XXII. 1785. BOOK ing to which you are to surrender for ever? Have you surveyed the settlements of the several European nations in Asia, in Africa, in America? Have you considered the state of North America-its present situation, its future growth, and every incident in the endless succession of time that may attend that nurse of commerce and ASYLUM of MANKIND? Are you competent to declare, that a free trade to those vast regions will never in the efflux of time tend to the advancement of the interests of Ireland? If you possess satisfactory information upon this subject, it must be by inspiration, not by knowledge.-Let us then guard our free trade and free constitution as our only real resources. They are the result of great virtue, of much perseverance, and the source to this house of immortal honor. Let us preserve uncontaminated to the latest generations the dignity of parliament, the majesty of the people, and the imperial sovereignty of the Irish crown and nation." The feelings of the parliament and of the people of Ireland were on this subject in perfect unison. Scarcely could the great and acknowledged talents of Mr. Fitzgibbon obtain him any share of attention when he rose to speak in vindication of a measure so supremely obnoxious. “If England relaxed her navigation laws in favor of Ireland, she had a right (Mr. Fitzgibbon affirmed) to expect to be followed by her in a code of laws which 1785. had been the source of her commercial opulence, BOOK and the basis of her maritime strength. It had XXII. been insinuated, that they could trade to more advantage with the colonies of foreign states. But what foreign states would allow them to trade with their colonies? Who was to protect them if foreign states refused to do them justice? Or who was to assert their rights, supposing them to be violated? When an arrangement so advantageous was offered to Ireland, for what reason was it that she hesitated and demurred? Because she is told that the treaty struck at the independence of her legislature. But it is as an independent power that Ireland has negotiated. It is as to an inde pendent power that the overtures of Britain are made. An arrangement of trade could not be agreed upon between two nations, unless they settled at the same time principles of mutual restriction; and if the Irish nation would never condescend to promise compliance with any condition of a treaty, she must determine never to make any commercial treaty, or any treaty whatever." Mr. Fitzgibbon concluded a most able speech, by re, marking," that whatever might have been intimated concerning the possibility of Ireland standing alone, he was convinced that, situated as she was in the neighbourhood of powerful Popish countries, with a great majority of her people of the Popish religion, she could not exist one hour XXII. 1785. BOOK as a Protestant state if the protection of England were withdrawn." After a vehement debate, in which both parties exerted their utmost ability and eloquence, the house divided at nine in the morning upon the motion of Mr. Orde for leave to bring in the bill, ayes 127, noes 108. Such a division in the first stage of the business was equivalent to a defeat: and on the Monday following, Mr. Orde moved the first reading of the bill and the printing it; declaring, that he did not intend to make any further progress in the business dur. ing the present session. He had completed his duty respecting it. If it were revived, it must be by a motion from the public, who at the commencement of the ensuing session might take such further steps as they thought proper. Their final rejection by the Irish parliament. In order to preclude a motion of censure framed by Mr. Flood, the secretary then moved an adjournment; and Mr. Flood consenting, not without difficulty, to wave his motion, the adjournment was carried without a division. Public illuminations testified the joy excited by the sudden termination of this extraordinary business; and from this period no effort has been made in either kingdom to revive in any shape this important and interesting discussion. Upon the whole, though it might perhaps justly be regarded as too daring an experiment, the probability is, that a commercial treaty founded on XXII. 1785. the basis of the original propositions would have BOOK proved very beneficial in practice. The prodigious inferiority of skill, of credit, and of capital, must have effectually prevented Ireland from becoming formidable as a competitor to England; and in proportion as Ireland advanced in opulence, her artificial wants would have increased, and consequently her consumption of British manufactures and commodities. Notwithstanding the great alarm excited when the first commercial concessions were made to Ireland, no detriment was in fact sustained by Great Britain on the contrary, the trade to England continued rapidly to increase, even in regard to those very articles which Ireland was allowed to import from the place of their growth and produce. From the year 1781 to the year 1784 muscovado sugars imported from the West Indies rose from 7,384 cwt. to 27,492 cwt.; and in the same term sugars imported from Britain rose from 130,056 to 160,c83 cwt. Another remarkable fact is, that the linen manufacture both in England and Scotland has flourished with constant and regular acceleration, notwithstanding the unlimited competition of the Irish nation. According to a seven years' average, ending A. D. 1755, not more than 576,373 yards were exported from England; and in the year 1771 the export amounted to no less than 4,411,040 yards. Why XXII. 1786. BOOK then might not a similar competition be as safely and advantageously established in other branches of commerce? These arithmetical statements show to a demonstration the extreme weakness and futility of those fears and apprehensions which are so apt to agitate the mercantile world at the slightest breath of innovation, and their total incompetency to deduce, from a comprehensive and impartial survey of the whole system, just and accurate conclusions. Considering, nevertheless, the narrow limits of the highest human sagacity, it must be acknowledged that prudence would have dictated a temporary duration to this commercial arrangement, in order to bring the utility of it to the infallible touchstone of experience. As to the fourth proposition of the English series, which was the immediate cause of the virtual rejection of the whole, it might in all probability have been very safely dispensed with, as there is no reason to doubt but that Ireland would have spontaneously adopted with good-faith and good-will any regulations necessary to enforce a treaty which she found upon the whole conducive to her prosperity; and the perpetuity of which must have been, in some mode explicit or implicit, made to depend upon such adoption. Session of parliament. The parliament of Great Britain, after a tranquil interval of a few months, met on the 24th of January, 1786. In the speech from the throne |