should have been raised against it; though every body must disapprove of the diforderly violence by which they were prompted, in 1759, to break into the House of Lords, and commit that fort of grofs and indecent infult towards the Throne which has been mentioned, and which another Dublin mob, on a more recent and less excufable occafion, is said to have practised towards the Chair of the Houfe of Commons. As to the fuppofition of a univerfality of fentiment at prefent manifested in Ireland againft the Union, I must not exped that Gentlemen on the other fide will pay the attention I think they deferve to my reafons for diffenting from it, especially as it was two months ago affirmed in this place, that there were then authentic documents arrived to prove the fact. According to my information, however, at that time only certain meetings in Dublin and its neighbourhood, and in a few of the counties in Leinster, had declared any fuch opinion; Cork had addreffed his Majesty in favour of a Union, and if I have not been greatly deceived, pretty active endeavours had been used, but, up to that time at least, in vain, to procure addreffes and refolutions against it from various refpectable counties in the north, the west, and the fouth. Since then, indeed, new addreffers and refolvers have appeared, but we have alfo feen various counter-refolutions. Those of the Grand Juries of the first city in magnitude and opulence next to Dublin, and of the first county, that of Cork, are particularly to be diftinguished. Sir, I fhould be one of the last to treat with neglect the real fense of the nation on this or any fubject; 5 11th February. ject; but which on this, as it fhall be expreffed by the fuffrages of its representatives, must ultimately decide the question; or to fay, that even through fuch irregular and uncertain organs as county or corporation meetings, the voice of the people is not worthy of the most serious attention. Yet when I look back on the hiftory of this country for the laft century and a half, and on that of France for the last decade of years, as I fuppofe I ought to call it; when I call to mind the addreffes to Richard Cromwell on his fucceffion to the Protectorate, thofe in Scotland against the Union of 1707, and thofe in France calumniating the virtuous and faint-like Lewis XVI. as a tyrant, and extolling the bloody Robespierre and his affociates as the faviours of their country; I must be pardoned if I cannot confider fuch acts and inftruments, however numerous, and whatever refpectable names may be found among the fubfcriptions to them, as very certain tefts of national opinion. Much lefs as unchangeable tefts; for, fatisfied as I am of the importance and even neceffity of this meafure for the safety of Ireland, I will not think so ill of one of the most intelligent as well as most Tiberal-minded nations that exists, though withal, at times, fomewhat hafty and irritable, as not to believe, when the arts that have been employed to excite their jealousy and alarm their honourable pride fhall have been detected, and the illufions of that fophiftry, which has very unfortunately been taken for found argument by a few able men among them, (for what abilities are proof againft prejudice and prepoffeffion?) and has been dreffed up with all the fkill and talents they poffefs, to be circulated among the people at large, fhall have vanifhed in the hour of fober judgment and reflection; that the great majority of the prefent opponents will change their fentiments, and feel the truth of the old adage, that fecond thoughts, thoughts, in matters of fuch moment, are generally the best. This the Scotch nation have fully experienced by the bleffings they have derived from the Union of 1707, at firft fo ftrongly oppofed by fo many people of every clafs and defeription in the country. That this was the cafe is as clear, I believe, as any historical fact whatever; and therefore it has feemed very strange to me to hear the resistance made in Scotland at that time, treated by fome Gentlemen as having been flight and infignificant in comparison to the oppofition now exifting in Ireland to the Union between that country and this; and the meafure reprefented in truth to have been the general wish and defire of the whole nation. Indeed, Sir, mistaken notions of the dignity and advantage of a feparate and independent Legislature, exclusively their own, having existed among the Scotch, from the first junction of the two Crowns, in at least as exalted a degree as that to which they are now carried in Ireland, I do not understand upon what evidence it is alledged that, even at that early period, that nation was anxious for a complete legislative incorporation with their fouthern neighbours. James I. who had become the common Sovereign of both, might defire it. He was certainly defirous of a stricter Union than the mere descent of the English monarchy upon him had produced. And a legislative Union was undoubtedly in the contemplation of fome of the great ftatefmen, with whom he feems chiefly to have confulted on the subject, particularly Sir Francis Bacon. But, from a confideration of the articles agreed to in Scotland on that occafion, it will be found, that the actual treaty which became the fubject of negotiation was only of a federal and commercial kind, and intended to efta blish an equal communication of civil and perfonal rights; but not to incorporate the Parliaments: and the Parliament of that country exprefsly declared, during the progress of the business, that the kingdom should remain an abfolute and free minarchy." When, after the Reftoration, in 1670, the Commiffioners for both kingdoms came to treat for an efficient incorporation of the two Legislatures, though the Scotch fhewed themselves perfectly well inclined to the geperal propofition, yet, by insisting on terms to which they must have been fure England could never agree, namely, that the whole body of the Scotch Parliament, the full pumber of their Peers and Commoners, fhould be joined to thofe of England; they feem to me to have proved very clearly that they were not difpofed to negotiate upon any practicable or admiffible conditions. Accordingly, at that time, the affair went off in truth on the part of Scotland. But to come to the treaty which was carried into effect. That the great majority of the truly wife and sober men of the country, the real patriots and genuine statesmen, and I would add too, the men of the trueft and most elevated and enlightened ambition, earnestly wilhed for it, and were vigilant in feizing every occafion and circumstance which could tend to its comple tion, I most readily allow. But that the factious, the feditious, and the rebellious, that many not obnoxious to fuch charges, but who had either confined their views to that limited sphere of action, or, like the celebrated Fletcher, poffeffing great and cultivated minds, had heated • Spottiswoode, p. 505. 7 ft November 1670. De Foe, p. 61. their their imaginations with notions of government incompatible with the ancient institutions of their country, or any form which an incorporation of the two exifting conftitutions could affume, but which, from the peculiarly difordered state of Scotland at the time-chimerical as they were they vainly hoped they might fee realized; that all those and various other claffes of men, forming, perhaps, a majority of the whole, reckoning by tale inftead of weight, by numbers instead of property, were the declared and active enemies of the Union, is, I believe, as certain, as it is, that, by virtue of the manly and fteady difregard with which the Administration of that day treated their hoftility and violence, one of the moft important and fortunate political transactions recorded in the annals of the world, was brought to a happy conclufion. I would recommend to any man who really has doubts on this point, the re-perufal and comparison of the contemporary authors who have written on the fubject, particularly the two most remarkable among them, De Foe the able hiftorian and advocate, and Lockhart the defamer and libeller, of the Union. Permit me to read a passage from another writer of the time, Bifhop Burnet, as the matter of it, I think, gives us ftrong encouragement to cherish the most favourable prospect of the iffue of the prefent ftill more important measure. • The Union," fays he, of the two kingdoms was a work of which many had despaired, in which num⚫ber I was one; and those who entertained better hopes, thought it must have run out into a long negotiation for feveral years; but, beyond all men's expectation, it was begun and finished within the compafs of one. • The |