Page:The Irish Parliament; what it was, and what it did.djvu/38

 That "the Crown of Ireland is an Imperial Crown inseparably annexed to the Crown of Great Britain " forms one of the propositions in Mr. Grattan's celebrated address to the Crown of the 16th April, 1782

"The Crowns of both nations," says Mr. Flood, "are united by a strong bond, for by a law of our own it is declared that whoever wears the Imperial Crown of England shall also wear the Imperial Crown of Ireland." "The Crown of Ireland and the Crown of England are inseparably and indissolubly connected," says Fitzgibbon. " The principle of law is," says Mr. O'Connell in 1843, "that whoever is king de facto in England is king de jure in Ireland." Mr. Butt says that " O'Connell's language, though strong, was scarcely exaggerated," and that "this much at least is unquestionable, that, if by any legitimate authority, a right was acquired to the Crown of England, the person who became king of England was de jure sovereign of Ireland."

Now although, as Mr. Grattan observed, " the Irish Crown is annexed to, but not merged in, the Crown of England," this annexation entailed certain serious consequences which were keenly felt by Irish statesmen before the Union.

"The king is," in the words of Mr. Warren, "the