dust. Time had only changed the champions of the cause of Ireland, the his orical strife was continued with unabated ardour by the Protestants.

One cannot pass those times without remarking that much of Grattan's force in Irish politics was to be attributed to the conformity between his mind and the genius of his countrymen. He may be considered as the first great representative of Irish eloquence, and though Burke possesses the superiority as a statesman, Grattan carries the palm as the greater orator. The eloquence of Burke in the British senate has often been characterized (and with justice) as Irish oratory. Indeed, any one that consults the English ministerial writers, who drudged in the service of George Grenville, may be amused by the mode in which they attack Burke as an Irishman. But Grattan was not, as many have idly said, a pupil of Burke in oratory. His style was far more dramatic, more startling, more picturesque, and much less prolix. It was not prone to run into dissertation, and was always calculated to move the passions, while it appealed to the judgment of the audience. As a public speaker, it must be confessed, with all admiration for his intellect, that Burke was frequently wearisome. His speeches were made to be read, and not to be spoken. But Grattan contrived with singular genius to be always original, generally profound, and never tiresome.

It would be a trite subject nowadays to enter into the critical merits of the eloquence of those great men who illustrated the close of the eighteenth century, but it may be enough here to say that Grattan was original and creative, and was the tame follower of no man in his eloquence and politics. He was himself at all times.

Amongst the moral qualities that we can trace as having contributed to Grattan's vast public success, there was one deserving particular notice.

He appears to have had more vigour of will than most of his patriotic contemporaries. His physical and moral courage were of a very high order. Even when he was most dispirited and shattered in his physical frame, he seemed to have retained a certain fierce audacity of spirit, which rather courted danger than shrunk from it. Indeed, if one may be permitted to criticise his personal courage, he had too much of the dare-devil. Though brilliant, cultivated, and polite, there was a latent audacity in his character, which made him formidable even to the execrable bullies who then infested Irish society. At that time the ferocious and bloodthirsty principles of the "Fire-eating code" were recognised in Irish society, and to those principles Grattan lent all the influence of his example. His position in Irish politics was in some respects rather singular. Without great property or very high social connection, he affected to lead the Irish parliament. In any age of Irish history, no other Irishman of the same noderate social pretensions aspired to such a leading part as Grattan. To play that part, the Chatham of Ireland required no ordinary resolution. Mere political genius or proficiency in parliamentary eloquence would not have sufficed. A vigorous will, and a capacity for self-assertion, were required; and with those qualities Grattan was eminently endowed.

It is the province of the historian, and not of a commentator, to detail the events of the Irish Revolution of 1782. It is enough here to remark, that though the thought of Irish liberty did not proceed from the Volunteers, yet unquestionably the ideas were realised only by the means of exhibiting force. Everywhere throughout the island, the public spirit was wrought up to extraordinary excitement. Indeed the political proceedings of the years that immediately preceded 1782, chiefly consisted in the enlistment and frequent reviewings of the Vciunteers, who had chosen lord Charlemont as their general Tho

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Volunteers became, if not de jure, at least de facto, a national standing army; they assisted in the maintenance of public order, escorted the Judges of Assize, conveyed prisoners to gaol, and moved from place to place. The first noblemen of the country were at their head: in the North, Lords Charlemont and Erne; in Connaught, Lord Clanricarde; in Munster, Lords Kingsborough, Inchiquin, and Shannon, commanded large bodies of armed militia, which existed without the concurrence of the Crown. Yet, neither morally nor technically could disloyalty have been imputed to them. They were not republicans, like the insurgent Americans: with the exception of a few corps in the North, they had as little of the anti-king feeling in their composition, as they had of the irreligion of the French Revolutionists. Their intensity was Irish, and not democratic; their purpose national rather than convulsive. They aimed at a redistribution of political power within these islands; but, unlike the revolutionists of France or America, they did not embody ideas calculated to spread through society, and influence the moral character of mankind. Considered discursively, their political principles were those of the Revolution of 1688; their leaders did not differ from those views of political liberty entertained by the English Whigs. They put forward doctrines which came under the ban of an imperial rather than a social Alarmist, and rendered themselves obnoxious to the authority of a William Pitt, representing English will and administering the British empire, rather than to the moral censure of a Burke, philosophising upon politics. It cannot be too distinctly maintained, that whatever moral power was in the volunteers and their leaders, was derived from a national source. The "moral essence" of nationhood was their vivifying spirit.

For uttering the feelings of such a party, Grattan was exactly the mas required. He had an enthusiastic passion for Ireland, and at the same time be desired connexion with England. He was himself what is called in politics "a Whig of the Revolution", equally opposed to the absolutism of the Tory, or the ultra-liberalism of the Radical. He was a stanch enemy of Lord Chatham's great bugbear, "the House of Bourbon". He did not wish the British power should diminish, except in Ireland, for then Europe would have been at the mercy of France. He wished that Irish society should be moulded into th same society as that existing in England, but that its colour should be Irish and its spirit "racy of the soil". He desired that Ireland should have nationality, moral and historical, distinct from that of England but he placed bounds upon its political ambition. He would have had Irish manners, Irish traditions, Irish affections, Irish literature, Irish art, but he would not have had an Irish sovereign, except in conjunction with England.

This is not the place to examine whether such ideas could ever be permanently realised it is not within the narrow limits of this memoir that we can examine whether such splendid aspirations for objects apparently contradictory, ought to be called ideas, or whether they were the phantoms of a poetical fancy kindled by a patriotic heart. Be it enough to say here, that they were Grattan's views on Ireland; they were the aspirations of the Irish statesmen of 1782; but they were as totally distinct from the ideas subsequently put forward by Theobald Wolfe Tone, as from those of Lord Castlereagh. Grattan was the national Whig of Ireland, and thus in politics he must be judged.

After the country had been thoroughly roused by Grattan and his friends, it vas evident that war should soon take place with England, unless the Irish claims were conceded. The Volunteers held their famous meeting at Dunganon on the 15th of February, 1782, and the celebrated Resolution, drawn up by Grattan, was passed unanimously :-" Resolved, that a claim of any hody

of men other than the King, Lords, and Commons of Ireland, to make laws to bind this kingdom, is unconstitutional, illegal, and a grievance".

The next resolution, directed against Poyning's Law, originated with Flood, But there was a third resolution, started by Henry Grattan, that made less noise at the time, but which must not be forgotten: it was one in favour of the oppressed Catholics, and ran in the following terms :-" Resolved, that we hold the right of private judgment in matters of religion to be equally sacred in others as well as in ourselves; that we rejoice in the relaxation of the Penal Laws against our Roman Catholic fellow-subjects, and that we conceive the measure to be fraught with the happiest consequences to the union and prosperity of the inhabitants of Ireland".

These resolutions spread throughout all Ireland, and were adopted not merely by shouting thousands, by assemblages numerically formidable, but by armed regiments of Protestants and owners of the soil, and by the Grand Juries assembled at the Assizes. What never before (or sinee) was seen in Ireland, then took place-namely, unanimity amongst all parties and creeds in the cause of their common country.

In the spring of 1782, the Ministry of Lord North fell amidst universal anpopularity. Lord Rockingham, after some delay, was made Prime Minister, and all the sections of the Whig party became united. Fox and Lord ShelSourne were made Secretaries of State; Burke was appointed Paymaster of the Forces; the Duke of Portland was appointed Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, and Colonel Fitzpatrick was made Chief Secretary. The new Lord Lieutenant was a shuffling, vacillating, insincere nobleman, of much infirmity of purpose, but not destitute of low cunning.* Fitzpatrick, the Chief Secretary, was a spirited and accomplished person, of open and manly character, and well deserving to be popular. But though British interests were served by the dismissal of Lord North from power, the new Government found hopeless difficulties to contend with in Ireland. There were not five thousand of the King's troops in the island, and there were nearly one hundred thousand Volunteers, filled with a passion for liberty, whose hopes too had been long deferred, and who eagerly demanded their freedom.

In such circumstances, Charles Fox, the principal man of the new Whig Government, determined to see what skilful diplomacy might accomplish. He saw that there was nothing to be done, except to resist the Irish by arms, or to master them by policy, and he was not without hopes of doing the latter. For that purpose he resolved to gain time upon the Irish leaders, and trust to the providence of events for giving him some means by which he might save England from the concession of liberty to Ireland. For both he and Edmund Burke considered the Irish claims as most dangerous to England.

And it is not to be denied that rox was very near triumphing over the Irish leaders; in fact, he would have done so but for Henry Grattan. The English Whig Government had numerous personal friends amongst the Irish patriots. Fitzpatrick was a scion of an Irish family, that for centuries had been Lords of Upper Ossory. Burke bad many leading friends in the Irish House of Commons, and several of Fox's adherents in England were Irishmen, as, for example, Sir Philip Francis, Colonel Barré, Mr. Sheridan, Courtney, and many others. All the force of party connexion and personal friendship was immediately put in action by Fox. He saw the difficulty of his position, and like a strong mak ree with the emergency.

*This character of the Duke of Portland receives painful confirmation from the roomatiy published memoirs of Lord Malmesbury.

On the 14th of March, 1782, Henry Grattan had given notice that he would ́ gain bring before the Irish House of Commons the question of Legislative Independence; and he moved further for a call of the House for the 16th of April, the day on which members" were to tender the rights of the Irish Parliament". I therefore became a paramount object with Fox to interpose delay. He sought. .o play upon the good nature of Lord Charlemont, and endeavoured to amuse the Irish leaders with various kind speeches and compliments. He partially succeeded. Denis Daly was favourable to giving "time" to the English Government so also was Hussey Burgh, and so was Mr. Yelverton-three men of" unquestionable spirit and ability.

The 16th of April drew near, and public expectations were greatly excited. There were symptoms of some of the patriot leaders faltering in their course. Grattan, who had been suffering after a life of three years' continuous excitement, was breaking down in health, but not in resolution. He was confined to his bed from physical debility, though his mind was full of nerve. On the 13th of April, three days before that appointed for the Declaration of Irish Independence, Lord Charlemont wrote to Flood requesting him to come to town and give his advice upon the emergency of affairs; but Mr. Flood declined to do so. Charlemont went to the bedside of Grattan, and told him of the letters he had received from Fox and Lord Rockingham. He told him also of the opinions of their fellow-patriots; but Grattan vehemently cried: "No TIME! - NO TIME!* and Lord Charlemont was obliged to write a letter to the English Government, that they (the Irish leaders) could not delay—that they were pledged to the people that they could not postpone the question-for that it was public property". Such were the words dictated by Grattan.

At length the 16th of April, 1782-the most memorable day in Irish history -arrived; and Grattan, to the surprise of all who knew his physical weakness, appeared in his place in Parliament. His looks told his sufferings; he was emaciated and careworn; and an ordinary man in his state would not have been fit to enter, much less to address, a public assembly. But Grattan was no ordinary man; and he electrified his audience with a speech distinguished, in the words of an English critic, "for its fire, sublimity, and immense reach of thought". Lord Charlemont used often to say, when alluding to that day, "if ever spirit could be said to act independent of body, it was on that occasion". The speech was in every respect equal to the occasion; and Grattan won universal admiration by the power of mind and character he showed when moving his resolutions of Independence. He stated the three great causes of complaint upon the part of Ireland: the Declaratory Statute of George the First; the Perpetual Mutiny Bill; and the unconstitutional powers of the Irish Privy Council. The repeal of the two statutes, and the abolition of the sway of the Privy Council, were the terms on which he would support Government.

His resolutions were triumphantly carried. Chief Secretary Fitzpatrick found it useless to make resistance. The House of Lords concurred with the House of Commons in the famous Address to the King, stating "that the Crown of Engand is an Imperial Crown, but that Ireland is a distinct Kingdom, with a Parliament of her own, the sole Legislature thereof”. The English Government then placed the Resolutions before the King, who directed copies to be laid before the British Parliament; and on the 17th of May the English House of Com. mons resolved itself into a Committee for the consideration of the whole ques tion. Mr. Fox determined to yield with a good grace. He stated that he would rather see Ireland wholly separated from the Crown of England, than kept iz subjection by force. "Unwilling subjects", he said "are little better than

enemies". He then moved a repeal of the 6th George the First, and his motior was adopted by parliament.

The Irish parliament then met upon the 27th of May; and the Lord Lieutenant officially noted in his speech the concurrence of the English government with the resolutions of the Irish parliament. Mr. Grattan moved the address in answer to the speech, and only two members voted against the address. Notices of several Irish bills were then given by Grattan, Yelverton, and Forbes; and the Irish parliament entered upon its independent existence.

Thus was carried the Revolution of 1782-in the achievement of which Henry Grattan played a part that would preserve his memory in history, even if his loquence had not immortalized his name. In the 36th year of his age he stood! before the world as the leading statesman in a national Revolution, pregnant with vast consequences to the authority of England, and to the politics of Ireland. Aided by a number of able men, and backed by a national army, he had brought about the most singular state of political relations between the countries. His ideas may be simply stated thus:-First, he wished that Irelani should own the sovereign of England as her king. Secondly, that she shoul Irish should live in affection with England, while they should preserve a passionate nationality. And such also were the views of his contemporary statesmen. On one important point, however, Grattan widely differed from many of the leading patriots. He was the earnest and unswerving supporter of the whole claims of the Catholics-he was for their emancipation from the odious bondage in which they had been held. As a matter of sentiment he was in favour of religious liberty and freedom, and also as a matter of opinion; for, looking at the whole question as a statesman, he saw that it was utterly absurd to suppose that Irish independence could exist, when half the country was enslaved. It reflects much credit on his political sagacity that he prophesied the Union, unless the Catholics were emancipated by the Irish Protestants, who in those times monopolised all political power. Upon the great question of the liberty of the Irish Catholics, Grattan was completely right from first to last: and it must be admitted that his devotion to their cause was not merely the cold dictate of political prudence, it was also the impulse of his manly, generous nature. Throughout his whole life, and in all seasons, to the cause of the Irish Catholics he "clung (to use his own words) with desperate fidelity".

In return for Grattan's services a vote of £100,000 was proposed in parliament, for the purpose of giving him an estate. His first impulse was to decline the grant; he disliked to receive public money for services which had been voluntarily offered to his country. Yet if he declined an estate his difficulties were considerable. His patrimony was far from being sufficient to support the station to which he had raised himself. He could not turn to the bar after having devoted so much time to politics. He should therefore be compelled either to retire from the public scene, or become a placeman. His uncle, Colonel Marlay, so strongly represented to him the nature of the latter dilemma, that Grattan acquiesced in the wisdom of becoming independent of party. He consented to accept half of the sum voted to him by parliament; and probably then formed his inflexible resolution never to take office, as during his long life he repeatedly declined official position, though tendered him by various administrations.

The second period of Grattan's Irish parliamentary life commenced with the agitation of the question of "Simple Repeal".

Mr. Flood had evidently been much mortified with the splendid success of Frattan, and felt considerable chagrin at having been surpassed by his political pupil: he seemed to have resolved on recovering his former popularity, even at the expense of destroying Grattan's reputation. His conduct from first to last