CHRONICLE. 



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enquire, whether that measure, 

 which has now been put to the 

 decisive test of experience, has, 

 in any degree fulfilled, or whether 

 it is calculated to fulfil, the san- 

 guine expectations of its advo- 

 cates ; and whether its repeal has 

 not been indispensably necessary 

 for the accomplishment of those 

 very ends for which its enact- 

 ment was made a pretext. 



That your petitioners humbly 

 conceive a revisal and repeal of the 

 legislative union, between Great 

 Britain and Ireland, irresistibly 

 called for by the following, 

 amongst other considerations : — 



Because, from the earUest estab- 

 lishment of English dominion in 

 this country, to the year 17B2, a 

 resident parliament was, by the 

 British kings, deemed necessary 

 and alone competent to under- 

 stand its wants, to encourage its 

 resources, and promoteits interests. 



Because the government of Eng- 

 land, while it could control the 

 proceedingsofthelrish legislature, 

 never proposed or recommended 

 to the consideration of either, a 

 legislative union between the two 

 countries, but that when compel- 

 led to renounce that control, and, 

 finally, to declare the parliaments 

 of Ireland independent, the minis- 

 ter of England never ceased to 

 plot its extinction ; and, conse- 

 quently, that the real motive for 

 a union was not the mutual bene- 

 fits of the countries, but the 

 trouble and difficulty of managing 

 an independent parliament, and 

 the desire of procuring an in- 

 crease of infiuence in that of 

 Great Britain. 



Because the moment seized on 

 by the British minister for the ac- 



complishment of his views, was 

 that least fitted for a calm discus- 

 sion and fair investigation of the 

 merits of any serious and impartial 

 political question : and because, 

 even under such unfavourable 

 circumstances, the means em- 

 ployed to effect it were the most 

 corrupt and iniquitous. 



Because the parliament of Ire- 

 land " being delegated to make 

 laws, not legislators," could not 

 transfer their legislative authority 

 without the express sanction and 

 approbation of their constituents; 

 and that a decided majority of the 

 constitutional body was hostile to 

 the measure, is evident from their 

 petitions against it, and from the 

 fact, that the minister, even after 

 his defeat, feared to appeal to the 

 sense of the people by a dissolution 

 of the then refractory parliament. 



And your petitioners submit, 

 that so decided was the opinion of 

 the Irish people, respecting the in- 

 competency of thelrish parliament 

 to enact the measure of union, and 

 so strong their abhorrence of that 

 measure, and their conviction that 

 they could not, in the language of 

 the immortal and constitutional 

 Locke, be bound by any laws but 

 such as are enacted by those whom 

 they have chosen and authorised 

 to make ihem — " that an appeal 

 to Heaven must, in all probability, 

 have been the inevitable conse- 

 quence, but for the preconcerted 

 horrors oftheprecedingrebellion." 



Because the rapid improvement 

 of Ireland, under an independent 

 parliament, together with the an- 

 nexed statement, must demon- 

 strate that the interests of the 

 country were much better under- 

 stood, and its resources better 



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