Ireland and America

⁸⁸ Ireland and America should pay to help reduce Great Britain’s public debt.

• That debt was to support the government established by the Revolution.
• The Protestants of Ireland owe their liberty, property, and religion to that government.
• Several American colonies owe to that government their present charters and consequently their present constitution.
  • All American colonies owe their liberty, security, and property to that constitution.

That public debt was incurred to defend Great Britain and all the empire’s provinces.

America’s defence created:

• the immense debt from the recent American Revolutionary War
• most of the debt from the Seven Years’ War.

⁸⁹ By a union with Great Britain, Ireland would gain the freedom of trade and other much more important advantages.

• These advantages would much more than compensate any tax increases that might accompany that union.

By the union with England, the Scottish middle and lower classes were completely freed from the power of an aristocracy which always oppressed them.

By a union with Great Britain, most Irish would gain an equally complete freedom from a much more oppressive aristocracy.

• Unlike Scotland’s aristocracy, Irish aristocracy is not founded in the natural and respectable distinctions of birth and fortune.
• It is founded on religious and political prejudices, the most odious of all distinctions. These prejudices=
  • animate most the oppressors’ insolence and the hatred of the oppressed
  • commonly render its own people more hostile to one another than to foreigners.

Without a union with Great Britain, the Irish will not likely consider themselves as one people for many ages.

⁹⁰ No oppressive aristocracy has ever prevailed in the colonies.

Even they would gain considerably by a union with Great Britain. It would at least deliver them from those rancorous and virulent factions which are inseparable from small democracies.

Those factions have so frequently divided their people and disturbed the peace of their democratic governments.

If they were totally separated from Great Britain, those factions would be 10 times more virulent than ever.

Before the start of the present disturbances, Great Britain’s coercive power was always able to restrain those factions.

• If that coercive power were entirely taken away, they would probably soon break out into open violence and bloodshed.

In all great countries united under one uniform government, the spirit of party commonly prevails less in the remote provinces than in the centre of the empire.

The capital is the principal seat of the great scramble of faction and ambition. The distance of those provinces from the capital renders them:

• more indifferent to the contending parties, and
• impartial spectators of the conduct of all.

The spirit of party prevails less in Scotland than in England.

• In the case of a union, it would probably prevail less in Ireland than in Scotland.

The colonies would probably enjoy a degree of concord and unanimity unknown in the British empire.

Both Ireland and the colonies would be subjected to heavier taxes.

• More of those taxes might not last long if the public revenue would be diligently and faithfully applied towards discharging the national debt.

Great Britain’s public revenue might be reduced to what was necessary for maintaining peace.

⁹¹ The East India Company’s territorial acquisitions is the right of the British people.

It might be a source of revenue more abundant than all those mentioned.

Those countries are more fertile and extensive.

• They are much richer and more populous than Great Britain, relative to their size.
• It would probably be unnecessary to impose a new tax system to draw a great revenue from them, as those countries are already sufficiently taxed.
  • It might be more proper to lighten the burden of those unfortunate countries by preventing the embezzlement and misapplication of their taxes.

⁹² If it is impractical for Great Britain to increase its revenue from the resources mentioned, her only remaining resource is to reduce her expence.

Great Britain is at least as economical as her neighbours in collecting and spending the public revenue.

• There is still room for improvement for both collecting and spending.

Her military is more moderate than any European state of equal status.

• Its expences does not seem to be considerably reducible

Before the present disturbances, the peace-keeping costs in the colonies was very big.

• It should be all saved if no revenue can be drawn from the colonies.
• This constant expence in peacetime was very great, but is insignificant compared to wartime.

The Spanish War of Jenkins’ Ear of 1739 was principally undertaken for the colonies.

• It cost Great Britain more than £40 million and led to the Seven Years’ War.

The Seven Years’ War was undertaken for the colonies.

• It cost Great Britain more than £90 million.

Most of it should be charged to the colonies.

The cost of those 2 wars was much more than double the national debt before 1739.

• Without those wars, Great Britain’s debt might have been completely paid by this time.
• Had it not been for the colonies, those 2 wars certainly would not have been undertaken.
• They were undertaken because the colonies were supposed to be provinces of the British empire.

“But countries which contribute neither revenue nor military force towards the support of the empire cannot be considered as provinces.”

• They may be considered as appendages, as showy equipage of the empire.

But if the empire can no longer keep up this equipage, it should be laid down.

• If it cannot raise its revenue in proportion to its expence, it should at least match its expence to its revenue.

The colonies refuse to submit to British taxes.

If they are still to be considered as British provinces, their defence in a future war might cost Great Britain a very big expence.

For more than a century, Great Britain’s rulers have amused the people with the imagination that they had a great empire in North America.

This empire has existed in imagination only. It has been the project of an empire and not an empire. It was the project of a gold mine, not a gold mine. It was a project which has cost and will likely cost immense expence, without bringing any profit.

• To the people, the monopoly of the colony trade was a mere loss instead of profit.
• Our rulers and the people should realize this golden dream which they have been indulging themselves in.
• Our rulers should awake themselves and the people from it.

If the project cannot be completed, it should be given up. If any of the British empire’s provinces cannot be made to contribute to support the whole empire, Great Britain should free herself from the cost of:

• defending those provinces, and
• supporting their civil or military establishments.

She should make future plans according to the real mediocrity of her circumstances.

END