liament to be a mere Register Office for the British Cabinet. From fuch difgrace and calamity were you refcued, by your exertions in 1782.

What did your exertions in 1785 do for you? Under the artful pretext of extending your trade, and establishing upon a permanent, fair, and enlarged bafis, the commerce of this country with Great Britain, certain Propofitions were introduced into your Houfe of Commons, which fhewed an exterior both captivating and delufive,.

reflecting Patriot, to obferve what flight emotion the question of an Union with Great Britain, has excited in the public mind. Tho' feveral weeks have now elapfed fince this meafure was officially announced, and tho' it be known almost to a certainty, that nothing but the popular voice being against it, can defeat its fuccefs, yet in no part of Ireland, Dublin excepted, have the people declared what is now their opinion, and what in future will be their conduct, fhould it take place. How is this apparent indifference, and cold apathy, upon a fubject which in its very infancy is fo momentous, and will in its effects be fo durable, to be accounted for? In order to expofe the irreparable danger of fuch a conduct, and to point out with perfpicuity the tone and action which Ireland-fhould now adopt, it may be proper to cnquire from whence arifes her filence and ferenity, at this eventful moment.

In the year 1782, when a few patriotic members in our Parliament, introduced the celebrated questions of free trade, and free conftitution, the people ftood not idle fpectators of their efforts, nor damped their ardour by an obtufe infenfibility to the welfare of their country-but on the contrary, a spirit of national love, animated every bofom, and dictated to every tongue, language becoming a people determined to be free! What was the confequence? Your virtuous minority, once feeble in point of numbers, and almost shrinking from the task they had undertaken, foon fwelled to a triumphant and bold majority, which obliged the Minifter of the day, to ratify the independence of your Legislature, and the freedom of your Commerce. Suppofe that on that memorable occafion, instead of reforting to the manly and conftitutional measures to which you then reforted, you had, as now, fat quiet in your houfes, wailing over the public misfortunes, and bending to their influence, without a ftruggle to counteract them; would not the exertions of your political friends have been overborne by your political enemies? would not your commerce have continued to languifh in its chains, and your Par

would have left your commerce at the mercy of the Parliament of England, and would have stolen from your Legislature, its independent capacity, in all external concerns;-What followed? The fame men, whofe talents, and whofe virtues, fe-conded by your authority, had made you a free nation, stepped forward with enthusiastic ardor in your caufe; they detected the cheat, they expofed the fnare which was fo artfully laid for your commerce and liberty; the popular fpirit rofe at once, with a dignified majefty, and augmented strength; it denounced the measure-what was the confequence? The Minister trembled ?—abandoned this favourite object of his heart-and you continued free. So much for popular, conftitutional efforts. You all know what they have done for you. I believe there is hardly a man in the nation, who is not in the actual enjoyment of fome benefit, which can be traced back to this fource. The manufacturer, by the markets it has opened for him-the hufbandman, by the high price for the products of the earth-and the landlord, by the augmentation of his rents. Multifarious and important, indeed, are the rewards. which you have already received, and which, if this Union, deadly to your profperity, does not come to pafs, you must continue to receive, for having appeared, at those interesting epochs, the active and dauntless champions of your country. With thefe facts impreffed upon your memory, with the fruits of your toil in your very hands, it cannot but be matter of aftonishment, to a calm obferver, that you could hear without loud indignation, that shortly an attempt is to be made, not merely to reduce your Parliament to the imperfect and impotent ftate in which it was antecedent to 82; not merely to curtail it of part of its independence, as was attempted in 85, but actually to annihilate it entirely, and to put commerce, treasure, liberty,. every thing, for ever, into the custody of that nation, which fo long held you in bondage, and of that very Minifter, who fo recently endeavoured furreptioufly to deprive you of both trade and freedom. To what, I afk again, am I to attri

bute this drowy filence--this national torpor, at an hour fo eventful, and when, to the plaineft understanding, it must be evident, that the honor, the intereft, and the liberty of this ifland, materially depend upon the people of all defcriptions fpeaking decifively against the adoption of the Union? Shall I afcribe it to a defect of national virtue to a liftlefs attachment to the caufe of liberty-to a ftupid ignorance of their own interefts or to the criminal hope, that the difaftrous effects of this meafure, will touch with but a feeble hand, the people of the prefent day, and that it will be only on their children and their fucceffors, that its calamities will operate?-No! No!-Away with fuch bafe and ignoble motives! Every portion of the hiftory of this country, bears ample teftimony that her fons were never actuated by fentiments fo unbecoming the dignity of the human character. To motives lefs culpable in their effence, but which will not be lefs fatal in their confequence, are to be afcribed the caufe that the popular understanding continues, as it were, at reft,, and the people dumb. The internal calamities which fo lately convulfed this country, have left behind them, in the breast of multitudes of the fincereft lovers of freedom and the conftitution, a panic and an afperity towards the authors of thefe troubles, which monopolize all the anxietics and feelings of the mind, and make them liften with calmnefs, perhaps with pleasure, to the propofition of an Union, which they are, with more art than truth, told, will put an end to thefe domeftic diftractions, and leave the kingdom in a state of happy quiefcence. If thofe who are deluded by this argument, will, but for a moment, impartially examine it, and afk themselves, how will it have fuch an effect? its artificial ftrength will inftantly vanifh, and its fallacy be apparent. The Union can calm the difquiet of perturbed fpirits only, by gratifying their wishes, and removing thofe caufes which make them difcontented and turbulent: Now the people of this defcription, are generally confidered as Catholics, Reformers, and Republicans: Now how would an Union gratify and appeafe any, or all of thefe? The Catholic wishes to be allowed to fit in Parliament, and to have all the offices and the dignities of the ftate laid open to him; his exclufion from thefe, is the parent of his difcontent; and is it reasonable to fuppofe, that by taking away the Parliament entirely, by depriving all public fituations of their ancient luftre, and making them ccatemptible, and then giving him a fhare of this refufe, that his ambition, or his pride, would be gratified, and that he, who is now fo ardent and reitlefs to become a perfect member of a perfect ftate, after an Union would be fatisfied with any fhare, however ample, of places and honours, thus mutilated, and thus debafed; and in a country thus flipped of its imperial state, and thus provincialized. The Catholics themfelves will tell you it will not, and that they will never fell their

country, for any partial privileges that may be offered to them in return.

As to the Reformer, how is he to be foothed and filenced by this Union? Tho' he is ready to confefs that numerous and important are the benefits conferred on the nation by the wisdom of the Parliament, and that our island has rifen of late to a degree of unexpected profperity, yet he still thinks, that the Parliament has not been as faithful to its truft, as it should have been, and that the way to render it more obedient to the wishes of the people is, by reforming the reprefentation. To obtain this reform, he has been impatient and affiduous for years, and the defeat of his wishes, has been the cause of his complaints, and his irritation. And what remedy is propofed to full him for the future in content, and to raise new affections in his heart, for the conftitution and the country? Will it be credited, that to effect this, the first is to be deftroyed, in toto, and the latter made not worth living in? Is there any one for weak, or fo credulous, as foberly to think that the man who is difcontented with the Parliament in its prefent fhape, will be fatisfied, when there is none at all that he who is indignant because a portion of our reprefentatives is more under the control of the Minifter, than their Conflituents, will be calmed, when he fees that all the reprefentatives will be out of the reach of the authority of the people, and entirely within the dominion of the crown; that fatisfaction will refult from making that which is now bad, much worfe, and removing for ever the poffibility of amendment? These obfervations would appear nagatory and childish, but that there are perfons who vainly imagine, that the reformer would ceafe to murmur, when the conftitution would cease to exist.

I fhall next notice the republican party;-among thefe there are certainly many whom it would be vain to attempt to win back to the Government, by any amelioration of the conftitution-but I believe there are multitudes of that defeription, who were alienated from our laws, by feeing them abufed with impunity, an! by an abfolute defpondence, that any appeal to the legislature would produce a falutary change, and who, after experiencing the futility of endeavouring to reform by force, would be glad to return to the bofom of the conftitution, and unite in temperate efforts for its improvement. If a Union should take place, what would become of thefe men? Would they not, with equal activity, but with more caution, propagate and mature the feeds of civil difcord and revolt, and might they not gain from among the best friends of the monarchy, fuch advocates and coadjutors, as would make them now as formidable in talent, as they were before in numbers? This is but a reasonable fpofition;-And how, then, is tranquillity to be produced by a measure which will excite aditional inflammation, in thofe already irritated, is folicited by no defcription of the people, and which will reduce Ireland to

cate.

When I look to Scotland, and find that the Union there, fo far from producing public tranquillity, excited difcontents, which repeatedly broke out in acts of outrage, and that, fince the æra of the Union, that country has been vifited by two Rebellions, and that, in the manifefto published by the Lords and Gentry engaged in the first rebellion, the Union is ftated as a principal caufe. I, therefore, exhort all thofe who have no other reafon for being friendly to this meafure than that it will bring back halcyon days to distracted Ireland, to difmifs fuch a delufive hope from their minds, and not to accumulate our misfortunes by countenancing an Union.

There are others who feem to be withheld from publicly expreffing their oppofition to this meafure by conceiving it to be above the reach of their capacities. Upon no occafion could the plea of ignorance and incapacity be more inadmiflible than on this; becaufe, though there are many who may not be able to penetrate into the remote confequences of this measure, or, even fee all its immediate evils; yet, there are certain confequences to follow inftantly from it, fo fatal and fo obvious, fo irreparable and fo deadly to our intereft, that the fhalloweft understanding muft fee them, and its moft ftrenuous advocate confefs them. First, the downfall of our capital; and, in this we are not merely to calculate the ruin of the arts and fciences there collected her university, her magnificent buildings, and that general fplendor which is already beginning to rival the metropolis of our jealous fifter. But, we are principally to look to the grofs injuftice which would thus be inflicted on thoufands of innocent citizens, who, by their property being annihilated, would, from a state of eafe or opulence, be reduced to the most afflictive diftrefs, And, also, to the lofs of that capacious market, where purchafers are to be found for almost every thing vendible, which the induftry of man in the remoteft corner of the ifland can produce. Secondly, the great eflux of abfentees, with their wealth, their manners, their learning, and their love for poor Ireland. Thirdly, the lofs of our Parliament, which, though not as virtuous as it ought to be, has done much for this kingdom, and must always be more folicitous for our welfare than the Legiflature of a foreign country. Fourthly, committing the cuftody of our purfe, our trade and our liberty to the guardianfhip of a country, which abufed this very truft before, when in her hands; and to be freed from whofe influence we once regarded as the moft fortunate event in the annals of our history. I might go

on enumerating further inftances, but, I fhall content myfelf with adding one more. Fifthly, our having fuch a paucity of Lords and Commons in the British Parliament as would render them utterly incapable of ever doing juftice to their own country when the intereft of England was in queftion. Suppofe, therefore, that, in cafe of an Union, fome commercial favors were to be conceded to us, how could they counterbalance the furrender of fuch national advantages, of every thing which can enrich and exalt a nation? Though we are thus, in cafe of an Union, to abdicate our independence-to renounce our right to legislate for ourfelves to adopt a system, under which, Scotland ftarves; and to abandon a system, under which, Ireland flourishes; yet, there are fome perfons who seem infenfible to thefe calamities; and, though aftute and vociferous in matters lefs intelligible and important, appear unable to fee and to feel with common fense on this fubject. If they fuffer the moment of inftruction and action to pass unprofitably by, let them remember that it can never return.

It is afferted, that Cork, and the towns on the western coaft will not merely give this measure a filent fan&tion, but will be active in its favor, and for this reafon, that they will be materially ferved by it. In anfwer to this I must observe, that such might be the cafe, fituated conveniently as they are for the American and West Indian trade? it the liberty of directly importing into Ireland the returns of the cargoes exported from hence toAmerica and the West Indies was to be acquired by an Union; but as they poffefs that privilege at this moment, they may now derive from it every benefit which the phyfical felicity of their fituation for fuch a trade may give them. If thefe places then can derive any immediate benefit from an Union, it must be by facrifices made of Englifh commerce to their fervice. Suppofe that improbable event to take place, how would they be fecured to them, either by the terms of the Union, or by the English merchants regarding the profperity of thefe towns with as friendly an inclination as the profperity of their own, and, therefore,, not entertaining any jealoufy at their commercial acquifitions. As to the act of the Union being their fecurity, let its violation in the cafe of Scotland, in the inftance of the malt tax, warn them not to be too confident on that head; and as to the difinterefted spirit of the British merchant being their fecurity, let the fate of the tobacco trade at Glasgow warn them not to be too confident on that head. But hould the people in the fouth and weft of Ireland, in order to advance their own narrow interefts, agree to a meafure which would ruin the trade of Dublin, and impoverish almost the whole of the kingdom, would not their own conduct, to a demonftration, prove how little they ought to rely upon the juft and generous difpofition of the English mer

duce the Union into Parliament, and thus leave no doubt of his intention to deprive us of our conftitution, reft affured, that all your declamation afterwards will come with inefficacy, because it will then be peculiarly his intereft to compleat the work of your fubjugation, that your Legislature may not afterwards have it in its power to proclaim the foul act to the world, and to fecure its future exiftence, by placing it more out of the influence of the court.

chant towards them for if they could be fo felfish and cramp-minded as to defolate and deftroy their own capital in order to derive from the wreck a commercial afcendancy, could they hope mo re generous feelings in the traders of London, or Liverpool, or Bristol, towards themfelves? Certainly not. They may be affured whenever their trade fhould become formidable, or come in competitition with that of British merchants, it would be made to bend and fhrink to it: and where could they find redrefs? Is it from their own reprefentatives in the English Parliament, where they would be found impotent in point of numbers, impotent in point of dignity, with the British nation. to oppofe their claims, and without the Irish nation to fupport them. Indeed I cannot look upon this report of the friendly difpofition of Cork and the Western districts towards this meafure in any other point of view than as a grofs libel on the inhabitants of thefe places, and as a bafe artifice, adopted to induce the Minister to perfevere in this meafure. I cannot bring my mind to believe, that any men who intend to make Ireland their refidence, can be fo bafe and so abandoned, so deftitute of fhame and fo indifferent to the opinion of their fellow-citizens, to the honor of their country and their own, as to fell, for any peculiar and perfonal advantages, all that, as members of an exalted community, we ought to eftimate and grafp with a tenderness as fincere and affectionate as a parent would his child: If the people of Cork and the Weft feel, as I be lieve they do feel, with a noble and difinterested fpirit on this fubject-if their patriotifm be not confined within the narrow fphere of their own coafts, but is as wide as their inland, I hope they will come forward, and by an unequivocal declaration against an Union, remove the flander which has been caft on their character, and reprefs thofe hopes which their fuppofed patronage of the measure have excited..

Before you had a conftitution that was worth that appellation, and when you were only fpeculating on the propable good effects that you might derive from poffetling one, you affembledin your refpective counties, and declared your determination no longer to fubmit to a nominal freedom, and to the actual miferies of a state of slavery. This fentiment refounded through your country; it gave vigor to the down-caft virtue of your independent reprefentatives. They called for your emancipation in the dictatorial language of a patriotic people, and they obtained it. And thall you now, when it is not neceffary to calculate on doubtful confequences in order to give energy to your fouls and flueney to your tongues-when the confequent evils of a Union are as glaring as the Sun at noon day; and the existence of the benefits of our prefent fyftem are to be feen' wherever we turn our eyes or fix our thoughts? Shall we, under fuch circumftances, continue mute fpectators of the occurrence of a measure which blafts all the hopes of our country for ever, and operate upon. her conftitution with the fame obliterative influence as the grave operates on ourselves? If fuch fhall be your condu& if you will allow the Minifter to ftrip you of all your political advantages, and make no effort, nor exprefs any concern on the occafion, be affured, he will avail himself of your meeknefs and taciturnity, and not only unite thefe kingdoms as he threatens, but unite them in the very best way poffible for England, and the very worst way poffible for Ireland. But if, on the other hand, you exert yourselves as becomes men, as becomes freemen, to baffle its fuccefs, though your exertions fhould prove inef-, fectual, you will ftill have the confolation of having difcharged your duty, and the furrounding nations that will be witnesses of your conduct may lament your fate, but cannot defpife your name-and though you will be doomed to bear a burthen on your back, you will be free from any difgrace on your brow..

I have now ftated the reafons which occurred to me as thofe which have reftrained the public fentiment from bursting out on the first notification of this measure, and the danger of any longer continuing filent: I fhall, therefore, conclude, after making fome general obfervations on the fubject. If the people continue pertinacioufly filent, it will be confidered by the Minister as an affent to the measure, and will, in truth, amount to an unanswerable argument in its favor. Should he be induced by this tacit approbation to intro

A..

MR.

Mortua quin etiam jungebat corpora vivis, Componens manibufque manus, atque oribus ora, Complexu in mifero longa fic morte necabat.

VIRG. EN LIB. VIII.

R. PITT, at his entrance upon his long miniftry, pledged himself as a man and a minifter, to fupport a parliamentary reform. I was not amongst the number who imputed the failure of the plan he propofed, to infincerity. Circumftanced as the parliament then was, it was not at all impoffible, that a minifter, even an eloquent minifter, fhould lofe a measure. That he did not immediately re-propose it, cafts no imputation upon his fincerity. In a cafe not calling for immediate redrefs, it requires but little candour to allow fome time for the fearch after a lefs exceptionable system, fome time for learning the fentiments of the nation, and fome time for making arrangements, which might facilitate its fuccefs in parliament.

During this interval, the doctrine of the rights of man was, revealed in France, in all its plenitude; jacobinism, and French fraternity were taking root even in England, and the most tempeftuous paffions, were mixed with the moft vifionary fpeculations. In fuch a ferment of the human mind, and human feelings, Mr. Pitt concurred with many of the wifeft and honeftest men in England, in oppofing even the difcuffion of any thing, which bore the femblance of popular innovation. Some very well-meaning men thought he carried this fentiment to an extreme, and that the moft effectual antidote against revolution, was reform. They thought it not unreasonable to exemplify the best quality of the British Conftitution, its recuperative energy, its power of self-correction, at the very moment when its defects were faid to be incorrigible, and when the pride of fpeculative fagacity was telling up the inventions of the human mind, against the conclufions of experience, upon a subject of all others the most practical. Stare decifis, became however, the minifterial watch-word, and he would not fuffer a conftitution, which had worked fo well, to be tampered with, even upon the clearest evidence of manifeft abuse, and fafe correction.

During the tempeft of innovating fury, let us content our felves with fortifying and preferving the conftitution, fuch as it is; after the ftorm fhall have paffed away, we may exert ourselves in amending it. Such was the language of the minifter, echoed thro' every part of England, and fuch became the decided fenfe of the nation.

It is amongst the worst and most general effects of revolutionary projects, that they raife that power too high, which they endeavour to fink too low. Nothing, I believe, is fo deadly to liberty, as licentioufnefs, or to government, as tyranny. The republican extravagance in the reign of Charles I. was the principal caufe, that Charles II. might, if he

No. IX..

fought it, have become defpotic, and that a revolution became neceffary in the reign of His fucceffor. The mind of mannaturally rushes to extremes. Such is now the horror of republicanism in England, that not only all purfuit of popular reform is abandoned, but people in general behold with indifference, the most valuable privileges of a British fubject, fufpended at the will of the minifter, and the influence of the crown, outgrowing the conflitution. Moft certainly there never was a time when it was fo unneceffary, and at the fame timefo eafy, to encreafe that influence. This is a ftate of things, this is a temper of the public mind, which feldom exifts in a free country, but during the prevalence of which, it is in the power of a crafty minifter, to make that country cease to be free.

Do we difcover any fuch defign in the prefent minister? Do we fee him making preparations to refcue himself and his fucceffors, and their measures, for ever, from all popular controul, and conftitutional refponfibility? Do we fee the fon of Lord Chatham, making atonement to the Sovereign for the prefumption of his father, and guarding the throne against the unfolicited intrufion of any officious advifer, and the difgufting neceffity of attending in the choice of fervants, to popular character, and popular recommendation? I argue not against the minifter from his refifting the difcuffion of all questions of reform-neither do I decide against him from his various temporary violations of the best privileges of a British fubject-or. from the war in which we have been involved the taxes which have been impofed-or the debt. which has been fo enormously augmented-or even from the honours which have been fo profufely lavished-or the government patronage.which has been extended by him, certainly beyond all paft example, and poffibly beyond all future cure. Thefe things were fufpicious and alarming, but not decifive. But is there any degree of confidence, or credulity proof against the conviction which the propofed measure of an UNION, in addition to his other measures, must flash upon every rational mind, that there exifts a deep, fubtle, and fyftematic defign, to fubvert the British conftitution, and that the anti-jacobin minifter, the minifter of kings, wishes to forget that he proceeded from the people, and is determined never to return to the fource from whence he fprung? Reform, was, perhaps, wifely poftponed to a period of tranquillity; but why is the feafon of war felected to carry an antireform meafure, which must add more to the influence of the crown, than the most democratic plan, that ever was fuggefted (not excepting the Duke of Richmond's) would have sub-ducted from it?

Is it poffible that the people of England fhould be fo engroffed by a fingle fentiment, as to be totally infenfible to any other? Have they not capacity to perceive two ideas at once? Can they not contemplate at the fame time, more than one part of that mixed fyftem, which has been the pride of their ancestors, and the admiration of the world? Can