jury that brought in the verdict of guilty on fome of the leaders of the confpiracy, why did the latter hand over thefe unhappy men to the executioner? Was it not because they embattled themfelves against the conftitution of their country? Why, again, did the beft men in the community, in the late rebellion, plunge their fwords into the bofom of their neighbours, poffibly once their friends? Was it not because the juftice of their caufe reconciled the melancholy neceffity of the action, and as they were prepared to risk their own lives in defence of their endangered conftitution, fo their confcience, unclouded by fear or guilt, told them that they were warranted to take away the lives of thofe who would annihilate it for ever? This was the feeling which beat home to the human heart, and fatisfied the gallant foldier, that no accufing angel would be permitted to record his actions, as fubjects of condemnation in the awful registry of heaven. And gracious God! muft I flatter the living, whilst I arraign the memory of the dead. O fuperbiam inauditam alios in facinore gloriari, aliis ne dolere quidem impunite licere. Let the fophift, or the courtier, reprobate and deride every principle of morality; but if an incorporate Union, amounting, as I contend it does, to the annihilation of the identical conftitution

ftitution let the honeft judge, the upright juror, and the magnanimous foldier, decypher this extraordinary conduct, for I confess that I have not a mind gifted with that instinctive fubtlety which can reconcile fuch glaring and palpable inconfiftency.

Other writers have, in glowing fand ani mated language, argued against an Union, on the violation of all the fundamental principles of government, original rights of mankind, and on conftitutional principles;-they have like wife expofed the folly, and the abfurdity of the arguments drawn from the present difturbed and diftracted state of the country; and the heart-rending jealoufies between per fons of different religious perfuafions. I could with that the limits of a publication of this nature would permit me not only to offer fome arguments on thefe fubjects, but to extract from the report of the Society of the Friends of the People in London," the ftate of that British representation, to which a few Irish members are now to be attached. I would willingly argue on the danger of attempting any innovation hoftile to the opinions of the Irish nation, in the prefent diftracted ftate of the world, and of the human mind-but I will keep my word-I will range through no other field than political economy.

ま

t

I have now nearly compleated the argument in which I have engaged, and it contributes much to my fatisfaction, that the great leading principles contained in this little tract, have been recognized as land-marks in political œconomy, in a very praise-worthy addrefs to to the electors of Louth. My opinion of an Union is fimply this that it is nothing more nor less than a compact giving England through Irish abfentees, three millions of that money which ought to be converted into capital in Ireland, and furrendering the commerce, the constitution, the manufactures, and the power of taxing Ireland up to England, for no one poffible récompenfe, nor compenfation, what foever. I have heard from good authority, that the queftion afked by the British minifter to every Irish commoner, and member of parliament, with whom he had an interview, was fimply this Has not Ireland flourished by her connection with England aftonishingly in these last ten years, and must she not flourish by an identity of intereft ?" I anfwer that plaufible minif ter-that it is true, fhe has flourished in SPITE of British influence; but that it is likewife true, that fhe would have flourished two-fold, if that influence had been removed, and the country was placed on an honorable, independent footing, allied by intereft, and go

verned by a common king. The gentlemen of landed property, it is faid, tremble for their eftates. Can they be fecured by holding them by Weft India tenure? Will not the people of Ireland have more lamentable cause for complaint when an Union takes place, than before it was adjusted? I call on the gentlemen of landed property to expand their minds to the inevitable effects and ill confequences of an Union. In the former part of this publication I stated, that though Ireland was destroyed, yet that England might gain nothing by an Union. Let any man calculate on the expence of a West India island to England. Will any man fay, that a treaty of alliance with St. Domingo was not far more advantageous to Great Britain than being incorporated with England, or governed by the gallant MAITLAND, and the flower of the British

army.

.

I fay it confidently, that the opinion of English patriots, as well as that of the œconomifts of Ireland, is hoftile to the measure; and in a question of empire, what man will put the gigantic talents, of Mr. Fox, against those of the DELIVERER of Europe? In a queftion which refpects the trade and manufactures of Ireland, who will put the opinion of the SPEAKER against that of all the men in the

cabinet

cabinet of this country? And gracious God! if the manufactures of Ireland are depreffed, where will thoufands, and tens of thousands, now in your militia and army, find employment on the return of peace? My heart bleeds, and my fpirits fink, when I venture to look forward to the confequence of this FATAL

MEASURE.

ver,

I have now ftated the whole Commercial Syftem of Ireland, from the earliest æra to the present time; I have fhewn, that tho' there is a cruel and fevere partiality to the English merchant, in the Irish market, that that, howeis no ground for giving an opportunity for still greater oppreffion; I have fhewn the neceffary depreffion of the home-market, by the diminution of our capital-by the change of capital from one fpecies of productive industry to another and likewife the impediment to a future encrease of capital, to the extent it would otherwife accumulate without an Union; I have endeavoured to fhew the difadvantage of directing the greatest share of the capital of the country, from manufactures to agriculture, which I have contended muft happen, when the home-market is thrown open to the English merchant; I have alfo attempted to expose the abfurdity of building gigantic expectations on the British market, and the fatal confe