That, firmly attached as we are to British connexion, we do totally difapprove of the plan of a Legislative Union between Great Britain and Ireland.

That these our fentiments be communicated to our Representatives, in whofe attachment to the conftitution and true interests of Ireland we have the moft firm reliance.

4. Anfwer of the Right Hon. John Fofter, Speaker of the Irish Houfe of Commons, on receiving the Communication of the foregoing Refolutions.

Gentlemen, I thank you for your fentiments, and it is a great fatisfaction to me to find my opinions ftrengthened by your explicit declaration, that an Irish independent Legiflature is as neceffary as British connexion to the profperity of Ireland. The Houfe of Commons have faid fo in ftrong language, when they ftated to his Majefty in 1782, that the very effence of our liberties exifts in the right of a fole Legislature-the Parliament of Ireland a right which they then claimed on the part of all the people as their birthright, and which they declared to his Majefty they could not yield but with their lives. I joined in that ftate. ment-and we were afterwards told from the Throne that both countries had pledged their good faith to each other, that their beft fecurity would be an inviolable adherence to that compact; and we were defired to convince the people that the two kingdoms were then one, indiffolubly connected in unity of conftitution and unity of intereft. Nothing then remains to ftrengthen our Union-we have adhered to that compact, fo has Great Britain, and we have rifen to prosperity with a rapidness be yond example fince it was made. I fee no circumftance either. of imperial concern or local neceffity, which can juftify our attempting a change, much less fuch a change as would annihilate that birthright, by the confirmation of which our trade and manufactures felt a security that immediately roused a happy fpirit of exertion, the furrender of which would not only make the employment of thofe exertions precarious, but would equally take away all fecurity of permanence from every advantage which any perfons might be ignorantly deluded into a hope of from the projected measure of a Legislative Union. In truth, I fee much danger and a probable decrease to our trade and manufactures, from the measure; and I cannot conceive any one advantage to them from it. If the linen manufacture refts at all on any compact, that compact was made with the Irish Parliament, the extinction of which takes away a fecurity we have found adequate, and leaves it without the protection of its natural guardians, who by their vigilance, their regulations, and their bounties, have more than doubled its exports within a few years paft. As an Irishman, then, I fhould oppofe the meature,

and

and as a member of the empire I fhould not be lefs averfe to it; for the innovation which it would make in the conftitution of Great Britain, with whom we muft ftand or fall, may fo endanger that conftitution, as in the end to overturn it, and with it the whole of the empire. Nor can I look on the circumstances of the times, without deprecating its being proposed, when the French proceedings teach us the danger of innovating on eftablished conftitutions, and when it must be peculiarly alarming to Ireland, scarcely rested from a cruel and unprovoked rebellion, to have the public mind again agitated by an unneceffary, unprovoked, and unfolicited project. These are my fentiments. The entire confidence you repofe in my attachment to the conftitution and the true interest of Ireland, call upon me to ftate them fully to you-you shall not find that confidence mifplaced. I fhall oppose the measure; and I remain, with the most perfect esteem and affection, Your very obliged and faithful humble fervant, Jan. 15.

JOHN FOSTER.

No. V. Page 74.

An Account of the Regifter Tonnage, belonging to the feveral Ports of Great Britain and Ireland, in the following Years, distinguishing fome of the principal Ports of Great Britain.

No. VI. Page 90.

1. Extract from the Evidence of Mr. JOSIAH WEDGWOOD, before the Committee of the whole Houfe, in the Houfe of Commons, ad May 1785.

THE principal raw materials of which our prefent earthen wares are made are clay and flint ftones. The former, Ireland has of her own, and, as I am told, of the best quality; but if this fhould not be fo, fhe has been, and therefore no doubt fhe can be again fupplied with it from the fame places that we ourselves are; and this at little more than half the expenfe which it cofts us when delivered in Staffordshire. The latter (flint ftones) the has much cheaper ftill; as we now fetch them for the potteries in Staffordshire from the fhores which, furround Ireland.-My authorities for the existence, abundance, and cheapnefs of the raw materials neceffary for carrying on an earthen-ware manufactory in Ireland are perfons who have had specimens of the clay fent to them here for trial, and the evidence of Mr. Evans, engineer of the Grand Canal making across Ireland, which was laid before the Irish Houfe of Commons in 1783.-He ftates, that on the banks of the Grand Canal less than 30 miles from Dublin, there is flint for making flint ware, clays for potteries, and pipe-clay for making Staffordshire ware.'-We must likewife take into the account the carriage, freight, lofs by breaking, and the duties on our ware on its importation from Stafford hire into Ireland, amounting all together to 40 per cent.-P. 177, 178.

2. Extract from the fame Gentleman's Evidence before the Committee of the whole House, in the House of Lords.

When potteries are established in Ireland, and the natives are taught that business, I apprehend that a manufacture of a fimilar kind with what is now made in Staffordshire may be purchased at 40l. or sol. per cent. cheaper, on a moft moderate calculation, than we can afford to fell it in Staffordshire.-Some of the raw materials for the finer fpecies of earthen-ware we have ourselves from Ireland, viz. the flint-ftone; and I am told they have the clay likewise of a very good quality. There are fome tons of it now in a pottery, fent to be tried by a person who lives in Ireland a great part of his time; he has a warehouse there, and a pottery in Staffordshire. He has fome tons of this Irish pipe-clay to make a trial of. He told me before I came to London that he had tried it, and that it was very good. Thefe are the principal articles of raw material of our manufacture.-Is the flint of Ireland equal

to

to ours? If you take it all together, it is not equal to ours but it is brought to Liverpool by way of ballaft, and there we employ agents to pick out fuch as are good from the ballaft when thrown out. Is that which is fo picked out as good as that of the eastern coaft?—I do not think it is, because they bring it from the coaft; and flint exposed to the air for any time acquires a metallic quality. It comes from many parts of Ireland. There is a trace of it near Dublin, which they used when they set up a manufacture of queen's ware there Is there any great expense in feparating the good from the bad?-No. Any man accustomed to the grinding it knows directly which is good and which is bad. When their natives have learned the business in as good perfection as ours have here, I apprehend that less than 40%. or sol. per cent. would fcarcely be a protecting duty. When I faid the flint was not fo good, I had reference to that which is picked up promiscuously. That picked up from the Irish fhore and taken to any places convenient for a pottery work, must be in the vicinity of water carriage. Therefore the carriage, which makes a very great proportion of the value of our raw material, at leaft five fixths or fix fevenths of the whole value, will be fo much expense faved by taking the flint from the Irifh fhore and carrying it in lighters to the manufactories there; fo that they will have the flint I might have faid one third, but I am sure they might have it at one half of what it cofts us, and they may have the coal from our pits at little more than half the price, owing to our very inland fituation.—I have made calculations upon it. The day, when delivered on board a ship, used to be about 6s. or 75. per ton. When it arrives in Staffordshire, it is from 365. or 385. to two guineas per ton; so that the difference between 65. per ton and the expenfe of the carriage is near two guineas † ; and on that account, there being no inland carriage to Dublin, they can have it from our clay-pits at little more than half the price that we have it.-There is fagger clay in feveral parts of Ireland. In almoft every place where coal and iron ftone are found, that species of clay accompanies it. It is along the banks of the New Canal that runs across the kingdom. Mr. Evans, Surveyor of the Grand Canal, gaye in a report to the Irish Parliament last year, in which he says there are coals of equal quality with the Whitehaven coals, fufficient for the supply of the whole kingdom; and there is clay for potters. By which I suppose he means the coarfe kind of pipe-clay for Staffordshire ware. And there is a canal not a great many miles from Dublin; so that there feems, in that happy spot, the fineft fituation for a potter, becaufe he has all the materials under his own hand.

P. 145. 152. 157. 160, 161.

* Query?

† Query?

No.