131
ponent parts, and whether the lands and manufactures of Great Britain or Ireland are likely to be in the most flourishing condition,should never be a question, but how we may render them in bothcountries as flourishing as possible. I told Mr. Pitt, some time ago,that both your name and his would be immortalised, if an unionbetween the two kingdoms on an equal and liberal footing could beestablished. Scotland has felt the advantages of an union ; Ireland would feel the same in her turn, and instead of grinding the facesof the poor Asiatics, to make them pay the debts of Great Britain ,we should become the most powerful nation in Europe , by relyingon nothing but the free commerce and the full cultivation of thelands of the two islands.”
Had the measure, recommended in my above letter to the Dukeof Rutland, been at that time adopted, the state of the continentof Europe would either not have been what it now is, or we shouldhave been better able to resist the storm which threatens us, thanwe now are. In twenty-two years Great Britain and Ireland wouldhave become solidly united, and been so mutually strengthened bytheir cordial coalescence, that France , and all her tributary kings,might have excited our surprise, but not our apprehension.
i
The following is an extract of another letter to the Duke, inNovember, 1784, in answer to one of his, respecting the state ofIreland : — “I have nothing to object to any part of your reason-ing respecting Ireland ; it is all judicious and convincing; and Iparticularly agree with you, with relation to the Catholics . Noman upon earth, I trust, can have more enlarged sentiments oftoleration than I have, but the Church of Rome is a persecuting
s 2
%