A MEMORABLE SCENE.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume III, Issue 153, 7 April 1876, Page 13

A MEMORABLE SCENE.

{From a Study on G rattan by J. C. McCarthy, M.P.) After a day of feverish anxiety, as the chill wintry clouds closed in, and the members were assembling, College Green became covered with a sea of upturned faces, lit by the flicker of a thousand torches — by the flashing of a thousand emotions. Many were the comments, grave and gay, of praise and scorn :—": — " Come Mr. M — , you were paid this morning ; give us a tenpenny bit to drink your health." " Success to you, my Lord E — . It was you made the good bargain, and it's a credit to us all, you did not sell your country too cheap," '• Three cheers for Sir William, boys ; he bargained to be a lord when there's to be no lords at all." " Here's Harry D — G — , boys. How much did they mark on your brief, Harry ?" Castlereagh was almost shielded from popular scorn by the superb beauty of his wife : but when Lord Clare appeared, many a fist was clenched, and groans reverberated like muffled thunder. The groans were changed to cheers, wild, loud, and high as Plunkett reared his head, and glorious little Curran flashed his dark eyes, and Kendal, Bnshe, and Saurin, and Gould, brought the greatest names at the Bar of Ireland. But there were sad gaps in the popular ranks. Lucas had long since passed away. Flood's tall form was mou^ering in the grave. Charlemont's princely presence would never again meet mortal eye. And the greatest of them all — first in genius, first in the heart of Ireland — Henry 3rattan, was not even entitled to enter the House of which he was the pride. He was believed to be lying on his death-bed, at Wicklow. Some wild rumor had, indeed, run, that he had been on that very day returned member for Wicklow, and that, before the debate was over, he would appear to save, if man could save, the liberties of his country. But this rumor was deemed too wild to be seriously believed. Inside the House was tenfold excitement. The students of Ti'inity College held their accustomed places, serried rank on rank, '• in young enthusiasm. The galleries were thronged with the beauty and fashion of a capital where beauty and fashion were famous ; and the ladles themselves showed by the colors they wore that they were not only spectators but partizans. Behind these rose many a row of eager faces, and many a form on which shone the stars of the Peerages of both Islands. The members thronged the House below in the splendid full dress of the time. At first, the ministry did not show their hands. The Viceregal speech from the throne made no mention of the one subject which was on all lips. The mover and seconder of the address was equally reticent. But Sir Lawrence Parsons forced the ministerial hand. In a stirring speech he moved an amendment declaratory of the resolutions of Parliament to support the independence of the nation. Then came the debate. " Every man," says Barrington, " seemed on that night inspired by this subject." Gentle George Ponsonby astounded friends and foes by a display of intense power and passion. Even Castlereagh was eloquent. Bushe and Plunkett made speeches which became historical. The gray morning began to dawn, and the debate to languish, when a great sound of popular tumult was heard from outside : the debate stopped : cheer rung above cheer, until all Dublin seemed to be cheering. George Ponsonby and Arthur Moore (afterward judge) glided out. They soon reappeared, supporting a man in the uniform of the Volunteers, but wasted by illness, pale, and suffering, white as a ghost. It was Henry Grattan. — It was indeed he. Government had kept back the writ for Wicklow until the very day on which Parliament had met. But that very day it had been sped by willing

hands to Wicklow ; the voters were ready ; the return was made after midnight; Grattan sprang from his bed; his wife parted from him, believing they would never meet again ; fleet horses bore his carriage fast, and he was there ; there to fight his last battle for the land he loved. As he entered, the whole House rose and uncovered. As he tottered to the table and took the oaths, Lord Castlereagh and all the ministers bowed low and remained standing. For a while no sound broke the silence, except the sounds of convulsive sobs from the galleries. But as the grand old tribune rose to address the House, there burst forth a long, wild cheer that answered well the cheer without, and was well re-answered back again. Scarcely, however, had he risen when he fell back again into his seat exhaused. Then he asked leave to address the House without rising. " And then," says Mr. Lecky, " was witnessed the spectacle, among the grandest in the whole range of the mental phenomena, of mind asserting its supremacy over matter, of the power of enthusiasm, and the power of genius nerving a feeble and emaciated frame. As the fire of oratory kindled, as the angel of enthusiasm touched those palid lips with the living coal, as the eld scenes crowded on the speaker's mind, and the old plaudits broke on his ear, it seemed as though the force of disease was neutralized and the buoyancy of youth restored. His voice gained a deeper power, his action a more commanding energy, his eloquence an ever increasing brilliancy. For more than two hours he poured forth a stream of epigram, of argument, and of appeal. He traversed almost the whole of that complex question ; he grappled with the various arms of expediency the ministers had urged; but he placed the issue on the highest grounds : ' the thing (he said) the ministry proposes to buy is what cannot be sold — liberty.' When he at last concluded., it must have been felt, that if the Irish Parliament could have been saved by eloquence, it would have been saved by Henry Grattan." But it could not be saved, and the vote was adverse.