276 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1810. 



managed by an Irish, than an im- 

 perial parliament. 



During the seven years' war, 

 from 1793 to 1800, the national 

 debt, under an Irish parliament, 

 increased but twenty millions. 



During seven years' war, from 

 1803 to 1810, the national debt, 

 under an Imperial parliament, 

 has increased forty millions. 



During the year 1798, a year 

 of foreign invasion and domestic 

 rebellion, tlie expenditure of Ire- 

 land, under an Irish parliament, 

 was but four millions. 



During the year ] 809, a year in 

 which tlie army were so employed 

 as to leave Ireland under an ap- 

 prehension of either invasion orre- 

 bellion, her expenditure, byan im- 

 perial parliament, was tenmiUions 

 tive hundred thousand pounds. 



The debt of Ireland, in 1793, 

 was to the debt of Great Britain, 

 as one to one hundred, and is now 

 as one to seven; and, since the 

 union, has increased in proportion 

 to the debt of Great Britain, as one 

 to two ; wliereas, had the relative 

 resources of the two countries been 

 justly estimated at the enactment of 

 that measure, the proportion should 

 have been as two to seventeen. 



And yourpetitioners cannot but 

 conceive this statement the more 

 irresistibly conclusive in favour of a 

 repeal of the union, inasmuch as 

 the warmest advocates of that mea- 

 sure ever maintained the avowed 

 and notorious corruption of tlie 

 Irish parliament as the strongest 

 argument against its enactment. 

 Yourpetitioners, therefore, submit 

 to the good sense of til is honourable 

 House, whether a still nioreecono- 

 mical manugemeiit of Irish re- 

 sources, and a still more enlarged 



understandingof Irish interests,are 

 not tobe expected fromareformed 

 legislature, such as must exist in 

 Ireland on a repeal of the union, 

 allthelrishobjectionableboroughs 

 being now extinct by purchase. 



Because the imperial parliament 

 is composed of members five- 

 sixths of whom have never visited 

 Ireland, or acquired any personal 

 knowledge of the genius and cha- 

 racter of its inhabitants — of their 

 wants and grievances : because 

 one-sixth of even the Irish repre- 

 sentatives are neither natives of 

 that country, nor have ever set foot 

 on Irish ground ; and because, by 

 consequence, the affairs of Ireland 

 are neglected and mismanaged, 

 or her interests disregarded. 



Because the promises officially 

 announced to this country by the 

 British minister, as the grounds 

 upon which he ventured to pro- 

 pose the union, and which, though 

 not inserted among its articles, 

 were considered by tlie Irish 

 people as equall}' binding, were 

 forg'itten by him, disowned by 

 his successors, and disregarded 

 by the imperial parliament. 



Because the dangers and dis- 

 tresses of Ireland have ever taken 

 their chief rise from tlie following, 

 among other evils : from the inat- 

 tention of its landlords to the wel- 

 fare and comforts of their tenantry; 

 from the foreign expenditure of the 

 country, caused by its absentees, 

 and its foreign national debt; from 

 its consequent want of capital, of 

 trade,and tranquillity — because all 

 these sources of j)Overty and dis- 

 content have been, and ever must 

 be, increased and multiplied by a 

 legislative union between the two 

 countries — and because upon a 



