All these degrading and unconstitutional distinctions are not only created in the Irish peerage, but are to remain for ever without power of alteration, by a provision being made in the articles for a constant creation of peers for Ireland.

That the Irish peerage is to be kept for ever a distinct body from the British, though the project professes a union of the two kingdoms of Britain and Ireland, and attempts a union of the two parliaments, of which the peerage, a constituent part, stripped as it will be of all parliamentary function, perpetuates a distinction insulting and degrading to this kingdom, which our ministers, if they had solely in view, without any regard to influence, a lasting union of the parliaments, to which this continuance no way contributes, would have avoided by providing that the Irish peers when reduced to the proposed number of twenty-eight, should be declared peers of the united empire equally with the British, and thus would have dissolved all national distinctions between them for the time to

come.

But it is not in trade, revenue, and manufactures only, that distinct interests are declared to exist, nor in constitution alone that separate interests are to be created; the same distinction is to be preserved in the administration of justice, every difference of law, every variation of practice and of regulation which now prevails, is to be allowed to distinguish the civil and ecclesiastical courts, with this one exception only, that in the ultimate appeal every Irish suitor is to be again at the expence and hazard of going to Westminster, instead of having a court in Dublin to

resort to.

We enlarge the more on these several enumerations of separate interests, avowed or created by your majesty's ministers, because the many provisions they propose for their future regulation, are so many acknowledgments that no force of law can identify them so as to admit of their consolidation. Provisions all in themselves presumptuous and insufficient, inasmuch as it is not in the power of human wisdom to foresee the events of time, and provide now by a system declared immutable, for the varying changes which must naturally take place in the lapse of years.

Under the same conviction, though they profess a union of the two parliaments, they do not attempt out of them one with equal and common powers for both kingdoms; it is to be free in all its functions in respect to Britain, but shackled and bound up by restrictions as to Ireland.

In this they deprive your majesty's Irish subjects of a parliament such only as the British constitution acknowledges, free in its deliberations for every part of the empire it is to legislate for, such as we have a right to enjoy, equally unrestrained in its powers and unfettered in its proceedings as to the interests of this your majesty's kingdom; and such a one free and independent in all its functions, as we solemnly claimed to be our birthright in 1782, and as your majesty in your wisdom and justice did then graciously confirm to this kingdom for ever, but which claim and gracious confirmation your ministers now seek to take away from the kingdom for ever.

That having thus shewn to your majesty how very inefficient the project of your ministers is to answer even the purpose it avows, and how very ruinous its operation must be, if you shall not be graciously pleased to interfere, we feel it our further duty to expose fully to your majesty's view not only the artful delusions which those ministers have presumed to hold out of supposed advantages in commerce, in revenue, in taxes and in manufactures to deceive the people into an approbation of their scheme, but the corrupt and unconstitutional means which they have used, the undue manner in which they have employed the influence of the crown and the misrepresentations which they have, made of the sense of your majesty's people of Ireland on the

measure.

Were all the advantages, which without any foundation they have declared that this measure offers, to be its instant and immediate consequence, we do not hesitate to say expressly, that we could not harbour the thought of accepting them in exchange for our freedom for commerce, or our constitution for revenue; but the offers are mere impositions, and we state with the firmest confidence, that in commerce or trade their measure confers no one advantage, nor can it confer any, for by your majesty's gracious and paternal attention to this your ancient realm of Ireland, every restriction under which its commerce laboured has been removed during your majesty's auspicious reign, and we are now as free to trade to all the world as Britain is.

In manufactures any attempt it makes, to offer any benefit which we do not now enjoy, is vain and delusive, and wherever it is to have effect, that effect will be to our injury; most of the duties on import which operate as protections to our manufactures are under its provision either to be removed or reduced immediately, and those which will be reduced are to cease entirely at a limited time; though many of our manufactures owe their existence to the protection of those duties, and though it is not in the power of human wisdom to foresee any precise time, when they may be able to thrive without them. Your majesty's faithful commons feel more than an ordinary interest in laying this fact before you, because they have under your majesty's approbation raised up and nursed many of those manufactures, and by so doing have encouraged much capital to be vested in them, the proprietors of which are now to be left unprotected, and to be deprived of the parliament on whose faith they embarked themselves, their families and properties in the undertaking.

In revenue we shall not only lose the amount of the duties which are thus to be removed or lowered, and which the papers laid before us by the lord lieutenant shew to amount to the immediate annual sum of 50,000/. but we shall be deprived of nearly as much more by the annihilation of various export duties, which have subsisted for above a century on other articles of intercourse, without being felt or complained of by us; and this whole revenue of 50,0001. operating beneficially to our manufactures, and of near 50,000l. more which oppressed no manufacture, is to be wantonly given up without the desire or wish of either nation, at a time when our income is more than ever unequal to our expences, and when the difficulty of raising new taxes to supply its place, is alarmingly increased by our having been obliged in this very session, to impose new burthens to the estimated amount of 200,000l. a year, and we cannot but remark that in this arrangement, while we give up this revenue of near 100,000l. a year, Great Britain is to give up one not amounting quite to 40,000l. an inequality no way consonant with the impartiality or justice professed by your majesty's ministers, nor any wise consistent with the comparative abilities of the two countries to replace the loss.

But the imposition of your majesty's ministers is still more glaring, in their having presumed to fix a proportion of contribution towards the general future expences, to be observed by the two kingdoms in the ratio of one by Ireland, for every seven parts and a half by Britain.

If they had any plausible grounds, whereon they calculated this proportion, they have not deigned to lay them before your parliament, and the usual and established forms of committees to investigate into matters of such intricate and extended calculation have been superseded by them.

Your majesty's faithful commons are satisfied that the calculation is extremely erroneous, and that on a just and fair enquiry into the comparative means of each country, this kingdom ought not and is not able to contribute in any thing like the propor

tion.

They feel a duty too to protest most solemnly against any arrangement of taxation, to none of which they have had documents, or made any enquiry to guide their judgments, and in which they understand no consideration whatever has been had to the different legal interest of money in this kingdom, which causes a disadvantage of 201. per cent. in procuring capital, nor to the relative quantity of shipping possessed and used by each country, nor to the export trade in foreign articles, nor to the extens of manufacture for home consumption, nor to the balance of trade which shews the annual increase of its clear profit, and of course the annual increase of the fund, it creates to contribute from, in all of which the means of Britain very far exceed the foregoing proportion, and particularly in the balance of trade, which in Ireland amounts to little more than half a million with all the world, but it is stated by authority to have amounted to 14,800,000/. in Britain, exclusive of an annual influx of money from the East and West Indies to the amount of four millions to the proprietors resident in Britain, and of two millions from Ireland to the proprietors of Irish estates resident there, and of another million from Ireland for the charges of her debt due in Britain; whereas the only known or visible influx of money into Ireland is the above balance of trade of half a million only, and these two sums of two millions and one million, while they add to the wealth and means of Britain unfortunately take away in the same amount from the ability of Ireland.

Thus had a due investigation been made, and a fair enquiry gone into with a view to obtain a true knowledge of facts whereon to ground a just calculation, it would have appeared that this proportion for Ireland is not only unjust, but far beyond what it will be in her power to discharge; and the rasiness of your majesty's ministers in hazarding such a measure, is the more to be lamented or wondered at, because should Ireland engage to pay more than she is able to answer, the necessary consequence must be a rapid decrease of her capital, the decline of her trade, a failure in the produce of her taxes, and in the end her total bankruptcy; but under such circumstances she cannot be alone a bankrupt; and should she fatally become so by an injudicious or avaricious apportionment of constitution, Great Britain must share in her ruin, and our great and glorious empire be brought to the brink of destruction, by an innovating attempt to take from Ireland its constitution, and substitute a theoretic, visionary and untried system in its room.

We should therefore earnestly supplicate your majesty, to oblige your ministers to defer the measure, until a full and satisfactory investigation should be made, if we did not feel, that it ought to be entirely relinquished, and that the injuries and dangers attending on it, could not be removed by any change of that proportion, or reconciled by any modification of detail what

soever.

Subordinate however as the consideration of it is, we cannot omit remarking to your majesty, that there is cunningly and insidiously annexed to it a provision for its ceasing, even within

the short period of three years, should the war continue so long; and that when we shall increase our debt so, as that it shall bear the like proportion to the permanent debt of Britain, all the delusive benefit held out by this proportion is to cease, and we are to undergo common taxes with Britain.

We lament such delusion should be resorted to, it is too pal pable not to be seen, and instead of the confidence which ought to attend every arrangement between the kingdoms, such conduct must excite diffidence and distrust.

This proportion of their respective permanent debts is to be attained by increasing our debt, which we must do, and by Britain lessening her's, which she is in the actual course of reducing, as rapidly at least as that of Ireland increases; the absurdity therefore of the position is self evident, for it says, that Ire land by increasing her debt, and its annual charges, will become more wealthy and more able to bear equal taxes with Britain, but that Britain by decreasing her's will be less able to pay her contribution and can only pay equal taxes.

Another delusion (omitted however in the articles proposed,) has been also plausibly offered, still further to deceive your majesty's subjects of Ireland into an approbation of this destructive measure, and a promise has been authoritatively announced or artfully insinuated by your ministers in this kingdom, that Ireland is to save by it, or that Great Britain is to give her a million a year revenue in time of war, and have a million a year in time of peace.

But we know, that during a war like the present such a pro mise is impracticable, and both kingdoms must strain every nerve and draw forth every resource.

We seek not to load our sister kingdom unnecessarily by lessening our own burthen, and our loyalty forbids us to listen to arguments which offer to save our purse at the expense of Bri tain; but it is all a delusion, for we see nothing in the uniting the two parliaments which can change the course of the war, or lessen the total mass of expense of both nations; and we assert most confidently, that no gift can be made or saving ensue in our expenses by the Union, however they may be attempted to be encreased by the unfounded and unfair proportion ascertained for us to bear of the general expenditure; but were the offer founded, were it effectual and desirable, its advantages rest on the misfortunes of war, and we should feel ourselves unworthy of the trust reposed in us, if we could suffer a hope, arising from the continuation of such a dreadful calamity, to direct our conduct in any measure, much less in one which calls on us to give up our constitution for ever.