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members, and consequently put them into opposition; you now put down entirely, and in toto, too large a share of the Borough representation, instead of consolidating Boroughs, as in Scotland. But a doubt, equally prominent, is that respecting your trials of contested elections, which cannot, with a semblance of justice, be brought from the County of Donegal to Westminster; nor do I conceive it essential to the unity of Parliament that these trials should be holden in Great Britain, or even by a Committee of the House of Commons, where the cry of justice and expediency is so strong the other way. I do not lean equally heavy on the appellant jurisdiction being transferred to Westminster, because evidence is never heard upon causes of Appeal, and the barristers, even from Ireland, attending Parliament, would always give the parties the fair choice of their advocates. All I fear on this head is the accumulation of business, which, after all, is not quite so serious an objection as in the case of the controverted elections, on which, I fairly own, that my mind is very uneasy.

Is there, my dear Lord, any mode in which I can assist you in the book of numbers? You know how my heart and soul are interested in this great question; and I trust you are equally convinced of my personal regards for your Lordship, and of my high sense of your obliging attentions to me on all occasions and, with these feelings, I am, &c.,

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NUGENT BUCKINGHAM.'

George, second Earl Temple, assumed the name of Nugent by Royal Permission, by marrying the only daughter of Robert Earl Nugent, and was created, in 1784, Marquess of Buckingham. He was twice Viceroy of Ireland.

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It is much better to employ those who are to write in favour of the Union, in composing short essays than pamphlets.

As the appeal in favour of the Union must be to the reason and sound sense of the Nation, and not to its passions or its prejudices, the style of those should be plain, simple, and level to the understanding of plain honest, men. They must be directed to detect the fallacies and misrepresentations by which the public have been led away from the consideration of the subject itself to things totally foreign to its object. Wit may do great things against it, but nothing for it; yet, at the same time, those whose talent lies that way may do much service, and particularly in writing songs, and I understand the G. N-R is very well disposed to exert his talents that way, provided that he were enabled to discharge some small debts, which force him now to confine himself.

It is absolutely essential that some persons, on whom the Government can rely, should be supplied with proper materials, by official communications respecting the state of the revenues, the amount of the customs and excise compared with those of England, what changes are proposed to take place, in what articles England is willing to consult the comparative inferiority of Irish manufacture by granting indulgences, as was done

in many articles in Scotland; and every other subject that may enable them to satisfy the public mind on the various points on which they may wish to meet the objections of the opposers of the measure.

With respect to the mode of giving circulation to the different publications, it is perfectly nugatory to publish merely in the Dublin Journal. They should be inserted, if possible, in the Dublin Evening Post; but, in whatever paper they may be originally published, measures ought to be taken to get them immediately republished in the different county papers, and in small pamphlets to be dispersed through the country. The usual mode of doing this, is by sending the pamphlets to the different post-offices; but every one knows that this has not answered any adequate end, as the postmasters content themselves with giving them to those who come to their offices; and there is not one of these offices in which hundreds of such pamphlets are not lying at this moment unopened.

I could recommend the appointment of some particular person to superintend this essential business; and Mr. M'Kenna, who, in the time of the Roman Catholic Committee, to which he acted as their secretary, and conveyed their publications through channels by which they were but too generally and too successfully disseminated, tells me he has no objection to undertake this or any thing else in which he can be of service. In England, at the time of the Irish propositions, a committee of gentlemen was formed for that purpose among the Opposition. I can only add that there is not a moment to be lost, and that, perhaps, it may be even now too late.

OUTLINES OF A UNION.

By Mr. Anderson, of Cork.

If the British House of Commons are reduced from 558, the present number of members, to 500, by striking off 29 of the most depopulated Boroughs, then I would propose to admit

100 Irish members to represent the Irish House of Commons in the Parliament of the British Empire. The lopping-off 29 rotten Boroughs would operate as a partial Parliamentary reform, and reduce the United Parliament to 600 members, exceeding the present number of the British Parliament by only 42.

Were no reduction to take place, the number of members would be too unwieldy for the purposes of legislation, for then Ireland ought to send at least 112 members, which would be beyond her proportion in reference to Scotland, and would increase the entire number to 670. This is certainly too large a number for deliberative purposes, and if even 600 be thought so too, it may be easily reduced by lopping off more English Boroughs, and diminishing the number of Irish members in proportion.

That Ireland should have one-fifth of the representation of the Lower House in the Parliament of the Empire seems as reasonable a proportion as any other. Her population would, indeed, entitle her to two-fifths; for, if Ireland be supposed to contain four millions of inhabitants, Great Britain certainly has ten; but, on account of the vastly greater wealth and revenue of Great Britain, relative to her number of inhabitants, than those of Ireland, relative to hers, that proportion of twofifths may surely be reduced to one-fifth. It ought to be reduced even lower, were not allowances to be made for the rapid increase of Irish wealth and prosperity, in consequence of Ireland's becoming a part of Great Britain.

The proportion of 100 members for Ireland is not greater than 45 for Scotland, if this latter country contains 1,800,000 souls, and the former 4,000,000, and the two countries, being nearly equal in point of wealth, should be represented according to their population. By lopping off 58 or even a somewhat greater number from the English and Welsh representation of 513, the Scotch representation of 45 members would bear a greater proportion to that reduced number than they do at present, so as, instead of one-twelfth, to become one-tenth of

the whole. This would operate as a kind of partial reform in Scotland in respect of her quota of representation, should it be thought too low.

If 40 Irish Lay Peers be chosen by the entire Lay Peers of Ireland, and five Ecclesiastical ones, to be chosen by the Bishops, to represent the Irish House of Peers in the Parliament of the Empire, this would be a smaller quota of representation than that proposed in the Lower House, being somewhat less than one-sixth of the entire number of Peers in the Parliament of Great Britain. But, first, if the Scotch House have 16, the Irish ought to have nearly 40 Lay Peers, by virtue of the respective population of the two countries; and the security of the Scotch national religion, by her Act of Union, may be looked on as an equivalent for the additional five Ecclesiastical Irish Peers, of whom she has none to send. Second, by allowing Ireland one-fifth of the representation in the Lower House, much more is conceded to her than the respective revenues of the two Islands would admit, and, therefore, even less than one-sixth of the representation in the Upper House may reasonably content her.

But, besides, as all Irish Peers would be capable of being made Peers of the Empire in their own right, no objection to the smallness of the number, 45, ought to be entertained. If it is said that a Bishop, being a sole corporation, cannot, therefore, alienate his right of sitting in the House and dispose of it to another by election, this objection is futile. An Act of Parliament is boundless in its operation, and can dissolve corporations, whether sole or aggregate; as in every State there must be somewhere or other a supreme power.

Ireland must submit to a land-tax, whether she obtains a Union or not. The increasing expences of the war will drive her to this; as the magnanimous example of England, in raising so much of the supplies within the year, will bring the landed gentlemen forward to set bounds to the system of borrowing-a system which will every year become more difficult.

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