thesis and epigram were too frequently resorted to; but the impression produced on me, as a whole, by this great speaker in his decline was, that in boldness of thought, in grandeur and gorgeousness of language, in intensity of feeling and imagination, he was unequalled. The private life of Grattan was as pure as his public life. His affections centred in his family; and, after country and family, his dominant passions were literature and the pleasures of a country life. On one of the occasions in which I was in his company, he recited long passages from Cowley, Dryden, and Pope-among others the " Elegy on the Death of an Unfortunate Lady;" and I was amazed not more at his powers of memory than at his powers of elocution. The late Mr. Justice Day informed me that Grattan could repeat all the finest passages in Dryden and Pope without missing a line. Day, and Day's friend Lord Plunket, always used the word "Sir," in speaking to Mr. Grattan ; and Mr. Commissioner Burrows, an eminent member of the Irish Bar, as well as Mr. Serjeant Good, Mr. Wallace, and Mr. John Burne, eminent King's Counsel, followed this example. In mentioning this to the Knight of Kerry, he said Mr. Peel, when Secretary for Ireland, treated Mr. Grattan with as respectful a deference. In truth, in private life Grattan was universally respected and beloved. "I never knew a man," said Wilberforce, "whose patriotism and love for his country seemed so completely to extinguish all private interests, and to induce him to look invariably and exclusively to the public good." His life was a great moral lesson, and death has neither diminished nor tarnished his renown. He was a man of undaunted and fearless courage, at a time, and in a country, when not merely moral but physical courage were indispensable. He fought and wounded Corry, the Irish Chancellor of the Exchequer, and he would have fought Flood, his rival, had not the House of Commons interpozed. When entering his seventythird year, an Irish mob assailed him on the day of his being chaired through Dublin, after his return in 1818. One of the miscreants flung at the old statesman a stone, which cut open his cheek under the eye. While still bleeding and suffering from pain, he jumped from the chair, and, seizing the stone, which had fallen at his feet, flung it with failing strength in the direction from which it came. From the place where he received this wound he was carried to one of his committee-rooms in the neighbourhood, and from the balcony of the drawing-room he imputed the injury and insult, of which he had. been the victim, to chance, not design. On the accession of George IV. in 1820, Grattan proceeded to London to present the Roman Catholic petition; but the exertion, though he travelled by easy stages, and by canal, was too much for him, and he died, shortly after his arrival, on the 4th June, 1820. At the request of the foremost men of the nation, he was buried in Westminster Abbey, two of the Royal Dukes being pall-bearers. It might truly be said"Ne'er to these chambers where the mighty rest, Since their foundation, came a nobler guest; Grattan's second son, and his biographer, succeeded him in the representation of the city of Dublin; and his eldest son sat for many years as one of the members for Wicklow County; but to neither of these gentlemen, now passed away, did the genius or talents of their illustrious father descend. Fourteen of Grattan's great speeches were on the Roman Catholic question, four were on the declaration of the rights of Ireland, two were on Tithes, and four or five were speeches against the Union. He spoke in the English House of Commons on June 23rd, 1815, on the Corn Laws, and on May 25th of the same year on the downfall of Bonaparte. Here is an extract from this speech : "I agree with my honourable friends in thinking that we ought not to impose a Government upon France. I agree with them in de precating the evil of war, but I deprecate still more the double evil of a peace without securities, and a war without allies. Sir, I wish it was a question between peace and war; but, unfortunately for the country, very painfully to us, and most injuriously to all ranks of men, peace is not in our option; and the real question is, whether we shall go to war when our allies are assembled, or fight the battle when those allies shall be dissipated? Sir, the French Government is war; it is a stratocracy, elective, aggressive, and predatory; her armies live to fight, and fight to live; their constitution is essentially war, and the object of that war the conquest of Europe. What such a person as Bonaparte, at the head of such a constitution, will do, you may judge by what he has done. And first he took possession of the greater part of Europe; he made his son king of Rome; he made his son-in-law viceroy of Italy; he made his brother king of Holland; he made his brother-in-law king of Naples; he imprisoned the king of Spain; he banished the Regent of Portugal; and formed his plan to take possession of the Crown of England. England had checked his designs; her trident had stirred up his empire from its foundation; he complained of her tyranny at sea: but it was her power at sea which arrested his tyranny on land-the navy of England saved Europe. Knowing this, he knew the conquest of England became necessary for the accomplishment of the conquest of Europe, and the destruction of her marine necessary for the conquest of England. Accordingly, besides raising an army of 60,000 men for the invasion of England, he applied himself to the destruction of her commerce, the foundation of her naval power. In pursuit of this object, for his plan of Western empire, he conceived, and in part executed, the design of consigning to plunder and destruction the vast regions of Russia. He quits the genial clime of the temperate zone; he bursts through the narrow limits of an immense empire; he abandons comfort and security, and he hurries to the pole, to hazard them all, and with them the companions of his victories, and with them the fame and fruits of his crimes and his talents, on speculation of leaving in Europe, throughout the whole of its extent, no one free or independent nation. To oppose this huge conception of mischief and despotism, the great potentate of the North, from his gloomy recesses, advances to defend himself against the voracity of ambition amid the sterility of his empire. Ambition is omnivorous-it feasts on famine, and sheds tons of blood, that it may starve on ice, in order to commit robbery or desolation. The Power of the North, I say, joins another prince whom Bonaparte had deprived of almost the whole of his authority-the king of Prussia, and then another potentate, whom Bonaparte had deprived of the principal part of his dominions-the emperor of Austria. These three Powers, physical causes, final justice, the influence of your victories in Spain and Portu gal, and the spirit given to Europe by the achievements and renown of your great commander, together with the precipitation of his own ambition, combine to accomplish his destruction. Bonaparte is conquered. He who said, 'I will be like the Most High,' he who smote the nations with a continual stroke, this short-lived Son of the Morning, Lucifer, falls, and the earth is at rest; the phantom of royalty passes on to nothing, and the three kings to the gates of Paris; there they stand, the late victims of his ambition, and now the disposers of his destiny and the masters of his empire. Without provocation he had gone to their countries with fire and sword; with the greatest provocation they came to his country with life and liberty. They do an act unparalleled in the annals of history, such as nor envy, nor time, nor malice, nor prejudice, nor ingratitude can efface; they give to his subjects liberty, and to himself life and royalty. This is greater than conquest." A contemporary and friend of Grattan during his long life, though eighteen years his junior, was William Conyngham Plunket, afterwards Lord Plunket. This gentleman, though the son of a poor Presbyterian minister in the north of Ireland, claimed descent from the same stock as the Louths and Fingalls. The ministers of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland even now lead a hard and rugged life. Their stipends are small, their lives are simple, their ministrations are laborious, their course of life is frugal. One hundred and forty years ago they were in a worse position than they are now. They subsisted altogether on the voluntary offerings of their flocks, which were not then supplemented by the "Regium Donum." For the most part, though better born and better educated than the Roman Catholic priests, they were but a couple of degrees higher in the social scale. But they possessed more self-control and discretion. Plunket's father was said to have been a man superior to his fellows. He was sagacious and solid-headed, a man not merely book-learned, but keen-witted and worldly-wise. Strongly tinged with the intrepid and inquiring spirit of his creed, he was a Liberal in politics, and an Arian in religion. But so staid was his character, so respectable and repected was he, that he was called from Monaghan to the care of the church of Enniskillen, the capital town of the county Fermanagh. There he married Mary, the sister of Redmond Conyngham, Esq. somewhere at the close of 1748; and in 1750 a son was born to him in the person of Patrick Plunket, the elder brother of William, afterwards one of the most eminent physicians in the city of Dublin. Fourteen years afterwards, namely, in 1764, while his father was still a minister in Fermanagh, William Conyngham Plunket was born in that county. Four years after this his father removed to the metropolis, having been selected by the elders to fill the place of minister to the Socinian congregation in Strand Street. Some of the ablest men in Dublin-as Sampson, the barrister, Drs. Tennant and Drennan-and some of the most intelligent and respected merchants-Travers Hartley, who represented Dublin in Parliament, Alexander Jaffray, the Graysons, the Wilkinsons, the Wilsons, the Stewarts, the Lunells, the Maquays-belonged to this congregation, and were habitual attendants at it; as also were Sir Archibald Acheson, of Markethill, Armagh, Colonel Sharman, the ancestor of Sharman Crawford, Sir Capel Molyneux, the descendant of the author of "Molyneux's Case of Ireland," and Archibald Hamilton Rowan, afterwards implicated in the Rebellion of 1798. With many of these gentlemen the father of William Conyngham Plunket was intimate, and he also associated with the Liberal politicians and chief men of letters in Dublin. For ten years he gave eminent satisfaction to his hearers, winning daily upon their affection and regard. But in 1778, while still comparatively a young man, he died, leaving a widow and young family. He lived, however, long enough to see his eldest son Patrick established as a rising physician, with every prospect of attaining to the very summit of his profession. As he had died not merely without wealth, but in unprosperous circumstances, the Unitarian congregation of Strand-street, very much to their credit, subscribed a sum of 500l. for the educaNo. 63.-VOL. XI. tion of the younger children of the family. The great advocate and statesIman that was to be was then in his fourteenth year. He was at once sent to a classical school to complete the education well commenced by his father; and a provision was made for his mother, for whom a residence was purchased in Jervis-street, near the Strandstreet meeting-house. Here she was established as a tea-dealer, being patronized by the elders and congregation of her late husband. In 1779, Plunket, with his friend and fellow-townsman Magee (the son of a shopkeeper of Enniskillen-some say of a strolling player-and afterwards Archbishop of Dublin), stood for a sizarship at the University of Dublin. They failed in attaining what they desired, and probably deserved, and entered as pensioners. From the period of their entrance into the Irish University, both Plunket and Magee, who were fast friends and companions, exhibited great talents. talents. Plunket obtained a scholarship with ease, and highly distinguished himself as a member of the Historical Society. The ablest undergraduates of the University were all members of this society, and all of them had the liberty of entering the Irish House of Commons, as the Westminster scholars had and have that of entering the Commons House in London. It was the privilege of Plunket, as a student of Trinity, to have heard Henry Burgh, Flood, Yelverton, Grattan, and Duquery. Charmed by the silvery voice, the inimitable manner, the simple dignity of Burgh; swayed by the powerful diction and luxuriant fancy of Yelverton; subdued by the "resistless powers," as he himself called them, "that waited on the majesty of Grattan's genius "-Plunket seems nevertheless to have modelled himself more on Flood than on any orator that appeared during his early youth. Curran, who idolized Grattan, used to say that Flood was immeasurably the greatest man of his time in Ireland; and this seems also to have been the opinion of Plunket, who admired, re spected, and loved Grattan as much as it was in his nature to love any man. It is not wonderful that one so grave and austere in manner, and so logical in mind as Plunket, should have been greatly pleased with Flood. But he was no servile imitator of that distinguished speaker and statesman, and never was it remarked at the Historical Society that Plunket imitated any one. Without much apparent effort, he bore off the bell in the debates of his juvenile contemporaries. Among these were some very able men indeed. There was Peter Burrowes, afterwards an eminent King's Counsel, and subsequently Commissioner of Insolvents; there, was John Sealy Townsend, afterwards a Master in Chancery; there was Luke Fox, afterwards a Judge of the Court of Common Pleas; there were John Whitley Stokes (the father of the present eminent physician of that name), William Magee, afterwards Archbishop of Dublin, Standish O'Grady, afterwards Chief Baron of the Exchequer, Radcliff, afterwards Judge of the Prerogative Court, and Quin, subsequently an eminent King's Counsel and leader of the Munster Circuit. Of all these able men it was an acknowledged fact that Plunket was the superior. In 1784, when about twenty, Plunket came over to London, and entered himself at Lincoln's Inn. His intimate friends and companions, during his sojourn in London, were Mr. Joseph Higginson, and Mr. Michael Nolan, afterwards a King's Counsel at the English Bar. Mr. Higginson had been called to the Irish Bar in 1779; but, having taken a decided part during the Volunteer movement, he was unfavourably looked on by the authorities. The result was that he had come to England, and entered the commercial house of Bell and Co., Aldersgate-street. The firm was ultimately known as that of Bell, Higginson, and Co., China and East and West India merchants. Mr. Michael Nolan, Plunket's other friend, had been his contemporary in the University of Dublin. He was a man of sound judgment, and considerable attainments as a scholar and a lawyer. Having a brother an attorney in Dublin, he had purposed being called to the Irish Bar, but he ultimately changed his views, and was called to the English Bar, at which he practised with success. He was the author of a well-known book, the "Justice of the Peace," published 1791-1793, and also of one on the "Poor Laws," which went through many editions. He was subsequently one of the counsel for Mr. Plunket, when that gentleman brought an action for libel against the editor of "Cobbett's Register," in 1804. That he was a man of great learning in his profession is evident from his elaborate argument in showing cause against the rule for a new trial in the case of Governor Picton.1 Nolan and Plunket read law and history together when students at Lincoln's Inn, and the intimacy thus early created subsisted till the period of Nolan's death in 1836. Plunket was called to the Irish Bar in 1787. Among the leading counsel of that day were John Fitzgibbon, then Attorney-General, and afterwards Lord Chancellor ; Arthur Wolfe, afterwards Lord Kilwarden, and_Chief Justice; Fletcher, afterwards a Justice of the Common Pleas ; Beresford, Burton, Duquery; William Downes, afterwards Chief Justice of the King's Bench; Robert Day, the friend and contemporary of Grattan, and afterwards one of the Justices of the King's Bench; Fox, afterwards a Justice of the Common Pleas; Smith, afterwards Master of the Rolls; and Fitzgerald, afterwards Prime Serjeant. Curran, without much business at this period, had already distinguished himself as a great advocate; and Saurin, afterwards for so long a period Attorney-General, and who was seven years Plunket's senior at the Bar, was fast rising into practice. Without many friends, and without any connexion with attorneys, Plunket had up-hill work before him. He is said, I know not how truly, to have received half-guinea fees at Trim, where the North-west Circuit then commenced. But there was nothing discreditable in Half-guinea fees for justifying this. 1 State Trials, vol. xxx. p. 733. bail, and putting counsel's hand to paper, prevailed in England for more than five-and-forty years after the period of Plunket's call. Be this as it may, Plunket had to contend, in his earlier days, with such men as Duquery, Chatterton, Arthur Moore, Bushe, and M. Ball (afterwards Serjeant Ball), some of them much his seniors, some of them a little his juniors, but all of them men of ability. It is said by Mr. J. C. Hoey, who has written a memoir of Lord Plunket, that he was so poor that he had to sell his gold medal (he means, of course, the gold medal obtained at Trinity College, Dublin) to go his first circuit. I mention this statement to express my disbelief in its accuracy. There were twenty members of his father's congregation in Strand-street, ready and willing to offer young Plunket the means to go the circuit if he needed it; irrespectively of which there was his brother, Dr. Patrick Plunket, a physician fast rising into the highest eminence when Plunket was called, to lend him any aid required. Seventy-six years ago circuits were in Ireland travelled much more cheaply than now. A pint of good wine was then had for a shilling or fifteenpence; and bread, meat, fish, and fowl, were all sold at a low figure. But, even though prices had been double what they were in 1787, there is reason to think that Plunket could have easily found the means to travel the Northwestern Irish circuit. In his early career at the Bar, Plunket had lodgings in the house of a Roman Catholic trader, the junior partner in the firm of Macauley and Hughes, of George's Quay. These gentlemen were ship-agents, and owners of some of the principal sailing packets then and subsequently plying between Dublin and Holyhead, Dublin and Parkgate, and Dublin and Liverpool. The head of the firm was a staunch Protestant and Orangeman, while the junior partner, Mr. Michael Hughes, was a devout Roman Catholic. It was with this latter gentleman that Plunket lodged, and a friendship appears to have sprung up between the two, which continued during their respective lives. The rise of many celebrated men at the Bar is truly said to be owing to the "accident of an accident." It is related by Mr. O'Donoghue, an Irish barrister, that young Plunket was acquainted with the conducting clerk of an eminent firm of attorneys, who, assured of the abilities of his young friend, gave him instruetions to draw a heavy bill in Equity. The bill having been despatched in a most masterly manner, the head of the house was so struck with it that he sought the acquaintance of the junior, invited him to his house, sent to him briefs and pleadings, and consulted him in most of the cases in course of progress in his office. This solicitor was named M'Causland. He was a man in large and lucrative practice, and had held the place of examiner to Baron Hamilton since 1781. M'Causland, who had been. member for Donegal county, had an only daughter, and this lady Plunket married in 1791, when he was twentyseven years old, and had been four years at the bar. While a junior at the Bar Plunket continued his intimacy with Magee, who attained a fellowship, and subsequently became Archbishop of Dublin; with Burrowes, who was rising into eminence on his circuit; with Bushe, six years his junior; and with a more remarkable man in one sense than any of themTheobald Wolfe Tone. Tone and Plunket were of the same age, and entered the University of Dublin nearly at the same period. From his earliest days Tone had been a reader, and, what is rarer, a thinker. When he entered college he was possessed of much more general information than the generality of freshmen. There was, besides, an energy and a force of character and of will about him which marked him out for a leader of men. His tutor was Matthew Young, a celebrated mathematician, and of this able scholar he acquired the friendship and esteem. At the Historical Society Plunket and Tone were often pitted against each other, but the two men differed as much in the nature of their characters as of their talents. Tone was a man of speculative o 2 |