boaft of its fuccefs, as, notwithstanding the apparent plurality of votes for the measure, the far greater number of independent members were adverse to it, and out of parliament the approvers of it were very few. The inhabitants of Cork, it was faid, were friendly to the fcheme, and thofe of Limerick were likewife difpofed to favor it; but had not the lure of a dock-yard been thrown out to the former, and a menace to the latter on the fubject of the linen trade? Thus, while fome were to be bribed, others were to be intimidated into compliance. The Catholics were among thofe, to whom favors were promised; but might not they be gratified without an Union? and might not every advantage, which was mentioned as the probable refult of the fcheme; be afforded without its adoption? Mr. Sheridan recapitulated feveral of his former arguments, and concluded with reading two refolutions, to which, he thought, no true friend of either country would object. They were couched in these terms: "that no mea"fures can have a tendency to improve and perpetuate the ties of amity and "connexion now exifting between Great Britain and Ireland, which have not "for their bafis the manifeft, fair, and free confent and approbation of the parliaments of the two countries;" and "that whoever shall endeavour to "obtain the appearance of fuch confent and approbation in either country, by employing the influence of government for the purpose of corruption or of intimidation, is an enemy to his majesty and to the constitution." Lord Hawkesbury animadverted on the charge of intimidation, affirming it to be inapplicable to the proceedings of the miniftry in the present cafe; denied that any corruption had been practifed; and represented the difmiffion of Anti-Unionifts from office as a proof of the fincerity of the premier in the profecution of an important meafure. He controverted the finality of the adjustment of 1782, and declared his conviction, that the radical evils of the exifting government in Ireland could not be completely removed without an Union. It would allay the jealoufies of the Catholics and the Proteftants, promote in every refpect the profperity of Ireland, and add to the strength and respectability of the whole empire. Dr. Laurence conjured the house to relinquish a difcuffion, which might be productive of ferious mifchief, while fo high a degree of irritation pervaded the public mind in Ireland. The meafure, he faid, was not neceffary at the present moment, even if it promifed to be more beneficial than he had reafon to think that it would be. The fettlement of 1782, according to the opinion 1 opinion of Mr. Burke, was to every conftitutional purpose final and conclufive, though the mercantile concerns of the two countries might require fome further arrangements. The houfe then divided upon the queftion for the fpeaker's leaving the chair, when the ayes were 140, the noes 15. The confident affurance of the minifter in final-fuccefs encouraged him to the profecution of this great defign. Having allowed the interval of a week for the confideration of the refolutions he had fubmitted to the house, on the 7th of February he propofed a full difcuffion of the fubject in a committee of the whole house, but before it was formed, he confented to dispose of Mr. Sheridan's motions refpecting the fair and free consent of both parliaments. Mr. Sheridan then renewed his oppofition to the fcheme. Since the laft meeting, he said, many gentlemen had been induced to alter their opinions, and to agree with him on the impropriety and the danger of perfifting in a measure, which was highly obnoxious to the people of Ireland; and as the house had not pledged itself to the support of it, it was not too late to check the rashness of its zealous advocates. The minifter might wish to pursue it against the sense of a nation; but the house ought to be fo far guided by prudence and judgment as to difregard all his perfuafions, and rescue the empire from the peril, in which he would involve it. It was curious to obferve the coincidence of the minister's views and declarations, in several instances, with thofe of a party, to which he was not generally fufpected of being attached. He agreed with the United Irithmen, in withing to destroy the obnoxious conftitution of Ireland. They alleged, that the parliament of that kingdom had occafioned all the evils, which afflicted the country: he adduced a fimilar charge against that body. They reprefented the Irish legiflators as being the dupes of British faction: he imputed all the errors of the government, all the distractions and misfortunes of Ireland to the fame fource, to the fway of a party, at the head of which was his friend the Duke of Portland, and to which another of his prefent affociates (Mr. Wyndham) belonged. Both were ready to exclaim, Delenda eft Carthago, though they differed in the mode of deftruction; as the United Irishmen wifhed to depofe their parliament, and establifh a republic with foreign aid, while the premier wished to merge the delinquent legislature in that of Great Britain. In the purfuit of their aims, thofe mal-contents had recourfe to menace and intimidation: he did not fcruple to adopt means equally improper. He recommended the adoption of of a plan of honeft incorrupt administration, as a remedy which had not yet been tried; and the prefent conjuncture was particularly favorable for the experiment. Mr. Pitt protested against the refolutions. One, which was felf-evident, it was not neceffary for the houfe to record, and there was ftill lefs reafon to entertain it, as it appeared to contain practical falfehood under the form of literal truth; for it implied, that the measure was to be carried into effect without the fair and free confent of parliament. The fecond propofition tended to stigmatize every minister, whofe perfuafions fhould procure the difmiffal of officers of the crown on account of a difference of fentiment upon any great political queftion. That practice arofe out of the very nature of regular government, and was neceffary for the public fervice. Mr. Grey contended for the propriety of recording the propofitions of his friend on the Journals of the houfe; they would ferve as pledges, he faid, for the honorable intentions of the British government, and allay the jealoufy of the Irish nation. On a division upon the previous queftion, the numbers were 25 against and 141 for it. The committee was on the point of being formed for the difcuffion of Mr. Pitt's propofitions, when The honorable Mr. Saint John conjured the houfe to difmifs the question for the present, as the agitation of it might be productive of mifchievous confequences. Mr. Grey confidered the queftion as the moft momentous, that had ever been submitted to the deliberation of parliament, either in point of conftitutional right or of public policy; but as one of the parties whofe consent was neceffary had declared against it, he recommended a fufpenfion of the fcheme. He was earnestly defirous of the prevalence of the most cordial harmony, of the establishment of an effective Union, not an Union of parliaments, but of hearts, of affections, and interefts; of vigor, of ardor, of zeal for the general welfare. The fcheme then offered feemed to be of a very different tendency. It threatened difcontent, jealoufy, and distrust. The evils in queftion might be imputed to the misconduct of government rather than to the feparation of the parliaments; and for these the prime minifter was refponfible, unless he should be able to prove, that obnoxious meafures had been forced upon him by the sturdy difpofitions of the Irish mem bers. bers. Who had foftered the religious diffenfions and political feuds, which distracted the nation? Who had raised hopes, and disappointed those hopes? Who had excited alarms, and created difcontent? The prospect of additional favours to the Catholics had given pleasure to liberal men of all denominations; but a party, not distinguished by talents or by real dignity, fomented animofity and intolerance, and procured by intrigue a dereliction of the fyftem of conceffion. From that moment affairs wore a gloomy afpect; and the confequences were violent and difaftrous. Mr. Secretary Dundas (now Lord Melville) observed, that the measure, far from operating injuriously on Ireland, would increase the political and commercial advantages of that country in the fame proportion as those of Scotland had been improved by the Union. That' a spirit of clamor and diffension, of treachery and treason,' menacing the overthrow of the government, existed in Ireland, no one, he thought, would have the boldness to deny ; and, as the influence of widely-extended confpiracies endangered the connexion between the countries, an immediate interference was neceffary to rescue the western realm from the intrigues of the common enemy. For a due regulation of the affairs of any community, a mutual confidence ought to fubfift between the governors and the governed; but that was not the cafe in Ireland, where the great body of the people did not repofe in the parliament that confidence, which was effential to its utility. The reasons of that defect grew out of the frame and conftitution of that parliament. The whole power of that country being vested in a fourth part of the nation, and that fourth being separated from the reft by religious distinctions, heightened and envenomed by ancient and hereditary animofities: it was impoffible that a proper confidence could exift between them. For the establishment of fuch a confidence, the grant of a free participation of all the privileges of Britons by the fuperintending care of an imperial parliament, would be the most efficacious measure. The Proteftants would then lay afide their jealoufies and diftruft, being certain that against any attempt to endanger their establishment the whole ftrength of the united legislature would be exerted; and, on the other hand, the Catholics would expect that their caufe would be candidly and impartially confidered by a general parliament, the great body of which would be relieved from the apprehenfions and animofities interwoven with the conftitution of the exifting legislature. Mr. Dundas spoke largely of the Scottish Union, and referred to a letter of Queen Anne to the northern parliament, predicting the various bleffings, with refpect to religion, liberty, and property, which would refult from the fcheme of incorporation, and he faid, that not one fyllable of her predictions had failed. Two eftates of the Irish parliament, the king and the peers, had pointedly expreffed their defire, that the fubject thould be entertained and confidered;' while only a very narrow majority' in the Houfe of Commons had embraced the contrary opinion. It could not therefore be faid, that the affair was fo far decided as to render it unneceffary or improper to fubmit it again to the notice of the Irish nation. He could not help auguring well to the final fuccefs of the measure, as effential to the happiness of Ireland, when he contemplated the clamor and violence, by which the confideration of it had been refifted. Thefe are not the weapons, by which truth and folid reasoning maintain their empire over the hearts and understandings of men. Cool confideration and fober reasoning were the arms by which the caufe of truth was fupported; and he had no doubt that these weapons, properly used, would ultimately fucceed against clamor and prejudice. Thus the fyftem of excife, once highly unpopular, was at length relifhed and approved of; and the union with Scotland, odious at firft, became at laft a popular meafure. Mr. Dundas expreffed his with, that the Irish would difpaffionately re-confider the propofal; and he was confident, that they would find it the best remedy for the diforders of their country, their strongest bulwark and their greatest bleffing. He concluded a very long and not altogether uninftructive harangue with a strong hint, of the probability of future indulgence being granted by an Imperial Parliament to the Catholics of both countries, and a sketch of the bitter effects of French fraternity, which, he hoped, no Irishman would prefer to British liberty. Mr. Sheridan replied to fome of the arguments of Mr. Dundas with a mixture of reasoning and raillery, and ftill urged the impolicy of perfifting in a measure, to which the Irish did not give a free affent. Mr. Windham obferved, that it had been infinuated that the Union was a meafure calculated for the exclufive advantage of Great Britain at the expence of Ireland; but the reverse seemed to him to be the cafe. The disorders of that kingdom might be afcribed to various caufes; they chiefly grew out of the nature of its conftitution. That like a body distorted and mis-fhapen, gave rife to various difeafes, fome chronical, and fome acute, which, as they were inherent in its frame, no medicine could eradicate. The deformity of that confti |