and he was chofen by his fovereign to be the inArument of Peace to the People! His appearance in Ireland was the harbinger of returning reafonthe pike dropped from the hand of the deluded peafant, and loyalty became the order of the day! the whip was banished, humanity prevailed, the atrocioufly guilty were punished, and titled iniquity did not escape the incurable wound of public cenfure; the Orange and the Green, equally factious, and equally ohnoxious to the good of the land, were discountenanced, and acted no longer as colours of difaffection to the peace of the community-An honeft foldier, an honeft man, intrufted with the anxious with of the king-he will honourably endeavour to fulfil it; and if he does accomplish union, his deftiny will arrive at the climax of its beneficence; he will extend the bleffings of Conftitutional Liberty to a whole People, and fecure the integrity of the British Empire.

The body politic is fubject to diseases; its conftitution being the creature of man is therefore blended with the infirmities of his nature; when those diseases appear it becomes the duty of the governing power to fearch the cause and apply the remedy. The governing power of a community may be aptly termed the mind, and the meinbers of a community may be properly called the body. If the mind is corrupted, it neglects the conftitution, and the body falls into cureless ruin; but, if the mind is found and the conftitution is

attacked

attacked by bodily fwellings, inflammations, and other tokens of disease, the mind must then, having the power, adminifter the power, administer the remedy, and in the progress of the cure, the conftitution, in order to fave the whole, may be neceffarily altered: the immediate effect of this alteration is the restoration of bodily health-the constitution itself may be ftrengthened by the unavoidable change, but this must be left to time to discover; at all events it has more than an equal chance of improvement, and it is better, even fuppofing the conftitution to fuffer, to fave the life, than by neglect to destroy the body.

Now this apparent theory has been practically proved, for it contains in its principle, though not in its parts, the cafe and confequence of the glorious revolution of 1688; and will any man, with this great precedent ftaring him in the face, have the folly to deny the competency of Parliament to alter the conftitution? Is it not recorded in the temple of immortal fame, that the alteration of the conftitution in 1688 purified its being, gave continuation to its existence, and established a perfection of legal liberty for which there is no parallel in the pages of ancient or of modern history?

It is curious, and conveys no bad lesson, to regard the contradictory declamations of party; the following inftance will, perhaps, leave its proper impreffion upon the public mind.

Our ci-divant patriots exerted all their eloquence to prove the neceffity of a reform in parliament.

To reform the parliament, no man will dený, is to alter the parliament, and it is an incontrovertible truth, that to alter the parliament would be to alter the conftitution; now, these very men, who fo fturdily urged parliament to alter the conftitution by lopping, trimming, and reforming one of its effential branches, have the modefty to tell parliament, with very edifying confiftency! that it has no power whatever, to make any alteration in the conftitution!-Really thofe gentlemen must conclude the people have neither ears or memory. It is alfo to be obferved, that the alteration they meditated would have been pregnant with danger to the state, becaufe, and it was a progreffion they avowed, the reform of parliament would neceffarily have accomplished catholic emancipation-would that have been no alteration of the prefent conftitution!—it would have been an alteration big with mischief, for, as a distinct government, catholic emancipation and proteftant controul are incompatible, the power of the firft fully admitted to the rights of the conftitution, could not reft under the ftate, nor be content as part of the State-it would be the ftate-then farewell to British connexion and proteftant afcendency!

Union-a real, effective, complete, and liberal union, is the only political alteration that can harmonize the jarring and difcordant parts of this kingdom, and bring every good fubject and honeft.

man,

man, let his Religion be what it may, to the rightful enjoyment of the Conftitution of his Country.

Is religion a politic law? Or is it an emanation 'from the universal Creator? if it is a politic law, let it work for the good of the wholeif it is an inspiration from that benignant Being whose attribute is mercy; obtrude not your petty policy upon the eternal will, nor rebel against his Juftice by debafing his creature!

The Legislature of Great Britain has recorded its folemn opinion that Union would promote peace; would deftroy faction; would annihilate the deftructive influence of party; would for ever defeat the hopes of France to feparate and fubdue; would give and fecure one power, one ftrength, one energy to the empire, free from jealoufy, and acting without reftraint; that it would identify to each country the commercial benefits of both, blending England in Ireland, and Ireland in England; that it would eventually do away the imperious neceffity of political diftinction, and open "the door of the temple to the people of the land : on this broad, deep and firm foundation has the legiflature of Britain erected a noble and eternal monument of its liberal and enlightened policy; and the common Sovereign of both countries will recommend the measure to the deliberate wisdom of his Irish Parliament.

The

The alarm has been rung, and national prejudice has been roufed by ftentorian lungs, and nox, with the most winning urbanity of manners, to oppose any union as futile in principle, and as a nullity in act, founded on the watch-word incompetence: but the little cabals of party for power must vanish before the magnitude of national good and Imperial fecurity.

Parliament has been, by an Irish Senator, eloquently, but not accurately termed the "imortal foul of the conftitution; its immortality, we all know, experiences periodical diffolution, if not brought to an untimely death by the will of the King and this foul has been fadly abused as a vicious and most corrupt body! The Orator proceeds, and tells us that the parliament has no power to lay its hand on the conftitution, but he has discovered that Parliament and People, by mutual confent, may change the form of the Conftitution." The Conftitution itself is against the admiffion of this new doctrine. The power of change muft either be either in the Parliament or in the Feople, for it cannot at one and the fame time be in both; if Parliament exifts it is conftitutionally the directing power of the community, and the people having delegated to it their whole authority, are bound to obey its will; during the existence of parliament, the people do not, nor can they, conftitutionally speaking, compofe another legiflative body; and during diffo