As a public speaker, Mr. Grattan ranked in the highest class. In his orations there is a grandeur which marks a mind of superior order, and enforces at once reverence and admiration. On every subject which he treats, he throws a radiance that enlightens without dazzling; and, while it assists the judgment, delights the imagination. His style is always peculiar, for it varies its character with the occasion. At one time close and energetic, it concentrates the force of his argument and compels conviction; at another, diffuse, lofty, and magnificent, it applies itself to every faculty of the mind, charms our fancy, influences our will, and convinces our understanding. At all times his manner was animated with a pleasing warmth, which rendered it impossible to hear him without interest; but on some occasions he exerted a power which was irresistible. Prostitution, under his influence, forgot for a moment the voice of the minister; and place, pension, and peerage, had but a feeble hold even of the most degenerate.

Mr. Grattan died on the 4th of June, in London, where he had arrived to attend his parliamentary duties. On the 14th of June, according to the practice of the House of Commons, Sir James Macintosh rose to move, that the Speaker should issue a new writ for the election of a citizen to serve in parliament for the city of Dublin, in the room of the late Right Hon. H. Grattan deceased. In the absence of an hon. friend who found it, from some circumstances, impossible to attend, he was induced to trouble the house with a few words, upon this melancholy occasion. He could assure the house, with the utmost truth, that his accession to that duty had not proceeded from any want of a consciousness of his own inability to do justice to that immortal memory which he so highly honoured. It had been the custom to limit addresses delivered upon occasions similar to the present, to cases of death occurring under peculiar circumstances, or in the public service. Excepting in cases of considerable merit, that limit had not been exceeded; and in this particular, he thought parliament had acted rightly. The honourable and learned gentleman, after adverting to the nature and character of those cases, went on to observe, that it was hardly justifiable to address the house in that manner upon any case which did not possess, besides a character of transcendent merit, some particular and individual claims upon parliamentary consideration. While it was reasonably to be expected that, if these proceedings were prefaced in the manner in which he could wish to preface his present address, they should be

of adequate importance and merit, he thought that there could be no reason to suspect the sincerity of any part of the house in giving their concurrence to them; and he would add, that in speaking of names so celebrated, they must act under the peculiar disadvantage of speaking, as it might be said, in the presence of posterity, which must review, and might reverse, their decision. Having stated these conditions, he had only to add the name of Grattan, and the house must be convinced that he was justified in this view of the subject. The first of those peculiar claims, in the present instance, was to be traced in the most memorable occasion of Mr. Grattan's life. As far as he knew, Mr. Grattan was the only man of this age who had received a parliamentary reward for services rendered in parliament, although he was then only a private gentleman, without civil or military honours. He was the only person to whom such a recompense had been voted under such honourable circumstances. It was now nearly 40 years since the Commons of Ireland voted an estate for him and

for his family; not indeed as a recompense, because it was wholly impossible to recompense such services; but, as the vote itself expressed it, "as a testimony of the national gratitude for great national services." These were the words of the grant. He need not remind the house what those services were, or what were the peculiar terms in which they were acknowledged: the only thing necessary to be said was this-that he was the founder of the liberties of his country. (Loud cheers.) He found that country a dependent province upon England, and he made her a friend and an equal; he gave to her her native liberties, and he called to the enjoyment of their freedom a brave and generous people. So far as he knew, this was the only man recorded in history who had liberated his country from the domination of a foreign power, not by arms and blood, but by his wisdom and eloquence. It was his peculiar felicity that he enjoyed as much consideration in that country whose power over his own he had done his utmost to decrease, as he enjoyed in that for which he had achieved that important liberation. But there were still more peculiar features in the general character and respect which he was so fortunate as to maintain in both king. doms. It must be admitted that no great political services could be rendered to mankind without incurring a variety of opinions, and of honourable political enmities. It was then to be considered as the peculiar felicity of the man whose loss they deplored, that he survived them for a period of 40 years he survived till the mellowness of time, and the matured experience of age, had subdued every feeling of hostility, and had softened down every political enmity. If it were possible that in that divided assembly any honour could now be paid to this exalted individual equal to that which

he

he had enjoyed in life, it would be clearly that which should be an unanimous recognition of his meritorious character. He did not anticipate any difference of opinion as to the propriety of their bestowing this mark of their respect for the memory of a great and good man; only it would be well that the decision of posterity should confirm it. He need not remind the house, that the name of Grattan would occupy a great space on the page of history; for it would be connected with the greatest events of the last century. Fertile as the British empire had been in great men during our days (as fertile as it had been in any former period of our history,) Ireland had undoubtedly contributed her full share of them. (Cheers.) But none of these, none of her mighty names,not even those of Burke and Wellington, were more certain of honourable fame, or would descend with more glory to future ages, than that of Grattan. (Loud cheering.) He (Sir J. Macintosh) had not touched, neither did he intend to touch, upon any question which might have a tendency to provoke political discussion; he meant no allusion which should apply to any opinions entertained by hon. gentlemen; but he might be allowed to observe, that those opinions of his great public services, which had obtained for Mr. Grattan the gratitude of his country in the year 1782, were totally distinct from those which might be formed upon other subsequent acts of his, and particularly as regarded the Union; for, whatever those latter opinions might be, this at least was certain-that no safe and lasting union could be formed between the two countries, till they met upon equal terms, and as independent nations. What Mr. Grattan said, therefore, of the Union (which he trusted might be lasting to eternity) was this-that, instead of receiving laws from England, the Irish members in this country would now take their full share and equal participation of the duties of legislation, and of the conduct of the affairs of both kingdoms. It resulted, therefore, that the reward which Mr. Grattan had formerly received was equally good and merited; and that he was still equally entitled to the approbation of his countrymen. If he might be permitted to mention the circumstance, he would observe, that there was one strong peculiarity in Mr. Grattan's parliamentary history, which was, perhaps, not true of any other man who ever sat in that house. He was the sole person, in the history of modern oratory, of whom it could be said, that he had obtained the first class of eloquence in two parliaments, differing from each other in their opinions, tastes, habits, and prejudices,- as much, possibly as any two assemblies of different nations. He was professedly the first orator of his own country (of which, he would say, that wit and humour sprang up there more spontaneously than in any other soil,) who had done so much under such disadvantages as he had to combat. He had come over to this

country at a time when the taste of that house had been rendered justly severe by its daily habit of hearing speakers such as the world had never before witnessed. He bad therefore to incur great names on the one hand, and unwarrantable expectations on the other. These were his difficulties, and he overcame them all. He surpassed his friends' expectations, and he made others bend to the superiority of his genius, who had, perhaps, formed a very different estimation of his powers. (The hon. and learned gentleman here remarked, that he had felt himself called upon to allege these peculiarities of character and qualification in order to justify his address to the house-in order to show that the present case was beyond the ordinary rule, and could establish no dangerous precedent.) This great man died in the attempt to discharge his parliamentary duties. He did not, indeed, die in that house, but he died in his progress to the discharge of those duties. He expired in the public service, sacrificing his life with the same willingness and cheerfulness with which he had ever devoted his exertions to the same cause. It was not for him to define what those services and exertions were. He called on no man to remodel or to alter his former opinions relative to that great measure which Mr. Grattan was about once more to propose to them; but he would only mention, that Mr. Grattan considered it in the same light as he had always done. Mr. Grattan risked his life to come into that house for the purpose of so proposing it; because he believed that it would be the means of healing the long-bleeding wounds of his suffering country; of establishing peace and harmony in a kingdom whose independence he had himself achieved; of transmitting to posterity, with the records of her political, the history of her religious liberation; of vindicating the honour of the Protestant religion; of wiping from it the last stain that dimmed its purity, and of supporting the cause of religious liberty, whose spirit went forth in emancipated strength at the Revolution, although its principle was long unknown to the reformers themselves. There was one important circumstance in the case of Mr. Grattan which was well entitled to observation: his was a case without alloy; it was an unmixed example for the admiration of that house. The purity of his life was the brightness of his glory. He was one of the few private men whose private virtues were followed by public fame; he was one of the few public men whose private virtues were to be cited as examples to those who would follow in his public steps. He was as eminent in his observance of all the duties of private life as he was heroic in the discharge of his public ones. Among those men of genius whom he had had the happiness of knowing, he had always found a certain degree of simplicity accompanying the possession of that splendid endowment. But, among all the men of genius he had known, he had never found such native grandeur of

soul

soul accompanying all the wisdom of age, and all the simplicity of genius, as in Mr. Grattan. (Cheers). He had never known one in whom the softer qualities of the soul had combined so happily with the mightier powers of intellect. In short, if he were to describe his character briefly, he should say, with the ancient historian, that he was, "Vita innocentissimus; ingenio florentissimus; proposito sanctissimus." (Cheers). As it had been the object of his life, so it was his dying prayer, that all classes of men might be united by the ties of amity and peace. The last words which he uttered were, in fact, a prayer that the interests of the two kingdoms of Great Britain and Ireland might be for ever united in the bonds of affection; that they might both cling to their ancient and free constitution; and (as most conducive to effect both these objects) that the legislature might at length see the wisdom and propriety of adopting a measure which should efface the last stain of religious intolerance from our institutions. He trusted that he should not be thought too fanciful if he expressed his hope that the honours paid to Mr. Grattan's memory in this country might have some tendency to promote the great objects of his life, by showing to Ireland how much we valued services rendered to her, even at the expence of our own prejudices and pride.

The man who had so served her must ever be the object of the reverential gratitude and pious recollection of every Irishman. When the illustrious dead of different kingdoms were at length interred within the same cemetery, there would seem to be a closer union between them than laws and nations could effect: and whenever the remains of the great man should be carried to that spot where slept the ashes of kindred greatness, those verses might be applied to him which had been elicited upon another occasion of public sorrow from a celebrated poet, who resembled Mr. Grattan in nothing but this,-that to a beautiful imagination he united a spotless purity of life :

"Ne'er to these chambers where the mighty rest, "Since their foundation, came a nobler guest; "Nor ever to the bowers of bliss conveyed "A purer spirit or a holier shade,"

The hon. and learned gentleman sat down amidst the unanimous cheers of the house.

Sir James Macintosh was followed in a similar strain of panegyric by Lord Castlereagh, Mr. Grant, Mr. Wilberforce, and others.

Mr. Grattan was publicly interred in Westminster Abbey, on the 16th of June, attended by a procession, remarkable for its numbers, rank, and intelligence.

PLATO'S AMERICA or ATLANTIS.
LATO, we believe, is the earliest

scription of a country, which might be taken for America. While yet a boy, he says, he was told by his grandfather, that, after the gods had divided the universe, Neptune took to himself a mortal spouse; and, having several children, bestowed upon them their rightful portions of his empire. To Atlas, the eldest, he gave a vast island, beyond the Pillars of Hercules; which, after him, was called Atlantis. Never, perhaps, was a king blessed with so rich and beautiful a country, or so prosperous and happy a people. The bowels of the earth teemed with the precious metals; while the surface displayed every variety of nutricious and aromatic plant, root, fruit, and flower. The woods furnished a covert for all descriptions of useful and comely beasts; and were replete with birds of every sort, whether distinguished by the beauty of their plumage, or the melody of their notes. Innumerable ships, capacious harbours, magnificent

bridges, splendid edifices, gymnasia, hippodromes, aqueducts, reservoirs,which

the highest state of opulence, prosperity, and civilization, might be found in the felicitous dominions of Atlas. The temple of Neptune alone was six hundred and twenty-five feet long, and three hundred and sixty broad; with spires of silver, columns of gold, and walls and pavements of brass. This vision was too bright to be permanent; and, that the end of the story might be consistent with the beginning, the whole island of Atlantis is said to have been swallowed up, at last, by a voracious whirlpool.

WELSH DISCOVERY of AMERICA.

The Welsh are the next claimants to the original discovery of America. In the year 1170, the sons of Owen Gwyneth are said to have contested the succession to North Wales; the eldest being "counted unmeet to govern, because of the maim upon his face." Madoc, one of the brothers, seems to have thought, that his own prospect was hopeless, or that it was hardly

worth

worth while to quarrel for so trifling a stake; and he resolved to seek some other region, where it would not be necessary to establish his title by force, or to maintain it by oppression. Sailing westward, from the northernmost point of Ireland, he came, at length, to a country, where, though he "saw many strange things," he found no inhabitants; and where, of course, he might rule without the fear of competition or dethronement. He returned to provide himself with subjects; and setting sail again, with a number of ships, is supposed to have planted a colony in the New World. This tale only exists in the traditional poetry of the Welsh ; and, though it found converts during the last century, the expedition of Lewis and Clarke has dissipated the fable of Welsh Indians up the Missouri.

ANGELS.

'Tis certain, says Richard Blome, in his system of Christian Philosophy, (folio 1694,) from Holy Writ, that there are vast multitudes of Angels, which tho' they be sometimes expressed by a certain number, Dan. vii. 10. Thousands of thousands ministred unto him, and ten thousand hundred thousands assisted him, Revel. v. 11. And the number of them was, thousands of thousands; yet they cannot be reduc'd to any determinate number. For since great or little are only comparative terms, and no number can be called the greatest, but in comparison with a lesser; the multitudes of the Angels must be compared with some other multitude, that by the excess of either we may find out which is the greater.

The Talmudists reduce the Angels to certain numbers, distributing them into several companies or bodies, and assigning to every one of them a set number (as it were) of inferiours, as subjects or soldiers. For according to R. F. Georgi the Venetian, of the order of St. Francis, the Talmudists distribute the armies of the Angels into Mazaloth, El, Legion, Rihaton, Chirton, and Gistera. Mazaloth they say are twelve, according to the XII signs of the Zodiack. El are thirty bands or regiments, for every one of those twelve; and accordingly there are 360 bands of Angels. Legion multiplies this number of 360 by 30; whence [doth arise the number 10,800. And this number they multiply again by thirty; which makes up Rhihaton, consisting of three

Whether the Talmudists have truly assign'd this number of the angels, cannot be decided by any evident rea

son.

Wherefore we may conclude with St. Gregory on the 26th of Job, humane reason cannot assign the number of the superiour spirits: because it doth not know the multitude of those invisible beings. And a little after, the number of the spirits or citizens above can only becounted by God, but are innumerable, asto men.

MANDEVILLE'S CURIOUS SPECULATION.

Sir John Mandeville, who wrote in the fourteenth century, has a still more extraordinary story, concerning an early British adventurer. He is endeavouring to prove, from his own experience, that the earth is round; and, since his speculations were published a century before the voyages of Columbus, they must take from the latter the praise of originality, in suggesting the existence of new continents, or the circumnavigability of the globe. As the people to the north, he observes, guide themselves by the "lode sterre;" those of the south are guided by a similar star, called the "antartyke.” "For whiche cause, (he adds,) men may wel perceyve, that the lond and the see ben of rownde schapp and

SO

forme.

forme. For the partie of the firmament schewethe in o contree, that schewethe not in another contree. And men may well preven by experience and sotyle compassement of wytt, that zifa fa man fond passages be schippes, that woldego to serchen theworlde, men might go be schippe all aboute the worlde, and aboven and benethen." He then shows much "experience and sotyle compassement of wytt," in proof of the fact; and concludes, as he began, "that men may envirowne alle the erthe of alle the world, as well under as aboven, and turn azen to his contree, that hadde companye and schippynge and conduyt: and all weyes he sholde fynde men, londes, and yles, als wel as in this

contree."

to.

As an additional proof of his assertion, he subjoins the story just alluded "And therefore," he says, "hath it befallen many times of a thing, (we drop the old orthography,) that I have heard counted, when I was young: how a worthy man departed some time from our country, for to go to search the world. And so he passed India, and the islands beyond India, where there are more than five thousand islands: and so long he went by sea and land, and so environed the world by many seasons, that he found an island, where he heard his own language spoken, calling on oxen in the plough, such words as men speak to beasts in his own country; whereof he had great marvel; for he knew not how it might be. But I say, that he had gone so long, by land and by sea, that he was coming again environing; that is to say, going about to his own marches, ⚫zif he wold have passed forth, till he had founden his contree and his own knowleche.""

INDIAN OPINIONS.

Indians, says EZEKIEL SANFORD, in his History of American Aborigines, look upon white men with contempt. They think us a paltry race; and, sometimes through malice, but more frequently from indifference, will make any answer, or tell any story, which first enters their thoughts. A few leading questions, as they are called, will commonly extract just what is wanted; and perhaps no person was ever disappointed in finding, among the various tribes, some traditional corroboration of a preconceived hypothesis. They amused one of our travellers, for instance, with the story, "that they originally came from another country, in MONTHLY MAG. No. 341.

habited by wicked people, and had traversed a great lake, which was narrow, shallow, and full of islands, where they had suffered great hardships and much misery, it being always winter, with ice and deep snows. At a place they called the Coppermine River, where they made the first land, the ground was covered with copper, over which a body of earth had since been collected to the depth of a man's height. They believe, also, that, in ancient times, their ancestors had lived till their feet were worn out with walking, and their throats with eating. They described a deluge, when the waters spread over the whole earth, except the highest mountain, on the top of which they were preserved."

The natives of Cuba are said to have had a still more satisfactory account of the flood. They told the Spaniards, that an old man foresaw the intention of God, to punish the world with a deluge; and building a large canoe, he embarked with his family and a great number of animals. As soon as the waters had subsided, he sent out a raven; which found carrion, and did not return. A pigeon was then let loose; and it soon re-appeared with a sprig of hoba. At last the ground became dry. The old man quitted his canoe; and making some wine of the wood-grape, drank till he was intoxicated, and fell asleep. One of his sons mocked him; but the other covered his body; and, when he awoke, he blessed the one, and cursed the other. Had this account been more vague and general, we should have been very suspicious of its real existence; but, it is presuming much too far upon our credulity and prepossession, when travellers expect us to believe that the Indians have preserved, by merely oral tradition, the particular details of an event, of which we should know nothing, had not the account been revealed by the Divinity, and recorded by Moses.