not to perceive how materially such regulations may affect the commercial and political interefts of Ireland ?

On the admiffion of her representatives among those of this island, she will immediately acquire her proportionate share in all those great concerns; a voice in the legislative government of Great Britain, and of every part of the British dominions.

This is not all: Ireland will not only have this share of general legislation, through the influence and fuffrages of her own immediate representatives; she will also be represented and entitled to speak through the influence and fuffrages of every one of the 513 members chosen in this island. This was ably pointed out in a former debate, by a Gentleman who, on that occafion, difcovered the most enlarged and liberal views of general policy, united to the foundest speculative as well as practical knowledge of commerce and manufactures*.

And here we may perceive the grofs fallacy of the idea which so often mixes itself in these debates, and has, as we have feen, been founded on in the argument of incompetency; viz. that the concerns of Ireland will be folely and exclufively attended to, and this too on a principle of oppofition and hoftility, by the fmaller number of members which fhe will have to choose. It will, on the contrary, be then the duty, and on all great points will, I am fatisfied, be the defire and the true interest of those elected here, to give their due weight to the interefts, general or local, of Ireland, in their deliberations and in their votes; and in cafes where they do not, I am apt to believe, what refpects Ireland will be wholly left to the decifion of the Irish members, as

Mr. Peele.

I have already observed to have happened fo generally in regard to the Scotch members of the British Parliament, when the subject before the Legislature has merely related to Scotland. Natural and fair reafons for this, and equally applicable to Ireland, might easily be stated; but it is enough here to appeal to the fact, which has been fo notorious, that when my Right Honourable Friend afked in a former debate, whether Scotland had, in confequence of her comparatively small number of forty-five members, been oppreffed or taxed beyond her proportion fince the Union? the mere fuppofition, fo contrary to experience, forced a smile from the Gentlemen on the other fide of the Houfe.

But, as I have just said, every individual in the united Parliament, will in principle, and as a duty, have vested in him a portion of British and also a portion of Irish representation, and this, in the ratio of the comparative weight and importance of the two countries in the general scale. And do not let Gentlemen pay fo poor a compliment to the candour and wifdom of British Legislators as to think they will either fupinely or partially shut out from their minds important objects which may more immediately concern Ireland, but the decifion on which cannot but also affect the welfare of the whole united kingdom. Many, indeed, chofen for Great Britain will feel even perfonal motives as ftrong or stronger for looking to the advantage of Ireland as for confulting that of this country. Have we, for inftance, any reason to fuppofe that the Honourable Member for Stafford, if he fhould happily fail, as I trust he will, in the object of his present mistaken zeal, and the Union fhould be established, will be a lefs vigilant guardian of the privileges and interests of his native land, than of those of

the country he has thought fit to adopt? or will a native of Great Britain, if he happens also to be a merchant principally engaged in Irish commerce, and looking to that country as the fource of his wealth and fortune; will the opulent English mortgagee of an estate in Ireland (of which defcription fome, I believe, have now feats in this House) will men of that fort, members chofen for British feats, to the united Parliament, be apt to overlook that part of their duty which they will owe to the fifter island? Such Gentlemen are even now prompt enough, and I mention it to their honour, to speak as if they already reprefented Ireland here. But, as matters ftand, they can hardly do fo. conftitutionally, and certainly not effectually. If a Union take place, fuch a conduct will be at once reconcileable to their inclination, their rights, and their duty.

Sir, it has been a very common cbjection in Ireland to measures affecting that country undertaken by the government here, that minifters in London, with all the opportunities their ftations may furnish, and their fenfe of duty urge them to improve, have not the means of acquiring fuch an habitual and detailed knowledge of the characters, circumftances, and interests of that kingdom, as would have been neceffary to enable them to have judged with fufficient certainty of the justice or policy of fuch measures. I do not mean here to refer to thofe perfons in that kingdom who have borrowed from the phrafeology of their predeceffors in Scotland the inflammatory and inapplicable terms of foreign government, foreign cabinet, foreign minifters, &c. I fpeak of many men firmly attached to the connexion with Britain and the interefts of the empire, and who confider Irishmen and Britons not as foreigners to each other,

but

but as friends and countrymen, living under the alle giance of the same sovereign, and entitled reciprocally to all the privileges- I was going to fay of citizenship, but that word has been profaned,—of natural born-fubje&s, in either kingdom. Men even of that defcription are not unfrequently heard to fay, The government in England is unacquainted with the concerns and the people of this country. They feldom interfere without doing harm. Why do they not leave us to ourselves?'

It is needless to argue the obvious inadmiffibility of the conclufion thus drawn from premifes concerning the truth of which it is not my bufinefs to inquire. The administrators of the fupreme fuperintending government of the empire, in all its parts, muft refide near the perfon of the Sovereign. But though we cannot give way to the principle, it does not follow that the facts may not, in fome inftances, have proved more or lefs true.

Now, Sir, the incorporation of the legislatures would, I think, by the frequent prefence of the Lith Peers and Commoners at the feat of general government, afford a perfect cure to this evil. Men thoroughly acquainted with all the affairs of that kingdom; natives, probably, of all or most of the different cities and counties; perfons poffeffing property, engaged in trade and manufactures, cr exercifing profeffions over the whole extent of the country, would be then, during the fitting of Parliament, ready on the fpot to reprefent to the Minifters, or even fubmit directly to the Sovereign, and when the occafion called on them, in the different ftages of any measure, or on the first preffure of any emergency, would have it in their power to bring before the eyes of the imperial Legislature itself, and fupport in both Houfes, by their weight, their talents, and

their fuffrages, whatever their duty to their country, or to their immediate conftituents, might feem to require.

But the most feducing topic with the vulgar, and with fome alfo in Ireland of a higher clafs who poffefs a ftronger fenfe than understanding of national dignity and honour, has been the independence of their country. This is reprefented as fo infeparably connected with the Parliament they now enjoy, that when the mode of their legislation fhall be changed, and they shall cease to have this Parliament exclufively their own, they imagine the nation must cease to be independent, and that they will become a debased and degraded people. Sir, when fuch a change as is proposed, is confidered as a degradation and debasement, it certainly must arise from fome confufion in the ideas annexed to those words.

If Ireland and its Parliament fhall be incorporated with the British nation and Parliament, they will undoubtedly lofe their diftinctnefs and identity. They will no longer have a separate political existence; they will become, but fo will Great Britain and her Parliament, parts only of the united whole; and in as far as a part cannot be faid to be independent of the other parts, Ireland will, in that fenfe, become dependant on Great Britain, but fo will Great Britain on Ireland. If after this it fhall be contended that the leffer part is more dependant than the greater, the argument will be found to refolve itself into what we have already difcuffed, namely, the effects of the difproportion of numbers between the Irish and British members of the common Parliament.

May I, however, be permitted to afk whether the Irish Parliament, even fince the boasted revolution or conftitution