who may be elected to the common Parliament, were likely to be fuch as to lower the standard, as it were, of British reprefentation. I think it was faid, that they are not of a substance and materials which can fafely coalefce with this Parliament; that they would corrupt and contaminate the whole mafs. Sir, I believe nobody imagined that in fo liberal and refpectable a quarter as that from whence this obfervation came, it was meant to exprefs any fentiment derogatory to the general and natural difpofition of the Irish nation. I prefume the idea was, and fuch indeed was, I think, the effect of the language in which it was conveyed, that, partly from the imputed corruption of Irish politics, partly from the favage ignorance and barbarity of the lower orders of people there, partly from the inveteracy of religious animofity, it was too probable, that the generality of the perfons returned for Ireland would bring with them modes of thinking and acting, less pure, lefs rational, less dispasfionate, than those which this hypothesis seems to affume as prevailing in this kingdom.

But, Sir, however much difpofed I feel myself to think with just respect of the virtue and understanding of British Legislators, I muft beg leave to fay, that if the Honourable Gentleman to whom I allude had been well acquainted, which he profeffed not to be, with that class of men in Ireland, from among whom the reprefentatives would of course be for the most part felected, he could not have fuffered fo idle a fuggestion to enter his mind. Vulgar prejudice and national complacency do, with the vulgar of all countries, establish a sort of general impreffion of inferiority in the moral and intellectual qualities of neighbouring nations. I trust the members of this House

are

are far beyond the reach of fuch impreffions. For my part, I am well perfuaded Ireland is likely to furnish at least her fair proportion of genuine worth and genuine wisdom to the common stock of the imperial Parliament; and that whatever defects may be fuppofed to belong to the modes and practice of legislation there, they arise from the nature of a local, as connected, in the manner I have endeavoured to explain, with an imperial Parliament, and are in no refpect founded on any peculiar imperfection in the defcription of the individuals who compofe it. It has been well and juftly obferved in this Houfe, by one whofe generous and elevated fentiments on this question stood in no need of the weight of his high character to imprefs them on our recollection, that the people of Ireland have not been lefs diftinguished than thofe of Great Britain, in correfponding stations of life, for eloquence, for literary and fcientific acquirements, and for thofe talents and exertions which have established the naval and military renown of the British empire.' They will not, on their more intimate connexion with the reft of that empire, forfeit the pledge and earnest they have thus given. Indeed, Sir, we have already had fufficient examples in this very place to warrant that expectation; for can Great Britain herself boast of many of her fons who have more illustrated this assembly than some of those natives of that country, who in our own days have fat in it, and who must already have occurred to, the minds. of all who hear me?

4. As to the objection that the Union, as propofed, will be imperfect, and on that account not answer the ends intended, it was, I think, grounded chiefly on the diftinction which will probably remain, and to which

fome of the Refolutions point, in the financial fyftems of the two countries. Sir, this very objection was made on the part of England, by fome Noble Lords in the other Houfe, at the time of the Union with Scotland. When the Treaty came to be debated in the House of Lords, Lord Haverfham, in the fpeech I have already mentioned, faid,There is another reafon why I am

against this Union, because I cannot think it an entire

Union, The exempting articles, I mean the twentieth, whereby heritable offices and fuperiorities are referved; and alfo the one-and-twentieth, both which Oliver, by an act of ftate, was fo wife as to abolish *; but especially their act for fecuring their prefbyterian church government and general affemblies, feem to < me like thofe little clouds in a warm calm fummer's day, that are generally the feeds and attractives of approaching tempeft and thunder t.' This was one of those many prophecies which in the event have fortunately not been accomplished. Yet the differences which were allowed to continue and ftill remain between

* The wisdom and policy of abolishing the heritable jurisdictions was in the contemplation of King James, even before his acceffion to the Crown of England, as appears by the following remarkable paffage in the book called Bafilicon Doron, addressed by him to his fon Prince Henry: But the greatest hinderance to the execution of our laws in this country are the heritable sherifdoms and regalities, which, being in the hands of the great men, do rack the whole country. For which I know no present remedy, but by taking the harper account of them in their offices; ufing all punishment against the flothful that the law will permit; and ever, as they become vacant for any offences committed, to difpofe them never heritably again; preffing with time to draw it to the laudable cuftom of England, which ye may the eafilier do, being King of both, as I hope in God ye fhall.'

48.

+ Continuation of Rapin, vol. xvi. p. 33.

the

the local arrangements and inftitutions in Scotland and England (feveral of them too, financial) were of much greater magnitude than any that are either proposed to be maintained, or indeed, confidering the much greater fimilarity which already obtains, can exift after the Union with Ireland, between those of this part of Great Britain and of that country.

I believe a perfect uniformity in all the branches and minute parts of the frame of government, never did take place as to all the different districts and divifions of the fame country and nation, unless perhaps in fome of those diminutive fovereignties which bear a nearer resemblance to corporations and municipalities, than to fuch states as England and Ireland.

In France, under the monarchy, though the general outline and distinguishing features were in a great degree uniform throughout; yet there prevailed in the different provinces, fenechauffées, balliages, &c. of which that kingdom was composed, a remarkable diversity in regard to many important particulars, fuch as the rights of property real and moveable; the administration of justice; the impofition and amount of taxes, and fo forth; as to which, the different provinces with their fubdivifions, after their fucceffive incorporations with the kingdom at large, retained their ancient laws, ufages, and cuftoms. The fame obfervation is true of the other great states of modern Europe, and will be found equally fo in the inftances of fimilar incorporations, as far as they are known to have taken place in ancient Greece and Italy.

In England itself, the unity of the government has never been thought imperfect, because of the different

rules of property, the different forms and courts of judi cature, the different local cuftoms and ufages, which obtain in the principality of Wales, in the duchy of Lancaster, and in the various diftricts, cities, boroughs, liberties, honours, and manors, throughout the kingdom.

*

لود

On the acceffion of James the VIth of Scotland to the throne of England, the Judges gave it as their opinion that there could be no incorporating Union of the two kingdoms without an entire conformity of laws in both. Sir Francis Bacon was of a different fentiment. He feems to have been strongly convinced of the great inconvenience of the attempt to establish so strict a uniformity, and that it was by no means neceffary. It is,' fays he in his "Brief Difcourfe, dedicated in private to his Majesty,' a matter of curiofity and inconveniency to feek either to extirpate all particular cuftoms, or to draw all fub'jects to one refort of judicature and feffion; it fufficeth there be uniformity in the principal and fundamental laws both ecclefiaftical and civil t.' Even with regard to manners he obferves, that a confent in them is to be fought indeed induftrioufly, but not forced; for that nothing among people breeds fo much pertinacity in holding their customs as fudden and violent offers to remove them ‡.' And in another tract, ftated to have been difperfed for his Majefty's fervice,' after fome argument to fhow the difficulty of compofing a general and uniform code for the two kingdoms, he concludes, that fuch a general code would be too great a work to • embrace §.'

* Co. 4 Inft. c. 75. P. 347.

+ Bacon's Works, vol. ii. p. 157.

Ibid.

§ Ibid. p. 167.

According