Democratic messenger. [volume] (Snow Hill, Md.) 1869-1973, 1882-06-10
The Glory Of Grattan.
DREAM OF GREAT REPUBLIC, WITH
ENGLAND AND IRELAND AS PARTS.

The Hon. Richard O'Gormon deliv-
cred lecture in New York upon "Grat-
tan and the Irish Volunteer of 1882. -
He said:-"When the first half of the
eighteenth century had come to an en- d
the condition of Ireland was the most
unreasonable, deplorable and scandalous
in our civilized world. The population
was about 3, 900, 900, of whom two thirds
we're of the old Irish race, and adhered
TO the Catholic faith. These were not
recognized as citizens, or even as sub
jeets of the British Crown, or as form
ing any part of the Irish nation. They
were there and allowed to exist, be-
cause there seemed to be no feasible
plan of getting rid of them short of
wholesale massacre, and even that idea
had sometimes occurred TO the more
direct and thorough of British states
men as the only solution of the diff
Guilty"
The speaker reviewed the odious
penal laws, aud pictured the miserable
condition of ireland at that time. There
were bright spots, however. priests
coming into Ireland were not always
caught and hanged. Some of them
graduates, perhaps, of Douai or Sala-
manca) were somehow smuggled into
Ireland in disguise and said mass in
private, kept school by stealth in lone
ly glens where the plover made its
haunt, and taught little barefooted
urchins Homer and Virgil and the hu-
manlties, at the risk of being summarily
hanged if caught.
About that time Ireland heard of
some slight rnpleasantness among his
Majesty's faithful subjects in America.
1t was all about stamps and tea. The
British Government was short of funds,
and passed law imposing taxes on
America. The people i'll America were
loyal, but they declined to pay taxes.
They were not represented in Parlia-
ment. A turbulent society in New York
called the Liberty Boys refused to
allow the stamps to be put ashore, and
even suggested unpleasant consequences
to any who should in any manner med
die with the stamps. In Boston things
got badly mixed on the tea question.
The tax was only three pence ON
pound, but Boston people broke open
the tea-340 boxes in all-and spilled it
into the sea. Lexington and Bunker
Hill followed. The news struck ireland
like an electric shock. She also was
taxed without representation. Who
would take up her quarrel Who
would speak out her thought ? The man
was III Ireland. His name was Henry
Grattan.
"He was of English race, of the
Church of England, lawyer, and son
of the Recorder OF Dublin, and about 80
years old when he was returned to the
Irish Parliament for the borough of
Chsrlemont. He had spent some time
III London in close friendship with Ed
mund Burke. The imperial intellect of
Burke glasped all the varied interests of
Great Britain all over the earth. Henry
Grattan confined and intensified his
thoughts and energies on Ireland alone,
and to serve her was the one thought
and care and purpose and hope and am
bition of his life. His problem was to
emancipate the Irish Parliament and to
create military organization in Ireland
TO protect that Parliament and to res
cue Irish trade, commerce, and manu-
factures. Thanks to the trouble in
America, his purpose was in part ac-
complished.
"Grattan lived for many years life
of dignity and honor. His grave is in
Westminster Abbey. But the proudest
moment OF all his life was that when he
saw the purpose of his youth accom-
plished, and the country that he loved
take her place among the nations, re-
deemed, ,regenerated, and disenthralled.