UNION. 



peers for Ireland. That tlie Irill: peerage is to be kept for 

 ever a diftina body from tfct- Britifh, though the projeft 

 profeffes a union of the two kingdoms of Britain and Ire- 

 land, and attempts a ur'On of the two parliaments, of which 

 the peerage is a con-'iituent part ; and this continuance of a 

 feparate Iri(h pe-rage, ftripped as it will be of all parlia- 

 mentary funft-^nj perpetuates a diftinftion infnlting and 

 degrading t<- this kingdom, which our minifters, if they had 

 folely in /lew, without any regard to influence, a kfting 

 union c^'the parliaments, to which this continuance no way 

 contributes, would have avoided, by providing that the 

 Irifti peers, when reduced to the propofed number of 

 twenty-eight, fhould be declared peers of the united empire 

 equally with the Britifh ; and thus would have diflblved all 

 national diftinftions between them for tlie time to come. 



" But it is not in trade, revenue, and manufadlures only 

 thit diftinft intcrefts are declared to exift, nor in conftitu- 

 tion alone that feparate intcrefts are to be created ; the fame 

 diftinftnefs is to be preferved in the adminiftration of juftice : 

 every difference of law, every variation of praftice and of 

 regulation which now prevails, is to be allowed to diftin- 

 guifh the civil and ecclefiaftical courts, with this one excep- 

 tion only, that, ia. the ultimate appeal, every Irilh fuitor is 

 to be again at the expence and hazard of going to Weft- 

 minfter, inftead of having a court in Dublin to refort to. 



" We enlarge the more on thefe feveral enumerations of 

 feparate interefts, avowed or created by your m.ijefty's 

 minifters, becaufe the many provifions they propole for 

 their future regulation are fo many acknowledgments that 

 no force of law can identify them, fo as to admit of their 

 confolidation ; provifions all in themfelves prefumptuous and 

 infufBcient, inafmuch as it is not in the power of human 

 wifdom to forefee the events of time, and provide now, by 

 a fyftem declared immutable, for the varying changes which 

 muft naturally take place in the lapfe of years. 



" Under the fame conviftion, though they profefs a union 

 of the two parliaments, they do not attempt to form out of 

 them one with equal and common powers for both king- 

 doms : it is to be free in all its fundtione in refpeft to Bri- 

 tain, but (hackled and bound up by reftriftions as to Ireland. 

 In this they deprive your majefty's Irifh fubjefts of a par- 

 liament, fuch only as the Britifti conftitution acknowledges, 

 free in its deliberations for every part of the empire it is to 

 legillate for ; fuch as we have a right to enjoy, equally un- 

 reftrained in its powers, and unfettered in its proceedings, as 

 to the- interefts of this your majefty's kingdom ; and fuch a 

 one, free and independent in all its functions, as we folemnly 

 claimed to be our birth-right in 1782, and as your majefty, 

 in your wifdom and juftice, did then gracioufly confirm to 

 this kingdom for ever ; but which claim and gracious con- 

 firmation your minifters now feek to take away from the 

 kingdom for ever. 



" That having thus ftiewn to your majefty how very inef- 

 ficient the projeft of your minifters is to anfwer even the 

 purpofe it avows, and how very ruinous its operation muft 

 be, if you ftiall not be gracioufly picafed to interfere, we 

 feel it our further duty to expofe fully to your majefty's 

 view, not only the artful delufions which thofe minifters 

 have prefumed to hold out of fuppofed advantages in com- 

 merce, in revenue, in taxes, and in manufaftures, to deceive 

 the people into an approbation of their fcheme, but "the 

 ■corrupt and unconftitutional means which tliey have ufed, 

 the undue manner in which they have employed the influence 

 of the crown, and the mifreprefentations which they have 

 made of the fenfe of your majefty's people of Ireland on the 

 /neafure. Were all the advantages, which without any 

 foundation they have declared that this meafure oifers, to be 



its inftant and immediate confequence, we do not hefitate to 

 fay exprefsly, that we could not harbour the thought of 

 accepting them in exchange for our parliament, or that we 

 could or would barter our freedom for commerce, or our 

 conftitution for revenue. But the offers are mere impofi- 

 tions ; and we ftate with the firmeft confidence, that in 

 commerce or trade their meafure confers no one advantage, 

 nor can it confer any : for by your majefty's gracious and 

 paternal attention to this your ancient realm of Ireland, 

 every reftriftion under which its commerce laboured has. 

 been removed during your majefty's aufpicious reign, and 

 we are now as free to trade to all the world as Britain is. 



" In manufaftures, any attempt it makes to off^er any be- 

 nefit which we do not now enjoy is vain and delufive ; and 

 wherever it is to have effeft, that eff^eft will be to our in- 

 jury. Moft of the duties on import, which operate as pro- 

 teftions to our manufaftures, are under its provifions, either 

 to be removed or reduced immediately ; and thofe which 

 will be reduced are to ceafe entirely at a limited time ; 

 though many of our manufaftures owe their exiftence to the 

 proteftion of thofe duties, and though it is not in the power 

 of human wifdom to forefee any precife time when they may 

 be able to thrive without them. 



" Your majefty's faithful commons feel more than an or- 

 dinary intereft in laying this faft before you, becaufe they 

 have, under your majefty's approbation, rrjfed up and 

 nurfed many of thofe manufaftures ; and by fo doing, have 

 encouraged much capital to be vefted in them, the pro- 

 prietors of which are now to be left unprotefted, and to be 

 deprived of the parliament on whofe faith they embarked 

 themfelves, their families, and properties, in the under- 

 taking. 



" In revenue we (hall not only lofe the amount of the 

 duties which are thus to be removed or lowered, and which 

 the papers, laid before us by the lord lieutenant, (hew to 

 amount to the immediate annual fum of 50,000/., but we 

 (hall be deprived of nearly as much more by the annihilation 

 of various export duties, which have fubfifted for above a 

 century on other articles of intercourfe, without being felt 

 or complained of by us ; and this whole revenue of 50,000/., 

 which operated beneficially to our manufafture, and of near 

 50,000/. riKjre, which opprelTed no manufafture, is to be 

 wantonly given up, without the defire or wi(h of either na- 

 tion, at a time when our income is more than ever unequal 

 to our expences, and when the difSculty of raifing new 

 taxes to fupply its place is alarmingly increafed, by our 

 having been obhged, in this very feiTion, to impofe new 

 burthens to the eilimated amount of 300,000/. a year ; and 

 we cannot but remark, that in this arrangement, while we 

 give up this revenue of near loo.oco/. a year. Great Britain 

 is to give up one not amounting quite to 40,000/. ; an in- 

 equality no way confonant with the impartiality or juftice 

 profetTed by your majefty's minifters, nor any wife confiftent 

 wth the comparative abilities of the two countries to replace 

 the lofs. 



" But the impofition of your majefty's minifters is ftill 

 more glaring, in their having prefumed to fix a proportion 

 of contribution towards the general future expences, to be 

 obferved by the two kmgdoms, in the ratio of one part by 

 Ireland for every feven parts and a half by Britain. If 

 they had any plaufible grounds whereon they calculated this 

 proportion, they have not deigned to lay them before your 

 parliament ; and the ufnal and eftabh(hed forms of com- 

 mittees, to inveftigate into matters of fuch intricate and 

 extended calculation, have been fuperfeded by them. 

 Your majefty's faithful commons are fatisfied that the cal- 

 culation is extremely erroneous, and that, on a juft and fair 



inquiry 



