w to a change in the Constitution in Church or State or both, and you
rest the whole of their security on a handful of gentlemen, clergy, and
their dependents,--compute the strength _you have in Ireland_, to oppose
to grounded discontent, to capricious innovation, to blind popular fury,
and to ambitious, turbulent intrigue.

You mention that the minds of some gentlemen are a good deal heated, and
that it is often said, that, rather than submit to such persons, having
a share in their franchises, they would throw up their independence, and
precipitate an union with Great Britain. I have heard a discussion
concerning such an union amongst all sorts of men ever since I remember
anything. For my own part, I have never been able to bring my mind to
anything clear and decisive upon the subject. There cannot be a more
arduous question. As far as I can form an opinion, it would not be for
the mutual advantage of the two kingdoms. Persons, however, more able
than I am think otherwise. But whatever the merits of this union may be,
to make it a _menace_, it must be shown to be an _evil_, and an evil
more particularly to those who are threatened with it than to those who
hold it out as a terror. I really do not see how this threat of an union
can operate, or that the Catholics are more likely to be losers by that
measure than the churchmen.

The humors of the people, and of politicians too, are so variable in
themselves, and are so much under the occasional influence of some
leading men, that it is impossible to know what turn the public mind
here would take on such an event. There is but one thing certain
concerning it. Great divisions and vehement passions would precede this
union, both on the measure itself and on its terms; and particularly,
this very question of a share in the representation for the Catholics,
from whence the project of an union originated, would form a principal
part in the discussion; and in the temper in which some gentlemen seem
inclined to throw themselves, by a sort of high, indignant passion, into
the scheme, those points would not be deliberated with all possible
calmness.

From my best observation, I should greatly doubt, whether, in the end,
these gentlemen would obtain their object, so as to make the exclusion
of two millions of their countrymen a fundamental article in the union.
The demand would be of a nature quite unprecedented. You might obtain
the union; and yet a gentleman, who, under the n