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that ever existed happily subsiding. Inseparably united under the same executive power, which is equally a branch of the legislature of each kingdom, our Union is complete to every beneficial purpose, and the project in contemplation deserves not the name of Union. In my soul, I think it is fraught with possible consequences, certainly not foreseen by those who bring it forward, that will tend, if not to actual separation, to attempts at least to separate us from Great Britain, to our utter ruin and to the subversion of the British empire, now the most happy and glorious on the face of the earth.

I am, my Lord and Gentlemen,

With the utmost respect, gratitude, and veneration,
Your very obliged and obedient servant,

JOHN FOSTER.

Ordered, That said address and answer be published,

ALLEN and GREENE, Town Clerks.

No. CXVIII.

ADDRESSES OF ROMAN CATHOLICS UPON THE UNION....P. 235.

CITY OF WATERFORD.

AT a general meeting of the Roman Catholics of the city ofWaterford and its vicinity, held at the Great Chapel, on the 28th of June, 1799,

PETER ST. LEDGER, Esq. in the Chair,

The following five gentlemen were appointed a committee, to prepare a declaration on the measure of a legislative Union :

Rev. Dr. Thomas Hearn,

Edward Sheil, Esq.

Thomas Sherlock, Esq.
Jeremiah Ryan, Esq.

Thomas Hearn, Esq. M. D.

Resolved, That the following declaration be adopted.

THE measure of a legislative Union between Great Britain and Ireland having been recommended to the consideration of both of his parliaments by our most gracious sovereign, the common father of his people, we, his majesty's dutiful and loyal subjects the Catholics of the city of Waterford and its vicinity, have thought it incumbent on us to make this public avowal or our sentiments on the important and interesting occasion.

We are firmly convinced, that a complete and entire Union between Great Britain and Ireland, founded on equal and liberal principles and on a sense of mutual interests and affection, is a measure of wisdom and expediency for this kingdom, and will effectually promote the strength and prosperity of both; and we trust it will afford the surest means of allaying those unhappy distractions and removing those penal exclusions on the score of religion, which have too long prevailed in this country, and by consolidating the resources of both kingdoms oppose the most effectual resistance to the destructive projects of both foreign and domestic enemies.

Strongly impressed with these sentiments, we look forward with earnest anxiety to the moment when the two sister nations may be inseparably united in the full enjoyment of the blessings of a free constitution, in the support of the honour and dignity of his majesty's crown, and in the preservation and advancement of the welfare and prosperity of the whole British empire.

Resolved unanimously, That Lord Viscount Donoughmore, the sincere and attached friend of the Catholic interest, be requested to communicate these our sentiments most respectfully to his excellency the lord lieutenant.

Resolved unanimously, That the thanks of this meeting be given to Thomas Sherlock, Esq. for his public and spirited exertions in promoting this our declaration, and that he be requested to hand it to Lord Viscount Donoughmore.

MY LORD,

Signed, by order,

PETER ST. LEDGER, Chairman,

[Signed br 280 subscribers.]

Dublin Castle, 16th July, 1799.

I AM directed by my lord lieutenant to request your lordship will have the goodnesss to expresss to the Roman Catholics of Waterford, the satisfaction his excellency feels, from their declaration of the 28th of June, which they desired your lordship to lay before him, and which is so respectably signed.

The measure of a legislative Union upon just and liberal principles between this kingdom and Great Britain is near his excellency's heart; he is convinced, that nothing will so effec tually tend to bury the religious animosities in oblivion, which have unhappily prevailed in this kingdom, to conciliate the affections of all his majesty's subjects to the mild government under which they live, to encrease the happiness and prosperity

of Ireland, and to augment the power and stability of the Bri

tish empire.

I have the honour to be,

With the truest esteem and regard,

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THE Roman Catholics of the town of Wexford and its neighbourhood having requested of me, through Dr. Caulfield, to present a dutiful and loyal address from them to his excellency the lord lieutenant, I feel great satisfaction in complying with their desire, and from the signature I have every reliance on the sincerity of their professions; I therefore beg of you, to lay it before his excellency with my humble respects. I am, Dear Sir,

To Lieut. Col. Littlehales.

Your most obedient, humble servant,
ELY.

AT a meeting of the Roman Catholics of the town of Wexford and its vicinity, in the Chapel of Wexford, on Sunday the 22d of September, 1799,

Reverend Dr. Caulfield in the Chair.

To His Excellency Charles Marquis CORNWALLIS, Lord Lieu tenant General and General Governor of Ireland.

MAY IT PLEASE YOUR EXCELLENCY,

HOWEVER depraved or ungrateful some of our communion in this country may have been, when acting under that fatal impulse of temporary madness and delusion, which unfortunately prevailed in this kingdom last year, we humbly presume to approach your excellency with our unfeigned assurance of perpetual loyalty and decided attachment to the royal person, family, and government of our beloved and most gracious sovereign, whose paternal indulgence towards us we can never forget.

We recollect with abhorrence and detestation the late unnatural rebellion, and the crimes it produced; but entertain the consoling reflection that the generality of the Roman Catholics in this country, of respectability, consequence, or property, with some exceptions, and even many amongst those, who still labour

under the painful appearance of delinquency, were perfectly innocent....nevertheless we have to lament, that there were too many guilty.

The compulsive sway and irresistible predominancy of a wicked and armed conspiracy dragged many peaceable and loyal subjects from their home into the field, and forced them, however reluctant, to take or to seem to take a part, and to appear in arms under the criminal banner of rebellion, during that dreadful paroxysm of political phrenzy, which we earnestly pray and hope God in his mercy will never again permit to convulse and desolate this once prosperous and happy country.

Allow us likewise, my Lord to express our deep indelible sense of gratitude to our beloved monarch for his majesty's attention to the happiness of all his subjects in this kingdom, clearly evinced by the appointment of your excellency to the chief government thereof at a difficult and awful crisis, when the social band was broken asunder, and social order appeared shaken from its very foundation by the wildest anarchy, excited and fostered by the baneful operation of modern French revolutionary maxims, which threatened us with all the moral and political evils that have so long and so grievously afflicted that ill-fated country.

The presence of your excellency happily arrested the progress of this contagious malady, and the inflexible perseverance in the wise, humane, and decisive measures, which so eminently characterizes your excellency's administration, has overawed the conspirators, reclaimed the deluded rebel, protected the loyalist, and gradually introduced into the mind of even the most obdurate offender an anxious desire to submit to legal government, and to live in an uninterrupted state of eternal peace in the spirit of Christian Charity with his fellow subjects of every religious persuasion or denomination whatsoever.

As we look forward with an anxious interest to the most effectual means of establishing the internal peace and prosperity of this hitherto distracted country, upon a comprehensive and permanent basis, we consider it a duty we owe to ourselves and to our posterity, thus openly to declare, that we conceive these desirable objects can only be attained by the happy completion of the great and useful measure of a legislative Union between Great Britain and Ireland, which the common father of the people has in his wisdom recommended to the serious consideration of his parliament.

We are indeed firmly persuaded, that the proposed incorporation of both legislatures must give additional energy to the resources and vigour of the empire, by consolidating and identifying the common interests of the whole people, and that by the liberal efficiency of its operation, diffusing from the centre to the ex

tremities of the empire, all those blessings which naturally flow from the genuine principles of the British constitution, it will afford to every description of his majesty's subjects in Ireland perfect security in the full enjoyment of civil, political, and religious freedom.

Resolved, That the Right Honourable the Earl of Ely be humbly and respectfully requested to present this our address to his excellency the Marquis Cornwallis.

MY LORD,

[Signed by above 3000 persons.]

Dublin Castle, Nov. 6, 1799.

IN answer to the honour of your lordship's letter of yesterday's date, and its inclosure, I am directed by my lord lieutenant to request, that you will have the goodness to convey his excellency's sincere acknowledgments to the Roman Catholic inhabitants of the town of Wexford and other parishes in that county, for their address transmitted by your lordship.

His excellency desires me to state to your lordship, the satisfaction he receives from finding from the Roman Catholic inhabitants of the county of Wexford, so general a concurrence of sentiment in favour of a legislative Union with Great Britain, which measure he considers essentially necessary for the future prosperity and tranquillity of his majesty's loyal subjects in Ireland.

The Earl of Ely.

I have the honour to be,
My Lord, &c.

E. B. LITTLEehales.

To His Excellency Charles Marquis Cornwallis, Lord Lieu tenant General, and General Governor of Ireland.

The Address of the Roman Catholics of the city of Cork. MAY IT PLEASE YOUR EXCELLENCY,

WITH the most affectionate and unfeigned respect, we beg leave to congratulate your excellency on your arrival in this city, and to assure your excellency of the high sense we entertain of the wisdom, firmness, and benevolence of your government, which has so happily subdued a desperate rebellion, and restored this lately distracted country to peace and tranquillity.

Our most gracious sovereign lord the king, to whose illustrious house we are bound by every tie of loyalty and gratitude, having in his parental care recommended to his parliaments in both countries the consideration of an Union of the legislatures of

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