Lord Nugent therefore proposed that Ireland should be permitted to
export all articles of Irish manufacture--woollen cloths and wool
excepted--on board British vessels to the coast of Africa and other
foreign settlements, and to import from the same all goods, except
indigo and tobacco. He also proposed that they should be allowed to
export Irish sailcloth, cotton-yarn, and cordage to England, free of
duty. Two bills founded upon these propositions were introduced, and
both sides of the house admitting the justice of the measures seemed to
agree in the propriety of adopting them. The great commercial body
of England, however, took the alarm, and during the Easter recess, a
formidable opposition was entered into by the merchants in all quarters.
Petitions flowed into parliament from every part of the country, and the
different members of parliament were instructed by their constituents to
oppose the measures. Many who had previously been disposed to give them
their support, in compliance with these instructions now opposed them;
but Mr. Burke, who was member for the great trading city of Bristol,
manfully refused, and continued to co-operate with Lord Nugent in his
task. In presenting a petition from Bristol against the measures, he
ably advocated them, and declared that if from his conduct he should
forfeit the suffrages of his constituents at the next election, it
should stand on record, as an example to future representatives of
the commons of England, that one man at least had dared to resist the
desires of his constituents when his judgment assured him that they were
wrong.
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