xiv

INDEX TO LETTERS.

Page

Henry Dundas to the Earl of Mornington as to Ireland and the Union 436 Marquess Cornwallis to the Earl of Mornington as to Ireland .

437

Same.. to same, as to Ireland and the Union

.437

Mrs. Grattan to Mr. M'Can, 5th March, 1799,-On Mr. Grattan's

Same to same, 8th September,-Prepares to return to Ireland 441

LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE

OF

HENRY GRATTAN.

CHAPTER I.

The rights of the City of Dublin invaded-Conduct of the Lord Chancellor on Mr. Curran's speech before the Privy Council-Adverse decision-Indignation of the people-Proceedings of the Whig Club, and their vindication in reply to the Chancellor's attack-Meeting of the citizens of Dublin-Their resolutions-Letters of Mr. Grattan to Mr. M'Can, Mr. Day, and the Rev. Edward Berwick-Mr. Foster chosen Speaker of the new parliament― Responsibility Bill- Mr Grattan's letter to Mr. Day on that subject.

NoT satisfied with his successful proceedings against the opposition, the Chancellor (Lord Clare), now sought to quell the popular spirit that prevailed in the metropolis, and he involved the Government in a squabble with the city. Alderman James had been appointed Commissioner of the Police; he set up as candidate for the office of Lord Mayor, under the patronage of the Government, and was chosen by the Aldermen, but rejected by the Commons, who selected Alderman Howison, a popular individual. In such a case, the custom was, that the Aldermen should send down the name of another candidate. This they declined to do, and insisted that Alder

* These bodies sat apart, the board of aldermen resembled the Upper House, the sheriffs and common councilmen the Lower ; a fair representation for the city, had they not been corrupted and prejudiced by the castle.

2

LORD CLARE, AND

[CHAP. I. man James was elected. The approbation of the Privy Council being necessary to confirm the election of the Lord Mayor, both parties appealed to that body on behalf of their respective candidates. The case was argued before them, Doctor Duigenan defending Alderman James, and George Ponsonby, and Mr. Curran, Alderman Howison. The result was that the council sent the parties to a new election.

It was on this occasion, that Mr. Curran made a splendid speech, in which he alluded to Lord Clare, and portrayed his character in colours which could not be mistaken, and the brilliancy of which will never fade. His description of Ireland was spirited and patriotic; his description of Lord Clare was just, eloquent and severe, and conveyed the most caustic satire in the most polished style, -which latter quality is not always to be found in Curran's speaking. But a long metaphorical invective was not perhaps the best mode of encountering Lord Clare. Curran had beforehand mentioned that he meant to attack him; so that he was immediately stopped for though the Lord-lieutenant (who is the head of that court) was present, yet Lord Clare assumed the right to direct, and accordingly he cleared the chamber. This, however, did not prevent the publication of the speech and the invective. But if Curran had pressed very hard on the legal opinion of the Chancellor, which in point of law was quite wrong, and had delivered some very hard sentences before he could have been stopped, he would have borne him down, and his success would have been more complete. Curran, however, did neither.

The Chancellor never forgave this attack; the picture was too like; there was no mistaking it, and in consequence he fatally revenged himself

CHAP. I.]

MR. CURRAN.

3

upon Curran; for the speech cost him his chief practice at the bar. The judge set himself so sternly against the advocate, that he deprived him of almost all his business in chancery, and may be said to have driven him from his court. Even here, however, Curran could have gained the advantage, if he had read; for Lord Clare knew nothing profoundly. But Curran was not master of the business of the court, and wanted application.

The following extracts from this celebrated speech may be considered somewhat copious; but they merit attention from the consequences they produced, and which afford a melancholy spectacle; how effectually, how cruelly, and how irresponsibly, tyranny could be exercised in Ireland, even in a Court of Justice.

Speaking of the law that regulated the Corporation, and which Mr. Grattan's father had brought in,-Mr. Curran observed

"At the time of this statute, the Lord Mayor and Aldermen exercised the exclusive power of election to the chief magistracy without any interference of the Commons. The immediate mischief of such a Constitution, with respect to the metropolis itself, I have touched on before. The people were borne down, the magistracy depraved, the law was relaxed, and public tranquillity was at an end. These mischiefs were more than enough to induce the citizens of Dublin to call loudly, as they did, upon the justice of the legislature for Parliamentary redress. But the wisdom of that legislature formed an estimate of the mischief from considerations that probably did not enter into the minds of the contending parties; namely, from the then state of Ireland as an individual, and as a connected country; as as an individual depressed in every thing essential to the support of political or civil independency, depressed in common, in opulence, and in knowledge; distracted by that civil and religious discord suggested by ignorance and bigotry, and inflamed by the artifice of a cruel policy, which divided in order to destroy; conscious that liberty could be banished only by disunion, and that a generous

4

MR. CURRAN'S SPEECH

[CHAP. I. nation could not be completely stripped of her rights until one part of the people was deluded into the foolish and wicked idea that its freedom and consequence could be preserved, or supported only by the slavery or depression of the other-in such a country it was peculiarly necessary to establish at least some few incorporated bodies, which might serve as great repositories of popular strength. Our ancestors learned from Great Britain to understand their use and their importance; in that country they had been hoarded up with the wisest forecast, and preserved with a religious reverence, as an unfailing resource against those times of storm, in which it is the will of Providence that all human affairs should sometimes fluctuate; and as such they had been found at once a protection to the people, and a security to the Crown. My lords, it is by the salutary repulsion of popular privilege, that the power of the monarchy is supported in its sphere: withdraw that support, and it falls in ruin upon the people, but it falls in a ruin no less fatal to itself, by which it is shivered in pieces.

"Our ancestors must therefore have been sensible that the enslaved state of the corporation of the metropolis, was a mischief that extended its effects to the remotest borders of the island. In the confederated strength and the united councils of great cities, the freedom of the country may find a safeguard, which extends itself even to the remote inhabitant who never put his foot within their gates.

"But, my lords, how much these considerations have been enforced by a view of Ireland, as a connected country, deprived as it was of almost all the advantages of an hereditary monarch: the father of his people, residing at a distance, and the paternal beam reflected upon his children through such a variety of mediums, sometimes too languidly to warm them, sometimes so intensely as to consume; a succession of governors differing from one another in their tempers, in their talents, and in their virtues, and, of course, in their systems of administration; unprepared in general for rule by any previous institution, and utterly unacquainted with the people they were to govern, and with the men through whose agency they were to act.

"Sometimes, my lords, it is true, a rare individual* has appeared among us, as if sent by the bounty of Providence, in compassion to human miseries, marked by that dignified simplicity of manly character, which is the mingled

*Mr. Grattan.