MR. EDITOR-Pardon me, but your prospectus, which I only met yesterday, greatly amused me. In your endeavour to avoid the beaten track, you committed a most egregious bull; pardonable, perhaps, in an Irishman, which I suspect you are, were it not calculated to lead the public astray. You say the principles of your work shall be those of Grattan, Curran, and the others,' &c. As the others' is a convenient term, I shall not quarrel with you for it; but, in the name of goodness, how could you expect patronage by advocating the vacillating and anti-Irish principles of Grattan-a man who differs but little from the thousand others who have been enriched at the national expense? I am well aware of the highsounding epithets which precede his name; but let us not be deceived by popular phrases, which are reverenced because they are not understood; and which, like base metal, pass current among mankind till the counterfeit is detected. Grattan, in place of being lauded for doing so much, ought to be reprobated for not having done more. He that had it in his power to do all that his country could desire, yet preferred achieving only the minutest part, and even that not perfectly, neither merits praise for his patriotism nor thanks for his exertion.

In contemplating the past conduct of Grattan, I have always been at a loss whether to regard him as a bungling statesman or an insidious enemy of freedom; so ruinous have been all his measures to Ireland. Swift, though he detested his country, was more her friend than Grattan; and Lucas, without half his pretensions, was a greater benefactor to the nation: in fact, he was a patriotic pioneer, who cleared the way for his successors; but they, under the guidance of your supposed champion, either wilfully avoided the road, or purposely diverged into a circuit

ous path, and knocked at the posterngate of the constitution when the front door was already open to receive them. If Grattan were sincere in his professions, posterity will hesitate to assign him a niche among those whose wisdom procured them the appellation of legislators; for all his views were erroneous, and all his measures fraught with dangerous consequences. I speak, of course, of the period upon which his claim to national esteem rests; though his friends, in witnessing the evil tendency of his mistakes, to call them by the mildest name, would blush to look that people, who enriched him, in the face, when they must be conscious that his presumption to legislate for them was the cause of their subsequent misfortunes.

In Eighty-two he produced the shadow of freedom, and flattered the people into the belief that it was the substance; he had recorded as free those who were never in bondage; but, with culpable neglect, he left the mighty portion of his countrymen in chains, though he made use of their strength and their numbers to effect his partial and pigmy object-the revocation of a single statute! Yet this man has been called the liberator of his country,-the Solon of Ireland! Democritus, were you then alive, how might you have indulged in laughter at a deluded nation and an inflated patriot !

I may be told that, in ejecting the Catholics from his constitution in Eighty-two, Grattan's motive might have been good; he might have thought that clogging his measure with their claims would have retarded or obstructed his designs; and he might reasonably suppose that, when the Parliament should be free, the Catholics would be emancipated. But that he had no such idea is quite evident from the whole tenour of his conduct; and, if such was his motive, it

only shows how miserably contracted must have been his understanding,which, in either case, appears poor and puerile. Grattan is an instance of the danger of trusting a national cause to the advocacy of brilliant talents, when deficient in a directing judgment. His eloquence warmed the imagination of the people, and they regarded him with such an idolatry of veneration that his wisdom was considered immaculate; and to doubt the purity of his motives, was a kind of treason against the majesty of public opinion. His oratory and bold manner of speaking secured him the esteem of the public; and, by some artful manœuvres, he enlisted their passions in his behalf. With the public mind thus subjugated to his views, he marched irresistibly along, and whatever he chose to demand could not be withheld. But his views were contracted, and his mind was narrow; he was a party man, and contemplated more the humiliation of the Castle than the good of Ireland; he asked for an insignificant boon, which was quickly given, by those who rejoiced that he asked for no more; and he returned in mock triumph to the public with the repeal of the 6th of George I. The mob shouted, the people of Dublin rejoiced; and the credulous public, confiding their faith in the wisdom of Grattan, laid down their arms, once more submitted their willing necks to the yoke, and thought themselves free, until apprized of the contrary by the clanking of their chains. The amalgamation of the Catholics with their Protestant fellow-subjects could have been then so easily effected, and the time and circumstances so imperiously called for it, that the wonder is it was not accomplished. The reason can only be found in what I have already advanced-the credulous confidence of the nation in the patriotism of Grattan. What a subject of regret for Ireland! what an opportunity was there for ever lost! The neck of Faction was then upon the block, and the Genius of good feeling was about to give the blow; but Grattan warded off the stroke, and prolonged the existence of the monster. To this man's conduct are to be attributed the subsequent crimes

resulting from religious strife, and all the horrors of Ninety-eight, as well as the corruption of the Irish Parliament, and its total extinction; for, had the Catholics been emancipated in 1782, the fabric of the constitution had been perfect and its bond indissoluble, discord would have been banished from the country, and the people had continued unanimous, contented and free. But such a measure was too mighty for the genius of Grattan-a man whose views were too narrow for any comprehensive scheme of national good, and whose intellect was clouded with intolerance and bigotry.-Yes, Sir, Grattan a bigot, when minds less enlightened were liberal, and at a time, when the march of reason had nearly banished it from every nation, that pretended to information in Europe! America had set the example of enlightened legislation some years before; and the Irish volunteers had unanimously declared their abhorrence of the penal laws, and, in their famous resolutions at Dungannon, proclaimed the necessity of abolishing religious distinctions. Yet Grattan, in defiance of enlightened policy, and in contempt of public opinion, excluded his Catholic countrymen from his sham constitution; and, with an unaccountable infatuation, imagined that a few thousand Protestants should be considered as the Irish people. Mistaken notion! He lived to see his error; but, as he was never reproached with his criminal folly, he was shrewd enough to maintain silence on the subject.

I am amazed at the conduct of the Catholics in loading Grattan with favours. In Eighty-two the Protestant voice was in their favour, and their rights must have been granted had Grattan spoken a single word in their favour; but, he remained silent in their behalf, though he knew well, or at least should have known, that, had he coupled Catholic emancipation with his much-talked-of measure, it would have been granted, and that the Union was necessary to give stability to the freedom of Ireland. To talk of Irish independence, while the Catholics were slaves, was to contemn reason, and insult the common sense of mankind. But the truth is,