Right Honourable Gentleman was happily mif taken; Ireland has again had the offer of the fame advantages, but more complete, and in all refpects better calculated to attain their object; and this offer the Right Honourable Gentleman has exerted all his influence to reject. But he goes on to fay-" THINGS CANNOT REMAIN AS "THEY ARE-Commercial jealoufy is roufed"it will encreafe with two independent Legislatures -and without united intereft in commerce,

"and

an

in a commercial Empire, political Union will "receive many fhocks, and feparation of intereft "muft threaten feparation of Connection, which every honeft Irishman must shudder to look at, "as a poffible event."

Gentlemen will have the goodness to observe, that I am not now quoting these expreffions as pledges given by that Right Honourable Gentleman that he would fupport a propofal for a Union between the two Countries, but I am adducing them to prove that the fituation of the two Countries after the Final Adjuftment of 1782, was fuch, in his opinion, as led to the danger of a feparation between them. I am not now arguing

that

that a Legislative Union is the only measure which can poffibly be adopted, but I am contending that the Adjustment of 1782 was never confidered as final, by those who now ftate it to be fo as an argument against the confideration of the present measure. How the Honourable Gentleman on the other fide of the Houfe will evade this authority I do not know ;-an authority too, which, I must obferve, he seems much more inclined to treat with respect than he was formerly.

But, Sir, it does not stop there. What is the evil to which he alludes? Commercial jealousies between two Countries acting upon the laws of two independent Legislatures, and from the danger of those Legislatures acting with jealousy to each other.-How can this evil be remedied? By two means only; either by fome Compact entered into by the Legislatures of the two Countries respecting the mode of forming their commercial regulations, or else by blending the two Legislatures together; thefe are the only two means. I defy the wit of man to point out a third. The mode of compact was propofed in 1785, but unfortunately, in fpite of that Right Honourable Gentleman's

Gentleman's eloquence and authority, who then ftated the importance of guarding against the evil, it fo happened that doctrines, derived chiefly from this fide of the water, fucceeded in convincing the Parliament of Ireland, that it would be inconfiftent with their independence, to enter into any compact whatever. We have then the authority of that Rt. Honourable Gentleman to whom I have fo often alluded, that the unfettled ftate in which the matter was left, would give, "Political Union many fhocks, and lead to a feparation of Connection." The experiment of a mutual Compact has been tried without fuccefs; the arrangement of that fort, which was propofed in 1785, in order to obviate the inconveniences; stated by the Right Honourable Gentleman, was then attacked with the fame fuccefs against his authority, as another and more effectual remedy has recently experienced under his aufpices. The refult then is, you must remain in the ftate which that Right Honourable Gentleman has defcribed, with the feeds of feparation in the fyftem now eftablished, and with the Connection, on which the mutual profperity of both Countries depends in danger of being hourly diffolved, or you must again

recur

recur to the propofal of a compact fimilar to that rejected in 1785, or you must refort to the best and most effectual remedy,--A LEGISLATIVE UNION.

I have dwelt longer, perhaps, upon this part of the subject than was abfolutely neceffary, because I believe there is fcarcely any man who has ever asked himself, whether there is a folid, permanent fyftem of Connection between the two Countries, who could, upon reflection, answer the queftion in the affirmative. But befides the authorities of the perfons who made the arrangement in 1782, and of those who have fince treated of it, to fhew that it was not deemed to be final and complete; I have further the teft of experience to fhew how imperfect it was, and how inadequate in practice to the great object of cementing the Connection, and placing it beyond the danger of being diffolved. In the fingle inflance, which has occurred (and that a melancholy one which all of us deplored) in which we could feel the effects of two jarring Legislatures we did feel it. On that occafion, it might have produced the most fignal calamities, had we not

been rescued from its danger by an event, to which no man can now look back without feeling the utmost joy and exultation; feelings, which fubfequent circumstances have ferved to heighten and confirm. Every Gentleman will know, that 'I muft allude to the Regency. With two independent Legislatures, acting upon different principles, it was accident alone that preserved the identity of the Executive Power, which is the bond and fecurity of the Connection: And even then the Executive authority, though vested in one perfon, would have been held by him by two different tenures, by one tenure in England, by another in Ireland, had not the interpofition of Providence prevented a circumftance pregnant with the most imminent perils, and which might have operated to a feparation of the two kingdoms.

After seeing the recorded opinion of Parliament, of those who made the arrangement of 1782, and after the decided teftimony of experience on the fubject, within the fhort period of fixteen years, perhaps, it is hardly neceffary to appeal to farther

proofs