pally to that effential part of the articles, the incorporation of the Legislatures.

It is therefore clear that a much stronger prejudice, a much more violent fpirit, difcovered themfelves against the Scotch Union than it has been poffible to excite in Ireland on the prefent occafion. The fame prejudice certainly continued for a few years afterwards, fomented by the partisans of the exiled family, on the one hand, and all who wished to thwart the exifting administration, on the other; and this prejudice, no doubt, contributed very much to increase the temporary infatuation of the Scotch Lords in 1713, who, on the occafion of the malttax I mentioned fome time ago, moved for the diffolution of the Union.

But the good fenfe of that nation, and their early feeling of the benefits daily accruing to them from the measure, foon appear to have made converts, even of the still numerous clafs of adherents to James. A moft ftriking fact in proof of this was mentioned in a former debate by my Right Honourable Friend the Secretary of State. He did not think it neceffary to ftate authorities for a circumstance fo well known to many perfons conversant in the events of those times; but from his not having done fo, occasion was taken to suggest a doubt concerning it ||.

A few words will take away every pretext for any fuch doubt. The fact ftated was, that the Pretender in 1715, two years only after the affair of the malt, knowing the resistance to the Union which had been fo very general throughout Scotland at the time it was in agitation, had,

7th February. Parliamentary Regifter, vol. vii. p. 734

in the manifefto he was about to iffue, declared his purpofe to be that it should be diffolved, but that upon better inquiry he difcovered that the country had already become so fentible of its beneficial confequences, that fuch a declaration would injure his caufe, and that he had therefore altered his defign, and omitted the intended clause in his proclamation.

Now, Sir, this fact, befides other proof, is completely eftablished by an extract lately printed in Dr. Somerville's Hiftory of Queen Anne from the manufcript Memorials of Sir John Clerk, a gentleman of character and eminence in the beginning of the century, member of the last Parliament of Scotland, and who was much in the confidence of the principal perfons concerned in Scotch affairs at the time of the Union and for many years afterwards. Thofe Memorials were written fresh as the events occurred, for the ufe and inftruction of his own family. The words of the manufcript are thefe: The Scots were fo fenfible of the benefit of the Union, that at the time of the rebellion, in 1715, the Pretender was obliged to alter that part of his proclamation which promised to repeal the Union, and to express his determi⚫ nation to leave it to the decifion of Parliament *.'

The apprehenfions of inconvenience to Great Britain which I have heard ftated, have been, 1ft, removal of capital; 2d, the increafed numbers in the Houfe of Commons; gd, fome fuppofed incongruity between the national habits and character of the people of Ireland

• Somerville's Hiftory of Queen Anne, p. 228. Note 4.

and

and of thofe of this country, which may occafion an injurious change in the character, modes, and principles of deliberation and decision of our Legislature. To these I may add an objeƐtion which is of a general nature, and not applicable more to the cafe of the one country than to that of the other; viz. 4th, that a Union on the basis of the Refolutions now before us will be imperfect.

1. As to the removal of capital, I will only say a fingle word or two, in addition to what I have already very fliortly obferved on that fubject; namely, that if there is, in the overflowing capital of this country, a great deal beyond what is engaged in its commerce and agriculture, that furplus cannot be more advantageously laid out for Great Britain than by the employment of it in what will then make a part of one and the fame kingdom. We are indeed told, that the capital of England is fo fully employed, that there is none to fpare. But I know not how that opinion is to be reconciled to the eagernefs with which, to this moment, we fee men ready to engage large fums in every new fpeculation affording a reasonable profpect of fecurity for their principal, though with a very moderate interest upon it--many people of late, to a great extent of adventure, running the hazard of failure altogether, and yet agreeing to confine their returns, whatever may be the fuccefs of the undertaking, within the narroweft limits of what is ufually confidered as fair mercantile profit, many to 10, fome even to 5, per cent. How

Supra, p. 31, 32.

+ Mr. Fofter's Speech, p. 86.

Ten per cent. is the dividend to which, I believe, Parliament has of late confined most of those enterprises to which its fanction has been given.

is

is it to be reconciled to the daily investments of large fums in the frocks, while the dividends amount to little more than 5 per cent. §? or to the known fact, that an immense. proportion of the trade of many parts of the continent, I fear no inconfiderable fhare of that of the enemy, is carried on with British capital; not to mention what, even under the prefent forbidding circumftances, is engaged in the commerce of Ireland itfelf?

2. Some Gentlemen dread the acceffion of a hundredmembers (I fpeak, as they did, hypothetically) to the British Parliament. This, it is thought, may change the caft and quality of this House as a public affembly, and render it too popular and tumultuous.

Sir, I will not deny that I have felt some difficulty on this part of the fubject. Indeed I should be ashamed to diffemble any objection which may have weighed with me, in a cafe where I look upon it as a duty,-it is fo, undoubtedly, in all deliberations here,—but in a peculiar degree as a duty, to examine the queftion, not as an advocate, and for defence, but, as far as I am capable, as a judge who is, in his fhare and proportion, to decide upon it.

But, Sir, I have confidered, on the other hand, that this, at moft, is but a conjectural difadvantage, and of a very fecondary fort at all events, when balanced against

They now fall short of it.

I believe the commerce of Ireland has always been carried on in a very confiderable proportion with English capital. Sir William Petty, in the last century, faid, The stock which drives the 'foreign trade of Ireland doth near half of it belong to those who • live out of Ireland.' Political Anatomy of Ireland, p. 90.

the

the calamity of feparation, which I think I fee is already put into the opposite scale.

I have alfo recollected, that by the original principle of our constitution, the Crown, and of course the English Parliament, could increase, without any fixed limitation, the number of representative members; that in the reigns of Henry the Eighth and his defcendants, this prerogative was exercised to a great extent and without inconvenience-I may fay to the improvement of this branch of the Legislature; that the fame power continued to exift till the Union with Scotland, in which country it alfo obtained, and had been exercised from time to time; that in like manner the incorporation on that occafion of forty-five new members with the former number in England has produced no fuch inconvenience as is fuggefted; and laftly, that I have not observed or heard that the great and frequent fluctuation in the attendance here from under a hundred to perhaps five hundred and upwards, has been the cause of any effential distinction in the nature of parliamentary meafures, confidered in a conftitutional view; for I do not think we are to be guided, in this part of the argument, by any confideration of the effects of fuch fluctuations, as to party, to points of a momentary nature, or to what are fometimes called trials of ftrength between individuals, or this and that clafs of men, on matters not of important confequence to the flate and the community.

3. The next apprehenfion I am not fure whether I rightly understand; but I think it was stated as if it were conceived that the habits and turn of the Irish Gentlemen