that it is just that measures should be taken by the parliament of Ireland for giving the like protection to the copyrights of authors and booksellers, and to the engraved property of the engravers, print and map sellers of that kingdom.

18. That it is expedient, that such exclusive rights and privileges, arising from new inventions, as are now legally possessed within Great Britain, under letters patent from the crown, shall continue to be protected in the manner they are at present by the laws of Great Britain; and that it is just that measures should be taken by the parliament of Ireland, for giving the like protection to similar rights and privileges in that kingdom; and also that it is expedient that regulations should be adopted, with respect to letters patent hereafter to be granted in the case of new inventions, so that the rights, privileges, and restrictions, therein granted and contained, shall be of equal force and duration throughout both kingdoms.

19. "That it is expedient, that measures should be taken to prevent disputes, touching the exercise of the rights of the inhabitants of each kingdom to fish on the coasts of any part of the British dominions.

20. "That the appropriation of whatever sum the gross hereditary revenue of the kingdom of Ireland (the due collection thereof being secured by permanent provision) shall produce, after deducting all drawbacks, re-payments, or bounties granted in the nature of drawbacks, over and above the sum of six hundred and fifty-six thousand pounds in each year, towards the support of the naval force of the empire, to be applied in such manner as the parliament of Ireland shall direct, by an act to be passed for that purpose, will be a satisfactory provision, proportioned to the growing prosperity of that kingdom, towards defraying in time of peace, the necessary expences of protecting the trade and general interests of the empire."

July 22.

Mr. Pitt moved, "That the foregoing resolutions be laid before his majesty, with an humble address, assuring his majesty, that his faithful Commons have taken into their most serious consideration the important subject of the commercial intercourse between Great Britain and Ireland, recommended in his majesty's speech at the opening of the present session, and the resolutions of the two Houses of parliament in Ireland, which were laid before us, by his majesty's command, on the 22d day of February last :

"That, after a long and careful investigation of the various questions necessarily arising out of this comprehensive subject, we have come to the several resolutions which we now humbly present to his majesty, and which we trust, will form the basis of an advantageous and permanent commercial settlement between his majesty's kingdoms of Great Britain and Ireland:

"That we have proceeded on the foundation of the resolutions of the parliament of Ireland; but in considering so extensive an

arrangement, we have found it necessary to introduce some modifications and exceptions, and we have added such regulations and conditions, as appeared to us indispensably necessary for establishing the proposed agreement on just and equitable principles, and for securing to both countries those commercial advantages, to an equal enjoyment of which they are in future to be entitled: "That his majesty's subjects in Ireland, being secured in a full and lasting participation of the trade of the British colonies, must, we are persuaded, acknowledge the justice of their continuing to enjoy it on the same terms with his majesty's subjects in Great

Britain:

"And it is, we conceive, equally manifest, that, as the ships and mariners of Ireland are to continue, in all time to come, to enjoy the same privileges with those of Great Britain, the same provisions should be adopted in Ireland as may be found necessary in this country, for securing those advantages exclusively to the subjects of the empire: this object is essentially connected with the maritime strength of his majesty's dominions, and consequently with the safety and prosperity both of Great Britain and Ireland:

"We therefore deem it indispensable that these points should be secured, conditions as necessary to the existence and duration of the agreement between the two countries: they can only be carried into effect by laws to be passed in the parliament of Ireland, which is alone competent to bind his majesty's subjects in that kingdom, and whose legislative rights we shall ever hold as

sacred as our own:

"It remains for the parliament of Ireland to judge, according to their wisdom and discretion, of these conditions, as well as of every other part of the settlement proposed to be established by mutual consent:

"Our purpose in these resolutions is, to promote alike the commercial interests of his majesty's subjects in both countries; and we are persuaded, that the common prosperity of the two kingdoms will be thereby greatly advanced; the subjects of each will in future apply themselves to those branches of commerce which they can exercise with most advantage, and the wealth, so diffused through every part, will operate as a general benefit to the whole :

"We have thus far performed our part in this important business, and we trust that in the whole of its progress, reciprocal interests and mutual affection will insure that spirit of union so essentially necessary to the great end which the two countries have equally in view:

"In this persuasion we look forward with confidence, to the final completion of a measure which, while it tends to perpetuate harmony and friendship between the two kingdoms, must, by augmenting their resources, uniting their efforts, and consolidating their strength, afford his majesty the surest means of establishing on a lasting foundation, the safety, prosperity, and glory of the empire."

After the motion had been opposed by Lord Beauchamp and Mr. Eden, and supported by Mr. Jenkinson,

Mr. Fox rose. He began by an allusion to lord Beauchamp's apology for the apparent inconsistency of approving of the original propositions, and yet objecting to the resolutions as now before the House, declaring that he was ready to acknowledge himself in much greater danger of the censure of inconsistency; for so far was he from approving either the one or the other, that he most sincerely and heartily reprobated them both, although he confessed that they appeared at the same time to be completely contradictory to each other. He believed, indeed, that there never had been known two systems so diametrically opposite, and yet each so objectionable, as the two systems, that which had been sent from Ireland, and that which had originated in that House, were in all their parts. His right honourable friend (Mr. Eden) had made an attempt to sum up the whole account between Great Britain and Ireland, but he was afraid the calculation would be found much too sanguine; and so far from each country gaining by the arrangement, they would both of them be considerable losers. Great Britain would lose her own market, and the direct trade to her colonies, together with her navigation laws, on which her strength and importance so much depended, while Ireland would lose her constitution, and again become a dependent, subordinate kingdom.

One strong objection against the arrangement with him was, that there was at present no necessity for it, and that such an arrangement ought never to be wantonly brought forward, but only resorted to when it was found necessary. This necessity was known by the minister and his friends to be so essential to the propriety of the plan, that he had endeavoured on many occasions to enforce it by that topic. But what means did he take to point out the necessity? The principal one was that which a right honourable gentleman opposite to him (Mr. Jenkinson) had just stated, namely, that the necessity of such an adjustment had been declared by a resolution, which he had the honour to move in that House in the year 1782. He declared then, as he had declared before, that no idea of a commercial regulation had been entertained by the administration of that day, in proposing that resolution. There were at that time certainly some regulations wanting between the two countries; but those regulations. were to extend to political objects alone, and not to commercial; they were partly to establish what was much wanted, something to replace that power, which, in their struggles for independence, the Irish had imprudently insisted on having abolished, and which he had himself given up, in compliance with the strong current of the prejudices of that nation, though with a reluctance that nothing but irresistible necessity

could have overcome. The power, which he wished to have seen replaced was that, which had been so often of late under discussion in parliament, and which had been variously termed, being sometimes called commercial, at other times external, and frequently, imperial legislation. It certainly was highly necessary, that power being precipitately abolished, that some succedaneum should be found for it; for without one general and superintending authority to embrace and comprehend the whole system of the navigation of the empire, it must necessarily happen, that much confusion and great inconvenience would take place. It was an unpromising circumstance in those resolutions, that they were not so much argued to be the result of the judgment of those who brought them forward, as of a strained and fabricated opinion, said to have originated with a former administration, and, as such, forced down the throats of those who had composed that administration, and under the sanction of their names imposed upon the House. He declared, that such gentlemen as had asserted, that that resolution went to any idea of commercial regulation, asserted what was wholly unfounded in fact, and diametrically opposite to the truth.

Having so often trespassed on the time of the House in debating the different parts of the system, Mr. Fox said, he would not now enter into any arguments on the detail of the resolutions; but would confine what he had to say to the general question of policy and justice that arose out of the whole. But admitting that there was any necessity for a commercial arrangement, how was it to be ascertained which system was best, when two systems had been brought forward by the very same person, the one to be laid before the parliament of Ireland to which it had agreed, and the other for the use of the English parliament? Those two systems, each invented by the same person, each promising the same effect, the mutual and permanent good understanding between the two countries, and the one professing to be an amendment of the other, were unfortunately so completely contradictory as to afford no possibility of finding a single argument in support of the one, that did not apply with equal force against the other. He desired to know why the motives for making so complete and effectual an alteration, as well in the spirit as in the words of every one of the propositions, had not been communicated to parliament? Was the right honourable gentleman encouraged to this omission by that confidence which so many of his friends had declared they placed in him? a confidence so unlimited and so determined as not to give way to the vast body of evidence which was offered to that House, and which they. had since confirmed by their oaths at the bar of the House

of Lords. If confidence, and blind acquiescence in the opinion of others was a proper ground of parliamentary conduct, he thought that confidence ought to be rather placed with those persons, who, from their number, from their knowledge of the subject, from their interest in it, and from their oaths, were much better intitled to it than a single individual could possibly be. It was not his intention, however, at present, to make any effort to overturn or destroy this confidence in the minister; for being intirely at a loss to conceive on what it was founded, so must he be ignorant of the means by which it could be attacked.

He reprobated the absurdity of the whole proceeding, which had been conducted on a principle of making each parliament state what it would be willing to accept, instead of what it would be satisfied to give. Whereas on the contrary, the proper mode would have been, for each parliament to have well weighed what they could give, and then they would have been competent to determine; for each knowing, and having specified what it could give, and the other ascertaining what it was to receive, it would be easy to strike a balance between them; whereas, on the contrary, Ireland was first brought to make her demands on Great Britain in the eleven propositions sent from thence, and Great Britain in her turn had made her demands on Ireland, in the fourth and fifth of the amended propositions. Hence it was, that the whole plan had the misfortune of being equally detested, both in England and Ireland. This equal and violent degree of aversion had afforded room for a weak and pitiful argument that he had heard used, that the clamour of one country against the resolutions, was a strong argument in favour of them with the other. After exposing the fallacy and illiberal tendency of such an argument, he observed, that it was in one respect the most fortunate argument he had ever known; for being built on the unpopularity of the measure, it enjoyed the advantage of that unpopularity, to the utmost possible extent, and was equally applicable in both kingdoms, the plan being equally execrated in both. It was an unhappy omen, that in an arrangement proposed as a basis for mutual affection, and a pledge of mutual advantage, each party to the negotiation had discovered the strongest motives of discontent, and the strongest grounds of jealousy and apprehension. A right honourable gentleman opposite to him had indulged the benevolence of his own mind, and the luxuriancy of his fancy, with a picture of a liberal system of commerce, without any restraint whatever; but after amusing himself and the House with his theories, he at last acknowledged that he had been only amusing them, for that they were incapable of being applied to the