Obferva

tions on a pamphlet, entitled, 'Arguments for and

against an

fidered.'

particular obligation to Great Britain for fuch affiftance; because it is as much the intereft of Great Britain to affift Ireland in repelling the common enemy, as it would be the intereft of Ireland to affist Great Britain on a fimilar emergency they are both parts of one and the fame empire, and their interefts, in respect to defence against a common enemy, cannot be divided.

In this place it is proper to mention a pamphlet published in Ireland, entitled, Arguments for and against an • Union confidered,' being the pamphlet which this Romish writer profeffes to anfwer, and which he calls Mr. C.'s Union con- pamphlet. It is generally fuppofed to have been written by a gentleman high in the confidence of Government, and contains many strong arguments in favour of an Union; yet there are fome parts of it which merit reprehenfion; and particularly those in which the author grounds his arguments for an Union, on the power of the Irish Romanists he ufes too frequently the argument of Intimidation, to prevail on the Proteftants of Ireland to resort to the afylum of an Incorporating Union with Great Britain, for protection against the irresistible power of the Irish Romanists, as he reprefents it. The fuppofed author is an Englishman, and it has given me no fmall degree of uneafinefs to observe, that a Gentleman of abilities, as he certainly is, has fo often deferted the irrefragable arguments for the expediency, and even the neceffity of an Incorporating Union of the two kingdoms, arifing from confiderations of the prefent ftate of Europe, and evident mutual advantage of both countries; and reforted to arguments of terror, grounded on unfubftantial, fantaftic, and fabulous reprefentations; as old women frighten froward children in a nursery to compliance, by

ftories

stories of fairies and hobgoglins. I am as fincerely and zealously attached to the measure of an Incorporating Union, as any Minister or individual in the British Empire, can be: but I difdain to support so great, so important, so neceffary a measure, by fuch frivolous and puerile arguments: and when I find fuch reforted to by great Statesmen, I am induced to suspect, that some portentous innovation in the conftitution of the British Empire is meditated, under the cloak of this falutary measure; and that Britons are to be reconciled to an acquiefcence in fuch innovation, by frau-dulently perfuading them, that the measure could not be effected, but through the medium of the innovation. Aliquid monftri alant!

This Gentleman in his pamphlet states, that Irish Romanifts are to Irish Proteftants in the proportion of three to one; this proportion is very rafhly adopted from the calculations of a feditious Romish affembly, which was collected fome years ago in the city of Dublin, and which -styled itself the Catholic Convention; it prepared a Petition to His Majesty on behalf of the Irish Romanists, which was a collection of impudent falsehoods, misreprefentations, and groundless calumnies against their Protestant fellow-fubje&s. This statement I have already refuted. (See Appendix, No. I.) He then ftates, that the Irish Proteftants have been obliged to rely upon British affistance for the preservation of their property and existence at different periods. This is very true; and the affiftance has been furnished, because the Irish Proteftants were attacked by the Irish Romanifts, for their attachment to the conftitution in Church and State, as established in England; and their fidelity to the English Crown; and because it was abfolutely neceffary for England to

fupport

fupport them, or abandon Ireland, part of her dominions; and the might have as well abandoned Yorkshire: the affifted the Irish Proteftants for her own emolument'; they were fighting her battles: but the inference attempted to be drawn from it in the pamphlet is, that the Irish Proteftants are not now able to preferve their property and 'existence from deftruction by the Irish Romanifts, with`out the aflistance of Great Britain: this I truft is already fatisfa@orily proved not to be a fact. At the Revolution the Irish Romanifts were completely conquered, their power reduced, and the Irish Proteftant intereft fo firmly eftablished, and placed on fuch folid foundations, that it has been ever fince able to fupport itself against the affaults of the Romanifts, without the affiftance of Great Britain; and is now fully able fo to do; all that Irish Proteftants require from their brethren in England is, that they will not be cheated into a fupport of the Irish Romanifts against them, and in fact against themselves, by the mifreprefentations and pernicious doctrines of the difciples of Mr. Burke, the modern apoftle of Popěry: they deprecate the effects on the constitution of the fpirit of Burkifm in England. Certain it is, that the Irish Proteftants would not be able to fupport their properties and existence against the Irish Romanifts affifted by a ftrong French fleet and army, without the affiftance of Great Britain; but in fuch case they claim fuch affiftance, not as a boon, but as a right; not on their own account alone, but on that of Great Britain also. Ireland is a part of the British Empire: as fuch fhe is engaged in the prefent war with France; and the lofs of Ireland would be attended by a prodigious diminution of the ftrength, probably by the deftruction of that Empire: it could not receive a greater injury, a more deadly wound, by the French occupation

occupation of part of the island of Great Britain, than by the French occupation of Ireland: and when the British Government, or those employed by them, argue on the prefumed weakness of the Proteftants of Ireland, they are in fact depreciating their own ftrength, inviting French invasion, and exciting Irish Romanifts to Rebellion!..

The most dangerous and reprehenfible paragraph in the -last-mentioned pamphlet is the following: Whilst Ireland remains a feparate country from Great Britain, • Great Britain is not pledged on any specific principle to < fupport one feat in Ireland more than another if the cannot preferve the connexion of the two kingdoms in • their establishment, their power, and their property, I know not by what tie fhe is debarred from affifting the Catholics; for whilft the kingdoms are separate and * independent, Ireland, except where the Crown is concerned, ' is merely bound by the ties of interest to England, and ⚫ in a fimilar manner England is only bound by the ties of intereft, and the rights of the Crown, to Ireland: she is · pledged to preferve Ireland to the British Crown, but not to any particular means, or any particular principfes for maintaining that connexion.' Here then is a public declaration by a Gentleman, supposed to stand very high in the confidence of both the Irish and Englifh Administrations, and who holds an employment of great trust under Government, that it is totally immaterial to the English nation, whether Proteftantism or Popery be the established religion of Ireland. His Romish antagonist compares the Proteftant religion to a Medufa's head; he bestows the title of Sect upon it. But it is worth while a little to examine the premiffes, from which this extraordinary conclufion, that Great Britain is not

Bound to fupport the Proteftant Religion, more than the Romish, in Ireland, is deduced: the one is, that the kingdom of Ireland, in its present state, is feparate from, and independent of, the kingdom of Great Britain. This premifs is falfe, for the kingdom of Ireland, in its prefent ftate, is infeparably annexed, united to, and dependant on the Imperial Crown of Great Britain: the supreme Executive Power in Great Britain and Ireland is vefted in the fame person; but the fupreme Executive Power in both kingdoms, is one of the three branches of the fupreme Legislative Power in both; fo that the two kingdoms have even part of their Legislative Powers common to both. No A&t of Parliament can pass in Ireland until after it has been fent into England, and has there obtained the approbation of the British Cabinet, and has the great feal of England affixed to it; the Government of England, therefore, can, at its diferetion, prevent the enaction of any law by the Legiflature of Ireland: these are surely strong bands of dependance of Ireland on Great Britain ; and in fact, in the present fituation of the two kingdoms, the connexion between them, and dependance of one on the other, are fo ftrong, that the Anti-Unionists, as is already obferved, found on it their most powerful argument against an Incorporating Union, alleging that the two kingdoms are now infeparably united, and that no further Union is necessary. His fecond premifs is, that, in their prefent state, Great Britain cannot preserve the connexion of the two kingdoms in their establishment, their power, and their property it is true this is introduced hypothetically, with an if, but the conclufion drawn from it is abfolute, at least fo far fo, that without an Incorporating Union it is to be taken as abfolute. But this premiss is as falfe as the other; for the Irish Proteftants themselves,

if