2019, ISBN: 2940012413154

An excerpt from the beginning of:CHAPTER XXV.THE UNION.PART I.The reader who has followed with any care the long course of Irish history related in the present work, will have observed ho… Mehr…

An excerpt from the beginning of:CHAPTER XXV.THE UNION.PART I.The reader who has followed with any care the long course of Irish history related in the present work, will have observed how often, and from how many different points of view, and at what long intervals, the possibility of a legislative Union between Great Britain and Ireland had been discussed or suggested. It is difficult, however, without some repetition, to form a clear, connected conception of the history of the question, and I shall, therefore, make no apology for devoting a few pages to recapitulating its earlier stages.For a short time during the Commonwealth, such an Union had actually existed. The great scheme of parliamentary reform which had been devised by the Long Parliament was carried into effect by Cromwell, and thirty Irish and thirty Scotch members were summoned to the Reformed Parliament which met at Westminster in 1654, and to the succeeding Parliaments of the Commonwealth. With the Restoration the old constituencies and the old separate constitutions were revived, but the expediency of a legislative Union was soon after strongly advocated by Sir William Petty in that most remarkable work, the ‘Political Anatomy of Ireland,’ which was written about 1672, but published, after the death of the author, in 1691.It was composed in the short interval of returning prosperity which followed the convulsions and confiscations of the Civil War. Reviewing the past connection between England and Ireland, Petty declared that Ireland had been for 500 years, only a loss and charge to England; that the suppression of the late rebellion had cost England ‘three times more, in men and money, than the substance of the whole country when reduced was worth;’ and that ‘at this day, when Ireland was never so rich and splendid, it was the advantage of the English to abandon their whole interest in that country, and fatal to any other nation to take it.’ Nothing, he believed, could ever put an end to this evil but a measure that should ‘tend to the transmuting one people into the other, and the thorough union of interests upon natural and lasting principles.’ Much, he thought, might be done by transplanting, for a few years, an English population into Ireland, and an Irish population into England, but the most efficacious remedy would be a complete legislative Union. It was absurd that Englishmen, settled in Ireland for the King's interests and in the King's service, should be treated as aliens; that the King's subjects should pay custom when passing from one part of his dominions to another; that two distinct Parliaments should exercise legislative powers in Ireland; that every ship carrying West Indian goods to Ireland should be forced to unload in England. He contrasted the condition of Ireland with that of Wales, which had been completely united with England, and therefore completely pacified, and he concluded, ‘that if both kingdoms, now two, were put into one, and under one legislative power and Parliament, the numbers whereof should be in the same proportion that the power and wealth of each nation are, there would be no danger such a Parliament should do anything to the prejudice of the English interest in Ireland; nor could the Irish ever complain of partiality when they shall be freely and proportionably represented in all Legislatures.’ Digital Content>E-books>World History>UK,Ireland>Great Britain Hist, Leila's Books Digital >16<

ISBN: 2940012413154

A History of England in the Eighteenth Century - Volume VIII History-of-England-in-the-Eighteenth-Century-Volume-VIII~~William-Lecky World History>Great Britain & Ireland Hist>Great Brita… Mehr…

A History of England in the Eighteenth Century - Volume VIII History-of-England-in-the-Eighteenth-Century-Volume-VIII~~William-Lecky World History>Great Britain & Ireland Hist>Great Britain Hist NOOK Book (eBook), Leila's Books<

ISBN: 2940012413154

A History of England in the Eighteenth Century - Volume VIII History-of-England-in-the-Eighteenth-Century-Volume-VIII~~William-Lecky History>Great Britain & Ireland Hist>Great Britain His… Mehr…

A History of England in the Eighteenth Century - Volume VIII History-of-England-in-the-Eighteenth-Century-Volume-VIII~~William-Lecky History>Great Britain & Ireland Hist>Great Britain Hist NOOK Book (eBook), Leila's Books<