UNION. 



tifying to thofe of your majefty's fubjeAs who had recently 

 exerted themfclves in defence of that conftitution which they 

 are now called upon to furrender, and at a time too when 

 the fpirit of innovation is abroad, and likely to be much en- 

 couraged by the example of your majefty's minillers in this 

 their proceeding again ft the ancient liberties of the people, 

 who may be rendered an unprofitable or dangerous part of 

 the Britiih empire, whether in confequence of this union 

 they become flavifti and abjeA, or reftlefs and difTatisfied. 



" That when we refleft on the greatvalue of the afts for 

 trying controverted eleftions, how eminently and effeftually 

 they have been framed for preforving the purity of eleftion, 

 without which the purity of parliament cannot exift ; and when 

 we fee that your miniiters, well knowing the value we fet on 

 them, have propofed various means to continue thofe bene- 

 fits to us in the few eleftions which will remain to be held 

 here after the union, and have withdrawn them all from their 

 inefficacy and infufficieiicy almoft as foon as they were pro- 

 pofed, and have now abandoned all hope of framing any ; 

 we forefee and dread the formidable power which the mea- 

 fure of union will give to the minifter in all Irifli eleftions, 

 by deftroying the beneficial operation of thefe acts ; for the 

 expence, trouble, and delay of trying controverted Irifh 

 eleftions in London, will deter many candidates entitled to 

 be returned from feeking redrefs ; the (lierifFs, who are all 

 appointed by the minifter, will in faft nominate the members, 

 and many of them having already obeyed the willies of the 

 minifter in endeavouring to ftifle the conftitutional voice of 

 the people, give us too fure an omen of the condudt which 

 may be expected from them in eleftions. 



" That whether we reft on this incontrovertible and felf- 

 evident truth, that no parliament in another kingdom can 

 have the local information or knowledge of the manners, 

 habits, wants or wifhes of the nation, which its own parlia- 

 ment naturally pofTefTes, and which is ncceflary for beneficial 

 legillation, nor can be fupplied with the necefTary informa- 

 tion, either as promptly or accurately ; or whether we look 

 to the clear proofs of that truth which the progrefs of this 

 meafurc has afforded, by your minifters having called to 

 their affiftanre in London the great officers of this kingdom 

 moft likely from tlieir ftation to give full information for 

 framing their meafure, and though all their talents and all 

 their own information, and what they obtained by letters 

 while it was pending, were employed for months there, yet 

 when they brought it back, a few hours or rather a few mi- 

 nutes inquiry on the fpot in Dublin, forced them to alter 

 their projeft in very many articles, complete and perfeft as 

 they thought it ; we have ftrong additional reafon to feel 

 and to reprefent the manifeft and irreparable injuries whicli 

 this kingdom muft fullain by the want of a refident parlia- 

 ment, and the impoffibility of legillation being carried on for 

 it as it ought to be. 



^' Therefore, inafmuch as the meafure of a union is an un- 

 neceffary innovation, and innovation at all times hazardous, 

 and rendered peculiarly fo now by the awful fituation of the 

 times ; inafmuch loo, as far from being an innocent experi- 

 ment, it is replete with changes injurious to our trade and 

 manufaftures and our revenues ; inafmuch alfo, as it dc- 

 ftroys our conftitution which has worked well, and fubfti- 

 tutes a new one, the benefits of whicli we cannot fee, but 

 the numerous evils and dangers of which are appareirt, and 

 which in every change it offers militates againll lome known 

 and eftablilhed principle of the Britifh conftitution ; inaf- 

 much alfo, as it fo far endangers the conftitution of Britain, 

 as not to leave us the certainty of enjoying a free conftitu- 

 tion there when our own fhall be deftroyed ; inafmuch as it 

 tends to impovcrifh and fubjugate Ireland, without giving 



wealth or ftrength to Britain ; inafmuch as it tends to railc 

 and perpetuate difcontent and jealoufics, to create new and 

 ftrengthen old diftinftnefTes of interefts in our concerns of 

 trade, manufactures, revenue, and conftitution ; and inftcad 

 of increafing the connexion between the two kingdoms, 

 may tend to their feparation, to our confequent ruin, and to 

 the deftruAion or difmemberment of the empire ; inafmuch 

 as it endangers inftead of promoting or fecuring the tran- 

 quillity of Ireland, as it degrades the national pride and cha- 

 rafter, debafes its rank from a kingdom to that of a de- 

 pendant province, yet leaves us every expence and mark of 

 a kingdom but the great cflential one of a parliament ; inaf- 

 much as it has been propofed and hitherto carried againft the 

 decided and exprefled fenfe of the people, notwitlillanding 

 the improper means reforted to, to prevent that fenfe being 

 declared and to mifreprefeiit it when known ; inafmuch as 

 it is not grounded in all its intricate and momentous parts 

 on that folemn and full inveftigation which ought to attend 

 every meafure of great moment, and has been introduced 

 and condufted with various delufions and impofilions, and 

 with an unbecoming and fulpicious hafte ; inafmuch as it 

 provides for fending one hundred of the prelent reprefent- 

 atives to legiflate in another kingdom, though elected only 

 to fit in the parliament in this, and does not give the people 

 an opportunity, by a new eleclion, to exercile their difcre- 

 tion in a new choice of pcrfons for fuch a new altered and 

 increafed truft ; inafmuch as it leaves to the chance of draw- 

 ing lots the choice of thirty-two members to reprefent as 

 man)' great cities and towns with a L-vity which tends to 

 turn into ridicule the facred and ferious truft of a reprefent- 

 ative ; and while it commits to one perfon the olhce which 

 the conftitution commits to two, of fpeaking tiie voice of 

 the people and granting their money, it does not allow the 

 eleftors to choofe which of the two they will intruft with 

 that power ; and inafmuch ^s means the moll unconftitu- 

 tional, influence the moft undue, and bribes openly avowed, 

 have been reforted to, to carry it againft the known fenfe of 

 the commons and people during the exiftence of martial law 

 throughout the land ; — we feel it our bounden duty to our- 

 felves, our country, and our pofterity, to lay this our mod 

 folemn proteft and prayer before your majefty, that you 

 will be gracioufly pljafed to extend your paternal proteftion 

 to your faithful and loyal fubjedts, and to lave them from 

 the danger threatened by your majefty's minifters in this 

 their ruinous and deftruftive projcft, humbly declaring, with 

 the moft cordial and warm fincerity, that we are actuated 

 therein by an irrefiftible fenfe of duty, by an uufhaken 

 loyalty to your majefty, by a veneration for the Britilh 

 name, by an ardent attachment to the Britilh nation, with 

 whom we have fo often declared we will ftand or fall, and 

 by a determination to preferve for ever the coimeftion 

 between the two kingdoms on which the happinefs, the 

 power and the ftrength-of each irrevocably and unalterably 

 depend." 



Such was the proteft which the Irifti parliamentary oppo- 

 fition had recorded on the journals of the houfe ; a proteft 

 which deft;-ves the attention of the political enquirer, a8 

 well on account of the objeftions it dwells upon, as on ac- 

 count of the weaknels of foiiie of its arguments, (hewing 

 how men of the firft talents and information may be biafled 

 by prejudice and paflion. To this it will be ntiful to add 

 an extradt from a work already referred to, ( Mr. Neweii- 

 ham's View of the Circumftaiices of Ireland,} a work which 

 may be fafely recommended, as containing much valuable 

 ftatiftical information refpe6\iiig the country, being the pro- 

 duitlion of a gentleman who fjiares no exertions to obtain 

 the moft authentic accounts, and whofc honourable charadter 

 3 D 2 places 



