muft give to all ranks of its people, confidence, and, by progreffive confequences, all the cordiality of copatriotifm?

Already confiderable fums have from time to time been lent to this country by Great Britain upon landed fecurity; and it is notorious that a very confiderable part of the trade of Ireland is carried on by aid of British capital. Whatever we can produce which, in any part of the immensely extended correspondence of Great Britain, can fupply demand, is taken with avidity from Ireland, paid for in advance, and tranfported to the ultimate ports of destination, to be widely diffufed under encouragement of the indulgent credit given by British wealth. Of the prodigious quantity of our ftaple manufacture, the linen, fent yearly to Great Britain, above two thirds of the value are paid in advance by the merchants to whom it is configned; and fome British capital has even been vested in establishments of that manufacture in Ireland. In fact, fo connected and interwoven is the prosperity of this country with the profperity of Great Britain, that almost exactly in the proportion that British commerce has extended, the demands for what Ireland can fupply have increased, and the affiftance of British capital to call forth that fupply has been extended. So fenfible of these truths are many of the northern linen manufacturers, and many leading com mercial men in Cork and other convenient fea ports, that no efforts of party violence or affected patriotism, have been able to prevent them from feeing and acknowledging, the acceffion of benefit to be derived, from more intimate connexion wlth Great Britain.

In that highly improved country, every active purfuit has been carried to fuch extent, that enormous capital and animated enterprize feek new fields of action. Before the political convulfion of France, establishments in that country were meditated, and fome actually commenced by enterprifing Englishmen. Even in this tremendous war, fo has the course of events concurred with the ability and fpirit of Britain, that her wealth and her enriching fources have increafed beyond all former experience or hope. Confider then the circumftances of Ireland. Our climate as good and our foil fuperiour; the means of fubfiftence more eafily raised than in almost any other country; a hardy and numerous people capable of furnishing, at moderate rate, a prodigious quantity of useful labour, to all the arts of life; and a coaft fuperabundantly supplied with commodious havens for all the purposes of ready export and import. Think alfo of the fituation of Great Britain. The national principal ftock fwelled to enormous amount, by the acceffion of emigrated property, and by the profits of enlarged commerce; the fum of wealth employed in war returning, on the establishment of peace, into the bofom of an already incalculable capital; and her people active and experienced in every induftrious and enriching occupation, acute to discern where and how advantages are to be pursued, and bent upon enterprise beyond all other nations. Thus circumftanced these kingdoms become perfectly united, whereby all feparate intereft is annihilated, diftinct nationability is loft in the entireness of the one confolidated state, the fame fupreme authority flowing from the whole prefides over and regulates the whole of both countries, and the fame laws equally controul, encourage,

and

and fecure, all the inhabitants of the united kingdom. What must naturally follow? No longer confidered as a diftinct or hoftile country, but as a diftrict of their own country, and blessed with superiour advantages, enterprising Englishmen, not yet fixed in permanent eftablishments, with a fuperfluity of capital open to their use, must occasionally gratify the spirit of adventure in a comparatively new and unoccupied field. Frequent fuccefs cannot but operate to encourage new undertakings; and our various advantages, whatever they are, muft confequently become better understood and more fuccefsfully pursued, whether in agriculture, in long eftablished manufacture, or in rifing or in new undertakings. It is ftrange to fay, that all this muft fail because we have not the cheap fuel with which Great Britain, raising it within herself, is furnished; and at the fame moment to inform us, that if urged to it we can raise abundance in our own country. No doubt we can, and it will naturally make a useful part of our progrefs, to raise that valuable article in abundance, and to fupply it at cheap price to all the arts in which it is employed. In the meantime, the difference of the price of fuel makes fo fmall a part of the cost of moft manufactures, compared with that of many other materials employed, but particularly with the cost of labour, and is fo fully compenfated by the prefent duties, which are to remain for a confiderable though limited time, and afterwards to be continued or gradually diminished as publick good may require, that no real difcouragement takes place or can rationally operate.* The circuitous means by which

fo

It is material to obferve, that the flourishing state of manufac tures, depends not fo much upon the rate of profit as upon the ex

tenfion

fo many of the raw materials are obtained by this country, enhanced in price by additional profit, freight, infurance, and other expences, contributes more perhaps than any other circumftance, to retard thofe manufactures in which we have not eminently excelled; and the low ftate of industry among our people, which prevents the extenfion of home confumption adds to the dif couragement. The fmallness of capital employed in foreign trade and in agriculture is the cause of both these of deficiencies. Let men poffeffed of property, or capable obtaining the enlarged use of it, in the fifter kingdom, and ardent for active employment, fee this happily circumftanced country, no longer governed through the medium of an interested and doubtful oligarchy, no longer liable to be regulated by laws diftinct from their own, no longer influenced by feparate or incompatible interefts, and no longer, by the very nature of a distinct state, and in the daily proceedings of its feparate legiflature, cherishing and bringing intoa ction invidious and alienating principles, but in every particular of interest government and regulation the fame; then, apprehenfion and difcouragement removed, all our natural advan

tension of fale, which extension of fale is best promoted by skill and capital. A manufacture making only ten per cent. on the capital employed may be far more flourishing than one making fifteen per cent. on account of the far greater quantity of bufinefs done by the former than the latter. In feveral manufactures in Ireland, at this moment,the rate of profit is greater than in thofe of the fame kind in Great Britain; but the greater capital employed, and the greater extent of sale, make thofe in Great Britain generally more flourishing and productive. Under the encouragement of duties, fixed for a limited but confiderable time, and afterwards to be gradually diminished, Ireland will have full opportunity, to improve her skill, increafe her capital, and extend her fale, fo as with a lefs rate of profit, to fourish more eminently in all the arts, for the enlarged cultivation of which nature may have endowed her.

tages

tages are left at liberty to operate, with full force of motive, upon every active energy to be found, in any part of the united whole. We may therefore confidently expect that the skill in every branch of agriculture, now arrived at fuch a height in Great Britain, and still culti vated with a degree of ardour pregnant with future bleffings, will, with the affiftance of overflowing capital, reach the rich and extenfive tracts in Ireland, which may be obtained upon terms far inferiour to those on which the naturally inferiour lands of Britain are farmed; and that the commodious ports of our finely indented coaft,. will from time to time invite many to make establishments or take part in establishments, for the purpose of fupplying foreign nations with our productions, and of importing the various articles ufeful at home or fit to be eafily diftributed to other countries.

Should fuch inftances be at firft but few, fhould they multiply but by flow degrees, yet still the effects would be happy. Men of condition and property in this country would occafionally imitate the example, and in their own exertions, or in directing the attention of their fons to useful employment, would promote individual and collective intereft. Hence, motives to industry would be multiplied; hence, fkill and enterprise would follow; hence, our people would be more generally employed and confequently ameliorated; and hence, in the enjoyment of the fruits of induftry, a tafte for the comforts of civilized life would be created, and every active pur fuit invigorated.

To a foreign ftate the fuperflux of capital is not easily trufted; in a foreign ftate the apprehenfive ftranger is