It is difficult to say, under such circumstances, upon whom the grant conferred the greatest honour, the giver or the receiver. A public monument was also voted to him, never since, however, erected; and a day of thanksgiving was appointed to be kept throughout the kingdom. It would be difficult to find, in the annals of any country, an instance of more splendid popularity than Mr. Grattan at this moment presented. And yet, perhaps, there never was an occasion upon which the fickleness of popular favour was more strikingly or basely exemplified. There was at this time in the Irish House of Commons, a most eloquent and argumentative speaker of the name of Flood. In all the interesting debates of late years he had taken a leading part, and was looked upon by a great body of the people as second to none, not even to his celebrated rival. He was a man of transcendant eloquence-of much personal influence of great warmth of temper, and of inflexible determination. "He had his faults," said Mr. Grattan, generously, some years after his death, "but he had great powers--great public effect-he persuaded the old -he inspired the young-the Castle vanished before him—on a small subject he was miserable-put into his hand a distaff, and, like Hercules, he made sad work of it; but give him the thunderbolt, and he had the arm of a Jupiter." Such was the man, upon the confession of his opponent, who arraigned the triumph of 82, and soon converted a great majority to his opinion. He insisted that the simple repeal of the 6th of George the First, which was all the Irish parliament had done, was, in fact, doing nothing that England might, at any time, resume her sway; and that nothing could be considered as satisfactory or final, except a sweeping renunciation. Mr. Grattan and his friends insisted, with equal force, that, coming from a nation of good faith like England, a simple repeal was tantamount to a renunciation; and thus, upon a vital question, the two great authorities of the nation were at issue. A foolish motion of Lord Abingdon's in the English House of Lords, menaced, but not made, claiming a right for England to legislate externally for Ireland, added fuel to the flame, and gave to Flood and his adherents the zealous partizanship of the volunteer army, who went so far as to resist the levy of the seamen. Flood in himself was an host; and no one who enlisted beneath his banner had any reason to distrust the energy or talents of his leader. His speeches were full of powerful argument; and though outvoted in the Commons, he contrived, out of doors, to carry with him not only the weak and the discontented, but a considerable portion of the intelligent and the loyal. "Were," said he, in his concluding speech upon this subject-" were the voice with which I utter this, the last effort of expiring nature; were the accent which conveys it to you, the breath which was to waft me

to that grave to which we all tend, and to which my footsteps rapidly accelerate, I would go on-I would make my exit by a loud demand of your rights; and I call upon the God of truth and liberty, who has so often favoured you, and who has of late looked down upon you with such a grace and glory of protection, to continue to you his inspirings-to crown you with the spirit of his completion, and to assist you against the errors of those who are honest, as well as against the machinations of all that are not so." Unfortunately some expressions during this debate were applied by Mr. Grattan personally to himself, and a scene of angry, but eloquent contention arose, creditable neither to the parties immediately concerned, nor to the house destined to be its theatre. The shout which but a few short months before had followed in the wake of Grattan wherever he went, was now changed into the whisper of defamation. His language was mis-stated-his motives misrepresented; and a life which had been devoted and hazarded in the cause of his country, became embittered by her vile and causeless ingratitude. His health gradually sunk under his toils, and the cruel return by which they were rendered worse than nugatory; and his physicians ordered a journey to Spa, for which place he departed in August 1782, a memorable instance of what "dust he doats on" who worships popularity. During his absence, and the administration of Lord Temple, an accidental circumstance arose which certainly bore Flood out in his arguments, and produced, at length, an act of entire and total renunciation. A writ of error (which previous to the repeal had been transmitted to the King's-bench in England) was acted on by Lord Mansfield, according to the ancient usage of the court, who declared that he knew of no statute to abrogate that usage. This renewed the flame in Ireland -the act of Grattan had been supposed to have established a final jurisdiction there, with which this decision appeared fatally at variance. To set all at rest, a renunciation-bill was draughted, sent once to Westminster, and passed both houses almost sub silentio. On the close of Lord Temple's short administration, Lord Northington assumed the government of Ireland, and Mr. Grattan was, at the instance of, and in conjunction with, Lord Charlemont, created a privy counsellor. It is not our purpose, nor would it be possible, to dwell upon all the individual exertions of Mr. Grattan during his parliamentary career. There was no subject of any interest or advantage to his country in which he did not appear prominent. A free trade-a free constitution -a court of final appeal-a relaxation of the penal code, and the exertion of his eloquence and the risk of his life against the measure which destroyed the independence of his country, attest his claims to her eternal gratitude. His speech on the commer

cial propositions attempted to be introduced into Ireland by Mr. Orde, should, of itself, immortalize his memory. This was a subject upon which his pride and his patriotism were equally awakened; it went directly to interfere with the free trade he had established, and he closed a powerful and soul-stirring appeal with the following beautiful peroration. "It is not public clamour, but public injury, that should alarm you. Your high ground of expostulation with your fellow subjects has been your services; the free trade you have given the merchant, and the free constitution you have given the island! Make your third great effort preserve them, and with them preserve unaltered your own calm sense of public right, the dignity of the parliament, the majesty of the people, and the powers of the island. Keep them unsullied, uncovenanted, uncircumscribed, and unstipendiary! These paths are the paths to glory, and let me add, these ways are the ways of peace; so shall the prosperity of your country, though without a tongue to thank you, yet laden with the blessings of constitution and of commerce, bear attestation to your services, and await on your progress with involuntary praise." In 1789, on the melancholy occasion of the late king's irreparable malady, the English and the Irish parliaments were unfortunately divided upon the mode of proceeding; the former preferring a bill and the latter an address. Mr. Grattan was as usual the great organ of the opposition, and he completely overwhelmed the administration. As he said himself of Mr. Flood, "the Castle vanished before him ;" and some idea may be formed of the anger and disappointment of the government, from the circumstance of Lord Buckingham, the viceroy, refusing to transmit the address to the Prince of Wales, as inconsistent with his oath of office. Both houses instantly passed a vote of censure on his excellency, and appointed a deputation from their respective bodies to lay their sentiments at the feet of his Royal Highness, who received them with abundant professions of his future gratitude. The prince is now king, and, there can be no doubt, can neither forget the services nor the promises of 89. In 1793 a considerable relaxation took place in the penal laws against the Catholics; and, as usual, his voice was raised on behalf of humanity. His whole life, indeed, from this period, was passed in attempting to repeal a code cruel, impolitic, and irreligious, enacted in barbarous times, and long since rendered unnecessary by political change and increasing civilization. In endeavouring to ameliorate the tithe system also, that fruitful source of much of Ireland's calamity, and almost all her crimes, his exertions were indefatigable. Unfortunately they were equally unsuccessful. The rejection of the Catholic petition, and the abrupt recall of Lord Fitzwilliam, after a two months viceroyalty, appeared

such insults to Ireland, that Mr. Grattan declared his intentions of retiring from all share in what he called the mockery of a fruitless representation; and he justified the step of his parliamentary secession in an address to the citizens of Dublin. Public commotions soon succeeded, of which it is not our duty to detail the history. There are too many alive to mourn over their memory. Mr. Grattan, as may well be supposed, could not endure such a spectacle. Indeed his person was not safe-his very name was denounced by an outrageous loyalty, as ignorant as it was outrageous-a body of furious zealots visited his house for the purpose of his destruction; his picture was torn down from the walls of his college, by the pious hands of a candidate bishop, and his domestics were scrutinized for the purpose of torturing his liberality into rebellion and his patriotism into treason! In former days the people deserted him for serving them, and now the government denounced him for advising them. Strange fate; to be an unpopular patriot and a suspected loyalist! Yet such was the destiny which he alternately encountered, and which in each event he met with the honest intrepidity of a man equally disdainful of the "Civium ardor prava jubentium," and the "Vultus instantis tyranni." He disregarded both alike-his eye was fixed on immortality. It was in the congenial shades of Twickenham that he sought refreshment for his shattered frame, and if possible, oblivion of his country's sufferings; and there he remained, till the agitation of the question of a legislative union warned him that the noble edifice, which the labour of his life had reared, was in danger. He instantly returned, was elected for Wicklow at twelve o'clock at night, and tottering from a sick bed, at four in the morning stalked into the last house of commons of Ireland, like the spectre of her national independence. The speech which he made from his seat upon that occasion, for he was unable to stand, should never be forgotten; and lest the means by which the Irish union was carried should rest upon mere rumour or misrepresentation, we give the description as it fell from his own lips, in the face of the treasury bench. "Half a million or more (said a principal servant of the crown) was expended some years ago to break an opposition: the same or a greater sum may be necessary "The house heard him-I heard him-he said it standing on his legs, to an astonished house and an indignant nation, and he said so in the most extensive sense of bribery and corruption! The threat was proceeded on---the veerage was sold--

now.'

Mr. Grattan, in consequence of some warmth during the debate, went with Mr. Corry, then chancellor of the exchequer, to the field at eight o'clock. Thus he was elected at 12, took his seat at 4, and risked his life at 8 on the same morning.

the caitiffs of corruption were every where, in the lobby, in the street, on the steps, and at the door of every parliamentary leadertheir very thresholds were worn by the members of the then administration offering TITLES TO SOME, AMNESTY TO OTHERS, and CORRUPTION TO ALL!" These are Mr. Grattan's own words, and we will not trust ourselves with what they would render an unnecessary comment. Equally unnecessary is it for us to trace Mr. Grattan's progress in the Imperial Parliament. Unlike his great rival Mr. Flood, he completely succeeded. Almost all his speeches, except his celebrated one on the return of Napoleon from Elba, were made in support of the Irish Catholics, a body of men who often repaid his "desperate fidelity" with gross ingratitude. Yet Mr. Grattan died in their cause. When he found his mortal complaint gaining fast upon him, he took the Catholic petition, and desired that he might be borne to London by easy stages. On his landing at Liverpool, the horses were taken from his carriage, and he was drawn by the people to his hotel. In the midst of this triumph he may be said to have died. On the very morning on which, after his arrival in London, he had determined to present the petition, he breathed his last. The task has since devolved upon Mr. Plunket, a man every way entitled to be his suc

cessor.

It was at first determined to take the remains of Mr. Grattan to the country of which, when living, he had been the ornament and benefactor; but a deputation from some of the leading political characters of the day waited on his family, and prevailed on them to accede to his public interment in Westminster Abbey, where he now rests amid kindred integrity and genius. Our limits warn us reluctantly to conclude this brief and imperfect notice of a man whose patriotism was as beneficial as it was consistent, whose life and death were devoted to his country, and whose eloquence, like his philanthropy, belonged to the world.

ON EPICURISM. BY AN AMATEUR.

Daremo "pochi momenti al cibo."

THIS is a subject which ought not to be entered upon in a state of repletion, lest the sated appetite should produce a languor and carelessness of description, most injurious to the merits of the theme: still less should it be attempted when the cravings of hunger distract our thoughts; for where is the famished gourmand sufficiently firm and resolute to sit immovable at his pen, when it is employed in the praise of curries and ragoûts; and when mock-turtle soup is called up in ideal lustre before his