$62 



IRE 



T- published Arcfunifnlx far and against a Union between 

 ^V"*' (.,,; Britain anil Ireland cnntiilertit. The country 

 w* munedhtely irHv-t feelingly alive to the discussion 

 of this most important question, and became divided 

 into two parties, Unionists and Anti-unionists. On 

 each side were found those who, on all other previous 

 questions, had ranged themselves on opposite sides ; 

 but the m ijority of the people were certainly against 

 union On the '22d of January 17*19, the measure 

 was recommended by the viceroy to parliament. In 

 die House of Lords a favourable address was voted by 

 a large majority. In the Commons, after a debate 

 which lasted 2'2 hours, there was a majority of only 

 one in favour of the measure When it was again 

 brought forward the next day, those who opposed the 

 union had a majority of five. Before the conclusion of 

 the session, however, those who were favourable to it 

 had attained a majority ; but the detail of the measure 

 was postponed till the next year. In the British par- 

 liament the question had also been introduced during 

 the session of 1799, an d, after considerable discussion, 

 but with less opposition than in the Irish parliament, 

 a series of resolutions recommending a union had been 

 voted. 



Debates on When the Irish parliament assembled again on the 

 h. 1 5th of January, 1 800, a motion was made hostile to the 



A. D. 1800. measure, which, after a long and animated debate, was 

 negatived by a majority of 42. On the 5th of Febru- 

 ary, Lord Castlereagh communicated a message from 

 the Lord Lieutenant, in favour of a union, and develo- 

 ped the plan on which it was to be effected. On a di- 

 vision of the House for taking this message into consi- 

 deration, there appeared 158 in favour of it, and 115 

 against it. The House of Peers were more decidedly 

 in favour of a union. In it the lord chancellor, Fitz- 

 gibbon, now Earl of Clare, was one of its most strenu- 

 ous supporters, while the speaker of the House of Com- 

 mons as strenuously opposed it. It was also opposed 

 by Sir Lawrence Parsons, the Duke of Leinster, Lords 

 Charlemont and Moira, and Mr. Grattan. In order to 

 counteract the effects of such a formidable opposition, 

 government had recourse to those means, which the 

 distribution of places of honour or emolument must al- 

 ways put in their power, and which too frequently 

 have overcome the consciences of those who have been 

 the most loud in their professions of purity, indepen- 

 dence, and patriotism. By the active and judicious 

 employment of these means, the majority in the House 

 of Commons had been greatly reduced, and the pros- 

 pect of carrying the measure was rendered every day 

 more favourable. Besides, many of those both in and 

 out of parliament, who, during the first impulse of their 

 feelings, had reprobated the union, without considering 

 the arguments that might be urged in favour of it, hav- 

 ing become cool, and divested themselves of prejudice, 

 resolved to support it. The arguments for and against 

 this measure, are thus summed up by Mr. Gordon in 

 his History of Ireland. 



" The opponents of the measure insisted, that the re- 

 presentatives of a nation were not vested with a power 

 of abolishing its independence, by the transfer of its 

 sovereignty, or right of legislation, to any foreign coun- 

 try ; that siich a transfer, without the general consent 

 of the people ought to be resisted, as a dissolution of 

 the existing government, and introductive of anarchy : 

 that a local parliament, best acquainted with the habits, 

 prejudices, arid dispositions of their fellow subjects, 

 ever present on the spot to administer immediate relief 

 to their wants, or guard against their excesses, was pre- 



Argumrnu 

 . it. 



LAND. 



ferable to a foreign legislature, unacquainted with the History, 

 state of the people, and too distant to Deceive informa- """ "Y"" 1 * 

 tion, or apply the proper remedies in due time : that 

 the Irish members in the Imperial Parliament would be- 

 come, as the Scotch in that of Great Britain had become 

 already, the tools of administration, to the increase of 

 the undue influence of the crown : that the evil of absen- 

 tees would be nearly doubled, to the intolerable aug- 

 mentation of the exhausting drain of money, and the 

 abandonment of the tenantry to the tyranny of agents, 

 who would abuse their delegated power to the gratifica- 

 tion of their pride and avarice : that, by the absence of 

 the bishops from their dioceses, in consequence of their 

 attendance upon the Imperial Parliament, the inferior 

 clergy would be neglected, to the growth of irreligion, 

 and the discouragement of literature : that the national 

 importance of the Irish would be annihilated by the 

 degradation of their country from the rank of a king, 

 dom : and that whatever concessions should, in return 

 for her sacrifices, be made to Ireland in the compact of 

 union might at any time afterwards be cancelled by 

 the Imperial Parliament, from its vast majority of Eng. 

 lish members." 



" The advocates of the incorporating system contend- '" favour 

 ed, that in every government is inherent a despotic ** 



Eower for the maintenance of order, the enacting of 

 iws, and for the making of alterations occasionally in 

 its own constitution, for its adaptation to successive 

 changes of circumstances, which in the course of human 

 affairs inevitably take place : that this power is lodged, 

 according to the British system, conjointly in the king, 

 the lords, and the representatives of the people : that 

 the modification now proposed, was no surrendry of 

 independence, but an intimate conjunction with the sis- 

 ter island, on honourable terms, no subversion, but a 

 change of the constitution : that, to deny the compe- 

 tence of parliament for the effecting of this change, 

 would be to deny the validity of the act by which Eng. 

 land and Scotland had been incorporated, and conse- 

 quently to deny the right of his present Majesty to the 

 crown of the united kingdom, which was founded on 

 the 2d article of that act : that otherwise than through 

 their representatives in parliament, the consent of the 

 people could only be collected from the opinions of the 

 well-informed, the reflecting and disinterested part of 

 the nation : that, to these, the measure proposed was an 

 object of desire : that, whatever might be the advanta- 

 ges to Ireland from her local parliament, the disadvan- 

 tages were far greater : that the feeble bond, by which 

 the two kingdoms were connected, was in danger of 

 being broken by a disagreement of the two legislatures, 

 of which an alarming instance in the appointment of a 

 regent had lately occurred : that by the distinctness of 

 her legislature, Ireland was excluded from commercial 

 advantages, as had appeared in the case of the commer- 

 cial propositions, which had been rejected from political 

 jealousy arising from this distinctness : that this boasted 

 national parliament was founded on no national basis, 

 but on the pretensions of a few to a monopoly of the go- 

 vernment, and resources of the whole, a puny and ra- 

 pacious oligarchy, who considered the nation as their 

 political inheritance, and were ready to sacrifice the pub- 

 lie peace and happiness, to their insatiate love of pa. 

 tronage and power: that for the demolition of this oli- 

 garchical tyranny, and the curbing of violent factions, 

 by which the nation was distracted and oppressed, re- 

 course should be had to a legislature superior to local 

 prejudices, and remote from the baneful influence of 

 party : that the Irish members in the imperial parlia- 



