But I have already said, that I have upon this point, the authority of an opinion to which I before alluded—an opinion delivered upon a very important Measure, very soon after the Final Adjustment of 1782. The Measure to which I refer, was that of the Commercial Propositions which were brought forward in 1785. I am not now going to enter into a discussion of the merits of that Measure. The best, perhaps, that can be said of it is, that it went as far as circumstances would then permit, to draw the two Countries to a closer Connection. But those who think that the Adjustment of 1782 was final, and that it contained all that was necessary for the establishment of the Connection between the two Countries upon a firm basis, can hardly contend that the Commercial Propositions of 1785 were necessary to prevent the danger of separation between the two Countries, and to prevent the conflicting operation of Independent Legislatures. Yet, if I am not mistaken, there will be found, upon a reference to better Records than those in which Parliamentary Debates are usually stated (I mean a statement of what passed in the discussion upon those Propositions fourteen years ago, made, as I have understood, by some of the principal parties themselves) that the CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER of that day in Ireland, in a Debate upon the Irish Propositions, held this language—“If this infatuated Country gives up the present offer, she may look for it again in vain.” Here the Right Honourable Gentleman was happily mistaken; Ireland has again had the offer of the same advantages, but more compleat, and in all respects better calculated to attain their object; and this offer the Right Honourable Gentleman has exerted all his influence to reject. But he goes on to say—“THINGS CANNOT REMAIN AS THEY ARE—Commercial jealousy is roused—it will increase with _two independent Legislatures_—and without an united interest in commerce, in a commercial Empire, political Union will receive many shocks, and _separation of interest_ must threaten _separation of Connection_, which every _honest Irishman_ must shudder to look at, as a possible event.”