A memorable British statute declared it--
"Established and ascertained for ever, and shall at no time
hereafter be questioned or questionable."
For this, the spirit evoked by the successful revolt of the United
States of America is to be thanked, and Ireland won no mean return for
the sympathy invited by your Congress. Yet scarcely had George III
signified his Royal Assent to that "scrap of paper," when his Ministers
began to debauch the Irish Parliament. No Catholic had, for over a
century, been allowed to sit within its walls; and only a handful of the
population enjoyed the franchise. In 1800, by shameless bribery, a
majority of corrupt Colonists was procured to embrace the London
subjugation and vote away the existence of their Legislature for
pensions, pelf, and titles.
The authors of the Act of Union, however, sought to soften its shackles
by limiting the future jurisdiction of the British Parliament. Imposed
on "a reluctant and protesting nation," it was tempered by articles
guaranteeing Ireland against the coarser and more obvious forms of
injustice.
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