The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1853-03-08
LocAL MArrHRs.

syyopus OF 4 LECTURE DELIVERED ON FsfDAr
EVENING Last, AT THE AFRICAN CHuncH, N
THcnAs r. MEAGHxa, on "HENnr GaArrAN ANn
THE IRISH VoLuNrRERs.n-The lecturer COM
menced by rsmarkine. that 1t was not necessary
for him to say much concerning the birth OF Henry
Grattan. He was no, one of the petty princes Of
earth, whose nobility depended upon the cradle
In which he had been rocked, or whose influence
among men, position and history depended upon
the authenticity of parchment which made over to
him an old castle stud of horses or suit Of live
ry-but true king, aIegitimate ruler whose title
to rule In the world was simple and unquestonable
because /. emanated from his own nature; and wne
spoke of no ancestor but the proud and glorious
land that bore him, aud Of no crest but the Tag The
guarded. Such man was Henry Grattan, one Of
the wor,hiest branches of the old stock, deeply
rooted In the old soil that had stood many hard
shock, and was still pregnant with profuss and
living vitaity-though now, indeed, it stood in
desoafion upon Its own native hill, exposed to the
blight that withered aud the blast that pro strates
ii there was any virtue in what was called blood,
though it was not necessary to refer to it, he could
state that In the parentage OF Henry Grattan they
had ample guarantees of that patriotism, courage
ana generosity, which sustained him through his
extraordinary career. At the time of his birth. in
July, TAG, bis father Recorder of the city of
Dublin and from 1861 to 1865, he sat In the Irish
Parla.-ent as representative of that city. He
was man of strong capacities of MINDFUL. his
wife surpassed him. She was the daughter of sir
Thomas Nor ley, who spTang from Norman stock
From his earliest years. Henry Grattan did not lack
spirit, and at school in Great sheaf and Abbey
streets, he resented indgnities in the most summa
ry and dign!fed manner, and his schoolmates fully
testified to this fact. He exhibited marked indica
tons OF Intellect and spirit at thisschool Grattans
spirit seemed to invite defiance of danger. And it
was well for him, when we considered the work
he had to do, and the period in which he lived that
his courage was of so active description, for it
was period when ones reputation only lay in be.
ing practised shot, and every one fought just to
comfort his neighbor. daughter and applause)
In l165 Henr5 Grattan entered upon the books
OF the Middle Temple, and he came to London just
as all Irish law students come, for the purpose of
eating their way through succession Of dinners to
the bar, or Of doing without any at all. Laughter)
During his stey in London, Gratsan spent most of
his time either at the theatre or in the galleries of
ately fond of music and acting. It was no wonder
then that he attracted to the theatre, with his
sensitive nature go keeny alive to the finer impress
sions Of diction and action-when Garrick and Mos.
sop, and Mclean and Quin, were upon the stage
1t was wonder that he was found liatening in the
galleries of the Houses of Parliament, when such
men as Lord Chatham and Edmund Burke there
held forth.
With such temptations to allure him from the
tones and volumes of law, it was not strange that
he acquired distaste for the legal profession,
and sought in other pursuits wider range and q
higher region in whic to exercise the great facul
ties of which he sensible he was the possessor
The profession did not suit his impusive aud OPEN
hearted nature. The business of the law ga We him
too narrow sphere for the development of his en-
ergies-is was dome toe near for the fight of his
great conceptions. His client must be nation
her cause the only Cause he would pead-the char
ter OF her independence the only brief from which
he would speak-his only compensation the glory
which the recognition of the cause or charter of his
client would eternally confer. {Great applause)
This the thought, this the ambition that filed his
soul as with the light OF holy vision, that gave to
his whole being. This the thoush hi that overspread
his mind with deep tinge of mountaineering
shadow Of powerful solemnity that pervaded all
the great actions of his life, and impaired to him
the tone Of immortality even before transition to
another world. Hence it was that he grew SO ab
sent minded solitary and reflective in his habits and
feelings and actions Hence came his deep refec
tons ano wanderings in Windsor Park through
silent forests aud by the murmuriug streams. And
he thought OF his country, of her wrongs in the
past and present, of what she was and what she
might be, until the glory of the expected vision
descended upon Kim and covered him with its
beauty. And in these periods of abstraction he
mis ht be seen by the side of the Liey and in deep
glens and valleys calling upon his countrymen in
the most imprisoned strains and invoking to Ii.
berry, all unconscious Of the things around him
These reyeres often led him into strange positions
which no one laughed at more pleasantly than him
self. short time after, when seated in thu Senate
house of Ireland, and while endeavoring to resolve
the dreams of his early life, he was styled mad
man by Edmund Burke, who, of Irish birth, made
over his labor, genius and glory to country not
his, and by doing impaired his celebrity aad for
feited the sorrows that would have soothed his
dying hours-that would have shone out through
tears and have been heard in prayers over his
grave.
The lecturer then recited passage from one Of
Grattan's speeches, wherein he charges upon Ger
tain Irish representatives that they were the rep
resentatives of empire and of their salaries-clear
ly exhibiting his ardent patriotism and longing de-
sire to see Ireland free. This was the language OF
the so called misunderstanding servity to kingly
power and declaring that Ireland could be free
Henry Grattan took his seat D.the Irish Parliament
on the same day that George Washington took
command of the American army, under the old
elm tree, on the Cambridge road (Great applause,
His first vote was gainst the conscription of 40ot
troops with which the English Minister proposed
to cut the throats of Americans fighting for thei
freedom, and for the only hope of Ireland. 1t wal
| favorable moment for the project which he haC
| in view, when Grattan entered the House OF Com
mons. England had her hands, at that time, ful O
business. Nearly all of the available troops in Ire
| land had been Withdrawn and sent to Boston. The
| lovaI peope in Ireland grew alarmed, and il
striking fact that it was only the loyal people il
Ireland who ever grew alsr med. daughter ant
| a,ulause) Il was said that Ireland was at the mer
| DF