189 Great Britain and Ireland, the Meafure at this Time. ART. XXIX. Some Obfervations on the projected Union between and the Expediency of agitating By J. H. C. Efq. Barrister at Law, 8yo. Pp. 35. M'Kenzie, Dublin. 1798, HESE obfervations are published with a view to fhew that the prefent time, when the minds of the people of Ireland are in a ftate of perturbation, arifing from the internal diforders which have fo long prevailed in that country, is peculiarly unfavourable for bringing forward the important queftion of an Union. They are temperate, pertinent, and judicious, and prove the author to be a fincere friend to the British empire, with no more than a laudable partiality for his native foil; fuch a partiality, in short, as refults from a generous and a noble fentiment, and fuch, confequently, as every man ought to poffefs. He is evidently anxious that a queftion of fuch magnitude fhould undergo a calm and deliberate difcuffion, and it is on that account that he wishes it not to be brought forward at prefent, and that, whenever it is brought forward, it may be stripped of all thofe extraneous topics with which vanity, prefumption, malevolence, or folly feeks to incumber it. His remarks on national dignity, and national pride, are particularly appofite. "That which is termed national dignity, feems to me to be as little understood, as it has been greatly mifapplied on the prefent occafion. Where two kingdoms have but one Crown, yet feparate legislatures; where a phyfical incorporation, but not a political one, has been formed by degrees;-where one fleet and one army, nationally indivifible even in thought, have been formed from the fubjects of each without diftinction;-where the enemies of one are the enemies of both;-where peace and war affect both or neither;-where the fubjects of the one are entitled to all the natural rights of the other-where is the diftinct and feparate national dignity of either? I know of none. The dignity of fuch an empire is not divifible into parts. "National pride is but too generally national prejudice. The introduction of thofe plaufible terms amongst the objects of real confideration, is loading the enquiry with gilded baubles. They are like the foils and fpangles on the flipper of the Opera-dancer, which catch the eye and give a falfe appearance of action." R. 16. 17. The author is friendly to an Union provided the terms be fair and equitable; but the arguments which he adduces to fhew that the prefent time is unfavourable for the project, proves, at leaft, that he knows the temper of his countrymen full well. "Without being fairly examined, it will be confidered as injurious to Ireland; candour, and cool judgement, and good temper will be ftrangers to the determipation, and the true interefts of the nation will be overlooked; violent refolutions and decifions will follow: I know the impetuous and irritable temper of my countrymen, and I know how eafily it is mifdirected. "An event the moft extraordinary, the most dangerous, and, I will add, the moft unnatural may fucceed; a temporary, and partial, and defigning coalition may be formed between the difaffected and the loyal: partial-becaufe it has only one object in view, namely, the defeat of the measure of an Union; defigning-becaufe it is making the loyal part of the nation ancillary to the views of traitors; jemporary-bccaule it will ceafe with its object. The effects of fuch a coaliton are are not easily calculated; animofities would be created between Ireland and Britain, and the grand wifh of treafon would be accomplished by the creation of a divifion between two kingdoms, which ought to be linked together by an indiffoluble tie, and have no separate interests. ART. XXX. Reafons against an Union, in which Arguments for and against an Union, fuppofed to have come from a Perfon in high Station, are particularly confidered. By an Irifhman. 8vo. Pp. 32. 8vo. Pp. 32. Folingfby, Dublin. 1798. THUS HIS writer queftions the competence of Parliament to vote an Union, and feeks to fupport his pofition by quotations from Grotius, Puffendorff, and Locke. Locke's reafoning refpecting the power of the people being entirely founded on falfe premises, viz, that goverment is a delegation iffuing from the people, and its power entirely derived from them; it is not furprifing that his conclufions fhould be erroneous. As to the inftances adduced from Grotius and Puffendorff, they do not appear to us to bear upon the point in queftion, for they evidently confine the lawfulness of refiftance to cafes wherein the fupreme power of the ftate is transferred, without the consent of the people, to other hands; even Locke limits it (on this question) to a transfer of the power of making laws. Now the KING is the Jupreme power of the ftate, the Caput, Principium, et Finis, (to nfe the words of Lord Coke,) he it is who makes laws, by and with the advice and confent of the Lords and Commons; and we have not heard of any intention of transferring the Crown of Ireland to any other head. The author admits that an Union would be productive of many advantages, but, in his opinion, these would be more than counterba lanced by the difadvantages which it would produce, and, therefore, he is inimical to it. Many of his obfervations are marked by good fenfe, all his arguments are urged with decorum, and he has certainly fulfilled what he states to have been his wish; "to difcufs the question with temper and moderation, to avoid all extraneous matter, and to give offence to none.” ART. XXXI. Ireland Sabinized, or a Cafe in Point. 8vo. Pp. 15. Price 6d. Hill, Dublin, 1799. MR R. Cooke is here called "an incendiary," whofe "fallacy and hypocrify" the writer of this pamphlet undertakes to expofe, by fhewing, that the English and Irish are not fo fituated in refpect of each other as the Romans and Sabines were. He certainly fhews fufficient knowledge to convince his readers that he has perufed "The Roman History, in queftion and answer,” ART. tain and Ireland. By an Officer. 8vo. Pp. 44. Dornin, ΤΗ his country a prey to numerous evils, to which, in his opinion, an Union would fupply an adequate remedy. One of thefe evils, indeed, might be removed without an Union; we mean, the fyftem of letting eftates to middle-men; this is a grievous calamity, tending at once to opprefs the moft induftrious part of the community, and to injure the proprietor of land, in a very great degree. We have known fome inftances in which this fyftem has been abolished and the effects have been most beneficial, and we can fee no earthly reason why a general abolition should not take place. This Officer fuccefsfully confutes the reafoning of Mr. Spencer and fome other opponents of the propofed Union, refpecting the effects of the Union upon Scotland, and the alledged violation of its conditions, in particular inftances, by Great Britain. Thefe Gentlemen having abfurdly obferved that " Edinburgh has remained stationary," inferring from thence that the state of the country had not been improved during the prefent century, this writer afks, "how old is the new town of Edinburgh? or, if that is no fign of its advancement in commerce, why fhould there have been lately an act of Parliament for enlarging the harbour of Leith?" He ably defends the Scotch against the afperfions caft upon them by Mr. Spencer and others; and he properly ftyles the affertion that "Ireland drew the venom that hath tinctured her principles from Great Britain" an "impudent affertion," justly remarking, that "in the bofom of Ireland have long been nurtured these feeds of rebellion, which, to the ruin of thousands, burst forth at laft; a rebellion originating partly from an oppreffion exercised by themselves-partly from the most execrable treasons that ever were planned.” Speaking of the moft violent declaimers against the Union, he fays "Thefe boisterous demagogues take hold of a popular fubject to wreft it for their own purpofes; let the pill be ever fo bitter, there will be found fools to fwallow it; paflion too often blinds the human mind; nor is it, until after circumftances have occurred which lead to more temperate confideration, that they Lake time to curfe the fiend that has blinded their judgement." ART. XXXIII, Letter to Joshua Spencer, Efq. occafioned by his Thoughts on an Union. By a Barrifter. 8vo. Pp. 42. Árcher, Dublin. 1798. MR R. Cooke, it feems, was right in his fuppofition that, though the Union would be oppofed by many Gentlemen at the Irish Bar, ftill it would find able advocates in that fame body. Mr. Spencer having publicly advanced the broad propofition— "That "That circumftanced as freland and England now are, both with refpect to their own particular internal concerns, their mutual relations to each other as connected kingdoms, and the particular state of Europe at this moment, no poffiblë Union of the Legislature of the two countries can be for the advantage of the former." This writer undertakes to demonftrate the fallacy of his opinion, and to fhew that an Union will not only be advantageous to, but abfolutely neceffary for, Ireland. He afcribes the flow progrefs of national improvement in that country to the circumftance of the people "feeling fo much and thinking fo little ;" and, having traced the caufes which contributed to the formation of the Irish character, he draws this conclufion, "One lefs formed for domeftic tranquillity, or the purfuits of fober industry can fcarcely be imagined; fome alteration in the caufes which have produced this condition is devoutly to be wifhed. To continue in a track in which we have hitherto met with nothing but mifery and diftrefs, would be fomething more than national folly." He then proceeds to fhew that no alteration in the prefent laws, while the mode of adminiftering the conftitution remains as it is, can ever remove them : "To remain as we are, with our experience of the evils which prefs upon us, would be madnefs; fome change must be made-fome radical change which will remove the evil is the only permanent way by which fuch evils can be removed, by removing the cause of them. This courfe, at once wife and fafe, confias, in my mind, in the adoption of that Union with England, which you so strongly reprobate." There is a confiderable difplay of ftrong fenfe and accute reasoning in this letter; and the flimfy fabric erected by Mr. Spencer is unable to withstand the well-directed attacks of his more powerful adverfary. We might felect many paflages in fupport of our judgement, but we fhall content ourselves with the following extract: "Before we can hope that England will promote our interefts to the extent our Situation is capable of, the muft be well aflured that we make part of herfelf. We must be placed beyond the reach of foreign cabal, or the temptation to internal confpiracy; these two are promoted by each other, and both arife from the fuppofed practicable diffolution of that connection which now fubfifts between the countries. But we are afked, fhall we lend our affiftance to remove from this country the vifible figns of the English conftitution?' at prefent indeed we may have fome of the visible figns but we certainly want much of the inward and Spiritual grace; I mean no unhallowed allufion, for I confider as almoft divine the genuine fpirit of that constitution. But I confeís, I care not how far thele visible figns are removed from me, provided I enjoy the fubftantial bleffings which arife from their exiftence. It is indifferent to me if I never fee a king, or an affembly of lords, or of commons, (for thefe are the vifible figns you allude to,) provided I know that my intereft, in common with that of every individual in the land, is fubmitted to the wifdom of their councils. I would be glad to know what visible figns of the English conftitution have Liverpool, Bristol, Birmingham, and Manchefter? the two latter have not even reprefentatives in the aflembly of the nation. No king of the houfe of Brunfwick, that I know of, ever let his foot in one of them, and if a lord has palled through them, he has probably been like any other pallenger, unnoticed and unknown. Have they fuf fered by this abfence of thofe vipble figns of the English conftitution? I apprehend not. Are we then to be treated thus like children, and is it to be feriously lamented that an Union will in future preclude us from the enjoyment of this fhew? My ideas of the viable figns of the English constitution are very different from those which feem to engage your imagination. I fee them in the cultivated farm, the independent landholder, the comfortable artift, the wealthy merchant, in respect for the laws and their administrators, in reverence for religion and its teachers, in the fecure protection of life, liberty, and, property, and in that diffufed morality, which, reaching from the highest ranks of fociety to the loweft, connects them in one beautiful and harmonious whole. Here I behold the effects of a good conftitution, well adminiftered. To attain fuch things I would facrifice much of form, much of pride, and much of dignity." ART. XXXIV. A Loyal Subject's between Great Britain and Ireland. liken, Dublin. 1799. ΤΗΣ Thoughts on an Union 8vo. Pp. 37. Mil HE Thoughts of an honeft, upright, and independent mind, delivered in plain and fimple language, on topics of general concern, are ever entitled to more attention than the laboured differtations, or high-wrought fpeeches, of avowed partifans. This Loyal Subject can not be fufpected of harbouring prejudices unfavourable to his native country, nor of being ignorant of its real fituation and true interefts, when he affures us, that he has not paffed, and, in all probability, never fhall pafs, one moment of his life out of Ireland. Yet he draws a melancholy picture of his countrymen, and infifts on the neceffity of an Union to meliorate their minds, to change their habits, and to allure them to honeft exertion and profitable induftry. He reprobates the folly of facrificing, to the prefervation of fanciful independence, indebted for its very exiftence to what its advocates. muft confider as a foreign force, thofe folid and extenfive advantages, which must accrue from a confolidation of the two kingdoms into one empire. He obferves that the majority of Irish Emigrants are not much efteemed in the countries which they select for their refidence, and he fays, "We have not incontrovertible pretenfions to honefty, induftry, fobriety, and devotion, and must not, of course, look upon ourselves to be an island of faints, whofe exemplary lives leave no room for amendment. It must not, however, be denied that we have many triking inftances of fincere, difinterefted friendship to boaft of; and that compaffion for objects in diftrefs has a diftinguished influence upon us. Hofpitality and courage are alledged to be our national characteristics: but do not our convivial affociations very frequently terminate in beftiality ? and, even without dwelling too much upon the execrable atrocities which have affixed an indelible odium to the late Rebellion in this kingdom, is not our bravery repeatedly marked by rashness, revenge, and wanton ferocity ?" He is decidedly of opinion, that, in all these respects, a beneficial change might be produced in the national manners by an Union, which would lead many Englishmen to fettle in Ireland. We fhall quote one other paffage to fhew, that many of the hardships which the labouring claffes of the community in the fifter kingdom have been faid to fuftain, are imputable to themselves, NO. VIII. VOL. II. Се I refid |