happiness is not the gift of any one spot, provinces were beginning to exchange however ancient and native."

their wild pastures for corn fields; and He adds, in the same spirit, “

the northern, Protestant and industri

per haps the time may come, when fortune

ous, already enjoyed an active and 'patre valentior,' may smile on me, and

extensive system of commerce and enable my old age to resign my breath manufacture. But this is a condition where I first received it. --Farewell."

of things, on which, whatever spirit of At this time he wrote verses, but

evil especially urges the disturbance whatever might be his poetic diligence, of nations, always seems to look with he was never destined to exhibit poetic peculiar hostility. There was also an power.

It is a remarkable circum- unhappy opening left for his incursion. stance, that congenial as oratory and

The political conflicts of Ireland had poetry seem to be, no one name on

obstructed the Reformation. In those record has been eminent in both, from conflicts the people had become barthe days of Cicero to our own; both barous, and the Government insecure. requiring the same ardour of imagina. The factions of the country, Popish in tion, copiousness of language, and

their prejudices, their ignorance, and knowledge of man and nature. A

their hostility to England, had succesgreat gulf bas lain between, which, sively followed the desperate policy of like the valleys of the Andes, whose allying themselves with the Popish edges seem to touch, yet whose depths continent. Thus Ireland, without the are beyond the light of the sun, seems power to shake off either the yoke of to have been within reach of the easi. Popery, or the influence of foreigners, est transit, yet is all but impassable.

was the slave of both, and received But Grattan was evidently aware that from both nothing but the wages of if fame was to be achieved by him, it the slave-stripes and chains. From was not through the favour of the nine.

the period when the triumphs of He writes to his friend, who had asked Elizabeth's reign made England an him for some poetry, “ the composi- empire, and thus awoke the jealousy tions you demand of me, are incorrect

of the great continental kingdoms, and illegible. My muse is at best but Ireland was adopted by France and a slattern, and stumbles frequently in Spain as the means which offered the her passage. She visits me but seldom,

most direct access to the very heart of and her productions are rather the ef her strength; important to alienate as forts of her mind, than the nature of it.

an essential portion of British power; When her works are polished and ren

and to disable, if it could not be turned dered legible, they shall be sent to

into the instrument of actual invasion. you.”

In all the attacks of France and Spain on The political history of Ireland, if England, the first object of their policy written without either perversion or

was to raise insurrection in Ireland; in partiality, would be a document next

some instances actual invasion was in value to a true history of the Revo. tried, and in all a spirit of disaffection lution of France. If the latter showed was sedulously sustained. The influthe violences of the mob, the former

ence of the Popish priesthood, superdemonstrated the basenesses of party. stitiously powerful over their followers, If the Revolution found its emblem in was sedulously employed to do the the tiger, that, once tasting of human work of those sovereigns of whom the blood, refused all other food, Irish Pope was the vassal, while he himself party found its natural similitude in was the vassal of the Pope. Thus was the monkey, at once burlesque and continued a perpetual treason by a mischievous, gluttonous of all that it perpetual imposture ; thus the minister could get, and destroying all that it of the enemy ruled from the altar of could not devour ridiculous to look the priest ; and thus the policy of so. at, yet hazardous to play with ; at once

1

vereigns, and the oath of the hiera teasing and treacherous, dangerous and archy, combined to make this unhappy disgusting:

land the scene of tumults, which, From the commencement of that excited by foreign hostility, and uncentury, Ireland, relieved from the subdued by foreign pacification, made intrigues of Popery, had been the it the channel that it has been for five most pacific portion of the empire. centuries. England has been charged Peace was beginning to produce wealth; with this melancholy result--this conits natural consequence. The southern spiracy of man to defraud a great

a

country of the bounties of nature, and only for routine, the country was gothe benevolence of Government. But verned, as it is now, by the Parliashe might as well have been charged ment of England. On the accession with the torrents which the Atlantic of George III., a bill for limiting the clouds pour upon the land. They duration of Parliaments for seven were, like those torrents, the product years was brought in by Dr Lucas, of her position, the offspring of a great the agitator, of whom mention has surrounding element of storm, unge been already made. After various nerated by her own narrow and simple disappointments, the bill, only altered surface, and urged by impulses from from septennial to octennial, was, in distant shores and sources, which, to 1768, passed into a law. On this point her, were as unseen and inscrutable the agitator certainly had the game in as the wind “ that bloweth where it his own hands; for, if Parliament listeth,” and made itself known only were to exist at all, it ought to be sent by its foreign fury and its strange back to the country at intervals which sound.

would compel it to look to character ; Thus Protestantism, first received the true question, however, being, with joy in Ireland, was suddenly re- whether a Parliament offer the fittest tarded, and finally repelled. Thus, means to govern a country at once too, theincursion of a multitude of sects, small and turbulent, and whose leading following in the train of the civil wars, classes are as ready to be corrupt, as seized a large share of the legitimate its populace to be intractable. territory of the Church of England ; The author regards this bustling and tlius, too, republican ideas, personage as the founder of Irish adopted with republican discipline, liberty. With such an architect, we suggested ideas of revolution. In cannot wonder at the extravagance of ali instances of British history, since the fabric, or the speed of its downfal. the days of Elizabeth, the first shaft He tells us that Lucas was another at the state has been pointed to the Swift, but without his talents. In Church. The great guardian of morals. Lucas this spirit of attack “ seemed a has been naturally assailed by the ene. sort of inspiration, for nothing was mies of laws, and the desecration of too high or too low for his resentment, the established altar has been held the or his ambition. He assailed every essential step to the dismantling of the thing and every body, from the mothrone. Sectarianisn was the true narch who swayed the sceptre, down tempter of the revolt of America; to the mayor who held the mace. He sectarianism was the true tempter deemed their offences great, and his of the rebellion of Ireland. But language was strong in proportion. He the immediate presence of England, made political abuse a sort of trade, and the vigour of a powerful Govern- made business by it, and popularity." ment, and the existence of an Esta- This is certainly neither an amiable blished Church, which, though impo- character nor a respectable one; but verished, was neither ignorant nor it is the natural character of an agita. idle, made the process essentially more tor, and might be the motto for the his. cautious, tardy, and finally incomplete, tory of the living species. Of course this than in the remote and mighty conti- career, a hundred years ago, could not nent which England had conquered have been run with perfect ease; as from the swamp and the savage. there were no Papists in Parliament,

The first attempt of the new-born the agitator was forced to rely upon patriotism of Ireland, was to shorten himself and the rabble. He found a the duration of Parliament. Nothing Ministry strong enough to stand by could be more plausible ; for the dis- itself, and, being unable either to melocation, into which all the affairs of nace it by the desertion of a faction, the realm had been thrown by the civil or overthrow it by the arts of a public war, had made the length of the Par- conspiracy, Lucas was declared by the liaments wholly undefined. In prac- grand juries of Dublin to be a libeller, tice they were supposed to last during promoting insurrection, and “justifythe life of the king; but, meeting only ing the bloody rebellion raised in Ireafter long prolongations, (from 1666 land.” they did not assemble for nearly thirty They ordered his writings to be burnyears,) thus virtually ceasing to exist, ed by the common hangman. The and, when they re-assembled, existing Attorney-General filed an information

a

It

a

against him; the House of Commons which their mediocrity of mind and voted him an enemy to his country, baseness of nature were made. The and ordered his arrest; the Lordfate of Lucas was similar. Sinking Lieutenant issued a proclamation for into utter obscurity in Parliament, and bis apprehension ; finally the corpor- forgotten by the people, his death ation disfranchised him. All this alone revived his memory. Faction storm of hostility had no effect on made a pretext of his funeral to awake Lucas it was the very thing for a de, rabble passions; and the leaders of the magogue. He ran away for a while, party which had neglected him, atto show that he was persecuted ; but tempted to retrieve their neglect by his fears of Government could not be panegyrising him as a patriot when very strong, when he went no further he was no more. than London. Even there, however, The viceroyalty of Lord Towns. he claimed the privileges of martyr. hend in 1768, was the commencement dom; for he dates from Westminster of the new policy in Ireland. Some as “the present place of my pilgrim- leading families of rank had hitherto age." He naturally found England conducted the affairs of the country by a more agreeable place of residence a kind of association. This instrua than Ireland, with all its discontents ment, while manageable by the Eng. and disturbances gathering round his lish minister, might be convenient to old age, and there he remained for ten his ease, but it might also be detri. years ; but the dissolution of Parlia: mental to his higher views of policy. ment, which took place on the death of It was clamoured against and conGeorge the Second, was an ill omen ceded. The people demanded to be to Lucas. His restless spirit was fired governed by a Parliament, and Lord again by the hope of political bustle. Townshend was sent over to break up The outlawry had been now taken off, the oligarchy. This new shape of and he was chosen one of the mem. government had the effect of bringbers for Dublin. A seat in Parlia- ing forth some men of remarkable ment is always the most injudicious ability. Among the rest was the object of a vulgar demagogue-- it has new Speaker of the House of Com. stripped more asses of the lion's hide mons, Mr Pery, a man little known than any other contrivance on record. in England, but who in Ireland enThe vulgar brawling which answers joyed a great name in his day. One the purpose

of the streets, raises the of the values of these volumes, is contempt of the House; the ignorance their containing a series of characters, which satisfies the populace, is dis- which, as they could not be the result gusting to the better classes ;

of the author's personal experience, notonous cry of grievances, which we must presume that we owe to either forms the staple of the street scrib- the notes or the recollections of his bler, palls upon the ear of the House; distinguished father. and the brutish demagogue, who has Edmund Sexton Pery had been a nothing to support him but his brawl. barrister. He came into Parliament ing, is no sooner heard than he is put in 1761. Of him it is said, that down, and no sooner put down than some men have a creative fancy, he is forgotten. Parliament was the Pery had a creative judgment. He extinguisher which put out the vulgar saw many years further into futurity lights of Hunt and Cobbett. The lit- than any other public man. A skil. tle reputation which they had made ful leader, he knew how to advance for themselves by brawling in taverns, and how to retire. He was possessed and scribbling virulence in pamphlets, of the rarest and greatest acquirement perished as soon as the House of Com- a public man can wish for-a stern mons saw of what contemptible ele. political fortitude that is proof against ments they were made. Their first every temptation." speeches exhausted all their topics ; Pery had an opportunity of distin. and when they were once precluded guishing himself in the chair on an from Billingsgate, they lost the only important question in 1772. The source of their eloquence. As they Government desired to increase the could give no knowledge to the House, number

of commissioners of the revethe House would give them no atten

The House passed a resolution tion ; and they sank into the obscurity against the increase. Government, from which they had risen, and for notwithstanding, enlarged the number

the mo

a

from seven to eleven. The House one of the badges of servitude worn was then called on to vote, that who- by the people of Ireland I" He adever advised that measure had acted mits in the next truth, that it “ takes contrary to the sense of the Commons. the young mind from a narrow and The numbers on a division were equal prejudiced locality, and tends to make - 106 on each side. It thus came to it expand in a freer region." This, thể casting voice of the Speaker, who, we should suppose, an object of some resenting the insult which had been importance to a profession which has offered to the House, said, “ This is peculiarly to deal with buman liber. a question which involves the privi. ties. But the author is never happy leges of the Commons of Ireland. but when he can persuade himself that The noes have opposed the privilege; he lives in a dungeon, and is surroundthe noes have been wrong-let the ed by a population of turnkeys. At privileges of the Commons of Ireland all events, the badge of slavery is not stand unimpeached. Therefore, I say, a very heavy one, for it may be worn the noes have it." He had a fine

per- or not as the “slave" thinks fit,no son and a commanding voice. He de- Irish student being now under any livered this lofty sentence with cor. necessity of coming to the English responding dignity, and the effect Inns of Court; the advantage of this upon the House and the country was coming, however, being so decided, memorable.

that every Irish student who can afford A curious anecdotes is told of this it enters his name, and thereby seIrish Aristides. In the commencement cures the privilege of being called to of his political career he had become the English bar, if he should subseone of a party in the House, which, quently so desire, and the higher adopting certain principles, pledged advantage of the best legal education itself never to take office but as a body which the empire can offer. But Lord Townshend soon discovered Grattan had evidently designed the art, probably no very difficult dis- himself, from the beginning, for a covery, of breaking up the party, by parliamentary career. He seems to giving its members employment on have given but slight attention at any his own terms. On this general vio- time to the study of the law, but lation of the compact, he still consi- have spent his evenings chiefly in lisdered himself bound by it. He went tening to the debates in Parliament. to his former friends and said : “ You He was fortunate in his period. Lord have broken your engagement, you Chatham was then in his full vigour, have released me; but I shall still pouring out that impassioned oratory consider myself bound. I will adhere which constituted an era in the senate. to the compact. I will not take office; In the intervals of those studies, he but I will never have any thing more seemed to have kept up a considerable to say to you." All this is high-toned; correspondence with his friends. We but it would make the anecdote more wish that more of these letters could intelligible, as well as the sentiment have been procured. They are often more important, if the date had been fantastic, but they are always written divulged. If it was before Mr Pery's with elegance, and sometimes with appointment to the Speakership, his feeling. Some of his theories were self-denial evidently did not prevent speedily contradicted by his practice. him, as we see, from accepting one of He thus speaks of matrimony, in a the most lucrative public offices, which letter to his friend Broome: “ Our he could not have obtained but by the friend Macawley seems happy in the direct influence, or at least the ready connubial state. He speaks as a man acquiescence of the Crown; if it was attached and contented ; and, like a after, he was then rich, old, and a missionary of Hymen, he preaches peer. The temptations of office could his dominion to all. I am too well not then have been strong, and his acquainted with my own inequalities, self-denial never would have been as well as too poor to receive the perfectly consistent with a sense of yoke. You and I, in this, as in most

other things, perfectly agree. We In 1767, Grattan came to London, imagine woman too frail a bark for so and entered himself as student in the long and so tempestuous a voyage as Middle Temple, This practice, the that of life.” But this was the reasonauthor, in his usual strain, pronounces ing of a philosopher of one-and

his ease.

a

а.

er.

twenty. In a few years after, when ance to the encroachments of Rome.
he grew wiser, he ventured on this His learning made him a peculiarly
perilous state.
He married a woman

formidable opponent; and the brilliant of beauty and character, and continu- tropes and pathetic appeals of the ed, we believe, an attached husband advocates of emancipation, were terriand fond father to the end of his days. bly trampled down by his knowledge The loss of one of his sisters, for whom of Romish councils and decrees. To he had a strong affection, drove him the last, he opposed reason to elofor a while from London to solitude.

quence, and learning to delusion. He took shelter in the shade Wind. His arguments were unanswerable, sor Forest. Politics, which in London and therefore attributed to prejudice; had been his study, were here his so- his learning was solid, and therefore lace. His oratorical labours were so passed by as obsolete. He had the constant, that at one of the places merit of resisting, when all others where he resided with his friend Day, gave way; of sustaining the trutlı, afterwards an Irish judge, the land. when it was the fashion to panegylady imagined that he was deranged; rize falsehood; and of warning his and she complained that “ the gentle country against the dangers of eman

man used to walk up and down in the cipation, when the whole mob of s garden the greater part of the night, philosophers and politicians, the aspibrott talking to himself, and, though alone, rants for place, and the seekers after

constantly addressing one Mr Speak. popularity, were clamouring for it as er; that it was not possible he could the panacea for the “ expiring Conbe in his senses, and she therefore stitution.” The name of Duiguenan begged that his friends might take was, of course, a mark for religious him away; and that, if they did, she and political obloquy. But it was would forgive him all the rent that where the religion was superstition, was due !"

and the politics were Jacobinism. No We have a letter from Judge Day, man in his own time was able to disElements

as late as 1838, mentioning some par- prove his arguments, as, unhappily,

ticulars of this period. Among other no man in ours can doubt the sagacity la matters, he mentions_" We lived in of his predictions. He was a clearclients the same chambers of the Middle headed, accomplished, and vigorous

Temple, and took a house in Windsor scholar, a sound lawyer, and a ra. Forest, commanding a beautiful pro. tional patriot. He died, with the re

spect. He delighted in romantic grets of many good, many learned, Media scenery. Between both, we lived to- and many wise men; and his memory

gether three or four years, the happi. deserves all the honour which ought est period of my life.

When we re

to be given to powerful championship sided in Windsor Forest, he would in the righteous cause. spend whole moonlight nights ram- A note to Judge Day's letter menbling and losing himself in the thick. tions a circumstance which he supest plantations; he would sometimes poses to have been the origin of the pause and address a tree in soliloquy, continued hostility between Grattan thus early preparing himself for that and Duiguenan. "It was at the Temassembly which he was destined to ple that they first met. He intro

He then states the com- duced them to each other, and Dui. Dia mencement of his knowledge of that guenan, intending to please Grattan,

Dr Patrick Duiguenan, with whom uttered a furious philippic against Dr his after life was one long political Lucas, knowing that his father the quarrel. Duiguenan was a man of recorder had been his opponent. But rough manners, but of strong under- Grattan defended Lucas, and thought standing and extensive knowledge that he had been hardly treated by Having obtained a fellowship in the the Irish Government. The converDublin University, he practised in the sation grew warm--they further differecclesiastical courts, where he ulti- ed on those important topics, the premately became a judge. Though he rogative and the people ; Grattan remarried a Roman Catholic, and in plied, and Day was " afraid that he

respect for the feelings of his wife would have attacked Duiguenan." The frequently admitted Roman Catholic However, they parted, and in the

priests to his table, in public life he evening Grattan came to the Greexhibited the most determined resist- cian Coffeehouse, where they used to

NO. CCLXXXVII, VOL. XLVI.

adorn."

2c