strenuously fought the union, none stands higher than Henry Grattan, a portion of whose finest speech in opposition to the measure is given below. I have done with the pile which the minister batters — I come to the Babel which he builds — and, as he throws down without a principle, so does he construct without a foundation. This fabric he calls an union; and to this his fabric there are two striking objections. First, it is no union - it is not an identification of the people, for it excludes the catholics: 2dly, It is a consolidation of the legislatures; that is to say, it merges the Irish parliament, and incurs every objection to an union, without obtaining the only object which an union professes: it is an extinction of the constitution, and an exclusion of the people. I say, he excludes the catholics for ever, and for the very reason which he and his advocates hold out as the ground of expectation - that hereafter, in a course of time (he does not say when), if they behave themselves (he does not say how), they may see their case submitted to a course of discussion (he does not say with what result or determination); and, as the ground for the inane period, in which he promises nothing, in which he can promise nothing, and in which, if he did promise much, he would at so remote a period be able to perform nothing, unless he, like the evil he has accomplished, be immortal; for this inate sentence, in which he can scarcely be said to deceive the catholic, or suffer the catholic to deceive himself, he exhibits no other ground than the physical inanity of the catholic body accomplished by an union, which, as it destroys the relative importance of Ireland, destroys also the relative proportion of its catholic inhabitants, who thus become admissible, because they cease to be any thing. Hence, according to him, their brilliant expectation; "you were," say his advocates, and so imports his argument, "before the union, as three to one you will be by the union as one to four." Thus he founds their hopes of political power on the extinction of physical consequence, and makes the inanity of their body and the non-entity of their country the pillars of their future ambition. Let me add, that even if catholics should be admitted into parliament by the articles of union, it would be of little avail to the body. What signifies it to the body, whether a catholic individual be an insignificant unit in the English parliament or in the street; in either case he would be nothing he would belong to nothing he would have nothing to which he could belong no Irish nation. no country no Irish people (History of the Union of the Kingdoms of Great Britain and Ireland, C. Coote, Lond., 1802. p. 322.) 208. Act of Union between Great Britain and Ireland Statutes of the Realm The union between Great Britain and Ireland was the result of fraud, trickery, and coercion, combined with good intentions and upright dealing. The union was not popular at its formation, nor has it ever become so. The ties existing between England and Ireland have from the earliest history of the two countries been of the nature of chains. The Irish antagonism to England has never faltered, though it has changed in nature and expression. Yet the union has been maintained for more than a century, and is not likely to become dissolved in the near future. UNION BETWEEN GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND (40 GEO. III, c. 67. July 2, 1800) AN ACT FOR THE UNION OF GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND (Preamble) That it be the first article of the Union of the kingdoms of Great Britain and Ireland, that the said kingdoms of Great Britain and Ireland shall, upon the first day of January which shall be in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and one, and for ever after, be united into one kingdom, by the name of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland; and that the royal style and titles appertaining to the imperial crown of the said united kingdom and its dependencies; and also the ensigns, armorial flags, and banners thereof, shall be such as his Majesty, by his royal proclamation under the great seal of the united kingdom, shall be pleased to appoint. ARTICLE II That it be the second article of Union, that the succession to the imperial crown of the said united kingdom, and of the dominions thereunto belonging, shall continue limited and settled in the same manner as the succession to the imperial crown of the said kingdoms of Great Britain and Ireland now stands limited and settled, according to the existing laws, and to the terms of Union between England and Scotland. ARTICLE III That it be the third article of Union, that the said united kingdom be represented in one and the same Parliament, to be styled The Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. ARTICLE IV That it be the fourth article of Union, that four Lords Spiritual of Ireland by rotations of sessions, and twenty-eight Lords Temporal of Ireland elected for life by the peers of Ireland, shall be the number to sit and vote on the part of Ireland in the House of Lords of the Parliament of the united kingdom; and one hundred commoners (two for each county of Ireland, two for the city of Dublin, two for the city of Cork, one for the university of Trinity College, and one for each of the thirty-one most considerable cities, towns, and boroughs) be the number to sit and vote on the part of Ireland in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the united kingdom: That such Act as shall be passed in the Parliament of Ireland previous to the Union, to regulate the mode by which the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, to serve in the Parliament of the united kingdom on the part of Ireland, shall be summoned and returned to the said Parliament, shall be considered as forming part of the treaty of Union, and shall be incorporated in the Act of the respective Parliaments by which the said Union shall be ratified and established: That all questions touching the rotation or election of Lords Spiritual or Temporal of Ireland to sit in the Parliament of the united kingdom, shall be decided by the House of Lords thereof; and whenever, by reason of an equality of votes in the election of any such Lords Temporal, a complete election shall not be made according to the true intent of this article, the names of those peers for whom such equality of votes shall be so given, shall be written on pieces of paper of a similar form, and shall be put into a glass, by the Clerk of the Parliament at the table of the House of Lords whilst the House is sitting; and the peer or peers whose name or names shall be first drawn out by the Clerk of the Parliaments, shall be deemed the peer or peers elected, as the case may be: That any person holding any peerage of Ireland now subsisting, or hereafter to be created, shall not thereby be dis qualified from being elected to serve, if he shall so think fit, or from serving or continuing to serve, if he shall so think fit, for any county, city, or borough of Great Britain, in the House of Commons of the united kingdom, unless he shall have been previously elected as above, to sit in the House of Lords of the united kingdom; but that so long as such peer of Ireland shall so continue to be a member of the House of Commons, he shall not be entitled to the privilege of peerage, nor be capable of being elected to serve as a peer on the part of Ireland, or of voting at any such election; and that he shall be liable to be sued, indicted, proceeeded against, and tried as a commoner, for any offence with which he may be charged: That it shall be lawful for his Majesty, his heirs and successors, to create peers of that part of the united kingdom called Ireland, and to make promotions in the peerage thereof, after the Union; provided that no new creation of any such peers shall take place after the Union until three of the peerages of Ireland, which shall have been existing at the time of the Union, shall have become extinct; and upon such extinction of three peerages, that it shall be lawful for his Majesty, his heirs and successors, to create one peer of that part of the united kingdom called Ireland; and in like manner as often as three peerages of that part of the united kingdom called Ireland shall become extinct, it shall be lawful for his Majesty, his heirs and successors, to create one other peer of the said part of the united kingdom; and if it shall happen that the peers of that part of the united kingdom called Ireland shall, by extinction of peerages or otherwise, be reduced to the number of one hundred, exclusive of all such peers of that part of the united kingdom called Ireland, as shall hold any peerage of Great Britain subsisting at the time of the Union, or of the united kingdom, created since the Union, by which such peers shall be entitled to an hereditary seat in the House of Lords of the united kingdom, then and in that case it shall and may be lawful for his Majesty, his heirs and successors, to create one peer of that part of the united kingdom called Ireland, as often as any one of such hundred peerages shall fail by extinction, or as often as any one peer of that part of the united kingdom called Ireland shall become entitled, by descent or creation, to an hereditary seat in the House of Lords of the united kingdom; it being the true intent and meaning of this article, that at all times after the Union, it shall and may be lawful for his Majesty, his heirs and successors, to keep up the peerage of that part of the united kingdom called Ireland to the number of one hundred, over and above the number of such of the said peers as shall be entitled, by descent or creation, to an hereditary seat in the House of Lords of the united kingdom: That if any peerage shall at any time be in abeyance, such peerage shall be deemed and taken as an existing peerage; and no peerage shall be deemed extinct, unless on default of claimants to the inheritance of such peerage for the space of one year from the death of the person who shall have been last possessed thereof; and if no claim shall be made to the inheritance of such peerage, in such form and manner as may from time to time be prescribed by the House of Lords of the united kingdom, before the expiration, of the said period of a year, then and in that case such peerage shall be deemed extinct; provided that nothing herein shall exclude any person from afterwards putting in a claim to the peerage so deemed extinct; and if such claim shall be allowed as valid, by judgment of the House of Lords of the united kingdom, reported to his Majesty, such peerage shall be considered as revived; and in case any new creation of a peerage of that part of the united kingdom called Ireland, shall have taken place in the interval, in consequence of the supposed extinction of such peerage, then no new right of creation shall accrue to his Majesty, his heirs or successors, in consequence of the next extinction which shall take place of any peerage of that part of the united kingdom called Ireland: That all questions touching the election of members to sit on the part of Ireland in the House of Commons of the united kingdom shall be heard and decided in the same manner as questions touching such elections in Great Britain now are, or at any time hereafter shall by law be heard and decided; subject nevertheless to such particular regulations in respect of Ireland as, from local circumstances, the Parliament of the united kingdom may from time to time deem expedient. That the qualifications in respect of property of the members elected on the part of Ireland to sit in the House of Commons of the united kingdom, shall be respectively the same as are now provided by law in the cases of elections for counties and cities and boroughs respectively in that part of Great Britain called England, unless any other provision shall hereafter be made in that respect by Act of Parliament of the united kingdom. |