VERBUM SAPIENTI; OR A FEW REASONS.. FOR THINKING THAT IT IS IMPRUDENT TO OPPOSE, AND DIFFICULT TO PREVENT THE PROJECTED UNION. INCIDIT IN SCYLLAM CUFIENS VITARE CHARYBDIM. DUBLIN: PRINTED FOR J. MILLIKEN, NO. 32, GRAFTON-STREET. VERBUM SAPIENTI, OR A FEW REASONS FOR THINKING, &c. AN Union of the British, and Irish Legif latures has been, of late, fo ably difcuffed, so minutely analysed, and exhibited in fuch various and oppofite points of view, that whether this measure be intrinfically eligible, or intrinfically the reverse, muft, I prefume, be, at this hour, abundantly manifeft to every intelligent and unprejudiced 'man. All further attempts then, to elucidate this interesting subject, being thus rendered fuperfluous, I fhall haften to an exposition of those reasons which have inclined me to think, that however national pride may be outraged by merging the independent pendent Legislature of Ireland into that of England; however unacceptable, or even mischievous, this project may appear, existing circumstances render an oppofition thereto highly imprudent-that fuch oppofition is likely to prove ineffectual at prefentthat should it be fuccessful, yet the future accomplishment of an Union may not thereby be precluded; and, lastly, that should this oppofition be fo extenfive, fo pertinacious, and fo well feconded by fortunate combinations of foreign and domestic poli→ tical circumstances, as to induce a final dereliction of this project, one or other of the two most prominent defcriptions of men in this kingdom, may, hereafter, have but narrow grounds for exultation. And, I confess, I am not without hopes, that these reasons, which in all likelihood will be hastily and disdainfully rejected as infufficient, by those against whose peculiar interefts an Union may appear to militate, yet will have due weight with every unbiaffed, liberal, moderate, and unambitious man. Certain yet Certain propofitions, though, for the moft part, by no means incontrovertible, have made impreffions on my mind, which no writer on the subject of an Union, has as effaced, these are: That the profperity and tranquillity of the British empire is the refult, or aggregate, of the profperity and tranquillity of each of its constituent parts; that an indiffoluble Union of the Legislatures of England and Ireland, must prove eventually, in an eminent degree, either beneficial or detrimental to one or to both of these kingdoms; that the power of the prefent administration of England is better confirmed than that of any of their predeceffors fince the Revolution; that they are lefs conftrained to fuit their measures to the views and interefts of particular defcriptions of men, than others have, for this last century, been; that they actually poffefs the most ample, the moft irrefiftible means for carrying their measures into effect; and laftly, that no administration would, unneceffarily, provoke, especially in time of war, a Parlia mentary |