union, and has enacted union, every law flowing from that union is conflitutionally null, and even the theoretical independence of Ireland is illegal. But Ireland triumphantly accedcd to the British acts of repeal, and dates her freedom from them-parliament must therefore poffels complete competency-our prefent contitution draws its being from that very principle.

The writer will be fparing of quotationhad he merely wished to make a book he might have fwelled the page by applicable paffages from Tacitus down to Hume; he might have fcribbled French from Montefquieu, and been very profufe of law from Coke and from Blackflone; from the parterre of Burke, abundant in flowers! it were eafy to have culled fome rose with its recompanying thorn; and from his flashing adverfary Thomas Paine* a thorn without its rofe!-Quotation fometimes illuftrates happily enough-but it is a heavy auxiliary, and feems fitter for the main body than for the light detachments of an army-the page has therefore been incumbered as little as poffible with this fort of affiftance.

Thomas may be left to his own confcience; and it is to be hoped he will endeavour to difpel fome of its murky gloom by comforting, if he can, his former friend the unfortunate De la Fayette, that great and virtuous fufferer for his KING and for his COUNTRY!

The

The writer has mentioned Sparta, and Rome, and Britain, and Ireland; he cannot avoid obferving that the two firft did not poffefs true liberty— for where a great portion of the people are kept in actual fervitude, as was the cafe of the Spartan Helots and the Roman Slayes, there is no real and uncorrupted freedom; there may be a hard, a partial, and a state liberty, fupported by the profanation of individual right, but true liberty, where every man is equal in the law, was not in Sparta or in Rome. Britain is at this moment in poffeffion of as pure political liberty as a community can know ;* the defects of her system may be pointed out on paper, but in practice fhe has all the poffible perfection of a human inftitution, and by confequence fhe is individually more happy and collectively more powerful than any flate in the world; it will be here understood that the writer has a reference to her extent and population.

What a contraft when we turn our eyes to Ircland! her people divided-difcontented--now turbulent to phrenfy-now funk in the very floth of apathy and indolence!--partial rights-partial feelings!-a country-no country!--theoretically free-in reality dependent!-the pomp of ftate-the beggary of the land!-fociety unhinged, and man regarding with doubt and apprehenfion the motions of his neighbour-the

*This is ftrictly applicable to the prop of Bahrain-the writer laments the flavery of the negroes under her govera

ment.

lower

lower orders detefting the rich, and the rich breathing in fearful fufpicion of the lower orders! Religious bigotry unwifely roufed from its wholefome lethargy, and burfting into fanaticism!-Political bigotry nurfing the folly and widening the breach;-difcord-infecurity-plunder-murder!

Try conciliation"-agreed-but how?-not a partial, and therefore an unavailing conciliationPalliatives may mitigate, but they never radically cure-no-ftrike at the root of the difeafe-the reftoring conciliation must be "broad and general as the cafing air,”-it must embrace the whole, and be lafting as the land; uniting man with man, and ftate with ftate; and fecuring by the enlightened policy of that glorious Union the political and civil liberty, the fafety, the tranquillity, and the happiness of Ireland.

Popular clamour can neither establish or refute the political virtues of any meditated measure; if it could, the Union with Scotland would never have taken place, and the projected Union of Great Britain and Ireland would now have been in the "family vault of all the Capulets"-and if it had, both British connexion and legal liberty would foon have followed to the fame tomb!

Our unhappy fa&ions have diftracted this land; our religious diftinctions of Proteftant and Catholic have led to perfecution on the one part and to fanaticifm on the other.-Merciful God! that Chriftians, at the clofe of the eighteenth century, fhould forget the benignant fpirit of their Founder,

Founder, and deftroy the root because the branches are different!-We have heard much of the infidelity of Voltaire and of Hume, but fuch civil horrors, between fects of the fame religion, give deeper wounds to Chriftianity than all the fardonic fueers of the one, or the paradoxical reafoning of the other.

The gentlemen who filed themselves Patriots had for fome years rung fuch a peal in the public ear of corruption, reform, emancipation, &c. &c. that a portion of the people were brought to believe themselves very flaves, and to think that nothing would go well till his Majefty's minifters were turned out and the patriots turned in-How weak fighted is man! While this faction was labouring and abufing, not to deftroy the government but to remove the minifters, it gave birth to another faction of a much more dangerous naturethe Catholic faction-this faction combined for emancipation, one of the cant words of the patriots, and for a while each countenanced the other, and went on, in their way, well enough: but the patriots, though full of fire, and eager to take the Treasury Bench by ftorm, were yet true to the British connexion, for under it they expected to flourish, and would at any time loudly join in the refolution to ftand or fall with that country. The Catholics did not entirely relish this fort of conduct-they grew impatient, and, aided by a few hot-headed perfons of no religion at all, they treated with the French Republic, in hopes, with the affiftance of that unde

figning

figuing and innocent government utterly to root from the land the British Oak, and fix in its place that democratic plant of Gallic growth, "whole tafle is death, and whole fruit is not the fruit of knowledge."

What followed this leading ftep to French fraternity? an organized treafon; then, but of numbers too weak to fecure the ftate, a noble loyalty; then, open rebellion; then, British protection,-the fubjugation of the French, and the crush of faction.

How did the patriots act during this awful period? did they with virtuous indignation throw afide their petit querre of political oppofition, and affift the government to maintain the peace of the country did they ftart forward with the energy of true patriotifm, and enrol themfelves in the yeomanry corps to repel the invafion of a foreign enemy?-no-fome kept aloof from the affembled fenate, and by a fulky filence abetted the views of faction-others faid-" may the kingly power live for ever;"-" may the parliamentary conftitution profper,"- may the con

nexion with Great Britain continue" and " may the liberties of the people be immortal." They poke to this purpofe, and--withdrew-they abandoned the veffe! of the ftate at the moment of her danger, and at leaft encouraged the ftorm by not lending a heart and hand to counteract its effes-they became obnoxious to Solon's celebiared law, for their neutrality was criminal.

Is there in the circle of the land a man who with an unblefaing front can contradict this ftate

ment?