attempt to disturb that course, and to force
Nature, will only bring on universal discontent, distress, and
confusion.

You tell me, Sir, that you prefer an union with Ireland to the little
regulations which are proposed in Parliament. This union is a great
question of state, to which, when it comes properly before me in my
Parliamentary capacity, I shall give an honest and unprejudiced
consideration. However, it is a settled rule with me, to make the most
of my _actual situation_, and not to refuse to do a proper thing because
there is something else more proper which I am not able to do. This
union is a business of difficulty, and, on the principles of your
letter, a business impracticable. Until it can be matured into a
feasible and desirable scheme, I wish to have as close an union of
interest and affection with Ireland as I can have; and that, I am sure,
is a far better thing than any nominal union of government.

France, and indeed most extensive empires, which by various designs and
fortunes have grown into one great mass, contain many provinces that are
very different from each other in privileges and modes of government;
and they raise their supplies in different ways, in different
proportions, and under different authorities: yet none of them are for
this reason curtailed of their natural rights; but they carry on trade
and manufactures with perfect equality. In some way or other the true
balance is found; and all of them are properly poised and harmonized.
How much have you lost by the participation of Scotland in all your
commerce? The external trade of England has more than doubled since that
period; and I believe your internal (which is the most advantageous) has
been augmented at least fourfold. Such virtue there is in liberality of
sentiment, that you have grown richer even by the partnership of
poverty.

If you think that this participation was a loss, commercially
considered, but that it has been compensated by the share which Scotland
has taken in defraying the public charge, I believe you have not very
carefully looked at the public accounts. Ireland, Sir, pays a great deal
more than Scotland, and is perhaps as much and as effectually united to
England as Scotland is. But if Scotland, instead of paying little, had
paid nothing at all, we should be gainers, not losers, by acquiring the
hearty cooeperation of an active, intelligent people towards the increase
of the common stock, instead of our bein