observe with the most cautious vigilance every step which might be taken for the promotion of the scheme. An adjournment was therefore unadviseable. Lord CASTLEREAGH said, that a newspaper report of a speech in the British parliament was not of sufficient weight to influence the house against an adjourn ment. Mr. BARRINGTON affirmed, that the speech of the British minister, as given in the English vehicles of intelligence, was the most unwarrantable and overbearing denunciation of hostility against the liberty of Ireland that could be conceived;' and that it ought not to be overlooked under the flimsy pretence of its being a newspaper statement. To guard against the danger which impended over the country, the house ought to sit from day to day, and answer on the spur of the occasion any attempt upon the rights of the nation. A civil war, he hinted, might be the consequence of persisting in the rash measure. Sir HENRY CAVENDISH favored the adjournment, and represented the inhabitants of the province of Munster as being almost unanimous in support of an union; but this assertion was contradicted on strong grounds by sir John Freke and other gentlemen. Mr. PLUNKET, that the people might have more time for the deliberate intimation of their sentiments, was willing to agree to an adjournment; but he hoped that no unfair advantage would be taken of it by the -ministers, who, he added, ought not to be suffered to continue in office, as their conduct was not that of triots, or of upright governors of a nation. pa Mr. GEORGE PONSONBY wished that all personalities against the ministry might be avoided, and that attacks should be solely directed against the odious measure which was in agitation. Mr. Mr. ROCHFORT and Mr. WOLFE, though they were desirous of supporting the general system of administration, were determined enemies to the scheme of union, and declared, that, if the cabinet should persist in it, they would oppose it with the utmost vigor in every stage of its progress. Mr. MAXWELL conjured all those members who had any regard for the interest of their country to watch with unceasing attention the proceedings of the court, and not suffer any advantage to be taken by the artifices or the pertinacity of the abettors of an union. Lord CASTLEREAGH promised that, if his majesty's counsellors should think it their duty again to propose this measure, full notice should be given of such intention. This declaration did not satisfy the anti-unionists, who resolved to exert their utmost efforts for procuring such a parliamentary determination, such a pledge for the maintenance of the existing constitution, as might oblige the cabinet finally to relinquish the scheme. With this view, on the 15th of February, lord CORRY (son of the earl of Belmore) moved that the house of commons should resolve itself into a general committee on the state of the nation, and consider of an address to the king, declaring an inviolable attachment to British connexion, and representing a separate independent parliament as essential to the interest and prosperity of Ireland. Lord CASTLEREAGH contended that the motion was not only unnecessary, as it was known that the ministry did not intend to press the measure of union at a time of public irritation, but might be rendered subservient to the views of the disaffected by clogging the wheels of government. But, But, as his lordship did not say that the court was willing to abandon the measure, a debate of the following complexion arose. Mr. F. KNOx could not witness without alarm the apparent determination of the ministers to persist in an obnoxious scheme; nor was he pleased with the mode in which they attempted to carry it into effect. The dismission of able and upright servants of the crown, the alternatives of menace and allurement, were not, he thought, the most proper or patriotic methods of effecting any measure. The insults by which Ireland had been degraded in a late celebrated speech *, and the threat of forcing her into a full submission, ought to rouse all the energies of her spirit; and all her true sons would, he was confident, defend their liberties with the greatest vigor, and hurl the thunderbolt of vengeance upon all who should attempt to enslave them. Mr. TIGHE was convinced of the necessity of the proposed address, as, whatever might be pretended by the ministry, it was not the intention of the court to let the question rest. This, he said, sufficiently appeared from the conduct of Mr. Pitt, who, with an unjusti fiable disregard for the feelings of the Irish, had persuaded the British house of commons to offer a set of resolutions at the foot of the throne, tending to the ruin of that independence which was the boast and the glory of Ireland. The country had been highly benefited by an internal and independent legislature; and its future prosperity would be much more effectually promoted by a continuance of such a parliament than by an incorporation with any other. Colonel Vereker, Mr. Dobbs, and Mr. Handcock, Mr. Pitt's speech of the 31st of January. were were friendly to the motion; Mr. Vandeleur and Mr. Martin deemed it unnecessary; Mr. Ruxton and Mr. O'Donel strongly supported it. Dr. BROWNE did not consider the motion as unnecessary. It was forced upon the house, he said, by the British parliament; and, if the subject should continue to agitate the nation, it would be the fault of the minister. He then animadverted on Mr. Pitt's speech of the 31st of January, which he considered as superficial, delusive, and weak (however specious) in point of argument. He reprobated the contemptuous manner in which the Irish had been treated by the English, after the unfavorable reception of the scheme of union by the former; and he declared that, as far as he could at present judge, he should never be inclined to the measure, unless it should appear to him to be absolutely necessary to prevent Ireland from becoming a province of France. The eloquence of Mr. Barrington was displayed on the same side; but the attorney-general, with the usual plausibility of an experienced lawyer, opposed the address. Mr. Monsell, though an anti-unionist, was displeased with the motion; but Mr. O'Hara and Mr. Brooke argued in favor of it. Mr. G. PONSONBY declared that he was not satisfied with the declaration of lord Castlereagh, as it did not appear to be supported by the British minister, whose pledge for persistence in the scheine was strong and peremptory, or by his associates Messieurs Dundas and Windham, whose language on the subject was disrespectful and contemptuous to the Irish. Alarmed at this behaviour, he wished the house to form the proposed committee, that its opinion might be unequivocally stated, so as to shake the resolution of those states men, men, and induce them to relinquish an odious measure.-Allusions having been made to the spirit of party, and to the attempts of factious leaders to trepan or delude the country gentlemen, Mr. Ponsonby denied that he was influenced by such a spirit, and ridiculed the affected solicitude of the ministerialists for those gentlemen, who, God help them! know not the Pittfalls with which the ways of parliament are overspread;' while he thought that, with no guides but common sense and patriotism, they were likely to escape the dangers with which they were environed.It had been said that to enter into a committee would make a debating society of the house; but he confessed that he had no great antipathy to a parliamentary debating society, and wished to give the country gentlemen an opportunity of fully expressing their opinions on a great national question. He did not wish that a subject so essentially interesting to the Irish nation should be left to the decision of the British parliament, or of the executive power in either country. The re presentatives of Ireland ought to reserve to themselves the power of exposing the misrepresentations and false reasoning in which the advocates for an union had so freely indulged. No opportunity of this kind ought to be lost; and, while the dreaded measure should remain suspended over the heads of his countrymen, he would firmly persist in contending for the security of an independent Irish parliament. When the knight of Kerry had delivered his sentiments with spirit against the motion, the new Chancellor of the Exchequer rose. He expressed his surprise at the inconsistency of those members who on a former day protested against all consideration of the subject, and now brought it forward for discussion. The late |