It will be replied that fome controul upon the executive department is preferable to a total latitude of confidence. But is it propofed that reftraint and fuperintendance on the part of the people, fhould be abolished? The incorporation of legislatures goes to a transfer, not a fuppreffion of jurifdiction. It fubftitutes an effective controul for one that is inefficient. If the number of reprefentatives is to be diminished, the retrenchment must fall upon the most objectionable parts of the reprefentation. The leading men of the kingdom, whether by influence or election, will still be placed in Parliament. As to the effect of the measure upon the confequence of the country, and upon the protection and privileges of the inhabitants; the people will have more influence over one hundred gentlemen, generally elected for counties, and great towns, than over treble the number, most of whom owe no compliment to their quafi conftituents. And that number of members in the imperial Houfe of Commons, joined to the feveral branches of the Irish intereft, who already act upon the British Government, will confer on Ireland greater confideration, than fhe can derive from a domeftic Parliament, thus deficiently organized, which neither proceeds from the people; nor returns to them; which neither leads the public mind by the influence it enjoys, nor by the con fidence it has acquired.

Perhaps, you imagine, that this difficulty of procuring an adequate reprefentation may be placed among the inconveniencies that time may rectify. Quite the reverse; time has hitherto enhanced the difproportion between the property of thofe, who interfere in the fupreme difpofal of public concerns, and that of the nation whom they regulate. And the fame caufes cannot ceafe to produce the fame confequences. When a man of fortune pro

cures/

cures a peerage, he ceases in general to have any object to cultivate in this kingdom, and lapfes from active purfuit to indolent enjoyment. His family, at leaft, fpeedily relinquifh the care of politics, and become abfentees; the landed intereft in the Houle of Commons has confiderably declined fince the year 1776, when the crown be came liberal of Irish peerages. A great part of the wealth, recently acquired, or improved, by which this perpetual drain ought to be fupplied, is in the hands of Catholics, and thefe perfons are alfo directed to other purfuits, by the nature of our conftitution.

I conclude this head with a pofition which cannot be put too often, or too ftrongly. If the country does not afford materials for a proper controut over the executive department, fome other provifion ought to be made for the public welfare. The privilege of fuperintendance cannot by its nature be indifferent, but muft directly lead to good or evil. It should not be permitted to deviate from public to private purposes; and if the fituation of fupreme influence in the ftate be inaccurately filled, fuch mifapplication is inevitable. Jobbing and manoeuvres will difgrace the Irish government, whilft it is obliged to act through the medium of perfons, who do not difdain the practice. A man of fortune in the House of Commons is a figure of fo much magnitude, that Adminiftration cannot well refift him in any thing he takes in head. Even a man of leffer rank is too useful not to be gratified. The Minifter fways the British Houfe of Commons, but on extremely different principles: he cultivates the favour of that body, by not preffing any measure against the sense of the majority; or of the interests, which that majority are bound to cultivate. When he ventures upon other conduct, E

they

they withdraw their confidence, and his power terminates. Lord North and Mr. Fox poffeffed the means which Mr. Pitt enjoys, of procuring a majority by influence, to ratify the measures of their refpective adminiftrations. Sir Robert Walpole is faid to have retained his place against the perfonal inclination of his Sovereign. What is the cafe at this hour? Does Mr. Pitt hold the reigns of government by the weight of his diftributions? Has he corrupted the people of England? Parliament is but the echo of their affenting voice, which confirms him in the administration of his country.

were

When I published the pamphlet you pleased to notice, I had in contemplation a more important queftion, than any, that affected he being of Parliament alone. I looked to the people, for whom Parliaments exift. The views of government, and the circumftances of the country feemed to have conducted us to the eve of a great change of fyftem; and the relation to the ftate, of a moft comprehenfive defcription of its citizens, appeared to be weighed very lightly. Ungracious as the found is to fome ears, I cannot, in difcourfing of the ftate of Ireland, decline the concern of one of its most important branches. I have not prepared the political chart of the country; as it lies open before me, I am bound to follow it. Be affured that the Catholics of this kingdom are perfectly aware of the inconvenience of their fituation. They fee, they touch the impervicus line that is drawn between them and the other defcriptions of their fellow fubjects. The feeling is not lefs poignant, whether I or any other individual, who engages in a political controversy, be filent on the fubject, or loquacious. I talk of fentiments, with which no man is more converfant. In an arrangement, which ought to be complete

[ 59 ]

plete, as it was defigned to be final, every murmur fhould be collected, every complaint be fairly heard, and judiciously investigated. Idle expectation, that the perception of inconvenience was to be blunted by neglect of its objects; as fome animals imagine danger to be at an end when they have fhut their eyes on the purfuer. I introduced the Catholics, not as you, and others lefs réfpectable, ftrangely reprefented, in the capacity of à partifan; but as a lover of the empire, and as an Irishman. I feek in an Union for the tranquillity of Ireland, the increafed ftrength of Britain, the more vigorous protection of the world; but if the fettlement were to be formed on a defective bafis, these glorious ends would ftill remain unaccomplished; indeed fomething worfe; for the measure of an Union, between thefe countries, does not admit of intermediate confequences; it must be to both, the extreme of good, or the extreme of mifchief; and the previous difpofition which is created on either fide, by liberality of conditions, by wholefome laws, and by the contentment of the people, muft determine the alternative. Should we conceive ourfelves at eafe, becaufe difcontent flumbers amidst unextinguished embers? Such is not a bulwark, on which the power and glory of Britain can fecurely rest. Such is not a benign opening of repofe to Ireland. With thefe views, and with thefe feelings, I endeavoured to draw into notice, by fuch means as I was competent to employ, that cardinal queftion of Irish politics, the privileges of the Catholics. As a neceffary preliminary, I applied myself to refute certain notions which were circulated among the indifpofed to that people; and to reprehend certain inftitutions, which were confidered to be unkindly directed E 2 against

against them. The moment was critical and called for the difcuffion. If the government was to be new-modelled, it would be right to adopt fuch regulations as fhould filence every whisper of general grievance; if the propofed change did not take effect, ftill the abolition of the incapacities I complained of, would render our ftate of fociety more tolerable. Having formed an opinion on the fubject of uniting the two legislatures of the empire, I did not hesitate to exprefs it; but as it was not my primary object, nor the matter of which I propofed to treat, I did not find it incumbent to detail the feries of reafoning that led to my conclufion; the point came incidentally in my way, and I expreffed what occurred to me. Subfequent reflection has confirmed my opinion, as to the general concern of the country in this queflion; and it has impreffed the matter upon my mind, even more forcibly than when firft it was propounded, as the genuine relief and exoneration of that great body, who, under the appellation of Catholics, are doomed by our prefent fyftem to collective and individual inferiority: I have not, of course, occafion to retract any of my leading affertions; I muft ftill maintain, that by incorporating our parliament with that of Britain, we have equal fecurity for the liberty of the subject, and a much fairer profpect of a found and fteady

Such as the Orange Societies, of which I muft perfevere in infifting, that they tend to perpetuate the divifion of the people, and to counteract, by a combination, the beneficial effects of the repeal of the Popery Laws. The queftion at present before us, is of too much magnitude to admit a detail of there fubaltern folltes; yet I must say that when people obferve fuch a combination, and are enabled to collect its temper from the publications that feem to pleate it, abfurd and filly as thefe publications may intrinfically be, it is an inducement to ftrengthen Government, as a protection against them.