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sion, as to what were the real sentiments of the parliament and people of Ireland on the subject of Union. The noble lord had intimated that the time might come when the parliament and the country would be glad to solicit the measure, as the only means of effectually securing tranquillity. He hoped the noble lord did not mean to insinuate, that measures would be adopted to produce such effects in the country, as would create the neces sity of such a situation, in order that "what was spoken by the prophets might be fulfilled." He was not overfond of seeing a minister rule the country, who seemed to have a taste for verifying his own predictions as to the necessity he foretold.

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Several gentlemen, who did not oppose the adjournment, spoke for and against the Union.

The question being now put, was carried in the affirmative without further opposition.

Colonel Maxwell Barry said, he had no objection to the adjournment, but as from the declaration of the British minister, stratagem might be apprehended, gentlemen hostile to the project would see the necessity of the fullest attendance throughout the session; and he should therefore move a call of the house on the 8th of February.

Lord Castlereagh assured the honourable gentleman nothing could more satisfactorily accommodate the government than a full attendance of members at all times, as the best means of expediting the public business; and with respect to the question of Union, he had already declared his determination explicitly, "that he should never bring it forward so long as it appeared "to him repugnant to the sense of parliament and the country.

Colonel Maxwell Barry observed, the noble lord could not himself answer for what he might do, as he must act according to the instructions he received from the other side.

Mr. Martin wished the call of the house postponed to a further day, in order to give ample time for gentlemen to take the sense of their constituents.

Colonel Maxwell Barry amended his motion to the 11th of February, which was agreed to.

Sir H. Cavendish, after a short preface, in which he stated, that the house of parliament had been degraded by personal outrage and insult to several of its members, coming to and retiring from that house, in consequence of votes given in that house, moved three resolutions to the following effect:

"That any insult or assault offered to any member of parlia "ment coming or going from that house, in consequence of any thing said or done in parliament; or any attempt to intimidate "any member from any vote in that house; or any tumultuous assemblage of persons meeting in the passages to that house,

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to awe or intimidate its members, to or from any vote, or any "measure, is an high infringement on, the privileges of that "house."

Colonel Maxwell Barry declared for himself personally he had neither witnessed nor heard of any such insult or violence offered to any member. If the right honourable baronet alluded to the joy shewn by the people on a late occasion, he thought, considering the exultation universally felt, the conduct of the populace extremely calm and patient before and during the discussion, and extremely moderate in their expression of triumph on the defeat of the measure.

Doctor Browne agreed with Mr. Barrington, who said he had heard it asserted that day in the hall of the Four Courts, that the right honourable baronet had declared his determination to move for the removal of the parliament to Cork, in order to secure safety in its deliberations.

The attorney general said it was notorious that both the persons of members had been assaulted and abused by the most opprobrious names, their houses attacked by mobs, and themselves declared traitors to their country, for having voted in favour of Union; and that certainly such attempts to overawe the parliament would warrant its removal to Cork.

The Right Honourable Denis Browne, in proof of the daring insults, which had been offered to the dignity of that house, read a paragraph from the Dublin Evening Post, calling the minister of the country and those members who voted for an Union" a "corrupt minister and his corrupt phalanx." It was, he said, his intention to have called the printer to the bar, that night, and moved for his committal to Newgate, which he declared he would do the very next time he saw so daring and contumacious a libel in print. The house adjourned to the 7th of Feb

ruary.

Out of parliament, the viceroy with the strength of the castle, neglected no means which seemed likely to promote the grand object of their wishes; by which he gained over occasional proselytes. He was, however, on the other hand strongly opposed by many even of his former friends, and found the majority of the nation (however desirous of a continuance of connection) hostile to the scheme of Union.

Meetings, in the different counties, were encouraged by the Anti-unionists; and strong resolutions were adopted with few dissentient voices. The military commanders sometimes interfered, on pretence of preventing the intrusion and violence of the lower classes; and in more instances than one, some over-zealous subaltern officers (without authority) used menace and intimidation in order to deter free discussion at those meetings.

The freeholders of Fermanagh on the very day of the last sitting of parliament, added their voices to those of the other Anti-unionists; in the King's County and the shire of Limerick strong declarations were voted against an Union; and in the counties of Monaghan and Clare, the electors thanked and applauded the members who had opposed it. In February, the like course was pursued by the freeholders of Cavan, Tyrone, and other shires; but, in that of Galway, the archbishop of Tuam and other respectable individuals warmly declared in favour of Union; and, in the town of Galway, an address was voted by many of the inhabitants, maintaining the necessity of it in very concise and forcible language. "In the constitution "of the empire, as it at present stands, we discover the seeds "of party animosity and national jealousy. A Protestant parlia ment and a Catholic people! Hence religious dissension and "civil discord. Two legislatures in the same empire! Hence "local prejudices and commercial rivalry. By the settlement "of 1782, the Irish parliament acquired the right of indepen "dent legislation....a right equally unsafe to exercise or not to "exercise. To exercise it would have been to endanger the "unanimity, and thereby to hazard the division of the empire; "while, by declining to exercise this right, the Irish parliament "brought upon itself the imputation of abject submission to the "British legislature. This imputation begot contempt, that " contempt discontent, and that discontent rebellion. For this "radical defect in the polity of the empire, we can see but one "remedy; and that remedy is an Union."

In the commercial city of Cork, a great disunion prevailed; for, while many of the traders and other inhabitants were zealous for the ministerial scheme, a great number were hostile to it. Above 700 of the latter signed and published an address of thanks to the parliamentary Anti-unionists in general, and to the Earl of Charlemont and Mr. Foster in particular, which were answered by those two gentlemen.

While the public mind was in that state of agitation, the speech which Mr. Pitt delivered on the 23d of January, was circulated throughout the nation with more than ordinary industry, and some of that minister's remarks, as interpreted by the Antiunionists, increased the public ferment,

When the Irish House of Commons met on the 7th of Febru ary according to adjournment, there not being forty members in it, the speaker adjourned to the next day, when a complaint was made to the house of several paragraphs* that had appeared in

"18 Com. Journ. p. 17. took place in any of the

*"28th of January, 1799.

A more disorderly debate scarcely ever we believe assemblies of France since the beginning of the

the Sun, an English newspaper, generally considered to be under the immediate direction and control of the British minister. This therefore was considered by the Anti-unionists as a part of the scheme of the British.ministry to force the Union upon them, and they accordingly resolved, nem. con. that those English newspapers, in which the false, scandalous, and malicious libels were contained and published, should be burned by the hands of the common hangman, in College Green, and that the sheriffs of Dublin should attend to see the same done accordingly. Although the horrors of the late rebellion had now merged in the feelings and irritation created by the question of Union, still the old means of proclaiming different districts to be in a state of disturbance were resorted to: and it is not a little remarkable, that the first county proclaimed to be in that state, was that of Galway, on the 12th of February, in which county the earliest and most vigorous exertions had been made in favour of Union: whence many concluded, that the advocates for that measure, such as were the Earl of Clanricarde, and most of the nobility and gentry of that county, considered that it would be the more effectually carried, the more the people were subjected to *military rule and influence.

"revolution, than in the Irish House of Commons on the question respecting "the Union; the speeches of those who were in favour of the measure were "received with hisses and groans, and those who were adverse were cheered "with the plaudits and huzzas, not only of the members but of the galleries; "the tribunes of the French assemblies perhaps never interfered in a manner "more likely to influence the deliberation than the strangers upon this occasion "are said to have done; the most opprobrious language was held by some of "the opponents to the measure towards its supporters, and it is a fact that many "of the latter left the house, not chusing to remain in so tumultuous an assem "bly."

"29th January, 1799.

"We are well assured that more than ten or twelve members of the Irish "House of Commons who are favourable to the Union, left the house on the "night the address was debated, disgusted by the violent and licentious "conduct which the strangers in the galleries were allowed to pursue; the "most urgent entreaties were vain to induce them to stay; but had they staid "it is evident that the question would have been carried by a majority of more "than a dozen."

30th of January, 1799.

"We should have given much more weight to the decision of the Irish House "of Commons upon the subject of an Union, if the point had been coolly and "dispassionately argued there; but to a question carried as it has been, we "shall be excused if we say, that we cannot look upon it as the deliberative "opinion of that assembly or of the people at large.

The vote of the Irish House of Commons goes to say, that they will not " even entertain the question of an Union, they will not accept of any terms. Give "them all the advantages and privileges of British subjects, they reject them "with disdain: nay the very offer they call an insult. Is this the voice of rea"son? or is it the clamour of faction?"

• It appears from a paper presented by Lord Castlereagh to the House of Commons on the preceding day (11th February) of the estimate of the charge of the regiments serving in Ireland, and belonging to the British establishment,

Personal applications were made by Lord Cornwallis to such of the members of the Irish parliament, and persons of influence and power in the country, as prudence directed: and the amiable and respectable qualities of the viceroy certainly procured a great preponderance of interest in favour of the Union from persons, who probably would otherwise have opposed it.*

that they amounted to 23,201 men, viz. (18 Com. Journ. Appendix, No. XLIX.)

Numbers.

1048 Battalion of first foot guards, ten companies, (flank companies not included.)

2096 Ditto of Coldstream, and ditto of 3d foot guards, same rate.

712 First battalion of 1st (or Royal) regiment of foot.

2136 Three regiments more at same rate, viz 2d, 29th, and 92d, late 100th. 588 Second battalion of Breadalbane fencible infantry.

817 Bedford regiment of militia.

1159 Worcester ditto.

1169 North Gloucester ditto.

1634 Royal Bucks ditto.

1158 South Devon ditto.

1126 Dorset ditto.

1047 South Lincoln ditto.

1443 Leicester ditto.

1278 Kent ditto.

1275 Hertford ditto.

1358 West Suffolk ditto.

1280 First Lancashire ditto.

1877 Warwick ditto.

23201

The avowed sentiments of that great statesman, the Marquis of Lansdown, upon this subject, may well be presumed to have strongly affected many gentiemen less competent or likely to have formed their own opinions upon that important measure than the noble marquis. In his speech upon the Union, on the 19th of March, he thus expressed himself. (8 Parl. Reg. p. 285.) "I "hate the word competence. I hate the word rights. I would not be within an hundred miles of the discussion of either, if I could help it. I care nothing "for your majority of five in the House of Commons. I would rather adhere "to the opinion of one sensible, unbiassed man, than a majority of seventy "others, who are heated by a party debate, or the views of a faction. I do not "think that infnisters have much real knowledge upon the subject; it is pretty "clear they have not, from what has happened. I have no knowledge myself upon this point. I am no Dissenter; nor am I a Catholic. But for my own part, I should have great confidence in the judgment, as well as the conduct "of the present lord lieutenant. He is of no party. He is brave, and he is "wise; for he is cautious as well as intrepid. Let him pledge his honour to "the propriety of any measure, and I shall be much disposed to assent to it." On the other hand, as Lord Rokeby was applied to by letter, his answer to the lord lieutenant will not be uninteresting to the curious reader.

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Horton, near Hythe, Kent, 22d Jan. 1799.

MY LORD, "I HOLD myself highly honoured by the application ex"pressed to me in your lordship's letter of the 11th instant; and the more

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