Page:Biographia Hibernica volume 2.djvu/201

 GRATTAN. 197 raised, principally among his brethren of the Literary Club, and a marble monument by Nollekens, was placed in Westminster Abbey, between those of Gay and the Duke of Argyle, in Poet's Corner, with an appropriate and friendly epitaph, from the pen of Dr. Johnson. RIGHT HON. HENRY GRATTAN. It has been the l o t o f biographers (who for the most part, from time immemorial, critics have considered a s a class o f beings i n whose veins the blood circulates with a singular and undeviating apathy,) often t o become ani mated with the subjects o f their several memoirs, and t o write the lives allotted t o their charge with both eloquence and feeling. This ability, we imagine, i s required t o b e evinced i n n o trivial degree i n the present instance; for although objects more attractive might have been selected, there are but few, i f any, round which a lustre dwells s o pure, and s o dazzling, a s around the shrine o f the uncompromising and self-sacrificing patriot. Painful i t i s also t o those who are obliged from a rigor ous regard t o truth, t o praise individuals for their public . . . actions, and dispraise them for their private vices; t o analyse the shades o f character, and state minutely the portion t o b e admired and disapproved. Such, however, i s not the case i n the subject before us; rarely have we seen a n instance i n which the most exalted genius, seemed united with every quality that wisdom allows t o b e ex cellent, and the heart acknowledges a s truly amiable. Hen R Y GRATTAN, the being who has elicited the above praises, was born i n the city o f Dublin, i n 1751. His father was a n eminent practitioner a t the Irish bar, and held the situation of Recorder of Dublin. His son was called t o the bar i n 1761; but i n his forensic character h e did not acquire much celebrity. He shortly afterwards gave u p his whole time t o politics; and the following domestic calaunity occasioned his first entry into the