der this impreffion I make this appeal, and add my fignature to it; perhaps it may not be prudent to do fo, when party fpirit runs fo high, and to be poffeffed of an independent mind is almoft confidered as a crime; however, aware that anonymous productions never attract the public attention, that a name however humble, produces that effect; and wishing to call the attention of my country to this measure, I have not concealed my name; convinced that an Union is fraught with injury to our beloved Sovereign, and big with danger to the empire; under this conviction, that it is the duty of every Irishman to remonftrate and petition against an Union, and express his detestation of it as a measure in itself fo tyrannical, and fo ungenerous on the part of England, when she has an immenfe military force in the country; let then the capital lead the way (the example will be followed by the rest of the kingdom) and petition "The Father of his People" against a measure fo replete with calamity and destruction to Ireland!

Dublin, December 1, 1798.

NO UNI O N!

&c. &c.

BEFORE

EFORE we enter upon a fubject of fuch importance to Ireland, it may not be amifs to make a few remarks on the effects an Union had on Scotland, and fee whether, and how far they apply to Ireland.

IT

SCOTLAND.

Ir may be afferted," an Union was highly advantageous to that country," yet, admitting the affertion, how does that apply to Ireland, different as to their local fituation? Scotland separated but by an ideal line from England, and as it were, a distant county of the fame country; if then, the effects of an Union on Scotland, fo contiguous to Britain, have been prejudicial to her, we may infer, a fortiori, from the infular fituation of Ireland,how much more detrimental an Union would

prove

prove to her than it has done to Scotland. Although the Articles of Union between England and Scotland were not carried into effect until the reign of Queen Anne, yet that country was united under James VI. of Scotland, to England: "Deftined by their fituation to form one grand monarchy." But will this hold good with regard to George the Third? No- -James VI. of Scotland was by birth a Scotfman, and at length effected, (or at leaft endeavoured fo) by his inheritance of the two crowns, the union of the Rofe and Thistle. Not fo with Ireland, whofe king is refident in Great Britain, and whose legiflature is independent: feparated from that country by her infular fituation, you can never unite the British Lion and Irish Shamroc, without the depreffion, if not deftruction of the latter!

If no Union had taken place in Scotland, the natural progress of civilization throughout Europe might poffibly have raised that country to a far more profperous ftate than it is in at prefent. The pretended felicity of Scotland is completely contradicted by the ftrong defeription of Churchill, the farcaftic obfervation of Johnfon, and the cutting reflection of Macklin; fated to perpetual fterility, that miferable country had nothing to lofe by a connexion with any other; and there was no danger that her agriculture would

* Vide, Dr. Robertfon's Hiftory of Scotland.

would be injured, or could, by the exclufive attention to manufactures, which British avarice introduced: But Ireland, nature has bleft with a fertility of foil, which might render her the granary of Europe; fhe can gain nothing by the emigration of a few manufacturers from England, and let me afk, when the very name of Englishman has been fo obnoxious to the late infurgents; what English fettler would rifque his perfon or capital, at leaft for centuries to come, in this country? and manufacturers, even if they did come over, would probably deem no workmen fufficiently skilful, unlefs imported from England; at all events, they would only withdraw the peafantry from the production of folid agricultural wealth, to a precarious dependance on fancy and fashion: add to this, that when England vouchsafed to ally herself with Scotland, it was a relief to both countries, from a long continuance of a predatory war, inevitable between conterminous countries

England, previous to the accomplishment of the Scottish union, was a rifing country, the envy, the admiration of Europe, formed for the enjoyment of that opulence, and the resources which civil liberty ever produces: Is that her prefent fituation? with taxes amounting to a hundred pounds a minute, and a debt of above four hundred millions!!!--The causes of the

Scotch

Scotch union being accomplished, were, that the Scottish reprefentatives in the Parliament of Scotland were bought; || Sawney bow'd, and bow'd, until he kiffed the minifter's footstool, and was his implicit flave: an Union took place, which laid the foundation of two fucceffive rebellions in Scotland, and which beggared and depopulated Edinburgh.

But you may be told, "an Union is your intereft," " you shall obtain fome few conceffions," "fome few trifles to divert and

take

*Lord Godolphin, Queen Anne's, Treasurer, prevailed on her majefty to grant £20,000, for purchafing the Scotch Nobles and Gentry, to confent to the Union; and there is fubjoined a lift of thofe Worthies in Tindal's Continuation of Rapin's England, given in on oath, by the Earl of Glasgow.-Vol. III. p. 777.

Even at the time the Scots Parliament were deliberating on an Union, fo unpopular was the measure, that the common people of Scotland enraged, threatened to come to Edinburgh, and diffolve the Parliament.

Tindal's Continuation, Vol. III. 776.

Since the Scottish Union, that country is curfed with a Paper Sign, for fums however fmall-they have Threepenny and Sixpenny Bank Notes! Has not Ireland already fufficiently fuffered from Paper Signs-from the difficulty of obtaining change of Guinea Notes, and the numberless forgeries committed? But in the Machiavelian ideas of a profligate Minifter, thofe are ftrong proofs of encreafing prosperity!