Chapter V (2)

Mr. Hallam, in one of the last chapters of his work,[138] while showing by unanswerable arguments the advantages which Scotland has derived from her Union with England, has also enumerated some of the causes which impeded the minister of the day in his endeavors to render it acceptable to the Scotch members to whom it was proposed. The most apparently substantial of these was the unprecedented character of the measure. No past "experience of history was favorable to the absorption of a lesser state, at least where the government partook so much of the republican form, in one of superior power and ancient rivalry." But, in the case of the present measure, what had thus been a difficulty in the Scotch Union might have been expected to be regarded as an argument in its favor, since the keenest patriots among the Scotch had long been convinced that the Union had brought a vast increase of prosperity and importance to their country, and what was now confessed to have proved advantageous to Scotland might naturally be expected to be equally beneficial to Ireland. Another obstacle had been the fear of the danger to which the Presbyterian Church might be "exposed, when brought thus within the power of a Legislature so frequently influenced by one which held her, not as a sister, but rather a bastard usurper to a sister's inheritance." But here again experience might give her testimony in favor of an Irish Union, since it was incontestable that those apprehensions--which, no doubt, many earnest Scotchmen had sincerely entertained--had not been realized, but that since the Union the Presbyterian Church had enjoyed as great security, as complete independence, and as absolute an authority over its members as in the preceding century; that the Parliament had never attempted the slightest interference with its exercise of its privileges, and that the Church of England had been equally free from the exhibition of any desire to stimulate the Parliament to such action; while the Roman Catholic Church, which had many more adherents in England than the Presbyterian Church had ever had, was quite powerful enough to exact for itself the maintenance of its rights, and the minister was quite willing to grant equal securities to those which, at the beginning of the century, had been thought sufficient for the Church of Scotland. A third reason which our great historical critic puts forward for the disfavor with which the Union was at the time regarded by many high-minded Scotchmen, he finds in "the gross prostitution with which a majority sold themselves to the surrender of their own legislative existence." That similar means were to some extent employed to win over opponents of the government in Ireland cannot, it must be confessed, be denied, though the temptations held out to converts oftener took the shape of titles, promotions, appointments, and court favors than of actual money. The most recent historian of this period--who, to say the least, is not biassed in favor of either the English or Irish government of the period--pronounces as his opinion, formed after the most careful research, that the bribery was on the other side. "Cornwallis and Castlereagh" (the Lord-lieutenant and the Chief Secretary) "both declared it to be within their knowledge that the Opposition offered four thousand pounds, ready money, for a vote. But they name only one man who was purchased, and his vote was obtained for four thousand pounds. From the language of Lord Cornwallis, it is certain that if money was spent by the government in this way it was without his knowledge; but many things may have been done by the inferior agents of the government, and possibly by Castlereagh himself, which they would not venture to lay before the Lord-lieutenant. It appears, however, from the papers which have recently come to light, that the prevalent belief of the Union having been mainly effected by a lavish expenditure of money is not well-founded; still it is certain that some money was expended in this way." Besides actual payment for votes, he adds that a very large sum--a hundred thousand pounds--is said to have been expended in the purchase of seats, the holders of which were, of course, to vote against the measure; and names Lord Downshire as subscribing £5000, Lord Lismore and Mr. White £3000 each, while the government funds were chiefly expended "in engaging[139] young barristers of the Four Courts to write for the Union." But, even if it were true that corruption was employed to the very utmost extent that was ever alleged by the most vehement opponent of the measure and of the government, it may be feared that very few of the last century Irishmen would have been so shocked at it as to consider that fact an objection to the Union, especially, it is sad and shameful to say, among the upper classes. The poorer classes, those who could render no political service to a minister, as being consequently beneath official notice, were unassailed by his temptations; but the demoralization of the men of rank and property was almost universal, and few seats were disposed of, few votes were given, except in return for favors granted, or out of discontent at favors refused. And it cannot be denied that the tendency to political jobbery had not been diminished by the concessions of 1782, if, indeed, it may not be said that the increased importance which those concessions had given to the Irish Parliament had led the members of both Houses to place an increased value on their services. Certainly no previous Lord-lieutenant had given such descriptions of the universality of the demands made on him as were forwarded to the English government by those who held that office in the sixteen years preceding the outbreak of the Rebellion.

It is remarkable that the transaction which, as has been said before, may be conceived to have first forced on Pitt's mind the conviction of the absolute necessity of the Union--namely, the course pursued by the Irish Parliament on the Regency Bill--bore a close resemblance to that which, above all other considerations, had made the Scotch Union indispensable, namely, the Act of Security passed by the Scottish Estates in 1703, which actually provided that, on the decease of Queen Anne without issue, the Estates "should name her successor, but should be debarred from choosing the admitted successor to the crown of England, unless such forms of government were settled as should fully secure the religion, freedom, and trade of the Scottish nation."[140] The Scotch Estates, therefore, had absolutely regarded the possible separation of the two kingdoms as a contingency which might become not undesirable; and, though it was too ticklish an argument to bring forward, it may very possibly have occurred to Pitt that a similar vote of the Irish Parliament was not impossible. The claim which Grattan, following Fox, had set up on behalf of the Prince of Wales, was one of an indefeasible right to the Regency; and, as far as right by inheritance went, his claim to the crown, if, or whenever, a vacancy should occur, was far less disputable. But, as has been mentioned in the last chapter, a question had already been raised whether his Royal Highness had not forfeited his right to the succession, and it was quite possible that that question might be renewed. The fact of the Prince's marriage to a Roman Catholic was by this time generally accepted as certain; the birth of the Princess Charlotte gave greater importance to the circumstance than it seemed to have while the Prince remained childless; and, if the performance of the marriage ceremony should be legally proved, and the English law courts should pronounce that the legal invalidity of the marriage did not protect the Prince from the penalty of forfeiture, it was highly probable that the Irish Parliament would take a different view--would refuse, in spite of the Bill of Rights, to regard marriage with a Roman Catholic as a disqualification, but would recognize the Prince of Wales as King of Ireland.

Several minor considerations, such as the desirableness of uniformity in the proceedings of the two countries with respect to Money Bills, the Mutiny Act, and other arrangements of parliamentary detail, all pointed the same way; and, on the whole, it may be said that scarcely any of the opponents of the government measure were found to deny its expediency, especially as regarded the interests of Great Britain. The objections which were made were urged on different grounds. In the Irish House of Commons, a member who, though a young man, had already established a very high reputation for professional skill as a barrister, for eloquence equally suited to the Bar and to the Senate, and for sincere and incorruptible patriotism, Mr. Plunkett, took upon himself to deny the competency of the Irish Parliament to pass a bill not only to extinguish its own existence, but to prevent the birth of any future Parliament, and to declare that the act, if it "should be passed," would be a mere nullity, and that no man in "Ireland would be bound to obey it." And, in the English House of Commons, Mr. Grey may be thought to have adopted something of the same view, when he proposed an amendment "to suspend all proceedings on the subject till the sentiments of the people of Ireland respecting that measure could be ascertained." He did not, of course, deny (he was speaking on the 21st of April, 1800) that the bill had been passed by both Houses of the Irish Parliament by considerable majorities.[141] But he contended that that Parliament did not speak the sentiments of the people; and, that being the case, that its voice was of no authority. It is evident that all arguments founded on a denial of the omnipotence of a Parliament, whether English or Irish, are invalid. The question of that omnipotence, as has been seen in a former chapter, had been fully discussed when Mr. Pitt's father denied the power of Parliament to tax the American Colonies; and that question may fairly be regarded as having been settled at that time. It is equally clear that the denial that, on any question whatever, the House of Commons must be taken to speak the sentiments of the constituencies, whether the proposal of such question had been contemplated at the time of their election or not, is the advancement of a doctrine wholly inconsistent with our parliamentary constitution, and one which would practically be the parent of endless agitation and mischief. To expect that the members could pronounce on no new question without a fresh reference to their constituents, would be to reduce them from the position of representatives to that of delegates; such as that of the members of the old States-general, in France, whose early decay is attributed by the ablest political writers in no small degree to the dependence of the members on their constituents for precise instructions. Another argument on which Mr. Grey insisted with great earnestness is worth preserving, though subsequent inventions have destroyed its force; he contended that the example of the Scotch Union did not, when properly considered, afford any argument in favor of an Irish Union, from the difference of situation of the two countries. Scotland was a part of the same island as England; "there was no physical impediment to rapid and constant communication; the relative situation of the two countries was such that the King himself could administer the executive government in both, and there was no occasion for a separate establishment being kept up in each." But the sea lay between England and Ireland, and the delays and sometimes difficulties which were thus interposed rendered it "necessary that Ireland should have a separate government;" and he affirmed that "this was an insuperable bar to a beneficial Union," quoting a saying of Lord Somers, that "if it were necessary to preserve a separate executive government at Edinburgh after the Union, he would abandon the measure." Mr. Grey even denied that the prosperity of Scotland since the Union was mainly attributable to that measure. "It was not the Union; it was the adoption of a liberal policy, the application of a proper remedy to the particular evils under which the country labored, that removed the causes which had impeded the prosperity of Scotland." But this argument was clearly open to the reply that the adoption of that liberal policy had been a direct effect of the Union, and would have been impracticable without it, and was, therefore, a strong inducement to the adoption of a similar Union with Ireland, where the existing evils were at least as great as those which, a century before, had kept down Scotland. Another of his arguments has been remarkably falsified by the event. With a boldness in putting forward what was manifestly, indeed avowedly, a party objection, and which, as such, must be looked upon as somewhat singular, he found a reason for resisting the addition of a hundred Irish members to the British House of Commons in the probability that they would, as a general rule, be subservient to the minister. He instanced "the uniform support which the members for Scotland had given to every act of ministers," and saw in that example "reason to apprehend that the Irish members would become a no less regular band of ministerial adherents." It would be superfluous to point out how entirely contrary the result has been to the prediction.

It is, however, beside the purpose of this work to dwell on the arguments by which the minister supported his proposal, or on those with which the Opposition resisted it, whether apparently founded on practical considerations, such as those brought forward by Mr. Grey, or those of a more sentimental character, which rested on the loss of national "dignity and honor," which, it was assumed, would be the consequence of the measure. It seems desirable rather to explain the principal conditions on which the Union was to be effected, as Pitt explained it to the House of Commons in April, 1800. In the preceding year he had confined himself to moving a series of resolutions in favor of the principle, which, though they were adopted by both Houses in England, he did not at that time endeavor to carry farther, since in the Irish House of Commons the utmost exertions of the government could only prevail by a single vote;[142] and he naturally thought such a majority far too slender to justify his relying on it so far as to proceed farther with a measure of such vast importance. But, during the recess, he had introduced some modifications into his original draft of the measure, which, though slight, were sufficient to conciliate much additional support; and the consequence was, that in February of this year both the Irish Houses accepted it by sufficient majorities;[143] and, therefore, he now felt able to lay the details of the measure before the English Parliament. To take them in the order in which he enumerated them, that which had appeared to the Irish Parliament "the first and most important, was the share which the Irish constituencies ought to have in the representation of the House of Commons." On this point, "the Parliament of Ireland was of opinion that the number of representatives for Ireland ought to be one hundred." And he was not disposed to differ from the conclusion to which it had come. He regarded it, indeed, as "a matter of but small importance whether the number of representatives from one part of the united empire were greater or less. If they were enough to make known the local wants, to state the interests and convey the sentiments of the part of the empire they represented, it would produce that degree of general security which would be wanting in any vain attempt to obtain that degree of theoretical perfection about which in modern times they had heard so much." He approved of "the principle which had been laid down upon this part of the subject in the Parliament of Ireland--a reference to the supposed population of the two countries, and to the proposed rate of contribution. The proportion of contribution proposed to be established was seven and a half for Great Britain, and one for Ireland; while in the proportion of population Great Britain was to Ireland as two and a half or three to one;[144] so that the result, on a combination of these two calculations, would be something more than five to one in favor of Great Britain, which was about the proportion which it was proposed to establish between the representation of the two countries." The principle of selection of the constituencies which had been adopted he likewise considered most "equitable and satisfactory for Ireland. The plan proposed was, that the members of the counties and the principal commercial cities should remain entire.... The remaining members were to be selected from those places which were the most considerable in point of population and wealth.... This was the only plan which could be adopted without trenching on the constitution; it introduced no theoretical reforms in the constitution or in the representation of this country; it made no distinction between different parliamentary rights, nor any alteration, even the slightest, in the internal forms of Parliament."

Another consideration which he had kept in mind in framing this measure was this: "By the laws of England care had been taken to prevent the influence of the crown from becoming too great by too many offices being held by members of Parliament." And Pitt had no doubt that there would be a general feeling "that some provision ought to be made on this subject" in the arrangements for the new Parliament. At present, among the representatives of the counties and great commercial towns, whose seats were to be preserved in the new united Parliament, there were not above five or six who held offices; and, though it was impossible to estimate the possible number of place-holders with precision, he thought what would he most fair for him to propose would be, that "no more than twenty of the Irish members should hold places, and that if it should happen that a greater number did hold places during pleasure, then those who had last accepted them should vacate their seats."

In the House of Peers he proposed that twenty-eight lords temporal of Ireland should have seats in the united Parliament, who should be elected for life by the Peers of Ireland--an arrangement which differed from that which, at the beginning of the century, had been adopted for the representative Peers of Scotland; but he argued, and surely with great reason, that "the choice of Peers to represent the Irish nobility for life was a mode that was more congenial to the general spirit and system of a Peerage than that of their being septennially elected, as the nobility of Scotland were." Of the spiritual Peers, four were to sit in rotation; to the lay Peers a farther privilege was given, which the minister regarded as of considerable, and even constitutional importance. By the articles of the Scotch Union, a Peer, if not chosen as a representative of the Peerage, was not eligible as a candidate for the House of Commons in either England or Scotland. But this bill "reserved a right to the Peers of Ireland who should not be elected to represent their own Peerage, to be elected members of the House of Commons of the united Parliament of Great Britain;" and Pitt urged that this was "a far better mode of treatment than had been adopted for the nobility of Scotland; so that a nobleman of Ireland, if not representing his own order, might be chosen as a legislator by a class of inferior rank, which he was so far from regarding as improper, that he deemed it in a high degree advantageous to the empire, analogous to the practice as well as friendly to the spirit of the British constitution." And he enforced his argument by pointing out with honest pride the advantage which in that respect the spirit and practice of our constitution gave to our nobility over the nobles of other countries. "We know full well," he continued, "the advantage we have experienced from having in this House those who, in the course of descent, as well as in hopes of merit, have had a prospect of sitting in our House of Peers. Those, therefore, who object to this part of the arrangement" (for, as he had previously mentioned, it had been made a subject not only of objection, but of ridicule) "can only do so from the want of due attention to the true character of our constitution, one of the great leading advantages of which is, that a person may for a long time be a member of one branch of the Legislature, and have it in view to become a member of another branch of it. This it is which constitutes the leading difference between the nobility of Great Britain and those of other countries. With us they are permitted to have legislative power before they arrive at their higher stations; and as they are, like all the rest of mankind, to be improved by experience in the science of legislation as well as in every other science, our constitution affords them that opportunity by their being eligible to seats in this House from the time of their majority. This is one of those circumstances which arise frequently in practice, but the advantages of which do not appear in theory till chance happens to cast them before us, and makes them subjects of discussion. These are the shades of the British constitution in which its latent beauties consist;" and he affirmed his conviction that this privilege would prove "an advantage to the nobility of Ireland, and an improvement in the system of representation in the House."

It will hardly be denied that the arrangement that the representative Peers of Ireland should enjoy their seats for life did make it desirable that those who were not so elected to the Upper House should be eligible as candidates for a place in the Lower House. Otherwise, those who were not chosen as representatives of the peerage would have been placed in the anomalous and unfair position of being the only persons in the kingdom possessed of the requisite property qualification, and not disqualified by sex or profession, who were absolutely excluded from the opportunity of distinguishing themselves and serving their country in Parliament. How great the practical benefit to the House of Commons and the country the clause he was recommending was calculated to confer, was shown in a remarkable manner the very year of his death, when an Irish Peer was returned to the House of Commons, who, retaining his seat for nearly sixty years as the representative of different constituencies, the University of Cambridge being among the number, during the course of that period rose through a variety of offices to that of Prime-minister, and, as is admitted even by those who dissented most widely from some of his opinions and actions, earned for himself an honorable reputation, as one who had rendered faithful services to the crown, and on more than one occasion had conferred substantial benefits on the country.

The arrangements proposed with respect to the Peers were not opposed. But Mr. Grey--generally acting as the spokesman of the Opposition on this question--raised an objection to making so large an addition as that of one hundred new members to the British House of Commons. He repeated his prophecy, made on a previous occasion, of the subserviency to the minister which the Irish members might be expected to exhibit, and therefore moved an amendment to reduce the number of Irish representatives to eighty-five; but, to obviate the discontent which such a reduction might be expected to excite in Ireland, he proposed to diminish the number of English members also, by disfranchising forty "of the most decayed boroughs," a step which would leave the number of members in the new united Parliament as nearly as possible the same as it was before. He found, however, very few to agree with him; his amendment was rejected by 176 to 34; and the minister's proposal was adopted in all its details.

Mr. Pitt touched lightly on the next article, which limited the royal prerogative of creating Peers by a provision that the King should never confer any fresh Irish peerage till three peerages should have become extinct. This, again, was a point of difference between the conditions of the Scotch and Irish Unions; since by the terms of the Scotch Union the King was forever debarred from creating any new Scotch peerages. But it was pointed out that the greater antiquity of the Scotch peerages, and the circumstance that in Scotland the titles descended to collateral branches, were calculated to make the extinction of a Scotch peerage an event of very rare occurrence; while the comparative newness (with very few exceptions) of Irish peerages, and the rule by which they are "confined to immediate male descendants," rendered the entire extinction of the Irish peerage probable, "if the power of adding to or making up the number were not given to the crown."

Recent legislation has given such importance to the next resolution, that it will be well to quote his precise words:

"5. That it would be fit to propose, as the fifth article of union, that the Churches of that part of Great Britain called England and of Ireland shall be united into one Church; and that when his Majesty shall summon a Convocation, the archbishops, bishops, and clergy of the several provinces in Ireland shall be respectively summoned to and sit in the Convocation of the united Church, in the like manner and subject to the same regulations as to election and qualification as are at present by law established with respect to the like orders of the Church of England; and that the doctrine, worship, discipline, and government of the said united Church shall be preserved as now by law established for the Church of England, saving to the Church of Ireland all the rights, privileges, and jurisdictions now thereunto belonging; and that the doctrine, worship, discipline, and government of the Church of Scotland shall likewise be preserved as now by law, and by the Act of Union established for the Church of Scotland; and that the continuance and preservation forever of the said united Church, as the Established Church, of that part of the said United Kingdom called England and Ireland, shall be deemed and taken to be an essential and fundamental article and condition of the Union."

Pitt's comment on this article was so brief as to show that he regarded its justice as well as its importance too obvious to need any elaborate justification. He pointed out that that portion of it which related to Convocation had been added by the Irish Parliament, and "would only say on so interesting a subject that the prosperity of the Irish Church could never be permanent, unless it were a part of the Union, to leave as a guard a power to the United Parliament to make some provision in this respect as a fence beyond any act of their own that could at present be agreed on." But, while he thus showed his conviction that the permanent prosperity of the Irish Church was essential to the welfare of the kingdom, he was by no means insensible to the claims of the Roman Catholic Church (as founded not more in policy than in justice) to be placed in some degree on a footing of equality with it; not only by a recognition of the dignity of its ministers, but also by an endowment which should be proportioned to their requirements, and should place them in a position of worldly competence and comfort for which hitherto they had been dependent on their flocks.[145] To use the expression of a modern statesman, he contemplated "levelling up," not "levelling down." Perhaps it may be said that he contemplated levelling up, as the surest and most permanent obstacle to any proposal of levelling down.

At the same time it is fair to remark, that the argument which on a recent occasion was so strongly pressed by the champions of the Church, that it was beyond the power of Parliament to repeal what was here declared to be "an essential and fundamental article and condition of the Union," is untenable, on every consideration of the power of Parliament, and, indeed, of common-sense; since it would be an intolerable evil, and one productive of the worst consequences, if the doctrine were admitted that any Parliament could make an unchangeable law and bind its successors forever; and, moreover, since the very words of this article do clearly imply the power of Parliament over the Church, the power asserted, to "make some provision for the permanence of its prosperity," clearly involving a power to make provisions of an opposite character. The expediency or impolicy, the propriety or unrighteousness, of a measure must always depend on the merits of the question itself at the time, and not on the judgment or intentions of legislators of an earlier generation. And advocates weaken instead of strengthening their case when they put forward arguments which, however plausible or acceptable to their own partisans, are, nevertheless, capable of refutation.

The next article related to a question of paramount practical importance, and of special interest, since, as has been seen before, there was no subject on which the past legislation of the English Parliament had been so discreditable. But the jealousy of English manufacturers, though it had prevailed over the indifference of William III., who reserved all his solicitude for matters of foreign diplomacy, could find no echo in the large mind and sound commercial and financial knowledge of the modern statesman. He laid it down as the principle of his legislation on this subject--a principle which "he was sure that every gentleman in the House was ready to admit--that the consequence of the Union ought to be a perfect freedom of trade, whether of produce or manufacture, without exception, if possible; that a deviation from that principle ought to be made only when adhering to it might possibly shake some large capital, or materially diminish the effect of the labor of the inhabitants, or suddenly and violently shock the received opinion or popular prejudices of a large portion of the people; but that, on the whole, the communication between the two kingdoms should in spirit be free; that no jealousy should be attempted to be created between the manufacturers of one place or the other upon the subject of 'raw materials' or any other article; for it would surely be considered very narrow policy, and as such would be treated with derision, were an attempt made to create a jealousy between Devonshire and Cornwall, between Lancashire and Durham.... He said, then, that the principle of the Union on this head should be liberal and free, and that no departure from it should ever take place but upon some point of present unavoidable necessity." He was even able to add (and he must have felt peculiar satisfaction in making the statement, since the change in the feelings of the English manufacturers on the subject must have been mainly the fruit of his own teaching, and was a practical recognition of the benefits which they had derived from his commercial policy taken as a whole), that "the English manufacturers did not wish for any protective duties; all they desired was free intercourse with all the world; and, though the want of protective duties might occasion them partial loss, they thought it amply compensated by the general advantage." He even thought the arrangements now to be made "would encourage the growth of wool in Ireland, and that England would be able to draw supplies of it from thence; and he did not fear that there would be trade enough for both countries in the markets of the world, and in the market which each country would afford to the other." The English manufacturers did not, however, acquiesce very cheerfully in every part of his commercial arrangements. On the contrary, against the clause which repealed all prohibitions of or bounties on exportation of different articles grown or manufactured in either country, they petitioned, and even set up a claim, which was granted, to be heard by counsel and to produce witnesses. But Pitt steadily refused the least modification of this part of his measure, not merely on account of its intrinsic reasonableness and justice, but because there was scarcely any condition to which the Irish themselves attached greater importance.

An equally important and more difficult matter to adjust to the satisfaction of both Parliaments was the apportionment of the financial burdens between the two nations. It would be tiresome as well as superfluous to enter into minute details; the more so as the arrangement proposed was of a temporary character. After a long and minute discussion, Pitt's appraisement was admitted to come as near to strict fairness and equity as any that could be made; the separate discharge of its public debt already incurred was left to each kingdom; and it was farther settled that for twenty years fifteen parts of the expense of the nation out of seventeen should be borne by Great Britain and two by Ireland.

Other articles provided that the laws and courts of both kingdoms, civil and ecclesiastical, should remain in their existing condition, subject, of course, to such alterations as the united Legislature might hereafter deem desirable.

The resolutions, when adopted--as they speedily were--were embodied in a bill, which passed through the last stage by receiving the royal assent at the beginning of July. The state of public feeling in Ireland was not yet sufficiently calmed down after the Rebellion for it to be prudent to venture on a general election, and it was, consequently, ordained that the members for the Irish counties and for those Irish boroughs which had been selected for the retention of representation should take their seats in the united Parliament on its next meeting. On the 22d of January, 1801, the united, or, to give it its more proper designation, the Imperial Parliament held its first meeting, being, although in its sixth session, so far regarded as a new Parliament, that the King directed a fresh election of a Speaker.

The Union, as thus effected, was so far a vital change in the constitution of both Great Britain and Ireland, that it greatly altered the situation in which each kingdom had previously stood to the other. Till 1782 the position of Ireland toward England had been one of entire political subordination; and, though that had in appearance been modified by the repeal of Poynings' Act, yet no one doubted or could doubt that, whenever the resolutions of the two Parliaments came into conflict, the Irish Parliament would find submission unavoidable. But by the Union that subordination was terminated forever. The character of the Union--of the conditions, that is, on which the two countries were united--was one of perfect and complete equality on all important points, indeed, in all matters whatever, except one or two of minor consequence, where some irremovable difference between them compelled some trifling variations. It was not a connection of domination on the one side and subordination on the other, where every concomitant circumstance might tempt the one to overbearing arrogance, while the other could not escape a feeling of humiliation. It was rather--to quote the eloquent peroration of Pitt, when, in the preceding year, he first introduced the subject to the consideration of the House of Commons--"a free and voluntary association of two great countries, joining for their common benefit in one empire, where each retained its proportionate weight and importance, under the security of equal laws, reciprocal affection, and inseparable interests; and which wanted nothing but that indissoluble connection to render both invincible."

On that occasion Pitt had argued, from the great subsequent increase in the population and wealth of Edinburgh and Glasgow, and in the prosperity of the whole country of Scotland, that a similar result might be looked for in Ireland. And the general trade of Ireland, and especially the linen manufacture, within a very few years began to realize his prediction. So that it is strange to find Fox, on the great minister's death, five years afterward, reiterating his disapproval of the Union as a plea for refusing him the appellation of a great statesman.[146] In one point alone the intrigues of a colleague prevented Pitt from carrying out to the full his liberal and enlightened views, and compelled him to leave the Union incomplete in a matter of such pre-eminent importance, that it may be said that all the subsequent disquietudes which have prevented Ireland from reaping the full benefit he desired from the Union are traceable to his disappointment on that subject.[147] We have seen that he contemplated, as a natural and necessary consequence or even part of the Union, an extensive reform of the laws affecting the Roman Catholics. Indeed, the understanding that he was prepared to introduce a measure with that object had no small weight in conciliating in some quarters support to the Act of Union. Accordingly, when describing the arrangements which he had in view for the Church of Ireland, he indicated his intention with sufficient plainness by the statement, that "it might be proper to leave to Parliament an opportunity of considering what might be fit to be done for his Majesty's Catholic subjects;" words which were generally understood to express his feeling, that both justice and policy required the removal of the restrictions which debarred the Roman Catholics from the complete enjoyment of political privileges. But the history and different bearings of that question it will be more convenient to discuss in a subsequent chapter, when we shall have arrived at the time when it was partially dealt with by the ministry of the Duke of Wellington.

Notes:

[Footnote 125: Mr. Froude says four great families--the Fitzgeralds of Kildare, the Boyles, the Ponsonbys, and the Beresfords--returned a majority of the House of Commons ("English in Ireland," ii., 5); and besides those peers, the arrangement for the Union proved that the influence of the Loftuses and the Hills fell little short of them.]

[Footnote 126: Such a system actually had existed in France, where articles of ordinary trade could not be transported from one province to another without payment of a heavy duty; but Colbert had abolished that system in France above one hundred years before the time of which we are speaking.]

[Footnote 127: "History of England," vol. v., c. xxiii., p. 57.]

[Footnote 128: "The English in Ireland," ii., 39.]

[Footnote 129: Fronde's "English in Ireland," ii., 345. He does not name the author whom he quotes.]

[Footnote 130: _Ibid_., ii, 42.]

[Footnote 131: See p. 164.]

[Footnote 132: Mr. Froude imputes to Grattan a singularly base object. "Far from Grattan was a desire to heal the real sores of the country for which he was so zealous. These wild, disordered elements suited better for the campaign in which he engaged of renovating an Irish nationality."--_English in Ireland_, ii., 448. But, however on many points we may see reason to agree with Mr. Froude's estimate of the superior wisdom of Fitzgibbon, we conceive that this opinion is quite consistent with our acquittal of the other of the meanness of deliberately aiming at a continuance of evils, in order to find in them food for a continuance of agitation.]

[Footnote 133: Froude, "English in Ireland," i., 304.]

[Footnote 134: See especially a letter of Mr. Windham's. quoted by Lord Stanhope ("Life of Pitt," ii., 288).]

[Footnote 135: Mr. Archdall, in his place in Parliament, denounced the term as utterly inapplicable. "Emancipation meant that a slave was set free. The Catholics were not slaves. Nothing more absurd had ever been said since language was first abused for the delusion of mankind."]

[Footnote 136: The first beginning of the insurrection was at Prosperous, County Kildare, May 24. General Lake dealt it the final blow on Vinegar Hill, June 21.]

[Footnote 137: Mr. Sheridan, Mr. Tierney, and Lord William Russell led the denunciations of the government in the English House of Commons. A protest against Pitt's refusal to dismiss the Lord-lieutenant, Lord Camden, the Chancellor Fitzgibbon, and the Commander-in-chief, Lord Carhampton, was signed by the Dukes of Norfolk, Devonshire, and Leinster; Lords Fitzwilliam, Moira, and Ponsonby, "two of them Irish absentees, who were discharging thus their duties to the poor country which supported their idle magnificence."--_The English in Ireland_, iii., 454.]

[Footnote 138: "Constitutional History," iii., 451 seq.]

[Footnote 139: Massey's "History of England," iv., 397 (quoting the Cornwallis correspondence).]

[Footnote 140: Lord Stanhope's "Reign of Queen Anne," p. 89.]

[Footnote 141: In the House of Commons by 158 to 115; in the House of Lords, February 10, by 75 to 26.]

[Footnote 142: An amendment pledging the House to maintain "an independent Legislature, as established in 1782," was only defeated by 106 to 105.]

[Footnote 143: In the House of Commons the majority was 158 to 115; in the House of Lords, 75 to 26.]

[Footnote 144: This estimate, which was but a guess, proved very inaccurate. The first census for the United Kingdom, which was taken the next year (1801), showed that Ireland was considerably more populous than its own representatives had imagined. The numbers returned (as given by Alison, "History of Europe," ii., 335, c. ix., sec. 8) were:

England..................................... 8,382,484
Wales....................................... 547,346
Scotland.................................... 1,599,068
Army, Navy, etc............................. 470,586
----------
Total...................................10,999,434
Ireland..................................... 5,396,436

So that the proportion of population in Great Britain, as compared with that of Ireland, only exceeded two to one by an insignificant fraction.]

[Footnote 145: See his letter to the King, dated January 31, 1801, quoted by Lord Stanhope in the appendix to vol. iii. of his "Life of Pitt," p. 25.]

[Footnote 146: Mr. Fox, called on by Mr. Alexander to explain his expressions (in the debate relative to Mr. Pitt's funeral), by which he had declared his disapprobation of the Union, and his concurrence in opinion with Mr. O'Hara that it ought to be rescinded. Mr. Fox repeated his disapprobation, but disclaimed ever having expressed an opinion or entertained a thought of proposing its repeal, that being now impracticable, though he regretted its ever having been effected.--_Diary of Lord Colchester_, February 17, 1806, ii., 39.]

[Footnote 147: It may be remarked that in another respect also political critics have pronounced the Union defective. Archbishop Whately, whose long tenure of office in Ireland, as well as the acuteness and candor which he brought to bear on every subject he discussed, entitle his opinions to most respectful consideration, held this view very strongly. In several conversations which he held with Mr. W.N. Senior, in 1858 and 1862, he condemned the retention of the Lord-lieutenancy as "a half measure," which, however unavoidable at the time when "no ship could be certain of getting from Holyhead to Dublin in less than three weeks," he pronounced "inconsistent with the fusion of the two peoples, which was the object of the Union," and wholly indefeasible "in an age of steam-vessels and telegraphs." And, besides its theoretical inconsistency, he insisted that it produced many great and practical mischiefs, among which he placed in the front "the keeping up in people's minds the notion of a separate kingdom; the affording a hotbed of faction and intrigue; the presenting an image of Majesty so faint and so feeble as to be laughed at and scorned. Disaffection to the English Lieutenancy is cheaply shown, and it paves the way toward disaffection to the English crown." And he imputed its continued retention to "the ignorance which prevails in England of the state of feeling in Ireland."--_Journals and Conversations Relating to Ireland_, by W.N. Senior, ii., 130, 251, and _passim_. And it is worthy of observation that a similar view is expressed by a Scotch writer of great ability, who, contrasting the mode in which Scotland is governed with that which prevails In Ireland, farther denounces the Viceroyalty "as a distinct mark that Ireland is not directly under the sovereignty of Great Britain, but rather a dependency, like India or the Isle of Man."--_Ireland_, by J.B. Kinnear, quoted in the _Fortnightly Review_, April 1, 1881. It is remarkable that in 1850 a bill for the abolition of the office was passed in the House of Commons by a large majority (295 to 70), but was dropped in the House of Lords, chiefly on account of the opposition of the Duke of Wellington. But it is, at all events, plain that the reasons, arising from the difficulty and uncertainty of communication, which made its abolition impossible at the beginning of the century, have passed away with the introduction of steam-vessels and telegraphs. Communication of London with Dublin is now as rapid as communication with Edinburgh, and, that being the case, it is not easy to see how an establishment which has never been thought of for Scotland can be desirable for Ireland.]