" The opponents of the measure insisted, that the repre sentatives of a nation were not vested with a power of abo lishing its independence by the transfer of its sot ereignty, or right of legislation, to any foreign country ; that such a transfer, without the general consent of the people, ought to be resisted, as a dissolution of the existing go vernment, and inttoductive of anarchy : that a local par liament, best acquainted with the habits, prejudices, and dispositions of their fellow subjects, ever present on the spot to administer immediate relict' to their warts, or guard against their excesses, was preferable to a foreign legis lature, unacquainted with the state of the people, and too distant to receive information, or apply the proper reme dies in due time : that the Irish members in the imperial Parliament would become, as the Scotch in that of Great Britain had become already, the tools of administration, to the increase of the undue influence of the crown : that the evil of absentees would be nearly doubled, to the intolera ble augmentation of the exhausting drain of money, and the abandonment of the tenantry to the tyranny of agents, who would abuse their delegated power to the gratification of their pride and avarice : that, by the absence of tire bishops from their dioceses, in consequence of their at tendance upon the Imperial Parliament, the inferiorclergy would be neglected, to the growth of irreligion, and the dis couragement of literature : that the national importance of the Irish would be annihilated by the degradation of their country from the rank of a kingdom : and that whatever concessions should, in return for her sacrifices, be made to Ireland in the compact of union, might at any time after wards be cancelled by the Imperial Parliament, from its vast majority of English members." " The advocates of the incorporating system contended, that in every government is inherent a despotic power for the maintenance of order, the enacting of laws, and for the making of alterations occasionally in its own constitu tion, for its adaptation to successive changes of circum stances, which in the course of human affairs inevitably take place that this power is lodged, according to the British system, conjointly in the king, the lords; and the representatives of the people : that the modification now proposed was, no surrendry of independence, but an inti mate conjunction with the sister island, on honourable terms,--no subversion, but a change of the constitution : that, to deny the competence of parliament fur the effect ing of this change, would be to deny the validity of the act by which England and Scotland had been incorporated, and consequently to deny the right of his present Majesty to the crown of the united kingdom, which was founded on the 2d article of that act : that otherwise than through their representatives in parliament, the consent of the peo ple could only be collected from the opinions of the well informed, the reflecting and disinterested part of the na tion: that, to these, the measure proposed was an object of desire : that, whatever might be the advantages to Ireland from her local parliament, the disadvantages were far greater : that the feeble bond, by which the two king doms were connected, was in danger of being broken by a disagreement of the two legislatures, of which an alarm ing instance in the appointment of a regent had lately oc curred : that by the distinctness of her legislature, Ireland was excluded from commercial advantages, as had ap peared in the case of the commercial propositions, which had from political jealousy arising from this distinctness: that this boasted national parliament was founded on no national basis, but on the pretensions of a few to a monopoly of tire government and resources of the whole,---a puny and rapacious oligarchy, who considered the nation as their political inheritance, and were ready to sacrifice the public peace and happiness to their insatiate love of patronage and power : that for the demolition of this oligarchical tyranny, and the curbing of violent fac tions, by which the nation was distracted and oppressed, recourse should be had to a legislature superior to local prejudices, and remote from the baneful influence of party: that the Irish members in the imperial parliament could nut be tools of the minister in a higher degree, nor with snore ex pence to the nation, than the local parliament had already been, in which were 116 plaeemen and pensioners: that the augmentation of the evil arising from the absen tees would be more than counterbalanced by new advan tages, particularly those of commerce : that the persons who now made the increase of absentees an argument against the union had not long belirre opposed the design of a remedy for this evil, the pi oposai of a tax on absentees, which administration had offer ed to support : that the ne cessary absence of bishops from the clergy under their care, by their attendance in the Imperial Parliament, would occur so seldom, as not in the slightest degree to prevent them front performing their duty in rewarding merit, if such should be their inclination: that the politi cal amalgamation of the Irish with the people of Great Britain could not be a declension from national dignity : and that the infraction of the compact with Ireland could not with more reason be apprehended from the Imperial Parliament, than the disfranchisement of Scotland, of Wales, or of Yorkshire."
On the 2Ist of May, on a motion that leave be given to bring in a bill for the union into tile House of Commons, there were 160 for it, and 100 against it. On the second reading of the bill, on the 26th of the same month, Mr. Grattan moved to defer the business till the I st of August; but only 87 voted in support of this motion, and 124 against it. On the 5th of June, the bill passed the committee. In the House of Lords, where there was less opposition. it was read a third time on the 13'11 of June. The subject being again introduced into tire British Parliament, it was dis cussed in both Houses; and on the 2d of July received the royal assent.
The articles of union were partly commercial, or relat ing to revenue, and partly political. The regulations of commerce (lid not materially differ from the propositions of 1785. The proportion of revenue to be raised in the two kingdoms was fixed by a comparison of their aggre gate exports and imports, and their consumption of certain kinds of merchandize. By this rule, Ireland was to raise two pails of the revenue, for every fifteen raised by Great Britain during the first twenty years a ker the union. At the termination of this period, the proportion was to he re gulated by parliament. One hundred commoners from Ireland were to sit in the imperial parliament, two for each county, two for each of the cities of Dublin and Cork, one for tire university, and one fur each of the SI most consi derable towns. The of the disfranchised bo roughs were to receive a pecuniary compensation. Four lords spiritual, by rotation of sessions, and 28 lord tempo ral, elected for life by the Peers of Ireland, were to sit in the House of Lords. The first of January, 1801, was fixed as the commencement of the union.
From the period of the union, the history of Ireland na falls into that of BRITAIN ; but we shall here cur sorily notice such transactions GI' proceedings in the Im perial Parliament, as more diteetly relate to this country.
In the first session of the Imperial Parliament, a bill was passed for indemnifying all persons concerned in the secur ing, imprisoning, and detaining individuals, under the sus pension of the habeas corpus act, or in the performance of any acts done for the preservation of the public peace, and suppression of rebellions and insurrections in Ireland, since March, 1799.
Ireland appeared to be gradually subsiding into a state of comparative tranquillity, when, in the summer of 1803, it was suddenly agitated by a considerable though short lived alarm. The constitution was attempted to be subverted by the violence of a few men, the rashness of whose at tempt was scarcely ever paralleled. The leaders were Robert Emmett and Thomas Russel, both of whom had experienced the clemency of government in 1798 ; the former was brother to the Emmett who was one of the di rectory at that period. The centre of the plot was Dub lin, where these men had collected a few arms, and hoped, by the assistance of a moh, to seize the castle, which was protected by upwards of 2000 soldiers. The of July was the day fixed upon for the insurrection. On the morn ing of that day a crowd of country people from the county of Kildare entered the capital ; a signal was given by the firing of rockets, and the doors of the depot of arms were opened. The number of the insurgents is supposed to have been about 500. The time of their opera tions was late in the evening ; and while the moh were the most furious, they met Lord Kilwarden, the lord chief jus tice of the King's Bench, his daughter Miss Wolfe, and his nephew Mr. Wolfe. The two gentlemen were drag ged from their carriage and murdered. Miss Wolfe ef fected her escape, and fled to the castle, where she gave the alarm. Their only martial effort was an attack on an outpost, defended by a few soldiers, whom they overpow ered and put to death. But being themselves attacked by about 120 soldiers, they were dispersed in a short time, and the whole insurrection was extinguished. Emmett, Russel, and some others of the leaders, were tried, con demned, and executed. A royal message was sent down to parliament, announcing the insurrection and its end, in which it was recommended that measures should be taken for the suppression of the rebellious spirit from which the insurrection had originated ; and a bill for trying the re bels in Ireland by martial law, and another for suspending the habeas corpus act, were passed. Emmett, Russel, &c. were however tried, not by a court martial, but a special commission.
As the spirit of insurrection still lurked in various parts of the country, and broke forth in various acts of outrage, in 1807, Sir Arthur Wellesley, who was then secretary to the lord lieutenant, moved, in the House of Commons, for leave to bring in a bill, the provisions of which were the same with those of the insurrection act of so far as they gave power to the Lord Lieutenant to proclaim dis turbed counties, and authority to the magistrates to arrest persons found out of their dwelling-houses between sunset and sunrise ; but it was enacted, that persons so arrested should be tried at the quarter sessions by the magistrates and assistant barristers, with the addition of a king's coun sel sent for the purpose. Another bill was passed to pre vent improper persons from keeping arms. These bills were opposed strongly, but their necessity was admitted by Mr. Grattan.