relaxation of this system, he admitted, had taken
place at an early period of the present century; more had been done in
the reign of George the Second; and within a few years, Ireland had been
permitted to export her produce and manufactures, and to have a share
of the colonial trade. At this moment, however, he remarked, the
intercourse between England and Ireland remained on the old footing,
except on trivial points; no material alteration having been made in the
exportation of British manufactures to Ireland, or the importation
of Irish manufactures into Great Britain. To this he attributed the
dissatisfaction which existed in Ireland; suggestions having been
made for subjecting our produce and manufactures to what were termed
"protecting duties," for the purpose of preventing their introduction
into the country. He continued, that having abandoned the old system of
commercial domination, and having wisely and justly put the Irish people
into a position of profiting by the gifts of nature and the productions
of skill, no one could wish or expect that the commerce between the two
kingdoms should remain in its original condition. There were, indeed, he
argued, but two possible systems for countries situated in relation to
each other, like England and Ireland: one of these was to render the
smaller completely subordinate and subservient to the greater; and the
other was to allow to each a just participation of advantages. This
system of equality, however, in which there was to be a community of
benefits, he said, demanded likewise a community of burdens. Hitherto
there had been gratuitous surrenders of advantages, without looking to
the slightest compensation; in which respect his system differed from
those of his predecessors, his being founded on a plan of reciprocal
benefits. Pitt then proceeded to explain his system, as contained in the
resolutions transmitted from Ireland, and which consisted of these three
general heads; first, he proposed that all foreign articles imported
directly into Great Britain, should hereafter be importable under
suitable provisions through the medium of Ireland; secondly, that the
produce or manufacture of either country should be importable into the
other, under a proper regulation of countervailing duties, drawbacks,
and bounties; and thirdly, that Ireland, in return for these bounties,
should contribute to the expense of maintaining the colonies, and
protecting the commerce of the empi