The Statesman.
London, England, 1820-09-01 00:00:00

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.IISMOIR or Tile LAITX RlGll4' HUY. HENRI

(From bold ant, Northedsels ton Jon Maitziews.)

In the !Vomiter of Gold and Northouse's London
Magazine for September, just published, is an animated
and interesting memoir of the late Right Hos. Henry
Grattan. The chief object of the biographer in the
present tanSlter is to display the wonderful and suc-
cessful efforte which this patriotic Statesman exerted
in his early life in behalf of his unhappy country ;
and after adverting to the wretched state in which It
was when he was called tot seat ia its legislature, the
Memoir thus proceeds :--
Mr. Grattan, whose comprehensive mind disdained
to dwell apots momentary measures, and whose pro-
phetic spirit saw at once the vastness of the evils
which threatened his (votary, determined by procuring
an unprecedented stretch of legislatorial power, to
avert if possible their baneful iufluence. Ile was the
first therefore who exposed the isupolicy and injustice
of the commercial restraints that then existed, and to
urge the !louse to take up the measure manfully, by
boldly complaining to the Rttglish Government. This
proposition, whilst it startled the parliament, delighted
the people, who ... lily declared their determina-
tion to support it, and the whole weight of British in-
Attester 1,4$ ultimately fount' unable to resist the col-
lectire voice of the Irish nation. Mr. Grattan's mw-
tints, made in 11779, was prefaced by a preamble, I
stating the justice, as well as the necessity, of granting
the commercial claims of the people ; the relebrated
Messrs. Burgh and Flood supported him; and the
latter moved as ass ann•udmeot " that nothing but a
free trade could case the country from ruin." This
was carried almost unatiiittouslv, anti the people. who
had lung been unaccustomed to receive from their
set+ ile and selfish senate any thing of a patriotic midair.,
lined the s'reets as the deputation from the Muse
waited upon the L4tril Lieutenant with the resohstion,
expressing by the most enthissia,tic cheers the ardency
of their hopes, and the extacy of their delight. It is
•ulficient to observe. that the British Isnrliament, after
some hesitation sod opposition, agreed to concede part
of vise commerce of Ireland to he► children.

This r •etts. ,As it seas called, to a prot ince whose
mock-legislators were the mere creatures of its ccils-
querots. was certainly an intpurtant anric•pative at-
taintnent. first step to independence, and to an
acknoirletigetiartat of power and right, was hailed by
the people with heartfelt enthusiasm; but, like the
tirst drop of the refreshinf liquid to the traveller whose
lips are pit-died hr a meridian sun and Arabian sands,
it only serve:, v. a powerful stimulns to the eager de-
mand for entire gratitiCation; the slave, who item op-
turnt of desperation c ott.;u es a slight coneession front
his trembling master, anti prOeures it from his terror, pee-
crises at once the 'listener of his long dormant powers,
struggles on for the full attainment of his warmly che-
rished hopes, and is not content until he has burst the
ignomittions ehains that had bound him to the earth
—.anti' he has wiped oil the blackness of a curse
deeper than that of lain from his utauly forehead
—and until he has risen, regenerated from the vile-
ness-of lone-continued prostration. to the dignity nal
glory of man, unshackled awl unashamed, the intage
of an eternal and omnipotent God!
Su it was with Ireland—the attainment of a flag
commerce proved only an incentive to the universal
cry for a free Commons. Mr.lirattan, the idol, as well
as the organ of the people, was loudly called upon to
advocate the measure. Unlike Brutus, however, hr
required no rail—his time, his talents, his head, his
heart, his affections, belonged to his countrymen : and
if he could have procured for them the full posses-
sion of theia lung-lost liberty, all that he possessed,
all that he anticipated, was ready at once to he sacri-
ficed on the altar of freedom.

At this period up- wardsof bO,OOll Irishmen were
in arms, as associated volunteers, originally formed for
the purpose of 'protecting their country frominvasiott:
these bravo me■ were unanimous in their determina-
tion, before they disarmed themselves, of constitution-
ally liberating their legislature from the thraldom of
Britain. With their lousily-expressed support, and
and the general concurrence of the country, on the lath
of April, IrS2, Mr. Grattan moved those famous reso-
lutions which subsequently secured the iudependtmce
of Ireland. The speeches which he delivered on this
subject completely electrified his audiencies: tremen-
dous in their elferts, titer roused the energies of the
whole nation--with the force of an earthquake, they
changed the stagnant pool of slavery into a rapid
stream of liberty—the dense and mephitic dos* of
despotism and ignorance into the ;fight bonus of
political knowledge and public power; and *Wet
with the speed of lightning illnminating the darkest
corners and habitations of the suffering land, ia mice
metamorphosed Ireland from an insuhed,slespiestigimd
degraded 'Province, to a proud, free, and independent
nation.