1800.] Obfervations on Lord Caftlereagh’s printed Speech. 
' For the Monthly Magazine. 
OBSERVATIONS on the FINANCIAL PART 
of LORD CASTLEREAGH’S PRINTED 
SPEECH in favour of an UNION between 
GREAT BRITAIN aud IRELAND. 
rH HE various fpeeches which have been 
Jt -publifhed in fupport of the union be- 
tween Great Britain and Irelaad, are ge- 
nerally much more diftinguifhed for their 
vehemence, than either for the knowledge 
or confiftency of thofe who have delivered 
them. According to the reprefentations 
of thefe orators in 1707, the zadependent 
parliament of Ireland then faved the king- 
dom from rain by the wifdom and energy 
of its meafures. According to their pre- 
fent reprefentations, this very body is fo 
feeble and inefficient as to be incapable of 
the ordinary functions of government. It 
is not my defign either to oppole, or, if it 
were poflible, to reconcile thefe contradic- 
tions. ‘he queftion of Union depends, I 
believe, very little upon argument, and 
therefore, like the other inhabitants of 
this country, I feel no intereft in the dif- 
cuffion of it. Were the ftatements, how- 
ever, which are contained in the printed 
f{peech of the [ri/b Secretary derived from 
authentic documents, or founded on the 
flighteft knowledge of finance, we fhould 
al] have caufe to be as much alarmed at the 
Union, as to be aftoniflied at the ftupid ob- 
ftinacy of the Iri/b in oppofing it. But, 
like the refolutions of a certain affembly, 
on which I have already animadverted,* 
thefe ftatements having neither the * evi- 
dence of faé,’? nor even the evidence of 
commen arithmetic to fupport them, would 
deferve but little regard, if the fource from 
which they proceeded did not give them 
the fanétion of minifferial authority. On 
this account I have been induced to beftow 
upon them fome degree of attention, and 
in confequence to communicate the fol- 
lowing oofervations, which in any other 
cafe I fhould have confidered as altogether 
unnerceffary. 
In enumerating the great benefits which 
freland will derive from the Union, Lord 
Cajilereagh affures his countrymen, ‘* that 
they are not only to be exempted from all 
concern in the prefent debt of the fifter-’ 
kingdom, but alfo from the payment of 
nearly one million of their own taxes.” 
Thee, he fays, “ will be thrown on the 
fhoulders of the Britif Minifter to provide 
for,” and perhaps, with equal truth, he 
might have added, ‘* will be eafily tran{- 
ferred to the fhoulders of a patient people, 
who have been fo little burthened during 

—* See Monthly Magazine for November laft, 
349 
the laft feven years of that gentleman’s ad- 
minvtration.”” If Lord C. however be 
net better acquainted with the finances of 
Ireland than he appears tobe with Great 
Britaia bis countrymen will have no great 
caufe to truft in the confolatron which he 
offers them. It is difficult to imagine 
from what fource he derived his-informa- 
tion when he {tated the annual intereft of 
the prefent debt of Great Britain to be 
only tew millions. Had he contulted the 
refolutions of the Enelifh Houle of Com- 
mons, in July laft, he would have found, 
even from thefe documents, that itexceed- 
ed nineteen millions, exclufive of the tntereft 
on Exchequer Bills, on money advanced 
by the Bank, &c. which raiied it almcf to 
twenty millions, or to dowb/e the fur whicir 
he ftates it to be. It is poffible that his 
Lordfhip may have taken his account from 
the report of the Committee of Finance in 
1791, when the intereft of the devt did in- 
deed amount very nearly to the fum which 
he mentions; and as he feems to believe 
that Creat Britai has railed a large pre- 
portion of her war-expences within the year, 
he may be led to conclude that fie had 
made little or no addition to her debts by 
the *¢ juft and neceffary war?’ in which 
fhe \is now engaged. In what manner 
“* the fervices of each year have been pro- 
vided for, within the year,”’ will be bef 
underftood by cenfidering that in the lat 
three years they have fo far exceeded the 
extraordinary fupplies as to entail a debt 
of fifty fix millions in the three per cents, 
which will require a continuance of thofe 
very -fupplies for eight or ten years at 
leaft, after the termination of the war, 
fhould that even immediately fucceed the 
prefent campaign. But were the whole 
of that debt annihilated at this momeat, 
the prefent war will ftill have accumulated a 
permanent debt of more than 220 millions, 
and in confequence have rendered the future 
years of peace more expenfive than any for- 
_mer year of qvar, fuppoling even the whele 
fupplies to have been raifed within the 
year. 
With fuch an imperfect knowledge of 
the Brzti/b finances, combined with a know- 
ledge equally imperfect of common arith- 
metic, it is not to be expected that Lord 
C. fhould be very accurate either in his 
arguments or his deduétions on this fub- 
ject. Hence, in attempting to prove that 
the Iri/h will be exonerated from one mil- 
lion of their taxes, he appears to be equally 
imeorreét both in his furmifes and his con- 
clufions. In order, however, that a jult 
idea may be formed of his Lordfnip’s me~ 
thod of reafoning, it will be neceffary ta 
tranicribe 
