shock the received opinion or
popular prejudices of a large portion of the people; but that, on the
whole, the communication between the two kingdoms should in spirit be
free; that no jealousy should be attempted to be created between the
manufacturers of one place or the other upon the subject of 'raw
materials' or any other article; for it would surely be considered very
narrow policy, and as such would be treated with derision, were an
attempt made to create a jealousy between Devonshire and Cornwall,
between Lancashire and Durham.... He said, then, that the principle of
the Union on this head should be liberal and free, and that no departure
from it should ever take place but upon some point of present
unavoidable necessity." He was even able to add (and he must have felt
peculiar satisfaction in making the statement, since the change in the
feelings of the English manufacturers on the subject must have been
mainly the fruit of his own teaching, and was a practical recognition of
the benefits which they had derived from his commercial policy taken as
a whole), that "the English manufacturers did not wish for any
protective duties; all they desired was free intercourse with all the
world; and, though the want of protective duties might occasion them
partial loss, they thought it amply compensated by the general
advantage." He even thought the arrangements now to be made "would
encourage the growth of wool in Ireland, and that England would be able
to draw supplies of it from thence; and he did not fear that there would
be trade enough for both countries in the markets of the world, and in
the market which each country would afford to the other." The English
manufacturers did not, however, acquiesce very cheerfully in every part
of his commercial arrangements. On the contrary, against the clause
which repealed all prohibitions of or bounties on exportation of
different articles grown or manufactured in either country, they
petitioned, and even set up a claim, which was granted, to be heard by
counsel and to produce witnesses. But Pitt steadily refused the least
modification of this part of his measure, not merely on account of its
intrinsic reasonableness and justice, but because there was scarcely any
condition to which the Irish themselves attached greater importance.

An equally important and more difficult matter to adjust to the
satisfaction of both Parliaments was the apportionment of the financial
burdens betwe