Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 11.djvu/72

Rh national life. In this he received an assistance from ex ternal events which was embarrassing as well as helpful ; from the American rebellion, which was the result of a struggle for rights similar to those he was contending for ; from the war with France, which led to the creation of a volunteer army in Ireland that became a kind of political convention ; and ultimately from the French Revolution, which in Ireland, more than in any other country of Europe, aroused wild desires after political freedom. In Febiuary 1778 Grattan moved an address to the crown, to the effect that the condition of Ireland was no longer endurable, and although the motion was supported by only a small minority, the discussion bore fruit in the same year by the concession of free export of all produce except woollens, and by the modification of the penal laws to the extent of allowing the Catholics to hold leases for 999 years. In the following year the volunteers by their deter mined attitude crowned with success his efforts, along with Flood and Burgh, to effect the total repeal of the restriction Acts, and the same year saw also the repeal of the Test Act. With a view to increase and take advantage of the rising tide of national sentiment, Grattan on April 19th 1780 moved his famous resolutions that the &quot; king with the con sent of the parliament of Ireland was alone competent to enact laws to bind Ireland, and that Great Britain and Ireland were indissolubly united, but only under a common sovereign ; &quot; but so satisfied was he with the tone of the debate that, unwilling needlessly to irritate or embarrass the English Government, he did not press his motion to a division. An agitation was, however, begun in the follow ing year against Poyning s Act and the Mutiny Act, and Grattan besides supported the introduction of a bill per mitting the Catholics to inherit and hold property on the same terms as other subjects. In order also to bring pressure to bear on the English Government. Grattan, Flood, and Charlemont met privately in the beginning of 1782, and drew np for the consideration of the volunteers dele gates two resolutions in reference to independence ; and to these Grattan, on his own responsibility and without the knowledge of Flood and Charlemont, added a third in favour of the measure for the relaxation of the penal laws against the Catholics. All these resolutions were adopted by the delegates unanimously, and Grattan, strong in armed sup port, repeated his motion for a declaration of independence, which, although it was lost, aroused such general enthusiasm that, when on the 16th April he rose to move a Declara tion of Eights, he in a brilliant oration congratulated his hearers and his country on the triumphant issue of the struggle, his first words being &quot; I am now about to address a free people.&quot; So completely did his eloquence rise to what was deemed the greatness of the occasion that its effect has seldom been equalled in the annals of oratory; and in the state of high-wrought excitement that prevailed, the Government, then doubtful as to the result of the siege of Gibraltar by the French and Spaniards, did not dare to refuse the boon which had already been in reality appro priated without their permission, and on the 17th May resolutions were passed unanimously, pledging the English parliament to redress the grievances complained of. In recognition of Grattan s services the Irish parliament was prepared to have voted him a grant of 100,000 ; but he was with difficulty persuaded to accept half that sum, and only agreed to do so from the consideration that, by reliev ing him from the necessity of practising at the bar, it would enable him to devote the whole of his energies to politics. He determined, however, that this gift should not in any way bias his political action, and when Flood, supported by the volunteer convention, brought forward his motion for repeal, he at the expense of his popularity moved its rejection a procedure which also gave rise to an extraordinary scene of mutual recrimination between the two orators. For the next ten years Grattan carried on the struggle fur the re form of Irish abuses with almost no success ; and his Place and Pension Bill, and bills to make the great officers of government responsible for their proceedings, to prevent revenue officers from voting at elections, and to abolish ecclesiastical tithes, were all rejected. Pitt, at one time disposed to promote emancipation, became lukewarm in his zeal after the rejection in 1785 of Mr Orde s bill for the removal of trade restrictions, which, on account of a clause binding the parliament to re-enact England s navigation laws, was opposed by Grattan as involving a principle that implied a revocation of the constitution ; nor did the action of the Irish parliament in the regency dispute of 1789 tend to smooth the relations between the two countries. At last in 1793 parliamentary suffrage was conceded to the Catho lics as a sop to the fury of the United Irishmen; but the concession served only to whet the appetite for further redress, and when the hope of obtaining this, after reaching the verge of certainty by the appointment of Fitzwilliam as lord-lieutenant, was suddenly dashed by his recall, the spirit of brooding discontent increased until ultimately it resulted in the bloody rebellion of 1798. Previous to its occurrence Grattan had withdrawn from parliament. It has been surmised by Mr Froude that in urging on the question of emancipation Grattan wished to effect a complete separation from England, and perhaps calculated, though a Protestant, on obtaining as the reward of his services the first place in the new commonwealth ; but besides that the conjecture is unnecessary, since it was quite a possible supposition that emancipation might have proved the best method of confirming the loyalty of the Catholics, and it was most certainly a better method than union without emancipation,- it is without a shadow of proof to support it, and would also have implied treachery on his part of the blackest kind, while treachery of any kind is belied by the whole course of his political life. In 1800 Grattan, though in feeble health, entered the Irish parliament as member for Wicklow, specially to oppose the motion for union, a measure whose bitterness was not rendered less distasteful to him from the time, manner, and means employed for its accomplishment. He regarded its suc cess as almost the nullification of Ireland s partial freedom, and the indefinite postponement of the attempt to remedy her wrongs. Though knowing from the beginning that to contend against the influence of the Government was hopeless, he exerted all his eloquence in condemnation of the measure ; and his last words in the Irish Parliament were &quot;I will remain anchored here with fidelity to the fortunes of my country, faithful to her freedom, faithful to her fall.&quot; In the course of these debates Grattan was three times virulently attacked by Mr Corry, chancellor of the exchequer, but at last retaliated with overwhelming effect. In the duel which followed Corry was wounded. After the Union Grattan withdrew for a time from public life, but, in order to lend his assistance to the pass ing of the Catholic Relief Bill, he in 1805 entered the English parHament as member for Malton ; and in the following year he was returned by Dublin, which he had formerly represented in the Irish parliament. Although his speeches in the new arena did not detract from his fame, the union had effected so great a change in his political standpoint that the inspiration which had for merly given to his eloquence such a glow of confident ardour, and had braced his powers to such supreme efforts, was no longer present. He refused to take office in the Fox ministry, but he nevertheless gave the Whigs his sup port on all important occasions ; and by voting with the Government on the Irish Insurrection Bill of 1807, he showed that his regard for the general welfare of the empire was 