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fteady adminiftration: that the kind or degree of independence, which fate and circumftances feem to have allotted to this ifland, does not fo support the external dignity of Ireland, as to become a legitimate object of pride; and, as it operates internally, that it is, what I have already termed it, "a great domeftic caufe* of irritation." I know not whether the present be the proper time and temper for the difcuffion of the fubject. The care and felection of fuch circumftances belong to perfons in an elevated place of public function. I treat ab. ftractedly and in general, of a judicious change of conftitution, and my private opinion is not to be affected by collateral confiderations.

Perhaps it is true, that I recommend my doctrine by its negative merits; or, as you call it, by" a fhort catalogue of evils to be removed, without any perfuafive obfervations, grounded on advantages to be conferred t." Your objection indeed is whimfical; fhall not a man pull a thorn from his own fide without a recompence? Muft we, Irifhmen, be induced by fugar plumbs to do what is good for us? I do not diftinctly comprehend the difference between the removal of evil and an advantage. If you mean that I have not entered into comprehenfive details on the head of Commerce, I muft candidly fay, that I think this. question is to be decided upon confiderations of an higher nature. If our conftitution be found, and if the operation of it be beneficial, I would not be reafoned out of it by cold calculations of fhipping and tonnage; I would not be induced by all the wool and cotton, and all the tea and fugar in the world, to forfake it. If its defects militatę

*Memoire, page 1.

See Letter, by Mr. Hamilton,

militate against human happiness, I want no other impulfe to defire its correction. No doubt, fhould a treaty of union proceed, there will be found a proper feafon for commercial regulations, and the concern will be important; but the fettlement of the country ftands uppermoft in my mind; profperity and affluence come of course when your ftate is well regulated. The extinction of our feuds would be of itfelf a fortune to Ireland; to pacify them fhould be the beginning, the end, and the object of all our endeavours. I can difcufs no question but the means of drawing the people into amity with each other, and with the govern ment; and of rooting out, on either hand, the feeds of jealoufy. Your conftitution may be as brilliant as theory can make it; unless you can procure this temper, it is a fplendid deception; and the utmoft range of commercial opportuni ties is nugatory.

But this fhort catalogue of evils, of which you appear to make fo light account, comprizes what ever has kept the people of Ireland at variance with its government: The factions of the high; the discontents of the low; poverty and turbu, lence, each as in a circle promoting the other, and the inaccurate application of authority the caufe of both. It comprizes the monopoly of political power and patronage in a few hands, and the means that were employed to fortify that monopoly. A principal engine was the divifion of the nation into diftinct cafts, by the contrivance for each, of a totally different code of laws and of immunities. The force of this fyftem is weakened; but the hoftile difpofitions, that were formed under it are preferved, with more heat perhaps, and pertinacity and address, because the parties who relied upon this as a bul wark, perceived the fecurity begin to fail them. 1 concluded

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I concluded that Parliament was not qualified to remedy the diforders of the ftate, because the root of the mifchief lies in the conftitution of our House of Commons, and in the oppofition of particular to national interefts, which is not any where fo predominant, as within the circle of Parliament itself. I feel that it is incumbent on me to enforce my opinion, by a detailed explanation of the reasoning that produced it. I have endeavoured to clear the ground for the admiffion of argument, by fubftantiating what every Irishman ought clearly to feel before he affents to an incorporation of Legislatures, that the measure does not involve the fettled dignity of his country. I have alfo endeavoured to fubftantiate, that our prefent form of conftitution has not acted kindly or beneficially for the fubjects. It was not formed upon a fcheme of general concern for the entire people, and of course it only promoted exclufive advantages. I fhall proceed with my analifis, having, as I hope, afcertained the point of honor, and made fome progrefs in the confideration of expediency:

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Let me first complete the outline of what I conceive to be the intereft of the Catholics in the prefent queftion. This alfo is no unimportant preliminary. The fituation of that part of the people may be thus defcribed: A flender aristocracy, an extenfive middle order, an immenfe clafs of labouring and industri ous. Obviously it is more effential to a people thus circumftanced, to be placed under the protection of a strong government, than to be admitted to a participation of power in a feeble ftate, from any efficient fhare in which their fitue ation must generally exclude them.

There is not the leaft probability that the factions of Proteftant and Catholic will fubfide un

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der our present conftitution. Admitting them to fubfift, this alternative remains for confideration, whether would few or many of the latter be introduced into Parliament by an emancipation? In the former cafe, thefe few would obtain the ufual parliamentary confideration; they would act like other men in the fame place, and there the matter would end without any alteration in the general management of the country. If many got accefs to Parliament, they would form a Catholic oppofed to a Proteftant faction, precisely as in the laft century, when the parties ran at length into civil wars, in which one was reduced to a pitiable fubjugation.

The grievance which moft materially affects, the Catholics is a difpofition, ungracioufly and for unkind purposes, to difcriminate them from their fellow-fubjects. A comparison of the effects of the refpective measures of union or emancipation upon this temper, fhould form the ground of their decifion. They are excluded by law from certain high pofts and from Parliament. If the incapacities by ftatute. were removed, there would ftill remain a natural difability in their general inferiority of rank, fo that in a great degree they could not profit of the conceffion. When the teft laws are abrogated, little more is done than an act of justice to certain individuals, and the abolition of a figma which produces difcontent, by offending the feelings of a large portion of the people. Thefe, to be fure, are most meritorious confider ations; but they do not go to the extent of the inconvenience; no reftraint is thereby placed up

on

* There is not a line in this argument which does not apply equally to the Diffenters, and indeed to all defcriptions of perfons who are without the pale of the Oligarchy.

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on the untoward difpofition I have mentioned. The remedy is, of courfe, not fo fubftantial as this other, which makes the Government ftrong against that temper, and which removes the motives and powers that fupport it. On the moft favourable calculation, not above twelve could procure themfelves to be returned to Parliament, fix fuppofe by purchase, and as many upon the landed intereft and that of open towns. The occafional elevation of a dozen men, is not to be compared in point of national advantage to a measure, which either equalizes all parties, or at leaft reduces them to a state of reciprocal inoffenfiveness. The British government protects the Catholics of France, Portugal and Italy, and if it were not under fome impediment, why fhould it not equally protect its own fubjects of Ireland?

Of two Parliaments, neither of which they can materially influence, it is more the intereft of the Catholics to live under the jurifdi&tion of that, which has not been educated with any indifpofition to them. Now the majority of the Irish Parliament has upon all, or moft occafions, difplayed ftrong marks of rooted difinclination to that people. Nay it is a fafhion with many perfons of high confideration here, to diflike a man for being a Catholic This is certainly not the case in England. Proteftant and Catholic, not having been known there, as political parties, for above a century, the diftinction became obfolete. The liberal and continued intercourfe of the fashionable, the diplomatic, and the commercial claffes, with Catholic countries, contributed alfo to obliterate the prejudices, which formerly arofe from the difference of religion. Except through the interpofition of the Crown, which is the British branch of our Government, the Irish Legifiature has never been diftinguished for condefcenfion to its Catholic fubjects. Befides, the property of the individuals,