zed:

The plan of a Union should be detailed as far as possible before
it is attempted. The King's Cabinet should be at once consulted,
also leading persons in both islands. If their opinion is
favourable, the measure should then be brought forward. If the
Catholic claims are to be met, the advice of their leading men,
as for instance Lords Fingal and Kenmare, should be sought. The
legal attainments of the Irish Chancellor, the Earl of Clare,
and the parliamentary and commercial connections of the Speaker,
Foster, entitle their opinions to great weight. Foster may
perhaps be won over by the offer of an English peerage. The
Irish Bar, as also Lords Shannon and Ely, will probably oppose a
Union. Some persons will object to the admission of Catholics
even to the United Parliament, though that measure cannot do
harm. The Scottish Catholics should have the same privileges
accorded to them, and a provision should be made for the
Dissenting clergy. Parliamentary Reform must be considered, but
it will not be dangerous now. The French will never make peace
until Great Britain is weakened. The religious difficulty of a
Union will not be great, for the Protestants will always form
the majority in the United Parliament. Legal expenses in the
case of Irish suits will be little more than in Scottish suits.
As Dublin will suffer from the removal of the Parliament, the
Lord Lieutenant's Court must be kept up in great splendour, the
residence of influential persons in Ireland being encouraged in
every possible way. The communications between the two islands
must be improved, free packet-boats being provided. In a
postscript Camden adds that he hopes Cornwallis will continue
the present repressive policy, which otherwise must appear
unduly harsh by contrast.[534]

The most significant passages are those in which Camden refers to the
plan of a Union as so unformed as to require preliminary inquiries, and
in which he presumes that after the Union Dissenters and Catholics will
have "the same advantages as are bestowed upon the rest of the
inhabitants of the three kingdoms." Clearly, then, Pitt and Camden had
come to no decision on the Union; but Camden, from what he knew of
Pitt's views, believed that he favoured a broad and inclusive policy,
not a Union framed on a narrowly Protestant basis. Neither of them seems
to have a