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With refpect to the disadvantages which it had been fuppofed our manufacturers would have to encounter from the comparative fmall price of labour in Ireland, it was faid fuch a fuppofition arofe from a mifconception of facts-That the wages of artizans and manufacturers, although not of common labourers, were higher there than in this country, and therefore there was little likelihood of their being able to underfell us on that ground.-Nor could our commerce be in any danger from the reasons which had been alledged, fince the provifions and reftrictions contained in the propofitions were fufficient as well to pre

vent any clandeftine importation of foreign goods into Ireland, as to infure the duties payable on all fuch as might be legally imported.

The propofitions, after having been agitated, upwards of three months, and after having received a variety of amendments and alterations, finally paffed the houfe of commons by a large majority, and on the 30th of May May 30th. were carried up to the houfe of lords. They here again encountered a confiderable degree of oppofition, and received feveral amendments, although not of a material nature.

The propofitions having thus paff ed both houses, a bill founded on them was brought into the houfe of commons by Mr. Pitt, which was read the first time before the end of the feffion, and was folJuly 28th. lowed by an addrefs to his majesty, voted by both houses, wherein they acquainted him with

what they had done, and that it remained for the parliament of Ireland to judge and to decide thereupon.

That kingdom had attended the progrefs of the propofitions through the British parliament with much anxiety and impatience. On their arrival they met with the moft difcouraging reception; they were petitioned against by feveral of the public bodies, and many of the members of the Irish houfe of commons ftrongly marked their difapprobation of the additions and alterations which the original fyftem had undergone.

On the 12th of Au

guft, the fecretary to the Aug. 12th, lord lieutenant moved the house for leave to bring in a bill correfpondent to that moved by the English minifter. The debates on this occafion, and more especially on the fide of oppofition, were long and animated. Whatever had the leaft appearance of infringing on the legiflative independency of Ireland, was marked and ftigmatized in terms of the utr:oft indignation and contempt. The perpetual difpofition of her hereditary revenue by the laft propofition-the furrender of her commercial legiflation by the fourth-the restraint impofed on her from trading beyond the Cape of Good Hope and the Streights of Magellan by the ninth-were put in every point of view in which reafoning and eloquence could render them impreffive and convincing. On this fide of the question, Mr. Grattan and Mr. Flood were the most confpicuous speakers. The

be produced, which Mr. Fox affirmed could not be found in the history of mankind, where one independent state bound itself folemnly to do any thing undefined, unfpecific, and uncertain, at the arbitrary demand of another.

first of these gentlemen, after stating the prefent fituation of Ireland, with respect to the advantages fhe had already acquired, compared it with the condition it would be left in by the fyftem now propofed. "See," faid he, "what you obtained without compenfation-a colony trade, a free trade, the independency of your judges, the government of your army, the extenfion of the conftitutional powers of your council, the restoration of the judicature of your lords, and the independency of your legiflature!

"See now what you obtain by compensation—a covenant not to trade beyond the Cape of Good Hope and the Streights of Magellan a covenant not to take foreign plantation produce, but as the parliament of Great Britain fhall permit-a covenant not to take British plantation produce, but as Great Britain fhall prescribe-a covenant not to take certain produce of the United States of North America, but as Great Britain fhall permit-a covenant to make fuch acts of navigation as Great Britain fhall prefcribe-a covenant never to protect your own manufactures, never to guard the primum of those manufactures!"

In favour of the bill it was urged by Mr. Fitzgibbon*, Mr. Hutchinfont, and Mr. Forster §, that the fourth propofition, which had excited fo much jealoufy and alarm, could not on any fair conftruction be faid to take from Ireland her right of commercial legislation, any more than the acts paffed in 1779 and 1782 had done before; wherein Ireland

The Attorney General.

had ftipulated to trade with the British colonies and fettlements in fuch manner as Great Britain herfelf traded, to impofe the like duties, and to adopt the fame reftrictions and regulations. That in the bill before them, it was proposed to trade with Great Britain on the fame principle; the liberty of either complying with the conditions, or renouncing the agreement in toto, whenever the conditions fhould become obnoxious and diffatisfactory, would be left by the prefent bill full as much in the power of the Irish parliament, as it was by either of the foregoing acts.-The difference only was, that by the former acts Ireland had fubfcribed to the commercial laws which had been adopted by Great Britain for 290 years back; by the prefent, to fuch as that country fhould bind itself to in future; but that it would be fill in the power of the Irifh parliament to renounce these laws, and the whole agreement together, whenever the thought proper.-On the other hand, the commercial advantages offered to Ireland by the bill were stated to be very important; the linen trade was thereby fecured to her for ever

the colony trade through Ireland to Great Britain was given her— the British markets were thrown open to Irish manufactures-and again, as thefe manufactures were allowed to be re-exported from Great Britain, with a drawback of all duties, the Irish would, in effect, export on the foundation of British capital, at the fame time that they were left to employ their own capital in the extenfion of their home manufactures.

+ Provoft of Trinity college, Dublin. § Chancellor of the Exchequer.

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The house at length divided upon the question; when there appeared for leave to bring in the bill, 127, against it, 108.

So fmall a majority in favour of fo important a measure, was looked upon as a defeat; and according ly, although Mr. Orde afterwards moved to have the bill read a first time, and to be printed, yet he declared he should not proceed any further in the bufinefs during the prefent feffion, nor at all, unless the kingdom in general fhould grow to a better liking of a measure, which he was confident, upon a further and more temperate re-confideration of its principles, would obtain their approbation.

Thus terminated the intended commercial arrangement betwixt Great Britain and Ireland, after having exercised the attention of both kingdoms for upwards of feven months.

We fhall take this opportunity, before we dismiss our review of Irifh affairs, to mention the intended fettlement of the Genevese emigrants in Ireland.

The difputes and diffenfions which had fo long fubfifted betwixt the ariftocratic and democratic powers in the republic of Geneva being finally terminated in favour of the former, through the interference of the kings of France and Sardinia, and the cantons of Zuric and Berne, a number of the citizens of the popular party refolved to quit a country, in the government of which their weight and authority was totally at an end.

On this occafion they turned their eyes upon Ireland, and commiffioners were accordingly fent by them to Dublin, to confult and treat with government there rela

tive to their reception into that kingdom. The commiffioners, on their arrival, received the greatest perfonal attention from the people. in general, but more especially from the different corps of volunteers in the province of Léinfter, into feveral of which, as a mark of respect paid to the cause they came to folicit, they were chofen as members.

Their requeft, with respect to the admiffion of their countrymen into Ireland, was complied with, and a particular tract of land in the county of Waterford was afterwards fet apart for the new fettlers.

Notwithstanding these preparations, the whole fcheme in the end proved abortive. The terms infifted upon by the Genevefe, previous to their becoming fubjects of a new ftate were, ift. That they should be reprefented in parliament. 2dly. That they fhould be formed into a diftinct corporation. And, 3dly. That they fhould be governed by their own laws. The first of these conditions might have been a matter of opinion, and subject to difcuffion; but the two laft were held to be incompatible with the laws and the conftitution of Ireland, and as fuch were totally rejected.

This difagreement between the parties on leading points ftopped all further procedure in the business. Some of the Genevefe, however, tranfported themfelves into Ireland; but they foon found by experience, that nothing was gained by changing their fituation, and most of them, after a fhort ftay, quitted the kingdom.

The reciprocal advantages which might have accrued to Ireland and the Genevefe emigrants from the propofed fettlement, even had it

taken

taken place to the fullest extent, could never, it is prefumed, have equalled, or been in any degree proportionable to the fanguine expectations fome men had been led to form on this fubject. It fhould be confidered, firft, that the Genevese are for the most part mechanics, and that therefore they must have been but ill fuited, from their former habits of life, to the toils of

agriculture; next, that they were to be fettled in a part of Ireland where their fupport must have arisen from their daily labours on the foil, and from their having but few wants of their own to gratify, more than from their ingenuity in forming and conftructing a variety of ornamental articles, which the luxury and riches of populous and trading towns can only create a market for.

CHA P. II.

Retrospective view of continental matters, which, through the multiplicity and importance of other foreign or domeftic affairs, were, of neceffity, passed over in our late volumes. France. Death of the Count de Maurepas, and fome account of that celebrated minifter. Convention with Sweden, by which the French are admitted to the rights of denizenship, of establishing warehoufes and factories, and of carrying on a free trade in Gottenburgh; in return for which, France cedes the Weft India island of St. Bartholomew to Sweden. Obfervations on that ceffion. Spirit of civil liberty, of enquiry, of reform and improvement, with a difpofition to the cultivation of ufeful arts, characteristics of the prefent times. Causes.Great improvements in Spain with respect to arts, manufactures, and agriculture; measures pursued for the diffemination of useful knowledge, for improving the morals, and enlightening the minds of the people. Inquifi tion difarmed of its dangerous powers; numerous patriotic focieties formed, and public fchools inftituted, under the patronage of the first nobility; canals and roads forming; fubfcriptions for conveying water to large diftricts defolate through its want. King fuccessfully refumes the project of peopling and cultivating the Sierra Morena; abolishes bull feafts; reftricts the number of borfes and mules to be used in the carriages of the nobility; procures an accurate furvey and charts of the coafts of the kingdom, as well as of the Straits of Magellan. Attention to naval force and to commerce. New Eaft India company formed. Improvements in the adminiAtration of colonial government. Intermarriages with the royal line of Portugal lay the foundation for an alliance between the latter and France. Patriarchal age, eminent qualities, and death of the celebrated Cardinal de Solis, Archbishop of Seville. Important reforms in the police of Portugal. Queen forms the excellent refolution of never granting a pardon in any cafe of affaffination or deliberate murder; which has already produced the happiest effects. Excellent regulation of taking up the idle and diffolute throughout the kingdom, and of applying them, at the expence, or under the care of government, to proper labour. Improvements in agriculture attempted; climate and foil unfavourable to corn. Political obfervations on the intermarriages with Spain, and on the new alliances with

the

the houfe of Bourbon. Italy. Noble act of Picus the VIth, in his generous endeavours to drain the Pontine marshes. Naples. Difpofition of the king to naval affairs, and to the forming of a marine force. Grand Duke of Tuscany. Regulation in Florence for the, difpofal of the dead in a common cemetery, caufes great difcontent.

TH

HE fruitfulness of the queen of France, which had for feveral years been a matter of much doubt and great anxiety to the king and the people, though at length eftablished by the birth of a princess in 1778, yet the failure of a fon ftill continued to excite impatience and apprchenfion, until all uneafinefs upon the fubject was at length determined by the birth of a dauphin on the 22d of October 1781, to the inexpreffible joy of a nation, who, through a long feries of ages, have been more peculiarly attached to their monarchs than perhaps any other on the face of the earth. It was a new and unexpected fpectacle to mankind upon this occafion, and one among the many grievous mortifications which Great Britain was about that period doomed to endure, that the birth of a dauphin of France fhould have occafioned the greatest public rejoicings that had ever been known in the English American colonies.

The queen, in the year 1785, produced another pledge of fecurity to the reigning line in France, by the birth of a fecond fon, in whofe favour the old Norman and English title of duke of Normandy was, for the first time, revived in a French prince.

The celebrated count de Maurepas died at the caftle of Verfailles in the month of November 1781, and in the 31st year of his age; holding, at that very advanced period of life, in a season of great national exertion, and of a

very perilous and hard-fought foreign war, which extended its action to every quarter of the world, the great and arduous office of prime minifter of France. This great man was not more admired for his abilities as a minifter, and talents as a ftatefman, than he was revered and beloved for his humanity, benevolence, and other excellent qualities of the heart.

When, under the aufpices of cardinal Fleury, and in his own happier days, his great and numerous offices feemed to render him at leaft the third, if not the second in administration, he was one of the few minifters who introduced fcience and philofophy into the conduct of public affairs; but was at the fame time fo regulated in their indulgence, as entirely to reject their ufelefs or frivolous parts, however fplendid or pleafing; as if he dif dained to apply the public money to any other purposes than those solid ones of public utility. Though confiderably cramped in many of his public defigns and exertions under the pacific and economical fyf tem of the cardinal, yet he not only in a great measure recovered the French marine from that proftrate fate to which it had long feemed irretrievably condemned, but he laid the foundations for all that greatnefs to which it has fince arrived, or which it is ftill capable of attaining. To him France is. particularly indebted for that fuperiority, which he is faid (and it is to be feared too evidently) to pof

fefs

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