was, by the two parliaments who contracted, but by the ministers who planned it, as a definitive settlement; I fay, it refults clearly in point of fact, that the minifters and the parliaments have been deceived; that it has not proved what they intended; that it has not produced the effect they had in contemplation; and that they did one thing, while they ftipulated another. Inftead of a final fettlement, they procured eternal feuds and rebellion-instead of independence, a corrupt dependence-instead of imperial identity, distinct regencies and contradictory titles in the crown itself, with difcuffions upon war and peace-instead of content, commotion -instead of order, treafon-instead of gratitude and affection, and tranquillity, foreign counfels, bloody confpiracies, and general infurrection.

What then are these final contracts, which no take nor error, no repentance, nor expe

rience of ill can loofen or unbind? What are the grants, which neither deception in the giver, nor injury to the endowed, can defeat or avoid? Shall an improper grant of the crown be fet afide in the courts of law for want of the prefumed information in the fo vereign, and an act of ftate, in which nations are deceived and mifled, be perpetual, in fpite of experiment and remorfe? Are the people of Ireland maffacred and starved? Is England exhaufted, and expofed to every wound of war and infurrection, and yet we muft ftand to the condition? We muft inherit, in spite of our own disclaim; we must take unwilling, the benefit of the entail, and enjoy the fee-fimple of our calamities? Would I break then the treaty we have figned? Would I violate the faith of Parliament? would I refume the controul we have abandoned, and the independence to which we have subscribed? I would not do it; because we can do better, because we can incorporate and ad

mit Ireland into our own imperial state; becaufe we can advance instead of receding; because we can confer advantages, and privileges, and fafety, and perfect liberty, intead of returning to the crude state of colony and metropolis because, instead of dependence and protection, we can offer union and identity of power and state; instead of inferiority, participation; instead of humiliation, glory. But would I do it in any cafe, and under any circumstances? It is not left to do it is done already by neceffity, and the nature of things themselves, which parchments cannot alter. But I would do it. By what law? By what right? Not for error, not for incompetence-but by that law which Heaven itself has ordained, that the fafety of the people fhould be the law fupreme; by that eternal paramount authority, by which every lawful conftitution, under every form and name of human fociety, holds, at every moment, the full, abfolute, entire, and per

fect

fect fevereign right, (with its correfpondent duty) to redrefs every evil, to provide for every emergency, to defend the people from every danger, and to fuccour them under every calamity.

The more I examine the antient policy and conduct of England, with regard to Ireland, I beg leave to repeat it, the more kind and generous I find it towards the colony, and I think her only real reproach has been, neglect of the natives: even now, that the mifgovernment and misfortunes of the colony feem, perhaps, to call for acts of rigour, and forfeiture; what is the conduct of the parent ftate, and what the language fhe holds to her libertine? Does fhe refume her charters? Does the cancel her grants? Does the revoke the independence he has extorted from her or place him in a state of pupilage again? No. She entreats with maternal fondnefs to draw clofer, for the common benefit and fafety, those

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thofe bonds, which have always knit them together in interest and affection. She defires but to confirm and strengthen that REAL UNION, which has always fubfifted between them, in spite of political names, and legal distinctions. She wishes to protect him still, but with more efficacy and vigour, and to be able to extend her beneficience to three millions of wretched natives, whom he cannot oppress but with her arms, nor deliver but with his own ruin. But what are the terms of this protection, and what the price fhe fets upon her beneficience? Is it the furrender of territory? Is it taxation? Is it the abandonment of any good, or of any power? America complained that she was taxed without reprefentation, but Ireland is invited to fend an hundred commoners, and an equal proportion of her peers. But is not this number adequate and fufficient? Scotland, with more than double the population of the colony (for the native is not yet reprefented at all) has never made this com

plaint.