"confolidating the ftrength of the remaining "parts of the Empire, by encouraging the com"munications of their market among themselves with preference to every part against all " strangers!"

I am at leaft, therefore, fecure from the design of appearing to deliver any partial or chimerical opinion of my own, when I thus ftate, on the authority of a person the beft informed, and who then judged difpaffionately, both the infinite importance to Ireland of fecuring permanently the great commercial advantages which she now holds at the difcretion of Great Britain, and the additional benefit which fhe would derive from any fettlement which opened to her gradually a still more free and compleat commercial intercourfe with this country. And while I state thus ftrongly the commercial advantages to the fifter kingdom, I have no alarm left I fhould excite any fentiment of jealoufy here. I know that the inhabitants of Great Britain with well to the profperity of Ireland ;-that, if the Kingdoms are really and folidly united, they feel that to increase the commercial wealth of one Country is not to diminish

that

that of the other, but to increase the ftrength and power of both. But to justify that fentiment, we must be fatisfied that the wealth we are pouring into the lap of Ireland is not every day liable to be snatched from us, and thrown into the scale of the enemy. If therefore Ireland is to continue, as I truft it will for ever, an ef sential part of the integral ftrength of the British Empire; if her ftrength is to be permanently ours, and our ftrength to be hers, neither I, nor any English minifter, can ever be deterred by the fear of creating jealousy in the hearts of Englishmen, from ftating the advantages of a clofer Connexion, or from giving any affiftance to the Commercial Profperity of that Kingdom.

If ever indeed I should have the misfortune to witness the melancholy moment when fuch principles must be abandoned, when all hope of seeing Ireland permanently and fecurely connected with this country shall be at an end, I fhall at leaft have the confolation of knowing, that it will not be the want of temper or forbearance, of conciliation, of kindness, or of full explanation on our part,

which

which will have produced an event so fatal to Ireland, and fo dangerous to Great Britain. If ever the over-bearing power of prejudice and paffion fhall produce that fatal confequence, it will too late be perceived and acknowledged, that all the great commercial advantages which Ireland at prefent enjoys, and which are con tinually increafing, are to be afcribed to the liberal conduct, the fostering care, of the British Empire, extended to the fifter kingdom as to a part of ourselves, and not (as has been fallaciously and vainly pretended) to any thing which has been done or can be done by the independent power of her own feparate Legiflature.

I have thus, Sir, endeavoured to ftate to you the reasons, why I think this measure advifeable; why I wish it to be propofed to the Parliament of Ireland, with temper and fairness; and why it appears to me, entitled at leaft to a calm and difpaffionate difcuffion in that Kingdom. I am aware, however, that objections have been urged against the measure, fome of which are undoubtedly plaufible, and have been but too fuccefsful

in their influence on the Irish Parliament. Of these objections I fhall now proceed, as concisely as poffible, to take fome notice.

The firft is, what I heard alluded to by the Honourable Gentleman oppofite to me, when his Majefty's Meffage was brought down; namely, That the Parliament of Ireland is incompetent to entertain and difcufs the queftion, or rather, to act upon the meafure propofed, without having previously obtained the consent of the people of Ireland, their Conftituents. But, Sir, I am led to fuppofe from what the Honourable Gentleman afterwards ftated, that he made this objection, rather by way of deprecating the difcuffion of the question, than as entertaining the fmalleft doubt upon it himself. -If, however, the Honourable Gentleman, or any other Gentleman on the other fide of the House, should feriously entertain a doubt on the fubject, I fhall be ready to difcufs it with him distinctly, either this night or at any future oppor tunity. For the prefent I will affume, that no man can deny the competency of the Parliament of Ireland (reprefenting as it does, in the

language

language of our Conftitution, " lawfully, fully, and freely, all the estates of the people of the realm") to make Laws to bind that people, unless he is disposed to distinguish that Parliament from the Parliament of Great Britain; and, while he maintains the independence of the Irish Legiflature, yet denies to it the, lawful and effential powers of Parliament. No man who maintains the Parliament of Ireland to be co-equal with our own, can deny its competency on this question, unless he means to go the length of denying, at the fame moment, the whole of the authority of the Parliament of Great Britain-to fhake every principle of legislation-and to maintain, that all the acts paffed, and every thing done by Parliament, or fanctioned by its authority, however facred, however beneficial, is neither more nor less than an act of ufurpation. He must not only deny the validity of the union between Scotland and England, but he muft deny the authority of every one of the proceedings of the limited Legislature fince the Union; nay, Sir, he must go ftill farther, and deny the authority under which we now fit and deliberate here, as a Houfe of Parliament. Of course, he muft deny the validity of the adjustment of 1782, and call