries. - Refolved, that it be the eighth article of the union, that all laws in force, at the time of the union, and all the courts of civil and ecclefi aftical jurifdiction within the ref pective kingdoms, fhall remain now as by law established within the fame, fubject only to such alterations and regulations from time to time as circumftamces may appear to the parliament of the united kingdom to require; provided that all writs of error and appeals depending at the time of the union, or hereafter to be brought, and which might now be finally decided by the house of lords of either kingdom, fhall from and after the union be finally decided by the houfe of lords of the united kingdom; and provided that, from and after the union, there fhall remain in Ireland an inftance court of admiralty, for the determination of caufes civil and maritime only; and that the appeal from fentences of the faid court, fhall be to his ma jefty's delegates in his court of chancery in that part of the united kingdom called Ireland; and that all laws at prefent in force in either kingdom, which shall be contrary to any of the provifions which may be enacted by any act for carrying thefe articles into effect, be from and after the union repealed. Addrefs to the King with the above Refolutions. Moft gracious fovereign, We, your majefty's moft dutiful and loyal fubjects, the lords fpiritual and temporal, and commons, in parliament aflembled, humbly beg leave to acquaint your majesty, that, that, in conformity to your majefty's gracious meflage, laying before us, the refolutions of the lords and commons of Ireland, we have proceeded to refume the confideration of the great and important fubject of a legiflative union between: Great Britain and Ireland; and it is with unspeakable fatisfaction we. have obferved the conformity of the faid refolutions to thofe principles, which we humbly fubmitted to your majefty in the laft feffion of parliament, as calculated to form the bafis of fuch a fettlement. With the few alterations and additions which we have found it neceflary to fuggeft, we confider thefe refolutions as fit to form articles of union between Great Britain and Ireland; and if thofe alterations and additions fhall be approved by the two houses of the parliament of Ire land, we are ready to confirm and ratify thefe articles, in order that the fame may be established for ever by the mutual confent of both parliaments. We offer to your majefty our humble congratulations upon the near profpect of the accomplithment of a work, which your majesty, as the common father of your people, has juftly declared to be fo near your heart; concurring, as we do, with your houfes of parliament in Ireland, in the full conviction that, by incorporating the legiflatures, and confolidating the refources of the two kingdoms, we hall increase the power and ftability of the British empire, and thall at the fame time contribute in the moft effectual manner to the improvement of the commerce, the fecurity of the religion, and the prefervation of the liberties of your majefty's fubjects in Ireland. Proteft entered on the Journals of the Irish Houfe of Lords, against the. Union. -Diffentient, 1ft.Bions the principle of DECAUSE the refolutioni a legiflative union between Great Britain and Ireland, without an opportunity having been afforded to this houfe of examining the details. which are held out as an induce-› ment for its adoption; details which have occupied the attention of those who have propofed the measure for a confiderable length of time, and which therefore should not be haftily, or without due confideration, acted upon by any branch of the legislature of Ireland. 2dly, Because those details do not appear to us, on fuch confideration as we have been allowed to give them, to proffer any benefits to this country of which it is not already in possession, or to afford any remedy for any of the evils which it at prefent has reafon to apprehend. 3dly, Because the refolution propoles, as a remedy for partial and temporary evils, an act which, if once adopted, binds us and our pofterity for ever. 4thly, Because we confider the independence of Ireland, and the fecurity of her connection with Great Britain, to be equally effential to the well-being of this country; and that we confider both as endangered by the mealure of a le giflative union. 5thly, Because the prefent conftitution of thefe kingdoms, founded on the complete unity of their executive power, and the perfect dif tinctnefs of their legiflatures, appears to us as happily contrived as the limited nature of human inftitutions can admit to maintain na tional freedom in both countries, and unalterable connection between both. i + tives for the people of Ireland fhall be added to the British house of commons, confifting of 558 members, and that the prefent entire British houfes of parliament, with the faid additional members, fhall form their united parliament; from 6thly, Because the, plan pro- which it is evident that the entire pofed, whether it be good or whe- power of making laws and impother it be ill, appears to us calcu fing taxes muft refide in the preponlated to effect a total and funda- derating majority of the British mental change in the conftitution members in fuch parliament; which of Ireland; a change which ought power, though it might without not to be ventured on, without the danger be entrufted to them if the unequivocal approbation of the in- two nations were to be fo perfectly formed understanding and refident incorporated as to form but one property of the country, both of nation, and to have but one purse, which we confider, to be adverle to as in the union between England, the reception of the measure. Scotland, and Wales; yet in the at i - 7thly, Because we confider the prefent feafon of innovation ill adapted for the difcuffion of new fyftems of government, more particularly in this country, which has only juft efcaped from the rexolutionary projects of foreign and domellic enemies, and in which the ordinary course of law has been neceffarily fufpended. 8thly, Because, next to the protection of Divine Providence, we hold this country indebted for its prefervation from those evils to the vigilance of its refident parliament, and the loyalty of its refident gentry, the former of whom the propofed measure neceffarily removes from the country, and the latter of whom it must powerfully operate to withdraw 9thly, Becaule, by the plan laid before us for conftituting the parliament of the united kingdoms, it is intended that four fpiritual and twenty-eight temporal lords shall be added to the British houfe of lords, confiting of upwards of 300 members, and that 100 reprefenta intended union, where diftinct revenues, diftinct taxes, and diftinct expenfes fhall continue to exift between the two nations, it mutt leave the liberties of the Irith na tion at the difpofal of fuch British majority, who will make the law's for the internal regulation of Ireland, which fhall not in any fort affect themfelves, and impofe taxes upon that kingdom, the preffure of which they will not feel. It appears to us that the exercife of fuch power muft neceffarily produce univerfal difcontent, and may poffibly tend to alienate the affections of Ireland from Great Britain. 10thly, And above all, becaufe we conceive that no fcheme of national adjuftment can be honourable, fatisfactory, or permanent, which is not confidered with mature deliberation, profecuted by fair and temperate means, and founded on the uninfluenced fenfe of parliament, no one of which effential requifites can we find in the prefent project. Leinster, Downshire, |