the inextinguishable quarrel, and rendered the ftate of the conquered and the settler more hoftile and rancorous than in the moment of ufurpation. If the fovereigns between him and his great predeceffor are juftly chargeable with omiffion in neglecting the civilization or incorporation of the natives, the colony itself from that time is to be accused of that exclufive and ungenerous policy which has depreffed and degraded the human character itself in the form of the native Irish; and if England is to be condemned, as she justly may be, it is for her criminal indulgence to her colony, and her inactivity and inattention to the natives who were entitled to her protection.

But it is the more to be lamented that the crown of England fhould have omitted to accomplish or attempt the incorporation of Ireland before or at the period of the reformation becaufe by that event it became in a great measure

measure impoffible for the British colony itself to effect any thing favourable to the native, or to work with fincerity for his improvement, and the advancement of his condition. They were placed at a wider distance; new barriers had fprung up between them; and while the fee of Rome, which had granted Ireland to a pious prince, never ceased to contest it with his heretic fucceffors, the colony had new dangers to provide againft, or new injuries to revenge.

I am not preparing to fhew the progress of these natural and religious diffenfions, too legible in the worst pages of our hiftory, but it is an object of the greatest confequence to confider it with unbiaffed meditation, in order to determine this important question with fidelity and precifion, "Whether it be poffible for the British colony to ameliorate the condition of the natives?" James the first seems, of all our princes, to be entitled to commen

dation

dation for his falutary efforts in that amiable work, but the liberality of fucceeding times has been conftantly overpowered and defeated by the obstacles I have related.

It is certainly a matter very little to our honour in any point of view, that after a period of fix hundred years fo little progrefs fhould have been made in the conciliation of the minds of the Irish, in the amelioration of their condition, or in their fufion and intermixture with the colony. It cannot be without our own fault and reproach, that we have not effectually interfered in their favour, and compelled our plantation to a more just and enlightened policy with regard to them; and the accumulated rancour of fo many centuries, now burst at laft their heads, will be a dreadful caution to other conquerors, how long they retain thefe odious diftinctions, and defer the complete union and incorporation of their acquifitions.

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It is the practice of our enemies to reproach this country with every evil and every accident that has ever befallen Ireland. But if ever their accufations had been juft, or they had fought for any truth or any argument to fupport them, they would have reproached us for our long delay, protraction and omiffion, of this very measure of union which we are now accused by fome of our colonists of presenting premature and untimely to their independent parliament; it is our cruel indifference to the inftruction and well-being of the native, and our obfequious tenderness to the fettler; it is, that the "final fettlement" of Ireland has been deferred through fo many reigns; that we are now attempting that which ought to have been perfected by every prince, at least fince the reformation. It is that we have not incorporated; that we have not done our duty by the subjects we acquired; that we have fuffered them to preferve the memory of an original wrong, and to remain in a state of igno

ignorance, rudeness and barbarifm, worse in its effects, and more degrading in its nature, than that in which our fathers found them fix centuries before.

If we look to any part of the continent which has been conquered, inherited or acquired by any other ftate, we fhall not find the fame impolicy, and I must add, the same cruelty as our own; for though I will never vindicate or advise measures of violence and injustice, I have no fcruple to say that there is no violence more cruel than neglect, and no injustice equal to the cold continuance of the miseries we found. Not that the meafures we have purfued in Ireland have been always free from active violence and exceffes; both Cromwell and William the Third made cruel retaliations upon the rebellious native, and exacted grievous forfeitures and confiscations. If we were repreached for these deeds of theirs by the catholic and the attainted