But, in the case of the present measure, what had thus been a difficulty in the Scotch Union might have been expected to be regarded as an argument in its favor, since the keenest patriots among the Scotch had long been convinced that the Union had brought a vast increase of prosperity and importance to their country, and what was now confessed to have proved advantageous to Scotland might naturally be expected to be equally beneficial to Ireland.  Another obstacle had been the fear of the danger to which the Presbyterian Church might be “exposed, when brought thus within the power of a Legislature so frequently influenced by one which held her, not as a sister, but rather a bastard usurper to a sister’s inheritance.”  But here again experience might give her testimony in favor of an Irish Union, since it was incontestable that those apprehensions—­which, no doubt, many earnest Scotchmen had sincerely entertained—­had not been realized, but that since the Union the Presbyterian Church had enjoyed as great security, as complete independence, and as absolute an authority over its members as in the preceding century; that the Parliament had never attempted the slightest interference with its exercise of its privileges, and that the Church of England had been equally free from the exhibition of any desire to stimulate the Parliament to such action; while the Roman Catholic Church, which had many more adherents in England than the Presbyterian Church had ever had, was quite powerful enough to exact for itself the maintenance of its rights, and the minister was quite willing to grant equal securities to those which, at the beginning of the century, had been thought sufficient for the Church of Scotland.  A third reason which our great historical critic puts forward for the disfavor with which the Union was at the time regarded by many high-minded Scotchmen, he finds in “the gross prostitution with which a majority sold themselves to the surrender of their own legislative existence.”  That similar means were to some extent employed to win over opponents of the government in Ireland cannot, it must be confessed, be denied, though the temptations held out to converts oftener took the shape of titles, promotions, appointments, and court favors than of actual money.  The most recent historian of this period—­who, to say the least, is not biassed in favor of either the English or Irish government of the period—­pronounces as his opinion, formed after the most careful research, that the bribery was on the other side.  “Cornwallis and Castlereagh” (the Lord-lieutenant and the Chief Secretary) “both declared it to be within their knowledge that the Opposition offered four thousand pounds, ready money, for a vote.  But they name only one man who was purchased, and his vote was obtained for four thousand pounds.  From the language of Lord Cornwallis, it is certain that if money was spent by the government in this way it was without his knowledge; but many things may have been done by the inferior