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gard to property, and the consideration of political, commercial, and local knowledge; and mentioned the produce of the taxes on hearths and on windows, and the number of houses for which hearth-money was no longer paid, as fair criteria of wealth and population. On these grounds he named the following towns: Waterford, Limerick, Belfast, Drogheda, Carrickfergus, Newry, Kilkenny, Londonderry, Galway, Clonmell, Wexford, Armagh, Youghall, Bandon, Dundalk, Kinsale, Lisburne, Sligo, Catherlogh, Ennis, Dungarvan, Down-Patrick, Coleraine, Mallow, Athlone, New-Ross, Tralee, Cashel, Dungannon, Portarling ton, and Enniskillen. One member for each of these towns, with four for Dublin and Cork, one for the University, and sixty-four representatives of counties, would, he thought, form the soundest collection of individuals, that could be charged with the concerns of a nation; and Ireland might safely depend upon the wise and patriotic exertions of such legislators, incorporated with an assembly which had preserved the liberty and happiness, and therefore commanded the esteem and affection of the people of Great Britain.

The motion was opposed, as tending to pledge the house prematurely; but it was carried by a majority of 55. In its progress the bill was warmly opposed: and the whole plan of Union was re-attacked. It passed the House of Commons on the 20th of May. This bill ordained, that if the king should authorize the present lords and commons of Great Britain to form a part of the first imperial legislature, the sitting members for Dublin and Cork, and for the thirty-two counties of Ireland, should represent the same cities and shires in that parliament; that the written names of the members for the college of the Holy Trinity, for the cities of Waterford and Limerick, and the other towns before-mentioned, should be put into a glass, and successively drawn out by the clerk of the crown; and that, of the two representatives of each of those places, the individual whose name should be first drawn, should serve for the same place in the first united legislature; and that, when a new parliament should be convoked, writs should be sent to the Irish counties, to the university, and to the cities and boroughs above specified, for the election of members in the usual mode, according to the number then adjusted. With reference to the peers, the act provided, that the primate of all Ireland should sit in the first session of the combined parliament, the archbishops of Dublin, Cashel, and Tuam, in the second, third, and fourth; that the bishops of Meath, Kildare, and Londonderry, should take the first turn; the prelates of Raphoe, Limerick, and Dromore, should next sit; those of Elphin. Down, and Waterford, should have the next turn; those of Leighlin, Cloyne, and Cork, should follow; then those of Killaloe, Kilmore, and

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Clogher; and lastly, those of Ossory, Killala, and Clonfert: that the same order should then recommence, and continue for ever; and that, for the election of the twenty-eight temporal peers, each of the Irish nobility should prepare a list of twenty-eight of his brethren, and those who should have a majority of votes in such lists should be peers of parliament for life.

The resolutions which had been sent back from England, were referred by the commons to a private committee: a report was soon presented and examined; and, when sir Lawrence Parsons had in vain moved for a consideration of the articles in a general committee, all the alterations were adopted by the commons, and afterwards by the peers.

The countervailing duties were then adjusted; the resolutions were formed into a bill; and lord Castlereagh, on the 21st of May, requested permission to produce it. Major Osborne, on this occasion, declared, that he would continue to oppose the Union as an unnecessary and pernicious measure: Mr. Holmes supported it, not only as salutary, but absolutely necessary for the security of Ireland. Mr. Ponsonby and Mr. Ogle again assailed it. Mr. Ball spoke warmly, and with some personal acrimony, against the bill and its supporters. Mr. Latouche, Mr. Martin, and dr. Browne, declared their conviction of the beneficial tendency of the measure; which, on the other hand, was severely reprobated by sir Lawrence Parsons and Mr. Goold. On a division, the motion for bringing in a bill for the Union of Great Britain and Ireland was carried by 160 against 100. The bill was immediately presented, read pro forma, and ordered to be printed. On the 26th, it was again read; and a motion for its commitment followed, which produced another warm though not very interesting debate. On the 26th of May, Mr. Grattan proposed a delay to the 1st of August, that it might be more fully examined, and that more correct documents might be procured, as foundations of the financial and commercial articles. He again discussed the principle of the measure. It was a breach of a solemn covenant, on whose basis the separate, reciprocal, and conjoint power of the countries relied; an innovation promoted by the influence of martial law; an unauthorized assumption of a competency to destroy the independence of the realm; an unjustifiable attempt to injure the prosperity of the country. The bill would be, quoad the constitution, equivalent to a murder, and, quoad the government, to a separation. If it should be carried into effect, he foretold its want of permanence, and intimated his apprehensions, that popular discontent, perhaps dangerous commotions, might result from its enforcement.

Lord Castlereagh defended the bill, and censured the inflammatory language of Mr. Grattan. He derided the patriotism of

those who took every occasion of ulcerating the public mind, already too much enflamed: he defied, however, their incentives to treason, and had no doubt of the energy of government in defending the constitution against every attack.

Sir John Parnell indignantly repelled the imputation of any traitorous spirit in the Anti-unionists, and retorted on those who wished to subvert the constitution on pretence of an Union. A very heated debate ensued, in which Mr. O'Donel, Mr. Plunket, and Mr. Burrowes spoke against the Union, and Mr. May defended it. Mr. Grattan replied with asperity to the insinuations of lord Castlereagh, who rejoined with more moderation than he formerly had done.

Mr. Grattan's motion was supported by 87 and negatived by After some further debating the countervailing duties were settled as they had been by the British parliament.

124.

On the 5th of June, the bill of Union passed through the committee with few remarks, and with little alteration. At the next meeting, lord Corry moved a long address to his majesty against the completion of the bill.* Mr. Saurin seconded the motion, and repeated his objections to the Union, which he contended had not been answered or refuted. The attorney general answered. Mr. Egan, Mr. J. C. Beresford, and Mr Goold warmly supported the address, which was negatived by a majority of 58; there being 77 for, and 135 against it. The report was ordered to be read. An amendment proposed by Mr. O'Donel excited a flame in the house, and was withdrawn. The same member, on the 7th of June, moved the third reading of the bill for the 2d of January, when a warm debate followed.

Many of the Anti-unionists retired from the house, that they might not witness the division by which the bill should be carri ed. When, on the 9th, an address of both houses to the king, in confirmation of the countervailing duties was proposed, Mr. Dawson, lord Maxwell, and some other Anti-unionists declared, that as soon as the bill should become a law, they would give it that support to which it would be entitled by such enactment, but which it did not deserve by its intrinsic merits.

The bill was carried up to the House of Peers by lord Castlereagh, but the consideration of it was postponed. On its second reading, the earls of Farnham and Bellamont offered some clauses, which were negatived, and the bill was committed. It passed the committee without amendment, was reported in due form, and, after an uninteresting debate, was read a third time on the

This address, which is generally attributed to the pen of Mr. Grattan, and was moved for by the Anti-unionists in nature of a protest to posterity, against the measure, is to be seen in the Appendix, No. CXX.

13th of June. A protest was entered by the duke of Leinster and the other dissenting peers.

No part of the plan now remained for the secretary to bring forward, but the scheme of compensation. This he plausibly ushered in upon a principle of justice: he proposed a grant of 1,260,000% for those who should suffer a loss of patronage, and be deprived of a source of wealth, by the disfranchisement of 84 boroughs at the rate of 15,000l. to each. Mr. Saurin, Mr. Claudius Beresford, and Mr. Dawson, maintained, that the grant of compensation to those who had no right to hold such a species of property, would be an insult to the public and an infringement of the constitution. Mr. Prendergast defended the proposition, alleging, that though such possessions might have been vicious in their origin, yet, from prescriptive usage, and from having been the subjects of contracts and family settlements, they could not be confiscated, without a breach of honour and propriety. In the House of Peers, this bill was chiefly opposed by the earl of Farnham; but it passed into law with little opposition in either house; the Anti-unionists having now given up the question as lost.f

Soon after the Union bill had passed through both houses of the Irish parliament, Mr. Pitt brought a bill in the same form into the British House of Commons. It proceeded through the usual stages, without occasioning any important debate; and was sent, on the 24th of June, to the peers. On the 30th, lord Grenville moved for its third reading, declaring, that he rose for that purpose with greater pleasure than he had ever felt before in making any proposition to their lordships. The marquis of Downshire merely said, that his opinion of the measure remained unaltered, and that he would therefore give the bill his decided negative. It passed without a division; and, on the 2d of July, it received the royal assent.

When a prorogation of the last separate parliament of Great Britain was ordered on the 29th of July, his majesty thus address ed the two houses on the subject of the grand work which had so laudably occupied their deliberations.

* 8 Lords' Journ. p. 463. The division was 41 against 14. The protest is to be seen in the Appendix, No. CXXI.

As so much heat and zeal attended this interesting contest throughout, it may be gratifying to the curious reader to see the list of those who voted on the opposite sides. A correct list is also given of the different writs, which issued in the last year of the Irish parliament, viz. in 1800, with a view o parliamentary arrangements in voting for the Union. (Vide Index to the Appendix of 19 Vol. of Com. Journ. Part II. and also a list of the Irish parliamentary annuitants.) All are to be seen in the Appendix, No. CXXII.

A copy of the act is to be seen in the Appendix, No. CXXIII.

"With peculiar satisfaction I congratulate you on the success "of the steps, which you have taken for effecting an entire Uni66 on between my kingdoms. This great measure, on which my "wishes have been long earnestly bent, I shall ever consider as "the happiest event of my reign.'

It was the opinion of one of the Grecian sages, that no man ought to be pronounced happy before his death, or before it could be ascertained, whether his happiness would be durable; and, in this point of view, the royal observation may be deemed premature, as the effect of the applauded scheme had not been tried for a moment; but we hope, and have reason to expect, that the remark will be fully verified.

*

The royal assent was given in Ireland to the Union bill on the 1st of August, the anniversary of the accession of the House of Brunswick to the thrones of these realms. The next day, the lord lieutenant put an end to the session, with an appropriate speech from the throne.*

* His lordship's speech was as follows:

"MY LORDS AND GENTLEMEN,

"THE whole business of this important session being at length "happy concluded, it is with the most sincere satisfaction, that I communicate to you by his majesty's express command, his warmest acknowledg"ments for that ardent zeal and unshaken perseverance, which you have so "conspicuously manifested in maturing and completing the great measure of a legislative Union between this kingdom and Great Britain.

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"The proofs you have given on this occasion of your uniform attachment to the real welfare of your country, inseparably connected with the security "and prosperity of the empire at large, not only entitle you to the full appro"bation of your sovereign, and to the applause of your fellow subjects, but "must afford you the surest claim to the gratitude of posterity.

"You will regret with his majesty, the reverse which his majesty's allies "have experienced on the Continent; but his majesty is persuaded, that the "firmness and public spirit of his subjects will enable him to persevere in that "line of conduct which will best provide for the honour, and the essential in"terests of his dominions, whose means and resources have now by your wis"dom been more closely and intimately combined.

"GENTLEMEN OF THE HOUSE OF COMMONS,

"I AM to thank you, in his majesty's name, for the liberal "supplies, which you have cheerfully granted for the various and important "branches of the public service in the present year.

"His majesty has also witnessed with pleasure, that wise liberality which "will enable him to make a just and equitable retribution to those bodies and "individuals, whose privileges and interests are affected by the Union, and he "has also seen with satisfaction that attention to the internal prosperity of this country, which has been so conspicuously testified by the encouragement you "have given to the improvement and extension of its inland navigation.

64

"MY LORDS AND GENTLEMEN,

"I HAVE the happiness to acquaint you, that the country in general has "in a great measure returned to its former state of tranquillity. If in some "districts, a spirit of plunder and disaffection still exists, those disorders, I

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