*  In  the  same  manner,*    Mr. Pitt  continued,   *  I
might  answer  the  question  with  respect  to  Ireland ;  I
might  enumerate  the  general  advantages  which  she
would  derive  from  the  effects  of  the  proposed  arrange-
ment ;  the  protection  which  she  will  secure  to  herself
in  the  hour  of  danger  ;  the  most  effectual  means  of  in-
creasing her  commerce  and  improving  her  agriculture,
the  command  of  English  capital,  the  infusion  of  Eng-
lish manners  and  English  industry,  necessarily  tending
to  meliorate  her  condition,  to  accelerate  the  progress
of  internal  civilisation,  and  to  terminate  those  feuds  and
dissensions  which  now  distract  the  country,  and  which
she  does  not  possess  within  herself  the  power  either  to
control  or  to  extinguish. She  would  see  the  avenue  to
honors,  to  distinctions,  and  exalted  situations   in  the
general  seat  of  empire,  opened  to  all  those  whose  abili-
ties- and  talents  enable  them  to  indulge  an  honorable  and
laudable  ambition*

*  Independently  of  all  these  advantages,  I  might  also
answer,  that  the  question  is  not  what  Ireland  is  "to  gain*
but  what  she  is  to  preserve  :  not  merely  how  she  may*
best  improve  her  situation,  but  how  she  is  to  avert  a
pressing  and  immediate  danger. In  this  view,  what
she  gains  is  the  preservation  of  all  the  blessings  arising
from  the  British  constitution,  and  which  are  inseparable
from  her  connexion  with  Great-Britain — blessings,  of
which  it  has  long  been  the  aim  of  France,  in  conjunc-  •
tion  with  domestic  traitors,  to  deprive  her^  with  a  view

of


*£TWEKtf  GREAT-ttRlTAlN  AXD  IRELAND. $09*

*t  establishing  a  Jacobin  republic,  founded  on  French
influence,  and  existing  only  in  subserviency  to  France/
From  the  question  of  general  advantage  the  minister
proceeded  to  specific  statements  of  the  benefits  which
Ireland  might  derive  from  the  scheme,  in  point  of  com-
merce and  manufactures. In  this  part  of  his  harangue,
lie  had  recourse  to  the  recorded  sentiments  of  Mr. 