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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.Pitt, William

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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.

Name: 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.
Author: Pitt, William

Pitt, William

Ireland -- Politics and government -- 1760-1820

That there is no power whatsoever competent to make laws to
    bind this nation, except the King, Lords, and Commons, of
    Ireland; upon which exclusive Right of Legislation we consider
    the very essence of our liberties to depend, a Right which we
    claim as the Birth-right of the People of Ireland, and which
    we are determined, in every situation of life, to assert and
    maintain.

    To represent to His Majesty, That we have seen with concern
    certain claims, both of legislature and judicature, asserted
    by the Parliament of Great Britain, in an Act passed in Great
    Britain in the sixth year of George the First, intituled “An
    Act for the better securing the Dependency of Ireland upon the
    Crown of Great Britain:”

    That we conceive the said Act, and the powers thereby claimed,
    to be the great and principal causes of the discontents and
    jealousies that subsist in this Kingdom:

    To assure His Majesty, That this House considers it as a matter
    of constitutional right and protection, that all Bills which
    become Law should receive the approbation of His Majesty, under
    the Seal of Great Britain; but we consider the practice of
    suppressing our Bills in the Council of Ireland, or altering
    them any where, to be a matter which calls for redress:

    To represent to His Majesty, That an Act intituled “An Act
    for the better Accommodation of His Majesty’s Forces,”
    being unlimited in duration, but which, from the particular
    circumstances of the times, passed into a law, has been the
    cause of much jealousy and discontent in this Kingdom;

    That we have thought it our duty to lay before His Majesty
    these, the principal causes of the discontents and jealousies
    subsisting in this Kingdom:

    That we have the greatest reliance on His Majesty’s wisdom,
    the most sanguine expectations from his virtuous choice of a
    Chief Governor, and the greatest confidence in the wise and
    constitutional Council His Majesty has adopted:

    That we have, moreover, a high sense and veneration for
    the British Character, and do therefore conceive, that the
    proceedings of this country, founded as they are in right, and
    supported by constitutional liberty, must have excited the
    approbation and esteem of the British nation: That we are the
    more confirmed in this hope, inasmuch as the people of this
    Kingdom have never expressed a desire to share the freedom
    of Great Britain, without at the same time declaring their
    determination to share her fate, standing or falling with the
    British nation.

                              Wm. Watts Gayer } Cler. Parliament.
                              Edw. Gayer      }


    _Copy of a Resolution of the House of Commons in Ireland,
    Martis, 16ᵒ die Aprilis, 1782._

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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.

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