UNION. 



the competency of parliament. " I warn you," faid he, 

 " do not dare to lay your hand on the conftitution ; I tell 

 you, that if, circumftanced as you are, you pafs this aft, it 

 wDl be a mere nullity, and that no man in Ireland will be 

 bound to obey it ; I make the affertion deliberately, I re- 

 peat it, and I call on any man who hears me to take down 

 my words ; yoa have not been elefted for this purpofe ; you 

 are appointed to make laws and not legiflatures ; you are 

 appointed to aft under the conftitution, and not to alter it ; 

 you are appointed to exercife the funftions of legiflators, 

 and not to transfer them ; and if you do fo, your aft is a 

 didolution of the government ; you refolve fociety into its 

 original elements, and no man in the land is bound to obey 

 )-ou." Such is the ftrong language with which this gentle- 

 man is reported to have oppofed the union ; yet fince it has 

 taken place, he has not difdained to be a reprefentative of 

 Ireland in the imperial parliament, and has been heard with 

 that attention and admiration to which he is entitled. The 

 ableft advocate for the competency of parliament was Mr. 

 William Smith, fon of the mafter of the rolls, and fince one 

 of the barons of the exchequer, who maintained that a con- 

 trary " doftrine would not only impugn the exprefs autho- 

 rity of Coke and Blackftone, and other conftitutional writers, 

 but would fhake the fabric of our rights and liberties to 

 its foundation ; would go to cancel the title-deed of 1 706, 

 by virtue of which his majefty holds his Scottifh crown ; 

 would queflion the legitimacy of that mixed affembly, which 

 •was formed by the coalition of the Scotch and Englifh legif- 

 latures ; and impeach the force of every ftatute which has 

 been enafted fince their jimftion : and would confound and 

 violate the very elements of our conftitution, by transferring 

 the fupreme authority from the parhament to the people." 

 Whilli on this particular fubjcft it may be obferved, that the 

 competence of parliament was alfo maintained by that emi- 

 nent lawyer Barry, lord Yelvcrton, who had taken a lead in 

 the meafures of 1782. " Union," fays he, " is only a law 

 common to two ftates ; and to fay that the parliaments of both 

 are incompetent to frame fuch a law, is to fay that they are 

 incompetent to anfwer the ends of their inftitution. For a 

 diftinftion is to be made between the phyfical and moral 

 power of parhaments. They can do any aft, but there are 

 certain afts which they ought not to do ; and therefore every 

 queftion of competence, ultimately refolves itfelf into a quef- 

 tion of expediency. And furely it will not be argued, that 

 though Great Britain and Ireland fliould ftand on the preci- 

 pice of deftruftion ; that though their diftinftnefs muft be 

 produftive of mifery in the extreme, and union be ever fo 

 neceftary to their happinefs ; that they muft continue dif- 

 tinft for want of power to unite : in other words, that 

 thougli the meafure fliould be ever fo expedient, the parlia- 

 ments of the two countries are yet incompetent to enaft it. 

 It is a wretched argument, and fuch as no man in his fenfes 

 can contend for. ' The bare idea of ajlate,' fays judge Black- 

 ftone, ' 'without a poiuer fomeiL-here vejled to alter every part of 

 its laws, (and it is the laws of every country which make its 

 conftitution,) w the height of political abfurdity." When 

 men of the greateft knowledge and abilities have held fuch 

 oppofite opinions on this queftion, it would be prefump- 

 tuous in the writer of this article to do m.ore than record 

 their opinions ; but he may be permitted to inquire how it 

 has happened that fucli difference could exift. It appears 

 to him, that thofe who deny the competence, refer to fome 

 original compaft or conftitution, fuch as the National Con- 

 vention eftabhfhed in France, from which there is no power 

 of departing, without the confent of an aflembly, chofen for 

 this purpofe ; but where is fuch compaft to be found ? 

 Was there ever a period when the government of England 



or of Ireland was to be fet up anew, and when it was referred 

 to any fingle perfon, or aflembly or committee to frame a 

 charter for the future government of the country, or when 

 a conftitution fo prepared and digefted, was by common 

 confent received and eftabliftied ? The advocates of the 

 competence of parliament, on the other hand, evidently con- 

 fider the conftitution to be founded on afts of parliament, on 

 decifions of courts of law, and on immemorial ufages. As 

 therefore parhaments had united Wales and Scotland to 

 England, and as the power of parliament to do whatever it 

 deemed expedient had not been queftioned in former times, 

 they faw no folid objeftion to the competence of the inde- 

 pendent parhaments of Great Britain and Ireland to form 

 a junftion for the common benefit. The conftitution of 

 England has grown out of occafion and emergency, from 

 the fluftuating policy of different ages ; from the contentions, 

 fucceffes, interefts, and opportunities of diff^erent orders and 

 parties of men in the community. There is no regular plan 

 to be referred to, and therefore Paine faid that we had no 

 conftitution. To return to the debate on Mr. Ponfonby's 

 amendment, after feventy-three members had given their 

 opinion for or againft it, a divifion took place, and it was 

 loft by a majority of one only. Encouraged by fuch a clofe 

 divifion, the oppofition ufed greater exertions ; and when, two 

 days after, the amendment was again moved on this report, 

 it was carried by 109 to 104. This prevented the further 

 dircft difcuffion of the queftion during that feflion, the 

 minifter declaring it would not be again brought forward 

 until its introduftion ftiould be juftified by public fentiment. 

 In the houfe of lords, feveral amendments were propofed, 

 but the original addrefs was carried by 52 to 17. In the 

 minority was James, earl of Charlemont, a nobleman whofe 

 conduft was ever guided by what he deemed the intereft of 

 Ireland, and whom no felfifti motives could fwerve. The 

 protcft he figned on this occafion was one of the laft afts of 

 his public hfe, as he died on the 4th of Auguft, 1799, before 

 the meafure could be again brought forward. As one of the 

 arguments in favour of a union was the conduft of the Irilh 

 parliament during the king's illnefs, which might have led 

 to two feparate and diftinft governments, Mr. Ponfonby 

 brought in a bill to regulate the appointment of a regent, 

 the difcuflions on which included the queftion of union. 

 This bill went to enaft that the regal power of the two 

 kingdoms fiiould refide in the fame perfon, and that the 

 regent of Ireland fliould be fubjeft to the fame reftriftions 

 as the regent of England, thus giving up the fupremacy of 

 the Irifii legiflature. The bill was oppofed by lord Caftle- 

 reagh, on the ground that it v/as incomplete, and that the 

 danger of feparation could not be cured by half-meafures, 

 and it was finally loft. In the committee on it, however, 

 the fpeaker, Mr. Fofter, had the firft opportunity of deliver- 

 ing his fentiments againft the union, which he availed him- 

 felf of in a fpeech which was publiihed, and which by its 

 able details contributed very much to confirm members in 

 their oppofition to the meafure. At the clofe of the feflion, 

 the lord lieutenant again introduced the fubjeft ; and, after 

 noticing the joint addrefs of the two houfes of parhament of 

 Great Britain, recommending a complete and entire union be- 

 tween Great Britain and Ireland, faid, "that his majefty, as the 

 common father of his people, muft look forward with eamefl 

 anxiety to the moment when, in conformity to the fenti- 

 ments, wifhes, and real interefts of his fubjefts in Great 

 Britain and Ireland, they may all be infeparably united in the 

 full enjoyment of the bleffings of a free conftitution, in the 

 fupport of the honour and dignity of his majefty's crown, 

 and in the prefervation and advancement of the welfare and 

 profperity of the whole Britifh empire." 



The 



