KEEP UP YOUR SPIRITS,

OR

HUZZA FOR THE EMPİRE !!

BEING A FAIR, ARGUMENTATIVE DEFENCE

OF AN

UNION,

ADDRESSED TO THE PEOPLE OF IRELAND,

BY A CITIZEN OF THE ISLE OF MAN.

And at the end of this time, there will be ftillness and calm; and every one may gain, though every one shall lofe." MOTHER SHIPTON'S PROPHECIES.

DUBLIN:

PRINTED FOR J. MOORE, No. 45, COLLEGE-GREEN.

KEEP UP YOUR SPIRITS!

THERE

HERE is no fituation in which the human Mind, can be placed, fo difficult either to confider difpaffionately, or decide with impartiality as when it is made a Judge in its own Caufe." Was the obfervation of the great Lord Manffield in a debate in Parliament, when a part of the Privilege of the Houfe of Lords, and the general Liberty of the fubject were difcuffed an opinion I moft humbly fubfcribe to and the conviction of the truth of which has forced me from a retired fituation of Life, in a more retired fpot of the Empire to advance what I hope will be received as the argumentative and unbiased Opinion of one who can receive neither benefit nor injury by the adoption or rejection of a queftion that in all probability will very foon agitate the Parliaments of both Kingdoms, and which is no other than the Queftion of an Union of the two lЛlands. I have read much of what has been written on this fubject, and fancy I have confidered more calmly and perhaps more profoundly its real merits than any Perfon who has heretofore obtruded his opinions on the Public. Having fo far premised, it may

not be amifs to let the People of Ireland know who I am, and what are my preténfions and proof that I am perfectly impartial and therefore duly qualified to make a rational Enquiry into a fubj et fo national that an Englishman oc anifhman cannot examine it without the interference of a prejudice that muft in a great meafure mislead the minds of the most upright, for fuch minds are always the most Patriotic or National.

I am a native of the Isle of Mann; in this small Iland I have received my youthful Education and established the opinions of Manhood My Property is inherited from my Anceflors, and confifts of Lands that are equally productive whether the Stocks are high or low, I never have been in England and my knowledge of Ireland is confined to what I have heard and what I have feen in Books, I feel myfelf equally attached to both Kingdoms, for although we are legally fubject to Great-Britain yet we have always confidered ourfelves as phyfically counter-tyed tó Ireland in oppofition to our allegiance, by the nature of our Air and Soil, for no venomous Creature can live in the Ife of Man. In addi tion to the foregoing reafons which I truft will ftrongly plead for my impartiality on the fubject in Queftion, I fhall trouble the Reader with a fhort remark on the claims of my own Ifland for the feat of Empire. Claims which if I forego for the general profperity, I trust no! poffible doubt can remain of the difinterestednefs of my opinions.

t

If I had not already confeffed myself a Na tive of the Isle of Man, the darling of the Irish

Sea,

Sea, I might without immodefty expatiate on the exclufive and almoft innumerable bleffings of Air and Soil that are peculiar to it. But in the Queftion of where fhall be the Seat of Empire our liland has claims of a higher nature. It is fituated between the two Kingdoms with an accefs equally convenient to both, and feems formed by nature in fuch a pofition that the two independant lands might readily confer on mutual welfare and devife and execute the general good without difparagement to the imperial confequente of either. Thofe who are acquainted with History know how tenacious independant ftates and generals have been in the adjustment of the ground on which it was neceffary to hold a conference, or make a treaty. Nothing was more ufual in fuch cafes than to hold an imparlance in the middle of a River, or fign a Treaty on the centre of a Bridge, that divided their refpective poffeffions, and we have a remarkable initance of this territorial delicacy even in latter times; for in the famous Pyrenean Treaty executed by Cardinal Richlieu on the part of France, and Don Lewis de Haro on that of Spain, the fcene of the compact was a little Ifland in the centre of a fmall River that, runs through the Pyrenees and divides France from Spain, and which circumftance gives title to the Treaty.

I know this hint for the Benefit of my own Ifland may be treated by fome of the natives of Great Britain and Ireland as unworthy of ferious attention, nevertheless it is a project that is not unbecoming a Patriot and not wholly devoid of that reafonablenefs that may one

day