forward partially on another bill by an hon. gentleman (Mr. Wilberforce) it succeeded; and was rejected on another attempt to extend it to dissenters. Another instance of this spirit occurred in the behaviour of ministers to Lord Petre. That nobleman had been at the trouble and expense of raising a corps of Essex Rangers. The commission, by which this corps was to be commanded by Lord Petre's son, was refused to be signed, because that gentleman was a member of the Whig Club. Perhaps this offer may have since been accepted, and the circumstance of difficulty cleared up. There are other instances, however, in which the same spirit has been displayed by ministers. A noble duke (Bedford), of great character and influence, desirous to exert that influence in such a manner as might strengthen the country at the present difficult crisis, had, upon the most liberal terms, under the sanction of the lord lieutenant, raised a corps of 450 volunteers at Tavistock, in Devonshire, which was to be united to a corps of 150 which previously existed. These men were to be clothed and paid at the noble duke's own expense, and the men were raised, and everything arranged. Everything was prepared-when, at a meeting of the Whig Club, the noble duke having said, that an hon. friend of his, not now present, was more meritorious from the animosity which ministers had testified against him; from a newspaper report of this speech, the services of the noble duke were rejected. A letter was sent by the right hon. gentleman opposite (Mr. Dundas), commenting upon that sentence in the speech, and arguing that a person who held such language was unfit to be entrusted with any command. Upon this pretext the services of the noble duke were rejected. Surely ministers, while they act in this manner, check the spirit of coming forward in the defence of the country, and deprive it of the assistance of many who are zealous in its cause, and neglect. those precautions of security which the drain of troops to Ireland has rendered necessary. To keep Ireland against the will of the people is a vain expectation. With 80,000 troops with arms and discipline, against an unarmed and undisciplined multitude, is it not clear that the contest lies between the government and the people ? Without reversing the system, therefore, Ireland, as the phrase is, cannot be saved. The struggle is one, not of local discontent and partial disaffection, but it is a contest between the people and the government. In such a state of things,

without entering into a particular inquiry, the fair presumption is, that the government is to blame. He concluded with concurring in the amendment.

The house divided; for the amendment 47; against it 118. The original address was then put and carried.

JANUARY 23, 1799.

UNION OF IRELAND WITH GREAT BRITAIN.

On the 22nd of January the following message was delivered to the house : "His Majesty is persuaded that the unremitting industry with which our enemies persevere in their avowed design of effecting the separation of Ireland from this kingdom, cannot fail to engage the particular attention of parliament; and his Majesty recommends it to this house to consider of the most effectual means of counteracting, and finally defeating, this design; and he trusts that a review of all the circumstances which have recently occurred (joined to the sentiment of mutual affection and common interest) will dispose the parliaments of both kingdoms to provide in the manner which they shall judge most expedient, for settling such a complete and final adjustment as may best tend to improve and perpetuate a connection essential for their common security, and to augment and consolidate the strength, power, and resources of the British empire." On this day Mr. Dundas moved the usual address.

MR. SHERIDAN rose and said, Sir, I must frankly declare that I am not of the same opinion with the right hon. gentleman, who thinks that there is nothing more necessary on the part of his Majesty's ministers than to move a mere address, returning the thanks of this house for his Majesty's most gracious communication. The subject is too important to be passed lightly over in any stage of its progress, and the interests that will naturally

come into discussion too vast to be bounded over with an unreflecting rapidity. Not one man in the country would be free from reproach, if he could regard with apathy, or with an ease of temper approaching to indifference, a question that at once involves everything dear to Irishmen, and which ought to be dear to every subject of the British empire. As I cannot view these matters wholly with unconcern, I must think that more is necessary on the part of his Majesty's ministers than merely to move an address of thanks. I say, sir, I cannot be of this opinion, because, when I found it stated that it is the principal object of the message from the crown to invite the commons of Great Britain to the consideration of means for finally adjusting the interests in common between Great Britain and Ireland, I

am naturally led to inquire how the terms of the final adjustment made and agreed to by the parliaments of the two countries, in 1782, came to fail of their object. In that year there was an adjustment; and no man acquainted with the history of that period, no man whose study has not been confined to mere local occurrences, can have forgotten in what kind of circumstances that adjustment arose, and under what kind of auspices it was made final. Nothing can be more obvious than the propriety of inquiring at this time how that adjustment failed of its object. The right hon. gentleman, adopting the language of the message, has assumed that the house is already in possession of the facts and arguments on which are to be founded the policy, justice, and expediency of agitating at this time such a discussion; ́in this way telling the whole world that the final adjustment, ratified in 1782, was not a final adjustment in point of fact, but an adjustment to be held final at the pleasure of the English government. But there are no such things in the possession of the house as the materials from whence to reason that it is now either politic, expedient, or just, to come to the discussion of this question of final adjustment. Hence, before ministers recommended to the house of commons to take measures that lead inevitably to the discussion of some plan of union, it was incumbent upon them to have shown us that the last pledge of the English parliament to the people of Ireland, by which their independence was recognized and their rights acknowledged, has not produced that unanimity, that concord of sentiment, and earnest exertion to promote their own welfare, while they cordially and sincerely manifested their zeal for the happiness and prosperity of this country, which that people were expected to display, and which the parliaments of the two countries sought to cherish.—But more than the effect immediately upon the people, it is fit to inquire whether the final adjustment led to the measures of mutual confidence, and produced that unanimity of sentiment and object in the two parliaments, which, for the happiness and honour of both kingdoms, every man wished might be its permanent effect. Sir, I think it impossible for any man clearly to show that there has been any want of this unanimity on any important occasion. I am the more strongly impressed with this belief, because a solemn declaration of the Irish parliament, sanctioned by all Ireland, is now on record, wherein we have it emphatically

stated that the independence of Ireland will be asserted by the people of Ireland, and that their parliament is an independent legislature. The recollection of this declaration brings to my mind the strong apprehension of the danger, the peril of agitating anew the question of Irish independence. What has that declaration stated? Sir, it is a manly, firm, and honourable testimony to all time, of the proud, noble spirit of a nation rising into distinction and mounting up to freedom. They there say, that "there is no power whatever competent to make laws for Ireland but the parliament of Ireland;" and among other things equally strong and just, we find them assert this as their birthright, and which they are determined in every situation to defend and maintain against whatever kind of enemy. When I find this declaration of the Irish parliament, acquiesced in by the English, that they did come to a final adjustment is obvious; yet the words "a solid, permanent basis," convey some reflections on the proceedings of the parliament since that period, and it might fairly be supposed, that its delinquency only would have instigated his Majesty's ministers to adopt a course of conduct by which, if they succeed in the enterprize, they shall accomplish for ever the subjugation of Ireland and the slavery of its inhabitants. But, sir, I must think the people in that country, who really cherish a love of rational liberty, who have dwelt with delight on the recollection of that, till now, auspicious period, when independence came upon them as it were by surprize, when the genius of freedom rested upon their islandthe whole people, in short, will come to this second adjustment with a temper which I am afraid, sir, will augur not tranquillity but disquietude; not prosperity but calamity; not the suppression of treason but the extension and increase of plots, to multiply and ensanguine its horrors. Nevertheless, I must own that there is something informal in this way of treating the question immediately before the house. But much as I respect your forms, sir, I own to you those are things, and this is a question which I cannot permit myself lightly to discuss, and which ought not to be shrunk from on light grounds. I am aware that the grounds I stand on are at once ticklish and dangerous; that my motives are liable both to misrepresentation and misapprehension; that a licentious few, and an ignorant many, will distort, or not perceive, the grounds of my arguments, and the use I am desirous

on

to make of them. But there are topics, on the discussion of which a man must not wholly consult the degree of safety to his reputation among the unreflecting portions of mankind which he must forget what he owes to his own dignity, if, fearful of the insidious misinterpretation of his sentiments, or the more insidious misrepresentation of his motives, he shrink from the subject, and fail to do that which is peremptorily his duty. I feel that to be silent on the present occasion, were to act from terror in a way unworthy of the majesty of truth; unbecoming a man enamoured of free discussion; unlike the friend and supporter of general liberty;—I cannot do this. My country has claims upon me which I am not more proud to acknowledge than ready to liquidate, to the full measure of my ability. Is there any man who can wish to do less?-or have the whole system of human connection and the economy of human passions been changed and perverted with those changes in the political world, from which some derive rank and emolument by the prostitution of integrity and all the virtues? But, sir, there was a time when I should have been told, that to agitate any question in this house relative to the affairs of Ireland, were to retrench upon the rights of the Irish parliament: that the independence of their legislature was not to be infringed upon by the discussion of questions which belonged to it exclusively to discuss upon and decide that we could not agitate the affairs of Ireland in any manner, without grossly insulting the dignity, and making a question of the constitutional competence of the parliament of that country to legislate for themselves: that, in short, it would be to arouse and inflame that quick spirit of independence which the sister kingdom knew how to express, and had ever appeared both able and ready to infuse into a system of ardent intrepid opposition to every kind of ulterior domination. But, surely, when the question is now the independence of the parlia ment of Ireland-when it is attempted to introduce measures which have in their issues not merely the independence but the existence of this parliament, honourable gentlemen will not resort to that argument. Probably I shall be told, that I ought not to draw into discussion topics that, in their very nature tend to excite discontent, by being closely interwoven with the events of a recent period of distraction and danger : that I cannot dwell long on these topics without relapsing into warmth: that I am liable

VOL. III.

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