The Irish Orator Henry Grattan.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 19109, 30 June 1930, Page 8

The Irish Orator Henry Grattan.

184 Yeats Ago.

By

Charles Conway.

QN JULY 3, 1746, Henry Grattan, one of the greatest of Irish statesmen, orators and patriots, was born in Dublin, his father, a prominent barrister and a Protestant, being the Recorder of the City of Dublin and its representative in the Irish Parliament.

After securing his degree at Trinity College, Dublin, where he had a distinguished career as a student, Grattan proceeded to London to study law, but he spent most of his time at the meetings of the English Parliament, studying the methods of the greatest orators of the day, the Earl of Chatham, and perfecting himself in the art of public speaking. He was. called to the Irish Bar in 1772, but he never seriously practised his profession, and three years later he entered the Irish Parliament as member for Char lemon t, which borough he represented until 1790, when he was elected as one of the representatives of the City of Dublin. Immediately after entering Parliament, Grattan was elected to the leadership of the National Party, as the successor of his friend, Henry Flood, who had forfeited the confidence of his followers when he accepted a seat in the English Privy Council, for one of the main objects of the National Party was to set the Irish Parliament free from its constitutional bondage to the Council.

It was mainly due to Grattan’s eloquence and efforts that the independence of the Irish Parliament was conceded by the British Government in 1782, and his fellow-members showed their appreciation of his services by voting him a grant of one hundred thousand pounds, but it was only after considerable persuasion that he was induced to accept one half of that sum. When the English Parliament brought in its Bill for the repeal of the Act by which the British legislature possessed the right to bind Ireland by British statutes, Flood introduced a motion in the Irish Parliament for leave to bring in a Bill for declaring the exclusive right of the Dublin Assembly to make laws for the Irish people. Grattan’9 opposition to the Bill secured its defeat, but the sympathies of the Irish nation were with Flood, and Grattan lost a considerable amount of his well-earned popularity.

Grattan never faltered in his own personal loyalty to the British Crown, and among the numerous Acts which he carried through the Irish Parliament was one which provided the Royal Navy with 20,000 sailors. Although a staunch Protestant, he was always a champion of Catholic emancipation, and In 1792 he was successful in carrying through a measure which conferred the franchise on members of the Roman Catholic Church. He made strenuous attempts to stem the agitation which led up to the outbreak of the Irish Rebellion of 1798, and when he failed to do this he voluntarily resigned his seat in Parliament, but a short time later he was elected as member for Wicklow. and he returned to the House for the purpose of opposing the project of a legislative union of the English and Irish Parliaments. - He retired from the political arena soon after the passing of the Act which established the union of the two nations, but in 1805 he became a member of the English House of Commons, where he made a most eloquent and brilliant maiden speech. In the following year he declined a position in the Ministry, which had been offered to him by Fox and Grenville, and during the last 'few years of his life he spoke very little, but he was a staunch supporter of every movement to bring about the emancipation of the Roman Catholics. He died on June 6, 1820, at the age of 74, and was laid to rest in Statesmen’s Corner, Westminster Abbey. (Copyrighted).