triennial parliaments, they could be soon dismissed. Thus
would I unite Ireland to England. Thus would I restore
her absentee lords, and the several millions of British
currency which they have annually drained from their
exhausted country, since that called " the act of Union "
made England the theatre of their parliamentary career,
and, as a necessary consequence, the scene of their residence
and pleasures.
It remains now that I should point out the nature of that
reform in the Commons house of parliament, and in the
system of election, by which I conceive Ireland would be
protected from venality, and from all dangerous excesses ;
and this I shall endeavour to do in a few words.
First, Triennial Parliaments, as they were enjoyed by
England in the reign of William III. Secondly, Vote by
Ballot. Thirdly, The representation of all populous towns,
with a vote to all inhabitants paying a certain rent.
Fourthly, A reduction in the property qualification of a
Representative. Fifthly, The 10 freehold franchise as it
now stands. Sixthly, The extension of that franchise to
chattel property of 100 and upwards; and, Lastly, To all
the liberal and literary professions, without any property
qualification whatever, they being obviously the best qua-
lified of any classes in society to exercise their franchise for
the public good ; contributing also more largely to the
80 IRELAND,
expenses of the State, by the excisable commodities which
they consume, than any similar number of electors of small
freeholds, and by their knowledge and talents, to the edu-
cation of the rising generation, and to the irradiation of the
public mind, and consequently to the strength and power
of a free State, than all the other classes of society put
together ; and yet, strange to say, the privilege which for
so many years was conceded to the naked peasantry of Ire-
land (in order to serve the electioneering purposes of their
masters), has been withheld from the literary professions,
by what in common parlance is called a liberal Govern-
ment ! ! !
With a parliament thus constituted, and under a congress
of the ablest men in the British Empire, no capital or car-
dinal abuse could long remain uncorrected, particularly in
an age of general information, with the schoolmaster abroad,
and the press at home, to keep that parliament to its duties.
In the above outline of Reform I have made no allusion
to the abuses of the law department (those shameful abuses,
by which families are ruined, and justice turned into deri-
sion at her own temple gates,) nor to the corruptions in any
other department of our social system, it being the proper
office of the legislature to correct these abuses ; and knowing
that a reformed parliament could not sit for twelve months
in either country, without laying their hand vigorously
to the plough of reformation, and rooting out those rank
weeds from the political soil of Britain (land of the brave,
land of the fair, what a pity that it should be the land of
corruption) that have choked the good seed, and blasted
those flattering prospects of a rich harvest, that were held
out to her children by the Bill of Rights, and by the Pro-
testant Reformation and Revolution !
The fourth and last objection (and in reference to the
country at large, the least capable of proof that has been yet
advanced) to the restoration of our local legislature, is that
of the great advantages we have derived from British com-
mercial connection, by the Act of Union.
AUTHOR'S LETTER TO THE KING. 81
It cannot be expected that in a limited article like this,
I should enter into an exact debtor and creditor account
between England and Ireland for the last thirty years ; but
if the insolvent and bankrupt calendars within that period
be carefully compared with the preceding thirty years,
when Ireland basked under the shade of a domestic legisla-
ture (imperfect as that legislature was) if the state of our
linen and woollen manufactures, both in a highly flourishing
condition at the commencement of that hapless Act, and
for some time after if the state of the manufacturing popu-
lation of Dublin, of the houses of lunacy and mendicity, of
the spectacles of misery in the public streets, the inmates ot
the public hospitals, and other sure tests of the influence of
a political system upon the state of a country, including the
unemployed and starving state of the peasantry in the rural
districts (many of whom, with their wives and children,
have been turned adrift upon the world by the subletting
Act) If all these put together, may be regarded as any evi-
dence of the advantages which Ireland has derived from that
famous Act, why then we cannot be much at a loss for a true
conclusion ; and if any man of common sense, and of com-
mon honesty, who knows Ireland now, and who knew her
as well as I did before that Act took place, will place his
hand upon his breast, and say, that these evils, with a
domestic legislature, would have risen to their present height,
I should of course believe that he spoke as he thought, but
would infer that his intercourse with the country had been
very partial.
Truth, however, compels me to say (and in all my public
labours it has been the wish of my heart to yield obedience
to her injunctions,) that many of my poorer country folk,
though not all, might, by temperance and a strict economy,
have mitigated the hardships of their low condition. With
warm feelings, and a generosity of heart that is seldom
equalled, they are, too frequently, bad economists, and
thoughtless of the future. They act up indeed to the letter
of that scripture precept, " take no thought for the morrow."
G
82 IRELAND,
Their attachment to ardent spirits is another source of their
misfortunes, and I confess I cannot but wish (although I
would not myself contribute by unfair means to a reduction
of your Majesty's revenue,) that the Exchequer derived a
something less from their consumption of this ardent fluid,
however necessary and useful it may prove at certain times,
in this cold and humid climate. The practicability of such a
change in the habits of the Irish peasantry, was evinced not
long since on a great political occasion ; and as the possibi-
lity of its accomplishment is hence evident, I sincerely wish
that the influence by which alone that change could be
effected, may be once more set iu motion, and steadily exerted,
until temperance shall become a characteristic virtue of the
nation.
It is fair also to acknowledge, that the whole amount of
the decline of our staple trade (the linen manufacture) is not
imputable to the act of Union this fabric, so infinitely
superior in strength and duration to goods manufactured of
cotton wool, was nevertheless put down by an all prevalent
argument in times of public distress the cheapness of the
latter ; and to the consumer who could procure no better, it
was all one, whether they were manufactured here or in the
sister country. Whether an Irish parliament would have
been able by legislative protection to have maintained the
competition of the linen manufacture with the cotton and
capital of England, appears extremely doubtful; but cer-
tainly, if any trade produced by the ingenuity of man had a
claim (not only on the ground of its commercial, but of its
amazing moral influence upon the population of Ulster) to
artificial support, it was this ; for by it, from the sowing of
the flax to the bleaching of the linen, the entire population
were employed from it they drew, not only the sources of
plenty but of wealth ; and by it a most pleasant and profit-
able intercourse was maintained between all the ranks and
classes of society, from the landlord to the weaver on his
loom ; and the labours of the latter being blended with the
labours of the field ; the healthiest, the most cleanly, the most
AUTHOR'S LETTER TO THE KING. 83
industrious, the most prosperous, and the most independent
peasantry that ever the world produced, was to be found in
that Province. The scene, however, in most parts of that
once flourishing 1 district, has experienced an awful revolu-
tion England has got possession, not only of our woollen
trade, but of a large proportion of our linen also ; although
the latter (upon giving up the former) had been conceded to
Ireland, and placed under strong protection, by a solemn
compact. Indeed England has been too cunning and too
strong for Ireland at all times in every bargain she labours
hard to keep the best handle to herself; and in proportion
as she makes her neighbour weak, she makes herself strong
by progressive infringements. This to be sure is the usual
course of trade, but it is a policy perhaps better suited to a
distant colony than to a country bordering on our own, and
irresistibly pressing upon our resources, by the wants of an
overwhelming population. Under such circumstances I am
convinced, as I am of the truth of my existence, that so
powerful a remedial measure could not be devised by Eng-
land for her own relief, as that of compelling Ireland to legis-
late on all her own local concerns, by which means the latter
country would be enabled to draw forth her resources, give
full employment to her people, and contribute much more
largely to the expenses of the state, than it is possible for her
to do, borne down as she now is by an unemployed and
rapidly increasing population, with the life exhausting drain
of absenteeism upon all her resources ; and lastly, England
would rid herself of a vast deal of trouble, which the manage-
ment of Irish affairs now gives her.
With regard to the absentee system, that conspicuous and
ruinous result of the act of Union ; it is somewhat curious
that the London journalists who are perpetually abusing us
for calling for a repeal of that act, should comically remind
us of all those great corn and other provision exports which
we send to England, in order to put the amount into the
pockets of the absentee landlords, as if we derived any benefit
whatever from these exports. The corn merchant, holding
84 IRELAND,
over for a good market, may profit ; but the cultivator of the
soil, who must sell when his rent is due, and who cannot
taste a morsel of the bread, the butter, or the pork, which he
raises by his industry, how does he profit ? Eh ! Cockney,
wilt thou answer that ? If thou art a Cockney Editor, thou
may indeed come in for a part of the plunder of our country ;
of that income of our land which the absentee distributes
among thee and thy neighbours ; but although it may be
natural enough for thee to bark and snarl, when we seek to
get back that bread of our country which thou devotfrest,
still it is too bad for thee to add insult to injury, by remind-
ing us of our exports ! might they not as well be buried in
the sea, and the throats of our beef cows cut upon the pas-
sage, as to be sent to absentee Landlords, who fill thy hungry
craw, and give us nothing in return for the produce of our
labours, but the bitters of thy goose quill ?
If the seven millions annually (amounting to two hundred
and ten millions in thirty years) thus and otherwise aliena-
ted from Ireland, without yielding to her any equivalent
advantage in return if these, with the abuses of the law
and of the church property (which a reformed parliament
would have corrected) if expensive military and police
establishments (necessary at all times on a moderate scale
of expense to the purposes of good government, but con-
ducted on a most extravagant scale of expense under the
existing system) in aid of those gagging bills to which the
Protestants of Ireland have been compelled to submit, as
the price of Roman Catholic emancipation. If these are
the gifts which England, by her legislative union and other
acts of her government, have conferred upon our country,
we cannot much boast of the political or commercial advan-
tages that we have derived from her connexion, notwith-
standing a certain proportion of our merchants (and let these
be compared with the number of the broken and the bank-
rupt) may have derived some peculiar advantages from their
intercourse with a country, whose men of business are dis-
tinguished in every quarter of the globe, by those generous
AUTHOR'S LETTER TO THE KING. 85
virtues and manly enterprising qualities, which belong to
the first commercial nation in the world. But these in-
stances of good fortune are too partial to be erected into an
argument in favour of the Legislative Union. Had that
Union never taken place, the benefits of our intercourse
with England would have been much more general and
extensive, as the two hundred and ten millions extracted
from Ireland by that baneful measure, would have formed a
capital that would have enabled us to have dealt much more
largely with the sister country ; and from my own know-
ledge I can assert, that Ireland, previous to the Union,
flourished in almost every department of her inland trade,
that every guinea embarked in business produced nearly as
much profit as three do now, (the whole of this reduction
however not being exclusively imputable to the Union, but
to it in connexion with other causes) that Mendicity, which
was then a partial evil, is now a general curse; and although
it is said that a Mr. O'Callaghan (having perhaps largely
profited by the sale of pork to England) asserted, in the
House of Commons, that no respectable man in Ireland
would advocate a Repeal of the Legislative Union, yet there
is the strongest presumptive proof that the fat of this gentle-
man's bacon had so deeply injured his vision, that he could
not distinguish between the respectable and disrespectable
classes of his countrymen ; for there are hundreds of thou-
sands of respectable Irishmen (if that term may be conceded
to any who do not deal in pork) that are now ardently long-
ing for the restoration of that Parliament, by which alone
our absentee Lords, and the income of our soil, can be
restored to the people who produce the latter by their
labour.
Sire a parliament is to a country, what the sun is to the
solar system the source of light and heat, and the centre of
attraction to the surrounding planets. We beseech you,
therefore, Sire, as an injured nation to whom your Majesty
is dear, cause that sun of our prosperity to be restored to us,
of which we have been deprived, by the Act of Union ; that
86 IRELAND,
centre of attraction to our absent planets, of which Ireland
has been deprived, by a course of treachery upon the one
hand, and of political suicide upon the other, to which no law
bottomed in justice, and no constitution founded in liberty
could be a legal partner.
Take the sun from the system of the universe, and only
conceive, Sire, what the inhabitants of this planet (if in its
absence they could indeed live) would say to Mr. O'Calla-
ghan, the pork philosopher, if he came to reason with them
upon the advantages of its establishment in another and
more distant system. Undoubtedly if it were possible for
the inhabitants of the earth to live in the absence of the
sun, they would answer the philosopher of pork, by casting
his bacon overboard, to reason with the darkness of the deep
abyss to which they had so deservedly consigned it.
As well might the enemies of Ireland think of sending
Davy the tailor on his lap-board to the moon, to snuff out
that planet with his shears, and to extinguish the seven
stars with his thimble, as to put an extinguisher upon a
question which has its origin in the necessities of a nation.
As well might they think of driving old Ocean to his source,
as of driving back eight millions of people into their primi-
tive nothingness ; but between this alternative, and the esta-
blishment of a local legislature for the redress of grievances
in Ireland, I can see no medium ; for the restoration of her
parliament is not a question of sedition (as the London press
falsely asserts), but a vital question of EXISTENCE.
I have now noticed, and met, a few of the principal
objections that have been urged against a Repeal of the
Act of Union. I have also selected a few of the principal
arguments that may be fairly put forward in support of the
re-establishment of a house of legislature in this country ;
and having discharged these duties, I humbly hope, fully
and fairly, I have next to examine whether the restoration
of the Irish Parliament in a new and reformed character,
and under the control and direction of an imperial congress,
would promote the commercial interests of the two countries,
AUTHOR'S LETTER TO THE KING. 87
all the valuable objects of an essential union, and largely
contribute to the unity and power of the British empire.
It would be an insult to common sense to go about to
prove, by laboured arithmetical details, the superior advan-
tages that England would derive from her commerce with
Ireland, if the latter country were in the full possession of
her own income, and of a legislature capable of bringing
into effectual operation, the numerous virgin resources of
one of the most fertile countries on the globe, and the most
eminently distinguished by mineral wealth, and other great
facilities for an extensive commerce. Nature, in her ad-
mirable economy, has given to every country in the world
certain characteristic advantages; and to encourage the full
development of these advantages, is the province of a wise
policy ; but this policy can never be carried into effectual
operation (more particularly in countries that have tasted
the sweets of liberty) without the aid of local legislatures.
It is through them that a wise government will work into
view the full resources of its territory, and by cultivating a
spirit of liberty and a love of law, in connection with the
useful arts, render these resources tributary to the wealth
and power of the state ; and if a political cord was ever
conceived by the human imagination, more capable than
another of drawing the numerous interests of an extensive
empire towards one common centre, and of uniting them in
the bands of a common interest and a common charity, it is
that of local legislatures, under one crown and one congress.
But to accomplish the good which these are capable of pro-
ducing, they must be established upon reformed principles,
and justice, by being administered at the public expense,
must be rendered accessible to the injured citizen, without
money or without price, leaving property to support all the
necessary expenses of the state by an equitable system of
taxation.
Having now laid down the self-evident foundations upon
which the unity and prosperity of the two countries could
be best promoted, I shall leave to some able financier the
88 IRELAND,
task of exhibiting 1 , by arithmetical tables, the profits that
England would derive from the increased sale of her manu-
factures in Ireland, which, with a legislature of her own,
would soon become one of the richest countries in the world.
Nor is this an idle theory : for if with a corrupt parliament,
such as she formerly possessed, she enjoyed peace and plenty
even to a proverb, how much greater would be her advan-
tages under a reformed system, in which none would have
to complain of oppression, and none of peculiar privileges.
To England she would be a granary of life, and England
would be to her a storehouse of manufactures ; for Ireland,
with her utmost industry, would not be able to arrive at
English manufacturing perfection in less than two centuries;
and being so much behind the sister country in the measure
of her capital, it is highly probable that England, with this
great advantage, and with the high perfection of her science,
would always lead Ireland in the march of trade ; and it is
certain she would profit much more largely by her con-
nection with a rich and prosperous country, than by her deal-
ings with a withered, beggared, and bankrupt population.
The numerous complaints of an inconvenient and offensive
influx of Irish labourers to England, would then decline,
as the cultivation of four millions of acres of waste lands in
Ireland, with various other useful public works, would, in
addition to the ordinary labours of the field, furnish the
whole peasantry of Ireland with full employment ; and if
there were no other argument to advance, in the support of
a local legislature, than that of its calling home the property
of the country, and finding full employment for the labour-
ing poor, even this would be conclusive.
It will be allowed, by all impartial judges, that, next to
England, Ireland would be the most important country, in
a Congress of the Members of the British Union ; and as all
those members should be subject to the laws of congress,
so Ireland could not complain of those just and necessary
restrictions to her legislative power, to which England her-
self had subscribed, in a congress of the states or provinces.
And here it occurs to me to make a passing observation
AUTHOR'S LETTER TO THE KINO. 89
upon the magnificence of such an assembly as this, composed
of the cleverest men in the British Empire, collected in
London from the four quarters of the globe, for the noblest
of all human purposes, that of preserving the unity of the
empire, and promoting the freedom and happiness of many
millions of human beings ! And in such a connection, I
beg to ask, would the English interest wither by the par-
liamentary existence of her Irish ally ? Shame be to the
thought. Did Rome wither by granting liberty to her
conquered provinces ? Did Greece contend with the most
powerful states, by extinguishing her schools at Athens?
Or was it by liberty that these states rose into power ? And
will nothing serve England but gagging bills, and the
abominable caricature of fat and lean ! ! ! Is not the body
politic, like the animal economy, kept in vigour by a general
circulation of the blood, and by the healthful state of the
functions of every part ; and does not the prosperity of a
state consist in giving life, vigour, and activity, to the faci-
lities and resources of every province ; but how can this be
done, as well by assemblies of men who only know these
countries by report, as by men resident on the spot, and
well acquainted with all the local concerns of their own
districts ? The consequence of legislating for countries of
which we know so little, is, that we naturally fall into
capital mistakes, and are obliged to have recourse to extra
constitutional measures, to check the unhappy effects of our
own errors ; and if we thus force numerous disorders upon
the body politic, will acts of mal-administration heal them ?
or will the heart always remain sound, and the belly
prominent, when the members are so deeply disordered?
May we therefore take warning in time, lest that scripture
proverb should at length be fulfilled upon us : " He that
being often reproved hardeneth his neck, shall suddenly
be destroyed, and that without remedy."
And now, Sire, I shall conclude this Letter with observing,
that, as in an enlightened age and country, power can only
be permanently maintained upon the foundations of a just
and liberal policy, it is the interest of your Royal House to
90 IRELAND,
place its arm with vigour upon those corruptions and defects,
by which the prosperity, the glory, and the permanency of
your Majesty's dominions are endangered. I humbly con-
ceive, that in submitting to your Majesty's consideration a
plan of government, by which all diseases may be met, and
all defects remedied, without departing from the letter or
spirit of the British constitution, I have discharged the duty
of a good citizen and subject. If obstacles exist to the
execution of that plan, those obstacles have not their source
in the imperfection of the system, but in the selfishness,
indolence, or ignorance of those men, by whom, alas ! the
best of princes are too generally surrounded men born
and nursed in the lap of ease, and in the cradle of indolent
security, and labouring to establish the thrones of their
masters upon the base of their own particular interests, are
but ill calculated to stop the clamours of a nation, or to
carry into operation such an admirable system of government
as that which has been imperfectly described in this Letter.
In such a state of things, the throne and the law are not
established in the judgment and affections of the people,
and must be maintained by an overwhelming military force ;
while in the United States of America, where the converse
of this proposition is exemplified, the most perfect peace,
and most prosperous state of society exists, with a slender