that Great Britain and Ireland muft ftand and fall together---for fall they will!* every thing in nature perishes, and every human contrivance must have an end! the liberties of Greece are extin&, and Rome is no more! the firft fell from an excefs of freedom, and the latter from an excess of conqueft; the land is there, but the fpirit has fled. She refted in Britain, and fpreads her foftering wings over that mighty and commercial empire; blend with her ftrength, reciprocate in her benefits; by union you pour new life into her body, and infure your own exiftence; the branch will die if feparated from the trunk.

It were here unpardonable not to pay fome attention to Mr. Fofter; he is a gentleman of great talents, and it must be fuppofed he means well to his country; he has been an indefatigable friend to her ftaple commodity, and his ftatement of its progreffional increafed confumption must con

*

Montefquieu fays, that the liberties of Britain will perish when the legislative becomes as corrupt as the executive power. -There seems, however, in the conftitution of Britain a preferving principle beyond the legiflative power-the people.If the people are virtuous the corruption of the legislative body cannot deftroy their liberty-it would certainly forge the chains, but they must themselves be mean enough to rivet them on : the conftitutional period arrives for new delegation, and the arrival of that period puts the full power of purifying the Legiflative body in the hands of the people-if they wifely exer-/ cife that power their liberties will stand; if they neglect tha duty, their liberties will perish; it is the people, therefore, ar not the legiflature, that muft deftroy the temple and the G

vince the most sceptical of our ability to improve where we have opportunity, and alfo of the effentiality of Great Britain to invigorate that ability and preserve that improvement.

To Mr. Fofter's commercial detail I fhall, therefore, allow its full weight; but I fhall take leave to look at it from a new point of view; and I afk, fuppofing we had been really an independent nation, unconnected with Great Britain, but poffeffing her political conftitution fince 1782, whether it is in the nature of things, with her for a rival, we should now have had any commercial benefits to calculate?---let good sense reflect, and candour reply.

I fhall, with very high respect towards Mr. Fofter, put it in another way. We are a diftin&t and independent nation; you, Sir, calculate the benefits which have grown under the nurfing wing of British connexion fince 1782. Now, Sir, I beg to be informed, whether with the conftitution of Britain, but without the encouragement of her laws or the protection of her power, we could have established our commerce or maintained our independence?

Again; fuppofe, and it is a fair cafe, for phyfical power is neceffary to produce, improve, and fupport commercial existence-suppose we had eftablished ourpolitical independency in 1782, against the will of Great Britain, and, abandoning our connexion with that kingdom, had effayed to become her rival in commerce; could we from that

period to the present time fo have opposed her power, not only in war (for war fhe muft have poured upon us but in trade, as to have enabled us to maintain our independency, and to compete with her in the markets of the world?

For my part, Sir, I think the true answer to thefe queftions makes the force of your argument very feeble indeed; for we have no independence if we cannot maintain our independency; and the commerce we call ours is in reality not ours, if its courfe can be ftopped by the precarious will of any human external power. I think that with Great Britain for an enemy we could have neither liberty nor commerce, and that the connexion maintains and fupports all we have of the one and of the other. I, therefore, Sir, fee nothing in your calculations but proofs of the advantages we have reaped from that connexion; and Ì conclude that rivetting the connexion by indiffoluble union will insure to us a continuation of thofe advantages by enlarging our power of action, and by giving us our true and natural importance in the empire.

Little weakneffes in wife men are recorded, becaufe wisdom is the oppofite of folly. Newton would fometimes forget the magnitude of his mind, and fhew in triumph the finewy ftrength of his arm !---Mr. Fofter, in the greatnefs of his fubject forgets his political fagacity, and by the following extraordinary apoftrophe rouses the Catholic from lethargy and ftupor." Your country is in danger. A defperate attempt is on foot to fe

duce

duce you to furrender the independence of your -parliament.-You are natives of the island, interefted in its trade, its profperity, its freedom; and in all the bleffings of a glorious and happy conftitution-forget all family differences-all local or partial jealoufies, and fave your country." He here calls upon the catholic as if he were really a free man he is not free-what has he been struggling for? conftitutional liberty; has he got it ?No.-Why then should he be told that his country is in danger? the flave has no country? that a desperate attempt is on foot to feduce him to furrender the independence of his parliament ? Has he a fingle reprefentative there? No, not one! Is he interested by exclufion in all the bleffings of our happy conftitution?-Can he forget all differences, all local or partial jealoufies? alas! it is not to be expected !-It is is, indeed, a tenet of the chriftian code to do good for evil, and the instruction breathes the divine spirit of its author; but being men we must act according to the duft of our nature! Mr. Fofter defires twothirds of the people of this land, the catholics, to defend the independence of that parliament from which they are, and muft continue to be, politically expelled!-You keep the catholic from a full participation of the conftitution; and you call upon him to perpetuate, that conftitution of which he is never to participate! If this is not grofsly inconfiftent, there is no meaning in words. "Tell the bold minifter," fays Mr. Fofter, "who wants

to

to take away your conftitution, that you will not be his dupes."--"Alas"! may not the catholic retort? "alas! Mr. Fofter, you know we have no conftitution, and we will not be your dupes.

"

The truth is this---the catholic body, fore with disappointment, and disappointment, too, unwifely, because unfteadily held out to them by the government of the country, finding themselves threatened with an eternity of exclufion, would fee with indifference the annihilation, of the conflitution with this dangerous indifference pervading the body of your people, union must prove political falvation; you cannot be fecure while the catholic is disfranchised, and he cannot be franchised with fafety to the ftate, while the government is diftinct. Great Britain fees the malady, and the now knows there is only one way to accomplish a curę. Under her binding acts the proteftants were uneafy, because she was the inftrument; under the proteftant direction the catholics revolt, because there is an expelling principle. Among the multitude of its other advantages, union would give the catholic a country to enrich with his labour or defend with his ftrength: if the political fun does not fhine upon him, he cares not how barren the produce; if he is denied the firft of civil rights, his foul, the faculties of his mind, will not infpire and energize his phyfical powers in the defence of the foil. Great Britain will not fpeculate in theory, when fhe can realize in prac

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