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treason of the Minister against the liberties of the people was infinitely worse than the rebellion of thepeopleagainsttheMinister." The Government after this debate had i6i votes to 140. A duel between Grattan and Corry was inevitable. James Black- wood (LordDufferin) oflFered to beGrattan's second. The opponents met at Ball's-bridge. The sheriff appeared, but was held down in a ditch until the affair was over. At the se- cond discharge Corry was wounded. Not- withstanding lavish bribery and corrup- tion, Government appear still to have enter- tained some apprehensions of final failure ; and Lord Cornwallis speaks of their party in general being "but cold and languid friends." On 4th March George Ponsonby brought forward a motion of address to his Majesty against the Union, showing the state of public feeling in the country against the measure. This proposal was defeated by 155 to 107. To strengthen the hands of Government, further stringent Insurrection Bills were passed. The Irish Militia were also sent to England, and their places filled by English regiments. On the 25 th March the report of the commit- tee in favour of a Union was brought up and passed. On the 26th the Union Bill was read a second time and passed by 1 1 7 to 73. Grattan wound up his final pro- test against the measure in these words : " Yet I do not give up the country ; I see her in a swoon, but she is not dead. Though in her tomb she lies helpless and motion- less, stiU there is on her lips a spirit of life, and on her cheek a glow of beauty.

' Thou art not conquered ; beauty's ensign yet Is crimson on thy lips and in thy cheeks, And death's pale flag is not advanced there.'

While a plank of the vessel sticks together, I will not leave her. Let the courtier pre- sent his flimsy sail, and carry the light bark of his faith with every new breath of wind —I will remain anchored here, with fidelity to the fortunes of my country, faithful to her freedom — faithful to her fall ! " Further resistance was vain — as Grattan expressed it, "Finding all useless, we re- tired with safe consciences, but with break- ing hearts." On 7th June the Bill was read a third time; on the 12th, it passed the House of Lords, and on ist August re- ceived the royal assent. A similar Bill, passed in the British House of Lords on 24th June, had received the royal assent on 2nd July. After the Union, Grattan for a time gave up politics and retired to Tinnehinch, where he devoted himself to country pur- suits, to study, and the education of his children. He could not speak with tran- quillity on the subject of the Union ; at one time he would start as if seized with frenzy ;

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at another he would remain musing and melancholy ; or if he ventured to speak on the subject, his eyes would fill with tears. He continued, however, to keep up close intimacy and correspondence with his political friends. After Emmet's emeute, and in consequence of continued reports of French intrigues in Irish affairs, Grat- tan offered his services to Government, and raised a yeomanry corps on his estate — for the first time in that part of the countiy, enrolling Catholics. In 1805, at the earnest solicitation of Lord Fitzwil- liam and Mr. Fox, he consented to enter the Imperial Parliament, with the hope of being able to forward the Catholic claims. He sat for a short time for an English borough — Malton — and from 1806 repre- sented Dublin. His return was often severely contested, and the elections gene- rally entailed very great expense. In one of Ms first speeches in the Imperial Parlia- ment, he digressed into a eulogium on the extinct Irish Parliament, and uttered those words so famous for their touching and concentrated beauty — "I watched by its cradle; I followed its hearse." The Irish members of his party ever addressed him in Parliament as "Sir," with the same respect as they addressed the Speaker. He devoted himself almost exclusively to the cause of Catholic Emancipation, not hesitating on occasions to incur unpopu- larity in Ireland in the advocacy of mea- sures he deemed necessary — as in 1807, when he voted for a new Insurrection and Arms Act; in 18 18, when he was mobbed and stoned in Dublin for declining to sup- port the repeal of the window tax; and again, when he forfeited the confidence of the Catholic Committee, by refusing to present a petition which contained claims he considered extravagant and unwise. His opposition to the policy of the Union ever continued unshaken. In answer to an application from a meeting held in the Ex- change, Dublin, in September 18 10, that he should support a repeal of the Union, he wrote: "I shall present their petitions, and support the repeal of the Act of Union, with a decided attachment to our connexion with Great Britain, and to that harmony between the two countries, without which the connexion cannot last. I do not im- pair either, as I apprehend, when I assure you that I shall support the repeal of the Act of Union. You wiU please to observe that a proposition of that sort in Parlia- ment, to be either prudent or possible, must wait until it shall be caUed for and backed by the nation." Again, late in life, speaking of the change to his friend, Mr. Burro wes, he said: "The people take 231