TO CORRESPONDENTS.

Kumara Times, Issue 2536, 20 October 1884, Page 2

TO CORRESPONDENTS.

G.M.—Grattan, the Right Honourable Henry, never received any other distinctive title other than that here appended, though scores of less famous and deserving men in our day have had such bestowed upon them. But in Grattan's case this was due probably to his popularity not being of that continuous character which is common to men of his ability. He was only 26 years of age when he was called to the Irish bar, and three years later he was returned to the Irish Parliament as representative for the borough of Charlemont, for which he sat until 1790, when he was elected as one of the representatives of the City of Dublin, to such an extent had his patriotism and eloquence recommended him to the Irish people. Mainly to him was owing, among other things, the partial abolition of the heavy restrictions on Irish commerce. But his popularity ebbed as it had flowed (and oftener than once) in the hearts and homes of his impulsive and therefore inconstant countrymen. In 1797, he declined to come forward for Dublin, and went into temporary but undeserved eclipse. In 1800 he was returned for the borough of Wicklow, to oppose the Union, and that was to fight for the people's idea of the constitution. But the Union was effected in spite of him, and in 1805 he was returned to the Imperial Parliament for the borough of Malton, in Yorkshire. Next year he was induced to stand for Dublin, and was re-elected. He sat for it in successive Parliaments till his death, which happened on the 4th June, 1820, in London. The history of his life is in great measure the history of the Irish Constitution, and entirely the history of the Parliament in Ireland. As an orator he stands in the first rank, his eulogy on Lord Chatham and his invective against Bonaparte being considered as unsurpassed in British eloquence. There is a statue of Grattan on College Green, Dublin.