tain, they were ready to confirm and ratify, in
order that the same might be established for ever, by mutual consent of
both parliaments. On the 2nd of April this address was made the subject
of a message from his majesty to the British parliament. In addition to
the resolutions adopted by the British parliament, it was proposed by
the Irish parliament, that the number of Irish peers to be admitted to
the house of lords of the United Kingdom should be four lords spiritual,
by rotation of sessions, and twenty-eight lords temporal, elected for
life by the peers of Ireland; and that the number of representatives
to be admitted into the house of commons should be one hundred. Such
a union as this was opposed in the upper house by Lord Holland, on the
grounds that it would not remedy the discontents of the various classes
of society in Ireland; that it would not insure a redress of their
grievances, but would increase the influence of which they now loudly
complained; that it was offensive to the great body of the Irish people;
and that, if carried into effect, it would endanger the connexion
between the two countries, and probably produce mischief. The measure
was defended in the upper house by Lord Gren-ville; and on a division
eighty-one peers voted with him, and only two with Lord Holland. In the
commons the union was opposed from the supposition that it would injure
our constitution, inasmuch as the influence of the crown, arising from
places in Ireland being to be concentrated upon only one hundred members
instead of three hundred, it must necessarily be augmented. Pitt denied
that the union would, or that he wished it to have such an effect;
and he contended that the system proposed was calculated to favour the
popular interest. The members for Irish counties and principal cities,
he said, would be sixty-eight, the remaning thirty-two members being to
be elected by towns the most considerable in population and wealth; and
that, as the proposed addition would not make any change in the internal
form of representation, it would entail none of those dangers incident
to innovation. If anything could counterbalance the advantages that
must result from the union, he remarked, it would be the necessity of
disturbing in anyway the representation of England; a necessity which
happily did not exist. He continued:--"In stating this I have not
forgotten what I have myself formerly said and sincerely felt upon
the subject of parliam