therefore the business of those who are
determined to maintain the Union, to adjust its machinery to modern
requirements. An omission of capital import was the failure to provide
for the efficient promotion of private Bills. The matter was, indeed,
actually considered by the authors of the Act of Union. The Duke of
Portland wrote to Lord Cornwallis, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, under
date December 24, 1798, as follows:--

"One of the greatest difficulties, however, which has been
supposed to attend the project of union between the two kingdoms,
is that of the expense and trouble which will be occasioned by the
attendance of witnesses in trials of contested elections, or in
matters of private business requiring Parliamentary interposition.
It would, therefore, be very desirable to devise a plan (which
does not appear impossible) for empowering the Speaker of either
House of the United Parliament to issue his warrant to the
Chairman of the Quarter Sessions in Ireland, or to such other
person as may be thought more proper for the purpose, requiring
him to appoint a time and a place within the County for his being
attended by the agents of the respective parties, and reducing to
writing in their presence the testimony (for the consents or
dissents, as the case may be) of such persons as, by the said
agents, may be summoned to attend, being resident within the
County (if not there resident a similar proceeding should take
place in the County where they reside), and such testimony so
taken and reduced into writing may, by such Chairman or by the
Sheriff of the County, be certified to the Speaker of either
House, as the case may be. It seems difficult to provide a
detailed Article of the Union for the various regulations which
such a proceeding may require, but the principle might perhaps be
stated there, and the provisions left to be settled by the United
Parliament."

According to Lord Ashbourne's "Life of Pitt," the Prime Minister himself
framed a scheme for constituting a Court of Appeal in Ireland, with
power to examine evidence and certify all preliminaries and other
matters respecting private Bills. Why the provision was not included in
the Act of Union is not clear. The fact of its omission, however, proves
that the necessity of resorting to the Imperial Parliament for the
transaction of private busi