Henry Grattan

Henry Grattan (3 July 1746 – 4 June 1820) was an Irish politician and lawyer who campaigned for legislative freedom for the Irish Parliament in the late 18th century from Britain. He was a Member of the Irish Parliament (MP) from 1775 to 1801 and a Member of Parliament (MP) in Westminster from 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 to Great Britain by a common crown and by sharing a common political tradition.

Quotes

1780s

• Instead of returning formal thanks for the honour you have conferred upon me, let me bind myself to new duties in your service; to strain every nerve to effectuate a modification of the Law of Poynings, also to secure this country against the illegal claims of the British Parliament; and as a foundation to propose (if it seems the general sense, and if no person of more experience undertakes it,) immediately after the recess, "A Declaration of the Rights of Ireland."
  • Speech upon receiving the Freedom of the Holy Trinity Guild of Merchants in Dublin (17 January 1780), quoted in Miscellaneous Works of The Right Honourable Henry Grattan (1822), p. 143

• Before you decide on the practicability of being slaves for ever, look to America. Do you see nothing in that America but the grave and prison of your armies? and do you not see in her range of territory, cheapness of living, variety of climate, and simplicity of life,—the drain of Europe? Whatever is bold and disconsolate, sullen virtue and wounded pride; all, all to that point will precipitate; and what you trample on in Europe will sting you in America. When Philadelphia or whatever city the American appoints for empire, sends forth her ambassadors to the different kings in Europe, and manifests to the world her independency and power; do you imagine you will persuade Ireland to be satisfied with an English Parliament making laws for her; satisfied with a refusal to her loyalty, of those privileges which were offered to the arms of America?
  • Speech in the Irish House of Commons (22 February 1782), quoted in The Speeches of The Right Honourable Henry Grattan, in the Irish, and in the Imperial Parliament, Vol. I (1822), pp. 117-118

• Let me conclude by observing, that you have the two claims before you; the claim of England to power, and of Ireland to liberty: and I have shown you, that England has no title to that power to make laws for Ireland; none by nature, none by compact, none by usage, and none by conquest; and that Ireland has several titles against the claims of England;—a title by nature, a title by compact, and a title by divers positive acts of parliament; a title by charter, and by all the laws by which England possesses her liberties;—by England's interpretation of those laws, by her renunciation of conquest, and her acknowledgment of the law of original compact.
  • Speech in the Irish House of Commons (22 February 1782), quoted in The Speeches of The Right Honourable Henry Grattan, in the Irish, and in the Imperial Parliament, Vol. I (1822), p. 118

• Yet while I think retrenchment absolutely necessary, I am not very sure that this is just the time to make it in the army,—now when England has acted justly, I will not say generously,—now when she has lost her empire—when she still feels the wounds of the last unhappy war, and comforts herself only with the faithful friendship of Ireland.
  • Speech in the Irish House of Commons (28 October 1783), quoted in The Parliamentary Register: Or, History of the Proceedings and Debates of the House of Commons of Ireland, The First Session of the Fourth Parliament in the Reign of his present Majesty; Which met the 14th of October, 1783, and ended the 14th of May, 1784. Vol. III (1784), p. 39

• I would now wish to draw the attention of the House to the alarming measure of drilling the lowest classes of the populace, by which a stain had been put on the character of the Volunteers. The old, the original Volunteers had become respectable, because they represented the property of the nation: but attempts had been made to arm the poverty of the kingdom. They had originally been the armed property of Ireland. Were they to become the armed beggary! Will any man defend this? These measures I lament and condemn, because they have been called the measures of the people of Ireland; but the people have not been guilty, and are incapable of being guilty of such vanities.
  • Speech in the Irish House of Commons (21 January 1785), quoted in The Parliamentary Register: Or, History of the Proceedings and Debates of the House of Commons of Ireland, The Second Session of the Fourth Parliament in the Reign of his Present Majesty; which met at Dublin on the 20th of January, and ended the 7th of September, 1785. Vol. IV (1785), p. 41

• We could not mean, by that vote, that the present pension list was no grievance, for there was no man in debate hardy enough to make such an assertion; no man considers what that pension list is; it is the prodigality, jobbing, misapplication, and corruption, of every Irish minister since 1727.
  • Speech in the Irish House of Commons (13 March 1786), quoted in The Speeches of The Right Honourable Henry Grattan, in the Irish, and in the Imperial Parliament, Vol. I (1822), p. 288

1790s

• The Roman Catholics whom I love, and the Protestants whom I prefer, are both, I hope, too enlightened to renew religious animosity.
  I do not hesitate to say I love the Roman Catholic—I am a friend to his liberty—but it is only in as much as his liberty is entirely consistent with your ascendancy, and an addition to the strength and freedom of the Protestant community.
  These being my principles, and the Protestant interest my first object, you may judge that I shall never assent to any measure tending to shake the security of property in this kingdom, or to subvert the Protestant ascendancy.
  • Speech in Dublin (20 January 1792), quoted in Miscellaneous Works of The Right Honourable Henry Grattan (1822), p. 289

• I sit down re-asserting my sentiments, which are, that the removal of all disabilities is necessary to make the Catholic a freeman, and the Protestant a people.
  • Speech in the Irish House of Commons (20 February 1792), quoted in The Speeches of The Right Honourable Henry Grattan, in the Irish, and in the Imperial Parliament, Vol. II (1822), p. 376

• We have a monarchy, the best form of government for rational and durable liberty.
  • Speech in the Irish House of Commons (10 January 1793), quoted in The Parliamentary Register: Or, History of the Proceedings and Debates of the House of Commons of Ireland, The Fourth Session of the Fifth Parliament in the Reign of his Present Majesty; which met at Dublin on the 10th of January, and ended the 16th of August, 1793. Vol. XIII (1793), p. 13

• We admire the wisdom which at so critical a season has prompted your Majesty to come forward to take a leading part in healing the political dissentions of your people on account of religion. We shall take into our immediate consideration the subject graciously recommended from the throne; and at a time when doctrines pernicious to freedom and dangerous to monarchial government are propagated in foreign countries, we shall not fail to impress your Majesty's Catholic subjects with a sense of the singular and eternal obligation they owe to the throne and to your Majesty's royal person and family.
  • Speech in the Irish House of Commons (11 January 1793), quoted in The Parliamentary Register: Or, History of the Proceedings and Debates of the House of Commons of Ireland, The Fourth Session of the Fifth Parliament in the Reign of his Present Majesty; which met at Dublin on the 10th of January, and ended the 16th of August, 1793. Vol. XIII (1793), p. 30

• Sir, this bill I pronounce to be an anti-whig and anti-constitutional measure, and the boldest step that ever yet was made to introduce a military government.
  • Speech in the Irish House of Commons against the Convention Bill (17 July 1793), quoted in The Speeches of The Right Honourable Henry Grattan, in the Irish, and in the Imperial Parliament, Vol. III (1822), p. 100

• But, that these measures, this general plan of conduct should be pursued by Ireland, with a fixed, steady, and unalterable resolution, to stand or fall with Great Britain. Whenever Great Britain, therefore, should be clearly involved in war, it is my idea that Ireland should grant her a decided and unequivocal support; except, that war should be carried on against her own liberty.
  • Speech in the Irish House of Commons (21 January 1794), quoted in The Speeches of The Right Honourable Henry Grattan, in the Irish, and in the Imperial Parliament, Vol. III (1822), pp. 116-117

• I conceive the continuance of Lord Fitzwilliam as necessary for the prosperity of this kingdom. His firm integrity is formed to correct; his mild manners to reconcile, and his private example to discountenance a progress of vulgar and rapid pollution; if he is to retire, I condole with my country. For myself, the pangs on that occasion I should feel, on rendering up my small portion of ministerial breath, would be little, were it not for the gloomy prospects afforded by those dreadful guardians which are likely to succeed. I tremble at the return to power of your old task-masters: that combination which galled the country with its tyranny, insulted her by its manners, exhausted her by its rapacity, and slandered her by its malice. Should such a combination, once inflamed, as it must be now by the favour of the British court, and by the reprobation of the Irish people, return to power, I have no hesitation to say that they will extinguish Ireland, or Ireland must remove them.
  • Reply to an address of the Roman Catholics of Dublin (1795), quoted in Memoirs of the Life and Times of The Rt. Hon. Henry Grattan, Vol. IV (1849), p. 219

• Try this plan. Reform the Parliament; let the King identify with his people; there is his strength; let him share with them, or rather let them share with him, the blessings of the constitution; as they have given him the powers of government, let him restore to them the rights of self-legislation; without that they have no liberty, and without full and free representation in the Commons they have not that; they have the name indeed, but they have not the substance.
  • Speech in the Irish House of Commons (15 May 1797), quoted in The Speeches of The Right Honourable Henry Grattan, in the Irish, and in the Imperial Parliament, Vol. III (1822), p. 341

• What is your plan? There are but two measures in the country, reform or force. We have offered you the former; you seem inclined to the latter. Let us consider it: "To subdue, to coerce, to establish unqualified submission;" an arduous, a precarious undertaking! Have you well weighed all its consequences? Is there not much of passion in your judgment? Have you not lost your temper a little in the contest? I am sure you have shown this night symptoms of irritation—a certain impatience of the complaints of the people. So it was in the American business. Nothing less in that contest than their unconditional submission. Alas! what was the consequence? As far as you have tried your experiment here, it has failed; the report shows you it has failed. It has increased the evil it would restrain; it has propagated the principle it would punish; but if repeated and invigorated you think it will have more success; I apprehend not. Do not you perceive, that instead of strengthening monarchy by constitutional principles, you are attempting to give it force by despotic ones? That you are giving the new principle the advantage of success abroad and of suffering at home, and that you are losing the people, while you think you are strengthening the throne; that you have made a false alliance with unnatural principles, and instead of identifying with the people, you identify with abuses?
  • Speech in the Irish House of Commons (15 May 1797), quoted in The Speeches of The Right Honourable Henry Grattan, in the Irish, and in the Imperial Parliament, Vol. III (1822), pp. 341-342

• The object, you said, was separation, so here the reform of parliament, you say, and Catholic emancipation are only pretexts; the object, you say, is separation, and here you exact unconditional submission—"YOU MUST SUBDUE BEFORE YOU REFORM." Indeed! Alas! you think so; but you forget you subdue by reforming; it is the best conquest you can obtain over your own people; but let me suppose you succeed, what is your success?—a military government, a perfect despotism, an hapless victory over the principles of a mild government and a mild constitution! a Union! but what may be the ultimate consequence of such a victory? A separation!
  • Speech in the Irish House of Commons (15 May 1797), quoted in The Speeches of The Right Honourable Henry Grattan, in the Irish, and in the Imperial Parliament, Vol. III (1822), p. 343

1800s

• The thing he proposes to buy, is what cannot be sold—LIBERTY! For it, he has nothing to give: every thing of value which you possess, you obtained under a free constitution; part with it, and you must be not only a slave but an idiot.
  • Speech in the Irish House of Commons against the union with Great Britain (15 January 1800), quoted in The Speeches of The Right Honourable Henry Grattan, in the Irish, and in the Imperial Parliament, Vol. III (1822), pp. 372-373

• The Parliament of Ireland—of that assembly I have a parental recollection. I sate by her cradle, I followed her hearse. In fourteen years she acquired for Ireland what you did not acquire for England in a century—freedom of trade, independency of the legislature, independency of the judges, restoration of the final judicature, repeal of a perpetual mutiny bill, habeas corpus act, nullum tempus act—a great work! You will exceed it, and I shall rejoice. I call my countrymen to witness, if in that business I compromised the claims of my country, or temporised with the power of England; but there was one thing which baffled the effort of the patriot, and defeated the wisdom of the senate, it was the folly of the theologian.
  • Maiden speech in the British House of Commons (13 May 1805), quoted in The Speeches of The Right Honourable Henry Grattan, in the Irish, and in the Imperial Parliament, Vol. IV (1822), pp. 75-76

1820s

• I am convinced that it is their policy, as well as their duty, and I am sure it is their disposition, to maintain a perpetual connexion with the British Empire.
  To keep clear of every association with wild projectors for universal suffrage and annual Parliaments, and continue to cultivate those gracious dispositions in the Royal Breast which had been early manifested in their favour, and to accept of emancipation upon the terms that are substantial and honourable.
  Pursuing such a principle, and with the temper and conduct which they are manifesting, and which I am proud to contemplate, they must succeed.
  They desire a privilege to worship their God according to the best of their judgment, and they have a right to do so with impunity, and without the interference of the state.
  I shall go to England for your question, and should the attempt prove less fortunate to my health, I shall be more than repaid by the reflection that I make my last effort for the liberty of my country.
  • Reply to the deputation appointed by the meeting of Roman Catholics (13 May 1820), quoted in Miscellaneous Works of The Right Honourable Henry Grattan (1822), p. 386

Quotes about Henry Grattan

• He entered the Imperial Parliament in 1805, and continued, with the exception of the question upon the renewal of the war in 1815, a constant and most powerful coadjutor of the Whig party, refusing office when they came into power upon Mr. Pitt's death, but lending them a strenuous support upon all great questions, whether of English policy or of Irish, and showing himself most conspicuously above the mean and narrow spirit that would confine a statesman's exertions to the questions which interest one portion of the empire, or with which his own fame in former times may have been more peculiarly entwined.
  • Henry Brougham, Historical Sketches of Statesmen Who Flourished in the Time of George III. To Which is Added, Remarks on Party, and An Appendix. First Series (1839), p. 263

• Among the orators, as among the statesmen of his age, Mr. Grattan occupies a place in the foremost rank; and it was the age of the Pitts, the Foxes, and the Sheridans. His eloquence was of a very high order, all but of the very highest, and it was eminently original. In the constant stream of a diction replete with epigram and point—a stream on which floated gracefully, because naturally, flowers of various hues,—was poured forth the closest reasoning, the most luminous statement, the most persuasive display of all the motives that could influence, and of all the details that could enlighten, his audience.
  • Henry Brougham, Historical Sketches of Statesmen Who Flourished in the Time of George III. To Which is Added, Remarks on Party, and An Appendix. First Series (1839), pp. 253-264

• His speech was interwoven with expressions of loyalty to the King, and with sentiments of affection to and inseparable connection with Great Britain, of a disposition to give her every possible assistance, yet with a determination never to yield to the supremacy of the British Legislature.
  • Lord Carlisle on Grattan's speech of 22 February 1782, quoted in William Edward Hartpole Lecky, A History of England in the Eighteenth Century, Vol. IV (1882), p. 535

• I am not afraid of the Right Honourable Member, I will meet him any where, or upon any ground, by night or by day.—I would stand poorly in my own estimation, and in my country's opinion, if I did not stand far above him.—I do not come here dressed in a rich wardrobe of words to delude the people—I am not one who has promised repeatedly to bring in a bill of rights, yet does not bring in that bill or permit any other person to do it—I am not one who threatened to impeach the Chief Justice of the King's Bench for acting under an English law, and afterwards shrunk from that business—I am not the author of the simple repeal—I am not one who, after saying the parliament was a parliament of prostitutes, endeavoured to make their voices subservient to my interest—I am not one who would come at midnight, and attempt by a vote of this House to stifle the voice of the people, which my egregious folly had raised against me—I am not the gentleman who subsists upon your accounts—I am not the mendicant patriot who was bought by my country for a sum of money, and then sold my country for prompt payment.
  • Henry Flood, speech in the Irish House of Commons (28 October 1783), quoted in The Parliamentary Register: Or, History of the Proceedings and Debates of the House of Commons of Ireland, The First Session of the Fourth Parliament in the Reign of his present Majesty; Which met the 14th of October, 1783, and ended the 14th of May, 1784. Vol. III (1784), p. 40

• The alteration of the Mutiny bill, which had been sent from hence, to a perpetual one, excited very general indignation; other impolitic acts were complained of. The spirit of the nation flamed higher than ever. Mr. Grattan not so much imbibing, as diffusing, a large portion of that spirit, and acting in concert with his friend, Lord Charlemont, moved a declaration of rights in favour of Ireland. The oration which he made on that occasion can never be forgotten by those who heard it. The language of Milton, or Shakespeare, can alone describe its effects.
  • Francis Hardy on Grattan's speech of 19 April 1780; Francis Hardy, Memoirs of the Political and Private Life of James Caulfield, Earl of Charlemont, Knight of St. Patrick (1810), pp. 201-202

• When he rose curiosity was excited, and one might have heard a pin drop in that crowded house. It required indeed intense attention to catch the strange and long deep-fetched whisper in which he began; and I could see the incipient smile curling on Mr. Pitt's lips, at the brevity and antithesis of his sentences, his grotesque gesticulations, peculiar and almost foreign accent, and arch articulation and countenance. As he proceeded, however, the sneers of his opponents were softened into courtesy and attention, and, at length, settled in delight and admiration. Mr. Pitt beat time to the artificial but harmonious cadence of his periods, and Mr. Canning's countenance kindled at the brightness of a fancy, which in glitter fully equalled, in real warmth and power far exceeded, his own. Never was triumph more complete.
  • Lord Holland on Grattan's maiden speech in the British House of Commons delivered on 13 May 1805; Lord Holland, Memoirs of the Whig Party During My Time, Vol. I, ed. Henry Edward Lord Holland (1852), pp. 199-200

• Among the many eccentricities that distinguished Mr. Grattan as an orator, nothing was more remarkable than this apparent contradiction. He was artificial in manner, in utterance, in pronunciation, and in style; and yet he breathed such a spirit of benevolence, such a warmth of feeling, and such sincerity of principle, into all his speeches, that, like Mr. Fox himself, he won as much on the affections as on the understanding of his audience. From this period he became a favourite of the House: they not only admired his orations, but revered the man. They treated him, even in the decline of his powers, with a deference and tenderness that nothing but a long tenor of honourable conduct and many proofs of an amiable disposition can command or deserve.
  • Lord Holland, Memoirs of the Whig Party During My Time, Vol. I, ed. Henry Edward Lord Holland (1852), pp. 201-202

• The eloquence of Grattan, in his best days, was in some respects perhaps the finest that has been heard in either country since the time of Chatham. Considered simply as a debater, he was certainly inferior to both Fox and Pitt, and perhaps to Sheridan; but he combined two of the very highest qualities of a great orator to a degree that was almost unexampled. No British orator except Chatham had an equal power of firing an educated audience with an intense enthusiasm, or of animating and inspiring a nation. No British orator except Burke had an equal power of sowing his speeches with profound aphorisms and associating transient questions with eternal truths. His thoughts naturally crystallised into epigrams; his arguments were condensed with such admirable force and clearness that they assumed almost the appearance of axioms; and they were often interspersed with sentences of concentrated poetic beauty, which flashed upon the audience with all the force of sudden inspiration, and which were long remembered and repeated.
  • William Edward Hartpole Lecky, The Leaders of Public Opinion in Ireland: Swift–Flood–Grattan–O'Connell (1871), pp. 108-109

• Some of his best speeches combined much of the value of philosophical dissertations with all the charm of the most brilliant declamation. I know, indeed, none in modern times, except those of Burke, from which the student of politics can derive so many profound and valuable maxims of political wisdom, and none which are more useful to those who seek to master that art of condensed energy of expression in which he almost equalled Tacitus.
  • William Edward Hartpole Lecky, The Leaders of Public Opinion in Ireland: Swift–Flood–Grattan–O'Connell (1871), p. 109

• O'Connell, comparing him to Pitt, said that he wanted the sustained dignity of that speaker, but that Pitt's speeches were always speedily forgotten, while Grattan was constantly saying things that were remembered. His speeches show no wit and no skill in the lighter forms of sarcasm; but he was almost unrivalled in crushing invective, in delineations of character, and in brief, keen arguments. In carrying on a train of sustained reasoning he was not so happy. Flood is said to have been his superior; and none of his speeches in this respect are comparable to that of Fox on the Westminster scrutiny.
  • William Edward Hartpole Lecky, The Leaders of Public Opinion in Ireland: Swift–Flood–Grattan–O'Connell (1871), pp. 109-110

• We are met on this melancholy occasion to celebrate the obsequies of the greatest man Ireland ever knew. The widowed land of his birth, in mourning over his remains, feels it is a nation's sorrow, and turns with the anxiety of a parent to alleviate the grief of the orphan he has left. The virtues of that great patriot shone brilliant, pure, unsullied, ardent, unremitting, glowing. Oh! I should exhaust the dictionary three times told, ere I could enumerate the virtues of Grattan.
  • Daniel O'Connell, speech at the Royal Exchange (13 June 1820), quoted in The Select Speeches of Daniel O'Connell, M.P., Second Series, ed. John O'Connell (1855), p. 72

• Let us unite to put down bigotry—it is the cause of our country that is at stake; let us rally round that cause, and let our motto be Grattan and Ireland!
  • Daniel O'Connell, speech at the Royal Exchange (13 June 1820), quoted in The Select Speeches of Daniel O'Connell, M.P., Second Series, ed. John O'Connell (1855), p. 75

• Burke told me that Grattan was a great man for a popular assembly, and now I believe it.
  • William Pitt on Grattan's maiden speech in the British House of Commons (13 May 1805), quoted in Memoirs of the Life and Times of The Rt. Hon. Henry Grattan, Vol. V (1846), p. 262

• The speech of Mr. Grattan was, I understand, a display of the most beautiful eloquence perhaps ever heard, but it was seditious and inflammatory to a degree hardly credible. The theory and positions laid down both in his speech and that of Mr. Flood amounted to nothing less than war with England.
  • The Duke of Rutland to William Pitt on Grattan's speech of 12 August 1785 (13 August 1785), quoted in Correspondence between The Right Hon. William Pitt and Charles Duke of Rutland, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland. 1781–1787 (1842), pp. 105-106

• Henry Grattan was one of the most eloquent orators of his time—the golden age of oratory in the English language.
  • Éamon de Valera, radio address on Radio Athlone (6 February 1933), quoted in Lewis Copeland (ed.), The World's Great Speeches (1942), p. 447