power or legitimate authority without the immediate instruction, not of its conftituents merely, but of the people of Ireland in the mafs. I fay, if the Parliament of Ireland have not any legitimate authority to determine upon this fubject without the inftructions of the people at large, as little has the Parliament of England fuch authority-as little had the Parliament of Scotland that authority-as little had the Parliament of England and Scotland that authority when they agreed upon the Union between the two kingdoms→→ an Union under which have grown up and flourished the profperity of both; under, which the laws of both have been improved; under which property has been protected; under which has been cherished a principle of cordial co-ope ration, which has led to the happinefs of Great Britain; has rendered it the envy, and, I truft, will make it the protection of furrounding nations-You fit in that chair, Sir-I ftand here before you-the Honourable Gentleman himself addreffed you this night, called upon this Houfe to entertain a debate, without any right whatever; we are all totally deftitute of legitimate authority, if the Honourable Gentleman is right in the principle he contended for this night upon this part of the fubject-Indeed, if he be right in that principle, you have no Parliament in England poffeffed of legal and juft authority at this hour; there is no act which you have performed for the laft ninety years, however well intended, or however effectual for the happinefs of the people of Great Britain, that can be faid to be legitimate or legal-from thence it followed, that let the mutual advantages flowing from an Union be ever fo great, and ever fo eagerly fought for by the two kingdoms, there was an infurmountable obftacle to its attainment, in the inability of the Parliaments, of either country to confent. I know not what ideas the Honourable Gentleman may entertain, or what aid he expects, or what aid he will find ready to be given to his doctrine, that "Parliament is not competent to the difcuffion of this fubject." I cannot devife by what means, or by what ingenious refources the Hon. Gentleman can fupport his statement, and it feems that his allies are hitherto unknown. I have, however, learnt from the newspapers, that the Hon. Gentleman has at least one ally in his very extraordinary propofition. A certain perfon has publicly declared, that every citizen of both countries fhould come forward and deliver his opinion on the prefent occafion; and that without the fenfe of the aggregate bodies of the kingdom, the Parliament of Great Britain could not difcufs

difcufs nor determine the prefent momentous queftion. According to this plan, which appears to coincide with the fentiments of the Hon. Gentleman, every citizen was to ftand forth with his reafons, and vote in numerical progreffion, and the legiflature were, in the mean time, patiently to wait for the refult of the whole. If we are to go back to the elements of jacobinifm, I must admit the argument of the Hon. Gentleman to be juft; and we are, confequently no longer a Parliament. I fay, if the Honourable Gentleman avows this, then, but not till then, will this argument upon this head of the fubject be intelligible and confiftent; for without this the whole of what he faid upon the matter will be quite obfcure, if not altogether without a meaning. The Honourable Gentleman, I believe, is not in his heart any advocate for any fuch doctrine; and yet to this length his argument leads, or there is an end of that part of the topic he brought before you. If you deny the competence of Parliament which fully and freely reprefents all the people of this country (and here let it be remembered that I am ufing no language of my own, but am following the approved language of our ancestors), there is an end of all your authority, not in this point only, but in every other point. Now, let us fee how this will apply to the argument of the Honourable Gentleman in the reft of his fpecch tonight. He complains that a queftion is agitated, and an addrefs is moved upon this fubject. The addrefs is moved, as I faid yesterday in this Houfe it was intended to be moved, and it involves a queftion upon which I thought there would have been no oppofition-Why? Becaufe the detail of the matter would not now be brought forward. That is referved for another opportunity; and however neceffary the measure may be, and I am convinced it is, yet I know it has, and must have its difficulties. I know it is liable, neceffarily liable, to a thousand difficulties, because subject to a thoufand prejudices and partial objections; to fentiments haftily conceived by fome and eagerly adopted by others, to local and confined views, to perfonal affections, and to a multitude of impediments, which, however firm our own opinions may be of the indifpenfible neceffity of the meafure, for the happinefs, and even the fecurity of the British Empire, yet have induced his Majefty's minifters not to enter upon the detail at this moment.

Upon thefe topics, therefore, I fhall decline for the prefent entering upon any explanation. But although I do not think it right to detail the fubject at this moment, and

although

although I may have that hononr at another time, yet I muft fay that the Hon. Gentleman's complaint against furprife is extremely ill-founded. I think that if any complaint could fairly be urged against us upon that subject, it would be that we have fhewn perhaps too much caution against furprise; and although (for the reafon I have alledged already) I fhall decline at prefent entering upon any detail of the plan which is intended to be submitted to Parliament, I must be allowed to answer the objections of the Hon. Gentleman.-Here then let me again observe, that after a meflage comes from the Throne, recommending in fubftance an union between the two Kingdoms, nothing in the first instance is proposed but a general addrefs, pledging the Houfe to nothing more than that it will take the fubject into ferious confideration. A day is ftated, on which the outline of the plan to be, fubmitted to Parliament is to be opened, that is the general principle of the measure. The difcuffion is further to be poftponed, nor is it proposed that Parliament fhall be called upon to determine upon it until after due time had been taken for ample deliberation. I fhould have thought the Hon. Gentleman himself would have at least allowed there was candour and fairness in the mode of the proceeding. If therefore the cafe be as I state it-if his Majefty has recommended the fubject to your deliberation-if the Addrefs contains only a pledge that you will deliberate, the fhort queftion is-Should you now adopt the mode which thofe who have the honour of ferving his Majefty prefume to recommend to you gravely, and on which time will be given to deliberate on all its parts; or fhould you pronounce in the first inftance, without examination, that it is a measure wholly unneceffary, or fo dangerous, or impracticable, or fo attended with evils, that you will not even fo much as enquire into its contentsthat you will at once fhut the door againft it?-The Hon. Gentleman feems to think fo. It is not enough for us to fay we fhall bring forward a propofition, involving in it the happiness of the whole of the British empire, including points requiring great attention, upon which we do uot defire your immediate decision, but we defire you to tell the Throne, in anfwer to its gracious communication, that you will confider the fubject. The Hon. Gentleman fays No! you fhall enter upon no enquiry upon the matter: I know enough of it already to convince you that you ought to reject it at once. If that be the propofition of the Honourable Gentleman, and fo it is, I conceive that he is bound

to

to make out that propofition to your fatisfaction, in which cafe I conceive he is called upon to prove, either that the prefent ftate of Ireland is fuch that it requires no remedy whatever, or that if it does require a remedy, a better may be propofed than any which has an union for its basis-or that an union, at all events, must be such an evil that you ought not to deliberate upon it at all. This may be the opinion of the Hon. Gentleman, but has he ftated any thing to make out the propriety of that opinion? For many years paft I have heard from that Hon. Gentleman and his friends upon the affairs of Ireland, nothing but complaints and lamentations. They have reiterated and ftudioufly expatiated upon the wretched condition to which that country was reduced; they have bitterly inveighed against the mistakes and errors of its Government; they have defcribed, in the the moft alarming terms, the horrors which it was condemned to fuffer; they have anxiously ftarted difficulties and raifed objections against every word that went to extenuate the painful diftreffes which they related. We have often been reminded of the unfortunate diftraction of all its parts of Government, and of the evils which have refulted from the whole collectively; nay we have been told, and that pretty confidently, from a Gentleman who ufually took the lead on the other fide of this Houfe, that the fyftem by which Ireland was governed was radically defective; that indeed it was fo full of deformity in its very Conftitution, as, that if we wished to answer the cavils of thofe who difputed the beauty of the Conftitution of Great Britain, we could not do better than to defire them to look at her fifter, who was fo ugly, that when he was behield, all objections against the other would vanish. I remember thefe things full well, Sir, and I know not how the Hon. Gentleman has forgotten them, and how he comes now to fee none of thefe defects; how he comes all at once to be fatisfied that this was an unjuft picture of Ireland; how he comes to be, all at once fatisfied, that Ireland is as fecure as the had need to be; that her Government wants no remedy-is not for me, but for him to explain to this Houfe. The novelty of his praise of the Parliament of Ireland is not to be fufpected by me as an infincere compliment.-He has certainly feen that Parliament do much that deferved praife, but he has not feen enough to enable him to prove that the happiness of that country is perfectly fecure; he has not feen enough to prove that there has not lately been there a desperate rebellion; he has not feen enough to prove this Houfe fhould conclude

No. 18.

4 T

that

that the fafety of that part of the British Empire is at this moment perfectly fecure; he has not feen enough to enable him to prove that there exift not at this hour in Ireland evils which we all deplore, and which we have much more reafon to deplore than we had those which he has fo repeatedly, and fo vehemently, in conjunction with others, called to the attention of this Houfe. I fay the evils to which Ireland is at this moment exposed, and the still greater evils to which it may hereafter be expofed, if the wifdom of the Legislature of the two countries does not prevent it-I fay that Ireland is fubject to great and deplorable evils, which have a deep root, for they lie in the fituation of the country itfelf-in the prefent character, manners and habits of its inhabitants-in their want of intelligence, or, in other words, their ignorance-in the unavoidable separation between certain claffes-in the ftate of property-in its religious diftin&ions-in the rancour which bigotry engenders, and fuperftition rears and cherishes. The Hon. Gentleman tells us thefe are evils which cannot be cured in a moment. I know they cannot, Sir, but the queftion is, whether we fhould not adopt fome plan which may lead to that cure in the course of time? If indeed it could have been done by what the Hon. Gentleman and his friends have often recommended in this Houfe by what they call a Catholic Emancipation and a Parliamentary Reform, the task would have been a good deal eafier than in truth it is; but Catholic Emancipation and Parliamentary Reform is a phrase made ufe of by fome to cover defigns of a very different nature. If fuch object could be kept in view and be attained by calm, difpaffionate, fober inveftigation, no man would be readier than myfelf to affent to any measure for that purpofe. But if the state of fociety is fuch that laws, however wife in themfelves, will be ineffectual as to their object until the manners and cuftoms of the people are altered-if men are in a state of poverty in which it is impoffible they can have any comfort-if the progrefs of civilization depends in a great meafure upon the diftribution of wealthif the improvement of that wealth depends much upon the diftribution of capital-if all the advantages to be derived from an increafe of national wealth depends much upon the temper of the inhabitants--if that advantage, together with the ftill greater advantage of mental improvement, are all retarded by the diftractions and divifions of party, by the blind zeal and phrenzy of religious prejudices, by old and furious family feuds-if all, I fay, combine to make a . country