two legislatures over the appointment of a Regent, rendered necessary by the temporary insanity of George III., and this difference was afterwards used as an argument in favour of a legislative Union.  In 1793 a measure of half-emancipation was granted, Roman Catholics being admitted to vote, though not to sit in Parliament, an anomalous distinction giving power to the ignorant, yet still keeping the fittest men out of public life.  Upon the arrival of Lord Fitzwilliam as Viceroy in 1795, it was fervently believed that full emancipation was at last about to be granted, and Grattan brought in a Bill to that effect.  These hopes, as will presently be seen, were destined to be bitterly disappointed.  Lord Fitzwilliam was recalled, and from that moment Grattan was doomed to stand helplessly by and watch the destruction of that edifice which he had spent his whole life to erect and strengthen.  The country grew more and more restless, and it was plain to all who could read the signs of the times that, unless discontent was in some way allayed, a rebellion was sure to break out.  In 1798 this long foreseen calamity occurred, but before it did so, Grattan had retired heart-broken and despairing into private life.

He re-emerged to plead, vehemently but fruitlessly, against the Union which was passed the following spring.  As will be seen, when we reach that period the fashion in which that act was carried made it difficult for an honourable man, however loyal—­and no man, it must be repeated, was more steadily loyal than Henry Grattan—­to give it his support.  He believed too firmly that Ireland could work out its own destiny best by the aid of a separate Parliament, and to this opinion he throughout his life clung.  In his own words, “The two countries from their size must stand together—­united quoad nature—­distinct quoad legislation.”

In 1805 he became a member of the English Parliament, where unlike Flood, his eloquence had almost as much effect as in Ireland, and where he was regarded by all parties with the deepest respect and regard.  His heart, however, remained firmly anchored to its old home, and all his recollections in his old age centred around these earlier struggles.  He died in 1820, and was buried in Westminster Abbey.  One more quotation from Sydney Smith sums up the man for us in a few words:  “The highest attainments of human genius were within his reach, but he thought the noblest occupation of a man was to make other men happy and free, and in that straight line he kept for fifty years, without one side-look, one yielding thought, one motive in his heart which might not have laid open to the view of God or man.”  A generation which produced two such men as Henry Grattan and Edmund Burke might well be looked back to by any country in the world as the flower and crown of its national life.  There have not been many greater or better in the whole chequered history of the human race.

L.