Monarch

GEORGE III

Year

1800

Title

40 Geo. III, c. 38,

Description

An Act for the Union of Great Britain and Ireland.

Classification

Constitutional - Act of Union effective 1 Jan. 1801, royal assent 1 Aug. 1800, eight articles/ (1) declares Union; (2) succession - according to existing laws; (3) one parliament - 'the parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland'; (4) four Lords Spiritual to sit in rotation (40 Geo. III, c. 29); 100 commoners, two for each county, also Dublin and Cork, one TCD and one for each of 31 most considerable towns; MPs' property qualification as in England; non-representative peers can sit in House of Commons; one new Irish peerage can be created when three become extinct; (5) Church of England and Ireland to be one Protestant episcopal church; (6) finance schedule of countervailing duties; (7) pre-Union debts to remain separate; post-Union financial arrangements - Ireland to contribute two-fifteenths for 20 years then review; (8) Law Courts to remain; final appeals to House of Lords of UK; Irish Privy Council to be continued during king's pleasure [c]