of the reformers met with a rapidity of fuccefs; and the eccentricity of Henry the eighth, the cherishing care of Edward the fixth, even the perfecution by Mary, and the wisdom, firmnefs, and perhaps good fortune, of Elizabeth, all contributed to fuperfede a reign of darkness and fuperftition, and to establish in that kingdom, almost univerfally, a religion, mild, pure, and of happy influence. It is not meant, however, to pafs any decided opinion on the peculiar nature of the reformation, or the means by which it was accomplished. Violent enmities, deftructive wars, and lafting divifions, were among its attendants and confequences : and perhaps, had the milder opinions of the amiable and learned Erafinus prevailed, moderate and gradual corrections would have been adopted, more conducive to the general improvement of men both in knowledge and virtue. But the retrofpect tends to fhew, that a material and operative change had univerfally taken place in the minds of the people of England, and had been formed into a national establishment, at a time when Ireland, though then connected, was excluded from the operation of caufes which would have affimilated her to England; and, by uniformity of opinion in the most interesting concern to man, with the natu ral concomitant uniformity of manners and obfervances, would, instead of inflaming animofity and preventing intercourse, have promoted friendship and Union between the original inhabitants and the English fettlers as well as among the English fettlers themselves. But the ancient feud now became embittered by religious antipathy; and by degrees, mutual offence carried enmity to the higheft pitch, until at length, rebellion and

maffacre

massacre, on one fide, called forth, on the other, fignal feverities.

During the whole of this perturbed period, especially from the time of the reformation, England and Ireland can be confidered in no other light than as hostile nations. The proteftants of Ireland, unhappily involved in almost conftant contention with the rest of the inhabitants, were often reduced to mifery and extremity. The English nation not only confidered them as their brethren, a portion of themselves, to be protected against thofe among whom they were fettled, but looked upon their safety as involving the security of the independence of Ireland. Laws therefore were enacted in England, and through the influence of that country, laws were adopted here, which no doubt retarded the national improvement, and encreased the prejudice against England, but which, apprehenfions for the fafety of the proteftant settlers and the security of the connexion of the two kingdoms, feemed to make neceffary. These apprehenfions were and have been fo frequently and alarmingly justified, that, though it is impoffible to approve of oppreffive policy, yet it was neither unnatural nor quite inexcufable in England, then frequently distracted within herself, anxious for her own fafety, and earnest in the preservation of the establishment, civil and religious in Ireland, to adopt the only means' which circumstances feemed to permit, to prevent foreign and internal foes from accomplishing their purposes.

In the time of Elizabeth, internal rebellion conspired with the foreign enemy to destroy our religin and to

fubjugate

fubjugate this country to Spain. In the time of Charles the firft, advantage was taken of the diftracted state of England, and every deftructive engine was employed, to exterminate among us the proteftant religion and name, and to cut off for ever our connexion with our beft protector. And in the time of James the fecond a fimilar attempt was made, and by means which impressed deep and lafting effects on the minds of our ancestors. France, the friend that now holds forth her bleffings to us and to the reft of Europe, then lent her aid; and James himself was forced to concur in the act, which, making Ireland independent of the crown of England, formed a grand step towards the accomplishment of the deep rooted fcheme of feparation. The fufferings, the efforts, and the event of that day are univerfally known; and the confequences were, that the English nation and government, and the protestant fettlers in Ireland, were corroborated and decided in the impofing neceffity, which long and recent experiênce had in their apprehension taught them, of restraining the Roman Catholicks, who compofed the great body of the inhabitants, and of securing the independence of Ireland upon that country, to which the Protestants owed their origin, and to which they cherished their attachment.

Now, with fuch a disposition, of ancient origin, repeatedly revived, and peculiarly aggravated, let us fuppose these kingdoms to be equal in wealth and power, and, excepting the circumftance of the king of England being ipfo facto king of Ireland, formally and virtually independent of each other. What must be

the

the confequence? So far back as we have any rocord's of the nature and conduct of man, we learn with certainty that individuals or nations, whenever upon an equality of power, or approaching to that equality, have uniformly exhibited the jealousy of rivalship, and by fure confequence, a contention for dominion, destructive always of mutual happiness, and fatal often to exiftence. In nations, thefe motives of action, which among individuals in civilized fociety are reftrained by fear of the laws or of publick opinion, are not only unreftrained by any principle, but require accumulated force from all the paffions both good and bad to be found in the community. Ardent attachment to our own nation, arifing from habitual affociations; the pride of national dignity and power; party spirit; hatred of a rival; refentment of wrongs; heated fympathy in a common caufe, inflamed by multiplied communication into undistinguishing paffion; the love of violence, always operative in the unthinking but active and turbulent majority; all these constituent energies in our nature, as they may be called, and more that might be enumerated, concur, in the fituation fuppofed, with the previous long foftered defire of separation, to produce neceffarily, either that event, or a conqueft by one or the other state, equally destructive and equally to be deprecated. Let it be added, that these nations are eminently wealthy and powerful: confequently their interefts must be important, numerous, and complicated; and the actual collifion of their refpective interefts, therefore, will frequently occur. When the collifion happens, what must follow? From equal power and perfect independence, no yielding on either part can take place; the inveterate difpofition to feparate acts in the contrary direction; deftructive con

teft

1

teft therefore becomes inevitable, followed by conqueft or separation, with all the respective fatal confequences.

But to ensure the effect, a powerful state, of determined hoftility to one of those nations, is constantly vigilant to discover, and alert to feize, every occafion for deftroying the connexion. Surely no man of common fenfe or common information can pretend, that fuch a connexion in such a state of things could permanently fubfift, or that it would be less than hopeless folly to labour for its preservation.

Yet the connexion has fubfifted, has been preferved for centuries; and from the time of James the fecond to the late confpiracy and rebellion, this country has remained in tolerable fecurity, notwithstanding the menaces of France, and her actual attempts, to invade and reduce Ireland in former wars with Great Britain, and notwithstanding the factious fpirit, whetted by re ligions acrimony, which, operating in various forms and under various names, has encouraged the foes of England,

But how has the connexion fubfifted, and how has it been preferved? Not as a connexion of two independent kingdoms, in which the claims and privileges, and free exertions of the one, were neither interfered with or affected by the other ;-not as a connexion of two distinct kingdoms, joined by the fimple adoption of the fame executive, yet of fo extraordinary, or rather so miraculous a nature, that whatever common regulations, enterprises, or conflicts, in their va rious and multiplied relations and tranfactions, appear

ed