Then lord Castlereagh, in a warm panegyric on the British minister, concluded, that, as on a recurrence of danger, Great Britain might not have such a character to rise up again for her salvation, it was highly expedient to seize the present moment, and strengthen the Irish constitution by blending and uniting it for ever with the great and powerful empire of Britain. If that important object should be accomplished, and if at any future time the enemies of Britain and of mankind should be let loose upon the social world, Ireland, he doubted not, would be in such a situation of unanimity and power, as to bear a conspicuous part with Great Britain in the glorious task of restoring the liberties of Eu

rope.

Mr. G. Ponsonby made a powerful attack on the Irish minister. He vindicated the Anti-unionists, who were accused of irregular practices, by observing, that, though at any other time and under different circumstances such behaviour might be extraordinary, yet, when it was considered, that a formidable rebellion was scarcely suppressed, and that martial law was in force, the interference of men of rank, property, and respectability, seemed to be necessary, in order to shew to the people the safety and the propriety of expressing, in a constitutional manner, their sense of a measure, which would deprive them of constitution, of liberty. of every thing dear and valuable to themselves and to their country.

He treated as visionary all the proffered advantages of Union. In the ecclesiastical establishment, Union would produce but one solid effect, which would be to translate the Irish into English bishops.

06

He then summed up the effects of the Union in these terms: "Your peerage is to be disgraced; your commons purchased; no additional advantage in commerce; for twenty years a little "saving in contribution; but, if the cabinet of England think, "that we contribute more than we should, why not correct that extravagance now? If any thing should be conceded in the way "of trade, why is it not conceded now? Are any of those bene"fits incompatible with our present state? No; but the minister 66 wants to carry his Union; and no favour, however trifling, can "be yielded to us, unless we are willing to purchase it with the "existence of parliament and the liberties of the country."

A short speech of censure from sir John Parnell was succeeded by a long one from Mr. Dobbs, but there was nothing new in their arguments. The latter of these two gentlemen was very enthusiastic in his declamation. He at length consoled himself with this reflection, that the fate of nations was not in the hands of man. It was not the will of a British minister that could rob Ireland of her newly-acquired rights: he proclaimed it to the two

nations, that the independence of Ireland was written in the immutable records of Heaven.

Colonel Verreker, Mr. Lee and Mr. Ogle, again reprobated the measure; sir John Blaquiere, Mr. Martin, and Mr. Ormsby strenuously supported it.

Mr. John Claudius Beresford denied, that the greater part of the property in the kingdom favoured the Union. Such a conclusion could not be drawn from the addresses which had been presented, while so many petitions proved the contrary. On the subject of the letters missive, he saw nothing very strange in such endeavours to procure the real sense of the country, when so many extraordinary means had been used to procure an apparent one. He admitted, that the establishment would be endangered by the emancipation of the Catholics while Ireland should continue to have a separate parliament; but, in the event of an Union, he pledged himself to promote the grant of the concessions which they desired.

Mr. Burrowes declared, that his opposition to the progress of the measure did not arise from the peculiar demerit of the plan now developed, but from his unwillingness to surrender the constitution of the realm upon any terms whatever, or to transfer the supreme power of the state to a country divided from Ireland by boundaries which could not be removed, and by feelings which could not be extinguished. If an Union should pass, as an Irishman he should be indifferent how many or how few deputies should be sent from their emasculated country. The parliament could not be said to exercise an unbiassed judgment, though he would not particularise the means by which it had been influenced. With regard to the opinion of the public, it was clear, that the general voice was strongly against the measure. The detestation of it was strikingly apparent in every quarter of the kingdom, and among all classes of people. This display of the national sentiment was an awful warning.

Mr. Edgeworth, disclaiming all party connexion, discussed some points connected with the measure. He did not object to it as an innovation. The settlement of 1782 was an innovation; and he concurred in the opinion, that it was intended to be final, though by no means perfect. While he wished for an Union, he did not altogether approve the plan now recommended. It would leave grounds of jealousy and altercation, and would not involve the complete identity of interest requisite for the stability of such a measure. He also thought it improper to urge the scheme, unless it should appear to be desired by the sober and impartial majority of the nation; and, while seventy boroughs were allowed to be saleable commodities, for which the public money was to be given, he not only deemed it impossible to collect the genuine

sense of the nation in that house, but could not conscientiously support a scheme attended with this avowed corruption.

Mr. Mac Cleland ridiculed the idea of the present independence of Ireland; affirmed, that national and commercial jealousies were necessarily incident to the existing connexion between the countries; and recommended an Union, as tending to combine real independence with wealth and prosperity.

Mr. Tighe accused lord Castlereagh of having argued upon two assumptions, which he could not prove. One was, that the opinion of the nation was in favour of the measure; the other, that Ireland could be adequately and fairly represented in an united parliament. He also charged the Unionists with having had recourse to the dishonourable arts of corruption and intimidation, in the prosecution of their unconstitutional scheme.

Mr. Smith denied, that the Union would annihilate the liberties or the constitution of Ireland; and asserted, that the greater part of the property and intelligence of the country justly considered the measure in an opposite point of view.

Mr. J. M. O'Donell reprobated the scheme with great warmth, and inveighed particularly against the apostates and traitors, who aimed at the ruin of their country. He contradicted the attor ney-general's assertion, that Molyneux had recommended a legislative Union.

Mr. Serjeant Stanley spoke in favour of Union.

Mr. Grattan said, that the right honourable gentleman propos ed a counter-revolution, as if he were to bring in a bill to depose the House of Hanover, and re-establish that of Stuart: he proposed to restore the domination of the British parliament, which abdicated Ireland, and to depose the Irish parliament that had saved her; grounding the proposition on the opportunity, the weakness, the divisions, and the martial law of the country; but concealing those grounds, because a disclosure of them would display the real character and perfidy of the measure, and professing to introduce it on another ground, namely, the wishes of the country, as mis-stated and misrepresented by the servants of the crown. In this proposition, the minister had gigantic difficulties to encounter. It was incumbent upon him to explain away the tyrannical acts of a century; to apologise for the lawless and oppressive proceedings of England, for a system which had counteracted the kindness of Providence towards Ireland, and had kept her in a state of thraldom and misery; to prove that the British parliament had undergone a great change of disposition; to disprove two consequences, which were portended by the odium of the Union and the increased expenses of the empire, namely, a military government for a considerable time, and, at no very distant period, an augmentation of taxes; to deny or dispute the

growth of the prosperity of Ireland, under the maternal wing of her own parliament; to controvert the sufficiency of that legislature for imperial purposes or commercial objects, though facts were against him; and to explode or recal his repeated declarations in its favour. In short, he had to prove many points, which he could by no means demonstrate; and to disprove many, which might be forcibly maintained against him. It was, moreover, singular to behold the man, who denied the right of France to alter her government, maintaining the omnipotence of the parlia ment of Ireland to annul her constitution.

He then urged the very serious importance of the question. It was not such as had formerly occupied their attention: not old Poynings, not peculation, not an embargo, not a Catholic bill, not a reform bill-it was their being-it was more, it was their life to come-whether they would go to the tomb of Charlemont and the volunteers, and erase his epitaph, or whether their children should go to their graves, saying, "A venal, a military court at"tacked the liberties of the Irish, and here lie the bones of the "honourable men, who saved their country." Such an epitaph was a nobility which the king could not give to his slaves; it was a glory which the crown could not give to the king.

Mr. Corry, the chancellor of the exchequer, offered some observations in reply, that contained no novelty.

Dr. uigenan entered into a most diffuse dissertation upon the subject, disclaimed all connexion with the ministers of either country, and asserted the sincerity of his own convictions in favour of an Union.

Mr. Saurin asserted the existence of a compact between the government and the people. It was to be found, he said, in the heart of every honest senator; and he trusted, that every member would reflect on the duties involved in such a 'compact before he would give his vote on the present question. The functions and authority of parliament ought not to be transferred to another country, without the sanction of a full and ascertained majority of the people. The trustees of power had no right of themselves to destroy that which they were delegated to preserve.

Colonel Fitzgerald, Mr. Johnson, and the solicitor general spoke in favour of Union.

When the question was called for, the house divided, at a very late hour, 158 for lord Castlereagh's motion, and 115 against it. In returning from the house, some of the members were insulted by the populace for supporting the Union; but no serious mischief ensued. Applications were made to the viceroy for protection; and from that time forward, under pretence of securing the persons of the members from insult and outrage, a regular guard of cavalry was mounted in Foster's Place, near to the Parliament House, round which they regularly paraded during all future debates. This mea

sure of precaution or pretext was loudly reprobated by the AntiUnionists, as a military control, and therefore as an unconstitutional check upon the freedom of debate.

When the number of the placemen, pensioners, and other influenced members, who had voted on the late division is considered, the minister had but slender grounds for triumphing in his majority of 48, if from them were to be collected the genuine sense of the independent part of that house and of the people of Ireland, whom they represented. Flushed however with the unexpected success, the minister eagerly sent it in to the lords, where the earl of Clare had pledged himself to carry it through.* Here on the 10th of February, 1800, the order of the day having been read for taking his majesty's message into consideration relative to the proposed legislative Union between Great Britain and Ireland, and the articles for that purpose, the lord chancellor arose to call their lordships' attention to a subject certainly the most momentous, which had ever been submitted for decision to the parliament of that country: a subject embracing the vital interests of Ireland, and intimately affecting the strength and prosperity of the British empire. But when he recollected the criminal and unexampled efforts which had been made, from the moment that measure was first proposed for discussion, to bear it down by noise, and faction, and intrigue, if not by recommendations of open rebellion, he should condemn himself for a gross dereliction of his duty, were he to forbear to submit it to their most serious consideration, in all its various and important views and bearings, under the strong conviction, that nothing but Union would save that kingdom from annihilation, and eventually uphold the stability of the British empire. From a critical and attentive observation of what had passed in Ireland for the last twenty years, he was satisfied in his judgment and conscience, that the existence of her independent parliament had gradually led to her recent complicated and bitter calamities; and that it had at length become desperate and impracticable. He had, more than once, in the House of Commons, stated without reserve, that the rapid growth of faction, and the precipitate folly and passion of men, who from time to time were suffered to take a command

So imperiously in the eyes of the British cabinet did the relative situations of the two kingdoms now call for a legislative Union, so unlikely did it appear, that another favourable opportunity of carrying the measure should soon recur, that recourse was certainly had to the powers of patronage and influence; and many, it is to be feared, in both houses sacrificed their convictions. Twentyseven new titles were added to the peerage; promotions, grants, concessions, arrangements, promises were lavished with a profusion never before known in that country. Pity for both sides, that so great and important a political measure should owe any part of its success, to other than the means of temperate reason and persuasion.