tion of mere politics to trial, under the form of a criminal prosecution. I cannot say I am surprised that this has been done, or that you should be solicited by the same inducements and from the same motives, as if your verdict was a vote of approbation. I do not wonder that the government of Ireland should stand appalled at the state to which we are reduced. I wonder not that they should start at the public voice, and labor to stifle or to contradict it. I wonder not that at this arduous crisis, when the very existence of the empire is at stake, when its strongest and most precious limb is not girt with the sword for battle, but pressed by the tourniquet for amputation; when they find the coldness of death already begun in those extremities where it never ends, that they are terrified at what they have done, and wish to say to the surviving parties of that empire, "They cannot say that we did it." I wonder not that they should consider their conduct as no immaterial question for a court of criminal jurisdiction, and wish anxiously, as on an inquest of blood, for the kind acquittal of a friendly jury. I wonder not that they should wish to close the chasm they have opened by flinging you into the abyss. But trust me, my countrymen, you might perish in it, but you could not close it. Trust me, if it is yet possible to close it, it can be done only by truth and honor. Trust me, that such an effect could no more be wrought by the sacrifice of a jury than by the sacrifice of Orr. As a state measure, the one would be as unwise and unavailing as the other. But while you are yet upon the brink, while you are yet visible, let me, before we part, remind you once more of your awful situation. The law upon this subject gives you supreme dominion. Hope not for much assistance from his lordship. On such occasions, perhaps, the duty of the court is to be cold and neutral. I cannot but admire the dignity he has supported during this trial; I am grateful for his patience. But let me tell you it is not his province to fan the sacred flame of patriotism in the jury box. As he has borne with the little extravagances of the law, do you bear with the little failings of the press. Let me, therefore, remind you, that though the day may soon come when our ashes shall be scattered before the winds of heaven, the memory of what you do cannot die. It will carry down to your posterity your honor or your shame. In the presence, and in the name of that ever-living God, I do therefore conjure you to reflect that you have your charac ters, your consciences, that you have also the character, perhaps the ultimate destiny, of your country in your hands. In that awful name I do conjure you to have mercy upon your country and upon yourselves, and so to judge now as you will hereafter be judged; and I do now submit the fate of my client and of that country which we yet have in common to your disposal. HENRY GRATTAN 1746-1820 Grattan was a sturdy and tireless soldier in the cause of Ireland against England in the Irish and English legislatures; and the earnestness of his purpose, and the loftiness of his patriotism, combined with the native skill and felicity of the Celt to make him one of the notable orators of his day. He could not be named in the same category with his mighty countrymen, Burke, Sheridan, or even O'Connell; but he did effective and lasting work, and Ireland had no more faithful son. He was born in 1746, in Dublin, and lived into his seventy-fifth year, dying in London in 1820. His career was divided between the Irish and the English Parliaments; but the work he did in both was devoted to the same general ends. After taking his degree at Trinity College, Dublin, he studied law in the Middle Temple at London, and was admitted to the Irish bar in 1772; but three years later he joined the opposition in the Irish Parliament. This body was not at that time independent, owing to the effect of the Statute of Drogheda, also known as Poynings's Act, passed in 1494. This provided that all English laws should have force in Ireland; that no Irish Parliament should sit without permission of the English King; and that any laws it might enact should not go into effect until they had been approved by England. By the exertions and eloquence of Grattan, this law was repealed, and the Irish Parliament became independent for the first time in nearly three centuries. After more than twenty years service, he retired; but reappeared once more in 1800 in order to throw his influence against the proposed union of the Irish with the English legislature. His impassioned appeals were again successful. He might now reasonably look forward to passing the rest of his days in retirement; but his countrymen could not spare him, and he was elected to the English Parliament in 1806, when he was sixty years of age. He retained his seat there until his death. The chief work to which he addressed himself during these years was the advocacy of the emancipation of the Roman Catholics, who were at that period laboring under severe disabilities. The Bill of Toleration, passed for their relief in 1778, had led to the Gordon Riots in 1780; and the dread of the papal influence had become a sort of bogey in England. Grattan's speeches on this theme are full of fire and cogency; nothing that he did reflects upon the whole more credit upon his character and his abilities. Learning, philosophy, argument, and passion are fused together in these addresses, and even the reading of them stirs the sympathies and rouses indignation against persecution and prejudice. It was a noble theme, worthily handled by a master of his art. The speech entitled The Rights of the Irish People" was delivered during the discussion of Poynings's Act. 66 THE RIGHTS OF THE IRISH PEOPLE Delivered, April 19, 1780, in the Irish House of Commons in moving a Declaration of Irish Rights1 I HAVE entreated an attendance on this day, that you might, in the most public manner, deny the claim of the British Parliament to make law for Ireland, and with one voice life up your hands against it. If I had lived when the ninth of William took away the woollen manufacture, or when the sixth of George I took away your constitution, I should have made a covenant with my own conscience, to seize the first reasonable moment of rescuing my country from the ignominy of such acts of power; or, if I had a son, I should have administered to him an oath that he would consider himself as a person separate and set apart for the discharge of so important a duty. Upon the same principle am I now come to move a Declaration of Right, the first moment occurring in my time in which such a declaration could be made with any chance of success, and without an aggravation of oppression. Sir, it must appear to every person that, notwithstanding the import of sugar, and export of woollens, the people of this country are not satisfied; something remains—the greater work is behind-the public heart is not well at ease. To promulgate our satisfaction, to stop the throats of millions with the votes of 1 [Ireland had been treated by the Eng. lish, for three centuries, like a conquered nation. A Parliament had indeed been granted her, but by a well-known statute, called Poynings's Act, the English government had power to prevent the Irish Parliament from ever assembling, except for purposes which the King saw reason to approve. Under such an administration, the commercial and manufacturing interests of Ireland were wholly sacrificed to those of the English; the exportation of woollen goods, and of most other articles of English manufacture, and also the direct import of foreign articles, being denied the Irish. These restrictions had been removed in part, on the ground of "expediency," by an act of the British Parliament, passed December 13, 1779, under the terror of the Irish Volunteers, and Mr. Grattan, with the same instrument of compulsion in his hands, now moved the Irish Parliament to a Declaration of Right, which should deny the authority of England to make laws for Ireland-an authority asserted by an act of the British Parliament, passed in the sixth year of George I.-EDITOR.] |