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people. Relations commercial and political are at this day better understood, than they were in the middle of the prefent century. The science of fociety is ftill in progrefs; and are we to fix our eyes upon the retrofpect, and pine over exploded faults? and are we to imagine that in the great change of maxims that has taken place, one courfe of impolitic proceedings will alone be preferved, although this fyftem of conduct bas been renounced, has been difcarded as injudicious, and atoned for as offenfive; abjured by ftatesmen, and cenfured by authorities; and all this through the mere love of doing evil; for the apo logy for putting any restraint upon this country? the only one indeed ever offered, that Ireland was not pledged to all the burdens of the empire, is at an end, when the two countries fhall be formed by an incorporating Union into one government.

If our domeftic government were to be fubjected to the fame jealous teft, and to the fame rigid fcrutiny, has it fo exercifed its functions, as to be entitled to the confidence, which, on the ground of England's delinquencies, we are advised to withhold from the Imperial Legislature? Has fuch been the blameless tenor of its political existence, that we are to throw ourselves with implicit reliance on its difcretion? If falfe policy be inexpiable, where is the fhade of the Popery Laws to repofe? The Parliament of England abridged our foreign trade; a feries of English writers exposed the error of the practice, and it was abolished. The Parliament of Ireland submitted to the inconvenience, and filled up the fyftem, where it was incomplete; but it allo interdicted the people from the cultivation of the land, and from civil liberty. We might have lived

*Child, Decker, Poftlewaite, Tucker, Smith and Young.

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lived without foreign trade; but what is a nation without arts, or manners, or improvement? A law was in force in this kingdom, to a date as recent as the British restrictions upon our commerce, which authorised any man to fix at five pounds the value of a Papift's horfe, or to levy upon that description of the people, the amount of depredations committed upon the coaft by an enemy. Now I rely upon the manners of the age, that these laws will not be again impofed. I rely upon the fame manners, and upon an improved fenfe of public intereft, that the Catholics will not again be rendered incapable of holding landed property, even although no more than twenty years have elapfed, fince, in this refpect, the ftatute law has been corrected in their favour. Shall we not at least expect the manners of the age, to be as accurately followed, and a judicious fenfe of public interest to be confulted by an Imperial Legislature, as by this domestic Parliament, which does not touch the people very closely either by delegation or property? It is morally certain, that the British*

government

*No circumftance has contributed in a greater degree to render the Union popular in fome parts of Ireland, than the temper difplayed by the gentlemen who came over, in the beginning of the disturbances, as officers of the guards and militia regiments. It was not the leaft of the good confequences refulting from that generous and fortunate acceffion of military ftrength, that loofe fufpicion ceafed to be followed by the punishment of atrocious guilt; and the religious defcription, under which a man was classed, to be received as prefumptive evidence of his criminality. Thofe who are acquainted with the ftyle of conversation that prevailed during the laft fummer, will readily agree, that Ireland was faved from itself by the British reinforcement. The party would have chofen in preference, to arm their own adherents, who were certainly very adequate to suppress the rebellion, but whofe means and projects for restoring peace were no lefs pernicious, than the diforders they were op pofed to.

government muft, for its own fake, conduct this nation with a view to its improvement; and equally certain, that paffions must eternally arife, which will prevent the high Proteftant afcendancy from becoming a mild dominion, I conceive that the controverfy between the Minister, and a certain party, deep in the opposition to this measure, might be reduced to a dialogue of this tenor. "Sir, we will undertake to preserve Ire"land to the Crown; but you must give up the

country to our mode of management." "No, ❝ gentlemen, I do not approve of your project; "it is a bad fyftem, which has been purfued too " long, and we are weary of it. I know "Ireland may be kept by a government of

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terror; but a refourcelefs fubjection will not answer the exigencies of the times. I "must not only hold Ireland, but make it a pro "fitable member of the empire. I will endeavour to "reclaim the people. The Duke of Cumber"land reduced Scotland; but a judicious management, and clemency fecured it. I will make the law apply with equal vigour and "vigilance to all claffes of the Irish nation. "hold you gentlemen by your properties; I will "gain the affection of the lower people."This language founds ftrangely in the ears of perfons who cannot imagine any refource of imperial government, except affixing Ireland by a party to Great-Britain. They exclaim that the connection of the countries is in danger; they made the fame exclamation, on the different fteps to the abolition of the popery laws, and each outcry may be

*Compare the refolutions of the county of Louth, and thofe of the Corporations of Dublin, in and in 1799.

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be explained by the other. The narrow provin cial or garrifon policy, to which their minds had been formed, was certainly put to hazard. But the members of the cabinet, not having imbibed their politics in College-green, happened to entertain a more rational and comprehenfive fcheme both of government and connec tion.

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The law of the land does not bear heavily on the Irish people. They are oppreffed by the practical difcipline between rich and poor, and by grievances arifing from the local management of counties and diftricts. Then, preferve the law, and take effectual measures to compel a change of practice The mild application of authority may in the cafe of a very unthinking people, be expected to precede, it certainly cannot fail to produce, a benignant temper.

Let the influence of private men be diminished. Accommodate, in fome degree to the temper of the people, the manner of forming a fund for the maintenance of the Church, and place that income under the fafeguard of the laws of property. The weight of landed intereft gives to the body of Proteftants an immenfe preponderance; but it is fuch, as cannot admit of a reasonable exception. It secures every object they hold dear; it ought to fuffice; it does fatisfy the most valuable and intelligent members of that communion. A preponderance, founded on party pretenfions alone, the

I have omitted a head which is very material, but which has been already very fenfibly difcuffed. The difference of intereft between the government and the people, running in adverfe currents, and only to be reconciled by an Union

the good will decline, and the wife will reprobate; let it be legally fuppreffed, and practi. cally discountenanced, and give Great Britain Such an intereft to guarantee the fettlement. is the fcheme of pacification, which the ftate of the country feems to demand, and which promises to be durable. Such I humbly offer as the Euthanafia of our fhort-lived, but boisterous, and ill-omened independence..

FINIS.

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