GRASSHOPPER GRAY, THOMAS
GRASS OF PARNASSUS GRAY, WALTER DE
GRATE GRAY
GRATIAN GRAYLING
GRATIANUS, FRANCISCUS GRAYS THURROCK
GRATRY, AUGUSTE JOSEPH ALPHONSE GRAZ
GRATTAN, HENRY GRAZZINI, ANTONIO FRANCESCO
GRATTIUS [FALISCUS] GREAT AWAKENING
GRAUDENZ GREAT BARRIER REEF
GRAUN, CARL HEINRICH GREAT BARRINGTON
GRAVAMEN GREAT BASIN
GRAVE GREAT BEAR LAKE
GRAVEL GREAT CIRCLE
GRAVELINES GREAT FALLS
GRAVELOTTE GREAT HARWOOD
GRAVES, ALFRED PERCEVAL GREATHEAD, JAMES HENRY
GRAVESEND GREAT LAKES OF NORTH AMERICA, THE
GRAVINA, GIOVANNI VINCENZO GREAT MOTHER OF THE GODS
GRAVINA GREAT REBELLION
GRAVITATION GREAT SALT LAKE
GRAVY GREAT SLAVE LAKE
GRAY, ASA GREAT SOUTHERN OCEAN
GRAY, DAVID GREAVES, JOHN
GRAY, ELISHA GREBE
GRAY, HENRY PETERS GRECO, EL
GRAY, HORACE GRECO-TURKISH WAR, 1897
GRAY, JOHN DE GREECE
GRAY, JOHN EDWARD GREEK ART
GRAY, PATRICK GRAY GREEK FIRE
GRAY, ROBERT GREEK INDEPENDENCE, WAR OF
GRAY, SIR THOMAS GREEK LANGUAGE
GRASSHOPPER (Fr. _sauterelle_, Ital. _grillo_, Ger. _Grashupfer_,
_Heuschrecke_, Swed. _Grashoppa_), names applied to orthopterous insects
belonging to the families _Locustidae_ and _Acridiidae_. They are
especially remarkable for their saltatory powers, due to the great
development of the hind legs, which are much longer than the others and
have stout and powerful thighs, and also for their stridulation, which
is not always an attribute of the male only. The distinctions between
the two families may be briefly stated as follows:--The _Locustidae_
have very long thread-like antennae, four-jointed tarsi, a long
ovipositor, the auditory organs on the tibiae of the first leg and the
stridulatory organ in the wings; the _Acridiidae_ have short stout
antennae, three-jointed tarsi, a short ovipositor, the auditory organs
on the first abdominal segment, and the stridulatory organ between the
posterior leg and the wing. The term "grasshopper" is almost synonymous
with LOCUST (q.v.). Under both "grasshopper" and "locust" are included
members of both families above noticed, but the majority belong to the
_Acridiidae_ in both cases. In Britain the term is chiefly applicable to
the large green grasshopper (_Locusta_ or _Phasgonura viridissima_)
common in most parts of the south of England, and to smaller and much
better-known species of the genera _Stenobothrus_, _Gomphocerus_ and
_Tettix_, the latter remarkable for the great extension of the pronotum,
which often reaches beyond the extremity of the body. All are vegetable
feeders, and, as in all orthopterous insects, have an incomplete
metamorphosis, so that their destructive powers are continuous from the
moment of emergence from the egg till death. The migratory locust
(_Pachytylus cinerascens_) may be considered only an exaggerated
grasshopper, and the Rocky Mountain locust (_Caloptenus spretus_) is
still more entitled to the name. In Britain the species are not of
sufficient size, nor of sufficient numerical importance, to do any great
damage. The colours of many of them assimilate greatly to those of their
habitats; the green of the _Locusta viridissima_ is wonderfully similar
to that of the herbage amongst which it lives, and those species that
frequent more arid spots are protected in the same manner. Yet many
species have brilliantly coloured under-wings (though scarcely so in
English forms), and during flight are almost as conspicuous as
butterflies. Those that belong to the _Acridiidae_ mostly lay their eggs
in more or less cylindrical masses, surrounded by a glutinous secretion,
in the ground. Some of the _Locustidae_ also lay their eggs in the
ground, but others deposit them in fissures in trees and low plants, in
which the female is aided by a long flattened ovipositor, or process at
the extremity of the abdomen, whereas in the _Acridiidae_ there is only
an apparatus of valves. The stridulation or "song" in the latter is
produced by friction of the hind legs against portions of the wings or
wing-covers. To a practised ear it is perhaps possible to distinguish
the "song" of even closely allied species, and some are said to produce
a sound differing by day and night.
GRASS OF PARNASSUS, in botany, a small herbaceous plant known as
_Parnassia palustris_ (natural order _Saxifragaceae_), found on wet
moors and bogs in Britain but less common in the south. The white
regular flower is rendered very attractive by a circlet of scales,
opposite the petals, each of which bears a fringe of delicate filaments
ending in a yellow knob. These glisten in the sunshine and look like a
drop of honey. Honey is secreted by the base of each of the scales.
[Illustration: Grass of Parnassus (_Parnassia palustris_). 1, one of the
gland-bearing scales enlarged.]
GRATE (from Lat. _crates_, a hurdle), the iron or steel receptacle for a
domestic fire. When coal replaced logs and irons were found to be
unsuitable for burning the comparatively small lumps, and for this
reason and on account of the more concentrated heat of coal it became
necessary to confine the area of the fire. Thus a basket or cage came
into use, which, as knowledge of the scientific principles of heating
increased, was succeeded by the small grate of iron and fire-brick set
close into the wall which has since been in ordinary use in England. In
the early part of the 19th century polished steel grates were
extensively used, but the labour and difficulty of keeping them bright
were considerable, and they were gradually replaced by grates with a
polished black surface which could be quickly renewed by an application
of black-lead. The most frequent form of the 18th-century grate was
rather high from the hearth, with a small hob on each side. The brothers
Adam designed many exceedingly elegant grates in the shape of movable
baskets ornamented with the paterae and acanthus leaves, the swags and
festoons characteristic of their manner. The modern dog-grate is a
somewhat similar basket supported upon dogs or andirons, fixed or
movable. In the closing years of the 19th century a "well-grate" was
invented, in which the fire burns upon the hearth, combustion being
aided by an air-chamber below.
GRATIAN (FLAVIUS GRATIANUS AUGUSTUS), Roman emperor 375-383, son of
Valentinian I. by Severa, was born at Sirmium in Pannonia, on the 18th
of April (or 23rd of May) 359. On the 24th of August 367 he received
from his father the title of Augustus. On the death of Valentinian (17th
of November 375) the troops in Pannonia proclaimed his infant son (by a
second wife Justina) emperor under the title of Valentinian II. (q.v.).
Gratian acquiesced in their choice; reserving for himself the
administration of the Gallic provinces, he handed over Italy, Illyria
and Africa to Valentinian and his mother, who fixed their residence at
Milan. The division, however, was merely nominal, and the real authority
remained in the hands of Gratian. The eastern portion of the empire was
under the rule of his uncle Valens. In May 378 Gratian completely
defeated the Lentienses, the southernmost branch of the Alamanni, at
Argentaria, near the site of the modern Colmar. When Valens met his
death fighting against the Goths near Adrianople on the 9th of August in
the same year, the government of the eastern empire devolved upon
Gratian, but feeling himself unable to resist unaided the incursions of
the barbarians, he ceded it to Theodosius (January 379). With Theodosius
he cleared the Balkans of barbarians. For some years Gratian governed
the empire with energy and success, but gradually he sank into
indolence, occupied himself chiefly with the pleasures of the chase, and
became a tool in the hands of the Frankish general Merobaudes and bishop
Ambrose. By taking into his personal service a body of Alani, and
appearing in public in the dress of a Scythian warrior, he aroused the
contempt and resentment of his Roman troops. A Roman named Maximus took
advantage of this feeling to raise the standard of revolt in Britain and
invaded Gaul with a large army, upon which Gratian, who was then in
Paris, being deserted by his troops, fled to Lyons, where, through the
treachery of the governor, he was delivered over to one of the rebel
generals and assassinated on the 25th of August 383.
The reign of Gratian forms an important epoch in ecclesiastical history,
since during that period orthodox Christianity for the first time became
dominant throughout the empire. In dealing with pagans and heretics
Gratian, who during his later years was greatly influenced by Ambrose,
bishop of Milan, exhibited severity and injustice at variance with his
usual character. He prohibited heathen worship at Rome; refused to wear
the insignia of the pontifex maximus as unbefitting a Christian; removed
the altar of Victory from the senate-house at Rome, in spite of the
remonstrance of the pagan members of the senate, and confiscated its
revenues; forbade legacies of real property to the Vestals; and
abolished other privileges belonging to them and to the pontiffs. For
his treatment of heretics see the church histories of the period.
AUTHORITIES.--Ammianus Marcellinus xxvii.-xxxi.; Aurelius Victor,
_Epit._ 47; Zosimus iv. vi.; Ausonius (Gratian's tutor), especially
the _Gratiarum actio pro consulatu_; Symmachus x. epp. 2 and 61;
Ambrose, _De fide_, prolegomena to _Epistolae_ 11, 17, 21, _Consolatio
de obitu Valentiniani_; H. Richter, _Das westromische Reich, besonders
unter den Kaisern Gratian, Valentinian II. und Maximus_ (1865); A. de
Broglie, _L'Eglise et l'empire romain au IV^e siecle_ (4th ed., 1882);
H. Schiller, _Geschichte der romischen Kaiserzeit_, iii., iv. 31-33;
Gibbon, _Decline and Fall_, ch. 27; R. Gumpoltsberger, _Kaiser
Gratian_ (Vienna, 1879); T. Hodgkin, _Italy and her Invaders_ (Oxford,
1892), vol. i.; Tillemont, _Hist. des empereurs_, v.; J. Wordsworth in
Smith's _Dictionary of Christian Biography_. (J. H. F.)
GRATIANUS, FRANCISCUS, compiler of the _Concordia discordantium canonum_
or _Decretum Gratiani_, and founder of the science of canon law, was
born about the end of the 11th century at Chiusi in Tuscany or,
according to another account, at Carraria near Orvieto. In early life he
appears to have been received into the Camaldulian monastery of Classe
near Ravenna, whence he afterwards removed to that of San Felice in
Bologna, where he spent many years in the preparation of the
_Concordia_. The precise date of this work cannot be ascertained, but
it contains references to the decisions of the Lateran council of 1139,
and there is fair authority for believing that it was completed while
Pope Alexander III. was still simply professor of theology at
Bologna,--in other words, prior to 1150. The labours of Gratian are said
to have been rewarded with the bishopric of Chiusi, but if so he appears
never to have been consecrated; at least his name is not in any
authentic list of those who have occupied that see. The year of his
death is unknown.
For some account of the _Decretum Gratiani_ and its history see CANON
LAW. The best edition is that of Friedberg (_Corpus juris canonici_,
Leipzig, 1879). Compare Schultze, _Zur Geschichte der Litteratur uber
das Decret Gratians_ (1870), _Die Glosse zum Decret Gratians_ (1872),
and _Geschichte der Quellen und Litteratur des kanonischen Rechts_ (3
vols., Stuttgart, 1875).
GRATRY, AUGUSTE JOSEPH ALPHONSE (1805-1872), French author and
theologian, was born at Lille on the 10th of March 1805. He was educated
at the Ecole Polytechnique, Paris, and, after a period of mental
struggle which he has described in _Souvenirs de ma jeunesse_, he was
ordained priest in 1832. After a stay at Strassburg as professor of the
Petit Seminaire, he was appointed director of the College Stanislas in
Paris in 1842 and, in 1847, chaplain of the Ecole Normale Superieure. He
became vicar-general of Orleans in 1861, professor of ethics at the
Sorbonne in 1862, and, on the death of Barante, a member of the French
Academy in 1867, where he occupied the seat formerly held by Voltaire.
Together with M. Petetot, _cure_ of Saint Roch, he reconstituted the
Oratory of the Immaculate Conception, a society of priests mainly
devoted to education. Gratry was one of the principal opponents of the
definition of the dogma of papal infallibility, but in this respect he
submitted to the authority of the Vatican Council. He died at Montreux
in Switzerland on the 6th of February 1872.
His chief works are: _De la connaissance de Dieu_, opposing Positivism
(1855); _La Logique_ (1856); _Les Sources, conseils pour la conduite
de l'esprit_ (1861-1862); _La Philosophie du credo_ (1861);
_Commentaire sur l'evangile de Saint Matthieu_ (1863); _Jesus-Christ,
lettres a M. Renan_ (1864); _Les Sophistes et la critique_ (in
controversy with E. Vacherot) (1864); _La Morale et la loi de
l'histoire_, setting forth his social views (1868); _Mgr. l'eveque
d'Orleans et Mgr. l'archeveque de Malines_ (1869), containing a clear
exposition of the historical arguments against the doctrine of papal
infallibility. There is a selection of Gratry's writings and
appreciation of his style by the Abbe Pichot, in _Pages choisies des
Grands Ecrivains_ series, published by Armand-Colin (1897). See also
the critical study by the oratorian A. Chauvin, _L'Abbe Gratry_
(1901); _Le Pere Gratry_ (1900), and _Les Derniers Jours du Pere
Gratry et son testament spirituel_, (1872), by Cardinal Adolphe
Perraud, Gratry's friend and disciple.
GRATTAN, HENRY (1746-1820), Irish statesman, son of James Grattan, for
many years recorder of Dublin, was born in Dublin on the 3rd of July
1746. He early gave evidence of exceptional gifts both of intellect and
character. At Trinity College, Dublin, where he had a distinguished
career, he began a lifelong devotion to classical literature and
especially to the great orators of antiquity. He was called to the Irish
bar in 1772, but never seriously practised the law. Like Flood, with
whom he was on terms of friendship, he cultivated his natural genius for
eloquence by study of good models, including Bolingbroke and Junius. A
visit to the English House of Lords excited boundless admiration for
Lord Chatham, of whose style of oratory Grattan contributed an
interesting description to _Baratariana_ (see FLOOD, HENRY). The
influence of Flood did much to give direction to Grattan's political
aims; and it was through no design on Grattan's part that when Lord
Charlemont brought him into the Irish parliament in 1775, in the very
session in which Flood damaged his popularity by accepting office,
Grattan quickly superseded his friend in the leadership of the national
party. Grattan was well qualified for it. His oratorical powers were
unsurpassed among his contemporaries. He conspicuously lacked, indeed,
the grace of gesture which he so much admired in Chatham; he had not the
sustained dignity of Pitt; his powers of close reasoning were inferior
to those of Fox and Flood. But his speeches were packed with epigram,
and expressed with rare felicity of phrase; his terse and telling
sentences were richer in profound aphorisms and maxims of political
philosophy than those of any other statesman save Burke; he possessed
the orator's incomparable gift of conveying his own enthusiasm to his
audience and convincing them of the loftiness of his aims.
The principal object of the national party was to set the Irish
parliament free from constitutional bondage to the English privy
council. By virtue of Poyning's Act, a celebrated statute of Henry VII.,
all proposed Irish legislation had to be submitted to the English privy
council for its approval under the great seal of England before being
passed by the Irish parliament. A bill so approved might be accepted or
rejected, but not amended. More recent English acts had further
emphasized the complete dependence of the Irish parliament, and the
appellate jurisdiction of the Irish House of Lords had also been
annulled. Moreover, the English Houses claimed and exercised the power
to legislate directly for Ireland without even the nominal concurrence
of the parliament in Dublin. This was the constitution which Molyneux
and Swift had denounced, which Flood had attacked, and which Grattan was
to destroy. The menacing attitude of the Volunteer Convention at
Dungannon greatly influenced the decision of the government in 1782 to
resist the agitation no longer. It was through ranks of volunteers drawn
up outside the parliament house in Dublin that Grattan passed on the
16th of April 1782, amidst unparalleled popular enthusiasm, to move a
declaration of the independence of the Irish parliament. "I found
Ireland on her knees," Grattan exclaimed, "I watched over her with a
paternal solicitude; I have traced her progress from injuries to arms,
and from arms to liberty. Spirit of Swift, spirit of Molyneux, your
genius has prevailed! Ireland is now a nation!" After a month of
negotiation the claims of Ireland were conceded. The gratitude of his
countrymen to Grattan found expression in a parliamentary grant of
L100,000, which had to be reduced by one half before he would consent to
accept it.
One of the first acts of "Grattan's parliament" was to prove its loyalty
to England by passing a vote for the support of 20,000 sailors for the
navy. Grattan himself never failed in loyalty to the crown and the
English connexion. He was, however, anxious for moderate parliamentary
reform, and, unlike Flood, he favoured Catholic emancipation. It was,
indeed, evident that without reform the Irish House of Commons would not
be able to make much use of its newly won independence. Though now free
from constitutional control it was no less subject than before to the
influence of corruption, which the English government had wielded
through the Irish borough owners, known as the "undertakers," or more
directly through the great executive officers. "Grattan's parliament"
had no control over the Irish executive. The lord lieutenant and his
chief secretary continued to be appointed by the English ministers;
their tenure of office depended on the vicissitudes of English, not
Irish, party politics; the royal prerogative was exercised in Ireland on
the advice of English ministers. The House of Commons was in no sense
representative of the Irish people. The great majority of the people
were excluded as Roman Catholics from the franchise; two-thirds of the
members of the House of Commons were returned by small boroughs at the
absolute disposal of single patrons, whose support was bought by a
lavish distribution of peerages and pensions. It was to give stability
and true independence to the new constitution that Grattan pressed for
reform. Having quarrelled with Flood over "simple repeal" Grattan also
differed from him on the question of maintaining the Volunteer
Convention. He opposed the policy of protective duties, but supported
Pitt's famous commercial propositions in 1785 for establishing free
trade between Great Britain and Ireland, which, however, had to be
abandoned owing to the hostility of the English mercantile classes. In
general Grattan supported the government for a time after 1782, and in
particular spoke and voted for the stringent coercive legislation
rendered necessary by the Whiteboy outrages in 1785; but as the years
passed without Pitt's personal favour towards parliamentary reform
bearing fruit in legislation, he gravitated towards the opposition,
agitated for commutation of tithes in Ireland, and supported the Whigs
on the regency question in 1788. In 1792 he succeeded in carrying an
Act conferring the franchise on the Roman Catholics; in 1794 in
conjunction with William Ponsonby he introduced a reform bill which was
even less democratic than Flood's bill of 1783. He was as anxious as
Flood had been to retain the legislative power in the hands of men of
property, for "he had through the whole of his life a strong conviction
that while Ireland could best be governed by Irish hands, democracy in
Ireland would inevitably turn to plunder and anarchy."[1] At the same
time he desired to admit the Roman Catholic gentry of property to
membership of the House of Commons, a proposal that was the logical
corollary of the Relief Act of 1792. The defeat of Grattan's mild
proposals helped to promote more extreme opinions, which, under French
revolutionary influence, were now becoming heard in Ireland.
The Catholic question had rapidly become of the first importance, and
when a powerful section of the Whigs joined Pitt's ministry in 1794, and
it became known that the lord-lieutenancy was to go to Lord Fitzwilliam,
who shared Grattan's views, expectations were raised that the question
was about to be settled in a manner satisfactory to the Irish Catholics.
Such seems to have been Pitt's intention, though there has been much
controversy as to how far Lord Fitzwilliam (q.v.) had been authorized to
pledge the government. After taking Grattan into his confidence, it was
arranged that the latter should bring in a Roman Catholic emancipation
bill, and that it should then receive government support. But finally it
appeared that the viceroy had either misunderstood or exceeded his
instructions; and on the 19th of February 1795 Fitzwilliam was recalled.
In the outburst of indignation, followed by increasing disaffection in
Ireland, which this event produced, Grattan acted with conspicuous
moderation and loyalty, which won for him warm acknowledgments from a
member of the English cabinet.[2] That cabinet, however, doubtless
influenced by the wishes of the king, was now determined firmly to
resist the Catholic demands, with the result that the country rapidly
drifted towards rebellion. Grattan warned the government in a series of
masterly speeches of the lawless condition to which Ireland had been
driven. But he could now count on no more than some forty followers in
the House of Commons, and his words were unheeded. He retired from
parliament in May 1797, and departed from his customary moderation by
attacking the government in an inflammatory "Letter to the citizens of
Dublin."
At this time religious animosity had almost died out in Ireland, and men
of different faiths were ready to combine for common political objects.
Thus the Presbyterians of the north, who were mainly republican in
sentiment, combined with a section of the Roman Catholics to form the
organization of the United Irishmen, to promote revolutionary ideas
imported from France; and a party prepared to welcome a French invasion
soon came into existence. Thus stimulated, the increasing disaffection
culminated in the rebellion of 1798, which was sternly and cruelly
repressed. No sooner was this effected than the project of a legislative
union between the British and Irish parliaments, which had been from
time to time discussed since the beginning of the 18th century, was
taken up in earnest by Pitt's government. Grattan from the first
denounced the scheme with implacable hostility. There was, however, much
to be said in its favour. The constitution of Grattan's parliament
offered no security, as the differences over the regency question had
made evident that in matters of imperial interest the policy of the
Irish parliament and that of Great Britain would be in agreement; and at
a moment when England was engaged in a life and death struggle with
France it was impossible for the ministry to ignore the danger, which
had so recently been emphasized by the fact that the independent
constitution of 1782 had offered no safeguard against armed revolt. The
rebellion put an end to the growing reconciliation between Roman
Catholics and Protestants; religious passions were now violently
inflamed, and the Orangemen and Catholics divided the island into two
hostile factions. It is a curious circumstance, in view of the
subsequent history of Irish politics, that it was from the Protestant
Established Church, and particularly from the Orangemen, that the
bitterest opposition to the union proceeded; and that the proposal found
support chiefly among the Roman Catholic clergy and especially the
bishops, while in no part of Ireland was it received with more favour
than in the city of Cork. This attitude of the Catholics was caused by
Pitt's encouragement of the expectation that Catholic emancipation, the
commutation of tithes, and the endowment of the Catholic priesthood,
would accompany or quickly follow the passing of the measure.
When in 1799 the government brought forward their bill it was defeated
in the Irish House of Commons. Grattan was still in retirement. His
popularity had temporarily declined, and the fact that his proposals for
parliamentary reform and Catholic emancipation had become the watchwords
of the rebellious United Irishmen had brought upon him the bitter
hostility of the governing classes. He was dismissed from the privy
council; his portrait was removed from the hall of Trinity College; the
Merchant Guild of Dublin struck his name off their rolls. But the
threatened destruction of the constitution of 1782 quickly restored its
author to his former place in the affections of the Irish people. The
parliamentary recess had been effectually employed by the government in
securing by lavish corruption a majority in favour of their policy. On
the 15th of January 1800 the Irish parliament met for its last session;
on the same day Grattan secured by purchase a seat for Wicklow; and at a
late hour, while the debate was proceeding, he appeared to take his
seat. "There was a moment's pause, an electric thrill passed through the
House, and a long wild cheer burst from the galleries."[3] Enfeebled by
illness, Grattan's strength gave way when he rose to speak, and he
obtained leave to address the House sitting. Nevertheless his speech was
a superb effort of oratory; for more than two hours he kept his audience
spellbound by a flood of epigram, of sustained reasoning, of eloquent
appeal. After prolonged debates Grattan, on the 26th of May, spoke
finally against the committal of the bill, ending with an impassioned
peroration in which he declared, "I will remain anchored here with
fidelity to the fortunes of my country, faithful to her freedom,
faithful to her fall."[4] These were the last words spoken by Grattan in
the Irish parliament.
The bill establishing the union was carried through its final stages by
substantial majorities. The people remained listless, giving no
indications of any eager dislike of the government policy. "There were
absolutely none of the signs which are invariably found when a nation
struggles passionately against what it deems an impending tyranny, or
rallies around some institution which it really loves."[5] One of
Grattan's main grounds of opposition to the union had been his dread of
seeing the political leadership in Ireland pass out of the hands of the
landed gentry; and he prophesied that the time would come when Ireland
would send to the united parliament "a hundred of the greatest rascals
in the kingdom."[6] Like Flood before him, Grattan had no leaning
towards democracy; and he anticipated that by the removal of the centre
of political interest from Ireland the evil of absenteeism would be
intensified.
For the next five years Grattan took no active part in public affairs;
it was not till 1805 that he became a member of the parliament of the
United Kingdom. He modestly took his seat on one of the back benches,
till Fox brought him forward to a seat near his own, exclaiming, "This
is no place for the Irish Demosthenes!" His first speech was on the
Catholic question, and though some doubt had been felt lest Grattan,
like Flood, should belie at Westminster the reputation made in Dublin,
all agreed with the description of his speech by the Annual Register as
"one of the most brilliant and eloquent ever pronounced within the walls
of parliament." When Fox and Grenville came into power in 1806 Grattan
was offered, but refused to accept, an office in the government. In the
following year he showed the strength of his judgment and character by
supporting, in spite of consequent unpopularity in Ireland, a measure
for increasing the powers of the executive to deal with Irish disorder.
Roman Catholic emancipation, which he continued to advocate with
unflagging energy though now advanced in age, became complicated after
1808 by the question whether a veto on the appointment of Roman Catholic
bishops should rest with the crown. Grattan supported the veto, but a
more extreme Catholic party was now arising in Ireland under the
leadership of Daniel O'Connell, and Grattan's influence gradually
declined. He seldom spoke in parliament after 1810, the most notable
exception being in 1815, when he separated himself from the Whigs and
supported the final struggle against Napoleon. His last speech of all,
in 1819, contained a passage referring to the union he had so
passionately resisted, which exhibits the statesmanship and at the same
time the equable quality of Grattan's character. His sentiments with
regard to the policy of the union remained, he said, unchanged; but "the
marriage having taken place it is now the duty, as it ought to be the
inclination, of every individual to render it as fruitful, as profitable
and as advantageous as possible." In the following summer, after
crossing from Ireland to London when out of health to bring forward the
Catholic question once more, he became seriously ill. On his death-bed
he spoke generously of Castlereagh, and with warm eulogy of his former
rival, Flood. He died on the 6th of June 1820, and was buried in
Westminster Abbey close to the tombs of Pitt and Fox. His statue is in
the outer lobby of the Houses of Parliament at Westminster. Grattan had
married in 1782 Henrietta Fitzgerald, a lady descended from the ancient
family of Desmond, by whom he had two sons and two daughters.
The most searching scrutiny of his private life only increases the
respect due to the memory of Grattan as a statesman and the greatest of
Irish orators. His patriotism was untainted by self-seeking; he was
courageous in risking his popularity for what his sound judgment showed
him to be the right course. As Sydney Smith said with truth of Grattan
soon after his death: "No government ever dismayed him. The world could
not bribe him. He thought only of Ireland; lived for no other object;
dedicated to her his beautiful fancy, his elegant wit, his manly
courage, and all the splendour of his astonishing eloquence."[7]
BIBLIOGRAPHY.--Henry Grattan, _Memoirs of the Life and Times of the
Right Hon. H. Grattan_ (5 vols., London, 1839-1846); _Grattan's
Speeches_ (ed. by H. Grattan, junr., 1822); _Irish Parl. Debates_; W.
E. H. Lecky, _History of England in the Eighteenth Century_ (8 vols.,
London, 1878-1890) and _Leaders of Public Opinion in Ireland_
(enlarged edition, 2 vols., 1903). For the controversy concerning the
recall of Lord Fitzwilliam see, in addition to the foregoing, Lord
Rosebery, _Pitt_ (London, 1891); Lord Ashbourne, _Pitt: Some Chapters
of his Life_ (London, 1898); _The Pelham Papers (Brit. Mus. Add.
MSS._, 33118); _Carlisle Correspondence_; _Beresford Correspondence_;
_Stanhope Miscellanies_; for the Catholic question, W. J. Amhurst,
_History of Catholic Emancipation_ (2 vols., London, 1886); Sir Thomas
Wyse, _Historical Sketch of the late Catholic Association of Ireland_
(London, 1829); W. J. MacNeven, _Pieces of Irish History_ (New York,
1807) containing an account of the United Irishmen; for the volunteer
movement Thomas MacNevin, _History of the Volunteers of 1782_ (Dublin,
1845); _Proceedings of the Volunteer Delegates of Ireland 1784_ (Anon.
Pamph. Brit. Mus.). See also F. Hardy, _Memoirs of Lord Charlemont_
(London, 1812); Warden Flood, _Memoirs of Henry Flood_ (London, 1838);
Francis Plowden, _Historical Review of the State of Ireland_ (London,
1803); Alfred Webb, _Compendium of Irish Biography_ (Dublin, 1878);
Sir Jonah Barrington, _Rise and Fall of the Irish Nation_ (London,
1833); W. J. O'Neill Daunt, _Ireland and her Agitators_; Lord
Mountmorres, _History of the Irish Parliament_ (2 vols., London,
1792); Horace Walpole, _Memoirs of the Reign of George III._ (4 vols.,
London, 1845 and 1894); Lord Stanhope, _Life of William Pitt_ (4
vols., London, 1861); Thomas Davis, _Life of J. P. Curran_ (Dublin,
1846)--this contains a memoir of Grattan by D. O. Madden, and
Grattan's reply to Lord Clare on the question of the Union; Charles
Phillips, _Recollections of Curran and some of his Contemporaries_
(London, 1822); J. A. Froude, _The English in Ireland_ (London, 1881);
J. G. McCarthy, _Henry Grattan: an Historical Study_ (London, 1886);
Lord Mahon's _History of England_, vol. vii. (1858). With special
reference to the Union see _Castlereagh Correspondence_; _Cornwallis
Correspondence_; _Westmorland Papers_ (Irish State Paper Office).
(R. J. M.)