Bits of Blarney

  HENRY GRATTAN.

  The history of Ireland's independence, from the rise of the Volunteersuntil the treacherous sacrifice of nationality by the passing of the Actof Union--an interval of twenty years, yet crowded with events andeminent characters--can best be read in the lives of the illustrious menwho asserted, vindicated, and carried that independence. Looking back atthe brief but brilliant period in which they shone, truly did Curranspeak of them, to Lord Avonmore, as men "over whose ashes the mostprecious tears of Ireland have been shed."

  Among this noble and gallant array of public virtue and genius HENRYGRATTAN stands conspicuous and pre-eminent. To condense a memoir of himinto the space which I have here reserved would be a vain attempt. Letme sketch him in his youth. The child, Wordsworth said, is father of theman, and this was particularly true as regards Grattan.

  Henry Grattan, stated by most of his biographers to have been born in1750 (the year in which Curran entered into earthly existence), was fouryears older, his baptismal register in Dublin bearing date the 3d ofJuly, 1746. His father, a man of character and ability, was Recorder ofDublin for many years, and one of the metropolitan parliamentaryrepresentatives from 1761 to his death in 1766. The well-known patriot,Dr. Lucas, was senatorial colleague and opponent of the elder Grattan,who, although nominally a Whig, was actually a Tory,--was the lawofficer of the Corporation, which Lucas undauntedly opposed,--and on allessential, political, and legislative points, sided with the Governmentof the day.

  The Grattan family were of considerable and respectable standing inIreland, and Henry Grattan's grandfather and grand-uncles had enjoyedfamiliar intimacy with Dean Swift and Dr. Sheridan. Henry Grattan'smother was a daughter of Thomas Marlay, Chief Justice of Ireland, whoalmost as a matter of course in those days, was to be found on the sideof the Government, but administered justice fairly, and on some fewoccasions showed a love for and pride in his native Ireland. Grattan'smother was a clear-headed, well-informed woman. On both sides,therefore, he had a claim to hereditary talent.

  At ordinary day-schools, in Dublin, Henry Grattan received hiseducation. John Fitzgibbon, afterwards the unscrupulous tool of theGovernment and the scourge of Ireland (as Lord Chancellor Clare), washis class-mate at one of these seminaries. Grattan rapidly acquired thenecessary amount of Greek and Latin, and in 1763, being then 17 yearsold, entered Trinity College. Here, among his friends and competitors,were Foster (afterwards Speaker of the House of Commons), Robert Day,who subsequently adorned the Bench. In the University there wasparticular rivalry between Fitzgibbon and Grattan; the first was wellgrounded in classics and science, but almost wholly ignorant of modernliterature. Both obtained the highest prizes in the University,--Grattangetting premium, certificate, or medal at every examination.

  Before he had completed his twentieth year, Grattan had declared hispolitical opinions. They were patriotic--they were Irish--they wereopposed to the principles and practice of his father, and stronglyidentical with those of Dr. Lucas, his father's constant and bitteropponent. Lucas was a remarkable man. He it was who, immediately afterthe accession of George III., introduced a bill for limiting theduration of the Irish Parliament to seven years--the custom being, atthe time, that a new Parliament should be chosen when a new monarchascended the throne, and last during his lifetime. It took seven years'perseverance to effect this change--upon which the English Cabinetthrice put a veto. A fourth and final effort succeeded, the limitationbeing eight years. It was Lucas who, following in the steps of Swift,boldly attacked bad men and bad measures in the newspapers, and thusasserted the Liberty of the Press--that which Curran so earnestlydesired to be preserved when, addressing his countrymen, he said, "Guardit, I beseech you, for when it sinks, there sink with it, in one commongrave, the liberty of the subject and the security of the Crown." It wasLucas who strenuously denied the right of a British Parliament to governIreland, who asserted his country's right to legislative independence,who insisted on her claim for self-government. For this, the law wasstrained against him,--for this, Dublin grand juries ordered hiswritings to be publicly burned by the hands of the common hangman--forthis, a venal House of Commons voted that he wrote sedition and was anenemy of his country--for this, the Speaker was ordered to issue awarrant for his arrest and imprisonment in gaol--for this, the LordLieutenant was solicited to denounce him by Proclamation--for this, theCorporation of Dublin disfranchised him--for this, he had to fly hiscountry and secure life and comparative liberty by eleven years ofenforced exile. On his return, in 1760, that very city of Dublin fromwhich he had fled for his life elected him for one of itsrepresentatives, Grattan's father being his colleague. As such, theelder Grattan, who was a courtier, opposed the Septennial Bill.

  Henry Grattan, a patriot from his childhood, ardently adopted Dr. Lucas'views in favour of Ireland's independence. The result was that, in1765-6, Henry Grattan was at variance with his father. The death of theelder Grattan took place in 1766, and it was then discovered how much heresented his son's assertion of liberal politics. He could not deprivehim of a small landed estate, secured to him by marriage settlement, butbequeathed from him the paternal residence of the family for nearly acentury. Thus Henry Grattan had to enter the world, not rich in worldlywealth, and with his soul saddened by the marked and public posthumouscondemnation by his father. No wonder that, as he declared in one of hisletters at the time, he was "melancholy and contemplative, but notstudious." No wonder that, solitary in the old home, he should sadlysay, "I employ myself writing, reading, courting the muse, and takingleave of that place where I am a _guest_, not an _owner_, and of which Ishall now cease to be a _spectator_." His household Gods were shatteredon his hearth, and he sat, cold and lonely, among their ruins. Yet, eventhen, he dreamed that fortune, smiling upon him, would enable his oldage to resign his breath where he first received it. Never was thatdream fulfilled. Not even did he die

  "'Midst the trees which a nation had given, and which bowed, As if each brought a new civic crown for his head;"

  but his spirit departed, fifty-four years later, in the metropolis ofthe haughty land which had crushed the independence and broken thenationality of

  "His own loved island of sorrow."

  At the age of twenty-one, Henry Grattan went to London to study the law.At that period, as at present, it is indispensable for every one whodesires to be admitted to the Irish bar, that he shall have "studied"for two years at one of the Inns of Court in London. Perhaps this, asmuch as anything else, shows how completely the English habit has been,and is, to treat Ireland as a mere _province_. Candidates for admissionto the Scottish bar are not required to pursue this _nominal_ course ofstudy in another country. Nominal it is, for the requirement does notinvolve the acquisition, in the most infinitesimal degree, of anyknowledge of the principles or practice of the law. All that isnecessary is that the future barrister shall have eaten twenty-fourdinners in the Hall of his London Inn of Court (three at each term)during two years, and a certificate of this knife-and-forkpractice--which is facetiously called "keeping his Terms"--is receivedby the Benchers of the Queen's Inn in Dublin, as proof that thecandidate has duly qualified himself by study! There is no examinationas to his knowledge of law--two years in London, and a somewhat lesseramount of legal feeding in Dublin, being the sole qualification for theIrish Bar!

  In Michaelmas Term, 1767, being two months past his majority, HenryGrattan entered his name, as student, on the books of the Middle Templein London. Although he intended to live by the practice of the law, hedevoted little attention to its study. Black-letter, precedents, andtechnicalities he cared little for. The broad principles ofjurisprudence attracted his attention; but he mastered them, not as anadvocate, but as a future law-maker. In fact, nature had intended himfor a politician and statesman, and his mind, from the first, followedthe bias which "the mighty mother" gave. As late as August, 1771, whenhe had been four years in the Temple, he wrote thus to a friend: "I amnow becoming a lawyer, fond of cases, frivolous, and illiberal; instea
dof Pope's and Milton's numbers, I repeat in solitude Coke'sinstructions, the nature of fee-tail, and the various constructions ofperplexing statutes. This duty has been taken up too late; not timeenough to make me a lawyer, but sufficiently early to make me a dunce."In the same letter he said, "Your life, like mine, is devoted toprofessions which we both detest; the vulgar honours of the law are asterrible to me as the restless uniformity of the military is to you."

  During the four years of his English residence, varied by occasionalvisits to Ireland, Mr. Grattan's heart certainly never warmed to theprofession which he had chosen. The confession which I have just quotedwas made only a few months before he was called to the Irish bar inHilary Term, 1772. Yet he was a hard reader, a close student, an earlyriser, and a moderate liver. To afford the means of enlarging hislibrary, he avoided expensive amusements and practiced a very closeeconomy. In November, 1768, these saving habits became matter ofnecessity rather than of choice, when his mother died so suddenly thatshe had not time to make, as she had purposed, a formal disposition ofher reversion to a landed property which she had meant to leave her son.It passed, therefore, to another branch of the family, leaving Grattansuch limited resources that it now was necessary for him to follow aprofession.

  How, then, did Grattan employ his time in England? We have his ownregretful confession, that it was not, for the first four years, in thestudy of the law. Shortly after his first visit to London, he lost oneof his sisters; and deep sorrow for her death, and a distaste forsociety, drove him from the bustle of the metropolis to the retirementof the country. He withdrew to Sunning Hill, near Windsor Forest, amidwhose mighty oaks he loved to wander, meditating upon the politicalquestions of the day, and making speeches as if he already were inparliament. Mrs. Sawyer, his landlady, a simple-minded woman, knew notwhat to make of the odd-looking, strange-mannered young man, andhesitated between the doubt whether he was insane or merely eccentric.When one of his friends came to see him, she complained that her lodgerused to walk up and down in her garden throughout the summer nights,speaking to himself, and addressing an imaginary "Mr. Speaker," with theearnestness of an inspired orator. She was afraid that his derangementmight take a dangerous character, and, in her apprehension, offered toforgive the rent which was due, if his friends would only remove hereccentric lodger.

  Seventy years after this (in 1838) Judge Day, who lived to almost apatriarchal age, and had been intimate with Grattan in London, wrote aletter, in which, describing him at college, "where he soondistinguished himself by a brilliant elocution, a tenacious memory, andabundance of classical acquirements," he proceeds to state that Grattan"always took great delight in frequenting the galleries, first of theIrish, and then of the English House of Commons, and the bars of theLords." His biographer records that this amateur Parliamentaryattendance had greater attractions for him than the pleasures of themetropolis, and that he devoted his evenings in listening, his nights inrecollecting, and his days in copying the great orators of the time.Judge Day also has remembered that Grattan would spend whole moonlightnights in rambling and losing himself in the thickest plantations ofWindsor Forest, and "would sometimes pause and address a tree insoliloquy, thus preparing himself early for that assembly which he wasdestined in later life to adorn."

  Such was Grattan's self-training. So did he prepare himself for thatcareer of brilliant utility and patriotism which has made his nameimmortal.

  Events of great moment took place in England during Grattan's sojournthere. The contest between John Wilkes and the Government was then infull course, leading to important results, and encouraging, if it didnot create, the publication of the fearless and able letters of Junius.At that time, great men were in the British Senate, and Grattan had thegood fortune to hear their eloquence, to watch the deeds in which theyparticipated. The elder Pitt, who had then withdrawn from the Commons,and exercised great power in the Upper House, as Earl of Chatham, stilltook part in public business. There, too, was Lord North--shrewd, obese,good-tempered, and familiar. There was Charles James Fox, justcommencing public life, alternately coquetting with politics and thefaro-table--his great rival, Pitt, had not then arisen, nor his eminentfriend Sheridan, but Edmund Burke had already made his mark, Barre wasin full force, as well as Grenville, and the great lawyers Loughboroughand Thurlow had already appeared above the horizon, while Lords Camdenand Mansfield were in the maturity of fame. Then, also, flourishedCharles Townshend, who would have deserved the name of a greatstatesman but for his mistake in trying to obtain revenue for Englandby taxation of America. There was the remarkable man called"Singlespeech" Hamilton, from one brilliant oration which was declaredby Walpole to have eclipsed the most successful efforts even of theelder Pitt. In the Irish Parliament, too, which he always visited whenin Dublin during the Session, were men of great eminence and ability,with some of whom--Flood, Hutchinson, and Hussey Burgh--not long after,Grattan was himself to come into intellectual gladiatorship. In bothcountries, therefore, he became familiar with politics and politicians.What marvel if he deviated from the technicalities of the law into thewider field of law-making and statesmanship?

  How closely he observed the eminent persons who thus came before hisnotice, may be judged from the character of Lord Chatham, which wasintroduced in a note to "Barataria,"(a satirical _brochure_ by SirHercules Langrishe), as if from a new edition of Robertson's History ofAmerica. Many persons, at the time, who looked for it in Robertson, weredisappointed at not finding it there. _Apropos_ of Langrishe; it may beadded that he it was who said--that the best History of Ireland was tobe found "in the continuation of _Rapin_," and excused the swampy stateof the Ph[oe]nix Park demesne by supposing that the Government neglectedit, being so much occupied _in draining the rest of the kingdom_.

  Greatly admiring the nervous eloquence of Lord Chatham, it is evidentthat Grattan's own style was influenced, if not formed by it. He couldnot have had a better model. Grattan, out of pure admiration of the man,reported several of his speeches for his own subsequent use. Writingabout him many years later, he said, "He was a man of greatgenius--great flight of mind. His imagination was astonishing. He wasvery great, and very odd.[14] He never came with a prepared harangue; hisstyle was not regular oratory, like Cicero or Demosthenes, but it wasvery fine, and very elevated, and above the ordinary subjects ofdiscourse. He appeared more like a pure character advising, than mixingin the debate. It was something superior to that--_it was teaching thelords, and lecturing the King_. He appeared the next greatest thing tothe King, though infinitely superior. What Cicero says in his 'CLARISORATORIBUS' exactly applies: '_Formae dignitas, corporis motus plenus etartis el venustatis, vocis et suavitas et magnitudo._' 'Great subjects,great empires, great characters, effulgent ideas, and classicalillustrations formed the material of his speeches.'"[15]

  [14] This refers more particularly to the year 1770.

  [15] Grattan used to say that nothing ever was finer, in delivery and effect, than Chatham's appeal, on the American question, to the bishops, the judges, and the peers:--"You talk of driving the Americans: _I might as well talk of driving them before me with this crutch_."

  Until he permanently and finally took up his residence in Dublin,Grattan was greatly prejudiced in favour of England. In August, 1771, hewrote to a friend that he would return to Ireland that Christmas, "tolive or die with you," and added, "It is painful to renounce England,and my departure is to me the loss of youth. I submit to it on the sameprinciple, and am resigned." At that time he was twenty-five years old.

  In his letters to his friends at this time, he commented on Irishpolitics so forcibly as to show that he was a close observer. Alludingto the means used by the Viceroy (Lord Townshend) to corrupt thelegislature, he said, "So total an overthrow has Freedom received, thatits voice is heard only in the accents of despair." This sentence veryprobably suggested the concluding part of Moore's beautiful lyric, "Theharp that once through Tara's halls,"

  "Thus Freedom now so seldom wakes, T
he only throb she gives, Is when some heart indignant breaks, To show that still she lives."

  Early in 1772, Grattan was called to the Irish bar--not from anypredilection for the profession, but from the necessity of eking out hislimited means by the exercise of his talents. It is recorded that havinggone the circuit, and failed to gain a verdict in an important casewhere he was specially retained, he actually returned to his client halfthe amount of his fee--fifty guineas. A man who could act thus, wasclearly not fitted for the profession, nor destined to arrive at wealthby its means.

  At that time the rising talent of Ireland was decidedly liberal, and infavor of progress. Grattan was thrown into familiar intimacy with thissociety, and his own opinions were influenced, if not determined, by theCatholic spirit of their avowed principles. Lord Charlemont, HusseyBurgh, Robert Day, (afterwards the Judge,) Dennis Daly, and BarryYelverton--men whose names are familiar to all who have read the historyof Ireland's later years of nationality--were his familiar friends.

  Grattan wished for the lettered ease of literary retirement, but hisnarrow means did not permit him to live without labour. He said, "Whatcan a mind do without the exercise of business, or the relaxation ofpleasure?" He took to politics as a relief from the demon of _ennui_. Heattended the debates in Parliament. He said "they were insipid; everyone was speaking; nobody was eloquent." He had become a lawyer, as hesadly confessed, "without knowledge or ambition in his profession." Hewould fain have gone into retirement, but complained that, in his toohospitable country, "wherever you fly, wherever you secrete yourself,the sociable disposition of the Irish will follow you, and in everybarren spot of that kingdom you must submit to a state ofdissipation or hostility." He said that his passion was retreat, for"there is certainly repose, and may be a defence, in insignificance."

  He was destined for better things. He had married Henrietta Fitzgerald,who claimed descent from the Desmond family, (actually from that branchof which that Countess of Desmond, who died at the age of 162, was thefoundress,) but had, as her own dowry, the far greater wealth of youth,beauty, virtue, talent, and devoted affection. The union was eminentlyhappy. Mrs. Grattan became the mother of thirteen children, and it isknown that on many occasions, but especially in the troublous times of1798 and 1800, (the rebellion and the betrayal of Ireland by herparliament,) Grattan frequently consulted and acted on the advice of hiswife, which invariably was to do what was right, regardless of personalconsequences. After his marriage, he went to reside in the countyWicklow, where, almost from early youth, he had been enamoured of thebeautiful scenery, and even then spoke of Tinnahinch, which hesubsequently purchased, as a place which might be "the recreation of anactive life, or the retreat of an obscure one, or the romantic residenceof philosophical friendship." "Here," said his son, "he mused in whenmelancholy, he rejoiced in when gay; here he often trod, meditating onhis country's wrongs--her long, dreary night of oppression; and here hefirst beheld the bright transient light of her redemption and herglory." Here, too, in the moments of grief he wept over her divisionsand her downfall. The place continues a family possession, and,identified as it is with the name of Grattan, should never be allowed topass into the possession of any others.

  Grattan's wife, highly gifted by nature, and with her mind cultivatedand enlarged by education, urgently pressed him to embark in politicallife. She knew, even better than himself, what his mental resourceswere, how patriotic were his impulses, how great his integrity, howundaunted his courage. She interested his friends in his behalf, and, atlast, on the death of Mr. Caulfield (Lord Charlemont's brother), Grattanwas returned to Parliament for the borough of Charlemont, and on the11th of December, 1775, in his thirtieth year, Henry Grattan took hisseat as member for Charlemont. On the fourth day after he made aspeech--a spontaneous, unstudied, and eloquent reply--and it was at onceseen and admitted that his proper place was in Parliament. From that daythe life of Grattan can be read in the history of Ireland.

  What he did may be briefly summed up. He established the Independence ofIreland, by procuring the repeal of the statute by which it had beendeclared that Ireland was inseparably annexed to the Crown of GreatBritain, and bound by British acts of Parliament, if named in them--thatthe Irish House of Lords had no jurisdiction in matters of appeal--andthat the _dernier resort_, in all cases of law and equity, was to thepeers of Great Britain.

  For his great services in thus establishing Ireland's rights, theParliament voted him L50,000. He considered that this was a retainer forthe future as well as a mark of gratitude for the past, and henceforthdevoted the remainder of his life--a period of nearly forty years--tothe service of his country.

  Grattan's last act, as an Irish legislator, was to oppose the Union,which destroyed the nationality _he_ had made--his last act, as a publicman, was to hurry to London, in his seventy-fifth year, under theinfliction of a mortal disease, to present the petition in favour of theIrish Catholics, and support it, at the risk of life, in Parliament.

  Grattan's great achievements were all accomplished in early life, whilethe "_purpurea juventus_" was in its bloom, while the heart was in itsspring. Great men, of all shades of political and party passion havebeen eager and eloquent in his praise. Byron, speaking of Ireland,ranked him first among those

  "Who, for years, were the chiefs in the eloquent war, And redeemed, if they have not retarded, her fall."

  Moore, who knew him well, said,

  "What an union of all the affections and powers, By which life is exalted, embellished, refined, Was embraced in that spirit--whose centre was ours, While its mighty circumference circled mankind."

  Faithfully too, as well as poetically, did he describe his speeches asexhibiting

  "An eloquence rich, wherever its wave Wandered free and triumphant, with thoughts that shone through, As clear as the brook's 'stone of lustre,' and gave, With the flash of the gem, its solidity too."

  Lord Brougham said that it was "not possible to name any one, the purityof whose reputation has been stained by so few faults, and the lustre ofwhose renown is dimmed by so few imperfections." After describing thecharacteristics of his eloquence, he added, "It may be truly said thatDante himself never conjured up a striking image in fewer words than Mr.Grattan employed to describe his relation towards Irish independence,when, alluding to its rise in 1782, and its fall, twenty years later, hesaid, 'I sat by its cradle--I followed its hearse.'"

  Sydney Smith, in an article in the _Edinburgh Review_, shortly afterGrattan's death, thus bore testimony to his worth:--"Great men hallow awhole people, and lift up all who live in their time. What Irishman doesnot feel proud that he has lived in the days of Grattan? who has notturned to him for comfort, from the false friends and open enemies ofIreland? who did not remember him in the days of its burnings, wastingsand murders? No government ever dismayed him--the world could not bribehim--he thought only of Ireland: lived for no other object: dedicated toher his beautiful fancy, his elegant wit, his manly courage, and all thesplendour of his astonishing eloquence. He was so born, so gifted, thatpoetry, forensic skill, elegant literature, and all the highestattainments of human genius, were within his reach; but he thought thenoblest occupation of a man was to make other men happy and free; and inthat straight line he kept for fifty years, without one side-look, oneyielding thought, one motive in his heart which he might not have laidopen to the view of God or man."

  The man to whom tributes such as these were voluntarily paid, must havebeen a mortal of no ordinary character and merit.