200 



ANNUAL REGISTER, 1800. 



sniilbilklcciares, that the Irish peer- 

 ages shall he considered as peer- 

 ages of the united kingdom, it 

 directs, that Irish paers shall he 

 eligible, as commoners, to represent 

 any place in Great Britain, where- 

 by the purse of the nation will be 

 eventually put into the hands of the 

 peers of the united kingdom, under 

 the description of Irish peers, in 

 direct defiance of the aforesaid prin- 

 ciple. That it is evident that such 

 innovation was introduced by the 

 )iiinister for the purpose of prevent- 

 ing the opposition which the mea- 

 sure niioht receive from such Irish 

 peers as were members of the Bri- 

 tish house of commons, which is 

 clearly evinced by their not being 

 made eligible for any place in Ire- 

 land from whence they derive their 

 honours. That by the provision in 

 the bill for a constant creation of 

 peers for Ireland, the Irish peerage 

 is to be kept up for ever, thereby 

 perpetuating the degrading distinc- 

 tion by which the Irish peerage is 

 to continue stripped of all parlia- 

 mentary i'unctions. That the per- 

 petuity of such distinction would 

 liave been avoided, by providing 

 that no Irish peer should hereafter 

 be created (which is the case of 

 Scots Peers), and that whenever 

 the Irish peers shall be reduced to 

 the number of 28, they should be 

 declared peers of the united empire, 

 erpialiy wltli tlie British, from which 

 time all nati(mal distinctions be- 

 tween them should cease. 



fithly. Because, when we advert 

 to the corrupt and unconstitutional 

 lansjuage held out bv the minister 

 to such members as claimed pro- 

 perty in boroughs, intimating to 

 them, that they should be consi- 

 dered as their private property, and 

 should be purchased as suchj and 



the price paid out of the puhlie 

 purse, such language appears to us 

 to amount to a proposal to buy the 

 Irish parliament for government, 

 and makes the union a measure of 

 bargain and sale between the minis- 

 ter and the individual. 



7thly, Because, when we com- 

 pare the relative abilities of Great 

 Britain and Ireland, we find the 

 contribution to be paid by the two 

 kingdoms, to the expenses ot the 

 united empire, most unequally ad- 

 justed ; and that the share of two- 

 seventeenths, fixed upon as ti^.e pro- 

 portion to be paid by Ireland, is 

 far beyond what her resources will 

 enable her to discharge. Should 

 Ireland undertake to pay more than 

 she shall be able to answer, the act 

 will be irrevocable, and the neces- 

 sary consequence will be a gradual 

 diminution of her capital, the de- 

 cline of her trade, a failure in the 

 produce of her taxes, and finally 

 her total bankruptcy. Should Ire- 

 land fall. Great Britain must neces- 

 sarily be involved in her ruin, and 

 we have to lament that our great 

 and glorious empire will be brought 

 to the brink of destruction, by the 

 dangerous and visionary speculation 

 of substituting a new system of go- 

 vernment for Ireland, in the place 

 of that constitution, which she has 

 experienced to be the firmest secu- 

 rity for the ])reservation of her liber- 

 ties. We think it proper to observe, 

 that if the ministers had any plau- 

 sible grounds, whereupon they have 

 calculated the said proportion, they 

 have not deigned to lav them before 

 parliament, nor have the usual and 

 established forms of proceeding to 

 investigate matters of intricate and 

 extended calculations been resorted 

 to, by appointing committees for 

 their examination ; neither have. 



