stitute a common system of taxation in lieu of any proportion, as the means of contributing to the common expense; but each country is still to remain subject to its separate expense. This regulation cannot, in point of fact, take place till the amount of separate expense, to which either or both countries is liable, shall bear but an inconsiderable proportion to what is common expense; and it would much accelerate the period at which common taxes might supersede proportional contributions if some principles were established, by which, without violating the interest of either country, their respective separate debts, so far as they are commensurate, might, not only now but hereafter, as often as any separate charge shall be incurred, be consolidated into a common debt, the charge to be borne in the ratio of their respective contributions.

The annual charge of the debt of Great Britain is about £18,000,000. The annual charge of the debt of Ireland is about £1,400,000. The proportion between the charge of their debts is nearly as 12 to 1. The proportion of their contributions is fixed at 6 to 1 in peace, and 9 to 1 in war, suppose the medium 7 to 1. Were the charge of the English to the Irish debt in the proportion of 7 to 1, and were the periods of their extinction the same, there could be no objection on the part of either country to their being consolidated, and borne proportionably as joint debts. If the whole of the debt of England is too large in amount to admit of consolidation, such a proportional part may be consolidated as will charge the respective countries in the proportion of their contributions; that is, supposing the Irish annual charge arising from debt to be £1,400,000, and the medium proportion of their contributions to be as 7 to 1, a portion of the debt of Great Britain subject to an annual charge of £9,800,000 may be consolidated with it. The common debt of the United Kingdom would then bear a charge of £11,800,000, of which Ireland would pay an eighth part, and England would be subject to a separate annual charge of £7,200,000 in addition to her seven-eighths of the

consolidated charge; but, as the debts of the two countries are determinable at different periods, either their relative sinking funds must be assimilated, or the value of corresponding annuities, determinable at unequal periods, be calculated: the former would be the most simple.

As Great Britain raises more of her supplies within the year than Ireland, debt is more likely rapidly to accumulate in the latter country. If the principle above stated can be realized, every increase of debt on the part of Ireland might be consolidated with a corresponding proportion of British debt.

The common debt would be thus increased, whilst the partial debt would be decreasing; and, as the whole debt of both countries now subsisting must be extinguished within forty years, the United Parliament would be enabled to supersede proportional contributions as soon as the separate debt of England was brought within such limits as to admit of being borne by local taxes.

The only other consideration that it would be requisite to attend to is the capacity of Ireland to raise her supplies in the manner of Great Britain; for, from the period of the declaration, no partial debt could be incurred in either country; and if that same proportion of the supplies was not raised within the year in Ireland as in Great Britain, either the former must be proportionably discharged from her share of expense, or the latter abandon her system, and be obliged, in a greater degree than she would otherwise think it wise, to return to the funding system.

II. THE CATHOLICS.

MEMORIAL OF THE CATHOLIC PRELATES OF IRELAND, PRAY

ING FOR THE FOUNDATION OF A SEMINARY FOR EDUCATION OF CLERGY.

To his Excellency John Earl of Westmorland, Lord-LieutenantGeneral and General Governor of Ireland.

January 14, 1794.

The humble Memorial of the Prelates of the Roman Catholic Communion in Ireland.

May it please your Excellency-Your Memorialists beg leave, with the greatest deference, to represent to your Excellency, That a great number of his Majesty's subjects in this kingdom are attached to the Roman Catholic Religion, insomuch that they have submitted to legal penalties rather than abandon it.

That the duties of morality have been taught, and religious rites administered, in the manner most acceptable to this portion of his Majesty's subjects, by a body of clergymen educated according to the discipline of the Roman Catholic Church. The conduct of these clergymen has never suffered the reproach of disaffection or irregularity; on the contrary, they have been complimented, on many occasions, for assiduously instructing their respective flocks in the sacred precepts of Christianity, and for inculcating obedience to the laws, and veneration for his Majesty's royal person and Government. Memorialists humbly apprehend that the labours of a body of men thus occupied are useful to the State, and that considerable detriment would ensue to the cause of religion, and to that good order which is connected with it, if the public were to be deprived of their services.

Under the laws which formerly existed, your Excellency's Memorialists were obliged to resort to foreign countries for education, particularly to the kingdom of France, where they had procured many valuable establishments; four hundred persons were constantly maintained and educated therein for the Ministry of the Roman Catholic Religion in Ireland. In the anarchy which at present afflicts that kingdom, these establishments have been necessarily destroyed; and, even although lawful authority should be restored, Memorialists conceive the loss to be irreparable; for the revenues would not easily be recovered, and, as the profligate principles of rebellion and atheism, propagated by the faction which now rules that kingdom, may not be speedily effaced, they would not expose youth to the contagion of sedition and infidelity, nor their country to the danger of thus introducing the pernicious maxims of a licentious philosophy. Memorialists, therefore, are apprehensive that it may be found difficult to supply the Ministry of the Roman Catholic Church in Ireland with proper Clergymen, unless Seminaries, Schools, or Academies, be instituted, for educating the youth destined to receive Holy Orders according to the discipline of their own Church, and under ecclesiastical superiors of their own communion; and they beg leave further to represent, with all due respect and deference to your Excellency's wisdom, that said Institution would prove of advantage to the nation at large, and be a matter of great indulgence to his Majesty's subjects professing the Roman Catholic Religion in Ireland.

Whilst sentiments unfavourable to the members of their communion prevailed, your Excellency's Memorialists were discouraged from seeking the means of education in their native country; but, conceiving that the demeanour of the Roman Catholics has removed such ill opinion, they humbly hope that the moral instruction of a people who have been legally authorized to acquire landed property in this kingdom, and upon whom many other valuable privileges have been conferred,

under your Excellency's administration and auspices, may appear to his Majesty's ministers a subject not unworthy of his Royal consideration and bounty. Your Excellency's Memorialists are confirmed in this hope, by the opinion often and publicly expressed by respectable individuals of their Protestant fellow-subjects, that it would conduce to the public good to educate the Irish Ecclesiastics of the Roman Catholic Religion within his Majesty's dominions.

Your Excellency's Memorialists also beg leave humbly to represent that, although the mode of Education practised in the University of Dublin may be well adapted to form men for the various departments of public business, yet it is not alike applicable to the Ecclesiastics of a very ritual religion, and by no means calculated to impress upon the mind those habits of austere discipline so indispensable in the character of a Roman Catholic clergyman, that without them he might become a very dangerous member of society.

That a distinct place of education is also necessary, because the regulations of the Roman Catholic Church enjoin that candidates for Holy Orders shall be proficients in certain branches of learning, which are not included in the exercises of the University of Dublin.

That even where the Roman Catholic is the Established Religion, candidates for Holy Orders are obliged to receive the most important part of their education in seminaries, distinct from the public Universities.

That many persons who destine themselves to the Ministry of the Roman Catholic Religion in Ireland are not sufficiently opulent to bear the expense of education in the University of Dublin, and of constant residence in the metropolis: it is therefore the more necessary to provide literary instruction for them on more easy conditions; and although the liberality of the present heads of the University might induce them to receive persons on the foundation, yet neither could a sufficient number be thus accommodated, nor would it prove