a view to fhew that the incorporation, now propofed, is no material deviation from the fettled practice, under which our ancestors have lived for generations; and that it involves no matter of deliberation, except that care of the public weal, by which every legislative act is, or ought to be directed. Prudence fhould decide whether the affairs of the empire are like to be better conducted on the fyftem of a fingle, or of a double legifture? In the fhape of a point of honor the reflection is idly and intemperately urged, however it may deserve to be maturely weighed, as a confideration of expediency.

There are men who will call this ftatement, (may I venture to pronounce it fairly supported by fact and argument?) a diminution of my country's honor. It is easy to perceive for what pur pofe they enlift thefe lofty pretenfions in their fervice. Let them be fuccefsful, and you will only trace the claim in the punishment of a deluded multitude, who are attracted by the name, and who cannot fo readily caft away their predilections High-founding appellations coft little; they may be bellowed with indifcriminate facility on any caufe or party... There are thofe among the oppofers, of the Union, who would cry up the government of Turky, if they happened to be bafhaws, and find the golden dreams of republican felicity realized in Venice, if fate had placed them among its ariftocracy. If it be true that neither dignity, nor convenience are attached to our political condition, what motive can there be to fupprefs a fact, to us effential to be understood? Is it the honor of Ireland to raife falfe conceits of a grandeur that does not exist, and draw the people by means of it from the purfuit of their genuine welfare? Is it honourable, in order to render us lefs than we ought to be, to flatter us with the no

tion

tion of being fomewhat more than we are? No, the ambition, the pride, the profit of individuals are thus held out, as the dignity and public good of Ireland; and will you be the deluded and deluding accomplice of that error? Not a peasant but is trampled to the earth, if he prefumes to rear his creft in the fpirit, nay in the letter of your claims to independent right, and of your jealoufies againft Great-Britain. I have laid down the conftitution of Ireland, not as carved out or enforced by our potent fifter; but as it ftands, the creature of our own egiflature, deliberately adopted by the highminded Parliament of 1782, in the full career of victorious triumph. I defcribe our political ef tablishment, not as any gentleman pleafes to decorate it to his own imagination, but as it practically and fubftantially exifts; as it has been interpreted throughout that copious catalogue of confifcations which compofes the hiftory of this hitherto unhappy ifland; as it formed the ftandard of guilt and innocence before King' Charles's Court of Claims, and the prefent commiffioners for fuffering loyalifts. You may repair to Vinegar-hill, and utter fights for a purer independence; but clearly the prefent conftitution of Ireland cannot be fupported on the foot of pride; for the Frince who reprefents the ftate, is the point to which pride fhould be directed; and in that refpect the union with England has been complete for fome centuries. The conftitution you defend, is that which neceffitates dependence. Sicily, Spain, Achaia were provinces to Rome. They were adminiftered by a Proconful fent from the center of the empire, whofe proceedings were guided by infructions from the metropolis. The inhabitants of Italy flood in a very different relation to the Republic. They enjoyed common franchifes with the actual residents of Rome, forming, like them

a con

[33]

a conftituent part of the fupreme authority. The former was the fubordinate ftate, the latter the participating people. The firft, is the condition in which Ireland is actually placed; the second, that to which an Union would advance her:*

Although the policy of a diftinct parliament confers no external confequence on Ireland, the inftitution must be put to another teft, and there perhaps, its merits will be confpicuous. Imean to turn to our domeftic fituation. The mediocrity of rank will fit lightly on the friend to Ireland, if, in the abfence of oftentatious fplendour, he fees peace, content, and comfort the confolations of obfcurity. We must then look for the kind effects of parliamentary vigilance in a profperous ftate of fociety, in provifions for the people's happinefs; we fhall find it illuftrated in the liberal confidence that a free people repofes in the delegates of their choice, and their chearful fubmiffion to an authority they approve of. Affectionate folicitude for their conftituents will dif tinguish the reprefentative body, and frank acquiefcence be the characteristic of the fubject. Governments which are not powerful, have usually their recompence in being paternal.Really, if the ftate of Ireland prefents this picture, it were facrilege to deface it. What is

the fact? It is on this fide our wounds are green: It is here the poignard has been driven home, and every expectation moft miferably falfified. Such

Is

Suppofe, which is not the fact, that Ireland was become a province by an Union; the Catholics are in this fense, at prefent provincials to the imperial Proteftants: the Proteftants are provincials to the more imperial borough-holders. Now if the fuperiority of each part over the other be removed, the good of the multitude, upon whom this advantage would be conferred, more than compenfates to the nation for the diminution, if any, of its luftre.

Scilicet ut Turno contingat Regia cenjux

is the flate of fociety in Ireland, fuch the eternal ftruggle between rich and poor, not unlike the wars waged between the Indian tribes, and the back fettlements of North America that if the measure of our pride were full, and that we were eminently diftinguifhed among nations, it would be wisdom and compaffion to renounce our tro phies, and feek in an humbler rank, a milder and more practicable rule of polity. Perhaps you will tell me that we have British laws and inftitutions. We certainly have; and the refult of these parallel eftablishments, with regard to fecurity, to the confideration of the individual, and to civil accommodation in general, is, in the one country, the very contraft of the other: It here is difcontent, and there fatisfaction. How will you reconcile thefe facts? My folution of the difficulty is, that a chain of circumftances which I fhall presently enumerate, rendered the establishment abortive as to Ireland; that the fyftem was laid upon a bafis not calculated to uphold the fuperftructure. I feel that I do not addrefs thefe reflections to a man, who would think panegyrics on Parliament cheaply made at the expence of the people's character. Such patriots are however to be found; and they will attribute the failure of civil fociety in this land, to that common place invective, the perverfe temper, and evil difpofition of the Irifh. "General accufations," faid upon fome occafion our illuftrious countryman, (that luminary of Europe, whom Heaven, has withdrawn to the repofe of his exalted virtue)" although they involve many, are only conclufive teftimony against one." I difcard every affertion founded on the prefumption of general character, exifting independent of collateral caufes, not produced, nor fubject to be changed by them. Man is every where moulded by the fituation in which he is placed, and from the thriftieft hufbandman,

bandman, to the moft prodigal wanderer on earth, he is uniformly the creature of the circumstances that act upon him. We have been placed under bad laws, and the effect is matter of aftonishment. Remove this Irishman, whom they accufe of indolence to a new fcene, and to the influence of kind encouragements, and mark the active enterprite by which he is diftinguished. Inebriety and idleness in our common people are not the caufe, but the effects of our public diforders; upon thefe the fhort fighted patriot may discharge his fpleen with unavailing indignation, whilft the root of the mifchief, the fyftem remains unmolefted. Gentlemen must recollect, that the humble man has his value: In focial life a function of high, of very high importance is affigned to him. Some means must be devised to allay the fever of vigilance, suspicion and jealoufy, and to correct the habit of bufy intermeddling which difturb him. Perhaps you will doubt the reality of this officious harraffing? You are not converfant with the parts of the country it infefts. It is not to be met in the metropolis, nor generally in the cultivated feats of the linen manufacture. You do not witnefs the evil, nor hear the complaint of those who feel it. If you feek for information, you are likely to confult the man, who exempt from the lafh himself, and not employing it, is inadvertent to the conduct of others. The law gave to a part of the people magifterial powers over another. The law has yielded to a better sense of public good. But, though the letter of the law does not give them the ufual countenance, fome men are found, enough for the purposes of irritation, tenacious of thefe magifterial habits; and fuch men will be found, until a radical change of maxims fhall render their pofition untenable. Do not fuppofe I mean to level this cenfure against any religious description.

Those