MR. O’CONNELL’S MOTION FOR THE REPEAL OF THE UNION.
Mr. O’Connell had long made his boast in Ireland, that he would bring forward the question of the repeal of the union in the British parliament. His courage, from his non-performance of this promise, began to be doubted; and to save his credit, he was obliged to bring himself to trial. On the first day of the sessions he had given notices of two motions: one that the house should take the act of union into consideration, with a view to its repeal; the other for the appointment of a “select committee to inquire and report on the means by which the dissolution of parliament was effected—on the effects of that measure upon Ireland, and upon the labourers in husbandry, and the manufacturers in England—and on the probable consequences of continuing the legislative union between both countries.” He proceeded only with the last of the two motions, and he brought that forward on the 22nd of April. He commenced by declaring that there had never existed a greater mistake than to suppose that England possessed any right of dominion over the former country. He then entered at great length into the incompetency of parliament to pass the act of union; and having detailed the means by which it was accomplished, he proceeded to prove that the financial and legislative terms on which the great question had been settled were in their very nature fraudulent and unjust. Looking at these circumstances, he said, he dreaded the probable consequences of a continuance of the union. Ireland felt strongly on the subject; and he demanded that the bitter recollection of the past should be for ever effaced by the restoration of her people to their inalienable rights. Mr. O’Connell was answered at great length by Mr. Spring Rice, who enumerated the manifold advantages gained by Ireland from the union. He moved, therefore, that an address be presented to his majesty, expressive of the fixed and steady determination of the commons to maintain inviolate the legislative union between Great Britain and Ireland—a determination to be justified, not only on general grounds, but by reasons of special application to Ireland itself; declaring also, that while the house endeavoured to remove all just causes of complaint alleged by the Irish people, it would promote every well-considered measure of rational liberty. The debate on the subject was continued by adjournment for several days. The members who took part in it were—for the original motion, Messrs. O’Connor, Barron, Ruthven, Shiel, and others; and for the amendment, Messrs. Tennent, Littleton, Sandford, Lambert, and Sir Robert Peel, and others. Perhaps the most effective speech was that which was delivered by Sir Robert Peel, who said, he believed that no array of official documents, and no force of argument, could strengthen the conviction of the great majority of the house—a conviction that lay deeper than any argument could reach—that they would on no account consent to dismember the British empire. There were convictions connected with the feelings of the heart as well as with the faculties of the mind. Mr. Canning had said, “Repeal the union! re-enact the heptarchy!” The security of the empire depended on the maintenance of that union; without it England would be reduced to the condition of a fourth-rate power in Europe, and Ireland to the desolation of a wilderness. On a division the amendment was carried by the triumphant majority of five hundred and twenty-three against thirty-eight; the minority, with one exception only, consisting of Irish members. On the 30th of April the commons, in a conference, communicated their address to the lords, who, in one spirit, unanimously concurred in its sentiments, and ordered the blank, which was purposely left, to be filled up with the words, “lords spiritual and temporal.” It was then presented to the king as the joint address of both houses; and his majesty, in reply, expressed the great satisfaction with which he had received the solemn and united declaration of both houses to maintain the union inviolate.