112] ANNUAL REGISTER, 1800. 



CHAP. VIII. 



Unmt with Ireland. — Resoluiion of the British Parliament thereon 



ratijied by the Irish Parliament Debates on this Subject in both 



Houses of Parliament. — The Resolutions, with a few Alterations made 

 in Ireland, ratified by the British Parliament, arid passed into a 

 Law. — Suspensio7i of the Habeas Carpus. — Continuance of an Act 



^ for preventi7ig Mutiny and Sedition. — Co7-n and Bread Bill. — 

 Other Bills. — And Motions for Bills. — Prorogation of Parliament. 



THE first law of nature is a de- 

 sire of self-continuance, or self- 

 preservation, and a correspondent 

 horror of annihilation : a desire not 

 only that the elements or principles 

 of which this living and thinking 

 being IS composed, may be pre- 

 served, but that personal identity 

 should remain, a consciousness of 

 identity be retained, and that in- 

 dividuality, which distinguishes one 

 man from another, and makes 

 him to be himself. The ancient 

 Stoics endeavoured to console man- 

 kind with the reflection that, though 

 the human frame would be dissolved 

 by death, not an atom of its com- 

 ponent parts would be destroyed or 

 lost. The earthy part would be 

 reunited to earth, the water to 

 water, the fiery to fire, the airy 

 and ethereal to air and ether. 

 However personal identity might 

 be discontinued, the universe would 

 remain the same, unimpaired and 

 eternal. The permanence, the or- 

 der, and perfection of this in which 

 every one participated, ought to be 

 ever uppermost in the mind of a 

 wise man, and his consolation 

 through life, and in the crisis of 

 death. This kind of immortality. 



however, is but cold comfort to the 

 human heart. If a man is to be 

 taken to pieces, and lose conscious- 

 ness of identity, he will make little 

 account whether his elementary 

 parts remain in any other form, or, 

 if that were possible, totally anni- 

 hilated. 



This consciousness of identity, 

 this anxious desire and love of 

 self-preservation, that reigns su- 

 preme in the breasts of individuals, 

 is felt in different degrees by 

 nations, and generally more or less 

 according as they are simple and 

 virtuous, or corrupt, sensual, and 

 selfish. The first notice to any 

 small nation of a formal proposal 

 for an union and amalgamation 

 with a great and powerful state, 

 is, accordingly, an alarm for self- 

 preservation. The powerful nation 

 feels no alarm of this kind, be- 

 cause it is only strengthened by such 

 accessions which it assimilates and 

 transmutes into its own nature and 

 form : but the small nation is loath 

 to abandon its separate existence, 

 as a sovereign power, and be swal- 

 lowed up like a stream in the ocean. 

 This principle of human nature is 

 to be recognised in the history of 



