he only security of your liberty is the connection
with Great Britain; and gentlemen who risk breaking the connection must
make up their minds to a union. God forbid I should ever see that day;
but, if the day comes on which a separation shall be attempted, I shall
not hesitate to embrace a union rather than a separation."

He proceeded to show that, as the Irish Parliament had itself enacted
that all bills which passed their two Houses should require the sanction
of the Great Seal of England, they actually had no legal power to confer
on the Prince of Wales such authority as Grattan advised his being
invested with, whatever might be the form of words in which their
resolution was couched. He pointed out, also, that if the Irish
Parliament should insist on appointing the Prince of Wales Regent before
it was known whether he would accept the Regency of England, it was
manifestly not impossible "that they might be appointing a Regent for
Ireland being a different person from the Regent of England; and in that
case the moment a Regent was appointed in Great Britain, he might send a
commission under the Great Seal appointing a Lord-lieutenant of Ireland,
and to that commission the Regent of Ireland would be bound to pay
obedience. Another objection of great force to his mind was, that the
course recommended by Grattan would be a formal appeal from the
Parliament of England to that of Ireland. It would sow the seeds of
dissension between the Parliaments of the two countries. And, indeed,
those who were professing themselves advocates for the independence of
the Irish crown were advocates for its separation from England."

But the House was too entirely under the influence of Grattan's
impassioned eloquence for Fitzgibbon's more sober arguments to be
listened to. The address proposed by Grattan was carried by acclamation;
and the peers were scarcely less unanimous in its favor, one of the
archbishops even dilating on "the duty of availing themselves of the
opportunity of asserting the total independence of Ireland." Even when,
on a second discussion as to the mode in which the address was to be
presented to the Prince, Fitzgibbon reported that he had consulted the
Chancellor and all the judges, and that they were unanimously of opinion
that, till the Regency Bill should be passed in England, the address was
not only improper but treasonable, he found his warning equally
disregarded. And when the Lord-lieutenant refused to tra