parliament from attending as anxiously to the concerns of this part of the empire, as to the concerns of the west of England, or the affairs of Scotland? It has also been asserted, that an union would have the effect of weakening the executive power in Ireland. Convinced as I am, that Ireland cannot exist without a strong executive power, and that the lives and properties of its loyal inhabitants cannot be otherwise secured, I could not argue in favour of the advantages which are promised by this measure, were it to be followed by such a consequence. But I am so confident of the opposite effect, that it is upon this very principle of giving new vigor to the executive power, and of giving additional security to the persons and properties of the inhabitants, that I embrace the measure. It is an union alone that can give us strength, by removing the cause of our weakness. It will take away from the executive power all those jealousies, which hang upon its motions and prevent its constitutional effects: it will preclude the plausible insinuation, that we are governed by the influence of a parliament in which we are not represented; that we are directed by the counsels of ministers who are irresponsible; that our interests are sacrificed to those of Great Britain; in short, it will remove all those constitutional awkwardnesses and anomalies which render all the exertions of the executive power suspected and inefficient, and, by rendering it unpopular, diminish and counteract its influence. There is another objection, which has been strongly urged and plausibly supported. It is this that our parliament has, from the circumstance of its being local, been able to make exertions for suppressing the rebellion, which an imperial parliament would not have attempted. I most cordially admit, that the Irish parliament has most materially assisted the government by arming it with those ample powers which have been employed to suppress the rebellion. But, if it was parliament that gave the powers, it was the cabinet that employed them. And I ask, by what constitutional scruples would an imperial parliament be prevented from giving the same powers in similar circumstances, or the ministers of the empire be arrested in the exercise of them? And is it agreeable to common sense, or truth, that the acts of the parliament of the empire would have less authority than the acts of only a part of the empire? It has also been said, that a local parliament alone could have traced and developed the conspiracy which produced the late rebellion. Here is a mistake in point of fact. It was not the local parliament, but the executive government which discovered the conspiracy. It was the government that detected the plans of the traitors; and it was upon the documents produced by the government that the accurate report of the secret committee was formed. The merits of the report in disclosing the information as a warning to the public, after the treason was detected and defeated, may be ascribed to the parliament; but the discovery of the conspiracy, and the suppression of the rebellion, arose from the energies of the executive government... Having now gone through the outline of the plan with as much conciseness as possible, I trust I have proved to every man who hears me, that the proposal is such an one as is at once honourable for Great Britain to offer, and for Ireland to accept. It is one which will entirely remove from the executive power those anomalies which are the perpetual sources of jealousy and discontent. It is one which will relieve the apprehensions of those who feared that Ireland was, in consequence of an union, to be burthened with the debt of Britain. It is one which, by establishing a fair principle of contribution, tends to release Ireland from an expence of one million in time of war, and of £500,000 in time of peace. It is one which increases the resources of our commerce, protects our manufactures, secures to us the British market, and encourages all the produce of our soil. It is one that, by uniting the ecclesiastical establishments, and consolidating the legislatures of the empire, puts an end to religious jealousy, and removes the possibility of separation. It is one that places the great question, which has so long agitated the country, upon the broad principles of imperial policy, and divests it of all its local difficulties. It is one that establishes such a representation of the country, as must lay asleep for ever the question of parliamentary reforms, which, combined with our religious divisions, has produced all our distractions and calamities. (History of the Union between Great Britain and Ireland, C. Coote, Lond., 1802. p. 339.) 207. Grattan Opposes the Union Grattan The projected union of Ireland with Great Britain provoked bitter hostility in the former country. The adherents of the measure were made the objects of scathing invective by the press and their parliamentary opponents. Of those who most strenuously fought the union, none stands higher than Henry Grattan, a portion of whose finest speech in opposition to the measure is given below. I have done with the pile which the minister batters — I come to the Babel which he builds — and, as he throws down without a principle, so does he construct without a foundation. This fabric he calls an union; and to this his fabric there are two striking objections. First, it is no union — it is not an identification of the people, for it excludes the catholics: 2dly, It is a consolidation of the legislatures; that is to say, it merges the Irish parliament, and incurs every objection to an union, without obtaining the only object which an union professes: it is an extinction of the constitution, and an exclusion of the people. I say, he excludes the catholics for ever, and for the very reason which he and his advocates hold out as the ground of expectation — that hereafter, in a course of time (he does not say when), if they behave themselves (he does not say how), they may see their case submitted to a course of discussion (he does not say with what result or determination); and, as the ground for the inane period, in which he promises nothing, in which he can promise nothing, and in which, if he did promise much, he would at so remote a period be able to perform nothing, unless he, like the evil he has accomplished, be immortal; — for this inate sentence, in which he can scarcely be said to deceive the catholic, or suffer the catholic to deceive himself, he exhibits no other ground than the physical inanity of the catholic body accomplished by an union, which, as it destroys the relative importance of Ireland, destroys also the relative proportion of its catholic inhabitants, who thus become admissible, because they cease to be any thing. Hence, according to him, their brilliant expectation; “you were," say his advocates, and so imports his argument, “before the union, as three to one - you will be by the union as one to four." Thus he founds their hopes of political power on the extinction of physical consequence, and makes the inanity of their body and the non-entity of their country the pillars of their future ambition. Let me add, that even if catholics should be admitted into parliament by the articles of union, it would be of little avail to the body. What signifies it to the body, whether a catholic individual be an insignificant unit in the English parliament or in the street; in either case he would be nothing - he would belong to nothing he would have nothing to which he could belong no country no Irish people no Irish nation. (History of the Union of the Kingdoms of Great Britain and Ireland, C. Coote, Lond., 1802. p. 322.) 208. Act of Union between Great Britain and Ireland Statutes of the Realm The union between Great Britain and Ireland was the result of fraud, trickery, and coercion, combined with good intentions and upright dealing. The union was not popular at its formation, nor has it ever become so. The ties existing between England and Ireland have from the earliest history of the two countries been of the nature of chains. The Irish antagonism to England has never faltered, though it has changed in nature and expression. Yet the union has been maintained for more than a century, and is not likely to become dissolved in the near future. UNION BETWEEN GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND (40 GRO. III, c. 67. July 2, 1800) AN ACT FOR THE UNION OF GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND (Preamble) That it be the first article of the Union of the kingdoms of Great Britain and Ireland, that the said kingdoms of Great Britain and Ireland shall, upon the first day of January which shall be in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and one, and for ever after, be united into one kingdom, by the name of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland; and that the royal style and titles appertaining to the imperial crown of the said united kingdom and its dependencies; and also the ensigns, armorial flags, and banners thereof, shall be such as his Majesty, by his royal proclamation under the great seal of the united kingdom, shall be pleased to appoint. ARTICLE II That it be the second article of Union, that the succession to the imperial crown of the said united kingdom, and of the dominions thereunto belonging, shall continue limited and settled in the same manner as the succession to the imperial crown of the said kingdoms of Great Britain and Ireland now stands limited and settled, according to the existing laws, and to the terms of Union between England and Scotland. ARTICLE III That it be the third article of Union, that the said united kingdom be represented in one and the same Parliament, to be styled The Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. ARTICLE IV That it be the fourth article of Union, that four Lords Spiritual of Ireland by rotations of sessions, and twenty-eight Lords Temporal of Ireland elected for life by the peers of Ireland, shall be the number to sit and vote on the part of Ireland in the House of Lords of the Parliament of the united kingdom; and one hundred commoners (two for each county of Ireland, two for the city of Dublin, two for the city of Cork, one for the university of Trinity College, and one for each of the thirty-one most considerable cities, towns, and boroughs) be the number to sit and vote on the part of Ireland in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the united kingdom: That such Act as shall be passed in the Parliament of Ireland previous to the Union, to regulate the mode by which the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, to serve in the Parliament of the united kingdom on the part of Ireland, shall be summoned and returned to the said Parliament, shall be considered as forming part of the treaty of Union, and shall be incorporated in the Act of the respective Parliaments by which the said Union shall be ratified and established: That all questions touching the rotation or election of Lords Spiritual or Temporal of Ireland to sit in the Parliament of the united kingdom, shall be decided by the House of Lords thereof; and whenever, by reason of an equality of votes in the election of any such Lords Temporal, a complete election shall not be made according to the true intent of this article, the names of those peers for whom such equality of votes shall be so given, shal! be written on pieces of paper of a similar form, and shall be put into a glass, by the Clerk of the Parliament at the table of the House of Lords whilst the House is sitting; and the peer or peers whose name or names shall be first drawn out by the Clerk of the Parliaments, shall be deemed the peer or peers elected, as the case may be: That any person holding any peerage of Ireland now subsisting, or hereafter to be created, shall not thereby be dis |