printed calicoes, muslins, &c. Mr. Peel is very liberal and right-minded, and I have reason to believe that he will make a speech to-day to say that Ireland is much too well treated, but that he and others cordially acquiesce, under a conviction that the general arrangement is wise and most beneficial to all. I did not discourage this sort of speech. It will do no harm with us and good with you. In the wording of the Article, it looks as if calicoes and muslins were to pay a duty only on going into Ireland, and none here.

I enclose a paper from the booksellers, and am to see them on Monday morning, or Mr. Strahan on their part.

Believe me, &c.

Mr. Pitt to Lord Castlereagh.

AUCKLAND.

Downing Street, March 7, 1800.

My dear Lord-I have inadvertently delayed a much longer time than I ought answering your letter on the subject of the duties on cotton, but I hope the suspense will not have produced any material inconvenience. I certainly shall regret any interval which postpones the reduction of duties on any article of manufacture to the amount consistent with the general principle of liberal intercourse which we wish to establish, and I am not wholly without apprehension that any exception in favour of Ireland may make it difficult here to resist introducing some exception of a similar nature, either with respect to the import of some article of manufacture, or the export of some article of raw material from hence, which may become the object of jealousy.

But, though I think it right to state this apprehension, and, for that reason, among others, should be desirous that the duty on cottons should be reduced as speedily as possible to the rate of 10 per cent., I by no means wish that, by contending on this point, you should expose yourself to any risk, or even any material additional difficulty in the general system. I know you will be as anxious as myself to make no greater concession

than is necessary; and I have therefore only to beg you to exercise your own discretion, both as to rate of duty to be established at present and as to the time and proportion of the several stages of reduction, which may gradually bring it to the amount originally proposed. I have thought it better to trouble you with this opinion in a private letter, than to make it the subject of any official communication.

I am, my dear Lord,

Yours very faithfully and sincerely,
W. PITT.

Private.

Lord Castlereagh to Mr. Rose.

Dublin Castle, March 7, 1800.

My dear Sir-I wrote to Mr. Pitt, some days since, on the subject of the duty to be imposed, after the Union, on British calicoes and muslins, on their import into Ireland. As we are now delayed, waiting his decision on this point, I earnestly beg you will have the goodness to convey to me his sentiments, if possible, by the return of the express.

You will observe that, by the schedule, cottons are to be importable into either country from the other at a duty of 10 per cent. ad valorem. I understand it will, at all events, be necessary to include muslins and calicoes specifically, as duty would not attach upon them as cottons. The present duties on these articles are prohibitory, being, according to the quality, from 35 to 50 per cent. The manufacturers have petitioned against their reduction: they have produced evidence, and been heard by counsel; they are monopolists in principle, argue upon the necessity of totally excluding British articles of the above description, and of course cannot be listened to; but the facts stated do certainly make a case, which, I trust, will induce Mr. Pitt to acquiesce in the gradual, instead of the immediate, reduction of the duties on muslins and calicoes.

It appears that this branch of trade ranks next to linens in its extent, the value manufactured annually being stated at

from 6 to £700,000 worth. We import £130,000 of cottons from England, principally of the class of fustians; but the entire consumption in calicoes and muslins is supplied by ourselves. It appears that the difference of price to the consumer is, as might be supposed, enormous, nearly equivalent to the duty, and that these extravagant profits have enabled the master manufacturers to give higher wages to all classes of their workmen than are given in England. It is evident, under these circumstances, that a sudden reduction of the duty must, at least for a time, ruin the trade, which now employs from 30,000 to 40,000 persons. The individuals have little capital to bear a shock; and it would require a length of time before the various gradations of the manufacturers could accommodate themselves in their profits to so new, though, upon general principles, a much better, order of things.

The opinion which I have formed, in which Mr. Beresford concurs, is to recommend that the existing duty should be continued for a certain number of years, and then reduced gradually, so as to bring it to a 10 per cent. duty within the period of twenty years. This, I conceive, would preclude any shock, and accomplish our principle within a reasonable time. I am sorry to be obliged to press any departure from the 10 per cent. regulation, but trust Mr. Pitt will be the less averse to it, as it will be, upon the face of it, determinable, and it is the solitary instance of a prohibitory duty on this side of the Channel: consequently, the difficulty, and of course the objection, narrows itself to this point; and it may be stated that, though the stronger country can venture to lay down her prohibitions at once, in the case of the weaker a more gradual measure is requisite.

I am the more induced to hope that Mr. Pitt will enable me to soften the opposition on this point, which is warmly pressed both by Cork and Belfast, as he gave me to understand, when in England, that he would not be averse to give a temporary accommodation to the feelings of this country, where it might be important to the measure, and did not ultimately interfere

with the perfect commercial incorporation of the two countries.

I enclose the Speaker's speech: you will observe, from the schedule, the line of opposition he will take on the commercial article-upholding the commercial propositions of 1785, as only reducing the duties to the lowest in either country-that was, in fact, to the Irish duties; whereas, this measure goes to take off all duty from above 70 different articles.

Believe to be, &c.

CASTLEREAGH.

Secret.

The Bishop of Meath to Lord Castlereagh.

March 10, 1800.

My Lord-Although I necessarily feel a reluctance to obtrude myself upon your Lordship with an unsolicited opinion on any part of the great measure that you are so successfully bringing to perfection, yet I have that reliance on your Lordship's candour and goodness, that I venture to trouble you for a moment on the subject of the Union of the Churches, and the Episcopal Representation.

In the paper which I transmitted to your Lordship in London, I mentioned an apprehension that some Bishops might be found on our bench who would oppose every arrangement that did not originate with themselves. I did not make the assertion lightly, and I find my apprehensions were not groundless. The Archbishop of Cashel, at a meeting of the Bishops, preparatory to the fast, took occasion to condemn the entire article respecting the identifying of the two churches. He said, if the Government wished to unite the two Churches, he would make no objection, but that it would be essentially necessary to change the whole article, so as to secure the Church of Ireland against all possibility of change or alteration. He could not say what might become of the Church of England hereafter, but it was incumbent upon us to take care of the Church of Ireland, and he should prepare another

article, looking to that which he should propose to the LordLieutenant and your Lordship to substitute in the place of the article originally laid before Parliament.

To me and to all the other Bishops it appeared perfectly unintelligible how, in an article that was to abolish the Church of Ireland as separate or distinct from the Church of England, and to incorporate and identify the two Churches for ever under the name of the Church of England alone, the distinction of the Church of Ireland should still be preserved, and a stipulation made that it should be secure for ever against all change or alteration. The very intent and meaning of the article is to preserve the doctrines, the worship, and establishment of the Protestant religion, as now professed and maintained in Ireland, against all chance, all danger of change or alteration, by abolishing the distinction of the Church of Ireland, and making it merge into that of England; and what could be so glaring a contradiction as to introduce any worship that should convey an idea of distinction, or separatedness, or suppose a possibility of their not continuing one and the same for ever, and under all circumstances!

At the close of the original article, the doctrines, the discipline, the forms, and the worship of the Church of England, as now professed and established, are essentially secured under the proposed Union; and, by identifying the two Churches, and making them for ever one, the doctrines, the discipline, the forms, and the worship of the Church of Ireland, as now professed and established, being the same with those of the Church of England, are of course secured for ever.

In a private conversation with myself, the Archbishop treated that part of the article that mentioned the Convocation as idle and foolish. Nothing, however, can be more essentially necessary to the identity of the Churches. From the time that the Clergy ceased to tax themselves in Convocation, and mixed in that particular with the great mass of the people, by acquiring the right of voting at elections for the members of