measure: for if one-tenth of their allegations were founded in truth, Great Britain should not only shrink from the arrangement, but Ireland should tremble at the acceptance. It had been brought to a mathematical certainty, that whatever benefits Ireland received from this country, so deeply was she drawn into the vortex of our good or evil, the share she took in our subsequent misfortunes, was more than sufficient to counterbalance the precedent advantages: and he witnessed the miseries she was still suffering from the calamities of the American

war.

With respect to the arrangement before the house, he said he should not enter into any discussion of the interests of Ireland, as that care more properly belonged to her own parliament. He would give every indulgence to ministers, who, if they were not infatuated, would give that attention to it, which a business. of so much importance demanded. No man respected the manufacturers more than he did; they were sensible, enlightened, clear headed, and provident. No men were better informed on all the subjects, with which their trade was connected, than that body; and ministers must always find it their interest to consult with them, and to take their advice. But the manufacturers were men with prejudices, subject to err, particularly where they were blinded by personal interest.

The Chamber of Manufacturers he considered as an institution, which might be productive of much good, and give a partial assistance to ministers: though he confessed he was an enemy to people assembling, and giving to themselves what names they pleased; publishing manifestoes, edicts, and he knew not what to call their papers. Some noble lords seemed to apprehend, that Ireland having an unlimited trade, would soon be able to beat England out of the foreign markets; but a country without a capital could not be a rival, and capital was required to carry on both the carrying trade and the depôt trade. It had been said, a stipulation to receive Irish linens duty free for ever, and continue the duties on foreign linens, might be attended with bad consequences in a future negotia tion with some foreign powers; but he would never believe, that any foreign power would act so improperly, or so indecently, as to take offence at privileges bestowed on fellow-subjects of one common sovereign. He laughed to scorn all such impotent menaces of apprehensions: there was not a power in Europe whom a look from this country would not deter, or suddenly bring back from any resolution that they might hastily give into from pique. The material distinction between this country and the powers on the continent, was: they all must sacrifice their commercial to their political interests; whereas, such were the peculiar circumstances, and such the good for

tune of England, that she could at all times make her political yield to her commercial interests. The objection that was made to the system on account of its finality, was with him its praise the fundamental principles he hoped would be established on the most permanent footing; but these did not comprehend the detail of the system. Let the two nations understand one another in the first place; let them fairly meet on fundamental principles; and having acquired mutual confidence in each other by the faithful settlement of the foundation, all the subsequent considerations might be easily and gradually discussed and determined: then these countervailing duties, which all sides acknowledged to be of difficult adjustment, but which nobody would assert to be impracticable, might be regularly settled at the discretion of the two parliaments; and they might always be adjusted to the circumstances of the times, and be changed as occasions and necessities might require.

When noble lords objected to the system's being final, because it might prevent an union between the two kingdoms, did they for a moment consider the practicability of an union? There were several circumstances, that distinguished the cases of union with Ireland from that of Scotland. He mentioned some few, but there were many obstacles, which lay in the way of an union. Before an union was talked of, ministers should know the temper of the people of Ireland. High minded and jealous of their liberties, ministers, must first learn whether the Irish nation would consent to give up their distinct empire, their parliament, and all the honours, which belonged to their own royalty and state. Apprehensions had been conceived, that the three thousand men, that Ireland lent annually to England, and paid out of her own exchequer, might be recalled and disbanded; it should rather be reflected with satisfaction, that instead of three thousand, Ireland might now whenever the exigencies of England should require it, send out her whole military establishment, being herself secure from hostile invasion, through the numbers, discipline, and spirit of her volunteer army: Ireland was in little danger of becoming an object of a descent in any future war; for she had convinced all Europe, that she was able, with her volunteer forces only, to repel the attack of the most powerful nation in Europe. No people in the world had a more animated generosity, or effusion of heart, than Ireland; this had ever been their national character and their pride; nothing would be lost by trusting to it; and if Ireland had ever done wrong, it had been for the want of a good leading, or by the misleading of England. Here alone had been the griev ance, and not with the generous Irish.

To let things remain as they were, would, of all expedients, be the most dangerous. We had raised the hopes of the Irish

nation; they were on the rack of expectation; and they had minds too sanguine to remain long on the stretch, and relax ungratified into patience and submission. Something must be done respecting the general question of an adjustment, and the corner stone of connexion be laid in that moment. That in the interval of a summer vacation, many events and storms might happen to wash it away, if it were not solidly and deeply laid; and that if there were not now a beginning, it might be doubtful, when we might ever again have a chance to see the beginning take place. While peace lasted, we should avail ourselves of the opportunity, and form a plan while in a state of quiet, which might grow habitual before we came again into a state of trouble and distress.

On the 18th of July, Earl Fitzwilliam observed, that he had heard it argued, that the adjustment then going forward, was necessary, on the authority of a resolution, that had passed that house in the year 1782, which laid it down, that a permanent ground of connection ought to be established between Great Britain and Ireland: that resolution, he contended, did not extend to, or comprehend any idea whatsoever of a commercial nature, but was solely confined to political objects, and that opinion he would by no means relinquish, unless the minister, who had brought it forward, were ready to stand up and declare, that his object in proposing it, was one that related to commerce. That necessity had also been attempted to be proved, from the riots and discontents among the manufacturers of Dublin; but that he by no means admitted as a sufficient reason for the concessions granted by the present arrangement, looking upon it as he did, to proceed from that licentiousness, with which Captain Brooke had described those persons to be infected. The demands, which that mob had made, were for protecting duties, which their parliament had very wisely, and he was sorry to say, with more fortitude than had been shewn by the minister of England, refused to gratify them with, knowing that such a measure was by no means necessary. Since then these clamours of a mob had been received as dictates by a British minister; why did he exceed them in his acquiescence? and why did he, in compliance with a demand of protecting duties, introduce a system, that overturned the whole policy of the navigation and trade of Great Britain? for he would again repeat what he had said before, that the universality of the plan then proposed, was a proof of the indiscrimi nating weakness of those, from whom it originated; who, in despair of discovering the proper objects, which the arrangement ought to embrace, had widely and wantonly extended it to all. But other reasons besides the want of protecting duties,

VOL. III.

might be assigned for the prevalent discontents in Ireland, (reasons by no means connected with commerce, but wholly relating to constitutional considerations,) which were the violent and oppressive measures pursued in that country by attachment, to restrain public meetings of the people for the purpose of deliberating on great national questions, a thing which they were indisputably entitled to do, especially at the very time that a circular letter was sent about this kingdom under the sanction of the minister, and signed by a gentleman of some consideration, (the Rev. Mr. Wyvill) inviting the people to conventions and associations of a similar nature, and for the same purposes as those, which were the objects of such intemperate persecution in Ireland.

Lord Townshend, whose government of Ireland for nearly five years, supereminently qualified him to speak favourably of that country, on this occasion supported ultimately the propositions, though he interlarded his speech with some home truths, eminently illustrative of the critical situation of that country, under the then existing circumstances. When he returned from his majesty's government in that kingdom in 1772, he had the honour to tell their lordships in that house, that if they did not bring that unfortunate contest with America to a short issue, there was another part of the empire, which had long laboured under our burdens and wars, which would expect from our justice at least, as much indulgence as others might acquire by their revolt. He remembered he was deemed what was called a croaker, nay worse, a croaker of treason; but the views, interests and passions of mankind, were generally the same; and when neither senators nor ministers would make them a part of their calculations, but endeavour to quadrate what they wanted by what they wished, they would ever find themselves the dupes of their own calculation. He wished that many of their lordships had deigned to have visited the remote provinces of our sister kingdom; there they would have seen a hardy, innocent, oppressed race of men, in a rich soil, surrounded by numberless flocks and herds, yet unclothed, unfed, and mostly unhoused, owing to our restrictions upon their imports and exports, yet contributing their persons and their labours to the support of the empire: would their lordships wish to continue so large a part of their fellow-subjects in that state of subordination and misery? The fact was, that our manufacturers had informed Ireland of more than she knew before; that if we did not grant them a fair participation of our commerce, they would have it without it. If any one were wild enough to think we could coerce them, be neither knew the geographical situation of Ireland, nor the character of its inhabitants. His lordship wished to say no more on this subject, than that an opulent

and luxurious country, like an individual of the same character, might lose much by such a conflict; a poor country, like a poor individual, especially if robust and desperate, would suffer, less, perhaps could scarcely be worse than they were. It had been urged by many, what necessity was there for such a measure at that time? The parliament of Ireland said, they had expressed twice the warmest satisfaction and perfect contentment at his majesty's gracious indulgences to that kingdom; that the volunteers were dwindling, and that the force of government was never stronger there, or had ever been more exerted to the suppression of rebellion and tumults than at that period. He must, he declared, ever honour the national spirit of the volunteers of that kingdom, in spite of all the discountenance, discouragements, and expedients, with which government attempted to depress them. They had given an illustrious example of what a brave and animated people could effect in their own defence. Yet he did not carry his admiration so far as to approve their assembling under the nose of parliament, to prescribe, reform, and dictate to their representatives; there was much paliiation to be pleaded in behalf of our impassioned neighbours, especially when they recollected, what a quantity of political combustibles had been exported into that kingdom from this, and even the most chimerical propositions recommended, however unfitting her peculiar situation; on the contrary, had the same constitutional regulations been imparted to her at that period, which we had adopted and enjoyed in this kingdom, those formidable volunteers had perhaps never existed; but it seemed we were as jealous of our constitutional superiority as our commercial, and consequently had surrendered with reluctance what we should have granted with cordiality. The alterations which had been made in the first propositions to Ireland, were certainly very considerable, and plainly proved the defects of the original plan; imperfect and perilous it certainly was, and had it passed, might have produced greater evils than, he was persuaded, it was cal culated to prevent. Much reproach had been laid at the minister's door for the alterations he had made or admitted; in this his lordship rather thought him commendable in reforming his own errors, or of those who might have misled him, and for adopting better materials from his adversaries. What would not have been urged, and with justice, had he acted otherwise? Had he persisted in errors, and persevered in measures repugnant to his professed views and the interest of both countries, because they were his own.... Had he maintained his own infallibility in spite of his conviction, and sacrificed the peace and welfare of both kingdoms to his own personal imporHe said, he scarcely knew how to avoid mentioning, nor how to describe to its full extent, her situation for trade, the

tance.