Lord Auckland to Lord Castlereagh.

Palace Yard, April 6.

My dear Lord-We go on swimmingly. The House of Commons are not unlikely to finish and report on Thursday or Friday next; for, as yet, we have no reason to believe that the woollen business will occupy above one day, or two at the most; and we do not think that the Lords will be above one day behind the Commons. It is, therefore, within a reasonable hope that the joint Address may be arrived at on Monday the 5th, or Tuesday the 6th of May; and my original prophecy that you may expect the Articles to be returned about the 8th will be verified.

A copy (printed) of our proposed Countervailing Duties and of the documents on which they depend shall be forwarded to you next Monday. Would it not be right, in the first instance, at your meeting, to vote your Schedule of Countervailing Duties, and to transmit it to us?-for, till we have adopted it and sent it back to you, you will not, in fact, be in possession of a complete set of Articles on the part of the British Parliament. I presume that you will adopt our principle as to each Countervailing Duty, in which case the question yours will be matter of mere arithmetic, explaining whether in British or Irish money.

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I do not foresee, though we necessarily make many verbal alterations, and some which are substantial, that you will find any thing in the returned Articles that can materially embarrass you; and many of our alterations are pointedly in favour of Ireland; so as to obviate any doubtful interpretations, that might by possibility not be conformable to her intentions.

I write this scrawl with Mr. Frewin, of the Customs, and Mr. Jackson, of the Excise, talking in the room.

The only delay that may carry us beyond what I have stated above would be on the part of the woollen people, if they were to take more time in either House than at present seems likely. AUCKLAND.

I am, &c.,

Lord Glandore to Lord Castlereagh.

Sackville Street, Monday, April 7, 1800.

My dear Lord-In addition to what I had the honour to suggest to your Lordship, in our late conversation, upon the subject of the Bill for regulating the election of the Peers to sit in Parliament, it has since occurred to me that, besides exempting the Representative Peers from the obligation of taking the Oaths in Ireland, preparatory to their voting at the election of a Peer, it would be right to extend the like to those Peers of Ireland who are also Peers of Great Britain, upon the principle that all Peers of Ireland who have seats in the House of Lords, and are attending their duty in Parliament, should enjoy all the privileges and advantages incidental to the condition of the Peerage; whilst, on the other hand, such of our order as shall condescend to avail themselves of the degrading privilege of sitting in the House of Commons should be deprived of all.

Moreover, I conceive it to be of great importance that the weight in elections should rest with those Peers who are of the first consequence in the country.

The very favourable and flattering manner with which your Lordship received the hints I before suggested to you, has encouraged me to offer the foregoing to your consideration. I have the honour to be, &c.,

GLANDORE.

The Rev. Dr. Bruce to Lord Castlereagh.

Belfast, April 9, 1800.

My Lord-While the proposed Union excites such a lively sensation in every class of people, your Lordship will not be surprised that the Presbyterians should be anxious to know how far their interests and privileges may be affected by it. As a considerable accession of power is to accrue to the Establishment from a union of the two Episcopal Churches, it is

natural for sectaries to hope that their security will at least not be impaired, or themselves exposed to the malice and bigotry of any future ecclesiastical faction: and when they observe that the concluding Article leaves it in the power of the United Parliament to modify all Laws which shall not be expressly recognised by the Act of Union, they must be under some degree of apprehension, until their privileges be put out of danger. Such considerations as these have induced some respectable ministers to wish that the advantages we have hitherto enjoyed may be in some manner referred to, or incorporated, in the compact between the two Kingdoms.

This wish, my Lord, does not originate in any desire to embarrass Government, nor, in my opinion, can the agitation of our claims have any such effect. For my own part, after very deliberate and dispassionate consideration, I am a decided friend to the Union, and, at the same time, so sensible of the great difficulties and jarring interests which your Lordship has to encounter and reconcile, that I should willingly sacrifice a personal advantage rather than impede such a necessary measure. I am so far from desiring to add to the perplexity of this vast business, that I am in some degree actuated by a persuasion that a satisfactory settlement of the affairs of the Presbyterians will essentially promote the grand object which Government has in view. This I conceive to be the tranquillity of the country, which, I presume, will be best provided for by placing every class of subjects on a good and unalterable footing, so as to give content and security. From the temper with which the Union has been received in this country, I am persuaded that its popularity and efficacy, in this point of view, will depend on the terms, and the measure suggested in this letter cannot fail to be very acceptable to the great majority of the inhabitants. On the other hand, any vexatious interference on the part of the Church would produce greater discontent than the most grievous exertion of civil authority. I am, therefore, humbly of opinion that it is consonant to this intention of Go

vernment to quiet all such fears and to bar all such irritation for ever. With respect to any additional advantages that may be intended for us, we freely leave them to the liberality of Government and the long-experienced bounty of the Crown. We are only anxious at present to have our rights ascertained and perpetuated on the principles on which they were conferred.

It is not necessary to trouble your Lordship with any detail of our transplantation into this country, the important services performed by our ancestors, and the grants and immunities bestowed upon us in different reigns. Your Lordship knows that we are not Dissenters in the same sense with the Puritans of England and their descendants, but were planted here by Government as a separate Church, and never belonged to the Church of Ireland, but zealously and effectually co-operated with it in the settlement, reformation, and preservation of this kingdom.

By 6 George I., c. 5, we are exempted from a variety of penalties and discouragements, and our worshipping Societies are protected. By 11 George II., c. 10, our people are secured against ecclesiastical prosecution on account of Presbyterian marriages. By 21 of George III., c. 25, marriages celebrated by Dissenting ministers between Dissenters are declared valid. By 32 George III., c. 11, s. 12, we are authorized to solemnize marriages between Dissenters and Catholics, and, by another Statute of the present King, the Test Act was repealed. These, my Lord, are valuable privileges, but they are precarious under the Articles of Union; and your Lordship will readily sympathize with us in our anxiety to have them ratified. They are also essentially different from the Catholic claims. Ours are ancient, theirs are novel; ours have been already enacted by Parliament, theirs it is thought hazardous to propose to our Legislature. Their pretensions may be more wisely and liberally disposed of by the Imperial Parliament: ours can be felt and understood only in Ireland.

This last observation, my Lord, I wish to impress deeply upon your mind. Were there no other difference between the settlement of this question by the Irish and by the Imperial Parliament, this has very considerable weight, that we could rest upon a recognition in the Act of Union as irreversible and calculated to inspire perfect confidence; whereas, any Statute passed subsequent to the Union may be repealed. But, my Lord, there is this essential distinction that our history is perfectly well known, both to the Executive Government and the Parliament of this country; while, in England, we are either unknown, or looked upon as an obscure sect of schismatics. Another point of difference is, that the Imperial Parliament cannot confer any benefit upon us that they shall not be prepared to extend to the English Dissenters, and might even be persuaded to reduce us to the same level. There is yet another circumstance, which, your Lordship must allow me to say, is of primary importance in this business-I mean, the personal character and connexions of his Excellency and your Lordship. To both the history and state of this country are well known, and both are anxious for its tranquillity and prosperity; but we naturally look to your Lordship, as a native of Ireland and of Ulster, interested in the welfare and ambitious of the approbation of this part of the kingdom, and descended from a father and grandfather who have been distinguished by singular constancy in their adherence to our principles and communion. We, therefore, cannot willingly forego the patronage of such a friend, in such a situation as your Lordship holds.

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I hope, my Lord, I have chosen the most favourable season for this application, when your Lordship has surmounted the principal difficulties of this arduous undertaking, and may reasonably supposed to have leisure to attend to minuter parts of the detail. One reason for intruding on your Lordship at all is, that you might wish to be apprized of the business to be laid before the standing Committee of the Synod, should