tage of fituation and every diffimilarity of temper and habit. Lord Chancel lor Clare faid, that the English parliament was lefs acquainted with the state of Ireland, than any other body of men in the world. How then was the parliament of England better fitted to legiflate for Irishmen, than that of Ireland with its experience?

With refpect to the general effect of intimidation, it did not reft upon prefumption. Had not a threat been thrown out, in what might be confidered as an official proclamation, that the troops which had been fent to Ireland might be withdrawn, that the money with which he was aided might be with-holden, and the country left helpless and devoted? Muft not the Irish, then, who have fupported the connexion, feel that they are not at liberty to choofe? Such infinuations an Irish clerk or fecretary had thought proper to throw out in his official pamphlet. The effect then upon the Irish must be, that it is impoffible for them to come to a free difcuffion of the fubject. Such hints from perfons in office, and the difmiffal of the best friends of Ireland from office, warranted this inference, that if a perfon, whether in or out of office, fhould oppofe the Union, he will be confidered as a traitor to his country? What must be the effect upon the minds of the officers and volunteers throughout the kingdom? He was willing to believe, that the noble lord at the head of affairs in Ireland had been directed to do what had been alluded to, and that it was not of his own accord. But to talk of free will under fuch circumftances was only adding mockery to injustice, and infult to injury.

He contended that the adjustment propofed would only unite two wretched bodies; that the minds would ftill be diftinct; and that eventually it might lead to feparation. The king of Sardinia had lately confented to the furrender of his territory, and faid it was right; but did any one believe that the confent was real? The cafe was the fame with refpect to Ireland. We could not have her real confent; we do not wifh it, or would not have had recourfe to corruption and intimidation. They had heard much abufe of French principles; but he recommended the abftaining from French practices. Let no fufpicion be entertained that we gained our object by intimidation or corruption; let our Union be an union of affection and attachment, of plain dealing and free will; let it be an union of mind and fpirit, as well as of intereft and power; let it not resemble those Irish marriages which commenced in fraud, and were confummated by force. Let us not commit a brutal rape on the independence of Ireland, when by tenderness of behaviour we may have her the

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willing partner of our fate. The ftate of Ireland did not admit fuch a marriage; her bans ought not to be published to the found of the trumpet, with an army of 40,000 men. She was not qualified for hymeneal rites, when the grave and the prifon held fo large a fhare of her population.

Some delay in this matter could produce no danger; and it was incumbent on the projectors of the plan to ftate the reafons, which rendered them fo eager to prefs it. As they had not explained their motives, he had been obliged to have recourse to the caftle pamphlet as to the proclamation of the Irish governThat author offered fingular reafons for difpatch; a dread of the continued influence of the pope and the intrigues of the British anti-minifterial party. He had alfo a fingular mode of quieting the Catholics, by making them defperate, by telling them that they had nothing to hope from their parliament. "Diffatisfaction (faid the pamphleteer) would sink into acquief

cence, and acquiefcence foften into content." "A very pretty fentence," faid Mr. Sheridan, "for a novel!" But what right had the author to affume, that, when the Union fhould have taken away the rights of the Catholics, their diffatisfaction would fink into acquiefcence? On the topic urged by the pamphleteer, refpecting the expediency of making ufe of a time of war and embarraffment to accomplish the wishes of Britain, in return for the advantage taken by the Irifh volunteers on a former occafion, and by the United Irishmen at a more recent period, he remarked, that the indignation of every man of honor must be roufed by fuch an appeal to the fpirit of revenge. Such arguments weighed fo lightly against the difadvantages of the measure, that he could not but condemn the precipitancy with which it was brought forward.

Mr. Sheridan then ftated the probable rifque of changes in our political fyftem, from the introduction of one hundred members into the British Houfe of Commons; members who, having facrificed the parliament of their own country, might not be fcrupuloufly tender of the British conftitution. He then difputed the competency of the Irifh legiflature to facrifice itfelf and transfer its power to the British legislature.

Mr. Sheridan concluded with moving an amendment,* exprefling the furprife and deep regret with which the house learned from his majefty that the final adjustment, which, upon his gracious recommendation, took place be

VOL. II.

* 7 Parl. Reg. p. 592.

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tween the kingdoms in the year 1782, and which, by the declaration of the parliaments of both countries, placed the connexion between them upon a folid and permanent bafis, had not produced the effects expected from that folemn fettlement; and alfo intimating, that his majesty's faithful commons, having ftrong reason to believe that it was in the contemplation of his minifters to propose an Union of the legislatures of the two kingdoms, notwithstanding the faid adjustment, felt it to be their bounden duty, impreffed as they were with the moft ferious apprehenfions of the confequences of fuch a proceeding at this time, to take the earliest opportunity humbly to implore his majesty not to listen to the counsel of those who should advise or promote such a measure at the present crisis, and under the present circumstances of the empire.

Mr. Canning first answered the allegations of Mr. Sheridan with regard to the adjustment of the year 1782. That agreement, he faid, was termed final in one of the refolutions then adopted; but, from a fubfequent vote, it appeared that the idea of establishing fome more permanent system never had been relinquished, An attention to the true import of that vote would remove all imputation of impropriety and inconfiftency from the measure then propofed. The late numerous and momentous events in Ireland rendered England more particularly interested in whatever concerned that kingdom. A most foul rebellion had broken out in that country, which, by the wife and vigorous measures of government, had been checked, though not totally quelled; party heats and animofities ftill exifted; factions still remained, whose leaders did not merely aim at the expulfion of this or that set of minifters, who aimed not at a partial reform of this or that political abuse, real or pretended; but whofe views threatened the annihilation of the government and conftitution of Ireland, and the total ruin of all connexion between that country and this? The exiftence of the horrid confpiracy was proved by the avowals of felf-convicted traitors, who were not penitent, but still entertained hopes of accomplishing the plots, which had been detected by the vigilance of parliament and of the executive government, and which would have laid the capital of the country in afhes, and destroyed every thing that was valuable or dear to the inhabitants; after the detection then of thefe deep and damned plots, was it not a matter of urgent neceffity to devise and adopt the most effectual means of counteracting the pernicious confequences that might otherwife flow from them, confequences that not only affected the

continuance of the connexion between the two countries, but which deeply ftruck at the profperity and very exittence of both?

Hence, the high importance of the object was evident. It was not the making of a provincial regulation, the adjustment of an internal difference, or the arrangement of a plan for balancing parties; it was nothing lefs than to fecure Ireland to us and to herself, and thus to promote the happiness and fecurity of the whole empire. It would have been more fair and candid, more like a statesman and patriot, deliberately to examine the plan before he would reject it, and then, if he could fuggeft any other scheme by which fuch a defirable object could be attained, to ftate it for the confideration of the house. He had not, however, faid that he poffeffed any fuch plan; and therefore the house ought not to reject the discussion of that propofed to them. Mr. Canning defended the confiftency of Mr. Cooke's pamphlet, and then referred to a work written by Dr. Duigenan, and obferved, that one of more convincing argument and more found truth he had never feen. The author, he thought, had confuted his antagonist, Mr. Grattan, in the completest manner. In fpeaking thus of Dr. Duigenan, he did it without partiality, because he did not know whether that gentleman were friendly to the Union or not. The doctor was well known to be decidedly hoftile to the pretensions of the Catholics, infifting on their exclufion from a share in the legislature, or in any of the great offices of state; but he admitted at the fame time that the neceffity of that exclufion would be done away by the adoption of an Union, which would fecure the Proteftant afcendancy, should they even grant the Irish Catholics complete emancipation.

Here then were two parties in oppofition to each other, agreeing, however, in one common opinion. But it was contended that this was an improper time for propofing the measure; yet, if an Union would quiet the agitations of Ireland, why fhould the remedy be delayed till the mischief of a battle fhould have taken place. The prefent time feemed particularly proper for the scheme of Union; and one of the effects that would speedily result from it would be the removal of a confiderable part of that armed force which excited the jealousy of the last speaker. That the deliberations of the Irish legislature had been influenced by the terrors of that army, or that the freedom of fpeech had been taken away, Mr. Canning was unwilling to admit. No evidence of fuch intimidation could be adduced; he justified the conduct of the miniftry towards Sir John Parnell, whofe oppofition to a measure of fuch

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fuch importance would render him a very unfit affociate, and might excite doubts of the fincerity of the court.

It ought to be confidered, that fome of the principles of the French revolution had made a great impreffion upon the inhabitants of Ireland, poor and uncivilized as the generality of them were, and distracted by religious feuds; and that the enemy ftill hoped to profit by the favorable difpofitions of a part of that nation. To extinguish fuch hopes, to put Ireland out of danger, both from her foreign and domeftic enemies, and in every point of view to improve her condition, were the objects of the propofed Union. It was not the fault of the people that the country was in fuch a fituation; they wanted commerce, they wanted capital, they wanted a particular clafs of men to connect the higheft and the lowest orders of fociety, fo as to harmonise the whole. But it was not a mere act of parliament that would accomplish these great and beneficial objects: it was only a connexion with a country which had capital, which had commerce, which had a refpectable middle clafs of men, that could effect the defired change.

It had been faid, that for the space of three hundred years we had oppreffed Ireland; but for the laft twenty years the conduct of England had been a feries of conceffions. The Irith wanted an octennial parliament; it was granted. They wished for an independent legislature; they had their wish. They defired a free trade; it was given to them. A very large body of the people of Ireland defired a repeal of a part of the penal code which they deemed oppreffive; the repeal was granted. The honorable gentleman had spoken as if nothing had been done for Ireland but what the extorted, and what she had a right to demand; he feemed to think that paft favors were no proofs of kindness. It was undoubtedly expedient that thefe advantages fhould be given to Ireland, because her profperity was the profperity of England; but they were not privileges which the could claim as matters of right.

Mr. Canning concluded with recommending a strict attention to his majesty's proposal, as the only great and comprehenfive view that had ever been taken of the affairs of Ireland, and with declaring his oppofition to Mr. Sheridan's amendment, as it would debar the Irish from obtaining that relief which their neceffities and their danger demanded.

Mr. Jones objected to the Union, chiefly, because it was unfolicited by the Irish, who were the beft judges of its expediency, and was therefore ill calculated to allay their difcontent.

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