ledge past errors and honest resolution to correct them. When gentlemen argued in favour of the union, because England was the superior power, he should say to England, "Keep your superiority; we neither wish, nor are we able, to deprive you of it; but use it properly." Sic utere tuo, ut non alienum lædas. If Ire land was the inferior nation, then its independence ought to be more respected and guarded against; for with so powerful a neighbour, it was the only solid security she had. Admitting for a moment the right of the people to call for a union, what city or town, except Cork, had demanded it? The most respectable public bodies had almost unanimously remonstrated against it. His Majesty's ministers were not however to be convinced, and their singularity was not a little remarkable. In 1792, they supported the Protestants of Ireland, in the beginning of 1793, they favoured the Catholics. In 1795, they again abandoned them, and, having gone through a variety of inconsistent schemes, they at last came to the wildest of all, an incorporative union. What might they not next propose were the union carried? They might with equal propriety, propose the dissolution of that very measure which they so strenuously advocated at that instant. Did not the majority of these ministers guarante the final constitutional adjustment of 1782 One of them moved the act of renunciation in the British House of Commons; and what was that but a complete surrender of all claim to legislate for Ireland on the part of the British parliament for ever? Yet after that final adjustment which declared that the King, Lords and Commons of Ireland, should alone make laws, the English ministers had the audacity to propose that the parliament of Great Britain should legislate for Ireland, or co-operate with her representatives in the proportion of five to one. The Irish legislature was so bowed down with imbecility, that it was for ever to be deprived of the cares of government. If such a surrender were to be made, he should suppose the two houses addressing these British representatives in the words of Lear himself: "We do invest you jointly with our power "That troop with Majesty. Ourself by monthly course, By you to be sustained, shall our abode "The fway, reverence, execution, trust, Which to confirm "This coronet part betwixt you." If they did part with that coronet, he feared there would be bitter compunction and repentance on the one part and gross ingratitude and perfidy on the other. He could not consent that the Irish parliament which since the accession of his present Majecty, had been uniformly thanked by their sovereign for their un remitted remitted attention to the interests of the empire, should merely on the ground of temporary calamity, solicit its own dissolution, relinquish its own privileges, disband its own members, acknow ledge its inability to legislate and throw itself and the country along with it on another legislature, from whose thraldom it had so lately been emancipated. Mr. MARTIN was of opinion that an union upon fair and equi table terms was the only mean between an oppressive aristocracy and the late democratic licentiousness which had been productive of such general calamity. He was sorry he could not agree with any description of gentlemen who opposed the union It did not astonish him that those who had supported the worst parlia ment and the worst measures, should be desirous of perpetuating that parliament which constituted their best fortune. There were others, however, whose inconsistency could not be well explained. He alluded to those who declared that from the manner in which the Commons were elected, and still more from their personal conduct the members had ceased to be the representatives of the people, and that in fact the inhabitants of China were as well represented in the Irish Parliament as those of Ireland. The ATTORNEY GENERAL contended that a resident parliament was inefficient to obtain for the kingdom real legislative freedom; and that circumstanced as the country was endangered by foreign and domestic enemies, an incorporating union with Great Britain was absolutely necessary for its own safety, as well as for the security of the empire at large. When in 1782 they had obtained what was called an independent legislature, did that produce the expected consequences? Certainly not. Such a legislature was found as inefficient as the former. New claims were made at home-and they found themselves as dependent upon England as before. When those claims were made, which could not be granted without destroying the constitution itself, a formidable conspiracy took place that aimed at absolute separation from Great Britain. The French revolution gave aliment to the conspiracy; the doctrines of innovation and anarchy were disseminated, and the public mind was poisoned. In that melancholy state of things, the parliament was considered the origo mali, the real cause of all the national grievances. The members of that house had lost all credit with the people. To England alone gentlemen should look for protection: yet such a proceeding was pronounced humiliating. Was it degrading to obtain a partnership in security and power with a nation to whom all Europe had recourse as their protectress against the fury and perfidy of revo lutionary France? There did not exist in his mind any cause to distrust England, who cheerfully gave her armies and fleets for the protection of the country, and at that moment secured it by her militia. SIR JOSEPH BANKS. WITH A PORTRAIT. THE vast progress which has been made in our days in natural history, entitles those who have contributed to its improvement to the gratitude of the civilized world; for the most sceptical dare not deny that the study of this branch of knowledge has, within the last fifty years, been productive of the most solid advantages to the interests and comforts of mankind. Among those who have, by their perseverance and discoveries in the cultivation of this curious and useful science, particularly contributed to the advancement of the arts and to the conveniencies of social life, the name of BANKS holds a distinguished rank. The subject of the present sketch was born in the year 1739. He traces his descent to a noble Swedish family on the paternal side; and his father was a respectable country gentleman, who almost constantly resided on a valuable estate in Lincolnshire, now in the possession of Sir Joseph. Between the age of seventeen and eighteen he was entered of the university of Oxford; and the attachment which he discovered at an early age to natural history, was then ripened into a determination to pursue that study, both in theory and practice, with a zeal which no common obstacles could check. With the writings of Linnæus and Ray he became intimately acquainted; and in the year 1763, soon after leaving Oxford, he engaged in a voyage to the coasts of Newfoundland and Labradore. The dangers of this voyage, in which he acquired several valuable curiosities, did not deter him from persevering in his favourite pursuit, and in 1768 an opportunity peculiarly suited to his gratification presented itself. The spirit for geographical discovery, which had slept since the voyages of captains Middleton, Moore, and Smyth, with a view to find out a north-west passage through Hudson's Bay to the East Indies, was revived soon after the peace of 1763, when two others by order of his Majesty, were undertaken by captains Byron, Wallis, and Carteret; but before the return of these navigators, another voyage, designed for astronomical purposes, was resolved upon. The idea was suggested by the Royal Society, who, in a memorial to the King, represented the importance of making observations on the transit of Venus over the sun's disk, which it was calculated would happen in 1769, and intreated that a vessel might be employed, at the expence of government, in the conveyance of proper persons to some of the Friendly Islands for the purpose of making these observations. His Majesty readily complied with the object of the memorial, and the celebrated captain James Cooke having been appointed to the command of the Endeavour, employed on that important service, Sir Joseph Banks determined to accompany him. The voyage was the more agreeable agreeable to him, as although its principal end related to the observations on the transit of Venus, captain Cooke had also received instructions to make further discoveries in the Pacific Ocean. Having obtained the permission of government to embark on board the Endeavour, and chosen as the associate of his researches in natural history, Dr. Solander, of the British Museum; he sailed from England on this arduous expedition the 30th of July, 1768. The services he rendered to the branch of science over which he presided during the voyage, are too well known to require any minute detail in this short account; and that his labours were in other respects of considerable utility, has been honourably acknowledged by the great man who conducted the expedition. At Madeira, the first place where the Endeavour touched, Sir Joseph made several additions to the science of botany, and ascertained, with the assistance of Dr. Solander, the volcanic origin of the island. In the course of the run from Madeira to Rio de Janeiro, they discovered that the flashes like lightning emitted by the water were produced from a small kind of animal with which it abounded. In the southern regions Sir Joseph Banks had a fortunate escape from the excessive cold and mutability of weather, which had nearly proved fatal to his friend Dr. Solander. While the ship lay in the bay of Good Success, they set out in company with Mr. Green the astronomer, and Mr. Monkhouse the surgeon, on a botanical expedition. It was then the middle of summer, and there was the fairest prospect of the continuance of good weather; but they had scarcely ascended a mountain, when they were surprized by such violent storms of snow and hail as to render their return to the vessel that night impossible. Dr. Solander, who warned them that a very strong inclination to sleep was the forerunner of certain death, was however the first who experienced that alarming propensity, and no exertions on the part of his companions could prevent him from yielding to it in the beginning. He was at length roused from this dreadful state by the perseverance of his friends; yet, though the interval of sleep was short, such was the effect of the cold, that the size of his feet was reduced by the contraction of the vessels, and his shoes fell off when he was raised from the ground. At Otaheite Sir Joseph -made several curious remarks on the country and the inhabitants; and by many traces of volcanic fire which he discovered, he ascertained the island to be of the same origin as that of Madeira. At New Zealand and New Holland several very curious natural productions were discovered by Sir Joseph Banks; but the plants and animals in the latter island particularly attracted his attention. It was in this island that the magnetical needle was so greatly affected as to vary its position no less than thirty degrees; and Sir Joseph concurred in opinion with captain Cooke that the phenomenon was occasioned by iron ore in the mountains. From this expedition, which established Sir Joseph's reputation in his favourite science, he returned to England on the 11th of June, 1771. He was received in the most gracious manner by VOL. 2.-NO. 10. G G his his Majesty, and treated with distinguished marks of respect and esteem by the first characters in point of rank and learning in the country. Little more than a year elapsed before he undertook an expedition to Iceland in company with Dr. Solander, Dr. Troil, first chaplain to the king of Sweden, and Dr. Lind. They sailed from London on the 12th of July, 1772; and to that visit the world is indebted for the most authentic account of the island which has been published. It must not be passed over in silence, that the expences of the voyage were defrayed by Sir Joseph Banks alone. The ship employed by him cost 100l. a month. They surveyed with minute attention the volcanic mountain, the hot springs, the plants, and animals of Iceland. The vessel had previously touched at the western islands of Scotland; and Sir Joseph, soon after his return from Iceland, gratified the curious with a circumstantial description of the basaltic pillars of Staffa, which was communicated by him to Mr. Pennant. In 1777 the chair of the president of the Royal Society becoming vacant by the resignation of Sir John Pringle, he was chosen to fill that honourable situation. He presided over this institution for several years without the slightest opposition, or any appearance of discontent, until the year 1783, when an idea prevailing among several respectable members that the president preferred the encouragement of his favourite pursuit to that of mathematical science, and other great objects, for the advancement of which it was contended that the Society was peculiarly instituted, a formidable party declared against him. He was at length reduced to the necessity of calling upon the assembly to support him in the duties of his office; and at a numerous meeting held on the 8th of January, 1784, the following resolution was moved by his friends: "That this Society do approve of Sir Joseph Banks for their president, and will support him." A very animated discussion was produced by the motion. It certainly does not fall within our province to decide in a summary way upon the conduct of the supporters and opponents of the question, "Non nostrum tantas componere lites ;" But the speech delivered by Dr. HORSLEY, the present bishop of Rochester, against the president, was so pointed and energetic, that we cannot forbear giving a short passage from the conclusion: "We shall have one remedy in our power, if all others fail; if other remedies should fail, we can at last secede. Sir, when the hour of secession comes, the president will be left, with his train of feeble amateurs, and that toy (the mace) upon the table-the ghost of that Society in which philosophy once reigned, and Newton presided as her minister." Without any pretence on our part to determine whether Sir Joseph has more of the virtuoso, than of the man of deep science, in his character, it is highly honourable to him, that he was supported on this occasion by a very great majority of the Society. The decision |