AMONG the public men of whom Britain was this year deprived, the first place may be assigned to HENRY GRATTAN, who, for more than forty years, had been the greatest of Irish, and one of the greatest of British orators. His father was a barrister, recorder of Dublin, and representing that city in Parliament. By his mother's side, he was grandson to Dr Marley, a man of great wit, and a favourite, as such, of Lord Townsend. Having entered a fellow commoner at the university of Dublin, he made a distinguished figure, and obtained a premium at every public exhibition. He at one time entertained the design of competing for a fellowship; but, terrified by the enormity of the labour, and at the same time dissuaded by his friends, he preferred the bar. Repair ing to England, he spent the requisite time as a student at the Middle Tem

VOL. XIV. PART I.

ple. In 1772, he entered on his career as an advocate; but, like many young men of superior abilities, he had for some time to struggle against the frowns of fortune, and obtained scarcely any practice. In time, however, his powers must infallibly have penetrated through the prejudice felt against the young candidates in this profession. But an event occurred, which gave a different and higher colour to his future life.

Ireland at this time began to feel strongly the chains in which she was held by the sister kingdom, and strenuous exertions for emancipation began to be made by her most distinguished citizens. A weekly meeting was held for the purpose of debating these subjects; and Grattan, who was a member, soon made his oratory be felt on this theatre. He was particularly distinguished by the late patriotic

T

Lord Charlemont, who also frequented it, and who soon afforded a substantial testimony of the high idea he had formed of the young speaker. His brother, Colonel Caulfield, being unfortunately drowned in his passage from Parkgate, the borough of Charlemont, which he had represented, became vacant. Lord C., by bestowing it on Grattan, enabled him to emerge from obscurity, and opened an ample sphere to his ambition. He broke forth at once one of the foremost leaders of the whig interest in the Irish House of Commons. The moment was critical; Ireland, favoured by the distress in which Britain was involved towards the close of the American war, was straining every nerve to extort a de claration of right, by which her legis lature and courts of law might be rendered independent of the sister country. The efforts of her parliamentary advocates were seconded by those of the nation, which, associating itself in volunteer corps, seemed determined to assert by arms those rights which should be denied on any other footing. Mr Grattan stood forth, the leading parliamentary advocate of this great cause, and, from the brilliant eloquence with which he supported it, became the pride and idol of the nation. To his oratory was, in a great measure, ascribed the resolution to which government at length came, to grant to Ireland the main points for which she contended. With the exulting joy of the nation at this crisis, were mingled expressions and marks of gratitude to Mr Grattan, the most extraordinary, that were ever shewn to any individual statesman. Not only were addresses poured in from corporate bodies of every description; but parliament voted the sum of 50,000l. to purchase an estate and house for himself and his heirs, in reward of so signal a service to the nation.

Mr Grattan would now have rank

ed as the most eminent member of the Irish Commons, had not Flood started up to dispute with him the palm of eloquence. The rivalry of these great orators was unfortunately carried on with that personal animosity and unmeasured invective, which have always distinguished the political contests of Ireland. Flood endeavoured to prove, that the merit of Mr Grattan's exertions in the cause of Irish independence had been greatly overrated; and as this was perhaps in some degree the case, it had considerable influence on the public mind, and diminished the popularity of his rival. On occasion, however, of Mr Orde's celebrated propositions, Grattan exerted himself with such vigour and success, as completely replaced him in the character of leader of the whig interest in the Irish Commons. He did not, however, carry on an indiscriminate opposition. In particular, on the great and trying question of the war with France, he joined with ministers in justifying its necessity; and he maintained this opinion whenever it came under discussion. He never slackened, at the same time, in his pursuit of internal reform, and of concession to the Catholics. During Lord Fitzwilliam's administration, he came into office, and enjoyed a large share of the confidence of that nobleman; but when a change of policy led to his removal, Mr Grattan was again thrown into the ranks of opposition. Accordingly he condemned the measures of government prior to the insurrection of 1798 ; but, after the com mencement of that fatal period, he withdrew into retirement. He was only called forth anew by the proposition for the Irish Union; a measure which he strongly reprobated, and vainly exerted all his eloquence to oppose. Since he could not succeed, however, there was no inconsistency in his accepting a place in the Imperial Parlia ment, and pleading before it the inte

rests of Ireland. He was elected, first for Malton; but, in 1806, he was named among the representatives of the Irish capital. In the British Parliament, his main efforts were unremit tingly devoted to the cause of the Catholics. He came over, in 1820, to present their petition, though in a state of health which ill admitted of such an exertion. Accordingly, soon after his arrival in London, he expired at his house in Baker Street, on the 14th May, 1820, in the 70th year of his age.

Political men of all parties vied with each other in honouring the memory of this great man on this solemn occasion. A number of the most illus trious members of the House joined in addressing a letter to the family, requesting their consent to a public funeral. The letter is expressed in the following terms:

"Filled with veneration for the character of your father, we venture to express a wish, common to us with many of those who most admired and loved him, that what remains of him should be allowed to continue among

us.

"It has pleased Providence to de. prive the empire of his services, while he was here, in the neighbourhood of that sacred edifice, where great men, from all parts of the British dominions, have been for ages interred. We are desirous of an opportunity of joining in the due honour to tried virtue and genius. Mr Grattan belongs to us also; and great would be our consolation, were we permitted to follow him to the grave, and to place him where he would not have been unwilling to lie; by the side of his illustrious fellow-labourer in the cause of freedom."

At the motion also of a new writ for Dublin, the most warm testimonies

were afforded by all descriptions of public men.

Mr Plunkett afterwards, in introducing the bill for relief of the Catholics, on the 28th February, said, “A similar petition had been presented in that House the year before last. On that occasion, the prayers of the petitioners had come forward to that House with all the eloquence, with all the experience, with all the authority of the late Mr Grattan. In now undertaking the duty devolved on him, he felt his heart melted with the public sorrow and private regret, with which he had followed to his grave, that great man, by whose confidence he had been honoured-by whose wisdom he had been encircled-by whose example he had been guided. After the warm and unrivalled eloquence with which he had been lamented in that House, and after the distinguished honours with which the justice and liberality of Englishmen had accompanied his remains to the tomb-for, at his death, as during life, he had been the bond of union between the two countries-after these tributes to his virtues-tributes as distinguished as they were merited, he would not disturb the solemnity of his obsequies by his feeble praise and unavailing sorrow." His opponent, Mr Peel, replied, "In attempting to follow him, he would first allude to that subject with which the right honourable gentleman had prefaced his powerful speech, when he paid that feeling and eloquent tribute to the memory of the departed senator under whose auspices this question had been first brought before the English Parliament. He wished, and felt it his duty, to state, that all which that eulogium said of the late Mr Grattan, had his full and heartfelt concurrence; there was not a word of it to which he did not fully subscribe. It might seem presumption in him to

follow the orator who had so well characterized departed worth, and arrogate to himself the right of praising so great a man. He had not, like the right honourable gentleman, enjoyed with the man who was the subject of his eulogium those early habits of intimacy he had not maintained with him that political relationship-that unity of political object-that necessitudo sortis, as it was expressed by an elegant writer, which tended to draw so closely the alliance of the intellect and the heart. Though such was not his knowledge of the late Mr Grattan, he knew him well enough to be able to concur in anything which his eloquent friend said of him; and he felt that he had not exceeded the strictest truth, in bearing testimony to the lustre of virtue and of talent by which he was so eminently distinguished.'

The following character, written during his life-time, seems the production of one who had closely observed him, and marked with a good deal of discrimination :

"No man, perhaps, was ever raised to such an astonishing height of popularity as Mr Grattan. Perhaps the unblemished character of his acknowledged patron was not a little instrumental towards uplifting him in the opinion of the idolatrous multitude, inasmuch as a part of the highly venerable properties of the good old peer, was collaterally reflected upon himself; and the public gave him credit for a participation of those laudable opinions, which were known so purely to exist in the bosom of his illustrious protector.

"As a public speaker, Mr Grat tan's voice is thin, sharp, and far from powerful; not devoid of a variety

of tones, but these neither rich nor mellow; and, though not harsh, its want of an harmonious modulation is often striking. Unequal to impassioned energy, it is shrill when it should be commanding, and in its lower notes is sometimes scarcely audible, from its hollowness of sound. His management of it is but ill adapted to remedy its natural defects or to supply its deficiencies, as he allows it to expatiate at large, unrestrained by any curb from rule; now raising it to an elevation that it cannot bear, and then sinking it to a depth where its distant murmurs can be barely guessed at.

"His language is lofty, magnificent, copious, and peculiarly his own. Not tricked out with the gaudy dress of poetic phrases, nor fatiguing the attention with pompous terms, high-sounding and unmeaning; but familiarly combining strength with beauty, conciseness with ornament, and sublimity with elegance. Adapted to the exigence of the occasion, it is now a widespreading conflagration, and anon a consecrated fire: now abundant and splendid, then brief and pointed; equally fitted to instruct, delight, and agitate; to soothe the soul to peace, or to awaken and arouse all its exalted and elevated energies.

"His delivery admirably accords with the style of his oratory; never languid, insipid, or cold, but always possessing a pleasing warmth, expressive of feeling and imparting spirit: whilst his pronunciation, generally correct, though frequently rapid, is never crowded or redundant, but distinct and articulate, leaving ample space for strength and propriety of emphasis. In his manner, life, animation, and ardour, predominate, and that to such a degree, that they fascinate