English art and fkill, to cheaper and more eligible places in Scotland, Wales, and even Ireland, have rarely been fuccessful, or perfevered in; and it is no inconfiderable illuftration and proof of this position, that, even with regard to external trade, which is certainly more locomotive than manufactures, those towns and ports where accident at firft, and a long feries of caufes afterwards, have operated to establish it, are seldom or rivalled, or their commerce drawn off, by any exertions however powerful in favour of fituations better adapted by nature for carrying it on. ever out Gradually, however, after a Union, Ireland will undoubtedly attract much wealth, capital, and credit from this country, not only by the circumftances of advantage to which I have alluded, but alfo, more especially, because an uniformity of laws and legislature will give greater confidence to thofe who may be difpofed to embark in enterprises of speculation, or place their money on commercial or landed fecurities in that kingdom. This, one fhould think, would be a ftrong and reasonable argument with Ireland (of which afterwards); but fuch gradual benefit to be reaped by her, will not affect the interefts of individuals now engaged in bufinefs here, and will unqueftionably, from the known principles and history of public wealth, tend in its progrefs, by multiplying intercourse, and the returns of profit in and between both countries, to increase the riches of both, and of the whole empire. Let us now give a moment's confideration to the effects of the proposed Union on that empire, as an aggre gate gate of which, Great Britain and Ireland form the two chief and preponderating members. And here, Sir, it will be enough just to obferve, what no man, I think, can deny, that in all cafes where it is. practicable, one general, fuperintending, and controlling legiflature, is the best fitted for the fteady, confiftent, and rational government of all the parts of that combination of individuals and territories which conftitutes what is denominated a ftate. To endeavour to enforce this pofition by a long train of argument, indifputable as I conceive it to be, would be an unwarrantable wafte of time and words. It has indeed been faid, in anfwer to thofe who have pointed out the obvious inconvenience which might arise from a difference of opinion on any great imperial queftion, as of peace and war, between two diftinct Parliaments, that equal inconvenience would follow from a difference of a like fort between the feveral branches of the fame Parlia ment; but that such differences, though they may be fuggefted by theory, have not been found to happen in practiceb. I muft beg leave to fay that they certainly fometimes have happened, both between the two Houses, and between thofe Houses and the Sovereign, in the British Parliament, and with the hazard, at leaft, of confiderable detriment to the ftate. But there are material diftinctions between the two cafes which have been thus brought into comparison. The identity of intereft between the feveral branches of the legislative and executive government of the fame country is much more dire&t and fenfible, and therefore, on difcuffion, much less apt to be mistaken by either, Mr. Fofter's Speech, p. 54, 55. than what exifts between two kingdoms, though forming parts of the fame empire. Befides, there is a facility of difcuffion and explanation, by conference, address, remonftrance, &c. between the refpe&ive branches of the fame Parliament, which cannot take place between two diftinct Legislatures. It is also faid, that the checks which the proceedings of the three branches of the fame Parliament produce, furnish a principle to which our conftitution owes its stability, and that fimilar checks exift between the two fifter Parliaments. No doubt this is true to a certain extent; but it would be easy to fhew, that in the cafe of the two Parliaments fuch checks exift in a very imperfect degree, without any foundation in their formal and legal constitutions, and with little more force or efficacy, than those which prevail in the relations of different ftates, having common interefts, but no link or connexion in their governments. Such checks between the different nations of our part of the globe contributed for a time to maintain what used to be called the balance of Europe; but although those of a more fubftantial and operative kind, in concurrence with other causes, have to this day preferved, and, I truft, if perpetuity can belong to human inftitutions, will ever preserve our frame of government, the other and inferior fort has not been found of equal power in giving permanency to that balance. b Mr. Fofter's Speech, p. 55. • This is not incónfistent with what is afterwards faid of the jurisdiction the British Parliament may exercise over the executive minifters who advife the King in affenting to, or rejecting Irish bills. That jurifdiction is without power to stop such affent or rejection; and, therefore, forms no immediate or abfolute check, though it may afterwards punish those who have advised the Crown to give or refuse its affent: I admit I admit that circumftances of diftance (there may be others) are sometimes fuch as to render fo defirable an object as one common imperial legislature impracticable. Such I take to have been the cafe with regard to our colonies in North America. I believe all fober men of all parties, both here and on that continent, would have agreed, that, could it have been done, the admiffion into the British Parliament of an adequate number of representatives from thence, would have been the happieft method of reconciling the difputes and removing the difficulties which terminated in a civil war, and the feparation of that country from the empire. Dr. Adam Smith, and many others, recommended the experiment. The immenfe diftance, and the uncertainty of regular, periodical, frequent, and early communication between American reprefentatives in Great Britain and their conftituents in America, feem to me to have oppofed infurmountable obftacles to fuch a plan. But that no valid objection of a like nature exifts in the cafe of Ireland, is, I think, abundantly manifeft. Some gentlemen, indeed, of that country have expreffed, in very ftrong language, their ideas of the inconvenience which would attend what they quaintly term a tranfmarine Parliament; and one learned barrifter, at the celebrated meeting of the profeffion which took place early in Dublin, is stated to have pronounced, That a British Minifter fhall not, C and cannot, plant another Sicily in the bofom of the Atlantic, and that God and nature never intended that Ire< land fhould be a provinced." If by this is meant, that the intervening channel is, in the nature of things, an infuperable difficulty in the way Debates of the Irish Bar, 9th December 1798, p. 47. fuch regulations may affect the commercial and political interefts of Ireland ? On the admiffion of her reprefentatives among those of this ifland, fhe will immediately acquire her proportionate fhare in all those great concerns; a voice in the legislative government of Great Britain, and of every part of the British dominions. This is not all; Ireland will not only have this fhare of general legiflation, through the influence and fuffrages of her own immediate representatives; fhe will also be reprefented and entitled to speak through the influence and fuffrages of every one of the 513 members chofen in this ifland. This was ably pointed out in a former debate, by a Gentleman who, on that occafion, difcovered the most enlarged and liberal views of general policy, united to the foundest speculative as well as practical knowledge of commerce and manufactureb. And here we may perceive the grofs fallacy of the idea which so often mixes itself in thefe debates, and has, as we have seen, been founded on the argument of incompetency; viz. that the concerns of Ireland will be folely and exclufively attended to, and this too on a principle of oppofition and hoftility, by the fmaller number of members which she will have to choose. It will, on the contrary, be then the duty, and on all great points will, I am fatisfi-` ed, be the defire and the true intereft of those elected here, to give their due weight to the interefts, general or local, of Ireland, in their deliberations and in their votes; and in other cafes I am apt to believe, what refpects Ireland will be wholly left to the decision of the Irish mem b Mr. Peele. bers |