The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1907-08-31
If He Had Stuck to His Guns in 1877 thu
Act of Union Would in All Probability
Never Have Carried.
The Parliamentary Secession of That Year,
Striking Object Lesson in Irish
Political History.

Henry Grattan, writing in the even
ing Of his days and taking a retrospect
of a long and noble life, says. with ref
erence to his own career: There Is
no man who in a long public life will
not be guilty Of some political errors"
says Swift MacNeil writing for the
Dublin Freeman.
One public step taken by Grattan.
when reviewed In the calm light OF his
tory, must be regarded as the cardinal
mistake of his life--his secession from
Parliament and retirement from the
Irish House of Commons. In May. 1897.
which was contemporaneous with the
secession of Fox from the English Par
lament. and was evidently part and
parcel Of preconcerted arrangement.
Fox followed the defeat by 256, as
against 91 of Greys motion for Reform
in the English Parliament, and Grattan
followed the defeat by 17s, as against
80 of sPonyonby's measure for Reform
in the Irish Parliament by secession
from Parliamentary life and a retire
ment from the political arena till the
were ended. From 1881 till the
close of the session of 1897 there
are excellent reports Of the de-
bates in the Irish Parliament. and
almost in the last page of the last
volume of these reports Is Grattan's
speech in favor of Parliamentary Re-
form, which he concluded thus-the
last words i'll the speech, which bears
the marks of a careful personal re-
vision. being printed in capitals. Grat-
tan. who spoke with great bitterness,
stated the case for reform, which was
unanswerable, urged that all disabli-
ties on account of religion be for ever
abolished, and the admission OF Catho-
lies to the Legislature and great offices
of state pressed for: the abolition of
a system under which. in a Parliament
of 300 members, more than 200 were
returned to venal and close horoughs.
while of all the towns and cities of
Ireland not more than twelve were free,
the Minister himself being the repre-
sentative of the Cabinet Of another
country having a permanent and over
whelmingly ascendancy In the Parlia-
ment of Ireland. He then said: "We
have offered you our measure. You
will reject it. We deprecate yours
You will persevere. Having no hopes
left to persuade or dissuade. and hav-
ing discharged our duty. we shall
trouble you no more. and after this
day shall not attend the House Of Com
sion on this secession. 1t has been
urged on the one hand that Grattan and
Curran and Lord Henry FITZGERALD,
who still appealed to the Constitution
and acknowledged the existence and
authority Of British Government in
Ireland, were wrong to abandon the
legal and constitutional field. On the
other hand, 1t has been urged that.
having abandoned that. the only manly
and rational course left to them was to
join the United Irishmen. as OConnor
and Lord Edward FitzGerald had al
ready done. If, however, they had
Joined the United Irish Movement they
would probably have found themselves
Immediately in Newgate, and besides
they were not Republicans and alb
horred French revolutionary principles.
When Wolfe Tone, then in exile, heard
of the secession his observation in his
Journal is: Il see those illustrious
patriots are at last forced to bolt out
OF the House Of Commons and join the
people"
Grattan has placed on record his rea-
sons for secession fom Parliament,
which, when stated. demonstrate that
he would have denounced as madness
project of secession from Parliament
Just at a time when measure Of far
irsaching importance embodying the