Speech of the Right Honourable William Pitt, in the House of Commons, Thursday, January 31, 1799 / On offering to the House the resolutions which he proposed as the basis of an union between Great Britain and Ireland: Fifth Edition.

by William Pitt

EIGHTH.

That for the like purpose it would be fit to propose, that all Laws in force at the time of the Union, and that all the Courts of Civil or Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction within the respective Kingdoms, shall remain as now by Law established within the same, subject only to such alterations or regulations from time to time as circumstances may appear to the Parliament of the United Kingdom to require.

That the foregoing Resolutions be laid before His Majesty with an humble Address, assuring His Majesty that we have proceeded with the utmost attention to the consideration of the important objects recommended to us in His Majesty’s Gracious Message.

That we entertain a firm persuasion that a complete and intire Union between Great Britain and Ireland, founded on equal and liberal Principles, on the similarity of Laws, Constitution and Government, and on a sense of mutual Interests and Affections, by promoting the Security, Wealth, and Commerce of the respective Kingdoms, and by allaying the distractions which have unhappily prevailed in Ireland, must afford fresh means of opposing at all times an effectual resistance to the destructive Projects of our Foreign and Domestic Enemies, and must tend to confirm and augment the Stability, Power, and Resources of the Empire.

Impressed with these considerations, we feel it our duty humbly to lay before His Majesty such Propositions as appear to us best calculated to form the Basis of such a settlement, leaving it to His Majesty’s wisdom, at such time and in such manner as His Majesty, in his Parental Solicitude for the happiness of his People, shall judge fit, to communicate these Propositions to His Parliament of Ireland, with whom we shall be at all times ready to concur in all such Measures as may be found most conducive to the accomplishment of this great and salutary Work. And we trust that, after full and mature consideration, such a Settlement may be framed and established, by the deliberate Consent of the Parliaments of both Kingdoms, as may be conformable to the Sentiments, Wishes, and real Interests of His Majesty’s faithful Subjects of Great Britain and Ireland, and may unite them inseparably in the full enjoyment of the blessings of our free and invaluable Constitution, in the support of the Honour and Dignity of His Majesty’s Crown, and in the preservation and advancement of the Welfare and Prosperity of the whole British Empire.