Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 22.djvu/428

 favour of allowing Roman catholics to sit in parliament was defeated by 143 to 19. On 20 March 1797 Grattan protested against General Lake's proclamation, which had put the whole of the province of Ulster under martial law, but his amendment to the address was defeated by 127 to 16. On 15 May he supported W. B. Ponsonby's reform resolutions in an eloquent speech, and addressing the supporters of the government said: ‘“You must subdue before you reform.” Indeed! Alas! you think so; but you forget you subdue by reforming; it is the best conquest you can obtain over your own people; but let me suppose you succeed, what is your success?—a military government, a perfect despotism, an hapless victory over the principles of a mild government and a mild constitution! a union! but what may be the ultimate consequence of such a victory? a separation! … We have offered you our measure, you will reject it; we deprecate yours; you will persevere; having no hopes left to persuade or dissuade, and having discharged our duty, we shall trouble you no more, and after this day shall not attend the House of Commons’ (ib. iii. 342–343). The resolutions were rejected by 117 to 30, and Grattan with the other leaders of the opposition seceded from the house. ‘The reason why we seceded,’ Grattan afterwards explained, ‘was that we did not approve of the conduct of the united men, and we could not approve of the conduct of the government. We were afraid of encouraging the former by making speeches against the latter; and we thought it better in such a case, as we could support neither, to withdraw from both’ (, Life, iv. 345). His health having now utterly broken down Grattan retired into the country. He did not offer himself as a candidate for parliament at the general election, but published a ‘Letter to the Citizens of Dublin’ (Miscellaneous Works, pp. 40–64), in which he reviewed the conduct of the government and the opposition, and declined to represent them ‘so long as the present state of representation in the commons' house continues.’ In 1798 he went over to England and gave evidence as to character in favour of Arthur O'Connor at his trial at the Maidstone assizes, and remained in this country until after the insurrection had been quelled. About this time he drew up a ‘Declaration and Petition to be presented to His Majesty, containing the principal grounds of the applications made by divers of his Irish Subjects for redress; and also a Vindication of his People against the Traduction of his Ministers’ (ib. pp. 65–90), but he stopped the publication of it lest it ‘might inflame instead of allaying or reconciling.’ In this year an utterly groundless charge was brought against him of being a sworn member of the United Irishmen. Though the evidence of the informer was of such a flimsy character that it could not stand a moment's investigation, Grattan's name was struck out of the list of the Irish privy council by the lord-lieutenant on 6 Oct. 1798. The corporations of Dublin and Derry also erased his name from their rolls of freemen, and his picture was taken down from the walls of Dublin University. On 15 Jan. 1800 the Irish parliament met for its last session. At seven o'clock on the following morning, while the debate on Sir Lawrence Parsons' amendment in favour of legislative independence was still going on, Grattan, who had been returned unopposed for the borough of Wicklow a few hours previously, entered the House of Commons and took the oaths. Shortly afterwards he rose to speak, but finding himself too weak to stand, with the leave of the house addressed it sitting. He spoke for upwards of two hours with astounding eloquence, and denounced the proposed union, and the means which were being employed to bring it about, with withering scorn, exclaiming, ‘The thing he proposes to buy is what cannot be sold—liberty’ (Speeches, iii. 352–73). In spite of the enthusiasm which this scene aroused the amendment was defeated by 138 to 96. On 14 Feb. Isaac Corry [q. v.], the chancellor of the exchequer, moved the first of the resolutions in favour of the union, and made a violent personal attack upon Grattan, whom he charged with encouraging the rebellion. Grattan, in a scathing reply, denied the charge (ib. iii. 401–4), and on the following morning a duel took place between them at Ball's Bridge, with the result that Corry was wounded in the arm. When the sheriff's officer came on the field to stop the proceedings Major-general Cradock, Corry's second, ‘took the intruder in his arms and deposited him in a little ditch,’ where he remained until the duel was over (Notes and Queries, 3rd ser. x. 399). In April Grattan published ‘An Answer to a Pamphlet entitled the Speech of the Earl of Clare on the Subject of a Legislative Union between Great Britain and Ireland’ (Miscellaneous Works, pp. 95–125), in which he replied to Lord Clare's attacks upon himself and his friends. On 26 May the Union Bill was read a second time, and on the same day Grattan made the last of a series of brilliant speeches against the union (Speeches, iv. 7–23). It was during this debate that he had a fierce altercation with Lord Castlereagh, who accused him of prophetic treason. Finding that further resist-