Editing Acts of Union 1800 (section)

==Provisions==
[[File:Order in Council, 5th November 1800 – illustrations of the new arms, flag, and standard of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland (PC 2-157).jpg|thumb|[[Order in Council]] of November 1800, illustrating the new arms, flag, and royal standard of the United Kingdom]]
The Acts of Union were two complementary Acts, namely:

* The Union with Ireland Act 1800 (39 & 40 Geo. 3 c. 67),<ref>{{cite act | title = Union with Ireland Act 1800 | type =  | number = (39 & 40 Geo. 3 c. 67) | language = English | date = 2 July 1800 | url = http://www.legislation.gov.uk/apgb/Geo3/39-40/67 | access-date = 6 September 2015 }} {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190706230038/http://www.legislation.gov.uk/apgb/Geo3/39-40/67 |date=6 July 2019 }} {{Cite web |url=http://www.legislation.gov.uk/apgb/Geo3/39-40/67 |title=Union with Ireland Act 1800 |access-date=2 November 2014 |archive-date=6 July 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190706230038/http://www.legislation.gov.uk/apgb/Geo3/39-40/67 |url-status=bot: unknown }}</ref> an Act of the [[Parliament of Great Britain]], and
* The Act of Union (Ireland) 1800 (40 Geo. 3 c. 38),<ref>{{cite act | title = Act of Union (Ireland) 1800 | type =  | number = (40 Geo. 3 c. 38) | language = English | date = 1 August 1800 | url = http://www.legislation.gov.uk/aip/Geo3/40/38/contents | access-date = 6 September 2015 }} {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190617044729/http://www.legislation.gov.uk/aip/Geo3/40/38/contents |date=17 June 2019 }} {{Cite web |url=http://www.legislation.gov.uk/aip/Geo3/40/38/contents |title=Act of Union (Ireland) 1800 |access-date=6 September 2015 |archive-date=17 June 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190617044729/http://www.legislation.gov.uk/aip/Geo3/40/38/contents |url-status=bot: unknown }}</ref> an Act of the [[Parliament of Ireland]].

They were passed on 2 July 1800 and 1 August 1800 respectively, and came into force on 1 January 1801. They ratified eight articles which had been previously agreed by the British and Irish parliaments:
* Articles I–IV dealt with the political aspects of the Union. It created a [[Parliament of the United Kingdom|united parliament]].
** In the House of Lords, the existing members of the Parliament of Great Britain were joined by, as [[Lords Spiritual]], four bishops of the [[Church of Ireland]], rotating among the dioceses in each session and as [[Lords Temporal]] 28 [[List of Irish representative peers|Irish representative peer]] elected for life by the [[Peerage of Ireland]].
** The House of Commons was to include the pre-union representation from Great Britain and 100 members from Ireland.
::{{See also|List of United Kingdom parliamentary constituencies in Ireland 1801–1885}}
* Article V united the established [[Church of England]] and Church of Ireland into "one Protestant Episcopal Church, to be called, The United Church of England and Ireland"; but also confirmed the independence of the [[Church of Scotland]].
* Article VI created a [[customs union]], with the exception that customs duties on certain British and Irish goods passing between the two countries would remain for 10 years (a consequence of having trade depressed by the ongoing war with revolutionary France). The High Court of Northern Ireland ruled that parts of this Article as it applied to the UK were "[[Implied repeal|impliedly repealed]]" by the passage of the [[European Union (Withdrawal Agreement) Act 2020|European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2020]].<ref>{{Cite news|date=2021-06-30|title=Brexit: NI Protocol is lawful, High Court rules|language=en-GB|publisher=BBC News|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-northern-ireland-57666255|access-date=2021-07-02|archive-date=30 June 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210630165358/https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-northern-ireland-57666255|url-status=live}}</ref> This decision was upheld on appeal by the [[Supreme Court of the United Kingdom]].<ref>{{cite news |title=Northern Ireland Protocol is lawful, Supreme Court rules |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-northern-ireland-64558530 |access-date=10 March 2023 |work=[[BBC News]] |date=8 February 2023 |archive-date=8 March 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230308135613/http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-northern-ireland-64558530 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite BAILII|litigants=In re Allister|court=UKSC|year=2023|num=5|parallelcite=[2023] 2 WLR 457}}</ref>
* Article VII stated that Ireland would have to contribute two-seventeenths towards the expenditure of the United Kingdom. The figure was a ratio of Irish to British foreign trade.
* Article VIII formalised the legal and judicial aspects of the Union.

Part of the appeal of the Union for many Irish Catholics was the promise of [[Catholic emancipation]], allowing [[Roman Catholic]] MPs, who had not been permitted to sit in the Irish Parliament, to sit in the United Kingdom Parliament. This was however blocked by King [[George III]] who argued that emancipating Roman Catholics would breach his [[Coronation of the British monarch#Recognition and oath|Coronation Oath]], and was not realised until the [[Roman Catholic Relief Act 1829]].

The traditionally separate [[Irish Army (Kingdom of Ireland)|Irish Army]], which had been funded by the Irish Parliament, was merged into the larger [[British Army]].

===The first parliament===
{{main|First Parliament of the United Kingdom}}
In the first Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the members of the House of Commons were not elected afresh. By royal proclamation authorised by the Act, all the members of the last House of Commons from Great Britain took seats in the new House, and from Ireland [[Members of the 1st UK Parliament from Ireland|100 members were chosen]] from the last Irish House of Commons: two members from each of the 32 counties and the two largest boroughs, and one from each of the next 31 largest boroughs and from [[Dublin University (constituency)|Dublin University]], chosen by lot. The other 84 Irish parliamentary boroughs were disfranchised; all were [[pocket borough]]s, whose patrons received £15,000 compensation for the loss of what was considered their property.