Terms of the Merging of the Parliaments

The three hundred members of the Irish House of Commons were reduced to one hundred in the imperial House.

Continuing Ireland Joined to United Kingdom,
our selection from Ireland 1494-1898 by William O’Connor Morris published in 1898. The selection is presented in six easy 5 minute installments. For works benefiting from the latest research see the “More information” section at the bottom of these pages.

Previously in Ireland Joined to United Kingdom.

Time: 1800

Recourse, too, was had to other means to influence Irish opinion outside the Parliament in behalf of the contemplated measure. Able pamphlets were published, and the press subsidized; Cornwallis went through different counties, to canvass, so to speak, for the Union; and many favorable addresses were obtained, though these were of a questionable kind, and the ad verse petitions were much more numerous. The Irish Government, however, chiefly directed its efforts to enlist Catholic Ire land on its side; and incidents occurred, even yet obscure, that form an unhappy passage in Irish history. Pitt had informed Cornwallis that the Union was to be a “Protestant Union,” in the phrase of the time; he told the Lord-Lieutenant, very plainly, that Catholic emancipation was to be no part of the measure.

But his own speeches in the British House of Commons implied that he approved of the Catholic claims, and that they might be conceded when the Union had become law; he certainly encouraged Cornwallis, and gave him power to bid openly for Catholic support; he perhaps authorized Cornwallis to assure the Irish Catholic leaders that their cause was his own. That upright but not very astute nobleman, always the earnest champion of the Irish Catholics, placed his own interpretation on Pitt’s hints and words: he had many conferences with the heads of Catholic Ire land, and entreated them to use their influence to promote the Union; he unquestionably held out hopes, if he did not make promises; he left them under the impression that their emancipation was certain and at hand. It should be added that, before this time, Cornwallis had been negotiating with the Irish Catholic bishops, with reference to a provision for the priesthood; Pitt seems to have been not aware of this; but the fact is, not the less, of extreme significance. The broad result was that the Catholic leaders generally threw in their lot with the Union, and drew the Catholic masses with them; Catholic Ireland, in the main, declared for the measure; and this, Pitt and Cornwallis agreed, was of supreme importance. A small minority, however, of the Irish Catholics, with more insight, and perhaps with more ambitious views, protested vehemently against the proposed scheme: among these was Daniel O’Connell, a young lawyer, just beginning his career.

The devices employed to bring about the Union made their effects apparent in the Irish Parliament, when it assembled again in January, 1800. An amendment to the “Address,” by which it was sought to stop the progress of the measure, was rejected; the “Question” was introduced, a few days afterward, by a message from the Viceroy sending to both Houses the resolutions voted by the British Parliament, and recommending the policy sanctioned by it. The debates on the subject, arising in different ways, were impassioned, and took up much time; but they are marked by ability of a very high order. Castlereagh advocated the scheme, with calm power and thoroughness; Clare, in a speech of real insight and force, insisted that in a union lay the only hope of property, of law, and of the Established Church in Ireland. A fine array of eloquence was marshalled on the other side; the bar engaged its most brilliant ornaments, Saurin, Plunket, Bushe, and other eminent worthies; the Speaker, Foster, rose to the height of a great argument, in a most weighty and thoughtful harangue. But Grattan towered above all his fellows — he had lately returned to the House of Commons. In language of singular beauty and pathos, accompanied by solemn and prophetic warnings, he advised the Parliament not to destroy itself, and to preserve its existence for the Irish “nation.” All opposition, however, proved vain; the Government retained the majority it had procured; resolutions, passed by the Irish Parliament, in favor of a union, were translated into articles and bills, and the measure of Pitt received the sanction of both the Irish and the British Parliaments. It de serves notice that a proposal to refer the decision of the question to the Irish electorate was angrily resented by Pitt and Castlereagh; the voice even of Protestant Ireland, though that of a minority of the Irish people, and of a minority in the main loyal, was not allowed to pronounce on this matter. It is certain, however, that, in its later stages at least, the measure did not provoke widespread discontent; there was no passionate outburst of opinion against it. Dublin and the Irish bar, indeed, remained bitterly hostile; but there was little murmuring in the country districts; the mass of Catholic Ireland did not stir; its leaders looked forward with anxious hope; the trading classes were induced to expect that the Union would bring them large benefits; Presbyterian Ireland seems to have thought that its favorite linen manufacture would make great progress. The attitude of the majority of the people was one of apathy; it was felt that a measure, backed by the British Parliament and the British army, could not be withstood; but unquestionably a minority, growing in strength, inclined very decidedly toward a union.

The Union was accomplished by questionable means; not was it a well-conceived measure, even within the narrow limits traced out by Pitt. The Irish and British Legislatures were merely combined, and emerged in a single imperial Parliament; Ireland retained the viceroy, a separate Government, a separate Administration, separate courts of justice, even separate exchequers for a considerable time, and the shadow of an independent state was suffered to exist. The remaining portions of the scheme were of less importance and do not deserve particular attention.

The maintenance of the Established Church was made a solemn and fundamental law; with what results time was to show in its fullness; the settlement of the land was left of course, as it was; but undoubtedly the hope of preserving this had weight with numbers of the landed gentry alarmed at the threats uttered in 1798 to undo the confiscations of the past. The fiscal arrangements were harsh to Ireland; she was to contribute two seventeenths to the imperial expenditure, a proportion certainly in excess; her trade was somewhat further enlarged, and ultimately was to be completely free; but the commercial benefits which Castlereagh declared would follow the Union were not realized. The Irish peers lost their seats in the Irish House of Lords; a small body of the order have ever since been chosen to represent them in the imperial Parliament; the three hundred members of the Irish House of Commons were reduced to one hundred in the imperial House, a number that ought to have been adequate to make the will of Ireland sufficiently felt. For the rest, while much that the Union should have contained was unhappily not comprised in it, much that was discreditable in its incidents was faithfully carried out; the borough-mongering nobles and commoners were gorged with the spoil that had been promised; and the pledges of corruption were duly fulfilled.

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