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GRATTAN, HENRY (1746-1820)

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Originally appearing in Volume V12, Page 381 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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GRATTAN, See also:HENRY (1746-1820) , Irish statesman, son of See also:James Grattan, for many years See also:recorder of See also:Dublin, was See also:born in Dublin on the 3rd of See also:July 1746. He See also:early gave See also:evidence of exceptional gifts both of See also:intellect and See also:character. At Trinity See also:College, Dublin, where he had a distinguished career, he began a lifelong devotion to classical literature and especially to the See also:great orators of antiquity. He was called to the Irish See also:bar in 1772, but never seriously practised the See also:law. Like See also:Flood, with whom he was on terms of friendship, he cultivated his natural See also:genius for eloquence by study of See also:good See also:models, including See also:Bolingbroke and See also:Junius. A visit to the See also:English See also:House of Lords excited boundless admiration for See also:Lord See also:Chatham, of whose See also:style of See also:oratory Grattan contributed an interesting description to Baratariana (see FLOOD, HENRY). The See also:influence of Flood did much to give direction to Grattan's See also:political aims; and it was through no See also:design on Grattan's See also:part that when Lord See also:Charlemont brought him into the Irish See also:parliament in 1775, in the very session in which Flood damaged his popularity by accepting See also:office, Grattan quickly superseded his friend in the leadership of the See also:national party. Grattan was well qualified for it. His oratorical See also:powers were unsurpassed among his contemporaries. Hes conspicuously lacked, indeed, the See also:grace of gesture which he so much admired in Chatham; he had not the sustained dignity of See also:Pitt; his powers of See also:close reasoning were inferior to those of See also:Fox and Flood. But his speeches were packed with See also:epigram, and expressed with rare felicity of phrase; his terse and telling sentences were richer in profound aphorisms and See also:maxims of political See also:philosophy than those of any other statesman See also:save 379 See also:Burke; he possessed the orator's incomparable See also:gift of conveying his own See also:enthusiasm to his See also:audience and convincing them of the loftiness of his aims. The See also:principal See also:object of the national party was to set the Irish parliament See also:free from constitutional bondage to the English privy See also:council.

By virtue of Poyning's See also:

Act, a celebrated See also:statute of Henry VII., all proposed Irish legislation had to be submitted to the English privy council for its approval under the great See also:seal of See also:England before being passed by the Irish parliament. A See also:bill so approved might be accepted or rejected, but not amended. More See also:recent English acts had further emphasized the See also:complete dependence of the Irish parliament, and the appellate See also:jurisdiction of the Irish House of Lords had also been annulled. Moreover, the English Houses claimed and exercised the See also:power to legislate directly for See also:Ireland without even the nominal concurrence of the parliament in Dublin. This was the constitution which See also:Molyneux and See also:Swift had denounced, which Flood had attacked, and which Grattan was to destroy. The menacing attitude of the Volunteer See also:Convention at See also:Dungannon greatly influenced the decision of the See also:government in 1782 to resist the agitation no longer. It was through ranks of See also:volunteers See also:drawn up outside the parliament house in Dublin that Grattan passed on the 16th of See also:April 1782, amidst unparalleled popular enthusiasm, to move a See also:declaration of the See also:independence of the Irish parliament. " I found Ireland on her knees," Grattan exclaimed, " I watched over her with a paternal solicitude; I have traced her progress from injuries to arms, and from arms to See also:liberty. Spirit of Swift, spirit of Molyneux, your genius has prevailed ! Ireland is now a nation!" After a See also:month of negotiation the claims of Ireland were conceded. The gratitude of his countrymen to Grattan found expression in a See also:parliamentary See also:grant of £1oo,000, which had to be reduced by one See also:half before he would consent to accept it. One of the first acts of " Grattan's parliament " was to prove its See also:loyalty to England by passing a See also:vote for the support of 20,000 sailors for the See also:navy.

Grattan himself never failed in loyalty to the See also:

crown and the English connexion. He was, however, anxious for moderate parliamentary reform, and, unlike Flood, he favoured See also:Catholic emancipation. It was, indeed, evident that without reform the Irish House of See also:Commons would not be able to make much use of its newly won independence. Though now free from constitutional See also:control it was no less subject than before to the influence of corruption, which the English government had wielded through the Irish See also:borough owners, known as the " undertakers," or more directly through the great executive See also:officers. " Grattan's parliament " had no control over the Irish executive. The lord See also:lieutenant and his See also:chief secretary continued to be appointed by the English ministers; their See also:tenure of office depended on the vicissitudes of English, not Irish, party politics; the royal See also:prerogative was exercised in Ireland on the See also:advice of English ministers. The House of Commons was in no sense representative of the Irish See also:people. The great See also:majority of the people were excluded as See also:Roman Catholics from the See also:franchise; two-thirds of the members of the House of Commons were returned by small boroughs at the See also:absolute disposal of single patrons, whose support was bought by a lavish See also:distribution of peerages and See also:pensions. It was to give stability and true independence to the new constitution that Grattan pressed for reform. Having quarrelled with Flood over " See also:simple See also:repeal " Grattan also differed from him on the question of maintaining the Volunteer Convention. He opposed the policy of protective duties, but supported Pitt's famous commercial propositions in 1785 for establishing free See also:trade between Great See also:Britain and Ireland, which, however, had to be abandoned owing to the hostility of the English See also:mercantile classes. In See also:general Grattan supported the government for a See also:time after 1782, and in particular spoke and voted for the stringent coercive legislation rendered necessary by the Whiteboy outrages in 1785; but as the years passed without Pitt's See also:personal favour towards parliamentary reform bearing See also:fruit in legislation, he gravitated towards the opposition, agitated for See also:commutation of See also:tithes in Ireland, and supported the Whigs on the regency question in 1788.

In 1792 he succeeded in It is a curious circumstance, in view of the subsequent See also:

history of Irish politics, that it was from the See also:Protestant Established See also:Church, and particularly from the See also:Orangemen, that the bitterest opposition to the See also:union proceeded; and that the proposal found support chiefly among the Roman Catholic See also:clergy and especially the bishops, while in no part of Ireland was it received with more favour than in the See also:city of See also:Cork. This attitude of the Catholics was caused by Pitt's encouragement of the expectation that Catholic emancipation, the commutation of tithes, and the endowment of the Catholic priesthood, would accompany or quickly follow the passing of the measure. When in 1799 the government brought forward their bill it was defeated in the Irish House of Commons. Grattan was still in retirement. His popularity had temporarily declined, and the fact that his proposals for parliamentary reform and Catholic emancipation had become the watchwords of the rebellious See also:United Irishmen had brought upon him the See also:bitter hostility of the governing classes. He was dismissed from the privy council; his portrait was removed from the See also:hall of Trinity College; the See also:Merchant Guild of Dublin struck his name off their rolls. But the threatened destruction of the constitution of 1782 quickly restored its author to his former See also:place in the affections of the Irish people. The parliamentary See also:recess had been effectually employed by the government in securing by lavish corruption a majority in favour of their policy. On the 15th of See also:January 1800 the Irish parliament met for its last session; on the same See also:day Grattan secured by See also:purchase a seat for See also:Wicklow; and at a See also:late See also:hour, while the debate was proceeding, he appeared to take his seat. "There was a moment's pause, an electric thrill passed through the House, and a See also:long See also:wild cheer burst from the galleries."3 Enfeebled by illness, Grattan's strength gave way when he See also:rose to speak, and he obtained leave to address the House sitting. Nevertheless his speech was a superb effort of oratory; for more than two See also:hours he kept his audience spellbound by a flood of epigram, of sustained reasoning, of eloquent See also:appeal. After prolonged debates Grattan, on the 26th of May, spoke finally against the committal of the bill, ending with an impassioned peroration in which he declared, " I will remain anchored here with fidelity to the fortunes of my See also:country, faithful to her freedom, faithful to her fall."4 These were the last words spoken by Grattan in the Irish parliament.

The bill establishing the union was carried through its final stages by substantial majorities. The people remained listless, giving no indications of any eager dislike of the government policy. " There were absolutely none of the signs which are invariably found when a nation struggles passionately against what it See also:

deems an impending tyranny, or rallies around some institution which it really loves." s One of Grattan's See also:main grounds of opposition to the union had been his dread of seeing the political leadership in Ireland pass out of the hands of the landed gentry; and he prophesied that the time would come when Ireland would send to the united parliament " a See also:hundred of the greatest rascals in the See also:kingdom."S Like Flood before him, Grattan had no leaning towards See also:democracy; and he anticipated that by the removal of the centre of political See also:interest from Ireland the evil of See also:absenteeism would be intensified. For the next five years Grattan took no active part in public affairs; it was not till 18o5 that he became a member of the parliament of the United Kingdom. He modestly took his seat on one of the back benches, till Fox brought him forward to a seat near his own, exclaiming, " This is no place for the Irish See also:Demosthenes ! " His first speech was on the Catholic question, and though some doubt had been See also:felt lest Grattan, like Flood, should belie at See also:Westminster the reputation made in Dublin, all agreed with the description of his speech by the See also:Annual See also:Register as " one of the most brilliant and eloquent ever pronounced within the walls of parliament." When Fox and See also:Grenville came into power in 18o6 Grattan was offered, but refused to 3 Ibid. i. 241. ' Grattan's Speeches, iv. 23. 6 W. E. H.

See also:

Lecky, History of England in the Eighteenth See also:Century, viii. 491. Cf. See also:Cornwallis See also:Correspondence, iii. 250. 6 W. E. H. Lecky, Leaders of Public See also:Opinion in Ireland, i. 27o. carrying an Act conferring the franchise on the Roman Catholics; in 1794 in See also:conjunction with See also:William See also:Ponsonby he introduced a reform bill which was even less democratic than Flood's bill of 1783. He was as anxious as Flood had been to retain the legislative power in the hands of men of See also:property, for `.` he had through the whole of his See also:life a strong conviction that while Ireland could best be governed by Irish hands, democracy in Ireland would inevitably turn to See also:plunder and anarchy."' At the same time he desired to admit the Roman Catholic gentry of property to membership of the House of Commons, a proposal that was the logical corollary of the See also:Relief Act of 1792.

The defeat of Grattan's mild proposals helped to promote more extreme opinions, which, under See also:

French revolutionary influence, were now becoming heard in Ireland. The Catholic question had rapidly become of the first importance, and when a powerful See also:section of the Whigs joined Pitt's See also:ministry in 1794, and it became known that the lord-lieutenancy was to go to Lord See also:Fitzwilliam, who shared Grattan's views, expectations were raised that the question was about to be settled in a manner satisfactory to the Irish Catholics. Such seems to have been Pitt's intention, though there has been much controversy as to how far Lord Fitzwilliam (q.v.) had been authorized to See also:pledge the government. After taking. Grattan into his confidence, it was arranged that the latter should bring in a Roman Catholic emancipation bill, and that it should then receive government support. But finally it appeared that the See also:viceroy had either misunderstood or exceeded his instructions; and on the 19th of See also:February 1795 Fitzwilliam was recalled. In the outburst of indignation, followed by increasing disaffection in Ireland, which this event produced, Grattan acted with conspicuous moderation and loyalty, which won for him warm acknowledgments from a member of the English See also:cabinet .2 That cabinet, however, doubtless influenced by the wishes of the See also:king, was now determined firmly to resist the Catholic demands, with the result that the country rapidly drifted to-wards See also:rebellion. Grattan warned the government in a See also:series of masterly speeches of the lawless See also:condition to which Ireland had been driven. But he could now See also:count on no more than some See also:forty followers in the House of Commons, and his words were unheeded. He retired from parliament in May 1797, and departed from his customary moderation by attacking the government in an inflammatory "See also:Letter to the citizens of Dublin." At this time religious animosity had almost died out in Ireland, and men of different faiths were ready to combine for See also:common political See also:objects. Thus the Presbyterians of the See also:north, who were mainly republican in sentiment, combined with a section of the Roman Catholics to See also:form the organization of the United Irishmen, to promote revolutionary ideas imported from See also:France; and a party prepared to welcome a French invasion soon came into existence. Thus stimulated, the increasing disaffection culminated in the rebellion of 1798, which was sternly and cruelly repressed.

No sooner was this effected than the project of a legislative union between the See also:

British and Irish parliaments, which had been from time to time discussed since the beginning of the 18th century, was taken up in See also:earnest by Pitt's government. Grattan from the first denounced the See also:scheme with implacable hostility. There was, however, much to be said in its favour. The constitution of Grattan's parliament offered no See also:security, as the See also:differences over the regency question had made evident that in matters of imperial interest the policy of the Irish parliament and that of Great Britain would be in agreement; and at a moment when England was engaged in a life and See also:death struggle with France it was impossible for the ministry to ignore the danger, which had so recently been emphasized by the fact that the See also:independent constitution of 1782 had offered no safe-, guard against armed revolt. The rebellion put an end to the growing reconciliation between Roman Catholics and Protestants; religious passions were now violently inflamed, and the See also:Orange-men and Catholics divided the See also:island into two hostile factions. 1 W. E. H. Lecky, Leaders of Public Opinion in Ireland, i. I27 (enlarged edition, 2 vols., 1903). 2 Ibid. i. 204.

381 GRATTIUS [FALISCUS], Roman poet, of the See also:

age of See also:Augustus, accept, an office in the government. In the following See also:year he showed the strength of his See also:judgment and character by supporting, in spite of consequent unpopularity in Ireland, a measure for increasing the powers of the executive to See also:deal with Irish disorder. Roman Catholic emancipation, which he continued to See also:advocate with unflagging See also:energy though now advanced in age, became complicated after 18o8 by the question whether a See also:veto on the See also:appointment of Roman Catholic bishops should See also:rest with the crown. Grattan supported the veto, but a more extreme Catholic party was now arising in Ireland under the leadership of See also:Daniel O'Connell, and Grattan's influence gradually declined. He seldom spoke in parliament after 181o, the most notable exception being in 1815, when he separated himself from the Whigs and supported the final struggle against See also:Napoleon. His last speech of all, in 1819, contained a passage referring to the union he had so passionately resisted, which exhibits the statesmanship and at the same time the equable quality of Grattan's character. His sentiments with regard to the policy of the union remained, he said, unchanged; but "the See also:marriage having taken place it is now the See also:duty, as it ought to be the inclination, of every individual to render it as fruitful, as profitable and as advantageous as possible." In the following summer, after See also:crossing from Ireland to See also:London when out of See also:health to bring forward the Catholic question once more, he became seriously See also:ill. On -his death-See also:bed he spoke generously of Castlereagh, and with warm eulogy of his former See also:rival, Flood. He died on the 6th of See also:June 1820, and was buried in Westminster See also:Abbey close to the tombs of Pitt and Fox. His statue is in the See also:outer See also:lobby of the Houses of Parliament at Westminster. Grattan had married in 1782 Henrietta See also:Fitzgerald, a See also:lady descended from the See also:ancient See also:family of See also:Desmond, by whom he had two sons and two daughters. The most searching See also:scrutiny of his private life only increases the respect due to the memory of Grattan as a statesman and the greatest of Irish orators.

His patriotism was untainted by self-seeking; he was courageous in risking his popularity for what his See also:

sound judgment showed him to be the right course. As See also:Sydney See also:Smith said with truth of Grattan soon after his death: " No government ever dismayed him. The See also:world could not bribe him. He thought only of Ireland; lived for no other object; dedicated to her his beautiful See also:fancy, his elegant wit, his manly courage, and all the splendour of his astonishing eloquence." 1 1 See also:Amhurst, History of Catholic Emancipation (2 vols., London, 1886); See also:Sir See also:Thomas See also:Wyse, See also:Historical See also:Sketch of the late Catholic Association of Ireland (London, 1829) ; W. J. MacNeven, Pieces of Irish History (New See also:York, 1807) containing an See also:account of the United Irishmen; for the volunteer See also:movement Thomas MacNevin, History of the Volunteers of 1782 (Dublin, 1845) ; Proceedings of the Volunteer Delegates of Ireland 1784 (Anon. Pamph. Brit. See also:Mus.). See also F. See also:Hardy, See also:Memoirs of Lord Charlemont (London, 1812); See also:Warden Flood, Memoirs of Henry Flood (London, 1838) ; See also:Francis Plowden, Historical See also:Review of the See also:State of Ireland (London, 1803); See also:Alfred See also:Webb, Compendium of Irish See also:Biography (Dublin, 1878); Sir See also:Jonah See also:Barrington, Rise and Fall of the Irish Nation (London, 1833) ; W. J.

O'See also:

Neill Daunt, Ireland and her See also:Agitators; Lord Mountmorres, History of the Irish Parliament (2 vols., London, 1792) ; See also:Horace See also:Walpole, Memoirs of the Reign of See also:George III. (4 vols., London, 1845 and 1894) ; Lord See also:Stanhope, Life of William Pitt (4 vols., London, 1861); Thomas See also:Davis, Life o J. P. See also:Curran (Dublin, 1846)—this contains a memoir of Grattan by D. O. See also:Madden, and Grattan's reply to Lord See also:Clare on the question of the Union; See also:Charles See also:Phillips, Recollections of Curran and some of his Contemporaries (London, 1822); J. A. See also:Froude, The English in Ireland (London, 1881) ; J. G. McCarthy, Henry Grattan: an Historical Study (London, 1886); Lord Mahon's History of England, vol. vii. (1858). With See also:special reference to the Union see Castlereagh Correspondence; Cornwallis Correspondence; See also:Westmorland Papers (Irish State See also:Paper Office).

(R. J. M.) Sydney Smith's See also:

Works, ii. 166-167.author of a poem on See also:hunting (Cynegetica), of which 541 hexameters remain. He was possibly a native of See also:Falerii. The only reference to him in any ancient writer is incidental (See also:Ovid, Ex Ponto, iv. 16. 33). He describes various kinds of See also:game, methods of hunting, the best breeds of horses and See also:dogs. There are See also:editions by R. Stern (1832); E. Bahrens in Poctae See also:Latini Minores (i., 1879) and G.

G. Curcio in Poeti Latini Minori (i., 1902), with bibliography.; see also H. Schenkl, Zur Kritik See also:

des G. (1898). There is a See also:translation by See also:Christopher Wase (1654).

End of Article: GRATTAN, HENRY (1746-1820)

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