Scotland, and he gives it as his opinion, that the country had derived great benefit from that circumftancea.' I have no intention to queftion that opinion. The reafons by which he fupports it have great force; though, by the by, it is a remarkable circumftance, that the period he mentions will be found very nearly to coincide with that from which Chief Baron Fofter had dated the beginning of the great spirit of improvement in Ireland; and which I have mentioned as the epoch of an accelerated progreffion in that refpect throughout the whole of the British dominions. But it will be found that Dr. Smith, in the very paffage in queftion, is very far from confidering the banks, either public or private, as the exclufive cause of the increase of trade in Scotland. He fays, he had heard it afferted, that the trade of Glasgow had ⚫ been doubled in about fifteen years after the first erection • of banks there, and that the trade of Scotland had been more than quadruped fince the firft erection of the public banks at Edinburgh; one in 1695, the other in 1727:" < and immediately adds, if either of them have increased in this proportion, it seems to be an effect too great to be • accounted for by the fole operation of this caufe .!" Other paffages, however, are mentioned as if directly in point, to fhew that he did not think the Union promoted trade or manufactures in Scotland. One is as follows: Of all commercial advantages which Scotland <has derived from the Union, the rife in the price of cattle is perhaps the greateftd. This is an extraordinary a Vol. i. p. 442, 7th edition. e Ibid. p. 443. proof proof that he did not think that it derived any commer 'cial advantages from it.' But it seems this must be a very poor advantage to Scotland, because the policy of Ireland has been to impofe duties in order to check the export of live cattle. Sir, till all the circumftances of the two cafes fhall have been compared, till it is made out that the imposition of those reftri&ive duties is good policy in Ireland, till it is then proved that, being fo, it would have been good policy in regard to Scotland, and till it is fhewn that because a legislative Union between Scotland and England opened a free export of cattle from the former, therefore a fimilar Union between Ireland and Great Britain muft neceffarily open a like exportation from Ireland; till these positions are established, I do not fee what poffible advantage the able Advocate who has reforted to the authority of Dr. Smith on this point, can derive from it in fupport of his argument. Dr. Smith's favourite doctrine, if my memory does not mislead me, is, that agriculture is preferable to commerce, and that the commerce most connected with agriculture is the bestb; and he mentions the effect of the Union in regard to the price of cattle in Scotland, to fhew that it has not only raised the value of lands in the Highlands, but has been the principal cause of the improvement of the low country'. Another paffage referred to for the fame purpose is this: The price of wool was reduced by the Union excluding it from the great markets in Europe, and confining it to the narrow one of England.' Permit • Mr. Fofter's Speech, p. 106. me ་ me to add to this the part of the context which immediately follows, viz. The value of the greater part of the lands <in the fouthern counties, which are chiefly a fheep coun try, would have been very deeply affected by this event had not the rife in the price of butcher's meat fully comC penfated the fall in the price of wool.' Taking the whole therefore together, which I fuppofe will be allowed to be the fair way, it is clear the author thought this restriction had, on the whole, been of no pofitive disadvantage. But it is not a restriction confined to Scotland, nor any effential or neceffary part of the treaty of Union; it was part of a general fyftem for the whole united kingdom, thought at the time, and from the continuance of the laws against exportation, we muft infer that it is ftill thought fo by the Legiflature, to be for the good of the whole. I am not now called upon, if I were competent, to give an opinion on this vexata queftio; I will only obferve, that the Parliament of Scotland had long acted on the fame principle; that if the United Legislature fhall ever come to think that it is founder policy to allow the exportation of wool, there is nothing in the articles of Union to prevent the extenfion of that freedom to Scotland; and that in such case it probably would be extended to that country. In the mean time it will be recollected that, for the confent of Scotland at the time to admit of the prohibition, a valuable confideration was to be paid out of the general equivalent ftipulated for by the 15th article of the treaty. C Indeed, Sir, I cannot difguife my aftonishment that - Smith, vol. i. p. 369. Scotch Acts, 7th Parl. Jac. 5. c. 113. An. 1581, 1st Parl. Car. 2. fef. 1. c. 40. An. 1661. Vide De For, P, 403. 406. 444. R Dr. Dr. Smith Thould have been called as a withefs on the pre fent occafion; but as he has been produced, I hope I may be allowed to ufe the legal privilege permitted in fuch 'cafes of a cross-examination; and 'I will fhew the Houfe by 'reading a pallage where he exprefsly treats of a Union between Ireland and Great Britain, What the real fentiments of that author were on the fubject. The Gentlemen cannot difpute either the credit or competency of ah authority to which they themselves have chofen to refer. By a Union with 'Great Britain, Ireland would gain befides the freedom of trade, other advantages much more important. By the Union with England the middling and • inferior ranks of people in Scotland gained a complete de<liverance from the power of an ariftocracy which had be⚫fore oppreffed them. By a Union with Great Britain the greater part of the people of all ranks in Treland would < gain equally complete deliverance from a much more oppreffive ariftocracy, not founded, like that of Scotland, in the natural and refpectable diftinctions of birth and fortune, but the most odious of all diftinctions, which more than any other animate the infolence of the oppreffors, and the hatred and indignation of the oppreffed, and which commonly render the inhabitants of the fame country more hoftile than those of other countries ́ever are. Without a Union with Great Britain the inhabitants of Ireland are · not likely, for many ages, 'to confider themfélves as 'one • people a.' Among the evils with which the opponents of a Union alarm the people of Ireland as likely to befal their country from that measure, are, an increased emigration, and the a Vol. iii. p. 460. permanent ་ permanent or temporary non-refidence of a great number of perfons of rank and opulence a. The general complaint againft abfentees is of a very long franding, For my own part, I have never been of the number of those who imagine that law and pofitive regulation can with effect, or ought in propriety to be applied in reftriction of the natural liberty which belongs to every individual, of fixing his refidence, exercifing his talents and induftry, or spending his income, wherever he thinks it most agreeable. A general ne exeant regno would be a strange part of the fyftem of any government, and that country muft be of a fingular description which requires that its natives hould be imprisoned within its limits by the fanction of penal law and pecuniary mulets. If you can but reftore, or rather establish tranquility, police, the security of life and proper ty, in Ireland, depend upon it the happy foil and falubrious climate of that favoured ifland, its almoft unrivalled advantages for trade and agriculture, added to the powerful fentiment which attaches mankind in general, with a fond prepoffeffion, to the place which gave them birth, will fix at home, or attract with all the riches their abilities or diligence may have acquired for them in other parts of the world, fuch numbers of Irishmen now prompted to emigrate or detained from returning by the unfettled ftate of their native. country, as will more than counterbalance whatever nonrefidence may arife from the periodical fittings of the common Parliament in Great Britain. That non-refidence will be only occafional. It will Mr. Fofter's Speech, p. 62. 64. 91. 93. Vide fome important obfervations on the fubject of abfentees, Subftance of Lord Sheffield's Speech, P. 29, &c. |