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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. — John Shaqi

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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

RESOLVED, That an humble Address be presented to His Majesty,
    to return His Majesty the thanks of this House for his most
    gracious message to this House, signified by his Grace the Lord
    Lieutenant. To assure His Majesty of our unshaken attachment to
    His Majesty’s Person and Government, and of our lively sense
    of his Paternal Care, in thus taking the lead to administer
    content to His Majesty’s subjects of Ireland; that thus
    encouraged by his royal interposition, we shall beg leave, with
    all duty and affection, to lay before His Majesty the causes
    of our discontents and jealousies: To assure His Majesty,
    that his subjects of Ireland are a free People; that the Crown
    of Ireland is an Imperial Crown, inseparably annexed to the
    Crown of Great Britain, on which Connection the interests and
    happiness of both Nations essentially depend; but that the
    kingdom of Ireland is a distinct Kingdom, with a Parliament of
    her own, the sole Legislature thereof; that there is no body
    of men competent to make Laws to bind this nation, except the
    King, Lords, and Commons of Ireland, nor any other Parliament
    which hath any authority or power of any sort whatsoever in
    this country, save only the Parliament of Ireland: To assure
    His Majesty, that we humbly conceive, that in this Right
    the very Essence of our Liberties exist; a Right which we,
    on the part of all the People of Ireland, do claim as their
    birth-right, and which we cannot yield but with our lives: To
    assure His Majesty, that we have seen with concern certain
    Claims advanced by the Parliament of Great Britain, in an act,
    intituled, “An Act for the better securing the Dependency of
    Ireland;” an act containing matter entirely irreconcileable to
    the fundamental Rights of this Nation; that we consider this
    act, and the claims it advances, to be the great and principle
    cause of the discontents and jealousies in this Kingdom: To
    assure His Majesty, that His Majesty’s Commons of Ireland do
    most sincerely wish, that all Bills which become Law in Ireland
    should receive the approbation of His Majesty, under the Seal
    of Great Britain; but that yet we do consider the Practice of
    suppressing our Bills in the Council of Ireland, or altering
    the same any where, to be another just cause of discontent and
    jealousy: To assure His Majesty, that an Act, intituled, “An
    Act for the better Accommodation of His Majesty’s Forces,”
    being unlimited in duration, and defective in other instances
    (but passed in that shape from the particular circumstances of
    the times) is another just cause of discontent and jealousy
    in this Kingdom: That we have submitted these, the principal
    causes of the present discontent and jealousy in Ireland, and
    remain in humble expectation of redress; that we have the
    greatest reliance on His Majesty’s wisdom, the most sanguine

Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.

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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