It is faid, we ought to wait for a moment of peace and general tranquillity. If by this is understood general internal tranquillity in Ireland, I am afraid, to judge of the future by the paft, the adjournment must be, as my Right Hon. Friend † described it, ad Græcas Kalendas. But are we to wait till the general peace of Europe fhall be restored? Alas! there feems at prefent no very near or distinct epoch discernible for that happy event. And in the mean time, our enemies, in directing their arts and their arms to their favourite object of wresting from us our fifter kingdom, are to enjoy the advantages accruing to them, both from the want of a true political confent of parts in the prefent complex and ill-constructed machine of our imperial legiflation, and from the cunning industry of their revolutionary allies in Ireland, who even now are endeavouring to obtain the co operation of some of the men who have hitherto been their moft determined foes, and the moft zealous friends of Great Britain, by working on their blind and unfounded jealoufy of the British Parliament, and entrapping those infatuated perfons into a conduct which, if not counteracted, may enable them to accomplith the fatal end of their deteftable confpiracies.

Was the Union in Scotland undertaken or carried into effect in a time of external or domeftic peace? Far otherwife. But then it is faid, that when it was negotiated and completed, the arms of Great Britain and her allies were triumphant. In answer to this, it need only be observed, that the treaty must be confidered as

*

+ Mr. Windham.

*The fuccefs of his Majefty's allies, fince the time when this was stated, has fortunately rendered the parallel more exact in that particular than it could then have been contended to be.

having been commenced and in progress from the very beginning of the reign of Queen Anne, and when affairs abroad wore a very gloomy aspect. As to thofe at home, they must have cast a very careless, or a very partial eye, on that period of our history, who do not perceive, in the circumstances of a difputed fucceffion, the yet recent concuffion of the Revolution, the numerous adherents of the exiled family in both kingdoms, the jarring interefts of the two countries, and the diffenfions between them on account of religion and commerce, a complication of political difficulties as great, though of a different nature, perhaps much greater, than any that exists at prefent.

In truth, though at first fight it appears reasonable to think that times of tranquillity are best adapted to the difcuffion and accomplishment of great political arrangements, this fpeculation, on clofer attention, does not seem to be warranted, either by the nature or hiftory of mankind. On the contrary, I believe it will be found, that men and nations are too indolent for great exertions,

enterprises of pith and moment,' while in the undif turbed enjoyment of quiet profperity; and that to all their most memorable efforts of that fort, they have been ftimulated by the urgency of perfonal or national calamity, or at least of private or public difficulties and embarraffment.

I admit that the idea of a legislative Union was long familiar in Scotland; but I deny that it now comes unawares, and by furprife, upon Ireland. I am, on the contrary, well perfuaded, that fuch a plan for that country must have been uniformly prefent to the minds (I will not say always in the intention) of every minister, every statesman,

statesman, every politician, every enlightened member of Parliament, every man, in short, in that kingdom, qualified and entitled to judge of fuch questions, for a space of time confiderably longer than what elapfed between the Union of the Crowns and that of the Parliaments of this country. I will endeavour to prove this to the fatisfaction of the House, by a deduction of clear, historical facts.

To fay nothing of the actual, though imperfect and illegal incorporation under the Ufurper, you know, Sir, that in the reign of Charles II. by a Report of the Council of Trade in Ireland to the Lord Lieutenant and Privy Council there, dated the 25th of March 1676, that Board exprefsly recommended, That endeavours fhould be used for the Union of the kingdoms under one legislative power, proportionably, as was heretofore done in the cafe of Wales.' I cite the very words of the Report, which is stated to have been drawn by Sir William Petty, and who, in his treatife called

The Political Anatomy of Ireland,' written, I believe, a few years before, had delivered his individual opinion to the fame purpose. If,' fays he, both kingdoms were under one legislative power and Parliament, the numbers whereof fhould be pro⚫portionable in power and wealth of each nation, there

would be no danger fuch a Parliament thould do any

thing to the prejudice of the English intereft in Ireland; nor could the Irish ever complain of partiality, when they shall be freely and proportionably repre• fented in all Legislatures *.?

* Petty's Political Anatomy of Ireland, p. 31.

In

In the year 1798, Mr. Molyneux, in that paffage of his famous pamphlet called The Cafe of Ireland,' which was mentioned by the first authority in this Houfe in the Committee on the Refolutions t, clearly points to a reprefentation of Ireland in a united Parliament as a most desirable arrangement for that country. His words are these:

If, from thefe laft-mentioned records, it be concluded that the Parliament of England may bind Iie• land, it must also be allowed that the people of Ireland ought to have their representatives in the Parliament of England. And this I believe we fhould be willing enough to embrace: but this is an happiness we can hardly hope for ‡.'

And here I cannot help noticing a very fingular fraud, or negative fort of forgery, committed in an edition of Molyneux's work, which was printed in Dublin in the year 1783. In that edition the words and this I believe we should be willing enough to embrace: but this is a happiness we can hardly hope for;' were totally omitted. This circumftance I first faw pointed out in a note to a very able pamphlet lately published, entitled, 'Reasons for adopting an Union between Great Britain ' and Ireland.' I have fince been favoured by the author of that pamphlet with a copy of the caftrated edition, the publisher of which could not have proved so strongly, in any other way, at once his own hoftility to the measure of a Union, and the sense he justly entertained of the

+ Vide Mr. Addington's Speech, p. 18.

London edition in 1770, p. 74. There is a preface to this edition, reported to have been written by the late Mr. Flood, with which it was republished in Dublin in 1773.

weight of fuch an opinion in its favour as that of Molyneux, the able and learned advocate of Irish independency.

But, Sir, in 1703, at the time when a fimilar meafure was fo particularly in the contemplation of the English Government with regard to Scotland, a legiflative Union was in a manner fued for, and sued for in vain, by the Parliament of Ireland. This appears fufficiently from the Journals of the two Houfes of that Parliament; but I have had an opportunity alfo of seeing the correspondence at that time of the Duke of Ormond, then Lord Lieutenant, and of his Chief Secretary Mr. Southwell, and the Lord Chancellor Cox, with the Government here, from which it is ftill more manifeft that many of the leading characters in the country, the Chancellor particularly, Mr. Brodrick the Speaker, and I think even the Secretary himself, were very defirous of the measure, but that the Lord Lieutenant was lukewarm, and the ministry in England totally averse to it.

That Parliament met on the 21ft of September, and on the ift of October the Lords voted an address to the Queen, which concluded with these words: As we are fenfible our preservation is owing to our being united to the Crown of England, fo we are convinced it would tend to our farther fecurity and happiness to have a more comprehenfive and entire Union with that kingdom*. I fhall fhow immediately the answer sent from England to this addrefs.

As it appears not to have been the intention of the Administration here to listen to fuch a fuggeftion for the

* Irish Lords' Journals, vol. ii. p. 8.