Henry Grattan

For his son, seeHenry Grattan (junior).

The Right Honourable Henry Grattan PC
Portrait byMartin Archer Shee
Member of Parliament forDublin City
In office 17 December 1806 – 14 April 1820
Preceded by	Robert Shaw
Succeeded by	Thomas Ellis
Member of Parliament forMalton
In office 4 March 1805 – 17 December 1806
Preceded by	Charles Dundas
Succeeded by	Charles Wentworth
Member of Parliament forWicklow
In office 10 August 1800 – 1 January 1801
Preceded by	Daniel Grahan
Succeeded by	Office abolished
Member of Parliament forDublin City
In office 1 May 1790 – 19 July 1798
Preceded by	Travers Hartley
Succeeded by	John Claudius Beresford
Member of Parliament forCharlemont
In office 26 October 1775 – 1 May 1790
Preceded by	Francis Caulfield
Succeeded by	Richard Sheridan
Personal details
Born	(1746-07-03)3 July 1746 Fishamble Street,Dublin,Ireland
Died	4 June 1820(1820-06-04)(aged 73) Portman Square,London,England
Resting place	Westminster Abbey,London, England
Political party	Patriot(until 1801) Whig(until 1820)
Spouse(s)	Henrietta Fitzgerald (m. 1782; d. 1820)
Children	James Henry Mary Harriet
Alma mater	Trinity College Dublin
Signature

Henry Grattan(3 July 1746 – 4 June 1820)was an Irish politician and lawyer who campaigned for legislative freedom for theIrish Parliamentin the late 18th century fromBritain.He was aMember of the Irish Parliament(MP) from 1775 to 1801 and aMember of Parliament(MP) inWestminsterfrom 1805 to 1820. He has been described as a superb orator and a romantic. With generous enthusiasm he demanded that Ireland should be granted its rightful status, that of an independent nation, though he always insisted that Ireland would remain linked toGreat Britainby a common crown and by sharing a common political tradition.

Grattan opposed theAct of Union 1800that merged the Kingdoms ofIrelandandGreat Britain,but later sat as a member of theunited ParliamentinLondon.

Early life

Henry Grattan was born inFishamble Street,Dublin,and baptised in the nearby church ofSt. John the Evangelistin 1746.A member of theAnglo-Irishelite ofProtestantbackground, Grattan was the son of James Grattan MP, ofBelcamp Park,County Dublinand Mary, youngest daughter ofThomas Marlay,Attorney-General of Ireland,Chief Baron of the Irish Exchequerand finally Lord Chief Justice of theCourt of King's Benchand his wife Anne de Laune. Grattan attendedDrogheda Grammar Schooland then went on to become a distinguished student atTrinity College Dublin,where he began a lifelong study of classical literature, and was especially interested in the great orators ofantiquity.Like his friendHenry Flood,Grattan worked on his natural eloquence and oratory skills by studying models such asBolingbrokeandJunius.In the late 1760s and early 1770s, he spent some years in London, and he visited France in 1771. He attended debates in the British House of Commons regularly, and also enjoyed visiting the celebratedGrecian Coffee HouseinDevereux Court,where he metOliver Goldsmith.It was in London where he formed his lifelong friendship withRobert Day,later a judge of theCourt of King's Bench.

After studying at theMiddle Temple,London and thenKing's Inns,Dublin, he was called to theIrish Barin 1772. He never seriously practised law but was drawn to politics, influenced by Flood. He entered the Irish Parliament forCharlemontin 1775, sponsored byLord Charlemont,just as Flood had damaged his credibility by accepting office. Grattan quickly superseded Flood in the leadership of the national party, not least because his oratorical powers were unsurpassed among his contemporaries.

In the Irish Parliament

Catholics, who made up the majority of the Irish population, were completely excluded from public life at this time under thePenal Laws,in force in Ireland from 1691 until the early 1780s. The Presbyterians of Ulster had a lot more power as they were primarily of British ancestry, although most of the penal laws also affected them. Power was held by the King's Viceroy and by a small element, the Anglo-Irish families loyal to the AnglicanChurch of Irelandwho owned most of the land.

The politicians of the national party now fought for the Irish Parliament, not with the intention of liberating the Catholic majority, but to set the Irish parliament free from constitutional bondage to the BritishPrivy Council.By virtue ofPoynings' Law,a statute of KingHenry VII of England,all proposed Irish legislation had to be submitted to the Privy Council for its approval under theGreat Seal of Englandbefore being passed by the Irish Parliament. A bill so approved might be accepted or rejected, but not amended. More recent British Acts had further emphasised the complete dependence of the Irish parliament, and the appellate jurisdiction of theIrish House of Lordshad also been annulled. Moreover, the British Houses claimed and exercised the power to legislate directly for Ireland without even the nominal concurrence of the parliament in Dublin. This was the constitution whichWilliam Molyneuxand Swift had denounced, which Flood had attacked, and which Grattan was to destroy, becoming leaders of thePatriot movement.

TheIrish House of Commonsby Francis Wheatley (1780) shows Grattan (standing on right in red jacket) addressing the House of Commons

Calls for the legislative independence of Ireland at theIrish VolunteerConvention atDungannon,County Tyrone,greatly influenced thedecision of the government in 1782to make concessions. It was through ranks of Volunteers drawn up outside the Irish Parliament in Dublin that Grattan passed on 16 April 1782, amidst unparalleled popular enthusiasm, to move a declaration of the independence of the Irish parliament. A posthumous publication of Grattan's speeches which were revised by Grattan himself contains his speech from this day which became famous in Irish political history: "I found Ireland on her knees," Grattan exclaimed, "I watched over her with a paternal solicitude; I have traced her progress from injuries to arms, and from arms to liberty. Spirit of Swift, spirit of Molyneux, your genius has prevailed! Ireland is now a nation!" However, the parliamentary register for that sitting contains no record of these lines meaning Grattan most likely altered the speech in later years.After a month of negotiation, the claims of Ireland were conceded. The gratitude of his countrymen to Grattan was shown by a parliamentary grant of £100,000, which had to be reduced by half before he would accept it.

Grattan then asked for the British House of Commons to reconfirm theBritish Government's decision, and on 22 January 1783, the final Act was passed by parliament in London, including the text:

Be it enacted that the right claimed by the people of Ireland to be bound only by laws enacted by his Majesty and the Parliament of that kingdom, in all cases whatever shall be, and is hereby declared to be established and ascertained for ever, and shall at no time be questioned or questionable.

In September of the same year, Grattan became a member of thePrivy Council of Ireland.He was expelled in 1798, but was re-admitted on 9 August 1806.

In Dublin, he was a member ofDaly's Club.

Grattan's Parliament

Main article:Grattan's Parliament

See also:Irish Patriot PartyandIrish Houses of Parliament

Henry Grattan

One of the first acts of Grattan's parliament was to prove its loyalty to the Constitution by passing a vote for the support of 20,000 sailors for theRoyal Navy.Grattan was loyal to the Crown and the British connection. He was, however, anxious to achieve moderate parliamentary reform, and, unlike Flood, he favouredCatholic Emancipation.It was evident that without reform, the Irish House of Commons would not be able to make much use of its newly won legislative independence. Though now free from Westminster constitutional control, it was still subject to the influence of corruption, which the British government had wielded through the British and Irish borough owners, known as the "undertakers", or more directly through the great executive offices. Grattan's parliament had no control over the Irish executive. TheLord Lieutenant of Irelandand his chief secretary continued to be appointed by the British ministers; their tenure of office depended on the vicissitudes of English, not Irish, party politics; theroyal prerogativewas exercised in Ireland on the advice of British ministers.

The Irish House of Commons was unrepresentative of the Irish people at a time when democracy was rare inEurope.The majority were excluded, who were either Roman Catholics or Presbyterians; two-thirds of the members of the House of Commons were returned by small boroughs at the disposal of individual patrons, whose support was bought by the distribution of peerages and pensions. It was to give stability and true independence to the new constitution that Grattan pressed for reform.

Having quarrelled with Flood over simple repeal, Grattan also differed from him on the question of maintaining theVolunteer Convention.Drawing the attention of the House to "the alarming measure of drilling the lowest classes of the populace", Grattan implied that reformers had a duty to protect the prerogatives of property even as they protested its abuses. Better that those who had been "respectable" as the armed "property of the nation" should retire than run the risks of an "armed beggary". (Writing a generation later,Thomas MacNevinproposed that Grattan's judgement marked "the transition point", when "composed of a different class of men, and ruled by politicians with very different views", the rump of the Volunteer movement entered upon "a career which terminated only in the establishment of theUnited Irishmen").

Grattan also opposed the policy of protective duties in favour ofPitt's commercial propositions in 1785 for establishing Free Trade between Great Britain and Ireland. This, however, had to be abandoned owing to the hostility of the British mercantile classes. Grattan supported the government for a time after 1782, and spoke and voted for the repressive legislation that followed theWhiteboyviolence in 1785; but as the years passed and without Pitt's personal favour towards parliamentary reform resulting in legislation, he gravitated towards the opposition, agitated forcommutation of tithesin Ireland, and supported the Whigs on theregency questionin 1788.In 1790, Grattan was elected forDublin City,a seat he held until 1798.

Henry Grattan, MP, 1792

In 1792–93, he succeeded in carrying theRoman Catholic Relief Act 1793,conferring the franchise on Catholics; in 1794, in conjunction withWilliam Ponsonby,he introduced a reform bill which was even milder than Flood's bill of 1783. He was as anxious as Flood had been to retain the legislative power in the hands of men of property. Grattan had a strong conviction that while Ireland could best be governed by the Irish, democracy in Ireland would inevitably turn to plunder and anarchy. At the same time, he wished to open membership of the House of Commons to Catholic men of property, a proposal that was the corollary of the Relief Act of 1793.

The defeat of Grattan's mild proposals helped to promote more extreme opinions, which, under growing influence from France, were now making inroads in Ireland. The Catholic question had come to the fore, and when a powerful section of the Whigs joined Pitt's ministry in 1794,Lord Fitzwilliam,who shared Grattan's views, was appointed Viceroy, expectations for furtherCatholic reliefwere raised. That may have been Pitt's intention, but it is not clear how far Lord Fitzwilliam had been authorised to pledge the government. Fitzwilliam privately asked Grattan to propose a Bill for Catholic emancipation, promising British government support. It appeared, however, that the Viceroy had either misunderstood or exceeded his instructions; on 19 February 1795, Fitzwilliam was recalled. In the outburst of indignation, followed by increasing disaffection which this produced in Ireland, Grattan acted with conspicuous moderation and loyalty. This won him warm acknowledgements from a member of the British cabinet.

That cabinet, however, doubtless influenced by the wishes of the King, to whom Emancipation was anathema, was now determined to firmly resist the Catholic demands, with the result that Ireland rapidly drifted towards rebellion. Grattan warned the government in a series of masterly speeches of the lawless condition to which Ireland had been driven. He could now count on no more than 40 followers in the Irish House of Commons, and his words were unheeded. In protest, he retired from parliament in May 1797, and departed from his customary moderation by attacking the government in his 24-pageLetter to the Citizens of Dublin,in which he said it was now "absolutely necessary to reform the state" as the people no longer had confidence in parliament.

Rebellion and Union

Gillray's1798 cartoon of Henry Grattan

At this time antipathy towards theAnglican elitein Ireland was such that people of different faiths were ready to combine for common political objects. Thus the Presbyterians of the north, who were mainly republican in sentiment, combined with a section of the Roman Catholics to form theUnited Irishmenorganisation, promoting revolutionary ideas imported fromFrance;and a party prepared to welcome a French invasion soon came into existence. Thus stimulated, the increasing disaffection culminated in the1798 rebellion.The Presbyterian-Catholic rebellion in Ulster was accompanied by outbreaks elsewhere, notably inCounty Wexford.Grattan was cruelly lampooned byJames Gillrayas a rebel leader for his liberal views and his stance against a political union with theKingdom of Great Britain.

Almost immediately, the project of a legislative union between the British and Irish parliaments, which had been from time to time discussed since the beginning of the 18th century, was taken up in earnest by Pitt's government. Grattan fiercely denounced the scheme.

The constitution of Grattan's parliament offered no security, as the differences over the regency question had made evident that in matters of imperial interest the policy of the Irish parliament and that ofGreat Britainwould be in agreement. At a moment when Britain was engaged in a life-and-death struggle with France, it was impossible for the ministry to ignore the danger, recently emphasised by the fact that the independent constitution of 1782 offered no safeguard against armed revolt. Sectarian violence during the rebellion put an end to the growing reconciliation between Roman Catholics and Presbyterians, and the island divided anew into two hostile factions.

It was from the Anglicanestablished church,and particularly from theOrangemen,that the bitterest opposition to the union proceeded. The proposal found support among the Roman Catholic clergy and especially the bishops, while in no part of Ireland was it received with more favour than in the city ofCork.This attitude of the Catholics was caused by Pitt's encouragement of the expectation thatCatholic emancipation,the commutation of tithes, and the endowment of the Catholic priesthood, would accompany or quickly follow the passing of the measure.

Henry Grattan

When in 1799, the government brought forward its bill it was defeated in the Irish House of Commons. Grattan was still in retirement. His popularity had declined, and the fact that his proposals for parliamentary reform and Catholic emancipation had become the watchwords of the United Irishmen had brought him the bitter hostility of the governing classes. He was dismissed from the Privy Council; his portrait was removed from the hall ofTrinity College;the Merchant Guild of Dublin struck his name off their rolls. The threatened destruction of the constitution of 1782 quickly restored its author to his former place in the affections of the Irish people. The parliamentary recess had been employed by the government in securing by lavish corruption a majority in favour of their policy. On 15 January 1800, the Irish Parliament met for its last session; on the same day Grattan secured by purchase a seat forWicklow;and at a late hour, while the debate was proceeding, he appeared to take his seat, and was cheered from the galleries. Grattan's strength gave way when he rose to speak, and he obtained leave to address the House sitting. Nevertheless, his speech was a superb effort of oratory; for more than two hours he kept them spellbound. After prolonged debates Grattan, on 26 May, spoke finally against the committal of the bill, ending with an impassionedperorationin which he declared, "I will remain anchored here with fidelity to the fortunes of my country, faithful to her freedom, faithful to her fall." These were the last words spoken by Grattan in the Irish Parliament.

The bill establishing the union was carried through its final stages by substantial majorities. One of Grattan's main grounds of opposition to the union had been his dread of seeing the political leadership in Ireland pass out of the hands of the landed gentry; and he prophesied that the time would come when Ireland would send to the united parliament a hundred of the greatest rascals in the kingdom. Like Flood before him, Grattan had no leaning towards democracy; and he anticipated that by the removal of the centre of political interest from Ireland the evil of absenteeism would be intensified.

In the Parliament of The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland

For the next five years, Grattan took no active part in public affairs; it was not again until 1805, that he became a Member of theParliament of the United KingdomforMalton.He modestly took his seat on one of the back benches, untilFoxbrought him forward, exclaiming, "This is no place for the IrishDemosthenes!"His first speech was on the Catholic question and all agreed with the description of his speech by theAnnual Registeras one of the most brilliant and eloquent ever made within the walls of parliament. When Fox andWilliam Grenvillecame into power in 1806 Grattan, who sat at this time forDublin City,was offered, but refused to accept, an office in the government. In the following year, he showed the strength of his judgment and character by supporting, in spite of consequent unpopularity in Ireland, a measure for increasing the powers of the executive to deal with Irish disorder. Roman Catholic emancipation, which he continued to advocate with unflagging energy, though now advanced in age, became complicated after 1808 by the question whether aveto on the appointment of Roman Catholic bishopsshould rest with the crown.

Grattan supported the veto, but a more radical Catholic party was now arising in Ireland under the leadership ofDaniel O'Connell,and Grattan's influence gradually declined. He seldom spoke inParliamentafter 1810, the most notable exception being in 1815, when he separated himself from theWhigsand supported the final struggle againstNapoléon.His last speech of all, in 1819, contained a passage referring to the Union he had so passionately resisted, which exhibits the statesmanship, and at the same time the equable quality, of Grattan's character. His sentiments with regard to the policy of the Union remained, he said, unchanged; but "the marriage, having taken place, it is now the duty, as it ought to be the inclination, of every individual to render it as fruitful, as profitable and as advantageous as possible."

Death and legacy

The bust of Henry Grattan inMerrion Square,Dublin

In the following summer, after crossing from Ireland to Britain when in poor health to bring forward theIrish questiononce more, he became seriously ill. On his deathbed he spoke generously ofCastlereagh,and with a warm eulogy of his former rival, Flood. He died at his home in Portman Square on 4 June 1820,and was buried inWestminster Abbeyclose to the tombs of Pitt and Fox.His statue is in St Stephen's Hall in thePalace of Westminster.

Sydney Smithsaid of Grattan soon after his death: "No government ever dismayed him. The world could not bribe him. He thought only of Ireland; lived for no other object; dedicated to her his beautiful fancy, his elegant wit, his manly courage, and all the splendour of his astonishing eloquence."

Grattan Bridgecrossing theriver Liffeybetween Parliament Street on the south side of Dublin and Capel Street on the north side is named in his honour. The building housing the faculty of Law and Government atDublin City Universityhas also been named the Henry Grattan Building in his honour.

Grattan Square Dungarvan, County Waterford. The establishment of the Dungarvan Town Commissioners in 1855 was the catalyst for the renaming of many of Dungarvan Streets.Irish Nationalists and Catholics were finally getting a say in how they were governed and they set about renaming streets to reflect their nationalist sensibilities. Despite having no connection to Dungarvan that we know of, as one of the leading constitutional nationalists of his era Henry Grattan was an obvious choice when the Town Commissioners were looking for a new name.Grattan Square was constructed between 1806 and 1826 at the instigation of the Duke of Devonshire. The architecture of the square has changed little to this day.

Family

Grattan's father was James Grattan (d. 1766), aRecorderand then MP forDublin City,who married a daughter of Thomas Marlay, Mary.

Grattan married Henrietta Fitzgerald in 1782, the daughter of Nicholas Fitzgerald ofCounty Mayo(d. 1761), a son ofThomas FitzGeraldofTurlough, County Mayoand Elizabeth Browne. Henrietta's mother Margaret was the daughter of James Stephenson and Ann Price. Grattan's in-laws' history gave him a sensitivity to former Irish political difficulties, as Henrietta'sCavaliergreat-grandfather John Fitzgerald was transplanted fromGorteens CastleinCounty Kilkennyto Mayo in 1653 under theCromwellian Settlement,and his son Thomas felt it necessary to conform to theChurch of Irelandin 1717.

The Grattans had two sons and two daughters. The sons wereJames Grattanof Tinnehinch, MP forCounty Wicklow,andHenry Grattan (junior)of Moyrath, MP forDublin Cityand then forCounty Meath.His daughter Mary Anne married first John Blachford (1771‐1832), and secondlyThomas Dalzell, 7th Earl of Carnwath,dying in 1853. Harriet (d.1865) married the Revd Wake of Courteenhall.

Bibliography

Grattan statue beside the old Irish Parliament,College Green,Dublin

• Gwynn, Stephen.Henry Grattan and his times(Greenwood Press, 1971)
• Kelly J.Henry Grattan(1993) Dundalgan Press
• Lecky, William Edward Hartpole.History of Ireland in the Eighteenth Century(6 vol. 1892)
  • vol 2, 1760–1789
  • vol 3, 1790–96
  • vol 4, 1796–98
  • vol 5, 1798–1801
  • vol 6, international affairs of 1790s
• Lee, J. "Grattan's Parliament'." in Brian Farrell, ed.,The Irish Parliamentary Tradition(Dublin, 1973) pp: 149+
• McDowell, R. B.(2001).Grattan A Life.Lilliput Press.ISBN1-901866-72-6.
• McHugh, Roger Joseph.Henry Grattan(Talbot Press, 1936).
• Mansergh D.Grattan's failure Parliamentary Opposition and the People in Ireland(2005 Irish Academic Press);Review of Grattan's Failure
• O'Brien, Gerard. "The Grattan Mystique."Eighteenth-Century Ireland/Iris an dá chultúr(1986): 177–194.in JSTOR

Primary sources

• Grattan, Henry, ed.The Speeches of the Right Honourable Henry Grattan: In the Irish, and in the Imperial Parliament(1822)online
  • Grattan's Speeches(ed by H. Grattan, junr., 1822);
• Henry Grattan jnr.Memoirs of the Life and Times of the Right Hon. H. GrattanVol. 1Vol.2(5 vols., London, 1839–1846);

Other sources

• This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain:McNeill, Ronald John(1911). "Grattan, Henry".InChisholm, Hugh(ed.).Encyclopædia Britannica.Vol. 12 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 379–381.

External links

• Hansard1803–2005:contributions in Parliament by Henry Grattan
• Chapter on Henry Grattanin The Story of Ireland, byEmily Lawless,1896
• 1782 Caricature of Henry Grattan by James Gillray