of all the forms of deliberation.  Grattan’s object was to anticipate the decision of the English Parliament, so as to avoid every appearance that the Irish Parliament was only following it; and he therefore proposed that the House of Commons should instantly vote an address to the Prince, requesting him to take upon himself the Regency of the kingdom of Ireland, by his own natural right as the heir of the crown; making sure not only that his advice would be taken by those whom he was addressing, but that the House of Lords would not venture to dissent from it.

Fitzgibbon, as Attorney-general and spokesman of the government in the Commons, as a matter of course opposed such precipitate action, not only warning his hearers of the folly and danger of taking a step “which might dissolve the single tie which now connected Ireland with Great Britain,” but explaining also the whole principle of the constitution of the two kingdoms, so far as it was a joint constitution, in terms which give his speech a permanent value as a summary of its principle and its character.  He recalled to the recollection of the House the act of William and Mary, which declares “the kingdom of Ireland to be annexed to the imperial crown of England, and the sovereign of England to be by undoubted right sovereign of Ireland also;” and argued from this that Mr. Grattan’s proposal was contrary to the laws of the realm and criminal in the extreme.  “The crown of Ireland,” as he told his hearers, “and the crown of England are inseparably united, and the Irish Parliament is totally independent of the British Parliament.  The first of these positions is your security, the second your freedom, and any other language tends to the separation of the crowns or the subjection of your Parliament.  The only security of your liberty is the connection with Great Britain; and gentlemen who risk breaking the connection must make up their minds to a union.  God forbid I should ever see that day; but, if the day comes on which a separation shall be attempted, I shall not hesitate to embrace a union rather than a separation.”

He proceeded to show that, as the Irish Parliament had itself enacted that all bills which passed their two Houses should require the sanction of the Great Seal of England, they actually had no legal power to confer on the Prince of Wales such authority as Grattan advised his being invested with, whatever might be the form of words in which their resolution was couched.  He pointed out, also, that if the Irish Parliament should insist on appointing the Prince of Wales Regent before it was known whether he would accept the Regency of England, it was manifestly not impossible “that they might be appointing a Regent for Ireland being a different person from the Regent of England; and in that case the moment a Regent was appointed in Great Britain, he might send a commission under the Great Seal appointing a Lord-lieutenant of Ireland, and to that commission the Regent of Ireland would be bound to pay obedience.  Another objection of great force to his mind was, that the course recommended by Grattan would be a formal appeal from the Parliament of England to that of Ireland.  It would sow the seeds of dissension between the Parliaments of the two countries.  And, indeed, those who were professing themselves advocates for the independence of the Irish crown were advocates for its separation from England.”