1337 SPEECH OF THE RIGHT HONOURABLE K SYLVESTER DOUGLAS, IN THE HOUSE OF COMMONS, TUESDAY, APRIL THE 23D, 1799, ON SECONDING THE MOTION OF THE RIGHT HONOURABLE RELATIVE TO A UNION WITH IRELAND. There hath been put in practice in governments, these two several ' more ufual, but the latter is more happy.' LORD BACON. DUBLIN: PRINTED FOR JOHN MILLIKEN, 32, GRAFTON-STREET, 1799. I MR. SPEAKER, TOOK occafion, on a former daya, to exprefs my humble hope, that if a regular opportunity fhould again occur, the House would permit me to ley before them fome thoughts on this great fubject, which have appeared to me worthy of their attention; and to explain fome of the grounds on which my opinion has been formed in favour of a Union with Ireland. Nobody to whom I am known, will, I am perfuaded, impute to me the presumptuous folly of imagining that I have it in my power to improve on what those men of tranfcendent talents and eminent political wisdom and experience, who have taken the principal fhare in the former debates, have advanced on the leading points of this queftion. But it is a queftion of fuch extent, that it may fairly be thought that even yet several important topics remain for confideration, and fome new views of those which have been already difcuffed. It has been for a confiderable length of time before the public in both On Thursday, February 14, after reporting the resolutions. kingdoms: it has given rife to various arguments in both Houfes of this and the other Parliament: and, upon every fresh occafion, additional lights have been thrown upon it, and new difficulties and objections have been raised, by the fertility and eagerness of conteft and oppofition. Some of thofe objections may have feemed plaufible or ingenious; scarcely any, I think, have been weighty or fubftantial; none, I am fure, of fufficient weight to counterbalance the numerous benefits which there is fuch reason to expect from the adoption of the measure. But they have been frequently fuited to meet thofe paffions and prejudices, which naturally exift, or have been artfully excited, in our fifter kingdom; and, if we feel it our duty to recommend the propofed incorporation to our fellowfubjects there, we owe it to them and to ourselves to fpare no pains in the endeavour to remove, by difpaffionate rea foning and cool deliberation, fuch obftacles as may have appeared to them, or any number of them, to ftand in the way of what most of us here, I believe, confider as material for our interefts and essential to theirs. To those who have attended to the various modes of resistance to the propofal of an Union, which have been reforted to by different perfons, two circumftances muft have occurred as very remarkable. One has been fo well expreffed in the refolutions of the Grand Jury of the county of the city of Cork, that I fhould do it injuftice not to introduce the mention of it in the very language they have ufed: Whilft we lament,' fay they, that any difference of opinion fhould exift in this kingdom upon fo important a question, we cannot but remember how unanimous the rebellious and C • traitorous ⚫ traitorous enemies of the country are in their reproba⚫tion of the measurea,' The plan of the United Irishmen, with the affiftance of the inveterate foe of the British empire and conftitution, is to effect a feparation between Great Britain and Ireland. It is natural therefore that they thould dread nothing so much as any measure which they must look upon as fatal to that favourite object. That feparation is their favourite object we have many inconteftable proofs; but it is fufficient for me now to refer to the declaration of their founder, Tone, fubjoined to the Report of the Secret Committee of the Irifh Houfe of Lords in 1797; and the deteftation of a Union, which on that account the fame clafs of men have always expreffed, is equally notorious. The furious declamations of McNevin, Lewins, and others, have been more than once referred to in this placed; and within not many weeks from the prefent moment, fome of thofe felf-convicted traitors have contrived to publish to the world new libels on the government and conftitution of their country, their main view in which has manifeftly been to co-operate, to this particular end, with those who, though of a very different defcription, and acting undoubtedly from motives of mistaken patriotism, have exerted their talents and influence to counteract and retard what I am well perfuaded the good sense of a Vide the refolutions of the Grand Jury of the county of the city of Cork, 26th March 1799. b No. II. Proceedings of the meeting at Francis Street Chapel, 1795. Vide Speech of the Right Hon. Henry Addington, p. 21, &c. &c. Arthur O'Connor's Letter to Lord Caftlereagh,-Demonstration, &c. Afcribed to Dr. M'Nevin. |